Graysmith

Definitely my favourite of the Marvel sets. Not that I own any of them yet, but just by looking at them this is definitely the best one. Three great minifigures, great price, lots of dark red pieces and a bike you could loan to your Captain America minifigure so he doesn't have to ride around on that Honda Gold Wing crap. This bike is actually a pretty good resemblance to the one Captain America rode in the recent movie. Anyway, thanks for the review! Can't wait to pick this one up myself.

More than anything else I think the next round of sets need to include some female characters. You can't have a Lord of the Rings LEGO theme without at least Arwen, Galadriel and Eowyn in minifigure form.

Gotta say, that’s some wildly uneven pricing. The Shelob Attacks set is a wonderful bargain at $19.99 for three major character minifigures and a great-looking spider, while the Weathertop set is a whopping $60 for just over 400 pieces. The Weathertop set should’ve been a $50 set with that piece count, really, especially since two of the minifigures are “only” Ringwraiths.

I'm sure it'll be the equal amount in Euro, or higher. Wouldn't surprise me if the Gandalf set will cost €14.99 either since LEGO is always much more expensive here in Europe.

Whaaaaa! I never even thought to look in the Extended palette. For some reason I figured the last update was showing all the bricks in the regular LDD palette too.. Oops! Thanks! :D

After slobbering all over those hi-res images of the LOTR sets and wanting to do a bit of digital MOC in LDD I'm really desperate to get the 98283 bricks. I'm currently using 2877 bricks as replacement placeholders, but it just won't feel right until the brick-bricks are available.

Worth pointing out that the third Helms Deep photo also includes the Uruk-Hai Army set.. Just so no one looks at it and thinks all that is included in the Helms Deep set.

I've been having the same problem. Seems like the LEGO server it is trying to reach is down, and LEGO doesn't seem to be aware of it since it's been down for a day or so now.

Maybe this has already been mentioned, but one thing that could point to a continuation of Pharaoh's Quest is that the comic on LEGO.com ends with this: “Whaddaya say, gang… Want to stick together for the next adventure? Maybe we’ll even get to save the world again!”

I do like this idea, but I'm not sure I think there ought to be a different time-travelling vehicle with every set. It wouldn't really make sense that these time-travellers would have all these different vehicles, plus it would just "use up" pieces from the actual theme of the set.. I'd rather see them be able to use 500 pieces to create a western scene than have 150 pieces be used for a vehicle and 350 left over for the western scene. Perhaps it could instead be that the time-travellers have a home base (think Stargate), and then they'd teleport through that into all these eras. It'd be a bit bizarre to teleport into the Stone Age with a jeep, for example.

Treasure Planet was a huge flop critically and financially, that's just a fact. I actually like it more than most, but I don't think I'm "hating" on it for pointing out that it wasn't a masterpiece. As for the Agents theme, it's all just personal opinion. To me it was something just for the youngest kids, a hyperactive mish-mash of ideas. Didn't/doesn't appeal to me one bit. I absolutely think LEGO could come up with a spy theme that looks good, has style but is still appealing to young kids. All I'm saying regarding a new Western theme is that you could easily do it without stereotyping indians. Even the collectable minifigures of the past few years are stereotypes. Having indians with spears and bows vs. guns and cannons isn't exactly a fair fight either. I wouldn't mind if there were indian minifigures included in a new Western theme, but I think there'd be way more you could do if you put a "Sheriffs vs. Outlaws/Robbers" spin on it, as I mentioned previously. I like the idea of Pharaoh's Quest turning into an "Inca's Quest" theme. I can't say I love the good guy characters in Pharaoh's Quest, but it could be a nice continuation.

Themes I'd like to see (some wouldn't necessarily be under Action Themes perhaps): Pirates in Space: I was only half-joking about that. I think it could actually be quite cool, and it's not like it's an unheard of idea (Disney's Treasure Planet did it, though poorly). Just imagine a pirate spaceship with sails made up of solar panels, portholes with cannons that fire lasers and whatnot. You could have a robot monkey on board too. Done right, I think it could actually be a really cool theme. Western: I imagine the reason LEGO hasn't tapped into this more than it has is because of political correctness regarding indians. But you could easily make a Western theme that has sheriffs vs. outlaws and no indians. One set could be a duel in front of a saloon, another could be the sheriff's office/jail. A larger set could be a train robbery. Yet another could be a small gold mine being ambushed (akin to the Kingdoms Mill Village Raid set). I'd love to see a stagecoach robbery set. The possibilities are endless. Vikings: Not a new idea, but it'd be great to see a "realistic" vikings theme more akin to Kingdoms than the dragons/fantasy stuff they did in 2005. Jungle Adventure: Some kind of historic action-adventure theme set in the jungle featuring Incas/Mayans, temple ruins and such. They've done some stuff like this before, but not an all-out theme just based on this. James Bond: Okay, it wouldn't necessarily have to be a licensed James Bond theme, but rather a more classy kind of spy/agents theme. Tuxedos, casinos and classy old cars rather than that horribly tacky stuff they did most recently. Even if LEGO obviously is meant for kids, I think you could make a spy theme that appeals to kids and older. Greek Mythology: With the minotaur in the most recent Collectable Minifigures series and Poseidon appearing in the next one it doesn't feel completely crazy to think that LEGO might already be thinking of such a theme. A whole bunch of classic monsters appeared as Collectable Minifigures before they announced the Monster Fighters theme, after all. Anyway, there are loads of strange beasts and whatnot you could use for such a theme. Sirens, minotaurs, poseidon, one-eyed giants, serpents, etc. Shangri-La: A wintry expedition in the Himalayas to find the legendary Shangri-La, with Yetis and snow monsters as villains (or maybe another human, villainous team trying to get there first).

