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Some of you may remember that last fall there was some sort of dicussion concerning a blade piece, which at the time was going to debut in a 2018 Ninjago set. While it clearly looked like a piece designed with constraction in mind, it made its first appearance in a System set. Some of us, me included, thought it could be a hint that something was about to happen in the constraction departement. As we all know, it wasn't the case, but simply because we were looking in the wrong direction: it wasn't a hint about constraction's near future, but about its near past. Infact, once I got my hands on the piece thanks to Bricklink, I immediately noticed a tiny detail... (sorry for potato quality) As you can somewhat see, the piece was trademarked in 2016, and yet we get to see it only in 2018. But why? Because it was a piece designed for BIONICLE G2's third year. Since development of new sets usually happens at least 12 months before they hit stores, it's highly possibile that in late 2015 designers were already working on 2017 sets, and this blade piece was on of those that was fully designed before the decision to axe the line was made. Since it already was in their pool of "trademarked pieces", why not using it? And there we are. Sure, this is not a 100% foolproof theory, but because of the year printed on the blade and the fact we first saw it only in 2018, I don't think there are many other alternatives. Chances are that we might see more "unreleased pieces" in the near future, since it's safe to assume a huge chunk of G2's third year was already designed when the reboot was canned.

Since it's almost the end of the year , i thought I'd ask the question of which was your favourite lego set released this year.

Some explanation of LEGO's financial performance in 2017 from the BBC News site. It was already known that the company had had disappointing sales in North America, but the article also points out over-production issues. There is a connection between poor sales and over-production of course, but some of the excess stock may be in addition to lower-than-expected sales. If LEGO over-reacts in the opposite direction, i.e. cuts production too drastically in 2018, we could see stock shortages and sets being retired sooner than we have been used to. Here is LEGO's press release.

Which project do you think will be LEGO's choice for the Second 2017 Ideas Review? Likewise, what do you think LEGO's choice will be for the Third 2017 Ideas Review?

Hi, I would like to share my winter village. It's my first experience in this size and I hope I didn't mess too much. It's not comparable to most of the works here because it's way simpler I think, but I enjoyed doing it and hope you enjoy seeing it. It's a 5x3 32*32 baseplate layout plus the north pole. Comments and suggestions are welcome (if kind ) The whole layout Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Hockey game Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Fun Park and Letters to Santa Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Ski Slope Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Nativity Scene in the park Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Carolers and Musicians Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Curling Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Main Plaza Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Look-alike concert Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Chair Lift Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr Ice Scuplting Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr The North Pole Lego Winter Village 2017 by Matteo M, on Flickr other Photos in flickr album https://flic.kr/s/aHsmcaadnF

I decided to try out a Lego Advent Calendar this year. It was fun opening 24 small builds across the 24 days before Christmas I wondered if I could make something using just only the parts from the 2017 Advent Calendar. Using most of the Red, White, Gold and Light Gray parts. I was able to come up with this Sleigh for Santa. While it's a bit fragile in real life. I think it looks good for what parts I had available (LDD pics for now. I'll photograph the real version later)

2017 ranks as one of my favorite years for F1 in the last decade. I love the improvements to the cars’ aesthetics, and the racing got back to record-setting speeds. Beyond that, Ferrari made a strong return to form that really took the fight to Mercedes, and I could not be happier with that development. 2018’s cars are set to debut later this month (and introduce cockpit protection to the sport), but I wanted to take one last look at the 2017 season by capturing some of it in LEGO. I present to you the Ferrari SF70H vs. the Mercedes W08. ^ Here they are! I really tried to capture the proportions of the cars as well as I could in this scale while keeping the designs fairly detailed. ^ I originally built the W08 with actual green pieces, but eventually opted to just give the car it's correct colors using custom made stickers on gray parts. It just looked so much better this way. ^ The #5 driver numbers on the SF70H are the only custom stickers I had to make for it. The rest are from Speed Champions sets (I almost always save the stickers). ^ The Mercedes has a slightly longer wheelbase than the Ferrari, as seen on the real cars (example). ^ The Mercedes also has a slimmer nose than the Ferrari, again to mimic the real cars. The front wing "aero" varies between the two models as well. ^ The last major difference between the two models are the engine covers; The Ferrari has it's T-wing mounted directly to the shark fin, whereas the Mercedes has it mounted on it's own little support arm. ^ The drivers are made with the "driver body" pieces that were included in a ton of the 2002 Racers sets. These two are from "4593 Zero Hurricane & Red Blizzard", with helmets and customized minfig heads. While it would be possible to make full minfigs fit in these cars, I don't think it's possible to do so without making the cockpit area look considerably less accurate. In the last four years I've only built one other model, but alongside these two I'll be putting up a few more replica F1 cars in 2018 for sure. This is my first time posting a creation on Eurobricks, so thanks so much for taking the time to look at my MOCs! I've also posted this to MOCpages (link), and larger images can be found on my new Flickr page (link). EDIT: Bonus photo comparison of the real SF70H vs the MOC version;

