Blondie-Wan

Well, with today's sad announcement, it seems this is no longer an issue. I agree with Delta38; they seem to have missed an opportunity. If nothing else, I really think the game might have done better if there were some means of getting real physical bricks by playing. What parts do you mean? I think possibly a couple minifigure accessory items seen in the videos may be, but that's minor dressing; I think all the constructions and such are possible using real bricks (though I believe some of them use certain elements in colors that they've never been in, or with prints that have never appeared on actual bricks). As I understand it, unlike the other LEGO games, the developers tested all the model designs in the game by building them with real bricks first.

If you'll pardon my saying so, I respectfully think you've missed the point of the game if you think you "got to the end" of what you can do. The regular MMO-style quests and such are just part of the game; there's also freestyle building from bricks, and sharing your creations with others. Alas, I'm still just beginning to get into all the things to do in the game, and now it appears I'll never get to fulfill more than a bare fraction of the potential. Ah, well. It really is quite sad, given how grand the ambitions and how much potential is there. Though I think you've overlooked the game's true essence, I do agree it could use a lot more preexisting material and quests and such, but I don't think that's really what kept people away. I suspect a lot of people in TLG's core market simply weren't receptive to the basic subscription-based MMO model - what parents want to buy their little LEGO fans a game and then pay a monthly fee for them to play it, when their other games are buy-it-once-and-play-forever-until-bored? And many AFOLs, I suspect, never looked into the game deeply enough to see any compelling reason to pay for this when they could spend the same money on real bricks. It's really too bad. This game was perhaps unique in its potential for combining traditional gaming experiences with the kind of freeform creative play one gets with LEGO. Personally, I think I'm even more disappointed than its other fans; I actually preordered the game and had it from day one, having paid full release price, but found myself unable to play it because of computer issues, and was finally able to start playing regularly only just recently. So far, I've gotten to play it for a combined total of less than 12 hours, and today this news comes. Ah, well. I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can before it closes for good.

Thanks for the informative review! I think many of us will particularly appreciate the extensive comparisons to other renditions and to reference material. I do have just one minor point to add: At the risk of encroaching on fallenangel309's territory I do have to note that the illustration seen here, "official" though it may be (coming from the "Essential Guide" book series), is nonetheless not exactly accurate itself (the Essential Guides are hardly infallible, particularly when it comes to schematic-style drawings of the saga's vessels). That said, it's probably a close enough match in terms of general proportions and many specific details to serve pretty well as a standard for comparison for a LEGO model. Bwuuuuhhh? I'll just go reel, agog in disbelief, over here for a little while...

Potential legal issues aside, I think TLG just has more than enough room to do its own original minifigures without having to resort to licenses in order to fill out the line.

And the planet too, don't forget. It's generally thought that the battlepacks and other small sets (such as these upcoming Planets sets) are as close as we're going to get to minifigure packs for Star Wars (or other licenses) from this point out. TLG did in fact make some Star Wars minifigure packs in the early years of the license (and did similar sets for a number of other themes), but it's widely believed Hasbro, which has its own license for Star Wars action figures, felt TLG was getting too close to its turf.

I think Luke's X-Wing would be a preferable choice for Dagobah, even if Yoda would be the more obvious minifigure over Luke (or Artoo) - perhaps a version built to look covered in swamp muck and greenery, as it did when Yoda lifted it from the water. But perhaps we could get both, if this sub-theme becomes a raging success (hey, we can dream, right?). Some worlds would work with a whole slew of models. For example, Tatooine alone could have... Sebulba's podracer and Sebulba (as we're actually getting) Anakin's podracer and Anakin any other podracer and its driver a Sandcrawler and a Jawa a Bantha (mini-critter? why not?) and a Tusken Raider Luke's landspeeder and Luke a T-16 Skyhopper and Luke (or better yet, Biggs!) the Millennium Falcon and Han (or Chewie) an Imperial landing craft and sandtrooper an escape pod and Artoo or Threepio ... or still others.

[luke] *I* care. [/luke] I think a mini Tantive IV would work for that, actually...

I generally do little else while I'm building, unless one counts things that I just "set going" and that require little or no intervention (for example, starting a load of laundry and then building while it's in the washer, stopping only to move the load into the dryer and then building some more while it dries). I do sometimes put on some music, usually movie soundtracks (especially when building from licensed themes for which I have the movie / TV soundtracks).

I haven't kept up with this theme as closely as some others even though I love dinosaurs (who doesn't?); there's just too much LEGO to spread my attention around on. But I have to say I think these look great (even if the dinosaurs aren't necessarily quite up-to-date; for the record, I'll have no trouble imagining feathers and hair and the like on the appropriate creatures in my own collection, as warranted - it's pretty much what we have to do with other LEGO critters anyway, after all), and I love the designs. I wanted the Dino Attack / Dino 2010 line, but never got any of those sets, so this theme revisitation is a welcome "second chance" for me. I do intend to throw these animals and the ones from my Adventurers Dino Island, Dinosaurs (early 2000s) and Jurassic Park sets together, for greatest variety; while the different themes' and eras' dinosaurs (and other prehistoric fauna) do reflect different design aesthetics and whatnot, for me I think there's probably just enough stylistic continuity that they'll work fine together. Part of me wonders whether some of those older elements might be resurrected in this theme at some point, though - I could see something like the Dino Island pterosaur being included in a Dino promo polybag, say.

That makes sense to me, although I could see TLG (& LFL) wanting to do a lot of CW stuff while it's the most "current" SW production. My personal preference would be for an emphasis on not just the movie worlds, but the OT worlds specifically.

