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In lugnet.harrypotter, Matthew Gerber writes:
> Hey all,
> 4) General - Hagrid is a brick. You thought the Creatorfigs were bad? At
> least they are mobile! This dumbing-down (juniorization) is really getting
> out of hand.
I have mixed feelings about this.
a. Yes, he's a brick. Uck.
However . . .
b. He is no more immobile than the LEGO Ghost figure, though,
whose ghostly body prevented the minifig legs from moving,
if the set bothered to include legs at all. From this point
of view, the figure is no more limited in terms of play value
than a well-established figure that's been out for a decade or
so.
c. I hope that the beard fits normal minifigs as well! I will
love that hairpiece element if it does, and I will hate it if
it doesn't.
d. At least he's just a brick. If LEGO had bothered to retool
the minifig completely to make an adult-proportioned minifig, we
would have even more cause to be concerned that minifigs were
being phased out entirely. At least this "just-a-brick" concept
doesn't threaten the idea of minifigs completely, the way that Creator
minifigs do.
> 5) General - Looking at the hair pieces as rendered in 3D on the box cover,
> my thought is that LEGO is moving towards blobby chunks of plastic meant to
> be "more realistic", instead of well sculpted and detailed elements, to
> represent hair. Case in point: The Alpha Team Buzz Cut. An admireable idea,
> poorly developed/executed. Every instance of this piece I have seen is flat
> in the back left quadrant. Not mis-molded...mis-sculpted. In this age of
> computer-aided design and rapid prototyping, there is no reason for this
> poor level of element to be produced. And the rounded detail leaves much to
> be desired, as the deeply defined hair elements of the past worked much
> better to get the point across. BTW: Harry's got a 'fro!
e. I didn't notice any significant sculpting flaw in the buzz-cut
hairpiece. Assuming that by "back left quadrant you mean the
"southwest" portion of the hair (if viewed from the top, with
the face of the minifig pointing north) I don't see anything
wrong at all. Certainly nothing I wouldn't have noticed on
my own, and nothing that bothers me now that you have
directed my attention to this portion of the hairpiece.
f. I don't mind the "smooth" appearance of the buzz-cut. I
think that if it was more deeply carved, it might be distracting.
I like this element. Comparing it to the "hippy hair" element from
years ago, I don't notice much difference in the level of detail.
g. I am thrilled with the hair pieces that we see on the cover of
this Harry Potter software! The female hair and the wizard
hair-and-beard look fantastic (praying, of course, that the
beard will work on normal minifigs).
>
> 6) General - Like some of the other new LEGO product, the faces as
> represented on the minifigs on the game box are rendered with very thin
> lines. I assume that this is meant to express more detail and realism. While
> this is all well and good, the fact that even on different sets in the same
> theme, different styles are being used shows a seriously poor coherent whole
> across the entire LEGO line. While some face elements use such thin lines
> that some are almost non-existent (e.g. Young Anakin), others use similar
> line weights to the classic head elements of the past (e.g. Han Solo). Why?
h. In general, faces with thin lines seem to be pitched at an
older age, and figs with thick lines seem to be pitched at a
younger age.
The thick-lined faces look messy to me. I'd rather just see a classic
smiley-face than a face with thick sloppy printing on it.
I have no complaints about the faces of the Harry Potter figures.
They look great to me!
They do wander far afield of the classic smiley, but that is the
norm for figure faces nowadays. The thin-lined details appeal to
me more than the thick-lined details we have seen on some faces in
the past few years, and look to be on par with the level of detail
we've seen on some of the best Star Wars faces (Anakin and Qui-gon
Jinn).
I do hope that whatever bad-guys there may be in the Harry Potter
universe don't come with ugly faces. I'm very tired of LEGO
promoting the idea that an unattractive person is an evil person, as
they do in almost any themes with sides that are in conflict with
each other (example - the 2000 castle sets, with the hideous faces
of the 'bull' figures, or the scarred faces of the Adventurer bad
guys, or the snarling faces of the western bad guys).
--
Jeff <jthompson@esker.com> "Float on a river, forever and ever, Emily"
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