Bobsy

Speculation only, but I think that the Hobbit sets have so far been better recieved than the LOTR sets. There just seems to be more substance there, and the Unexpected Gathering set is a more confident centrepiece to a more confident series. One important factor is that, among kids, I think these sets have a more limited appeal than we adults are giving credit for. The basic colour scheme for LOTR is grey, brown and black. The Hobbit sets are a bit more adventurous, especially Bag End and the Barrel Escape sets, but even so, there's a lot of muted, dull colouring there, which means that the core appeal for the series is a) older children less swayed by bright colours and b) older children who are more committed fans of the books/movies. Which is why the more cheerful, brighter Castle sets are coming in to fill the market gap that LOTR produced. So yeah, I don't think the LOTR/Hobbit sets are selling SUPER-well, but I don't consider it a cause for alarm in the slightest. If the LOTR/Castle series can strike a happy balance with each other, we're in for some good times.

The Daily Mail running the story does not indicate that it is being taken seriously. Fun fact: there is a list of all the things that the Mail has claimed can cause cancer and prevent it. Both lists are huge. Many things appear on both.

I ended up with so many pirates from series 8 I made a little musical trio to sit in the cabin in the Imperial flagship. I still have loads left over. Need more musical instruments!

Hahaha what an absolute crock. The sheer absurdity of that article brought a smile to my face. D'awwww. They're clearly doing their absolute darling best to poke out a reaction by comparing the set to the Hagia Sofia of all places. Their determination to get a rise out of people has clearly affected their ability to count - one of the most notable features of the Sofia as a mosque is that it has - hmm, let's just make sure: one, check, two, check, three, check - FOUR MINARETS. As opposed to the thousands of mosques around the world that only have one. Oh, and while I'm feeling reasonable about this, two points: The Hagia Sofia is not a mosque any more, and hasn't been for quite some time. The Hagia Sofia was not built as a mosque, but an Eastern Orthadox church. That distinctive dome shape? Based on the Byzantine architecture of the period. In fact, the style became so beloved by Turkish muslims over the years that when the Blue Mosque was built next door, it intentionally mimicked the Sofia's architecture. But no-one in that article mentioned the Blue Mosque, so I guess it should really be the Byzantines who ought to be offended? The Emperor Justinian must be spinning in his grave. That said, they have a point about the flick-fire missiles. They have no place in a Hutt's summer home. Ahem. For non-Brits who aren't aware, The Daily Mail is not known in the UK as a paragon of journalistic integrity. It's known for it's strong right-wing bias, use of papporazzi, heavy hyperbole and demonstrable lack of ethics. Sadly this isn't a recent development either, as the paper was in favour of Mussolini back in the 20s and 30s, hedged its bets about Nazism in Germany and loudly trumpted the growth of Oswald Mosley's fascist movement in the UK. It should be noted that this story is not being widely reported - the Daily Mail thrives on sensationalism and percieved outrage. Where they can't find real outrage, they have a tendancy to try and create some.

Are we missing something potentially obvious here? The Centurion so far has no obvious accessories, but... take that seagull, render it in gold/silver, stick it on top of a tall pole... ... you got yourself an SPQR standard right there.

Here's the thing. Like it or not, special figures sell. Kids want Commander Rex more than they want a basic 501st trooper, and they want a 501st trooper more than they want a plain normal clone trooper. Even in Battle Packs, a higher-ranked or 'elite' character has more selling power than an army-builder. I remember as a child, I went totally giddy over getting the transformer Thunderwing for my birthday, not just because he was a Mega Pretender (which was awesome), not just because he turned into a spaceship (which was awesome) but also because I'd read the comics - and he was a leader. Finally, between me and my brother we'd got a proper Decepticon leader, and that was the best thing ever. It was, of course, totally arbitrary that Thunderwing had been made Decepticon leader at the time - it was purely on the whim of the comic's writing staff - but them doing that added a HUGE amount of value to my young eyes. The point is, you can make people (children especially) want a toy more by saying the character is somehow special - better than the norm. It's not exactly fair, it's a little dishonest, but it does work. Incidentally, the following summer I took my Thunderwing on holiday, and accidently left him on a campsite somewhere in France. Life sucks, sometimes.

It is do-able, certainly. I designed this so that all the bricks could potentially be purchased. Still, I'm always reluctant to go on Bricklink - I find the whole process fiddly and am never sure I'm getting the best deal.

I don't think the yellow/flesh argument is directly related to sales, but it does have knock-on effects. My biggest bugbear with the whole thing is that to me figures become incompatible with each other. I can't mix yellow-skinned figures with flesh-skinned figures. Not a problem when it's say, Castle and Star Wars, but when it's Superheroes and City, it is a bigger issue. Worse still when they use a distinctly different visual style, such as the Clone Wars faces or the utterly horrifying attempts to do real-life likenesses in the sports teams. Brrrr.

