Bob De Quatre

Seen the new part from Nexo Knights (like the small droids body and arms), and the balloon part is there too!

Just got an LDD update...

Week 38 is over. Welcome in Week 39!! Octan's fleet stays on H03. Kawashita's fleet moves from B09 to B08. M.A.N.T.I.S.'s fleet moves from F02 to F03. First Aliens' fleet moves from D09 to D08. Second Alien's fleet moves from F02 to E02. Third Alien's fleet moves from F08 to G08. (Map will be updated once the scores are posted)

Thanks for the feedback guys! I've updated the review, thanks for the info

Introduction In this review I'll present you the Lego set #21124 The End Portal, from the Minecraft line. As I'm not a Minecraft expert, there may be some errors or imprecisions, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong! Lego continues to release Minecraft sets, 4 sets every 6 months, meaning this is a succesfull theme that reaches its public. The End Portal is the second biggest set for this wave and should be pretty interesting. In Minecraft, an End Portal can be used to access a location called The End, where you'll have to defeat an Ender Dragon. So this set is in direct link with set #21117 The Ender Dragon relesed in 2014. From what I saw online, the portal itself seems pretty accurate to the game, but let's take a look at the whole set. I'd like to thanks Eurobricks and The Lego Group for the opportunity to review this set. Set information Set Name: Minecraft The End Portal Set Number: 21124 Number of Pieces: 559 Theme: Minecraft Year Release: 2016 Prices: £49.99 / $59.99 / €59.99 (Euro prices may vary from one country to another) #21124 on Brickset Packaging The front of the box follows the Lego Minecraft design, with the green square patterned area on the top with a Lego Minecraft lago and a creeper face. All usual indications are there: the set number and recommanded age, the minifigs included with their name, and a picture of the set itself. As always with the Minecraft sets, there is the "Build your own creations" add which deceived me in my previous Minecraft review... The rear of the box shows the set completely folded and small pictures show the play features. Content of the box The box contains 2 instructions booklet and 4 numbered bags. We can see a lot of basic bricks and plates, but that's always the case with the Minecraft sets. Instructions booklet The two booklet sport the same picture as the front of the box. Not much to say without opening them... The building instructions are extremly easy to follow. The very light blue background makes it easy to read and there shouldn't be bricks' colors errors... Ok, I made a mistake when the first white bricks showed up and used light bluish ones. But that was easily corrected. Half of the second booklet is about the "Build your own creations" part. And I must say that it is way more interesting than I hopped. In fact I prefer this alternate build! After a quick explanation on how to use the (included) brick separator, we are asked to remove and destroy the two "wings" of the set, while keeping intact all the moving stuffs like torches and blocks. Then we get back to "normal" instructions, and you'll see the result later, in the "Play features" section of this review. Minifigures The minifigures included in this set are Steve, in a full diamond armor set, two Endermen and a brickbuilt Cave Spider. Each uses special molded bricks specific to the Minecraft theme. I'm glad that the spider's head and the Endermen head and body can be easily repurposed for use in completely different themes, and they might be featured in a coming Andromeda's Gates build Interesting parts If you are a fan of the Tap 1x1 without hole end, this set is made for you! According to Bricklink, this part appears in light bluish grey 128 times in 105 sets... You'll got 32 here, plus 2 spare... But the jewels of this set are the 1x1 dark blue tiles, with a Eye of ender print. You'll get 12 of it, plus one spare. They have a lot of potential, like creatures eyes or control screens. The Endermen body and legs part may prove usefull, but I have to say they are really badly molded. Build As always, the bag number 1 will give us the minifigures and all the accessories for the set, like the torches or the blocks. The content of bag #2. The bag number 2 will give us the base of the central stage of the set and its only moving play feature. The bottom of the portal can be switched from lava to "activated portal" by sliding the blue blocks on the side. I have to say that the sliding could have been smoother with a simple tile on the plate that connect the blue parts to the lava/portal element. With the bag number 3 we'll build the portal itself. I really like how the portal is build and how it looks. And those printed tiles!!... The portal is quite true to the original material. Bag #4's content. The fourth bag brings us the two wings of the build, a library where the Cave Spider lurks, and a room with a chest. The completed set, with minifigures. There aren't much spare parts considering the 559 parts of the set, but they are always welcome. Play features The main play feature is, as explained before, the sliding parts that transform the portal from a pool of lava to a fully activated portal. Just drop Steve in the activated portal, and a #21117 The Ender Dragon will magically appears before your eyes! I'm kidding of course... Am I?... The alternate build is some sort of a prison cell, guarded by the Cave Spider. I really like this build, more than the original. Conclusion Design: 8/10 - A Minecraft design, true to the reference material. Parts: 6/10 - Lots of basic parts, and a dozen of great printed tiles! Build: 8/10 - Easy and straightforward builds. A bonus point for the alternate build! Playability: 6/10 - Not much things to play with, except from moving the minifigures around. Minifigs: 7/10 - A Steve and two Enderman and a Cave Spider, that's nice. Price: 8/10 - A little more than 10 cents per piece, 3 minifigs, a brickbuilt spider and some cool parts. Overall: 43/60 (72%) - A nice set for Minecraft fans, maybe not as nice to the non-fans. Some pretty nice parts but not much playability.

