Zarkan

Happy Birthday! Wow, I actually posted on time for once.

The problem with illustrating the final book of the Bible is that Revelation is unique among all other sections of the Holy Book as having more unique interpretations than any other passage. While many passages in the Old and New Testement generate little debate among Christians, the very same people hold an abundance of different theories on everything from the timeline of the End Times to whether certian parts are literal or figuretive to what Hell exactly depicts, making the book a rather hard subject for anyone to tackle - regardless of their beliefs. As far as I've seen, your Brick Testament representation takes the more traditional and literal approach - the "fire and brimstone" view, as they call it. The problem is that in recent years the stereotypical view of Hell has been challenged by people within the Christian circle. While it is true that many Christians believe in the literal interpretation, there are those (including myself) that question whether Hell is an actual literal place at all, and whether the "eternal torment" is reserved for all unbelievers or only applies to Satan - who, being the purported source of all evil in the universe, deserves that kind of punishment far more than any human. This, of course, is the root problem of tackling a passage like Revelation - while stories like David and Goliath and the Birth of Jesus are always interpreted literaly and have obvious and straightfoward themes, the final book of the Bible remains extremely controversial among almost everyone who you talk to about it, and I don't believe that will ever change. Regardless, your visual imagery and creative use of lego pieces is fantastic as always, Brendan. It's a shame that the Brick Testament, and all other biblical depiction projects, will never truly be able to capture all the varried opinions on Revalation and combine them into one cohesive and definitive work. Then again, I'm not sure if even that would please anybody.

Sorry about not replying soon - I forgot I posted this here. Anyway, my sigfig's robotic backpack is made using an Aquazone diving suit, which has clips on the back that I attached those T-pieces to. The robotic arms then attach to the T-pieces, as you can probably already tell. I really need to get a better picture of my sigfig eventually - it's odd that I haven't had an Avatar for over a year, and a picture of him would probably fit the bill nicely.

It's a dining room, and my mom picked out that border. What did you expect - orange with neon lime ala Power Miners? Or are you more particular to fruit-themed wallpaper?

Might as well post some of my artwork in this topic. Here's some of the villians I've created for a fanfiction I'm writing: And my favorite:

Thank you for the great review, ZO6. It was rather impressive, especially considering that you're brand new. After looking over the pictures of this set, I must say that it's a lot better than I originally thought. While I was never as opposed to it as some people, I too thought that it was a bit plain-looking and thrown together. What I can now see is that it has a lot of really cool functions and play features - the folding out gun rack and the hidden safe are really neat. The vehicles also don't look that bad either, aside from the horrible land rover. The only thing I'm upset about is that there's no exclusive figures to really make this a must-have for Space Police fans - just the same old lot that we've already gotten in other sets.

I've got to say that the flight mode of the Max Security Transport is pretty cool - however, I'm honestly really disapointed that there's nothing "exclusive" to make it more worthy a purchase. I'm talking about minifigures - seriously, the first wave of Agents had a total of three exclusive figures in the two special edition sets. What does Space Police have? None - both special edition sets have the same old figures that are in the main line, which makes them seem more like add-ons to the whole line, rather than an essential part of the line like the Agents exclusives did.

Not being a real transformers fan, I have no interest in seeing Revenge of the Falllen, but I've got to say... man, are some of those toy designs ugly. Seriously, Starscream is flipping fat, and one of the other robots has a head that's almost lower than his shoulders! I dunno if it's like this in the actual movie, but I can say easily that the toys for the new animated series far surpass the movie toys in aesthetics - despite the fact that the movie versions intended to coolify the transformers. Oh, and one other thing relating to a review I read of the movie: Michael Bay really went insane the day he decided to put balls on a transformer. Seriously, what in Optimus Prime's name was he thinking?

Wow, congratulations Hinckley! Does this mean that you are not going to be doing your graphic art and web design buisness anymore, or will you still do some of that as a side job? Regardless, I hope you make the best of this awesome position.

Thanks for the nice review, Brickster. However, I wouldn't worry about the overall quality of the new Space Police Line - almost everyone on this site agrees that Gold Heist is the weakest of the new sets, and that the larget sets are much, much better. Hyperspace Pursuit and the Galactic Enforcer in particular have been very well recieved, with the latter being called the best large scale ship since the Deep Freeze Defender by some.

Congratulations guys - you all totally deserve your prizes.

