Lego deems the Friends theme a success

 

It’s a few weeks old, but this is the first I have heard of it. (yes, despite my extended absence from this blog, I have been keeping up with the Lego news!) Lego says that the Friends theme is a success, I take that back.  What they actually said was that the line has had  “astonishing sales” and it is increasing “production to meet the demand of the all important Christmas period.”  In fact,the Friends theme has sold twice as many sets as they had expected in the first six months of the year!

You can read the entire article here.

I’ve gotta say, its somewhat tough for me to believe they are selling as much as Lego says they are.  Although the line has appeal to girls (my six year old daughter loves it!) every time we go to the toy section, I see a ton of the sets sitting on the shelves.  But, then again, I don’t know how much inventory the stores keep because, if you go by the toy store shelves, it looks like almost everything except for new releases is not selling.

I seriously doubt that Lego will increase production on a line that isn’t selling.  So I guess I just have to take them at their word.  I’m glad that there is a line that is attracting girls to the world of Lego.

Also, at the bottom of the article, they mention that Ninjago is still outperforming their expectations.  Another piece of good news since my kids live both the show and the theme!

What do you think?  Do you or anyone you know buy Friends sets?  Are you glad for the good Ninjago news?  Let me know in the comments!

Bricks and Figs

Over the weekend, we took the kids to the beach in Oceanside which is just outside of San Diego.  We had a good time.  The beach there is sweet.  it even has a little playground if your kids get bored with making sandcastles, playing in the waves, and all the other cool beach stuff.

On the way home, we stopped off in the sleepy town of Hemet, Ca. to do a little LEGO shopping.

 

There is a store there in Hemet called Bricks and Figs.  About 10 years ago, I would probably have never even known a place like this existed.  It’s about an hour away from me in a direction that I rarely ever travel.  I actually found their Facebook page while looking for LEGO related stuff.  I have only ever purchased LEGO from the big chain stores such as Toys R Us, Walmart, Target, or LEGO brand stores.  So I was intrigued by the prospect of visiting an actual LEGO hobby shop.

We walked in with the kids and they could’t believe all the LEGO stuff in there.  My kids were yelling; “Ninjago!” and “Look Hero Factory!” before we even got in the store!  When you walk in, you are greeted by a big table with a ton of licensed and collectible minifigures in their own little plastic cases.  They have it all there.  Star Wars, Harry Potter, Avatar, Toy Story.  There were so many, I stopped trying to keep track of all the themes.

They also have a lot of out of production sets.  With themes ranging from the original Batman, to Pirates, even recently out of production themes like Harry Potter, it’s a good bet that your favorite theme is represented here.  Even though the store is small, you can spend quite a bit of time looking at all of the LEGO choices that are there.  We were even able to get set 5969 Squidman Escape which was the first LEGO set that my son ever bought and had long since disappeared into the loose brick box.

 

They also have some off the wall stuff like LEGO playing cards and LEGO salt and pepper shakers.  I had actually never seen either of these before even at LEGOland!

My favorite part of the store had to be the wall with the base LEGO theme minifigs.  You know, the little yellow guys.  They had a bunch of cool figs that I haven’t seen in years.  All of which were in excellent condition! Blacktron, Forestmen, Pirates, Adventure, Classic Space, Space Police, Western.  Again, you name it, they probably have it.  They even had a selection of DUPLO animals there.  My daughter got a baby giraffe!

Bricks and Figs isn’t just a LEGO store either.  They also have some vintage Star Wars figures, World of Warcraft Mega Bloks, Some captain Action Figures, Super Hero toys, and other toys.  Heck, they even had a couple vintage Buck Rogers figs!  Oh, and don’t let me forget about the Life-size statue of everyone’s favorite Gungan: Jar-Jar Binks!

 

 

All in all, it was a nice little side trip on our way home.  The atmosphere was friendly.  The girl (being the hard hitting journalist that I am I completely forgot to get her name) working there was knowledgeable.  She was able to tell me the name of the Johnny Thunder minifig that I bought when I could not remember his name for the life of me!  But the most important thing is the selection that they have!   It’s a little off the beaten path, but it’s worth checking out.

Also, if Hemet, Ca. is a little too far off of your beaten path, you are in luck!  They also have a website. Bricksandfigs.com so you can check out what they have to offer from anywhere in the world!

