Clone OPatra

I'm certainly not surprised that there are already two waves in the works, but it is nice to have it confirmed. I am sure we can expect to see all the sets including the On Stranger Tides ones at Toy Fair, unless LEGO pulls another Toy Story 3 and doesn't reveal the sets because they 'have spoilers.' By that point the first wave will already be out, of course. This is actually the fourth license to have the two-wave structure. The others are Indiana Jones, Toy Story, and the oldest license, Star Wars. I think this model will work very well, and for Pirates, I expect more than just the two waves since it is such a rich universe with many locations and ships to draw upon in the films. Realistically, LEGO cannot put out too many of the ships at one time, since they never have a huge number of large sets in one theme. My guess is, since the Black Pearl appears in the fourth film, the ship for the first wave will be the Dutchman, while the Pearl is held for wave two. The other ships that I assume we will see in the future are the Chinese ship, Jack's own little ship, and possibly Beckett's ship, though that one may never happen because it doesn't show up all that much in the films. I certainly hope that there will be some Pearl crew members with reversible skeleton heads from the first film, and of course the sea people from films 2 and 3. I'm sure we will see Jack, Will, Elizabeth, Barbosa, Davy Jones, and Beckett in the first wave, and probably characters like the guy with the removable eye and his comic partner as well. This is going to be an awesome line!

Just thought I'd repost this link from amazon.co.jp that has highly zoomable pics for all of those that missed it. It's a shame that you can't zoom in extremely close on the Castle though, in order to see the Dumbledore redo. I guess we'll just have to wait for close-ups of that.

I see loads and loads of movies in theaters each year, and I often enjoy ones the most that are straightforward and just fun. That said, I did like Inception to a point, but I found it not expertly put together. The main problem I had with the movie was that it more had to do with a cool concept than with a good story. The first half of the film was spent in dialogue explaining that concept so that the audience could have any clue what was going on in the exciting second half. But does that make a good movie? Moviemaking is supposed to be about showing, not just telling. A combination of the two is fine, but Inception really was 1st half telling, 2nd half action. And that made me bored. Total dialogue exposition does not make for exciting cinema in my mind, even though I knew that something cool would probably happen. But, even in the exciting second half, I still didn't feel very connected to the characters. Cobb (DiCaprio) was the only one who was supposed to have any emotional motive, but that didn't even work out to well. Chris Nolan took ten years to finally make this movie, but I think if he'd continued to work on it for a few more it would have been much better. The cool concept was there, but it really needed a much better story and stronger characters.

From that High-Res it is definitely two stickers. I guess LEGO has really taken to heart that some people hate stickers across multiple bricks, although I must agree with Walter that in this case two stickers is truly annoying. Lining that up will be a nightmare, and who's going to use an arch with a half a republic emblem if they do take the set apart? Well, I guess somebody will, but still…

The Castle, the Train, and Hagrid's Hut are each not from any single book. Voldemort comes with the Castle, in reference to the seventh book. Dementors come with the Castle, which references the third book or perhaps the seventh, since I believe Dementors did fight alongside Voldemort. And yes, perhaps the positioning of Snape and Dumbledore on the tower references the sixth book. It's nice to see a shot of these boxes in person. The art is pretty good, although the Hogwarts set is a bit of a jumble.

This is a fun topic! The way I learned the stories and character names was from the catalogs mostly, not the magazines. Quite often in the later '90s, there would be a blurb explaining what was going on in the line, and also there would be little pictures of the figures with their names. This was true for Adventurers, Res-Q, X-Treme team, and others. I for one did like to follow LEGO's own stories, even if sometimes the continuity was not too great. For example, in the desert Adventurers line had the guy in the top hat named Sam Sinister and the guy with the monocle named Baron von Baron. Then for the Orient Expedition wave, they gave the guy with the monocle a top hat and called him Doctor Sinister. It made me confused. For earlier Castle themes, like Black Knights, Dragon Masters, etc. there were blurbs on the poster advertisements explaining the factions (sort of). Those I never found to be too well-developed though, which was ok, since there aren't too many unique stories for knights anyway. I only cared for LEGO's given stories and names for some themes, though. For Ninja, LEGO's own story was much too confusing and muddled for me to bother with, so I split the different figures into the factions that I wanted and made up the story my own way. I called one black horse Soot, and the other one Shang, after Disney's Mulan.

Yes, in fact you did start this very same thread not even one month ago, and they are now merged. You have not taken appropriate action with this. Nobody commented the first time, which is sad, but has to be accepted. There just doesn't seem to be anybody who wants to reply to this, because maybe there's nobody from Israel on the site. If your topic gets no replies, there's nothing you can do about it but accept it. Please don't bump your own topics, and do not start exact copies.

There is no scene with the train in the book, but it is mentioned that Death Eaters stopped the train when it was on its way to the school and abducted Luna. Just like the filmmakers added a scene of the Death Eaters kidnapping Olivander (which wasn't seen in the book) at the beginning of Half-Blood Prince, they've decided to show Luna's abduction. I think it will make a very nice scene.

He definitely has a reverse head, but I think the other one looked more scared, which certainly isn't quite right for the character. LEGO is going cartoony with all of these figures, but for cartoony I think this Fenrir looks just right. Pretty hairy, which is also pretty freaky.

Though that comparison with a film still does point out some blatant inaccuracies in the model, I still think that we need to see more views of the set before deciding. Straight on, the wings may look much better.

Superb review Inky! You've actually made me appreciate this set more than I did just from the boxart. This ship itself isn't so small, and its detailing is very nice. Unlike the Pirate Tank, which was kind of bare, this looks sturdy and full. I guess the premium is added on for all of the figures. It's like you pay $30 for the ship, $20 for the figs. Which isn't all that bad, but of course it's hard to think about it that way. Still, four awesome figures is quite a lot for a Star Wars set these days (Battle of Endor is of course another like it), so hopefully this set will last as long in production and Target will start putting it on sale next summer.

