ResIpsaLoquitur

Ceir, not quite on point, but why don't you check this thread...? Also, the Lego Store is having a Micro Manager build on Tuesday the 4th. If you have a kid (or can borrow one) and can get to the store, it's free.

Everything is awesome!

I got an e-mail from Barnes & Noble about the event. It says "Fun and engaging hands-on activities," "Screening of the movie trailer," and "Ticket giveaways at select stores." I wonder if "hands on activities" means kids will get to play with, but not keep, one of the sets. I know they did something similar for the Architecture Studio launch--did anyone attend that? The ticket giveaway is news to me, though. "Select stores" is a little disconcerting, though....

Just2Good, thanks for the heads up on that. I've been anxiously awaiting TRU to announce a TLM event, and there it is. I added it to the Lego Movie events page in the general forum. BTW, Emmett's car appears almost identical to 2010's Small Car. Am I wrong? To my knowledge, the kids are getting a poster and watching the trailer. My hope is that they have a super-secret unannounced polybag for the kids, but nobody's said as much yet.

Awesome! Toys R Us is having a "Build Emmet's Car" event on Feb 8. I was waiting for them to announce a Lego Movie event. I added it to the schedule above.

Brick Fanatics is reporting it'll be Santa Vader. Also, some kind of "Christmas Tree Droid." Boo. I was still hoping for some kind of Santa Grievous. Lego seems to enjoy getting extra use out of a mold, so I was hoping that they'd have an excuse to make another Grievous outside of the Cycle Chase. I'm still hoping the set will be Episode III-themed, since we've gotten few-to-no Episode III characters in the calendars. (We've had some Advent Calendars with characters who appear in ROTS, but nobody ROTS-specific.)

Unless there's an in-movie reason why Emmet's face is missing. (It's kind of creepy, though, and I'm sure they could have the same effect by making a one-faced Emmet and turning his head backwards.)

I don't think this news is worth getting too upset over. If people enjoy the CMF line because they're cute characters who make nice supplements to the various themes (City, Castle, Space, etc.), then we should at least be enjoying the Movie line. Most of the movie characters still fit within what we're used to getting as CMF characters. Abe Lincoln, Shakespeare, the Panda Guy, the Coffee Guy are all specialty niche characters who will fill out my city quite nicely. I even have Emmet and Gail paired up as construction workers. The only ones I can realistically see throwing people are the three robots, since they wouldn't cleanly fit in someone's wild west setup. Really, I envision this as only a 4-month gap between CMF themes. I'm not into the Simpsons enough to justify getting any of the CMFs. Beyond that, I can happily wait until October for the next wave.

Updating: - A number of Targets around here seem to be getting the City Police Fire Car poly at the cash register. I'm still seeing a lot of Ewar's Acro-Fighter, the TIE Fighter, and the Republic Cruiser. However, Target also seems to have jacked up the prices on cash register polys--they seem to be a dollar higher than I remember. Anyone else seen this? - Target's Valentine's poly seems to be the Coast Guard Seaplane. I haven't seen a matching "girl" poly yet. You'd think they'd include a Friends one, but no sighting yet. - Looks like Toys R Us will be getting the Movie Super Secret Police Enforcer. I haven't seen it in store yet.

I stopped in my local TRU looking for the Secret Police poly, but no luck. I'll check the other TRU tomorrow if we're not snowed out.

Excellent! TRU licensed polys tend to have a very short shelf life, so this is something to watch for. I'll check my two TRUs this week. That accounts for one of the three TLM polys. We know that the Lego Store is getting the Piece of Resistance poly, so that leaves Wyldstyle and the Micro Manager Battle. Any ideas on that one? Target, maybe?

Added the Sea Cow thing to the February schedule. Anything else? Is the Barnes & Noble thing at 2 pm? I could have sworn my store said it was 11 a.m., which is more convenient since my daughter has ballet class at 2. Maybe it varies by store? Edit: OK, *my* B&N is doing 11 a.m. However, a search of all the B&Ns in the area show variable times: some at 11, some at 2. If you want to go, double-check the time!

Hmmm, interesting. I'd like to see how this turns out. Current, my Haunted House is on a 32 x 32 baseplate. The front portion of the House is elevated on plates, while the back portion is on flat tiles. To the left of the house is a series of more flat tiles, so the house can swing out and rest without a problem. However, your solution looks much more aesthetic than mine.

Yay! Thanks for updating that.

