Legos, anyone?

[Chronocidal]

5 hours ago, technoblue said:

It isn’t consistent, though. This project wasn’t torpedoed from the start like an IDEAS set. It was developed, marketed, and since we already have a designer video in the wild I would hazard a guess that some boxed sets have already been manufactured. 

You're not wrong, though I suppose I mean that from the perspective of how they'll let IDEAS sets get all the way to the approval process before canning them too.  They don't actively deter people from supporting military-based set concepts, they just get booted after letting people get their hopes up, and watching the support totals soar.  

The other problem though.. yeah, that's something beyond what I'm going to attempt to discuss on this board.  Suffice it to say, there is more than one pandemic circulating the globe right now.

[technoblue]

27 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

You're not wrong, though I suppose I mean that from the perspective of how they'll let IDEAS sets get all the way to the approval process before canning them too.  They don't actively deter people from supporting military-based set concepts, they just get booted after letting people get their hopes up, and watching the support totals soar.  

Yeah, the whole IDEAS process is broken.

I understand that TLG doesn't want to hamper creativity, but a clarification of what "ideas" are allowed might help. They should also make it harder to pass each review hurdle. Not sure if they should restrict the time it takes to get to 10,000 votes or up the ante and require IDEAS creators to get at least 20,000 votes (or more) to be considered.

36 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

The other problem though.. yeah, that's something beyond what I'm going to attempt to discuss on this board.  Suffice it to say, there is more than one pandemic circulating the globe right now.

I hear you.

[Dobber]

^^same

[technoblue]

22 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Although I understand their stance, regardless, this is a very disappointing decision, as I was very much anticipating this set. I'm an ardent fan of the Osprey, and this was something of a dream set, as I never imagined a licensed set would be produced. It has, but few copies will likely get sold, as LEGO will likely issue a recall. Sad news indeed.

@M'Kyuun LEGO confirmed that some sets did make it out into the wild.

Some LEGO Osprey sets will be sold

The good news is that if a store already has its stock, they will be able to sell the set. The bad news is that this set will be limited only to partner stores (not LEGO stores) which received stock before its official cancellation. I expect it will be a very rare set, if we see it stateside at all. Maybe fans of the set will have luck at Walmart or Target, though, or some specialty mom and pop shop.

Edited July 23, 2020 by technoblue

[ScrambledValkyrie]

That Lego NES looks sweet. I'd be tempted to get one as an accessory for my retro game setup. The mechanism inside the TV makes me think that some could design their own game screens after other titles.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

Regarding the Osprey, there is some consolation thanks to a lucky AFOL out there: Osprey Instructions.

[Chronocidal]

5 hours ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

Regarding the Osprey, there is some consolation thanks to a lucky AFOL out there: Osprey Instructions.

Awesome.  I was hoping those would leak out, and at least give people a chance to build it on their own.

I was never all that interested in the power functions to begin with, so that simplifies things.  

Edited July 23, 2020 by Chronocidal

[Chronocidal]

Ok, for as confounding as the IDEAS process can be, it does produce some amazing sets.

https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/1fb8734e-ece8-4196-a490-05bca4ea94e7

I feel like I'm absolutely going to have to get one of these.  I'm almost tempted to get two, and kitbash them to make a bigger keyboard.  

The size is a little deceptive from the picture though, it's got a footprint of a little over one square foot.

Edited July 23, 2020 by Chronocidal

[technoblue]

For sure. I voted on this one and the jazz quartet with the different brick built musicians playing their instruments. Very happy to see one made it through.

[M'Kyuun]

Congrats to Donny Chen, the first Chinese citizen to have an IDEAS submission put into production. The fact that he's a piano teacher, and obviously a deft hand with the brick as well, give this model a very cool backstory, as well an elegance we've not seen in many submissions prior. Like the Sian, in keeping with LEGO's recent campaign to reach the adult market, the presentation is unambiguous in that regard. Soo too are the price tags for both of these sets. The piano will set you back $350 USD, and about $450 CAD.

The build itself is amazing, both for the functionality of the action, and for the aesthetics. I'm curious about the electronics involved: will it rely on a cell phone app to make music, or is there some internal 'sound brick' that produces tones when the keys are pressed? I certainly hope the latter, and I hope, probably too much, that the tones correspond to the keys. Even with a limited keyboard, it appears to have two octaves, which is plenty to pluck out a tune.

