Mr Spielbrick

Aw, sorry CM4Sci. I'm secretly a big fan of yours. :) I seem to remember the reveal of those Dimensions packs came, in my time zone, at like 3 in the night. Perhaps, despite being a European company originally, they're sticking to American time?

No, no, no, no, no - no one's hurting CM4Sci. His Information is usually quite reliable. It's just his (informant's?) off-day. ;) But yeah. At the pace revelations about this set are made, I'll have regenerated of old age before I see official pictures. Blimey! So curious what the minifigures and the TARDIS console will be like. Either way, it's lovely that there are several Dimensions sets and an Ideas set. Perhaps if we make sure they all sell out in no time, we might get even more characters...? Still, that would be the second dream. Any LEGO Doctor Who at all is a dream come true in itself!

'Lazy'? It always surprises me that so many people claim any perceived faults in their beloved films/series/toys/etc are down to the makers being lazy. Guys, designing LEGO sets and minifigures is what these people do for a living. It's their day job. They work at an incredibly famous company, that will fairly and unfairly be criticised for their output from any and all corners of the world. Do you really think these people are going to be lazy about their work? As I'm slowly accumulating experience in the entertainment industry (film and tv, in my case), I'm convinced the majority of 'faults' in products (films/series/toys/etc) comes from a lack of budget or time. Another big reason would be marketing concerns. Sure, every now and then, you do get someone phoning it in, but I believe that's much more rare than what seems to be assumed. Working in entertainment generally doesn't pay ludicrously well, and there always a group of hopefuls eager to see you fail and snatch up your job. You really don't want to make yourself an easy target when you're doing your dream job. That said, I think LEGO are doing a smashing job with many licenses, including both sides of the Superheroes coin. As for anything you desire that hasn't been produced yet: make a list and evaluate it in three years. I'm willing to bet a lot of boxes (say, a Coulson minifig and more X-Men) will have been ticked by then.

Pirates 2015! That's excellent. One of my earliest sets was 1992's Raft Raiders (6261) and I've kept a weather eye for the theme ever since. Here's hoping whatever comes will fit in easily with the 2009 theme and the collectable minifigures released since.

There's a sale (until 9 March) in the Dutch stores of Toys XL. I went to the Rotterdam Alexandrium one the day before yesterday and bought Shredder's Dragon Bike for only €20,- and Turtle Lair Attack for only €40,-! (Neatly completing one set of Turtles, since I already owned Kraang Lab Escape - the only main character I'm missing now is April.)

Dare I say it...? Everything is awesome! (Naughty boy/girl for taking that pic, but thanks all the same, haha.)

In my book, LEGO is cool and Top Gear is cool. To me, it's an amazingly engaging tv format - I like watching it while having little to no interest in cars. As for possible sets: I'd love a mini Clarkson, May and Hammond. They'd bring a nice variety of normal, modern 'clothes' for minifigures.

What, no love for the new Chewbacca? Or am I mistaken and is that a different Wookiee?

I certainly hope the "problem" doesn't get "fixed". I couldn't be more chuffed that there are no sets over 60 euros (not counting DTC Arkham Asylum). While I'm a fan of LEGO, I don't have endless stacks of cash laying about. I personally think it'd be fantastic if TLG stops producing those huge expensive sets altogether. The way it is this year, I can happily buy, for instance, three Ninja Turtles sets and get the four different Turtles with a lot of bad guys for a reasonable 'grand total' of 100 euros. As opposed to, say, collecting the full Fellowship of the Ring, which would cost me 15 + 30 + 60 + 80 = 185 euros. As for the Man of Steel sets: maybe a bit more variety between the three would've been better, but oh well. Three villains, Supes and Lois (and a random heck-no-I'm-not-a-realistic-military-man figure) is a pretty good selection, I guess. A Clark Kent would've been nice, but then, he's covered with the DC Super Heroes DVD minifigure. Iron Man 3 seems to get a similar treatment, which works well, I think. And that line has a better minifig selection, so 'yay' all around, for me anyway.

There were several characters practising the same trade in Disney's very own Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. No problem there, no problem here, I'm sure.

Wow, that new Yoda looks great! As do count Dooku, Ree Yees (sp?) and the new slave Leia. Jango Fett, woohoo! Finally a new version after 11 years. Very cool. And an actual Natalie Portman minifigure face. Nice! I'm quite disappointed with Adi Gallia's face. We finally get a proper, black, female minifigure face... and she has alien blue eyes. Drat. Sure, it's perfect for Gallia, so yes, she perfectly resembles the character she's supposed to be. But blue eyes on a black face render it pretty much useless for any other black female character (like Martha Jones from Doctor Who, for instance). So, compliments to the designers for such attention to detail but please, give us a more generally useful black female face? Pretty please? Finally? True, the hairpiece almost never fits ideally, except in the case of Draco Malfoy himself. But why would you say we don't have different colours? To the best of my knowledge, this is pretty much the only new hairpiece which we will get in almost all colours: Draco has a blonde one, Anakin and Hawkeye and the Iron Man 3 dude all have a colour useful for red-haired people, Bruce Wayne and the Mandarin and several Star Wars characters have a black one, Fenrir Greyback has a dark brown one and count Dooku will be getting what looks like a light grey or white hairpiece. That's pretty much all colours actual human hair has, right?

