Bobsy

Possibly, but I think it's more likely that LEGO simply haven't switched over production of the curved lightsaber from chromed silver to pearl silver because it only ever crops up in the rare occassion Dooku appears in a set. Remember that a non-chromed piece actually has to be remoulded - the chroming process adds an extra layer so the plastic itself has to be made slightly smaller. If you were to use the curved lightsaber template as-is and left it unchromed, it would sit slightly loose in a clip or minifig hand. It would have been considered cost-effective redoing the standard lightsaber mould because it crops up so frequently - in practically every SW set. This is a post for the general SW questions thread, so in future post things like this there please! To answer though: no, actually. We probably will get one eventually, maybe by next year's summer wave, but right now I should think LEGO want the tank droid set to sell as well as possible. They're in no rush now that the prequel 3D rereleases have gone up the swanny.

£30, not $30. The USD price quoted is an estimate, and in my opinion slightly optimistic. Somewhere in the realm of $40 is more likely - which is still a steal for you American-types.

Pretty sure this unfounded speculation belongs in the Future Star Wars Sets thread. For the record, there is NO confirmed Ewok Village set, nor any evidence we're going to get one any time soon, other than people assuming "we' due". The more we speculate in this thread, the harder it becomes to pick out actual information.

I'm going to be a real grumpypants right now. A review needs some scoring, even if it's a paragraph about why the set rocks/sucks/is average. Without it, you've got a nice photogallery, but not a great review. Lego products are not cheap, and there are plenty of people sitting on the fence unsure of whether a set is worth their hard-earned wedge. As a reader, I definately want to know if this set is any good, and I'd value the view of someone who already owns it quite a lot. In fact, personally I value a viewpoint far above a photo of the box - I can get that from S@H already.

Those were the numbers given as GBP somewhere upthread. I had wondered if they were supposed to be in USD instead, because they looked extremely high.

I wouldn't get TOO excited about Maul - remember he'll be the Clone Wars face style, and we've had a decent Episode 1 version of him with the Sith Infiltrator in 2011.

Okay, this: How did you get the decorations on those pieces? I'm aware of using the custom decorations tool to replace existing decorations with image files, but I've checked those pieces you've used here, and they don't take any decoration in LDD at all. Did you Photoshop them in afterwards, or is there another trick here?

*sigh* Two reasons, both applying to quality. LEGO has rather strict quality rules, which is one of the reasons they remain market leader since losing their monopoly on plastic building blocks. Firstly, look at the internal structure of a minifig. It's not hollow. It's extremely intricate, with the arm joints, the pegs where the legs join the torso and the friction internals to keep the legs from falling out. There's the long 'neck' normally hidden inside a minifig head. Not to mention the hip joints that plug into the legs Now imagine you could see all those internal bits all the time. You wouldn't see a ghost, you'd see a see-through lump of plastic. Secondly, the plastic used to make transparent pieces is not the same plastic they use in opaque pieces. It's more brittle, more prone to wear. All minifig torsos go through some stress when they're assembled in the first place when the arms are popped in - it's unavoidable. In normal ABS this is acceptable, and rarely leads to cracking unless you switch arms frequently. With the transparent plastic it will crack much, much quicker. So yeah. Quality. LEGO want toys that will last, and they also want toys that aren't ugly as sin. That's why.

Nope. We know the musket from a sneaky picture from London that snapped the backdrop to the minifigs display, but it didn't show the waist down. I very much agree with your prediction of white trousers with printed boots. Oh, and the avatar is Friedrich the Great of Prussia, I'll have you know. If you got a tricorn you'd lose the wig. I'd much rather have something that I can use on other minifigs, wouldn't you? Finally, something for upper-crust civilians!

He's got a normal brown musket.

Does confirm what I was worried about though - doesn't look significantly bigger than the skiff, stem-to-stern.

*cough*

Yeah, it would look better with more bley and less black, you're absolutely right. But I was stymied by the rather poor selection of pieces I had at my disposal. If/when I ever use Bricklink again I'll be looking out for replacement parts. I used www.torhead.com to get reference pictures - I do own a similar speeder to this in-game, but with a less attractive colour scheme. Every type of speeder exists in a bunch of different colours and styles anyway, so I guess mine is just an off-market variant. Now to get it some go-faster stripes...

