Clone OPatra

They never do big sets in the winter/January wave. It's always smaller stuff. Big sets appear to be reserved for summer, so capital ships would happen then.

I think he just means that it doesn't say 'Exclusive Iron Patriot' anywhere, it just says 'Exclusive Gun-Mounting System' or something like that. With IP not showing up in the next wave of Marvel movies, though, I find it pretty unlikely that we'll get him. Honestly I think everybody would be just as pissed if Iron Patriot was in the set and War Machine was in the polybag. I guess IP looks cooler what with all the colors, but really War Machine is a more important armor over all since the whole Iron Patriot thing was just one big joke in the movie.

I'm not sure when I read that that it's necessarily a D2C big-expensive-model house. All it says is that the only set being released in the UK will be available only from LEGO. Keep in mind that there have been other themes only available from LEGO in the UK in the past. We also still have no word on US anything. They might be releasing that entire rumored list of sets we got before, for all we know. Still, it's a valid concern that the house will be bigger and more expensive than it needs to be. LEGO turned a cottage into a 100 buck set for the Winter Village line, after all.

You hit the nail on the head right there. It's just a continuing sign of the information drought kicking in. Unlike international politics or tabloids, LEGO news unfortunately is not a mile a minute, nor does it even change every day or week. Whenever pictures of the rest of the sets come out, the discussion will surely be all about the sets and not about these other (completely baseless) worries.

Hope LEGO holds onto that Harry Potter license - looks like new films are coming! http://www.liveforfilms.com/2013/09/12/new-series-of-films-based-in-the-harry-potter-universe/

That R2 doesn't look very new to me - looks pretty much like the regular body and possibly CW head as R2 appears in the Ewok Village. Yes, they animated him with a chrome dome, but they've animated C3PO shiny as well. They're not going to start chroming R2.

It's a physical thing on the catalog - I doubt a photocopy or scan would be accepted.

The CMF line isn't even called collectible, I believe. The line is just called 'Minifigures.' Although press releases (like The LEGO Movie press release) do call it the collectible minifigure line, so who knows. Still, we have no idea where the rumor came form or what anybody was told. The blog post seemed certain that the rumor meant that The Simpsons would be in place of a wave in the CMF line, but it could all be a mixup.

Regardless what people think, this doesn't need to be it's own topic since we already have more general ones discussing the topic. Will merge soon… and done.

Excellent work! This is a great example of the fact that when you go big, you can leave those studs out and still get a wonderfully shaped model. What I'd like to know is how you set the scale. Was there a particular part that you built first, that allowed you to know how big everything else would have to be?

We don't really know the clauses in the LR license, nor to what extent they bar LEGO from making other Western-themed things. We also don't know how long the license lasts. It's quite possible that, since LEGO is partnered with Disney anyway, the LR license lasts for a good deal of time. CUUSOO can't go around saying for everything 'we can't make this now but maybe we will eventually.' They review it and come to a decision for that review period. Obviously with Portal they did decide to say 'we might make this' for whatever reason, but that one could be a matter of a lengthy deal-making process; it's not a matter of putting it off indefinitely until they aren't barred from doing it, like LR. Could they have archived the Western Town way back when? Maybe. But maybe they hadn't put that process in place yet, maybe the CUUSOO wasn't aware of the conflict before the thing reached 10,000, maybe this and maybe that. Maybe what AndyC said above^ while I was posting this. Sounds reasonable to me.

It would be an ironic turn for Licensed CMF lines to start happening with regularity. It follows this course of events: LEGO comes out with a blind-bag collectible figure line. All of the other building companies under the sun come out with similar products but Licensed. LEGO then jumps aboard the Licensed series train. I guess since other brands keep making licensed figure lines, it is profitable. But that could also be because the other building brands don't move product nearly as well as LEGO does.

He certainly is, but what the new one does is probably make the old one less desirable. The old Watto used to fetch quite a high price, and though it's still very rare, the new updated one totally blew it out of the water design-wise. The old Kashyyyk trooper holds up better than old Watto, but the new one is superior.

'Inspired by' is such a loose phrase that's open for interpretation. Nobody can say definitively what is or isn't inspired by anything except for the LEGO team themselves. You could be right, and the people who designed both the Wolverine set and artwork could've never had Origins in mind, but Wovlerine launching himself from a motorcycle onto a helicopter seems suspiciously similar to the movie scene (that was heavily shown in the trailers as well). As for Mr. Freeze, the helmet chosen looks 100% like the Arkham City helmet. I don't believe a similar helmet was ever used for Freeze before, so it's a hard case to argue that LEGO didn't look to the game and at least say 'oh, well we can use this helmet because at least one version of Mr. Freeze has something similar.' Otherwise, they could've used the old bubble helmet again. It doesn't make it a game tie-in, and I'm sure they're never going to make a set and slap the 'Arkham' game logo on it, but they can still take inspirations fro the design.

