Still Raindrop

Curses; I had hoped I was being completely original

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find my camera (a true shame, as I have a decent number of MOCs that I want to share), so I'll just have to make this a description without visual aids. While building a little Mediterranean restaurant, I came across the problem of gloves. Having worked in a restaurant before, I know that latex gloves are a necessity for chefs. So, I put some white gloves on my chef figure, but that just didn't cut it. They looked too much like formalwear gloves. I wondered what I could do to get that latex effect--the distortion/making pale of color, without blocking it out entirely. Then I saw a few fleshie hands I had lying around, and tried those. It might just be me, but I think they give the effect of latex gloves rather splendidly! This could work not only for cooks, but also doctors, and other professions where constant hand sanitation is necessary, but constant handwashing is impractical.

I also got the grey door insert . . . very strange, indeed.

Her name was Sky Lane. It's quite sad, though, to actually play the game--the "Xtreme Tower" is the only set that made it into the game itself, and it was a really watered down version of the Information Center from the first two games. But the island was, in the game, filled with incredible buildings that would have made really cool sets.

I recently got the police station, and there were quite a lot of those white paddles (piece 3900) with the trans-blue 1/3 1x1 cylinders attached. What exactly are those supposed to be? And why do the police have so many of them?

Rwanda didn't have any LEGO.

I do think these look like better sets than I originally thought, though I still doubt that I'll pick any up. I'm still not fond of the exclusively vehicular deal that pervades many LEGO themes today. At least the Rock Raiders had a base where they could take the crystals they harvested, refuel their vehicles, process ore, etc. Sure, the HQ wasn't great, but at least it was something (and it was a good deal more fun if you had the Rock Raiders computer game and knew what all the little buildings were). On the other hand, it's good to see that LEGO is addressing the drug issue that plagues society today, by making a storyline including crystal junkies

While working on a larger project (the lair of Dr. Phibes), I thought it would be fun to make David Byrne (of "Talking Heads" fame) wearing his big suit from the "Stop Making Sense" concert. It's not much, but it was fun. I don't think the face is really Byrne-ish enough, but he has a tough face to capture in any medium, so I think I did OK with the faces LEGO gives us.

I know there are different opinions on the possibility of Dr. Inferno returning; here's my take on it (though something similar to this has probably already been expressed). I really like Dr. Inferno. He is the epitome of an eccentric, insane, brilliant villain. Everything about him, from his looks to his base to the kind of people he hires, is a reminder of what kind of villain he is. And it's because I really love the character that I hope he isn't the main villain next year. You see, I also liked Ogel (he doesn't even come close to being as awesome as Dr. Inferno, but he was the most creative character of the time, I think). But he was re-used for every Alpha Team wave, given very small physical changes and crappy new bases, until he became less of an evil force and more of an annoyance. This overuse is the kind of thing I hope not to see with Dr. Inferno. If the Agents line continues beyond next year, Inferno would be a good recurring villain, but I don't think that he should be the main antagonist every single time.

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone! It's good to be here. Tarfful, I like a whole variety of themes. I recently got a couple of Agents sets (Gold Hunt and Jetpack Pursuit), and those were quite fun to build. I'd have to say, though, that I like themes that can be "interconnected." For example, I like building towns that can spread out into other themes--Agents and Mars Misison, for example, are both directly related to my town layout (Alpha Team is there, too, but in sort of a sad state. Dash, leader of the government-founded team, became so obsessed with thwarting Ogel that he is blind to any other threat. After having served jail time, Ogel himself has reformed, and now owns a small shop in town. Dash is convinced that Ogel is behind every crime that happens in the city, even minor offenses, so his store is often forcibly entered by the Alpha Team. Because of his fame, Dash is never officially reprimanded, and Alpha Team goes on using government money as a sort of glorified parole officer for one ex-offender. Thus, a new team of privately-funded agents came into existence.)

This was my first pirate set, and one of my first LEGO sets, so I'm a bit biased due to nostalgia. However, I do think that the log-raft look is done in a rather clever way (although they really should have used brown cylinders instead of yellow).

I agree; a dark green hull would be much better; not only would it match the ship in the show better, it would also be more useful for those who wished to bulk up their pirate fleet.

I hope I'm not breaking any rules . . . I looked to see if there was anything about double-posting, but I could find nothing. If I'm missing something, please smack me (metaphorically). This time it's a boatmobile; nothing extremely new or innovative, but I tried to make it look a bit more like the boats on the show than the official LEGO version does (ie, I gave it tiny wheels and tried to make the outboard motor look better). Here's the boat, being driven by good old Peterson: And a close-up of the motor: Not the greatest, but I tried about 20 other things, and this one looks best in such a small space.

You think so? Thanks!

Thanks, guys! I've just made another . . . Jellyfish Fields. Just when you thought it was safe to go outside. . . . The little coral polyps are actually my favorite part of the entire thing.

