Aanchir

That's what I thought too. But it seems the people writing the S@H description didn't understand it either-- they also call them binoculars!

I kind of disagree about this being a lame idea. After all, think of it this way: even if you don't get the set you want, it's a better deal than many types of crappy toys or jewelry people might get from this type of vending machine (at least here in the US-- I hear Japan has a lot more vending machines in general than we have, though, so it's possible that the standard of quality on these sorts of purchases is higher there). I do think it could be way better executed, though. There's simply no excuse for how crumpled the instructions are in some of those pictures. Ideally, instead of just cramming a polybag set into a tiny container for these things, TLG could design sets to be packed directly into the containers. But that would of course depend on how successful the vending machine business model is-- if it doesn't seem profitable enough, TLG wouldn't go through that sort of trouble.

They probably wouldn't be allowed to make Star Wars collectible minifigures, for the same reason that they were forced to discontinue the minifigure collection line in 2000 and the same reason they now have to glue magnet packs. Hasbro owns the right to make action figures for the Star Wars franchise, and anything that's more of an "articulated figure" than it is a building toy qualifies as such. This is also the reason why Star Wars "battle packs" have more structural parts than the extended-line "battle packs" for non-licensed themes. Also, let me reiterate my previous statement that ideas are, for all intents and purposes, an inexhaustible resource. They don't "run out" unless you're being very, very narrow-minded about what ideas are considered acceptable. Think about every possible career in real life, every fictional character archetype, and every possible historical costume. Every one of these, besides a few that would not be kid-friendly, is an idea that could be used for a collectible minifigure. And I don't foresee that abundance of ideas running out any time soon. Meanwhile, I doubt the collectible minifigures would become theme-specific at any point, because one of their main selling points is that they appeal to people of diverse interests. If TLG made a series that was just sci-fi figs, then only sci-fi fans would buy it. By having a diverse bunch of minifigures, anyone can potentially find something that interests them in each series.

Those torsos are from Space Police. Specifically, from this guy. So this set really doesn't open up any opportunities for that theme that weren't available a year ago. I am fairly impressed with the selection of this torso for the divers, though. It makes a great wetsuit, and since the logo on it isn't specific to any theme, it works just fine in City.

Alright! Way to go with all these sets from my childhood! Time for an error check: All trans-neon green parts should be 49 Transparent Fluorescent Green rather than 311 Transparent Bright Green (the new transparent green introduced in 2010 Atlantis sets, identified as Trans-Bright Green on Brickshelf). The hinge plates 44568 and 44570 can be replaced with the correct hinge plates 4315 and 4213 now that LDD's been updated to 4.1.7. All 1x4 bricks should be part 3010 rather than part 3066. All 1x2 bricks should be part 3004 rather than part 3065. The wedge plates 50304 and 50305 can be replaced with the correct wedge plates 3934 and 3933 now that LDD's been updated to 4.1.7. The hinge plate 95120 could be replaced with the correct hinge plate 4625 if not for the fact that the hinge piece attached to this plate (4857) is not available on LDD. Still, keep this one in mind for future LDD updates, since I'm sure it's only a matter of time before 4857 is added. All 1x2 plates with vertical shaft should be part 4623 rather than part 88072. The magnets (73092) are available, although their holders are not. They can be added and left to the side of the model if you like. All 2x8 bricks should be part 3007 rather than part 93888. You might as well add the minifigs. I don't think that Calabar likes adding sets to the index unless the minifigures are at least attempted. And all the parts are available, even if none of the decorations are. All purple parts should be 104 Bright Violet rather than 124 Bright Reddish Violet. Bright Violet cannot be accessed from the default color palette in LDD Extended Mode. However, it is available in my Complete LDD Color Chart. This seems to be the only error not accounted for in either of these two sets.

