Aanchir

Another thing I've read multiple places is that to become a LEGO designer of any sort it can be a good idea to first do something to get your foot in the door. In other words, if you can get a job with LEGO and stand out as good at what you do, you'll have a much better chance of being noticed if you later apply for a design job. From what I've read, that's what Jamie Berard tried to do before he was hired as a LEGO designer. And Kelly McKiernan, one of the former webmasters of the BIONICLE website BZPower, was able to take advantage of his web-design experience-- he is now in charge of various LEGO websites, including the LEGO Hero Factory website. It's not a design job, but it's the career that suited his personal skillset and interests. With this in mind, it could be a good idea to just pursue your own personal interests and then look for job openings of any sort that apply to those interests. Even if you don't get that design job you want, being employed by the company you love could be conducive to your LEGO hobby! Personally, I'm aiming to be a LEGO designer of some sort, and have been for a long time. It's one of those things that as you grow up you think will be a silly childhood dream you'll look back on and laugh, and then just as you start your career search you'll start seeing things you didn't expect to see: how LEGO is one of the top companies to work for in terms of employee benefits, how other AFOLs have actually managed to find employment as LEGO designers, and how your own particular skills (in my case, math and design) could be a great benefit in pursuing a degree that you think could help get you noticed. Currently, I'm in a two-year school and looking to transfer somewhere that would have good engineering or design programs. My twin brother has already isolated a few potentially good schools for himself, including one that happens to have specific courses in toy design. And overall, I feel very optimistic about the prospects of at least gaining the skills a product designer needs, if not actually finding my way into that particular line of work. EDIT: Why does the word filter change the full form of the word "math" or "maths" to "testicles"?

I would expect it to be an exclusive set, just because it seems illogical that such a huge set would be kept so secret unless it were an exclusive. Unless, of course, it's a D2C set, in which case boy wouldn't the D2C contest feel redundant!

Great review. Although I have a couple notes to make. First, this isn't the first appearance of a human character on a box-- all of last year's Harry Potter sets had the three lead actors on the box, and the Star Wars boxes for a long time have had Clone Troopers on them (although that isn't as egregious since he's a CGI character in full armor rather than a human actor with a visible face). Second, the little "Click" feature isn't new either, even though it rarely makes appearances in instructions. I'm most familiar with it from BIONICLE and other action figure themes. It's generally used to show explicitly where two parts that are already on the model are connecting, since they might not stand out as new. I love some of this set's details, partly because I love Pirates of the Caribbean and partly because I loved Islanders, which this approaches in its overall aesthetic.

No, actually I wouldn't really mind a "no restrictions" RCB. I myself prefer building with parts in existing colors, but of course I don't tend to participate in these anyway (next time perhaps I should). Color confusion only tends to bother me when it's genuinely somebody not knowing the difference between colors-- when arbitrary colors are a stylistic decision it's perfectly tolerable for me (although some people tend to go a bit crazy with metallic colors and thus ruin the impact those colors would have had as mere accents).

Pictures are fixed. I must have overlooked that part of the images-per-topic rule. Anyway, it's supposed to be Colossus-- I must have goofed when writing the topic title. I'll PM a staff member to fix that. My brother's actually a member here, but he rarely posts. He mainly joined so I could stop having to report LDD errors that he was finding. I felt the overall set should seem very action-y and playable. After all, while "slice of life" sets like the Medieval Market Village are nice, I think what really defines a D2C set isn't the subject matter so much as the scale and level of detail. And if we're going to define Atlantis as an "action theme", then action is an inherent quality that can't be ignored even at this scale. In that respect, the Portal of Atlantis could easily have passed as a D2C set on its own! I've fixed the pics now. Anyway, getting closeups of the sub's interior was mainly difficult because lighting it is difficult. While you can easily tilt the submarine to see the inside clearly, this wasn't easy to do in the studio set up for my by my college's photography teacher. Did I fail to actually link to the gallery? Stupid me-- I made so many mistakes when posting this topic. Edited now. Well, as far as the Dread Colossus was concerned, the Exo-Force joints from the Undersea Explorer set were some of the only ones we had with us at college that could support his weight! We tried to cover them up to a certain extent, but didn't want to limit his posability in the process. Definitely some Cthulhu inspiration there. Since we built the sub first, we weren't totally sure what type of sea monster to include. My brother is the one who recommended a Cthulhu-like humanoid, and once we had made some progress on the head the decision was final.

