Aanchir

Here are some concept sketches I found on Coroflot: 8583 Minifigures Series 1 concepts 6242 Soldier's Fort concepts 6253 Shipwreck Hideout concepts 7029 Skeleton Attack Ship concepts 4770 Blizzard Blaster sketch model 2916 Duplo MyBot concepts I'll keep looking for more! EDIT: Duplo Pirates concepts Duplo Castle concepts Assorted Duplo concepts BIONICLE sets and concepts

Ummm... Lady Liberty's just sand green. You know, the closest color on the current palette to the Statue of Liberty's real color. The same color as the Statue of Liberty set, where (to my knowledge) that color made its first appearance in actual bricks. Anyway, I'm extremely confident that "Raph" comes from the name of one of the designers, just like "N. Groves" on the Race Car Driver's torso.

And here are my own opinions: Statue of Liberty: Amazing, as I mentioned already. Of course, some of her parts are useless for anything besides the Statue of Liberty or people dressed up as the Statue of Liberty, but in general she's still a nicely-designed fig. I think the novelty of a Statue of Liberty minifigure being possible far outweighs any lack of versatility in her part designs, because really there's hardly a way to make her parts more versatile and still have her look like the Statue of Liberty. Alien: He's a bit ambiguous. The robotic-looking body looks odd when used with the organic-looking head, seeing as there's no color difference separating the two. The head is very nicely designed, and I wonder how it looks in profile. He has some of that retro charm, but not enough to make up for the confusing design. He's not high on my list of figs to get. Leprechaun: Very stylish! His bushy orange beard makes the head very useful indeed, and while his green outfit is very specific to leprechauns (or over-enthusastic St. Patrick's Day celebrators), it's still stylish. I believe the 1x1 round plate in Warm Gold is supposed to go inside the pot, not underneath it. The pot is a nicely-designed piece, but a handle would have helped it a bit. Butcher: Versatile, old-fashioned outfit, a great and unique face, and a cute little hat to top it off. The meat cleaver is a great new minifigure accessory. The cut of meat is less versatile, but could be great as food for a LEGO animal like a dog or wolf. Mechanic: One of my favorites. His toolbox is a simple but versatile design; the only regret is that it isn't actually functional. And a functional toolbox that could hold more than one tool would be far too large however you slice it. The wrench comes in Medium Stone Grey, I believe, which is a new color for it. His uniform is specific to mechanics, but that still allows for a wide range of uses. I love that it has the same "flaming wrench" logo seen on the S3 Race Car Driver and I believe some racers sets. The smiling face with oil stains is very nice, and the hair is very unique, giving him a personality that no existing hair piece could really have achieved. Skater Girl: Very unique design despite being yet another skateboarder. Hard to tell if her hair is new-- I think it's just the S1 Nurse's hair with printed highlights, which is still awesome. The outfit is very quirky, and the skateboard continues that blend of "girliness" and a hardcore attitude. Her face has a nice angry grin. She's not one I'm in a huge hurry to get, but she's still well-designed. Highland Warrior: The picture really doesn't make his printing look very good; it all looks too dark. But I believe that's a consequence of a bad photo rather than a bad design. Time will tell if I'm right. The kilt is nice and versatile, the face is rugged yet not too specific to this character, and the hair color adds great variety to a minifigure designer's options. The sword and shield seem somewhat generic, but still OK. Minotaur: A direct front view probably doesn't do this one justice. But thankfully his eyes are visible from front view, and they're nice and simple like the eyes of most LEGO animals and minifigures, so that's a plus for me. I love the greek key pattern on his legs, even if the hooves make them impossible to use for non-fantasy figures. The axe is painfully boring as an accessory, but the head and horns probably lowered the accessories budget for this guy. And hey, he's a minotaur-- it's not like he needs much in the way of weapons anyway! Genie: My first impression of this fig was that he must have something to do with the Disney partnership. Looking at him again, he doesn't have too much of a resemblance (the Disney character, after all, doesn't have a turban), but it's obvious that the Disney character had some influence even if only in shaping modern perceptions of what a genie looks like. The lamp is nice, and will be even nicer if the spout accepts a flame so as to act as a proper oil lamp. His color is either Medium Azure or Dark Azure-- if it's Medium Azure, it's the first time that color has been seen in official parts. Because of his color his parts aren't all that versatile, but he's a brilliant design anyway. On a side note, when my younger brother first saw this fig he made the astute observation that this is the first time an accessory of any kind has been attached to the turban in an official set. Space Woman: The simple hot pink uniform is great and reminiscent of the vivid colors used for Classic Space uniforms, or more directly reminiscent of the space uniform designs of the microfigs in Lunar Command and Meteor Strike. The inclusion of a hair piece-- in a new color for that piece, no less!-- is a great design decision. A lot of people are getting tired of those laser guns, but in my opinion you can never have too many. Her spunky facial expression truly makes her feel like an action heroine. Only thing I'm kind of unsure about is the design choice of giving her a Transparent Light Blue visor. Overall, I'm extremely impressed with these figures, and look forward to their release. And I haven't even gone out looking for Series 5 yet!