297 Warm Gold is just the official name for what Bricklink and many AFOLs call Pearl Gold. "Pearl" is the term that Bricklink uses for parts that actually have metallic-colored plastic rather than a lacquered coat (which Bricklink calls "Metallic") or a metalized coat ("Chrome"). Warm Gold/Pearl Gold is the main gold-colored plastic that's been used since its first appearances in 2006.

Nobody's asked because those parts already exist on LDD as a single piece (45406). It's generally a good idea when you know a part's ID number to enter it into the search box before assuming LDD doesn't have it.

I think the only reason the Fire Brigade is unpopular among AFOLs is that its architecture is the least consistent with the modular buildings. It is a very distinctly American building, whereas most of the other modular buildings have a more European design. Plus, its use of a vintage fire engine rather than a modern one makes it hard to fit into a display with other City sets or modular buildings. I built it on LEGO Digital Designer a long time ago and I have to agree its build is incredible, but for a collector of the modular buildings it makes sense that it's not too many people's favorite.

I have to agree to this point, but only to a certain extent. Keep in mind that baseplates aren't the most widely-stocked items in toy stores, and baseplate packs have by far the least building potential of any sets (even minifigure packs have separate parts that can be interchanged with others in your collection). TLG would probably carry a wider variety of baseplates if they could count on people buying them, but as it is by keeping a smaller variety of these items they can ensure that more of these items actually get bought. Overall, I don't want to declare baseplates dead. They have a lot of useful attributes that are harder to duplicate with regular plates. But in general, regular plates are much more versatile than baseplates, and I see why TLG so rarely includes baseplates when there are more efficient solutions for the same or a smaller volume of plastic.

Ironically, the 2007 harbor is preferred over this one by a lot of people, despite this one adhering more to a number of AFOL preferences (for instance, baseplates and smaller boats). I suppose this merely reinforces what I always try to emphasize-- small vehicles and baseplates are preferable to the alternatives sometimes, but not all the time. It also demonstrates another point I often try to make, which is that big does not equal <insert that tiresome argument>. Sure, the older set's road pieces, crane pieces, and boat were far larger than this set's, but overall they take the place of tedious and less-attractive constructions made from smaller pieces. In this set, on the other hand, the juniorization is not related to the size of the pieces at all, but rather to the building techniques. The structures are flat and boring, the cab of the crane is simple, and the specialized conveyor belt piece takes the place of what could have been a more advanced structure. I have to say I'm part of the crowd that's disappointed by this set. For starters, the conveyor belt being just one piece doesn't strike me as something that's necessary. Sure, attaching a tread piece to wheels can be hard sometimes, especially for kids, but since I imagine TLG is going to be doing that in the City theme for construction sets anyway, I don't see how it would have been too advanced for this set. The fact that the dock is unlevel as observed in a previous post is also a problem, although that can easily be fixed by anyone with a good supply of blue baseplates. Unfortunately, aside from baseplates there is no obvious solution that doesn't require the small pier to be supported by a SNOT-based structure. On the other hand, there are many ways in which this set is totally all right. It's as colorful as one would expect of a City set, while still organizing the colors logically. Functionally, it's amazing: there are lots of built-in play features and enough minifigures and settings for plenty of free role-play. I love the crane's simple but effective design and the truck's intricate and advanced design. The boat is even cooler than the old one, with its covered cargo hold and attractively-built bridge. Overall, I would probably be giving this set a pass whether or not I liked the design-- as I emphasize often, I am not a City collector, and mainly follow the emergence of City sets because they set the standard for all other themes (as well as the way I visualize the world around me and its possibilities for LEGO building). If LEGO City represents the modern, real-life world in which we live, then other themes should be variations on those designs, even if they end up being far more intricate and complex. In many ways this set strikes me as the weakest set of this year's harbor sub-theme, but it's a necessary component of that sub-theme and I certainly wouldn't have liked if LEGO just repeated the 2007 version without trying to innovate new ideas.