LOL don't feel bad about me. One reason I do it is because I hope people will be able to learn from their mistakes and eventually master the LEGO color palette. Admittedly, that's a bit difficult when I do the corrections privately by PM, but apparently people don't like it when my corrections take up a large portion of a topic. But as long as I convince myself that I'm doing this for other peoples' benefit, I'm able to cope with the extra responsibility. That's another reason I'd love a DbM-based contest, or even just a LEGO Universe-based one (as opposed to LDD Extended). Both of those modes use current or future colors only, and thus it would be much easier for people using those modes to get used to the color names. And that's the first step to learning how to distinguish current colors from older colors or obscure alternate versions of colors.

This entry is a joint entry with my twin brother, who put just as much work and as many ideas into the MOC as I did. The first part we designed was the submarine, although we refined its design many times even as we were building the Dread Colossus later on. As you can see, there are two mini-subs that can be deployed from the sides, and two Technic shooters as armament. Also, the roof of the main submarine can open. Inside the submarine is storage space for equipment, including four harpoons, a metal detector, a hammer, and a wrench. The engine room is also inside, though not very visible in any of the pictures I took. The main action feature is the submarine’s functional steering, which is operated using a knob on the top. Here’s an animation showing the steering in action: Underneath the submarine is a sea-monster-proof cage for holding onto the treasure keys once they’ve been reclaimed. All five divers’ flippers can be attached here as storage. Here, Dr. Fish demonstrates how the cage opens and holds the keys in place. As for the Dread Colossus himself, he has many points of articulation, and has a treasure key mounted on his chest and each of his limbs. He wields a giant trident and has articulated fingers for grasping either the trident or an unfortunate diver!) The importance of the mini-subs quickly becomes apparent. While the larger sub distracts the Dread Colossus with blasts from its blunt shooters, the mini-subs have to approach the monster and grab the treasure keys off of his very body. Without the treasure keys, the Dread Colossus will be powerless, and the Atlantis Deep-Sea Salvage Crew can escape with the treasure keys. For more pictures, check out the gallery (when public)! Any feedback is appreciated!

Those are just regular 2x2 jumper plates. That tail section is at a different angle than the main body, which may be why they look like slopes.

Love this one! It's way better than the Fire Dragon, particularly in the tail area. The spears are an additional interesting touch. And I love the printed lightning bolts on his head! I agree, he'll probably be very expensive, but I think he'll probably be worth every penny among those who collect Ninjago. On a side note, I love how despite sharing the head of the Ice Dragon and Fire Dragon, he is also a lot like the Earth Dragon in that he is a long, serpentine dragon with four legs. Not sure how I feel about him having four legs as well as clawed wings, but overall his design quality is enough to make up for it (or at least it appears such in this picture). Also note that as of yet, he's the only set other than Nya to have the "spike" piece in 297 Warm Gold (Pearl Gold). His wings might possibly be in 321 Dark Azure (the color of the Alien Defense Force uniforms in Alien Conquest), which would be awesome.

I still think a good RCB idea would be to do one purely with DesignByMe mode. I personally sometimes find a limited parts palette inspiring. It would prevent errors (which would be nice, because error-checking is tedious) and would make all the parts current and readily available, so that we could more easily build it in real life after we've finished with it on LDD. Still, the last time I suggested that nobody seemed to like the idea-- I guess people just get more fun out of using parts on LDD that they aren't as likely to have in real life. When another RCB comes along, I suppose I can still do error-checking. After all, I'm probably the one here who's most bothered by color and part errors, so I can't easily refuse and still get the same pleasure out of seeing the model progress. Speaking of which, great work on this one, everybody!

Yep, the chicken's a new mold. So is the goat in the Mill Village Raid set. The weapons in the Blacksmith Attack set are new for the LEGO Heroica board game series coming out in the summer. Overall, I'm happy to see the new chicken and goat, since they fit in well with minifigures. I definitely prefer specialized minifigure animals to brick-built ones in most themes, especially ones with printed eyes.

In my opinion, the collectible minifigure Native Americans are far superior to the ones from the Western theme (called Wild West here in the US). True, there was a lot of diversity in the outfits in the Western theme, but they were also not nearly as vibrant as those in the collectible minifigures. And the Western theme in general was responsible for some of the greatest travesties in minifigure face design imaginable. Not only did Western introduce some of the first faces not based on the classic smiley (in the bandits of the first wave), but one of the bandits and all of the Native Americans had whites in their eyes and-- here's the real kicker-- noses. Truly a sad day in the history of the minifigure. It's true, I'm not too picky about minifigures. I generally have approved of Exo-Force and SW:CW minifigures, even if they deviate hugely from the traditional formula. I also do not insist on the plain smiling mouth some people tend to prefer-- I love the diversity of facial expressions in the collectible minifigures. But I do believe that there should be some standards in minifigure designs, and the Western theme struck me as LEGO's first time testing the limits of those standards. As far as I'm concerned, they went too far in that first test, and only really achieved a proper balance between individuality and uniformity many years later. Anyway, I have the tribal chief sitting in front of me now, and he strikes me as a testament to how even fairly generic minifigure faces can work even for Native American minifigs, and how there's no reason figs in non-licensed themes should need stereotypical race indicators like oversized noses or realistic skin tones to establish an definitive racial identity. End of rant.

