Series 2 of the Planets went classic, with each planet representing one of the three movies of the original trilogy. As an OT purist, I had to pick up the lot. For the record, so far they’ve made three planets, two moons, and a moon-sized space station. Maybe we actually shouldn’t refer to these as planets.
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I was on the fence about seeing this movie right up until I made the decision to go last Thursday night. I waited in line for the midnight showings of all three of the previous Spider-man films and even did my very best to make the last one as much fun as possible for everyone who attended with Spidey beachballs, trivia and silly string webshooter fights. I tip my hat to this day for the brave soul who attended that movie in his adult sized Spider-man pajama onesie complete with rear escape hatch. Spidey is my favourite super hero, so why would I not be waiting in line to see this film when I wasted many an hour in sheer anticipation of previous spider-films? I’ve thought long and hard about that and what it all boils down to is this: I wanted to dislike this movie.
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LEGO is a building toy, not an action figure line. It’s hard to tell with recent sets, but it’s true. One of the most difficult things for licensed LEGO sets is to capture the where and what just as much as who. Star Wars was the low-hanging fruit… there are so many things to capture. Vehicles like the X-Wing and Jedi Star Fighter have a certain look that give something to build. Some places, like Jabba’s Palace or Cloud City can provide a very solid where, in some ways as iconic as the ships.
While characters are important, capturing these other things really makes it feel like Star Wars (maybe in part because that’s the cool thing in a sea of sub-par acting, who knows). When it comes to a license like Lord of the Rings, movies that are so intrinsically character-based, building sets that are anything more than glorified battle packs becomes much tougher. There are a limited number of places that can be done and really capture the “where,” and pretty much no vehicles to do what (catapults don’t really count in my mind).
A few scenes in the movie that could be done up well, and a lot of them showed up in the first wave: Weathertop, The Elven Council, Moria, Minis Tirith, and Helm’s Deep. The Battle of Helm’s Deep is the climactic battle of the second movie, and a place where the where was just as important as the who. LEGO chose to capture the battle as their top-tier set in the first wave… so how does it do that at $129.99? (more…)
This year’s San Diego Comic Con limited edition exclusive is not an Advent Calendar, thankfully. Instead, it’s Darth Maul’s MINI Sith Infiltrator. No set number as far as I can tell. The set comes with a promotional shirtless Darth Maul figure packaged in a tin. Containing 84 pieces, it will set you back $40 big ones. Only 1,000 were made and 200 are being sold each day on a first come first serve basis with a purchase limit of two per transaction. So, is it worth it?
I don’t play as many video games as I used to and the game time I do have is usually reserved for old favourites and anything I can play with my son. LEGO Batman 2 falls within both of these catagories and while it definitely follows the same formula we’ve seen in the previous LEGO games, it also strays into uncharted LEGO territory with a couple of new features. I along with many of you have been playing these games for years now across their many iterations and there have been few prior changes in the grand scheme, so do these updates hurt or hinder a game that already seemed like it had the potential to be an improvement over the original?
While it was Star Wars that got me back into LEGO all the way back in 1999, Castle has always been my first love. It’s what I loved as a kid; when I dumped my bricks out on the carpet to build as a kid, I either built houses or castles. Sure, there was an occasional spaceship, but I was a huge NASA fan back then, and didn’t get into Classic Space because it really didn’t look like the NASA stuff I loved.
What does this have to do with a review of the mid-range Lord of the Rings set, Attack on Weathertop? Not much, except I wanted to explain exactly how much I was looking forward to the whole fantasy genre getting some love, hopefully in the same way that space did when Star Wars hit. Sure, classic space vanished when Star Wars hit, and the same thing has happened to Castle, but LEGO had been treating Castle like a red-headed stepchild for years. But Lord of the Rings has all the promise of revitalizing this style of set, and tapping a vein that almost every other licensed line other than Star Wars has failed to do: succeed beyond the release of a movie. (more…)
You know, I’ll be honest, I absolutely hate Larry the Cable Guy. I can’t stand his comedy, he just annoys me, and if you want to share the feeling, go look up the video where he looks suspiciously like Dave Coulier, telling the same jokes minus the fake accent and redneck character. That being said… he was probably the perfect cast for Mater.
That’s not to say Mater doesn’t annoy me, he does. He was a fine supporting character in Cars (that could have been made better if they would have just cut out the Cable Guy catch phrases), but as a lead… well, there’s a reason why Cars 2 is Pixar’s worst movie. Cars 2 gave us Mater, center stage, as a spy. And at one point, a spy in disguise… and I’ll admit, it was some of the actual funniest moments in the film that weren’t insanely forced (unlike, say, the wasabi “ice cream” joke).
So, how does a little $7 impulse set of Ivan Mater stack up?
There’s always that hard-to-find chase variant. 6857 The Dynamic Duo Funhouse Escape is the exclusive set in the first wave of DC Super Heroes sets. It can only be found in a LEGO Brand retail store, online at LEGO Shop@Home, or in a Toys R Us. Problem is, the LEGO store is always sold out, Shop@Home has shipping fees, and Toys R Us has marked up the set by $10. I’d been drooling over this set for months, hoping to find it in a LEGO stor. With some VIP points saved up and the Hulk minifigure promo, I was finally able to justify getting this set online.
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The final “Planet” from Series 1 may not be an actual planet, but it is possibly the most recognizable orb in all of science-fiction and it’s a love letter from LEGO to the fans. Take a good look and see if the feeling is mutual or if this one is return to sender.
Some might see having Captain America as the only hero in the smallest set odd as he’s supposed to be the team leader and that means the only thing he can assemble in this set is his “Avenging Cycle”. It includes an iconic hero, generic villains and some vehicular tidbits thrown in to round it out, but does the battle pack equivalent of the Marvel line actually live up to the concept?
**Spoilers Ahead! Read on at your own risk…**
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