Here's another factor for all those people considering what outfit the Queen wore in each scene-- her red dress is by far her most distinctive, appearing in most promotional material featuring the character, so I wouldn't put it past TLG to include it in a scene where she had a different costume. However, with that said, it is yet another piece of evidence against a royal starship. A Theed Palace playset of some sort is seeming ever more likely, which doesn't bother me one bit-- Theed Palace, like a lot of locations, has been dreadfully underrepresented in sets. Another Theed Palace scene I'd like to see, which may not be able to be included in the same scene, is the epic lightsaber duel against Darth Maul. A set with those energy gates and that reactor chamber or whatever, plus Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Darth Maul minifigures, would be awesome.

Nice work! I do a lot of doodlings of this same sort of concept on LDD myself. My ambition would be to create a version that can have smooth, inconspicuous doors, preferably using official LEGO doors, but that's awfully difficult so I've never gotten very far. I was inspired to mess around with that sort of thing because my dad drives a Ford Excursion, which at 1:36 scale (the scale I tend to use for a lot of things intended for minifigures) is about 7x19, and so works best as a 6-stud vehicle with LEGO's official wheel wells. Overall I think this sort of build works best for SUVs and other large vehicles. The proportions on your "open" models seem somewhat awkward here, but the red sedan looks very nice. Thanks for sharing these concepts, and I'll see if they inspire any ideas of my own! If I find anything, I'll gladly share it in this topic!

I liked the Waspix review as well, and it had DV's characteristic humor. One of my favorite bits: Overall, though, the review didn't make me much more excited for Waspix than I am for Raw-Jaw. Maybe when the Raw-Jaw review emerges it'll be able to change that, but I've seen several extremely attractive photos of the set at this point so I'm beginning to think that the flaws of the set just don't bother me much, rather than that they're just not visible in the pictures I've seen. Waspix just feels more plain to me, no matter how cool he is, and I think the largely humanoid build might be a factor in that opinion. The black connector piece on Waspix's back is the main selling point for the set in my book, but I feel it could have been much better-designed. The central ball joint doesn't have much flexibility, which could have possibly been amended if it were designed more like the hip area of a hero torso. Of course, with all that said, my twin brother is really enthusiastic about Waspix, so we'll see how I feel about the set once he's bought it for himself and I can see it in real life.

Well said. I wasn't trying to suggest TLG wasn't paying lower wages, but they have a good reputation as an employer in the European countries where they manufacture, and I'd like to believe that extends to their non-European production facilities as well.

