General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

[Warcry]

That is a pet peeve of mine. I like the sets, I like the colours but I don't like that they have drawn a line through an essentially unisex toyline. The castles and space are for boys and picnics and stables are for girls mentality and the message it sends to kids really annoys me.

The worst part about it is that stifles creativity. The "boys stuff" doesn't get hit so hard with that, but every single thing on the girls' side of my local Toys'R'Us is a an ugly pink/purple eyesore and the Lego is no exception. The designers are basically screaming at them that that's the only colours they're allowed to like or build with, while the main-line stuff (which used to be unisex but is now de facto for boys since they've got specific sub-lines for girls) have bricks in every colour of the rainbow. The "boys" sets also offer a much wider choice of things to build, from castles and spaceships to houses to animals to boardgames, while the "girls" stuff seems to be limited to painfully stereotypical Malibu Stacey crap.

It's a huge step backwards and I have no idea why they'd do it, since every little girl I've ever known has enjoyed building stuff with regular, non-sexist Lego.

The Friends and Fairy sets would be great at minifig scale and would nicely blend with City or Castle sets but the separation is very limiting in my opinion. Although there have been a few more lady minifigs in recent years I think this was a missed opportunity to increase the amount of lady minifig parts available for customisation etc.

And then there's this, which is equally stupid. The sets and builds don't fit in with 90% of the official Lego builds out there because everything is scaled up to match the stupid "mini-dolls". It's as if their entire marketing strategy is based around trying to make sure that little girls don't play with their brothers' Lego by making it as incompatible as possible.

Considering the stuck-in-the-50s mindset of whoever designed the stuff, I suppose we should be thankful they don't come with brushable hair...

And it's definitely a shame from the "not making enough female minifigs" side of things too. Although that long-standing annoyance of mine has been smoothed over at least a little bit by the amount of females we get in the collectible minifig line. There's still not as many as I'd like and too many are just lazy female versions of popular male figures they did the previous year, but at least I can build a scene now without it looking like Kabul circa 1999.

Now if only they'd make a few dark-skinned minifigs that aren't Lando Calrissian...

When I worked at TRU it annoyed me when parents came in asking for "the girl Lego" (it was kept separate from the main Lego display) it happened so often that in the end I just gave up replying with "Lego is unisex" and just pointed them out.

Sadly, I think this is probably the reason for the whole endeavour. It's easier for clueless relatives to buy the only pink box in their chosen price range than it is for them to look at the "real" Lego and pick something that the girl they're shopping for would like.

Gay kings. Problem solved. Also I really like that carpenter, the saw and the detail on the plank make him a stand out figure of that wave.

They can be as gay as they want, but since they're absolutely identical and thus almost certainly twin brothers, they'd better not do so with each other. Obviously what I need to do is dig out my king minifigure from the early 90s Lion Knights, put an old-guy face on him and demote these two to princes.

(The carpenter is pretty cool, I agree.)

I was disappointed with the Pirates stuff too. I was excited for all of five minutes and then was ...booo. A lot of Lego's stuff seems to be leaning towards a sort of playset vibe for its traditional ranges, partly inspired it would seem by the similar licensed sets, which have a bunch of figures and a few bricks to represent scenery. Its a shame, as there's then not much you can rebuild out of the sets , which I always thought was kind of the point.

I've noticed that trend too, but I never made the connection with the licensed sets. I think you're 100% correct, though. The designers are so used to cramming as many recognizable characters into those little sets as possible that they're out of practice when it comes to making small, playable sets with just one or two minifigs.

I would agree about the Castle stuff and its colourful bricks - its so hard tracking down additional spare bricks without having to pay a premium for them.

Even just plain grey is hard to get without paying through the nose, since so many people scoop it up for their Castle customs. Throw in the matching highlight colours on top of that and it's a nightmare.

A lot of the additional bricks I acquired for my building was just from buying figure-less sets off ebay.

Never thought of doing that, myself. Just out of curiosity, how much less do you end up paying for an average set without the figs?

I have a zillion of the lovely 2007-era soldiers and nowhere to put any of them. Wouldn't be at all opposed to buying a few figure-free sets to build them a base, if there's a good savings involved.