Holy cow. What a perfect time to come out of the dark ages. It's like LEGO keeps outdoing itself. The sets just keep getting better and better. I know we all fantasized about seeing new soldiers' forts, but to actually see what it will look like . . . it's astounding. This stuff is much better than the last wave of pirates (with the Armada). I had the Imperial Outpost (6263) from 1995, and I must say that this new fort looks even better than that! It's like a Sabre Island/Lagoon Lock-Up mix, with a better assortment of pieces! And that raft set! What's wonderful is, this all fits in with the sets of yesteryear. Unlike some of the new city sets (which I think are spectacular, but may prove to be somewhat problematic for classic city fans), I can see these seamlessly blending with the classics (well, almost seamlessly--the sand is tan now, instead of the old yellow, but I don't think that should be too much of a problem). All this babbling is to say that I really appreciate the direction LEGO is headed: expanding the past to improve the future.

So, I really enjoy SpongeBob SquarePants, and I think that LEGO is a wonderful medium for it. As such, I have made a few small MOCs, and a couple modifications to existing sets. None of them are extremely good, but I'm fresh out of my dark ages, and a bit rusty. Constructive criticism and other feedback would be appreciated! Sorry for the poor lighting in some of the pictures. First off is Patrick's rock. I was rather disappointed with the houses of both Squidward and Patrick in LEGO's official set, so I decided to remake Patrick's (I don't own the Bikini Bottom set, and I thought it would be rather pointless to make Squidward's house without Squidward himself). I didn't have as many brown slopes as I would have liked, so the rock doesn't look as round as it should. . . And here it is opened. Not much space for interior detail--one of the downsides of using a solid medium to portray an animated cartoon. Next is your generic Bikini Bottom house. More for background/display than anything. . . . My first modification: the hospital: Just changed it around a bit so that the bed looked like an actual hospital bed. Plankton's lab--this is the one I'm probably the most proud of (although I forgot to put the toxic barrel back in--it is now sitting where the grey tile is in the photo): Especially considering my first attempt didn't look nearly as good:

Oh, good--I was worried for a while there, when the new pictures showed no sign of Mr SquarePants.

I think there is still a lot of ground that LEGO SpongeBob could cover--Jellyfish Fields, the Mermalair, the Flying Dutchman's ship, Goo Lagoon, Bikini Bottom houses, etc. My hope is that they're re-doing the previous two sets first, in the style of the newer sets. I do hope to see a greater variety in the future, though.

Hello, everyone. I'm Mark, and I've been lurking here for a while, and have even made a few posts, so I think it's high time I introduce myself. I'm a nineteen-year-old man fresh out of the dark ages; the only "new" LEGO sets I have are some MM and SpongeBob.

I would be glad to see redesigns of those two sets. The second wave of SpongeBob sets was much, much better than the first. The pineapple was good, but Patrick's rock and Squidward's house were rather pathetic. And when you have a Chum Bucket that looks better than the Krusty Krab . . . well, that's not good. So I'm up for redesigns.

My fish doctor has the torso from 7902 Doctor's Car, which is unfortunate, because the other torso is more stylized and cartoonish, I think. However, I did have that mad scientist lab set, so a bit of digging through my old collection will hopefully yield the better torso.

skinkfem, I certainly agree with many of your points--humankind has quite a violent past. However, I think that you're overlooking a few important factors, the largest of which is fear for survival. The aliens in these sets are clearly better off, as far as weapons go. If we came in contact with an alien race that was clearly able to destroy us, I think we would try for peace first. Also, humanity is slowly moving towards a point of more understanding. The process is slow, and there are many, many steps backward, but I would certainly say that most nations--including the space-faring ones--are more tolerant than they were two hundred years ago. Hopefully the team of scientists and specialists that would constitute a mission to Mars in the future would understand what the colonizers in the eighteenth and nineteenth century didn't: that we don't have automatic control over everything we see. I think that a group of scientists in particular would be good at realizing this.

Sorry about that. Re-worded: The MX-11 Astro Fighter and the MT-21 Mobile Mining Unit were easy to modify, as was the MT-61 Crystal Reaper (in addition to removing the cannons from the latter, I also changed the engine a bit, so it is no longer sucking energy from the alien). It was a little tougher with the MT-201 Ultra Drill Walker, since I had to find something that looked good in place of the cannons; eventually I settled on a satellite). The MX-71 Recon Dropship has proven to be the greatest challenge (I also removed all the alien holding cells . . . I was able to do something cool with the MX-41 Switch Fighter before I dismantled it).

I have modified my human sets because of this; I think they just look better as mining/research vehicles. 7695 and 7648 were easy to modify, as was 7645 (in addition to removing the cannons from the latter, I also changed the engine a bit, so it is no longer sucking energy from the alien). It was a little tougher with 7649, since I had to find something that looked good in place of the cannons; eventually I settled on a satellite). 7692 has proven to be the greatest challenge (I also removed all the alien holding cells . . . I was able to do something cool with 7647 before I dismantled it).