It says we won't see sets 'at regular retail' 'at least in the UK.' As others have pointed out, LEGO has done this before, making some themes available only from LEGO itself in the UK. It's very, very vague, just like the other article that semi-officially announced the line was very vague. We'll just have to wait and see.

Fresh out of the murky depths of LEGO's Architecture set design studio, this new entry turns our attention for a fourth time to the Big Apple, The City That Never Sleeps, the real-world Gotham, that Famous Place in the Unite States… *ahem* ok, it's in New York and it's the… Set Name: United Nations Headquarters Set #: 21018 Theme: Architecture Pieces: 596 + Brick Seperator Year of Release: 2013 Price at Release: USD 50 INTRODUCTION Part of reviewing, naturally, is bias. This isn't journalism; it's a hobby, so everything I write in a review is a particular opinion I've formed for some reason. Why start with this disclaimer of sorts? Well, LEGO has been nice enough to provide sets to EB (and other sites) for exclusive reviews, and this is the second I've gotten to do. Just like last time, with Arkham Asylum, I'm a little bit out of my element. I'd never bought any of the big exclusives, and I've never bought any Architecture sets. I'll do my best to look at the set with an open mind, but regardless, this will be a review that's very different than one from somebody who's hooked on the Architecture line. But you can just look at the pics anyway if you want. BOX Boy these Architecture boxes are stylish. It screams 'adult!' 'collectible!' 'display piece!' To the AFOL, this one screams 'blue yums!' I'm not sure how iconic the UN HQ is worldwide, but at least to me I could look at this picture without any words and immediately know what it is. The back looks like it's packed with info, but it's actually only a Rosetta Stone that says three things in a host of different languages (this being the European version). They've chosen a slightly odd picture, since it doesn't show the real-life version of the view of the model on the front, but rather shows the buildings that overlook the river. Given that the flags are probably the most iconic element of the UN, I find that curious. One side shows another shot of the model that gives you a better view of all you're going to build (you can't really tell the back buildings are there from the front of the box). It also tells you that this set was designed by Rok Kobe, who you can read about on the LEGO website here. Kobe also designed the Imperial Hotel and Big Ben. The other side takes you onto the wings and into the brain of a whooping crane flying high over the city. Aka birds' eye view. So many tiles This emoticon will return before the review ends, I promise. It's rather suited to this set. The top shows you the fun outlines-to-render graphic that tend to adorn the Architecture sets. Doesn't really serve any purpose, but looks shmancy, so who cares? They've chosen a 1x2 trans-light-blue tile for the 1x1 pic, perhaps it's easy to spot on the front of the box, but also because it's definitely a treat in this set for the parts fiends out there. UNBOXING Part of the treat of any LEGO set is opening it up and spilling out the contents. You start to see what's before you, what pieces you'll soon put together, and how those pieces are going to go together. I'm not sure I've felt it ever as keenly as with opening this set, though. The Architecture line is all about taking pieces and creatively evoking something real with them, so it's especially interesting to see what you get. Plus even LEGO encourages you to 'Enjoy your building experience.' Inside you find a leaflet, the instructions/information booklet, five bags of parts, and three loose plates. It doesn't feel like a lot, honestly, but the box isn't very big and the model won't be either, so it makes sense. Your eyes might've been drawn to a particular thing in the last pic. There is truly a bag filled only with 1x2 trans-light-blue plates, which, after a quick BL search, I believe are exclusive to this set. And there are 155 of them here! (Not literally here; for some reason there are also some in another of the bags.) PAPERS These are the two paper items inside: a leaflet asking you to fill out a survey with your opinions on this set, and the slick booklet. The leaflet might also double as a sneaky way to make you interested in buying the Farnsworth House if you don't have it. I personally can't imagine placing all of those 1x1 tiles in that set, though the finished result looks nice. For some reason, the booklet tells you that it's also available online in English. Though you're holding it in front of you. In English. Maybe I'm just missing the very obvious reason why people want it online too… The booklet contains some lovely, tasteful pages of information about the UN and its architectural history. That's part of the treat of these booklets, so I won't spoil it for you by photographing all of the pages. It'll be available online anyhow. As far as the instructions portion goes, it's easy to follow, and with 89 pages doesn't go any faster than your typical set these days (read: very slow). The generally slow steps make sense; even though this set might be for adults, it's not necessarily for LEGO-regulars, so an easy-to-follow process is key. To my eye, in person white looks like light grey and light grey looks like dark grey, but the dark grey looks darker still so I guess it evens out. The back of the instructions have a nice spread showing all of the Architecture sets, split into the 'Architect' and 'Landmark' lines. Which begs the question: what is this one? I would say it's a Landmark, but I also would've said the Sydney Opera House is a Landmark and it's shown under Architect line. Hmm… We'll know once the UN pops up on the LEGO website I suppose. … Update: now that it's