Dunjohn

I think this is the first time I've commented on Atlantis... not that interested in it, and likely won't buy much, but some cool elements do stick out. The minifigs are especially excellent, and I'm not normally interested in minifigs. Some bizarre pieces that I'm interested in. Those collectible triangle-in-circle things are a step up from Agents' rather lame sticker card. Seems like the humans are once again plundering. The overall colour scheme is a little off-putting, and this is coming from someone who absolutely loves Power Miners. TLC always seem to colour their underwater themes in some way that just doesn't quite appeal to me. A mix of deep dark and insanely bright. Hmm. Not a complete write-off by any means but it does give off a Bionicles vibe even if the pieces and construction don't (to me, anyhow). Anyhow, yeah, I can see myself picking up some of the smaller sets but not really investing heavily. Toy Story and Power Miners will be commanding most of my funds in this wave.

The first licensed set I got was Speed Racer's Mach 5 (with Snake Oiler) because it looked awesome and was priced decently. Price is what keeps me away from licensed Lego, so I have very little. I voted for Toy Story, though, because that looks rather swell.

Anna Maria Jopek's Nienasycenie. The aural equivilent of being wrapped up in a snug quilt on a freezing Sunday morning. Link to my fave track. Let's see if I can convert some of yiz. While you're there, click on that Grzegorz Turnau one, I like him even more.

I know most things are scripted, and I don't mind that, but with Top Gear, they try to make it look spontaneous and fail. And it ends up feeling forced. That's what I was getting at.

Top Gear is great fun to watch - even for a non-petrol head like my good self - but what you said is exactly the thing that's wrong with it. It's over-scripted and over-edited and the guys just aren't able to make it feel as spontaneous as they wish it was. If they say something funny, you just know it was on cue, and the bits filmed outside the studio really are tightly edited to show only whatever they wanted to show before filming. But despite all that, like I said, it's still a fantastic programme. Right now I'm watching the Patlabor movies. I watch them every couple of years, and each time, I'm amazed at how much better they are than I thought. Even if the second one's a bit talky. Like, Ghost in the Shell talky. And that's REALLY talky.

When I was in school, one of the guys in my class drew swatzikas on his German notebook. Not intending any harm; he just naturally associated that symbol with Germany and wanted to make his notebooks more personalized so he could tell them apart more easily. The teacher naturally flipped when he saw it.... As for the non-genocidal Hitler idea, I didn't study much Italian history so I don't remember if Mussolini had death camps. Did he? His reputation, while still marking his broadly as one of history's bad guys, is nowhere near as bad as Hitler's.

Maybe a S.H.I.E.L.D.-type airbase. It'd have a small hangar for one or two minijets, four Agents minifigs plus their commander, and would be under attack from a guided missile (piloted by a new enemy with a winged jetpack theme, Miss I. L. Stryke or something). That might be a bit too big, though. An open design would keep the size down.

Seems he lacks articulated elbows and knees, which does restrict his poseability considerably. I'll still get him, though, I still reckon he looks quite neat.

Toy Story. Normally, I don't go for licenses at all, due to the extra cost, but I'm really digging the looks of this. Hopefully it'll be in line with existing licensed prices because I have my eye on - gasp! - two of the sets. By the way, you missed Spongebob, Avatar and Harry Potter.

I open them. The exception, for now, is the promo sets given away with the British newspapers a week or two ago. I got so many that I still have a box with a load of sealed bags. I'm not hoarding them for value or collection or anything, but I figure if I'm bored, I'll dig one out and build something. But aside from that, I open stuff the minute I get it inside the house.

Decided to re-watch Full Metal Alchemist. Never finished it the first time, despite having all the discs. I think.