One was the super-expensive market village, and the other a blink and you'll miss it Kingdoms expansion set.

I have both of those!

Medieval Market Village is still the best set I've ever seen, bar none. One of the few times I've really thought a modern Lego set was worth the MSRP. Sadly, after four years or so in production they finally retired it a couple years ago.

[electro girl]

All in favour of referring to Friends/Fairy as Malibu Stacey Lego from now on say aye.

[Skyquake87]

The loose, figure-less sets I bought were the Hobbit 79013 Lake Town Chase - £40-£50 RRP, £21 inc postage with no mini-figures off of ebay (some nice elements and colours included with this). Castle Dragon Mountain 70403 which was around £30 -£40 new (mine cost £20 reduced in amazon's blow out last year), loose with no dragon or minifigures £13 inc postage (price has crept up to £21 on ebay this year now the range is discontinued).

A lot of the Batman and other Superhero sets are pretty cheap without any minifigures. The trick seems to be to pick these up whilst they are in production and on sale, after that its a pricy do. On the whole, you're looking at half the RRP or less on a figure-less set. Licensed ones offer the biggest saving if its just the bricks you're after.

The 2007 Castle sets, fetch a premium whatever, 'cos no-one wants to sell those very often! I think I've seen maybe two loose examples of two sets in the last 12 months on ebay.co.uk.

I also bought I think about 3 Gatehouse Raids 70402 which seems to have been a set no-one can giveaway, so I just bought all those new on clearance for about £15 each or less (RRP was £25) and also have about three of 70400 Forest ambush which were £5 or less and I also lucked out on a random ebay lot that included a near complete 70401 Gold Getaway and some Monster Fighter set for £8.

I also bought a couple of those Basic style 'bricks and wheels' type sets. I have mixed feelings about these, as I like that you get loads of different types of bricks, but you're limited to very small models unless you're adding them to existing stuff, like what I has done

...that actually adds up to a fair bit, but I suppose selling stuff on ebay to buy other things I've not really noticed.


I say AYE to referring to pink Lego as Malibu Stacy from now on.

[Skyquake87]

I had some vouchers from work to use up and thought I'd have a go with new Lego Pirates range and went for 70412 'Soldier's Fort'.

Hundreds of years ago, I owned the Eldorado Fortress which still stands as the best land based Pirate set Lego have ever produced. Successive land based sets haven't been anywhere as near as impressive and have slowly reduced the soldiers to weird battlement strewn ruins and rather depressing endless 'lock ups'. And this set is no exception.

Its a rather small little building that is mostly just struts and white blocks. It features some nice building patterns, but is very quickly constructed due to having a lot of 'pre-fab' parts. There's the usual inclusion of an 'exploding wall' segement and a jail cell, which is the law of every Lego building. There's a nice jetty that leads to a cannon emplacement (complete with boozy soldier) and gangway, plus a really nicely engineered crane. The palm tree isn't a patch on the more realistic old-school versions and looks exactly like what it is - a bunch of technic parts. The end result is a really rather mechanical looking tree. Still, at least you can clip a frog on there.

The set comes with five minigifgures. The fort is manned by three soldier types - a crusty old General, a standard trooper and a plucky female heroine. They are all really nicely detailed and look fab. The rather compact and basic looking fort does mean that their tight detailing looks out of place with the simplistic construction of the thing. The pirates are great, with their mean looking faces, scars and eyepatches. And they have a lovely rowing boat, complete with Jolly Roger.

Where the set really works is with its play value. It has one of those fantastically powerful cannons (still surprised these haven't fallen foul of some toy safety laws), plus some new kinetic launchers that fire off tiny round one-stud bricks which will never been seen again and are also a surprising 'how did they get this past safety tests' moment. The open wall panels - which I'm personally really not keen one- are great at allowing access to minifigures so you can have them do proper sword fighting around the fortress style hijinks, as those pesky pirates try to make off with the treasure that's precariously dangling from the crane. There's also a pick axe in a barrel. For reasons.