Thanks!

That's good news! Could you or someone else quote the email's exact words? I'd love to see it, and I don't have easy access to my own email at the moment even though I'm on a computer (long story). I'm going to try to get one or two more of these - if nothing else, I know my girlfriend would like one as well (and would probably get it the same way I got mine, by buying the Winter Village Post Office and a few small things)...

Oh, really? That's the first time I've heard this; I was previously under the impression it was put on hiatus to make way in the lineup for Prince of Persia, and there aren't new Indiana Jones movies every year, after all. Is there some way to verify the info about the popularity in Germany? I've long been under the impression the Indy movies were pretty popular there, and if so, I don't know why the merchandise would be a problem (and of course there weren't any actual tanks produced in the theme, and no "true" Nazi figures, though I realize not everyone would make that distinction).

Same here. I'm planning on getting the second, and then I'll do a bunch of different seasonal sets all throughout December, right up until Christmas - this set and its companion, all three of the Winter Village sets (I got the first two last year but haven't built either of them yet; the Post Office formed most of the order I just placed that got me this little set), and probably three different Advent Calendars (again, I got last year's City one but never opened it - too busy last year; I plan to get both the City and Star Wars ones for this year). Possibly I'll also repack and then reopen/rebuild the 2009 City Advent Calendar, the only Christmas / winter seasonal set larger than a polybag that I've actually put together in recent years, until now.

So do I, though Duplo makes sense for the license. Both (a la Cars and Toy Story) would be better still, of course. Perhaps if we're lucky, they will do both, in time. It's not too hard to envision them doing Disney Princesses in the manner of the upcoming Friends line.

What a nice little creation! I like the lights - it looks like this person is already planning for Christmas while Halloween is still going on. Those look like the ones included with Monster 4, one of the first several LEGO Games from the Games line. Check out all those other monstrous minifigure heads in the box art - this set has a slew of minifigure heads good for making monster minifigures (four apiece of five different designs - orc/troll, skeleton, Jack-o'-lantern, demon/devil, and werewolf), and three of the five are exclusive to this set. I'm thinking of getting a second copy just as a parts pack. There have also been at least two other Jack-o'-lantern -printed minifigure heads I know of - this one, included with both one of the older Harry Potter sets and one of the LEGO Studios "classic monsters" sets, and this one, included with this Batman set (note how the mouth on that Jack-o'-lantern resembles the Batman symbol).

Honestly, I'm still just planning on the room I'm going to put my LEGO in, but I do have dreams for various creations. I want to do some large scenes on Tatooine, Yavin IV, Hoth, the forest moon of Endor, and the Death Stars, as well as various non-Star Wars scenes. I consider myself to be "planning" them, though it may be a while before they progress beyond that...

I'm having trouble picturing anyone frequenting this EB subforum who wouldn't recognize this scene, regardless of whether Episode V is their favorite installment (and I'm sure it's the favorite of a great many here anyway). Nice take on the scene! That should be the new hair element used for Luke in the new Millennium Falcon, with the torso of a German soldier from the Indiana Jones sets, and I believe those are the legs of the minifigure Max, mascot of the LEGO Club.

Of course I'm sure you're aware by now of the impending arrival of "Jungle Boy" or whatever it is they'll call him in Minifigures Series 7. I'm sure he'll go great will those Pharoahs Quest sets. My girlfriend and I would both love those themes, whether licensed or not. We're both big fans of romantic adventures in general, with a particular interest in Arabian Nights, etc.; she's also a big Disney fan and I'm a huge Indiana Jones fan.

I don't pretend to know what ones will be in Series 8 (or later), but over in this thread people have been posting their ideas for minifigures for the line for almost a year and a half, and many of the figures suggested there later turned out to be actual minifigures - whether because TLG's designers and the fan community here have been thinking along similar lines, or because they're actively watching the thread for ideas, or something else, we don't know, but there they are all the same. I think we're all delighted with it. If you want some ideas for figures that might turn up in later series, you might do well to follow that thread (and if you want to actively make suggestions of your own, you just might do well to post in it).

Charming. Whether boys get into those characters or not is something of a moot point - most of the characters are still male anyway (and have Supergirl and Batgirl even been announced for the minifigure complements of the sets yet? I'm sure they'll happen eventually as long as the theme runs long enough, but I don't remember seeing anything indicating they were on the way anytime soon). Perhaps not for the major studio summer tentpole releases, but TLG isn't drawing just upon the movies for this theme; they're using the comics as well (though truth be told, even comics run rather dark these days, compared to how they once were). At any rate, TLG's core market is young kids, remember, not teenagers and AFOLs.

'Tis nifty, but why is this in Sci-Fi?

What other licensed Advent Calendars have there ever been? Unless you're talking about non-LEGO ones, I think this is the first. I have to reiterate my mystification over the disappointment several here are expressing over the unprinted Rebel pilot helmet and the plain black Clonetrooper head. Given how many people dislike the aesthetic of the CW faces, I'd have thought both features would actually make this set more desirable, not less. It pretty clearly looks like a poster to me. The poster portrays Star Wars characters (Yoda and a Rebel pilot) watching a typical Star Wars scene (a space battle), all done up in Christmas dressing. It's clearly not meant to be an actual Star Wars scene.

I think the other poster was referring to it being made of a softer material. Many of the parts are made of similar material, of course. Ugh, that's unfortunate. I do try to be careful when feeling packets myself.

I have at least two of each figure from each series so far (1-5); for most of them I have three or more. There are several of which I have at least five or six, and I think three figures for which I have ten or more each. For one figure I have 27.