David Thomsen

I've uploaded a level now, it's basically me playing with some ideas to see if I can make them work. My steam workshop address is: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198032087377/myworkshopfiles/ It has a lot of random stuff that doesn't actually mean anything yet, but which was fun to make and will maybe be incorporated into future levels.

Has anyone made any test chambers using the new Cooperative Testing Initiative from Portal 2? There are so many levels already after only a couple of days that it's hard to get any noticed, so I thought if the Eurobricks community could share puzzles in this thread. That is, assuming there are enough people in this forum who play Portal 2 to make it worthwhile. I think Lego fans will have an innate skill for this kind of design work. I haven't published any puzzles yet, but I will if I think there are enough people here who might play them.

I'm assuming that I don't need spoiler tags in this thread. Some people do use them, but no one has complained about that comment about Coulson's death. I don't think this is going to replace Indy as my favourite franchise, but still very excellent. Totally the pay-out from the previous movies I was hoping for, and more. Still absolutely love Tony Stark. Bruce Banner's quiet cynicism appealed to me more than I expected as well. Pretty much everyone had a moment where I loved them, even Thor with his 'he was adopted' line and Captain America with 'I got that reference'. Have watched it twice now, the only movie in a very long time that I have seen at the cinema more than once. The only thing I would have changed is the 'Galaga' bit (funny, if a bit too cartoonish) and possibly the 'Hulk smash Loki' scene. But that was made up for by the beautiful moment with Tony on the other side of that portal.

This is why I've purchased the Wolverine set and will pick up any future X-Men sets that aren't based on movies, but I'm not interested in the Avengers any more. If they had been classic Avengers, or more accurate to the film, I would pick them up, but too many liberties have ben taken. I don't think Hawkeye represents his character at all and I can't accept Widow's face at all. And I'm not interested in modding the characters to make them fit, like other people have done. Also not particularly fond of the 'scene from movie set within a vehicle, rather than using entire vehicle' thing they do with licensed sets. Not that they could have done a full-sized helicarrier, but I like to build my sets all together and it doesn't work when you have a full ground-based vehicle next to the interior of a sky-based vehicle. Great movie, though.

I don't know if this belongs here, but I don't think it deserves a topic of its own. I often read a website called 'io9' where they have a regular feature highlighting new crowdfunded projects they want to support. I wonder if a similar thing could be done on Eurobricks, with a weekly news update highlighting new Cuusoo projects that should receive more attention. There are quite a lot of Cuusoo projects and the site is not easy to browse, so potentially awesome projects could slip into obscurity, especially if the person who made them doesn't have a base of associates who will help bump the project to popular attention. The other thing is that people often don't seem to know how to use Cuusoo correctly to create the right impression of their projects, or explain what exactly they have in mind. And with so many projects to browse, it's easy to skip over them if the project does not immediately make sense, like if the picture is just a set of seemingly random parts or whatever. If there was a 'reviewer academy' type guide to help people present their project in an appealing manner, I think that would be quite beneficial. For example, I just noticed a Hunger Games MOC with no actual mention of 'Hunger Games' in the description, so anyone searching for it is not going to find it. These are things people need to know about. What if there's an awesome Indiana Jones circus train MOC in there somewhere, but I just can't find it?

This thread doesn't even have a link to the Cuusoo page yet! It is here. Ever since Hawkeye's big damn truck in the 'Loki's Cosmic Cube Escape' set, I've been wanting to see more oversized but highly detailed Lego vehicles. This could be one of them. I'm not absolutely committed to the design as it is, but I see what it could potentially be. What would be nice if the set comes with different designs for the different phases the DeLorean goes through, including just being a plain DeLorean. The main build would be the same so it wouldn't need that many different parts, and could probably follow the same instructions up to a point. I don't know how the wheels would be turned down for the flying car version, but I'm sure it could be done. Oh, and definitely a hoverboard.

I think there's a difference between 'finding a new market' and 'pandering to internet culture'. Internet culture is easily manipulated - look at how many YouTube videos have a top ranking comment along the lines of 'vote for this comment if you like this video clip'. There are quite a few Cuusoo projects I would like to vote for just so I can see them get made but have no intention of ever buying, but I don't because I think this would be bad for TLC. I don't think other people are necessarily as conscientious. I did vote for something just now and saw that they ask you for the price you would pay for the product and how many you would buy, so that's kind of what I wanted anyway. Unfortunately when I try to put '0' as the quantity I would buy, the page won't let me because 'Quantity must be greater than 0'. Maybe if they allowed people to support project but admit that the quantity they will buy as zero, rather than forcing them to give a real quantity if they want to support the project, that might give a better indication of the real demand for the product versus the amount of hype. Then if my support-with-no-intention-to-buy helps the product gets made, and they improve the product to something I would actually buy, I might just change my mind.

I don't think there is much they can realistically do with an adult specific brand. Unlike with Duplo, the product is going to be essentially the same, and recognisable by any parent as a Lego product. Anything sex themed like a brothel or an adult toy store is out of the question, since Adults aren't going to let their kids buy anything from a company that sells sex themed toys, even if it is in slightly different packaging. War themed sets might finally have a place to fit, but there are so many war themed toys out there already that parents are just going to think it's yet another theme for kids. Alcohol, well, it's an in-joke for adults that the 'poison bottle' in the Imperial Flagship set is the kind of poison that's going to kill you slowly. In fact the building in the POTC 'London Escape' set is a fully fledged pub, so they don't really have many restrictions there.