It's been a while, sorry for that, but I can finally present you with the interview I had last year during the LEGO Fan Media Days 2017 with Micheal (Mike) Psiaki, LEGO Creator and Creator Expert Designer at TLG. (sorry for typo's and spelling mistakes, it's not 100% checked and verified) INTERVIEW You are Creator Expert designer. Are you involved in modular buildings? So far my involvement with modular buildings has been more like doing some of the small details and not the building itself but in the future you can probably expect to see some module built by me...we'll see *laughs* I'm asking because we do have a lot of questions about modular buildings, but we'll just ask and see if you can answer them. One of the questions is; how do you determine the next modular building? You'll probably have a long list of potential buildings. Normally when we're developing a new model we actually kind of go through a lot of different...uhh...not necessarily committees, but a lot of different people at LEGO are involved in choosing what the new product will be. We've been pretty fortunate with the modular buildings. They've been quite successful, so all those different...stakeholders we call them ...are quite trusting of us. And they pretty much let us do what we want. So normally when you're making a new model you're coming up with a lot of different proposals and showing ideas to a lot of different people and they're giving their input and then you're narrowing it down, but with modular buildings we can essentially choose what we want to do, just as a design team. And then you just do it. So for the last, for the last.... forever, Jamie (Jamie Berard, https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/creatorexpert/explore/designer-bios/jamie) has essentially been in charge of that and he will just make the make model that he and maybe one or two other people agree on should be the next one. As to how that will go in the future...uhhh...I'm sure Jamie will still be involved. But yeah we do have a list of buildings that we have kind of made our dream list of...eventually we need these things. We'd like to do these things in City. But then also sometimes we just have a more generic idea, like, hey, let's do a restaurant. Uhmm...trying to think what the first modular building was, that I was involved with...was the Parisian Restaurant. In that one, the idea had just started out that it would be a restaurant and then it kind of took on a Parisian style throughout the development and ended up as it was. So it's usually a very loose idea like that, that the model with start with...like the brick bank was just a bank. That's the only idea and then however that evolves was like, adding things later on, like, let's have this laundromat on this side and all that stuff is just kind of what we just add in as we please. The building style you choose is obviously depending on the model you choose. But like you said you chose a restaurant and then it turned into a Parisian restaurant. How does a process like this go? This all comes down to like, traditionally it's just been Jamie working on these models and what we do a is we just kind of build all year long, we've just seen what new elements are coming in. We're just building kind of little funny things like...uhmm...on the Parisian restaurant, there's this detail with the feathers that go along the top. You know, I think Jamie had that sitting on his desk for like six years or something. One day he got some of those and made this thing into something that could be a funny detail in a building eventually. And then those are just kind of start getting pulled together and you start to see a style emerge. It's almost just letting it happen. So taking some choice details that we want to put in and the style kind of emerges from that and then other things will change to fit that style. So I don't know that we've ever really made a conscious decision of this. You know, when we start from the beginning that this building will be this style and we'll kind of work towards that style. It's more we're going to we're going to make something that we think is cool and nice. And when sthe style kind of come in, then we'll go back and kind of refine things to match the style, if we feel the need to do that. Some generic Questions about the Creator Expert series. When is a set considered expert in the Creator series? What are your goals? So Creator and Creator Expert are two totally separate product lines at this point. So it's not like we start with an idea and then we develop it and then we decide, is this Expert or is this regular Creator? So for Creator Expert we're already thinking; this is the portfolio that we want to make for the next year and in Expert we want to make models that are for higher age fans. Adults, older kids, we are calling everything 16 plus, I think for the most part. The Winter Village ones are a little more down in age, so we start with that idea that we're building a model for more hardcore LEGO fan. What is it we do then that will make it appealing to them? It's a lot about how the model is built. It's kind of different techniques we use, but it's also about what parts we use. So we want to use fun kind of new different building techniques or just really crazy things building techniques in really wild ways. We also want to use parts that are fun or that are either in new colors or new shapes or just not seen before. Like on this one (10257 Carousel) where we're using a dinosaur tail in a City wheel arch to make the shape. It's doing things like that, that really kind of is the DNA of what makes something Creator Expert. Is it Creator Expert because it's hard to build or the use of different parts? I think it's more that it's harder to build because it's Creator Expert. Because we know we're making an Expert model, we say, whatever we have to do to make this look cool, we'll do that. It doesn't necessarily have to be super complicated but we have a way that we want things to look and generally you have to build things in a complicated way in order to get these results. Like on this car, you know, in order to get the wheel arch so smooth you have to do a lot of weird things to get stuff in it. We never do things intentionally just to make it difficult, but we find ways to make the models as appealing as possible. What are the key components in choosing a Creator Expert set for next year? For example, which percentage is driven by data? So, previous sales or simply 'that would be good to do next'? Well that's a tough one to answer. I think we are taking a lot into account of the market research that we do. It's not so much based on previous sales, but it's also that we have a lot of check ins throughout the year with different leaders in LEGO and so they're the ones that are deciding ultimately what will sell or not. We can come with an idea like, all we know about this is that we think it's cool. And then it's up to them to determine, will this sell? Do we believe that we can sell enough of these? We ourselves, we don't have to do a ton of market research, but eventually that gets done by people to determine if the idea will be getting out. For us it's a lot of thinking about what we would like. Me, I love airplanes and I love helicopters, so I'm always trying to say, hey we've got to do this, we've got to do this *laughs* For example; let's say you know there was a carousel not too long ago and there will be a carousel now. Do you come up with the idea to build a new carousel? Because it hasn't been so long before the other one was released. So a carousel sells? Well, that's part of it. But also we knew that we wanted to make this a new fairground, or another ride for the fairground, so we had the mixer and we had the Ferris wheel and we knew we wanted to do another ride. And we actually built four different models, four different concepts. And there was one of them that needed more development (red. Roller Coaster). It was too early. We didn't have the parts we needed to make it into reality and some that were a little more obscure. The carousel was the one that was the most promising to do that year. But the other part of it was that the carousel before this we actually had some stability issues. So after 11 months we pulled it off of the market. So it was a very short run. And so we saw that it was a really sought after set. So because of that we thought, if it had had its run and been on the market for two or three years then that's fine, you know, let it go, give it some time before we do it again. But then it was only around for 11 months and it had stability issues, but we still saw people were asking about it so much that we thought OK why not make one that is stable, that is good and that we can relaunch. The stability issues they had something to do with the animals going up and down? No the issue was actually that the old carousel was built on a 48x48 base plate. so it was fine when it was sitting there. But then if you picked it up from the plate and tried to move it, it would actually break apart. That's the reason you don't use baseplate now?. On this one we didn't use a baseplate. On the original carousel everything except the baseplate essentially is moving. On this one we have a ground level. This level is also stable to create a nice solid base that you can then actually, you know, lift the model up from that base. You shouldn't have any issues. That was the idea. And what was the reason for omitting up and down movement because that was pretty cool. No this has that. Oh, I was misinformed. This one is not going up and down. The other four going up and down (points at the animals on the carousel). The reason that we thought, you usually see it on the carousel where one animal is stable. So maybe that's for the grandmother or child and the other thing is, that there's also a mechanical reason for that. I wanted to have the stairs here. To sort of balance out the load of the function. It made sense to have no load on the other side as well. And actually the frog is a funny one because the frog had only the leg hopping. Are there also test groups for expert adults? We do both, that is, we were testing with adults, but also with kids. Eventhough you know it is for adults, we still want the kids to be able to play with it and have fun with it. Because ultimately when you buy it on the box then it says 16 plus, but as soon as you take it home and you build it in your home and it's there sitting on the counter, it's a LEGO model and to kids a LEGO model is for them. Are certain Creator Expert sets more popular in certain countries? And do you take that into consideration? When we make products, our goal is that we can have appeal everywhere. I don't know the data on which ones perform best in which countries. I don't actually know any of that off the top of my head. How long does it take to bring and initial concept to store shelves? From the initial concept it's about a year and a half and about eight months of that time is spent actually from the initial concept until the time we say the model is finished. And then from there it's eight months for production to get everything ready and actually have the final product ready for the shelves. So it's not like we're just one person sitting working on this for eight months but it's that we start out when we have the idea of a fairground, and then it's, ok, let's build a bunch of different concepts. Select the one that's best and do some development on that. Is that in line with a City set, for example? Yes. Everything has essentially the same development time frame. But when we choose, for example, when you're doing this one, that you're not working on another product as well. But if you're working in City you may be doing three models at the same time. Is that the reason that there's only one Modular released every year? It's not so much about that we don't have the resources to do it. It's more that we just don't know that there's that much demand for modular buildings, that people need to be bind to more than one every year. And we see it as a collection thing, that people want to collect the whole series so that if you start to release multiples every year then that's starting to be a really big.... it's a lot then to buy the whole series. So we feel right now, and it could change in future, that one modular building per year that's a good amount to have a collectible series and to build up anticipation and that is something that people could feasibly collect. So as soon as you start to put out two hundred and sixty dollar models a year all of a sudden everyone just had to double their budget in order to collect the whole series. How many Creator Expert sets are being released per year? In 2016 we had the Brick Bank, we had the Beetle, Big Ben and the Holiday Train. So traditionally we do four models a year. You might see that change. You might see it go up or down. Let's see...laughs. I can't say any numbers