This is the other set of this second wave 2012 with the Fury Interceptor of the 9500 set to be directly inspired by the world of video games Star Wars The Old Republic.

If the whole thing seems pretty ordinary at first glance, it must nevertheless be admitted that this set has some nice assets. On the one hand, the ship, which cultivates its family link with the X-Wing from which it takes over the canopy of the cockpit and on the other three new minifigs: Satele Shan (see this article about it), Jace Malcom, the Republic Trooper boss of Havoc Squad and a T7-O1 astromech droid.

On the minifig side, they are still at a preliminary stage but I already like them: Satele Shan is nicely screen-printed even if the minifig remains shyly dressed if we refer to her costume in the game trailerAlso interesting is Jace Malcom with his scars on his face and the coin based droid has the merit of being original. I'm already waiting for the Republic Troopers Battle Pack from Havoc Squad .... These two sets 9497 and 9500 from the universe of SWTOR open up huge possibilities for expansion in future waves of novelties.

I had been the first not to take an interest in these minifigs and to consider them negligible when these sets based on SWTOR. Over time and my peregrinations, I realize that these characters are definitely anchored in the Star Wars timeline thanks to the game and its universe.

The vessel has an interesting feature: The wings can be folded down and deployed at will and the two guns are articulated to allow them to be housed in the axis of the wings. Too bad the opening mechanism was not synchronized between the wings and the barrels. In terms of colors, the Republic Striker is a bit loaded: orange, green, white, two shades of red, gray, that's a lot. But we have to admit that for the youngest, the nice red and white ship against the bad black ship, it works.

Obviously, it is especially the minifigs that interest me here. With a Republic squad leader, an all-new droid, and a new Jedi, that's what I call renewing ....

The photos are from FBTB who also publish a video of the wing opening / closing on his flickr gallery.

We already know that the set 6865 Captain America's Avenging Cycle was not presented in its entirety at the New York Toy Fair 2012 due to constraints related to the confidentiality of the film's script.

But there are still some interesting images on the Superherohype gallery on which we can see the potential enemies of Captain America in this set. The Skrulls (or other aliens), represented here by generic minifigs, will probably be there and armed to the teeth. One of them is perched on a flying machine, a sort of space scooter.

We will find this machine and these minifigs in the set 6869 Quinjet Aerial Battle with Loki also riding a flying machine pulled by the scooter seen above. You will notice the superb Iron Man profile ...

As long as all this is very, very preliminary ....

Come on, for fun, a close-up photo of the Troll from the set 9473 The Mines of Moria. Which brings me to a highly philosophical reflection on these figurines that are not minifigs. I really like big minifigures with LEGO sauce, even that of the Hulk about which I had some prejudices during the first presentation of the prototype. The Wampa, Tauntaun, Dewback, etc ... are all very successful. Paradoxically, I already like smaller or more compact minifigures less than classic minifigs like Sebulba, Gollum or Salacious Crumb.

On the other hand, the swimming pool blue color of this troll is a little weird. It seems to me that this critter is rather gray in the film and that it is the ambient lighting that gives it this bluish tint. But maybe I'm wrong ...

The news is significant, and paradoxically it is not commented more than that, or at least not as much as it deserves.

The LEGO Lord of the Rings range introduces a new horse model including the set 10223 Kingdoms Joust yet recently released does not benefit. This model is articulated at the rear end and will allow your valiant riders to take more realistic poses.

Beautiful technical innovation which brings real added value in terms of visual rendering but also playability on these sets. Nothing beats a prancing horse to give dynamics and a beautiful effect of movement to your dioramas.

I don't deny it: I like this Planet Series mini-range. It's cute, compact, it's collectable, it lands on a shelf without disfiguring the living room and it takes up the emblematic machines of the saga. But make no mistake, with this range, LEGO organizes and organizes what we already know with the range of mini sets in boxes or bags that can be obtained on Bricklink or eBay because we do not see them never arrive in France. We add the ball-planet plastic, a minifigure and presto it's done.

Where I'm going to complain again is when I realize that the set 9677 X-Wing Starfighter & Yavin 4 is none other than a vulgar repackage of the X-Wing of the set 30051 X-Wing Fighter released in bag in 2010, and reissued in 2011 with the new official look. An effort would have been desirable: change a few parts, change a color ... just to convince us that this model is the latest to date, and that it is better than all the others.

The and 9678 Twin-pod Cloud Car & Bespin is already much more interesting: I am not a Lobot fetishist as there are on various forums, but the unique minifigure of this character dating from 2002 (7119 Twin-Pod Cloud Car) deserved a new version. The machine is successful, as far as possible with as a reference the model of the film seen in theEpisode V The Empire Strikes Back which is awful all the same. Orange, red ... I prefer orange.

We will not dwell on the 9679 AT-ST & Endor. We no longer know what to do with all these AT-STs at all levels and at all levels.

Regarding the planets, I'm not sure what to tell you. It is a nice storage for the rooms. And maybe a nice Christmas decoration to put on the tree ...
Roughly speaking, if I listened to myself I would only buy the 9678. But that's without counting on the collection virus ... Well, at € 9 at P&P, we will survive ...