Might not be worth regretting that. From my experience with Bohrok-Kal parts, some of them are as brittle as or more brittle than the 7M double ball sockets of 2006. Or at least, by 2006 they had experienced enough wear and tear to become that way. The foot joints were the most susceptible to breakage. The joints in particular also are a fairly poor match for silver parts from most other years, despite being color 131 Silver (the same as I believe was standard from 2001-2006 and from 2007-2010). The shield/tool pieces were pretty useful, but other than that there wasn't too much you could do with Bohrok-Kal parts that Bohrok parts couldn't do better. Overall, I was not a huge fan of the Bohrok-Kal. Their powers seemed to be pulled from a superpower grab-bag rather than having the same natural elemental affiliations of the six primary elements (I was not happy when Toa began adopting these elements, either, besides Lightning which I felt was a close enough fit). The story behind them was OK, but in general didn't accomplish much-- the Toa Nuva were pretty much just as reckless and non-unified at the beginning of Mask of Light as they had been shortly after first getting their powers. Few mysteries were explained during this story arc, instead creating new ones that were never answered sufficiently (for instance, what the mutagen was that created the Bohrok-Kal). The only lasting consequence was the "upgrading" of the Matoran. As sets, the Bohrok-Kal were far less impressive than the Bohrok. Their color schemes were less exciting than the Bohrok's, having significantly less contrast, and as with the Rahkshi their collectibles were not even visible when the sets were built. The Krana-Kal were lovely metallic colors, but few of them had been used frequently before 2003 and most had been discontinued by 2006, making them not very useful. The primary-colored leg and arm joints were nice pieces, but they were some of the only useful structural pieces that were different between the six sets. All in all, the Bohrok-Kal were very clearly a sort of "filler" before the movie Mask of Light came out. In the sets, this could be seen in the miserably low number of new pieces-- only the six weapons were new to this wave, possibly in order to make room for the next wave's immense number of new parts. In story, it was made evident in that this was the first time Greg Farshtey was given almost full control of the story. And while I have a great respect for Greg's writing for the BIONICLE story (and he's the reason the Bohrok-Kal story arc wasn't boring), the lack of involvement from the rest of the story team really shows how little importance that particular wave of sets had in the grand scheme of things.

The Cars 2 sets are probably cheaper because they don't include minifigures. Minifigures are very expensive to produce compared to other pieces because they often have prints on multiple surfaces and pre-assembled parts. Cars 2 sets have a lot of printed parts including a few with printing on multiple surfaces, but not many pre-assembled parts. There also aren't parts with very complex painting/printing like some of the hat/hair pieces in Pirates of the Caribbean.

You don't seem to recognize that non-licensed battle packs are almost never like the licensed ones. They tend to be almost all minifigures with very little building. They are also extended-line products without four-digit ID numbers. See the various results here other than Star Wars-- some, like the Pirates and Pharaoh's Quest battle packs, have a wide range of accessories, but they are mostly simple accessories that come at the price of the variety of minifigures-- those two have fewer minifigures than the Castle or ADU battle packs. Furthermore, note that there isn't nearly as much variety among ADU figs as among the aliens.

