ZeeK

Hope, this might be helpful: Miniland's classes by _ZeeK_, on Flickr

In year 2011 LEGO has released new Alien Conquest series, which formally goes into Space theme... Since it's one of the action themes, the conflict is simple: the bad Aliens are invading the Earth and the Alien Defense Unit (ADU) is Earth's last hope (too simple compared to Futuron-Blacktron-Space Police 1) The set 7049 is under review toady... It's the smallest set in the series, named Alien Striker/ Let's ask the Kingdom's clown to give us a hand with review... It's easy to compare the minifig with the instructions/set package. The MSRP is $5, however the series it not not in the official list in Russia, so it's ~$11 here. So here's what we got for USD 5(10 for unlucky Russians) The first page gives rules on how to handle your new LEGO^ do not assemble on the carpet, sort by color etc. Also one can notice minifigures assembly steps, unchanged in 30 years! Random page shows a few steps of easy building: Now we come to the list of parts page, and the clown blasts with crying - too few parts for the amount paid!!! However, clown's face completely changes when we come to the page with all AQ sets and LEGOclub advertisement: clown's smile is now almost as wide as LEGOclub Max has! Now we turn to the package... Still no idea, why it costs so much... After thorough sorting, we have all the parts to build Alien's microspeeder: Then with a few easy manipulations, the parts are converted into small speeder, and the pilot has to have tank driver's experience to handle this flying thing using two levers one on each side of the "cockpit" The blasters - have you fancied anything else? - are located in front of pilot, however official pics do not show any laser blasts... In the back of the speeder we have repulsor engine's outtakes and grills similar to the ones used by modern fighter planes during take-off/landing in dusty conditions There are only three extra patrs, however the round 1*1 in purple and trans-light blue are quite nice and useful Now we turn to the things most sets are bought for - the minifigs! This is what we have straight out of the box The lime thingie in it's own plastic package looks like something the word "CHINA" on the box has been referring to... The something LEGO produces using extended line capabilities... Let's take a closer look at the pieces: The new azure color of ADU's agent is his suit's material... The torso has print on both sides, as long as the headpiece . The "agents", "power miners" and "atlantis" tradition is here - one of the face prints is heroic, the other is vice versa Withe the helmet from SPIII on, the difference is very small, as expected. By the way, now we have this type of headgear in 4 colors: dark bley, white, black and azure! The key element of the new Alien invader in his (it's?) head piece: Is it lime enough to fit "those green creatures"? Is the brain big enough to not fit the skull? Yes on both questions! The Alien's suit is quite nice However, no printing on the back. Any reason for this economy? The Aliens are short of specific resources? Then what do they want on Earth? 100% complete Alien The artist and sculptors of LEGO shoud be proud of this minifigure - it'll fit into any collection! And the last bonus is the shot of the wonderful accessories included in the set! Hooray, LEGO!!! At last you've listened to fans!!! Stop BL scalpers, selling trans-clear visors at weird prices!!! Now we have TWO of these in the smallest set!!! The all-new blaster is my favorite! The ADU agents are equipped with powerful weapon now! This is a great advance, taking into account LEGO's attitude to "real-looking" guns! Please note, this is NOT an example of xenophobia (also note the hairpiece is NOT included!) Here's somrthing going in the alternative universe, where Aliens are winning! Pros: nice minifigures cool accessories Cons: no official supplies in Russia, overpriced due to this fact the Alien's speeder is primitive Conclusion: = MUST HAVE for each and every one!

I think it won't be right to name the person here (or anywhere online), so...The sets we have had an opportunity to work/play with are obviously for European market: no pieces count is printed on the box (and French/Spanish titles are missing too). I assure you the way the sets appeared is 100% official, so one can say these early reviews are part of some sort of marketing of the PotC sets.

Since we have had no access to this set, at the moment we do not have photos. I think there will be lot of reviews as soon as the sets will hit the shelves... However, there's still a chance we'll be able to get the "London Escape". Small chances though...

Many thanks for keeping an eye on our small local LEGO-related forum!P.S. "Aqua de Vida"'s review is on it's way (hopefully tomorrow you'll see it)

Actually these sets are not owned by VerSen. These were granted for the certain time for review purposes. Actually the author of the text of the review of "The Captian's Cabin" is me, VerSen has made great pictures for the review. I think I'll be able to translate/rewrite the review in English and publish it at EB. Also VerSen is working of translating reviews to let EB visitors read these without using Google online translator service.

VerSen has achived 25k+ views of three PotC review at www.phantoms.su Are there any chances EuroBricks will beat this record? :) Was looking for close-ups of new black boats... Found nothing btw... Great early review!!!

Half-pin or tube cutting.

