David Thomsen

I found these on the work computer today, all prices are in NZ dollars and I think probably a couple of the smaller 'Soldier's Arsenal' type sets are missing, as well as any exclusive sets. Release date April next year, although our computers are not always reliable with release dates. 17.99 NZD - Shipwreck Defense 39.99 NZD - Soldiers' Outpost 39.99 NZD - Treasure Island 59.99 NZD - Soldiers' Fort 179.99 NZD - The Brick Bounty Don't have time to convert to approximate EUR/USD/GBP prices right now. My initial speculation is that the Soldiers' Outpost and Fort will be connectible in some way.

My regret is actually that when I came out of my dark age and started collecting again, I did so in a very haphazard way, just buying random stuff just because it was on special. I don't earn much money or space, and Lego is actually a somewhat low priority timewise, and I ended up using all of my time, money and space. Since then I've become a lot more focussed in what I collect, and I've been selling most of the stuff I don't actually ever use.

I would actually like an option for 'both if possible', sometimes a set grabs me so much I like to see a 'dynamic' review of it with it being moved around in someone's hands, but for most things pictures are quite sufficient. Also any review longer than three minutes I'm likely not to bother with, unless it's really worth it.

Even knowing this, I still think the connection is too weak... needs Benny in a poncho or something.

I think I enjoy both for different reasons. Winter Soldier seemed quite sophisticated for an action film, while GotG succeeded in taking inspiration from all of my favourite childhood movies, like Indiana Jones and Star Wars. The kind of films that they don't make any more, for whatever reason. Sounds to me like he's just trolling, or doesn't realise the significance to the fan community of what he said. I wouldn't read too much into it.

I just read this article and I have to say that GotG is now without any doubt my favourite MCU film. I actually relate in some way to four of the five psychological difficulties of the Guardians, which I didn't realise until the article brought it to my attention. Drax in particular I thought was kind of dumb, and now I feel bad that I perceived him that way. Also, those bars on the legs of their prison suits... are they supposed to represent the crimes that they are being held for? Because that's a nice touch.

Wow... I'm going to see it a second time soon and I'm really going to have to look out for it. Great distraction technique! I wonder what other easter eggs have been completely overlooked?

Rather than try to arrange them into precise numerical sequence by preference, I'm just going to lump them into groups of three, by alphabetical order. Favourite Group: The Avengers, Captain America 2, Guardians of the Galaxy. Second Favourite Group: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor 2. Third Favourite Group: Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Thor. (Oops, didn't have room for The Incredible Hulk... what a shame. ) When we've all given our preferences, I hope someone puts all this data together and comes up with a definitive list of AFOL MCU favourites...

I didn't feel the story was so much about coming-of-age, it was more about the team coming together. If anything, Peter Quill changed the least of anyone. Him and Groot. Rocket, Drax and Gamora all changed as they became part of the team. Peter Quill was willing from the very beginning to team up and encourage others to do the same. I think Rocket had to change the most, he felt the most disenfranchised by the Galaxy. I guess that makes it Rocket's story?

Toyworld have them already on their shelves, and other stores should soon follow. I'm beginning to think the X-Men Vs. Sentinel set just won't be available in New Zealand. Fishpond had it available for about $86 with free shipping, not bad for a set Lego list at $99.99, but they've now raised the price to $101, bah. Should have taken the opportunity while it was there.

I think that licensed products will always take precedence over non-licensed ones, so we're unlikely to get a 'Pirates' theme for more than a couple of years. They'll probably repeat the same sets from 2009 in 2015, with another IF-type set in 2016 and then POTC sets in 2017. As someone said before, Lego works on the memory spans of kids rather than adults, and they have five years worth of kids who were too young for the 2009 pirates.

Yeah, some kids to my right also liked to predict what was going to happen next, it didn't bother me too much though because I was often way ahead of them.

