natelite

lol... i see i need to decal a new head. or maybe just scrap it all-together since it doesn't seem to be a hit. i was trying to go for the alternative angle; i.e. villains who aren't evil (like sandman or two-face) but was made evil by circumstances. and heroes who are conflicted - like punisher. in fact, my planned hero was going to be hedious and scarred and ruthless in killing law-breakers. almost like the mime but on the other side of the fight. the anti-hero, vigilante type. his famous quote was going to be: "You either die a hero or live long enough to be a villain...well, I won't die because I am no hero." oh well, still have time so i'll scrap this and work on something else. category C will be posted soon. i have something that should be ready shortly.

good catch... i'll change it to a thought bubble. I think the figure is a little too simple and plain... I think I'll update the cape, and give it a proper angry mime head. I like the concept of a mastermind villain over a solo villain though. :)

Nickname: The Mime Name: Dr. Frank "Wokkie" Waulkner Age: 35 Weapon: high IQ and biochemical serum causing primary sensory (sight, sound, speech) failure. Famous Quote: "Some men just want to watch the world burn but I not only want to watch but also to smell it and to hear it scream!" Backstory: Dr Waulkner, aka Wokkie as he was affectionately known, was a brilliant scientist who worked in Gotham General Hospital. His research was in genetics dystrophy of the senses. His passion in this field was driven mainly by his wife and two kids who were born with a genetic disorder which caused them to be mute, blind and deaf. He was on the verge of a breakthrough discovery of the enabler gene which can potentially reverse the degeneration process when the Joker attacked and bombed the Gothan General Hospital as depicted in the Dark Knight movie. His wife and kids were visiting him and was ready to provide samples for his research when they perished in the attack. Because he was in a isolated lab engrossed in his work and he had ear mufflers on, he did not see the red alert nor hear the evacuation siren. His wife and kids were blind, mute and deaf and also were forgotten as they were not in the main hall or the major wings/ells of the hospitals. The doctor was badly wounded in the attack when a shrapnel penetrated his skull. The attack damaged his frontal lobe and his ability to feel any empathy - a cruel fate to a kind man who is now a hell-bent sociopath. What was left of a once benevolent and kind man, was an empty shell bent on revenge. He wanted to destroy both the good and the evil; the good - Batman - not only did he forsake the many (Gotham Hospital) to save a corrupt accountant (Reese) but also he was weak in not killing the Joker when he had the chance. The evil - well, because the Joker killed his family. While he was recovering in the hospital, he discovered a serum through a previous research he conducted which can destroy a person's senses: his hearing, his sight and his speech. He has finally found his tool for revenge! He recruited a few thugs and started spreading his serum via mist clouds and robbing banks, mafia hideouts, and generally causing wonton destruction and pillaging. He has no remorse nor any feeling left saved for the feeling of greed and the joy of spending spree. He rob and attack just to spend and buy expensive toys to destroy and attack again. He was an agent in the distribution of biochemical weapons - mainly the serum he created which caused victims to lose sight, speech and hearing. He is known as the "MIME" because of his weapon. His victims will not be able to talk or hear, and will move their hands about like blind persons or just like mimes! He likes to wear black and white expensive suits. His wounds caused him to not only be a sociopath but also develop an expensive taste to compensate for his lost of empathy. His posses wear mime costumes as a taunt and insult to the Joker's as they are bitter rival gangs. Unlike other villains in Gotham City who will work with the Joker, the Mime is archenemy to both Batman and Joker as he thinks they were directly responsible for his condition and his loss. Because of his sociopathic nature, he treats the other smaller villains, mafia gangs and wannabe heroes as pawns in his game...his game in getting what he wants and destruction of Gotham City. The Mime and henchman robbing the rich Gothamite! Cost: Hat - Rathbone's: $1.50 Face - Joker henchman: $5.00 Torso - Indiana Jone's White Tuxedo: $7.00 Leg - White legs: $0.30 Accessory - technic pin & jewel: $0.10 Cape - custom paper: free Total cost: $13.90.

it won't be in plastics. it'll probably be plastic sheets much like the fairy and angel keychains.

