Legos, anyone?

[Tking22]

39 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

As to the set itself, it's well done at that scale, and makes for a splendid display piece. I hope it sells like ice cream in July, and we get a plethora of similar sets from both Forbidden West and its predecessor, Zero Dawn.

I'd love to see an official Thunderjaw set, a Frostclaw or Fireclaw would be really cool to see as well. 

[Chronocidal]

12 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

It does indeed, and for us mecha builders, these new 1x2 light bley ratcheting joint bricks will likely prove phenomenally useful, especially in smaller or compact models that require motion. Can't wait to get a slew of them for my own builds.

 

I need a ton of those.  Badly.

Also, I could not help but see this.  

On an unrelated note.. what's going on with the LEGO website?  The entire site seems to be completely missing right now, and gives me some github wall of text?

I can get to the shop at home site, but every single product sends me to a third party store to purchase.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Chronocidal

[M'Kyuun]

Site's working fine for me, and has been. I type "LEGO" in the website bar and the site pops up immediately without issue. Navigation is just as smooth.

[Chronocidal]

Typing "lego.com" gives me literally this on both Chrome and Firefox:

Now, it might be an auto-routing problem, since it auto-fills the address as lego.com/en-us

Clicking the buy button on any product in the store gives me this:

... Ok, that's bizarre, maybe it's a region routing issue?  I cannot access the US/English site at all.  It defaulted to the Malaysia webshop for me, which is what gave me those odd buying options.

I can actually access the US site, but only in Spanish??  It loads all the prices in USD, and seems to work fine, but the US/English site is just completely busted.

Edit:

I finally got it to function, but only by going a roundabout method of loading another regional site, typing a nonsense address to get their 404 page, and THEN I can load the main shop site for the US/English region.  Just very weird.

Edited April 29, 2022 by Chronocidal

[David Hingtgen]

Lego's site has always had weird "routing" issues, even when I don't sign out.  It'll just randomly send me to the UK, Canada, Hungary, etc.  

Go into the actual URL, and just change "en-uk" or whatever to "en-us".   

[danth]

I once had to wait in a virtual line to enter the Lego website. Seriously. This was like a year ago.

I've never seen that on any other website. It felt pretty ridiculous.

[Chronocidal]

6 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

Go into the actual URL, and just change "en-uk" or whatever to "en-us".   

That's the weird part.  I can't.  It won't let me.  It just ignores the input, and sits on that block of text error screen.

It's going better today than yesterday though, so something seems to be getting fixed gradually.  I just have to search for a specific item page in the store, and THEN it will let me backtrack to the main page now. 

It seems to be linked to the region selection page, because if I get into the shop, then go to change regions, every region option except for US-English works fine.

[sketchley]

3 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

It seems to be linked to the region selection page, because if I get into the shop, then go to change regions, every region option except for US-English works fine.

It sounds like it might be an internal DNS error.  Like the mistake is pointing at the CSS file and not the proper page that is supposed to render and display the code.

The problem is that it sometimes takes figuratively forever to update DNS errors even if the fix was created within hours (or even minutes) after an error first appears.

Edited April 30, 2022 by sketchley

[M'Kyuun]

Some new summer sets were revealed today, and this one particularly caught my eye.

Long time Ninjago fans will immediately recognize that this is a complete departure from the original design. I suspect LEGO Designer Sam Johnson, a huge Gurren Lagann fan, is behind this; he's the designer for Ideas Voltron and this guy from last year's Ninjago releases. 

There's definitely a similar design language, and both designs feature knees, an extreme rarity among LEGO's larger mecha sets. I hope the same designer was involved in the upcoming, and yet to be revealed, Optimus Prime set. 

For us space fans, this is coming: 

There are two additional Missions sets that appear to require one to build along with a story via an app. Not so sure I'm down with sets sans instructions. I don't own a cell phone or a tablet, so trying to build this set will prove a bit challenging. I guess it's a cool way to combine the digital with tactile play, but for a semi-Luddite such as myself, it's not the best. Good thing my wife bought a small laptop- I think it'll come in handy for stuff like this.

And just for giggles, because I love LEGO's sense of humor, this is coming:

I don't collect Stuntz, but new innovations are always cool, and to that end, this is coming out later this year as well:

They're moving right in to Hot Wheels territory with stuff like this, and for all its playability and MOCing potential, I think its cool. Not my cuppa, per se, but lots of fun. Those large trans orange bits are gonna make these expensive, though. That's a lot of plastic in large essentially single-use pieces.