Ok, I'm not trying to argue too much here, but I really don't think this can be called just an update of the old starfighter. Why? Because it's too big for figures. While other ships that get updates like the Slave I, Vader's Tie, Y-Wing, etc. do get a little bigger than the older versions, they still stay a size that looks good with figures. This ship is big, and Obi-Wan would look pretty small sitting in that cockpit. So it doesn't seem like that many pieces. But it's a heck of a lot more pieces than LEGO usually uses to make a starfighter. I suppose they could've made it even bigger in order to push it into the 1000+ part range, but then this cockpit piece wouldn't have worked anymore and I'm not sure what would have been gained. Obviously, most other UCS models even of a personal ship have been bigger and have had more pieces, but that doesn't mean this isn't also a good looking display model. The price, on the other hand… but that's a discussion for elsewhere. And the cockpit is the one that was used on the EpIII fighters, or so it looks.

That doesn't sound like a prank. That just sounds nasty and bullying.

Not really. It's a larger scale, with more detail and no play functions, so it certainly counts as a UCS. They also gave it a stand, which makes it part of the series.

Perhaps so that it would not cause an uproar with all the Harry Potter fans who don't think that this Flitwick's name is Filius. After all, this is the younger Flitwick, so his name isn't necessarily Filius. Though it does seem strange, since they never even say Hooch's name in the movies anyway.

And that's exactly what I was thinking of. It was the word 'master' that tripped me up. This is indeed like Master Labyrinth, which has always been a favorite of mine. As to my previous Dumbledore in Dark Red robes comment, I just rewatched Chamber of Secrets last night, and Dumbledore does indeed wear dark red robes in a few scenes in that film. LEGO never released him as such as a full figure, but it isn't inaccurate. Perhaps sand blue would have been a better pick, but only because Dumbledore wears sand blue in more films than he does dark red.

There have only been minifigures in two UCS sets. Besides, when they make UCS of smaller ships (such as the X-Wing, Snowspeeder, Y-Wing, etc.) they can't include minifigures because the scale is all wrong. For these ships the scale is about right to minifigures in the normal System versions, whereas the UCS versions are big detailed display pieces (with the added ability of swooshing in the nude). The R4 head looks like a new larger dome piece, printed. I think in the small picture it just looks like the head is an odd molded piece, while it may really turn out just to be printing. You never know, though, they could've molded a big R4 head. At any rate, it's much better than the tiny R2 they used in the UCS X-Wing and Naboo Fighter.

Good guessing to all those that thought it would be EpII. I honestly thought it wouldn't be, since LEGO has not released anything from EpII since the movie itself came out, but I'm pleasantly surprised. With this, LEGO shows that it really knows what it's doing with the UCS line, which is geared towards adults anyway. Why do I say that? Well, if they were marketing it towards kids, it would probably be Clone Wars since that would be more relevant, but they know that adults collectors will love the EpII version. I'm especially intrigued by the new large R4 dome. I can't wait to see close-ups soon.

My vote goes to That wasn't a laser blast, something hit us by marshal banana This scene is one of the first space chases in the Star Wars saga. Sure, there was the trench scene in EpIV, but that just took place in a trench. This scene involved dodging asteroids and outrunning TIE fighters at the same time! So, the scene itself is totally epic. It's really the epic rendering of this scene by marshal banana that draws me to this MOC. The minis themselves are expertly crafted, as are the asteroids. But it's the addition of the black slab base, and the overall composure of the scene on that base, that turn this MOC into a work of art. Everything is positioned just right; it truly captures the action and freezes it in time. That's what makes this MOC transcend being just a MOC to be a sculpture. I would be truly proud to have this work of art on my shelf.

Really excellent work! I can see a lot of attention went into this, and it pays off very well. The comedic timing is also great. I hope to see more from you!

Stunning review, Inky! As to the set, this is one that I didn't care for when it came out, and it hasn't grown on me. Though it offers all that could really be wanted from a Cloud City set, having the key rooms and plenty of cool figures, I still find this set unappealing. The set just seems downright ugly to me. It really suffers from the time it was released with so much blocky grey. Greebly grey is better, but I find the execution of this set poor. Hopefully, if LEGO releases a new Cloud City set, it will vastly improved by the current, prettier style.

Very nice review! It seems like this is LEGO's version of Mastermind. But I've always liked Mastermind anyway! It was quite nice of LEGO to include all of those microfigs as well, especially since they don't even factor into the game. I must wonder why they made Dumbledore red, though, instead of Sand Blue. I don't think he ever wears Dark Red in any of the films.

Well, according to FBTB, Angus MacLane is designing them himself, so I'm sure LEGO will pay him something.

Yes, that's exactly what I mean. I don't think they are trying to physically hurt the other team, they're just trying to derail their vehicles. I guess you could say that if you try to blow up somebody's vehicle, that's a good chance of killing the driver too. But really, since it's all fantasy, the kids playing with it will decide. I bet plenty of young chaps had the X-Treme team splatting each other on the rocks as well, even though weapons weren't included.

I just saw the newer trailer on the big screen yesterday, and it just looks so ridiculously epic! So much riveting eye candy; I can't wait! It's interesting that they'd decide to add in Amycus stopping the train, since that doesn't actually happen in the book, you just hear about it. I'm sure they know what they're doing, though. Also, in one of the shots in the preview it looks like Olivander is in his wand shop, but he already got kidnapped in the 6th film. Where could he be?