There's no escaping though that this is a really basic set and not something that's worth the £29.99 Lego are asking for it. The pre-fab parts and clunky blocky end result leave you thinking you've bought a Juniors set by accident. The lack of elements means there's no real rebuild fun (just...towers and a more compact version of the set pictured is all I've managed) either. Whilst the last run of Castle sets felt stripped back to basics, this is so refined that there's barely anything here. The set is clearly designed for our attention deficit times and an age where the Minifigure has come to dominate the Lego landscape. It is fun...just not £30 worth of fun.

[Skyquake87]

Bought Lego Pirates 70410 : Soldiers Outpost

This is a superior set to the larger Soldier's Fort. It's compact, has some excellent detail and right bunch of pieces to muck about with. The outpost itself is fab, a nice battlement on some seaside rocks with the sea swilling about underneath. I love the cheeky crab making off a jewel. The cannon is (as always) enormous fun and I like the Russell Crowe-a-like officer whom I can imagine being a boorish prat whom gets on everyone's wick. The solider is a handsome clean shaven chap whom looks very tidy indeed. The whole Outpost can clip onto the larger fort as well, which helps make the latter look a lot better, but does highlight the gulf in quality between the two.

This wouldn't be a modern Lego set without some element of 'goodies vs baddies' thing going on, and so it is that this comes with an extremely impressive raft with Pirate. The raft is just fab. Its so nicely designed and the construction is well thought out. Having never owned one of the myriad Pirate rafts, this is impressing me perhaps more than it may anyone with previous experience of these things. In addition to the tattered shirt-sail, you get a fish in a barrel, a green bottle and an oar to steer/ row with. And a catapult. Not sure about this last one, as Lego are mad keen on these little bucket scoop catapults. They were all over the 2013 Castle line like a pox and I'm sure they'd jam them on their City fire engines and whatnot if they thought they could get away with it. The pirate due is suitably mean looking, and as well as foolishly taking on the soldier's cannon, he has a rather unfriendly octopus to contend with.

This is a great, great set and although £18 is a bit on the high side, its impressive enough that any notion of feeling you've paid a bit much is instantly dispelled. Fantastic stuff.

[Sades]

Made it to the LEGO store today, picked up the Classic King Egyptian Warrior and an extra Evil Wizard (I wonder what an Extra Evil Wizard would look like?). Anyone looking for an Evil Wizard?

I am amused by the King's beard a bit more than I probably should be. I want to use it to make a Hipster minifig. Series 5 Sleepyhead's hair, Classic King's beard, Series 5 Lumberjack's body. And random male head with glasses. It'd work.

(Just googled, it's been done with that hair/beard combo but with a regular face/different clothes... Still want to do it though!)

Oh, we also got the Shipwreck Defense set today.

[Sades]

Went out and got more minifigs. Got a Series 12 Dino Tracker (AKA Katniss with a sex toy), Series 12 Space Miner, Series 13 Sheriff, and now also have an extra Classic King is anyone is interested.

[Sades]

Forgot about these. All Series 12: Wizard, Pizza Delivery Guy, Jester, extra Katniss with a sex toy. The Wizard's shiny cape appeals to the liker of shinies in me.

[Denyer]

Big Bang Theory added to the list of licensed play-sets that have originated with the Cuusoo/IDEAs thing;

http://www.brothers-brick.com/2015/06/0 ... iled-news/

[electro girl]

Has anyone else played the Lego Worlds early Access yet?

[HeavyArms]

Denyer
Big Bang Theory added to the list of licensed play-sets that have originated with the Cuusoo/IDEAs thing;

http://www.brothers-brick.com/2015/0...unveiled-news/

That is a set that I'm quite interested in purchasing, even if I feel Penny and Leonard could have been done better (different hair pieces).

[Denyer]

Can see me stealing parts of the venerable dread design... lots more pics on Flickr.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kosmassan ... otostream/


http://i.imgur.com/JyYzLVc.jpg

[Skyquake87]

Used up the last of my vouchers on the other two land based Lego Pirates sets.

70409 Shipwreck Defense
Decent entry level set with a neat action feature - the 'boat' rocks above the sea, making it a great target for the soldier's cannon. The detailing is great, and I love the little fire (with tasty fish) and the way the designers have made a handful of bricks look like an actual wreck (moreso than the 2009 set which did something similar, but somehow failed to convince). The only downsides are having too many shooty and stabby things for the two minifigures to wield and the price.