This model is loaded with errors, and to error-check them all would require plowing through the instruction booklet analyzing each individual step's part inconsistencies-- something I have no patience for on a model this large with this many errors. Many of the parts listed in the Bricklink inventory are missing in your model. There are other parts in which you have nearly twice the number Bricklink says you should. You use many of the wrong parts, such as 3065 where you ought to use 3004, 3066 where you ought to use 3010, and 6188 where you ought to use 4589. And many of these seem to be just careless errors where you didn't even pay attention to which version was correct (for instance, 6188 clearly says "TR", an easy tip-off that it only exists in transparent colors, and 3065 and 3066 clearly are marked as "without pins"). I recommend you use Superkalle's LDD manager to generate a Bricklink parts inventory of your model, and then compare every place where your model's inventory is different from Bricklink's actual inventory of this set. I understand that some of the replacement part constructs necessitate the use of the incorrect parts (part of the reason I would never have attempted the set in the first place). However, there are a lot of errors that have nothing to do with the replacement parts and could easily have been solved by just paying closer attention. The legs assembly is missing the astronaut's toe prints. The laser gun (87993) should be 131 Silver (BL's Pearl Light Gray) rather than 194 Medium Stone Grey (BL's Light Bluish Gray). 131 Silver can be found on my Complete LDD Color Chart. The 3M laser beam (87994) should be 42 Transparent Light Blue rather than 43 Transparent Blue (BL's Trans-Dark Blue). The face-shield (2447) should be 111 Transparent Brown (BL's Trans-Black) rather than 40 Transparent (BL's Trans-Clear). You should probably note in your list of problems that the face print is a substitute. Some of these "errors" I'm finding are from the Bricklink inventory. I can't be sure Bricklink is accurate about all of these, since they make some errors in this set's inventory. But it might be a good idea to go back through the instructions and see if there are any parts you missed. Bricklink says the set should have four Transparent 1x1 round plates (4073). Your model only has two. Bricklink also says the set should have eleven of part 32184. Your model only has ten. Bricklink says the set should have four double-conical gears (32270). Your model only has three. Other than that, no errors! Great job! Your model has two worm gears (4716) in 208 Light Stone Grey. Both should instead be in 194 Medium Stone Grey. That seems to be the only error.

Oh my gosh, they still do that? Back in the late 90s-early 2000s, my family had many of the glitch-ridden LEGO PC games, and my dad had many phone calls with LEGO customer service. My twin brother and I amassed a great collection of LEGO keychains.

I'm personally impressed, not because I'm a huge fan of chrome parts (in a lot of places I prefer pearl colors like the 297 Warm Gold that was originally showing up), but because I thought these tiny parts looked horrendous in Warm Gold (with obvious molding marks) and because I thought it was terrible of TLG to show chrome parts on the boxes and not include them in the set. With CGI box art there's an excuse for parts appearing shinier than they do in real life, but these box images were photographs (or at least photographic quality) and thus there was no excuse for them being this misleading. I hope these do make it into the main-production sets. After all, TLG has demonstrated that they're willing to make changes on a moment's notice like this, what with the Atlantis trident being replaced with a newer, sturdier mold halfway through 2010. It may be a while until ones in chrome gold (310 Metalized Gold, if anyone was wondering about TLG's name for this color), but if customer service has them then I'm sure they're being mass-produced, and they wouldn't do that just to satisfy the occasional caller.

So what? Suppose you did amass an army of alien troopers and ADU soldiers. They'd still be laughable if they were trying to defend a grand total of three panicking civilians, wearing completely incongruous clothing. Doesn't make for a very grand display. As it is, I see no harm in having multiple businessmen. It's a great way to demonstrate the chaos the invasion is causing. And do businessmen in suits really need to look that unique? Conformity is basically what the business suit is meant to represent! And if it's that much of a problem you can swap the face prints, since you'd probably be doing that with the ADU figs anyways. I'm not much of an army builder, but I'm not prejudiced against them either. I just don't see why civilian figs in this theme are less valuable to army builders than the more military figs when they're the ones most directly impacted by the invasion-- and the ones who embody what the ADU soldiers are trying to protect.

There's a guy in the Power Miners set Boulder Blaster with a knit cap... which is a problem when you remember that all Power Miners minifigures have double-sided head printing. That's the biggest example of "What were they thinking?" that I've ever seen with double-sided faces. Generally, though, in themes like Exo-Force and Agents, as well as this theme, the second face print isn't quite that obvious from behind. It's usually easy enough to ignore IMO, but you make a good point about photographs. I don't do a lot of LEGO photography so that aspect of the issue never affects me.

