Least appropriate place TLG has placed a flickfire missile.

[TeufelHund]

I just built Jabba's Palace over the weekend (great set) but the one thing I can't understand is why TLG felt the need to slap a flickfire missile directly under the roof. Now maybe a little rotating turret on top of a roof might make sense, but this one is a stationary missile pointing out of the base of the roof in one direction only. I guess Jabba is only anticipating attack from a single direction.

Is there any more ridiculous placement of a flickfire mssile? I know TLG is addicted to them (they seriously need to detox) but this is getting ridiculous.

[Vindicare]

There's two in 9472 Attack on Weathertop set. In the base of the tower ruin...

[Combee]

There's two in 9472 Attack on Weathertop set. In the base of the tower ruin...

Gonna have to agree with this one, they made no sense at all

[TheWarden]

The last ewok set had one sticking out of the middle of the tree.

The big Atlantis set had two (I think) coming out of the top of the temple pediment (I think that is what it is called.)

Those two are what came to mind for me.

The strangest flickfire missile itself in my opinion (not the location, but the missile itself) was the Ninjago villain base that had skull flickfires manned by skeletons. Think about that for a minute.

[Insane Ostrich]

the monster fighters castle has a flickfire spider, although it's not in a strange place I just can't make sense of it. I guess it's an easy +1 to play features, they do have a tendency to put them anywhere they can lately.

[Yatkuu]

lol, funny thread.

Guys, you need to look at this from a kid's perspective. My son is crazy about flickfire missiles. He does not care if it's positioned right or if it is working or not.. he just loves to play with them (he's 4 yo). Last week-end we built together the Alien Conquest command center and once finished he played with the missiles for 30 min, at that point I told him to stop because I was growing tired or rebuilding the turret each time!

[Hrw-Amen]

Perhaps I am missing something with the flickfire missiles. I never seem to be able to get them to flick that easily without causing damage to my finger nails and even when they do they only go about ten centimetres. If they had been around when I was a kid I would of soon tired of them as they just have no play/fun factor whatsoever that I can see?

But maybe I am flicking them wrong?

[just2good]

Buzz's lazer on 7592 Construct-a-Buzz. I get where they were going with that one, but it looks out-of-place. I would of liked it if they used a red light brick instead (I don't care about a price spike)! Another weird one is in the new set, 9468 Vampyre Castle. The spider near the gate is actually a flickfire missile!

[Aanchir]

Ever since TLG introduced the specialized "flick-fire missile" piece a few years ago, I can't say I've seen any uses I consider all that "inappropriate". After all, in most cases they're small enough and inconspicuous enough that if you don't like them you can just pretend they're a part of the build and ignore that they're an action feature altogether. Or, for that matter, remove them entirely without upsetting the build.

With that said, I think the least appropriate place to put a flick-fire missile, as we tend to think of them, was on the TIE Crawler. Not because it was all that more conspicuous than the average flick-fire missile, although it kind of was, but rather because with the TIE Crawler on the ground as depicted in its official images, the missile was next-to-impossible to launch. Perhaps a five-year-old could have fit a tiny finger underneath the vehicle, but there was no way to properly "flick" it and achieve any meaningful distance (note that it was also a much heavier missile than today's flick-fires tend to be).

Going back a bit further, to the days when flick-fires required absurdly specialized parts and were not inconspicuous by any stretch of the imagination, the most garish use of a flick-fire missile was probably the flick-fire "disk shooter column" in the Air Temple from the Avatar: The Last Airbender theme. Without that missile column, the tank in that set is a pretty decent likeness of a Fire Nation Tank, if a bit small and out-of-scale with the characters. Here's another angle on the tanks. But TLG decided that the best way to "arm" the tanks was to stick this huge launcher column on top. Note that also the tanks are designed to hold one Firebender pilot-- when, and only when, the huge launcher-column is removed, at which point the pilot becomes completely exposed in the uncovered cockpit.

Overall I think the current flick-fire missile piece TLG designed was a great development in that it's small, inconspicuous, usable for things other than missiles (it's a great Technic element), and it can actually launch a decent distance, especially when there's a nice Technic function easing the stress on your fingers like in the case of Smash 'n' Grab.

[HumanPackMule]

With the new Uruk-Hai army set I think they made one of the best ffm functions ever. It makes sense, they go far, and they're easy to fire. On the other hand I found the little ffm cart that came with 7188 to be a bit lacking. And then there's the King's Carriage Ambush set 7188 which had a launcher just sticking out of a tree.

[Faefrost]

Set 8088 the newer version of the Star Wars ARC 170 fighter bomber. It has 2 flick fires, ingeniously linked to the technic gear you turn to open the wings. You tap the gear and the missiles will shoot straight into the nose of your own aircraft. They literally point straight into the fuselage.

I'm also a little confused by the ffm's on the 7964 Republic Frigate. So we are shooting the barrels of our laser cannons at the enemy?

[Combee]

With the new Uruk-Hai army set I think they made one of the best ffm functions ever. It makes sense, they go far, and they're easy to fire.

It's funny you should mention that. It's definitely the optimal use of the missiles but I can never get them to go further than a couple inches in that set

Edited June 4, 2012 by Combee

[Lyichir]

The least appropriate use I can think of is the one in the Weathertop set. They make sense in armed outposts like the ones in Star Wars sets set on Endor, or booby-trapped temples like those in Indiana Jones. But Weathertop is supposed to be abandoned, and as far as I can remember didn't have any sort of traps at all.

