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In lugnet.harrypotter, Matthew Gerber writes:
> Hey all,
>
> Caution! Extremely bulky LEGO related ranting follows. Proceed at your own risk!
>
> This is also the post I inadvertently deleted last night, and I've attempted
> to re-create it, though of course I'm not nearly as satisfied with this
> re-do version.
>
> I've been spending some time looking at the picture of the Harry Potter
> Creator game that Christopher so generously posted for our consumption. This
> has led to some disparate thoughts, which I have decided to commit to words
> here. (Take the Harry Potter Specific words with a grain of salt though,
> 'cause of course the specs could change before the final release of any product)
>
> 1) Harry Potter Specific - While I have already made my thoughts on the
> subject of the starry capes known (yuck!), here are reasons: While star
> covered capes may be fun for the kiddies, there is no basis for them in the
> books or (from what we have seen in the trailers) the movie. Also, I was
> assuming that with a HUGE license like Potter, LEGO might put a small bit of
> thought into a cloak or something (similar to what I did with my Harry fig,
> ya' know?).
>
> 2) Harry Potter Specific - Grey pants? In the trailers and production stills
> I have seen, they are darker, if not black. This shouldn't be too hard to
> get right. They look like they are wearing polyester leisure suits.
>
> 3) Harry Potter Specific - Hagrid is a brick. A brick with arms and a head,
> but a brick none-the-less. One of the most interesting characters in the
> books reduced to a painted brick. The play value is staggering, ain't it?
>
> 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.
>
> 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!
>
> 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?
>
> Conclusions - What all of this rambling boils down too is this: There seem
> to be many different development units at LEGO who are churning out
> uninspired product as cheaply as possible. LEGO continues to waste all of
> its time/effort/money on character development (Alpha Team, Racers,
> Bionicle) and license aquisition (Harry Potter, Star Wars), making the
> entire LEGO line fall flat. If these trends continue, they are going to
> loose everyting that made LEGO the toy of the last century.
>
> Well, that's it. I had some more (in my opinion) really deep thoughts in the
> lost version of this message, but this one pretty much gets my points
> across. If you actually made it this far, thanks...and sorry!
>
> Matt
>
>
> In lugnet.castle, Christopher Pisciotti writes:
> > This image is from a demo disk I received yesterday from the LEGO Media
> > booth at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo, http://www.e3expo.com) currently
> > running through today at the LA Convention center in Los Angeles. The box
> > art may give some insight into what some of the Harry Potter sets and
> > minifigs might look like.
> >
> > www.geocities.com/loch_forest/hpbox.html
Yeah, I ain't extatic about some things in the Potter line, seems my initial
pipe dreams of sets/parts was just that. Bottom line is quality and
expandable playability. Those should be more firm goals of TLC, and if they
use classic molds instead of new shape designs, then that suits me fine.
You made your point pretty well. We all hope for some sets designed as well
as some of our own MOC models, but the reality is that the folk at LEGO seem
to be creatively bewildered, or at least challanged. Perhaps they should
just fire everyone and re-issue old sets :o)
Still, I hope to find some interesting qualities in the Potter sets that
will likely tempt me to aquire a few.
-Aaron-
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