rodiziorobs

Your questions here do raise an interesting point: LEPIN is perfectly within their legal rights to create new bricks and sell them. They can even advertise them as "compatible with major brands". The goods they produce and sell are completely legal, and there can be no legal repercussions for that. As for the IP, that is a tricky issue, and not black and white as some have argued. They obviously want buyers to be reminded about the name-brand good and draw the comparison, seeing their own set as a replacement good or a substitution for the name-brand. This practice is also not illegal, as Captain Pirate Man demonstrated with his generic cereal example. Whoever makes Honey-O's wants you to look at the box, compare the two, and see it as a substitution for the name-brand good. This is perfectly legal. As for the good itself, in most instances it can be identical--bricks, cereal, it doesn't really matter. Who is to even say that a specific configuration of bricks constitutes an IP? As has been pointed out, the system of play is designed to be open-source, and while talent and investment is needed to create certain designs, does the fact that the bricks are stacked a certain way constitute a copyrighted design? Is my MOC of two 2x4s stacked considered a legally defensible creation, unique to me? How many more bricks or complex techniques would need to be present for that answer to be yes? At what point do I have a unique enough creation that it is protected by copyright? This is why the courts need to make a decision for the activity in question to be considered illegal. Note that this doesn't even concern intent to sell or profit, but rather the simple ownership of an idea. Even then, when/if an IP has been copied, there has been no infraction until the good distributed--which still does not need to include sale or profit to be an infraction. The difficulty arises from how closely the generic brand markets itself to the original, and whether the buyer would be deceived into thinking they were buying the name-brand article or officially licensed product. Honey-O's knows it needs to have a different looking box than Cheerios to avoid a lawsuit, and so it does. Again this is why the courts need to intervene before a pronouncement of legality/illegality can be made. How close is too close? Us westerners can say with surety that the box art on the Nemerald Night is a rip-off; Chinese courts may decide that the logo change and a few extra Ns constitute enough of a difference that, like the Honey-Os in your kitchen, the product is different enough to be legit. Is it ethical? To most people, no. Are they ripping people/companies off? Yes. Are they reaping the rewards of others' work (R&D, aesthetic talent, etc.)? Absolutely. Is it illegal? No, at least not yet. This is why LEGO is pursuing litigation, to get it declared illegal, because otherwise they will have to rely on economic tools* which will take more work and frankly isn't as succinct or airtight as a legal position. Somewhat off topic: it really grates on me when people say that producing and selling custom licensed characters is more acceptable than what LEPIN is doing. Does Christo or whoever else have a contract from Marvel or DC or whoever to produce and distribute goods based off of their IPs? No? No. In my mind that is even less legitimate than LEPIN, whose "rip-offs" are essentially generic bricks in a similar configuration, whereas customizers are trying to mimic likenesses and images with zero variation. Yet somehow they get praise for their verisimilitude--for how well they can rip off others' IP. I am not saying I would buy either one or condemn those that do, but there is a clear double-standard with people who pretend to value copyright sanctity in some cases but not others; both instances are equally reproachable. *TLG could certainly rerelease older sets to satisfy the unmet demand--production schedules and warehouse space notwithstanding--but the reasons they don't is a whole other can of worms that strays way too far off topic to discuss here. The reason they are going after LEPIN is that basically a legal barrier to entry is an easier way to protect their market share than actually fighting for it.

I don't think I can really use words to describe how much I love what you've done here, so--

Jargons: Who's back there slowing us down? You'd better not be checking your emails again or I'll kill someone! Crew member #1: Yeah right, enough with these empty threats. Crew member #2: Actually, our pilot is an ex-con. Got released just in time for the Space Olympics. Crew member #1: What was he in for? Crew member #2: Multiple vehicular theft and quadruple homicide. Crew member #1:... Seriously, after coming in last in the other events (not completely undeservedly...) it was fun to come in first in my heat. Go MANTIS!

I consider myself a decent builder and good story teller, but you clearly excel at both! Also, the details abound, but that MANTIS logo is simply fantastic, and works wonderfully at this scale.

I'm sorry, I should have been more specific; I see a huge difference between generic green army men and a Normandy Beach Invasion playset, and that difference is what I meant by my statement about real warfare. Now, would it be possible for LEGO to produce generic army guys like that? Of course--as you noted, they already have. But there is also a difference between a monochrome plastic statue and a detailed printed action figure with interchangeable weapons. Even the ones TLG produced were void of a lot of detail, and--most importantly--were based on an external IP. The same goes for the Indiana Jones army guys. Do those cross a line that TLG set for themselves? I think you could make a case they did. Because they are intrinsic to the license, perhaps TLG justified them as belonging to a fantasy world (rather than a representation of actual modern warfare) because of the IP, but to me they are somewhat hypocritical.