That is fantastic news. £30 for the stagecoach means it's no longer even a question, it's a day one purchase. And with the train easily on the right side of £100, it becomes sorely tempting.

Well considering that, at the moment, Darth Vader is a REALLY hard figure for kids to get their hands on, it'd be a bit daft to make this TOO different from the norm.

Yes, it's exactly that. I've started leaving them running while I go to work. And then getting really depressed when I come home and it's barely passed 50%.

Don't. Remember that this is only strictly relevant to US customers, since it deals with the American dollar and its inflation rate since the 50s. Outside the US the situation may be different (though not necessarily) since our respective currencies have risen and fallen at different rates and amounts. And like I said upthread, the switch to the Euro would make similar articles for, for instance, Ireland, very difficult indeed.

It definately needs more colour. At the very least add in some dark grey to vary it up and give it a slightly more 'worn' look. That said: WAAAANT. WAAAAAAAAAAAAANT. NOOOOOW.

Out of date information. It was speculated that the revolutionary soldier would come with the upcoming CMF book by Dorling Kindersley, but that turned out to be untrue. Instead, the book will come with the far less exciting toy soldier minifig, and the revolutionary soldier will be part of the CMF series 10. And yes, you want the wig. It looks amazing. You'll want plenty of these guys.

Finally got a couple figures that weren't mermaids or a plumbers (in addition to another mermaid and another plumber - jesus). I'm struggling to see what the big deal about the knight is. It's the same fig I got a bunch of in the early 90s, only now his sword is all bendy and he has no colour any more. I'd have expected this sort of figure back in series 1, but now? Booooooooooring. Chicken suit guy's pretty great though.

My first thought as well. "And I'm going to meet Johnny Depp, and I'm going to write a film for him, and I'm going to be in the film as well, and then this happens and then this happens and then this happens and then..." OR! *conspiricy face on* That's what Bruckheimer WANTS us to believe! It's all an elaborate bluff! If he posts the entire synopsis and frames it as the delusional ravings of an obsessed fanfic writer, we'll never believe it and the secret will be safe! THE PERFECT CRIME Also the moon landings were faked and JFK rode Shergar out of Dallas all the way to Atlantis so he could meet Elvis.

Full thoughts on the sets based on this scan: 79106 Cavalry Army Builder Can you say... battle pack? Oh, but it is SUCH a battle pack, very much cut from the same cloth as those in the Star Wars line. The build is the most minimal, well, ever, thanks to the presence of the horse and the firing cannon, but this is not a complaint. Horses: good. Firing cannons with large wheels: very good. And a few spare palisade bricks: can't hurt. Not only that, but the Union soldiers themselves look fantastic, and very adaptable. Find it hard to call them 'cavalry' though - the Lone Ranger's the only one with a horse! Definate purchase for me, at least once. 70107 Commanche Camp Eh... not that thrilled.If you're trying to build a massive Wild West diorama or simply want some native Americans in your collection, fine, but it does little for me. The tipi looks decent, but it's not thrilling by any means. Pass! 79108 Stagecoach Utterly gorgeous. It's a definate buy, despite the worryingly high price. I do wonder if the piece count crept higher than expected while the set was being developed, and they could no longer justify it being at a lower price point and added an extra minifig or two to compensate. Either way, it's still a fantastic set. The coach looks amazing, elegantly shaped and bursting with details. I'm looking forward to adding it to my pirate-era town, minus the 'STAGECOACH' sticker, of course. The minifigs look great, too. The bandit on the horse has a torso which could happily exist in town, pirate or Star Wars setups, and the Helena Bonham Carter fig is just fantastic too. The hair would be perfect for any Victorian diorama. Just make sure she avoids Whitechapel... Anyway, definate purchase. 79109 Colby City Shootout I thought at first those roof pieces on the Sherrif's office were new, but it turns out they're simply uncommon. Ah well. To be honest, this set is a bit of a damp squib from the looks of things. Yes, nice that LEGO paid lip service to the notion of Western buildings, but they're a bit wimpy, aren't they? There's simply not enough there to get my interest, and this is something that will doubtless continue to cause outrage over those prone to outrage, because this set in particular prevented the Cuusoo Modular Western Town set from passing review. Not an improvement in my eyes either, as these buildings are just small, ugly and boring. Shame. 79110 Silver Mine Loooooads of dark tan BURPS. And indeed, tan rock pieces of all kinds. It looks like a fine enough set, but I can't imagine it'll be a particularly exciting build. Assembling random-looking rock faces to strict instructions is never that exciting. Nonetheless it's a decent-looking set, there's plenty of play value there, and despite a reasonably hefty price tag I get the feeling it'll feel like value for money when it's released. Not sure what those blue panels in the bottom left are for - is silver ore blue nowadays? I do like the villain minifig - hats with hair are always welcome, and the torso looks... quite... Hang on. Is he wearing a Miss World sash there? Naaaah... can't be... Still... 79111 Train Wow, this looks amazing. A really fantastic-looking steam train, a track to put it on, a ton of fantastic minifigs, a working gattling gun, a cattle truck... all well worth the price tag, but I doubt I shall be getting it. There's absolutely nothing here I don't like (well... possibly that silly exploding rock gimmick) but it still doesn't make me want to splurge out on this set. It's a personal thing - I don't have anything for it to go with. Outside of Star Wars, my big love is 18th century style sets, pirate era mostly. While the Stagecoach could happily blend in there, a distinctly late C19th train would simply stick out. A shame. Not a buy for me (unless it's on sale) but I begrudge no-one who does.

