Faefrost

I've been building mine this weekend, and I took your advise and trimmed out the inside of the stickers. It is absolutely the best option for dealing with them in my opinion. A sharp No 2 Hobby Knife with a fresh blade. A metal straight edge and about 5 minutes work really solved the sticker problem. Applying them was a little tricky as they were now thing fragile strips, but I had some sort of "application solution" used to help apply an iPad screen protector. Spritzed my fingers with it so the stickers didnt stick to them, spritzed the canopy so the stickers could be nudged and adjusted a bit, then squeegee'ed them into place. My only complaint on the model is more a reflection on poor planning on my part. This thing is a bit bigger than I realized, so it will never fit on the space I had planned to use to display it. Hmmm? I wonder if the wife will notice a new centerpiece on the dining room table?

The simple solution if you like the Falcon Canopy is to canibalize not just the canopy but the entire cockpit assembly back to the rear wall. It's a removable module that attaches via 2 1x2 bricks with technic holes. Those could easily be swapped for 1x2's with axel holes and it would just pop right on. PS if you want a massive project, I just realized that you could easily convert 2 of the UCS B Wings into this with virtually no effort or reworking. The needed connection points already exist symmetrically on both sides of the cockpit. Just plug the second body into the other side and you have your Deathraven. (no place big enough to park it mind you...)

There is a poor mans way to get a similar effect, assuming you don't mind painting the bricks, and only want it for a permanent display piece. There is a company that makes some amazing metal finish model paints called Allclad II. These are heavy lacquer based paints and they need to be applied with an airbrush. But if you have an airbrush, the cost to do something that size is probably around $30. (The chrome paint and the special high gloss black underneath). It's extremely expensive for model paint, but very cheap compared to actually chroming bricks. This is not your normal rattle can hardware store chrome paint. The stuff looks like metal, and it is incredibly thin. Probably the thinnest paint I have ever worked with. http://alclad2.com/finishes/high-shine/ Those are some of the high shine chrome type finishes. They also do amazing flat toned metals such as aluminum s and steels. The stuff is reasonably robust, but I would not plan on a lot of heavy reuse of the bricks. It won't withstand that much handling. (The is a similar paint called Testors Metalizer. It looks great, but it will never stick to Legos ABS and is so fragile that it would come off in your hands.) Keep in mind, this is painting the bricks. So definitely not for the purists among us (please don't hit me). But it is a reasonably cheap quick way to work through a concept prototype or get that custom display piece you have always wanted but you know will never be made. (Assuming you are comfortable messing with an airbrush, or know someone who is. As far as airbrushing, it is the easiest stuff to spray that I have ever encountered. Sprays straight from the bottle, no mixing, goes on real thin and levels perfectly.)

If its been sealed since 1983 and spent a long time on a store shelf it's probably just something environmental that worked its way in. That or it was stored in someplace hot enough that the box glue melted or deteriorated. The final option is something weird got in it from the packaging machine way back in '83.

I'd go see an animated Ninjago movie in a flash. But live action? I'm having trouble picturing that as coming out in any way other than something like the live action Dragonball movie. A lot of Ninjago's charm stems from the total aesthetic of it. I can't see that surviving into Live Action without ending up looking like a cheesy boy band music video. Or a poor mans Power Rangers.

That looks fantastic. So good that you inspired me to run out and get 2 Gatehouse raids.

In the new show the Kraang are an invading alien army. There are tons of the little pink blobby things running around in human suits, exoskeletons and assorted mecha. The Turtles mow them down by the dozens. They make a great Army builder.

Actually yeah you are right. The lighter blue bricks do get that kind of yellowish tinge. I tend to forget. I don't really have a lot of old blue.

It's probably most visible outside of old white parts, in old classic light grey parts, which take on a faint more yellowish cast. We don't notice it as much because the old grey naturally looks yellower than the new bley. Yellows may darken slightly. It does not substantially effect red or darker parts since the actual color shift is not really yellow but brown and they are already deeper into that side of the spectrum. Blues don't seem to color shift so much as lose their brightness or vibrancy, at least to my eye.

