blueandwhite

Point taken. I never picked up the first set so I can't say I've noticed the robot or any of the other modern conveniences inside the toy shop.

Unfortunately no. Tower Bridge is actually 244 metres across. If a minifig is approx 1:50 scale, then a minifig scale bridge would be about 5 metres long. The LEGO model is 1 metre long. Also, remember that when building to scale every time you double the length you also need to double the width and height. That means you would probably need approximately 25 of these sets to have the volume of bricks necessary to build the bridge at minifig scale (ignoring the obvious design bifferences). If you built to a smaller scale (say 1:100), the bridge would be 2.44 metres long which would still require about 12 sets worth of bricks to build. Even if you simply wished to make a bridge twice as long you would still in theory need 8x as many bricks as the bridge would also be twice as long and twice the height. Minifig scale is a lot bigger than most people realize; particularly when your building a structure that is already quite large.

I'm pleasantly surprised by this. It certainly looks better than what I was expecting. While the Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal were nice, I find that Tower Bridge is more accurate to the actual structure it's supposed to represent. It's a shame that the bridge weren't a bit longer as I would have loved to see the two smaller towers at the end of the bridge.

With the toy shop I got the distinct impression that these were supposed to be set in the early 1800s; possibly a small village in Europe around the holidays. I don't think the wagon is really that out of place. I'm almost reminded of Charles Dickens when I see these sets. Perhaps that's just me though.

The timing for series 2 couldn't be worse for me. From the sound of things, series 2 won't hit North America until early-mid August. Unfortunately for me, I'll be in Scotland for 2 weeks starting on August 11th meaning I'll probably miss out on my chance to pick up any figures in North America. Moreover, with the figures having been out for about a month in Europe I may not have much of a chance to pick them up in Scotland either.

Now I understand LEGO's plans. Series 1 was just training. Grabbing the Spartan is going to be an all-out war! Good luck to everybody.

Congrats on finding the clown. He's definitely one of the nicer figures of series 1. Don't give up too soon though. If you're lucky you should still be able to snag a magician as many folks are still seeing boxes of series 1. Good luck and happy hunting.

I wish I still had the source materials, however it has been a while since I completed my batmobile. I worked primarily from WB studios line art as well as a number of photos I found through Google. The problem is that I did my batmobile a few years ago and the images that come up after a search are completely different. My batmobile is slightly longer in the midsection and I still find that I could have gone further with it. The only way to know for sure is to give it a try and see if you like it.

Great work. Typically I'm not a fan of battle scenes because they place too much emphasis on the figures and not enough focus on the battlefield itself. I certainly can't say that here. This is a wonderful piece and it's nice to see a MOC which celebrates an actual historical event. Fantastic stuff. Then again Kris, when you post we've come to expect nothing less .

Eurobricks is one of the friendliest LEGO boards out there; period. In fact, after reading over this thread I still can't pinpoint any real hostility here. Perhaps you're simply reading too deeply into the comments of others. Other members simply pointed out that this has already been discussed elsewhere and that there are alternative methods for acquiring these figures without the purchase of an iPhone. I hope you take the time to get acquainted with the folks here on Eurobricks. Despite any bad first impressions, most of the people here are extremely friendly. Take care.

Thanks for updating the poll. Currently I stand alone in my support of the brick .

I had no trouble with the printed sheet. The only two figures that have barcodes that might cause a bit of confusion(North America at least) are the Nurse and Spaceman. If you read the barcodes from left to right you'll notice that you can distinguish each figure by the first few bars. So far I've had no mistakes. Here's hoping that the codes are as easy to distinguish in series 2.

