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jodawill

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Everything posted by jodawill

  1. jodawill
    This is why I didn't buy 21322. For the price, there were just too many things I didn't like about it. It's a bunch of silly things that I could fix, but I felt like I might as well go buy one of the original pirate ships at that price. The island build just looked ridiculous and made up about half the pieces in the set. The biggest turnoff for me was the childish looking flags. At that price point (nearly twice what I'd want to pay for a pirate ship), there were just too many things I didn't like about it. I might regret that decision someday. But so far, I haven't regretted passing on it. At the multi hundred dollar price point, a set either needs to be pretty much absolutely perfect, or provide plenty of parts for both large and small MOCs. 10305 is both (for me, at least). I love the kind of set where the more copies you buy, the more you can build. A lot of licensed sets aren't things you want multiple copies of. If you buy 10 castles, you get 10 times as many soldiers, horses, bricks, etc. I love that.
  2. jodawill
    That MOC was actually made from two copies of the set. I was able to get four of them by asking some friends and family to make online orders for me. (I'm just planning to resell the stuff I bought to recoup the cost.) I'm probably going to wait until August before I open any more of them. I want to give one to my son for Christmas, and I kind of want to keep one MISB for myself. Hopefully I'll be able to get at least one more. Now that we've seen the castle though, I'm a bit less concerned about getting more of these for building purposes. I think the parts are all widely available except for the minifigures and shields. If those are available via Pick a Brick at some point, it will probably be better to just buy the parts. I could see myself ordering every part from this set in bulk and just keep them all in a single tub for unlimited forestmen building opportunities. I like your ideas. There really are endless possibilities with this theme since it's all about nature. I love that.
  3. jodawill
    Thanks for the illustration. I think that does look better than the B model. It will be fun to do some modifications to each of these models once the set is released.
  4. jodawill
    Has anyone else used this set for MOCs yet?
  5. jodawill
    I guess everyone has their preferences. That's a nice MOC, but it looks like a MOC, just like the blacksmith shop looks like a MOC. I'm glad 10305 looks like a Lego set. I also prefer the gray walls over the moss covered type, like Helm's Deep. I like growth on the side, like the leaves on the side of forestmen sets and the trees coming out of 10305. But I'm personally not a fan of colored bricks splattered across the building. I guess I just have very simple tastes. I'm very happy with what we got. Even more importantly, I feel like this is an excellent selection of parts for making my own creations in the style of Lego I like to build.
  6. jodawill
    Screen time is one of the major reasons we chose to homeschool our kids. I think schools are doing a great disservice to families by forcing kids to use screens for school. I think there's a lot of reasons this isn't healthy for kids, which I don't need to get into here. It sounds like you're doing things right at home. But it's kind of like having a kid in a divorced family. One parent is responsible, but the other lets the kids do whatever they want. I'm really concerned about the impact all of this screen time is having on kids and what that means for the future of our society. If you don't like the building aspect, I've got to say, there are much cheaper things you could display. (I just, of course.) I don't think creativity is an inherent trait though. Creativity is a muscle you develop by doing things. People do have gifts in different areas though. Some people are creative with music, some with math, and some with building. It's fine if building isn't what you're good at. I'm not particularly gifted at it myself. I just do it for fun. You should post your creations as you build them. I'd love to see what you do. The incredibly elaborate MOCs by master builders get most of the attention, but personally, I get a lot of enjoyment in seeing normal people develop their creative skills. Hopefully you'll enjoy it more after you get a bit of practice. I hope you're getting some rest now.
  7. jodawill
    I'm curious to see if someone can come up with a technique to make the tile flush with the slopes. It's a bit off in this B model: It may not be possible to get it perfectly flush, but I wonder if there's a blue angled SNOT brick that has a 33 degree angle. If there is, that might look better. I'll have to go see if I can find something on Bricklink. Edit: I was thinking of something like this, but this seems to be the only piece they've made that works like that.
