Clone OPatra

In the large base, there were only one or two Stingrays, I don't think that that is that many (that's a lot of "that"). Anyway, I never liked any of the underwater lines, but it's nice to have a Hydronauts review. I feel like I've seen this review somewhere before, hmmm…

Yes, January 2010 for the system Toy Story sets! That's great news. I really like this marketing gimmick that LEGO has taken up with new licenses acquired just before a new movie. Well, I guess they took it up back in 1999, when they released the first OT Star Wars sets around Christmas before launching the new tie-ins in the summer. Still, it's great to get excited about what the new movie will bring!

Um... wasn't this supposed to be about non-SW chrome minifigs? Anyway, a chrome red coat would be great, as would a chrome spaceman. A chrome knight would also be especially lovely, seeing as knights should be shiny anyway. And maybe they could make a chrome skellie to go along with the knight! Basically, I'd love to see any chrome minifig from Castle, Pirates, or classic space.

That looks like a very nice version of Anakin's starfighter. It certainly has s much more texture than the official model, which also makes it less boxy. I like what you've done with Artoo also. The only area of improvement to me is the nose, which I still think looks a little flat just like it did in the official model. Besides that, you've done a great job!

Lovely, I like it even better than some of your last ones. Your ideas have really progressed so much, and the new sets are magnificent. I can't wait to see what you will do next with this new setting!

I don't really think LEGO will make any Indy sets based on a videogame. There is still much untapped potential from just the four movies, whereas with Star Wars LEGO had already decided to start making some EU sets when they made the one Force Unleashed set. Since they did only ever make the one set based on a Star Wars videogame, perhaps they decided that it was a little too obscure to make sets from. I doubt Indiana Jones will last enough years for LEGO to try something other than sets that relate directly to the movies.

It looks very nice, but I would agree with others that it does not resemble an X-Wing too closely. I don't think it needs more teeth, if it had more than the mouth would just look too full. At first, I thought it was a MOC of one of those Klingon ships from the old Star Trek show/movies. But with a few modifications, I'm sure it will look like an X-Wing, and then it will be great!

I don't usually like starting topics that are just speculation, but I went to a movie a few days ago and saw that Harry Potter 6 was rated PG. I've seen the trailers, so this came as a huge surprise. Of course, I had to check it online when I got home, and since I haven't seen it discussed yet, I decided to bring it up here. Here's an official image from harrypotter.com: After I saw that LEGO made only one HP5 set, I thought that they would never make any more HP LEGO. The series was getting too dark, and away from the kid-friendliness that LEGO likes. But now that the new movie is rated just PG, I don't know. Would LEGO bring back this much-loved theme now that the MPAA has deemed the new movie acceptable for children? And, they're making a new game, which is just books 1-4, so wouldn't they want to make a sequel for 5-7 and have tie-in sets? I doubt that even with these pieces of news HP LEGO will be back, but what do the fine members of Eurobricks think?

This is interesting news, and like many others I hope that "the new way to build" is not something awful like Galidor was. To me, this also signals an end to any more Nickelodean sets. I base this opinion on the situation with LEGO, Marvel, and DC. LEGO had a Marvel license, but it ended and so LEGO eventually shifted to DC to make Batman sets. The only point that could say otherwise is that The Clone Wars is a Cartoon Network show, which had LEGO sets during the same time that there were new Spongebob sets. However, I don't know if a CN license is required to make CW sets, or if CW sets just fall under the Star Wars license. I hope LEGO is not overdoing itself with too many licensed themes at once. I feel like three is a good number, but 2010 will have at least four or maybe five (SW, Indy, Disney, CN, more Nick?, WB - since HP6 is currently rated PG?).

That is simply stunning. One of your best yet! I love how many details you have packed into this, keep up the great work!

The box was already smashed like that when I got it, hence the small markdown. Still, thanks for the advice about opening these newer sets, I'll definitely have to use a knife in the future. I can still ask, though, what happened to the punch holes? I am glad you enjoyed my review.

