Robianco

I'm sure customisers need to make some profit in what they do... even if just to fund the next figures... but as in all things I'm sure there's not a completely altruistic motive in creating them... and why should there be? I've also stated my opinion on similarities between creating customs of Lego designed figures (game designs etc) and printing the figures to sell and what the Chinese companies are doing. I'm not going into the details here as it was getting tiring in the first place! ;) People making plastic figures isn't illegal... It's the patent to Lego's mini figure design that would be being violated. Everyone from Kreo to Megabloks has the same dimensions to their figures... the size of the brick and the stud is identical so accessories fit across the ranges. Whether the small differences in Decool's figures (shoulder angle and bladed hip joint) are sufficient to not violate the copyright I'm not so sure. There's then also the intellectual property and licensing issues of printing designs that belong to Lego or Marvel/DC... even likenesses. China is well known for flaunting licensing and copyright laws... just look at the mass produced blatant copies of BMW cars that the government just laughed off. I don't think the production is being driven by the western market though... so even if all the Lego fans in UK, USA and Europe decided not to buy them they'd still be being produced and sold across Asia where there primary market is... so it's not going to stop. What we CAN do though is support customisers and buy their products... yes they're more expensive... but that's what pad printing costs and the figures are excellent. Use Decool and SY (even Lele) for those figures that are either priced way out of reach or unavailable. That way we get what we want and the customisers are also able to keep producing their figures and offering excellent products while having a very cheap alternative readily available.

Not really... Someone had created a mould and had vinyl figures that were hand painted and were selling for around £50 each... Decool actually did a really good job with those but they were copied.

There's a slim chance I suppose but there's a community of customisers and people who are faithful customers... The customisers buy each other's figures (or trade them) so for someone to be helping to supply the Chinese companies with designs and influences would have to be someone outside of that. They do at least have people who are aware of Lego as some of their figures, especially SY, have been unique and very we'll done. To be honest I'd happily supply SY with some designs as I think they're at least trying to be something more that just copiers of other people's work.

Yeah... I know what you mean. It's SY that are actually trying to do something even slightly original with some of their figs although they've also copied customisers stuff. I actually have less of an issue with copying figures as customisers actively copy Lego's designs to make the game design figures so there's a kind of parallel between those two actions but to then take renders they've done and use them as box art... I don't know... it just feels worse in my opinion.

I know Adam can answer this but I thought I'd give an answer. Pad printing is done by specialist printers... Normally for promotional items such as pens, stress toys etc... I've got about 5 or 6 designs I'd love to get printed but the cost in the UK is quite high for the right quality of print and the amount of colours needed for these figures. I've had quotes from US printers that have been much more reasonable.

The Stan Shunpike head (or very common variant) is the one I've used... I think that was what the game design was based on for Mr Fantastic. I've used Leia for Invisible Woman also and I used this one for Johnny Storm: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3626bpb288

In the next month I'd say...

I'm not sure about that... The X-Wing and B-Wing sets had canopies so I'm sure they'd look to put one on there. I actually think if they did put out another UCS Falcon that canopy area on the bridge is one place they could improve on.

Muddy River figs were selling pad printed Punisher figs for $10 recently. Fantastic quality!

Their last range of Avengers had some original figures... at least Black Widow wasn't copied from a customiser as far as I know... the Iron Man was unique too I think... the Captain America range had a couple of designs that weren't copied from anyone. I replaced all the heads with new ones from BrickLink. Couldn't stand the ones they included!

For me Human Torch and Ghost Rider both need the transparent flame head piece in the new Agents sets anyway. Looking at that image again and it's clearly the Legion of Minifigs Human Torch that's been copied. The same guy who designed the Wolverine figure they copied in the previous wave as well as the Fantastic Four figures. Apparently Decool have also used his renders of his Fantastic Four figures as their box art. If copying someone's designs isn't bad enough to download their renders and use those as box art is a huge kick in the teeth.

