Faefrost

While "only of interest to CW fans". the Malevolence is shown and clearly visible for well over 30 minutes of prime screen time spread out over 3 episodes. The Invisible Hand has 45 shaky seconds. So many of we older fans seem to view CW as "just some silly little cartoon". We don't appreciate that it has been running for over 4 seasons now. There is more film of CW then there is of the OT and PT combined. Recurring ships and subjects from CW have typically had 100x more screen time and exposure than most of the subjects from the movies. (Simply a factor of effects costs vs digital production. Movies got seconds whereas CW gets minutes).

Favorite that I have? A toss up between the CW Clone Turbo Tank or the Grievous Starfighter. The Tank is just the huge wonderful vehicle with tons of detail and stuff and that stowable clone walker etc. The Grievous Fighter is just a great ship and kit for the money. Fun great looking build. Good swooshability and some great figs. Now favorite on my wish list? Gunship.

Honestly? I think the issue gets a little overblown. Yeah the CW based sets have minifigs that are a little more cartoony. Mainly with the eyes and some of the bolder lined markings on the faces. And some of the human characters seem a little off because of that. But honestly it is a lot less jarring or problematic as it was when Lego switched from Yellow heads and flesh to skin tones. The oddity of the CW figs in truth really only effects a small number of figs. Mostly Anakin and Obi Wan. (and one example each of Mace Windu and Chancelor Palpatine. The CW Dooku fig actually is an improvement over the old). Of those characters the stylings are a little more cartoony. This is most obvious with Obi Wan with his brighter more red hair and beard. But they do reflect the stylings and look of the show they were made from. (and just because the show has a slightly diferent art direction then the movies is no reason to dismiss it. The show actually is a far better series of Star Wars stories than the prequel movies and most of the published books. There is some good stuff in there once you get past the mildly childish intro movie. The CW art stylings are in part an homage to some other earlier SciFi, in particular Gerry Anderson's classic Supermarionation famed for things like Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlett.) Yeah the Clone faces are kinda ugly... but who ever looks at them? For the better part of a decade Stormtroopers had blank black heads or worse yellow heads with a black circle where their eyes/faces should be. The CW clone armor and helmets are probably the best stuff that Lego has ever put out. Just fantastic detailing and printing on the helmets. denying yourself those because you don't like the look of a head that you never see? Ummm? The same with the sets themselves. some of the CW ships are truly fantastic. The Republic Frigate is one of the best sets Lego has made in the entire SW line. The same with the General Grievous Starfighter. (which doesn't actually come with any humans so no creepy human heads). And heck the CW non humans are just fantastic. Cad Bane! Embo! Aura Sing! Ventriss! Savage Opress! Ayala secura! The Togruta! The assorted pirates, bounty hunters, Jedi and other weirdo's that populate the world. I'm just saying don't deny yourself some of the best kits ever made of the subjects and hobby that you love because you think the new faces are a little weird, or are different from the old ones. The changes are exactly the same sort that we have been through in the past. (OMG the Minifigs! Their ARMS MOVE NOW!!!!) Just kick back and enjoy some really exceptional Lego Star Wars kits. P.S. Oh and regarding that "Clone Wars nearing it's end" I got some bad news. At a minimum there is another full season coming. CN bought 100 episodes of CW. However word is both Lucas and CN want to up that to a full 7 seasons. They just finished the 4th. To further put this in perspective. We have roughly 7 hours of the original trilogy. Roughly the same for the prequels. Of those 14 hours, we typically see the ships that we know love and drool over for a grand total of 15 seconds. I'm not kidding over this. The B Wing fighter that Lego has made at least twice. 15 Seconds of screen time. Contrast this with the Clone wars series. There has currently been 36 hours of CW episodes aired. They use digital effects so all of our beloved ships are digital models. Once created it costs next to nothing to show them to us. So we get some nice looks at all of them. And they have lots of incentive to go back and re-examine stuff we have dreamed of or read about for years. So the show will be a major source of kits for awhile to come yet.

I think it depends on the subject or specifics of the set. Generally I prefer sets to be all the same faction with a matching/opposing set. But with that said there needs to be some variety in those 4 packs. The Rebel vs Imperial Hoth sets were great. 4 same sided figs and no more than 2 similar figs per set. The 2x2 Clone set with 2 gorgeous clones and 2 (ugh!) droids was less so. The Mandalorian set with essentially 4 identical figs was sort of meh to me. I know some want Army building sets. But please mix it up a bit.

I just found a bunch of Kingdoms sets still on the shelf at Barnes & Noble at non inflated list prices, including the Mill village Assault, the Kings Carriage Ambush. The Outpost Attack and the Escape fromDragons Prison. I'm still doing a happy dance over finding the mill village like that

:oh3: :oh: Words fail me. Just amazing.