Here it is, another review of the smallest summer 2009 Castle set that most people hated so much from just the picture. Title: King's Battle Chariot Set #: 7078 Theme: Castle/Fantasy Era Pieces: 103 Minifigures: 4 Year: 2009 Price at Release: USD $19.99, EU €20,00-ish Buy It? Inventory? LEGO Bricklink Peeron INTRODUCTION Like Svelte_Corps says in the introduction to his fabulous review of 7097 Trolls' Mountain Fortress, this set has also been hated since the time some preliminary pictures were released. Then, when the mostly completed set was shown at Toy Fair, even more people jumped aboard the "OMG 7078 is so awful" train. They said it was so overpriced, with just 103 pieces for 20 bucks. They said even for that amount of pieces it looked badly designed, and not very thought out. The only good thing I personally read someone say about this set was that it comes with two orc shields. That was it, just the shields. Well, I didn't know how I felt about. I don't buy a lot of Castle (the only other Fantasy Era sets I have are 7040 Dwarves' Mine Defender and 7091 Knights' Catapult Defense), so I didn't really care one way or another about this set. It did seem overpriced, but lots of sets are these days. Anyway, I was in New York over the weekend so I popped into the big Toys R Us in Times Square. Just as I'd expected, they had the new Space Police, City, and Agents, but not many copies of the new Castle sets. But there were two crushed copies of 7078 King's Battle Chariot, and they were marked down to $16.90! Although that's not really so much of a bargain, I can never resist things that are marked down. Without a second's thought, I grabbed it and bought it. BOX Pardon the wooden floor in these pictures. I did not want to carry the box with me from New York, so I had to take the pictures where I was staying there. The front of the box shows a cute little scene. The design of the grassy rocks and stone road is a lovely artwork. The set itself already looks a bit small though, and it says 103 pieces right there, which is a giveaway that there will be a few less pieces than expected in a $20 set. The back of the box has more lovely artwork that continues onto the flap. There are two little inserts, not really showing play features, because there are none. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it was a real struggle to get the box open. What happened to the great punch holes? The top side of the box does not show all the minifigures, just the king in actual scale and the king again fighting with an orc. Also of note, no parts of this set were made in China, for any of you who care (I do a bit). On another side of the box, there was this game ad. I wonder when we can expect to see the game. INSTRUCTIONS The instructions were not horribly mangled, just folded neatly in half. The front has the same art as the front of the box. The first two pages. Nice and neat, good color distinction, although black and dark bley blend together just a little. Here is another nice page featuring the built set with its box, the other two summer sets, and that same little ad for the Castle game. MINIFIGURES Ok, on to the plastic part of the set as opposed to the paper and cardboard parts. First, the minifigures from the front. The trolls and regular crownie have been seen before, but it's always nice to have more of them and to get the copper-helmeted troll with an alternative orc torso. The masterpiece of the minifigures is the king, who comes with beautiful armor, torso printing, and leg printing. He also has a dark blue plume...delicious! My my, the king also has a wonderful back printing! That furry part of his cloak makes him look so kingly! In sum, the minifigures in this set are absolutely wonderful. The king is fabulous beyond description, and the others are great to have as well. MINIFIGURE Special Section: KING I read on one of the forums that people were annoyed that LEGO put "yet another" king into a set. Those people wished there were just more crownies in this set, and no beautiful king that can easily be afforded. Well, lets take a look at how our newly outfitted king holds up with kings of the past ten years. From left to right, King Leo of KK1(sorry, I could not find his crown, but it's quite worn anyway), King Mathias of KK2, and our new king, of Castle. The new king is a lot more exciting with his dark blue and back printing. King Leo does have nice leg printing, but the gray just does not compare to royal dark blue. Plus, our new king has beautifully printed armor and a plume! Now, let me show you a few things that you can create with pieces from the new king, to further show you how great he is. Firstly, two semi-obvious Castle minifigures: a crownie in armor with a lovely sash and dark blue plume, and a dwarf in a kingly robe. But then I got to thinking, and I realized that you can even use the king's torso for city-themed characters, like so: You couldn't have made that guy with King Mathias' torso. I hope these few thoughts about the king further convinces you (WhiteFang) of this minifigure's beauty. ACCESSORIES Yes, they get their own section. Here is where we see that there are two, not one, two! orc shields. We also get some dark grey long poles (I still think they should have never left the Orient), four differently colored gems, a chrome gold broadsword, a bow, and two dark Reown (reddish-brown) spears. It seems LEGO likes its dark brown spears, because it put them in the Mountain Fortress too. I have to wonder though, why did the trolls have those cool metal chipped swords before, but now revert back to wooden spears? While LEGO did put some chipped swords in the even newer Trolls' Battle Pack, the spears were still an odd choice in this set. They are nice to have though. We also get a horse (I consider it a minifig accessory). It comes with bricks to fill it in when it's not attached to the chariot. The back of the box shows the king riding the horse, even though there's no saddle. A great accessory collection, especially for just four minifigures. PARTS Who needs a picture of the parts list in the instructions when I set all of them up so nicely? Even sorted by color. The color variety is very nice. It's great to get gold, brown, and especially dark blue! And don't forget the extra pieces! The BUILD Ok, you're ready, let's put those pieces together! (Does that sound corny to you too?) I took pictures of every fourth step after the fifth one, don't ask why! In 5 steps, we have: 9 steps. Weapons and horse attacher added, plus the first panel of what will be the floor of the chariot. 