xenologer

So far I have Not touched any of the big($10USD) racers this year. Everytime I drop by the store to get some legos I look a them, but they think to myself... sure there's some interesting parts here(oldstyle jet engine, dkgreen slopes), but what am I going to do with the useless pull-back motors?? and there's the Creator Cool Cars set on the same shelf with the same price but 3x the parts... heck, I'd rather buy another Cool Cars pack instead...

Thanks for the review. I also have all of them as of yesterday(been buying them gradually)... and my impression is that... they are slightly overpriced. at 5$USD compared to 4$ of past years. Also, they are using 'simpler' bricks (nothing too new or custom) however are also using clever design to make them look good. (for example, the Terrain Crusher looks incredibly massive, but it is using big 'classic' system bricks for bulk and in fact has the 2nd lowest part count) In other words... this year the sets are expensive because the designers managed to be clever and make things look cool, but you really don't get too many bricks for the money. If they had used the nice smooth wide tyres instead of these ugly 'hotwheels' tyres I wouldnt mind the price so much.... at least those wheels are re-usable for other themes. Anyway, they are really good looking, but I'm not too excited about the prospect as parts-packs. Sure, each one has maybe 1 or 2 parts that are nice to have, but nothing in comparison to last year's TunerX with 8black 3*1slopes, and 6 yellow 1*1wedges, etc...

Yeah... the new firehose nozzles kinda suck I'm pretty sure its a cost-cutting measure too! With the old one's they'd need some kind of special process to mould the nozzle onto the 'hose' with the new ones, the nozzle is just like any other piece; and you get to tie the hose on yourself... oddly, the old nozzle piece doesnt seem totally retired yet.. you can see it without a hose in the EF Fire Vulture as part of a gun....

Why?

nice design It looks like it wants to sprout legs and start stomping humans tho... must be the big jaws and the guns that look like eyes... looks like the head of some kinda mechanized beast than a flyer...

On the Y-Wing, they had to put the Astromech droid sideways, because they are 4studs wide, and to fit on on the Y-Wing the ship would need a 'neck' at least 6 studs wide to hold it -which would be much too wide for this scale. Doing it sidways lets the ship be better proportioned, I think its a good design tradeoff. From the Pics, that Cement mixer piece does look... odd, the surface being all rough looking, so Im hoping its a prototype... Of course like you say.. the big question is wether the final ver will be 1piece or not... Going to be stuck with 1 giant spaceSHIP engine if they dont break it up...

What do you mean? They're all totally bricks already. I don't see a bionicle ball joint or 'technic connector block' in there at all. All those arms and legs on the crab/lobster are System click hinges. Same for those tentacles on the squid, they're originally tail sections from old System dinosaurs(before Bionicle). So I'm not sure what makes you think they look closer to Bionicle....

I like it! The robot scout docks off on one side and makes the ship look kinda uneven when its there, maybe relocate it. Aside from that... maybe if the crew quarters/ rooms were re-organized so they were connected to each other and the main cockpit. Hmmh, the overall shape, without the fighters, is almost like a U shape, maybe if you enhanced that shape to hollow out the center more as a repair bay or generic docking port separate from the 'permament' docks for each fighter. That would make it feel like more of a support ship/carrier.

Nice rebuild! Where?!? did you find all those great skylight pieces in the roof? and in Smoke color no less!

Yeah... it looks like their hands do not have a rotating wrist like normal minifigs or even EF drones.. I can forsee that lack of articulation leading to breakage when kids (or me) try to make them grab onto things... I dunno about adding airtanks to the astronauts; since I came out of dark ages to find Space was dead, all my spaceship mocs basically had to go witout scuba tanks(rare in town sets). Its actually kinda convenient to not need the extra space when building cockpits and stuff... Besides, scuba tanks dont look that great, id rather they introduced a new airtank that looks like something modern... flat and square...

jeez that figure is ugly... Same generic genki hair... couldn't they do something effeminate at least?? And the eyes... jeez they are waay too sharp and angular for being female, watch a little anime, needs 'tarremekko' style eyes...

In Hayato's set. Thats not a jetpack, its a mecha for his mecha.

