larry marak

Any of you noticed how sharp the claw units for the Atlantis sets are? I picked up the crab and diver set the other day and these new claws are very sharp compared to the large and small tusks that Lego has made over the last few years. They actually remind me of scalpel blades!

Such incredible talent. Thanks for sharing.

...now if Lego just made more guns.......................:-}

A British magazine is calling Mega Bloks a rip off of Lego? Sheesh, I guess journalists are ignorant the world over. The plastic building brick system started out in England with Kiddiekraft Toys. At least MB comes from the Commonwealth, and thus has some legitimacy. If they wanted to accuse a company of ripping off Lego, they should have chosen Enlighten, which just celebrated its 45th anniversary last year. Mega at least waited till the patents expired and the brick and plate became public domain.

I'd love to see them model the Sparrows the light scout/fighters that were launched and retreived from U.S.Navy blimps in the 1930's. So small, they would actually be realistic if done in minifig scale.

Also TLG has wanted to avoid producing war toys. Now granted, with Star Wars there's incredible potential for violent play, but the background is almost mythical. Likewise with Indiana Jones, Lego has skirted very close to warfare. (Thompson sub machine guns, a Messerschmidt fighter. Personally I hope to see the land behemoth from Last Crusade before this theme has played out.) But Halo is a future based shootem up video game, with a focus purely on warfare. Far to violent for TLG's corporate moral compass. MegaBrands is of course hoping that this line will have the same kind of sales and run as Lego's Star Wars license has. Only time will tell.

I think the balance is right. The use of technic does make most of the sets for older kids, and does challenge re-use of sets in kid-designed models, but the structural integrity trumps complexity. Look at Bionicle....these are all technic sets, and they have been Lego's number one seller to children for a decade, having saved Lego from bankruptcy a while back. Kids going from Bionicle to other themes are very comfortable with technic elements because that's what they learned on. As for the lack of color choices in technic pieces, as the Clone Ranger, I can only suggest you do as I do an purchase Technic sets from Chinese brick companies. They do (in some cases) use different colors for pins and beams.

1x5 bricks are currently available in the latest 240 and 500 piece Best Lock police sets. Best Lock doesn't manufacture bricks, though it does patent designs. They are a middleman. They order bricks as sets from a factory and then sell them to specific retailers on demand. While you'll find some Best Lock in toy stores, you're just as likely to find their sets on airliners, in tractor supply stores, in presidential libraries, in Hummer dealerships (rip hummer) and in university bookshops. They have survived 16 years because they seek out niche markets. The 1x5 suddenly became available again because Best Lock had to switch supplies from the Little White Dragon company in Chengdu which was flattened in the great quake in China two years ago to the Coko Blocko Toy Co. of Chungking. Coko Bloko has a number of designs available that use over a dozen parts never seen before in Lego, including the 11x19 plate, the 2x4 3 sided 75degree slope, and hexagonal plates and tiles among other oddities.

Not ready to post a review of a full set yet, but I can address the questions about the minifigs. The fully articulated minifigs are half an inch taller than Lego standard...the difference is in the length of the legs (much more realistic). Articulation is at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists pelvis, knees and ankles. These are an evolution of the minifigs pioneered for the Pyrates line and developed further through Pirates of the Carribean, Extreme Sports, and Legend of King Arthur sets. The weapons both Spartan and Alien, can both be held by Chewbacca, however the flamethrower requires use of the socket located in the Spartan soldier's back. Compared to micromates, they are far sturdier and more compatible with traditional Lego figures. The trans-clear spartan with a transclear flamethrower (active camouflage) given out at Comiccon in San Diego is awesome. Finally, if you need a larger Spartan, Target is currently carrying an exclusive Halo Spartan sculpture consisting of over 200 bricks. About a dozen additional Halo sets are planned for next year.

If I read the statements above from the Lego group correctly, U.S. prices are lower because of 1. A large market inside one country 2. highly competitive sales enviornment. The EU has a larger population than the U.S.A., what it needs is true multinational retail chains. If Lego sold to just a few warehouses, rather multiple small warehouses in dozens of countries, theoretically it would be practical to lower the price.

The active camo minifigs are a hoot, true transclear Spartan with a true transclear flamethrower.

I'm glad to see the patent on this brick finally expired so that Lego could start making their own clone of this common non-Lego brick. These give you the ability to extend a 1x4 studs on two sides brick outward to mount a 1x5, or 1x6 brick in snot construction. (And yes, there are 1x5 bricks, the patent is still good on them so Lego hasn't cloned any yet).

Wonderful Moc from the silent Jules Version film, first men in the moon. Seriously I'm waiting for the Selenites to counterattack. Edgar Rice Burroughs actually did a novel of this scenario, entitled "The Moon Men". Read it if you can track it down. It was originally a political satire about bolshevism (written in the 20's) and he translated it into an interplanetary romance nove.