13 steps. Mmm... dark blue added. 17 steps. More dark blue is added, starting to build the walls of the chariot. The gems (and extra piece) have been put in the gold chest. This king must be filthy rich to have all that gold plated stuff. 21 steps. The chariot part itself is mostly done, now with gold flags and a two-high wall. While in between steps 22 and 23, you build the horse attaching part. I find it funny that the instructions have to show you that you must take out that white brick from the horse before putting the different part on. 23 steps. It's just missing the metallic bow. I also find step 25 odd in the instructions. Firstly, I thought that usually nothing was added in the last step but the minifigures, but here the bow is attached. Also, why is the king in the front manning the bow, while the soldier is standing in the rear? I would think the other way around would make more sense, but maybe this is a king who likes to be right out there in the action. The build does not take very long, so it is not boring and it is not repetitive. SET Now I'll critique how the set is once it is built. First, the left side. From this angle, it is a nice looking chariot, with good colors and nice big wheels. I put the king in back and soldier in front, the way I would have thought to. Perhaps two horses would have been better for the comparatively large chariot, but I think it's ok. The set is symmetrical, so there is no need for two side pics. Front. Yes, the angle is a bit funny, but the chariot does look a bit imposing when viewed head on. Back. Here's an obvious flaw, what's holding the chest in on the back. If the chariot zoomed forward, wouldn't the chest fly right out? Above. Here we see that there is really not so much space in the chariot, and it is hard to put the king and soldier in many different positions when they're holding their accessories. DESIGN I know this is not a traditional section of a review, but I want to spend time on this, so I created this section. First, I mentioned above that there is nothing holding the chest on the back of the chariot except LEGO studs, which don't exist in real life anyway (sorry kids!). Why couldn't LEGO have added one more gold rail thing to the back, to make the chest look safe? The way it is now, this could happen: Another flaw is that there is no designed way for the minifigures to enter the chariot except by the hand of G-D. The poles leading up the flags also block the vision of the minifigures inside, so an orc could climb up. For a battle chariot, the whole thing seems a bit under-armed. The only armed part of the chariot is the spears and crossbow. I wonder why LEGO did not rig it with play features like flick-fire missiles, that shooting system they use on the Troll Warship, or some regular flick-catapult. Not that I mind not having those, I really don't. It's nice to have a simpler model without those play features, but I still can wonder why LEGO opted not to have them. It's not like they were over their piece per price limit. Since there are no things to flick or fire, one must be imaginative with the armament of the chariot. For instance... 1. An orc warrior is standing ready to jump on the approaching chariot. Looks like the King's Chariot had that attack covered! 2. Two orcs fear the King's Chariot, so they run for their lives. Good thing the king had that crossbow installed! 3. This time, the orcs decide to attack from above. The king wasn't ready for that. CONCLUSION The best thing about this set, hands-down, is the minifigures. They are beautiful. The accessories for them are also really great, a big plus for this set. The color scheme and parts selection is quite good, but it is at least 50 pieces under what is today the standard of price-per-piece. There are also a bunch of flaws in the design, as I demonstrated above. So, am I happy I bought this set? Yes, I am. The minifigures alone are worth the $20, and the chariot is a nice addition to the myriad of other crowny vehicles already available. The Castle line was crying for a vehicle for the king, and it got an acceptable one. RATINGS Minifigures: 10/10 - I think you know my feelings about them by now. Pieces: 8.5/10 - Great color scheme and selection, but not enough. Build: 9/10 - Not repetitive, and you can't really expect a long build in a $20 set. Playability: 8.5/10 - Apart from rolling it around and banging little plastic men together, there isn't much to do. Price: 8/10 - You can't expect this to be a $10 set, even though $10 would fit the 103 pieces. The finished model is bigger than that of a $10 set, and the minifigures are awesome. Throughout the years, LEGO has always considered a variety of factors when pricing a set, so $20 is not so bad. Overall: 8.8/10 - A calculated average says "this set is most likely worth getting." Although I've given you this advice, the best way to find out if you will like this set is to buy it and see it yourself! I hope you enjoyed my review, and learned something about a set that so many people hated.