I'm all for higher file sizes if it means the manuals are of actually printable high quality. Most of the ones I've looked at are just horrible and just barely useable. That said, I do wish they would offer them as straight up vector-based. As others have mentioned, then you'd have crystal clear, pixel perfect instructions at any size/zoom level, and the file size would be very low.

Your childhood nostalgia is playing tricks on you because the vast majority of LEGO sets from the 90s is absolutely awful. I'm not sure I could come up with 10 sets from the 90s that I would genuinely want to own.

Three words: Pirates in Space

I can't imagine this being apart of the Modular series. It may be a modular build, but I imagine this is just a standalone exclusive like the Volkswagen Camper and such sets. It would be cool if they would do a Halloween-themed set each year a la Winter Village, but if Monster Fighters is just a one year theme I'd imagine this is just a one time thing.

The main problem with intentionally doing just one wave though is that you don't allow a theme to flourish and perhaps have a bigger story/idea behind it. Many recent action themes seem to be the exact same thing just in different clothing, for example: Pharaoh's Quest: collect all the treasures, defeat the mummy king. Monster Fighters: collect all the moonstones, defeat the vampire lord. Atlantis was the exact same as well in its first wave. You could also argue that Dino is about the same kind of "collecting X number of something" though its less obviously so and it's not story driven as far as I know. Of course, this is mostly just playability/story stuff meant for kids and a clever way to get them to nag their parents to get all the sets and collect all the somethings.. But I think if LEGO are doing only one wave action themes intentionally they're in danger of falling into a creativity-killing rut, which will eventually start showing in the quality of the themes. They need to shelve this particular story setup and think of other kinds of storylines or make more themes that aren't driven by an ending story. One aspect of why I love Alien Conquest and why I'm so bummed it's already ending is the fact that it wasn't driven by a particular storyline and could've easily continued since it had no conclusion. It could be whatever you wanted it to be playing with it. It could be humans kicking alien butt or the aliens taking over the planet. There were also loads more sets they could've done too, especially since all the existing sets were of some kind of craft or vehicle. There could've been a stationary ADU HQ or ADU Training Facility building, and perhaps an Alien Test Laboratory where the evil Alien Doctor performs tests on captured farmers, businessmen and ADU soldiers.

The monster minifigures are really fantastic but a lot of the sets look quite terrible (or like early prototypes). The vehicle in the Swamp Creature set looks absolutely awful, like a bunch of random bricks made to look like some kind of hovercraft.. Just terrible. I can only hope it's an early prototype and the final product will look better. The Vampire Hearse makes me wonder if it's set in Transylvania or a gangster neighbourhood of Los Angeles. They had the chance to make a really iconic, classic theme that paid tribute to all these legendary monsters (while still being fun to play with) but so far I kinda feel like they've dropped the ball. The only sets I really like overall is the Vampire Castle and Frankenstein's laboratory.

I would definitely agree that many great (non-licensed) themes aren't given a fair chance. LEGO seems to give up on them right away if they're not an instant hit (which is hard when you have to compete with licensed themes and themes that have their own tv show). There are way too many themes that just come and go, often themes that are so good that they'd be worth having around for a couple more years worth of sets. Alien Conquest, for example, is by far the greatest ufo/alien theme they've ever done (IMHO) and yet it only got one wave of sets. Kingdoms, which is LEGOs finest Castle theme since the 80s, only got two years (ignoring this year's swan song Joust set), which is an absolute outrage as far as I'm concerned. Atlantis did get a decent amount of sets but it really deserved a longer life too considering how much that could've been done with it. Pharaoh's Quest wasn't a homerun but it had a lot of promise and could've definitely gotten much better if they'd let it continue.. And so on.

The Vampire Castle looks amazing. It shall be mine!

Such a shame they're discontinuing Kingdoms. While I haven't owned all the Castle sub-themes, just looking them over this is by far the classiest Castle theme they've done since the ones in the 80s. No doubt in my mind that these Kingdoms sets will be highly regarded years from now.

I bought King's Castle and Mill Village Raid on sale the other day. As I was walking to the cash registers, a kid about 7-8 was standing there waiting on his dad and the look on his face when I came walking with these two huge boxes under my arm is one of the most priceless things I've ever seen. They were nearly worth the purchase just for the enviable, wide-eyed look on his face.

LEGO would be crazy to not integrate LDD with Pick a Brick, and make a ton more bricks available for purchase through there. It could truly become an enormous cash cow for them, if done right. I think A LOT of people would buy their LDD-made MOCs straight through LEGO just because it would be so much easier than trying to find a BrickLink store that has all you need. If you could build just about anything, click a button and automatically order all the pieces in your LDD build, how would that not turn into an addiction? Plus, you'd know that the pieces would always be factory new. Surely it'd most likely cost a bit more than buying pieces through BL, but the ease of being able to get just about any piece and getting factory new ones.. I know I'd be spending myself into debt if LEGO ever made that a reality. Yeah, they've already been trying with Design By Me and Pick a Brick and perhaps that hasn't been a huge success so far, but the selection of pieces has been terrible unless you're making something very basic. For example, the only car doors you can buy are red, so if you want to build a car that has doors, you can only build red cars.

I got all excited when I saw all the colours in the basic LDD mode, thinking they'd be purchasable through Pick a Brick (like in the previous version's basic mode) but no such luck. Even worse, they removed the function to show you which parts are purchasable, which makes LDD completely useless if you're thinking of buying your build through LEGO.com. Why would they remove that? Shouldn't they want more Pick a Brick business? I thought the new update would be able to send a list directly to Pick a Brick for purchase now than Design by Me was being removed, but I guess I'm a chump.