Subject:
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Re: 2004 Catalog Sighting
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Thu, 16 Oct 2003 14:17:41 GMT
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Viewed:
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951 times
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Funny thing, I noticed this thread as I was looking for a newsgroup to post
this to. Forgive me if this doesn't come up as a followup - the LUGNET
posting system doesn't like me for some reason, so I have to do everything
by email.
Well, here's your detailed examination of the Holiday 2003 Catalog I just
got yesterday. I hope this is what you're talking about.
So no, I'm not just complaining about all the nonsense and how bad the
catalog is, as I'm usually prone to do. I found quite a bit of good stuff
in it this time! The date "Holiday 2003" makes me wonder about that mystery
product we've all been wondering about, though. Will there be another
catalog before Christmas?
So here are my thoughts as I read this catalog. A lot of good stuff to say
and some criticisms.
The first thing I looked at was the cover, since I'm getting into graphic
arts. I noticed several big bloopers in the imagery, but the blending of
the different image elements was done well. Personally I think the
artist(s) who did it are a little overfond of the motion blur, but oh well.
So I open up the catalog and the first thing I see are the Decorations at
the bottom. I think these are pretty far overpriced. Okay, the average
price-per-piece still works out to be about 9¢ per, but if someone
just orders those pieces the shipping will really bloat that figure. The
12% Off Special is good, though - except that there are only five
decorations to begin with!
Okay, turn the page, pages 4-5. Yay! Wild West Indians! Glad to see those
back. Oh, the temptation to buy is so strong...no, must save for the
Mannheim Steamroller concert. Anyway, glad to see that set back. A lot of
really neat pieces in it.
The rest of page five is pretty much new-old stuff, sets that aren't that
old but haven't been in the catalog recently. There are quite a few nice
parts (Including some Technic stuff) in the Ogel Underwater Base and AT
Sub, set #4795.
Page five is all-out good stuff. For some reason the Coast Watch HQ #7047
really strikes my fancy. Yellow isn't a common color in my collection and
there's lots of it in this set. Some neat pieces, too, like the radar dish
(isn't it just a skateboard?) and the trans-yellow spotlights! I really,
really admire the pontoons on the helicopter, too. Why didn't I think of
that?!? The baseplate is nice too - although there is quite a lot to be
said for building your own foundations and standard flat baseplates, having
some styled and raised baseplates is neat too. This one I like a lot. I
also just noticed the top windows of the building - angled outwards!! This
set rates high for me.
Okay, pg 6-7. Lot of nice stuff here - especially the trans-red/blue/yellow
1x2 tiles! They aren't very common that I know of and they're neat. I think
the haircut piece that is on the chap in #7032 Highway Patrol and
Undercover Van is overused though. We're only to page 6 and I've already
seen it in at least three sets. I'm also seeing a lot of Technic pieces in
these sets, like the flex tubes and axles in the Police Helicopter #7031.
Das good.
Pages 8-13 are all Bionicle, which I don't like, so I don't have much to
say there. I will say that I see a few nice Technic liftarms and axles in
there. I haven't found much use for ball joints yet, but I'm thinking. I
like the sweatshirt idea on page 13 - how come we can't buy other LEGO
clothing in the catalog?? I'd spring right away for a LEGO or Technic or
MindStorms t-shirt or sweatshirt.
"What Will You Make", pages 14-15. This is good stuff. I like the Record
and Play #4095 a lot. I've heard it has some limitations, but there are a
lot of nice green parts in it (Sorry, Radation_Specialist. :) You can send
me all your green and brown stuff if you like). The Wild Collection #4101
is nice for the themed colors and the nice models. I'm afraid I'm not
creative enough to be able to build different animals and whatnot from just
those parts.
