xenologer

Today I went to a Lego Shop, and they had grab bags, so I grabbed two. They seemed to be jammed full of Speed Racer minifig parts: I seem to remember these being in the now-discontinued Build-Your-Own-Minifig bin. Mostly torsos, but I was able to put together about 9 helmet-less tajeo's and some... racerx's with white pants. Now what I am going to do with 9 tajeo's? its a cool outfit at least... maybe some kind of HK gang fight MOC someday? Overall view of parts, semi-sorted: the central pile is actually a little boring, just ordinary bricks in mass quantities. Some teal?aqua and orange colors at least. On the right is half the legs from a Separatist Spider Droid. and in the upper right is waay too many 1*4 wheelholders for me to know what to do with. Those white wall/column pieces might be useful if I ever try making a building... I guess the best thing in these bags, (me being a Space fan) is this MM Rover. It was in several pieces, but they came together like this. Unfortunatly the rest of the set(7644) must have been in other bags....

the futuristic pistol fits well too been debating getting the CW ?spider? set just for the pair of those... but thats an awful lot.... 30$ for two pistols and some ugly clones...

I'm happy with LDD. Here's an old thread showing one of my Digital designs, along with some photos of the Real one after I bought it: Skull and Crossbones Prices don't have to be super high to be awesome... most builders just end up getting carried away and forget to be careful in their choice of bricks and effecient design... try using a mix of large and small bricks, hollow spaces, etc, build the way official sets are made.

Well, It looks like I can now Check Price on LDD items that use the new Custom Cars pieces! However .... I can't actually view them unless I tell LDD to filter by boxes and specify Custom Cars. This is annoying because I would Like to be able to view both Normal Factory and Custom Cars pieces at the same time. It would seem the Normal Factory palette has not been updated to include the CC set.... Ambassador comment?

I definelty see new brinks on the website for PAB. But no updates to the actual LDD software, so I can't build with them just yet... Those EF drone arms will be nice to have....

Seeing as how this set is a promo and hard-ish to find(and everyone interested in it today), I made one in LDD. Cockpit piece not available in that color, also seemed a bit wide, so here's a red one... consider replacing with black or dkstone from your personal brick stocks... Technic parts are unavailable, so here's my alternate wing mechanism: Those are robo-arms clipped to wheel holder plates. Its smaller than the original technic connectors, but also means its probably more 'floppy'. Other minor changes... the tail/wing is a plate shorter or so, since it seemed too long to me. And there's that black slope at the rear of the cockpit, which seems closer to the 'real' thing... Oh right, and I changed the color scheme... like it? The price came out to 6.02$USD FactoryLink

well, i like this set. Wish the lego store still had them on shelf, its a nice impulse to get when im bored only prob is the minifig's head is so common... In theory I'll use that windshielf for an open cockpit rover or something ground based....

Neat little model. I wonder if the bottom wing folds like in the big one? Where'ed ya find those?

Nice one! Reminds me a lot of the Spinner cars from Blade Runner

That windscreen is basically just as bad as the one you already have in terms of blocked front view. Just fill up the front with computer displays to make up for the lack of pilot visibility. The new windscreen in the SW Magna Droid Fighter looks promising btw. Its similar style as those two, but narrower (4studs instead of 6) and instead of the block of studs in the front its flat and clear through. So its nice... but probably lends itself to a smaller ship that your project... I got one just for this part tho...

I'll vote mechs, with the clarification that the pilots re-use the ExoForce Drone minifigs in new colors. It would let us keep getting those nice drone figures beyond the end of EF, save TLC the trouble of losing a mould. And if ya want, you can consider it a spinoff storyline thousands of years into the future, right?

It was good for a while, then it went bad, and then they stopped altogether (at the two stores nearest me). For 3$ it was decent to get rare out of production minifig parts, usually I'd only buy the special printed torsos and legs. And the occasional rare female head. And I did get a nice selection of Racer's helments (great for Space Fighter Pilots). But that good stuff only showed up for about a month, and for the next half year after that they had Nothing but Ferrari! minifig parts! thats right, nothing but plain red torsos, plain red legs, all the same heads, and red helmets. Definetly Not worth 3$ by then. So no one bought Any for a few good months. And (perhaps because of that?) now they don't have the option at all any more. Ohwell. I'm happy with the handful of good figs I did get. Hope they bring it back.

I don't mind the lime green much. But the Neon Red, looks horrendous when put next to it. Would be much happier if they changed the digging tools to something more... ?realistic? like mdstone or black or yellow? And the 1-piece canopies suck, they look like leftovers from Jack Stone. Just look at the great construction vehicles in the upcoming Farm theme? why can't they put the same consideration into these mining vehicles?

The TT two packs look really good. Hopefully they're reasonably priced? 10$USD? not 15$? It's great that they come in mini themes, means I'll not have to worry about getting stuck with more of those 'hotwheels' type street wheels they have so many of lately; I can just stick to the offroad or ferrari pack...

I'm hoping the new theme brings back androids. Remember the odd one that came with the larger Spyrius or Explorien's sets? Perhaps re-use of the ExoForce Drone's?

Never owned any Blacktron1 sets myself. But thought the accesory vehicles from their main based looked like fun, so I've remade them in LDD. Hard to see, but those wing cannons are attached by wheel holder plates. (decided that this connection was nice and compact, and legal now that I've seen the Magna Fighter using this part for other than wheels.(that set uses it to mount the missile rack)) There's been an engine enhancement. Rocket Rover looks more or less the same... About the biggest issue here is, that since the car-base piece was not available, the new flyer had to use complex snot construction to get a strong chassis. Looks cool, except it costs quite a bit more... Is nostalgia really worth 16$USD?

cool just about the right size for a kindergarten classroom if you happen to be a teacher

Very Clever angle on the nose. According to LDD's math, its surprisingly close to being 'in-click' Thanks for the concept. May have to try using that triangle elsewhere in the future.

But woodlice go great with lego.

Nice set, lucky you! The only reason I buy the MM impulse sets is lack of good space minifig packs like this nowadays ...

Thanks for the review. I really do like the first year of EF. Nowadays they mecha are perhaps more cleverly designed, and use ball joints for playability. But I really love the blocky bulky look of the first Drone's machines. And somehow the older ones seem a better value of parts. I'm more inclined to buy duplicates of them than the newer models.

Yay spiders what kind are they? I hate having them leave webs all over my displays too. Seem to not be too much an issue since I've been diligent about killing any of them I see in my room.

Actually I kinda like the Crystal Hawk impulse. The default model isn't that great but you get a few nice wing plates to work with (after rearranging it looks pretty good). I guess this one though, is good for some nice parts, tho its pretty limited in what you can rebuild it into, and it seems less value because the astronaut has no vehicle... Best impulse set has to be the Troll Warrior... feels very 'complete', and Space Orcs are always nice to have...

I wasn't all that impressed with what you get in this set for the price. But you have an interesting point; that the robot can be considered a reference to the Classic Space bots. Makes me think I ought to try modding the robot later...

Miners who find rock/crystal monsters? Isn't this pretty much describing Mars Mission already? Just on earth instead of mars? Those glowy transparent green martians look half like the crystals they were mining to me... I'm hoping they don't go too steampunk with this...