ChocolateFrogs

The Piraka design sounds awesome! Those big grins still give me the creeps--imagine having one (or six) on a t-shirt! There's so many options--the teeth, the spines, the weapons... I'm sure you'll get some great submissions.

I've heard of this, but still haven't had time to try it out. (To be fair, I rarely play games on my phone.) -CF

Ever see tabloid headlines or hear a gossip news clip about some celebrity you normally would never hear of because they aren't in a band or movie? Somehow "celebrities" get all the press without having done anything to garner your attention? Yet somehow they get followed around and sometimes paid for all the focus. Now, I can just as easily ignore gossip as the next person who doesn't care, but sometimes things enter my field of vision. Which gets me thinking, why them? Who decided that this random person suddenly gets a bunch of money in exchange of being followed around and get their drama reported on? What if it was me? Or you? Or any other nerd in the world? How hilarious would that be? A TV crew is set up and arriving at your house, an editor is eagerly awaiting an article and pictures of every detail of your day, and blogs are going to dissect your every facial expression. Except if it was me, with the cameras lined up waiting for something to happen, they'd just see me sitting at my computer for an hour scrolling through facebook and youtube right before work. Then an 8 hour shift of fetch quests with a lunch break of reading comics. "Start some drama," a paparazzi says (at this point I'm as surprised as you are they're still here), so I call up some friends to play Risk or Catan later that night. Little do the reporters know that my friends will go back to being quite agreeable as soon as the game is cleaned up. Ha! Then it's back to sitting in front of my computer, or reading a book or watching TV, with a few glances at my phone for a silent conversation. And that's the day. I take the money allowing them to follow me around for a day, and they go back home rethinking the purpose of their career, with any luck. -CF

Remember quite a few years ago when Binkmeister did a Death Star Roll at BrickCon?* Let's do that again at BrickFair VA! Except it won't be someone's sacrificed Death Star set. We'll build a sphere out of Stay and Play bricks and find a slope somewhere to roll it down. Maybe put the finishing touches on it at Adult Swim when everyone is already riled up and ready to see something wild. Let's remember this post in July right as we're ready for BFVA. -CF *IDK if it was even his or at BrickCon. Could have been at BrickFest PDX, and someone else's set. But then where did I hear about it if not on BZP or TBB?

Yes, I meant the printed suit of armor and then the actual armor pieces. As for lighting, I'd recommend checking your computer's brightness/colors. Looking at that image, I can distinctly see the dark blue, silver, black, bley and light bley apart, except for Clay's helmet in the corner. -CF

This guy looks a lot cooler in photos than the promotional images show him to be. Thanks for the awesome review! Maybe I'll get lucky and find him for a good aftermarket price (though do I really need another Iron Man armor in my collection? Hmm...). -CF

Well, yeah. Firefly has been on hiatus for...11 years now? Sheesh. The long wait between Sherlock seasons is terrible. Splitting seasons between two years (essentially giving us half a season a year) is unfortunate (DW and Warehouse 13 did this). And I really don't understand why DW will essentially be not airing at all in 2016 except for the Christmas special. It's literally a year between Doctor Who seasons. It's literally a year without a season, because it's one episode. At least David Tennant put out 4 episodes in his "off year." Like, do your job, Moffat and Capaldi. -CF

That's The Collector from the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. He and the Zur-En-Arrh Batman were the San Diego Comic Con exclusives for 2014. -CF

Displaying LEGO is always tricky, because dust is very annoying. It's something I constantly worry about with my displays on my shelf, because it is so very annoying to remove. It just looks ugly on display. While my plan is to use model car cases for things like the DeLorean and Curiosity Rover, and some big clear cases for minifigs to grandstand on, I would rather have a few figs stand out. I have some cases, but that's still not good enough. Things can be touched easily, and I am always rotating out which minifigs get displayed. So I found these little things that came with Pokemon toys inside them. They're relatively cheap (or cheap enough) and look great. (Brickshelf) The pricey minifigs in the upper pictures deserve a bit of separation from the rest of my collection. The chrome Star Wars figs shouldn't ever be touched with bare fingers, and the two Comic Con figures have a nice sentimental value. (Their high monetary value also garners them some extra respect.) The TRU Force Friday brick could be moved elsewhere more visible, but it's big and bulky and doesn't quite deserve to be unintruded. It's a nice piece of history though. The Avengers in the lower pictures were a gift for a friend. She had a few of the "main six" from the movies, but needed a few more characters to complete her collection. I put them in the display case on some bases adhered with sticky tack, allowing for the mirrors to really show them off. I have one more case which needs filled. I can fit 5 figures without overshadowing anyone, so it's just a matter of who. Something special, something cool, and something I won't want to take out to use in a vignette. I've got a lot of figs to choose from, so I'll make it count. -CF