Well, I'd say it's a good sign that there are any Spongebob sets. Many people had assumed after seeing no Nickelodeon licenses last year that LEGO's partnership with Nickelodeon was over. The licenses with Disney (Toy Story, Cars, PotC, PoP, etc.) and Cartoon Network (Ben 10 Alien Force) reinforced this belief. So for a number of people the Spongebob sets came as a surprise. It's worth considering that there have never been more than three Spongebob sets in any one year. So it's a little unreasonable to assume a two-set wave is a sign of weakness. People believed the theme dead last year when there were zero sets, and the fact that the theme is coming back a year later without any any huge signs of stagnation suggests that TLG and Nickelodeon both still see promise in the theme. Now, I don't by any means think this means Nickelodeon licenses are a gold mine for TLG. Spongebob Squarepants is the only thing they seem to have had any major success with, partly because the show moves merchandise in general with great success. However, the possibility remains open, and I have high hopes that if a LoK does in fact emerge, it will have the same design quality we have come to expect in recent years (even PoP, based on a moderately unsuccessful movie, had amazing set designs), rather than the somewhat lackluster designs seen in the A:TLA license.

I feel I ought to point out that I get that same error message occasionally when trying to close out LDD. But since I generally have just saved before exiting, and since I was trying to close out LDD anyway, it does me no real harm.

Interesting pics! Did those just surface recently, or have I just never noticed them before? Interestingly, the printing on the spinners is a lot clearer now. They seem somewhat inspired by the yin/yang symbol, with the dark area larger on Lord Garmadon's and the light area larger on Sensei Wu's. Now, the use of this symbolism bothers me a bit. The yin/yang symbol is supposed to represent balance, so having a decidedly imbalanced version for both the good and bad guys makes little sense to me. But the decorations are still nicely designed to demonstrate a good-vs.-evil contrast, where Wu's white pattern has peaceful, cloudy wisps and Garmadon's black pattern has jagged black lightning.

This is an interesting read! It's rare that we read much about LEGO's Mexican plant, and it's nice to see such a positive portrayal of it from an economic perspective. Now, I'm not hugely cynical about this, but since I'm sure some people will be I'd like to point out something that others might observe: fewer defective parts in the Mexican plant could be a consequence of lax standards regarding what is considered "defective" rather than actual improvements. Also, the plant in Denmark tends to handle more technically-demanding parts like BIONICLE parts, or so I have read. So it's possible that there are other factors besides efficiency that affect these statistics. But as I said, I'm not that cynical about this. It's easy to believe that a factory built in 2008 would be far more efficient than LEGO's older factories, and as I always point out about the Chinese plant, there's no reason to think the laborers in non-European countries value quality less than those in European production facilities. The thing about production costs being lower is interesting, and I hope that those lower costs don't come at the expense of laborers being underpaid for their work. Even if the quality of the parts coming out of that facility is good, I'd like to believe LEGO will be a positive presence in communities worldwide, as they have been in their European production sites. Again, though, a newer plant with greater efficiency probably plays a significant role in these lower costs.

Does a fig have to be an army builder to be any good? Honestly, you can't build an army of Luke Skywalkers either. And besides, we don't have any idea what kind of set she'll be in-- depending on the price, army building with it might not even be feasible if some type of trooper fig were included in Amidala's place. As for what you can do with it, you can create scenes where Amidala was in that outfit-- something that had previously been impossible without heavy customization. So I welcome the new Amidala fig as a means of filling that vacuum.

IP stands for Intellectual Property. Usually this means a licensed theme, although some non-licensed LEGO themes have been intellectual properties of their own (BIONICLE was considered LEGO's first, and Ninjago seems to be following in its footsteps with various books either released or soon-to-be-released, and a TV series just over the horizon).

I agree with Clone O'Patra about the price. I hope people don't take it as hypocrisy on my part that I tend to have glowing reactions to Star Wars sets but haven't bought one of my own since 2005. In truth the sets this year come the closest to bringing me back into LEGO Star Wars that any sets have done, and the fact that figs have finally been updated with eye-sparkles and new faces helps (as does the emphasis on Star Wars Episode I, for which I have a lot of nostalgia). But at the same time the prices are still such that I don't intend to get any Star Wars sets this year unless I find them at a considerable discount. Truth be told, this new Millennium Falcon is beautiful. It's a great improvement aesthetically over the 4504, and really (IMO) better captures the rugged look of the craft, while still having a familiar shape and unified design. The interior is a lot more realistic than either of the previous versions, while still having plenty of play value. The minifigures are excellent in general. At the same time, the underside is woefully boring, something which afflicts a lot of the lovely vehicle designs this year. It really gives the impression that corners had to be cut to keep the prices down, something I sympathize with-- after all, I definitely wouldn't pay more than the already-exorbitant prices they charge for Star Wars sets just to have the set look prettier from underneath. Great review! Thanks for taking such great pictures of this set!