The heavy assault vehicle is by far my favorite of these ones. It's unique, intimidating, and yet still simple enough to fit in with classic Blacktron sets. I have to admit that I missed out on Blacktron completely. I first started collecting LEGO around 1995, when the current bad guy faction was Spyrius, and only got my hands on various Blacktron parts through yard sales and other pre-owned LEGO purchases. While I still have a soft spot for Spyrius, though (I mean, how can you not love flying saucers and robots?), Blacktron remains the essential Space bad guy faction, and I had very much hoped for Blacktron to make a grand return in some form before Space Police III ended (perhaps something like this).

Yeah, horns on vikings are kind of ridiculous, if acceptable in a pop-culture context. What makes far less sense are the solid gold horns of the Series 4 Viking, which for me prevent willing suspension of disbelief (not to mention adding a completely unnecessary color to his color scheme). If they wanted to make him unique, they could have done something different, like perhaps giving him the cow horns. I imagine those would have looked just fine on him, if still dreadfully unrealistic. Anyway, lovely vignette. The stage and props are amusingly simple, while the curtains and proscenium arch add a great deal of ornateness to the MOC. The actors themselves are hilarious, although again on the one furthest upstage the cow horns might be preferable to those vicious blades he currently sports. The face you chose for the actress furthest downstage is amusing, and that spear is very effective as a weapon (more effective than the sand yellow metallic Knights' Kingdom sword on the other guy, which seems a bit out of place). I like the dragon wings on that gold helmet, as well. And naturally, the collectible minifigure viking fits in perfectly in this. Also, I can say with confidence that when I read the topic's title, I for one knew to expect something opera-related.

The axes were basically my decision when I ran out of ideas using the parts already used in DesignByMe mode. Axes like that are available in Hero Recon Team, and furthermore their simplicity keeps them from standing out as minifigure weapons (unlike many of the alternatives like the larger halberd pieces from LEGO Castle). There's also a bit of a visual pun, if you use the slang meaning of "axe", which means a guitar, tying in Stringer's sound motif (although trust me when I say this was just a silly coincidence and did not feed into my choice for the weapon). Needless to say, I'm not totally happy with this weapon and neither was my brother. But it was about as unique as I could make his weapon without making it far more complex than the other 2.0 heroes. I goofed around with some ideas like mounting his weapon on his upper arm, but overall I couldn't make it look quite right (with that idea it felt like his lower arms and hands had nothing to do). Well, there are a couple ways. The more difficult way (but the one that is available to all users immediately upon downloading LDD) is to click View>New Themes>LEGO Universe at the top of the LDD window to switch a model built with DesignByMe mode's Hero Factory parts into LEGO Universe mode. In LEGO Universe mode, you can color bricks any color, even ones that the part doesn't exist in in real life. The problem with this method (and the reason it's such a hassle) is that since Hero Factory parts are not available in LEGO Universe mode, you have to click View>New Themes>LEGO DesignByMe to switch back any time you want to add more Hero Factory parts you can't clone from elsewhere on your model. The method that's more exclusive but less of a regular hassle is to follow the directions in this topic to unlock LDD Extended mode, which includes all parts currently programmed into LDD-- even those which are not in LEGO Universe mode, like microfigs and Hero Factory parts. LDD Extended mode has all of the same freedoms as LEGO Universe mode, including an even wider range of colors in its paint bucket tool's color palette. Of course, while this greatly simplifies the process, it is not a cure-all. Certain decorations cannot be generated in LEGO Universe mode or LDD Extended mode, and so you have to use the first method to switch into LEGO DesignByMe mode to get those decorations (including certain Hero Factory parts).

I don't see how most of these ones are "fillers". There's the brilliant lumberjack, the boxer, the kaiju, the eskimo, the royal guard, and by far my favorite, the graduate. True, none of these besides possibly the graduate, mobster, and dwarf can easily be considered army-builders. And true, the dwarf, small clown, cave girl, and snowboarder are ideas that have been touched upon before. However, I don't think an idea has to be brand-new or a possible army builder to deserve an appearance in the collectible minifigures. Think of it this way: the crash test dummy was dreadfully unpopular among AFOLs, and was not very useful for army building. Does that mean that there should never have been a LEGO crash test dummy? Nonsense-- it was an innovative idea that was carried out very well, and that couldn't have easily been incorporated in any other LEGO theme. The idea that a fig has to be super-desirable among all people in order to deserve a slot among the collectible minifigures is silly and would lead to LEGO throwing out plenty of perfectly good ideas.