Personally, I feel that the reason that there are far more male lego fans than female lego fans is very simple: because TLC has for years had a preconcieved notion that they should only market general lego products to boys. Instead of making products that appeal to both genders, they focus almost entirely on action heavy themes that feature lots of conflict and shooting devices. Now, I'm not saying that girls don't like that stuff at all, but in general themes like Power Miners and Mars Mission are going to appeal a lot more to boys than girls. Some girls do like action oriented sets, and some boys like more peaceful sets, but usually it's the opposite, meaning that the girl market generally gets the short end of the stick from TLC when it comes to making products that they would like. Fortunately, there are promising signs that TLC may be starting to shift in the other direction. City is the best example of this. In 2009, we got our usual assortment of action oriented sets like construction and the garage, but we are also getting residential sets like the City Corner, sportscar, and camping van. We also got a whole farm subtheme, which, while filled with vehicles as well, is a theme that really transcends gender lines, with sets that both boys and girls would love to play with. Then, in the castle line, we got the Medevial Market Village, which is currently the only castle set that does not cater to the conflict heavy mindset. This is the stuff that TLC should be marketing more - instead of focusing almost entirely on action heavy sets, they should release a variety of products that appeal to both boys and girls. Ideas for sets and whole themes based around this concept would include zoos, carnival sets, castle village sets, action-light space sets in the style of the old space themes, houses, wild west sets that don't just focus around sherifs and bandits, etc. As soon as TLC gets over their preconcieved notions about boys and girls and starts marketing sets to both the genders at the same time, then we really could have a breakthrough in toy manufacturing.

Oh yes, that would be incredible. And I could really imagine that being done in the next year or two - perhaps when (if?) they make sets of the elemental Lords. In fact, that would be a good way to bring back other colors as well. A Water elemental with Dark blue and Mata blue would be awesome.

Well, before we saw the first clear summer pictures, I doubt any of us would have expected a canister set that's predominantely Mata red, so perhaps that's not a far-fectched possibility at all. Personally, I like the darker green better than Mata green, but I think it's time to add some more variety to the Inika build color palete.

The Cave Crusher and Underground Mining Station have saved the summer Power Miners line for me. I doubt I'll get either of them, but it's good to know that the summer wave will be getting at least a couple of great sets. The only thing I'm disapointed about is that neither of them have any exclusive figures. I was hoping that one of the exclusives would have one of the new giant rock monsters in a color other than trans red or trans yellow, but it looks like that won't be happening.

I voted for TLC making more original, non-licensed themes. Personally, I like most of TLC's licenses, and I think they've done a great job of bringing characters like Batman and Indiana Jones into lego form. However, I feel that TLC should keep the number of licenses to a bare mininum - say, three at a time, as original themes should be the prime concern of any company that wants to stay fresh and timeless. Also, I feel that TLC should carefully chose which things to make licenses on - I think only licenses that both have a high chance of selling well, lasting long, and translate well into and promote the lego sets should be considered. That is why licenses like lego Ben 10 and Rock Band do not sit well with me - the former will never be nearly as popular or have as wide a variety of subjects as mainstays like Starwars and Indiana Jones, and the latter has no connection with the actual building toys, but instead seems to me like a cheap cash-in. But, overall, I feel that Licenses have their place, and I don't mind at all that they will be staying around for a while longer. I'd have to disagree with that. Spiderman and Harry Potter, yes - but the Batman and Indiana Jones kits have a wide range of detailed, well designed vehicles and buildings. They're definitely comparable with core themes like City and Castle, IMO.

Like all of TLC’s evergreen themes, the space line has had a wide variety of minifigures released over the years, which range from the simplistic but effective to the detailed and menacing. Today, I’ll be starting a series of reviews/overviews of the many figures of space, begining with one of the all-time favorites: the classic red spaceman. First year of release: 1979 Last year of release: 1988 As any older spacefan knows, the Classic Spacemen were the very first space minifigures ever made by lego, and they came in a number of colors. The most common of these was the red spaceman, which came in a whopping FOURTY-SIX sets. It's not suprising though - after all, the striking red color scheme no doubt served as a great method of attracting kids to the sets it appeared in. Like all of the other classic space figures, the red spacemen came in five parts: . Undoubtedly, the most interesting part today is the red oldstyle helmet, which is no longer in production. The printed torso is also excellent, combining sharp printing with a simple but effective design. As previously mentioned, the red spacemen was included in 46 sets. Notable appearances include: 483 Alpha-1 Rocket Base - 6970 Beta-1 Command Base - 497 Galaxy Explorer - 487 Space Cruiser - 6985 Cosmic Fleet Voyager - A full list of the sets it appeared in can be found HERE. This minifig also comes in two other versions: a stickered version and the version released in the Vintage Minifigure Collection - Volume 1. As expected, the stickered version is no different from the printed version, except of course, that the toros is a sticker rather than a printed part. I have no idea what sets these were included in, as bricklink has no information on the avaliability. However, the rereleased version is much more unique, as it uses the new helmet style instead of the old one, and also features a slightly different shade of yellow on the printed space logo. In conclusion, there's nothing really quite like the spacemen, and the red version stands out as one of the best types. Whether you're young and just like astronauts or are older and want a piece of nostalga, the red spaceman is a winner all around. Resources: Bricklink entry for this minifigMinifigs.net reference for this minifig (scroll down)