Eell that's the bitter irony of Cuusoo - people naturally support what they already recognise, even though it may not be worthwhile n the long run. See all the copycat Minecraft projects for evidence of that. And sorry if my comments depressedyou. Please don't take it against your models themselves - they are all really great. It's just I don't think Cuusoo is the right place for most of them

These are excellent designs, all look really good. That said, I can't help but feel this isn't suitable for Cuusoo. Cuusoo is to design and propose sets that LEGO wouldn't otherwise make, to find the niches in the market that they haven't been able to reach yet. Updating the TIE designs to the modern standard is a pretty obvious thing to do, and indeed, would have been discussed around the design table ages ago when the TIE redesign was first put forward. What I'm saying is that either LEGO already have plans to put the Interceptor and/or Bomber into production when the Fighter is removed from shelves, or they've considered it and rejected the idea already. Which sounds all glum and miserable from me EXCEPT! The Avenger. This is worth admission on its own because, as an EU ship, it's outside their standard consideration. So yeah, well worth all the success it gets on Cuusoo. Good luck!

Passing a stool of used hypodermic needles is far superior to The Final Frontier. It's not exactly hard. Most people that try and convince you it's an overall good film are probably trolling.

So a while ago I went into LDD and after a bit lot of fumbling created this: The Old Republic - Speeder Bike by bobsy26, on Flickr Which is a 'close-enough' sort of version of the Orlean Flurry, or this: Which is a kind of speeder bike from The Old Republic. Well, 'speeder' is something of an exaggeration, but it does at least go faster than the hovermower you get with the Old Republic Battle Pack. I digress. While I liked the design, I found that even though all the bricks were 'legal' colours, getting those technic beams in dark blue would be an awkward affair, since they are not especially common. So instead of hauling megablocks to Bricklink I just sat around and did nothing until I bought the Crazy Scientist And His Monster from Monster Fighters, and got two of that part in dark grey. And so begins the saga of shrugging and saying "Eh, close enough". The results are below. Oh, and yes the photography's rubbish but it's the best you're getting until you all chip in to buy me a massive expensive camera and studio. Old Republic Orlean Flurry Speeder Bike by bobsy26, on Flickr That suave, sophisticated fellow riding it is based on one of my characters from TOR. Speeders of The Old Republic: Speeders of the Old Republic by bobsy26, on Flickr

That's only assuming it's real gold - far more likely it'll be chromed or pearl plastic.

It's very different. It's the way visual filmmaking works - the gammoreans are portrayed as monstrous, hulking aliens with no recognisable or relatable human features, and whose only communication takes the form of unintelligable grunting. Moreover, they are portrayed as cruel and greedy. Film audiences aren't going to feel particularly upset when a monster gets eaten by a monster. Add to this the death of Jabba, which is an even more extreme version - more monstrous, more evil, still unintelligable, even more deserving to die. The younglings on the other hand as human as could be (except the aliens, who hide in the background so the human can stand in the foreground and take our attention). They're emminently relatable: for young viewers the younglings represent themselves directly, for older viewers they represent their own children. They're innocent, they're defenceless, they're adorably cute, and they're about to get horribly murdered. Do note that their deaths are intentionally not shown on-screen. No censor would allow it, and very few audiences would tolerate it. Oddly enough, people are more than a little squemish about the thought of defenceless children being slaughtered.

Question: When new parts are made from the soft, rubbery type of plastic, are they cheaper to mould? The cost of a new ABS mould is well known to be incredibly high, and LEGO tend to ensure that these new pieces are used in at least two sets to offset the cost. But with the rubbery pieces you often find them being single-use, such as alien heads in Star Wars. The next SW in particular will have brand new moulded heads for Yoda, Ree-Yees, Max Rebo, Adi Gallia, Coleman Trebor and Poggle the Lesser, and it's hard to imagine any of them being made from hard plastic - or for that matter, being re-used in any way. So yeah: is it cheaper to mould specialist, one-use pieces for the rubbery plastic?

Eating a prosthetic makeup pig person is hardly the same as the massacre of children.

Lightsaber blade piece in trans orange, yellow, clear would be very, very handy. In your own time, Lego.

Strangest thing I've seen said in this already pretty loopy thread. These are not part of the series proper. They are a BONUS. They are special figs to be highly prized IF you are lucky enough to receive one. Not only is a golden minifig not essential, it is the epitome of unessential. CMFs on their own are luxury items - a super-rare golden version is a luxury of a luxury. There's nothing crazy, unusual or weird about any of this and I am bemused why so many people are making such a fuss over this.

Mph. Perhaps not ideal for a Spaceballs helmet then. Ah well.