Clone OPatra

I don't recall having seen this mini MTT mentioned yet in this topic. I like the CW color scheme on it. Via Hothbricks

You weren't quite first to the silver surfer idea, but it is a good one!

Well, the irony gave me a good laugh. In a way it's actually nice that you didn't embed the pic, because it wouldn't be nearly as funny if you didn't have to build up expectations and then have them reversed upon clicking. Nice!

There are holes under the door so that you can attach the walkway and platform there, to sort of have Anakin enter from where he's supposed to enter. That's the way sidasa has it set up in his review on Imperiumdersteine (so it might be shown that way in the instructions). I'm not sure what you mean by the technic bricks under part of the desk. If you mean the technic brick jutting out on the side, that is for a play feature. If you mean the bricks underneath the red carpeting, that is again just so you can arrange the doorway and platform however you want. Also, has anybody else been amused with the description for the set on LEGO.com? My personal favorite is the second to last of the bullet points:

Plus different arm and hand color on Tiin, a new torso on Palpatine, an entirely new Agen Kolar figure… why so grumbly? The CW-style torsos aren't very different from the other ones these days, so there's no point to redo something like Mace's torso which is pretty much the same.

Well, LEGO clearly doesn't consider it new since they didn't label him as such, so why should anybody else? I think a new figure has to at least be one that has something about it that's unavailable in previous sets. I really don't know how to feel about the Palpatine's Arrest set. It's certainly better than last year's straight-out-of-a-space-theme Echo Base, and it captures the look of the scene, but at the same time it's quite a strange set just because it's so unusual for Star Wars. I wouldn't say strange makes it bad, though. I think the office will look nice, and the modular design with the platform and doorway is a cool idea. They've packed in some nice play features that actually make sense, and the ship is well-executed. Overall, I think it's a fine set. The only awful thing is the price, although I'd still be more tempted to buy this over Echo Base just because this has a nice aesthetic and isn't a jumble of white, grey, and yellow.

It is clearly a new head. Take a look at this picture (zoom in, it's big). That is neither of the sides from the Mustafar set.

Actually, in the Ultimate Spider-Man show (which this set is based on anyway), Spidey does have a tricked-out motorbike that Shield gives him. Granted I've watched only the first five episodes so it might get destroyed later on and I wouldn't know, but it was there.

I understand the minifigure craze when it comes to licensed themes, but in a LEGO original it's a little bit confusing to me. In licensed, it's very natural to desire all of the characters and whatnot. Sure, you might have loved the X-Wing when you saw the film, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the characters were even more exciting. That said, even in licensed I'm startled when people buy the really big sets in which they hate the model but love the minifigures. I couldn't possibly bring myself to do that; I'd rather just not have the minifigures at all. When it comes to a theme like Monster Fighters, I can't understand why people would buy nearly any of the sets just for the figures. The smallest ones, fine, but even the werewolf set I wouldn't buy if I didn't at least like the car. I don't deny or disagree that these figures are awesome, and I'm very excited to have them once I get the sets I want, but they're not the sole basis for liking these sets. If the sets were awful, I could get some cool (albeit different) figures in some other theme with better sets.

You guys do realize that those DC superhero pictures are of the in-game characters and are no indication of us getting them as actual minifigures. Maybe we'll see the Flash eventually, but the others like Captain Cold seem pretty unlikely. Even if we do get the Flash, he might not end up looking like that. The video game designers have gotten really good at designing characters that look like they would be real figures.

The PotC line was a special case because of the included posters and cards, which I think LEGO wanted to keep nice. All of the sets had the cardboard, besides for a few batches that didn't. I think after that line everyone assumed it would become standard, but we've seen that's not the case. Maybe it was more money than it was worth, so LEGO only does it now for big sets or in certain cases.

There have been more than that. Naboo Swamp, Watto's Junkyard (sorta), both Ewok Attacks, the Final Duel sets (albeit small), all of the Jabba's palace-related sets, the various Hoth base sets (3 of them). Sure, mostly LEGO makes ships, but they could do a Theed Palace. Maybe they will sometime, but it doesn't seem like such a pressing thing to make. They might get around to it eventually.

I am kidding you, since it's not. Sir von Lego was nice enough to display all of the sticker sheets in his summer wave topic, and there isn't one in the Striker set.

And a different print on the front. He's now somewhat smiley.

Those rebreather faces on Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are pretty useless. I wish they'd given Qui-Gon a stern reverse face, but at least his happy one isn't as wacko as Theoden.