for this year. There will be others this year. I won't say any more than that. Do you also interact with other themes, because we also went to the Friends theme. There's a roller coaster in Friends. Is something like that possible in the Creator Theme? We all were in one big building, all the designers. I like to wander around and see what other people are working on. I don't know how well this fits with the Friends roller coaster but it is a similar theme. That one was actually being developed almost a year before this (Carousel) so it's very much different wavelengths. Our team, the Creator Expert team, we actually sit right with the regular Creator theme in one team so we interact with them quite a bit. The Friends Theme has roller coaster now yeah it's been pretty cool for the Expert team. Maybe one day we could do something like that. The release of the Caterham set, does that influence a potential release over another car in Expert series? While we won't do a Caterham, I'll tell you that, it doesn't make any changes to our plans. What we're trying to work out that we don't do cars that are too similar, so we kind of try to work together with them (LEGO Ideas) to make sure that we're not overlapping too much on the cars that we do. But it is a bit of a delicate relationship between us and ideas, what products can we do and what products are getting suggested on their site. There's quite some overlap in potential sets? Yes. Actually, the Saturn 5 rocket I've been proposing that as a Lego set five years and no one is listening to me. And then when I saw it on on Ideas I was like oh please, let it go through. I was actually really frustrated when I saw it go through because I thought that means they've already chosen the designer and they've started development on it. So what I did, is we have a digital system where we have all our models. And so I thought, okay, well let's see if they did anything good and when I looked in there to see if I could find it and there was nothing. So I immediately called up the project and I said; who's doing that model? I want to be part of it. We don't have anyone yet. So that was really cool to get to be involved in it. What was your role in the development of the Saturn? Myself and Carl (Merriam) were the two designers working on that model together. We started with the fan design and then we just turning that into something of an official LEGO set. Actually the first thing that we did was we build it that size to show how look at how cool this is so big. We actually changed the diameter of the original submission. They started to base their model on a section that covers the lunar lander and the diameter of the rocket was actually way too big for that. So we actually scaled down the main diameter, but we also found a way to build it so it's really round. So we didn't stay very true to the original model, which we don't talk a lot about. Essentially we just said we're going to make the model we want and we'll do your idea of a one meter tall Saturn V. But still I think the lunar lander and the little details are quite similar. The way that I see LEGO Ideas is that it's it's just an idea, it's just to say, to me the idea is a 1 meter tall Saturn 5 rocket built of LEGO. The specific details of how they built the engine it's not important. We do that however we find it's best to do. That's my view of it. Some people see it differently. And what do you think the reason was for not listening to you when you proposed the Saturn V? I didn't have any data to back it up. So it's just my opinion of saying this thing is cool. So in that sense I actually really appreciate LEGO Ideas that someone could say, hey this is cool and a lot of other people agree with you. And do you think it would have made a difference if you would have built a sample rocket to show them, like here's what we can do. I don't think so. I wish you could come in and see our office it's just full of so many cool models. We can go there now *laughs* Another question which may be hard to answer but it's been asked like it's been a while since there's been a Creator Expert Train, not counting the Holiday Train. Can you shed a light? You won't say yes or no but I mean; people seem to like the Expert Trains. The problem we the trains is that people don't like them that much. When we make our product line for the year we can only do four, maybe sometimes five, products in that year and then we look at what are going to be the most popular things. That's what we want to do. And every time we've done a train we always hear that people are really excited. But then every train that we've made will never perform as well as the other models that we make. And so it seems like there are two explanations. Either trains aren't as popular as people say they are or we just haven't been able to figure out how to make the right train. I think that it's more the second one that we haven't figured it out. I think the challenge with trains is that they're very kind of regional. There's very few world famous trains. Whereas with cars, everyone knows the Volkswagen Beetle and probably everyone has even driven one. But when you talk about trains; if you're from France you want a TGV. If you're from Denmark you want the Danish train. If you're from the US you want probably the Santa Fe. It's hard to pick what is the one that will have that universal appeal. We can definitely make a train. We can make a train that will be popular in France. We can make a train that will be popular in the US. We struggled to find what is an icon of a train that has universal appeal. And surprisingly the Winter Village train, that one has been quite a hit. So I think we can learn from that to figure out how could we do a train in the future. Do you think it could be option 3 that people won't buy a train because they think; well I don't have a train set. I don't have the tracks, so it's useless to me? That could be an option yeah. Generally when someone's buying an Expert model they've already bought a lot of other LEGO. So if they're buying an Expert train they probably already have tracks from other City trains that they bought. But it's a fair comment to say. I mean to your point, our holiday train, it does include track. And I think from my personal opinion the Winter Holiday Train is something you will buy because you collect the Winter Village sets. We will buy it. Not because we like trains that much or we want the tracks. So the thing is figuring out how can you get people, other than train fans, to get excited about this and that's what works at the Winter Holiday Train. You get everyone that's into the Winter Holiday sets and into trains, so maybe some train people will buy it. And everyone that's buying the Winter Holiday sets they will also be interested in that. So maybe we need a Modular Building with a train. Train Station maybe? *laughs* Some questions about miscellaneous themes that aren't released anymore or aren't released at all. I'm referring to, for example, Classic Space or Western themes, castles stuff like that. There are loads of things that aren't in current themes which could be released in Creator Expert. Do you consider making a castle or some Classic Space set in Expert? We definitely considered it. And it's similar to trains. For example, the Modular Buildings are actually part of the idea that they appeal to castle fans even though it's not a castle. It's a great way to get a lot of the parts that you would need to build a castle. Maybe more so with the older ones than with the newer ones where it got a little bit more wild with the colors, but I definitely wouldn't rule out Classic LEGO Themes. One of the questions that we have though with those is like with Classic Space is, was it so popular because there was no Star Wars? I mean when that was released there was no LEGO Star Wars. So that was the best LEGO spaceship that you could have. But now you could have the UCS Snow Speeder. So then how can we sell a classic spaceship. Will it live on nostalgia alone?Actually we begun some research to try to figure out just how powerful LEGO nostalgia is. There's some hesitation to just put a lot of faith in that, but it's not out of the question. So basically the Star Wars theme is one of the reasons that we don't have another space theme? Probably, we don't know exactly. It's not it's not 100 percent the reason that we don't do it in Creator Expert. There's other reasons as well, but having Star Wars is a reason that we don't necessarily do a second full space line line like that. And again that may change. There haven't been much Western's themes...at all. We used to have some sets, but aren't Western themes popular? I don't know about any of the market research on Western themes uhmm we'll see, I don't know...laughs. I love the old western theme actually. You know the LEGO Ideas projects made by Marshall Banana? Yeah the LEGO Western modular. I was looking at that and thinking, yes please do that. Like with the Saturn V. Please do that. I think it's the difficulty with something like that, of course they're really amazing models and they would definitely be really cool. But how do those fit in when we have the regular Modular Building line. If we introduce something like that, are we taking people away from the regular Modular Buildings. We can't just assume that when we introduce a product then people don't replace something else you know like, okay, now there's a new space theme. Now I don't need Star Wars anymore, so now all of a sudden Star Wars is nonexistent because I want to buy this new space theme. It's about striking the right balance of, we can only produce so many LEGO sets. And people only have room in their houses for so much LEGO. So when we think about making stuff for the AFOLs then it's just as much about are we giving them the elements, the bricks, in order to do what they want to do, instead of just give you exactly every model what you want just because we can only produce so many models. But we can we can make a dinosaur tale in blue. And I don't know what people are going to do with that but that's easy. You know we could make a whole car out of the weird Azure Blue color and then people can take that and they can build something really amazing with it. So for me I'm much more interested in trying to get fun and exciting elements into people's hands than just to make every single cool idea because there's an infinite number of cool ideas. you can see that on LEGO Ideas. there are so many cool projects but we will never be able to make all of them. Makes sense. Good explanation and I think you maybe right that classic feeling or that nostalgia is more of a feeling. Do you have any idea, like Bennys spaceship, did it sell well? Well I don't know the sales performance of this set. I'm really excited about the Saturn V combined with Benny's spaceship we're starting to see some real nostalgia for kind of this thing. I guess it's like the space race of the 1960s kind of nostalgia for that first journey into space. And I think that could mean a lot for LEGO in terms of what we make for products. Nowadays you hear more and more news about going to Mars in 10 or 20 years or so. Is that something that LEGO is looking into as well? Like maybe we can do Mars exploration? I shouldn't say anything about that. We're paying attention to a lot of things. How long have you been working for LEGO? In August I have been here for five years and I started on the Creator line in 2009. For the 2015 year I made the Ferrari F40 for Creator Expert and so from then until now I've been kind working half time on each and now I'm a full time only working on Creator Expert. Of course I did the Saturn V for Ideas and stuff like that. Interesting you bring up the Ferrari F40. One thing I noticed was it has different type of instruction booklet, outlining the parts you need to put on the model. I haven't seen that in the UCS Snow Speeder. Is that something that will be standard in newer instructions? I may be wrong on this but I believe we've implemented that for all Creator Expert products. Maybe not the Winter Village sets but I think all the others we now do, we outline the bricks in the right colors and that was an idea that the building construction team had when we were doing the Ferrari, because there was so much of the same color, they wanted to think of a way to highlight the parts. So did it work? Yeah because as you start building and then you don't notice it. And after a couple of pages you think; something's different. I didn't know what, so I was looking and thinking, they are outlining the parts! It's great! So I think you should do that for other sets as well. Some personal questions. How many sets have you designed? Somewhere around 20. What's your favorite? I'm really proud of the Saturn V rocket. But there's also a jet that I made for Creator. I think that's still my favorite because I love airplanes so much. Ok, thanks for your time.

