Received today the January / February 2012 issue of LEGO Magazine. Nothing very exciting for AFOLs, but we are not the target of this support.

However, I note the presence of a short but nice 4-page comic strip on the Star Wars theme (of which I put a photo above) and in which we find the X-Wing of the set 9493 X-Wing Starfighter, the Tie Fighter of the set 9492 Tie Fighter as well as the minifigs of Luke and Jek Porkins.

This allows me to bounce back on the news of brick set about the release of a specific LEGO Magazine for girls highlighting the new range LEGO Friends.

I'm not sure what to think of this new range, but LEGO's strategic choice to divide the communication media according to the type of target does not seem to me to be wise. Bringing girls into the world of LEGO involves integration into the community of children who are LEGO fans, not by sectoring them into a pink universe populated by ice cream, puppies and pretty sports coupes.

You will tell me that the border between the two universes is porous and that the girls will be able to interact with the boys in the City universe for example. But I don't believe it, and the choice to design minifigs that are completely different from the ones we know may frustrate girls who show interest in classic LEGOs.

The future will tell if LEGO made the right choice, but as we have seen with other projects in fields such as video games, for example, LEGO is testing many concepts and will ultimately only keep those that are prove profitable over time.

The Friends range comes up against Petshops, PollyPockets, Zhu Zhu Pets and other Barbie dolls in a market that has its own codes and trends. The success of the range will largely depend on the possible contagion effect in schoolyards.

A little humor doesn't hurt, I bring you this hilarious vignette that symbolizes what most of us would have liked to do to Jar Jar Binks, the most annoying Gungan in the galaxy. 

His chronic clumsiness and his voice infuriated me in theEpisode I.. I found it more bearable in theEpisode II elsewhere. 

For the record, most of us remember the silly and cowardly Jar Jar seen in The Phantom Menace, but the Gungan will later become General during the Battle of Naboo, during which he will accomplish some acts of bravery thanks to his legendary clumsiness and will even become a delegate of Padme Amidala then Senator after the latter's death. His biggest blunder will remain his decision to support the attribution of full powers to Palpatine who will take the opportunity to raise an army of Clones and start the war ...

To see more of this impeccably designed vignette, visit the MOCpages gallery by Luke Chapman.

We already knew the LEGO Comic Builder (see this article), a simple and ergonomic tool to create in a few clicks (okay, a few dozen clicks) a comic strip with the super heroes of the DC Universe 2012 range.

The tool is full of options and it is really possible to produce a clean and efficient comic. You can save in pdf format, print, modify, etc ... your creations.Be careful, we get caught up quickly ...

Click this link or on the image to access this tool on dedicated LEGO Super Heroes space.

Here is finally a first visual of the official minifigs of Hulk, Iron Man, Wolverine and Captain America (LEGO Super Heroes Marvel range) planned as indicated on the page of this catalog for April 2012.

Iron Man is similar to the minifigure presented at San Diego Comic Con in July 2011: The helmet is definitely too big. The screen printing is interesting, especially on the legs. The screen printing of the torso is different from that of the prototype and it's a shame ... it remains far behind Christo's. Note that the version presented here by LEGO is that of the Mark VI type armor seen in particular in Iron Man 2.

Captain America looks successful, his shield has a larger diameter than that of Christo's custom minifigure, from what we can deduce from this visual.

Wolverine is also sympathetic with his claws and interesting screenprinting on the face.

Hulk visual confirms the figurine also announced at the Comic Con, with a serigraphy which seems to me successful there too.

We also learn with this visual that the Marvel range will be entitled to a dedicated internet space as is already the case for the DC Universe range : MarvelSuperHeroes.LEGO.com. This space is not yet online at the time of this writing. We can bet that it will be in the coming weeks.

Small flashback for those who do not know him on what remains today the best MOC of the Millennium Falcon on this scale and which has served and still serves as a reference for many MOCers: that of ototoko (2007).

The achievement is exceptional with many very interesting finds allowing to respect the proportions of the machine. Note the two characters (Han Solo & Chewbacca) depicted in the cockpit using flat round 1x1, a bit like miniLEGOmaniac.

Mandible length and thickness, cockpit size and offset, and vessel thickness are optimized to stick to scale as much as possible. Special mention for greebs judiciously disseminated.

Note that LEGO marketed a very successful version of this vessel in Midi-Scale format in 2009 with the set 7778 that we can still get on Bricklink for around 40 € (MISB). In fact, you absolutely need this set, it is quite simply very successful and will take pride of place on your shelves without taking up too much space, and you will surely miss it just like me ...

To go with it, also offer yourself the set 8099 Midi-Scale Imperial Star Destroyer released in 2010. It is currently sold around 20 € in MISB on Bricklink, a deal at this price.

To see the whole series of photos of this Millennium Falcon, go to ototoko's Brickshelf gallery. The few minutes it takes to discover this MOC are well worth it.