AmperZand

The easiest way to find discounted LEGO on Amazon UK is probably through Brickset, specifically Brickset’s Amazon Watch List.

They look to be connexions LEGO considers ‘illegal’. Some, such as the clip holding the tile, will stress parts over time. I have had minifigure hands eventually crack from holding things badly. The only one of your connexions of immediate concern is the trans cone attached to the trans bar (middle of your picture). You may find them hard to separate.

When a design decision’s criterion is aesthetic it will, of course, be subjective. So the ‘inexplicable’ ones for the purpose of this discussion are those where the overwhelming consensus among AFOLs including the most watched influencers like Jang questions them. It should not include ones where there is much debate about appearance. I very much doubt that LEGO deliberately includes design features it knows or suspects most buyers/recipients would object to. That is an unsound business model even for a product like LEGO that can easily be improved by the user. Having an open back for playability is not inexplicable; it has been explained.

Indeed. I checked the instructions and the two hands are constructed separately, so reducing page count was not the reason. Interesting thought though. As others have pointed out, I doubt it's for logistic reasons. LEGO plans production a long time in advance and doesn't have to optimise part production across multiple sets. Or if it does, it wouldn't compromise aesthetics as conspicuously as this. I thought that too, so I tested the connection when making the mod shown on page 1 of this thread. I initially constructed the right hand my way and the left hand LEGO's way. The only weakness I could find was when you remove the round trans light blue tile from the palms and you shake the mech violently by holding the wheel holders, the plate comes off more easily when it's 2x1 than 2x2. But you really have to whip it hard because most of the force is absorbed by the arm's joints. There are much weaker connections used regularly by LEGO, so I doubt connective strength is the reason. In LEGO's defence, the one thing it does that I didn't is a heat test. It's pretty much what it sounds like. LEGO puts sets into a special oven to simulate them being played with in very hot climates or left on car dashboards in summer. It may be that at high temperature the 2x1 plate isn't strong enough. I don't know and won't be heating my LEGO to find out! I very strongly advise against heating LEGO in a domestic oven. Clever but I don't think the aesthetics work. If you attached an extra digit to represent a little finger, it might look OK when the phalanges were extended, but the articulation is in the wrong place when the finger was bent. Also, if that had been the intention at one stage, I am sure LEGO would have noticed that it looks odd long before it went into production.

I had to resort to the secondary market for the centauride and Mayan warrior. My local Sainsbury’s usually gets one box of CMFs, but I haven’t seen S21 there yet. Other stores that normally carry CMFs around me are either closed or are too far to go to legally: LEGO isn’t essential shopping. Pre-coronavirus, there used to be an initial surge in sales of CMFs from stores within a walking distance of me followed by a long tail when the price would eventually come down. Don’t know if that will be the case for this series. I believe Argos has them. Would be most interested in any other UK store sightings. Just knowing that a particular chain has them is useful info for when lockdown restrictions are lifted. Update: I went food shopping on 29 Jan at Sainsbury’s and it had a box. As expected, each packet was £3.50. I managed to get a few for parts. The staff didn’t seem to mind me feeling packets. I was wearing PPE gloves that I had smeared with sanitiser gel. I was standing as far as I could from other people and ensured I was in nobody’s way.

Thank you. Very kind of you to say so Keep an eye out for my historical/fantasy mods of CMFs Series 21 coming, I hope, next month.

Thanks for the picture ?. I haven’t got my hands on any S21s yet but was thinking of doing that to the centauride. I reckon LEGO should have designed it that way.

I’m afraid I don’t know about this minifigure, but there was a series of articles on Brickset in 2020 on super-rare minifigures. If you can trace them and their author, he might be able to help. You may want to search for records of the event rather than the minifigure in the first instance and find the minifigure that way. Also, I’m not a mod, but there is a pinned thread for identifying parts.

Had a part missing from a Bricks and Pieces order a few months ago. Have to say that LEGO customer service was very good about sending out the missing part quickly and even threw in a Ninjago keychain by way of apology. Not interested in the keychain but I appreciate the gesture.

@Toastie, I think @Nicolas Canzian means 070 Universal Building Set from 1966. I don’t know what the set’s inventory is but @LEGO Historian might. His LEGO history-fu is unsurpassed!

@DBlegonerd7, Bricklink. You may find them there either sold as minifigures or their component parts from across different sellers. I believe that BAM parts sometimes are available through LEGO’s Bricks and Pieces service but you will need to know the part numbers. In the case of BAM parts, those numbers are not always easy to find. Usually, it’s easier to obtain hard-to-find parts by calling LEGO rather than ordering online (you will still need the parts’ numbers). I appreciate that calling LEGO might not be an option for you. I just thought to mention it if you had someone who could call on your behalf.