I suspect that we will never see another Lego set with this theme for 2business reasons. I know it seems harsh, but at the end of the day TLC is a business and we all want it to be a successful and thriving one. 1 while the Avatar animated shows are great. The live action Last Airbender movie pretty much killed any ability of it as a marketing subject. The further licensing confusion in the US between Last Airbender and James Cameron's "avatar" just makes it worse. 2. At this point.any last Airbender stuff would involve TLC creating something that directly competes against their successful product lines. Once again remember in the US The TLC Ninjago show, airing on Cartoon Network can be viewed as a direct competitor for Avatar on Nikolodeon. Further TLC's Ninjago line is already thriving in this basic subject niche without having to pay licensing fees to any third parties. Also remember that for the most part TLC is very conservative with which licenses they enter into. In almost all cases they select well and have extremely successful product lines. Star Wars, Harry Potter, PotC, Cars, Spongebob. All were very successful and made Lego a great deal of profit. Last Airbender was one of their few unsuccessful licenses. (Prince of Persia is another, but I think we can write that off as an overall Disney thing, so Lego eats the individual PoP failure because overall the other Disney stuff thrives.) So yeah. I don't think this one will be coming back.

That is a fantastic looking sf vehicle! I love the level of detail and all of the greeblies. And "pointless"? Leave that gorgeous sucker posted for about a day and sf fans will not only come up with a function and backstory. They will also give you detailed technical info on what each and every greebly is, what it does, etc. it doesn't matter that you actually created it. They (we) will take charge and make it work. Just ask George Lucas. Welcome to the insane world of sci fi.

One of their competitors (Kreo I think) has an Grumpy Sparrows license they showed off at Toy Fair. That Space Marine fig is interesting. I am almost wondering. If we will not see. A short SM series in early 2013, in large part as a TLC "big kid in the room" counter to their competitions Halo ans Starcraft licenses. And if so it is something they would be playing very. Close to the vest right now.

It makes me think of these. The Imperial Crawler Tanks from SWTOR. Sort of like what you built but with a rear module towed behind. (kind of like the Alien Conquest Earth Defense HQ set)

I watched them being unpacked in 2 stores near Atlanta today, so they should have them. Of course I doubt that the sales clerks have any idea what they actually are? If they came in? Or how to look them up in the computer? I grabbed a dozen today. Of them the Valk/Viking Woman is by far my favorite. Out of a dozen packs I got 2x Daredevil 2x Hippy 2x Bride 2x Woman Swimmer 1x Tarzan 1x Valkyrie 1x Dark Knight 1x Aztec

Please be kind this is my first time showing one of these off in public It's a still somewhat evolving MOC of the Star Wars The Old Republic "Hot Rigged Speeder Bike" complete with player character Chiss Bounty Hunter at the helm. The Speeder Bike is the pure MOC. I cobbled together an expanded display setting for it using the Hoth Wampa Cave (8089). The minifigs are just some that were recobbled together to roughly approximate the (un)trustworthy crew of the (stolen) D5 Mantis, as they go about their mercenary ways. UPDATE OK managed to improve the MOC part of this quite a bit. I managed to find a way to add the red cowlings to the engines. Not quite perfect on the angles, but probably as close as I am going to get. I hope not half bad compared to the subject in question? (At least for a rank amateuer at this working in minifig scale ) I was also able to make a few minor improvements on the Hoth encounter base for it. Mainly to better tune the figs just a hair. I found a Ninjago head that was a better match for a Deveronian, and dropped a BrickForge chest piece on the player character Bounty Hunter that is an almost perfect match for the ingame armor. (I know I know not truly purist... But it matches my 'toon damit!!!! This is one of those points where the psychology of the Lego enthusuiast and the psychology of the MMO enthusiast come into conflict. ) Just for those curious (and just ignore for those not)here is a rough idea of what I have been trying to do minifig wise. ( granted it's an MMO so the looks evolve as you change what the companion NPC's are wearing, but I have been trying to get close) The Player Character armor - In my case a female Chiss Bounty Hunter. Heavy Armor in a sort of Mandalorian styling. So Ayala Secura head, hairpiece from Series 6 Skater girl (sadly one of the design flaws in my speeder is I just don't have room to allow for a longer hairpiece). Principally Arc Trooper body with the red Brickforge chest on top. Weapons are Alien Conquest pistols. Mako - Fairly easy as she's basically just a scroungy mercenary/smuggler type garb with dark hair pulled back and up. The "Flamenco Dancer" Hairpiece from the Series 6 minifigs is just perfect for her. I dressed her out in Cad Bane's outfit otherwise. Standard Clone pistol. Gault - Essentially a red devils head, and something that vaguely resembles Imperial Officers gear. And a big sniper rifle. Torien - The blonde haired prettyboyband type nitwit. Clone armor in a sort of greenish tinge. A two headed power staff type weapon and that Luke Skywalker wind blown fly away hairdo. Needless to say we let the Wampa eat him. Frequently. And some rough examples of what they are supposed to look like; And the next two to figure out in the minifig creation chain (ok that one is easy. Expensive... but easy) That one being less easy...