Thanks to HispaBrick Magazine, I was given the opportunity to review the latest release from the Arvo Brothers: Alien Project. You may know the Arvo Brothers from their gorgeous MOCs, or from their previous book on the Kaneda's Bike from the manga/anime Akira. Obviously, this book is all about their model of the Alien, from the Alien's movies franchise. It is divided in four chapters: Estimations, Construction of the model, Instructions and Gallery. 1. The Book The book itself is a very nice object, with a hard cover and 220 full colors pages with lots of pictures and artwork. I'm sure it can appeal not only to the AFOLs, but also to Alien movies' fans (tested and confirmed). You can view more detailled shots of the book on the Arvo Brothers' Flickr album. 2. Estimations and Construction The first two chapters are my favorites. They show the efforts needed to plan and build such a model... while writing a book about it. From size and scale determination to choices of parts, there is a lot to learn on how a model of this size and quality is designed. There is a nice blueprint of the model that indicate all its sizes. 48cm tall and 20cm width, we can say that it's a relatively big creature, not as much as the real model from the movies, but still I wouldn't like to cross one of these in a dark corridor... Why use these parts and not these ones? All is explained in this quite interesting chapter. Each section of the model is also lengthly commented. It's always nice to read what a designer (or two) think of his own model. This is maybe my favorite page of the book. It's the chronology of the 20 months of the project. 3. Instructions This may be the only reason for people to buy this book: the instructions. Sadly I'm not able to build the stand or the creature, but I can still give my impressiosn on the instructions themselves! And I must say that they are amazing. Throughout the 24 pages for the base and 116 pages for the Alien, the steps are pretty easy to follow, and for the more complex ones, the builder is guided with visual indications like brick outlines, studs connections highlights, guiding dashed lines or combinations of them. There are also alternates builds for hard to find parts. The Alien is composed of 1526 bricks, and the base of 466. By my standards it's not a very high amount of bricks, and since most part aren't rare, it's not an important investment if you want to build the model. The catalogue is maybe the weakest point of the book. Not for its design or content, but because you'll have to manually convert it to something like a Bricklink wanted list. But this is perfectly understandable as you'll have to buy the book if you want to have a look at the part inventory Nevermind, Missing Brick confirmed that the book come with a part list in electonic form that can then be used on Bricklink! 4. Gallery The book ends with some beautiful pictures of the model. If you still weren't amazed by the creature when you reach page 197, I'm sure those shots will convince you! 5. Conclusion This book is a lot more than just instructions for a model. It's a journey from the genesis of a project to its completion, detailling every steps from the drawing board to the photography studio. It shows that what we AFOLs do is not just playing with children plastic toys, it is Art. If you want to learn more about the project, if you want to build this model, if you want to convince a friend or a relative that you're not just playing with toys, I encourage you to get a copy of this book while it's still available! You can grab a copy from the Arvo Brothers website. And don't forget to visit their Flickr or Facebook accounts. I'd like to thanks again HispaBrick Magazine for providing me a copy of the book, and I'd also like to sincerely apologize for all the time it took me to finally post that review.

