Faefrost

You should be able to get the Hurricane Heist stickers straight from Lego as replacement parts. That set is current. They might also have the Space Police ones still in stock. For the Arkham ones try www.Bricklink.com

There is no single style or geographical basis for the modular buildings. They pull from a variety of sources. The general feeling they give is that of a first half 20th century town / small city. Say circa 1930's - 1950's in the US, with some broader spread elsewhere. Generally what is viewed as the Steam to Diesel transition era by Railroaders. When Main Street was still the hub of town life and Shopping Centers, Malls and Big Box stores had not yet been invented. The only real world places that would mix all of the styles and types of buildings found in the Modular series in one street would typically be something like a Disney Theme park. But at the same time they are all very good at communicating the idea of a main Street and giving people comfortable queues from all over the world. Of the current buildings Town Hall is a pretty common example of a classical Town Hall or Courthouse and has attributes common to both North American and European buildings of this type. Fire Brigade has a very New York City or NorthEast US look and feel, from the first half of the 20th century. Grand Emporium seems to have a sort of London feel to it. Channeling something like Harrods. Palace Cinema is very distinctly a US California Faux Chinese look and feel. An Art Deco style would be something like this. https://ideas.lego.com/projects/10585 That very 1930's modern feel with lots of sweeping curves. The buildings seem to have that same "streamlined" feel as the cars and trains of the era. New York Cities Empire State Building and Chrysler Building are probably two of the better known examples of Art Deco.

Oh man! There are apparently a number of leaks and reveals from GotG floating around today, as completed scenes are shown at various cons. Reports are all of it just looks better and better. and then it just takes a turn to th unbelievably awesome. If the leak is true it may have potentially given away a not yet announced phase 3 movie, the main character and the actor playing him. At the very least figure it will play into Avengers 3. Did I mention IT IS AWESOME!

The Lego movie is a bit of a special case. It is technically a licensed theme. Just one in which Lego themselves own most or part of the IP. The color choices of the minifigs are reflective of the choices made by the movies creators. and those could be for any number of reasons, not the least being simple character differentiation. And even if one assumes that, there really still is not much in the way of specific ethnicity that can be attributed to Vitruveous, beyond being "generically ethnic". Yes he uses a non yellow flesh tome. But what ethnicity is he actually supposed to be? He seems to be more of an amalgam of characteristics.

That would be different at least. We have not seen a ton of female villains in Lego unlicensed stuff. Claudette and Dynamite from Agents. Vampyres wife from Monster Fighters. Toxita here. The Witch from the Castle Fright Knights series. The Alien Queen CMF. And I think Alexis Sinister from Adventurers. Oh and the one female crook from this years City set. I'm not sure we can actually categorize the Zombie Bride as a villain. I mean all she is trying to do is have her nice wedding without some hammer wielding psycho in a truck driving through the middle of it.

Let's not forget that the sets they use for the reveal also tend to have the most and the broadest visual appeal. Bag End and Lake Town are nice complete feeling settings and scenes unto themselves, whereas much of the rest tended to be more scenery with Minifigs. I think the best option for that this time will be Smaug.

It's rare, but the occasional missing part happens. The bags are packed by machine and go by weight. So sometimes something may not register or fall quite perfectly. Lego is always extremely good at correcting any such issues. If the automated web system does not support your home country try calling one of the regional CS numbers. Just explain that the product was a gift or an overseas purchase. Someone should be able to arrange to have the part manually sent to you as a special request. Or e-mail them explaining the situation.

I think the CMF's are the high loss high damage items that are most prone to end up secured in some manner. Many retailers have already moved them to behind the counter. As far as locking all Sets behind glass? Why? It's a customer service nightmare and increases costs to no valid reward. The official Lego stores are what are viewed as luxury stores. They do not put or keep them in locations where theft and loss is a large issue. Further, look at the design and layout of every Lego store. Most don't realize it but the products in them are already "behind glass". We just step behind the glass with them. That bright open airy feel to Lego stores? Yeah, that is intentional by design. Notice how every point in the store has an un obstructed field of view of every person and every piece of product in those stores. This makes it extremely easy for both the staff and the security cameras to keep a close eye on everything. And the friendly chatty staff who quickly bring your goods up to the counter to wait for you while shopping? Not leaving too many customers to be holding product while wandering the store. It is both a warm and friendly bit of CS, and a very clever theft deterrent as it minimizes grab and run shoplifting. Just as many Lego sets have fascinating layers of complexity and cleverness to their build, that really reflects the depth of thought that went into them, so to do their official stores if you have an eye to look for it.