World of Warcraft Mega Bloks are here Ragerock review

I was at Wal-mart the other day and I noticed that the new World of Warcraft Mega Bloks had hit the shelves.   At least they were on the shelves at one point, since all there was left were a Colton figure and a Ragerock figure.  At first I was going to get both of them but I remembered my previous disappointment with Mega Bloks figures and decided that I would check out one of the figures before I committed $14.00 to buying 2 of them.  (they were $6.99 each).

I decided to buy the Ragerock figure.  Mega Bloks refers to the figures as micro action figures and I think that is a fair way to describe them.  They are super-poseable and are ready for action.

PACKAGING

The figures come in an impressive package.  The window on the front allows you to get a look at the figure you are getting.  You can’t even see it until you open the package, but there is a red inner-box with a horde logo that really looks cool.  Mega Bloks went all out with the packaging.in the

FIGURE

The figure is what this is all about.  It didn’t disappoint. The micro action figure is nothing like the cheap minifigure clones that Mega Bloks normally puts out.  These are a whole new creation.   (Mega Bloks may have put something out similar to this in the past, but I am not familiar with their stuff so I don’t know for sure.)  The legs and arms are bendable, the head is moveable, and the waist is twistable making the figure ultra-poseable.   The armor is removable so you can change the armor between the different characters.  (I suspect that some armor packs are in the future)  The figure is even pretty cool looking without any armor at all.

QUALITY

Mega Bloks really stepped up the quality for this release.  The figure looks great and is durable enough to stand up to some heavy play.  It has a good amount of weight to it, so it won’t blow away in the wind, but it will probably not hold up against the dog’s jaws.  Although not many toys do.  The detail of the figure and the armor are top-notch.  Ragerock looks like he just stepped out of Azeroth and is ready for battle.  The paint job is highly detailed and adds to the value of the figure immensely.

PLAYABILITY

As I said before, the figure can be posed in a number of different ways so he can handle all forms of battle.  As a matter of fact, I have him sitting on my laptop while I write this and I keep posing him in a bunch of different ways.  It’s really remarkable how much he can be posed.  The overall playability of this figure in particular is diminished somewhat by the fact that it’s just the one figure, but the point is to get you to buy more of the figures right?

DISPLAY

The set comes with a little mini-diorama that can be used as a display stand.  It also connects with the other micro-figure stands in the series for one big display.  The rocks and the horde banner look pretty cool and the little flag-type thing in the background are pretty cool.  The one drawback is that the bloks don’t connect together exactly right so it’s a little bit of a chore to get some of the pieces to fit. They also come apart pretty easily.

MINIFIGURE COMPARISON AND COMPATIBILITY 

The micro-figures are bigger than LEGO minifigures. They are more poseable and more realistic than the minifigure.  However, they don’t have the same charm that the minifigure has.  As for compatibility, minifigures can hold the micro-figures weapons and vice versa.  They can both stand on the other’s bricks.  Although the micro-figure doesn’t grip the studs as well as the minifigure does.

CONCLUSION

The figure is awesome.  It really has surpassed my expectations of this product.  The brick display looks nice, but there isn’t much rebuildability.  The brick quality leaves something to be desired, but the figure quality is excellent.  I really don’t think that this product would be considered competition to the LEGO product.  I think they are dissimilar enough that they won’t compete for the same market share.

What do you think of the new World of Warcraft mega Blocks?

Hill Valley Courthouse on Cuusoo

You may remember a few months back when Team BTTF got 10,000 votes on their DeLorean Time Machine  which got them into the product review stage on Cuusoo.   Well They are back at it again, with the Hill Valley Courthouse.

Now you may be wondering what the heck a Cuusoo is.  To put it simply, it’s Lego’s attempt at crowdsourcing new products.  You design a project, post it on the Cuusoo site, and if it gets 10,000 votes from the Cuusoo community, it goes to the review stage where The Lego Group reviews it to see if they can turn it into an actual set.

Team BTTF, achieved the 10,000 vote plateau with their DeLorean project and they are now looking to get to that level again with their other Back to the Future themed project, Hill Valley Courthouse.

