Lord LOLrus

Geez. I'm gone for just a month or two, and this is what I find when I get back? What is the world coming to? By which of course I mean: ...of COURSE Ameribricks is a great name! The only problem is that the banner is missing tanks, jet fighters, and rampant cultural imperialism. I imagine that if those were made a part of the new look, you would have a lot fewer complaints! America: the only country that truly matters, and Ameribricks: the only LEGO community worth belonging to. Now we just need to work out what precious natural resource(s) Classic-Castle is sitting on, what with its laughably outdated military.

Wow. Those are amazing, and the choice of minifigs on Abydos is great too - Pharaoh's Quest and Chima work really well. The MALP is probably my favorite detail.

Agreed. Certainly, at least, for a small vignette such as this. It's hilarious that McHammer knocked down a piece of the wall, and in the shape of himself.

Totally agree. That detail is probably my favorite part of the whole thing (not that the rest isn't also awesome). One question: what's the skull flag from?

The set 375 Castle ("Yellow" Castle) came out in 1978, so that's 35 years. Still seems like something LEGO might want to celebrate (they probably would if it was Star Wars), so good catch.

Oh wow. That is really cool. I especially like the way you incorporated much of the official set into your MOC, and that archway is gorgeous. However, I feel like the floor looks to much like dark grey wood panelling and not enough like stone tiling; perhaps 2x2 tiles would have worked better, or just not off-setting the long tiles. Still, I think it looks very good.

This is a good point to make, although I'm gonna bet that TLG would have preferred "a similar project" sometime farther into the "future" than just a month and a half after shooting down the last one. Still, it means we shouldn't lose hope.

Hoping this trend continues: Since the D2C sets seem to appear around the time a theme ends (MMV, Imperial Flagship, Royal Joust, etc.), perhaps it means that TLG intends to keep this Castle theme going for another year or two...so I'd say it's probably a good thing that we don't see any signs of a D2C set, and would be a bad thing if we did see one so early in theme's life!

Wow. That was fast; I guess that Zelda fans are more committed to getting a LEGO set than I thought. Not that I'm not thrilled - I most certainly support any LEGO Zelda project, but I just see no reason that this will turn out any differently from MINGLES' project. I imagine that LEGO would prefer a more well-defined project such as the King of Red Lions from Wind Waker.

You're welcome! I'm glad you found it helpful. As I said in the review, if it's gold pieces you're after, this set is very good. Probably not as good as the Temple of Light, but a lot less expensive.

I entirely agree. Looking back, I feel that it was irresponsible of me to post an incomplete review prematurely. I sincerely apologize. I feel this set is a bit of a hit-or-miss, and while I like it, I can't really justify that from an objective viewpoint. Eep. As I look back I realize I didn't put nearly as much opinion or thought into this review as I should have. While I like the set, I can't really give it my approval. Sorry I didn't convey this initially. If someone else wishes to offer a second viewpoint/opinion, I think that would be great, especially if they can articulate this set's merits better than I did. Post it here or somewhere else; actually, I would very much appreciate another opinion, either to validate or refute my analysis. Thanks, and again, I apologize for posting a review only half-complete. I think I learned a valuable lesson, but I would have preferred to have not needed to learn it in the first place. Oh well.

I'm crushed . Seriously though, I agree that it's not my best; I'll be updating it more in the afternoon. Thank you. This has been fixed. Ha. I've got the opposite problem: my younger brother got three of the first four, and I've got some mild dragon envy.