The Western Town license conflict was for the most part unexpected. At least not until right at the end. I don't think anyone was predicting a licensed Western Theme like Lone Ranger that far back. It wasn't until after the LR theme was announced that a conflict became a more obvious issue. By then the project had been gathering votes for a year. In hindsight a no compete clause is obvious, but no one could have predicted that a year before the license was revealed. The Sandcrawler conflict was however totally predictable and we have been talking about the potential problems with it and the Tumbler pretty much since they started to climb the charts. Oh and before someone asks "why do they let projects from existing licenses proceed then?" It's because the actual CuuSoo staff who moderate and operate the site have no better idea about the legal intricacies of existing licenses then we do. Some things they will delete because they are clearly easy and obvious. My Little Pony and G I Joe are both properties that are wholly owned by TLG's direct competitor. They are not an acquire able third party license. Hasbro owns the IP outright. (It would be like Hasbro seeking a license for Ninjago action figures.) but in the case if the existing licenses, it can be really weird and complex. They won't know if it is an issue until the lawyers look at it. And they surely will not be paying the lawyers to pre screen 40,000 CuuSoo projects. Those things get looked at in the review stage. And obviously not all existing license based projects conflict, or conflict in the same way. Is it a subject done in Lego before? Is it a subject that directly appears in a movie? Is it one just described in a book? Is it one that has already been discussed with the licensor prior to the CuuSoo project? Is there any prior in house development work regarding a similar subject? What does the licensor want done in this case? Believe it or not, it is probably possible for some Star Wars subjects to be made under CuuSoo. But it will depend heavily on a lot of specifics. (Best guess would be subjects from EU materials such as books games or comics might pass review. But anything based on an ILM design that appears on screen may have an issue.)

That's because so many people are failing to grasp exactly what the purpose of the Kinect is, and how it relates to MS's business model and plans. Here's a hint. It doesn't have a lot to do with gaming. And yes they said you don't HAVE to use it. (Ie use voice commands or jump around and wave your arms.) you can also turn it off (when you aren't using the console. Please take careful note of that. If the console is being used this sucker is watching and listening. No two ways about it.) So what is it there for? It's not gaming? Very few games really use the thing. Yeah it's an interesting and jetson's like futuristic way to control your TV, but it seems a little overdone for that? Here's the kicker that should be making everyone a bit paranoid over this thing. The Kinect is MS's big move to branch into some of Google's territory. I'm talking marketable user metadata. Think about it. The purpose of this thing is to watch you watching TV. It builds profiles of each person that enters its field of view. Further builds deeper user profiles by listening to conversations. It can see eye movements and knows nt just what you are watching, but exactly what part of the screen. And it can track your reactions to things such as emotional state and heart rate via subtly infrared changes to your skin. Oh and remember how much "TV" functionality they built into the console? Yeah. This sucker is designed to be a feedback device to build a vast library of marketing metadata, much like what Google has done with their offerings. I don't know about you all, but just the potential of such a system creeps the hell out of me.

Pretty much anything that is principally made of rubber or vinyl may degrade and decay over a long period of time. The best example is how some older model tires will not simply deform, but seem to partially melt onto the surface they are sitting on, or leave residue behind. Vinyl such as hoses may grow more brittle and lose flexibility. Actual Lego bricks however should withstand the test of time provided they are kept safe from direct sunlight and weird chemical interactions. The white parts yellowing is not a result of sunlight, although sunlight will speed the process. It comes from the chemical flame retardant that gets mixed in with the plastic as a safety measure. It's that chemical that will eventually yellow.

It's not a matter of deserving anything. Heck the simple quality of Marshall's design work would have deserved the commission. Nor is it simply an issue of "what's the point?" The point is it is something desired that the Lego fan base is willing to support and pay for. But I think you do inadvertently do point out the crux of the problem with existing and ongoing licenses and CuuSoo. "A set ( or rather subject) that has already been released". I don't think any of us can even begin to comprehend or predict the outcomes of the various legal licensing issues that then crop up with such CuuSoo projects. The BttF set is actually much simpler. TLG was simply looking for a basic limited license to produce the one set. There were no pre existing contracts and no prior works to cause conflicts. There is no active long term production schedule and plans to work around. And the actual design approval process from the vendor is just that single product. It still sucks that what are arguably the two finest CuuSoo projects to hit 10k, Marshall's Western Town and Sandcrawler, are the ones to bump into the weird complicated, and at least in the part of the Western Town, unexpected license conflicts.

The Exclusives are the Jedi Defender and the Starhopper. What chains carry them will vary by country.

The borrowed Hoverboard was pink. Marty's regular wheeled skateboard was not. Lego may not be able to use the Hoverboard in a set because of a weird licensing quirk. In BttF2 the Hoverboard was one of many jokes involving future product placement. The Hoverboard was supposedly a Mattel product. And Mattel does have some modern rights to it as a toy. They just released an anniversary edition (fake) Hoverboard last year.

I think that it is not so much about recreating a scene as it is allowing for play storytelling. Remember these are toys not models. As an example while Queen Amidalla never appears with the Bongo sub, the heroes use the sub to travel to meet with her. So while she is not an element of the sub model, she is the goal of the subs play.

Could that horrible stepped hood be that way so you can swap in parts for the BttF 3 variant with the box of tubes and junk on the hood? It still seems a weird design decision. Is that large flat sloped light bley piece out of production or not available to use for the model? I think we may be jumping the gun about Minifigs. Lets wait and see what the actual set is. If it doesn't have any I will be disappointed and will probably skip it. But I want to see the actual set, not just a single weird calendar pic.