I lament the current toll that the Covid pandemic has taken on social events. Even as many have turned towards a virtual option online, there's certainly a great diminishment in not being there to take in all the sights, sounds, and opportunities they offer in person. I'm a regular attendee and exhibitioner at BrickCon in Seattle, and know the joy of being on both sides of the stanchions when taking in all the many MOCs that folks bring each year. To the point, this piano set would make an excellent interactive MOC for the public to engage with. More so if one had the tenacity to expand it into a full sized keyboard, and I'm sure, given the pedigree of many of my fellow AFOLs, it'll happen. Anyway, its a bittersweet rumination that I hope will take solid form, given we benefit from medical victories and eventual decline of this disease over the coming months.

[Scyla]

10 hours ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

Regarding the Osprey, there is some consolation thanks to a lucky AFOL out there: Osprey Instructions.

Great, now we can build it in military colors!!

[edit:] taking a closer look at the instructions and it seems like it is mostly gray. From the promo pics I somehow got the impression the set was orange and a dark blue... odd.

Edited July 23, 2020 by Scyla

[sh9000]

 

[Tking22]

Yeah that piano is pretty incredible, but pricey, I'll have to think about this one. Chill Lego, you're doing too much cool stuff.

[MaxFan2112]

Wait, there's a Lego thread???!?!?!!!? How did I miss this?

[technoblue]

3 hours ago, MaxFan2112 said:

Wait, there's a Lego thread???!?!?!!!? How did I miss this?

LoL! No worries. Now you’re here. Welcome. 

[MaxFan2112]

17 minutes ago, technoblue said:

LoL! No worries. Now you’re here. Welcome. 

Appreciate the Welcome! (now there's more reasons to like this forum!)

[MaxFan2112]

On ‎6‎/‎29‎/‎2020 at 10:45 PM, sh9000 said:

Cool.

Okay, that is one of the most epic MOC's I've ever seen!!!!!

[MaxFan2112]

On ‎5‎/‎30‎/‎2020 at 12:51 AM, M'Kyuun said:

I've looked about on Instagram for LEGO leaks showing pics to no avail. However, I believe it was on the Eurobricks forums that someone commented about the Osprey's color scheme being orange and black. The tone of the comment made it seem as if they'd seen pics of the thing, so I'm assuming it's correct until official pics are finally revealed, which will probably be a couple weeks prior to release so the set can't be copied by Chinese KOs. It makes sense, though, as it's a real military aircraft, so to distance it from military association, I'm assuming the orange and black will be indicative of some sort of rescue livery.

LEGO already made an Osprey inspired City set a few years back: #60021 Cargo Heliplane.

I used the cockpit as the base for my VV-1 Samson

That's just very cool! Nice work!

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

14 hours ago, MaxFan2112 said:

Wait, there's a Lego thread???!?!?!!!? How did I miss this?

My current project is trying to make a decent looking Vietnam War era Huey helicopter using different design cues I've found.  That bulbous ovoid shaped nose has been quite hard to mold for me:

 

Edited July 26, 2020 by Valkyrie Hunter D

[M'Kyuun]

15 hours ago, MaxFan2112 said:

That's just very cool! Nice work!

Thanks, MaxFan2112! And welcome to the thread.

@Valkyrie Hunter D Your Huey's looking good.  It's rather challenging, especially at smaller scales, to capture rounded shapes with any kind of accuracy. LEGO's palette has certainly improved in this regard, but, to a great extent, you're still relegated to creative sculpting with square-based bits to do the job. I'd recommend checking out  Ralph Savelsberg's Flickr as a source of inspiration. 

I keep hoping they'll make a rounded cheese slope, as I run into the same situation again and again, where that extra little bit of roundness would really inform the look of a model. With all the money they throw at one-use parts, like the music note pieces for the Trolls sets, I can't understand why they won't make more universally useful elements like rounded cheese slopes, inverted versions of many of their modified plates, especially clips and clicky hinges, etc, etc. Or a plate with studs top and bottom- what a lifesaver that part would be. Or the old maxi-fig hand (1x1 round plate with a ball joint. I'm still surprised that such a useful part, which would compliment the Mixel ball joint system, hasn't been updated and released by now, but no).  One would be inclined to think that, with the small army of AFOL MOCers-cum- LEGO Designers developing sets now, there would be more input from those designers into the palette and we'd see a lot of those 'dream' elements being produced, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'd love to know why, and if there's some way we, as a fan community, could make those requests heard. I wish there was a place on IDEAS just for new element submissions. While I'm completely clueless to the magic of CAD, there are plenty of AFOLs with expertise in the field who I'm sure would likely flood the platform with submissions, and I'm sure many would be things I'd like to see added to the palette.