[Chronocidal]

Those are... yeah, kinda bizarre.  Probably not something I'll make any effort to get.

The mechs though, I'll be all over.  I actually just found the Ninjago combiner mech today while picking up groceries, and couldn't resist grabbing it to experiment with the new joints.

[danth]

Someone is going to use those transparent tracks as part of a huge spaceship or space base.

I got two copies of the Lightyear XL-15. Honestly I probably should have just bricklinked the canopies but I felt like buying an actual set.

In other colored canopy news, there's a pink airplane windscreen in the Ninjago Crystal King mech set, and an orange Speed Champions windscreen in another Ninjago vehicle set, and some large Trans Neon Green (?) panel pieces in the Friends Roller Disco.

The Mission sets look cool. Lots of good prints. I'll probably snag a few.

Trying to decide whether to buy some mech sets or just the new joint parts...

[M'Kyuun]

2 hours ago, danth said:

Someone is going to use those transparent tracks as part of a huge spaceship or space base.

I got two copies of the Lightyear XL-15. Honestly I probably should have just bricklinked the canopies but I felt like buying an actual set.

In other colored canopy news, there's a pink airplane windscreen in the Ninjago Crystal King mech set, and an orange Speed Champions windscreen in another Ninjago vehicle set, and some large Trans Neon Green (?) panel pieces in the Friends Roller Disco.

The Mission sets look cool. Lots of good prints. I'll probably snag a few.

Trying to decide whether to buy some mech sets or just the new joint parts...

I ordered a copy of the XL-15 today along with enough SW stuff to get the Lars kitchen. Initially, I wasn't going to get any SW stuff, but how many more chances will we have to own an Aunt Beru minifig? So I grabbed the Dagobah and Trench Run dioramas and the Dark Trooper Helmet. I was hoping the Mando's N-1 was available, but not yet.

Anyway, yesterday I went looking for the XL-15 at a local Target and Wally, to no avail. I managed to find the Zurg set, but that was the only Lightyear set I've seen after looking at three Wallies and a Target since Friday. Lightyear stuff is scarce in these parts. Anyway, I'll likely end up getting another copy, perhaps to mod, or to harvest. I would like to mod it to look more screen accurate, though.

I didn't look that hard at some of the other sets you mentioned. I noticed the Crystal King- big centaur-like  mech or creature- what's not to like? I did notice they're using the new non-posable leg bits that were developed for the 4+ mech sets as the Crystal King's knees. I vehemently wish they'd made that thing ratchet; it could've been so useful. I don't know why or where LEGO gets the idea that little kids don't like articulation in their toys; I always did.  Anyway, the newest spate of Ninjago has some downright impressive looking mechs and vehicle; it stands out as a particularly interesting wave of sets with complex mecha (with knees!) and visually arresting vehicle designs. Not since the stellar Ninjago Movie sets have so many sets in a single wave grabbed my attention.  Monkie Kid is pushing boundaries, too. If I didn't know this was an official set, I'd swear it was an elaborate MOC. Downright impressive.

And then there's this gem:

Admittedly, I have a huge soft spot for Iron Man and his many Armors, so sets like this really appeal. Love that the car is included, and the inclusion of Whiplash is pretty cool.

Still waiting for them to reveal Optimus Prime. I have a lot of enthusiasm already built up for it, so I hope it doesn't suck. LEGO and Transformers is THE toy crossover that I've been wishing for since 1984, and I desperately want it to be worth the wait. 

Edited May 2, 2022 by M'Kyuun

[Chronocidal]

I grabbed a pair of the XL-15 sets as well, and built one.. it's a nice set, just different enough that I'd probably call it something else.  The construction of the engine banks and wings is really solid though, and I'll probably use the same base method for an upscaled version.  The engine nacelles just need to be built out of sloped elements, and about twice as long to give the ship a better shape.  Might have to get creative with angled plates to get the wing sweep closer though.  Looking at the little XL-15 toy, the trailing edge of the wing looks dead on a 3-4-5 right triangle, which LEGO just doesn't make.

I will say I'm both fascinated and confused by the parts they chose for the engines though.  Confused because there are numerous more sturdy options that would also be more accurate, but fascinated because I've never seen the piece they used for the nozzle before, and it makes for a great thrust-vectoring exhaust.  It looks like something designed to be a 3-way differential gearbox, maybe for a helicopter rotor?  The unfortunate side effect is that without some really careful pressure on the gears holding them on, they spin completely freely.. but I have to wonder if maybe that was on purpose to replicate something seen in the film.