This is my creation for Brickstory 2017 contest, for the "Age of Piracy" category. This is my biggest creation so far.. and it came with a theme that I love.. Pirates!! This inspiration came from one of my favorites series.. Black sails!!! :D And because i didn't like the end of Vane.. I decide to change it a little bit!! And the story starts..: Year: 1715 Place: Nassau Mission: Free Vane and burn Nassau to the ground! Vane is shuttled to the town square of Nassau where he will be executed. Bones and those loyal to him join the crowd, intent on a desperate rescue attempt. However, Vane makes eye contact with Billy and gives him a silent order to stand down.. But Captain Flint has a different opinion than the movie series.. Free Vane and kill them all!!! Nassau it's ours again!!! I hoped you like my creation! C&C are welcome!! :D

Hello! :) There'll be a lot of reviews of new Elves sets soon, but I think it can't be too many of them anyway :) So I decided to make one again! I've build beautiful Aira's Airship of Elves 2017 and here's some pictures of it. Hope you like it too :) Overall impression reminds me split of two amazing sets from first wave - Naida's Adventure Ship and Pegasus Sleigh with all that fancy-styled details and pleasing color scheme. Ant that's great! Play features became less peaceful: while only weapon of team of Andventure ship was frying pan, heroes of new story have boomerang and disc shooter, and little goblin with flying backpack looks more menaceful than sea shell or little dragon's house :) Most intriguing part of the main building for me was wing mechanism. It have a lot intresting joints, even gear mechanism that keeps wings in raised position. Movement is enough tight, it's not very light and smooth, and needs a little effort. But anyway I really liked that it adds technic building expirience. Intresting parts: lots of gold makes happy my inner magpie! :D Book with air symbol is my favorite item here! I like Aira most of all characters, so I glad that here's new stuff with her symbols. Boomerang is also nice weapon for an intelligent character. Map is classical feature of this series. All theese pretty items may be storaged in pantry of the airship! Also there's box with ammo for disc-shooter. Goblin's fliyng box. I can't find out how this bolts shoot :( When I press them as shown in istruction, they just falls down, may be I make it wrong way. But I don't mind it, because I like boxes :) The goblin himself looks like an desperate person that can bring a lot of troubles for elves! :) And here's comparisions :) New amulet also fits good to regular lego minifig. There were two amulets on one mould, like golden keys from other sets. This old and respectable guy is honored to show it to you! :) (it's only minifig that saved from my former collection) Comparision with Naida's Adventure Ship from 2015. Three Airas! And last picture - Aira's airfleet, of Elvendale Airlines inc. =) Also here's my jetbike moc :) Thanks for watching! I hope this will attract more intrest for this beautilul series!