Of course, I don't mind flick-fires on these sorts of sets that much, as they're usually an inconspicuous way to add play value to sets without changing the form factor of the model. If it takes a single flick-fire missile to get kids to buy Weathertop, well, it's easy enough for AFOLs to remove if it bothers them that much.

[Vindicare]

the monster fighters castle has a flickfire spider, although it's not in a strange place I just can't make sense of it. I guess it's an easy +1 to play features, they do have a tendency to put them anywhere they can lately.

Buzz's lazer on 7592 Construct-a-Buzz. I get where they were going with that one, but it looks out-of-place. I would of liked it if they used a red light brick instead (I don't care about a price spike)! Another weird one is in the new set, 9468 Vampyre Castle. The spider near the gate is actually a flickfire missile!

I can actually see the point to this one. I may be wrong, but I think it's basically a jumping spider. Say when the monster Fighters come to the gate the spider attacks.

[LEGOman273]

Set 8088 the newer version of the Star Wars ARC 170 fighter bomber. It has 2 flick fires, ingeniously linked to the technic gear you turn to open the wings. You tap the gear and the missiles will shoot straight into the nose of your own aircraft. They literally point straight into the fuselage.

I'm also a little confused by the ffm's on the 7964 Republic Frigate. So we are shooting the barrels of our laser cannons at the enemy?

1. That is really stupid. And good Single-Pane-Funny-fodder.

2. Yes. See the Corperate Alliance Tank Droid, and the AAT.

[Big Cam]

In my opinion any set that has flick fire missiles is an inappropriate use of flick fire missiles.

I can't stand them.

[davee123]

I forget who came up with the idea, but at a meeting a while back, we decided it'd be a great AFOL contest to redesign classic or otherwise fantastic LEGO sets with totally inappropriate play features-- like the Statue of Liberty with flick-missile eyes, Cafe Corner with trapdoors, or Town Square with "falling axe traps". Who can come up with the least appropriate and most overzealously numerous amount of play features for an otherwise amazing set?

DaveE

Edited June 4, 2012 by davee123

[sharky]

There's two in 9472 Attack on Weathertop set. In the base of the tower ruin...

That did boggle my mind a bit. And here I thought the LOTR sets were supposed to be more AFOL oriented. Eh, maybe this will help kids to like them more and sell more sets.

I forget who came up with the idea, but at a meeting a while back, we decided it'd be a great AFOL contest to redesign classic or otherwise fantastic LEGO sets with totally inappropriate play features-- like the Statue of Liberty with flick-missile eyes, Cafe Corner with trapdoors, or Town Square with "falling axe traps". Who can come up with the least appropriate and most overzealously numerous amount of play features for an otherwise amazing set?

DaveE

Sounds like a lot of fun.

[HumanPackMule]

I forget who came up with the idea, but at a meeting a while back, we decided it'd be a great AFOL contest to redesign classic or otherwise fantastic LEGO sets with totally inappropriate play features-- like the Statue of Liberty with flick-missile eyes, Cafe Corner with trapdoors, or Town Square with "falling axe traps". Who can come up with the least appropriate and most overzealously numerous amount of play features for an otherwise amazing set?

DaveE

That'd make for one of the most amazing contests ever on this site. Can you say flick fire chickens from MMV?

[Vindicare]

In my opinion any set that has flick fire missiles is an inappropriate use of flick fire missiles.

I can't stand them.

I'm with Cam on this one.

Shooting projectiles are nothing new of course, especially in spaceships. Kids like to shoot stuff.

[vriverajr3]

i cant stand them. most of the time you end up flicking the wrong area and knock off a piece of the set haha. cant remember the set names, but have ran into some sets where i thought "what were they thinking?"

[Faefrost]

I forget who came up with the idea, but at a meeting a while back, we decided it'd be a great AFOL contest to redesign classic or otherwise fantastic LEGO sets with totally inappropriate play features-- like the Statue of Liberty with flick-missile eyes, Cafe Corner with trapdoors, or Town Square with "falling axe traps". Who can come up with the least appropriate and most overzealously numerous amount of play features for an otherwise amazing set?

DaveE

Cafe Corner is not supposed to have trapdoors or pits of spikes? I must be reading the directions wrong?

[Firocket1690]

I was never a fan of them. Never knew where they were going with them. My new 9466 has a flick-fire on the side of the car. And the side of the car just slides out.

The one, single time where I've seen them used properly were in General Grevious' Starship. Anyone who has this set knows what I'm talking about.

first post!

Edited June 4, 2012 by Firocket1690

[Insane Ostrich]

lol, funny thread.

Guys, you need to look at this from a kid's perspective. My son is crazy about flickfire missiles. He does not care if it's positioned right or if it is working or not.. he just loves to play with them (he's 4 yo). Last week-end we built together the Alien Conquest command center and once finished he played with the missiles for 30 min, at that point I told him to stop because I was growing tired or rebuilding the turret each time!

Ok good point, I guess it's a fun feature for kids. I remember spending hours using catapults and such when I was a kid, my 6 yr old self is probably just jealous for not having flickfire missiles in his time.

I don't have a problem with them to be honest, they usually are inconspicuous enough not to bother me.

[JackJonespaw]

I was never a fan of them. Never knew where they were going with them. My new 9466 has a flick-fire on the side of the car. And the side of the car just slides out.

The one, single time where I've seen them used properly were in General Grevious' Starship. Anyone who has this set knows what I'm talking about.

first post!

I completely agree. Those were the best use. I like flick-fire missles where you don't have to flick them! Like in Ahsoka's Starfighter or the Solar Sailer.

I think that Weathertop has got to be the worst place. Why, Lego? WHY?