Wonderful model - very SNOTty Amazing capacity - up to 5 minifigs (including two prisoners, who'd have to share very small amount of space...) Nice minifigs in the scenes, though i'd like them to be light flesh. Very nice photos! Thanks for sharing!!!

Oleg, that is MARVELOUS!!! Taking my hat off - that is genius!!!

The rumor at our local forum is that there will be the theme called "NinjaGo". At the moment there's no additional info on what it will look like or what will be included. However, it's possible to turn to "Aquazone - Atlantis" or "Rock Raiders - Power Miners" sequels... Once again - no info on the theme, just the name (may be the name is also subject to change?)

This MOC has won the "AirShow Contest" held by www.phantoms.su (probably Google translate will help with this link?). One on the major requirements the entries have to satisfy was the presence of ground (or water) scenery with some sort of interaction with the aircraft.

IMO, the inspiration came from Ka-x26 series. Many thanks for sharing your award winning MOC!!! Reaaly nice and well-done! Let me the first to post "I'm a conformist!!" © lightningtiger

IMO, LEGO sport themes are great source of various very interesting elements, especially minifigures (the NBA will help you to use three different skin colors for minifigures!). We've played basketball during one of our community meetings: However, building anything sports-related in "true" minifigure-scale (whicj is about 1/40 to 1/45) is rather big and expensive and, on the other side, there're few reasons to have 1*2 meter football field at home with 25 minifigs on it (the seats will make the size 2*3 meters and will require thousands bricks/minifigs!!!) But i think that it's very interesting to go beyond minifigs with sports: as long some LEGO store give-aways dedicated to baseball...

As far as I'm aware of Dr. Cuddy has already been made to enter Dean's place. And Foreman is on his way - though we had quite a discussion what headpiece to use to capture his appearance - the choice is between the head of the ambulance driver (Spider Man theme) and Shaqille O'Neal's head (obviousvly NBA). Many thanks for cheering the authors in their native language, much appreciated!!!And "I'm a conformist!, guys!!!" ©, you're doing great!

I think is a bit of exaggeration. Actually the six-widers are OK as vans/trucks with 2 seats, e.g.: Though i admit that building "real" car is next to impossible: 6-wide car looks too wide, while 5-wide or 4-wide can not be used to hold 2 figures abreast. That's the price we pay for minifigure proportions...

I've asked the same question in "Train Tech" forum and several links to the similar structures have been provided.

This is one of the key issues with current CITY theme. Actually these wheels are OK for buses, trucks etc. but these are off-scale for cars and small vans. However i don't think LEGO will return to those awesome lovely cars with small wheels from Classic town :(

Being the lucky person to have three of the five mentioned sets (no police/4+) i have to say I like them due to their playability: you pay for 1 set and you receive actually three items - the tractor, the trailer and the 'copter (or 2 bikes, or additional bike in 7686). This is really nice if you're a kid of the focused age... When one of my fellow Russian AFOLs (NCD) posted his great review of 7686 at our local forum, I've taken a quick lookthrough what kinds of vehicles exist. It looks like this 3-in-1 concept is not taken from the real world, but it's actually a typical boys' toy! Though i've found examples of similar vehiles transporting helis. Most of 'em are military tractors. So, IMO, these sets are actually the way LEGO gives us several ingridients - we receive highway tractor-trailer couple and some nice additions of helicopters/bikes. Ihave mde MOC traler for 7686 tractor. It has many small wheels to recreate the trailers we actually see on strees. And I've come across similar concept at Ralph_S's Flickr set: I think this is what these tractors are really up to! Many thanks for starting this topic!

Yeah, that's the point - something went wrong at Camino...

It looks like de marco has used the good old friction to achieve the effect - it's just this part: that holds the wheel/tire in place. I've tried - it holds the whell!

This was made to prevent stealing anything from the models. Just a precaution. The hovercraft (it's previous version) can be found here, at EB: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=37753

Red visors are back!!! Wow!!! Though i'm sure this will not hit the shelves in Russia, i think some parts would fit my storage!... Thank you very much for the review, CopMike! Nice set, nice pictures!!!

Hello, we're planning a small town layout with 9V tram (the tram itself is simple) and simple oval track. We're going to put tiles to make the tram tracks look like the real ones - the same level, as the road. As far as I understand it's easy task for straight segments and catchy one for curved segments... Could you please give some tips how to build this or links to see how other people have managed to cover the track? many thanks in advance!

According to Wikipedia's article regarding the guillotine, various facial phenomena were observed. Possible cause is the fact that the decapitation occurs instantly, leaving a few moments for the muscles etc. to "finish" their work... So it's highly doubtful, but not impossible...