on the website, the UN is indeed in the Landmark Series. BUILD Though I already wrote that it's especially fun with Architecture sets to see how the bits come together to approximate something in the real world, I have to say that it's more fun to see it on the finished model than it is during the build process. This build involves way too many fiddly bits for my taste. I appreciate all of the clever techniques at work, but putting so many small pieces together really gets rather tedious for me. Good thing I have no interest in the Minecraft sets I'd probably give up… In any case, showing some build-process pictures is a good way to talk about the parts that end up more hidden later. First, gotta build the base and lay some foundations/tile it up. Lots of grey here, peppered with dark green for some grass. The dark green 1x3 tiles are still fairly rare. The back buildings get underway first. The back one especially is SNOTty on all sides, and contains just a few regular bricks. The General Assembly building (pic left) and Dag Hammarskjold Library (pick right) come next, leaving the striking (though most tediously built) Secretariat tower building for last. And we're done! Though from this angle it just looks like a lot of tiles. COMPLETED MODEL Like most Architecture sets, there's no one 'correct' way to view this model. With this one especially, no side has been left unloved. Still, I suppose LEGO intends it to be displayed from the entrance side - the one with the levers… err… flags. At an overall glance, she sure is a beauty. The tall Secretariat building looks simple but stunning, while everything else around makes it feel like a complete complex of buildings. Light blue and white are two wonderful colors, if I do say so myself, and they go together quite nicely. I could actually just as easily see displaying this model from the back, the side that faces the East River in real life. The Secretariat still looks lovely from this angle, and you get a nice view of the conference building, which is one of the better low-lying ones in my opinion. Part of the reason why I prefer the back view is because the front ground-work is just unsightly. I applaud the designer for attempting to reproduce the circle ring by the entrance, but the scale is too small and LEGO by definition is too angular to make it work. The rectangular shapes of the tiles, and the drab greys, make the ground look ugly, even though you know what it's supposed to be. I'm not sure what could have been done in their stead, but I'm almost inclined to think that having no ground detailing, or tiling over the whole thing in black, might have been preferable. Photography does wonders - from certain views it's all pretty and the unsightly tiles disappear. Still, you're more likely to look at the thing a bit from above, and not from a low side view like this: The other side looks quite alright from a low angle as well, though with less of that pretty blue. ACCURACY As I've already touched upon, this model certainly evokes the real UN Headquarters without a moment's pause. That being so, who really cares how close the buildings are to their real-world counterparts if they match the picture in your head? (You might want to get that examined, if you're seeing things. Never a good sign.) The truth is, I don't really care, but what the heck, let's see how these buildings stack up. The Secretariat building really is remarkably accurate. The real thing has blue windows, and the grey stripes on the model match the grey stripes on the real building as well! The only problem is that the top, thicker white bit should probably have been grey, given that that part of the real building is the same color as the stripes across the building that LEGO has done in grey. But that might've been ugly in LEGO, so what the hey. Over to one side we have the Dag Hammarskjold Library, which Rok Kobe (the designer) has also pretty much nailed. Obviously it doesn't have the curves of the top roof, but that'd be pretty much impossible to do. Second to the Secretariat, this is my next favorite building in the brick since it's got a lot of blue and looks cute. Onto the General Assembly building. I know the pictures I've picked here don't exactly match, but it does the trick anyway. Kobe got down basic details - the blips and the dome on the roof, for example, though I don't know why the dome isn't grey as well (since it's definitely grey in all of the real-world photos I've been looking at). He's also attempted to capture the curves of sides, but they still turn out looking awkward. This building is certainly the lowest point in the set - it looks strange with those steps in the sides, though I know there's little else that could've been done. CONCLUSION One more pretty picture because why not. Overall - I don't know what to think. This model is pretty for sure, especially from the back. Most of the buildings are pretty nice, and the white and light blue go together swimmingly. The ground in front is kind of ugly, though, as I touched upon earlier, but it doesn't 'ruin' the model. For fans of the architecture line, this will be a nice addition. It's certainly quite recognizable, even if people only recognize the big building and flags (I've even been to the UN, but I couldn't have told you what those other buildings were or even that they necessarily existed). For FOLs who aren't necessarily into the Architecture line, this could be a good learning experience, since some cool techniques are employed to shape the buildings even if they didn't all come out successfully. This is certainly a great parts pack, what with all that trans light blue (and did I mention trans light blue?). Bottom line: if you don't care for parts or for Architecture sets, you probably could've already told yourself to skip this set. Otherwise, it might be one to look into picking up.

