Faefrost

Here is a crude cell phone video of how those teeny tiny lights look on some modulars. Not the neatest job, but just to get an idea of the colors and effects possible. The bulb spacing is a little broad to look completely real. But they do add a nice splash of holiday color. The 36 light strings seem better for the spacing than the 18. But not by that much. The slow pulse effect looks really good with lego.

A common symbol for Apothecary or Pharmacist in the US is a Mortar and Pestle. Which probably would work well for signage. All of this is getting the MOC bug to bite me and get me thinking on another addition to my Modular city

I think for storage the best is simple unbranded plastic bins like you can find at Target or Walmart. This way you can easily add more as needed. You can dedicate a small to mid sized one to a set. Or breack them down by color, size etc, and further store them in a larger bin. With a younger child I would suggest getting the ones with the lids that lock. I use a lot of these. http://www.target.com/p/sterilite-clipbox-set-of-6-green-small/-/A-13487672#prodSlot=medium_1_12

I kind of like this one. It feels like the central courtyard in a broken down fortress or set of ruins. The figs are decent. And it's not a $100+ set. It's play features are lacking. But it makes a nice display setting. Granted I still pray for a Gondor setting just to get some walls that aren't bley or black.

I'm hoping I am wrong. But that last teaser page in the new Hobbit set instructions has me a bit worried. It says "Lego the Hobbit The Journey Concludes 2014". That leads me to suspect that the Summer wave may be another Hobbit wave. And no word on a third LotR one. (Remember TABA got pushed back from a summer release.) Should we be starting to worry?

Jhang bricks did a review of a set, and I believe The Brick Show did one or two. The sets struck me as sort of gimmicky with the "transforming bricks".

Did anyone catch the last page of the new instruction manuals? "Lego The Hobbit, The Journey Concludes in 2014." I am not taking that as a sign of longevity in this or the LotR lines.

Although that might be a more appropriate hairpiece to use if they were planning on offering the fig with an armored breastplate?

And a few long held suspicions about Cole. I'm thinking my pair of GFOL buddies will not be thrilled if they go that way. They've always sort of identified with Cole.

Some speculation on my part, but I think we can guess a few things that it is less likely to be. All of the Modulars released thus far have a very mid 20th century style and feel to them. Say roughly 1930 to maybe 1970 type buildings. With most sitting right around what is commonly thought of as the Steam to Diesel transition era. Late 30's to maybe 1955ish. If you don't know what I am talking about, sit and watch "A Christmas Story" as it enters perpetual holiday rotation this month. It nails the time period in question pretty well. I don't think that we will see much in the way of more modern structures or businesses in this line. I think the most modern thing in the sets so far is a computer in the town hall. And it feels a little out of place. So probably not any modern glass fronted buildings or very modern subjects such as an Apple store. Figure elements of life from your Grandparents era. I don't think we will see a modular Police Station in the near future. The modular Lego city seems to be a much more crime free place than Lego City (which keeps bringing to mind Chicago or Detroit with all the crime and police drama). We may see some signs of Police in a modular set. Maybe a patrolling officer, a Police Call Box as a sidewalk accessories etc, but I am not sure on a full blown station. I think there are a few other more civic type buildings we might see first. And I don't think that they want to be adding "criminal" Minifigs to this line? So just going by what seems to be the broad time period, here are a few things that I think we might see at some point. Businesses or buildings common to that age and style of life. Civic type buildings; - A Public Library, Bank or Museum. I mention these all at once because they are typically envisioned in a similar way. Large front facing stone building with some ornate work. Prominent entrance etc. I actually give a little more weight to a Library as it lets them pull a bit from the classic New York Public library with the lions on the steps. - Post office. Just a fun civic building with lots going on. The only downside is the broad variations in worldwide colors and markings designating the mail service. Commercial buildings; - Auto Mechanic, a nice small garage front auto service with an apartment over it. It might work well as a half set on a 16x32 plate, ala Pet Shop. Throw in another classic style car or two. - Apothecary, I think a hospital would be too big and complicated to do in a modular, but a traditional Apothecary (Pharmacy) covers the medical needs well. Maybe with a Doctor or Dentists office above it. To really set the time period give it a classic soda counter as well. - Bakery, it's kind of an obvious one. But they have so many baked goods specialty parts. - Factory / machine shop. A common city business of the time. Typically a brick building. A more open floor plan with lots of machinery details. Some nice skylights. Tall thin windows and a nice brick smokestack. The Minifigs gotta earn a paycheck in order to pay for all the firemen, police and crooked mayors they already have. - Rooming House. Apartments or rooms to rent. An old school wooden Boarding house with the open stairs and front porches. Adds a slightly more Western or Colonial feel. Just my 2c on what we might see and why. Pure speculation. My only real driving thought is these are all very recognizable common element of life structures that could be found in some form in just about any small, mid sized or large city around the mid 20th century, regardless of country or continent. Edit, fair point on the wish list. If someone creates on please move this there :)

