New sets discussion (2014/15/16/17)

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aoffan23
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Re: 2014 sets

Post by aoffan23 » Thu Dec 05, 2013 10:36 pm

Holy hell, what makes you so jaded against the prequels? I mean they weren't great movies, but I don't see why you (and other people) think that everything to do with them is shit, and start ranting because some people like stuff from a movie you don't like.

Also on the topic of the battle droid/minifig discussion, I've never really understood the demand for more and more accurate/realistic minifigs. There are multiple lines of nothing but figures of the characters, so why do we need more accurate representations in a building toy? If someone just wants a 100% accurate model to sit on the shelf and look pretty, then why bother buying the Lego version, which has the basic purposes of being assembled and disassembled? It just seems like a completely useless thing to complain about IMO.
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Re: 2014 sets

Post by Silverdream » Fri Dec 06, 2013 12:07 am

aoffan23 wrote:Holy hell, what makes you so jaded against the prequels? I mean they weren't great movies, but I don't see why you (and other people) think that everything to do with them is shit, and start ranting because some people like stuff from a movie you don't like.

Also on the topic of the battle droid/minifig discussion, I've never really understood the demand for more and more accurate/realistic minifigs. There are multiple lines of nothing but figures of the characters, so why do we need more accurate representations in a building toy? If someone just wants a 100% accurate model to sit on the shelf and look pretty, then why bother buying the Lego version, which has the basic purposes of being assembled and disassembled? It just seems like a completely useless thing to complain about IMO.
Let's be honest here, the prequels were dissapointing. They weren't cancerous, but they aren't really good either.

That being said, I don't see why these guys say no one cares about the prequels. The prequels made a fuckton of money and sold many toys. There are also plenty of Star Wars fans like Kalvinator who don't have enough taste to realize that they're mediocre.
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Re: 2014 sets

Post by Gungnir » Fri Dec 06, 2013 2:50 am

I don't hate the prequels. I'm mostly just indifferent to them. I kinda liked the Clone Wars mini series that Genndy Tartakovsky did.
That said, the Clone Wars cartoon that's being shown now is garbage. Though, that's to be expected. Everything aimed at kids nowadays is garbage.
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Re: 2014 sets

Post by Zahru II » Fri Dec 06, 2013 7:04 am

Yeah, back in our days we had quality garbage! (and nostalgic bias)

About the minifig thing: a lot of competing brands put a ton of effort into 'our gimmick that is better than lego', and usually that's minifigs (I mean look at kreons, the tenkai knight transforming brickfigs, the new action-figure tier poseable COD megabloks guys). However this always takes resources away from actually good set design and a solid building system overall. IMO the minifig should be a cherry on top nice addition to a good set, but not the main focus.
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Re: 2014 sets

Post by Battlegrinder » Fri Dec 06, 2013 8:47 am

Zahru II wrote:Yeah, back in our days we had quality garbage! (and nostalgic bias)

About the minifig thing: a lot of competing brands put a ton of effort into 'our gimmick that is better than lego', and usually that's minifigs (I mean look at kreons, the tenkai knight transforming brickfigs, the new action-figure tier poseable COD megabloks guys). However this always takes resources away from actually good set design and a solid building system overall. IMO the minifig should be a cherry on top nice addition to a good set, but not the main focus.
I tend to feel that Megablocks or Kreo minifigs are still worse than Lego minifigs, just because what they gain in realism or flexibility, they lose in customization (though I’ve noticed that some of the newer megablocks Halo sets come with alternate parts to put on the mini, I suspect this has more to do with poor manufacturing standards rather than trying to catch up to Lego). I do have a small collection of Halo minifigs, and while they’re nice looking, I do sometimes wish I could swap parts around and make something a little more unique.

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Re: 2014 sets

Post by stubby » Fri Dec 06, 2013 12:08 pm

Zahru II wrote:About the minifig thing: a lot of competing brands put a ton of effort into 'our gimmick that is better than lego', and usually that's minifigs (I mean look at kreons, the tenkai knight transforming brickfigs, the new action-figure tier poseable COD megabloks guys). However this always takes resources away from actually good set design and a solid building system overall. IMO the minifig should be a cherry on top nice addition to a good set, but not the main focus.
I think it has more to do with the fixed capital investment of tooling the molding machines. For ballpark figures, imagine your average toy mold costs $5,000 - $50,000 per toy, depending on the volume you plan to make. A construction brick mold has to be much more precise, if they need to fit together properly - say, $500,000.

If you're selling toys at the volume LEGO does, then you can probably make enough sales to recoup that $500k-per-element investment over the life of the machine. If you're a smaller company, probably not. So you can cut mold quality (cheaper machines) and use a smaller assortment of part types (fewer machines) in your construction, but that only goes so far.

