snefroe

no not really, we're just looking at it from our perspective. that was the question at hand, I believe...

well it wasn't the first time that a so called legend does something like this. Remember Beckham a few years ago? pressure on these people is so high... at one moment they just snap in any case, not an unforgetable tournement if you're asking me

lego announced a while back that sets will have mixed colours because they're running out of old gray

there's still time for the italians... about 76 minutes.. hehe what did i tell you? :-P 1-1

nono i'm saying Lego decided to drop it because of bad connotations...

well my theory is that the negative connotations crushed WW. i don't think that other themes were abandoned for the same type of arguments...

I think that this point is another discussion entirely (and disagree with the association). You're getting in to politics. History is plagued with all of what you mention above (in many Lego themes) if that's what you want to focus on. I understand Brick Miner's question to mean, "which would you rather see, historic sets or fantasy"? Like with the Castle theme, would you rather see a castle based on a real-life castle, or a fantasy castle with dragons and monsters? This is my understanding of Brick Miner's question. The same applying to all Lego themes as a whole. oh no i think his line of reasoning is this: suppose there is an historical theme that's being squashed because some people find some negative connotations in there, would it be possible to get one component out of that, demining the theme' in the process' and replace that component with a mythical element, pushing it even further away from any onther minefield of history. would you, as a fan accept that or not?

both, really Spiderman, Sponge, HP, sw, Studio, BM, Avatar,... how many unforgettable, absolute classic, sets of these licenses have we seen over the years? Something that compares to 6080 castle, the city metroliner, the galaxy explorer, the big pirate ships? Something that stands out in the next 25 years? Something that's more then just very popular because the model it represents is popular? What's actually the added value of these themes? How many mocs of these themes do you see on BS? Sets are supposed to inspire, they're supposed to stimulate creativity. How many Spiderman mocs have you seen? how many extra fans did these themes bring in the last couple of years? Even sw hasn't produced what they all thought it would year after year. remember 2003? "Star wars is a huge disappointment", that's what they said. They even kicked out the guy who was responsable for bringing in the sw license! Why do you think they're constantly rebuilding the already produced designs? People automatically seem to assume that licenses bring in loads of money, an unquestionable success! BUT: why shouldn't they be able to produce the same quality of sets on their own, without having to beg for a license? It was city that put them back on the map last year! it was the large crane that got all the awards! It was the fire truck that was soooo immensilly popular. Then came vikings! Another non-licensed theme that sold very well, followed by exo force... I also don't think it's a good idea to depend too much on licenses. they bring in several new fans, at best, but most of them will just disappear when the license's gone. they are waaay too specialised. all you got now are highly specialised minifigs you can't use for anything else, and many parts as well... honestly, these sets are more directed to the bm fan or the Spiderman freak then to the general lego fan who just wants to build town mocs,... what is a train fan to do with batmobiles, Spiderman labs,...? That's also my main point of criticism to bm sets: they aren't compatible with cities in general. Take for instance catwoman's motor. A purple coloured motor! Nice for bm theme, but have you ever seen a purple coloured motorcycle? these sets have become display sets. sets you play with for a while in only one specific configuration, then you put it on your display shelf and that's it. Then you wait for the next license...

Keep dreaming !! And even if they did they would take another licence because they mean big bucks !! So cry all you want, I'm ready for wave 2 and 3 :-D :-P Bat *yoda* besides, it seems to me they're only selling 2 sets here: catwoman and the batmobile. some may have another third as well, but the theme is not particularly dominating the shelves here

i'm hoping absolutely nothing. hope they dump the licence asap...