This is my fifth review here (or anywhere, actually). I was waiting for someone else to post some Ninjago reviews, but no one has stepped forward, so I’ll be doing this one. This will be my last Ninjago review, for multiple reasons: 1) I am not made of money. Specifically, I just saw the new Castle picture, and my wallet is hurting already. 2) The pace of school is picking back up, so I’ll have less time to spend building, or reviewing (although I don’t really post anything I build. I’ll get around to that eventually). 3) I’m approaching my Flickr image limit, and am unsure of whether or not to “go Pro”. I do have a question to anyone who is knowledgable about this - if I deep link an image, but am over my image limit, is it still visible? Anyways, what I’m trying to say is, other people should think about doing reviews of Ninjago as well. I only just started, and it’s not particularly difficult. Enough preaching. Now for the review: Set Number: 70503 Name: The Golden Dragon Piece Count: 252 Minifigures: 3 (Golden Ninja (Lloyd), a Scout, and a Warrior) Price: $29.99 USD I'll start with the box: Front: Wow! It includes the Golden Ninja! I never would have guessed... Back: Here we can see all the play features. There’s a catapult, the shooting Zamor Sphere, and adjustable wings and tail. One note about the box - correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that previous boxes have not had text describing play features (there is such text for the catapult). Top: The Golden Ninja, and his friends. Oh wait, they’re not, huh... Contents: Inside the box are three numbered bags, the bag containing the head, a weirdly creased instruction booklet and… no stickers! Very few printed parts, however. Standard instructions. The parts list: A random step: The Parts: Bag #1: This bag is for the Minifigs, catapult, and main body. Smaller Pieces: Bag #2: This is the legs, tail, and head. Smaller Pieces: Bag #3: Smaller Pieces: New/Interesting Pieces: Not much of note. No new colors (except for gold, I’ll get to that, and there’s some nice Dark Green as well). Gold Pieces! There is a lot of Pearl Gold (or is it Warm Gold? Not sure…). Wow. Also, I wanted to do a comparison of the blades. For some reason, I left out the Fire Dragon Sword. Oops. One thing I noticed was that the large blades (used in the wings) were all bent a bit - all in the same direction, so one wing has an upward bend, and the other bends downwards. It’s not too hard to correct, though. The Minifigs: The Figs - Front: Lloyd and the Warrior are very impressive. For some reason, I’m getting a bit of a Bane vibe from the warrior’s mask (from The Dark Knight Rises). Lloyd is wearing his bathrobe and his armor, which is different. He is also entirely gold, including his head. I wonder what the in-universe explanation for that is. I’m thinking “Goldfinger.” Without headgear and weapons: The bad guys (I can’t seem to find what they’re called, as an organization) are perpetually angry. Everyone who has normal legs has leg printing. Back: All three have nice back printing, but none have a double-sided head. That’s not a huge problem. Lloyd doesn’t mess around with some sissy elemental-power mumbo-jumbo. He’ll just have his dragon eat you. At least, I assume this is what the symbol on his back is trying to convey… The Warrior’s Armor Very cool. Simple, but cool. You’ll notice that the mask piece has some silver painted details; nothing fancy, but it adds something, IMO. Now for the set itself: The Build: Bag #1 The catapult is pretty simple. I sort of forgot to test how well it fires, so I’ll update this later, if I can remember. This is the main body. You can see how the sides attach. Nothing new, but it adds some nice depth. The completed body, which (obviously) acts as a hub for everything else. I like the saddle - it’s simple, but looks pretty nice, and stands out well. You can see the attachment points for the head and tail (at