quick question: how long will the voting take place? it says contest ends June 25th, but didn't really mention when voting will begin and end.

your doomsday scenario is overblown. hackers can't steal your physical inventory because only the server is hacked. it's not like they can reach out into the screen and steal your golden c3po. no need to go overboard but if you like, i can sell you insurance to protect you from internet theft of your physical assets. i only ask for 1% of the insurance value. there's no identity theft unless you kept your BL and PP emails the same. even then you'll need to trick them out of their SSN. they do have your IP number, address, email, name and password. again - unless you kept other secrets like your cat's name or the model of your first car or other secret questions/answers on your BL profile there's no risk. the biggest risk is if you use the same BL and PP emails and passwords. so best to change your PP profile to something else quickly.

wow...it's good you answer that question, LuxorV, because i was going to make the alter ego under category c. here's another question: what about a hero fanboy? can that be in category c? was going to make something hilarious and close to incredi-boy's back story...but generic enough to pass?

i'm going to enter too but will take some time to build them.

all that said was just reconfirming that the "VIP" label on the 5 minifigs was nothing more than palming off unwanted inventories to gullible fans. that is an extremely stupid move if that statement is indeed correct. TLC should dish out more exclusives to rabid fans not rehash of common or unwanted goods. first of all, rabid fans are some of the most discerning buyers and only the most foolish of fans (less than 1%) will buy any VIP labeled garbage. secondly, if they keep this up, they will piss off fans who played by their rules (limited means limited, not limited until we print more). sales for new CMF series will fall (fans who have been stocking up 100s of rare figures for army building for e.g. will hold off on buying them until more favorable sales). we're already beginning to see this. S7 CMF has some of the most unique of figures but we see piles and piles of these in store. i think it's also time for them to cut US prices for CMFs. USD:EUR is now at 1.25 and falling further. that puts USD prices at $2.99 vs EUR of 1.99 at a disadvantage. this is mostly a tongue-in-cheek comment for the numerous anti-US lego set pricing postings out there.

you could also use the following

this is an extremely poor choice by TLC. first of all, they are pissing all over their fans/collectors by releasing the elves as they were from CMF S3. never expect rarity from CMF series since TLC will just release them in new packaging (see the beach series set, etc). secondly, the other minifigures were unpopular and they were just looking to unload them to gullible fans for $14.99 and further making it worse by exchanging rare colors to common colors. changing prints or colors to even rarer colors would have justified buying them - imagine the elf in new olive green or sand green or even sand brown. but as they are right now, only fools would buy them. and expect future CMF sets to drop in value as there's really no collectibility around them since TLC can reissue them any time they want.

i think the better quantitative analysis of the cmf series is to combine the own and want list. the want list in theory should be given priority since it shows desirability while own may not be by choice (i.e. "awww....not the dummy again!" -- blind purchase resulting in unwanted mfs). unlike other themes, cmf can result in large unwanted purchases. i have seen lots of kids with their parents who just grab one/two bags and leave. unfortunately non-afol parents do not have the patience for their kids to feel out the mfs they wanted. so, if i were to do this, i would weight the own list with the no per box (i.e. more per box will receive less weight than fewer per box) and add that to the want list. that would basically tell me how desirable or which is the best series. i haven't yet started but maybe someone with more time can do it. i'll try to do something by this week if i have the time.

i would like 3 boxes please. :D

i think you guys are too hung up by the USD prices. If AUD were weaker at 0.60 would you have had the same reaction? About 4 years ago back in Sept 2008, AUD was that weak, and I kinda doubt you would make the kind of fuss "Oh...the Australian prices were just right compared to US prices".... If anything, I think you should be thankful that AUD - through excellent political policy or stroke of good fortune that Australia has natural resources that China buys - appreciated as much as it did. Because of the stronger currency, you can now import from the US through Barnes & Nobles for much cheaper prices than MSRP prices. All TLC is trying to do is to make prices as stable as possible. Sometimes a country is just doing so much better that the currency naturally appreciates and it just gives you more buying option. How is that a bad thing that you need to complain about it? Would you rather AUD were weaker?

