Better Know Your Minifigures - Nick Fury

Continuing the Better Know Your Minifigures from the new minis in the SHIELD Helicarrier set and their old counterparts.  

The original Nick Fury was found the the Ultimate Spider-man set, Spider Cycle Chase (76004). It was a great set that also had Venom in it and a SHIELD truck that converted into a flying truck.  There was also the standard Spider-man.  With the new Nick we get a Movie version, the head looks the same, but  a whole new body.

Better know your Minifigures - The Captain Americas

If you didn't already know the Lego world is abuzz with the announcement and official images of the new SHIELD Helicarrier mega set.  It looks pretty cool, I won't be picking it up way out of my price range and it's set #76042, so I'm interested to see what fills the gap with the new Avengers sets and the Stark Tower and this set.  With the Helicarrier set we also get 4 old characters that get totally new minifigures.  This might be premature seeing as there might be another Captain America minifigure with his mask on in one of the new unannounced sets.

Anyways so far since Lego has acquired a new Marvel license we've had 2 previous versions of Captain America.

The new Cap also comes with a dual face.

From the released photos  I can't tell if Cap's shield is different, but it doesn't appear to be.

Know your Wonder Women!

With the first new wave of DC Super Hero sets we get some new characters, some old characters, and some already feature characters in new designs.  I've already featured the Martian Manhunter, but Wonder Woman also gets another figure and it's completely different from the one before.  While the Superman and Flash minifigures appear to be exactly the same it's nice to see that not all the characters that were featured in sets last year are.

As a matter of fact Wonder Woman is completely different.  In last year's set the Power Armor Lex Luthor we got a more classic 70's TV Wonder Woman.  In the new Gorilla Grodd set we get a more modern Wonder Woman.  Even the colors are different.  From the tiara to the body and the legs.  Plus you get her invisible plane in the set.  

Some thoughts on Lego City

I was perusing the Lego aisle the other day, I think it was at Toys 'R Us.  My Lego tastes tend to lean heavily on the licensed sets. Especially the Super Heroes line.  That's probably because my main focus is on the minifigures.  And while I don't hate the generic townspeople minifigures I really like the ones that depict characters I know.  So before I start rambling and get off topic, I was checking out the new sets in stock and started looking at all the Lego City sets.

It occurred to me that the Lego City line is so broad and encompasses so many themes that I wonder if it be worth Lego's time to divide them up.  Hear me out.

Within the Lego City line of toys you have very distinct themes, police, fire, trains, racing, arctic exploration, mining, buildings, construction, coast guard, etc.  You get the point.  And I'm sure there are collectors and builders that focus on just one or a few themes (I had thought about working on the fire fighter theme for awhile, but I really don't need more hobbies).

That all being said I thought maybe it would be helpful if each theme had it's own label, like Lego City - Fire, or Police, Contruction... you get the idea.

I was also thinking how cool the Lego City Trains theme is.  I really like the new train sets, although I have yet to buy one, mainly because they are so expensive.  It would be nice if Lego could expand on that theme by offering smaller sets.  I know that I would love to be able to buy just different types of engines and cars, as well as train themed buildings, I know they have a few already.

Living up in Alaska I would think it would be sweet to be able to buy an Alaska Railroad engine for my tracks. You could have tank cards, ore cars, passenger cars, car haulers, box cars, timber cars, just about everything and if you made these cars separate small sets you could make your own train or just buy the cars you want.  I think the train theme is underutilized and has the greatest potential for crossover hobbiests.

Anywho thanks for reading my ramble.

Scooby Freaking Doo where are you???????

It appears at the Lego factory!

It just keeps getting better and better as a minifigure collector.  I was pretty stoked when I heard the rumors, but Lego finally made it official.  Five sets coming this spring or summer.  There have been previous Scooby Doo Construction sets put out by Character Building in the UK and available at Toys 'R Us.  

