Lego - The Avengers: Captain America's Avenging Cycle!

While The Avengers action figures are so far proving a little disappointing, there's no doubt that Lego getting the license for the franchise is good news.  It's great news indeed that they've finally been released in our favourite brick form--and here's their smallest offering in retail so far!

Though I grabbed the Loki's Cosmic Cube Escape and Hulk Helicarrier Breakout set first, this was soon to follow following its release about a week later.  I guess it was also the quickest to put together and that it had one of the figures we've all been waiting for--Captain America!  Sure, I was also dying for Hulk, Thor and Iron Man, but hey, Cap really grows on you!

From his slightly more edgy Ultimates self, to his stance (and death) in Civil War, to his awesome on-screen incarnation, it's no wonder the kids are all seeing stars and stripes.  Well, at least mine is.  He never fails to point out the Cap shield when he spots it--and he's just over 13 months old!

So enough talk and more review action--here we go! ;)

Transformers Kre-O: Exclusive Optimus Prime Review

**State of the Toy Union: My display room's a mess!  It's made me really not want to open up any of my recent purchases until I get it cleaned up.  I'm making progress with the packing/tidying up though.  So in the meantime, I'm very sorry for the long pause between reviews.  Enjoy this one though--he couldn't wait! ;)**

Call him an SDCC, a Botcon or a (insert your preferred)Con Exclusive, but for us here in Singapore, he's our Transformers Con 2012 Exclusive Kre-On! (That's what they call a Kre-O figure btw).

Messy room--enter at own peril!

That's right, in a month's time from March 11th to 14th, the bi-annual event is hitting our tiny island nation.  So the awesome people in charge sent over this little fella just to whet my appetite!

Now the idea of building a Transformer out of Legos or any other building blocks is hardly a new one because anyone who's ever laid hands on such toys will have at one point or another tried to do it.  But never has there been an official toy company who's gone out a produced a whole range of them--until now.

And while I have to admit that I was pleasantly when I saw Kre-Os on the shelves in stores, I was less than impressed by the sets.  First up, the robot modes aren't all that accurate to the G1 TF forms they were trying to mimic (and neither are their vehicles modes for that matter).  Second, they came with Kre-On (minifig) versions of themselves.  And that doesn't really make sense, if you catch my drift.  Third: the price. At US$30 a pop for the bigger sets, it was kinda hard to go out on a limb and trust the quality of a new building lock brand.

Still, those Kre-Ons looked pretty darn cute.  And they do have a whole range of them out right now--Optimus, Bumblebee, Mirage, Sideswipe, Megatron, Shockwave, and Prowl, just to name a few off the top of my head.  I had even told the Rangerlord what many have expressed online--if they sold the Kre-Ons separately, I'd grab 'em.  He agreed too.

So you can imagine my delight when the organizers of Transformers Con 2012 sent me this little package.  Now I can't wait for the Con to come.   So I guess I'll just have to settle for filling the time with a review of Kre-On Optimus Prime! ;)

Lego 6862 DC Superheroes: Superman vs Lex Luthor!

Guess what I got for my birthday from the dear wife, when it isn't even my birthday yet?

That's right!  Yer looking at it! :D :D :D

She's been getting me stuff early for special occasions for a while now, so I just thought to tell her that she needn't, and said that I feel bad for opening presents early and all that.  Her response: I need to get it for you before you see it and get it for yourself!  Hah!  The bonus?  She also got me the Batcave!!!  (Review to come...)

Apparently, this Supes vs Lex set won't be brought into store until next month here in Singapore, so this is a happy thing for me to be able to have and review it early.  That and the fact that I love Superman and the wife likes Wonder Woman makes me a happy 33 year-old kid.  Add to that the excellent looking mech that is Lex Luthor's power armour and this is a must-have set!

It's been a while since I really wanted badly to open something that I bought or was bought for me and review it, so what are ya waiting for?  Jump, jump, jump!!! ;D

Oh and watch out when opening the box--the parts come in three bags: two bigger ones and a small one for the little bits. There's also a Lego comic book and of course, the instruction booklet--but the cannon-to-power armour power cable for the Lex's mech is not in any of the bags but directly in the box itself.  So don't go throwing way the box with glee before checkin'! ;)

Christmas in Legoland!

Well, sort of. ;P

But that's what it sure felt like this year as my dear wife got me this bad momma:

Oh and the wife is adding on a Marvel Universe SDCC 2011 Exclusive Sentinel as well. (Hell Yeah!)

To top it off, the Rangerlord added on these babies:

Aw heck yeah it's gonna be a very a very Lego-y Christmas and New Year for the rest of 2011--let's just hope I get some of the reviews in before the year-end, eh? ;)

That's the other thing I wanted to say: the holidays have really gotten me into the mood and I've been busy running around getting gifts for as many people as I can. So I apologize for the very very infrequent updates/reviews.