as suggested in an earlier post, why not just add the trans-clear standard helmet? the larger atlantis visor is much better on a standard helmet but you can't get trans-clear without brassoing a chrome original. you can also use trans-clear standard visor but it doesn't look as good. another alternative is to reverse the standard helmet so the back is in front and vice versa.

western of course! we should vote the western modular in cussoo until it becomes reality! it's about time we have western modular.

not sure if it'll pass the scrutiny but i thought a tribal witch doctor would make an awesome figure. kinda like a revamp'ed native witch doctor from the original pirates theme - have a more oblong wooden mask instead of the funny looking red one from the original. we haven't yet got an orc. so i would suggest an orc barbarian - decked with a single large metal spiky pauldron and wearing a mean-looking horned bullet helmet, and wielding a double-handed battleaxe or halberd.

same here, though i mostly get the set if it has interesting mf parts. e.g. sw sets are getting very boring because of the rehash, but i am still going to get jabba palace and the desert skiff because of the interesting mfs and parts - like lando's headgear which doubles as a samurai's. can't ever get enough of those since the other alternative is mia's from samurai x. all extremely pricy options. also the gammorean guard is so much better than the 2006 version from the sailbarge. it's a great addition to any medieval fantasy world, or sci-fi world, etc. it's just so useful. on the other hand, i'm not that keen on LotR sets or PoP sets. none of the new torsos are interesting at all. the new super heroes - i'll probably get one set of each figure to complete my collection but the torsos aren't interesting to be used as mocs. thor's for e.g. looks weirdly like he has 6 mammal glans. i like prints which are bright in contrast to the part color. e.g. white on black, etc. if it's too detailed and not visible, then i'd lose interest - and most license themes fall in this category. edit: oh and... "i hate fleshies...wah!!!" heheh - just gotta add that bit in to annoy you! but seriously, i hate fleshies coz the facial expressions suck. the yellow heads usually have much better prints. e.g. LotR orcs look hedious compared to fantasy castle orcs. yeah - i know those aren't fleshies vs yellow (more like dark tan vs sand green), but it kinda highlights what's wrong with most licensed themes. the faces have to fit the movies and most of the time, it takes away from the normal lego esthetics and make the heads look extremely weird and ugly. and it's mostly a bad thing because you can't sub these parts - like wonder woman for e.g. you can't sub the head because the torso is printed in flesh tone.

trans-color visor with decal prints! trans-orange is cool. let's hope they stick with it. i also like the atlantis body wear except it seems to be lacking in pauldrons. add some pauldrons and it'll be a nice heavy armor version to the standard space marine helmet/armor combo.

not really. i think it's because the villains were badly designed. take the kingdoms sets for e.g. dragon knights sell much better than lion knights. the skeletons and snakes look hedious and doesn't blend well with other minifig parts. aliens from ADU, i like the big boss and the cyborg, but the rest are kinda meh... if only they had interesting armors or helmets, then the theme will be so hot. like the new SW old republic sets - the sith has a really cool looking armor with oversized pauldrons. if the villains from the alien conquest or ninjago had those armors and helmets, they would sell like hotcakes.

could you actually buy the minifigure on its own?

Instead of crazy aliens how about humanoid aliens? That way they'll be able to wear that fantastic helmets too. I would see a tan very human head kinda like data from star trek, a green head like a a space Ork, and maybe even a medium azure head, a brown head with werewolves details representing the Klingons of star trek.

you got a whole box directly from TLC... before any retail store has any for sale... in the entire world. what are you crying about?

miniature tower bridge is cool and seeing as we have a UCS tower bridge, i think a mini tower bridge is very very possible as a set.

what an interesting and novel idea! instead of packing air, they should include containers in lego sets. that would totally justify having larger boxes for lego sets. on a similar note, i think TLC should totally abandon the cardboard boxes and go with plastic boxes instead. i would suggest either printing on the plastic box or using stickers to display the lego sets. having a transparent or semi-transparent box would prevent theft of parts and consumers would get to see what's in the boxes before they buy - just like old times! and with a plastic seal, the returns or the customer service person can clearly see if it was open or not. plus the boxes can be recycled as storage boxes. cool!