Speaking personally, the appeal of minifigs for stems from the fact that as you collect more bricks sets themselves seem to become rather lackluster. Figures are a different matter. I have so many bricks at this point that if I really want more I'm more likely to go to Bricklink or even use LEGO's Pick-a-Brick before considering a set. The models featured in most sets while nice don't really interest me, so it's become entirely about the bricks themselves and the figures. Figures collecting makes perfect sense when you have a collection of 400,000 or more bricks. When building a minifig-scale MOC, having the perfect figure to occupy the scene. In many ways, I see minifigs and their accessories as being icing on a very large cake. I was thrilled to have more peasantry added to the castle theme these past few years as it is something that was noticeably absent from my collection. Collecting figures is also a cheap way to keep yourself invested in the hobby. I simply am at a point where I don't need many new bricks and the ones I want are specific to a MOC I'm building. I can't justify dropping $50+ on a set for a handful of bricks when I can go to Bricklink and fill an order. Figures are a different matter. Often overpriced on Bricklink, I can sometimes justify buying a set if it has a number of useful figures along with a good assortment of basic bricks. The recent minfig collector's series has been great as it's given me a number of useful accessories needed to diversify my minifig populous (and 16 forestmen and cheerleaders of course). I haven't purchased many new sets, but I have dumped a lot of money on bricks and figures. The figures help me keep my collection feeling contemporary. (edit - Where is the "I prefer bricks to minifigs and sets" option?)

Try looking here. Tags are generally given by moderators and other folks who have magic powers to forum members who bring a positive contribution to the community. Of course, there are members who are simply too cool to be tagged . Either way, I wouldn't worry about it.

I'm not sure anybody can give a definitive answer to that. Still, the Castle theme is time tested and proven which probably makes it an easy product for LEGO to promote. Introducing another history theme brings with it an element of risk as there's no way for LEGO to determine how well the line might be recieved prior to its release. As you mentioned there are bound to be some children who like centurions/gladiators/spartans/etc., however the same could be said for any historic theme. The real question is whether those themes have the mass appeal to grab a large enough market share.

Nice work on the Batmobile. I tried building this car a few years back. Im many ways this version is everything I hoped to achieve (but couldn't quite manage) when I was working on mine. I really think you nailed the general shape of the car. In particular, the back end of the car is really nicely done with the SNOT work on the four fins. The front end is also quite beautiful. My only real suggestion would be to consider extending the mid-section of the car by two studs or so. The BTAS Batmobile was very exaggerated in its length. I think an extra two studs length in front of the windscreen might go a long way to enhance an already beautiful MOC. Again, this is really great stuff.

Pirates of the Carribean is to pirates what LOTR is to castle. Medieval swashbucking tales don't seem to fit in with contemporary pop-culture. We've had several attempts over the past several years (A Knight's Tale, Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood, King Arthur, PoP, etc.) however they have all failed to grab public interest or critical approval. I'm not sure if the current generation really has a strong interest in period pieces. Westerns aren't exactly bringing viewers in by the bucketload either. Fantasy films are a completely different animal. Although audiences seem to balk at the idea of watching a movie about the likes of Robin Hood or King Arthur or any other would-be swashbuckler, fantasy films still seem to be acceptable. I don't think that there is an easy solution here. These movies aren't cheap to produce and audiences don't seem all that interested. Times have simply changed and viewers have different interests. Science fiction seems to be where it's at today.

I don't see how my age has anything to do with the discussion. I'm 33, but that's irrelevant. I'm currently a school teacher so I do run into my fair share of children as well, but again that's irrelevant as well. I honestly don't see how you can accurately gauge that ninjas are currently more popular than they were a few years back. It's not exactly something you could measure accurately. Ninjas have been a pretty big pop-culture phenomenon for a pretty long time. How did you come to your conclusion? Of course it's impossible to say with absolute certainty that the majority of votes on the LEGO site are from kids, however when one considers that the site is designed for kids with a very child-oriented layout you could probably surmise that a good portion of the votes were from younger consumers. While my guess is no more valid than yours; I would suggest that the lion's share of the votes on the LEGO site probably didn't come from 18 to 25 year olds. Who knows?