  8. jodawill
    Yeah, I get that. I'm just more interested in the battle aspect myself when I'm building, not what the people who live in the castle would be doing on an average day. It doesn't bother me that it has an interior. I'm just totally indifferent. It's really hard for me to take anyone seriously if they don't think a lot of effort was put into the design of this set. Yes, it could have been more colorful, but that isn't what they were going for. I wouldn't even consider buying this set if it was some kind of Cinderella castle, as some people seem to have wanted?
  9. jodawill
    I can see digital instructions being a way to ween kids off devices if they're already using them, like a nicotine patch. I don't mean to assume anything, and all kids are different. But reading your comment, I wonder if screen time is the reason your daughter doesn't have the patience or creativity for Lego. (I could very well be wrong, or it could just be that Lego isn't her thing.) I think even a little bit of screen time can have a negative effect on a kid's attention span. It's like giving your kids sugar then asking them to eat their vegetables. It's really hard. That doesn't they can't have it occasionally, but it has a very significant impact on how difficult it is to eat healthy food. I've seen it with my son. We don't let our kids use phones or tablets at all, but occasionally, we let them watch a show. My son's growing out of this stage a bit now, but there was a time when he wouldn't want to do anything else after watching a show. We've also discovered that the content of the show has a big impact on this. Crazy shows like VeggieTales had a negative effect on his attention span when he was a little younger, but we've never had issues with Mister Rogers. Also, we did try out the Duplo train app when he first got his train just so we could control the train, but he was so distracted by all the colorful animations, it totally distracted him from the actual train. So we stopped doing that very quickly. Like I said though, I could be wrong about your daughter. Especially since she's a girl, it might be that she's more interested in the play than the building aspect of it, which I assume the digital instructions provide more of. And every kid is different. It's just something to think about. The problem I have is that I know all too well that "this product is not for me." That's nearly every single product Lego makes now. When I was a kid, I felt like nearly everything Lego made was targeted at people like me. Now I feel like people like me are treated like second class citizens almost all of the time. I think that's what makes me upset - not the fact this licensed stuff exists, but because they've ignored the more traditional Lego fans for so many years now. (Yes, I see the irony of saying that with the 90th anniversary sets coming out, but these are by far the exception, and they're so expensive, they'll be out of reach for many people. And despite me being able to afford the castle for myself, it's not something I can buy for my kids.) I feel like the last Lego theme that was made for "people like me" was the 2015 pirates wave. Keeping that in mind, it's really hard to watch hundreds (if not thousands) of licensed sets come down the pipeline, often recreations of things that have already been released since the last pirates wave in 2015.
  10. jodawill
    Yeah, that's not super great for something geared toward kids. It's similar to how you have to have an iPhone to change the color of the lights on the Duplo train. I've never been happy with that because I don't want playtime to involve screens. But in this case, you could just view this like a Freestyle bucket. It's just some parts to build stuff. You don't have to have the app to use the parts, and you could even build those models just by looking at the pictures.
  11. jodawill
    Yes. To me, Lego City is still very much classic Lego. Unfortunately, it's not a theme I'm personally interested in. I wish they still did historical and space themes in that style. Do they really not include paper instructions with City sets anymore?
  12. jodawill
    You're bringing back some really bad memories. I'd also forgotten that they couldn't be layered. I'm wondering now how long it's been since I've tried to build with those. I really don't spend enough time appreciating how much better the modern wedge plates are.
  13. jodawill
    Wow. That explains a lot. I never thought about the angles. It's been a long time since I tried to build with one of those plates. I just remember I got really frustrated with them as a kid. It seemed like they just never worked. I'm sure it was related to the angles.
  14. jodawill
    I've never seen anyone talk about this before - I'm really glad they don't make those wedge plates with the corner cutout anymore. As much as I love the look of those classic sets, those pieces always drove me nuts. As a kid, I always had a hard time getting them to fit together in the way I wanted. I'm not sure what the point of that was. It's being used in 918 as a way to make the red lights flush with the plate, but that's pretty unnecessary. I wonder what the designers had in mind when they made that notch.