70411 Pirates Treasure Island
Yeah, its a big skull faced rock with gold tooth. Rather credits Pirates with some artistry they're not usually known for. Plus, would you really advertise where you've stashed the loot? I'm not really sure what I make of this set. Its a bit of an anemic looking cave and rather a bare bones affair (pun not intended), lacking the rockiness of most seaside cliff faces/ caves. The focus is definitely on the play features, with its mounted cannon, hidden compartment and skull face lift me up me do (simply yank the palm tree - with banana!). These are fun little touches, and the two pirates are great - the female with her eyepatch and grimace and Zane Lowe bobbing about in the sea in his tub - as are the animals. I love the graded bright colours on the parrot and the crocodile with his snapping jaw and waggly tail is adorable. The token good guy comes with a nice navy blue (pun intended) row boat and one of those tiny kinetic launchers which I've decided I don't like (doesn't fit well with the 'historic' theme). As a set, it looks much more like something when hooked up with the smaller shipwreck set, giving the look of a coastline, but on its own...I don't know, it just feels a bit lacking, despite the fun it packs in.

I think if I'd paid actual proper money for these sets, I'd be a little disappointed by them but as it is, they'll do me

[HeavyArms]

I got a bit of a haul of Lego this past week or so:

Jurassic World 75918 T. rex Tracker - Last Sunday from Myer with discount.
Pirates 70411 Treasure Island - Discounted at Toys 'R' Us.
Marvel Super Heroes 76038 Attack on Avengers Tower - A Myer lay-by I paid off.
DC Super Heroes 76027 Black Manta Deep Sea Strike - A Big W lay-by I paid off.

These came in a shipment from the Lego online shop -

The Hobbit 79012 Mirkwood Elf Army - I suspect that the Hobbit theme is going to retire this year so I need to grab the last few sets and these are two of them.
The Hobbit 79016 Attack on Lake-town - See above.
Juniors 10679 Pirate Treasure Hunt - Not officially a Pirates set but I thought why not.
Pirates 70409 Shipwreck Defense
Ideas 21109 Exo Suit - This set is retiring soon, I suspect when the Big Bang Theory is released.

Pirates 70410 Soldiers Outpost - Discounted at Toys 'R' Us.

[HeavyArms]

I wish Lego would give more warning as to when they would retire sets, because it will cost far more to get the remaining Hobbit sets now.

[Skyquake87]

I've been having a play with my Dragon Knights and been trying to do something interesting with their slightly underwhelming fortress from the 2013 Castle line. I've two of these things, but couldn't make anything with them that was quite doing it for me, so I split them down and put one back together as it was and started thinking about what I could do.

The thing I really liked about the Dragon Knights was that their castle was built on some mountains and I wanted to beef it up a bit, but was finding it quite hard with the limited number of mountain-y shapes I had and bits of left over gatehouses.

So all this week, using the base cave and steps sections as a starting point, I've been fiddling and faffing about to try and realise the thing I had in mind.

And I came up with this, The Red Queen's Mountain Fort (or something a bit more dramatic sounding) and I'm pretty pleased with it

So, starting at the top, The Queen has a little balcony area that she stand on. Her quarters are filled with treasure, as it was a bit of an awkward space and I thought 'why not', above her is a sparkly red gem of firey evil and there's a dude with a crossbow snarling at the top on guard.

[Skyquake87]

Below her is the Knight's quarters. In here is somewhere for him to hang his helmet and sword, as well as a stand to stash his shield. He's got a little table and an enormous sausage. No wonder he looks happy.

Directly below the knight's quarters is a little cave covered in a cobweb, which hides this cheeky gap-toothed fella who's up to no good.

[Skyquake87]

At the other side, some steps lead up to some craggy rocks where a grim faced sentry stands guard with just a bat to keep him company. Good job there's a torch there stop him getting cold.

Below him is the kitchen, where a serving girl is about to cook a fish on her fancy looking stove.



And that is what I did in my school holidays

[Sades]

I like your tower hidey.

[Skyquake87]

Fanx Miss