I love the MOC, I love the scene, and I love the pun. And seeing a series of detailed building faces with funny minifigs in front/on top of them sounds very creative! -CF

That's a very impressive review! Makes me want to get it for display... Though I got the Millennium Falcon partly because BB-8 was in it, even though I knew the X-Wing was cheaper. -CF

I made sure to get the Master Wu Dragon simply because Nick made it! And looking at the design of the head and parts usage throughout, it's easy to tell! As for Toa, I was pleasantly surprised by how great Tahu was in build and style. If I kept Toa built for display, I would have rebuilt Kopaka in the same design. -CF

It's still early enough in 2016 to reflect on 2015, so let's talk about great LEGO sets from last year. Specifically, I will be drawing from my own building experiences. Admittedly, regrettably, I still have a few 2015 sets unbuilt. I don't want to become the AFOL stereotype of having hordes of boxes of unbuilt sets. These are not yet built because I thought I'd review them and then I never did and then I realized that Jurassic World sets and Quicksilver's Avengers set would never be on store shelves again after their initial run. But I doubt they'd make this list anyway. The list of my favorite sets stars off with General Grievous, who has a fantastic build and looks great on my shelf. That's saying something, because it's hard to be surprising with constraction sets nowadays, and because I like to think I cannibalize my sets pretty quickly after getting them if I'm in a building phase. But until I build a tan Bionicle MOC, Grievous is here to stay. People can argue about the price, but for the satisfaction of a 45 minute build that is quite intense, it's worth it. I also had the pleasure of building the Helicarrier with 55555 thanks to Toa Lhikan Hordika buying it and then we did a livestream to build it. Good times. It's huge, it's iconic, it has a great build. And I didn't pay for it but got to build it anyway; you'll have to ask TLH if it's worth the $350 plus motor pack. (I bet he'll say yes.) The Doctor Who LEGO Ideas is also worthy of a mention. It's got the minifigs, it has the TARDIS interior and exterior, and it's reasonably priced for a licensed set. Unfortunately it doesn't come in numbered baggies for staged building within the instructions, which means you are searching for parts a lot longer than expected. And finally, I can not forget the Millennium Falcon! It's iconic, has a great build, comes with great play features and hosts some great minifigs. I'll be keeping this displayed on my shelf for at least a year before realizing I need grey angled plates for something. These were my favorite. I build some more, but nothing as stand-out like these. I've already got my hands on a ton of 2016 sets however, some of which already look amazing, and some which can be criticized too. Now to find time to build some.... -CF

I love the look here! First off, the posing is great. He's lumbering, yet able to attack. His claws are ready to do damage, but first he has to swing those shoulders around to do so. The head is fantastic. I know heads can be hard, but you've pulled it off perfectly here. The use of System bricks along as a major part of the MOC really do wonders. It adds a certain level of layering that might get lost with the techno-organic Bionicle parts. All that said, I would be able to see these details even better with some improved photography. Lighting and background color are of course the largest factors here. Looking at your Flickr, I see that should not be a problem, so I hope future MOCs can be shown off in the same quality type shots. (It's also a major factor to being shown off on blogs and LEGO sites--I almost didn't post this to the front page because parts of the MOC get lost in the background.) Finally, welcome to BZPower! I'm looking forward to seeing more from you! -CF

I don't like it. It barely looks like him, and not because he doesn't have a face yet. You'd really have to know the set to see it, unlike our past mosaics which clearly looked like a character and work of art--the public would barely need to grasp the idea of Bionicle to realize what we made. This, however, is just some guy standing weird holding a stick and something golden. I'd rather not do this than support it. There aren't any other options? Any clearer pictures to use? Alternate poses? Closer-up images that still give the bad-guy feel? -CF

