vexorian

"Bionicle" joints, specifically the U joints. I have used those things since throwbot/slizer era. Here is something strange, The slizer ones' cross socket break very easily. Specially the black ones, I think I have broken all of the silzer black U ball joints already. The good thing is that even after that cross socket breaks, they are still fairy usable by using the side sockets... However, the ball socket of the slizer era is remarkably more resistant than the bionicle ones. Specially the most recent equivalents to that piece have gotten cracks from just playing. For example, One of the joints used in Skirmix's hip, has cracked just from posing it a few times a week... Many other of my ball joints from bionicle era have cracked already, since it is the ball socket that gets ruined, they become unusable.

Is the effect reversible?

I actually wish this series had some sci-fi element. The real stuff that will make me buy series 1 are the robot and the spaceman. As for this series, I wouldn't mind buying 3 or 4 bags but I don't really have much interest in a specific fig. I think the stereotype is in calling this fig the Mexican, whereas I bet LEGO will call it the Salsa Musician or something like that. Imagine if we would start calling the Karate Master the Japanese :)

Awesome stuff as if series one wasn't great enough.

I actually love the small ship that comes with the undercover ship. I might even buy the set just for it. Space Pimp turned out to be the owner of the chain gun, that's awesome. And the base... With galactic enforcer and this base this theme is turning out a great remembrance of old space.

Well, of the few large ships I have owned this is definitely the best. I might change my opinion when I get my galactic enforcer, just about every pic and review I see of it makes me think it is one of the best ships ever.

After looking at the probabilities from WhiteFang's review, the programmer in me could not resist coding a dynamic programming solution to answer something that I have been wondering about ever since the announcement : "How many bags do you have to buy on average to get a complete set?". So, I coded it, and assuming I didn't make any mistake, the amount of random bags you would have to get on average to complete the set is: 58.1549 BTW, if you just one want fig of the high, medium and low prob groups, you'll need: 12, 15 and 20 bags on average, respectively. In my case, I just want a robot and a spaceman, that would need 22.5 bags :/ I think I should consider buying a box...

Yay!, well, not a great fan of real space sets but this puts the odds for a 16+ non-star wars sci fi set quite high ^^- I sort of thought that was actually the reason they are doing it.

Yes, the explorien droids, but they have a transparent head as well.

The men in yellow :)

This really blows, of all the possible ways to do this, making them only partially random is the worst thing LEGO could do. Now people will have unfair advantages and at the end kids will end getting tons of scuba drivers after the AFOLs took out all the robots. Bad stuff. I am an AFOL and demand is not that big in here so it does not affect me but I think this ruined the experience for a lot of kids that won't have access to this information. I hope they fix this mistake in season 2, either make it completely random or make it completely transparent. The middle ground is terrible for these things.

"Like Larry and Moe, remaining together through all the Curlys and Shemps." So deep.

Nothing like not being able to find a piece even after you spent 2 days sorting only to find out you made a mistake while sorting :)

This is truly a clbuttic mistake for the books, so sad it happened to LEGO.

Nice review, this is one of the two explorien sets I couldn't get back in the time. ALways wondered how the panels worked. I have other explorien sets and liked them overall, specially the flag ship and the lab, I think generally it was a nice theme but when I remember it all I can think is that this was the theme in which large pieces started to come up, then followed UFO and it got even worse in this regards.

I like the head , looks great for any kind of army, I could make use of such face in some custom space figs I have... I think the kattanas would have been better in silver though (I don't think there is such a thing as a golden kattana ...) Also, I notice that either the ambassadors are very lucky or quality isn't a bigger issue in these minifigs than it is on the figs of normal sets.

Err, excuse me if I am wrong, I am not savvy at American culture but weren't April fools jokes supposed to be funny? It does not even qualify as a mean... It is so strange, this year I seriously can't remember an April fools joke that was fun enough for me to remember it , the internet has failed me.

Because the extra pieces don't hurt anyone. Say you really had something against buying two sets in one, ok then just keep ships of each faction in different sets. It is still better to have two factions per theme as it means each year is more 'complete' than the other. Thanks to the single faction themes I hardly had any space police sets before SP3, but I had plenty of civilians (ice planet) and bandits( spyrius) I would have prefered if the three factions ' releases were spread in three years instead of what actually happened, that way I would have had more space police :) Honestly, SP3 is the best space theme we've had in a looooooooooooong while...

Yes, judge it by the official prizing instead, although that one is terrifying as well. edit: 2 system impulse sets = 2 minifigs plus 30 pieces for one dollar less (I am looking at my beloved K-9 bot right now) . Sure, the molds are not even comparable for the price comparison to be fair - the system impulse got pieces that are worth a lot more due to their usefulness...

Well, if I had one of these sets. After period of time I would destroy it. Clean every piece individually and build it again. Unless I had more than one modular building, then I would replace it with a different modular and have a rotation system. CarboHydrates: The fact the buildings' base take more space than the table would cause me tons of stress and paranoia, my conclusion is you got some nerves of steel.

I do not assume, I've said some clone brands are seriously lame and they clone designs as well as just the parts. I was obviously talking about the low end of the clones which you call bootlegs... Some even clone mega and oxford. I am sorry I do not share your jargon, I guess. If you read my posts I never said mega or oxford do that. In fact, I said I would work for mega ... Sigh, So much of a big deal over a language issue?

But the original question did not make that assumption, did it? It just asked if you'd work for a clone brand. At least I could survive by keeping my day job instead... There are also clone brands and clone brands. For some the designer job means "find a lego set and copy the design" it is not going to be good for your resume if what you intend is working for LEGO or a clone brand with actual designs. And good luck asking for new molds in those that barely clone set designs. Also, if it is one of the very bad clones, the plastic will make it a very boring/depressing job for some of us. Soo the question mentioned MB then yeah, definitely though I might get fired after spamming the suggestion box with 'let's improve plastic even if it raises cost" every once in a week :/ I really wish mega would get same or very close quality to LEGO it would make things better for everyone, for us and MB fans equally :)

Well, regarding the AFOL targetted sets I don't really have that problem as my country is far away from any lego shop, big retailer or s@h's blessed countries list. I guess I could use certain services that can allow me to remotedly buy s@h stuff, but my prediction is that it would easily double the price... But as for big sets, I have not really bought any big set so far. "Small" sets already kill my wallet well enough. However, I can't seem to get over a certain urge to get the large SP3 ship one day.

Well, as long as it is a clone brand that at least bothers to do original designs like mega, then yes. Though we are talking about extremely unlikely things in here..

Wow I feel so relieved it would be impossible to get this in this country. It saves me lots of problem. ^^ I would forcefully have to buy it and then I wouldn't be able to decide whether to put it on display or pillage it for the amazing pieces. Finally I would probably end up reserving a whole room to put it in his own magnificence while I obsessively make sure no dust ever gets to it...