Yeah, but we've also got the coolest toys like the MANTIS© Death Ray Blaster™ the Death Ray Blaster™ Pocket Edition™, and the hard-to-find™ MANTIS™ spyglass©. And who could forget Larvae Fridays?

It is true that AG has slowed down in recent months, and there are a number of reasons for that--the initial excitement has died down a little, and BoBS starting over in the pirate forum took a lot of active players--but there are still quite a few of us in each corp that are still playing, although we may not post every week. You are welcome to join any of the three corps or choose to be an independent alien, and then you can post every week or whenever you get around to it. That's one of the nice things about AG, the rules are uncomplicated enough that you can dive in at any time and participate as you are able. Welcome to EB, by the way!

I feel like it's a theme TLG doesn't trust enough to put a lot of resources into (i.e. a full theme), but is content to dip its toe into occasionally--through Lego Movie sets, CMFs, etc. I doubt we'll ever see it return in full force.

I think xboxtravis absolutely nailed it n his reasoning; there is no place for a reenactment of real warfare in a children's toy, and TLG is aware of that. That being said, however, I find the technological state of warfare at WWI intriguing, with old-world and modern machines side by side (I think of horses, and sabers alongside tanks and airplanes), and think that those elements could be very successful thrown in a theme together, if removed from the context of an actual war. Probably the best context would be if Lego devoted themselves to a steampunk theme--the mix of old and new would fit well in that setting, lead to some interesting character designs, and allow for the inclusion of some "war"-like elements while staying on the safe side of the subject. Something somewhat akin to Monster Fighters, which frankly--and sadly--is probably as close as we will ever get.

"Salazar's Revenge" is more descriptive of the movie's particulars, the problem is that it sounds like a made-for-TV movie or direct-to-video (or something you would find when scraping out the bottom of your Netflix queue). While" Dead Men Tell no Tales" is indeed more generic--a movie with that title could be about anything so long as it had pirates--it is also more cinematic. It suggests something more sweeping and epic than the alternate title. Titles aside, I am a little hopeful but none too optimistic for this movie. I think the first was lightning in a bottle in that the follow-up attempts simply haven't been able to recreate the magic of the first one. Maybe that's because the first POTC was primarily a pirate story that played out like a good horror flick--the supernatural elements were only hinted at, introduced slowly, until suddenly Elizabeth was knee-deep in it, which set it up really for the great finale. The sequels entirely overplay the supernatural elements with very little suspense and go overboard on the CGI to where everything seems to take a backseat to showing-off-the-cool-things-the-animation-department-can-do (AWE was the worst offender here). Still, I will reserve total judgment of POTC:DMTNT/SR () at least until we get a full trailer.

I agree that it's probably a language issue, at least for Latin America--not because the original title doesn't translate well (it does), but because Brazil in particular has a long and glorious tradition of translating movie titles horribly.

I like the ship quite a lot, and the laser setup as well

Please transfer however many credits I have to LittleJohn.

Location: F03 (Forring) Tags: Military Building An epic sword fight had ensued in the corridors of the M.S.S. Strata. At least three prisoners had escaped: two slavers posing as Zoids, and a Kawa who Jex was hoping could help her find a missing person. The Kawa had some kind of history with the slavers and had already killed one in his attempted escape, and her prolonged battle with the other had led them away from the prison sector to the ship bay. Jex and the prison guard had raced to keep up, the guard radioing in for support as they ran. As they came around the corner to the bay--the dueling prisoners, followed by Jex with the guard--there was a sudden eruption of sirens and the sounds of clanging metal, and a voice called out, "FREEZE! Drop your weapons!" Turning and seeing the MANTIS squad already assembled, weapons primed, the duelers immediately came to a halt, and the slaver dropped his sword. The Kawa saw the opportunity and in a flash, brought her blade around at the slaver. He moved to dodge, but the blow caught him across the shoulder. Blood spattered, and he called out in pain. "DROP IT I SAID!" called the MANTIS commander, and the MANTIS soldiers rounded on the Kawa. The slaver slumped away, clutching his shoulder, but all the soldiers' eyes were on the Kawa. Sensing the soldiers' hesitation, she swirled around, grabbing Jex by the arm and sliding her blade against her throat. To Jex she intoned, "look, despite the way this looks I actually don't want to hurt you, so don't make me. No sudden moves, got it?" Jex nodded as best she could against the blade. "Listen up! I don't want any trouble and I mean MANTIS no harm, but if you charge me or get in my way from avenging myself against that slaver, I will show no mercy and your girl here gets it!" "Keep your weapons trained on her, But wait on my word!" the commander called to her troops. "I'm warning you!" AG week 62 by rodiziorobs, on Flickr "What is the value of your hostage? A mere pilot in the balance of us catching a deadly prisoner?" The standoff was momentarily interrupted by the sound of a ship taking off; the slaver, unchallenged, had escaped. "Deadly prisoner is the one you just let get away!" The Kawa spat. "This is your last chance!" The commander was about to give the order when another voice sounded over the bay. "Lower your weapons, this is general Teague!" Obediently, the soldiers backed away. The general approached the commander and in a low voice said, "Seliman, I admire your tenacity, and under normal circumstances your decision would have been correct. However, this pilot is Jessica DuBois, she is the one who survived the space/time anomaly on Jurin II. She is valuable to us, and we must tread lightly here." "You want to negotiate with a prisoner, sir?!" Commander Seliman retorted incredulously. "We are still trying to learn what happened, and she is our biggest clue. We cannot afford to lose her. And it seems..." the general nodded toward the bay, "that you already let one prisoner slip through your fingers. We'll have words on that later. Understood?" "Understood, sir," came the reply. The Kawa had not heard the discussion, but she could tell that the hostage she held was more than she seemed, if a general had come down to intervene--suddenly there was an ace in her hand. If she acted quickly, there might still be time to catch up with the slaver before he got too far. She whispered to Jex, "you said earlier that you could help release me. Maybe this isn't what you had in mind, but it's time for you to make good on that promise..."