Not sure where you can find a translation guide. The reason for the discrepancy is that LDD uses the four- or five-digit part ID, which specifies that specific mold, whereas the instructions use the more specific Element ID, which specifies the mold, the color, and any decorations the part might have, all in just one six- or seven-digit number. There is no easy conversion method, since every new element (that is to say, every time a part is made in a new color, with a new decoration, or both) it is given a brand-new Element ID. Thus, the Element ID number is not at all connected with the part ID number, and conversions have to be on a case-by-case basis. In the case of 4514842, this number specifies a 1x12 plate in White. 1x12 plates in other colors will have different Element IDs. But all 1x12 plates will have the same part ID unless TLG releases a newer, significantly retooled version of that part.

Well, the elf's bow's number seems to start with the numbers "932" 93213, maybe? It's pretty much impossible for me to read even with the explorer's magnifying glass, especially since both the bow and the magnifying glass are fairly dusty. The Kimono Girl's fan has a similarly-illegible number printed on it. Others are legible, though: 93551 Palette (Artist) 93558 Hair with Elongated Forehead (Monster) 93566 Hazmat suit (Hazmat Guy) Also, there are a number of parts now available in LDD, so here are their IDs: 87989 Syringe (Nurse) 87993 Ray Gun (Spaceman, Space Alien, Space Villain) 87994 3M Bar (Spaceman, Space Alien, Space Villain, Viking) 87996 Horn (Clown) 88001 Club (Caveman) Hope these help! In the meantime, I also hope we can find a way to read the ID numbers on the elf's bow and kimono girl's fan; those things are crazy small.

Those racks are about the same as the ones I've seen for Series 2 and 3 at Wal-Mart stores. But there was never more than one of the Wal-Mart ones up at any given time, and I'm not sure if the design is exactly the same, so there might have been some redesigning between series. The only place I've found Series 4 is an independent toy store in Keene, NH, but admittedly I haven't checked too many other stores lately. I'll have to investigate the Wal-Mart near Brattleboro, VT sometime soon. Something to note is that the toy store I checked in Keene originally didn't have the Series 4 box out for people to see. But when I asked when Series 4 would be coming in, the man at the register pulled it out from behind and said that he was only putting it out for people who requested, since the store was still trying to sell all their Series 3 minifigures. Now, though, they have both boxes on the counter side-by-side.

Well, with a lot of those examples (Wild West sets and Rocky River Retreat), those were specialized road/river plates for those particular sets. Unless another set in the theme had needed road/river plates, it's doubtful other versions would have been released. If the first versions had come individually, then yeah, alternate shapes of those plates would be expected. But I can't think of how they'd release extra "road packs" if the original versions on their own weren't imagined to have enough demand to be sold in a pack. On a side note, no, I'm not saying it wasn't a problem. I had pretty much all of those sets and it drove me crazy, too. A certain thing to consider is that baseplates drive up the cost of a set significantly due to their size, and only really work if there's enough "set" on top of them to make the baseplate's inclusion worthwhile. After all, a baseplate is something that in most cases you'll never be able to use for anything other than a baseplate. So to include a baseplate in certain sets would basically be driving up the price of a set for something that won't contribute to most people's building experience. With regular plates, yes, it's a heavier piece with a higher volume of plastic. But it's also something that can be easily re-used for something other than its original function. A good example of a recent set that wouldn't have worked too well without baseplates is Space Police Central. Yes, you could theoretically arrange it on regular plates. Even the ballistics testing area could theoretically have been done with a framework of plates. But it wouldn't have at all the same level of unity and solidity without the baseplates holding the prison cell platform, main building, and break room together. With today's larger 16x16 and 8x16 plates, perhaps using regular plates would be a more viable option, but in the context of the year it was released baseplates were the only really viable option for that set. A set based primarily on vehicles, as is the case with many of the largest Star Wars sets (incidentally, also the sets that could more easily absorb the cost of a baseplate), has considerably less use for baseplates.