I actually think I like this build better than their original project.  I love the ingenuity behind taking something and creating it in mini scale.  I think that is harder than taking something and making it to minifig scale.  I mean who takes like 12 pieces and makes a DeLorean?  Well team BTTF that’s who.

Another great feature that they built into this project is that it’s compatible with set 10230 Mini Modulars.  I don’t know how well it fits with the actual design of the mini modulars set, but it’s cool that it has the capability to.

So get on over to Cuusoo and support the Hill Valley Courthouse!  With only 139 votes as I write this it needs some help getting to the 10,000 vote plateau.  Also, check out their Facebook page, which lists all of their Back to the Future projects.

Free Comic Book Day

In case you didn’t already know, today (May 5th) is Free Comic Book Day.  

Comic book shops all around the country are giving away free comic books!  no joke!

So get on down to your local comic book store and check them out!  You might even get to pick ups some comics that go along with your Lego Batman, Hulk, Star Wars, and Superman sets!

At our local comic shop the kids ran into some Stormtroopers and Mandalorians!

So if you haven’t already, go and check out the Free Comic Book Day website to find a participating Comic Book store in Your area and go on out there and get some free comics!  hey, you might even find a comic book or two that you want to buy!

Also, let us know what comics you picked up today,  What comics you liked the best, and if there were any cool things going on like the Stormtroopers and Mandalorians at your local shop!

Lessons in minifig customization

I’m going to start off by letting you know right now that if you came here to look for some advanced customization tips and tricks, then you are in the wrong place.

However, if you are like me: a person who is just getting their feet wet in minifig customization, then you came to the right blog!

As I said, I’m no minifig customizing expert.  I have a grand total of 2 and a half

I started with the green on the blades and then did the gold on the lines of the helmet and let it dry while I worked on something else

minifig customs to my name.  But over the course of those customs I learned a lot by trial and error.  Hopefully I can pass some of those lessons on.  This isn’t going to be a step-by-step how-to, but just some observations that I made.

Let’s begin by looking at some customizing resources.  I really got inspired by this set of tutorials by Jasbrick over on The Brothers Brick.  I will link them for you here, here, and here .  There is also a good group customizing discussion over on Flickr that can be found on Geoshift’s photostream.

Now let’s get down to business!

Be patient

When you are applying paint to your figure don’t get discouraged if the paint

While I was waiting for the first steps pf the helmet to dry, I painted the pauldrons on the cuirass. (oh and obviously the primer was done before any of the color painting

does not seem to be going on the way that you want to.  Particularly if you can see the undercoat or brushstrokes.  Let the paint dry a little bit before you decide to slap some more paint on.  Unless you have really screwed up, the paint should even out and look ok.  You will still probably need to put another coat on to cover everything up, but let the first coat dry before you try to fill everything in.  The wet paint will move around and you will wind up painting the same areas over and over again.

Don’t paint everything at once

If you are going to do different sections, I suggest getting pretty close to

The cape on the cuirass was next.

finished with one section before you move on to a different section or color.  For example: when I was painting the warrior minifig in the photos, I painted the cape first, let it dry.  I painted the pauldrons next, let them dry, and then painted the chestplate last.  I used the same technique on the helmet.  By breaking down the piece into sections like this I avoided having the colors mix whenever I had an errant brush stroke and turning into some ugly color.

Don’t be afraid to experiment

Try different color combos and add your own touches.  You don’t have to just

Here is the warrior with all the color applied. He still needed some touchup and a coat of sealer.

paint over the existing contours exactly your can create your own patterns and add your own touches.  The paints aren’t too expensive and neither are minifig parts.  You can have fun and let your imagination run wild.  If it looks terrible, you can always paint over it.  Sometimes you may have to start over with another piece but as I said, they aren’t too expensive.

So these are a few things to keep in mind when you are ready to make the leap from purist custom designs to your own painted designs.  Do you have any tips and tricks that you have learned?  Please share them in the comments below!

This is the final product. I wasn't too thrilled with the way the weathering of the armor turned out, but I think that it is a good figure none the less. I am happy with the way it turned out!

Shadow Ninja Squad by Tuminio

Shadow Ninja Squad, a photo by Tuminio on Flickr.

I’ve been into custom painting my minifigs lately and I have been inspired a lot by this guy: Tuminio. He’s got some great stuff on his Flickr photostream. This shadow ninja squad is just his latest piece of awesomeness! I love all of his custom armor pieces that he makes. His figs aren’t just figs, they are like little mini sculptures!