Hey, can this be posted here? This post isn't quite about sets, and not quite about the film, so I'm posting here until somebody tells me better. Anyway, there's a LOT of events and release dates related to The Lego Movie in the next few weeks. I thought it'd be nice if we could condense them here so people know what to look for. If anyone can suggest anything, I'll edit the post when I have time and add it. (I'm putting US dates for now, but I'll be happy to add non-US dates if someone can tell me what they are.) January - 13 - Free Emmet Poster, The Lego Store 20 - Free Lord Business Poster, The Lego Store 21 - "Build Like The Lego Movie Master Builders" (get a free accessory pack), The Lego Store 25 - TLM Movie Event, Barnes & Noble (US) 27 - Free Batman Poster, The Lego Store February - 1-28 - Free Piece of Resistance Set with $50 purchase at Shop.lego.com and Lego Stores Variable - Color Me Mine Lego Movie Event 4 - Free Micro Manager, The Lego Store 4 - Soundtrack Release Date 4 - Video Game Release Date (Free Wild West Emmet figure with preorder at Gamestop; Free Robot Radio DJ with preorder at Walmart) 7 - FILM RELEASE DATE! Free Pajamas Emmet for Crown Members at Regal Cinemas; Free Robot DJ for Stubbs Members at AMC Cinemas. 7 - Movie Cups in McDonalds' Happy Meal 7 - Super Secret Police Enforcer Polybag appearing at Toys R Us 8 - Toys R Us Event - Build Emmet's Car 17 - Sea Cow Release Date for VIPs 22 - Lego Club Meeting (Movie themed), The Lego Store March 1 - Build the Lego Movie Event, Barnes & Noble June- 1 - Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP, Super Secret Police Dropship, and Construct-o Mech released 7 - Lego Movie Day at GameStop (Movie Emmet available again) 14 - Build a mini Master Builder, Toys R Us 17 - Blu-Ray/DVD release 28 - Lego Movie Club Meeting, Lego Store (get a Unikitty T-shirt) Future - ??? - Micro Manager Battle Polybag Released (nobody's seen it yet) Anything else I haven't accounted for? Let us know!

Yeah, I'd like to know if/when/where the polys are going to appear. I haven't seen any U.S. theaters announce any exclusive figures. Plus, a lot of U.S. movie chains are regional, so I'd hate if it's a theater that's not in my area. I haven't seen the promotional polys anywhere yet either. I checked my two TRUs in the last week, and nothing. Target is just starting to put out its Valentine's section, so maybe a movie poly will be there? (Word has it that the City Seaplane is showing up there, which may be the "boy" Valentine's set.)

Update: now with a photo of the Lincoln Chair I've built so far. "A house divided...would be better than this!"

Update: I have ALMOST built the entire chair and posted a photo at the bottom of this post. I'm trying to recreate Abraham Lincoln's rocket chair with my bricks based on a VERY careful examination of the trailer. I don't quite have all the bricks, but I'm close. In the meantime, I think I've figured out what it needs through LDD. Lincoln's chair is not very visible, and . You can only see it from 1:50 to 1:54. Here's a bit of it from somebody's screen grab which I actually found useful--this little glimpse told me that the chair back was higher than his armrests, and this is the only shot where you can see it. Still, when it flies out of the palace, you can get a very careful look at what bricks make it up. Here's what I could make of it disassembled, with a little guesswork on my part: So here's what you need, mostly in white bricks: 4 1 x 4 plates 3 1 x 2 plates 3 2 x 4 plates 5 1 x 2 tiles 1 1 x 4 tile 5 1 x 2 ribbed bricks 1 2 x 2 brick 1 1 x 2 brick 1 2 x 2 round ribbed brick (I think anything could go in there, but the round ribbed brick looks good) 1 octagonal piece 1 R5-D4 white droid head (which I don't think exists without printing, but that's what appears to be under the octagon if you pause the trailer. Use a white 2 x 2 dome if nothing else is available.) 1 giant flame 4 smaller flames (with one caveat--I have no idea how to attach them, and I think the trailer is cheating) 1 Abraham Lincoln Collectable Minifigure Here's how the assembled product should look. The vertical "ribs" on the white bricks should face outward on all sides. The plates which form the base should be in two layers. The top layer should basically equate to a 4 x 6 white plate (and really, you could use that if you don't care that it's not film accurate). The bottom later should form a frame so you can put the big rocket exhaust in the middle. Front view: Back view: From what I could tell from the trailer, the back appears to be plain bricks, not ribbed. I could be wrong, but that's how it looked from the few seconds that we can see it. For the chair back, I used a 2 x 2 white brick for the base, two 1 x 2 white plates, and finally a 1 x 2 white brick, topped with a 1 x 2 white tile. Remember, the back should be slightly higher than the armrests. Bottom view: You CAN get a good look at the bottom in the trailer if you pause at the right moment. The only problem I have is that in LDD, the smaller flames WILL NOT attach to the white booster rockets. I have no idea how to get them in there. If it works in real life, please let me know. Also, again, the bottom piece holding the big flame should be an R5-D4 droid head from Star Wars, minus the printing. That doesn't exist in LDD, so I used the 2 x 2 round dome. One other thing to note in the trailer is that some of the white bricks appear to be tan depending on when you pause it. I have carefully decided that it's an effect of the light and the whole thing is actually white. Watch it carefully as it flies off--the whole thing looks white. I believe it's simply a reflection at certain moments where some of the white plates look tan. However, the color change does give you a good look at the bricks that make the base. EDIT: Here's what I've built using the bricks I have available: The top layer of the base is NOT film accurate. It's a 4 x 6 plate, so it holds together, but it's not made of the 2 x 4 and 1 x 4 plates that I identified from the trailer. Also also, I obviously don't have the little booster rockets, the flames, and my octagonal piece and exhaust are in black. This is close, so I'm happy, but I will need to Bricklink the right parts at some point.

