Dunjohn

PRobably either Toy Story 3 or the A-Team. I don't like superheroes so Iron Man isn't going to do it for me. That said, I pretty much never go to the cinema, so by "summer blockbusters" I actually mean "autumn DVD releases."

If I remember right, it's €2 more than Smyths' price - but I can't remember what Smyths' price is

I was in my local Tesco today and they were selling the Army Men set for €8.00: The regular price everywhere else is €12+. I don't know if this is true of their British stores too, but I thought I might mention it.

They are astoundingly cute, aren't they... eight just isn't enough!

Today's the first day of the new Daily Mirror promo: http://www.mirror.co.uk/lego/free-toys/ And first up is a basic Le Mans racer. I understand that this one was already available through Lego Club, but now it's here. It's a tiny set, and there's not much to say, so this won't take long. INFORMATION: Set Name: Le Mans Car Set Number: 7802 Theme: Lego Racers Year Released: 2009 / 2010 Number of Pieces: 29 plus 10 stickers Price: €1 with the Daily Mirror _____________________________________________ The Bag Here's the plastic bag. There are three more out of frame, to the left. I'm not a huge fan of Racers, but they were only a euro each, dammit! The back of the bag is a big wall of the usual legal stuff and a veritable Rosetta Stone of how to say "Choking Hazard. Contains small parts" in no fewer than 30 languages. No tourist should leave home without one. The Contents: Thirty bits, none of them particularly exciting. There's an ad on the back of the instructions, nothing worth noting, the one with the car jumping through the oil barrels on the back of the apostrophe-deficient Carls Cargo lorry. The Mystery Envelope: The cardboard thing at the side contains the stickers, keeping them nice and uncrinkled. Very good of TLG to do that, these plastic bags can take quite a beating. I didn't apply the stickers. Sorry. Half-Built: It takes about a minute to build the whole car, and anybody who's built a Racers car before will be familiar with the process. This set doesn't deviate, right down to the garish round studs they all seem to have under the hood. Mostly-Built: Here it is with four pieces left to go. The camera flash is highlighting the red and yellow between the cracks a little more than normal light would; you can see it, but it's not really this obvious. Fully Built: So that's it, minus stickers. Quick to build, looks okay beside regular Racers racers but without as much bulk or streamlining. I actually think it looks a little like a Burton Batmobile. The Spares A single yellow stud. IN CONCLUSION I'm not big into Racers. I got these because they equal cheap parts, and not very exciting ones at that. I suppose if I were a bigger fan of Racers I could make use of the theme's trademark fenders and engine pieces; this set comes with three in total, plus four of those mudguard tiles. But those are so common across the theme that I'd probably have planty anyhow. The car has already been broken up as I type this. I'm not sure if this promo series is going to interest AFOLs as much as past Mirror ones have. No minifigs, that sorta thing. However, if I were a kid, I imagine I'd certainly appreciate the swooshability of this, I mean it is a rather nifty-looking, shiny black racing car. I'm not gonna bother rating it, since there's not a lot to go on. I got it for cheap parts, I got cheap parts, I'm happy enough. Thanks for reading! - Dunjohn

Hmm, I'm with Delta 38 on the Jessie issue, I think it's fantastic that Lego are doing variations on the minifigs but I was hoping for a generic Jessie. No biggie, I'll take a sad one if I have to. I already have regular Buzz so I'm delighted I won't have two identical ones. I'm not as keen on the dirt printing as most of you seem to be. And I love the Twitch minifig. I know he's way out of proportion with the movie character but I'd prefer if they stick to the standard Legoman design where possible. The extra-tall minifigs already being used for some Toy Story characters are something I hope doesn't become too common. Pretty much every new image of these sets makes me want them even more.

Wow. I hope that offer spreads. And I hadn't spotted Jesse in the green truck. Fantastic! I already have Buzz and Woody so this'll fill out the gang nicely. Now to find a cheap Zurg.

Thanks for that! I quite like the Duplo sets. They're strangely proportioned but rather cute. Won't get them or anything, but they're nice. Can't tell if the green truck is 8-wide or 6-wide, but I'm interested either way. They're certainly giving us enough TS3 minifigs. I just want a cheap set with Jesse

They did go with two obscure guys for the first one. I thought it was a great move, it helped keep the focus on Batman himself. They don't have to do that anymore. They will probably have to redress the gender balance, so I'd say a female villain is guaranteed. Catwoman is the obvious choice, but Poison Ivy or Harley Quinn would work for me. Catwoman's theme is a little strained, but they managed to make Scarecrow's scare tactics and Twoface's coinflip obsession work very well, so they might be able to pull her off. I don't like Dr. Freeze so I'm glad it's not him. Batman villains tend towards the one-dimensional and gimmicky and he's particularly bad. I kinda like Penguin. I imagine he could be very interesting if somebody manages to strip away the cheesiness his movie incarnations have always had. I think they should leave Joker out of it. It's only a trilogy; asking someone to step in for Ledger at this point might only be disruptive (even if it were Depp, who can do pretty much anything).

Well, I do need more cat litter. I'm running out of pirates calendars.... Nice to see another Mirror promo on the horizon. Pity it's Racers, it's a theme I'm not that interested in, but it'll be an easy source of parts. Also nice to have some warning this time, I missed the first couple of ones both last times, thanks! They keep using the same kid. Wonder who he is.