I completely agree with Darthperson. Rather than having the mindset "if you see a set you don't want, don't get it," have the mindset "if you see a set you want, get it." That actually makes a difference, because it means that you are getting something that you really want. However, if you truly get something out of collecting everything, and you can afford it, then you should. Just don't feel compelled to buy everything or sad if you don't have a complete collection.

I have to disagree with all of you who say that this set blatantly sucks. I bought it, and my review is still inside the academy, but will be out here soon for everyone to read. Yes, there are only 103 pieces for $20, but LEGO has done things like this for many, many years, it isn't a new development. This set is great for people with limited budgets, they can get two different orcs, a completely awesome king, and a crowny. There are a bunch of nice parts in interesting colors like dark blue as well, and a horse, which many people do not have many of. There are lots of plusses to this set, and although there aren't too many pieces, the model itself is still the size expected in a $20 set. Maybe when my review comes along, a few people will be able to better see the positive parts of this set and not just the negative. EDIT: Mr. Mandalorian beat me to praising this set by two seconds, and I definitely agree with what he has to say.

If you can, you should get rid of the pieces from the original AAT. Right now, while the tower is very good looking indeed, it does not fit that it is slapped atop some Star Wars pieces. The tower and whole model would look better if you used other pieces to create the base of the AAT, so then it would look more Castle-y and you might be able to incorporate the wheels better too. The redo is much better, but you shouldn't have the Star Wars pieces at all because they just don't fit in.

A very nice entry! I especially like all the detail there is floating around: the cafe, the tv crews, and all the great rooms inside the buildings. Both buildings are quite pleasing from the outside as well, although the yellow one is a bit plain compared to the magnificent tv tower building. Great job, good luck in the contest!