Ya know after seeing these Great New Photos I'm seriously thinking that part of the storyline is Humans exploiting the Aliens as some kind of fuel source (like their bodies are radioactive or something) Every human vehicle has those orange 'alien containment' cylinder's integrated into the structure, usually near the rear like an engine component -note the small rovers, the rocket in the base set, even the dropship that looked like a med-evac thing has power conduits running out of those cylinders... well, while the aliens and their 'LOM containment sleds' look pretty useless, the cylinders themselves are transparent orange... and might be useful in some MOCs... -new warp core-

Thanks for the links! The toyfair links in the other thread have been giving me errors all day, so this alternate picture server is a godsend. Ugh... what ugly aliens... why would they go from movable arms(like the prototype) to this thing... Maybe they couldn't produce the Real ones in time for the toy convention? ?maybe?... well... I guess my ExoForce drones are going to have a new home... and these gummi bear aliens can go... out the window for all I care

So far all the pics have been blurry box art pics. Where?? have you seen an alien fig is such close-up detail to distinguish all these features? Is there a better photo somplace?

It doesnt look as impressive as this year's somehow... The brick built tree is nice though Isn't it kinda Early for them to be designing that calendar?

Yup, I bought the technic Rough Terrain Crane on my lunch break just now. Looks like my idea doesn't work, because the beam's are slightly wider than they are tall, so it doesnt fit right into the sleeve sideways. Ohwell, it's still a nice part. I guess I might use it to modify the Yellow Airport Firetruck from last year, the colors match.... Or maybe make a nice Cargo Lifter Truck (see the green 2007summer city set)... that should make good use of the 'hands-on' play action of this piece....

Id say that the Shark had great MOC potential, lots of nice slopes, especially the bit windshield piece, makes it potentially a new AquaSharks submarine, or a meancing Space Pirate starfighter. The default model itself looks great though, so you dont Need to take it apart to make something else...

Thanks I was looking at some of the pics and I think i see what you mean the hollow 'sleeve' piece is open along the bottom except for a tab at the front where the beam gets held up. So, can you swap any beam you want? or is that beam special to work with the click mechanism? I was also thinking, that since the sleeve has an open slot at the bottom, maybe you can put a beam into it rotated sidways, so that you can attach a connector pin through the slot and into the beam holes and let it still slide that might offer the ability to connect some kind of mechanical control to the extending beam.... All just based on pics though...so I'll let you tell me if the guess is good

Hi, Was wondering about the new extending boom part. You can see it on the technic mini Rough Terrain Crane, and the new firestation's firetruck. Hows that part work? theres definetly a hollow outer part, is the center piece that slides any technic beam? or is it a combined assembly thing where they stay together? Hows the extension work anyway? does it 'click' into positions? any chance of using gears or levers to control extension, or is it purely a 'manaual' feature? thanks, considering buying one of the new sets for this piece...

Nice but you'd figure that... when the population/tech level gets high enough to form such a dense city... that they'd already have some kinda terraforming so people dont need to run around with spacesuits all day...

Well, I already told you that I liked the mech and scooter.. I can make some change suggestions for the jet though... The engines are way out on the wingtips; with such thin wings it looks kind of odd to have them there. I'd try and relocate the engines to be a part of the body. Or if you really like the style of wingtip engines, id modify them to be lower so they transition into the wing surface better, or hang below, but not up on top where they stick out so much... The 'tail' is really high up, and pretty much in the middle of the jet's body. This makes it look almost like a carrying handle than a tail... of course there are plenty of jets with giant tails, but at the least I'd try and move it to be farther back on the body. This would also help to give the rearmost section of the body more interesting shape. That being said, it doesnt look bad, its just that the general spread-out nature makes it feel more like an ultra-endurance glider than a jet. A jet should have a more compacted and armoured feel.

Hmmh, looks like the Drilling Unit isnt listed yet... ohwell They do look 2-3$USD too high to me, more than what I was hoping for anyway... Judging by the price on the Dropship, That little rover in the distant background had Better be Included.

Not only that, but they come in varying degrees of roundness! Over half of mine have the mould seamline mis-aligned, so they come out as almost an S shaped cross section instead of a cylinder shape. -wont clip or fit into rod holes properly at all! lightsaber blade for some reason has the worst quality control of any part I've ever seen....

When I saw the store display, it looked to me like the bottom was like a giant square donut piece; where at least the middle has separate plate pieces. Can you confirm if thats how it really works?