[M'Kyuun]

8 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I grabbed a pair of the XL-15 sets as well, and built one.. it's a nice set, just different enough that I'd probably call it something else.  The construction of the engine banks and wings is really solid though, and I'll probably use the same base method for an upscaled version.  The engine nacelles just need to be built out of sloped elements, and about twice as long to give the ship a better shape.  Might have to get creative with angled plates to get the wing sweep closer though.  Looking at the little XL-15 toy, the trailing edge of the wing looks dead on a 3-4-5 right triangle, which LEGO just doesn't make.

I will say I'm both fascinated and confused by the parts they chose for the engines though.  Confused because there are numerous more sturdy options that would also be more accurate, but fascinated because I've never seen the piece they used for the nozzle before, and it makes for a great thrust-vectoring exhaust.  It looks like something designed to be a 3-way differential gearbox, maybe for a helicopter rotor?  The unfortunate side effect is that without some really careful pressure on the gears holding them on, they spin completely freely.. but I have to wonder if maybe that was on purpose to replicate something seen in the film.

I was all agog at the LEGO model initially, especially for the sublime shaping, but then I saw the Chogokin which proved all sorts of inaccuracies in the LEGO model. The engines are a cool enigma; not at all accurate to source, but very interesting for the parts usage. The exhaust is in fact a 4-gear differential, which allows for more torque using the existing small beveled gears.  Don't get me wrong, I still like the LEGO model, but honestly, I think the film model looks better, and I'm probably going to keep a stock version, and mod the other set to more closely resemble the film model. I'll probably get a third set down the road for parts.  It's one of those rare sets where you really can't have enough multiples.

As to the inaccuracies, we've seen the same thing among Star Wars ships over the years, and I wonder if the source material LEGO was given early on (they design sets about 1.5 to 2 years ahead of release) was closer to what we got here and the film design underwent changes that the LEGO designers weren't privy to. Anyway, it's such a lovely design, and I hope they eventually do a UCS set that more accurately captures all those great shapes.  I also hope there are more System releases of the other ships from Lightyear- some sweet designs as indicated by Mattel's Action Fleet toys.

[Chronocidal]

Yeah, I really like the XL-01 design seen in the early trailers, and hope we get a DK of that one eventually.

As for the XL-15.. I don't know if all of these parts exist in the proper colors (particularly the engines, because they would need gray copies of the brand new booster cones), but the base design used for the wings and intake walls works pretty.  The intake interior is all kinds of messy, so I hope I find something less chunky looking.

Very rough setup for some of the details like the wingtips, but I like the overall layout, and I think the angled panels make a better fuselage than the tiered slopes the set uses.

Edit: Tweaked the layering a little, and there's actually room for a full 6-stud diameter engine.  

Edited May 4, 2022 by Chronocidal

[M'Kyuun]

9 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Yeah, I really like the XL-01 design seen in the early trailers, and hope we get a DK of that one eventually.

As for the XL-15.. I don't know if all of these parts exist in the proper colors (particularly the engines, because they would need gray copies of the brand new booster cones), but the base design used for the wings and intake walls works pretty.  The intake interior is all kinds of messy, so I hope I find something less chunky looking.

Very rough setup for some of the details like the wingtips, but I like the overall layout, and I think the angled panels make a better fuselage than the tiered slopes the set uses.

Edit: Tweaked the layering a little, and there's actually room for a full 6-stud diameter engine.  

Wow, man, you're going full-on UCS scale! Your shaping looks good. That mild slope for the intake is a tough capture, esp at the minifig scale, but building larger definitely gives itself over to more options. Your intakes and exhaust are both well done.  And yeah, using plates for the fuselage thins down the skin appropriately and allows for more subtle shaping. Tiles would be even better, but unfortunately, LEGO doesn't make many wedge tiles, so you still end up with a lot of studs. I'm guessing you're going to use the UCS A-Wing canopy for this? Seems like the closest thing in terms of shape and size. Whatever you choose, every success! Hoping you'll eventually build it for real and share lots of pics. 😄

So, on the topic of the XL-15, I finally scored a copy yesterday, and built it posthaste. It is indeed a lovely model, and tho I know it's inaccurate, it's still quite lovely. I suppose one could think of it as the first draft before the final design- kinda like the YF-22 before it became the F-22, with all the changes thereof.  Honestly, I think I like LEGO's engines over the actual- they're more visually interesting with those differentials, and from the rear, actually look more accurate to the business end of a jet engine. The canopy is the wrong shape, but far be it from me to bad-mouth a new trans-yellow Classic Space-styled canopy. Angus MacLane just made a whole lot of CS fans very happy, including himself.  I have another copy of this beauty ordered from LEGO along with all my May 4th stuff, so I'm hoping I'll get up the motivation to try and rework it so as to more accurately represent what the film model looks like. Should prove to be an interesting challenge, especially those intakes.  