  15. jodawill
    I wonder if I'm in the minority among AFOLs. I actually prefer to not have interior designs. I love castles that are all about the walls and towers with no internal detail. I don't sit and play dolls with my minifigures. I arrange them in action shots, defending the fort and so on. Fort Legoredo and Sheriff's Lockup had some interior details, but the reason I liked those is because the interiors have play features. The sheriff has a primitive rocking chair, there's a place to stash gold under his desk, and there's a safe for the bandits to try to steal. Fort Legoredo had that amazing trap door feature with the guys playing cards, as well as the hiding spot inside the fireplace. To me, this is the perfect level of detail for a Lego set. I'm not bothered by more detail, but for my personal taste, something like 10305 borders on overkill. I'll build this castle from the instructions when I get it, but I'm sure I will very quickly take it apart and build my own castle with no interior details, recreating the style of the Black Knights castles - build some siege weapons, load it up with soldiers. That's my style. You can see the shift in emphasis in Lego sets in the variety of parts available. In the '90s, for example, we had almost no food pieces at all. We had pizza, cups, a skillet, and a pot, and that's about it. Looking back in the '80s, and there's pretty much nothing. Lego wasn't meant to compete with dollhouse style sets. There's nothing wrong with that style of toy. But if that's what you're looking for, Playmobil has historically done a much better job filling that role. As a parent, it's nice to have toys that appeal to both girls and boys so they can share and play together. Girls love pink princess castles, which are a huge turnoff to most boys. But you can take something like the Playmobil 3666 castle and fill it with both male and female klickies. You can get both siege weapons and dollhouse type accessories, like banquet scenes and so forth, and the kids can play together. 10305 is a great example of that type of gender neutral toy, although it's not the price range (or piece count, for that matter) I'd look at for kids.
  16. jodawill
    I remember seeing a review where someone mentioned that people would complain about the fact this set isn't built on top of a bunch of plates like the original. It does have some innards, but if you look at this photo, you can see the bottom does have that nostalgic plate look, and it includes plenty of wing pieces for MOCs. I'm actually really happy looking at it from this view. And when you look at a profile photo, it appears that the ship is only about 5/3 a brick thick, which is pretty good for a ship this scale so it feels sleek instead of bulky (keeping in mind that most ships back then were just a single plate thick). That also makes me wonder what the landing gear retracts into. Is the landing gear less than a brick thick? Has anyone else seen the back of the ship as a face? It's pretty funny once you notice it. I also just noticed today that the set has 1x2 transparent yellow bricks. I didn't realize that part is still in production. (Apparently it never disappeared - it's 7 cents on Bricklink.) I'll need to buy some more of those. Those will go great with the windshield from 70821. The asteroids tile is pretty cool. I imagine people will very quickly use it to make an arcade MOC. That would be really cool. You could even combine it with the classic space tile from this set. Ok, I see it now. I've never owned a Blacktron set, so I forgot that they had that triangular logo.
