LEGO Technic Service Truck #42008 Brand New Sealed (ship from Canada)When I first heard of the possible return of LEGO Castle sets late last year, I was very excited. Since I didn’t come back to LEGO until the Kingdoms line was on their way out and didn’t have a chance to get the older Castle sets from the 80’s and 90’s. Here we have the first set of the 2013 Castle sets, the Forest Ambush (70400). The set contains 90 pieces and retails for $11.99, about $0.13/piece. The contents of the box contains two unnumbered bags, and one instruction booklet. There are four minifigures in the set: 2 Lion Knights or King’s Knights and 2 Dragon Knights. There’s also a brown colored dog. One of the Lion Knights wears a blue shire with silver chain mail printing on both sides of the torso and with grey legs. He has single-sided head with a smile. He wears a silver helmet with a brim. His weapon is a spear. The other Lion Knight wears a blue shirt with silver breastplate printing on both sides of the torso.
The front has an emblem of a crown. He also has grey legs. The head is single-sided with a grinning expression and stubble detailing. He wears a silver helmet with a neck protector. He has a sword as his weapon. One of the Dragon Knights wears red shirt with scale mail printing on both sides of the torso and the Dragon emblem on the front. The legs are completely black. He has a double-sided head with a scowling expression on one side and an angry grin on the other. He wears a black helmet with a neck protector. He wields an axe and a shield with the Dragon emblem. The other Dragon Knight wears a different styled scale mail which also has his house emblem on the front. Like his fellow knight, he has solid black legs. He has opened tooth grin on one side of his head and a scared expression on the other. He wears a black cheek protection helmet. He has a mace as his weapon. The dog is a brown German Shepherd that you’ve probably seen before in other sets. There are two parts to the build: the Lion Knight’s treasure cart and the Dragon Knight’s forest base.
The two wheeled pull cart is very simple to build with places to carry the Lion’s flag as well as for a shield and weapons. The treasure chest can carry a gold goblet, green, red, and yellow jewels, and six gold coins. The “forest” is a little more detailed than the cart but not by much. It is actually a hidden base that the Dragon Knights use to ambush the Lion Knights. There are some little detailing like leaves and an apple to make it look like a forest. One of the features is that the branch on the side falls over to stage the ambush. There is also a place for a crossbow and a flick fire missile that represent the crossbow bolt. Overall, the first return set for the Castle theme is an fairly decent one. The builds of the set are pretty sub-par but that’s about what you would expect considering the amount of pieces you get. The cart is passable and the forest looks more like a bush. The set is pretty much an army building set with a good number of knights at a modest price.
The Brick Fan Scoring SummaryDesign Playability ValueIranian TV censors got creative with Charlize Theron’s Oscars dress We’re now watching a billion hours of YouTube every day Here’s what’s coming to record stores and streaming services in March Kurt Braunohler on day-drinking and being scared of becoming a dadAnalysis of LEGO brick prices over the years Posted to Statistics | Tags: analysis, Lego | Reality Prose has an excellent analysis on the changing price of LEGO bricks over the years and a misconception that cost has gone up. According to the chart above, based on data from BrickSet and adjusted for inflation, the average cost per brick has come down. So why the perception of high LEGO prices? It might have something to with average piece count and more complex sets. With the data from the piece price evaluations I was able to also evaluate the average size of LEGO sets each year. As you can see on the chart below, the average size of sets released each year stayed somewhat constant from 1980-1990 until around 2000 which set sizes started to increase.
The average set size seems to have peaked in 2008 (which saw the release of the Taj Mahal), but since then it hasn’t fallen to its pre-2000 levels. It seems to have found a new normal around 300 pieces. But even so, LEGO hasn’t stopped making the lower-priced sets. It’s just that’s there’s a wider variety now. Be sure to read the complete analysis. It’s a fun one. Side note: We had some friends over the other day, and someone brought a giant castle LEGO set. I don’t know how much it cost, but the hours of entertainment we got for a group of six people? How We Spend Our Money, a Breakdown We know spending changes when you have more money. Here’s by how much. Interactive: When Do Americans Leave For Work? We don’t all start our work days at the same time, despite what morning rush hour might have you think. 19 Maps That Will Blow Your Mind and Change the Way You See the World. You Won’t Believe Your Eyes. Many lists of maps promise to change the way you see the world, but this one actually does.
Famous Movie Quotes as Charts In celebration of their 100-year anniversary, the American Film Institute selected the 100 most memorable quotes from American cinema, and …The splashy introduction of the new LEGO friends line earlier this year stirred up a lot of controversy. My goal with this set of posts is to provide some historical perspective for the valid concerns raised in this heated debate. The LEGO Group started as a family business with the motto “only the best is good enough.” The company produced primarily wooden toys for the first two decades of its existence. It wasn’t until 1958 that the iconic LEGO brick was patented as we know it today. LEGO bricks were originally marketed as toys for both boys and girls. The 60s saw the introduction of new elements to the LEGO system like wheels, windows and hinges. Marketing images from this era tend to feature boys and girls equally. In the 70s we encounter the first LEGO theme marketed specifically at girls: Homemaker.
The sets aren’t very different from the rest of the products offered at that time (there’s some bricks and you build stuff), but the pictures of smiling girls playing with the sets clearly mark them as “girls only.” Homemaker sets are clearly meant to be furniture for dolls. Dolls are popular toys, so finding ways to integrate the LEGO experience into this existing model of play was a shrewd business strategy for TLG, but one that nevertheless perpetuated stereotypes. The 70s also saw TLG experimenting with different types of human-like figures. The first figures (sometimes called maxifigs to contrast with their later mini brethren) were built from regular LEGO bricks and new head pieces. These appeared in a line of sets with the uninspired name “LEGO Building Sets with People.” These line as a whole was marketed at both boys and girls, but some sets were more targeted. Co-existing for a brief period with the maxifig was a proto-minifigure. The minifig we all know and love today was next.
In 1978 the minifigure first appeared as we know it today and, after an awkward period of co-existence with the maxifigs, the “minifig” became the standard for tiny plastic people. The minifig is now as iconic as the LEGO brick and equally important in defining the LEGO brand, over the years has tried to introduce other types of figures, but none of them have the staying power of the minifig.For the next decade LEGO minifigs existed in a gender neutral utopia. One can argue that the hairstyles are slightly gendered, but keep in mind that unisex hairstyles were all the rage at the time. When people talk about wanting to get back to the “good old days” of LEGO, this is generally the decade they are referring to. In response to the LEGO Friends launch a lot of people have been passing around these images from an early 80s ad campaign:Even at this time, however, LEGO was promoting gendered play. The short-lived Scala Jewelry theme, for example was a major deviation from the core LEGO product line.