Faefrost

Has anyone seen this video from the ISS. Astronaut Don Petit is showing off some simple science projects on the station. Lego seems to factor prominantly. And he shows off the OFFICIAL NASA LEGO INSTRUCTION BOOK!!!!!! Is anyone else concerned that somewhere around page 43 lie the instructions "How to build an orbiting Death Star"? So now we know what the Astronauts do up there in their down time. They build with Lego.

Oh boy! So we have the potential of yet another Loki minifig! This time with Spiderman! No really, the crying you see is tears of joy, not despair. No really I'm not lying. I swear on my honor as a Congressman.

Thank you so much for publishing the instructions. This wonderful MOC is truly a masterpiece and it is wonderful that it will be able to live on as fans can self build it for their own modular streets. Is there any mechanism anywhere for a thank you donation?

That would be because I am the absolute worst at finding pieces in LDD, and as a result I found the wrong legs and didn't notice. Yeah, that connection still isn't right. /sigh

Woot! I think I have figured out the Electro Suit Backpack. And it is disturbingly simple Someone let me know if I am doing something wrong here? I think it is just a normal L shaped minifig neck clip with stud, With a 1x2/2x2 angle plate, a Palisade Brick (that's part of the secret. Those arent actually Cylanders), 2 1x1 round tiles and 2 1x1 studs. I think it just requires one "semi official" offset connection (that LDD will not do). I know the backpack portion is right, I am just not sure on the connection to the neck bracket? See here. Does that look right?

OK I just hit the chapter where the "Robinmobile" shows up. It actually makes more sense than the Tim Drake "Redbird". IT MUST BE MINE!!! Actually looks to be a really easy color swap from the current Lego Batmobile. Just gotta look up if all the pieces are available in the desired color palette. (sigh! Looks like the "Dragon Wings have not been offered in anything but Black. Durnit Lego! Boy Hostages need them some wings too )

That almost perfectly describes how Doc Oc is supposed to look. Homeless cyborg John Lennon. I kinda like this set. I love Iron Fist. Doc Oc looks decent. Not crazy about the new Spidey, but I'll take what I can get. But is it just me, or does the core of this set design look strikingly familiar? I mean the same basic aesthetic and flow as the Hulk Helicarrier set, and Palpatines arrest. I know hat our more experienced people around here can tell who at TLG designed a certain set, just by looking at it. And each designer does have their own quirks and commonalities. But this is getting a little too obvious and repetitive.

I think people are misunderstanding what this probably is. I know this sort of thing is not hat common in our hobby, but it is extremely common in some others, such as model railroading. Over there much like minifigs, rail cars are often unique and collectables releases. Sometimes an outside agency, be it. Modeling club, a trade show, or a separate industry will commission to have a specific car made for them to sell or give away. They are often ade by the better model manufacturers. The third party may pay extra for a certain degree of exclusivity (so the company will not make another similar design). But it is that third party that then controls how the item is sold or distributed. If Shazzam is as we suspect a commissioned piece, then no Lego would not likely be able to sell it directly. (but Warner may offer it online or at a gift shop, or as a pack in with a DVD set, etc)

By lunchtime they were out of the Lego store sets and were handing out Mini Sopwith Cammels instead. Kinda disappointing, but I can understand why given the crowds. The store was sweltering. You could barely breath from the heat and all the people. With about a 20 minute wait in line to get in. Sales staff was wonderful. I cannot say enough good things about them. I don't know how they survived the whole day in that malls heat (maul?) My wife talked me into a Grand Emporium, and then added a Jokers Funhouse escape for my bay

Isn't there a Spiderman train scene set? From the second Spiderman movie? Granted it is ungodly expensive to get these days.

I doubt we will see anything on them by comic-con. They said at an absolute minimum it will take 6-8 weeks just to review. (unless a project gets summarily killed in the initial business case review). These all started review June 6. It is highly unlikely that any of them will be done by mid July. Maybe an outside chance of the Western Town, just because I suspect that some of the designers really like that one and may have been examining it more closely ahead of time. And it has no outside licensing to complicate it. But even then it probably won't be until late summer or early fall until we hear anything.

I think I almost have it. No modified parts. The secret is the Cylanders aren't always cylanders. The upper layer just below the new 1x1 round tiles is a 1x2 plate of some sort.

In theory it should be straight up what the US list price is (plus local sales tax). None of the new Star Wars sets have appeared in the US yet, so we really can't know for certain if there will be any deviation from the listed prices. They should be here some time between now and August 1. (at least according to the Lego store dude I spoke with today.)

Just think of the Hoth MOC you could make. Park the "snow-2" outside the main hanger

Can you imagine if we could get instructions for the giant Jokerbot? I figure it would stand about a meter tall

I'm not sure that this one is actually Lego's doing. This announcement sounds suspiciously like Warner commissioned a small run of custom special release minifigs from TLG to coincide with and be used to market their Shazzam stuff. We know they do these sorts of special commissioned things periodically ( see he TRU truck, some of the special airline sets, etc).