  17. jodawill
    You know, the funny thing is that I agree with almost all of the positive things being said about this set. My feelings are incredibly mixed on this one. I hope I'm not coming off as super critical, because that's not how I feel about this. I partly just wanted to generate some discussion because people just weren't talking about the set. I've never considered the transparent yellow plates to be actual windshields. I've thought of them as just a way to let light through and their main purpose was to look cool. The studded look of the original sets is most of their charm. I was about to say that a large transparent yellow tile would have been a good compromise between the two styles, but the large tiles do have tubes on the bottom, so that probably wouldn't fit the bill. The 8x16 has never appeared in transparent colors, presumably for this reason. Also, I don't think I've mentioned it, but I'm really happy with the yellow windows included in this set. It took me a while to notice them. I think it's a newer part, but it has a very old school look to it that I think will go well with more traditional models. Yeah, I hope you're right. I want this set to sell well so we can get more of this stuff. We still need blue and black minifigures, and there's a ton of parts I'd like to see. I always thought we'd see a set like this after they released Benny's Space Squad. I knew they wouldn't just bring that helmet back for a little tease like that. And I can't tell you how many years I begged for that part to make a comeback. People always said they would never bring them back because the chinstraps broke, and my response was always, "Well, why not make them thicker?" I'm really happy we finally have them again after all these years. The modern helmets look good in other contexts, but they always looked strange on the classic space rereleases. Anyway, I'm sure my thoughts and feelings toward this set will change once I actually build it. I always find that my opinion of a set increases dramatically once I actually have it in hand. I can sit back and criticize sets I haven't built all day, but the reality is, Lego is always fun, even if it's not the best design of all time.
  18. jodawill
    Yeah, it is brilliant and it looks good. It makes it less of a "parts pack," but perhaps I'll reuse their technique myself in my own MOCs. There's also just a lot more to talk about. It's such a big set, people have been trying to understand the ins and outs of it for weeks. This set, being smaller, is more obvious in how it's built. I'm surprised though that no one else has tried recreating it in this thread. If that happens, that might be even bigger news than this set, honestly, especially if it includes a ship. What is this "bogie" you speak of? I also didn't realize until I looked at that photo that it has a screen of a live video feed of one of the astronauts. That's a cool piece. Huh. For some reason, I thought from previous photos that that piece was a 1x2 tile, almost identical to the original. I'm confused by this as well. The 1x2 version would have been preferable... Yeah, but only one. It's not a big deal since the part is widely available. But it's a bit of an odd choice not to have someone for him to talk to. Maybe the other receiver is built into the ship? Maybe it's that video screen tile.
  19. jodawill
    Here's another perspective which I hadn't considered before. There's been a lot of talk about labeling boxes as 18+ to give adults "permission" to buy a Lego set, to make them feel like it's made for them and not children. You could look at this the same way. Nearly everyone in this thread is a man, probably mostly 30-50 years old. We already feel like this was made for us. We've been asking for this for literally decades, and it's finally here. It's our big moment. But castle was never aimed at girls in the past. This is the first time they've attempted to target that audience. You could say that just by putting female heads on half the soldiers, they're giving women "permission" to buy the set. If this set was yet another sausage fest, I imagine most women (even if they're already AFOLs) would probably look at it and think that's just for men. This invites them to participate. When looking at it in these terms, I 100% back the idea (as long as the torsos aren't feminine). There's really only been one half decent wave of castle sets since the '90s. We can't allow this theme to die out. If Lego can expand the consumer base of the castle theme by making it more inviting to women, this is good for all of us. The only real complaint I have about the head swapping thing is that this is a really nice box, probably the only one I'll ever keep on display in my home. But if having female soldiers increases the chances of getting more sets like this, that's ok.
  20. jodawill
    I've been surprised by how little discussion there is around this set compared to the Lion Knights Castle. I would have thought there would be about the same amount of love for classic space as there is for castle, but apparently not? Personally, I just can't stop thinking about both of these sets. It's all I've been able to think about ever since they were rumored. What does everyone think of the part selection in this set, particularly the use of the 2x4 tile instead of a slope for the logo? Do people like this choice? Do people like the use of wacky parts like the buckets and barrels for the thrusters, or would you have preferred a more traditional build? Some transparent yellow plates would have been a great choice over that rear windshield. The walkie talkies and metal detectors aren't hard to find, but the glaring lack of them here seems a bit odd. The funny thing about those new printed 1x2 tiles is that they used to be generic, commonplace elements. Seeing them here as special parts unique to this set feels very ironic, although I'm happy to see them included here. The 2x4 tile does provide some flexibility we wouldn't have with a slope. It could be used on the side of a wall, as part of a floor, or a billboard. But when it comes to spaceships, it locks us into that angled brick type construction (is there a better term for this?). I wonder if there are any angled SNOT bricks that would provide an appropriate angle to construct the slope. We do have that 2x4 slope still, so I guess some variety is ok. But the printed slope was the number one thing I was looking forward to about this set besides the minifigures, so it's really hard for me to let this go. They could have used this part, as it's nearly identical to the original piece. How does everyone else feel about this? Do you feel let down by the parts selection like me, or are there some parts here you're really looking forward to?