Check out his Shadow Ninja gallery for some more views of these guys!

Top 10 Lego Minifigs of all-time

So I have been customizing my own Lego minifigs for a while now.  During that process I have been looking over a lot of different Lego minifigs to get an idea different parts that are available in order to make more custom figures.   I got to thinking about which ones are my favorites and now here I am sharing those with you.

So here is the list!

10.

Kingdoms Lion King

The Lion King is the epitome of what a King should be.  His Golden Crown, His Royal cape, his fancy pants….  He just looks regal.  If you throw in his golden sword and put him on his horse, you truly have a fig that is worthy of leading your Lego knights into battle .  If you put him on his throne, he is clearly worthy of leading an entire kingdom of minifigs!  His armored breastplate is truly worthy of a king!

The Lion King was only available in on set (#7946 King’s castle) but for some reason it seems fitting that a king is not that easy to come by.

9.

Indiana Jones

Everyone’s favorite Archaeologist makes the list, not just because I am majoring in Archaeology, but because he is such a versatile figure.  He was included in 12 sets (at least this version of him was) and he represents such an iconic character that he is a must have.  The designers over at Lego did a great job in capturing the feel of this character so much that my fiance was able to recognize this figure as Indy even before she was told that’s who this fig was!

Plus he comes with a whip!

8.

Forestman

Now there are a ton of different versions of the forestman.   But they are all close enough that they can all be represented by one figure.  I like this figure the best because he has the little coin sack on his belt and it just gives the figure that extra degree of detail.  This guy was included in my favorite set growing up, the Forestmen’s Hideout (although I guess that fig had a white feather instead of a red one).  The forestmen were one of Lego’s best themes and this little minifig represented that theme well.

7.

Boba Fett

The baddest bounty hunter in the galaxy has also a number of redesigns over the years but the figure I like the best was included in the latest version of Slave 1.  The most popular character with less than 5 lines in movie history is represented well with this figure.  I like this version of the figure because the color scheme is closest to the actual movie color scheme out of all the Boba figs Lego has produced so far.

6.

The Incredible Hulk

Look, I know that this figure has only been out a couple of weeks, and it may seem premature to add it to this list, but if you think that, YOU ARE WRONG!  This is the freaking Incredible Hulk in Lego form!  They didn’t cheap out on us and make him a standard sized minifig either.  They made him huge!  The way the Hulk should be!  In fact, the only reason that he isn’t higher on this list, is because his pants are tan for some reason instead of the purple that everybody knows the Hulk always wears!

5.

Batman

Just saying “It’s Batman” should be enough to get this figure on this list.  But it’s not.  The blue color scheme pays tribute to the Batman comics of my youth and the bat-symbol on his chest without the yellow oval around it pays homage to both the old comic versions of Batman and the more recent comic version of Batman.  The utility belt on this version of the caped crusader is also the best rendered out of all  the versions of Batman that Lego has put out as well.

4.

Clockwork Robot

The Clockwork Robot is our first representative of the Collectible minifigure line.  He really represents the best of what the line has to offer.  His impressive detailing almost makes your believe that he is just a shrunken down version of those old antique wind-up robots that you have seen. The fact that Lego departed from a round head and gave you a squared head really highlights their commitment to being as accurate as possible.

3.

Lord Garmadon

The antagonist of everyone’s favorite ninjas makes his appearance.  He is truly  the coolest non-licensed bad guy that Lego has put out.  His face, which is reminiscent of old Japanese art, is just perfect.  His torso with the ribs showing is classic.  Even the bone on top of his samurai helmet is perfectly placed.  Sure, there are more detailed figures out there, but in the case of Lord Garmadon, less is more.

2.

Red Beard

Red Beard is cool for so many reasons.  First, he’s a pirate.  Next, he has a cool pirate hat with a skull and crossbones on it.  Then, he’s got a hook for a hand.  Finally, he’s got a peg leg!  What’s not to like about this guy?  Plus, the pirate minifigures were the first to have faces that were more than just a smile and two dots for eyes.

1.