Pirate Pete, could you clarify the purpose of this thread? It is great that you and many others (myself included) have strong faith in our respective religions, but it is unnecessary on a community forum of toy enthusiasts. As others have stated, your intentions may be sound, but in a diverse community you never know who may step forward and start to bash another group. I sincerely hope that does not happen, and I'm sure most members would never do this, but it is still a possibility. Instead of opening a discussion topic about this, you could create a Christian themed MOC to present your beliefs. That way, you can constructively discuss religion while still referring to and using the thing that this website is all about, LEGO. This would also allow you to contribute to the entire community and not only to people who share your beliefs.

The writing was good, and the idea is ok, but the pics really are too messy. I know you say "it's supposed to be messy," but it comes across (to me anyway) as just a bunch of pics of LEGO and an action figure in a cluttered bedroom. Your idea would be suited much better by pics taken at least on a clean floor without the usual bedroom clutter thrown around. If you do a second installment, I would advise cleaning the floor first. It would help out your idea, which is good.

I'm not sure you're right on that. LEGO is all about creativity and building, and the minifigs are just another part that you can build your own way and design the way you want. I've become warier about pulling out the arms, but I do it the way everyone else has suggested and only some of my older figs (1998-ish) have ever shown signs of damage. Part of pulling the arms out is that you just have to not worry about it. If you want a certain minifig with a certain arm combo, just make and don't worry about it.

Really? That is very interesting. I have a nice quantity of the old style hinges that I have used multiple times, and they have yet to even show any wear. I have always loved these old hinges much more than the new style ones because these old ones are so much more posable and much less limited than the newer kind. I do understand now that the various reasons for the hinged chair that other members have offered are much more reasonable than my own interpretation. However, the hinges still make for a funny story!

Ooh! New tattered cape awesome-ness! I love capes! The Drawbridge Defense reminds me of an old drawbridge castle set, except with much more interesting figures. I'm sure I won't get the troll fortress, but it looks fantastic!

Yes, that interview was the source of the pictures (now found on the frontpage), but it was posted many pages back, so no worries. The delay is news though, that's a bummer to hear. It's not too long after, but I hope that this isn't a bad sign that it might keep getting pushed back (I want to see that exclusive fig!).

I posted this news in the Bionicle 2009 discussion thread, but then decided I should bring it to everyone else's attention in general because things may get, well, lost down there (no offense at all to Bionicle). I was searching TRU, and I came across these: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?p...&cp=2274247 http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?p...&cp=2274247 I had heard of the other upcoming LEGO digital camera that there have been pictures of, but not this! If this has been announced before, my sincerest apology, but I do check much of Eurobricks every day and had never read about this. It is a shame that TRU has no pictures of them, but if they really are ready to ship then I'm sure someone will get one soon and take pics of it. Again, I hope this really is news, -Clone O'Patra

I have never posted before in the Bionicle forum, and therefore I know little about what has gone on before. I just thought everyone might like to know about the "Bionicle Digital Camera." http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?p...&cp=2274247 I don't know if anyone has heard of this before (I heard of the upcoming system-ish LEGO digital camera), and I hope this is new news. It's a shame TRU does not have a picture of it, but they have a page both for one in yellow (the link above) and for one in red. If it isn't news, well, sorry.

Perhaps you should join the Academy and/or post a review in the style that you would like to. However, I find that the review done in the Academy certainly give us LEGO enthusiasts a good idea of what is in a set and the value of it, and then we can decide whether to buy that set or not (or just have some nice nostalgia, if it's an old set). Svelte's recent reviews of the upcoming Indiana Jones sets certainly cover the sets in plenty of depth as to inform me of their content and let me decide if I want them or not. Reviews of LEGO sets do not need to be as long or wordy as reviews of games because just a few pictures can easily show you what is in the set, whereas it is impossible to get the gist of an entire game (especially video games) without playing it or without a lot of in depth description. Call me someone with a short attention span perhaps, but I would rather not read a review of a LEGO set that has 1000 words, just some detailed pictures and a few thoughts will suffice for LEGO. But by all means, show us how you would do it!