jamesster

http://www.capsuleco...ey-new-screens/ Looks like pretty typical TT stuff to me. :\

Heh, I actually wasn't really intending for this to be a review, but I guess it is. Ok, thanks! I don't think Ban Bao was involved with this; the pieces are not only the exact same size as LEGO, but they're the exact same shape - seems they copied LEGO pieces directly. The only pieces that aren't taken directly from LEGO (that I can tell) are the 1x1 bricks with studs on their sides, which also have holes for studs on the opposite side of the brick from the stud. And while the wheels lack the ridges and grooves that make LEGO tires grip to their hubs, they otherwise look identical.

I have no idea what forum this should go in, as it's not directly tied to any LEGO theme or even LEGO as a company, so if a mod wants to move it to a more fitting location (if needed) that would be great. I went on a road trip to New York recently, and stopped by Hershey's Chocolate World on the way back home. The Hershey Company is the largest chocolate company in North America, but I got a bit of a surprise when I went into the gift shop... They also have LEGO clone sets. Granted, the only had two - a racecar ($5) and a semi-trailer truck ($20), and they both had the same color scheme, but what I found interesting was that these didn't have any other brand associated with them except Hershey's. The only information I could find was on one side of the box, which has the text "©2012 THE HERSHEY COMPANY", and also revealed that the sets are manufactured in Shantou, China and imported by WSP International Limited. So, I did a quick Google search on my phone right there in the gift shop to see if anybody else had posted about these online before... Nope. So I bought the $5 racecar set just for the heck of it. (By the way, you can click on the embedded pictures to see high-res versions of them) If you're wondering what the back of the box looks like, it's exactly the same as the front except upside-down. The box also wasn't sealed in any way - no glue or even tape. The truck set was the same way. Inside were two bags of pieces that don't even slightly match the color of the model on the box art, and some very poorly folded instructions. There's the unfolded instructions. They're full of errors - in panel 1, there are two pieces that appear to be one due to a missing line, the bracket in panel 4 appears to be attached in an impossible position when it's actually floating, panel 6 shows two ways of attaching the same 2x2 plate, and there printed pieces are shown without their printing, possibly causing some confusion as to where some 1x3 tiles go. Here's the pieces from the two bags. Note the steering wheel comes in two pieces instead of being pre-assembled, and the wheels/tires just slide onto each other instead of locking with ridges and grooves (which led to them slowly sliding off as the final model rolled around). There's also very visible white dots on most of the pieces where they were detached from the injection mold, and the plastic feels lighter and cheaper than real LEGO. Here's the completed model. The color scheme looks nothing like the car on the CGI box art, but at least all the pieces were there. But do they hold together tightly? Well, only a few seconds after I had taken my first photo of the finished build, that happened, so no. The problem seems to be that the pieces are either too large or too small, and not in minor variances. The 2x4 wedge plates are too big to fit alongside each other and as a result they pop the entire spoiler assembly off due to its unequally floppy hinges... ... And these 1x1 bricks with studs on one side are so small they form a grid of empty space. They're covered up by other pieces in the full model, but it's no excuse for such bad quality control. Other parts of the model just bounced off as I held it in my hands. As I said earlier, I haven't been able to find any information about these Hershey's clone sets anywhere online, they aren't even on the official online Hershey's store. As far as I know, the only place you can get these are in real Hershey's stores - and even then, the only place I can confirm they're at is the Chocolate World store, I don't know if they're in any of the other ones. I'm not sure why you'd want to buy one, though.

*bump* We finally got some screenshots today: Classic Space and mythology! Classic LEGO Space! If you're wondering where these screenshots came from, they were released in Funcom's 4Q 2012 update. The same press release also reveals that beta is planned for Q3 2013! Tablet versions are also in the works.

I've been looking for info on those audio dramas for ages - especially the Time Cruisers ones. Thanks! Interesting that the sort of home time period for Time Cruisers is late into the 3000s, I always placed them as being from the same time period as typical LEGO Town stuff.

Hm... Well, the Cybermaster planet does seems to resemble Cyber World more with the whole cyber city thing, while the planet TECHNIC is a vast desert. But there is the whole "TECHNIC" word spelled out on its surface, though, so I dunno. I'd say it's more likely Cyber World. Perhaps somebody who owns the Cybermaster kit could provide more info?

Good catch, I didn't think of that - I just checked my video walkthrough, and the loading screens for the LUP worlds do indeed call them the World Builder Planets. I just checked the digital version of the magazine, and I don't see anything in the interview suggesting that Kazak is Kazak's homeworld. Ah, I forgot about that. Perhaps they planned on having the story wrap up there when the game closed down eventually... And then the end came far sooner than expected?

Ah, I get what you're saying now. Yeah, that does seem likely. Plus, on page 15 where a sort of overview of the planet is shown, it seems to be mostly green/brown in color, supporting the idea.