Now the Motor Movers #4094 is cool. A clear motor, some new claw
parts...just what we need. I need to read Phillippe's motor comparison to
see how it measures up. It looks like lugnet.mech has had some influence on
the bottom of the page. I've seen some mechs there that look an awful lot
like this set. I can't help but think that people who build mechs must be
incredibly creative. I don't think I could do that. Anyway, I like to see
single-color sets like this.
Pages 16-1: looks like more Spider-Man. I never got into the Action Figures
stuff myself, but the set design here is cool. I like the bridge with the
trolley car in #4852. I need to get some of those scaffolding pieces on the
corners. The cars in #4850 Spider-Man's First Chase look need too - almost
Beetle-ish? Mary Jane's bright orange hair caught my glance, too - we need
more women's hairpieces! (in normal colors!)
Almost halfway through the catalog now. I wonder if I've hit the char limit
yet.
The Extreme Sports stuff is neat. I like the snowboards - I wonder how long
till I see a snowboarding film at Brickfilms.com? The helmets are cool too.
The trans-blue flex tube on the Snowboard Boarder Cross Race #3538 is
really neat - trans-blue, imagine! Wow.
Now we come to the Hockey stuff. It all reminds me a little too much of the
Bionicle - ultra-specialized pieces, not much moving or reuseable parts.
The best set is #3545, Puck Feeder - Technic mechanisms, yay!
Now the good stuff, page 22-23 - Exclusives and Legends! Castle always
catches my fancy and there are three sets on these pages. Black Falcon's
Fortress has a nice selection of helmets and Black Falcon Knights -
something my collection is lacking sorely. AAMOF, I only have about two
Castle minifigs at all. How embarrassing. I still am looking for some
Legend Forestmen sets, though. Now THOSE I think I would simply have to
shell out and buy. Can't pass up a good Forestmen set.
Next page...BULK! Lots and lots of great bulk packs here, including an
expanded Gear Wheels #10076! A turntable, even! Yippee! I like the Castle
Accessories #10066, too - too bad it's backordered till December. And just
look at all those plate and brick bulk packs! Bricks are almost cheaper
here than BrickLink! And let me tell you - I've priced the X-Large Grey
baseplates and they ain't cheap. This $10 price really took me by surprise!
That's definitely a good thing. (and a great price)
Okay, let's skip the order form...hmm, it seems to be getting bigger.
Pages 26-27 seem to be pretty much just miscellaneous stuff. Lots of neat
things, though. The Bikes are nice - compact, lots of great parts, some
neat designs. Some wheels I don't have, too.
I admired this stuff when I first saw it at S@H: true ORIENT Expedition
stuff. When I first saw the Dragon Fortress #7419, I was browsing BrickLink
for weapons and fond those cool spears and scimitars. I hadn't seen the
spears before, so I looked them up and found this set. When I saw the
dragon I just about broke my jaw (which is already well on its way there).
Slick, my foot. That is great! Gem eyes and trans-red wings!! I really like
the gold mouth too.
There's also a lot of neat new pieces in this set, like the brown crossbows
and the coolie hats (which I haven't been able to determine the diameter of
yet). The oar on the Emperor's Ship # 7416 is neat too. And again, here's
another neat raised baseplate! And oh dear - another theme faction. :) What
is this one called? I see new flag emblems but it isn't explicitly named in
the catalog. Just plain Orient Expedition? Or Orient? Or what??
The Pirates stuff on pg 30 is great. It's been a while since we had a big
pirates set. The Black Seas Barracuda #10040 is one of the bigger ones too,
if I recall correctly. The USS Constellation is cool too, but it's all
faked! No real masts or cannons like the Barracuda! Is it supposed to be a
model or something else? It looks great, but I'm just wondering why they
didn't design it a little differently.
Page 31, with the Lunar Lander #10029, has one thing for me to say: more
technic yay and some neat new pieces! I'm looking especially at the small
radar dish with a pin in it up at the upper left. I don't recall seeing
that before. The smoke-colored helmet visors are neat and cool too.