Great MOC! I love how despite being intricately brickbuilt, it still has the same sort of cartoony design as a lot of Fabuland parts. I like the red and yellow color layering along the side. The engine is also very nice. Who knew there was a place for greebles in Fabuland?

I was very impressed with all the news at Comic-Con. The characters and settings look like they'll be awesome. And the creatures don't disappoint either! Pity it's still nearly a year before this new series debuts... Really, though, seeing that the creators are so excited about it is enough to make me excited. I wish there were some teaser site or something with tidbits added regularly to keep that anticipation building. Maybe when the broadcast date gets closer. I wonder if a LEGO brand might be possible. While the A:TLA line was a real disappointment, TLG has done much better with licenses since then. And the existence of Spongebob sets this year shows that TLG still has a strong working relationship with Nickelodeon. The only thing that would get in the way would be of course that we have no idea how popular TLA:LOK merchandise will be, since it isn't a huge phenomenon like Spongebob Squarepants, a proven product-pusher like Star Wars, or a high-budget, much-hyped film like many of LEGO's Disney licenses.

If it helps, here are the patent drawings. Those could help you figure out the proportions of the different surfaces you want to make decals for.

As far as non-TV-show-clones are concerned, I personally hope that they'll transition towards using the CW helmet even for sets depicting clones from the actual episodes. Ideally, they'd introduce a less-stylized face print for these, but frankly I feel that the old clone helmet with its hollow eyes is terribly out-of-date. Stormtroopers and Mandalorians no longer have "eye holes", and I don't think the clones should either-- especially as it ups the probability of having a non-CW clone head piece, which could also be used for Jango Fett himself. I don't see what the problem with the latest Geonosian Starfighter is. Besides the figs, nothing in it stands out as a CW set-- and even the Geonosian fig isn't all that stylized compared to other alien minifigures these days. Of course, it's still more stylized than I personally prefer, since I'd like it if Star Wars alien heads would start using black eyes with white sparkles like human fig heads do. The realistic eyes on figs like Watto give me a terrible sense of uncanny valley, even if they're preferable to the blank, soulless eyes of the non-printed classic figures. Another Tusken Raider set would be great. So far, the 2002 AotC set is the only set to have any Tusken Raiders, which is a real shame considering the role they play in ANH. In fact, it's also the only set to contain a moisture vaporator if I remember correctly. One of these days I'd like a proper ANH set with a domed-roof Tatooine homestead, a moisture vaporator, and minifigures of Owen and Beru Lars (though an Owen fig did come in the sandcrawler set). But AotC could include at least some of these contents just as well.

That wouldn't make any sense at all. The image clearly says "2012", while the Earth Dragon is a 2011 set due out at around the same time as all the other summer releases. In fact, it's already available on S@H in a number of countries. The image does clearly show a green dragon, but like all teaser images it's easy to read too much into it. It would be straight-up boring if Ninjago could only continue by releasing new sets based on the same exact pattern of dragon+ninja+weapon, and I doubt the story would introduce a new golden weapon unless there were a new role for it. Basically, I expect the 2012 Ninjago story to follow a brand-new plotline, probably coinciding with the television series due to come out by the end of this year. The dragon face could have a number of meanings. Possibly there will be dragon-people rather than skeletons as new foes. Or possibly there will be a dragon for the "bad guys" this time. Whatever happens, all the teaser tells us is that 1) Ninjago will continue in 2012 and 2) dragons will continue to be important.