Oh boy, Oh boy, I can't wait!

Although the son got a ton more toys for Christmas than I did, he's gonna have to go quite some ways to catch up to Daddy.  But my boast ends there--you must be thinking "if he's got so many toys, where the heck are the reviews?!?!?!"  Lol.  On the way, on the way.  (Or at least that's what I tell myself. >.<)

Oh and on one final merry note, I just have to mention this awesome gift I got from a couple of dear cousins of mine.  It's a car windscreen sun shield--but it's ain't just any windscreen shield:

Awww yeah.  Laugh my but of every time I look at it--for those very hot days in Singapore or when I'm travelling in hyperspace.

Well, so to one and all: May the Force be with you...

...And also a very Merry Christmas! ;)

Lego Minifigs Complete Series 5 Review!

I love Lego!  Say it with me!

All right, you don't have to.  But my wife does and we love to go feeling for minifigs together.  Back in January we found a somewhat untouched box of Series 3 in New Zealand and found three Elves.  When she got me the Star Wars Home One Lego set we built that together, along with the TIE-Advanced and Y-Wing set.  So it was natural that when I split a box of these nyum nyums with the Rangerlord that the wife and I immediately got to feeling out the 16 figures from this series.  It turns out we had 15 of the figures and were just missing the Zookeeper.  The Rangerlord had everything but he Graduate.  A shimmy and a swap later and we had our complete sets.

I tell ya, my wife's got a knack for this--she felt out he gloves of the Boxer and the ridged tail of the Lizard Man.  Me?  I just felt happy, as I always do when we do Legos together.  I also felt out the lone Gladiator.  Yes, thank you, thank you.

For those, who like me, want to get a complete set, splitting a box is definitely the way to go.  Take the half-box home, feel it up, crack it open, and sell on the remainder.  Better yet if you feel out another set and can sell it as such!  That's what I'm gonna do.  Or at least I plan to...

But for now, the review!

Lego Speederbikes with Stormtroopers!

...Which will be henceforth known as the "Great Lego Speederbike Blind Building Contest!"

So I picked two of these babies at last weekend's Singapore Toys, Games and Comic Convention for S$15 each, which was about half of what they would be in specialty stores outside of the Con.  And the fun thing about Legos is that Mel and I love to build them together.

Usually it's the bigger sets we work on together, like the Knights Kingdpm Green Knight Stronghold, the Star Wars Vader's TIE Advanced vs the Y-Wing, or the Home One MonCalamari Star Cruiser.

This time around, the Legos in question were way smaller and would take no time to build.  So the wife decides to challenge me to a "blind" building contest, stating that we'll "see who can build a speederbike faster without the instructions and just by using the pictureon the packaging."

I laughed and agreed.  I knew I'd win.  I knew Star Wars and Lego better than the wife.  But ya know, we musn't fail to encourage the spouses, even if they have a Tuantuan's chance in Tatooine.

But anyway, here are the results... ;)

Lego Minifigs Series 4: Kimono Girl

I originally didn't intend to get the Kimono Girl.  The Rangerlord wanted her but not me.

I had stumbled upon boxes of series 4 late in the game and already the minifigs I thought were going to be rare were sold out.  At least according to the friendly salesperson at the specialty Lego store I was in.  So I couldn't get the Musketeer, nor the Mad Crazy (politically correct) Scientist.  And I couldn't find her either for the Rangerlord.

But I snapped her up the moment Rangerlord and I chanced upon her at Toys R Us/  She was, after all, a sought after figure in the initial boxes that came into stores locally.  RL already found himself one, of course.  For the girls (aka his daughters). ;)

Of course, I too couldn't resist. It would go well with my Ninja and Samurai from the previous waves, he said.  We influence each other too much.

Lego Minifigs Series 4: The Werewolf

AAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooOOOOh yeah!

I love it when the figures I look for aren't really wanted by others.  Just like poor little ol' Werewolf here.  I got him together with the (Frankenstein) Monster on my first foray into the orange bags of goodness and there were easily a dozen of him.

He completes the foursome of classic horror monsters, with Dracula and the Mummy from earlier series, as well as Franky from this one. But you don;t have to stop at one werewolf.  Where's the fun in that--they like to hunt in packs, if a certain teen/horror genre series would have us believe.

So is he worth getting more than one of?  Check it out!

Lego Minifigs Series 4 The Monster: Frankenstein

Toy hunters in Singapore are fast.  Like fast.

That's why by the time I spotted Series 4 of these blind bag Lego Minifgs, entire boxes of these oranged-packeted goodness had been felt up and plundered of the Musketeer, Mad Crazy Scientist, Lawn Gnome, Hazmat Guy, Viking, and Kimono Girl.  Yes, after visiting many a store these remained the most popular figs.

But ah, luckily for me, I wasn't really keen on any of these except the Musketeer and Mad Crazy Scientist.  Instead, I was really excited by Frankenstein and the Werewolf!  And these were available in abundance!

