Tohst

Looking really good. What an awesome project. I was really hoping you were going to find a place to re-print those logos. If only so I could have some of my old pieces done there too. But the techniques you are using for cleaning I will definitely be, ummmm, not stealing....replicating. Thanks for doing this project. I also find it funny you numbered your guy as I did the same thing back in the day...and every number had a name and backstory. -Tohst - Lots of tragedy in the lives of my explorers. Sometimes when you lose everything it provides the impetus to go find something entirely new

TMNT is clearly the gateway vehicle to take disaffected Ninjago fans into Chima. So much so that I'm expecting the last episode of the Ninjago series to have the four core Ninjas start to turn green before the credits. Tohst -Don(atello)niing his tinfoil hat

I have to disagree. TMNT has crazy vehicles....Turtle vans and Turtle Blimps and Terrordromes. And Shredder...one human villian. Well, there were plenty of human villians over the years but even saying he was the main one...Shredder vs. Garmadon...I'll just say this: http://www.amazon.com/Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-Multi-Arm/dp/B00013K7X6 So, even avoiding the whole 4 person ninja team with wise old master and just focusing on the window dressing they're pretty close. -Tohst

It was a great display. It's the little touches that really brought it together to a well deserved win against some tough competition. Congratulations. -Tohst

I found the Weapon pack of NRG Kai vs. Chokun at my local Target here in the Far West Suburbs of Chicago. No sign of other spinners or sets. Sorry in advance if there is a sightings topic for this. -Tohst

I dunno. I think you could get close with current faces... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3626bpx46 -Tohst

I'm right there with you. I think with the synergy between Clone Wars and AoTC, Lego has a great opportunity to provide the Gunship and other militaristic vehicles for the Clone Wars part of the line and the other, less already covered by old sets, scene sets for the AoTC part of the line. Heck, they could even call a Tuskin set an OT set as long as it doesn't have a murderous madman (also known as the protagonist of the Clones Wars cartoon) in it. -Tohst

Another good review. Good job on the rebuild to make it a decent bot. The build on these are really weird. Half well thought out and half completely not thought out with not much in between. Also, the fact that the insignias are stickers just bugs the heck out of me. -Tohst

Very nice review. I'm also in that sweet spot for these things of being a big fan of Transformers although my Lego addiction is stronger. I jumped in when TRU had a pretty decent sale over the weekend and got Sentinel and Megatron. Please bear with me as I vomit random thoughts on the page. First off, character look and selection: These came out this year for synergy with the new movie. Thus, the characters are movie characters, right? Megatron is in his tank mode. Sentinel, while not completely new, hasn't had much exposure except this new movie. So, why does Sentinel's head not look like the one from the movie? His alt-mode is movie inspired, for sure. And then the kreons. They are all Generation 1 based. It is this anything goes mentallity that will crop up again in my thoughts. In character selection, this could be great. In that, maybe we'll get a wide range of sets on off-movie years. Dinobots? Tranformers Prime robots with G1 Kreons? Who knows? With these two, I've ignored the human Kridiots, but I seem to have a good ruling group for the Decepticons with G1 Megs, G1 Shockwave, and G1 Soundwave to boss around G1 Thundercraker who isn't quite sure he agrees with the Kreon mission. That's a great selection and I hope for future releases they delve deeper into Transformer lore instead of eventually having as many G1 Megatrons as there are Luke Skywalkers. And for those pendants, I know the new style guidelines say that when presenting a list of equal options you are no longer supposed to put the comma before the final and unless there are options in the list that require and for identificaton. Well. Too bad! I also got Sentinel Prime, who as a Kreon apparently likes to fish so I think the Decepticons will be running wild for a bit. Parts Selection Really. Anything goes. Anything. Not having bought a lot of knock-offs and no Oxford bricks at all I can't tell you if some of the pieces I find wacky are normal for them. But you have things like 1 x 2 inverse slopes that look exactly like Lego next to 1 x 2 inverse slopes....with decoration on the sloped bit and a notch on the back so the non-sloped area is actually 2 plates high. And Lego's reason for having texture on slope pieces was they all started off as roofs back when people thought of cars as we think of flying cars. Here, you know its because they just want to be as close to Lego as possible. And a 1 x 1 two plate high piece? really? Some pieces they've taken a Lego design and tweeked it just slightly resulting in something that looks like it wants to be Lego but just didn't quite make it. I'm thinking the control stick specifically here but there are others. Some pieces they've taken a Lego design and genuinely improved it. For example, the snot piece that is a 1 x 2 plate with a 2 x 2 plate. Only this time, whereas the Lego version, the back of the 1 x 4 section is smooth the Kre-o version has grooves so you could mount it on studs. Bonus. Of course they also have the 1 x 2 plate with a 1 x 2 perpendicular plate. And the Lego-like 1 x 2 plate with 1 x4 plate only the 1 x 2 area has an attacked 1 x 4 plate underneath. Whatever SNOT piece you need, they seem to have cranked out a mold. ANYTHING GOES!. A special mention goes out to the robot parts. The ball joints and rubber robot heads. I think they did a great job with these and the pieces work much better than the Bionicle/Exo-force pieces of being able to be built into the vehicle modes without making them look like robots sitting down. Part Quality Parts clutch and de-clutch great. They clutch and de-clutch to Lego great. The red is very close to Lego and not milky or translucent at all. The grays...oh, the grays. The gray in Megatron is more like old dark gray. The grey in Sentinel is more like new dark bluish grey. Yes, they are putting out sets with non-matching colors. I'll be interested to see how much consistancy or non-consistancy there is across the board but my initial reaction is to dislike that. ANYTHING GOES! Also, they seem to have issues with blue-trans. 1 x 1 blue tran rounds were very light, almost white. What looked like 1 x 2 blue-tran tiles in the instructions were very purple. Instructions are on very heavy paper and came out in good shape from the box. I keep thinking the pages are sticking together because it is so much thicker than Lego instructions. They are very Lego like in terms of clarity including some issues with color differentiation. Which, combined with the fact there are extra parts because of the two modes and no parts list page, was a little frustrating to me. Design Quality I'm comparing these larger sets to larger Exo-force sets. Mostly because its not fair to compare a $14 set to these, which were $30 and $40 retail. Because they had the extra need to build a vehicle and make the robots look like they turned into set vehicles, I feel these really are more interesting in design that what we got with exo-force. Again there are areas where they seem to throw things at the robot to see what sticks. Almost what IAmWillGibson says he wants them to do, I think they may be doing too much of in the larger sets. It feels like there may be Oxford designers and Hasbro Transformer designers working together and not quite meshing. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the inevitable GIJoe sets. I think the vehicles will be more solid and interesting without the need to incorporate all the robot parts. Plus, I've never bought GIJoe anything so maybe I'll be less picky about how they turn out. Conclusion Much better than Built-To-Rule. I'm interested to see where this line goes. It seems by far the best knock-off I've encountered especially in comparison to Mega-Blox which is the most visable one around here. -Tohst

