Faefrost

Using the CMF figs you can also put together some signs of a Pink, White and Black squad (well assuming you don't consider the evil Spyrius guy as evil). Heck in hindsight "Galaxy Girl" seems to perfectly mesh with the GS theme.

Agreed. While it's not really doing it for me as an AFOL, I can respect just how wildly fun this theme will be for the target age group. I know I would have loved this to death in my younger years. It has a little of everything. I know what the nephews will be getting.

Is it wrong that my first thought was "why on earth would someone want to import more giant spiders into NZ?"... or is that just Australia that has the big hairy poisonous spider issues?

That's like that with a lot of the licensed sets. Star Wars at least gets less of that because the vehicles are almost as cool as the figs and characters. But many of the rest of them are at best stages for the figs. (Hulk Helicarrier set anyone? Mines of Moria?). Lately it seems that the licensed waves (excepting Star Wars) Seem to feature one really good solid building or vehicle set that stands on its own (Helm's Deep, Bag End, Quinjet, etc) and the rest tend to be more of play settings for some really good figures. Outside of Star Wars the only other license that seems to have a really strong track record of having a good balance between set quality and figure quality is Batman. And that's because Batman is still all about the wonderful toys. Batman sets tend to have wings and wheels and not simply walls. (Although granted Arkham looks to be an exception to this. The building has almost as much character and presence as the Joker.) The Turtle sets are almost predestined to suffer a bit in this regard. In the new cartoon the Turtle vehicles are supposedly made mainly of junk. Well when you try and make a Lego vehicle based on source material that is designed to look like a pile of junk, then by design the end product looks a bit junky. (Kind of the root problem with the new Shellraiser vs the classic Turtle van.)

That's kind of the same problem with the Corsair ship set. The ships barely appear in the theatrical release version. Only very briefly when the army of the dead arrive at Minas Tirith. The long scene where Aragorn leads the dead in taking the ships is a deleted scene that only appears on the extended editions. The Corsairs themselves only appear on the extended editions of RotK.

I think the only way they could do the army of the dead would be skeleton bodies done in the new MF gitd plastic, with armor and helms, kinda like how they did the Ninjago skeletons. Gitd skeleton with partial chest and shoulder armor, boots, helm and a tattered white cloak.

Something about that rumor just doesn't ring true to me. 3 large remakes at the same time like that? With no mention of anything new? Not to mention the close proximity of the two large Jabba's sets? I dunno? It's gonna take a bit more to convince me. (Especially considering that his LotR rumors have some similar concerns. 12 Minifigs in the Corsair ship? A "Black Gate" set with Gandalf the White and the Witch King? ) Yeah these may be interpretive errors, but still taken as a whole they are not yet there in terms of underlying believability.

I think opinions on both are pretty well split. Although in the case you describe with AFOL's you have two things going on. On One level Chima is really not a theme targeted at AFOL's nor one they have any real strong opinions on either way. It has some neat parts, figs and designs that will grab the attention of some. And it's overall animal war theme may turn others off, but outside of a small group, it really isn't anything deeply argued. Many AFOL's will pick up some Chima sets and figs. But there are plenty of other new sets they will get first. Now TMNT is an entirely different situation. There is no ambivalence here. The problem is less Chima and more this interpretation of the Turtles. It's kind of taunting the AFOL's. AFOL's have no mental investment in Chima. It's something new for the younger target audience. But the Turtles! Well that strikes right at the nostalgic heart of AFOL's. but the problem is while kinda close and similar, these really aren't the AFOL's turtles. These are these newfangled retread Turtles, with a pink fish guy, and some sort of Crash Bandicoot stupid lookin guy, and a Krang that just isn't their Krang, and no Rocksteady and Bebop and... Well Shredder is still cool. So the sets are cool, and they are something that the AFOL's have wanted for years, but at the same time something is not quite right for them. On some level, and for some AFZoL's its like listening to Mozzart played very well on an untuned piano. It's great stuff, but still not right to your ear. Is that making any sense?

