Zarkan

While some might be getting a little jealous about you getting all these amazing collectible minifigs, Whitefang, I think it's easy to see why TLG is being so nice to you. After all, I think it would be hard for them to find a better online advertisement for these figures than your amazing photos and insightful commentary.

Well, believe it or not, I've been told that Alfred actually has carried a gun in the batman comics at some point or another, although it was aparrently a shotgun rather than dual pistols. So, yeah, take from this what you will.

Right, because Batman has never fought ninjas before in any interpretation. Honestly though, I don't really want sets based on The Dark Knight Rises - or any other Batman sets, for that matter. What we really need is more sets based on other DC heroes - at the very least, we should get a Green Lantern set featuring that currently rare Hal Jordan figure.

This may have already been said, but if so, it probably needs to be said again: that four headed dragon is the most ridiculous official lego creature EVER.

Heh, if that new version of Stormer turns out to be an actual set, I totally called it.

Well, Hero Factory finally gets a decent humanoid titan that uses the new building system. It only took them four tries... nopefully the fifth will not just be good but amazing, Maxilos/Takanuva/Brutaka style. Thanks for the review, Siegfried.

Friends has officially redeemed itself in full. Before this review, it was already looking much better to me, at least from a piece standpoint, but with this reveal that the Friends figures are not only made up of multiple parts but are also compatible with regular minifigures, I now fully support this theme.

Okay, I'm still not that smitten with the idea of the Ninja's having vehicles, but dang if the Snakemen aren't an awesome new faction. That wrecking crane is absolutely awesome, and the mech is quite charming as well.

Actually, so far I'm in complete agreement with the FBTB reviews. Lex Luthor's Power Armor has really grown on me, and I'm honestly shocked at how much the new Batmobile improves on the old one. In the same way, I agree that the Batwing is a huge disappointment, especially compared to the amazing first edition version.

Seriously? This is a show where Batman poses as Owlman in one episode and teams up with Joker in another, Neil Patrick Harris stars as the villian of a musical episode, Aquaman actually is useful and even COOL, and the only episode you like is one that (while good) might as well have been an episode of B:TAS? I think the most telling comment is the second one I bolded. Sure, nobody outside of hardcore DC fandom probably knows who Amazing Man or Psycho Pirate or Ambush Bug or even Gorilla Grodd is, but that's the entire point of the show. While it has Batman in the title, The Brave and the Bold was just as much a world for its creators to give exposure to scores of characters that would have otherwise probably never appeared in animation. I don't think anyone can really fault them for that, especially since (in my and many other's opinion) they almost invariably made the characters fresh and enjoyable. And I feel its sad that the usual 65 episode limit cut in, when it definitely deserved at least three fulll seasons. Ah well, at least it was great while it lasted. It's a good thing I have Green Lantern and Young Justice to look foward to the next couple of years - providing that they actually make it beyond the initial twenty-six episodes.

Lets forget about Bayformers for a moment. A new trailer for Transformers: Fall of Cybetron has been released: HERE. In short, it is GLORIOUS, especially since there is not a human in sight.

So, the snakeman has a banana as his weapon? I don't get it.

Some lego sets are memorable because of their amazing designs, others because of exclusive parts or minifigures, or sometimes just a crazy but cool concept. And sometimes, even a set's name can be memorable, which is exactly what this topic is about. I'll start with one of my favorites: 6240 Kraken Attackin'. We've had around two bazillion sets in the last decade that have some combat-related word in their names, but I don't think any others are as gloriously cheesy as this one. I don't know what posessed the set designer to leave the g off of "attacking," but I'd say it was pretty effective at catching my attention. So, how about you guys?

So, apparently the 2011 spinners were a flop? Doesn't surpise me in the least - not many people, regardless of age, are likely interested in paying ten dollars for a single figure acessory pack when they can get similiarly priced sets with two, three, or even four figures. Why TLC can't seem to see this, and is instead blaming it on supposed public perceptions about Chineese quality, is beyond me.

I'm sorry, but this looks like an absolutely pathethic start to the DCBatmanandoneotherset line. The four Batman related kits are all merely inferior versions of kits from the original Batman line, and Lex Luthor's robot looks completely unremarkable. As with Pirates of the Caribbean, it seems TLC is only putting effort into the minifigs, knowing that people will buy the sets just for them no matter how terrible they are. Because you know they will. P.S. I'm sorry if I sound rather harsh, but I'm not to post mild comments if I truly feel a line is poorly designed. If there had been at least one or two sets that looked really good to me, that might have salvaged this line in my mind, but as it is I'm now quite worried about the Marvel side of this theme.

I'm not usually this harsh about anything Lego related, but... good gosh, that comic sucked. The dialogue was basically ten pages of nonstop narm, Witch Doctor was about as menacing as the average Captain Planet villian, and the script was not only poor but at times completely nonsensical. Why did the mind-controlled animals run off just as they had the Heroes surrounded? How did Rocka go from being a regular Hero to being a super-sized one in the space of a single panel? Of course, it's easy to see why this fell so flat - judging by the credits, Greg F. did not have a single bit of involvement in this comic. Say what you will about his skill at writing books or serials, but the guy knows how to write a good tie-in comic, unlike whoever actually wrote Hero Factory #7.

