robuko

This is just great. Blondie-Wan, nnenn is an incredibly talented builder and artist who tragically died 2 1/2 years ago in a car accident. It is worth reading the Tributes on The Brothers Brick, and I strongly recommend you to go through his flickr stream. He is an inspiration. May he rest in peace.

Love it love it love it! Did anyone else pick up the continuity from insectoids in the shape of the insect's wings? This looks like a Mark Stafford design to me, which makes me very optimistic for the rest of the range given the amazing job he did on Alien Defense and on Ninjago wave 2. I will probably get all of the Alien sets, and if Mark is behind the human sets, I might get those too. I hope the insect antennae will be available in different colours.

Interesting deal. This is only Star Wars and ILM, not Clone Wars or Indiana Jones. Bloomberg reports approximately $850m sales for all of Lucasarts last year - 4.5x sales seems a pretty high valuation, at this price Disney will be forced to pump out content to justify the deal price - I think George has been too greedy and this could dilute future quality. I wonder how Clone Wars merchandise and editorial control gets split between Turner and Disney - I have only seen season 1 but I found it a very effective series on War, one of the best for children I think. He looked quite sad in the interview, I hope his health is good.

It certainly has excellent play features. There are 5 reviews on brickset and 4 of those give it 5/5. It also appears on 2 "best ever" bricklists and zero "worst ever", so I think we can agree that owners like it. It has 3 vehicles and 3 astronauts in under 300 bricks. I should mention its role as Archie the Library in KDog's Lego Space comic, which rocks. By the way, the alternate builds are great too, as I remember. It's not so expensive, I thoroughly recommend the sceptics to pick up a copy. As for its unconventional looks, the colour consistency is good, only the small feet and big hands let it down in my view. It would look a lot better without the jet feet, maybe put some big hoverdiscs there and it would look a lot better. Amen! Seriously, I respect different views but try it before you slam it. This really is a great set.

How are we all doing for Challenge 5? I have built the shell and awaiting BL to do the detailing. I hope we will see some more awesome Kailphlin entries again. Ska, can I have a wedding party for Dugal in my Challenge 5 garden?

Kayne, I am so glad you have a diagnosis. What a relief! Joseph, welcome! Great to have you with us. There is a picture resize option in Paint. Or you can link to a smaller res image in flickr.

Thankyou very much Z.

I love this Mikel. Really love it. The background micro picture of the view outside the pyramid is genius, the Zurg tents are fantastic, your tree is amazing, and I am in awe of your sand piling. Masa has a great tent waiting for him. The stocks and the dino rider blend in really well. Fantastic build, well done and good luck!

^ Thanks Z. I thought it was very helpful that on challenge 4 we were told that originality and presentation were the main criteria the judges were looking for. Is there any guidance like that for challenge 5? Mine has interior scenes depicting the mini areas suggested, that was what I meant by vigs, sorry I was not clear.

I see crossover potential in everything here. Baked hedgehog, pan-fried squirrel etc. I love these animals, I am so pleased there is a cheap way to get the hedgehog. It looks like a background picture of some flowers to me. Wish it was red leaves!

For the fifth challenge, can any of the judges please offer guidance on what will be the criteria? Is this public vote again? For the fourth challenge, there were very helpful guidelines, are there any for this one please? With the activity on the site, I am currently going down a kind of playset route, but maybe I should be focusing more on the sub-vigs? Any advice is very welcome.

Can anyone tell what colour is the Robot? It looks Olive in some photos, it will fly off the shelves if it is!

I was wondering when the 6951 would come up. I have very fond memories of that set from Christmas 1984, it really is one of my favourite sets for ingenuity and playability, and it has a lot of wonderful parts. The 6880 has an incredible locking mechanism for the trailer and for me it is a real classic. I really like the LoM peaceful aliens too, the first contact Minifig humanity had with foreigners without shooting them. So, I guess people just look at stuff differently. I am reluctant to say any space set is a bad set, but I was pretty disappointed by the whole 1986 range (apart from the awesome 6872 and 6940), which sent me into the dark ages until Star Wars - just in time to miss Blacktron - thanks guys! The 6780 was a disappointment when I finally got it and I think the 6985 is probably one of the worst capital ships. So for me personally, I nominate 1986 as a year. Before it, every set was amazing, and from 1986 they weren't any more.

Then we should get some pictures soon, I hope! The Chima minifigs are superb, it made me very optimistic about the new insectoids

Please share some of your ideas cbb! They are always so lively. I am mostly busy with challenge 5 now, I don't seem to have as much building time as I hope for.

These sets are great! So much better than the 2 bigger sets we saw earlier. Love them both

I declare this theme to be a massive hit. Great figures, good action set-ups with high playability and compelling designs. Well played, Lego. The only downside for me is that many of the sets appear to be too fragile for my 3 year old. Go go Thundercrocs! :thumbup:

I am interested to see the Stealth Shell, it looks like it could be very nice if done right. My 2 1/2 year old son is a fan of the Shellraiser, so it's doing something right.

Thanks Masked Builder. I can't say I am impressed by either set. What a missed opportunity! I hope Dr Doom comes in a smaller set.

Welcome back everybody! How's it going with the new build?

Wow, that's a lot of colour! I take it the saturation is pumped up a lot? It looks superb. I really like your landscaping, it is simply gorgeous with all those colours. I was waiting for this build for a while after the WIPs, and it was well worth it! The fairy is fantastic, what an evil spell. The castle looks brilliant, just the right level of detail. I am looking forward to the interior shots. Great build!

Very nice woodwork! It is very difficult to build simple buildings effectively, good job. Good luck!

Love that flag, I can really feel the cold wind. These warriors are a very sturdy bunch. I think they would do pretty well in Mitgardia too

What a great scene! You have done this very well, I can feel the emotion strongly. Will any of us ever see home again? The scene really transcends the build, it wouldn't really matter about the background - but it's great too. And your photography is awesome in these shots, how do you get such amazing focus?

Beautiful colours and textures Gabe. I really like the path, and the water. Wonderful minifig posing too. Your presentation is first class, the images are very clear. The ibis and tiller are very nice touches. Great build!