J.V.D.

A bit confused by Lego's choise of legs base colors. In the pictures of series 9 it seems that for Ceasar they used yellow legs with red printing, which looks as if he is mooning. While for the series 10 Tomahawk warrior, who has basicaly naked legs just covered by a loin cloth, the yellow legs would do fine, they seem to use tan ones with yellow front printing. Which looks strange from the side...

So it seems the majority will turn out a bit like was to be expected when the first correct list showed up. Not the best series for me, but good enough to try to get one of each figure. Though I dont think I ll have to hunt for several copies. The ones I expected to buy multiple copies of dont seem to convince me that much based on these pictures. I was hoping the alien trooper would be an army builder, but the Lego pictures confirm that the leaked figure was a real one. I defenitley want to have one, but not more.. somehow to my taste it doesnt realy fit in... I guess the knight will be sought after by many in order to build armies, but since I am not realy into castle, I ll just take one, thank you very much.. Nicest surprise / best looking so far : the gipsy/fortune teller (that hairpiece looks very promising and I like those cards too.. though I was kind of expecting a crystal ball) and the movie star. (expected a kind of miniskirt or cloth, but if they did the effort to make new hair for her, I guess they took care of the frontprinting too..) Biggest deceptions : the cyclops (the back of that head looks weird, not at all what I was expecting), roller skate girl (for some reason I dont like the mix of colors in the fig), and most of all Ceasar. I had high hopes for that figure, and the I must admit the headpiece looks very promising. But why does Lego think a statesman dedicates his time to "mooning"? As mentioned by others already, I think it would have looked a lot better if they had used red legs with yellow printing instead of the red over yellow as shown in the picture... (as a side remark, looking at the pictures of what are supposed to be the series 10 fig of the tomahawk warrior, there they did make the same kind of mistake, but just reversed. Where the figure seems to have bare legs in frontal view, and just wearing a "strategic" loin cloth, they used tan legs with yellow printing. While in that case yellow with tan printing would look better..)

Nice concept darththeling. I like the idea of making your own version of an official Lego set, especially if its an iconic one like the Cloud City. There is only one thing I am realy missing here: the room with the window that gives access to the central shaft. I dont think a Cloud City can do without. Afterall one of the key scenes take place there: Luke battling Vader and (a bit later) hearing the truth about his father.. Maybe it would be interesting to try to tile out (a part of) the floor of the white areas. I think it would contribute a lot in capturing the sleek look these rooms have in the movie. Though it would of course limit the posing of the figures which is also an important aspect of a playset. One could argue about the use of the planet sets twinpod, but I think it is the best solution. A minifig sized one would probably be to big to fit with the rest of the build, and in fact Lego did something similar with the deathstar playset. The TIE fighter there is "undersized" for the minifigs too, but it doesnt disturb at all.. Anyway, nice MOC, and I fully agree that there is a lack of scenery sets in the Lego SW line up.

Almost literally "just around the corner" for me. And since the children marked the date on their calender the day they found a Brick Mania flyer in a local shop, I guess there is no excuse for not visiting..

mmm, a bit disappointed by the size of the alien ship in the 70705. In the images of the club magazines comic that were posted some days ago, it looked like it would be some kind of major ship. But in reality its just personal transporter. The mosquito sits almost just on top of it.. So the mosquito is equipped with antenas afterall. The one that was sold on ebay must have been some kind of prototype or production reject. To bad for those that were hoping that the squad troopers would be similar to the Cuusoo or CMF space marines. Though it is nice to have that space helmet available in a new color; so far white, light blue, dark blue, black, pink and orange, or am I forgettinge a color? I Wonder if other colors will follow. Didn't a read a post stating that there would be different colors of squads? The armor and helmets for the robots / androids look promising too Anyway, so far the theme looks nice, and I will probably pick some sets up, but up till now it doesn't give me the "must have" feeling I had with Alien Conquest. edit: we dont have that helmet in dark blue... the CMF space marines helmet is a bit different model

Hehe, funny ones again Oky. I specially like the geisha one. It is kind of strange something like that didnt show up here before. In fact since the geisha CMF came out I am using her as a stand in too. And I probably will continue to do so. I am not realy fond of that Gungan submarine, and even less for the price it sells for here. Just bricklinking the princess isn't an option for me neither, given the actual rates. Anyway, seeing them both in the same picture, besides the typical hair, I think the CMF does the job very well, and: in the movie it also was all a game of stand-ins and bodydoubles as well... if I remember corectly..