I'm sure there are no limits on the number of movies per year, rather it is economic calculations. If you look carefully you will notice that movie licenses based on unknown or unproven properties are far far riskier than properties with a clear supporting franchise. So Avengers 2 will be a slam dunk for merchandising. Ant Man much less so. It's why we do not see Disney sets based on Frozen or Wreck it Ralph. It's why we did not see Pixar sets until Toy Story and Cars 2. Are there exceptions? Yes. GotG is most likely getting a huge marketing push from Disney. Those three sets are probably on their list of must do's for the year. Plus GotG sits in a particularly attractive place for TLG. It stands at the intersection between Super Heroes and Star Wars. I'm guessing the bean counters saw a lot less risk there than they do with Big Hero 6. Now this does not mean that every franchise gets a merchandise or Lego push. As the perfect example Thor 2. Lego steered clear of that one largely because the toy merchandising for Thor 1 did awful. And sometimes it is just a matter of target market. Captain America the Winter Soldier is really not a kids movie. It is by far the most adult of the Marvel movies. It was likely felt that it might not be a good match for sets. But they snuck around that by giving us some Cap related sets from the AA cartoon.

But they had or have great play value. They were mainly created for the original Agents 2.0 set Aerial Defense Unit, which had a great feature where two agents could do a rapid zip line deployment from the helicopter using those vests.

Word is that Wonder Woman will be wearing a Straszinski era outfit with pants. Most fans seem a bit annoyed about that. They were hoping for something a little more indicative of Greek Armor. Like a Xena outfit but colorful. Well crafted leather armor and skirting. Legs bare for combat, not sex appeal, sort of thing.

You'll forgive me, but the most troubling thing in it is the "gender spectrum". Teaching kids to treat everyone properly and fairly is great. Teaching girls that they are just as good as boys better. But what is an outside agenda group doing teaching this stuff in an elementary school? How aware were the parents of this outside curriculum? Did they approve? Do the parents get briefed on whether the underlying message is one of empowerment and encouragement for girls or one of "gender spectrum equality" in other words "look class this is billy he is a polygamous preop veggisexual shouldn't we all want to be more like him!" I'm thinking one of those messages the parents of a 9 year old would have few issues with. The other? I don't know how the schools are in Canada, but more and more here in the states they seem to be being taken over by fringe groups with outside agendas that are using the kids more as a means on propaganda and societal change instead of actually educating them in the basic life skills they will need. And I'm sorry but this group just reeks of such an agenda. The goal may be noble. But they went into an elementary school and drummed up somebody else's kids to market it. That's heinous. Quite frankly it comes straight out of the Goebels play book. Which is chilling.

Adults use the 2xwhatevers as structural support and filler. It's what let's you MOC more three dimensionally. The stuff you don't actually see in the final model.

Pay attention class. Early warning signs that your beloved daughter will early on run off with your car, motorcycle, boat, plane, or some leather clad dude named Hans who is "in a band". Best to cut it off now and just get them hooked on Lego. On a more serious note, just from reading that, does anyone else wonder what exactly some outside gender spectrum program was doing in our elementary schools? Why were 5th graders being rather disturbingly used as pawns in a groups agenda, and being put forth as the front men if you will? The request to get more diversification in toys is great. The group behind it and its methods is chilling.

Just so long as they avoid Ms. Marvel / Captain Marvel's new outfit in favor of the traditional leotard with thigh high boots. Because sometimes you just gotta go with the classics no matter how sexist it might seem. (Please forgive me, my first introduction to the character was in Marvel Two In One #51. Some of Frank Millers art left a lasting if anatomically questionable impression on my 11 year old mind. Let's just say this comic was obviously written before the invention of the sports bra... And ol' Frank has some well known "issues" and leave it at that. )

Or Finn's just a budding serial killer. Having slowly been brought to this point by the micromanagement from the Man Upstairs. Lego Movie 4 takes place in a basement in Detroit. Next to a Sausage Factory.

