xenologer

*sad* my local TRU and Lego Shop still don't have any Aqua Raiders... or any of the other new '2007' stuff yet... It's too bad that Aqua Raiders is showing up in some shops, but not on S@H, or I'd order it....

Toys R Us seems to have Aqua Raiders sets listed on their website now. Prices, but no pics, and 'temporarily unavailable online' messages. Even so, its an indicator that they may be coming soon; I'll have to check out the local store tommorow and see... A Lego Shop employee once told me that TRU usually gets new sets before them because of some exclusive deal... so there's a chance...

They're out on USA S@H website right now...

Wheres the USA Lego headquarters/shipping center? know if stuff all comes from one place or if they're distributed? *looks at the new pics on S@H* looks like the new human mechs have Enclosed cockpits this time around and theyre using those nice half-octagonal windshields --time to rebuild some classic space sets using smoke windscreens?

Rock Raiders eh? meaning... a lot of the space buggies have rock cutting tools? or do you mean the general... colorful and kinda overdone feel? The former could be neat... I'd interpret that as a Moonbase Contruction type of deal...

I like the concept and overall shape! But I think a solid 'system' brick structure surrouned by the greebs would be better than just greebs to the core... Certain parts, like the shovels in front of the cockpit and the rifles at the rear are visually distracting because it's too obvious what they are.

Youre on the East Coast, USA right? Lego Shop here in California doesn't have the sets yet, and they thought they were coming in january... ohwell, shop employees never know that kinda stuff anyway... But I think the pattern is usually that sets arrive in the east coast first, and take a week or 2 to spread west gradually....

I wouldn't close the topic... its still an interesting look at the pieces used... the non-bending knees kinda bugs me tho... when i get one I'll consider replacing them with the click hinges like last years models Looking at those close up pics, It seems that there are some new pieces that are both bionical/system look at Claw Crusher's upper arm segment, its a system brick with a bionicle ball joint on each side. and Cyclones shoulders.. same kinda thing I guess given those new pices... the plan is to have more and more 'blurring' between bionicle and system in the future

Uhh... nope it looks to me like a simple techinc angle connector with a 1*1 round plate jammed into the axlehole Thus the knee probably doesnt bend at all...

Woot! That new windshield looks like it'd be great on a Space moc, nice small angular window... And hopefully its going to become a rather commonly available one too.

Its kinda neat to see them use the Road Hero tiny turbo and give it an actual trailer here... But I don't think I'll be getting this one. Nice overall design, looks very playable; but nothing special about the parts... Just take your old Road Hero, TunerX, and BigBling Wheelie... make yourself a trailer... and you've pretty much got the set already.

You meant to say 'Night Crusher' Monster Crusher is one of the old 2005 Tiny Turbos (popping up a lot at TRU discount bin I might add)

A month ago I would have said: "YES im Tired of SW! The movies have not played in theaters for... (how many years??) its getting really old!" But that was back when SW was holding back Space due to potential competition. Now that we know Space is coming back regardless, it really doesn't bother me. :-D I'm not about to start buying more of them tho, they still look pretty *bleh* compared to the other themes for 2007...

Its nice to see someone actually use that curved piece from the back of Monster Crusher for something. I think the nose needs to come forward though, I remember the front of the body as being almost overhanging the wheel, not behind it. hey! you found a place to use those silly ExoForce Humans heads. With that helmet, it almost looks like a normal minifig.

Nice, wish I had one of those among the snack machines here at the office... :-D Never seen one, the sets in that picture look to be from some years ago... Sure wish I could get ahold of them so conveniently... :-P

*shrug* Lots of the models in the Factory gallery are made by kids. Of course, how many of them actually buy the stuff is a different question. Some days I think only myself (and other afols) are the only ones who actually buy the stuff; for the kids it's just another Lego themed videogame. Recently they made the bricks available for purchase without the custom box, via the new Online Pick a Brick. I wonder if thats a good or a bad sign. possbilities: -the system is succesful and theyre expanding. -too many people build 'parts packs' instead of actual models(a good thing, means bricks are selling) -the system is not successful and they're trying to give it a new image to revitalize Like I said earlier... I think most of the models in the gallery are overpriced because they have bad design. Also the fact that the 'Cool Creations' factory gallery contains mainly 300$ skyscrapers does not improve the image of affordability. I think if they put an emphasis on Efficient and well designed models (features and clever design to offset price), as opposed to large models, then they would really improve the image and help sales. Actually, I emailed customer support with that suggestion... their reply is... thanks but sorry our legal policy forbids the use of ideas from outside individuals.... |-/ bleh, i guess that means because i suggested it, they Won't do it. P.S. going a different direction regarding 'kids and boring bricks' jeez, what happened to the good old days... before shooter bricks when every 'ordinary' brick offered infinite creative possibilities... I'm sure you see where I'm headed with this...