Next page. Whew, this is longer than I thought it would be. Still 19 pages
to go, too. Well, a lot of it's Star Wars, so that'll be fast.
Page 32, IMO, is the best page in the catalog. Two great sets! The backhoe
I haven't been able to buy yet but it looks terrific. Even better than it
did on the website! Ten pistons, lots of liftarms, some big wheels...wow.
The alternate model looks great too. Boy, when (not if) I buy that, I'm
going to build me a sandbox right away. What else could you use something
like that for?! :)
The Air Blazers #4403 is great too - some styling pieces but it all turns
out to be something very slick. I like the air intakes - I haven't seen
those pieces often before. The rotors look a little wobbly from being so
long but plates that long are a rarity around here.
The Wright Flyer #10124 on the next page is great too - tan plates and look
at all those ball joint struts! *clunk. End of post, he's unconscious.
Family member resumes the typing* It looks a little sparse, but the chain
links make up for that! No motor, though.
Harry Potter, well, I won't comment there. Nice parts but bad theme, IMO.
Now to NASA, pages 34-35. There is an unbelievable able amount of Technic
in these things, especially the Mars Exploration Rover #7471. Wheels,
liftarms, gears, axles, pins, gears, those neat blue panels, liftarms and a
few other liftarms. Wow. When I first saw that set I wasn't really
impressed, but closeup pictures do tend to alter these things. I've heard
that the Space Shuttle Discovery is pretty big first hand, too. Some great
white parts there.
Trains, pages 36-39. I never got into trains much, but this stuff looks
great. Some nice pieces, some new colors (check out the sand-red
conductor's hat!)...yeah, I'm impressed. The Cargo Train #4512 is a tad
expensive, but the forklift car really caught my attention. I have never
seen minifig chairs used as wheel-wells before! Very attractive design for
such a small unit. Reminds me of some things I've seen here! Looks like
there are some new Track kits now, some I haven't seen before. Oh, for a
job with a large LEGO budget...
Now for star wars. I think the mini-models have been well done for their
size. I know *I* couldn't get that much detail with so few parts. Now what
did I do with the render of all the minimodels together...I criticize the
CGI Yoda on the left margin, though. It doesn't quite look right. The robe
ha has on is too transparent and reflects too much on the edges and his
upper lip looks...fake. Well, I'm too critical anyway.
The AT-AT model looks pretty detailed to my unfamiliar eye. Some new parts
I haven't seen before like the cannon (since when did LEGO make grey
lightsabre hilts??). And yet another Imperial trooper to collect...ack...it
actually looks similar to the Imperial Guard.
Pages 44-45 hold two major things I like: the AT-TE #4482 and the HailFire.
The thing that strikes me about the AT-TE is the ball joint cannons. Has
anybody ever used them in a model yet? They look perfect for something, I
just don't know what. The Hailfire has been a favorite ever since i saw it.
It's chock-full of useful parts and those wheels are quite something. I'm
surprised nobody has build something really huge with four of them yet.
I'm also finding myself liking the dark red parts. Dunno why, just
interesting colors, I guess.
The one thing on pg 46-47 that catches my fancy is Lando. This is the first
brown minifig LEGO has made and it's sorely needed, methinks. If for no
other reason than that we brickfilmers need some! :)
The ISD #10030 is quite something to look at. Looking at all the goblets on
the side, somebody's going to have one biiig feast when the ship crumbles.
I see quite a few gear racks on it too. All built with magnets, eh? Time to
build a maglev.
The last thing to comment on is the back cover, and the thing I have to say
about that is...doesn't that engine structure look somehow familiar...?
All in all I think this catalog has some really great stuff in it. Two
years ago I thought LEGO was going down the tubes but I quit thinking that
a while ago. This catalog just proves that. Some awesome models and some
great prices! Really, they are, I just have no money...
Ow, my wrists hurt. I've spent nearly an hour writing this. Who would have
thought...
~Mike
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