  21. jodawill
    I haven't seen the movie, but I inferred it's a white suit that got washed with a red one. Since I gave all of my Benny's Space Squad sets to my son, I ordered a bunch of parts from Bricklink today. Unfortunately, the price of that set has gone up a lot recently, probably due to 10497. But I was able to get 8 of the yellow space men for $5 each, and I bought most of the parts from that set in bulk. I'll get more of the white minifigures with this set, so I feel like I'm pretty well set on my modern classic space parts now. Well, except I also want to buy more copies of 70821 for myself, but fortunately, that one is still less than retail price on Bricklink. Most AFOLs probably scoff at that set, but it has some really great parts. Even that giant base piece works really well. You can arrange multiples of them in a lot of ways. It looks really good if you connect two of them back to back, then add one on each side of the back for wings. And it has the transparent yellow windshield, which in my opinion, is WAY better than the one that comes with 10497. I have a decent sized tub of original classic space parts and minifigures, but we use the modern stuff way more. When I use the old parts, I feel kind of stressed out about losing or breaking pieces. So I'm actually enjoying this reboot of classic space a lot more.
  22. jodawill
    That's something I really don't like about a lot of the fancy MOCs I see. I want Lego to look like Lego. This set fits the bill. I don't like the blacksmith shop because it looks like a MOC, not a Lego set.
  23. jodawill
    I'm confused on how this isn't a "crazy interesting shape." I think this is the first castle that isn't a square. How do you imagine this set should have looked like? I think it's fair criticism though that every wall "needs" to have an interior. I watched the Jangbricks review of Fort Legoredo the other day, and he mentioned that they wouldn't put a simple wall in the set if they released a new fort. He's probably right, but that just seems absolutely ridiculous to me. In real life, most of the walls of a fort would have been simple barriers to provide a barrier. The same goes for a castle. A castle should have some section that's simply a wall with guards traversing it. This castle looks fine as it is, but I think that's an area that's ripe for MOCing.
  24. jodawill
    The Harry Potter GWP has already sold out a week before the promotion was supposed to end, whereas this set was available the entire week. Is it possible that castle really isn't as popular as I'd like to believe? I stayed up until midnight to order this GWP because I thought it would sell out immediately.
  25. jodawill
    I love the fact that this set comes with some little stories on the box, just like they used to. It would have been really cool if this box had a flap, but this is probably as close as we'll ever get to that. What do you suppose the forest people are up to? I've got to say, I'm going to be removing the children from the set on day one. That's just a big NOPE for me. There's some kind of Romeo and Juliette thing going on between then. Again, that's a big NOPE for me here as well. Surely, the Black Falcons are only pretending to come in peace, and this will set the stage for a full on assault on the castle. Or perhaps they've put aside their differences long enough to defeat the outlaws? It would be great if this is a hint of upcoming sets where they're not friendly. On the other hand, I would prefer a new Black Knights castle over another Lion Knights/Black Falcons set. I modern take of Black Knights Castle would have been my first choice from the beginning. I would be over the moon if we ended up getting one. Seeing these little teases of a story arc on the boxes makes me yearn for a proper castle comic book. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I wish they would bring back Mania Magazine for adults. Imagine if they had longer comics with better stories geared specifically toward adults, similar to The Golden Medallion. They could update the fan creations page to be photos of MOCs from AFOLs. Keep the original Maniac! Can you imagine how cool it would be to have a magazine for 10305?
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