Classic Spaceman

The figure that started it all.  Sure there were 6 other minifigs that were released back in 1979, but the spaceman was the only one to have a printed torso.  This figure is recognizable to most AFOLs and probably to a lot of non AFOLs.

 

So there you have it.  The top 10 Lego Minifigs of all time!  What do you think?  Do you agree?  Do you disagree?  What figures would you put on this list?  Who would you take off?

Minifigs! Minifigs! Minifigs!

The minifigs in a pack craze has struck our household bigtime.   It seems like every time we go to Target or Walmart there is some new fig in a pack just begging for our dollars.

My son is more into the minifigs than my daughter, although don’t even let me get me started on her Filly Princess habit,  but they will both excitedly rip open a new pack of Lego Collectible Minifigs any chance that they get.

I did a post a while back when we discovered the Character Building Microfigures and I compared them to the Lego Friends line.  Now, we have a few different brands around the house so I figured I would do a post covering each of them to see how they all stacked up to each other.

THE CONTENDERS:

From Left to right we have the Lego Ninjago Kai, the K’nex Luigi, the Character Building Special Forces, and the Megablox Power Rangers Mooger.

All the figures except the Luigi figure are pretty much the same size.  What sets these figures apart is their design, build quality and, playability.

Lego:

As I write this now, I realize that I probably should have used a collectible minifigure to compare these products with rather than Kai.   Although Kai is indicative of a Lego minifig quality and design (the scratch on his mask is from play and it is not a part of the design of the figure) , the accessories you get with the Lego collectible minifigs is one of the features that set these apart from the other figures.  The majority of the collectible minifigures come with around 2-3 accessories which enhance the playability of the figure.  The designs, as showcased in the Kai figure, get pretty elaborate and the printing is very in-depth and detailed.  As for the quality, Lego uses their famous ABS plastic on their figures which really gives them a solid, sturdy feeling.   The Lego minifigs are $2.99 per bag.

K’nex:

 

The K’nex Mario Kart Wii figures are the most expensive at $4.99 for a bag.  The figures are sturdy and feel well made, but they are very plainly designed and the printing isn’t all that detailed.  Although from looking at the pictures Bowser is huge!  I suppose you can’t really hold the detail against K’nex.  After all, the Mario characters in the video games don’t have a ton of detail to them either.  The Luigi figure is the largest figure by far and that could be part of the reason for the higher price tag.  BUT he does not come with any accessories at all.  In fact, everything you see in the above picture is what you get.  It’s nice if you are a collector, but a single fig leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to playability.  I am sure K’nex wants you to buy more of the Karts and other things they sell in this line, but come on, at least include a mushroom or something!  Also, at 4 bagged characters, this set is the smallest to collect out of all of them.

Character Building:

The Character Building microfigs bring us back to the Lego minifig size range.  However it is with the Character Building figs that we begin to see a decline in quality.  The plastic feels a little flimsy and cheap.  They are not that detailed and, in fact, it seems that they are not painted (other than the facial features) but molded with colored plastic.  Some come with accessories such as the Special Forces guy’s gun but some don’t have any accessories.  The hat on his head is not removeable but his vest is.  These figs are the first ones we look at that come in different levels of scarcity with common, uncommon, and rare figures.  The special forces guy is uncommon, but we bought two packs one day and they both had this guy in them.  However, these figures are the least expensive out of all of the figures at $1.99 a bag.  Plus I absolutely love the zombie fig!

(On a side note, while looking at the American distributor for Character Building’s website I noticed that these collectible microfigs are no longer listed on the site.  I’m not sure if that means that they no longer make these any more or they are just in between series.  They do still have Dr. Who microfigs and some new microfigs that come with animals that look like they have yet to be released.)

 

Mega Bloks:

 

I was excited about the World of Warcraft Mega Bloks that are coming out this summer.  But then we got some of these Power Ranger minifigs in a bag and now I’m not as excited.  The figures are made the cheapest out of all of the figures we have looked at today.  The little sword that this guy comes with is so flimsy, it almost sags under it’s own weight.  There is some detailing with these figs but not too much.  The hair and the head are separate pieces as is the figures chestpiece.  Now I do need to  point out that my son absolutely loves these figures so I guess that it is not a total waste of the $2.99 that the bags that these figures come in costs.  They also come in different scarcity levels as well.  With common, rare, and Ultra rare being the different levels.  The figures each come with a 2×4 mega blok brick that is supposed to be their display stand.