Not realy convinced by the printing of the torso, but I like the head of the fly alien, though its antenas seem to be missing. The Lego magazine cartoons did show them with red ones though. Also the color scheme of the drawn ones looked a bit more uniform. The wings and body showed almost the same tone of green. Well, maybe the one pictured by that seller is still a kind of preliminary one, or it can be due to bad lighting too. Anyway, seeing that figure I cant help to think about .. :-)The red one at first sight looked a bit like a Ninjago snakehead to me..

I was hardly interested in the original TMNT when I was young, and don't know the actual version, so my opinion is probably biased. Or maybe truly objective because not blinded by fandom. But in general I am not impressed by these sets at all. Probably Lego is not to blame. There is the source material, target audience (-10?) and budget they have to work with. Nevertheless, a lot of the (secondary) vehicles seem to be build by somebody of that same target audience, while with some sets the color palet reminds me of any given Duplo set. Even the minifigures, I think for most AFOL's the major selling point for these sets, seem to be more <insert that tiresome argument> then usual. Specialy the "human" characters look childish i.m.o. Is it all bad then? Of course not. In this line there is again an expansion of new pieces/colors (olive green !) and some of the figs like the Kraang androids and Footsoldiers look nice and can be useful beyond the TMNT line. But for me that doesnt justify buying the whole sets. Due to TLG's pricing policy over here its never justified to buy licensed sets as parts packs. On other (AFOL) forums I read similar criticisms, but many times people added that they would buy the sets anyway in order to get the figs. Personaly I think we are giving TLG a wrong signal like that. But, as I said before, you cannot blame Lego for the looks of the source material, and even less for the fact that they continue to bring out overpriced, mediocre sets, if people continue to buy them in order to get hold of all the "unique" minifigs. They are a business after all. And I must plead guilty for having done the same in a couple of occasions too. :-) Anyway, if they will be easily available here, which is still to see since also the availability of e.g. superheroes is for some unclear reason rather limited in Belgium, I maybe might get the 79100 Lab. But mainly because thanks to the brain shaped creature (Kraang?), the flying saucer and the purple and trans lime green details, that set reminds me of Alien Conquest. Maybe I can turn it into an organic computerbrain or nursery in the core of the alien mothership..

As usual, great ones OKY, I specialy like the Disney one.. Nice photoshop in the Thor one btw. I only noticed it at 2nd glance. So far the ilusion that Oky has all nice minifigs in his possession. :-)

Adorable??... Haven't you read just2good's recommendation Zepher? Every post should have the word "cute" in it.. :-) Anyway, very nice work car_mp. I specially like the parrot. But that maybe also has to do with the color scheme. Though the build is perfect, the gray makes the elephant look a bit more dull compared to your other "peluches". Of course this has nothing to do with the quality of your build but rather with the nature of the beast..

Mmm, maybe, but it's not that they hadn't similar themed figs in the same series before... e.g.: series 1 : tribal hunter & cowboy ; clown & magician (event wrestler too) ; robot and spaceman.. series 2 : life guard & surfer ; vampire & witch ; pop star & disco dude... series 3 : alien & space vilain ; samurai & sumo ; tennis & baseball player .. series 4 : monster & werewolf & crazy scientist ; (or scientist & hazmat) ice hokey player & ice skater ; musketeer & viking.. series 5 : lumberjack & ice fisherman ; fitness & boxer ; (eventualy detective & royal guard) ... series 6 : classic alien & galactic girl (& robot?) ; minotaur & roman soldier & highlander ; clockwork robot & mechanic ;-) ; or the best one...: butcher & surgeon ;-) But it is true that the in-series pairing wasn't that obvious or non-existing in series 7 & 8.. though if you stretch it there are also couples to be found.. A lot of minifig speculation is based on patterns people seem to detect. But I only see 4 patterns: 1) there is a random mix of Lego's main themes : City/daily life ; sports ; historical/pirates ; phantasy/(classic) horror ; adventure ; scifi ; sports (though that can be part of city too) 2) a lot of the CMF's are based on Alexandre Boudons application sketches 3) they sometimes give us a figs that pairs or complements a fig from a former series.. but I dont see patterns like a fixed number of series they skip each time.. 4) xBoards (where "x" stands for skate, snow or surf according to your personal tastes.. :-) ) edited for adding a 4th "pattern"..