i'm a bit confused about the question of the topic, honestly. how do we sidestep the potential problem of ethnicity, racism, slavery that are so strongly associated with the WW time frame? how do we create a theme that is set out in the Far West, that's still commercialy very interesting for a Lego company to produce, that doesn't go down because of non-lego related issues, and without having to introduce mythology/fantasy/science fiction elements that would undermine the authenticity of the theme, pushing away the hardcore fans of the theme? This matter reminds me of a Belgian comic book series called 'The Red Knight'. The series started out as a very classic tale of a lonesome knight on his travels in Western Europe. He took part in wars, defended cities, participated in tournements... stuuf like that. He became knight of King Arthur's army at around album 40 and more and more typically medieval elements slipped into the albums: monsters, wizards,... 10 albums later, the entire series had changed into a classic fight between good versus evil. From that point on, science fiction just took over. UFO's, submarines, zombies, robots,... they all showed up at one point in the series... But still, the series sold very well and is still extremely popular among kids. The author very often indicated that he just had to take new paths on a regular basis, look for something new to keep his fans satisfied. They just don't read 100 books based on the same story but with different names... Lego is faced with exactly the same public: young boys from 10-15 years old constantly looking for new stories, new things. If we, the older fans, don't like it, then that's too bad... A fanbase is like a snake's skin: it changes with every new season, you either adapt, or get lost... i wouldn't think WW is lost as a theme. that reminds me of yet another belgian comic: Bessy. The series is set in the time frame of the European migration of the 19 th century. 100000's of people change the old continent for the New World. andy and his dog Bessy also go to the West, sometimes on behalf of a German or british society to map new territories or whatever, to be a guide for others,... He meets all sorts of tribes and people in the process. Basically, it's a Johny Thunder in the Far West... all Lego has to do is to add some playability stuff, a decent back story and sure, why not a ghost town? In any case, I wouldn't say that the classic themes are historically accurate, quite the contrary, even. Vikings didn't have horns, their ships didn't have these mythical heads, they didn't carry swords on board,... Classic Castle doesn't even mention THE most important element of the Middle Ages: the Church and religion, nor does it give much attention to medieval cities or civilians. It's just a classic story of two armies fighting each other or a Robin Hood kinda thing with some medieval elements here and there... Pirates, on the other hand, is a classic Hollywood story: the bad guy in real life has become the good and popular guy of the theme. Nothing accurate there... city stories aren't very historically accurate either. a police subtheme always comes down to the same basis: a criminal escapes and needs to be taken in again... g... is that all the police does in real life? hope not... In reality, what lego does is exactly what other cultural producers do: they take a classic story, a bunch of stereotypes, like: robbers steal from the good guys, the good guys go after them; or the other way around : the cool looking criminal steals from the corrupt government and defeats his armies because he's so very smart... The only thing that's different, is the historical time frame they're putting it in: Space, City, Pirates, Wild West,... the mythical element that slips into these themes is only a way to make it more interesting, a way to attract new people who are interested in new things. If you think about it, actually, any sailor of the pirate time frame would think the lego pirate theme would be far more accurate if there's a ghost ship or a seamonster in it, these things were after all, part of their world...

that's great! 8-

to be honest, i like his box art more than the models. in my experience, in the case of airplanes, including old warbirds, you better select the model you want to build based on what is possible with the given lego bricks, instead of trying to build your favourite plane with lego, only to find that the available bricks just can't handle the lines. that's especially dramatic for canopies, because a good canopy is vital if you want a plane to look good. i only see two options here: 1) build a plane with lego technic. hoses do handle curves pretty well. 2) build a UCS , large scale model, use transparent plates and bricks to build the canopy

i believe Copmike and Ras74 once dealt with this lifesized Jango in sweden. It seems lego made several copies of that one. Some one else asked your questions about a year ago to Orlego, who was still an active member here and lego employee in one of these shops, i think. Maybe one of the long standing members still remembers the topic, cos i don't... ;-)

unfortunately, I don't have the instruction book anymore, nor do i have other drawings of it... X-O many things got lost forever during my dark age... honestly, it was terrible... the ship was created with yellow bricks, because i didn't have brown bricks. the masts must have been in all sorts of colors. i remember i was quite disappointed when i finally got it finished... so it didn't last very long... My collection back then was mostly built around space, so I went back to space to build one last Moc, before fading into my dark age. Unfortunately, i was never able to complete that due to a lack of the necessary parts...

just create a new topic called castle database or whatever title you want it to have, maybe some medieval term for it or so, with the reviewed castle sets, maybe rank them according to subtheme and add a link to the reviews. we'll pin that. pretty low tech...

ok... so Algerian descent... details, yoda, just merely details... so there's an argentinian in there as well eh? well, it only prooves our point: this team isn't really french, it's a bit of everything, really... |-/