Conclusion:

All of these figures have their place.  It could be argued that as long as you are in to the themes, then you would be happy with all of these figures.  But if quality is important to you then the different products begin to separate from one another.

One thing is certain.  Lego is still king here.  With their quality, variety, and experience they have the best product out of all of these companies reviewed here today.  They don’t refer to the other brands as “clone brands” for no reason.

The worst (I don’t really want to say the worst because their product does have some value.  How about the lowest ranked) out of all of the figures would be the mega Bloks Power Rangers.   They are ok, but when you price them the same as the Lego figs and deliver lower quality, then you go down in overall product satisfaction in my book.

So, what do you think?  Have you had any experience with these products?  Have you discovered any other bagged figures that you are addicted to?  or do you just disagree with me?  Let me know in the comments section below!

Brickarms Review

So I have reached the pinnacle of third party Lego accessories.

Brickarms.

At least it seems that way if you look around on Flickr.  They are definitely the company of choice when it comes to 3rd party accessories.

I said way back when that I am not too into Brickarms since they are mostly guns.  Now, I like guns just as much as the next guy, but I’m just not huge into minifig guns.

That being said, I did need some guns and some specific headgear for a couple of figs I wanted to do.  GI Brick and Brickarms were what I needed.

Now, there are a number of Brickarms resellers out on the net, but GI Brick is the one that appeals to me the most.  maybe because I have followed them on Flickr, or maybe it’s because I noticed that some of the other resellers have higher prices than theirs, but I chose to go with them.

Ordering

As far as their website is concerned, GI Brick has one of the nicest looking websites out their.  It’s easy to navigate and find what you want, ordering was a snap, and they shipped super fast (as have all of the 3rd party vendors I have reviewed).

Quality

As for the quality of the pieces, Brickarms uses ABS plastic just as Lego does so their pieces are almost as if Lego had built them.  They have no trouble fitting in a minifig’s hands and the headgear fits on their heads perfectly.  Their designers have captured all of the detail of the weapons and accessories so the realism is high with these pieces.

M-16 and Bloody Combat knife

One of the figs I wanted to make was Rambo.  I was already ordering an M-16 for him as well as a black combat knife when the bloody combat knife caught my eye.  There  is a big price difference between the bloody combat knife and the plain combat knives ($1.00 to $.25) but the extra $.75 is well worth it.  It makes Rambo look as if he just crawled out of a hole that was crawling with Viet Cong and he is the only one that made it.  It is easily my favorite piece in the order!  The M-16 looks just like an M-16 an Rambo just wouldn’t be Rambo without it!  It really does the legendary weapon justice!

Damien Blade

Here is one of those sword and Shield guys I was talking about!

The Damien Blade just looks like it’s ready to cut something.  I got it in gunmetal and it really gives the sword that kind of weathered-old world look that middle-ages swords tend to have.  It sets off this Death knight perfectly.

M1 Steel pot and BAR

Duke from GI Joe was one of the guys I needed headgear for.  His army helmet was one of the things that I remembered most about my old Duke fig and Brickarms had the one that was closest to the original.  The BAR is, once again, spot on and detailed.  I only wish that it came in green so that it could match the rifle that Duke carries.  Although how many guys really carry a green rifle is a mystery to me!

Boonie hat and a freebie

Dale from the Walking Dead was the other fig that required a special hat.  The figure would have been unrecognizable without the boonie hat.  The hat fits great and really looks like something that the dearly departed Dale would have sported.  Now the shotgun is not the rifle with a scope that Dale carries on the show (truth is, I somehow forgot to order the rifle.) but the golden shotgun was actually a freebie that GI Brick threw in (which I believe they randomly throw in for every order over $10.00) and it’s pretty cool.  I’ve gotta admit, I didn’t really like the look of the gold weapons on the web (either on GI Brick or Flickr) but the Combat Shotgun actually looks really good in person.  I think it’s a worthy replacement for Dale’s rifle!

Verdict

If you are into, or just need guns, then GI Brick and Brickarms are for you.  The low prices (some weapons are as low as $.25!), huge selection, and high quality really make them top notch.  So go on and arm your minifigs.  They will be glad you did!  I may actually have to order some more guns!