Is that the Chase McCain minifig?

Trans clear parts and acrylic plastics are the one type of Lego brick that we can repair and recondition very cheaply and easily. You don't need to mess with the various polishes or Brasso talked sbout in that article. it is an astonishingly simple and easy trick. Plastic modelers have known this trick for years. Get a simple and cheap bottle of "Future" floor polish. (These days known as "Pledge with Future Shine"http://www.amazon.com/SC-Johnson-11182-Pledge-FutureShine/dp/B000ARPH4C ) Step 1- Clean the parts and let them fully dry Step 2 - pour enough Future into a bowl such that you can fully dip or submerge the parts. (One at a time) Step 3 - simply dip each part, then lay them out on a clean piece of paper to dry. Position them to allow for natural drainage. ( in most case sedge down). Let the part fully dry and cure, much like you would paint. Step 4 - once dry hand polish as needed. When done the part will look like a shining piece of glass. How and why it works. Future floor polish is essentially un colored acrylic medium. The same base they use in acrylic paints, and basically the same thing that the plastic is made is. The thing that fogs, discolors and ages trans clear parts are micro scratches. The Liquid acrylic medium will fill these and bond fully with the clear plastic. The results will astonish you. Even using it on fresh out of the box trans clear parts. It is safe to use this trick on any trans clear part. It will not impact printing. I do recommend experimenting or using caution where stickers are concerned. Modelers use this for things like aircraft canopies. They also air brush straight uncut future onto models as a final protective coating. What it will not do - It's not great with ABS type plastics. So it really doesn't do anything for regular non clear Lego bricks. It may be a temporary improvement, but almost nothing bonds with ABS so it will wear off. It will not become part of the plastic like it does with acrylics. It fixes fogging and small micro scratches. It may not fully erase deep gouges or cracks. Oh and once done simply pour the Future back into the bottle. You can reuse it over and over. One bottle will last for years.

For all we know half of the 13 Dwarves are women ;)

I think it's highly likely. Beorn's house is one of the stand out fixed structures/locations in the movies. Something that they can do well in Lego. Plus it lets them make use of their new Bear molds. We probably will not see it until the second movie comes out however. Am I wrong in thinking Beorn would be on about the same scale as Hagrid? I'm betting it would be 6 real Minifigs and a handful of plain skellies.

Try the new GameStop Kids stores. I'm not sure if they have anything adult sized. But the one I saw did seem to have an assortment of Lego t shirts and paraphernalia.i didn't really notice how much was licensed vs unlicensed though.

If only they would give us something like the 8637 Volcano Base from the Agents theme. A real brick built mountain play set. ( or do something similar for the Lonely Mountain in a Hobbit set.) Those names do seem to mesh very very well with another wave of the Kingdoms theme. Forrest Ambush and Gold Getaway sound like they fit in with the 7188 Kings Carriage Ambush set. Gatehouse Raid sounds in line with 7948 Outpost Attack and 7187 Escape from Dragons Prison, Kings Castle will probably be a new or re released Lion Knights castle. Dragon Mountain however? If the name is right, than I can't see them not including an actual Dragon? If it was simply the headquarters or castle of the Dragon Knights it would be Dragon Mountain Fortress or something similar. Dragon Mountain conjures a cave with a Dragon to fight. Regardless of a lack of otherwise Fantasy elements, Dragons + Knights is a common play setting. Plus it will be at a minimum 2 or 4 release cycles out from any expected or hoped for Smaug sets, so no real conflict there.

Great work. It really captures the scene. And I love some of those detail minibuilds like the pool table and the bar.

Not my favorite set of the wave. The Minifigs are fantastic. But the rest of it is just two small trees and yet more giant spiders. Between Shelob and Harry Potter I already have more than enough giant Lego spiders. There are a lot of really nice little detail parts. The mushrooms are great. Lots of weapons. (Not crazy about the PoP daggers in this set though. They don't blend with the other LotR weapons). The dark red foliage is welcome (even if it is only two sparse sprigs of it.) Overall not a bad little set. I just wish it had something a little more grabbing to it.