Insectoid is just a word that means "insect-like"... It's not specifically tied to the LEGO theme. You sure about that? Seems pretty clear Commercia is the name of the planet to me. From page 17: "Hey, give it a rest, will you? We don't want to buy or sell ANYTHING!" "Of course you do! No one comes to Commercia unless they want to buy or sell something... But OK, I won't pry into your trade secrets. Heading for town? Hop in!" Notice how he differentiates between "Commercia" and "town" - the way it's phrased seems to say that after landing on the planet, they had already arrived at Commercia. The alien who greeted them asked them if they were going into the city after he had already mentioned they had come to Commercia. Why would he say it that way if Commercia was only the name of the city? And considering Jim and Viva landed in one, yes, I'd say it's very possible the planet has swamps. I'll try to find my Brickjournal magazine with the interview with Frank Madsen, if I remember right it has some solid proof Commercia is the name of the planet... Edit - Found it: Notice how they say on Commercia, and Frank describes it as a "strange world". Oh, and the interview is from Brickjournal Issue 2, and it has some additional info on Jim Spaceborn, like pages of the unpublished comics and some info on its origins:

Old news, those are frames from - plus there was a ton of leaked beta gameplay on YouTube (which has now been removed).

It was never really specified, actually. They were created by teams of AFOLs, not the main developers of the game, so they're smaller and there's generally less story to them compared to the primary worlds of the game.

I'm staff over at the LU wiki (as is PeabodySam), and I've never heard anything about plans to have Crux re-form in all the research I've done. I can't even see how the developers could have worked that into the game, as many of the mechanics and story elements of the game simply wouldn't have worked if the planet re-formed - for example, the player property worlds, which are specifically small planet chunks players can claim as their own. It would especially be an issue with the first property in the game, which is heavily tied into the story of the entire intro level and ending boss fight, if the planet had ever re-formed in the story the developers would have been forced to entirely re-work the first hour and a half of the game - and they had already done that once with the launch of free-to-play! Not to mention Crux Prime (the biggest chunk of Crux), which would also have to be heavily reworked if Crux re-formed, as the entire southwest end of the level had its focus on the edge of the planet chunk and the steep cliffs dropping off into a sea of Maelstrom energy swirling underneath it... Anyway, here's the LU wiki articles for the various pieces of Crux: Avant Gardens Nimbus Station Pet Cove Gnarled Forest Forbidden Valley Crux Prime (Sorry for the poor quality of this article, it's on my list of articles to revise) Frostburgh (Technically this place is actually a comet, and as with Crux Prime the article needs to be revised to get it up to quality standards) DeepFreeze Portabello MoonBase (This level actually doesn't have any direct story ties to the rest of LEGO Universe, and the presence of 10029 Lunar Lander suggests it may be Earth's moon, though the planet seen in the sky doesn't specifically resemble Earth) Robot City (Again, terrible article, needs revising - though it was never clearly stated where the city is, it's at least close enough to the Maelstrom to have contact with it, so it's likely on a chunk of Crux) There's also the smaller property worlds, which, as PeabodySam said, might not qualify as planets - there's really not much to say about them, as they're basically tiny little planet chunks with the same visual style as their respective parent worlds.

This is one heck of a list. Keep up the great work!

Oooh, now things are certainly getting interesting. So there actually is a second Castle Kids book out there, and a third that was never released? Wow, this sounds exactly like Jim Spaceborn... Any info on what the second book is called, or maybe an image of the cover? I can't seem to find anything about it. As for the Pirates comic, I own that as well (there's already scans of it here) and it does indeed credit the artist as Vano - I think some other Pirates stories in that style were released in book form, though I don't own any of those, just the initial comic.

Ok, sounds good, thanks! I'll see if I can get the first Jim Spaceborn book scanned sometime soon. Also, the Brickshelf folder for Castle Kids is public now.

As far as I know, Brickshelf doesn't accept PDF files anymore (though it used to a few years back). I think Google Docs works with PDF files, but having never tried it myself, I have no idea how.

Ok, will do. Oh - I just realized you should be able to view the images directly if you know the URL. Here's the front cover: http://www.brickshel...stleKids/01.jpg Simply change the number 01 to 02, 03, etc to view each page - there's 52 images total. For example: http://www.brickshel...stleKids/05.jpg (Start of the actual comic) http://www.brickshel...stleKids/21.jpg (A page nearly half way through the story) http://www.brickshel...stleKids/52.jpg (Back cover, final image) Wow, cool! Any indication as to whether or not those smaller comics were ever released? Or were they canceled like the other Jim Spaceborn comics?

Ok, here's scans of Castle Kids: http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=522746 (Since the Brickshelf gallery isn't public yet I've also uploaded a zip of the images to MediaFire: http://www.mediafire...t3pcyaikhi399md) I'll see if I can get the first Jim Spaceborn book scanned too, if anybody wants it, but that might be a while yet. And if I remember right, the interview was in Issue 2 of BrickJournal, from June 2008.

A trailer for the 3DS game was released today:

Hedgehogs don't have beaver tails.

A teaser for the 4D LEGOLAND thingy. Pause about 12 seconds in... Beavers?

I can honestly say I've never been so excited for a Cuusoo project before. I supported yesterday morning around the 200 mark - and the amount of supporters has doubled since then! Great stuff!

Understood, thanks for offering.

I'll take it if it's open.

Glad to see this making a comeback!