Sirens-of-Titan

I don't see them releasing the exact same factions, frankly their designs have changed and so have the designers so even though they may pay homage to old favorite groups, it seems unlikely that they will actually re-release them. What I would like to happen is for the them to create more diverse factions; somewhere between standard knight-vs-knight and over-the-top-undead-fantasy. Ideally a human horde faction with old rusted armor and weapons, including bandits mercs and thieves, topped off by a great coat of arms to reflect that personality. Fox, wolf, bear, on the shield, it's all good to me. PS if the forestmen are to make a come back; I want to see many many woodland sets and I hope against hope for some woodland critters like rabbits, deer and bears!

I completely agree with you about variety and and using your imagination to think of new uses for already existing parts; this is the premise of Lego after all, creativity and a not too many specialized parts. The only thing is the issue of scale. Minifigures are finely detailed, but their world is blocky and massive in comparison. To give minifigures accessories not designed for their level of detail kind of violates the gentle boundary between the outside brick world, and their miniature printed world. This is the reason animals should be molds in myt opinion and not brick build unless they are huge.

But it's $20!! I'd say for 4 minifigs, a horse with barding and a few parts it's totally worth the price. This set is an army builder and I'm glad it doesn't include too much of a building because if it was 25-30$ it wouldn't be affordable to get multiples.

Very cool build Brickdoctor! :thumbup: I love how the pods fit perfectly in the wall and I assume sliding in and out is easy. Very comical and a job well done! PS sick base!

It seems to me this will be the most popular theme in a few years. Is it just me or is the LEGO Group finally listening to fans and improving the set designs?? 2011 seems like the year for answered prayers. Amen!

Yes indeed it is, it's also in the new POTC sets The good thing about the set is that it comes with a knight, and when you think about it last wave's 10 dollar set was nowhere as full of parts and interesting. Look at it this way; you get the knight, a civilian a whole bunch of weapons, a few new pieces and a chicken, as well as a really neat little shack full of browns and bleys; ready for MOC'ing. I couldn't ask for a better value for $10 to be honest. If there is one set that isn't worth the money it's the carriage set; very awkward design, no special parts, and except for horses and king, nothing new.

Regarding new molds for animals, I don't think the issue is cost or difficulty in the manufacturing process, it's more of LEGO's restraint in producing extremely large quantities of very specific molds. If they released a ton they would stoop to the level of numerous other building block toys and create a specific model for every single new item. (very much against Lego mentality) They counter this balance with collectible figures which have (usually) one-off new molds that don't release at the same time as mainstream sets and themes. That's why i want to see as many super specific and otherwise never before seen items appear in these sets as they will never see the light of day on the main stage of sales.

I agree it's a bit funny but I could think of a few ways to use it- namely as a blood-filled jar with a heart in it on some indiscriminate shelf in a witch's hut etc.

Well this is another stable and useful series; figures are good, only a few of them are bland, but there isn't one that I wouldn't like to get. Although it seems people aren't jumping up and down in anticipation it's nice to think of the parts that these will provide. I think these pieces will be quite useful and are fantastic designs: 1) Inuit Hood + sand green fish - rare 2) British Guard (whole figure) - historic fans dream 3) Gladiator helmet + sword + shield - useful accessories 4) Mobster (whole figure) + case - Godfather anyone? 5) Dwarven torso + shield + dark pearl helmet - makes for a nice version of a dark Dwarven faction for the old fantasy line 6) Baby chimp! - I love animal molds and this year is full of them! A small habitat of these in a jungle tree will be superb build. 7) Clown's pie - great addition to limited Lego foods pallet 8) detective hat- self-explanatory, also steampunk and Victorian age MOC applications 9) Cave girl (whole figure) - just begs to be put in Amazonian MOC's 10) Godzilla suit - reminds me of the lizardmen from Warhammer Fantasy. Would love to see a whole army of these armed with spears and shields. 11) Graduate cap - pretty useful piece. Compound on top of that a ton of new faces, and other useful figures, I don't think we can complain about the quality of S5.

Wow this line is even better than I imagined it will be! The earth defenders look quite good in their new blue suits, but eh earth HQ looks like regular old blue to me. Nonetheless, it is wonderfully modular and quite interesting :thumbup: . Can't wait for further pics!

Wow! I was not expecting that many new weapons! These are the answers to our prayers! Animals are fantastic, I'm glad they went with a new printed pig, and the horse looks great. The prison set is quite plain but the dragon knight more than makes up for it! Finally a worthy mount for the dragon hordes! The carriage set is quite strange; it looks like a weird MOC more than an actual set, but I guess the printed horses and head gear makes it an OK set. The smith is great, although I wish there was a white chicken in the set instead of dark tan. New torso, tons of weapons, and bricks make this a multiple must have. Here's hoping for another wave in the future after these sell out within a week of release!

I think you got series 4 and 5 confused, the dwarf is series 5. I say they are similar because if you look at them they are both armed with the same ax, both have a round shield, both have "Norse" clothing, and although their helmets are not the same, they are pretty similar. The colors on both of them are also a close match with the flat silver predominating.

That's great news! Can you please describe what the chimp that comes with the zookeeper looked like? Is it a smaller version of the monkey, or is it a baby animal with a single stud on the bottom and not much else? So the Eskimo has a fishing rod huh? That's the third series in a row with a fishing rod in it, I wonder if it's simply a convenient accessory to add. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with it, but I hate seeing repeating accessories from series to series.