either end, the ball joints) the legs (clicky joints) and the wings (angled axle connectors). Bag #2 The legs. I think the way the feet (first seen used for Bionicle’s Piraka, I believe) attach to the legs is kind of neat - very sturdy. However, this means the feet do not move independently from the legs. The tail. Again, simple, but nice. This uses the Bionicle-style ball joints, and is thicker than the tail of some of the other Ninjago dragons (off the top of my head, certainly the Fire Dragon, but probably some others as well). The swallowtail blades are pretty neat. The head. The connection and build is pretty standard. One thing I did notice is that the top part is a different mold than previous Ninjago dragons (I’m not sure about the four-headed one, though), and both pieces are hard rubber. Completed Bag #2. The saddle got a bit more added (a plate, and flags). Bag #3 These connect the wings to the body. This is how the wings are built. Again, nothing much changed from its predecessors. Completed wings. Obviously they don’t have anything between the blades, but that’s nothing different. And the completed dragon: Raaaaaarrrrr! Finished Product: Front view: It looks kind of weird from this angle (and from a bird’s eye view as well, actually). Everything together: Extra Parts: Very few for a set of this size, I think. Extra play feature! Scissor-tail! This is why the Warrior wears neck armor. …and the Gold Ninja, atop some of my other gold (not included in the set): Scoring: I really don’t feel like doing any scoring right now. Maybe later, maybe not. Sorry. EDIT: Design: 6.5/10 Not nearly as good as previous dragons. The wings don't spread well, and always look rather awkward, no matter how I position them; they also don't rotate. The feet don't move independently of the legs. The tail is nice, but is nothing special. This model displays well, but that's about it, and even then it's not nearly as good as the only other dragon I can currently compare it to, the Fire Dragon. The claws look kind of strange as well. The catapult seems kind of thrown together. Features: 7/10 Okay. The head shoots a Zamor Sphere, and the various appendages move, but not as well as I would like. The catapult is pretty weak as well; it shoots the scout a maximum of 2.5 feet, if you're lucky, and will barely get 4 inches off the ground. Parts: 6/10 252 pieces, few of them particularly useful. There's a lot of pearl gold, and some dark green, but really, pearl gold is only useful for so many things, so it's really down to whether you decide that's what you want. Minifigures: 8/10 The figs are quite nice, and I really like the Warrior, but a Golden Ninja is valuable mostly for the novelty, IMO. This is the cheapest set he's available in, though. The scout is kind of average. Both the warrior and scout are available in other sets, which I believe have a better selection of pieces. Price: 5/10 252 Pieces for $30 is pretty bad, especially when the pieces included are not the most versatile of parts. The upside is the amount of pearl gold, but you may not be very interested in that. Total: 32.5/50 65%. That's rather awful. I don't feel that it's quite that bad, but I certainly wouldn't strongly recommend it unless you already like the look of it - it looks no better in person than it does on the box. Unless you really want the Gold Ninja and don't feel like getting the larger set he appears in, or you really like what you see, I can't recommend this set very highly at all. ...While I personally like this set more than these numbers let on, I don't feel like I can express it objectively. This set will probably be hit-or-miss for most. Sorry for the delay, I don't really have any good excuse. I feel kind of bad leaving this as my final review for the next while, but I don't really have time for this anymore, as I have found out the hard way. Again, I apologize, and hope I haven't inconvenienced anyone too badly.

