JINZONINGEN73

I'm guessing (at least with this year anyway) is that there's a surplus of yellow parts, thanks to the Aquaraiders line. Or perhaps yellow is somehow less expensive? Ok, I have no idea lol.

I'm saying the Matoran pics show up, first a bit prototypey, then crisper versions show up. Look at the boxes on these guys... no obligatory text going around the outside of the box, pics mildly hazy... they're placeholder pics. If you launch your eyes at them really far in, you might also think these are all CGI models too. Every edge on every box, every shadow underneath... identical. We'll see the "real" boxes soon is all I'm sayin'. :-) Are Matoran EVER designed well? Lol, I'd say not. But as parts sources, these guys are good. There's yellow goin' on, another green kanohi, those leggy spider pieces, launchers in new colors. Really, it's the damned Bohrok limbs messing them up. I want those pieces to die, allowing these 2 useful piece to come in new colors: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=x1314 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=47300 Get THOSE pieces in new colors. They do the same function as the Bohrok limbs, but they're thinner in the center, allowing them to be hidden better. The Bohrok limbs are these sad, fat things that are awkward just about anywhere.

I'm increasingly starting to realize that I'm buying new sets SOLELY based on how many 1x1 slopes they have. Looks like I might not be alone in this addiction. : D I'd say people were just kidding around with some in-joke, but it's not April Fool's Day. What people see in it, I have NO idea. 8-

Yeah, you're right Grievous... with just about everything you said. My beef with the Bohrok limbs is that they aren't as useful as the other limbs (expect maybe for those BAD bell-bottom monstrosities from the Toa Nuva). The bohrok limbs serve purposes sometimes, but not enough to validate their frequent production. Most of the mocs I see them in, they're used just wrong. But yeah, my building style is a big reason I hate them so. They just look like they were made without any concern for other uses... It's hard to deny they were a step down from the Throwbot and Bionicle limbs that preceded them. But yeah, these little sets are better than I initially thought. The sight of the Bohrok limbs made me ignorant momentarily. Masks in new colors... yay! And the blue set is great because you don't have to buy someone $9.99 or more just to get those needle-like leg pieces. Ok, no more crying from me. They ARE good. X-D I like how these "leaks" are so timed. I find it hard to believe they're accidental in nature lol. In less than 2 weeks, we'll see the 4th guy, and possibly better pics of these ones, complete with a mildly altered box. It'll happen. Why would THIS year's "leaks" be any different? lol

Hmmm. Not an easy question. I could add Street Fighter 2, but newer incarnations have since dwarfed it. Could put Mario Kart, but it's no fun since my brother lives far away now. Tekken 2... moved away from cousin. So I guess I'll just list undeniable games I still love: #1 Castlevania : Symphony of the Night (PS1) - I kid you not... it was inside my Playstation back in 1997, and it's still there now. I play it for 100's of hours each year. THIS is what happens when every aspect of a game comes together right (save for the omitted levels found only on the Saturn version... and maybe the easier difficulty later on in the game). I'd say not having the OTHER fairy familiar found only in the japanese version was a downside, but her (as well as her ability to sing in the library) can be put back in with a Gameshark device. Favorite PS1 game AND favorite game ever. #2 Klonoa (PS1) - It met with a limited release, but Namco's sidescroller here is one of the most fun games I ever played. The music blends nicely with the graphics of the game... and holy freakin' crap... the ending nearly brought me to tears when I first saw it. I've played most of the others, but they don't compare to that "special" feeling of the first. #3 DEZAEMON+ (Super Famicom) - Having had the foresight to preorder a SNES (so as to get the initial version, where you had but to break a tab in the cartridge slot to be able to avoid the anti-zoning that blocked Japanese games)... I was able to play Dezaemon Plus. It's a top-down shooter where you get to compose the music, and draw EVERYTHING. Background, sprites, weapons, explosions, etc.... programming enemy placement, movement, etc.... it was bliss. At one point (right before I was poor and had to sell it) I'd had a naughty level or two, where 3 screen-sized chicks were the background, and you could blow their clothes off while avoiding the milk and other bodily fluids they shot out of their various parts. X-D I think I'll go hunt down the rom to this, now thatI'm remembering how much fun it was. #4 Gunstar Heroes (Genesis / Megadrive) - Side-scrolling beat/shoot'em-up at it's finest. #4.5 Astro Boy (Gameboy Advance) - See #4, also made by the programming team "Treasure". While Astro Boy blew on just about every other platform, on the GBA he was a GOD. #5 Doom (Playstation 1) - Better sounds than on any other platform. It's a game I could pick up now and be lost for hours. God mode codes for the win. #6 Galactic Pinball (Virtual Boy) - Oh, poor Virtual Boy. Your time was too short on this Earth. But I will never forget the hours of bleary-eyed, sweaty-faced fun you gave me from this game. #7 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4 : Turtles in Time (SNES) - Konami kicked azz during the SNES days. This, like most of their larger titles were no exception. #8 Castlevania IV (SNES) - Hello again, Konami. Different enough from Castlevania : SotN to distinguish itself as not just a prequel version. #9 Bonk's Adventure (Turbografx16 / PC Engine) - Oh yes. This is another one of those "perfect" games where everything meshes perfectly with everything else. The music? Pure awesome... laid-back but good. The sequels did not compare. #10 Dragon Spirit (Turbografx16 / PC Engine) - My god... the music was heavenly, and the enemies were placed to coincide (maybe accidentally) with the ups and downs of that music. Unfortunately, some levels were missing from this arcade port, but what's still there is worthy. Oh, how I miss those days. Honorable mention: Ridge Racer (mainly for it's soundtrack. Wipeout XL (same reason). Tekken series (music again lol). Gaiares (Genesis). 1942 1943 Bubble Bobble (arcade) - Would rank higher, but 1 or 2 levels near end nearly REQUIRE that a second player be present to do the trick to get the "good" ending. Bomberman Street Fighter 2, Alpha and all other incarnations. Darkstalkers, etc. Mortal Kombat 2 (and ONLY #2). SUPER Smash TV (SNES) - You are not a gamer if you don't play this from start to finish at least once. Too many games over the 33 years of my life to mention.