ayy mates what do you guys think about the new summer 2017 city lego sets like whats your favorite theme from this wave and whats your favorite set and what do you think in general?

Hi! I just wanted to share my demo video of the 42066 Air Race Jet. My expectations weren't very high for this model, but it was way better than I thought it would. The model looks great, it's very well built and the color scheme works really well. It looks way better in real life than on videos and pictures, if you don't mind the small wings (i don't) there's not much to complain about. The building experience was interesting, with some of the latest parts used and I personally love complex linkages. I was lucky enough to get some 20% off, but even at full price I think it's totally worth the money. Nice to have a decent supply of beams and panels in medium blue. Hope you like the video

Here is my review on "The Joker Battle Training" set 30423. Hope you enjoy!

Review: 42059 Stunt Truck Name: Stunt Truck Number: 42059 Theme: Technic Year: 2017 Pieces: 142 Price: USD $19.99, Euro 19.99€, AUD $32.99 Brickset: Extra Info Technic Early 2017 Review Series Welcome to the fourth in my batch of 2017 Technic reviews! I was offered all the small sets early 2017 for review late last year... but I ended up getting them all! Thus I have a lot to review. I've been doing them in parallel and changing my process as I go so hopefully the latter ones will end up being the best. On that angle I'll probably retcon some of the earlier reviews if I improve my process. Due to this remember that I'm happy to take extra photos or provide extra info on request, and anything especially good will be added to the main body of the review. Do note though that sometimes the model may no longer exist if I have have made an alternate. On the subject of alternates, I will be making the alt model, if I have the instructions, think the model is worth making, and I have the time. Also I'll show mid stage construction only if I think it's relevant. Thus don't ask for construction photos or alt models if they aren't part of the review.... I am prepared to extract parts for detail photos though. Photos will all be hosted on Flickr so larger versions are available, and relevant videos will be on YouTube and linked to from here. I don't edit photos much; very rarely I'll crop one and almost never will "correct" them so the photos should be as natural as possible. I will try to not be repetitive; thus it's worth reading my other reviews. For example I'm not going to complain too much about the digital instructions; I'll try to complain about new things, or maybe not complain at all! Here's all the other reviews of H1 2017 Technic... 42057 Ultralight Helicopter 42058 Stunt Bike 42059 Stunt Truck (and 45058/42059 Combiner) 42060 Roadwork Crew 42061 Telehandler 42062 Container Yard 42063 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure 42064 Ocean Explorer 42065 Tracked Racer Mucho multi thanks to the EB LUG Ambassador CopMike and the LEGO CEE Team and Designers for allowing me to review these sets for Eurobricks. So onto the review! Packaging Front.... ...back.... ...top. Unboxing Standard punch box. Only one instruction book and it's staple bound without a substantial cover. Secondary model has instructions online only. The build is not sectioned... OK it is sorta. There's a "1" bag... and another. So in short, it's not. The panels in "Medium azure" and pullback motor are slightly special, with the ramp and the... ...the anniversary part being slightly more special than those. Parts list. Random instruction page. Build It's done! Spare parts. Power is directly applied to the rear wheel. No gearing or any other functions are in this model. The ramp is a custom colour with a wheel pattern that matches the respective vehicle and has rubber feet to help it grip rather than slip. You can see the anniversary part here on the top. Action video! The stickers are quite effective in this set as they help blend the colours. Power Racer (Combiner) I was considering making this into a separate review, but ultimately I don't have much to say about these sets, so I think it's more fair to include it here. (Do note though that I don't count this model when rating the set.) I made it after the main sets so I don't have photos without the stickers. I believe these are the spare parts. There could be some missing.... one of our resident cats slept here (hair left as evidence) and left me with doubts. I did think this part of the build was cool, in that it took advantage of the 45 degree cutouts to increase robustness. Overall I liked the look of this model. It reminded me of some the the early studless Technic models. The stickers worked well, even though one is upside down (correctly placed, it's just designed for the A model), and the colours blend well, which is impressive since there isn't always an even pairing of parts. Both of the anniversary parts are used, but only one is visible. Quick action video! Longer action video! Since I won't be rating the combiner, I will make a quick comment that I was impressed with how well it handled; when aimed well it was fast and jumped high. Ratings Function: Technic fans probably should look elsewhere. 2/10 Parts: The highlight really is the "Medium azure" 6/10 Price: The Australian price of this set seems rather high IMHO. 6/10 Accuracy: Considering the limited parts it's not a horrid truck model. 6/10 Fudge: Pullback cars aren't really my thing. But it's a good kit for experimenting with them. 6/10 Overall: It's the better deal of the pullbacks, but even so, there's better Technic for less money 5/10