Wow. I am loving these figs. The dragon emblem could use some (or a lot) of improvement, but the overall design is great. I'm rather wondering whether, if I replaced the shields, I could use the Lions as elite Crownies; I think the answer is probably yes - we'll see. Either way, I'm probably getting all but the Castle (hopefully).

There are so many great entries, I had a hard time choosing. Anyways, here are my picks, in no particular order (well, fine, I was working from the bottom of the page upwards): 37. rEvolution - zane_houston - 1 point This is great. The little details (the shoulders, toes) are neat, and the entire thing gives off a very ‘muscular’ vibe. 30. Triceratron - Steebles1908 - 1 point This is just cool. I mean, a cyborg triceratops? Cool. 24. BannanaTank - alex54 - 1 point This is hilarious, and it looks like something that the monkeys would build. Y’know, if they could… or can they? Also, I can’t believe the you don’t build space more; this is great. 17. Attack of the Fish - cmaddison - 1 point I liked the presentation on this; the round frame is, IMO, more interesting than a baseplate. Also, I think fish could really get a lot of use out of one of these. 7. Alienator - LFCMessi - 1 point Because it looks like something out of Galaga. And using the alien pet is awesome.

Since August, apparently. I've been watching BrickArms for a few years, and have occasionally visited their forums. I think I've seen Badger around on sites other than Eurobricks and BrickArms (MCN, maybe? A looong time ago?), but I'm not sure. Anyways, I think we're talking about these wonderful crates and not Badger's status with regards to official spokesperson-ness... I certainly agree that the crates would make excellent panelling, medieval or otherwise. Maybe I'll see about picking up a couple at the next Bricks by the Bay convention.