They were parts of badges? That's interesting. I have a bunch of these as well and never knew why they would put those clips on every single one (except the yellow Futuron I think). I knew they were from some promotion. Anyway, for those of you on the fence about these, I was able to get the visors unglued with a little dental floss. This didn't damage the helmet or the visor and allows you to make your BlackTron a little more intimidating with their visor down. YMMV and all other glued parts are -REALLY- glued, at least on my batch. -Tohst

Wow, thats a great tribute. I knew the ship was something of a tribute (from way back in Toyfair) but didn't know it got so explicit in the stickers that made it to the final product. Thanks for pointing that out. -Tohst

Some nice details in there. Thanks for sharing. I have to say I'm liking what seems to be a renewed interest in Harry Potter. -Tohst

Well, That's awesome. I'm very glad you found my tower and it helped you with your Hogwarts. It looks like you started with mine as a jumping off point and really made it your own. I especially like the curved rock base at the bottom. I'm very impressed with your Hogwart's overall. It has a lot of busy details which really make it look good. The stained glass window in the room attached to the great hall looks very good. And the whole thing opens! And you did all that in a month. It took me that longer than that for me to get the tower roof to the point I didn't hate it. Now, you have inspired me to go back and do some updates on my castle! And to Vindice, yes, the round looks limits playability to a point. I have stairs going up the inside of mine and a room at top. The angles don't work out perfectly to put a round floor in, but it can be done. Whether it is actually worth it to do just to use this technique, thats a different question. :) -Tohst

That is really beautiful. Lots of good techniques there taken 1 or 2 steps beyond what I've seen others (and myself) do. -Tohst

Great Review. I'm unhappy that the quality of the minifig is low. The prices of these are very high for what you get and as I've said before price them out of impulse range as well as putting them at a disadvantage when compared to some of the other 'game' action figures out there. With poor quality I think they're going to not just impact the sale of these sets but if Lego was thinking this was a gateway to get kids to buy bigger sets, the quality may turn some parents off. I do have the ice dragon set and its a normal minifig in the set, so thats good. -Tohst

That would be a review by me. A couple more pics need to go up of the instruction booklet and maybe one of the full model. And before you ask, I stand by my translations. -Tohst

Fred's the one that comes with the detachable ear...or is that George. Okay, I can't tell them apart already. -Tohst

I think that that puts them right out of impulse buy range and higher than competing 'game' systems such as bakugan or beyblade. I'd say that was a bad move but someone might pull up this post to mock me when they become the biggest sellers for 2011. Oh, what the hell. That price point would be a bad move. -Tohst