I think a number of well known genre defining artists over at Marvel, for a number of years, really had a bit of a redhead fetish. John Byrne definitely tops the list for this, but it goes back well before him. DC was never quite as bad for this. The one Red Headed hostage, err heroine we have from them, Lois Lane, is normally brunette. We just got her in red because of Amy Adams. (If anything DC's crews fetishes tend to be more classically fetishy. Like fishnets and bustiers.)

The only part of that worrying is the "Barbosa's daughter, Jacks love interest" thing. I mean isn't that almost verbatim the Angelica character from 4?

Thank you for this. I found the really thin ones at Walmart in 18 and 36 light strands in both red and multicolor. They have a built in auto timer (6 on 18 off) and three display modes. Flash, solid and a slow phase on and off mode. Hiding the wires is tricky but not completely needed depending on how you use them. They are all in series and the wires are thin and stiff. They slip well between a 1x1 round and a plate so are easy to anchor. The wires are small enough to look like Lego scale strings of Christmas lights. I have most the Modular building shelf above my desk strung with them and the effect is impressive. The battery boxes sit conveniently out of site on the roofs (my display is at adult eye level.)

Kind of neat that MB does have a decent community and a place to find it. Although they do seem a tad bitter and fanboy'ish on some of those threads. It looks something like EB simply because of the underlying forum engine. I never quite understand the rampant tribalism in some hobbies? Granted I'm not a huge rabid MB fan. I have some issues with the somewhat erratic nature of some of their sets. I have a few World of Warcraft sets. Some are fantastic (Sha of Anger) Some are exercises in frustration to build (Frozen Throne, Gates of Stormwind) and some don't really even feel like brick sets (the rocket and Kitty mount set). But they do have so e fairly cool licences. The Halo stuff looks well executed.

Can Disney/Marvel use the Inhumans? For some reason I thought that they were blocked by Fox's Fantastic Four license? And were one of the reasons Marvel would really prefer to get the FF license back over the XMen one?

I have a couple of the Megablocks double sided plates. While great in theory I must say they are ki,nd of useless in practice. I am not sure if it is a flaw in the part concept or design, or just Norma Megablocks quality issues, but the double stud plates always seem to put some weird pressures on a build, so much so that a model almost seems to be tearing itself apart under tension.

You mean there's hope for a Kardashian's theme? Cause I don't think we could possibly get enough of stuff like that.

A rumor of someone claiming to have seen a modern style canopy in classic space yellow is part of what has been fueling speculation that this will be a set somewhere.

I wish Daiva's interview gave a little more details, but there are a few tidbits in there that at the least confirm much that we have suspected. At a minimum it does seem to smoothly and painlessly introduce some of the types of business case rejection, in a way that will help cut down on outrage. The interview does leave the impression that they are at last shaking some of the bugs and teething pains out of the Beta CuuSoo review process, and are now operating with a much less ad hoc much more formal process. Which means we will hopefully see faster smoother reviews going forward. It feels like CuuSoo is starting to be refined above its Beta roots and into a full production level undertaking.

I think Funcom is the place sending out the invites. I have Beta tested other MMO's for them, which always seems to be a major contributing factor in getting on any list for a new game. The CMF MMO Beta account login apparently also ties to the Lego VIP system, so testers may have been drawn from that as well. Run as Administrator

TLG doesn't have a lot of choice regarding the "new 52" designs. DC says which versions get used where. If they want to try and pimp the new looks that's what the licensee gets to do.

I'm guessing that the "Turtles Unleashed in the Change Room" is probably the Mutation Chamber set? And not Turtles invading a girls locker room?

It isn't resellers they are trying to weed out. It is the "drop ship scam". Someone is hand checking to order to make sure that everything lines up, and there are no signs of fraud. Lego and the Lego fan community have been very badly hit by this scam in the past year.

I can't say I completely disagree. I hate to say it but the movie Castle set seems to be sort of the dullest of the Movie sets. It lacks the acid trippy zaniness of some of the others. And as a castle set it's sort of meh. 2 crownies and another gate.

I think the exploding toilet wins the award as best Lego build of the year. Can we get just that in a polybag set?