Nabii

Anyone else seen this new figure from the LEGO business cards? (The bottom one - not the Exo-Force figure on the old card.) Brick Jounal Blog Joe Meno says there will be more later today on the main Brick Journal site: Brick Journal

It's a Jack Stone cockpit that has never been used on a normal set, stickers are Exo-Force. It's Fake.

This month: 1-October-2009 - 1.00USD = 5.12DKK (Danish Kroner) Three years ago:1-October 2006 - 1.00USD = 5.85DKK Thus the USD is valued at around 20% less then it was three years ago, as a non-USA based company The LEGO Group therefore has to raise it's prices just in order to maintain an even return from the USA. In other words this has little to do with LEGO feeling it can push the prices higher for more profit, instead it is to do with the devaluing of your currency over the last 3 years as the unhealthy debt in your economy has caught up with you and the rest of the world has realized the USD in not worth as much as it once was. If you look around you will probably find a similar result in food and other products produced or owned outside the USA. (If you also start considering the increase in the oil price - remembering LEGO is made from oil - you can see even more economic pressure forcing prices up.) I know it's annoying, but sort out the economy and and the oil price and we fans might see piece counts improve again! (Reason number 40066 to sort out the world economy: bring LEGO prices back down! ) Cheers.

Hi Phionix, of course you have a right to you opinions, and although I've disagreed with you in the past, you have always explained your reasoning when asked and that's fair enough (I was born in '71 and when I got my first sets the minifigures had no arms and conflict was never even suggested!) But I also remember what I built as a kid, my cars had chases that ended in crashes, my spaceships had guns and the bad guys often destroyed my castle walls. I think LEGO have just caught up with the way children play. Like it or not. kids work out their frustrations about the lack of control they have in everyday life through conflict play. I've seen my nephew attack an evil character because "he killed my best friend, kidnapped the princess and scribbled on my homework like Danny did!" - one of those happened to him that day, I'll let you guess which one! However I cannot ignore someone who repeatedly directly criticizes people for buying the toys their children want, calling them stupid, and calling LEGO sick for making toys that appeal to children. TLG is paying a lot of attention to the AFOLs these days, (pirate ship anyone?) but if they stop recruiting kids the toy will die, just like other toys that decided to listen only to their fans as they grew old and died off (like Hornby Railways, Scalextic, or Mecano). To criticize a toy company you are a fan of for making sets that appeal to children seems more then shortsighted. But enough, I've slightly derailed this thread, I'll leave you to discuss the leaks in peace!

Phew, I was getting worried after Phoinix said he actually saw merit in the line, but thank goodness you don't like it! Every line you have hated in the last 3 years has been a huge success for LEGO: Exo-Force, Agents, Power Miners, Space Police etc, I figure as long as you think it sucks then LEGO is on safe ground! Thanks for being consistently dismissive of everything that the company has turned around to now be profitable again and keeping the future of our hobby safe. I appreciate your honesty even though I still can't figure out why you seem to feel the need to tell everyone how much you hate things. Do you work for Mega-blocks or Play-mobil as an internet-viral-attack-mutant? You never seem to have anything positive to say! All you keep saying is 'don't buy LEGO'. Go on, you can tell us, who's paying you to create negative spin? And in repose to Tohst - yep, everyones got an opinion, it's just this guys is ALWAYS negative, and never constructive. How many 'sick.sick,sick' comments has he made on LEGO lines in the past 3 years without ever trying to find a constructive solution bur instead personally attacks those who buy the sets as stupid.

I did an interview with retired LEGO designer Jens Nygaard Knudstrup - inventor of the Mini-figure and LEGO Space and Underwater themes (he designed all of the first wave classic space sets) in issue six of Brick Journal, and there will be an interview with retired LEGO Designer Daniel Krentz, designer of the Yellow Castle (and many subsequent castle sets) in issue Eight. Brick Journal will continue to interview LEGO designers past and present in future issues, and also to give as much information as possible on never released themes such as this 30's prohibition/gangster theme. It's a great publication, despite me occasionally writing for it! Cheers, M.

There is a female officer in the Galactic Enforcer. I shall now return to designing models that are "average crap" that "suck" and "are poorly thought out".