I love these topics and the chance to hear what others think about the general direction of sets as well as throw my own 3 cents in (longer post than 2 cents) Star Wars vs. General Space sets: I think the Lego set designers do a better job translating ships than designing them completely from scratch. It makes sense because the designers at Lucas are professional spaceship designers, not set designers who happen to be doing spaceships. Overall, this is a plus for all licensed sets. I think it also stretches the set designer abilities giving us more interesting builds than we'd get otherwise and even new pieces that we'd otherwise not get. And let's be honest, when Star Wars sets came on the scene, the space sets had stagnated. So, let's keep Star Wars going. As long as we can keep series like Space Police III coming in tandem. General space gives us more colors of newer pieces. I mean, how sick am I of trans-smoke windscreens and grey/dark grey ships. Pricing. Lego pricing is getting worse because they've discovered that as a luxury item they're actually selling more at a higher price point. Econ 101 students are scratching their heads wondering how that works. Econ 301 students are nodding and smiling. Econ professors are shaking their fists saying my understanding is facile and I need to understand 147 more points before I can make sweeping generalizations like that. But I think we can agree pricing is getting worse (from our standpoint) and Star Wars Lego is the worst of the worst. The value we are getting per set is dropping rapidly. I don't think this will change anytime soon but as a direction, I wonder where it will get to the point where parents will just go the Hasbro route because even though their kids love Lego, for the price of that Lego ship Hasbro gives them 2 ships and 4 figures...figures they get to pick out individually from a huge selection! OT vs. PT/Clone Wars. My preference is OT ships. They were bulky and looked functional even when completely impratical. But we really are at a point where the OT ships have been done. Most of the PT ships have been done. And while the CW ships aren't as fully realized as the movie ships, they're something different with, as mentioned above, interesting builds and new pieces so I can live with them. Plus, the current Lucasfilm push is Clone Wars so Lego needs to align. Thats the new product now and with the 3D movies starting with episode 1, we'll be in a CW/PT cycle for 4 -5 more years and then we'll get a new x-wing when 4 comes to the theaters again. And a new AT-AT after the 3D goodness of those massive things coming out of the screen to crush you is realized. Now, the clone wars styling of the figures. Creepy Anakin is Creepy. Powerpuff girl Obi-wan is creepy. Yoda....is just weird. I'd like non-cartoony versions but thats the direction of things for the next couple years. This too will pass. So, the direction is not one I'm wildly enthusiastic about, it is one that will produce new ships with new pieces that I want to get. While I may like the OT more, I'm not sure focusing on sets for them would give me a better selection of pieces at this point. And I need non licensed space sets like SPIII in the mix to keep me happy. I'd rather kill Star Wars and keep space than the other way around at this point. And maybe...maybe one day I'll get around to making all those spaceships ni my mind from the pieces. -Tohst.

I second that! -Tohst Thanks. They are indeed part 3298, with a couple of the 1 x 3 slopes at the joins. I've actually did sand green first and changed it to dark blue. I have both colors around to switch the roof out when I feel like it. -Tohst

So, why I like the Harry Potter sets can break down into two areas. Firstly, the stories themselves. Other people have written disertations as to why people like the books so I won't gush over them or the hero's journey, the collective unconscious, and the pure quality of the writing too much here. I'll just say they were very engaging with likable characters and most importantly for the second branch of this post, they created an interesting world where magic was very much part of life. The reader wants to explore this world as much as follow the plots of the books. Which is why for me, personally, the last books weren't as enjoyable. There were more about moving the plot to its conclusion than world exploration. They were still good, they just didn't pull me in and shake me like a rag doll like the first ones did. Which brings me to the second area, the sets themselves. The sets delved into an area largely ignored by Lego, the non-military castle. We got classrooms and great halls instead of the standard castle, the standard smaller tower, the standard catapault. We got storefronts! We got huts (Well, the same hut 3 or 4 times). Don't get me wrong, I love me some castle sets but it does get a bit repetitive. And we get the same 3 or 4 warrior faces to go with it. But with Harry Potter, trying to match the figures to the movies, we got a slew of new faces and new hairstyles. And this doesn't even go into the 'world building' details that you don't get in your standard castle sets but allow you to really bring a MOC to life. I'm talking about the books, the pots and pans, the owls and other critters, the potions, and yes, even a whole turkey in the newest castles. All bits and bobs ignored in normal castle to include another shooting mechanism. As I've mentioned before in the Star Wars forums, I do think Lego designers do a better job modeling ships, and here locations, that already exist as opposed to having to come up with the design themselves. Which is why Star Wars Lego has better designs than space police III (and I did like SPIII). It's also why Hogwart's castle sets have more personality than King's Castle. And more personality seems to translate to more interesting pieces to attempt to recreate an existing look. So, to pull this all together, because the sets are designed from an existing world, we get interesting locations, minifigs ,and accessories that most other lines don't have. Because they modeled after existing locations, the designers are forced to be more creative and supply us with interesting parts. The fact that the books and movies are actually good and its fun to see them come to 'life' in Lego is just icing on the cake. (This is the opposite of the PoP sets where I liked the sets for a lot of the same reasons as the Harry Potter sets. And then I saw the movie and just kept telling myself, hey, at least we got camels and ostriches. It won't get me two hours of my life back but its something) I need to take some new pictures of my 'Hogwart's inspired castle' once the new sets come out and I've done some more modifying. You can see the latest version in a not very flattering picture here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toomuchdew/4724728698/in/photostream/ And older pictures before the last renovation here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14802561@N05/sets/72157602353726691/ so, yeah, I likes me some HP. -Tohst