Over all, nice parts sources. Though the 4916 needs a better selection of odd parts in thoe tan, which it does not deliver. Probably a model that's been sitting on the backburner, released only now because of the current news reports of it's decomission.

Those are better than the trash Matoran we've gotten the last few years... but the real problem is those TERRIBLE Bohrok leg parts. Such worthless crap that should've been retired after their initial appearance. I probably won't get any of these, JUST for that reason alone. Only 3. Where's Thulox?

The only twisting is when the people try to say it's not the right to protect themselves (and those around them). The anti-gunners will constantly interpret and reinterpret the 2nd amendment to mean militias aren't individuals, merely the beginning of government / community run armed parties. But they never bother to read the stuff that the signers of said document say elsewhere, which describe their intentions specifically with no room for interpretation. ... ...Maybe I'm losing something in understanding your grasp of the english language, but we're not talking about mosquitos. We're talking about forces larger than you which mean to impose horrible things on you. Mosquitos are merely swatted... and all together ignored, if you keep your cool. Most of your retorts really are just kind of biased and slightly nonsensical.

Nice job. And good choice of zombie parts. X-D I'm guessing you made it for this, but if not: http://eurobricks.hosting.ipsyn.com/eurofo...?showtopic=6277

I wasn't present in Lego for Fright Knights. ::looks online at Fright Knights sets:: Ok. Yeah, the theme seemed just silly. Knights? Wizards? I dunno. The sets (that I looked at) seem ill-concieved. A Wild West ghost town is a far more publicly-understood concept. I think both themes share one thing though... any more than 3 (good) sets for each, and you've likely already exhausted it's credibility. Of course also in both cases, that's dependent on how well you represent it to begin with.

I'm not making a sleek, sexy female bot. I already have the legs and pelvis done, and can already say she's pretty chunky. But skinny isn't a requirement for being female, sooo... ...I'll make it work somehow lol. Scene from the 2nd Bionicle movie. I made the gif on a much slower comp... but now seeing it at "regular" speed, it's almost comical. Like an old silent movie.

I was just thinking "Of COURSE they will"... but then the thought of another trans-clear "Starscream's ghost" figure came to mind. DAMN that'd be awesome.

X-O http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=126042 Lol... actually, I'm getting into it more and more. It's a money reason that I don't have my Lego room with 9V trains, towns and monorails. Since I have a few years of (tons) of Technic/Bionicle parts, I can make action figure mecha galore for free. My day will come. One inheritance later, and I'll have my own System heaven for the cats to stomp through and destroy. X-D Not only a way to get kids more interested (scary = fun), but also a ragingly good excuse for Lego to make more glow in the dark parts (also fun for kids). *sigh* I guess that's what mocing is for though. Doing what they should have already done. ;-)

JINZONINGEN_73 (8) Perfect score... though hardly any buying activity. Luckily, I got my stuff in the mail last year from the ex-Admin Swanberg, right before the feds caught him for his Millenium Falcon stealing spree across western USA toy aisles. Though I noticed earlier tonight that the guy still is active on Bricklink, even though his store's been closed since 11/2005? http://www.bricklink.com/feedback.asp?u=Swanberg Explain to me how he's gotten positive feedback as late as 5/7/2006... unless of course his store had briefly been reopened? Weird. (in reference to this): http://news.lugnet.com/mediawatch/?n=1968 http://media.bonnint.net/slc/0/75/7508.jpg http://www.co.washington.or.us/sheriff/media/win_100k.htm

(I'm too unlearn-ed to add transparent shadows to implanted objects yet.)