That seems way high, even by Swedish pricing. Double check where you are looking to get it from. The Orc Forge was the exclusive set, so in the US only Tagt and Lego stores had it. I noticed it popping up on Amazon at insanely high prices. The barrel escape is also an exclusive set. You it may only be in one store chain.

12/20 for the parts because the accessories had stickers? Sorry I will have to respectfully disagree on that part of your review. The set has a ton of slopes and curves in non standard colors. Plus it has some new never seen before structural elements. Colors? It uses heavy earth tones. Browns greens, tans, golds? These are commonly used ones by historic / medieval MOC'ers and a refreshing break from bley. I'm not getting what you were expecting or hoping for? I have to ask the same sort of questions regarding price. Yes it's a lot of money, and more than we want to spend. But the set sits pretty much exactly at the generally accepted sweet spot of 10 cents per piece. ( .107 usd to be exact). It falls within the desirable 1 minifig per 10-12 dollars cost ratio that we like. And it even has the more concentrated single large structural build rather than. Ton of little disjointed ones, that we as a group seem to keep asking for. So really what is the basis for the price analysis? What exactly are our standards and expectations? You use the term "Jacked up prices" and yet there is no actual evidence of such. The set seems to be priced exactly in line with what we typically view as the reasonable sweet spot for an unlicensed set of this size? I understand that your reviews are your opinion. But please give us a bit more insite into the process of that opinion.

Wow! That is a well executed and brilliant design that manages to hit every possible note for the Friends theme... and yet still somehow seems oddly creepy. I think its the pink pony... it's staring at me through the pictures.

One of the developers from the Tt Lego games sometimes posts here at EB. In one of the threads regarding either Batman or PotC he gave a pretty good description of how the designs come about and when and why they use different designs. The basic rule is wherever an official Lego set design already exists they use it. When it doesn't they will try and create something virtually using Lego rules and tools, but it is not always 100% possible. Some things will have stuff like scale adjusted, or while they look legit cannot be properly supported in the real world. (The in game Flying Dutchman was I think an example used). But surprisingly a lot of the ingame stuff is 100% possible. I think they said the giant Joker Robot from the end of Batman 2 can be fully made in Lego. The only rules broken there were that a lot of the pieces they used do not exist in the colors they used them. Ultimately however they make things in game to service the game and in the interests of making a good game. Not of developing MOC's or new Lego set designs.

I'm betting the Corsairs ship set will be something along the lines of the Fantasy Era Troll Ship.

They tend not to reuse very very character specific molds from licensed properties all that muchin non licensed ones. At least not without major modification. But they will often reuse new unlicensed molds in licensed. The boundary seems to be heads and hair that truly define the character vs a more generic element. So while you may see the more recent wind tossed Luke Skywalker hair, because its just a blonde hairstyle or Belochs hat in brown, because its a hat. You will not see something character specific or defining like a custom head mold, or Jack Sparrows hair or probably Gimli's helm, outside of the license they were created for.

I don't think they would have a problem with a Friar tuck type fig in a medieval setting. It's the modern real world stuff that is mainly at issue.

I think it is way too early to call. Yes there is the new silver grey crown crest. But we have also recently seen a total of 5 new shield crests. This one, the red boar on the evil knight, the gold dragon face on the dwarf, the stag on he CMF elf, and the tree on the new Forrest maiden. This is without counting the more oddball ones like the Roman soldier or the Aztec. I think they just use designs that they think are neat for the CMF's, with no planning of themes involved. It is interesting to note how similar the evil knight and heroic knight Minifigs are to those originally featured in the Final Joust fantasy era set.

Rats! Here I thought I stumbled on some sort of Lego musical conspiracy Now try and just look at your Attack of the Worgs sets without hearing this in your head