Thanks to my dear wife, I found Franky right off the bat.  There were literally 10 Werewolves in the box we hit up, with the guy at the store admitting that these packs were all the remainder of 2 or 3 previously ravaged boxes.  After paying up, we opened the packs in store just to make sure we felt up the right figures.  We did.  And here's Franky!

Valentine's Day Lovin'!

Did I get a box of chocolates from the wife for V-Day this year?  Hell, no.

Did I get a bouquet of flowers?  Uh-uh.

Did I get Lego Kingdoms 7947 (Green Knights Fortress set)?

Hell yeah!

 

Birthday Plastic!

That's right, your truly turns 32 today and rather than feeling old and over-the-hill, I feel younger than ever!

Guess why?

It's probably got a little something to do with this...

And a lot to do with this...

The Home One: loaded with good stuff like Lando, Ackbar, Mon Mothma, and an A-Wing!

*Drool...*

(*Drool continues...*)

My first birthday presents--from the wife.  I can't wait to bust these open!  :)  Thanks, dear!  I grow younger each day with ya! ;D

Lego Minifigs Series 2 - The Spartan

As you might or might not have noticed, I've tried out a new format for reviewing Lego minifigs with Series 3's Elf.  I've tried in the past to review them like action figures, but I think it's unfair to take something that is an iconic toy in its own right and lump it with the larger genre of action figures.  It's really and apple-oranges scenario--a minifig will always be a minifig, not an action figure.  99.9% of the time, they have the same points of articulation, dimensions, and skin color. (Now it's yellow or beige for flesh, but you know what I mean.)  So I've decided it's fairer to compare minifigs with...other minifigs! ;P  And that's what my new review format will reflect.  It'll be a Lego/minifig rating system of its own.

So without further ado, I bring you a one of kind minifig with a theme that Lego has never explored yet: The Spartan! (From Series 2.) 

There are so many minifigs out there now that I get excited seeing one that I've never seen before.

This guy is one of them.  The Rangerlord and I scoured the land but all the Spartans had somehow been swiped.  Then on one of his numerous overseas rangings, he finds one for me.  And I think he offered to get me more but I turned him down the, thinking that one Oozer of Machismo was enough of a testosterone overload.  Well, I was wrong.  And here's why...

Lego Minifgs: Series 3 - The Elf!

Hey all, I'm back!  After a refreshing and serene honeymoon in New Zealand, I'm definitely not looking to go back to work, especially after two weeks of nothing but beautiful vies of snow capped mountains and glacial lakes.  But I'm sure happy to be back to our home and of course, getting back to more reviews!

So I guess it's fitting that we kickoff the year with something I managed to find in a Warehouse (NZ's version of Walmart.)  There we were on the second last day of our trip, my wife and I, disappointed that there were no real finds in the toy section.  Then lo and behold, we see two lime green Series 3 boxes of Lego Minifigs!  "Elf, Elf, ELF!" was all I could remember thinking.

Mel then asked me if I had the bar code list to decipher each figure's blind bag.  Of course I didn't.  I never have them when I need them.  But I replied that the Rangerlord had told me there's a better way: to feel for the elf's bow. As the store was due to close pretty soon, we hurried through feeling the packs and concluded that someone had already been through them and taken our pointy eared friends.  We left but I was kinda expecting we wouldn't find them.

What made me go back to the crumpled packs on the shelf the next day to try again, I'll never know.  But I took my time, wanting to identify each figure I was feeling.  Maybe I'd just buy a Samurai? Maybe I'd get the Sumo wrestler.  I also realized then that the identifiable bar codes from the first two series had been done away with, so feeling the packs was the only way to find them Elves!  By the time Mel was done browsing at the clothing section and came by, I'd found two of 'em.  She also proved to be a lucky charm, helping me fell out two more! Yay!

Two of them are staying with me, and the other two are going to the Rangerlord.  It's part of our blood pact to share in our hunts. :P

So how did Lego's first ever Elf minifig turn out?  Find out after the jump!

Lego Kingdoms 7950: Medieval Melee!

What a breath of fresh air this new "medieval knights" Lego Kingdoms line is!  It's Lego but not branded with another license like Star Wars, Toy Story, or Prince of Persia.  That means it's cheap, cheap, cheap--just the way I like it. Ok maybe not that cheap, but cheap enough to be reasonable at retail (which is about a good US$3-4 cheaper for a mini set like this, US$7-8 if it's a Star Wars set.) ;)

But what made this set awesome was the tag team discount haul the Rangerlord and I did at local toy store Simply Toys.  Since they had a buy one-get-one-at-40%-off deal, we both snagged this set and the next larger one, #7949 and split the discount.  So we both got 20% off overall.  This one ended up being only just over S$11 or US$8.  Lego hath never been cheaper!

So how did they size up once busted free of their cardboard prison?  Let's take a gander...