The Cuusoo projects that seem most likely to reach the 10,000 mark seem to based on particular fandom like Shaun of the Dead and Minecraft and most recently something called Eve Online, which all have large pre-existing fandoms to draw upon. I worry that this is a bad thing, since the person who is a fan of Minecraft might vote for the model without ever having any intention of purchasing the product, just because they're a fan of the game. On the other hand, something like the Modular Western Town is more likely to be popular with actual Lego fans than the Minecraft set, but is struggling for votes. I think every single person who votes for the Western Modular actually wants to spend money on it, so those votes have more weight than the ones for Minecraft. Look at it this way. If Toyota let people vote on their next car design and they give us the choice between a practical sedan or a car shaped like a dinosaur, everyone on the internet is going to vote for the dinosaur car but very few people are actually ever seriously going to buy it. I think Minecraft is the dinosaur set of the Cuusoo range. A few serious Minecraft fans are going to buy it, and some AFOLS who see it as a good parts pack, but otherwise it is kind of blocky and ugly and specialised for a Lego set. Also, who on earth plays Minecraft any more? I think there are two possible solutions to the problem. One, raise the voting requirement for sets if they are derived from pre-existing fictional worlds. Two, ask people who vote for the product to rank on a scale of one to five how likely they are to actually buy it. I think the Shaun of the Dead set actually did a good job of appealing to both SOTD fans and Modular Building fans, but something like the Eve Online model means absolutely nothing to me.

I think the helicopter definitely looks better from some angles than from others. I hadn't noticed how small the windscreen was until looking at that head-on shot, and the hole in the middle of the helicopter looks worse from side-one. So pretty much the only way to look at the helicopter is from an angle. Still, it could have been worse. I like to imagine that the missile launchers are supposed to fold up to into the gap and fill it somehow, although I'm not sure I could say that this was their intention. I don't mind the size disparity between the minifigs and the motorcycle. They are Lego figures. They traditionally cannot fit side-by-side in a car.

Black Widow and Hawkeye are seen in action sequences, whereas Nick Fury mostly attends to administrative duties. In those pictures of the Avengers being 'Assembled' in the middle of the war zone, it's Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Tron, Black Widow and Hawkeye, so those are the toys we get.

Isn't he wearing beige pants in the Incredible Hulk film? So they're basing it on the previous film but not the current one. This is why I prefer the Chopper Showdown set to the Avengers sets. It's based on timeless concepts of the characters rather than what a Lego designer knows about a passing rendition of the characters. Maybe in the future they will release 'classic' Avengers sets, so Hulk will have purple trousers, Hawkeye will be wearing purple and blue, and so on. Kind of like the way the Batman line has different versions of the Batman suit.

No, my iMac is fine... it's running OS 10.7.3 and using Safari version 5.1.3.

I agree... I don't mind them making 'giant' figures occasionally, but they need to retain traditional articulation points. The oversized hulk is

I really wish people would phrase this differently. Note to outsiders: We are referring to the location of the manufacture of the pieces, not the ethnicity of the characters. (Although actually, if Captain America was ever portrayed as someone of Chinese descent, that would be a great step forward for multiculturalism. Think about it, Marvel)

Damn them... I was only considering getting the Avengers sets, but this one is really growing on me. I'm probably going to be the only one to say this, but I kind of wish the set had stickers. If only because next to the other sets, it looks kind of decal-less. I don't understand the hatred towards stickers - anyone is free to disregard them if they don't want to use them. I find it weird that the character I am completely unfamiliar with (Deadpool) is the one with the largest vehicle. Maybe they plan to give him a movie soon. Oh wait apparently they are already making a Deadpool film... who is Ryan Reynolds?

Here are pictures of the actual set. If you look closely at Oky's pictures you can see that the torso prints are actually just stuck on. Here is a close-up of the actual minifigs: And the back printing: Sorry I can't take more pics right now, need to go to bed.

Um... these pictures really don't match up with the set I have. I think this is just a very convincing MOC.

Last time I looked at Fishpond, they would take a $100 set (for example), add shipping ($6.00 for example), then inflate the 'full price' to make it $150 and give you a 'generous discount' to sell it at the 'bargain' price of $106 with 'free shipping'. I guess there are enough suckers in the world to keep that particular business model running.

I wonder what this torso would look like with this skirt: Or even this one:

But this is Lego! You should be able to use other heads with the helmet and have them still able to breathe in space. This is the second Collectible Minifig army builder that limits you to one particular head. The other is the Royal Guard, though I guess that one won't look too odd if they don't all wear their chin straps. Or even if they all use the same face, since I guess they all need to look clean-shaven and stern anyway.

I find this kind of disappointing. It limits the use of the helmet for no good reason. But since my Classic Space minifigs are going to spend most of their time inside their spaceship with their helmets on hooks, this isn't going to bother me too much.

Does anyone have any idea when the Joust will get here? And the Town Hall?