The real money is in the custom and decorative elements which don't have to be high-precision; you can get 10 or 100 of those machines for the cost of a single construction-brick machine. Which is how you end up with sets like this:

Image

The more you can rely on low-precision elements, the more chance you have to make up the costs you put into tooling. Meanwhile, the amount of money that customers are willing to spend on your sets are based 90% on the minifigures (which can be molded cheaply if you're Mega Bloks or equivalent) and only 10% on the construction bricks (which cost you way more to produce). It's a no-brainer.
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Re: 2014 sets

Post by Tennysoul » Fri Dec 06, 2013 1:22 pm

Zahru II wrote:Yeah, back in our days we had quality garbage! (and nostalgic bias)

About the minifig thing: a lot of competing brands put a ton of effort into 'our gimmick that is better than lego', and usually that's minifigs (I mean look at kreons, the tenkai knight transforming brickfigs, the new action-figure tier poseable COD megabloks guys). However this always takes resources away from actually good set design and a solid building system overall. IMO the minifig should be a cherry on top nice addition to a good set, but not the main focus.
I don't get my sundae without the cherry :warhead:
aoffan23 wrote:Holy hell, what makes you so jaded against the prequels? I mean they weren't great movies, but I don't see why you (and other people) think that everything to do with them is shit, and start ranting because some people like stuff from a movie you don't like.

Also on the topic of the battle droid/minifig discussion, I've never really understood the demand for more and more accurate/realistic minifigs. There are multiple lines of nothing but figures of the characters, so why do we need more accurate representations in a building toy? If someone just wants a 100% accurate model to sit on the shelf and look pretty, then why bother buying the Lego version, which has the basic purposes of being assembled and disassembled? It just seems like a completely useless thing to complain about IMO.
To this reply I will point out a couple of things. I used to watch the original trilogy at least once a month, sometimes I'd watch them weekly. Once the TAINT of the prequels came out they honestly made the originals worse. Not in a film sense (although Uncle George did screw with them a bit too much also) but rather the mediocrity of the story of the prequels that is fulfilled in the original trilogy hurts when you think about what is supposed to have come before what I argue are two of the quintessential science fiction films of the last century (Star Wars and Empire). To drag them down with suedo-scientific nonsense (midiclorians) that demystifies the magic, bland comic relief (Jar-Jar, C3P0), a Madonna and child parallel (Anakin and Shmee), the killing of children, a HORRIFICALLY written and acted love story (Anakin and Padme), and on and on and on...it actually ruins the original trilogy somewhat, in what amounted to a licensing ploy to make money off of another trilogy.

As to the making of a more accurate model...that's a choice. I have bought and assembled a lot of Star Wars sets...some I modified to make them more accurate because I love those films and those ships are iconic. Some sets I disassembled after I built them, and many I NEVER assembled. But I have enough to leave some of them together and not affect my building efforts so really it's a choice. I tweak my work constantly...it's why I haven't really posted anything to The Armoury since my first couple posts...I am getting things exactly how I want them, then I will post.
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Re: 2014 sets

Post by Gorthaff » Fri Dec 06, 2013 3:41 pm

Well Star Wars.
I think some major shit just got stirred up here. And so to be appropriate, I'll be giving my opinion just like the others did.
So to begin with, I don't think the prequels were good. Nor do I think however, that they were the soulless abnominations, some of you are talking about.
Although they in no way stood up to the orginal, they were descent sci-fi action movies, and you have to admit, that knowing the end of the plotline kind of spoiled it.
One nore note I would like to add, is that imho The Attack of the Clones was a badass movie. Wasn't at the level of the original trilogy, but topped Midi-Chlorian Vomiting Jaw-Jaws and The Self Obsessed Pseudo Emo Pedi Knight in every possible aspect.
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Re: 2014 sets

Post by Zahru II » Sat Dec 07, 2013 7:01 am

@stubby: True indeed, especially since 'building' is not considered part of the play anymore (for kids at least; I recall reading an article about how generally building is something kids 'just wanna get done with and play').
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Re: 2014 sets

Post by loafofcheese » Sat Dec 07, 2013 7:30 am

Most of these are already out, I had to scan about four ninjago choopers in one purchase during my shift today @ kmart. I'm kinda bummed that my staff discount hasn't arrived yet.
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Re: 2014 sets

Post by Gungnir » Sat Dec 07, 2013 8:53 am

Zahru II wrote:@stubby: True indeed, especially since 'building' is not considered part of the play anymore (for kids at least; I recall reading an article about how generally building is something kids 'just wanna get done with and play').
I know too many parents with kids like this. It's kinda depressing.
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Re: 2014 sets

Post by Battlegrinder » Sat Dec 07, 2013 10:38 am

The Shadowscythe wrote:
Colette wrote:
Brikguy0410 wrote:
The Shadowscythe wrote:Image

I sense many Scythian aircraft being built in the near future.
I sense many shitty aircraft being posted in the near future
You're actually getting around to building something? Nice of you to inform us.
Wow, not only where you owned by Colette - but somebody else has noticed you have never posted an actual MOC in any way, shape or form.

This must be a really shit day for you, eh?
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Re: 2014 sets

Post by Silverdream » Wed Dec 18, 2013 4:39 am

Image
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Re: 2014 sets

Post by Maverick » Wed Dec 18, 2013 8:20 am

Silverdream wrote:Image
I see lots of possibilitys now...

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Re: 2014 sets

Post by Apollyon » Tue Jan 14, 2014 8:19 pm

That spaceship from the Lego Movie is going to be a must have! And the Constructo-Mech will be good for parts.

Link here.
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