From FBTB, this: I know that's from Toy Fair, but you can tell in Grogall's official image that this is the face.

That's not Spider-Man's color scheme, and has never been. Just do a simple google image search; it's always red on the inside. I think the printed pattern red hips of the old design was the best way to pull it off without looking weird, like this does. Dark blue might also have been good.

To me, that's not really the problem. The X-Men figures wouldn't fit in by that logic. I think the Spider-Man figure is ugly in and of itself. There are two problems: the red printing not being strong enough on his torso so that it blends with the blue a little, and the all-blue pants. I know that it's basically accurate to the show character, but the figure would probably look a whole lot better with red hips (like the old spideys). It's really all the solid blue that makes him look awkward. Really, LEGO should have also stuck to the old 'red torso with blue printing' design rather than vice versa, but I think the red pants will be a fix for this figure as it is.

There are actually a ton of red things in the helicarrier. I saw the film for a second time in theaters and I noticed lots of them in the background, certainly on the bridge. They kind of look like fire alarms. Why LEGO decided to throw them in, I'm not sure, but it's not entirely like someone said 'hey, why don't we put fire extinguishers everywhere just for a laugh.' I can imagine it was more like they saw a few early reference shots, and then said that.

That's the Boba Fett from the new Skiff (sans cape). The seller is just lying about it being from a new Cloud City set.

Let's not start a price discussion. I know it's not in the first post, but the skiff will be $25 in the US. That's what it was at the NY Toy Fair. End of story.

While I understand and even agree with people's notion of a 'double standard,' I think at the same time it makes good rational sense. Let me just look at Lord of the Rings (because it is the most bloody, gory, disturbing source material LEGO has done yet). Since LEGO is making this into an entire line, they get to generate plenty of promotional material that allows them to spin the source material just as they please. A quick glance at the character bios on the teaser site shows that LEGO is doing all they can to turn this source material which is actually quite dark into something up-beat and fun. When I watch those films, Frodo doesn't seem like a happy dude on a fun quest to me; he's rather melancholy and usually tends to complain (which makes him one of the most annoying characters to watch). The same goes for almost every character. I'll argue with you about some other themes, but when it comes to LotR, it doesn't fit this list of LEGO's pertaining to what's kosher in their brand. However, as I said, they get to spin it with LotR in a way that they can't with CUUSOO. The truth is, the kids won't know that Firefly is violent and contains sex any more than they will realize how dark all the characters in LotR are, but with Firefly LEGO doesn't get to spin it, which is a problem for them. If they don't have the opportunity to magically wave their hands and say it fits with the brand, they can't make it. Still, the one thing that Firefly and Shaun have against them that LEGO didn't mention is their target audience. These are things made for grownups, or at least late teens. LEGO's licenses are not. LotR might skew the oldest, but even then, 10-year-olds can certainly watch and enjoy it, and parents should feel fine letting them do so. That's why, while I agree that there does seem to be a bit of a 'double standard' when it comes to some things, I'm inclined to think that the likes of the rejected projects are in a different category because the IP is targeted at an audience outside of LEGO's age range.

In the cinematic trailer for the game in which he appeared, he did not wear a helmet. I suppose that LEGO took that source as an opportunity to not produce yet another, most likely single-use, mould. It's a shame for us, though, that they didn't.

This is something I've been thinking about lately - how much does your being a fan of material that is made into a LEGO line influence whether or not you like the line? There are a whole lot of Licenses out there. When I read through the discussions, for the most part I notice a trend: people that like the source material are interested in the sets, while people that don't like the source material aren't interested. It really applies to almost every license. But I find myself not going that way. I didn't care much for Prince of Persia the film, but I loved the LEGO line and bought all but one of the sets. I don't like Batman in nearly any his comic or TV iterations, but I bought (and love) the Funhouse and I love the minifigures even though I don't like the characters they're inspired by. There's also the flipside. I absolutely loved The Avengers the film, but I still don't want any of the sets. I love Lord of the Rings, but none of those sets are really getting me excited either. And with Star Wars, I still love it, but I burned out on buying much Star Wars LEGO a long time ago. So, I'd like to see how people feel about this topic. Do you like certain licenses because you like the source material? Is liking the source material just an added bonus? Is it more about the sets? Do you buy whatever sets have good parts and interesting figures no matter what the license? Leave your thoughts!

It's not worth dreaming, the answer's never. LEGO has a building toy license for SW, not a figures license.