My favorite Lego lines are the short lived ones. IF Lego gives a long leash to the project developer we get new parts valueable forever. And short lived themes cry out for expansion, and are thus perfect for mocing, if the series itself was underdeveloped. Crying out for expansion are The Last Airbender, Speed Racer (talk about a missed opportunity, there are 12 years of anime source to exploit here), Dino-Attack (ever hear of Godzilla, Mothra, Rhodan....infinite possibilities in this theme). Best value on a short lived theme lately is Indiana Jones. Finally Lego machine guns , armed biplanes and a Messerschmidt. And the 6 wide track in Temple of Doom opens a whole new scale for Lego railroaders.

Indeed, the Lego version of the brick separator has an edge specifically for removing tiles from plates.

At Least we're getting purple back in Ben-Ten. Maybe they solved the purple problem.

I was wondering about the orange brick separators too. I have over 20 of them, but they are K'nex brick separators, not Lego or Mega Blok brick separators.

Are you saying that Lego didn't make a 1x1 brick with a stud on one side before, or that it wasn't available in white before? By the way, the Lego countdown Christmas Candle is gorgeous, a little flimsy because it depends on tiles for the candle to burn down, and the only set you can buy with the numbers 1 through 24 printed on the sides of 24 red 2x4 bricks. Perfect for customizing Christmas trains.

By the way, on the earlier reference to Best Lock copying Lego's design for the minifig, 2 interesting facts. One, when Lego desided to make its minifig (originally slated for release with the Space line) it delayed so long that one of Lego's design team defected to Tente of Spain and Tente ended up coming out with minifigs first. Two, Best Lock doesn't design or manufacture bricks or minifigs! They are purely a distribution company; they purchase clone parts on order from sources in China. When they started up they used the non-compatible (short brick, tall stud, channels instead of tubes) bricks made by Coko Bloko Toy Company in Chunking. Then four years ago (when European courts ruled that Lego's claim to exculsivity for the 2x4 brick with studs was invalid) they started purchasing from Cobi of Poland and Little White Dragon on Chengdu in China. The deal with Cobi fell through after a year and they stuck with LWD until the earthquake destroyed the factory in the great Chengdu quake 18 months ago. Best Lock has returned to purchasing parts from Coko Bloko of Chunking, and we are now seeing a wealth of porprietory lego-compatible parts from Best Lock (i.e., 1x5 bricks, 3 sided 75degree slopes, 1x2 2/3 tall bricks with studs on two sides, etc.

By the way, Sluban is definitely a Chinese clone of Oxford, not an Oxford export label. Oxford roundly condemns cloners of their sets on their website. If you look at their respective websites, Sluban looks like a mirror image of Oxford! By the way, Sluban now has a distributing company in Belgium or the Netherlands. First Chinese company to establish a dealership in Europe.

There are now about 30 brick companies out there, Lego is still king of the clones, and hopefully will remain healthy for years, but at this point their departure won't even slow down the brick hobby. Relax. This should be an interesting Christmas toy season, Lego and Knex did phenomenally this year and many new contenders should show up in the shops this year, both compatible and non-compatible. Happy building.

Indeed. The 2008 contract was modified to allow Lego to produce its own space line, of which the two giant space police and skulls set were the test balloon. The contract will doubtless be renewed along similar lines, especially with Lego now having to compete with Mega's Halo line and Best Lock's War of the Planets lines.

I would have thought the Pixar-Lego contract would have led to lego sets for sale in Disneyland too, but its not to be. Disneyland parks are now selling Disney-Build It bricks sets, made by Kadawa (Dia Blok) of Japan. These are a series of 8 sets based on rides and attractions. The Jungle Cruise rocks!:-}.

Yes, the K'nex man, and its successors, the K'nex commanders with a more articulated head piece. The company now uses the term K'nexman for its version of the minifig. Every set now except the coasters is a combination of bricks and sticks now. The best brick sets are 90% brick (Road Rally, Air Action series) the best stick sets are the Moto Bots which use brick elements for decorative effect only and are 90% standard and micro-scale K'nex. One thing that's a lot of fun to watch is the new brick elements coming out from Knex almost every month. Their most recent innovations are the 1x24 brick, the contoured tile (snaps over a contoured slope to modify it), version 2.0 of the brickbased 3volt motor with forward backwards switches and a clutch for puting the vehicle in gear or in neutral, and the double-sided friction pin, that allows you to build tube to tube with bricks. of course, it you want true oddities, like the 11x19 plate or the 1x5 brick, you need to look at the new output from Best Lock. Their new, post Chengu earthquake supplier out of Chunking is producing a host of never before seen lego compatible elements. Larry Marak, unofficial bricklink curator of clones

Unfortunately I just have a webtv, not a computer, so I can't upload digital photos. Knex continues to release new kinds of brick elements almost on a monthly basis. Today I received a Dinosaur 20+ model set that included more of the above mentioned double sided friction pins for tube to tube building as well as 3 new elements, teeth pins (ala viking horn teeth, rather similar), a new sound brick (dino roar) and something entirely new, a contoured plate designed to snap in place over a contoured slope, allowing you to give vertically slit eyeballs to your Velociraptors!