While I'm a big Scooby Doo fan I never bothered to pick up any of those CB sets.  I was leary because I think they were actually made by Cobi and I have never heard anything good about that Polish based company that recently merged with Best-Lock, and I have heard of Best-Lock.  I even bought a small Best-Lock set it was terrible and was a licensed movie or TV show set.

That being said I've never bought a Character Building construction set.  I have bought there microfigures.  Mostly Dr. Who, but I also completed their blind pack Series 1 when it was available here and the mini's are pretty nice, different from Lego's for sure.

That's not the point, the point is we get official licensed Lego mini's of the whole gang and probably old man Drithers too!  He'd of gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids!!!

C3 NBA Figure Blind Pack

Continuing with my finds from my latest trip to Toys 'R Us.  I saw another new building set company in the aisles.  I had never heard of C3, but they have the NBA license and they also have the WWE license.  I didn't see any blind packs for the WWE or I would have picked one of those up as well.

The insert poster.  12 figures to collect.  I don't think there's any way to tell these apart without opening up the bags.

They also have locker room sets and a court set.  And it's nice to see they claim their blocks are compatable with Lego, I mean other major brands.

One interesting note, the figure came fully assembled out of the pack, that's kinda new.  I ended up with Kevin Love

I thought the figure looked weird with the ball attached, but after looking at the poster I think it might come off I'll have to check that out later.

McFarlane Toys - The Walking Dead Collectible Figures Blind Pack

This is something else I picked up while at TRU last weekend.  I'm a sucker for blind packs and an even bigger sucker for TV shows and comics I like.  Mix in with it that  I didn't know that McFarlane Toys was venturing into building sets.

If your a comic book geek like myself you know who Todd McFarlane is.  He's the artist that use to draw Spider-man, among other stuff, one of the found members of Image Comics, and the creator of Spawn.  Todd also started up his own toy company years ago and is know for doing incredibly detailed sports and movie figures.  

They also had a few of the play sets next to the blind packs, but I'm cheap and I just wanted to get a taste.

There is no indication that there will be another series of these since the packaging doesn't denote a Series, but I figure if they sell well there will be another series.

The set consists of 4 character and 4 walkers.

The insert poster

The figure comes inside another small plastic bag.
I ended up with Daryl Dixon.

I will say these figures are more like mini statues.  The legs are all one piece, the arms are posed and not really movable.  Another problem I had is the crossbow doesn't attach well and kept falling off if I touched the figure and there's really not any face detail like it's shown on the packaging.  And the only way the figure attaches to the building blocks is by a hook on his left foot, which also didn't fit all that well.

But the over all body and clothing are very detailed.  So is the crossbow.

I don't know if you'd be able to feel for different characters the way the figures are packaged so it could be hit or miss if your trying to get the set without buying the whole box.  The figures were about the same price as Lego Minifigure blind packs, actually a little cheaper.

Rocket Raccoon Polybag

Ended up having to go to Toys R Us this weekend.  Had to, seriously. My wife need to pick up some stuff for an office baby shower and who am I to say no to a trip to TRU.

I was surprise at how many polybags they had this trip and I picked up just about every different one I could find and a bunch of other neat stuff of new products I hadn't seen before.  I'll post those later.

I love the Super Heroes line, both Marvel and DC, but the Guardians of the Galaxy movie tie in sets really didn't get me that excited.  As a matter of fact one of the only mini's I wanted to pick up would have been Rocket Raccoon.  Maybe Starlord, but that's it.  So when I saw that Rocket had his own polybag there was no way I was leaving TRU without it.  It's also suppose to be a TRU exlcusive.

This set also comes with a set of decals for customizing the 76021 Milano Spaceship Rescue set.

It's also cool that this Rocket is a different that the one you get in set 76020 the Knowhere Escape Mission.

Know your Martian Manhunter!

The first round of new DC Super Heroes is out and the Brainiac Attack set (76040) features a new Martian Manhunter minifigure.

I was pretty excited because I missed the previous minifigure that was given out online if you spent more than $100 at Lego.com.  But if you did get one don't fret the two minifigures are different.

Not only are the heads different but the cape, body, and legs are all different too.