blueandwhite

I'm guessing that the Greek hoplites will be very expensive to collect regardless of how rare they end up being. Even if they are one of the most common figures, amassing a large number of them will be exceedingly expensive. A small army could cost you a relative fortune. Let's not fool ourselves; these will be one of the most ridiculously overpriced figs on bricklink no matter how common or rare they are. I mentioned it elsewhere, but even if these guys are available in a ration of 1:10 it means that if your going with the odds you will need to fork out $29.90 (US) just to land a single hoplite. Imagine what you'd need to spend at retail to grab a dozen or more. Bricklink will be no better as people will charge a hefty premium to those army collectors who get fed up with singers and vampires in their pursuit of more hoplites.

Given the collectable nature of this line, I would hazard to guess that a hoplite will set you back considerably more ($10-25 seems more probable). If these guys prove to be one of the rarer figs in series 2, that price could go even higher considering that army builders will want these guys in high numbers. Imagine if the odds of picking up a hoplite ends up being 1 in 100! It would mean that you'd have to spend $299 to score a single hoplite. Even if they are fairly common at 1 in 10, you'd still need to spend $29.90 at retail to score a single one if your going with the odds. With bricklink markups, there is no way that these guys will come cheap. I expect that they will start on bricklink around $12 or so and possibly climb in the future.

Amazing second wave! The Mexican looks fantastic, as does the Greek hoplite. The number of new molds being used in this line is astounding. I just hope that QC is up to snuff. I can't wait to see better photos of the matador, lifegaurd and the circus master. That being said, does anybody know what the other six figs will be?

Looking at the new photos, this looks to be one of the best castles LEGO has ever produced. It has the compact cohesiveness of earlier castles from the 80s and 90s, but it also incorporates some of the features that made KCS so popular. The only thing that could make it better would be actual hinges. Still, it's nice to see a solid fortication. This looks far better than anything we've seen in the past ten or more years.

Unfortunately, with an exclusive set that has been out for over a year it is very difficult to say how long it will continue to be available. Moreso when you consider that we're getting a new castle line this year. I would expect that the market village will be available for a while longer but we have seen exclusives that disappear almost without warning. Chances are that it will be available, but there are no certainties on something such as this.

Lovely basilica. In particular, the roof is simply wonderful. You've employed a number of excellent techniques to make this little basilica stand out. I'm also fond of the colour scheme. The use of tan to break up the otherwise grey basilica is nicely done. In fact, the only 'shortcoming' is the size. The particular design you've chosen is very indicitive of a large cathedral making this fine MOC look a bit pint-sized for a minifig. The two towers look quite nice, but I would consider going with a single larger tower like DNL did with his amazing cathedral and possibly extending the basilica in length if possible. Great work.

Sorry to disappoint you, but those are the same eleven photos ripped straight from the original Blog where the images were first appeared. There's nothing new yet.

Honestly, the topic starter simply sounds like a collector who can't bring himself to mix his sets. That isn't purism of any kind. To argue that keeping sets together makes you an uber-purist is simply silly given that LEGO is a building toy. Strange topic.

Sorry, but I don't see a great deal of difference. Both are essentially large filler bricks which serve to inflate the size of a LEGO structure. Neither are particularly ideal for MOCing (in fact both are downright horrible). The new castle wall is just a different take on the same idea. Personally I feel that the new castle looks like it has far more potential than most of the castles we've seen in the past ten years so I don't really buy that it negatively impacts the look of a LEGO castle either. This line looks very clean, with a number of very useful pieces and the long-awaited (over 20 years for some) Great Helm. That alone makes it one of the best Castle lines to come out of TLG in a long time. The small sets are lackluster, but the big two are quite pleasant looking. It's nice to see a line where the secondary faction is given a fortress that doesn't look like a complete afterthought.

Great work. I love that you've lined up the log bricks horrizontally. It makes you wonder why LEGO didn't produce a set of horrizontal log bricks in the first place. The landscaping is fantastic, as is the cabin itself. Your brick-built trees are also great. I would love to see a winter version of this.

I'd like to see the sales data for Indiana Jones as well. Personally I thought the line was the best use of a licence outside of the Star Wars franchise, however I appreciate that without the same expanded universe carrying the line forward would probably be more difficult. I don't expect the Toy Story or PoP lines to last too long either, however I'm not sure that is necessarily a bad thing. Dragging these things out too long often kills the freshness of the product and inevitably takes shelf space away from something new and exciting.

Well this is about the best use of orange bricks I have ever laid my eyes on. Kudos for making such an incredible Maxifig!

The UCS Falcon...after an unfortunate accident where she was half-destroyed. Building it from scratch was easy; reassembling the partially-built Falcon was a genuine challenge! It required me to scour through the instructions carefully looking to discern where each element needed to be placed.

Nice work. Your pizzeria is a very clean design with an incredible interior. I like almost everything about the design with the possible exception of the large roof on the tower and the fencing along the rooftop which seems a bit out of place when compared to the elegant and clean design of the rest of the shop. The colour choices are perfect, as is the interior which looks busy and befitting a pizzeria. Keep those MOCs coming.

This is really a question of form over function (or vice versa). It's a difficult choice to make and obviously depends on what you're building the train for. Unfortunately, 8-wide trains look quite awkward taking the extremely tight corners of the standard 9V system. 6-wide trains tend to look too small but they look more natural when in motion. The flex system is a great concept, however I think it's going to take a long time for most AFOLs to move over to (or even accept) the Power Function system. Personally I prefer 8-wide trains, but I think that it takes a good deal of engineering to make them look good in motion. Displays with a lot of curves are better served by 6-wide trains (IMO).