A few more details on the Superheroes sets, courtesy of the brilliant British film magazine Empire: http://www.empireonline.com/empireblogs/empire-states/post/p1335

With such an explosive topic name, I just had to look. Seems to me your problem is not Eurobricks as a whole, but rather some of the users. You'll find there is no forum or chat room on this planet that has only eloquent, ego-less users. Look at me, I'm posting similar thoughts to the others above, yet apparently I feel the need to post them again, under my name. Look at me indeed. Personally, the way I deal with the fluff is to ignore it altogether. I skim topics for pictures (or links, in this Thou Shalt Not Share Confidential Pics era). The actual written news will usually be in or at a later point added to the first post in a topic. As for the reviews, I just look at the photos. Sometimes I'll read what the reviewer has to say, but as it's their personal opinion, it won't influence me too much. So all in all: either skim and ignore at will, or come to the conclusion that website forums probably aren't your cup of tea and stick to sites like From Bricks To Bothans, where it's generally just the news and pictures and you don't have to deal with endless discussions on yellow versus flesh et cetera.

I don't want to spoil your day, but I believe this is wishful thinking. The last thing I heard about any possible appearance by Aragorn (i.e., tracking down Gollum) , was Viggo Mortensen saying he had *not* been asked to return. Mind you, this was before it was announced that there would be three films. Still, my personal guess is that Peter Jackson and co. are 'merely' telling the tale of The Hobbit in an expansive way. Everyone involved in the production has denied there have ever been plans for a 'bridge film' between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. As for the news of the sets, which I hadn't yet commented on... YES! Saruman! And, I suspect, a Palantír? Gandalf the White, Arwen, Elrond, even the Mouth of Sauron! What an excellent selection of new figs. Of less interest to me personally, but still cool: some of the Army of the Dead. It's very, very pleasing to see how many characters make their appearance as official minifigures.

Glad to hear that, Purpearljellyblob. 80s style... Harrumph... Qui-Gon style, you mean! Qui-Gon is cool in my book. And the hairpiece actually looks very similar, so sure, this is me on an oh-bugger-the-baber-died day. As for the rest of the comic, luckily I'm not yet fully done with my entry. This Pastry bloke is going to regret marrying me off to a pig. Hellfire and damnation, ha!

PLANCIUS! But: really nice poster design. And it *is* flattering to hear that I'm / Plancius is / we are worth 4000.

Oh no, nothing as bad as that! Of course not. Sorry, I should have made that clear. It's just that it 'takes me out of the competition', in the way you can be 'taken out of a movie' when you spot a noticeably bad special effect. We're in a competition that's all about two parties insulting each other, while one of those very two have all the rulemakers and official-thread-starters. It's like... We have to respect this fact, ergo: be (implicitly) polite to you, while what we really want to do is enter your ship and hoist your underwear to the mast. I absolutely don't mean to suggest anything about this competition is unfair at all. It's only that bowing to you in terms of the official rules, kinda takes the fun out of unashamedly blasting you in other instances. To me, anyway. (See, I'm backtracking for you even in this very post, but I've dug this particular hole for myself, I'll readily admit.)

Is anyone else getting slightly annoyed that the moderators telling us what (not) to do are all bluecoats? Surely one of us should be promoted, if only for the duration of this competition? Or have a neutral party moderate this epic battle of epicness?

Beard = pirate? But... but... but... I have intelligent upperclass glasses and everyfink! Nice work, MstrOfPppts!

Huzzah! A funny, true-to-life early comic from our trusted quartermaster.

Many thanks to everyone who has worked and is working behind the scenes at Eurobricks. The site usually functions brilliantly, and it's the best-moderated forum out there, in my experience. You've had to face some technical hiccups recently - thanks for ironing these out as fast as possible. I don't think I want to imagine how much effort goes into the site at times like those. Of course, it's too bad that some posts have disappeared. But if LEGO teaches us anything, it's that you can always use your imagination and rebuild, perhaps in a way that is even better than the original creation. And that's exactly what the Eurobricks staff are constantly doing. Thank you.

Works for me. My preliminary idea already included both.

Gentlemen, let's fire the cannons to honour Admiral Croissant and congratulate him upon this historical happenstance. Oops, sorry. We meant to shoot in the *air*. No, but seriously - congratulations! Gefeliciteerd, in fact, because hey, we're both Dutch (and that's how you say congratulations in Dutch, everyone).

In the edited first post of this thread, the privateer Barbossa torso is listed as Bluecoat, rather than Redcoat. My guess is, the Admiral made a mistake in the post you've quoted. (Which is to be expected of a Bluecoat, drag 'em to Davy Jones, yada yada yada, you know the drill.)

Thanks for clearing that up, Admiral Croissant. Shame yer on the wrong side o' this battle. You coulda done well on the winning side...