Looking back at the minifig sketches done by A. Boudon, and that circulate the net since a year or so ( http://alexandreboudonbillund2010.blogspot.fr/2010/08/blog-post.html ), it's clear that the Jekyll / Hyde figure is again based on his work (last picture, bottom left). So I guess it is more then reasonable to assume that the Hollywood starlet and the Ceasar minifig will be very similar to his sketches too.. Still left with the hope that the mentioned Alien trooper looks like A Boudons "mars attacks" figure, and that the alien in space armour from the video belongs to the green team of Galaxy Squad.. But I fear that is just wishfull thinking... And looking at the prelims for the Monster Fighters line ( here ), I wonder too if the mermaid in the rumored list isn't mistaken for the long awaited Medusa. Anyway, lets hope most of those designs come to life, or ABS, one day... so far, looking good already..

Not only is there the "problem" of the hat not covering the alternate face. If one looks closer to the picture, you can see that also his costume has 2 sides: left normal and right side torn.. a bit Zombie style... only the split face makes sense on top of a torso designed like that...

Interesting results.. I specialy like the hint toward the "jungle animals" collection. Something like that would be usefull outside the pirates theme too.. I always have wondered why Lego animals are rather "rare" at least in variety. Specially when ,as in the article, compared to e.g. Playmobil or even Lego's own Duplo.. Guess it has to do with Lego's focus on vehicle sets?

So, that Dr Jekyll - Mr Hyde figure seems to confirm that the rumored list might be true. At least if it is the so called Dr Splitz. After all this was the one that made me doubt the most since it seemed to refer to a licensed character. Another nice complement to the CMF classic monsters subtheme. But I am not yet convinced by the looks of the Alien Trooper though. Somehow it gives me the feeling it doesnt belong in the CMF line... I dont know why.. maybe the printing is to elaborate? Or maybe just because I was hoping, contrary to many others, that the trooper would be another AC spin-off... Anyway, if the list realy turns out to be true, then it seems that I scored 8 hits in the series 8 guessing game a couple of moths ago.. ok, spread out over 2 series, but still... not bad I think.. not bad at all :-)

That, my dear padawan, is the reason why WE wear spandex and not jeans when doing our workouts...

mmm, I dont know. Hard to estimate without realy seeing it. But if you read the description of the lot, the pictures only show the tip of the iceberg. If I understand well it even contains a UCS MF (not in the pics), that beasty alone will already burn your `£1000...

If you broke into my house in order to take the picture, or even if I invited you to take them, but we agreed that they would stay confidential, no then you couldn't. But, in the case I were careless, imprudent or drunk, and started stripping in public, in the street, though having written "this is confidential" across my athletic body, there wouldn't be much I could do against pictures being taken and shared I guess It's a thin line, I know... but lets stick to MOD's request and not discus this in this thread.

... and so we have now another picture, this time with no mentioning of "confidential" over it. (technically the other pictures werent marked confidential neither.. They are just legit pictures taken by somebody who had an object in his/her possession. The object might have been confidential or prelim, but the pictures themselves never belonged to TLG..) However, it makes me chuckle each time I see an attempt of a big company trying to limit the spreading of information across the internet after a breach in their organisation. You can't stop the flood when the dam is breaking.. As far as I know only this Dutch fellow managed to do this.. On topic; based on this and the former forbidden pictures, I guess this again will be a theme that at first will generated a lot of disbelieve and even hate in the A&TFOL community (though probably some will be converted to believers after a while), not being the historic theme they hoped for. Not the kind of stuff you display on a shelf or china cabinet. But it will be loved by the kids, the Lego core public, who will play with it. What it is intended for afterall. Being a father of 6- 10 year old boys I have been there, seen that with Ninjago. Or, as I commented on another Lego related site: I am pretty sure that somewhere next year I will see in our living room those Chima creatures, backed up by some CM monsters, defend their home planet against an invading Clone trooper army led by Darth Vader riding a dinosaur. Run them over with their cool bikes... and probably win the battle too. Liberating a Friends princess captured by Lord Garmadon on the go. Because that is how kids play. Kids who these sets are ment for. Something AFOLs and TAFOLs sometimes tend to forget..