Regarding TinyTurbos in general, not just for this year...tho this year seems to exemplify... How the Heck do they go over SpeedBumps?? :-P they've only got 1/2plate ground clearance at the nose.

True, I would be happier if they had more Space windscreen canopies available. And more Space minifigs. And those old M-Tron BlackTron 2 Space wheels ...you get the idea... But that doesn't mean theres anything wrong with the pieces they Do give you. It just means you have to plan designs around a limited selection of pieces; once you get used to that and stick to designs that are possible, things can come out looking pretty good. Same idea for price$ managment, don't go crazy and the price won't either. Anyhow, I don't build houses in LDD myself, so I can't really speak for your experiment. I try to stick to building small sets - TinyTurbos, MicroStarships, SpaceScooters. Where the small size and clever use of detailed special bricks pays off. For something big like a house I would probably buy a few of those official Creator/Designer Tubs since those cannot be beaten for bulk bricks versus low price.

I'd say no. It's slightly more expensive than official sets, but that is because official ones have the advantage of having the factory floors specifically set up to mass produce them. With LDD someone has to go through various bins and pick out your bricks by hand, that naturally costs a bit. You can also drop the price about ?.40cents? if you convert the model to PaB instead of getting the custom box. I do believe that someone here recently compared LDD Factory to Bricklink prices for a selection of bricks and concluded it came out about the same. Another factor, is that the models people design and upload to the Factory gallery, are not designed by proffesional Lego Designers. Consequently they are often Very InEffecient in terms of bricks used per cost. -when you build a house entirely out of green 1*2Plates its only natural they you use like 800 of them and have it cost over 100$$. I find that if I am careful with design by using a good mix of 'standard' bricks and fewer detailed special plates and hard to find stuff... and take the time to optimize. Then the price comes out only about 10-15% more than an official set with similar size and features. This is totally a tolerable price increase for me given the freedom to design what I want. Just take a look at my Factory gallery if you want to see some examples...

Nice, I know its based on a comic book concept so I probably shouldn't worry about practicality but.... the giant helicoptor rotors are awfully close to the flight deck.... what happens when a singly drunk pilot crashes into them? brings down the whole carrier?

Delorean with light-up Flux Capacitor(use an ExoForce lightbrick) and Flight Mode conversions. :-D It's also got a rather flat hood, so should lend itself to accurate modeling with bricks...

There's a new Lego Digital Designer / Factory survey. I know lots of you don't really like LDD as much as me... probably because of the lack of rare parts; but now's a good chance to let TLC know that. Maybe if enough people agree that we need more TrYellow Space Windscreens in LDD, they might just do something about it... ;-) To get at it, you need to start up your copy of LDD, there should be a survey button on the lower right, below the brick pallete.

Am I the only one who suddenly realized, that Shadow Crawler, has only 3 legs? not 4? X-O

I think MegaBlocks tried it, and proved why its a bad idea... lol :-D Seriously though, no I haven't. Part of what makes Lego fun for me is creative uses for the parts available. So far I haven't found myself in a situation where the bricks were inadequate. Of course there's nothing wrong with making stuff totally from scratch... but that takes a lot of time, the ease of use that comes with prefab lego bricks, I think gives you more time to try out lots of different ideas and actually be more creative than just carving and moulding plastic from scratch. What were you planning on making?

I actually didn't come out of darkage till LoM was long dead, so I don't own any of them... But I have bought a few LoM Accessory packs that were on clearance a while back... And based on those... it fails because... lame alien stuff ugly printed tiles - only 2 out of 8 or so prints I can actually use wierd color choices red, blue and sandgreen detail bricks?? wierd combo... yeah... the printed tiles, and the aliens(also printed in the same style), too cartoony looking....a big slope brick with a button marked with a giant claw? this is supposed to be the control panel to control the mecha's arm? wtf... On the plus side I got some nice Astronaut helmets out of there.... yeah, based on the parts, and what photos I see... Im going to say that the astronaut aspects arent that bad... but what kills the theme is the ridiculous aliens and their associated stuff... Would have been better if they sold LoM as the human stuff only, and let the UFO theme be the martians, and that says a lot because UFO was horrible!