As far as matching the official LEGO color names used in LDD to the more common AFOL or Bricklink names, I recommend either Superkalle's LDD Manager (recommended) or Peeron's color chart. However, note that neither of these tools is perfect because they're dealing with imperfect online databases. Often a Bricklink color (especially a metallic or transparent color) will be equivalent to two or more LEGO colors. Other times, a LEGO color may appear under multiple names on Bricklink. And even when colors are easy to distinguish, they can be mislabeled or labeled inconsistently (most often with metallic colors). So be wary that even if you convert color names exactly according to a reliable color chart, you might still end up using a different color than the one that actually appears in the set you're trying to build.

This is by far the most unique and creative Pharaoh's Quest entry I've seen so far. It's a concept that none of the original sets explored in any form, and yet it manages to maintain so many aspects that make the theme what it is (giant living animal statues, amazing dark red motor vehicles, crazy minifigures, and lots of treasure)! I love the SNOT-based design of the pharaoh's boat, as well as the clever angles of the adventurers' boat. The only problem I have with this entry is that the level of detail doesn't feel as advanced as I feel a D2C set ought to have. It feels more like a Toys 'R' Us exclusive set in that regard-- in terms of complexity, on par with regular sets, but with completely unique ideas not explored in other sets. The amazing SNOT-based hull of the Pharaoh's boat is what really gives me this unfortunate feeling, although I can't figure out exactly what sort of details could be added to the hull of an Egyptian funeral barge to improve it. Stickers would feel like a cop-out, and SNOT-based details on the sides could upset the graceful streamlining of the hull. Overall, though, I'm incredibly impressed with the uniqueness of this entry. Good luck in the contest!

Well, the problem I observe is that people already will occasionally "transplant" their modular buildings to get them onto road plates. I've seen this at Brickfair on occasion, since there road plates are the norm rather than the exception. And this is where working with baseplates gets a little messy. Modular buildings exist in 32x32 (all corner buildings and most others) and 16x32 (Market Street). Unless you're using road plates with an 8-stud curb (which largely disappeared after the 90s), there's no way to get a city block to measure a multiple of 16 studs from corner to corner. On the other hand, if LEGO were to transition to a more modular style based on plates and tiles, then you could easily get a city block just the right size without even needing to chop the Market Street in half to fill in the extra 16 studs the corner plates produce. Instead, your street itself would be modular. This is of course hypothetical, because I have no idea whether there is any intent to expand standard plates to replace baseplates in all themes. But I do feel it's about time we started considering the new options plates provide, since it seems clear to me that sets built on plates rather than baseplates won't be going away entirely. In any event, I'm sure everyone's grateful that the trend in the late 90s of Castle sets being built on bricks rather than baseplates never caught on. I have to say, though, I'm a lot more receptive to the switch to regular plates than I was about the switch to bricks, no matter how many base bricks and baseplates alike I have accumulated in my basement back home. If baseplates do get replaced altogether (which I don't foresee happening anytime soon, at any rate), it's possible that people who are willing to make that transition could probably get a good value for their baseplates on Bricklink, since I'm sure there are also AFOLs who would be simply unwilling to make that transition.

The trick is managing to make him look bulky without using a huge number of pieces. After all, while Shine's version uses only 32 parts (which isn't bad), it has a much smaller weapon. So it would be difficult to use the weapon from my design or anything nearly as complex on a MOC with that level of armor/cladding. I'll continue goofing around with armor, but overall I want to make sure I have balanced cladding and a moderately impressive weapon. That's absolutely amazing! I love his arm cannon-- very creative use of Technic!

As far as the limited parts palette is concerned, keep in mind that these, like other DesignByMe sets, are packed by hand. Thus the simpler the parts list is, the easier it is to pack them and ship them. There's a reason why a Hero built with this online application is cheaper to purchase than the same hero built on LDD. Certain things that bug me include the lack of girls' names, and the fact that you can't attach certain pieces in certain places (like spears or axes into the gun barrel piece-- I imagine this may be to simplify the instructions, thus streamlining the process even further). But overall, I'm impressed with the process and feel it's a great opportunity to let kids test their creative freedoms with these pieces. Overall, the system doesn't meet all of my expectations, even though it is sufficient in most respects. I had expected that you might be able to add cladding at different angles, and was kind of disappointed to find you can't. The aforementioned weapon limitations are also a downer. One of the things I dreamed of but never honestly expected was perhaps the chance that your Hero could have a custom name badge with their name and your choice of colors (maybe even a choice of pattern) in the style of the 2.0 name badges. But then, the way LEGO applies prints wouldn't work at all for an on-demand service like this, even if the options were limited. Overall, while I prefer LDD in most respects, I find that the limited parts palette and step-by-step process employed in Hero Recon Team is great for simple brainstorming and testing out color scheme ideas. I'm sure that applies even more so for kids, who might have a harder time completing a design with LDD's wider range of options.