Maybe they just liked unit more.

It is too bad the smallest impulse doesn't have an Alien gun, it would have been great for army building, oh well. The agents' gun is awesome though, it will be perfect as well for making new sci-fi weaponry (my new-found hobby).

Edited February 14, 201114 yr by vexorian

Haha, I don't know why they chose "unit" that was just my suggestion as to why. I suppose the idea of the theme is less "we gonna kick some alien ayuss" (force) like Starship Troopers and more like "we must study and defend against these life forms that are invading our planet" (unit) so it's less army-like and more science-like?

Maybe they are the Alien defense force but every single agent is an Alien defense unit. Each alien defense unit has the gun barrels and armor to make it and doesn't afraid of anything.

I'm sorry..I really don't like the tripod...but do you think I should get it for the Doctor?

Anyways, the play functions are so cool! Love how one of the alienship turns into two!

Best space theme yet

Have you guys ever thought about the ADF being like the UN? They both have medium blue as a main color, and they both protect humanity. I coils see the UN filling this position in case of an invasion. I am pretty disappointed that the cyborg alien is in the big set, and I was not planning on buying it.

but do you think I should get it for the Doctor?

Definitely not. People are going to army-build the tripod like crazy, and once they get one or two businessmen, the rest are going to go straight to Bricklink. He'll be going for a dime a dozen (not really) on there a month after the theme reaches wide release.

Although I like the mothership, the price and lack of figs makes me think that getting 2xabduction and 2xtripods will give you much more value than 1xmommyship, 1xabduction and 1xtripod for 10.0 less dollars!

I completely agree, and so, that will probably be my plan of action as well when it comes to purchasing Alien Conquest sets. The smaller saucer and the tripod are fantastic, so I'll likely buy multiples of them instead of purchasing the mothership.

I completely agree, and so, that will probably be my plan of action as well when it comes to purchasing Alien Conquest sets. The smaller saucer and the tripod are fantastic, so I'll likely buy multiples of them instead of purchasing the mothership.

Thirded. I can get a Tripod, UFO Abduction, and Earth Defender for the same price as the mothership. I'm not sure how the part count works out but that sure seems like a better value to me.

I'm not one to buy multiples, though, so I might cave and get the mothership anyway.

I may have to get the 'copter... so many awesome cockpits. Plus blue slopy/curvey/wedgey bits, which I'm sadly lacking. And at least 8 of the new cheese+plate slopes. And of course, the fabled 3x6x2.2/3 engines, finally in blue. Mmm, blue...

The faces of the Alien Defense Force make me very happy! The old guy in UFO abduction is perfect; finally an old man who doesn't look depressed or happy-go-lucky!

I must say, this theme is looking very awesome. It reminds me of a more modernized retelling of The War of the Worlds. I'll probably only get the tripod, because that is what the Martians use in War of the Worlds.

I really like what I see. My main complaint is the new blue color. We went through gray change, and that was bad enough, but I do understand it. Many of my Old Gray pieces are different colors so I understand changing the formula to make it more consistent, but new blue.....bleh.

Earth Defense HQ is good....except for new blue

Alien Mothership and UFO abduction seem overpriced, I'll have to get my pitchforks elsewhere

The Tripod has awesome radar dishes in black for feet!!! I'll take 2

Alien Defender and Alien Encounter/striker (the two small sets) seem to be very good army builders. I think I'll skip the new blue set.

My main complaint is the new blue color. We went through gray change, and that was bad enough, but I do understand it. Many of my Old Gray pieces are different colors so I understand changing the formula to make it more consistent, but new blue.....bleh.

I'm not sure where you got that information, but I don't think that the new shade of blue is a replacement for any existing colour, just a new one. Lego release colour charts, with little swatches of all the colours they use in a given year, along with their official, proper names (as opposed to AFOL Nomenclature like "Bley") and that colours serial number. Both of the colours appear on it. I could be wrong though, it's not a subject I'm up to date with. I believe Aanchir would know.

Edited February 16, 201114 yr by Rocketbilly

I'm not sure where you got that information, but I don't think that the new shade of blue is a replacement for any existing colour, just a new one. Lego release colour charts, with little swatches of all the colours they use in a given year, along with their official, proper names (as opposed to AFOL Nomenclature like "Bley" and that colours serial number. Both of the colours appear on it. I could be wrong though, it's not a subject I'm up to date with. I believe Aanchir would know.

Yes I agree let's get Aanchir in on this!

Personally I didn't even notice it's a new shade of blue, considering how dark the pictures are I would assume it's hard to tell and because there is no "true blue" for reference I don't know if that's the proper tint or just a poor camera representation.

Maybe they are the Alien defense force but every single agent is an Alien defense unit. Each alien defense unit has the gun barrels and armor to make it and doesn't afraid of anything.

Yeah, maybe the whole group are referred to as "force" while individual squads are "units".

I'm not sure where you got that information, but I don't think that the new shade of blue is a replacement for any existing colour, just a new one. Lego release colour charts, with little swatches of all the colours they use in a given year, along with their official, proper names (as opposed to AFOL Nomenclature like "Bley") and that colours serial number. Both of the colours appear on it. I could be wrong though, it's not a subject I'm up to date with. I believe Aanchir would know.

We haven't got any color chart that's up-to-date enough to include the new blue-- the only real place we've seen it is on LDD, where it seems to be color 321 or 322. And in any event, we know it's not replacing regular blue because both colors appear in the Alien Conquest sets we've seen: regular blue is used for the vehicles while the new blue is used for the uniforms.