Same here... I can't imagine how useless and specialized a golden, I dunno, Hippie, or Butcher minifig would be, except for use as a statue. Something like a golden Legionnaire could be cool, but would be similarly narrow in usefulness. The only Collectable Minifig I can think of that I might care about in gold would be the Mermaid, because then I could make the harbor in Copenhagen (even then, chrome gold is not exactly the best best color match). I certainly agree with some of the people on Brickset (I think) who were saying it'd be likely that the people working at Toys 'R' Us (or wherever) would simply snatch up the golden figs before they even hit the shelves.

Well played, sir. No auditors for them to fight, though? And I agree, Ronnie does seem very happy with his current profession.

I can't think of a reason that LEGO wouldn't do this, so while I am by no means convinced, I'll trust the rumor for now [edit: I'm convinced]. After all, Ninjago has a "Golden Ninja." I am wondering if the Golden Minifig will have any other parts that can be used to identify it in bag. PS - I notice that the third question on the poll doesn't have an option for "don't plan on getting the Golden Minifig" - that response wouldn't be relevant for me, but I can imagine that there might be some poor, misguided people who don't want any Golden 'Figs . Edit: Just read the article (guess I should have done that earlier, huh...) and now I just read on Brickset as well (near the bottom of the page). I guess it's confirmed. Too bad that there's only one gold fig per box - that's awful. One last thing: I noticed Brick Fanatics says that this will be in Series 10, while Brickset says Series 11.

I'll go with Ravens over Eagles, because Odin can beat Zeus any day of the week I like the color scheme . And the vehicles. And the Minifigs look beautifully sinister and sneaky. The Wolves are also pretty cool.

Hi everyone; this is my 4th review here on Eurobricks, and my first for Ninjago. Today I’ll be reviewing 70500 Kai’s Fire Mech. I stopped by the LEGO Store yesterday to fill up my holiday Pick-a-Brick box and bought this set as well. I would’ve bought 70503 as well, but there weren’t any in stock. Set Number: 70500 Name: Kai’s Fire Mech Piece Count: 102 Minifigures: 2 (Bathrobe Kai and a Scout) Price: $9.99 USD I'll start with the box: Front: Back: Here we can see all the play features. They consist of grabbing things, and…..beging able to move the limbs. O-K. Top: Kai in his bathrobe. Or whatever. Contents: Inside the box are three bags, an instruction booklet and a Dreaded Sticker Sheet. The DSS: More than normal for such a small model, but not too outrageous. I’m not going to be applying them (at least not right now); the mech looks fine without ‘em. Nothing special here. Here’s the parts list: …and a random step: … There’s a small ad in the back as well. It’s in my photostream, if you care. The Parts: Large Pieces: Lots of Hero Factory parts. This allows for plenty of posability, so I won’t complain. Medium Pieces: Small Pieces: Three bags is kind of a lot for such a small set, wouldn’t you say? Lots of gold weapons in this bag, and of course the “Fire Blade.” New and/or interesting pieces: The red quiver and Sensei Wu hat are of particular note, but the new inverted brackets are also nice. The Minifigs: The Figs - Front: Kai looks rather angry in his bathrobe, and the scout looks similarly displeased. The scout has short legs, so he doesn’t get any leg printing, while Kai does. Back: Both have back printing, but neither fig has a double-sided head. Oh well. With headgear and weapons: Seriously, what’s with the bathrobe? Kai and his sword: Geez, that’s an oversized sword. By the way, Kai in not 'holding' the sword here, he's just propping it up. The sword is standing on the ground. Now for the set itself: The Build: This body is the core of the model. Everything else attaches to this. The legs. Pretty nice, and I like how the two cheese slopes give the appearance of toes. One problem is that the range of motion for the legs is rather more limited than I would like, but it's not a huge problem. The missile launcher (I think that’s what that is. Might just be a gun). Not as good as it could have been, but it works. Nice connection; seems to be very common in these new sets, but nice and sturdy. The hand. I think it’s gorgeous; what do you think? The palm of the hand, connected to an arm. The last few bits of the model. The thing on the right is what holds Kai in the robot (and what he holds onto, as well), while the bit on the left is the mech’s antennae. Or something. And the robot needs to be able to hold a sword, right? Finished Product: Front view: Rear view: With Kai and Fire Blade: Extra Parts: Not much. The extra katana is kinda unexpected, though. Everything together: This gives you a sense of scale. And a comparison with its older, larger, brother from Exo-Force (8101 Claw Crusher): (Some time ago I made some significant modifications to the Exo-Force set, if you can’t tell.) Scoring: Design: 13/15 A solid design. The missile launcher is a bit half-hearted, and the legs have a somewhat limited posability, but other than that, this is a very solid design. Not nearly as skeletal as previous comparable mechs. Features: 3/5 Not much. There’s a hand, and the arms and legs move. I’m gonna give this category less weight than normal, and give its points to design. Parts: 9/10 102 parts, many of them useful, especially (for me) the joints, but also the brackets and “weapons.” The Fire Blade piece is very…interesting; I like it. Minifigures: 9/10 My jokes about Kai and his bathrobe aside, these are some nice figs, with useful printing and accessories. Price: 9.5/10 102 parts for $10 is fine, and the parts are useful, the design is solid, and the figs are nice. Total: 43.5/50 87% is pretty good. This is a solid little mech; I may wind up purchasing another.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area (in California), and I often find that our local LEGO Store is sold out of many sets in the few days before and after Christmas. The usually restock within a few days, though. It's still not nearly as bad as Toys 'R' Us, say, or Target.