LEGO sure has a great thing going on with the new Nexo Knights line. I've already bought $110 worth of sets, and I don't think I even spent that much on Chima and I certainly didn't on Ninjago. But these Knights are something different entirely: They've got the sci-fi aspect which I love mixed in with the Castle theme I respect and want to eventually build. Plus all the new parts look fantastic! I would have bought more Ninjago and Chima sets if I wanted their parts (I might get some steampunk ninja pirates this year), but the stuff the Nexo Knights has is getting me excited: The shield power-ups, the dark blue lightsaber hilts, the pyramid cheese slope, and the new 4x4 pointed slope brick to name a few. So I got slightly worried when I realized we'll be getting even more sets like these this summer, and next year and the year after and on until LEGO feels like stopping. So I'm going to need to rethink my budget with everything LEGO is putting out this year. Right now I'll just be integrating these Knights' torsos into space suits. -CF

Umarak sounds like a cool idea. I'm also still in favor of a Rahkshi as we talked about way way way back. I'll commit to doing a tile. Maybe two if we're desperate. -CF

I enjoyed The Husbands of River Song as an episode, especially with its story/character significance, but it didn't feel like a Christmas special to me. The best Christmas specials IMO have been the ones that you can use at intro episodes into Doctor Who if you family or friends happen to be with you at the time the special comes on, so they may as well keep celebrating the holiday with you by bothering with that weird TV show you're excited about. Like The Time of the Doctor, it was more heavily focused on a story that just coincidentally occurred on Christmas than it was at saving the day while celebrating all the many facets that bring people together for the holidays. Telling stories are great, and Moffat did a great job with this one (of course), but as a Christmas episode it fell short in being new-viewer-friendly. -CF

I enjoy hearing some festive songs on the radio for about a month every year. But what I am getting tired of is the feel of the same old Christmas standards sung by the same standard artists from a few decades ago. I know there is a larger variety out there, just look at my Christmas music collection, but I wish the radio would realize this too. Now, I realize the radio has some newer things. Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights is a good laugh whenever it's played. The Waitresses have their Christmas Wrapping song that is pretty catchy. And there are a few standards by contemporary artists like Michael Buble, Pentatonix, and a special favorite The Calling's Carol of the Bells. (Oh, and don't forget lots of Trans Siberian Orchestra.) But the radio can do better. The Barenaked Ladies, Relient K, Colbie Caillat, and more all have their own renditions of favorites, and I'd like to emphasize that there are also some great original songs out there too: Elf's Lament by BNL, Chrion Beta Prime by Jonathan Coulton, and Lumberjack Christmas by Sufjan Stevens come to mind, to name a few. Would it hurt for a little more variety, dear radio stations? It sure would be nice. -CF

What color is Matt Smith's/The 11th Doctor's hair? I would argue black, which is why I am really annoyed that the LEGO Ideas set gives him brown hair. That, and it is even parted in the wrong direction! -CF

And by "war" I mean running a Bionicle event by myself for 30 children. Unfortunately, I didn't get any leftover purple limbs. But I got plenty of trans-green and keetorange shells, which means I won't have to buy a second Protector of Jungle (though should BrickLink some of his swords). Of course, parting out this grab-bag of leftovers makes me think I need to sort out my Bionicle collection again before I actually put these to use. I've got a box full of scrapped MOCs to disassemble before some ideas are realized. -CF

Yes indeed, language is deeply interesting. But the phrase "you know" just doesn't make any sense. Because I don't know. -CF

So I should review, what, a dozen sets in your absence? -CF

That's really interesting! -CF

Working retail, I interact with a lot of people. More than I'd care to on a daily basis. And people, as a whole, seem to like to talk a lot. Again, more than I'd care to let my ears hear. So, the less words said the better, right? One thing that I really can not stand is the phrase "you know" when describing something. It's as bad as "like," "um," and "uh," when it comes to filler. Something involuntary to cause a pause when your brain can't quite put the right words in order in conversation. Whenever a customer (or even someone closer actually conversing) injects "you know" into their sentence when going into detail on something to better help me understand, my immediate thought is, "No, I don't know, that's why you're telling me." I'm not perfect either, but it's a habit I've broken pretty well. I've even winced when I said it recently. I just need a super-villain weapon that changes the brain waves of everyone across the world to be more precise with their language! -CF