Also it says 'for the forseeable future Collectible Minifigures will be Licensed.' However, we have real confirmation that Series 14 will be tied into the Collectible Minifigures MMO, a collaborative effort between the MMO designers and minfig designers. That's hardly Licensed, though, since they're just characters that 'work well' within the game's three lands and aesthetic. On the other hand, the original Danish article about The Simpsons had strange wording that only mentioned the figures, so I've been suspicious that they'd only make the figures. We'll just have to see.

Well, rumors abound that Bryan Cranston has signed a contract to appear as Lex Luthor in multiple films starting with this one, so maybe it's him.Honestly, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Man of Steel was already an excruciating experience, at least for me (and nearly everyone I know not-online who saw it), and it's not like the sequel is driven by Affleck anyhow. If it was a solo outing, maybe there could be a tiny cause for concern as Affleck did used to give fairly dull performances early on in his career. As it is now, there's really no way to know how it will be before it comes out. If it's got the same level of stupidity as Man of Steel, even the greatest performance of Bruce Wayne/Batman in the world wouldn't be able to save it. I have no idea if Henry Cavill was any good as Superman since the story was so mangled and he was given so little to actually do, but the sequel could still be tolerable.

I'd think it would have to at least include a facade of the garage to get down the iconic look of the house (if you can call a plain orange-pink house iconic, but I guess it is). perhaps it will look like a garage from the outside, but be used for interior rooms on the inside? Could work.

If this is true I will go nuts! Aka buy things. What's your source for this?

No. It's a prelim stand-in. The actual minifigures are shown in the drawn artwork; that set will come with a newly designed plain Phase II clone. Ninja'd. As to Boga - I guess it's a shame that Boga's not in the set, but it would make the set so much more expensive. It looks to me like LEGO is making all of those 'great vehicle' sets the same price, and Boga would definitely push the Wheelbike above whatever pricepoint that will be. Now, the Wheelbike isn't really a great vehicle anyway, so maybe they should've just made a more expensive set with an awesome new Boga. They could've made a Wookiee flyer for the 'Great Vehicle' pricepoint with a couple of generic wookiees.

It really pained me for ten years that I'd passed up the Flying Fortress on sale back in the day, but luckily the Ninja sets haven't gone so far up in price on the aftermarket, for whatever reason. As long as you don't care about MISB, you can get a Flying Fortress for around $100 on Bricklink in the US; once you add on shipping, it'll only come to about $20 or $30 more total than the set sold for originally. Not a bad deal for such a lovely set, if you've been wanting it.

Well.... This conversation just seems to be going in circles. Cooling towers aren't going to happen because they're too big and pointless. Scenes within the plant can happen and are happening. If something is tied to a cartoon - it's cartoony, even if it has 'real world' consequences. That's why LEGO doesn't make bomb squads in the City line or even give the police officers guns, but there sure are plenty of guns in Licensed themes and plenty of bombs, missiles, and other couriers of death in everything besides City. Though The Simpsons might seem like it's a 'City' theme, it's not - it's brightly colored with silly looking minifigs from a cartoon TV show.

Honestly, that's not such a huge surprise as JJ Abrams always likes to work on film so that he can get his glorious lens flares (which wouldn't work out the same shooting digitally). Though the studio wanted Star Trek Into Darkness in 3D, Abrams was adamant about using film. Not saying I have anything against it, since I like the film look too and his films look great - I just hope he doesn't go overboard with the flares. I agree that TPM doesn't really look so good - but I think the real difference is that it at least still used props for things. They actually built a Naboo Starfighter (I think), which is something. By RotS, barely anything was real, just bare bones. They never even made clone trooper armor... George Lucas and his bad decisions.

We can't really compare this theme to the Lone Ranger because LR is a totally not-iconic movie (like Prince of Persia). A majority of people interested in LR sets aren't interested because they love the characters, so LEGO has to make really good sets to sell the theme. Now, I hate whenever anybody says 'LEGO doesn't care about the sets.' It's flat-out not true; they're a company that has art-trained designers hard at work making sets, of course they care about the designs. But at the same time, certain themes are going to sell because of characters people love. Look at TMNT - frankly most of those sets are lackluster, but the Turtles are brilliant and who doesn't want a full set of Turtles plus other favorite TMNT characters? The same goes for Star Wars - people WILL buy sets just for unique minifigures (though that's not to say nobody at LEGO cared about the set, since they did). The Simpsons does fall under the category of people buying the sets for the minifigures. I truly hope the sets themselves are nice, and I bet they will be, since the designers at LEGO do care about what they're doing. I can't see how they could screw up fairly simple scenes and settings; they'll either be alright or awesome. But regardless, people will buy them for the figures. 'Nuff said. As to the Power Plant debate - LEGO isn't going to make a nuclear tower because… why the heck would they? There's no playability to that, and it would have to be teensy. Unless they make a micro Springfield… which would be awesome. But that's just a pipe dream.