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MAB

Eurobricks Archdukes
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Everything posted by MAB

  1. MAB
    Niche source material? The movies are rated 7th, 10th and 15th on imdb. I don't think the source material qualifies as niche.
  2. MAB
    Monster Fighters had a lot of online and multimedia content created for it. Ultra Agents again had a lot of online content and also had an app with comics, games, animations, and so on. It has already been noted by Peppermint_M, Big Bang is an internal LEGO term. They decide what are classed as Big Bang themes. Often we don't know what themes are or historically have been classed as Big Bang themes. You've given a definition saying they are planned for at least three years - has this ever been confirmed by LEGO? I cannot remember them giving a definition. The problem with a fan-made definition is that all Big Bang themes will have similar elements to them if fans exclude other things by biasing the definitions.
  3. MAB
    You don't need a very high resolution camera sensor to do that, if you transmit and detect an IR pulse. However, the small but similar distances would be a problem. I doubt they would ever go for one where you had to insert a phone into the model as this would mean they would need to make many versions for different phones due to the location of the camera and phone size or say you have to have a specific phone from a specific company. But in the end, I don't think people care. People that want a LEGO model that looks like a piano will buy it if they can afford it. It is a bonus that the keys go up and down even if somewhat randomly. I imagine the fun of playing a tune by hitting any key will wear off after five minutes, if that. But I don't think that is what people want here. If people want a playable electric piano, you can get a two octave one for 5% of the price of this and that will play something like the notes you hit. For 10% of the price you can get a 5 octave one that again will play notes you press. You can get an app that plays music on your phone for nothing. However, I don't think lego should be describing this as a playable piano. I imagine they will get a number of used sets returned when people realise they have been duped by the description.
  4. MAB
    Elves, Monster Fighters, Ultra Agents are still big bang themes though. You cannot exclude some big bang themes to leave only similar ones and then say that big bang themes are too similar and they are not trying anything unique. The fact that these themes are different enough from Ninjago for you to exclude them shows that LEGO are doing something different to Ninjago with some of their big bang themes. Still, to some extent most action themes (especially the ones primarily aimed at boys) are similar. Monster Fighters had one faction against another faction, so did Galaxy Squad, so did Alien Conquest, so did Atlantis, so did Pharaoh's Quest. And so did Ninjago, Nexo Knights, Chima, Ultra Agents, Hidden Side, ... And in a way so does City with police and crooks. And traditional Castle (when it exists).
  5. MAB
    It is now working fine.
  6. MAB
    When you consider what it is actually doing to play music, it is not really that difficult. They have used their existing technology to make an impulse switch that sends a signal to a phone when pressed and then the phone plays the music. Any bluetooth transmitter combined with one of many different sensors could have done that. It looks completely random (or rather pre-defined but not musical) from the video. If you look at the key movements at about two minutes, they don't look right. It is a clever design, it looks a little bit like a Great Ball Machine or other machine inside a piano shaped box. But a playable piano it is not.
  7. MAB
    I imagine they felt (or lawyers told them) that it had to include the powered up functionality for them to be able to market it as a playable piano.
  8. MAB
    I cannot really see the point of the petition. It is essentially petitioning a company that doesn't make modern war toys to make a modern war toy because they made a modern war toy and was about to release it and an anti-war group protested that they were now making modern war toys and paying arms manufacturers royalties and reminded them that they say they do not make modern war toys and LEGO agreed and re-affirmed that they do not make modern war toys and that this is a modern war toy. LEGO have also said that any that have already left the warehouse and are in the supply chain can be sold, but they will not replenish. So if you want one and see it, then buy it. They know what they have done goes against their policy but it is not so bad that they are going to go to the expense of recalling those already distributed.
  9. MAB
    It doesn't play music. Your phone plays the music.