Week 37 is over. Welcome in Week 38!! Octan's fleet moves from E01 to H03. Kawashita's fleet moves from C10 to B09. M.A.N.T.I.S.'s fleet moves from E01 to F02. First Aliens' fleet moves from D08 to D09. Second Alien's fleet moves from F03 to F02. Third Alien's fleet moves from E09 to F08. (Map will be updated once the scores are posted)

Thanks everyone! I must say I'm surprised as most comments I got (mostly on Flickr) only concern the hangar. I spent more than a week on a spaceship and people prefer a 2 hours built hangar!!

You forgot Danielle's green gloves!!!

Very nice build. And so many of my dream part (I'll let you guess which it is) I too think that this minifig has a lot of potential!

Whitefang asked not to link to confidential pictures. First and last warning!

Well I'm french, and I don't get the meaning too But from what I understand, it seems like we don't do enough exercises, so our muscular mass isn't high enough!

Bienvenue sur Eurobricks bintz

Week 36 is over. Welcome in Week 37!! Octan's fleet moves from F02 to E01. Kawashita's fleet moves from E11 to C10. M.A.N.T.I.S.'s fleet moves from F02 to E01. First Aliens' fleet moves from C08 to D08. Second Alien's moves from G03 to F03. Third Alien's fleet stays on E09. (Map will be updated once the scores are posted)

A few words to say that I really like some of the designs here, and that I used one of the small containers of the last picture as a base for engines in my latest build.

Sorry for not being able to check this sooner ... There was a bug in the code. I'll add 60 awesomnium and 10 Water to Octan.

Thanks I've added the pictures of the Hawk.

tags: spaceship, civil, building "Hangar 47 is pretty busy today. The experimental fighter OF-178x, also named Hawk, is preparing for its inaugural flight. I'll will be piloting it, and even if I trust the team, I'm still a bit concerned about the new ionic engines." LDD file for the hawk is available on my website.

I think that the problem isn't the quality of the builds or the side-builds... The problem is when player try to get every single bonus point available by forcing some small builds in their story. I'm ok with this, but sometimes it's very very very clear that a 5 parts micro spaceship is just here to grab a bonus and has nothing to do with the story or that the story was twisted to include a picture of said spaceship... It's not against the rules, but it's pushing them... To the point that we judges have to come and explain things and have the bad role... At one point of the game, you'll have to include in all your builds a spying action, a piracy action, with a spaceship, a land vehicle, a civil building and a military building... Oh and don't forget about your job bonus... Where will the fun be??

Hi again ARN_35, Being new on Eurobricks, I'm sure you still remember the Site Guidelines that you read carefully and accepted before signing up, especially the paragraph about Lego Ideas promoting. That's the second time I have to remind you the site guidelines... and it's your second post on EB. Well done.

Week 35 is over. Welcome in Week 36!! Octan's fleet moves from F03 to F02. Kawashita's fleet moves from F10 to E11. M.A.N.T.I.S.'s fleet stays on F02. First Aliens' fleet moves from D08 to C08. Second Alien's moves from G02 to G03. Third Alien's fleet moves from F08 to E09. (Map will be updated once the scores are posted)

Fixed

Sci-Fi forum is sooooo much better than Action and Adventure... Bienvenue sur Eurobricks! Ca fait plaisir de te voir ici

Please people, stay on topic...

I'd say that piracy is more brutal, or spying is more subtle. Infiltrating a lab to stole a sample can be considered as spying (I think).