Sadly I suspect that space was superseded not so much by Star Wars this year as by Monster Hunters. Which is filling the role that is not so much as "space" as it is "scifi genre / horror".

Beautiful work. Simply stunning! But where are all the zombies? Every post apocalyptic setting needs drooling brain eating zombies roaming the landscape!

I'm looking forward to the two SWTOR ships and the Skiff. The Bongo... meh! Best thing there is the Queen Amidala fig. A lot of the next series just isn't grabbing me the way that the last few have. I know everyone has been clamoring for Jabba's Palace, but it misses something for me. Even with the great figs. I'm a huge Clone Wars fan and even I can't see the point of the Pre Vizla Mando fighter? And the Malevolence just seems ... yuch!" And while I would love a complete Jedi collection, yet another Jedi Starfighter is just not making my heart go thump thump thump. For me this Summer I fear it will be the EU ships, the Skiff, maybe the Bongo and then off to play with the hobitses.

Last one I got was the new X-Wing. Next up will be the Anakin and Sebulba Podracers. (My planned over $75 purchase at the Lego store May 4, in order to get the bonus fig :D ) After that just kick back and wait for my Sith Fury to release

That doesn't sound out of bounds for the tooling costs of a new injection mold. Keep in mind that that is for a full sized max size production mold. Not a single new piece necessarily. $200,000 USD is about right for the tooling costs for a full new injection molded styrene plastic model kit. I heard somewhere that the tooling for Revell Germany's new Star Trek Enterprise glue kit was somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000 USD. That assumes molds with a high degree of detail built in and meant for styrene plastic. I' m not sure if molding for Lego ABS plastic costs less? It's really not as insanely high as it seems. It is an amortized business production expense that lasts a long long time generating a steady stream of product throughout it's life.

I hadn't realized the TC14 fig will be available at at least some Lego stores as well as from Lego.com. The nice lady at the store near Atlanta assured me they would have them.

The Gold Leaders Y Wing is the perfect case of TLG bringing things developed and learned from the UCS line back to system/minifigs scale. Just a wonderful detailed ship at a fair price. (figs are a little odd but distinctive). The new Tie is the best yet.

Worthwhile sets that are still on some store shelves? General Grievous's Starfighter (fantastic set for the price) Naboo Starfighter (grossly overpriced and exclusive to some merchants) Cad Bane Speeder (Lego online store had it on sale for $29 US last month) Mace Windu Jedi Starfighter (similar to PLO koon but lots of little extras. Mace Windu, comand droid, bunch of straps etc. Exclusive to Walmart in the states.) The Death Star. (gargantuan pure awesome. And disappearing soon.) Tantive IV

To be fair, it is the SWTOR droids that are ugly. Not so much the minifigs. The Sith troopers are pretty much a reason to get the set in and of themselves. (Darth Malgus not so much as pretty much the same look can be achieved by co mingling parts from a Vader, Voldemort and Ca d Bane figs ;/ )

I think it is possible. Plus I think in many ways it would be desirable by a lot of parents. After all isn't that a large part of what has driven the sales of the City real space themed subjects for years? or even a ton of the regular Lego City sets (pretty much anything outside of the cops and robbers stuff)? As far as classic space though? I can't help but think that that would be something more of a nostalgia trip. Something more targeted at the AFOL crowd. And as such might do best with an almost UCS type hyperdetailed update?

I think there would be a huge niche to bring back /update some of the classis ideas and sets. A fully modernized Galaxy Explorer is the key item. But with that said. I think some sort of space marines has the most possibilities. As far as violence, it depends on what the enemy is. If they go for something like Heinlein's classic bugs it would be perfect. Just look at all the brick built giant spiders and such lately. Build the enemy around he. Use the space armors and done

Correct. The fury is not a star fighter. It is a players personal "hero ship" or home. In the game it is roughly in the same general size range as say Slave 1. A single seat cockpit works for it so long as it does have a larger storage/living area in the rear. Not that the Lego version looks anywhere near big enough. ( of course in the game this ship suffers horribly from the "Tardis principle" where it is bigger inside than out.) To dot it right would probably make it about as big as the Republic Frigate. A"rancor cave" set that Jabba's Palace sits on top of would be perfect.

It also has an area in the back for the troopers. But yeah. I wish it was bigger than the tie cockpit. I'm just ecstatic that they are doing a good ship from the swtor mmo. (the striker doesn't count. It's not an actual player ship. We want a Jedi cruiser or the smugglers XS freighter. Or a bounty hunter D5Mantis!) needless to say the Sith Fury tops my must have list. (the "bongo" or "pre vizla" less so.)