I second that this is remarkably annoying on mobile; you expect the menu to appear over the page you are viewing, but instead the screen just goes dim and you have to scroll over 2 screen widths to see it. Not impossible, just annoying. (Although one benefit is that I can pinch-zoom out on the page, so I can scroll down easier because everything becomes tiny :wink:) After a few more days of browsing, I have noticed some things. Like the note above, none of these are disastrous, but they do affect easy navigation of the site. Also, all of this is on Chrome for Android (4.1.2) on mobile. The double-line line entry when using enter or return. I have read the posts n this thread about using shift-enter but on mobile there isn't a way to do this. It automatically puts in two lines, then auto-scrolls to below where I am currently typing. There is a significant lag moving from one page to the next within a thread, sometimes several seconds. Is this just because tags are visible now (previously on mobile, there was only text visible with no graphics at all except for embeds within the post)? When I move to the next page within a thread, the page opens not at the top of the page or first post, but at the second post. I do like how the quote and multi-quote keeps from page to page, so I can quote posts on multiple pages. Maybe it did this before, but it's new to me. I was used to the default when clicking on a post where it would take me to the first unread post. I finally figured out that the brick icon to the left of the post title did that, but it seems to take up too little real estate compared to the title itself, especially since it is clear against the edge of the screen. My fat fingers have a hard time being that precise sometimes although I suppose I will get used to it. I haven't tried embedding any Flickr images or anything yet, so don't have any feedback there. Rest assured I'll be back if needed Edit: well, without the BBC code now that I made a list I can't seem to unmake it! This will take some getting used to... 2nd edit: the previous edit showed up as part of the above list when I edited it, but clearly now isn't, when I was trying to get the previous paragraph to be excluded from the list. Note to self: don't make anymore lists.

I find this topic fascinating, and love the contributions to it (you've got some serious chops, Danny!); it made me want to add my own, but then I realized that I have no conceptualization of my characters outside of their minifig appearance--they never existed to me in any other form. That doesn't mean I won't add some artwork to this thread sometime, it will probably just be non-character based. Love this, keep it up.

Watched The Sting on Netflix

Way to go MANTIS!

Mobile user, here. Everything looks good so far, I like that the mobile version has incorporated some of the functionality of the desktop site while still keeping the look clean and easy to navigate on a small screen. Thanks admins for all you do. I didn't know I was so dependent on EB until yesterday when I had serious withdrawls...