Yeah! It's a sleek, efficient model, and it looks like it's going to pound that Micro Manager to rescue the guy. Great work. Keep the Movie MOCs coming, folks!

I hope EB does a 2-in-1 theme or contest too. If they do it, I hope it's broken up by category, since Lego has a lot of sets in different piece/price ranges. Maybe it should be divided into piece-count categories, like up to 100 pieces, 200, 300, etc. If EB doesn't launch something by February, maybe we can start our own event (not an official contest, just a "Hey, everybody do one of these" things) with mod permission. Any moderators out there have any thoughts?

So I decided to challenge myself: could I take an existing set and, using ONLY the parts from that set, make a Lego Movie-style 2-in-1 vehicle to battle the Micro Managers? I decided to try on the Friends set "Stephanie's Cool Convertible." Here's what I came up with: The Micro Manager is about to get the puppy! Emmet helps Stephanie quickly convert her convertible into something that can defeat the evil robots! Will she make it in time? Front of the vehicle. I wanted to maintain a "car" shape while still giving it a sci-fi hovercar feel. Side view of the vehicle. The hover-mechanisms unfortunately don't hold on very well, so I had to secure a lot of pieces around them to help stabilize them. Unfortunately, they just don't stick to the SNOT pieces very well--they were intended to hold the front and back bumpers rather than something this heavy. It does hold, but it's less "swooshable" than I'd like for the parts in the set. I'm also a little disappointed with the laser-lamp. I definitely wanted the car to have a weapon of some sort, and I was worried that I was out of parts until I remembered the lamppost and the clip brick it came with. The best place to put it seemed to be above the vehicle. (If there were two lampposts, I'd have put them on the sides. With one, it seemed better to get it in the middle.) However, it rides a bit low, so Emmet has to lean WAY back to not get his head blown off. The undercarriage to show how it holds together. I admit that it's a little empty under there, but that's what I have for the parts available. I didn't want to "cheat" by using anything other than what's in the original set. Here's what's left over. Most of this was from the wash station which came with the car. I borrowed a few pieces from them to make the cannon and to secure some weak spots. Since the real 2-in-1 sets seem to all have some leftover pieces between builds, I'm OK with this. Your thoughts are appreciated! I hope you're all inspired to make some 2-in-1 sets out of your existing products. Go for it! That's what Lego is all about.

How about this version of 3PO? Just a head, torso, and one arm with no hand. Ha-ha, seriously, that'll never happen (easy mod, though). It is from one of my favorite Star Wars short stories. The description in the article doesn't do it justice.

By the way, I found myself wishing today that we'd get Benny in a promotional polybag. I've noticed that a lot of polybags tend to have "unique" elements, which suggests to me that Lego is looking for an additional means to use a unique mold. Lego molds are expensive--they always need to ask themselves exactly how many parts they can get out of a thing so it's worth the cost. Since Benny's cracked helmet is going to be specific to very large and expensive sets, I find myself wishing we had a cheaper option for him. A summer polybag release would do the trick. Heck, it'd be great if Lego could recreate this or this as a Benny set. If you're listening, Lego, I'd definitely buy one.

Too bad! Take the day off in February and get the kids out to the store--the Micro Manager is the next model! (I do wish the minibuilds fell on a Friday or Saturday...)

Yep, I've mentioned it in my review of this month's mini-build. I am so there. Yes! We need more Micro Managers, people!