Rayman

I thought Blade Runner , the sets are very well designed and the idea of a "space" hot rod is very appealling. But from the limited information we have, the new space police is not as "spacey" as I expected. This looks more like Future Police when I think about it. Still the badguy looks awesome.

I feel that Dooku looks VERY good if wearing the supplied hood. It fits his menacing face very nicely. Although i do agree with the general consensus with that new hair piece. I suppose that it looks out of place considering that it should have been for the new Palpatine figure. Thanks Nannan! I've been dying to see some close up photos of the set.

G'day! I believe that its Saturday isn't it? As promised here are the two new stickers that I have been working on in parallel with some other projects Gunship Art #4 (this gunship is totally non-canon, but the artwork is based on a republic pinup poster) Gunship Art #5 (the name and detailing is non-canon reference image) And as an added bonus a revised Gunship Art #3, updated so that it matches the artwork in The Clone Wars, although there are still no clear pictures that reveal its name. Enjoy and I hope to convert more and more TCW art into LEGO form, and comments and feedback are always much appreciated! Thanks! Rayman

Hehe sorry guys for leaving you in the dark. I WILL have my latest stickers posted up here by Saturaday. I was working on two designs, hence the wait. I hope that will be enough compensation for my lateness. Oh and thanks for the suggestion natelite I'd consider it if my printer wasn't busted , so unfortunately I haven't even gotten around to making stickers for myself. It'll probably be an option that I'll explore later on though. So keep watching this space. However I am not too serious about selling my work right now as it is still a fun venture for me, but I still do the occasional request if I have the time. Once again I wholeheartedly appreciate your comments

Thanks for the comments guys : ). $570? I can see why they're discussing it over at Bricklink. However my gut feeling about these figures is that they're merely commemorative customs made for a good cause, so they should not receive a separate bricklink entry just for the figures. Anyway I'll provide the background to these figures to help with the discussion. I received the commission from thelittlearmshop - who in turn had permission to produce these figures from LFL and LEGO, in late 2007. The Stormtroopers were to be given to the 501st German Garrison members at the Star Wars show in Germany in December if I recall correctly. Although I am aware that some clones were also given to the GG at that show too. The Clonetroopers were made for the US arm of the 501st (hence the generic logo). A fun fact to note that one of the early mock ups I made featured a red shock trooper sporting the 501st emblem. However the license only extended to the white clones, which is what you see today. The emblems on the back of each figure is a decal (done in the same fashion as my other customs) with several layers of clear coat to protect the figure. The black ink used for decals has a slight gold tint too, but is rather hard to see due to the clear coat. Some stats: Clone Troopers - 600 produced Stormtrooper - 290 in total, 95 Black Pauldrons, 95 White Pauldrons, 100, Orange Pauldrons produced I just uploaded some WIP photos onto brickshelf of when these were being made in 2007 - boy I had never seen that many clones or stormies in one place until this job! 501st Figure WIP photos (when public) KimT, I did do the backs of each figure and the pauldrons (the littlearmsshop kindly supplied all the parts).

I don't mind the stubbiness of the venator perhaps it's distorted to match the odd proportions of a minifig? Regardless, Senate Gaurds and a Chancellor Palpatine figure is more than enough cause for me to pick this set up.

Oh, I made those last year and these are the first photos that I've seen online : ) I couldn't feel my hands afterwards... But of course I am not allowed to make anymore : P Sorry guys I am bound by an oath to LFL and the 501st And a minifig data base with a standardised set of pictures would a very useful tool for Minifig MOCers. I've always struggled to find good reference pics.

I hope clones can swim :) The rocks are excellent!

The second head is not the same as the other one is it? I like the second head : ) Reminds me of the TIE bomber, which one of my favourite fighters. Anyway that IS one rather large Vulture : )

A battle pack a day keeps the kids away :) Besides who wouldn't want a massive clone army to protect their LEGO collection?

I have painted clone-trooper helmets and jet-packs before so I guess they're similar to hairpieces . Both spray painting and drybrushing work quite well in achieving a nice smooth finish. My trick to a smooth finish is to build up the colour slowly with multiple layers of thinned paint. This ensures a uniform surface. It also helps to sand the surface with a very fine coarse sand paper to smooth out any imperfections (I start off with a 800 grit then 1200 and 2000). Spraying the piece with a plastic surface primer also improves the paint finish and durability as it gives the paint a chemical interface to bond with (paint doesn't stick well to plastic). A light coat of primer will do the trick - too much will obscure sculpted details so be careful! Thinned down Tamiya Expoxy putty works quite well for filling gaps made by air bubbles. With Spray Paint: - Make sure that you spray in light bursts about 25-30 cm away from the object you wish to paint - It doesn't matter if you can't cover the entire hairpiece with a single pass, no need to rush - Spraying layer at a time allows the already applied paint a chance to cure, this helps avoid "pooling" of paint in concentrated blobs. Drybrushing" - I like to use thinned paint as you are less likely to make mistakes with colour, as the colour slowly builds up with each successive layer. This is how I painted my Commander Bly helmet. - Because the paint is thinner brush strokes will be less noticable when the job is complete (if not totally invisible!). - Wait till each layer is dry before attempting the next. - Water based Arcylics are good for this as they dry quickly. Hope this helps!