Location: F03 (Forring) Tags: Military Building Previously… Jex was shocked to discover that the mysterious claim ticket she held was for…a person? She turned to the guard, who had clearly been expecting the reaction. He pulled her aside and explained MANTIS’ policy on prisoners: agents who captured prisoners were entitled to a percentage of the bounty or negotiable benefit with other corporations, where applicable, and given a ticket to assert that claim. If after a year, no benefit was forthcoming, then the prisoner could be released at the capturing agent’s discretion. Jex then asked the guard how long the prisoner in question had been held. Checking the record, he replied, “since Septembrinali of last year* *The relevant story for the prisoner’s capture is in the TL;DR spoiler of the linked post (Ice Planet MANTIS). The guard noted that the record showed that nothing had come of her capture—Kawashita had tried a covert operation to recover her a few months after her capture, but that the prisoner herself had foiled the operation, revealing a Kawa mole in MANTIS in the process. Jex realized that the ticket in her hand was a get-out-of-jail-free card for the prisoner. She could use that to get the information she needed about Scorpio’s sister, if indeed the prisoner knew anything at all. She turned to address her: “My name is Jex. I am trying to find some information, and if you help me I can assure your freedom.” “Ha! I don’t believe that for a second. That fool Laszlowe tried to sweet-talk me with the same thing, and in the end, he turned out to be as low as the scum you put in the block with me!” Jex looked down to where the slavers were being held two cells down. “You know them?” “What, personally? Of course not. But I know who they are. I have seen them and I know what they have done. And if I ever get the chance…” Jex wondered what kind of past this prisoner had with the slavers, but her thoughts were interrupted as the prisoner continued: “what have I ever done that put me in here, getting the same treatment as those lowlifes?” And to that, Jex had no answer. Suddenly, the power fluctuated and surged. “Uh-oh,” the guard said. “that can’t be good.” And then the lights in the cells turned off—meaning that the restraints had as well. The prisoner stood for only a moment, until she saw the slavers racing down the corridor. “Speaking of…” she murmured, but then she was barreling out of the cell, knocking over Jex and the guard as she dashed after the fake Zoids. Alarms began sounding and lights flashing all around the compound. “Let’s go, we can’t let them escape!” Jex called as she helped the guard to his feet. She rounded the corner just in time to see that the prisoner had already caught up to the escaped slavers—-one of them at least. Somehow, both the woman and the remaining slaver had gotten hold of weapons. Needless to say, an epic sword battle ensued. ********************************************* Although the posing of the figs and some minor changes are new in the prison cell build, only the scene after the prison breakout is actually new and should be judged: Scene without ‘figs by rodiziorobs, on Flickr C&C welcome! Edit: like others, part of my build this week is a tribute to Gnewal Gwevus/Pvt. Gnarl Graves. Also, I hope I have done justice to what other AGers have written concerning the Zoids. While there have been some conflicting stories, MKJoshA managed to reconcile them pretty well here. I maintain that the villains in my stories have been impersonating Zoids all across Andromeda, causing troubles both for Kawashita and ALIEN (by besmirching their reputation) and for Octan (adding to the crisis northern Andromeda was facing by the real Zoid slavers), and for MANTIS (the PR scandal involving Laszlowe, etc).

Thanks judges! No missing hand, here, just my amateurish customizing skills. That and it's hard to make a single finger when 'figs have no fingers (well, except for Hagrid and other bigfigs).

I feel exactly this way. Some days I open the Licensed forum and click right back out because I don't want to have to face the umpteen new posts--whether they are legitimate contributions to the discussion at hand or not--it's just a lot to wade through (I frankly don't know how you mods keep up). Would it make sense to have a single, pinned, read-only post for official or confirmed information for both superhero threads? (I feel like other threads don't experience the confusion over leaks with the same regularity, except for maybe SW, but I don't ever hang out there.) The original post is DC, second is Marvel or something? If only mods could update the posts, then the trustworthy users (or anyone with a source) could PM them with info to update those posts, and keep non-sanctioned leaks at bay. Then, all of the discussion and wishlisting and rumor-mongering would happen in the other thread where people could go off-topic to their hearts' content. It would allow those who just want to know if their are any updates to do so quickly (and mods could state in those post updates where the news was from), and those who are brave enough to dive into the conversation could do so while referring back to the "facts" thread. The first post thing just never works for me because I am on mobile and going back several (several...) pages is not really feasible (and neither is switching temporarily to full view and back again). I wonder if a lot of those users who ask for updates are also primarily mobile users. As my final brilliant suggestion , in a "general discussion" or yearly thread for a licensed topic (i.e. SH), is there some way to spin off all but say the last two months' worth of conversation into another "old" thread? These discussion threads get extensive quickly but the most important posts, generally, are the most recent (with the exception of official or confirmed info). It would also help break down the feeling that the threads are crowded and cluttered. Thanks again mods and users for keeping this ship afloat Edit: forgot to make "its" into "it's", and I know how much Hinckley hates that kind of thing

Great use of the Chima bigfig for Grendel! It took me a second to realize what it was. And the ambience of the lodge is nice, too

The look on his face is perfect, and it looks even better in motion!

I tried to avoid buying Elves the first wave (in part because I wasn't keen on the minidolls, and in part because of $$$), but with some prodding from my wife got pulled into the second wave. I have come around and quite like the minidolls for displays, and now you're telling me there will be little goblins and airships? I gotta start saving. Totally off-topic (sorry!)