One of the planet sets : the Endor moon with the ATST. I bought it mainly on impulse as a "desk decoration" piece, but again as with the Death Star and TIE set I did buy a couple of months ago, this turned out to be a nice little gem. The minifig is an interesting addition to my imperial troops, the model itself uses some nice SNOTting, and it even includes a printed piece for the cockpits front / windows... Strange how Lego manages to include prints in those small sets, but insists on using stickers in the bigger and more expensive sets. (a bit off topic, but see also the LP of the CMF 8 diskjockey versus the stickers for the record in the haunted house... why??)

Unless pictures, the actual sets or the next wave convince me otherwise, I guess 2013 will be a relative cheap Lego SW year for me. That list is to much CW orientated for my taste. I more then probably will get the Rancor pit (but first still this years Jabbas palace), and maybe a battlepack and a planet set or 2. I migh consider the A-wing, but since I got the Home One a couple of years back (and have thus Ackbar and a recent A-wing in the collection), I guess I will pass that too. Just an updated version of the admiral won't be enough to separate me from my money :-) . (same reason I skipped the skiff this year). Well, it gives the cartoon and game fans a chance to expand their collection, and me the possibility to get maybe duplicates of 2012 sets on my 2013 budget.

Nice, and funny! , review Pengiun. An interesting set, but I am still doubting if I will get it. And your review isn't exactly helping me with the decision. But dont worry, this has nothing to do with the quality of your review, rather with the fact that you kind of confirm the strong and weak points of the set as I saw them too. Main attraction definitely are the zombie minifigures.. seems Lego sometimes has a very clear look on what figures are highly demanded. But when it comes to the set itself, to my taste there is to much focus on the vehicle, and as a result the actual graves seem a bit to bland. Of course the whole MF line is very tongue-in-cheeck, a blend of classic horror and humor, but as you pointed out too, the giant hammers mounted on the truck seem to be to much exagerated. I would have prefered that they had put a bit more detail in the actual graves instead. I guess I will get this set afterall, but probably wait for a sale..

Excelent and clear review Kiel; very good and to the point pictures too! But nomatter the quality of the review, I am still not convinced this is a set that belongs in my collection, so I probably will not get it. Being when it comes to SW mainly an OT fan, I do have some stuff from the prequels, but this must be be one of my least favourite ships. Without any doubt the queen is the star of this set, and maybe for many people the main reason to buy it, but I do prefer to spend the aprox 75€ (90+US$) it costs here on some other set. Just hoping Lego will reuse the queen Amidala mold (it must be an expensive one!) in a more relevant set in the near future, maybe a palace scene?, or I might try to get her on the aftermarket..

Hehe.. before reading the description, I thought you added some kind of hidden backroom to the Winchester.. As you said, not something you see everyday, I only have seen a handfull of similar scenes up till now, this probably the most ..ermm.. famous one (from a couple of years ago) : http://www.flickr.co...ons/3581030017/ Maybe you can give it another try at CUUSOO,... as a set in a theme based on adult literature.. Joking aside, well executed little vignette Yatkuu..

Though I have more Star Wars stuff (mainly OT), my favourite licenses are without any doubt Indiana Jones and Prince of Persia. I am not the biggest fan of the PoP movie, and definitely am not familiar with the video game, but I just loved the sets for the sets themselves: beautiful palace, nice color combinations, introduction of new pieces and animals.. interesting minifigs.. And though not always very movie accurate, I think that the range of sets is more or less complete. I dont have the feeling that there is realy something missing. IJ is another story though.. not only are there some main characters who were never released, (Sallah, Brody, colonel Vogel...) but there are also some key scenes that most fans where hoping for, that never saw their ABS version.. There is just to much that was left untouched to mention here. Not only vehicles, planes etc, but also buildings and even animals.. Imo they could have made easily the double of amount of sets, without having to make repeats or relying on more obscure scenes.. Of course, Lego IJ was marketed because of the IJ Skull movie, while maybe the most potentialy interesting stuff can be found in the original trilogy. But hey, the same happened with Star Wars. And in SW they didnt only cover the most iconic ships and characters, even made multiple repeats of them, but even obscure stuff gets sometimes (undeserved?) attention in that line.