The parts you are missing are 30101 and 30102. As for the 2x4 jail cell door frame that replaced them, I'm not familiar with any 2x4 jail cell door frames. There is a 2x6 jail cell door frame (4071) which is a necessary component to the set. And there's a 2x4 door frame (60599) which should fit the modern style of jail cell doors, if that's what you're referring to. Are any of these the part you are trying to identify? Anyway, have fun with that set-- it's one I remember fondly from my own childhood!

Nice. Here's the names, with notes wherever they might be misleading to those used to Bricklink names: 1 White 5 Brick Yellow 21 Bright Red 23 Bright Blue 24 Bright Yellow 26 Black 28 Dark Green (BL's Green) 192 Reddish Brown 194 Medium Stone Grey (BL's Light Bluish Gray) 199 Dark Stone Grey (BL's Dark Bluish Gray) 18 Nougat (BL's Flesh) 37 Bright Green 40 Transparent 41 Transparent Red 42 Transparent Light Blue 43 Transparent Blue (BL's Trans-Dark Blue 44 Transparent Yellow 48 Transparent Green 49 Transparent Fluorescent Green (BL's Trans-Neon Green) 102 Medium Blue 106 Bright Orange 111 Transparent Brown (BL's Trans-Black) 119 Bright Yellowish Green (BL's Lime) 140 Earth Blue (BL's Dark Blue) 141 Earth Green (BL's Dark Green) 154 Dark Red 182 Transparent Bright Orange (BL's Trans-Orange, for most non-Clikits sets) 221 Bright Purple (BL's Dark Pink, for post-2003 sets only) 20 Nature (BL's Milky White) 38 Dark Orange 47 Transparent Fluorescent Reddish-Orange (BL's Trans-Neon Orange) 113 Transparent Medium Reddish Violet (BL's Trans-Dark Pink) 124 Bright Reddish Violet (BL's Magenta) 126 Transparent Bright Bluish Violet (BL's Trans-Dark Purple) 135 Sand Blue 138 Sand Yellow (BL's Dark Tan) 143 Transparent Fluorescent Blue (BL's Trans-Medium Blue) 151 Sand Green 191 Flame Yellowish Orange (BL's Bright Light Orange) 208 Light Stone Grey (BL's Very Light Bluish Gray) 212 Light Royal Blue (BL's Bright Light Blue) 222 Light Purple (BL's Bright Pink) 226 Cool Yellow (BL's Bright Light Yellow) 268 Medium Lilac (BL's Dark Purple) 283 Light Nougat (BL's Light Flesh) 294 Phosphorescent Green (BL's Glow-In-Dark Transparent and Glow-In-Dark Opaque for all post-2005 sets) 297 Warm Gold (BL's Pearl Gold) 308 Dark Brown 311 Transparent Bright Green (BL's Trans-Bright Green for post-2009 sets only) 312 Medium Nougat (BL's Medium Dark Flesh) 315 Silver Metallic (BL's Pearl Light Grey, Pearl Dark Grey, Metallic Silver, or Flat Silver in summer 2010 or 2011 sets, with the name depending on who's writing the inventory. Flat Silver is the name used most consistently on Bricklink) 316 Titanium Metallic (BL's Pearl Dark Grey in summer 2010 or 2011 sets. They're more consistent with this one, thankfully) 321 Dark Azure (Not yet on Bricklink-- new color used for Alien Conquest's ADU uniforms) 322 Medium Azure (Not yet on Bricklink-- new color not yet identified in any sets) 323 Aqua (Not yet on Bricklink-- new color used for some Cars characters) 324 Medium Lavender (Not yet on Bricklink-- new color seen in upcoming LEGO merchandise but not yet identified in any sets) 325 Lavender (Not yet on Bricklink-- new color used for fitness trainer's boom box in Collectible Minifigures Series 5) 326 Spring Yellowish Green (Not yet on Bricklink-- new color not yet indentified in any sets) Overall, 58 colors. That's a bit fewer than my recent estimate in the Cars topic although it fails to include some colors that have been seen this year like 299 Lacquered Gold (BL's Metallic Gold), or any other lacquered colors like those that appeared in Collectible Minifigures Series 3 (specifically, a gold color which seems different from lacquered gold and a copper color, both with unknown Material IDs).