I actually really like Luke from the Ewok Village set. I know it's relatively simply and doesn't have the 'cool' of a helmet and cloak like Fett to really set it off but having been used to the older version with the squiggly white lines to define the tunic I just think the design of that black Jedi costume with the folded down section is perfect. It's exactly as I remember as a kid watching ROTJ. Just really well done. The version before that from the Skiff and Rancor sets was a nice improvement over the older one but the Ewok Village set is definitive. With regards to worst I'm not so sure... I share the dislike for the CW style heads because for me they're just very un-Lego like... similar to how people can design bad custom figures and put things like noses on them... but of all the new figures I just feel very underwhelmed by Cyclops in the X-Jet. There's Wolverine with his cowl which is cool... there's a Storm figure which is cool... there's a new Magneto in his Uncanny X-Men costume when he was headmaster of the Xavier Institute... which is cool... then there's Cyclops in the dullest, most detail ridden design I've seen in a long time. But that's just my twopenneth.

Then we live in hope that they've pulled something out of the bag! :)

SSD is Super Star Destroyer. Nice mini MOC by the way! ;)

Yeah... their leaflet prior only had one Thing figure listed but once they put three of them out they were always going to be changing something. Interesting that the Hulkbuster is also now gone (although I wasn't convinced by the design anyway... Just check Lego Ideas for an incredible brick built version)... but a Hall of Armour with new suits would be better anyway. At least if they're not just including older ones. I wonder if the white FF suits are copied from a customiser or that's their own design? Would that be the first unique design from Decool? I know SY have done it previously but not them...

I'm also inclined to think that Decool have dropped their planned release of the Punisher / Bullseye etc release at least for now as they've reassigned the numbers to the Thing figures and the FF set.

They look interesting enough... doesn't look like the FF Spidey is a direct copy of either MR or Christo. I heard that SY were going to release a Hall of Armour but looking at that Iron Man row it's Decool that'll be releasing it. Be interested to see what they come up with for Mark I armour and whether the rest of them will be re-releases of the existing figures they've done. I'd like to thing they'd do something new at least.

I think they're sets for the future... Cloud City is a set that has also been rumoured but may be in the next year or so. I'm not so sure we'd get another UCS Endor set so soon after the Ewok Village... although they did put out a B-Wing right next to an X-Wing so you never know. A UCS AT-AT would dwarf the Ewok Village though... The system scale versions that have appeared already (despite the faults of each version) work better with the village set.

8097 is still a pretty good as Slave 1. The UCS one could be closer to minifig scale and be a bit of a beast in size with a few nice figs thrown in although it wouldn't surprise me to just have a token Fett thrown in and them not worry about fitting the fig in the cockpit. I'm not someone who is particularly keen on getting Jango's Slave 1 but I'd say that would be the ideal system scale to 'accompany' it if they were to do that.

Where did you see that? Wouldn't surprise me to tie in with the Thing figures and give them another chance to copy a Christo or Muddy River figure. They've still not released the last set with Punisher and Bullseye. I've got the Muddy River versions of those so I'm interested to compare them to pad printed customs.

At $200 or above the set would probably be akin to the Red Five X-Wing we got... I can see that being close to minifig scale and the inclusion of any other vehicles would just make it a playset rather than a 'large' tumbler. Whether Lego decide to put in a few exclusive figs to help sales along will be something else entirely. I could probably see a single Batman as a token figure in the same way R2-D2 was kind of a token figure in the large R2 set and also in the Red Five (even though it's the one thing out of scale on the whole set). I was kind of hoping for a set with the '66 Batmobile, the Burton Batmobile and the Tumbler as a set of three for Bats anniversary.

Maybe Hawkeye's legs which are black and just have a couple of strapped buckles on them? Would the dress from Narcissa Malfoy work for the female Vampire? Nice MOC by the way... I really like the subject matter. Van Helsing is such a great character and I'm one of the few who actually enjoyed the Hugh Jackman film!

I've never used the tape before but when I purchase waterside decals I also picked up a clear acrylic spray. Once the decals are printed I sprayed one or two coats of the spray to seal the design so the water doesn't make it run. Cut the decals and apply them to the brick / torso / head etc as desired. Once it's dried I normally give one or two coats of the acrylic to seal it then it's pretty well protected. As it's a spray there's no real thickness to the acrylic so it's not obvious.

Well that's a first day of release buy. Looking forward to that being released!

It's a copy of the USM official version.