Review: 42063 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure Name: BMW R 1200 GS Adventure Number: 42063 Theme: Technic Year: 2017 Pieces: 603 Price: Euro 49.99€, AUD $89.99 Brickset: Extra Info Technic Early 2017 Review Series Welcome to the fifth in my batch of 2017 Technic reviews! I was offered all the small sets early 2017 for review late last year... but I ended up getting them all! Thus I have a lot to review. I've been doing them in parallel and changing my process as I go so hopefully the latter ones will end up being the best. On that angle I'll probably retcon some of the earlier reviews if I improve my process. Due to this remember that I'm happy to take extra photos or provide extra info on request, and anything especially good will be added to the main body of the review. Do note though that sometimes the model may no longer exist if I have have made an alternate. On the subject of alternates, I will be making the alt model, if I have the instructions, think the model is worth making, and I have the time. Also I'll show mid stage construction only if I think it's relevant. Thus don't ask for construction photos or alt models if they aren't part of the review.... I am prepared to extract parts for detail photos though. Photos will all be hosted on Flickr so larger versions are available, and relevant videos will be on YouTube and linked to from here. I don't edit photos much; very rarely I'll crop one and almost never will "correct" them so the photos should be as natural as possible. I will try to not be repetitive; thus it's worth reading my other reviews. For example I'm not going to complain too much about the digital instructions; I'll try to complain about new things, or maybe not complain at all! Here's all the other reviews of H1 2017 Technic... 42057 Ultralight Helicopter 42058 Stunt Bike 42059 Stunt Truck (and 45058/42059 Combiner) 42060 Roadwork Crew 42061 Telehandler 42062 Container Yard 42063 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure 42064 Ocean Explorer 42065 Tracked Racer Mucho multi thanks to the EB LUG Ambassador CopMike and the LEGO CEE Team and Designers for allowing me to review these sets for Eurobricks. So onto the review! Packaging Front.... ...back.... ...top. The combiner is interesting in this one so I did make it. Unboxing Standard punch box. Instructions and wheels were loose. Instructions are provided for both models, and the quality is excellent with thick bound covers. The build is not sectioned. Aside from the anniversary piece there isn't anything new here, but the panels used for the side and the windscreen are new colours, and more importantly the wheels are in black at last. Parts list. Random instruction page. Build This is the lower frame with the engine and driveshaft joined. This is the bottom of the bike; the anniversary piece and the central gear are viewable in the finished model. It's done! Spare parts. This 600 part set, vs the 250 part 42007 (orange bike), but obviously it's not that much bigger. ('cos it's got the same wheels.) All those parts are just to make the bike better! (Black bike is a MOC. Not being reviewed.) Ahhhgh! Someone dropped my bike! While it's down you can see the frame shown earlier. The gear is there partially so you can spin the drivetrain, although it is functional as well. (Be careful to pick it up with your legs not your arms; these things weigh around 250kg.) Unflattering cam. Even with the extra parts it still suffers the curse of most Technic bikes; near transparency. Doesn't bother me, but it's a common complaint. What does however bother me is the exhaust; it's on the rear swingarm and is thus suspended. This was probably a compromise due to the already complicated rear, but it's just weird. (And incorrect.) The front suspension is mostly correct; telelever or something close anyway. What am I on about? OK.... ..look here. Most motorcycles have a shock either side of the front wheel, but many (not all) BMW ones have what they call Telelever, which put simply is a variant of double wishbone suspension. It has many advantages on paper but this discussion is beyond the scope of this review. Now look here! I'm no expert (not modesty!) but it's in the ballpark. The first time in an official set I believe. OK, let's put the stickers on now... on a side note I find it funny how the designers needed to widen the cylinder head to give it the correct BMW look that causes so many debates about leanability... but I digress again. Each box gets branded, but the model doesn't use the stickers for shape or even panel blending. You can also see here how relatively compact the shaft drive is. (First time in a set also?) Lack of rear brakes is disappointing though. No controls this time. The Technic front fairing is simple but it works well IMHO; these kind of fairings are rather hard to do well. (I cheated and used system on my own MOC.) Going nowhere fast it seems. The boxes come off without too much damage... which highlights that the rear suspension needs better pre-load adjustment (haw, haw, haw) as it's really not strong enough for this model unless it's going luggage free. (I think it's OK in the front.) Maybe it's time LEGO made a really hard spring... To my surprise they open too, which took some creative pin usage. Functional video. Future Bike Concept (B Model) Well for a start, it gets full points for building something very different in a licensed model! To be honest I didn't want to make this, but.... ...I then saw how nice the presentation of it was in the instructions. So I ended up making this first. It uses most of the parts... ...and even gets it's own sticker! (The un-used one.) I didn't realise this until I finished the A model. On a related but negative note, it assumes you have not used the stickers yet, but I don't think it would look bad if you had already applied them The functions are a rotating and angling rear thruster, steering vanes and folding wings. It's best to watch a video. While I do think it's a cool model with decent functionality... I just don't get it. Internal combustion engine in a flying bike? That kinda negates the possibility of Star Trek style tech so how does it take off? The thruster is too far back.... Nor does it lift enough to be an effective force in forward flight. Looking at the art and the front I suspect they wanted to work in the second wheel, but ran out of parts. The steering vanes are pretty cool though. The landing function is good however. The stand makes heavy usage of the pannier parts, which leaves me wondering if the panniers were added to make the B Model better! (I'm out of stuff to say about the B model, but there's plenty more photos on Flickr.) Ratings Function: BMW bikes are a good choice for LEGO as they are very different and give a chance to make a different model. (I hope though that they'll do other licenses.) As bikes go this is an excellent set, adding panniers and an interesting B model pushes this set to top gear. 10/10 Parts: A good blend of parts, although the panniers are not terrible exciting. 9/10 Price: Yeah, it's more expensive than I'd like, but it's licensed and would have taken a lot of work. 8/10 Accuracy: Ignoring the B model, the only flaw is the exhaust placement. 9/10 Fudge: Motorbikes + Technic? What a winning combination. 10/10 Overall: Ride out and get one! 9/10

