Fugazi

Ahaha excellent Captain Blue Hair, I didn't see this one coming! Very good comic! Commodore Horny Bricker must have a soft spot for cameltoes!

It does work for me, and it's even unusually fast!

I would very much like to see more installments in this winter village theme. However, while we all know that TLG generally avoid designs depicting real-life war, it would seem to me that they avoid religious subjects even more fiercely. The last time they offered a church building as far as I recall must have been in the 1950 or 60s, correct me if I'm wrong. None of the architecture or exclusive sets depict a cathedral or any other religious building, despite some of them being architectural wonders. So I doubt that a chapel will ever see the day as an official set.

Wow! This is the game I wanted for the accessories ever since I saw the first pictures taken at some show or other. Thanks for the delectable review Dunjohn, I can't wait to find this in a store in my area! I'm surprised at the use of accessory sprues, isn't it unusual for such large pieces? Kinda reminds me of clone brand accessory sprues. Nevertheless, the bottles, flasks and vials are a great addition to any accessory collection. Now, what to do with all those golden round tiles? Of note, it's obviously a Prince of Persia inspired game, without the licensed name. I'm glad it's not a licensed game as it would likely have been more expensive, but alas some of the PoP staple elements that could have been included are missing (eg. the persian half-arches and other medium nougat goodies). It would have made the game even more appealing as a part pack, although I'm really happy with it as it is. Oh, and nice woodwork!

Very nice! Your aliens are very creative, and I like your planet surface. I wish I had as many pink bricks as you do!

Of course, with every new release there will be some people who will complain. Possibly those are the most vocal as you said, but I'm sure many of us will admit that design-wise this year's releases are TLG best train sets in a while. As with most Lego sets, and not only trains, many AFOLs will complain about minor issues that can be easily be modified and improved with just a little MOCing, but I suppose that some people want everything perfect straight out of the box! I don't, and I'll be happy to buy one of this year's sets as a starting point and improve it to suit my needs.

Just like the Tower Bridge, the Star Wars UCS or the Taj Mahal, sets don't need to be in minifig scale to be exciting. It's big, exclusive, unusual colours, hey it can be interesting. Besides, I'm sure it can easily be converted to a minifig scale ship if you must.

Ha! Yours is a jolly good tale, but a fairy tale of course! Good job again, Capt Thomas Foolery!

Care for a trip back in time? (and click on the image)

Any word on when/where this might become available? Only from Lego stores/S@H I suppose? From past experience, does the presence of the instructions in the TLG database suggest an imminent release?

I agree. Maybe the prices will go down after a while if they don't sell well, and hopefully that will include the other ripoff that is 8404 Public Transport.

What are you waiting for? Dig those Lego out of the closet! I wasn't here in 2006, but this does make me wonder what this place will be like in say 10 years time. Will we be 100,000 members strong, or will the whole forum concept be 'so 1990s' and we will have moved on to some other networking medium? In any case, I'm sure many of the nice people here today will still be around!

Ahah this is awesome, very funny! Using megablocks is a capital offense, no doubt about it! Great entry!

I called this 'Artistic License'...

Ditto. Just wish it would be C C & C - cute, cool and cheap!

Very interesting! Allow me to quote Mr McKee: The list is quite long, which is good. Most basic colours are covered, thus protected. Of note though, some relatively widely used colours are not on the list: bright yellowish green (lime), earth green (dark green), dark red, transparent brown (smoke). All in all a very commendable effort from TLG.

I never even knew such a piece existed!

Indeed. And if TLG has a list of 'untouchables' to protect the core colours, then we have colours that won't be changed because they are locked, and colours that can be changed without consultation because they are non-core. In other words, no need to consult at all! Ok I know I'm just being a smartass, there could also be core colours that are not locked and TLG will consult about changing those in the future, we'll see.

Thanks for your replies! Yes I suppose that changing the drab colours to make them more appealing to kids sounds like the best explanation to why it all happened. For the record, I was already in my dark age in 2004 so I never noticed anything until very recently. I would likely have been pissed off back then, but now that I've returned to Lego I don't fret much over it. It's done, it won't come back, we have to make the best of it. And I do hope that everybody has learned the lesson so that it doesn't happen again. I'm not a SW specialist, but reddish brown has certainly not been phased out. Perhaps you are referring to the 'new' dark brown that has appeared around 2007, it does bear resemblance to the old brown but is somewhat darker. Both browns (reddish and dark) coexist in the current colour palette.

This is a very interesting post, thank you Brickdoctor for sharing it here! The only question it doesn't answer as far as I'm interested, is why did TLG feel a need to 'update' the old grey/brown colours? I understand the need to rationalise and reduce, but replace? What was inadequate with the old colours, was it the availability/cost of the pigments, durability of the final product, appeal to younger customers (the new colours are more vibrant), or something else altogether? Oh, and did TLG ever publish that list of 'untouchable' colours? I would be curious to see that!

I would gladly submit to Peeron, but I can't get anything through to them. Pity really, I find the site very useful but updates are overdue.

Have a look here for example, from Dunjohn's review of the Hogwarts game.

Thanks for the link! So, according to this we still have 3 full sets with some extras: 5 of: police cop, ringleader, karate fighter 4 of: mime, witch, Mexican, lifeguard, vampire, weightlifter 3 of: skier, soldier, pharaoh, explorer, singer, disco, surfer I'm surprised that the karate fighter is among the least scarce figs, not so much the police cop. Explorer in the '3 of' list is also surprising to me.

This looks FABULOUS! Can't wait to see more pics, if you'll excuse me I'll go pick my jaw up from the floor.

Really lovely! Many original and inventive techniques, you captured the architectural style perfectly! Definitely a MOC I can learn from!