I'll be there - On the "Two-Morrows" booth: they publish Brick Journal. Joe Meno and a few other AFOLs will also be on the booth.

Hi, All technic and this type of SNOT brick align if two plate layers are placed between each brick layer. If you're building a bigger structure and can afford a few less connection points they also align with 4 layers of brick between each layer of SNOT/technic. Hope this helps, Mark.

To quote phoinix 2007: "agents looks like one of the worse lego themes of all times it is SO BAD melt them and make smth pretty! this is a huge step back! what where they thinking?? why are they waisting money on such crap? terrible! just terrible!" So to be honest your opinion means very little at this stage.

There's a new set that you like, but you're not going to buy it even though it's currently available, but instead buy second hand LEGO, pay a lot of money in shipping, and use the instructions without paying LEGO a penny? I think if you like what LEGO are doing you should buy the set to encourage them to continue, or at least don't moan that TLG don't make it easy for you to steal their design and use it to buy from their competitors. Bricklink is great for discontinued sets or parts you need for MOCs, but to buy entire set inventories for current sets from there seems to me to be just disrespectful and dishonest. (This could be interpreted as infringement on copyrighted designs.) Of course you can do what you like, I just think it's a bit much. Cheers, Mark.

You're right not LEGO fans (like you find on this forum). But Grandparents, parents, siblings who don't know the difference and they want to buy you a present. But LEGO's competitors are not just clone brands, they are ALL toy companies. How long do you think it takes for a toy company in Hong Kong, Taiwan or wherever to change the colour of the plastic in their moulds and ship to the western markets? Two to three months tops. How many 'big truck' toys do you think might have been changed in colour scheme just because competitors saw LEGO's future plans? (And of course everyone knows which site to come to for leaks!) Want proof? Go to your local toy shop and see how many really cheap space toys are using a white and orange colour scheme! LEGO is successful so it is copied. A grandparent will remember little Johnny wanted an 'Agent' toy, they might remember him showing them a picture - if all the big trucks and cars in the shop are in the same colour scheme and have 'Agents' printed on them don't you think some of them will become confused and that this will hit the bottom line of the company you claim to support? 'Freedom of the brick' is a joke that only hurts TLG. Respect the brick and only post officially released pictures. (Sorry Hollisbrick, my rant is a general one, you just triggered it.) Cheers, Mark.

Yeah sorry - I should have said. I'll be displaying MOCs in the first hall from the entrance, oposite the Exo-Force designers

I'll be there (Zwolle, in Holland - LEGOWORLD is a event only held in Holland) for all six days. M.

So LEGO give something extra away for free and you're annoyed? Well that's gratitude. BTW- Everything that is chromed gains a layer of thick 'chrome' (what else) - given how difficult it is to get mini-figure arms on normally I guess this is why the arms were attached first, then they would obvious have to be placed in a position where the part of the minifigure that did not receive a layer of chrome because of the arms was reduced to a minimum, and also to make sure the chrome got between the 'fingers' on the hand. (I'd like to see a machine try to do this - but given the small number of these figures I bet it was done by hand - very expensive - these are free remember.) As for the leg it seems like an unobtrusive place to attach the figure to the machine that it was chromed in. These figures are not in the boxes in Europe because consumer law here means that you cannot show something on the boxes or in advertisements that is not in the box, so there can be no random placement. I'm sure LEGO would have loved to make this promotion available in Europe, but it

The picture is from the 1000stein event in Berlin this weekend. The numbers written at the top are the new speed build record set at the event. (I presume the signatures are the speed builders - as Jens the designer of the set was not present.) The boxes around it are from a collection of every single Star Wars set ever released. (Including some of the elusive promotional sets and the chrome C3P0.) Cheers, M.

Thanks for the kind words. Snefroe1 - not unless I reinforce the ceiling in some way! It's would probably need some pretty strong string too! Kikuichimanji - I came across the 10 bobafett canopies in a grab box a few years ago, they cost about 10 euros for all of them and a buch of smaller peices! It was a really lucky find and actually led to this ship being built. I'd rather look for a bargain and build around that then spend a fortune on a few pieces! Cheers, Mark.