Hmm. The horizon is VERY forced, far too defined. If I remember correctly, when one looks out across the ocean, the horizon they see is around 11 miles away. In your picture, one is seeing straight to that line on the horizon without having any air molecules in between obscuring it's view. Kind of like rougher Playstation 1 games, where the only way to accurately determine distance from objects is the order in which the computer lagged in drawing them in the background. X-D Is this still your goal? If so, it's still not ominous enough. Compared to the first 2 pics you posted, the light now illuminates the water in a way that it could almost be passed off as an icy plain, that image helped along by the hyper-defined horizon which likely wouldn't be 11 miles off. It's a strange perspective, but it clicks in if you stare at it long enough.

You're doing both simultaneously. If you build a mosaic or statue out of Lego... yeah, that could just be building in the strictest sense. But when there's moving parts and you're still fondling the sculpture long after completion... you're playing. And anyone who says there's a "cut-off" age whereby one is too old to play with what's classicly understood as children's toys... need not influence you with their words anywhere beyond that point. X-D

That Ghost Town is pretty amazing. It's the kind of set you'd want to buy more stuff to expand onto. If it were real, and also had the 2 baseplates, I'd probably snag 3 or 4 of them, just to make a complete street. Then I'd move on to having a 9V steam engine that ran throgh town behind the buildings. Very inspiring stuff... both in box art and set design, more than almost all of Lego's "real" sets. You put emotion into it that's not always there, but should be. I agree, you should really be on Lego's paid crew. With a little more money further down the road, I'm definitely going to return to this topic some time in the future and make my own Ghost Town set. (And mind you, it wouldn't have been anywherre near as cool had it just been another Wild West thing, the ghost aspect made it awesome). And thanks for naming each picture so that they stay together when all are saved to hard drive. ; )

Whenever a movie comes out from Disney soon after it's come out from a competitor, that right there is their excuse. So brazen an excuse that they've even said they've worked on a film 10 years prior to release. 10 years. It's like me writing down movie ideas on napkins, then releasing clone movies a few months after a competitor's, stating "It was in production". There is no secret that Disney shreds documents to avoid giving property holders their due, that they launch a fleet of lawyers to get laws changed in their favor, that they rip off anything they see fit as closely as possible... this is just one more thing, with more evidence for than against. Disney is about as honest and moral as scientologists. As a fan of Wallace and Gromit (Aardman Animation), I'm definitely seeing it. X-D (Flushed Away)

I'd say just change every "Bionicle" into "Galidor"... but amazingly, that'd be putting down the playability/buildability of the Galidor Happy Meal figs. And there's something terribly wrong with that.

Is there anything you remember that we haven't discovered yet?

Oh god no. If they used American kids... oh, it'd be the death of Lego. The death.

What are those little puffs of smoke above "effect bricks"? Paint, chrome?

Indeed, indeed. How cool is it that they put Dr.Arkeville in the cockpit? X D I think I'll wait not just until I can comfortably buy him, but until an inevitable release of a more anime colored version. You know they'll do it lol. I have mixed feeling on the feet wings being turned into hip wings. Wait, no I don't. It's SO much better looking on the hips. I remember having the G1 Skywarp and thinking how lame the feet wings looked, much less the physical problems of walking like that. *crunch crunch crunch* Question... are his hands in a fixed position, or poseable?

That was accidental, but I kept it because I liked it better. The clouds rolling in on his altered version looked fake, so I stole from the original, also to give a flat horizon for the Cyberman. X-D Smart. Everyone should learn the simplicity of Paint's functions before ever even touching more technical editors. I ONLY use: -Paint -Alam DV2 ( for lightsaber and gunfire / explosion effects ) -Jasc animationshop 2 No matter what I use, there's ALWAYS Paint open during editing in any other program. SO much faster. God, that took me forever to find out lol. I never knew it was even there. X D Just remember... if you spend an hour cutting out an image to get it's transparent background version, ALWAYS save it as a 24bit bitmap. Like, if I'm making a photo of a cat with a laser eye, I save the cat's cutout as like "catlaserPROTOTYPE" just so I can use him again wherever I want to. If you accidentally save as jpg ...BOOM! ...you just lost that transparent effect and have to do it all over again. >__<