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2020 by M'Kyuun

[David Hingtgen]

On ‎7‎/‎23‎/‎2020 at 12:52 PM, Scyla said:

Great, now we can build it in military colors!!

[edit:] taking a closer look at the instructions and it seems like it is mostly gray. From the promo pics I somehow got the impression the set was orange and a dark blue... odd.

Lego promo pics never show grey accurately, and is likely intentional.  While "Lego dark grey" is a bit on the cool side, promo pics tend to exaggerate it to look less bland/more blue-colorful.   Promo pics of light grey, will have tons of lens flare and brightness, to make it look "silvery".  

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

7 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

@Valkyrie Hunter D Your Huey's looking good.  It's rather challenging, especially at smaller scales, to capture rounded shapes with any kind of accuracy. LEGO's palette has certainly improved in this regard, but, to a great extent, you're still relegated to creative sculpting with square-based bits to do the job. I'd recommend checking out  Ralph Savelsberg's Flickr as a source of inspiration. 

Thanks, and indeed I have been looking at Savelsberg's rotorcraft for ideas. I have a couple more routes to try before I might end up doing something like what he did for his Osprey's nose. I've also been looking at Brickdesigners' Huey designs for their SNOT work.

[MaxFan2112]

17 hours ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

My current project is trying to make a decent looking Vietnam War era Huey helicopter using different design cues I've found.  That bulbous ovoid shaped nose has been quite hard to mold for me:

 

That is VERY Nice! and really some great creativity on the distinct rounding of the HUEY. And are those old school frosted slope pieces? COOL!

[M'Kyuun]

3 hours ago, MaxFan2112 said:

And are those old school frosted slope pieces? COOL!

Nope, those are light trans-blue 2x2 slopes, PN 3039. They've been showing up in a quite a few sets over the past few years.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

4 hours ago, MaxFan2112 said:

That is VERY Nice! and really some great creativity on the distinct rounding of the HUEY. And are those old school frosted slope pieces? COOL!

Thanks, but to give credit where credit is due, I'm copying ideas from every photo of Brickdesigners' Hueys I could find. I'm just using a different color and changing things I don't like.  Still trying to figure the sliding doors.  I have long way to go, but it's been fun trying to kinda reverse engineer all these builds I'm finding.  And like M'Kyuun pointed out, those are just transparent light blue 2x2 slopes, whose shape is apparently used by almost all the Lego Huey builds in the nose area .

[MaxFan2112]

19 hours ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

Thanks, but to give credit where credit is due, I'm copying ideas from every photo of Brickdesigners' Hueys I could find. I'm just using a different color and changing things I don't like.  Still trying to figure the sliding doors.  I have long way to go, but it's been fun trying to kinda reverse engineer all these builds I'm finding.  And like M'Kyuun pointed out, those are just transparent light blue 2x2 slopes, whose shape is apparently used by almost all the Lego Huey builds in the nose area .

Reverse Engineering is a whole different, and no less a creative, skill set! Looking forward to seeing the finished build!

[technoblue]

The first reviews of the cancelled LEGO Technic Osprey are out, and it appears to have a design flaw.

https://brickset.com/article/52876/review-42113-v-22-osprey

I read the article after it was shared by tfcrafter over on tfw2005. It's curious to see how the design of the gearbox is unable to support the power coming from the motor and actually causes structural damage!  It's also curios that the LEGO designers were unable to mitigate this issue before production. One would think that we would get some new pieces to create a sound Technic structure or maybe a different motor?

Oh well, at least there are a few more points out there clarifying why the set was pulled late and that's good enough for me. 

Edited July 31, 2020 by technoblue

[sketchley]

Nvm

Edited July 31, 2020 by sketchley

[davidwhangchoi]

goooo

 

[Tking22]

Done and done, Lego Nintendo console ordered.

[Hikuro]

I wanted one but bought another printer instead.