Yeah, I've been dreading the advent of an A-Team movie for ten years now and the inevitable news finally broke some time ago. To be honest, it may not be the end of the world. It seems to focus on the core of A-Team without getting too caught up in the detail. The fact that Face Man doesn't know who B.A. is has me worried; one of the major ideas behind the original series was that this was an elite military unit who are forced to use their skills to survive in the real world. The fact that they were an utterly cohesive team who could practically think each other's thoughts was fundamental - as Decker once put it, they act like a single body. This new Face seems to be an outsider, drafted in to help the others. Hope the team dynamic isn't messed with too much. Aside from that, the characters all seem to have been well updated. There's one short image of a supremely confident woman in sunglasses; if that's Amy, it's a logical remake. And in the scene where Murdoch says their wing is on fire, I did notice B.A. unconscious in the seat behind him. That's good too. Probably the biggest thing that bugs me is that Face Man has stubble. I know it may be modern but I just can't accept Face Man without a smooth, uh, face. He could easily have been clean-shaven. the stubble just feels intrusive. And if that's the biggest issue I have, then I imagine I'll enjoy the movie.

I really hope these things will actually be on sale within reach of me. I'm not sure if my local toy store will bite. They don't do the existing minifig impulse sets. Just a question or two about your thinking when reviewing this, if I may. Why'd you go with LEGO Town? I know most of these figs are regular people, but you did get a spaceman, why not put it in Other Themes? And are people expecting each minifig to be reviewed separately? Your thread title isn't spaceman-specific, and I agree that that's probably enough.

tell me he meant pom-poms, please God, somebody tell me this man meant pom-poms.... Urkkh. This little review has only whetted my appetite even more. I'm not that big into minifigs, but I really want these!

I was thinking earlier about The Breakfast Club. It's a hugely influential coming-of-age movie from the eighties that's had a huge effect on a lot of people in the business, from Matt Groening to Kevin Smith. I've never seen it, despite my almost thirty years of existence, and it's not the only movie I've never seen but that "everybody else has." It's time to Come Clean. The Breakfast Club The Godfather (all of them) Avatar The Excorcist Tron Top Gun Pulp Fiction The Karate Kid Blade Runner (and me a big sci-fi fan) Disney's Snow White This Is Spinal Tap Anybody else want to stand up and admit they haven't seen some of the essentials?

Sure, I would. A job's a job. An especially fun job, in this case. And as a designer rather than, say, a mould operator, I would only increase my actual Lego skills. Of course, there would be complications. Legally, I'd have to be careful not to copy too much from Lego, both in set designs and new brick ideas. As well as that, I imagine that all employees would be encouraged to stick to the company's product - it looks bad for ANY company if employees spend their free time using a rival's product. While working in a bank, I wasn't barred exactly from having accounts in other banks, but I was heavily dissuaded, while my sister, who worked in a clothes shop, was required to wear only clothes that could be purchased there. On the plus side, I imagine I'd get a thrill out of trying to outdo Lego and challenging them to work even harder

That's actually pretty cool looking, especially since you used a limited brick pool. The tail is a little odd, though, slightly out of line with one side studded and the other not; trying to ignore the asymmetry only makes it more noticible. I'd work with the asymmetry your pool forces on you by building random elements on the port side.

Yeah, I can't afford any of the Jessie sets. May get the magnet set.

Question about keyrings and magnets from someone who doesn't own any: Are they exactly the same as "real" minifigs? Like, EXACTLY? Like, if I got some and dumped the chains and magnetic bricks, and stored/used them with my regular minifigs, would I notice any difference?

The Jurassic Park soundtrack. Nananaaa, nah, nah, nananaaa nah nah....

I saw a minifig pack in town today that hadn't been there before. Five minifigs - two elites, two green Spartans and a yellow, bulkier Spartan holding a massive gun I didn't recognise. I can't remember what accessories the others had but they were all armed. There weren't any bricks, unlike Lego battlepacks. It retailed at the same price as those, though... Anyhow, the front of the pack was clear plastic so I got a good look at the figs for the first time, I was fairly impressed but not tempted.

Wow, that is a truly gorgeous set. And a great review you have done of it too!

I was quite happy with my performance today, so on the way home I treated myself to the Atlantis Wreck Raider. I wanted the Octan oil lorry but they were out :(

Wow. Beautiful set. I was two years old I've never seen this set before (I'm only vaguely familiar with the single-minifig-face age) but it's absolutely gorgeous. And you've kept it in great shape. I really like the photo of all the sets in the instruction booklet, it somehow feels far more like Lego than any more recent such photo does.

Jurassic Park. Favourite movie of all time, and I watch it far more than once a year. I can almost quote the entire script. Not the sequels. Most Disney animations, particularly my favourite three: Lion King, Tarzan and Treasure Planet. Ghostbusters. I watch it about as often as I watch Jurassic Park. Soon after watching one, I'll usually be in the mood for the other. Sequel's much better than the Jurassic Park ones. The original Wicker Man, for that fantastic soundtrack.

Sorry, just noticed a typo in my last post; the SNES game was Zelda III, not Zelda II. Hope that clears up some of the confusion I also never finished Zelda II. I remember giving it a good blast and getting quite far in, but I got stuck at one point (a desert dungeon, I think?) where there's a knight down in a tunnel with a longer sword than Link, and with zero maneuvering room, I couldn't get past him. He killed me about twenty times before I just gave up. Just an ordinary knight, I'd killed loads of them before but I always had to jump to get the advantage. I haven't been able to find Oracle of Seasons, but yeah, I loved Ages. It felt like a nice nostalgic throwback to Link's Awakening, which was the first Zelda game I'd played seriously. And yeah, the tree was kind of annoying.