Bobsy

Okay, so the theatre finally reached 500 supporters last night! It's a decent, worthy milestone, even if there's still a ways to go. Nonetheless, I want to reiterate my thanks to everyone who's supported so far - you guys are great. It makes this whole endeavour a community-spirited project, and makes me want it to succeed all the more, so that the hundreds of people who have supported get a chance of owning this model for real. And again, if you've looked at this project and been reluctant to support, please tell me why! I appreciate all feedback and criticism - without it I cannot improve the model!

There's a good review over at FBTB. They wern't keen.

Perhaps a more pertinent question would be "If minifigures had never existed, and were designed from scratch today, would they look the same?" I don't think they would. I think there's a lot of room for improvement. And I think this is how LEGO feels as well. LEGO have attempted to remake the minifigure twice at least, with the Jack Stone figs and the recent Friends minidolls. In both cases, but especially the latter, they've gone for a design which is not exactly more realistic in terms of articulation and poseability, but certainly with proportions. While minidolls keep the oversized heads, they have greater shape and definition, and the bodies, while perhaps over-idealised, are more aesthetically pleasing than the flat, blocky torsos and legs of the traditional minifigure. LEGO decided that one of the things keeping them from cracking the girls' market was that, to an outsider, minifigs just aren't all that nice to look at. Also worth remembering is that when the body proportions of the first minifigs were decided on, they were created to represent children, not adults. The short legs and large heads are more in keeping with the body shape of young children, after all. When System themes like Town, Castle and Space rolled up they suddenly had to pull double-duty as adults as well, and I do wonder whether or not LEGO regret that in hindsight, since as the years went on it became harder and harder to rectify this, since a new shape of minifig would be simply incompatible with the minifigs and sets that children already owned. Toy Story's Woody doesn't fit through the doors in the Medieval Market Village, for example, thanks to his long legs which ironically give him more adult-like proportions. Had they been designed today, I think they would be better proportioned so to represent adults and children better. Likewise, the only reason traditional minifigs STILL have yellow skin is that originally it was simply too expensive to add a brand new colour to the plastic palette (black, white, yellow, red, blue) that would only be used for hands and heads. Today LEGO seem to have little hesitation making all licenced themes use flesh tones, so while the cost may still be a factor, it certainly isn't a limiting factor any more. If minifigs were designed today, I'm pretty sure they'd all be flesh-coloured. They were in Friends, after all. As fans, we should not be over-protective of something because we're used to it, because we grew up with it. Nostalgia's all well and good but it does not breed quality - by it's nature it just means producing more of the same, over and over. If the minifig has become a sacred cow, we should be ready to... well, perhaps not slaughter it, but at the very least examine it, be critical. Things aren't perfect just because they've been the same for 40 years.

Question: does the Jabba the Hutt 'fig' rotate at the head at all? Every photo I've seen of it has him in the classic sideways 'relaxed' position. Can you turn the head 90 degrees so it looks like he's facing forwards instead?

Even so, we already know that most of the non-CW, non-TOR and non-original-trilogy sets for 2013 are Episode 2 based. The Clone Troopers vs. Droidekas battle pack shows them on Geonosis on the packaging, and the AT-TE and Gunship sets are both Episode 2-centric as well. And then there's the Dual On Geonosis set, so yeah.

Woot. That means that the revolutionary soldier will be actually collectable? Fantastic. Wigs ahoy!

If you're not planning to do minifig modification, the closest you can get to a bishop's hat is probably Nute Gunray's hat from Star Wars. It's by no means a perfect fit, since it looks distinctly alien, but it's as close as you can get.

You... you... GAH! Having noticed it was the only set of the wave still not reviewed I was looking forward to mine arriving today, so I could be the first to get a review in. I have literally JUST finished putting it together and what do I find? YOU. *seriousface* SEE MY SERIOUS FACE.

I don't think the price is very high on this set. For less than a tenner you get a decent, solid and good-looking model, a nice minifig and a whole bunch of very useful pieces, including a chain, large wings and loads of robot arms, all of which would be very useful indeed. As a model it far surpasses most of the things you get in SW battle packs in size and playability.

Fantastic. The world needs more Discworld models. It's a shame the dual grinding wheels don't rotate quite as much, but I guess it's always going to be the case with plastic-on-plastic friction. The only solution would be to make at least one surface rubber, but using tires would look awful. Could the flat surface be made rubber perhaps? Hmmm. Probably not, actually.

To be brutally honest, I wouldn't have spotted that that was the door if you hadn't mentioned it. By being the same shade of grey it just vanishes against the rest of the building. The exterior is very nice though (and unless I'm mistaken, the dish is made from the exterior shell of the original Millenium Falcon, yes?).