I'm a little late in the coming (okay, a lot ), but regardless, I'd applaud you for another fantastic and insightful review, Erdbeereis. Out of all the castle sets, this one remains one of my favorites. I got it for Christmas in 2007, before I intended to spend much money on the new Castle theme (that changed once I managed to get the King's Castle Siege for a very good price). It's really a wonderful set all around - the design accomplishes the spooky undead feel very well, and it contains a good piece selection and a phenomenal amount of minifigs. Seriously, this set is almost unrivaled in modern lego in the final area - I'm still amazed at how many minifigures TLC put in the kit. I also appreciate that the carriage has a far more realistic horse arangement - after all the sillyness of the one-horse pulled siege engines in KK, it's good to finally see a carriage pulled by multiple horses again. All in all, an excellent set, and well worth $20 IMO.

Good question. Needless to say, I don't have any good recent photos of myself, so I guess this distraction-full shot from my last birthday will have to do for now: And no, I'm not the kid on the right.

Just so you know, Mata Nui is in fact the center of the entire Bionicle storyline, and he has been ever since the very first year - he's basically the god of the Bionicle universe. However, this is the first time that he's actually appeared in set form, which is why Bionicle fans are so excited. Oh, and actually, the parts aren't really any bigger than they were in the begining - it's just that now there's more of them. And even though the technic influence is largely gone from the canister sets (ie - gears and functions), it's recently made a huge surge back in the box set line - mainly in the form of technic functions in the large vehicle sets. This has been seen by many Bionicle fans as a great step back to the early years of Bionicle, and I've seen positive responses from many of the more experienced bionicle builders (like Darth Vader, who has always been a tough cookie to please )

Those new shots of the movie are amazing. Considering that this is a direct to DVD release based on a kid's toy, the detail level is simply outstanding. Also, nice to see that they're deviating slightly from the sets in creative ways (Ackar's blue eyes, Tuma's shield), as it would be boring if they were exactly the same. And best of all, from the looks of the shots, Mata Nui and Tuma will fight each other! Man, this movie is really shaping up to be one of the best things in Bionicle multimedia history. I can't wait.

Man, one day we're talking about the Mata Nui titan set, and the next day a few members have turned the entire topic into a spamfest. Thanks for fixing the problem, Whitefang - and I especially appreciate you finding and posting those pictures up on the top of the page, even though you aren't a bionicle fan. Anyway, out of all the Bionicle sets this year, I'll only be getting a select few: Tarix, Tuma, Ackar, Stronius, and of course, Mata Nui. I've already picked up Gresh, and the rest I'll probably be getting slowly over the rest of the year, starting with Tarix. Considering that I originally planned not to buy any bionicle this year, I'm kinda glad that I don't have an obligation to buy any sets that I don't like this year - unlike last year, where all 6 Toa Nuva were mandatory purchases (even though I didn't like half of them). Although, this year I like almost every set somewhat - so I'm buying only the sets that I feel need no major mods or really catch my eye.

Happy birthday, Siegfried! Although, I honestly still have no idea why you changed your username.

Yesterday I picked up the Castle Dwarves Mine Defender. The siege engine isn't that great, although it's better than KK2 - but I'm glad to finally have a couple trolls and a dwarf in my collection.

Thanks for the review, Front. Man, I was a bit worried about Stronius when some of the toy fair pictures showed up, so I'm glad to see that he's turned out all right. He really is a Skrall on steroids - complete with bulked up armor, a bigger, meaner looking mask, and the first club in bionicle history. Got to give props on the dark red and the new armor pieces too - that also makes this set a worthy buy for people who just purchase Bionicle sets for parts. The only thing I don't like is that the chest armor doesn't look as good as it does as a chest - but that's a minor complaint really, and I think I see how to fix it. Great job TLC - I'll be getting this one for sure.