The canted wing solution is simple but brilliant. I'm always amazed at some of the angles possible. Anytime I try something like that, stuff never seems to align. LEGO actually has mathematical alignment specialists who look at designers' models and determine whether or not the angles are legal or putting undue stress on parts, and just to help with alignments in general.  Quite the gig if you're really good at geometry and trig with a hands-on love of physical models. I'm not that guy- the math part anyway. 

Anyway, this set only reaffirms my hope that the rest of the Lightyear ships will eventually end up as sets. Some beautiful designs there, and the best part, they're not friggin' Star Wars.

[Chronocidal]

I honestly have no idea how I'm making the canopy at this point, LEGO doesn't make a single piece that will cover this much space, and keep as low a profile as what I'm hoping to achieve.  I might build it out of plates and ignore the interior.  

I do want to get retractable gear on it, though they might be exposed due to how they need to fit in around the wings.  The only bad part of the angle they used for the wings in the official set is that it drops the wings a little lower than they should be.  They compensated by having the wings shorter, but being the full length means the gear are going to have to be long to not let the tips drag.

Experimenting with geometry for solid connections is something I do love, but it really needs to be done with real parts, because the software just isn't up to the task of aligning things properly.  It will often deny connections I know work, while also visibly clipping other parts through each other.  I think the Discovery set is probably one of the best uses I'd seen of those tolerances yet, with all of the methods used to snap on the leading edge of the wing.  I might need to do something similar for the fuselage in this case.

[M'Kyuun]

13 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

I honestly have no idea how I'm making the canopy at this point, LEGO doesn't make a single piece that will cover this much space, and keep as low a profile as what I'm hoping to achieve.  I might build it out of plates and ignore the interior.  

I do want to get retractable gear on it, though they might be exposed due to how they need to fit in around the wings.  The only bad part of the angle they used for the wings in the official set is that it drops the wings a little lower than they should be.  They compensated by having the wings shorter, but being the full length means the gear are going to have to be long to not let the tips drag.

Experimenting with geometry for solid connections is something I do love, but it really needs to be done with real parts, because the software just isn't up to the task of aligning things properly.  It will often deny connections I know work, while also visibly clipping other parts through each other.  I think the Discovery set is probably one of the best uses I'd seen of those tolerances yet, with all of the methods used to snap on the leading edge of the wing.  I might need to do something similar for the fuselage in this case.

If you end up just brick building the canopy, it can be forgiven in this instance, barring any official part that works. 

Regarding the gear, here's how Bandai did it for their Chogokin model; the mains pivot up into the wings, which are relatively thick close to the fuselage. The blue seems darker than the medium blue that LEGO used- closer to standard blue.

Comparing them like this, they look like two completely different ships with similar configurations.  Again, I imagine that LEGO worked from very early drafts, and over time the design changed a fair bit to what we see in the film. It's still a pretty striking looking ship, but I'd love to have a more accurate version too.

[Chronocidal]

Have to hand it to this newer builder program, the rendering comes out pretty darn nice.  

Main body outline is pretty well done, though it's a bit chunkier than the original.  It should taper more just ahead of the wings, so I might try and squeeze things down to a narrower width, but I think I'll have to move to hinged panels to get the taper any tighter

Otherwise, now it's just the canopy, gear, and some minor details.  I might try a canopy frame, and then attach larger clear elements to it to fill out the shape.  Funny thing... I think this is still going to be roughly minifig scale.

Same thoughts about the gear, but if I'm reading the details of the DX release right, Bandai couldn't get the mains to retract either, since they're listed as separate parts.  I'm guessing they plug in after opening the doors.  I can't really blame them, those gear are pretty chunky.

Edit:  Just kind of realized.. building this in gray and blue really brings out the classic space theme vibes on this one.  

Edited May 5, 2022 by Chronocidal

[no3Ljm]

That's cool, @Chronocidal!  

[no3Ljm]

Lego Architecture #21058 Great Pyramid of Giza
August 2022
US$ 129.99

 

[Tking22]

Damn, that pyramid is really, really, really cool. I didn't see any leaks or hints at this thing so this is a surprise, I think I need it. 

[Chronocidal]

Sneaky how they make it so you need multiples to make a complete pyramid.  