Excellent review! I sympathize with your lack of flat surfaces - the only reason I was able to take any pics for my most recent review was because we did a lot of clean-up in preparation for Christmas. The Galaxy Squad vehicle looks a lot better than I had thought previously. The windshield looks awesome, and your description of the robot's vehicle as a weaponized armchair seems very apt . Question: is the windshield printed or a sticker? 'Cause I seem to have the dexterity of a drunken squirrel...

You're welcome . Regarding the tail and legs, my brother actually went and modified the tail and replaced the fixed curve with click-hinges this morning, and it's not unstable or floppy at all. It's a fairly simple modification, and doesn't change the look of the model much at all.

Hi everyone; this is my third review here on Eurobricks. Today I’ll be reviewing 70702 Warp Stinger. So I’ve been celebrating Christmas with my family, and I bought my much-younger brother this set, which he is being kind enough to allow me to slow down his building and take photographs of the set every so often (he is very happy with this set, and insists it can kick my Swarm Interceptor's butt. I'm not so sure, but whatever...). Set Number: 70702 Name: Warp Stinger Piece Count: 310 Minifigures: 3 (2 Galaxy Squad (Red Human (“Billy Starbeam”), Red “Robot Sidekick”), 1 Alien (“Mosquitoid”) Price: $29.99 USD I'll start with the box: Front: Here we have the front of the box, showing Billy Starbeam and his Robot Sidekick in the bottom right corner, and a Mosquitoid bursting through the packaging in the upper right corner. Back: The back of the box. Fairly standard - shows the cocoon function (i.e., that it exists), the sphere launcher at the tip of the Warp Stinger’s tail, and the fact that the small vehicle’s wings are slightly adjustable. Whoo-hoo, hinges… Top: The top of the box. It appears that all three ‘figs are shown at 1:1 scale, which is nice. Oh, and the red Galaxy Squad seems to have a wing as its emblem. The DSS: My brother says he doesn’t want stickers on his model, so they’re gonna stay on the sticker sheet. The instruction booklet looks is nothing special: Nothing special here. Here’s the parts list: (Sorry about the glare) …and a random step: Unlike the Swarm Interceptor, I didn’t see any misleading coloring in the instructions, so that’s good. Probably because this set has no blues of any sort. The Minifigs: The Figs - Front: The Mosquitoid is the same as other sets. Although it’s hard to tell, Billy Starbeam and the Robot have unique leg printing as well as unique torso prints. The robot doesn’t look quite so dopey in person. Back: All three figs have unique back printing, and Billy Starbeam has some sort of a breathing apparatus on his alternate face print (I forgot to take a picture, sorry). Decked out with gear: The Mosquitoids’s gun is made of a scorpion, a frying pan, and a trans-pink dish. Poor Billy Starbeam is unarmed, and the robot gets a jetpack and two energy weapons that look suspiciously like something you’d find in a Halo™ game... The Robot Sidekick: “It’s a traaaap!” Now for the set itself: The Set: Bag #1 Inside the first bag are the pieces for the little jet bike and the cockpit, as well as the minifigs (‘figs not shown). New and/or interesting pieces Fairly self explanatory. Only the alien’s head (and maybe wings) are anything but standard ABS plastic. Actually, I’m not sure about the energy weapon… The gold stud is included because the color seems to be slightly darker than usual. I’m not sure, however. This is what the completed product of Bag #1 looks like (not including other ‘figs). Bag #2: (^ larger pieces) (^ smaller pieces) This bag contains the pieces for building the “head” of the Warp Stinger. New and/or interesting pieces: Plenty of pieces I don’t often see in Dark Red, as well as the Trans-Red “eye” pieces. Both halves of the cocoon are identical - no studs stick out from it. The basic framework of the cockpit. This becomes the ships “jaw.” Sorry about the blurriness. This is what the completed product of Bag #2 looks like. It’s the “head” of the Warp Stinger... …and the back - the tail and cocoon connect here. The Cocoon: This has a little section of its own. Both halves are the same, and have “studs-in” (what’s the proper term…?) connectors, as well as technic axle holes: If you can’t tell, that’s a robot in that last shot. I really like the extruded hexagonal pattern, personally. Bag #3: (^ larger pieces) (^smaller pieces) Bag #3 has the pieces for building the “body” and/or “tail” of the Warp Stinger. New and/or interesting pieces: There are four of the Trans-Neon-Green wing pieces and four of the Dark Red fins, and LOTS of the 1x2 sideways brackets (both types). The three-way connector is actually Dark Brown, and the black sphere is actually a very dark translucent purple. Some segments of the tail. More segments. …and the “stinger” segment” The tail on its side. A major problem is that the tail is in a fixed position; that is, it doesn’t bend. It seems to me that TLG could easily have put in some hinges. A leg. The bend at the knee is well done, IMO. Not posable, but it works. Finished Product: 3/4 view. Rear view: Rear with cocoon: Front with cocoon: “I’m a-gonna suck ur blood!” Extra Parts: Not bad. Nothing too special, but not bad at all. Everything together: This gives you a sense of scale... …and here’s Billy Starbeam, about to pee his pants. Scoring: Design: 7/10 The finished model looks cool, but the fixed position of the tail is lame; the legs have a similar issue . In addition, how is that bug supposed to walk with only two legs? Features: 6.5/10 Very few. The cocoon is pretty cool though, and this design of sphere launcher is solid. No flick-fires; you can be the judge of whether that’s good or bad. Parts: 9.5/10 310 parts for $30 is great, and there are lots of useful pieces, in Dark Red, Lime Green, and other parts as well. The oodles of 1x2 sideways brackets is great - 12 of the ones that extend down, and 14 of the upwards ones . Minifigures: 9/10 Respectable. I would always like more, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get more. The Mosquitoid is cool, as always, and the robot is okay - his resemblance to a certain admiral makes him hilarious, though. Billy Starbeam is fine, not much to say about him, and the accessories are very good. Those energy swords are really cool, and the alien’s gun is well done. Price: 9.5/10 As I said, 9.7¢ per piece is very good. 3 minifies for $30 seems pretty standard. Total: 41.5/50 83% is pretty good, I’d say. That is, of course, a rough estimate, and is entirely subjective. I really don’t like scoring sets...