I think there's no question whether a MOC can be considered "art". The only thing that really separates LEGO as an artistic medium from things like clay or paints is that there is more design work put in by others in advance to produce the medium itself. And that can hardly disqualify them from being art any more than the nature of Marcel Duchamp's Readymades. In high school art classes, I was taught three criteria for art (obviously, ones which not everyone will agree on): good design, aesthetic experience, and human intention. Obviously all of these are extremely subjective. Even "human intention", which seems simple enough, has had its meaning tested by artists like Marcel Duchamp who demonstrate that choosing a subject demonstrates intention just as well as creating it from raw materials. Nobody really questions whether Nathan Sawaya's masterpieces are art, and even the LEGO Master Builders' works at LEGOLAND parks could easily be considered art. But what about a set, or a MOC designed along similar terms? Obviously, sets are made to be mass-produced, but how is this different than a linoleum-block print? Sets are designed by teams rather than individuals, but how is this different from filmmaking? Sets are designed according to functional as well as aesthetic terms, but how is this different from certain types of "kinetic art"? I think the question isn't "when are MOCs art", but rather "when do MOCs stop being art?" And I would personally argue that they only stop being art when the MOCist stops designing them for an artistic purpose. Whether they're good art is another matter entirely, of course.

Pretty sure it's just Sand Green. That's how it looks on my screen, anyway.

Very nice! I like how you managed to distribute the contents of various Echo Base sets in a logical way. My main criticism of this MOC is how it doesn't feel very open. As a shelf display, I'd think it would be somewhat difficult to see all the different rooms' contents. The four-stud-wide "ceilings" may be partially to blame for this. One-stud-wide or two-stud-wide partitions might work better for a display this big. This would also brighten up the interior considerably, seeing as the dark shadows make it feel even more cramped than it already is. The hangar is probably my favorite part of this aesthetically, partially because of the lack of floor tiling. The floor is simple enough not to distract from the hangar's vehicle contents. The tiled floor of the med bay sort of bothers me in comparison, because tiles are not arranged according to any sort of pattern, and are thus very distracting. I realize, though, that doing the tiled floor better would probably require Bricklink orders to get the right quantity of identically-sized tiles. Overall, this MOC is a great expansion of the Echo Base set. However, I feel it could be improved further to help it feel less cluttered and better display all the interior details. Still, it's much better than I could have done in the short time between the release of the Echo Base set and the posting of this MOC!

I wouldn't completely discount the possibility of AotC sets this year. While I'm sure there will be a strong emphasis on The Phantom Menace, given the 3-D release, keep in mind that LEGO Star Wars has a strong emphasis on that film's contents as of the beginning of this year, a full year in advance. I imagine the reason may be to have more than one wave of TPM sets on store shelves in time for the re-rlease, something that is not an option with releases of new movies. So in the same vein, TLG might release at least a few AotC sets next year, to gain the same advantage in 2013. The only thing that makes me a little uncertain is that contents of sets based on AotC tend to overlap with the contents of CW sets. So TLG might think it more practical to just keep releasing CW sets of vehicles that happen to feature in AotC. Of course, with certain contents like droids it really doesn't make a difference either way. Anyway, I'm personally mighty impressed with the new TIE fighter. The cockpit seems sort of misshapen, but I appreciate the creative building techniques used for the solar panels. The minifigures in that set are also nice-- TIE pilots with faces are a good thing, the R4-style droid is a cool prospect, and the Amidala minifigure is much overdue. I'm not totally sure what set she'd come in-- while a Theed Palace set would be nice, it might easily be as thoroughly rejected as other location-based sets like Echo Base this year. And a royal starship would be a surprise, since it has its color as well as its shape working against it as far as set design is concerned. A set with that much chrome has always been a pipe dream as I see it, and a set with the same abundance of metallic silver (298 Cool Silver drum lacquered) hasn't been seen since Agents. I don't think many people would be satisfied with the new pearl silver color (315 Silver Metallic, which Bricklink calls Flat Silver), and I'm not even totally sure how well it would work since it hasn't been seen in many basic elements the way pearl gold (297 Warm Gold) has in recent themes. Gray would be an unbelievable disappointment. Overall, though, I'm excited about what we might be due next year. This year's TPM sets, particularly the podracers, got me excited about Star Wars sets like no sets before them. I'm still trying to decide how much of a discount would be enough for me to break down and buy some of them. Here's hoping next year continues to show that the designers of LEGO Star Wars sets have improved since the early days when I was a buyer as well as a fan.