[no3Ljm]

24 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

Sneaky how they make it so you need multiples to make a complete pyramid.  

No need to get multiples. You can put it in front of a mirror.  

[M'Kyuun]

Roll out!

It's official. Set 10302, 1508 pieces, fully transformable (no partsforming), releases 1 June 2022.

[technoblue]

All copies include a brick-built matrix of leadership. 

[Dobber]

Ok I actually really like that Pyramid.

Chris

[Dangard Ace]

Gonna need a Stargate if I buy that Pyramid.

 

Also can a mini-fig fit inside Optimus? 

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

No knee joints on Optimus?

[M'Kyuun]

4 hours ago, Valkyrie Hunter D said:

No knee joints on Optimus?

Nope. They swivel at the knee, and the hips are jointed, the ankles tilt, but unfortunately, likely for the dual reasons that the thighs slide into the lower legs and for stability, there are no knees. I intend to remedy that shortcoming posthaste when I get mine.

[M'Kyuun]

4 hours ago, Dangard Ace said:

Gonna need a Stargate if I buy that Pyramid.

 

Also can a mini-fig fit inside Optimus? 

If you build a mini-Stargate, you'll have to post some pics.

This thing is based heavily on the G1 OP toy, with some exceptions: the fists fold somehow to stow during transformation, the front panels of the truck fold into the body, the grill & bumper section is jointed so that it can form a taper from the chest down to the groin, and the chest contains a Matrix, which leaves no room for a minifig, at least not in a sitting position. If you remove the Matrix, I think a minifig would fit in there laying down, but that's not really the ideal. Even though he can't accommodate a minifig, I wish he at least came with Spike, but my hope is that there's a G1 Bumblebee in the works that will come with Spike, and that they can figure out a way to actually fit him in the car mode (no pressure, LEGO). 

Alas, this is LEGO, and I'm sure this kit is going to see no shortage of mods to 'correct' its various shortcomings. At the very least, I want to give my copy some proper knees.

[Scyla]

7 hours ago, Dobber said:

Ok I actually really like that Pyramid.

Chris

You mean you like the half pyramid?

I really don’t like the fact that it is only half of a pyramid. And the pictures are really deceiving like this one here:

Edited May 12, 2022 by Scyla

[technoblue]

That picture is showing the two ways you can build the set: in its under construction and finished state. It’s also showing how two Pyramid sets can combine into one.

I agree it is a little coy to ask adult fans to buy two sets to get the full Great Pyramid but I don’t know about deceiving. LEGO does the same thing with their portrait sets. If you want a large fancy portrait, you need to buy and combine multiple Marvel, DC, or Beatles sets—whatever your looking to put up on your wall.

Back to LEGO Optimus. Do the thighs really slide into the legs like they do on the MP? It looks like the thighs simply plug in using a ball and socket mechanism. If the latter is true, then maybe there could be a way to free the socket to allow for a knee bend? I’m very curious to see what’s possible here. 

[Scyla]

1 hour ago, technoblue said:

That picture is showing the two ways you can build the set: in its under construction and finished state. It’s also showing how two Pyramid sets can combine into one.

I agree it is a little coy to ask adult fans to buy two sets to get the full Great Pyramid but I don’t know about deceiving. LEGO does the same thing with their portrait sets. If you want a large fancy portrait, you need to buy and combine multiple Marvel, DC, or Beatles sets—whatever your looking to put up on your wall.

Back to LEGO Optimus. Do the thighs really slide into the legs like they do on the MP? It looks like the thighs simply plug in using a ball and socket mechanism. If the latter is true, then maybe there could be a way to free the socket to allow for a knee bend? I’m very curious to see what’s possible here. 

Maybe deceiving is too strong of a word but my first impression was that it is a cool pyramid set. And it took my a while to realize that is not a full pyramid.

I could easily imagine that not well informed buyers of that said are expecting an fully realized pyramid and the pictures on Legos own site don’t help to prevent that impression. The accompanying text mentions that you need two sets though.

Regarding the Optimus Prime set; I‘ve read that the eyes are painted so that is good. I think the problem is that the eye shape is too sharp for the blocky proportions of the toy. Maybe if the designer had gone for a more cartoony look (i.e. made them larger) it would have looked better. 

 

[sketchley]

15 hours ago, Dangard Ace said:

Gonna need a Stargate if I buy that Pyramid.

This Lego Stargate Command Model showed up a couple of weeks ago on Gateworld:

https://www.gateworld.net/news/2022/04/this-lego-stargate-command-model-looks-amazing/

 

It just might be the perfect companion set for that pyramid.