This is the final version of my Gothica spacecraft as seen in the current Brick Journal. I split the photographs into several folders to prevent some of the smaller ships being overlooked in one big folder. Heres a link to the main folder: Main Gothica Folder Any comments are welcome! Cheers, Mark.

Brickster - Yep the Delta Green source book came out in the 90's, it's a modern day setting for cthulhu explaning how at least some parts of the government took notice of the 'incidents' in the thirties and set up a secret agency inside all the other government agencies to counter these menaces. For me it brought a new way of looking at the mythos and in a way led to these Lego creations! It's also the best and most used source book I have (and I have a lot), if you see a copy have a flick through, it's well worth it! hinkley39 - emoticons are nice thanks. :-$ . BTW I also have trouble with seeing the horror in some of Lovecrafts stories, more bemusing then scary. However if you can track down stories by William Hope Hodgson who wrote before Lovecraft (and inspired him) then you'll find some truly creepy and horrific tales! Exo-Champ - I don't eat breakfast, in case it eats me! Thnaks to all for the kind words, Mark.

I'm also already discussing this MOC in the History and Adventure forum. I had already built both of the creatures and was working on the landscape by the time I saw Dead Mans Chest. It was a little weird to see how similar they looked!! Cool though! I still have a plan to have a Cthulego creature attacking a 30's style boat (a tramp steamer like in King-Kong) at some point, but after the Kong movie and now PotC that idea's on the backburner! It would be hard to do it better then either of the movies. Mister Phes - a squid has eight 'arms' and two 'tentacles'. Good luck to anyone who tackles the Kraken. Cheers, Mark. (Proud lurker of the pirate forum!)

Thanks Brickster for bringing my MOC here! I have to admit to being a roleplayer - so most of my Lovecraft knowledge comes from the Chaosium 'Call of Cthulhu' roleplaying game, though I have read several of Lovecrafts books/stories too. This particular MOC is hugely inspired by the Delta Green source book published by Pagan Publishing. There is an excellent adventure set in the western USA and it involves some Native American spiritualism as part of the plot. Raising the undead is a fairly common thing for cultists to do in the roleplaying game, so I had the Mi-Go use it here! The large creatures I figured were chthonians similar to Shudde M'Ell from Brian Lumleys Cthulhu book 'The Burrowers Beneath' though obviously I changed the location and ripped off 'Tremors' a little! The Mi-Go are also known as 'Fungi from Yuggoth' - "pinkish things about 5 feet long with crustaceous bodies bearing vast pairs of dorsal fins or membranous wings and several sets of articulated limbs, and with a convoluted ellipsoid... where a head should be" - HP Lovecraft, 'The Whisperer in Darkness', I thought I'd done pretty well for mini-fig scale! Hobbes - I wanted to use the prickly bush again but thought I'd give it a rest this time around, if it's in all of them it'll lose impact! For truely scary: Eldritch Horror!. It's me! xwingyoda - The grey mixing was partly due to some pieces only being available in old grey and partly to give some age to the plane, I didn't want it to look brand new, though I'm not sure it worked. I would normally strive very hard not to mix greys on mocs and my old and new greys are kept well segregated! Thanks for all the kind words, Mark.

Thanks guys, I should really have thought of posting Adventurers stuff here before! I also think my landscaping is the weakest part of this moc, it's hard to get enough tan to landscape with and much as I would have liked to use just one colour of BURP to stop them being so obvious I've used all my light and dark grey ones as it is! Also what do you put in a desert? After a few shrubs and small cactus it gets a bit tough! Sorry about the ugly totem pole thing too. Originally this was planned to be almost a third bigger and there was a waterfall and river (and river monster) included, but I'm moving house so it's had to be dropped to get it ready for Legoworld in the last week of October. My next Cthulego diorama is planned to be either in a jungle or in a city - so I should have better landscaping for those who crave it! I'm pretty happy with the creatures and the vehicles but for a Cthulhu inspired model there are far too few deaths! I should have ramped up the blood! Cheers, Mark.

Brickshelf moderatoin can vary from almost instantaneous (only had that once!) to more then 8 hours if something needs to be refered to a higher moderator! Most of the time I find if I go away and do something else for 2 hours it's public! Cool ship by the way, much better with sails! Mark.