I would, in all likelihood, clear the shop. I'd love a Disney Classics line, but Alchemyst said, the target audience mightn't match Lego's usual. I can just see it now, Ariel being a single fully-pinted piece instead of a proper segmented minifig. And as for Simba.... the special Toy Story minifigs would just be the beginning. But assuming a best-case scenario, I'd love a Baghdad Marketplace set. You'd have Alladin, Jasmine in disguise, Apu and a couple of guards. The bigger set would be the Palace garden and balcony, with regular Jasmine and disguised Alladin with Genie. There's a good few things they can pull from that movie. However, my preference has always been for vehicle-oriented sets rather than scenery ones. I'd love the city robot battle from The Incredibles, or the ship from Treasure Planet (one of my favourite Disneys, though since it's on the obscure side, it's not likely). Stitch's escape craft would also be nifty. And, of course, the Black Pearl.

Hmm, so Boots does have Lego. Well, I'll be. And the sale applies too, but all they had was Echo Base and that yellow Creator airplane and I'm not that interested in either. For those interested, the Agents robot is currently going up against my Dan Hibiki action figure. This could go either way, folks.

I think that just refers to the set itself, as in, Big Chill is a blue/black action fig.

Boots has a 3 for 2 thing going? And more importantly, Boots have Lego??? I might actually have to go in there next week. I thought they only did cosmetics and gifty crap. Pretty sure the local one does. I'll see Monday. New TK Maxx opening here next week, too. I hear they're good. I got the big Agents robot today, just finished building it. Fantastic set, loads of stuff to do with it and a buttload of excellent pieces in there.

Is MegaBloks compatable with Lego? My local Smyths has a few of the sets so I've examined the boxes, but I've always been under the impression that MB were slightly too big to fit with Lego. Am I wrong? I've never owned any MB. Don't intend to, either. Too much of a purist :) Though, I do understand the "they're all toys" argument. It's just how I'm wired.

That's right, my bad. Not sure why I thought March. I've watched the awesome teaser enough times....

Gotta say, that can dispenser goes a long way towards redeeming this set for me. Love it! Just one new rock monster? Too bad. Err, I mean, jaka szkoda. I love those lil' guys. I don't keep them locked up in the minifig bag with all the other minifigs. They're on top of the telly. I'm hoping that catalogue has preliminary pictures, or unclear ink or something.

The new movie doesn't come out until March, so I suppose there's that to consider. Although, I still don't think it compares to a November launch. Do Lego always launch new lines in January? Asdie from handy datekeeping, does anyone know why?

It's not, it's made up of a technic tri-pronged connector hub and three of those spikey end bits that look like Sonic the Hedgehog's shoes :p Sorry, I'm not that up on the part terminology.

Thanks for the picture! Yeah, they're a bit too Bioniclesque* for me. Kudos to Lego, they look good, but I'm just not into them. I also have no interest in the Ben 10 license - I have no idea what the premise is, I should probably go wiki it, I saw a bit of an episode once where he was in a forest, then he turned into a monster and proceeded to burn the place down, and that's it - so I won't be getting any of them in the foreseeable. Maybe if they made the car someone showed a few pages back, that looked neat. * easy to spell, murder to pronounce

Hopefully Eruptorra isn't that rock monster included with the set....

Holy crap! They really are rounding the rock monsters up! This is genocide! Seriously, I'm not seeing any actual mining in any of the sets we've seen so far. I have no idea what's going on. Also, I hate those green Mars Mission tentacle-spike-things that the cockpit is made up of. Hated pretty much everything about Mars Mission so it might just be residual resentment, but I'm really irked to see them in my precious Power Miners universe, even if it is the alternate, evil, goatee-sporting universe.

This is the only Indy set I own, for the exact reasons you mention under "Build;" it has Indy, Connery, a map to the Crescent Valley and two motorbikes in it, so what more could I possibly ask for? The rest of the Indy sets don't interest me, but this simply had everything I'd have wanted. Were there really three handguns with it? I don't remember, but I thought it was two.

Well, there is a water cannon unit on one side, outside the baseplate. Maybe the miners like to torment the poor caged rock beasties... sick freaks! There seems to be a red tab below one of the cage walls. A catapult/trap door trigger? Given that this whole structure is mounted over a lava pool, I think the Duplo fishing boat nearby is kind of cute.