I experienced something similar at my local Big-W, when I spotted two skeleton castle sets on the shelf that were clearly broken into by a scrupleless individual- I took a peek inside and thankfully the dragon and say 70% of the parts were still enclosed. So I informed one of the staff about the damaged stock and inquired about a possible discount (I was hoping for 50% ), but much to my disapointment and confirming what Natelite wrote about TLC satisfaction gaurantee. Big-W would rather return the damaged stock for a refund than to sell it off at a discounted price. So there you go.

Price to piece count aside, this set would be my favourite of the 2009 Jan wave. I don't think price is that much of an issue seeing that you only need ONE Ahsoka's Jedi Fighter in your collection Very swooshable pair though! I do agree with most of the criticism of the new astro-mech heads VS the older prints. The print look distorted and stretched.

Sorry for the slowish update and thanks for your comments -November was my exam month ... But the good news is that they're finally over and I am back drawing and designing again. Amazon.com finally shipped my Clone Wars Blu-Ray a couple of days ago and I have been freeze framing the movie since picking out the quirky little things Lucasfilm has placed in the background. I managed to spot three new potential artworks to LEGO-fy. Although one is still too grainy to extract - I couldn't believe that 1080 resolution was still not enough! HUGE WIP IMAGE (about 220 kb) The pose in the original artwork was ridiculously difficult to get right for a LEGO person, which explains why I have drawn up 2 different leg poses. One that is faithful to the original drawing and the other more feasible for an Orange LEGO Twi'lek girl to strike. Two alternative Lekku positions were also drawn, and I made a set sporting ARC antennas for kicks and as a homage to Lucky Lekku. I am naming this gunship: Happy Flyer. Which one do you think should go onto the final gunship sticker? Gunship art number 4 is also in the works; but it's not a Twi'lek for those who are wondering

Yes I believe that the yellow technic is only used for the building. However I didn't find it neccessary. What a strange step...

I know what you mean about feeling bad about pestering sellers for order corrections. Fortunately however, I only had to do this once and the seller was very forthcoming with the process and I got the parts I requested for in the end. I have made about 30 or so orders over 3 years and have only been dupped once (good thing it was a small order though).

Ooooo! "Money for nothing! ChChCh Chicks for free!" Please sign me up! Rayman

Quite possibly, I am not sure how USPS charges their fees. But for Australia Post at least you can set up a postage account with the post office. This allows you to ship whatever you want with the postal service without paying until the end of the month. The most important difference is that THE POSTAGE RATES ARE CHEAPER than for those without an account. So I would question the amount that seller charged you. Anyway a battle droid weighs less than a gram. The amount that I would charge to ship 50 battle droids world-wide would have been 2 dollars. Sometimes postage boxes can cost 6 dollars (I have paid this much for a box to ship 3 AT-TEs). But with that said, sellers sometimes charge higher than actual shipping fees to cover their overhead fees and sometimes cheaper LEGO prices. This is a common tactic on ebay, as shipping charges to not incur ebay nor bricklink fees.

The genius and work ethic of that man never ceases to amaze me! Thanks for the update Badger.

Oh dear! Tis the year to be shirtless! Is the shell bikini a new torso print? Thanks for the Epic review! I know a lot of this has been going around the forums lately but in addition to being shirtless 2009 is going to NUKE my wallet....

Soooo.... how many figures can you fit into this off-roading bad boy? Cheers for the review! LEGO's been pretty spot on with the scale of their sets recently.

Thanks for the review, and the very clear pictures! For a six dollar set, this is very mini figure heavy! It is also nice to see a good beefy selection of exclusive mini-fig accessories. Might have to pick this one up to check out the new telescope.

Thanks for your review Mr. Mandalorian I also picked up this set in recent times, and out of all the new CW vehicles I have (V19, ATTE, Republic Gunship, and the Droid Gunship). I can say with confidence that this is my favourite set of the current wave. The construction and build are faithfully accurate and to scale with the real Star Wars Fighter Tank (I did a quick measure up and discovered that it was only about 10% larger than true minifig scale!) My flick missiles were tight, however I have noticed that the tightness of the missiles themselved vary from set to set. I agree with you that there are pretty much no downsides to the set other than that the troopers are not able to stand up inside the crew compartment -- then again clone troopers are fairly tall The technic discs used for the wheels really do create a nice "hover" effect!

True, but I think LEGO has been doing this for quite sometime. They replaced the helmets of the Imperial Landing Craft Stormtroopers with the ones from the battle pack, midway through release.

I was thinking the same thing. Love or hate the figures, the colours and parts in these sets are a treat!