Well, since the point of the theme is an alien invasion of Earth, the battle pack is probably geared towards scenes related to that setting. Thus, extra civilians for the aliens to terrorize. At least they didn't put in a minifigure who you couldn't really use more than one of in an alien invasion scene, like the farmer or the news reporter. Something I noticed in the catalog is that both the ADU soldiers and Alien Troopers have alternate torso prints for pilots. I had seen the ADU pilot torso in reviews, but had never seen any mention of the alien pilot torso. Of course, to be fair the catalog is really the only place to identify the two torso designs as being connected to separate roles, since unlike the ADU every alien from Alien Conquest is some type of pilot. None of the sets have had simple alien footsoldiers of any kind (unless you count the alien pilot). Something I've noticed because of this theme is that very few sets this year use color 298 Cool Silver Drum Lacquered (BL's Metallic Silver). Instead, LEGO is moving towards using the newer 315 Silver Metallic (BL's Flat Silver/Pearl Light Gray/Pearl Dark Gray/Metallic Silver, depending on the set and who's doing the inventory). I definitely approve of this decision, as it makes consistency in silver colors a lot easier to establish if the "pearl" color is used more consistently in sets. And although I was a huge fan of Agents with its abundant Cool Silver Drum Lacquered parts, I am already growing very fond of the new silver after obtaining it in Atlantis, Hero Factory, and Minifigures sets from this year.

Well, the most obvious new patterns are the ones on the new minifigures, as well as the shrunken head in 4866 Knight Bus and the globe in 4867 Hogwarts. There is also what looks to be a printed tile in the Knight Bus set, but it's hard to identify what it's supposed to represent. As for stickers, I imagine the words reading "Knight Bus" and "KB" on the Knight Bus are stickers. The Hogwarts set also probably has stickers for its wall panels, but they don't really look any different than the ones in last year's 4842 Hogwarts Castle. There are other stickers on the interior for paintings, and the Mirror of Erised inside is almost certainly made with a reflective sticker. Meanwhile, perhaps the reason it's just called "Hogwarts" rather than "Battle for Hogwarts" is because they don't want its title to be too movie-specific (especially since it has elements from various movies). Alternatively, since the Harry Potter theme is currently one of the most successful among girls, they want to emphasize creative role play rather than combative role play in the set's name. Note that the set description in the catalog makes no mention of the exploding floor of that central walkway, seen in Toy Fair photographs as a key action feature.

Here's something I'd like. It's not a new part design per se, but rather a part with a very useful decoration. What I'd like are two printed versions of 8x16 flat tiles (part 48288) in either 199 Dark Stone Grey or 26 Black. One of them would have road stripes going across it the short way, and the other would have a crosswalk going across it the long way. Using the two together with unprinted 8x16 tiles, you could easily create any combination of urban grid-based streets. What's more, these streets have the appropriate dimensions to be used with the modular building series, something that is not possible with actual road plates unless you transplant the modular buildings from their original baseplates to the road plates (and even then, this would leave irregularly-sized gaps between buildings unless you specifically used road plates with an 8-module curb).

Technically, that was never removed. It was also on the 2010 color palette (see here), and was used at least as recently as 2008. To my knowledge, "nature" is just the color of uncolored ABS/polypropylene granulate. It's basically 40 Transparent but with different materials (note that actual "transparent" parts, at least those with the usual glassy look, are invariably made from polycarbonate rather than ABS). This is probably the reason it's still on the color palette-- they can presumably still produce it at a moment's notice, because it doesn't need any special plastic, treatment, or formulation of dyes.

Did you not know about the Hero Factory thing until now? It was on the store calendar about a month ago. It's partly to tie in with the addition of Hero Factory parts to DesignByMe, the online Pick-A-Brick, and the online "Hero Recon Team" application.