@Teh Stud Earlier in this thread I expressed my support for heraldry featuring a unicorn however I like some of your suggestions even better. In particular, I really like the choices that don't focus on animals. The thorned rose seemed like a nice choice IMO, but I would be happy to see any of these choices made (with the possible exception being the wizard hat). Great ideas.

While some elements manufactured in China are top-notch (the jester's hood for example), others leave much to be desired. The Toy Story figures were mentioned as being top-notch however I find that the long legs of Woody and Jessie actually suffer from the same quality issues that the collectable minifigs and the battlepack figs do. Chalky semi-translucent plastic that feels soft seems to be a common feature from minifigs produced in China. While this may simply be LEGO themselves experementing with new cost-cutting measures, the impression it leaves on many AFOLs is that China is a producer of sub-standard products. This view is certainly not helped by China's vast counterfeit industry which has given China a reputation for cheap, poorly made knock-offs. Chinese manufacturing certainly takes its share of criticism however not all of the complaints are unfounded. Whether the lower product quality we're seeing in many of today's figures is due to Chinese manufacturing practises or LEGO's own attempts to cut costs is ultimately irrelevant. I only hope that LEGO hears our concerns (they didn't when they went over our heads with the colour change in 2004) and improves quality before these new figures become a standard for LEGO.

The result isn't that surprising when you consider that the Ninja theme is over a decade old. Most kids today never had the chance to grab one of those figures and so far as I can tell ninjas have always been popular with kids. I don't think the ninja thing is a trend. I don't know why but kids always think ninjas are cool. Even in the 80s with G.I. Joe we had Stormshadow and Snake Eyes. Every Halloween you're bound to have a few kids dressed up as ninjas show up at your door (in North America anyways). The whole anime thing probably only adds more fuel to that fire. Figures like a forestman or stereotypical native figure seem very dated by comparison. Of course these survey results don't really matter anyways as a disproportionate number of those collectable figures probably ended up with AFOLs and scalpers. This is one line that LEGO might have been better off not advertising or promoting.

I think that my real issue with the traffic cop is that he could have been an interesting figure if they had actually gone out of the way to give him a wide brimmed hat (mountie style) instead of the aviator's cap. with the Spartan we have three new accessories (shield, spear and helmet) when the old-style LEGO spear would have been just fine yet we can't even get one new accessory with the cop; a type of figure that already overpopulates the LEGO universe. I hope that in any future series LEGO puts a bit more effort into all of the figures.

Personally I feel that minifigs are already incredibly expressive despite their limited articulation. With their incredibly short arms and legs, additional articulation seems unwaranted and would only serve to diminish the minifig's distinctiveness as a figure. As I see things, minifigs have become one of the most iconic toys around. To play around with such an iconic property is asking for trouble. Even the smallest of changes is likely to result in an outcry from fans. Little things like the introduction of flesh tones sparked a huge controversy. I can only imagine what the reaction would be like if minifigs were introduced with joints at the knees (which they don't have) and elbows. In many ways this is why figures like the Jack Stone characters are criticized so harshly.

Really? If anything I would think that the stands have the best chance of being released in a separate set. As an actual brick, the stands seem more useful than any of the other new accessories. While I suspect that certain elements like the caveman's beard or the skater's hairpiece will eventually find their way into other sets I'm not so sure about other character-specific elements. The clown's horn and cheerleader's pom poms seem like elements that are less likely to be reproduced given how specialized they are.

As others have said, the Forestmen are my favourite sub-theme. While most castle sub-themes are simply different factions, the Forestmen added a unique spin on the castle line. I loved the classic take on the Robin Hood legend and the introduction of bandits and outlaws into the LEGO world. It was also nice to see some trees and foliage in the LEGO universe. I would also have to agree that other themes (Ninja, Vikings, Wild West, etc.) can't really be considered sub-themes. These are their own distinct lines and shouldn't be relegated to a secondary status like that.