Review: 42064 Ocean Explorer Name: Ocean Explorer Number: 42064 Theme: Technic Year: 2017 Pieces: 1327 Price: Euro 89.99€, AUD $169.99 Brickset: Extra Info Technic Early 2017 Review Series Welcome to the ninth in my batch of 2017 Technic reviews! I was offered all the small early 2017 sets for review late last year... but I ended up getting the bigger ones too! Thus I have a lot to review. I've been doing them in parallel and changing my process as I go so hopefully the latter ones will end up being the best. On that angle I'll probably retcon some of the earlier reviews if I improve my process. Due to this remember that I'm happy to take extra photos or provide extra info on request, and anything especially good will be added to the main body of the review. Do note though that sometimes the model may no longer exist if I have have made an alternate. On the subject of alternates, I will be making the alt model, if I have the instructions, think the model is worth making, and I have the time. Also I'll show mid stage construction only if I think it's relevant. Thus don't ask for construction photos or alt models if they aren't part of the review.... I am prepared to extract parts for detail photos though. Photos will all be hosted on Flickr so larger versions are available, and relevant videos will be on YouTube and linked to from here. I don't edit photos much; very rarely I'll crop one and almost never will "correct" them so the photos should be as natural as possible. I will try to not be repetitive; thus it's worth reading my other reviews. For example I'm not going to complain too much about the digital instructions; I'll try to complain about new things, or maybe not complain at all! Here's all the other reviews of H1 2017 Technic... 42057 Ultralight Helicopter 42058 Stunt Bike 42059 Stunt Truck (and 45058/42059 Combiner) 42060 Roadwork Crew 42061 Telehandler 42062 Container Yard 42063 BMW R 1200 GS Adventure 42064 Ocean Explorer 42065 Tracked Racer Mucho multi thanks to the EB LUG Ambassador CopMike and the LEGO CEE Team and Designers for allowing me to review these sets for Eurobricks. So onto the review! Packaging Front.... ...back. I don't plan to do the alternate. Mostly due to time, but also as I wasn't too inspired by this model. Here's the top. The scale pic is an interesting choice as it's the first time I know of in a Technic set where the picture has no visible Technic. (There's an axle inside.) Unboxing Standard punch box. Instructions were bagged, and the set is segmented. There's only the main instruction, with the cover being better stock than the main. We're into the big boys now! Parts list page 1.... ...and page 2. Semi random instruction page. Build One bags open! From these you make the accessory vehicles. First up is the little chopper. This has functioning main and tail rotors spun by a gear at the bottom and uses the new double cross-connector piece for the rotor shaft which helps make this remarkable small creation. <RETCON> No! not that piece, this piece! </RETCON> Also is the submersible. It has geared rotating props (not counter rotating though) and worm gear driven claws. These are the spares for the One bags. The rope surprised me. This is all of the Two bags... ...actually it not. I was part though assembling when I realised I was missing parts. Rechecked and found another bag.... ...and by the end we had this! There's a few features that become hard to see later so I'll highlight them now. First off there's the odd part here, the "5" print. It's actually stupidly common part so it's not special in itself, but it's a ship building tradition to do this. Keep this in mind for later! Here you can see the where the crane control shafts are geared up. The red gear is there simply because it's easier alignment than a 3 axle. Two Bag spare parts. I think this is the first time there's been a metallic one of these 1 high pin parts, but I suspect you'll be seeing them a lot more. Cosmetically the 2 long version was ruined (IMHO) by the slits and this solves the problem... Three bags! (Yes, I'm sure this time.) That finishes the model.... but the superstructure.... it's so... white... ...but before I rant about that here's the complete spare parts. (I forgot to take this photo; I'll take a better one in a few days.) While it's not featureless, the lack of colour make it look pretty close to it. Fear not! We have a vast sticker sheet! This adds loads of detail to the bridge mostly. Plus the chopper. (Nothing for the sub.) The ship gets a load line, which while arguably silly is educational (more on that later) and it tells the builder the intended waterline. The life boats are not improved much by the stickers though. But that's enough on stickers. For the sticker fans there's more photos in my Flickr page. The gear near the life boats controls the rudder. Here's the rudders and at full deflection. The mechanism is very similar to the steering in the 42062 Container Stacker set. It's more snappy than smooth. The steering circle is large, but that's arguably accurate. To the front is a set of three wheels to take the weight. The anniversary part is used to lock in the sub. Here's a video showing the functions. I've started mumbling in the videos which is useful if you can decipher it. Sorry if you can't. Most of my points I should re-iterate on in a bit. Size wise here's it on the largest LEGO hull; it's about the same size! (Stickers are old and self-disintegrating.) Didn't test if it'll float like this yet.... Ratings: Function: For a model of this size the functions are minimal. None are particularly impressive either. Showing the props would have helped, but arguably you can't see them in this quasi-waterline model. 3/10 Parts: Excellent really. Mostly structural, but there's still enough mechanical parts too. Oddly there's also some rare-ish System parts too. 10/10 Price: Considering parts only, it's probably the best value set of this wave. 10/10 Accuracy: The small models are very accurate considering the sizes. The chopper is probably too big for that kind of canopy though, but that's just being picky. 8/10 Fudge: This set does raise the question of what makes a Technic set Technic, and I think this one is a bridge too far. It's a shame too as some might recall that I have a thing for water based Technic, partially as there has been so little. But this is not what I had in mind. The focus is weird, even with the choice of using System as the scale display on the box. It's clearly form over function; the coin that is not easily seen in the final model, the fact that the helo-deck has cosmetic structure, the use of system to achieve what does not need to be achieved, such as hand rails and a mast, even the sticker load line. But the vision is inconsistent; the life rafts are an area where some system was needed, yet stickers were all that were offered, the bridge uses stickers to achieve windows when System would have done it better. When I first saw this set I was really looking forward to it, but now it just looks like spare parts. 0/10 Overall: My negativity aside, this is an excellent set for builders. Displayers... well it depends on if you like your Technic to be Technic. It does look pretty good, arguably better than the last ship. But to me it's in the group of "is the really Technic"? 6/10