Friends has been selling out from the factory almost as soon as the new production runs populate. What this means is the line has been grossly exceeding it's anticipated demand and anticipated revenue returns. That might actually make it the highest profit point line that Lego has this year. If so that would be a phenomenal thing for the company and for us as fans. Don't get me wrong. I love Tolkien. The very first story I remember my father reading to me as a child was "An Unexpected Party" the first chapter of he Hobbit, that was included in a big red book of nursery stories. The very first grown up book I read for myself was the full Hobbit. I have lived and breathed Tolkien all of my life. I am thrilled these sets are out. But I also love this hobby. At the end of the day LotR's is another licensed product line. Not too far removed from Indy, Harry Potter and PotC. Our best possible reasonable outcome will be it doing as well as HP. (sorry it will not do as well as Star Wars, it lacks the cool vehicle element.) Whereas the success of Friends opens up a whole new frontier for Lego and by extension, us. It welcomes that entire other half of the population into our world. While I personally am not a fan of the individual sets, I can stomach down the vibrant pink purple and teal colors if having them means the user base is growing. That's the HUGE difference between LotR and Friends. LotR will be a highly successful line. We eat it up here. It will even bring in some new fans, Particularly AFOL's. But Friends? It is likely that 90+% of those sets sold are to new Lego fans and users. Think about that! Those shelves of purple boxes being left looking like they were looted during Katrina? Those are all new Lego customers. They are the sisters, the daughters, he nieces of all of us here. So long as the line doesn't tank on the shelves in the next release cycle, there is virtually no way that LotR's could equal hat degree of success. The only other things Lego has had with that much potential have been Star Wars and Bionicle in its prime.

With that in mind, can we get a Greedo in red high heels?

The vehicles take damage when you hit things or if the thugs hit them with dynamite or similar if you are just free roaming. So their condition slowly degrades with parts falling off. Eventually if you take enough damage it will fall apart and you will need to grab a new vehicle. It only happens when you are just roaming. The vehicles are pretty much invulnerable during the story mode vehicle quests. Bane was in the Arkham Asylum chapter in the beginning. He was driving the drill truck that was chasing you around the maze. The third installment might be a DC Superheroes Superman game. Lego has already announced that there will be Superman sets to coincide with the new movie. I'm sort of hoping they go all out with a Justice League one. ( or heck we can dream a DC vs Marvel. yeah yeah I know, never gonna happen. Sigh!) It's confusing. The Robin suit we see is definately Tim Drake's. But he seems kinda young for Tim who started at what 16? Plus I think a cave scene identifies him as Dick, which makes no sense since Nightwing is an option. I think someone at Tt just sort of messed up and got Robins confused. (not hard to do for a Bat layperson).

I might have to break down and buy the Prima guide just for some decent still pics of the suits and vehicles.

So now that we have had a pretty good chance to see all of the Summer 2012 sets one way or another, what's the verdict? What does everyone feel are the best of the lot? Which ones are the ones that you will be kicking yourself for not getting 4 or 5 years from now? Which just seem the most fun? Here's my take; 1- Vampires Castle - In a year that gave us LotR's and such great Star Wars sets, it might seem weird that an unlicensed set targeted towards a more mixed and younger audience is quite possibly the best of the year. But this one just seems to hit every mark perfectly. Great size vs price. Fantastic minifigs. Lots of playability. It is a castle, so it blends into many themes. Everything about the set just nails it in ways that we rarely see. Absolute must have. 2- Star Wars Dessert Skiff - The best minifigs at the most affordable price of any set released this year. If you don't have Lando you will be crying for a long time. Best Boba Fett yet released. 3- Star Wars Sith Fury - I know this will seem weird, but I put this one ahead of things like Palpatines Arrest and Jabas Palace. The reason. It is a great ship, a great set. It has what are possibly the greatest Star Wars related minifigs ever made. (Darth Malgus will be hard to ever top). But I don't think it will be around long. The game that it is based on really isn't doing well. I doubt we will see a lot of repops of this one. Grab it while you can. Give in to the Dark Side! 4- Ninjago Samurai Mech - OK normally I avoid Ninjago. Just don't care much for it. Don't understand it, etc. Too much lime green etc going on there. But I love this set. Possibly the best Giant Robot lego has made since the Agents Dr. Inferno one. Just cool on every level. Plus its got a real cannon! 5- LotR's Gandalf Arrives - Yeah yeah I know Helms Deep is the best in class in terms of shear size and all. But this is the nice cheap peaceful little set with Gandalf. Gandalf I say! Enough said. Bonus - I don't count it yet, because it is nowhere near release... But that Haunted House just looks over the top awesome! So what do the rest of you think are some of the years best?

I love it! I so want one on my shelf. As far as the green slopes. Yellow might be a character appropriate alternate color? Those are pretty common from the Alien Conquest sets. They also make those in Lime Green. I'm just not sure how good that would look.

Sadly I think it is a little more involved than simply Lego choosing to discontinue the line. Many of their licenses seem to be in 10 year blocks. The HP one releases started in 2001 and ended with the 2011 releases. I get the feeling that Lego has opted to finish out whatever they still have in the works and not renew the license as there are no further movies coming out. Kind of sad if that's the case as there have been some great sets there. I suspect that the LotR license is not so much a Castle replacement, as designed to fill that "literary fantasy" niche left behind by HP. If this is the case it may complicate any potential Lego HP CuuSoo projects, for a few years at least. It is unlikely that they would renew just for a CuuSoo set. (And HP is not Minecraft. It is not a small inexpensive one shot license.)

Don't go by Diamond. They fall into some weird licensing category. Mainly because they are considered a direct sale and not through major retail chains. They have always occupied a strange place that seems outside the normal licensing rules. We shall see how it all plays out. But my gut suspicion is since Hasbro has the license for at least the Marvel / Avengers figs, and they are known to kick up a full, that we will not be seeing any Battlepacks.

I think the ultrabuilds sort of skirt the rules by being a "build it yourself" action figure, which technically makes it a construction set. There seems to be some basic level of pieces vs figs that they need for most of the licensed stuff. It isn't limited to just Star Wars. It is pretty much any case where you will see action figures in the toy aisle. So Star Wars, Superheroes, etc. (although they did manage to get around it for PotC, so there is hope.)