hjmediastudios

You really do need to press the wings in pretty hard- you should here a few clicks when you get it, and it's possible to push them in almost all the way without clicking, so that it'll look right but won't be secure.

I know my local Target has the markers up as well. Curiously, on the receipt for a recent purchase of the Tyderium set, it says "Lego SW TFA," indicating they're already getting ready for "Force Friday." It's nice to see that those of us not in large metro areas aren't going to miss out for once!

Ooooh, I actually like that design! It looks much more like a military vehicle than a lot of Star Wars designs do, and it looks like it could carry a number of troops. The minifigs are superb, and above all the price per piece is actually unusually good- 444 pieces for $40 is not shabby at all.

It looks pretty good to me; accurate to the source material. I suspect the reason for the blank backplate is that he'll have a brick-built backpack, or perhaps just an oxygen-tanks piece.

I don't know. But I can say with certainty that we'll see at least one of the new characters (not necessarily in Lego form) with a fair amount of detail.

There will likely be a trailer, but I can say with certainty (although I can't reveal how) that we will see some reasonably substantial TFA-related stuff at Celebration.

This is disgusting.

Ah, but it's a fictional Phalanx II. Why let real-world scaling get in the way of a fun design?

Yep; I'll have some time after commissioned work settles down early next month, hopefully.

I had these bad boys floating around since early March but never got around to posting them up. I have some time, so here they are! Believe it or not, the ideas all came from my idle thought "What would a llama mech tank look like?" and everything flowed. The first one I designed is a main battle tank tachikoma, the M8Puller "Guanaco." All these designs are based off this, and it's got a detailed interior with room for 2 crew, 4 opening hatches, a removable roof, poseable legs, and swiveling .50-cal machine gun up top. Plus, for added Think Tanky-ness, I stuck two Phalanx II CIWS's on the back, ostensibly as anti-aircraft gunnery controlled by an onboard AI. Named after Lewis "Chesty" Puller, the most decorated Marine of all time and a figure of legend in the Corps. Next ups is a more llamaoid command variant, with extra space for a platoon commander's cupola. A little bit less firepower, more C&C capability. Aptly named after Archibald Henderson, longest-serving Commandant and the man who defined the Marines as an amphibious force. Finally, the transport variant. Fewer guns, more cargo space! Comments and criticism are more than welcome- I'd love to hear what you think!

These are my renders; nothing official, mostly just a little brain fart in excitement at the trailer.

Always great to meet another "bucket-head!" Feel free to PM me if you've got any questions as I can point you to some great resources.

As a member of the 501st Legion, I can say that the firestorm that ignites whenever the issue of pauldrons is raised is something that needs to be seen to be witnessed. There are those who are fine with standard TK's with pauldrons, there's the rabid sandtrooper-only faction, and a lot more who just stay far, far away. Generally, though, the pauldrons are just a rank system, and we see standard troopers with pauldrons in Rebels- white seems to be for NCOs, orange for officers, and black seems to be worn only by elite troops: Tarkin's guard, the special reinforcements sent in to his Star Destroyer, etc.

The Tyderium and the throne-room sets are day one buys for me, and I may get the advent calendar depending on how broke I am after TFA, but the Phantom Menace sets and the Assault Carrier are an easy pass for me. The constraction figures, though... I died a little bit when I saw the Luke one. They'll probably end up slowly rotting on shelves like some of the Planets sets did.

Hothbricks also has pictures of the Advent droids:

For those not sure- the light-light-gray is the color of the liftarms, sensor casings, etc. in the Mindstorms NXT kit.

Wow! The Tydirium and the final duel are instant buys for me, although I'll probably pass on the TPM sets to free up cash for the TFA wave.

Well, that's not a bad polybag per se... If it's widely available in stores, I might buy a few. If, on the other hand, it's a promo, it's pretty terrible. A figure identical to one you can get for $3 in stores, with a scrap of cloth added?

My suspicion is that the Mystery Machine windshield or a similar piece will be the shuttle windshield- it makes little sense for what's an integral part of the Lambda-class shuttle's look to be a chunky brick-built solution.

Mini-TIEs... These could either be ho-hum, or actually pretty decent if they're more Microfighter-styled ones you could fit a pilot in.

The sadbest part is, we'll get a Willrow Hood figure in any UCS Cloud City set- guaranteed. The character has such a life of his own at this point.

I'm not so sure about the AT-TE being a step back- it's far studier and more proportional than the 2007 edition; I think what we're seeing is a trend towards more play features and far sturdier builds, which often have the side effect of making the model smaller overall.

This is the ANH version- same rank insignia, same white uniform, same hairstyle. In the Clone Wars show, he wears a gray uniform of a different cut and has darker hair.

The legs are about 2" shorter than the AT-AT; its cockpit is a little larger than the AT-AT's "head;" it doesn't look out of place as an escort-type walker or heavy walker, especially as both are built in the same style, although if scale differences really bother you the most recent AT-ST is probably a better bet for you.

The shadow guards both have plain red heads.