Saw it today, it comes out in NZ on the 7th but there were a few early 3D screenings. I hate 3D, but I really didn't want to wait to see this film. Yeah, I loved it, pretty much agree with other peoples' listings, third after Winter Soldier and Avengers. I found it more 'fun' than Winter Soldier, but I take WS more seriously as a 'film' rather than a piece of entertainment. Spoilery thoughts:

Does anyone know where the 76022 X-Men vs. Sentinel set is available in New Zealand? It's not at Moore Wilsons, Whitcoulls or Toyworld. I doubt Farmers would have it because they're so closely tied to Whitcoulls now, if one store had an exclusive on it the other would share it. The Warehouse sometimes has exclusives and I'll be dropping by there this evening, otherwise it could be at K-Mart which isn't very convenient to me. Or maybe it's just not sold in NZ at all! Which would be odd because it's on the website?

Encountered this on my regular Science website io9: A Lego Pirate Is Sacrificed To A Colossal Wave In The Name of Science The fact that they chose a Lego Pirate for this experiment is rather endearing. They could have chosen anything, like a paper plate or any other basic toy boat, but obviously some AFOL decided to make good use of their old Lego parts. The video itself is rather disappointing, unfortunately... 'sacrificed to a colossal wave' is a good example of journalistic exaggeration.

I didn't realise the anchors, barrel and crown were from an official Lego set... I was nowhere near privileged enough as a kid to get something like the Imperial Trading Post. Makes me feel a bit silly for criticising the proportions earlier... This weekend I might try designing an 'original' design to go on the flag. I didn't realise no one had done that yet. It might just be a modification of the anchors, barrel and crown, though.

I think the crossed rifles against the saltire has the same problem with the diagonal background matching the diagonal foreground... Maybe we should discuss what we actually want as part of the flag. So far we have cannons, rifles, anchors, a crown, a barrel, and various animals possibly referencing old Castle sets... What else? Cutlasses? Maybe a bit too piratical. A mermaid with two tails? Maybe only appropriate for the import of coffee...

I do like the saltire, but I think that stylistically, the diagonal cannons work better against a flag pattern that isn't also diagonal - they work better with the contrasting pattern of the horizontal or vertical stripes. Personally I think I would like the shaded cannon design against the vertical stripes, a combination not shown here.

I also like the second and third flag designs. I don't think the anchor design is too small, there are actually real flags that have designs even smaller than that so they fit neatly within the middle bar of horizontal or vertical stripes. Egypt... Nicaragua... Peru... although these flags we're designing are intended to be printed on rather small areas, so I guess that wouldn't work so well in this case. I just think the proportions of the crown/barrel/anchors need to be adjusted a bit.

I am a little frustrated that they didn't do this years ago, it seems like such an obvious and useful piece. Although I wouldn't be surprised if instead of just using a basic slope shape, they shaped it in some way to suggest Lego legs in some way. Not sure how that would work.

I'm kind of glad they didn't go with this colour scheme for the hat, the orange patch was a little too garish. Totally going to use the S12 Prospector hat for the Herman Toothrot-like castaway in my Pirate theme. Piggy Guy looks adorable, all excited about his apple, and the Spooky Girl looks... interesting, I want to see more of her striped legs, they could be a useful piece.

I don't know if it'll even be that long... they're coming out in August, aren't they? And most of the August releases have already been revealed.

Okay, here is my idea for a dude... the second one is because I decided he needed colours other than just orange and gold. The third because I forgot about the obligatory white sash Looking at them like this I think I prefer the third one. The uniform was inspired by something I saw when I googled for 'historic uniforms', but since the page wouldn't load for me, I couldn't say who the uniform originally belonged to! I'm very fond of asymmetry which is why the design appealed to me.

I'm definitely willing to try designing a uniform, but it might have to wait until the weekend... I might see what other people have done and try designing variations.

I think while it easy to find superficial connections between Zoidberg and Pirates, the fact remains that Zoidberg really belongs in the Sci-Fi forum. Zoidberg was mostly active during the early part of the 31st century, long after the golden age of Pirates, and while pirates would often remove limbs from the crews of other ships, Zoidberg often removed limbs from his own crew.