ROFL. Beautiful MOC. WetWired would probably know better than me, but wasn't Ecto-1 originally supposed to be a modified black hearse? They switched it to the white Ambulance scheme when it was felt that black was too dark, was not showing up well on film, and as such caused some problems with the planned effects? (Most of which got abandoned anyway when they decided to take away the cars planned special abilities.)

It's known as a "robot arm" and it is listed under "Bar" on Bricklink http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=4735

It's one of those grey areas, but these days she is mostly known for being a major Wolverine villain and as the partner of the a Silver Samurai. So she is probably considered Wolverine supporting cast. I will be so thrilled if they show up in Avengers 2. I just hope Avengers isn't getting too crowded? At this point that gives us Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Falcon, War Machine, plus introducing Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Vision. The only real main players missing are Wasp, She Hulk and Ms. Marvel.

Fairly easily. Really the key thing would be to remove the cell from the fold out wall near the rear and then mount cells on the truck floor. It's the stuff attached to the fold down wall that eats up the most interior space.

And it's back. Something to remind ourselves about all of this. Lego's founder was not some strange or ideological pacifist. He was not someone with a broad messages. He was simply someone who had lived through the ravages of two World Wars up close and personal. He saw the horrors and the impacts on his community his family his nation and his continent. And he made the simple basic and understandable choice to not make children's toys based on or commemorating or glorifying those events. Hence no toys specifically depicting modern warfare or military. Lego remains a family owned business, and the family respects their father and grandfathers wishes in this. It's that simple. Think of it this way. We can debate the ethics of War Toys all day long. Whether they are harmful, harmless or actually serve a useful or important purpose. (Personally more and more I suspect that sanitizing children from learning of War in play in the end leads to War when they grow up, but that may be foolishness on my part. ) But at the end of the day I am pretty sure that we all will agree that we would have no business DEMANDING that an Iraqi or Afghan merchant make Toy Soldiers should he elect not to. I like to think that we could all understand why he would choose not to and respect that personal decision. Those who own Lego made that same personal decision, for very very understandable reasons. Reasons we can and should respect.

I think I am sitting right around 200,000. Things like Modular buildings seem to pack a lot of parts into a small space.

My store had some positively delicious stuff this week. A nice bin of Dark Red 1x2 bricks, always useful. A bin of 1x2x2 snot pieces in white. And a ton of light bley 1x1 round tiles.

Be warned the Modulars are some of the most fulfilling builds you will ever get in Lego packaging. More than any other sets they just feel so complete. And they feel much more like a major project. You almost feel a sense of letdown when you finish because it is over, and you go looking for another experience like it. The only other thing that comes close are the Star Wars UCS sets. The PR is a superb first one. Rumors are often wrong or confused. Even when they give us hints. Heck we suspected that the next was a restaurant when it turned out to be the Theater, based on a comment of Jamie Berards. (Little did we realize then his hint was for the one he was working on for after the Theater.) We suspected the Theater would be Art Deco. Lots of things we have gotten wrong. But more often than not rumors seem to pan out, so long as they aren't simply speculation.

It's a great set. Figures are fantastic. Only slightly brought down by 2 figs that are new versions of characters we already have, when there are so many more we want. But they are at least great versions of those characters. Wolvie and Magneto in late 80's gear is great. (I confess I was a bad boy and just picked up custom Rogue, gambit and Beast figs to round them out a bit.) The plane itself has its pros and cons. But mostly is very good. It's a solid model. With a surprising amount of interior space and detailing. It looks like a late 80's comic X Plane (note NOT the Blackbird.) very Swooshable. My only complaints are it seems kind of short and stubby for the version of craft it is depicting. It feels like it should be longer. Also can anyone see the purpose for the lower small wings? Either functionally or stylistically? They don't have enough range of motion to be at interesting angles, they have no function and are all but unnoticeable. So what is the point of them?