I just hope Duplo Castle returns. what? -Tohst

Okay, so 2. There was such a potential to dissect this in the prequels. They grew an army and while the Republic didn't really do it, the took it when offered and used it, treating the clones exactly as cannon fodder. So, where do they stand in terms of personhood? Are they the same as you and I? In which case growing them to just be soldiers is removing from them the freedom of choice to determine their own destiny. Or are they basically biological robots? And if they are biological robots that are being given certain 'human' rights, then what do you say about mechanical robots that seem to develop beyond their original programming and have personality? Its a society that routinely wipes robot's memories. Does this influence the way they treat the clones? Is it even right to do that considering what we know about R2-D2? Do all robots have the capacity to develop personalities and its just frequent wiping that holds them back? And what does that say about IG-88 or 4-LOM? Instead of focusing on this which could have been contrasted with Anakin's descent into being 'more machine than man', we got....what we got. And don't get me started on how I wanted 7,8, and 9 to be the Droid rebellion led by R2 and his force powers. -Tohst Who will add to bring this back to topic. This wave excites me more than the summer '10 wave did. I don't even watch the clone wars so I don't know these ships but at least I don't already have these ships. They are new, fresh, exciting, and I can use them how I see fit. And I hope the Mandalorians -yawn- come in more than 1 flavor. Too many BlueBerry Mandos are boring.

Being a huge ATLA- animated fan, I have seen the movie and I have to agree with the critics. This movie was bad. I'll try to make this spoiler free.... M Night Shyamalan has responded to critics of this movie by saying his art is a language and thats what he knows how to write. Which is valid. His language was great for The Sixth Sense. There was a sense of atmosphere and just plain fear in that movie. His dialogue was stilted, but again, it made sense as the majority of it was supposed to be a semi-formal conversation between a scared kid and his psychiatrist. Unbreakable, it worked. His lead was supposed to be, again, afraid. Afraid of his powers. Afraid of his life. The dialogue was supposed to mirror comic book conventions. That is Shyamalan's language. Fear and reduced affect. Guess where it doesn't work. Fantasy. Not every character is supposed to be about fear. Not every conversation should be semi-formal exposition. This isn't just pre-LOTR fantasy. This is Willow fantasy. And speaking of George Lucas, it really seems he watched episode 1 and said 'That! That is the movie I want to make!' If he didn't want comparisons, why have dialogue that is almost word for word....delivered in the same semi-formal stiltedness that George got beat up in reviews for. And that doesn't even take into account the source material. Avatar the cartoon was fun. The characters were frequently scared, frequently heroic, but also frequently fun-loving kids. Yes, even Aang with the weight of the world on his shoulders goes out to ride various big creatures because its fun. No fun was allowed in this movie. Ignoring the choppy editing (I'm assuming to get in as many Easter Eggs as possible for the fans), ignoring the badly choreographed fight scenes, ignoring the constant telling instead of showing and in the case of exposition telling and telling and telling again, ignoring the change in pronounciation of almost every name, ignoring the casting of Assif Mandvi as a bad guy that I felt was going to end every rant with ', Jon.' (as seen on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I've seen him in other things and this is the first time I remember his delivery being exactly the same as what he does on The Daily Show), (and yes, thats ignoring a lot, isn't it?), the movie didn't feel like Avatar. The fire nation settings that looked less like Iceland and more like England, the lack of background crossbred creatures (such as moose-lions), and the serious lack of fun made this feel like someone missed the spirit of the show. The rest of the issues just made it a bad movie. And yes, the bending effects were good but not good enough to make up for everything else. -Tohst. I could go on. But there be spoilers.

You say molested. I say enhanced. And I didn't do it. Once again, I was humbled and awed by some of the displays. The giant chess set in person was a thing of beauty. I am very much looking forward to when they make it World of Lights and Sounds and Smells. -Tohst