I also have doubts that there will be separate figure collections. In fact, I think it would be impossible, if we consider a few facts about individually-packaged minifigures. While the recent collectible minifigures have been immensely successful from what we've heard, they aren't the first attempt at minifigure packs. There have also been magnet packs (which are frequently used to accumulate minifigures from a theme without buying the full sets), as well as the minifigure series from the year 2000. Both of these sales models had to be changed significantly because of conflict with Hasbro, which holds the license to produce Star Wars "articulated figures"-- in this case, action figures, but a term which they claim also applies to minifigures. Thus the minifigure collections were quickly discontinued, and magnet packs are now glued. In the case of DC comics, Mattel rather than Hasbro holds the rights to produce licensed action figures, but I imagine the effect will be the same. Especially considering that Hasbro does still hold the rights to produce Marvel action figures, and I can't picture TLG producing individual figure packs for only half of their new "Super Heroes" theme.

Great review. Although this is a simpler Paradisa set (and they were all simple to a certain extent, with more emphasis on role-play than special functionality), I have to say it's a unique concept, and it's a shame TLG hasn't made more "playground" sets. The only more recent playgrounds I can remember are occasional alternate models for Creator houses. It's nice to see that the slide is reasonably-sized and brickbuilt. There was an unfortunate tendency in some Paradisa sets to use Belville and Fabuland accessories where there was no System equivalent, which usually meant enormous oversized slides. This slide has a creative build, and while it lacks the curvature that real-life slides tend to have, it was a great feat considering the pieces that were available at the time. The sandbox is simple, and the lack of sand is a real downer, but the only easy way I can think of doing it better is if it were more brickbuilt, with tan or (more likely, given Paradisa's color scheme) some sort of yellow in the bottom. In truth, of course, this wouldn't have been hard even if it kept a 6x6 footprint, demonstrating that even Paradisa occasionally used a "<insert that tiresome argument>" option when a brickbuilt solution might have been preferable. Another option that could have been possible would be to use decorated parts in the base of the sandbox to give it some visual texture-- but given Paradisa's frequent use of stickers, I'm sure many AFOLs would prefer the set with no sand at all than with sand-patterned stickers. One major flaw this set has-- and it's a frequent one in LEGO sets from what I've seen-- is the baby carriage's distinct lack of baby. Today, a microfig from the LEGO Games sets might serve that purpose nicely. And given its size, it could still fit without issue in a 2x4 carriage, even if it would have to be redesigned with more open space inside. Sadly, the upcoming girls' theme might not be able to utilize this depending on how different the figs are from classic minifigures, but in general the theme seems to have less of a "family" focus than Belville or Paradisa based on what we've heard so far. And finally, the color scheme is a mixed bag. On one hand, Paradisa's pastel color scheme had a certain charm. But on the other, it sometimes felt somewhat washed-out. The brown tree trunk (25 Earth Orange), green leaves (28 Dark Green), and black shovel and bucket clash horribly with the pastel colors, as do pretty much any colors that aren't pastel. Belville and later girls' themes may have had some egregious and unrealistic "girly" colors at times, and many obscure colors were used in that theme that rarely appeared elsewhere. But at the same time, Belville had a greater tendency towards more visually-balanced color schemes, and I appreciate that greatly. I hope the upcoming girls' theme also manages to have an appealing color scheme. Thankfully, given the reduction and optimization of the LEGO color palette over the years to make the colors more vivid and inter-compatible in general, that shouldn't be so much of a problem.