I have the original posts, are you suggesting I tag the links to each thread somewhere on EB? God Bless, Nathan i'm working on a database for all the space sets that will be reviewed in the future. the idea is to link the actual reviews with the title of a set in that particular database, so if you ever want to read a review, you'll just be able to go to the database that will be pinned and click on the link... Perhaps something similar can be done for Castle as well. the only problem right now is that it has to be in an sql format, for whatever, reason, however, you can just limit your database by mentioning the set number only. that way, you'd be saving yourself a lot of time, effort and trouble... to come to this set... this one was on ebay.be two weeks back or something for 20 euro; can't remember if it included the box though... I 'd never seen it before...

that's a very good point! i never thought of that, but you're right...

Excuse me ?? Let me just tell you that from all the Group France, ONLY 3 were born in AFRICA, thats all !! * Boumsong was born in Cameroun * Makelele was born in RD Congo (ex Zaire) * Vierra was born in Senegal Its NOT because they are black that they are from Africa you know ;-) Islands like Guyanne... are French Territory ;-) Also all those players chose to play for France, end of story ;-) *yoda* hm... aren't you forgetting Zizou? he's from Algeria, if i'm not mistaken... in any case, i very often had the feeling this wasn't france playing but a team of the old french empire. we only need a guy from Indochine to make it complete.

Oh please... :-| I agree with you mostly, but I'm tired of hearing "players are tired", and "they had extra time..." (yeah, 5 days ago). They're professionals, they get paid (a LOT) to run around! Baseballplayers play 162(!) games a season, without three rounds of playoffs, they play every day, the games last between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 hours average, and sometimes they travel from the east coast to the west coast and play the next day - and no one complains. Hockeyplayers in the NHL have 82 games a season, without best-of-seven playoffs. And some then play in the world championships where they don't have 3-5 days off between games. This World Cup has shown us (at least me) at lot of crybabies and wimps. I'd go hide in shame had I put off a show like some very famous, very high paid players have. Poooooor football players, soooooo tired because they played 90 minutes of push-a-ball a week ago... *woohoohoo* One word: L A M E. /rant and how much doping is involved, you think? ;-) essentially, you're right, they are softies, the word "proffesionals" doesn't really apply to these people, honestly. many of them smoke, don't take care of their bodies the way they should, many pee in their pants when they hear the word "stress", need i go on? but still, a champion's league night can be sooo much fun and exciting! i'm afraid this cup was quite the opposite...

i agree. WC has been fairly low quality... don't know who'll win... France depends far too much on Zizou. if he has a bad day or fully blocked by the Italians, then i don't see how they can win. Italy... hm... sure, why not?

that's a pretty nice moc ! in any case original! *sweet*

the indians was the entire problem of WW theme. any one talking about WW, immediately says "cowboys and indians fighting each other", exactly the association Lego didn't want the customers to make. so they were forced to add indians to the theme, but couldn't place them opposite the cowboys/US Army for obvious reasons. as a result, everybody who wanted indians, could just buy them, but Lego kept them far away from the classic association...

you know, im still not convinced hollywood has anything to do with the popularity of LEGOs lines... you mentioned vikings did well, and i can't seem to remember more viking movies than westerns in the past couple years.i am pretty excited about the new pirates of the caribbean movie opening this weekend though... i only wish LEGO would have taken the fantasy approach to their pirate line, like disney has with their movies. i think all the historical LEGO themes would be more popular is LEGO took a lot of fantasy liberties... again, vikings is a successful line in this aspect as well. and the ghost town western sub-theme would fall into this category too !!! - BrickMiner i never said that hollywood and lego lines are directly linked. Lego most definitely never stopped WW because hollywood didn't produce WW films. Hollywood is, however, a cultural mirror of our society and in many ways reflects what the people like or dislike at a specific moment in time. producers and bankers are extremely sensitive about what the American market wants. Right now, the people do not want a classic WW film, for whatever reason. Lego has to take similar decisions: "do we want to produce and finance a line of products like WW?" Based on all the information they have, they're saying "NO", like Hollywood. In my opinion, it's because values in our society have changed. maybe John Wayne will come back one day, who knows... after all, the super heroes of the comics had a nice come back as well... Sure, Vikings did very well and i can't remember having seen any viking film lately, except for the Ast