Not really a fair comparison - Purdue Pete got support through organised events where people could register and vote through laptops specifically set up for attendees to do so. It'll all be for nothing though - I seriously doubt it will pass the review. If the Eve Online ship is judged to not have enough of a global customer base, you can bet a local US university American football mascot won't. On the other hand, I'm genuinely confident the Medieval Travelling Theatre would stand a very good chance of passing review... if it ever reaches that stage. I designed it to be a play toy, not a display model or sculpture. That is, in my view, the best way to approach Cuusoo projects.

Oh ****. There goes the planet.

Just occured to me. Take the Bumblebee girl's hat. Snip off the antennae. Paint it white. Place hat on a stormtrooper body. What do you get?

That's as may be, but it really, really isn't the actual episode. As a reminder, the new Yoda Chronicles series looks like this: That other video was made as part of the general series of SW Lego animations that use current products, a video like this one. Now, whether it was posted as a Yoda Chronicles episode by accident, or was deliberately repurposed as a filler episode because the proper episodes are (for whatever reason) being delayed again, I couldn't say. But that definately isn't part of the real series.

Very nice thread to read, this. I reckon there's some very good mums and dads here.

That's not the Yoda Chronicles. That's just one of LEGO's standard Star Wars animations they do to promote current sets. They've been going for years now, and can be found on the Lego site.

My worry is that a PotC line in the future makes it near-impossible to launch a continuing Pirates line. Just like what happened with the 2009 revival, it would just be wiped off as soon as the PotC sets came out. I really, really want a Bluecoats ship to challenge the Imperial Flagship. Only, you know, slightly smaller and weedier, because, well, *cough*.

I can do this with three pieces, but it's a teensy bit wobbly. You need two 2x2 round plates and one super-short axle (these days they are red). Because the stud area on the top of the planet shell has a hole in it you can slide the axle through it and fix it in place with one plate on the inside of the shell, the other on the outside facing stud-to-stud. Other than using 4x one rings this is the lowest-piece method I can come up with. I've tested it out and the planet does wobble a bit - since its centre of gravity is higher up it doesn't feel super-stable. If you had room you could use a larger axle and sink it lower so it holds the planet more firmly. Planet realignment by bobsy26, on Flickr In the image the planet shell piece is impaled on the red axle and sandwiched between the two plates.

Some ages ago I had a think about this on the Future sets speculation thread.

Basically just friction - the stage assembly is attached with four clip hinges, which I figured would be stiff enough to hold the stage vertical and keep it from flopping down in general play. It may be I figured wrong, but it's not an insurmountable problem. You could very happily insert a clip mechanism to the cart roof, but I resisted doing so because it didn't seem necessary. I guess we won't know until it's built for real. As for the colours, yeeees there are plenty of pieces that simply don't exist in the right colours. Interestingly enough this was the last LDD model I designed that used ONLY the Extended mode so that all bricks were available in all colours. These days I tend to keep things to standard mode so I could at least potentially Bricklink the pieces. And you're entirely right about every piece you mention; I use the stage plates as my go-to example for pieces that don't exist in the right colour yet because it's visible and easy to describe - they're CMF bases, which are currently only made in black. I suppose if you really want I can email you the LDD file, which will help you see the construction better - although there's nothing too advanced involved beyond. I guess the only colour you could currently make the cart from is black, but it makes the whole thing look horribly dull. I've tried having the cart more brightly painted but it REALLY didn't work, because the backdrop loses it's impact - you need a neutrally-coloured exterior to make the bright colours of the interior stand out.

Death Star II is a no-go as the shell doesn't make a proper sphere. Er. Like an asteroid belt doesn't. Hm. And the thing about the Order 66 Planets is that they've mostly been greatly expanded on in the Clone Wars series, which is where they really 'belong'. I would, however, be hugely disappointed if the Planets went CW.

Old Republic Planets would be relatively easy to do - there are three on each side. Smuggler, trooper. Jedi, bounty hunter, agent, sith. The bigger question with these is if it's worth doing, and if the market's a little tired of SWTOR Lego. I've maintained that the Planets series is ideal for EU sets that would't sell enough in minifig scale, as well as charactersyou would't otherwise get - Grand Admiral Thrawn, for instance: Grand Admiral Thrawn and Star Destroyer 'Chimera' by bobsy26, on Flickr Or the Lady Luck: Lady Luck with Lando Calrissian by bobsy26, on Flickr

It's got nothing to do with the fans, it's about maximising sales. Few parents would buy both types of X-Wing for young Jimmybricks, so you'd end up with the cost of developing two sets and the sales of one, especially considering one is half the price of the other. No, the two sets need to offer something drastically different, or to appeal to very different markets. For example, right now you can buy either a £10 mini B-Wing or a £170 UCS B-Wing.