The only blue color it could possibly be replacing is Medium Blue, which is unlikely since Medium Blue is used prominently in the Glove World set from the Spongebob theme (the Spongebob sets displayed at ToyFair seemed largely finalized, and one of them even used the new blue in it). It's also visually very different than Medium Blue, which makes replacement unlikely-- most of the time a replacement color is only meant to fix a perceived error, so any change will be minor.

We haven't got any color chart that's up-to-date enough to include the new blue-- the only real place we've seen it is on LDD, where it seems to be color 321 or 322. And in any event, we know it's not replacing regular blue because both colors appear in the Alien Conquest sets we've seen: regular blue is used for the vehicles while the new blue is used for the uniforms.

The only blue color it could possibly be replacing is Medium Blue, which is unlikely since Medium Blue is used prominently in the Glove World set from the Spongebob theme (the Spongebob sets displayed at ToyFair seemed largely finalized, and one of them even used the new blue in it). It's also visually very different than Medium Blue, which makes replacement unlikely-- most of the time a replacement color is only meant to fix a perceived error, so any change will be minor.

I shall call you Rainbow Man

The Earth Defense HQ is really growing on me. I'm not even a fan of classic space but I can definitely feel the classic vibes. It's built like a rock, too, or at least it appears to be. And I REALLY like the fighter jet mounted on top of the truck. Definitely the best mobile HQ LEGO's come up with, and the price is pretty fair... this one's going to be hard to resist.

Edited February 16, 201114 yr by Algernon

The Earth Defense HQ is really growing on me. I'm not even a fan of classic space but I can definitely feel the classic vibes. It's built like a rock, too, or at least it appears to be. And I REALLY like the fighter jet mounted on top of the truck. Definitely the best mobile HQ LEGO's come up with, and the price is pretty fair... this one's going to be hard to resist.

I definitely agree with you on this one. I almost never go for sets (well, main theme sets anyway. I've got my share of 10 - - - series exclusives) that are more than $60, but I think this one has a huge draw. It looks great, looks like it plays great, it has that epic alien pirate figure and all sorts of useful blue pieces, and it's only $90. That combined with my increased cash flow this summer makes it VERY tempting. Really the only thing that makes me hesitant is the promise of stationary base for the humans should this theme continue for another wave or two, but even then...

Edited February 17, 201114 yr by Tereglith

... And in any event, we know it's not replacing regular blue because both colors appear in the Alien Conquest sets we've seen: regular blue is used for the vehicles while the new blue is used for the uniforms. ...

Oh good I thought I was going color-blind! It sounded like the discussion was not about the uniforms but about the actual vehicles, and that looked like regular old blue to me.

Am I the only one bothered by the apparent lack of any sort of features that would make the Mothership a true "Mothership"? Namely small vehicles, a big interior with a command center, etc. like the UFO theme had?

-Chewk

Am I the only one bothered by the apparent lack of any sort of features that would make the Mothership a true "Mothership"? Namely small vehicles, a big interior with a command center, etc. like the UFO theme had?

-Chewk

Yeah I noticed that too. In fact, other than the spinning ring and the crappy arm there are no other play features at all, which is a major disappointment.

Am I the only one bothered by the apparent lack of any sort of features that would make the Mothership a true "Mothership"? Namely small vehicles, a big interior with a command center, etc. like the UFO theme had?

-Chewk

Well maybe it contains the mother?

I definitely agree with you on this one. I almost never go for sets (well, main theme sets anyway. I've got my share of 10 - - - series exclusives) that are more than $60, but I think this one has a huge draw. It looks great, looks like it plays great, it has that epic alien pirate figure and all sorts of useful blue pieces, and it's only $90. That combined with my increased cash flow this summer makes it VERY tempting. Really the only thing that makes me hesitant is the promise of stationary base for the humans should this theme continue for another wave or two, but even then...

That occurred to me too; in the likely event of a second wave, a stationary command center for the EDU would be pretty standard given the route of Space Police, Atlantis, and even Power Miners. That doesn't necessarily mean it'll be a better purchase than the Earth Defense HQ (who knows?) but that's a ways off anyway; I'll probably have more than enough money to handle a second wave by the time it's even worth thinking about.

What makes ME hesitant is the price tag. Fair, yes, but $90 is still $90 and I'm just as tempted by the smaller sets as I am by the Defense HQ. It's a rare occurrence when I pick up the biggest set in a theme (I really wanted to get that Pharoah's Quest pyramid, but alas, not enough dough) so when I do shell out my ~$100 it had better be on a real gem. I really like the Defense HQ but I'm gonna wait until I see some reviews before I make up my mind.

Either way, it's looking like an expensive Summer for me.

Am I the only one bothered by the apparent lack of any sort of features that would make the Mothership a true "Mothership"? Namely small vehicles, a big interior with a command center, etc. like the UFO theme had?

Well, they probably went for the "big and impressive" look rather than the actual functionality of the set.

Think about Star Wars vehicles. Either get a well-designed ship with an interior that has a large parts count and is expensive, or get a smaller piece count for a larger ship without interior, the latter of which is the case for this set.

In my opinion, I'd rather not get an interior if it saves pieces. Probably not shared by many others, but that's my thought. This theme is probably going to do well, so a second wave featuring large base sets is possible.

Interiors are useless for display, but I really have to wonder why the human sets are more likely to have small UFOs than the mother ship set...

After inspecting the HQ, it has really grown up on me. If the final version has transparent yellow windshields and cockpits, I might get it.

Edited February 17, 201114 yr by vexorian