[sh9000]

 

[Scyla]

Finished building the new 2020 AT-AT. In general it is a neat set with fun builds. I especially like the covers around the joints where the legs meet the body. It goes seamlessly from a traditional build to assemblies that are attached vertically; impressive.

Few nitpicks. I really wished that they painted the dishes for the leg joints. Would make them pop more. I also would loved to have a bigger AT-AT in general that is closer to minifig scale. However I could see that making it that big could make the set unstable giving the thin legs of the original design.

What I dislike about the set is the way the top hatch for the cockpit is designed. The hatch is 5 studs wide and they opted for a 4 stud and 1 stud plate that is only connected by the detailing bits on the top which makes it unstable. I don’t know why there is no 5 stud wide plate produced by Lego.

[M'Kyuun]

I wonder why a whole plethora of useful and practical parts haven't been produced, but I digress. I haven't got the new AT-AT set yet, but I intend to once they become available (usually 1 Aug is the release date for fall sets here in the US, but due to Covid, I believe it was pushed back a month. All new SW sets on LEGO's site say "Coming Soon"). In the meantime, I've watched a couple reviews; my impression is that the head design, long time coming, is superior to any other AT-AT thus released, as it can accurately hold two drivers side by side, as well as Gen Veers commanding from behind the drivers. It's rather cramped, but I give kudos aplenty for the effort. No reviewer I watched had the head hatch criticism. Since it's not structural, but is basically a lid, I guess that was enough for it to pass LEGO's internal testing. From the pic, it looks as if that 1 stud wide plate is held on by a 1 stud wide cross plate and a 1x2 cheese slope. That's not much surface area, but again, it's just a lid. Of course, this is LEGO, so you can mod it as you like.  

My criticisms align with yours: the dishes on the legs would have greatly benefited from printing (they used to print them, but quit about three AT-AT sets back. Another discrepancy that I think they got right with early AT-AT models, chief among them and still my personal favorite, 4483, is the use of larger dishes for the hip joints and smaller ones for the knees. That's accurate to the movie model, and looks better than the 4 stud wide all around dishes LEGO's been using on the last few releases. The legs strike me as too narrow on this new set as well. Again, I look at 4483's and to my eyes, they look right, relative to the whole. YMMV  I don't care for the Technic joint at the hip being exposed, either. Some plates to cover it (or a 6 wide dish) would have helped the aesthetic. A plus for this set is that the legs are spaced wider enabling the internal fourth toe on each foot, an accuracy that has only been represented on the Technic Motorized AT-AT set from 2007, and the 2020 set. Of course, I'm referring only to the large minifig compatible sets.

The inclusion of a speeder bike, which can stow in the posterior of the AT-AT, and has featured in a number of AT-AT sets over the years, harkens back to the SW: Incredible Cross Sections book from 1998, a year before LEGO acquired the SW license, and five years before my beloved 4483.

One feature I wish they'd include is a second deck within the main body. The central structure of most of the AT-AT sets has been tall enough to allow for it, but LEGO never seems inclined to want to do it. It doesn't help, either, that there are usually empty seats in every AT-AT set, and this one, unfortunately, maintains that trend. Hopefully, there will be a Snowtrooper battle pack in next years lineup to help fill the seats in the newest version.

One point of contention with the AT-AT has always been the method of ingress/egress for the intrepid Imperial troops who man it. LEGO doesn't give us any answers. Hasbro, however, did with their glorious 174 Imperial All Terrain Armored Transport , which solved the problem by having  an inverted T-bar for the troopers to stand on attached to a winch. It's simple but effective. It's something that could be be modded into a set relatively easily, but I wonder that LEGO haven't thought to do it themselves. They did, however, build in a winch to re-enact the scene where Luke winches up to toss a thermal detonator into the AT-AT's belly. There's even a hinged belly plate to simulate Luke's cutting it open.

For the few things it gets wrong, my overall impression of the 75288 AT-AT is that it's the most accurate set to date. The play features are relevant and look fun. I wish it had more Imperial Snowtroopers, but isn't that always the wish with large troop carriers in LEGO? looking forward to its availability here in the US, as I'll likely be picking up a few of these.

[Scyla]

Yeah, the connection for the hatch is stable enough however it feels flimsy and cheap and I don’t like if my collectibles do this.

Here is a comparison with the Rogue One AT-ST and the most recent ISD playset: 

Edited August 16, 2020 by Scyla