Rather a specific request this time: lightsabers in yellow and orange. I was genuinely surprised to find on Brickset that the pieces simply do not exist, not even outside of Star Wars sets. I would very much like to vary up my Jedi and Sith with different sabers, but... *sigh*

Jeez... so many transparent pieces... must have taken forever to render all this. Good job!

*shuffles feet* Despite the long hours of rendering, I've already making alterations. I've altered the oven to contain a light brick, and I'm starting to experiment with adding more decoration to the outside upper floors. It needs something to make it pop, but I've not found out quite what yet.

I tend to use lime green crash test dummy minifigs in LDD because the selection of minifig prints is so awful I could never make a genuinely suitable fig to go in there. In fact I use lime green for anything placeholder builds, because it's easy to spot and easy to delete once I'm done.

My biggest complaints about this set were a) no actual pilot and b) no landing gear. The same can be said for the Striker fighter. I took the large landing gear piece from the original 1999 X-Wing and used that as a stop-gap, but every attempt to make a proper set of folding landing gear since has failed, so it's still balancing awkwardly on this piece.

MMV-style Bakery by bobsy26, on Flickr MMV-style Bakery by bobsy26, on Flickr Okay, need a better name. Oh well. So I actually began this design a long time ago, back when the wonderful DesignByMe service was still available. Back then it was a lot slimmer, only had one half (the shop front) and was open at the back, and sold glassware rather than bread. I was never 100% happy with the design, since I'd painted myself into a corner with difficult arrangements of plates for the two floors. So last week I went back to the project and expanded it to more reasonable proportions to fit with the Medieval Market Village scale of building. I widened the building, added the other half which included the massive oven, and re-did the upper floor to be more for living than work (previously it had been a doctor's room, complete with bonesaw and tanks of strange fluids). MMV-style Bakery by bobsy26, on Flickr Apologies that there's only two rendered images for this - the number of transparent pieces makes this an absolute beast to do in PovRay. I had to give up on a close-up of the oven, because the trans round 1x1 studs were taking way too long. It was too dark to see them anyway. MMV-style Bakery by bobsy26, on Flickr MMV-style Bakery by bobsy26, on Flickr The jam jar is a relic of when the shop sold glassware. The shelves originally had wine glasses instead of croissants. That grey cooling tray is intended to display a pretzel, but I couldn't find the piece in LDD, sadly. If I make it for real I'll put one there. MMV-style Bakery by bobsy26, on Flickr MMV-style Bakery by bobsy26, on Flickr Herbs and olive oil hanging by the oven. This is a fancy bread shop for fancy bread-eaters.

Fantastic article, very informative. Now I'd be interested to see this compared with GBP and Euros, except of course the latter would be a nightmare to do since you'd be comparing Euro prices with pre-Euro prices in a whole bunch of different currencies.

Here's a problem: there's this assumption that the people who approve/don't approve Cuusoo projects are the same people who dictate LEGO policy from the very top. It's not like that. The Cuusoo site is a very small portion of a very large organisation, and the people who decide which projects pass initial review are probably only one or two in number. Additionally. they very probably do this task as only part of a wider job role. What I'm saying is it's wrong to condemn all of LEGO for hypocracy based on what came down to one person's judgement. If you posed the same project to the senior designer who developed the Friends minidolls they would almost certainly approve it. Companies do not think with a single megabrain, and sometimes employees make decisions which aren't exactly in line with what their senior management would do. It's hard to be right 100% of the time. And from the individual project review person's point of view, can you not understand why they might default to turning the project down? Rightly or wrongly, this sort of thing has the habit of attracting hysteria and hyperbole from the moral guardians who might percieve it as oversexualising a children's toy. It's not the sort of PR that a company like LEGO (which has a very carefully maintained hyper-positive PR image around the world) needs. I have already heard on national radio a stand up comedian bring up the notion of Friends minidolls having boobs on them with utter disbelief. So yeah. While we might not like it or appreciate it, the decision to not approve it is probably for the best, from Cuusoo's point of view.