I agree it doesn't make sense but it has to do more with age groups; police sets appeal a lot more to younger kids so they don;t arm the good guys, as good guys don't shoot people just arrest them... Violin case sounds great, here come the music shop MOC's

Wow this is one massive build, and yet it's so detailed! The detailing on the high towers on the castle is my favorite part, as well as the numerous building techniques across this MOC. (from town buildings, to lush forest, to mountains and high towers) I can't even imagine how much time, how many parts and how much cash this took to build, but it's a great product and carries a wow factor on several different levels! Congrats on a job well done!

The zookeeper sounds like a great figure, it would be the first animal (other than the bat) ever included as an accessory( if these indeed are them) The judge may be the answer to a lot of people's prayers for a historic wig! Eagerly anticipating confirmation of these but they sound fantastic. :thumbup:

So a viking in this line and a dwarf in the next?? They seem rather similar but I'm not complaining. It's funny how the hype over the musketeer went down after the hat was discovered in the POTC sets. I definitely can thin of quite a few uses for those historic figs, but with the Hazmat guy I may have to do a more modern MOC, who knows!

Hello Steve, The technique is quite simple but looks impressive: You take plates of whatever length you want your roof to be and 2 studs wide (this is very important as other widths don't layer up so nicely). You build them in a stepwise pattern ( one stud overlapped lengthwise) until you have what looks like rally short steps. The highest step is a row of (Plate Modified 1 x 2 with Door Rail) facing out to give the appearance of a gutter and to cover the seam between the roof and wall. You then cover the whole thing with cheese slopes in whatever pattern you like. That's the nice part it's literally a mosaic of slopes and it looks like shingles! (Beware this eats up parts like you wouldn't believe it! (Just for that little bit of roof I need over a hundred and for my previous build I used close to 500) The final part is to put a hinge underneath it and find a place to anchor it, but this is pretty self explanatory. The reason I overlap them like steps is because the slopes don't look natural on the same plane, and one plate difference between each row gives just the right amount of overhang for them to look right. I hope this helps, PM me if you still have questions.

Yes so the tricorns are printed! Army builders on you marks! ... Get set! ... GO! I like what I see. Some sets seem redundant though; if it wasn't for the Dutchman crew guy and the guy in a blue coat in the mill set, there really is no reason to buy it. I think it's the weakest set in the line. From what I'm seeing in the event photos, the bottles look great and the gold bars are 2 X 1 with openings for studs on the bottom as this picture shows: Note the gold bar on the blue Pirate, castle, and steampunk builders rejoice! this is our year!

Thank you lightningtiger! I'm happy you get the underlying message! Thank you ISC! I appreciate the feedback! It's a bit funny how my buildings don't adhere to normal dimensions; I'm getting better at it, and will have a normal thickness wall in the next one. Thank you Hemish! Appreciate it! Thank you omerai! I'm glad you like the story; some MOC's are self explanatory but this one has so much going on people would think everyone's nuts without one. I like writing backgrounds, it adds to the world and scene and I intend to keep doing it whenever I build a MOC. I did not know that I was paying homage to Croatian Architecture, it makes me proud that i did, I will call that "Croatian Roof design" from now

I agree that the kingdoms knights are a bit more generic good vs. bad guys but it feels like LEGO is trying to fill the void that existed for so many years with these sets. What I mean is, there were tons of good guys, bad guys, fantasy elements, tons of allies and they all came as battle packs or siege weapons and carts, and the quintessential castle element of knights fighting knights was lost. Kingdoms (even the name sounds more subdued) corrects for the crazy crazy sets that existed in years past. This theme continues into 2011 with civilian sets and almost feels like a "City" theme except in medieval times; no strong story (none at all actually) just a lot of sets to fill niches and ranks for castle builders. As far as older factions, very few have as developed of a story as Fantasy Era factions, but they borrowed heavily from fantasy fiction. It was as close to Tolkien as you can get without getting a lawsuit on your hands. I actually have a theory that Kingdoms was thrown in for two reasons mostly: 1) appease all castle fans who weren't into fantasy elements 2) break up the fantasy line so they can restart again with new protagonists and a new land under attack from new foes. I can almost guarantee (and i am good at this predictions business as my track record shows ) that once Kingdoms has run it's course, we will see something along the lines of "Fantasy Kingdoms" and we will have our elves, new orks, and a brand new human faction. Just you wait for summer 2012.

Actually he has a different face in every single set if you look carefully. I think that was their idea of a collectible variation . I'm very intrigued by these hats that fit over the minifigure hair. I wonder it they are separable and if so, how that works.

Whoah! Hold on a second! Just spotted something! The London escape has new wooden shutter pieces for the arch windows! Now that set is a must-buy!

Actually I'm quite sure it isn't Oky, look at the other tricorn on the driver of the carriage; no such white area, and none of the other figures are showing this either. Plus the two corners highlighted in white house the hole for the feather, so i think it's deliberate. Look at it closely and you'll see it's quite defined.

I noticed a few things: The bottle is printed with a tiny ship, but its a silhouette so it could pass for a label. Penelope Cruz's hat is new and sweet! New redcoat torso in London Escape! And there are bottles, barrels, a painting and a new bucket in there as well! And the tri-cornered hats have a white stripe! Lastly the whitecap bay turned into a great set for greys and browns and the sirens/mermaids look great!