  10. MAB
    It has been revealed. It makes noise! ... via the app :-)
  11. MAB
    Thanks
  12. MAB
    I don't see how Elves, Monster Fighters, Ultra Agents, etc can be viewed as Ninjago clones. Plus I don't think they need to make a lasting impact, they need to make a current impact - that is, resonate with kids now and not AFOLs over a long period. That said, I don't think there has been long enough to have made a lasting impact for anything released since 2010. For example, Rock Raiders. It is only really remembered fondly by those that had it as a kid. Give Chima or Nexo Knights 20 years and they may well be remembered fondly by kids that grew up with them. I remember people saying how bad Atlantis was, same with PQ and GS. Yet these days, some people look back fondly on getting a one (or two) year and done theme. Is Rock Raiders any more popular now than Atlantis will be in another 10 years, or Monster Fighters will be in another 12 or so? I guess we'll find out. As to making something completely unique, that is likely to fail badly. Completely unique, what does it even mean? Ninjago has minifigures, so unique would mean no minifigures, otherwise it is copying an aspect of what is successful. Ninjago has a storyline, so unique would mean no storyline. Ninjago has characters that kids like to identify with, so unique would be having characters (but not minifigures) that kids cannot identify with. Making something completely unique is almost impossible. Better to learn what has been successful and try to emulate some aspects of it.
  13. MAB
    There have been numerous Phineas and Ferb builds submitted to IDEAS, and they barely reach 100 and the better looking ones haven't got past 1000. Which suggests that there is not really a market for them.
  14. MAB
    Do you mean this one? It might be in demand in later years, but for me it would have been better with just the neck armour and pauldrons. Like anything, it will depend on distribution. If it comes out in a polybag or a number of cheap sets, then future demand is likely to be lower due to over-supply.
  15. MAB
    I can understand why, in that the various fansites that still get free products to review give them fairly consistent and importantly prominent reviews on their websites. Here reviews tend to be a bit more buried and as you say, not tweeted or facebooked (if that is a word).
  16. MAB
    From that higher res image, it looks like cheese slopes on a plate. It is nice someone still has the magazine!
  17. MAB
    The only other thing I can think of is a bracket rather than the 1x1 bricks but that would leave a gap in height between the blue and yellow.
  18. MAB
    To me it looks like a plate on top of the mudguard (I used a green 1x2 here), 2 1x1 SNOT bricks (not headlight, the stud on side 1x1 brick, could also use a 1x2 with 2 studs), then the plate with hole on that. The bottom of the blue piece matches up perfectly with the yellow mudguard.
  19. MAB
    I guess it is a community liaison / business issue, and LEGO have realised that they do not need to give away full boxes of CMFs to reviewers any longer to help drive sales. I can totally understand that especially if that budget is reallocated to sending out other sets that are new and need reviews to get a buzz about them. There are so many people that buy full boxes of CMFs and review them, both pictorially and by video, so why give them away when people are willing to review paid for products. Plus the product itself is now well embedded, they do not need to keep giving them away to the select few to advertise them as there is always a buzz around new series. For whatever reason, the reviews were getting later and later compared to release dates, presumably LEGO were allowing shorter times between sending review copies and the release date. If other people are able to review them weeks before by buying them, then the reviews became a bit redundant. Didn't they also pull out of sending parts for the traditional Eurobricks Christmas raffle too?
  20. MAB
    The only colour I managed to reliably match to LEGO's colour palette by dying was black! You can get close to some colours, but I found it was best to dye for a minute, remove the part, let it cool and dry it, check it, dye again, and repeat multiple times until a close match was found. It is also strongly dependent on the original colour, of course, so starting from a white part is more likely to give better results unless you want to go to black.
  21. MAB
    They aren't really selling at those prices though. To date, just 39 new golden bananas (in 14 transactions) have been sold worldwide on bricklink. One US store has them at $0.15. I expect to see the price come under 10c during the next six months.
  22. MAB
    Colours after dyeing will vary significantly based on time, temperature, hardness of water, etc. It also depends on the part - minifigure hands, for example, don't take dye anywhere as easily as bricks. I think you'd have to do your own tests for the parts you want to dye.
  23. MAB
    LEGO won't have the instructions as they are not LEGO sets. The certified professionals are responsible. And I doubt they would give away their designs, as it undermines their future products.
  24. MAB
    Yes, plus remember that a lot of BL sellers are builders themselves. I've sold quite a few boat hulls, but nearly always keep the middle sections for myself. AFOLs often don't want the same distribution that LEGO supplies. Then it is down to basic economics - parts many people want are expensive, and excess parts many people don't want are cheap. That is why it is good if you can come up with a novel use for an unwanted part. Also, in the UK, the Ninjago Movie Destiny's Bounty was very cheap for a while last year, so many of them were parted out. That had a reddish brown hull but not middle sections, which is where a lot of current stock would have come from.
  25. MAB
    I'm from York, it looks a lot like the "Red House" antique centre on Duncombe Place, near the minster.
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