The one thing that's always impressed me with this theme is how many different minifigures the designers keep coming up with. This newest wave is a particularly excellent example: the pirate Spongebob and Pactric are completely new, and feature highly imaginative printing to boot. I wish TLC would give some of their other themes as good a treatment as they're giving this one - I'm still waiting for TLC to finally invest in some new head prints for CITY's rather plain looking citizens.

I dunno, I'm actually warming up to these sets. They may technically be that accurate, but when you consider the building system they're using, I'd say they're fairly decent representations. The Joker in paticular shows some real creative usage of parts and colors, and I have a feeling he'll be a real hit with the kids. Batman and Green lantern are more standard, but hey, you can't go wrong with all those bright green and blue parts. In general, the constraction figures the last few years have really brought color back in full force, in contrast to all the dark tones and endless silver of several of Bionicle's pre 2009 waves. If my shelves weren't already packed with Bionicle sets, I might even have considered in investing in some of them.

Well, I can't believe I'm saying this, but they've not only managed to completely salvage Black Phantom, but they've also seemingly turned him into the first good humanoid titan built with the 2.0 system. And, as with the previous wave, every one of the smaller villians is an incredibly imaginative concept that displays the virtues of this new building style. It's too bad I can't say the same thing about the heroes, which are a rather garish blend of odd color choices, mismatched armor and armor additions, and quite a few weird design flaws. Surge's new weapon stands out as a particularly egregious example: how on earth did the designers think putting the attachment point on the edge instead of the middle would make it look better, instead of incredibly awkward like the actual result? I realize I was complaining last winter about how the 3.0 heroes showed a stunning lack of design evolution, but this wave has the exact opposite problen. In trying to make 4.0 as different from the last two versions as possible, I'm afraid TLC has catapulted any sense of coherent asthetics out the window.

Are these new? If so, this is probably the first time I've discovered something before anyone else here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/brickcrusher_20/

Cloning has esentially become the catch-all excuse for star wars writers to resurect any dead character that they want to use in their productions. Galaxy too hopeful because of the lack of the Emperor? No problem, here's a clone. Darth Maul too cool of a character to be introduced and killed off in a single movie by George Lucas? Not to worry, here's another clone. The reason nobody was bothered by it when Timothy Zahn feature cloning in his books was because the story actually made a big deal about it instead of just using it to, say, bring Darth Vader back from the grave just because he's awesome enough that he deserves to be immortal. The problem with this mindset is, if the character is actually memorable enough, he will already be immortal in the eyes of fans and the general popular culture, so there's no need to actually resurect him cannonically. But hey, this is Star Wars we're talking about, which has essentially become the ultimate regressive universe. For all my hatred of The Clone Wars, it's not the most obnoxious element of the canon to me. That would be the Legacy comic book, whose entire purpose seemed to be to establish that the Star Wars universe never actually experiences any lasting change. At least George Lucas's current pet TV show is merely making an already lame eara even more pointless, whereas Legacy esentially showed that the most compelling era of storylines and characters was all for naught. It's become pretty clear that the Star Wars universe is not so much one of progression as it is recycling. No matter how long some rebellion or Jedi order fights to protect the galaxy, a few hundred years later it will inevitably be back to being a crap-sack world ruled by a maniacal Sith lord. This is why my personal canon only consists of a few significant things: the first Force Unleashed game, the Original Trilogy, and Timothy Zahn's Thrawn novels. If you take only those stories into consideration, you come out with a rather unified saga that starts out at the formation of the Empire and slowly has the rebel alliance and then the New Republic restore relative peace and order to the galaxy. Not so if you go back either earlier or later in time, especially to the point when you cross over into a whole new but still rather similiar era. /rant

Saw the pictures of the new "minifigs" and.... blech. Completely useless outside of the intended theme, limited poseability, and an overall asthetic that doesn't feel particularly Lego-ish. I realize TLC is trying to branch out, but that doesn't make this one bit less painful to look at.

Look, I know they're really trying to emphasize the "realism" with this show, but in the process they're sucking the life out of what could be (or in the case of the Mon Calmari battle, were once) awesome fight scenes. IMO, The Clone Wars features some of the weakest battle physics in any cartoon I have ever watched. There's a suprising lack of impact to almost all of the blows, whether they be from lightsabers or blasters or rockets, and the characters all seem to move rather sluggishly compared to the original Clone Wars series or even the live action movies. I don't know why exactly the show has this feeling, but it makes what is trying to be an incredibly epic production into one that feels rather muted to me. Thus far, however, I don't believe I've talked to anyone who agrees with me on this, so I won't be suprised if you guys think I'm crazy too.

Oh my... if this is all true, and I have a feeling it is, then I'm afraid the City line has really jumped the shark IMO. I don't believe we have ever had such a boring lineup before, with a huge array of Police and Fire rehashes and a few individual vehicles rather than entire, more original subthemes. But, seeing as how mediocre the lineup was in 2011, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

Regarding Rocka's first name, part of me would rather it not be released, so the character can remain ambiguous enough that I can continue my personal preference of Rocka being a female. Becuase I have a bad suspicion that TLC is more likely to declare 3.0 an all boys wave than to officially introduce a second female hero.