This form has been moved.

Dunno if the mods wanna merge the other thread with this but Sports is coming next summer. Looks like we were right!

31054 Blue Express Train 31055 Red Car 31056 Green Convertable 31057 Helicopter 31058 Mighty Dinosaurs 31059 Road Racing Machine 31060 Air Show Attraction 31062 Exploration Robots 31063 Beachside Vacation 31064 Seaplane Adventures 31065 Park Street Townhouse - 31066 31067 31068 31069 31070

1H 2015 - LEGO Technic Sets 42057: Ultralight Helicopter Pieces: 199 Age: 8 to 14 Retail Price: USA: $9.99, Europe: 9.99€ B Model: 42058: Stunt Bike Pieces: 140 Age: 7 to 14 Retail Price: USA: $14.99, Europe: 14.99€ B Model: 42059: Stunt Truck Pieces: 142 Age: 7 to 14 Retail Price: USA: $14.99, Europe: 14.99€ 42060: Street Working Cars Pieces: 365 Age: 8 to 14 Retail Price: USA: $24.99, Europe: 24.99€ B Model: 42061: Telescopic Forklift Pieces: 260 Age: 8 to 14 Retail Price: USA: $24.99, Europe: 19.99€ B Model: 42062: Container Transport Pieces: 631 Age: 8 to 14 Retail Price: USA: $34.99, Europe: 29.99€ B Model: 42063: BMW R 1200 GS Adventure Bike Pieces: 603 Age: 10 to 16 Retail Price: USA: $59.99, Europe: 49.99€ 42064: Searching Ship Pieces: 1327 Age: 10 to 16 Retail Price: USA: $129.99, Europe: 119.99€ B Model: 42065: RC Tracked Racer Pieces: 370 Age: 9 to 16 Retail Price: USA: $59.99, Europe: ? B Model: 42066: Air Race Jet Pieces: 1151 Age: 10 to 16 Retail Price: USA: $119.99, Europe: 109.99€ B Model: --- 42067 ? 42068: Fire Rescue Vehicle Pieces: ? Age: 10-16 Retail Price: ? 42069: Extreme Adventure Pieces: ? Age: 11-16 Retail Price: ? B Model: 42070: 6x6 All Terrain Tow Truck Pieces: ? Age: ? Retail Price: ? B Model: Also, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of LEGO Technic, each set comes with a special commemorative brick!

Here follows are the current confirmed upcoming Lego DC Superheroes themed sets, for early 2017: January Wave: #10737: Batman vs. Mr. Freeze - $??.?? Juniors set Pieces: 63 #?????: Mighty Micros: Batman vs. Killer Moth- $9.99 #?????: Mighty Micros: Wonder Woman vs. Doomsday- $9.99 #?????: Mighty Micros: Superman vs. Bizarro- $9.99 DC Super Hero Girls Sub-Theme of sets based on the DC Super Hero Girls line #30546: Krypto Saves the Day - $3.99 Polypag Set #41230: Batgirl's Batjet- $14.99 Releases November 27th, 2016 #41231: Harley Quinn to the Rescue- $14.99 Releases November 27th, 2016 #41232: Super Hero High School- $79.99 Releases November 27th, 2016 #41233: Lashina Tank- $14.99 Releases January 2017 #41234: Bumblebee Helicopter- $19.99 Releases January 2017 #41235: Wonder Woman Dorm Room - $19.99 Releases January 2017

Per video, Speed Champions is coming back next year with some new licenses. Not much info, but this is from the same leaker who shared the info about a possible Sports theme earlier today.

Here are the current confirmed upcoming and released Lego Marvel Superheroes themed sets, for 2017: January Wave: 76071: Mighty Micros: Spider-Man vs Scorpion - $9.99 76072: Mighty Micros: Iron Man vs. Thanos - $9.99 76073: Mighty Micros: Wolverine vs. Magneto - $9.99 #76078: Hulk vs Red Hulk - $59.99 375 Pieces #76076: Captain America Jet Pursuit - $19.99 includes Captain America, Ms. Marvel, and Super Adaptoid #76077: Iron Man: Detroit Steel Strikes - $29.99 Includes Detroit Steel (Justin Hammer), Iron Man, and Agent Coulson #76079: Ravager Attack - $19.99 #76080: Ayesha's Revenge - $29.99 #76081: The Milano vs. The Abilisk - $49.99 Later in 2017: #76084: The Ultimate Battle for Asgard - $49.99 #76088: Thor vs. Hulk: Arena Clash - $59.99