@Killian, You need to shave down the horse’s head so that there is a flat area against which the ribbon and horn can sit. I reckon it would look better without the ribbon. If you agree, you only need remove enough plastic so that the horn is flush with the forehead. When I created a System unicorn (on the right in the picture below) I used one of the old style horses with the flat forehead, not the newer, curvy ones to make the modification easier.

I very much doubt an organisation the size of LEGO's is going to care much about treading on the toes of a few fans even if some of them are influencers. For one thing, the fan channels like Jang's are going to attract a different audience, namely AFOLs, to LEGO's own, i.e. KFOLs and non-FOLs (parents buying for kids etc). For another, big organisations don't think that way. If they see value in doing something, they just do it regardless of who else may be doing the same especially if the other is a disorganised assembly of private individuals. As for fans doing a better job of producing such videos, again, I doubt that. LEGO would make use of professional videographers and animators (both physical and CGI) using state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. Oh, I don't know. I can imagine LEGO doing smaller boxes (many sets have unnecessarily large boxes) without instructions and branding them as greener versions. Would be desirable for shippers too such as Amazon as it would reduce volume (physical space) and weight. So would I. As I said earlier in this thread, LEGO should do instruction videos in addition to paper or PDF ones, not instead of them.

The instructions aren’t simple enough. They should show a fraction of the action of each piece being moved into position - on the right hand page only. Then you could flick through the pages and animate the motion just like old-style flip books. You would probably need a separate manual for each piece. Of course, you’ll also need an instruction manual to show you how to use the instruction manuals. I think of everything. I’m so clever! More seriously, LEGO should not only provide instructions online which they already do, but videos showing sets being assembled. There are plenty of third party videos of sets being assembled on YouTube (Jang’s for example), but LEGO should do official ones. Also, when you buy sets online from LEGO, Amazon etc, you should have the option of getting the set without the instructions. After all, if you have ordered online, you can probably download the instructions and don’t need a paper version.

@Niku, I especially like your English faction... and that’s not just me being patriotic! If I may make one suggestion: I would swap more of the bare hands for coloured ones to represent gloves and gauntlets. Hands were very vulnerable in medieval combat so if you or the army you were serving under could afford hand protection, you would have used it.

The way the statue above the portico has its legs ‘crossed’ is brilliant! Great job overall, but that detail is particularly clever.

I would love to see a re-imagining of Fantasy Era with a sylvan faction consisting of elves (think the two CMF elves), centaurs, satyrs and unicorns, a human faction with knights, wizards, moulded dragons and griffins, a dwarf faction with boars and bears, and an orc faction with orcs, goblins, trolls and moulded giants.

@caiman0637 and @Lego David, Judging by the logo and the teaser video, it’s fantasy, not history. I’m pleased about that but appreciate that not everyone will be. Whether or not this attraction turns into a theme with actual LEGO sets is anyone’s guess. The only reason to think that it might is that LEGO sees kids’ attention as divided across a myriad of media and formats and therefore harder to reach through just one. As a result, it increasingly focuses on IP that intersects with kids’ lives at multiple points (e.g. Star Wars with its movies, streaming show, cartoons and video games). This could be an attempt to create in-house IP that connects with kids in a similarly diverse way. We will have a better idea if we start to see Mythica rolled out to other Legolands or appear in other media such as a LEGO Mythica cartoon. If that happens, it will be more likely there will be sets.

^ It’s common in casual usage (the measure that lexicographers use). That doesn’t make it desirable. It deprives us of a word by substituting its meaning for one that is already covered by other words and leaves us with a gap. There are other ways of expressing uniqueness, but none so succinct or (formerly) well understood. Apologies for the digression.

I agree and would add that it wouldn’t be commercially viable. For the youngest kids who have no internalised archetypes and for a few AFOLs who enjoy the weird and wonderful, it might work. But older kids, most adults buying for kids (parents, grandparents etc) and the vast majority of AFOLs, a minifigure that isn’t easily recognisable would turn them away. I don’t have data to back that up, but suspect LEGO does. Please don’t say that again. Please.

@Aanchir, Thanks. I was wondering if it was the machete or not. The oblique angle doesn’t help. I think you might be right.

Very cool creation! Lots of character. I particularly like how the snow is deeper on the side but shallower and more patchy along the sleigh’s course. The sausage to lead the wargs is a nice touch. Is Orc Santa also known as Satan Claws?

It’s the *breast* name LEGO could come up with! Seriously though, is the wakizashi being used by Island Kai new? I don’t recognise it.

Lots of fantasy goodness in the Ninjago sets scheduled for spring '21 including a teal brick-built dragon and some cool looking bad guys - especially Chief Mammatus and the Thunder Keeper. Pictures in the New Zealand LEGO catalogue.

From the company that brought you a minifigure of a character who has a back story of being a prostitute. Cabaret singer seems tame in comparison.