I take it more that a single set 10 to 20,000 set run primarily only available as an exclusive does not seriously in any practical way undermine their developed internal IP. No more so than their Master Builder Academy sets do. Is there a chance of a slight conflict. Maybe. But it is far mor e minimal than anything licensed. Most of the hard conflicts will not pop up unless either a license is involved, the set is a direct expansion of an existing sub theme or set remake. Or it is really really close to something they are just releasing. Space Troopers probably comes in more complimentary to GS. But something li ke a CuuSoo Friends Yacht might be an issue. Overall they have more room to work with. Also unless I am mistaken is not Space Troopers the very first unlicensed project to come up for review?

I'm just curious. I had two of my friends young daughters visiting today. Ages 6 and 9. And they insisted on seeing my "Lego Room" (My Office). I always find their visits sort of fascinating as they pick up and perceive things very differently from how I do. A major part of my office display is a series of hear height shelves that wrap around the room supporting a street scene of modular buildings transitioning to Jabba the Hutt and the Lone Ranger, around to the Ninjago Temples, then wrapping to the a small market town of the MMV Mill Village Attack and some fill ins, around to the Joust and from there running accross the LotR sets and some final SW shelves.and a shelf of Pirate ships. Of these the girls spend some time poking around the Modular buildings and all of the various city and cmf minifigs wandering the streets there. They glance over everything thing else, and then just dive into The Kingdoms Joust with true joy. Knights. Horses. Queens and Princesses. Food. etc. It just seems to grab them more than anything else that I have. Is this fairly indicative of what others see with young relatives, etc? They liked the Lego sets in my room. They head over heals love that Joust set.

Ah, but in this case there is no conflict with Galaxy Squad, because Galaxy Squad is not a license. TLG owns that IP. There are no no compete clauses and no third party review. It's simply at best a complimentary set with a new color of space dudes. To put it more in perspective, they released the Space Skulls and Star Justice "designed by me" Factory sets on top of Mars Mission and with Space Police III in the pipeline. They have a great deal more flexibility with their own IP. As far as new molds, they re not that critical to the sets. Yeah the proposed Aliens use them, but the real focus of the sets is the Space Troopers. Lego can easily swap out the proposed Aliens for something using standard parts without radically changing the nature of the project. And I would imagine that just like the aforementioned Space Skulls and Star Justice, it could easily be done with a single set and not need an ongoing theme. A tank, 4 Troopers and 2 Alien foes. Done. Next!

Since we now have four official TOR era sets, what about a KotoR or SWToR subject? (Or has that been done?)

It probably has more to do with the nature of how the non compete clauses work. Chances are that they can't work on, design, review or plan for a directly competing product until the license has run its course. Probably more of a legal thing than a planning or scheduling thing. The license holder wants the full focus on their license. That's why I am thinking that they actually sent the whole portal project over to the parts design team for further analysis. If they were trying to accomplish the same thing with existing parts that would have been part of the normal review and it would have been rejected or approved with the others. But if they were actually taking a deeper look at the parts I can see that as being a completely and totally separate review process above and beyond the normal one. That's just the only thing I can imagine (That we know of) that might cause a project to be broken free from the rest of its review cycle like that. If that's the case than it might be a hopeful sign for the portal project. I can't see them bothering to take that extra step unless or until the project had mostly passed the business case review. 9Why research new parts if you don't think the set has a viable enough target market?) Once again pure speculation, but I just think that anything other than parts testing would have given us a straight up or down answer. Especially since they did have another pass review. (Although we still do not know for sure of each review period is a zero sum type deathmatch? Can 2 projects pass?) I suspect that the next review will probably come a little faster. Space Troopers and Purdue Pete. The Space Troopers is a well refined non licensed IP that has a solid steadily building fanbase and has the potential to be an army building CuuSoo set to help drive sales. I think it is a very strong candidate for passing. The only pitfall is if Games Workshop attempts some sort of claim that it falls too close to their Warhammer 40k IP. While BS I don't think TLG will put up much of a fight for a CuuSoo project. Purdue Pete is just not going to happen as a global project. I don't think many Americans know where Purdue is let alone what their mascot is. I would imagine that our non American friends are completely baffled by this one? It's a small but vocal local vanity project. If the Eve Grifter failed, this one will too.

Still not letting it in the house until the Kinect can be unplugged

I still suspect that at least with Star Wars and Lucasfilm, a lot of it will come down to whether or not the subject was something shown on screen in one of the movies and created by ILM? vs Is it simply a Staw Wars Universe subject such as something from the EU or a Videogame or comic.

This is the canopy piece from the Jedi T6 shuttle. It's the same windscreen that the Quinjet uses, just lighter transclear and with printing that may be better suited to a SW ship. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=45705pb011