In fairness, many of today's sets are quite brick-intensive when compared to the late 90s and early 2000s. It was actually the move towards giant prefab parts in the mid to late 90s that killed the LEGO hobby for me.

Great stuff! The shop is quite nice, and I do like that you haven't used stickers or any other non-LEGO elements for the sign. The best thing about this MOC though has to be that Vulture. Despite it's simplicity, it really is effective. The black hairpiece makes your vulture look just perfect!

I'm a bit confused as both I Scream Clone and Kris Kelvin have used a mix of studless and studed design. In fact, Pif Paf City and I Scream Clone's Saloon look like they could be from a close family of MOCs with their tiled roofs and overhangs. Ironically, Kris' saloon has a studed porch whereas I Scream Clone went for a tiled one. Are these two MOCs really that different? I can certainly appreciate that you prefer I Scream Clone's work, but I don't see how you can suggest that Kris' work is ashamed of showing studs. As far as I can tell, Kris really hasn't gone to greater lengths to hide the studs in his MOC than I Scream Clone has. Also, are builders who elect to work towards a studless appearance really snobbish or obsessive-compulsive? At the end of the day, it's just a personal preference.

Beyond the bley/brown replacement in 2004, what other major colours have been replaced? I know that colour consistency has been a big issue with other colours, but what other significant colours which have actually been removed and replaced? I'm very interested because beyond the bley/grey brown/reddish brown change I don't really see any comprable changes (to the point that LEGO actually gave those varriant colours different names).

No. Medium and dark stone grey are the same as 'bluish gray' which is the name used on Bricklink to distinguish new and old grey. The old greys were simply called grey and dark grey. I doubt we will ever see the old greys again. What this chart tells us is what colours are currently in production. There are definitely a few colours I miss though (sand red being one of the big ones). I don't think you'll have to wory about a colour change like the one that occured in 2004. LEGO upset a lot of AFOLs with that one, and I doubt they will repeat such a mistake in the future.

I don't mind one way or the other however I do like to see some studs. I'm really not that fond of the smooth blue water that people have moved to in modern MOCs. The same can be said for cobblestone pathways. LEGO has a wonderful texture to it, yet it seems that many go to great lengths to eliminate it completely from their work. At the same time, there is no denying the beauty of certain studless elements. Tiled floors and brown plates as a wooden walkway are perfect and add greatly to a MOC. Moreover, builders who tend to work studless seem to build to a higher standard. I personally feel that the best MOCs out there balance studless design with conventional techniques. There are incredible builders like DNL or Kris Kelvin who balance the two perfectly. Studs are used for effect just as effectively as studless aspects of their MOCs. Everything is deliberate. Sly Owl is another great example of a builder who uses texture brilliantly. In the end, it's the superior building skills of the aforementioned builders that really stands out. Studs or no; a MOC generally is defined by the talent of the builder more than anything else. I suspect much of the appeal for studless design comes from the fact that the best builders use it so effectively.

100,000 signatures? I think you'll be waiting a long time then. Even 1000 signatures would be an impressive display since Eurobricks doesn't even have anything close to 100,000 members. I certainly would support the return of the Ninja (feudal Japan) line in the future, but it really depends on what other ideas LEGO has hidden in their bag of bricks. Perhaps a short lived line like last year's Pirate line would be possible. Of course, we also have fans who would like Greeks, Romans and the return of the Western theme. So many possibilities!

Well said. Honestly, LEGO's assurances mean very little to me if the product quality continues to slip as it seems to have in the past few years. Inconsistant colours, bricks with limited grip and seemingly cheaper plastics are not reassuring. This is a very slippery slope. LEGO historically has been synonomous with quality. It's one of the primary reasons I've never truly seen the clone brands as being legitimate competition to LEGO. It's also why many people are willing to pay such a premium for LEGO when compared to their competitors. LEGO may claim that the new figs are of a higher quality, however these UK images do give me some cause for concern. The mark under the arms are not a positive sign. If our worries are proven to be true, I certainly won't be collecting this line in any quantity. A collectable should be of the highest quality, not a sub-standard product that doesn't match LEGO's previous offerings. The collectable aspect of these figs may scare away casual purchasers, and the quality issue could also hurt sales with adult collectors who continue to hold LEGO to a higher standard. As it stands, I may simply buy a few of my favourites from Bricklink and skip the rest of the line. In my mind, this is a very dangerous path LEGO is taking.

There are a few key differences between Star Wars and LOTR; primarily that the former features a countless number of vehicles and ships which are relatively easy to represent in brick form at a reasonable cost. Moreover, the Star Wars licence has been with LEGO for over a decade. Let's not forget that Star Wars is also a brand known for its large contingent of toy collectors making it a natural fit for such a licence. The only other licence that has come close to having that longevity is the Harry Potter licence (off and on again), and even that licence has not been graced with so much as a single UCS set. I admire your passion for Lord of The Rings but I still have trouble envisioning LEGO producing such a grand vision.

You say that now, but wait until you've spent $150 on these guys and you still don't have the Nurse or the Spaceman and you find that sellers on bricklink have picked up on their relative obscurity and are charging $25-30 for those figs . If the odds of picking up a rare figure is 1 in 60, it may cost a small fortune to get them all. I'm still a LEGO fan primarily for the bricks and building potential so I'm not too fond of the notion of spending a few hundred dollars simply to complete a line of sixteen minifigs. Add in a second wave and you could be talking $300-400. That's a pretty hefty chunk of LEGO budget right there.