After Lego universe which will close its doors in January 2012, it's the turn of the service Design by ME to put the key under lock at the beginning of next year.

In his press release LEGO tells us that the service to design a model under LDD and then order it online was far too complex for children ... It's obvious. And it would therefore be taking into account the opinions of users that LEGO decided to stop the costs. 

The service HERO Recon Team Hero Creator he remains available for the moment. My son also created his own Hero Factory character on this service and he received it within a good week, in a vaguely personalized box, and he was especially happy to have been able to obtain a character for which he had been able to choose every part, every color and even its name.

LEGO seems to refocus its activities, eliminate the less profitable and concentrate on the essentials: Producing licensed ranges supported by communication at a lower cost for TLC (Movies or cartoons produced by Warner / Marvel / Lucas / Disney) and generating large volumes and high margins. In short, a real business logic.
We too often forget that it is not because we make toys that we should believe ourselves in the land of Care Bears. The crisis is here, and LEGO, like the others, must back it up while waiting for the return to better days.

The debate is animated within the various communities which try to guess what will be made of the second wave of DC sets for 2012. We already know the DC sets of the first wave and they are based on the comics, and largely inspired by the 2006/2008 Batman line.

Many believe that this second wave will be based on the upcoming July 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises. Personally I am not convinced: LEGO made no mention of the film in its press release as was the case for The Avengers about the Marvel range.

But let's admit that's the case, then we should be able to get a few vehicles from the movie, like this (s) Tumbler(s) with a nice camouflage effect seen on the set or the batwing frankly nice design. A Tumbler in Tan and Dark Brown, why not after all ..... It also seems that the scenario of the film incorporates a story of stolen technology allowing Batman's enemies to reproduce chain Tumblers to better destroy Gotham City .. ..

And all this without counting the batpod of Catwoman who, it must be admitted, really has something to end up in a LEGO set with her forms .... I digress, but it will take a lot of imagination to make a Catwoman minifig fit coherently on this batpod...

Make no mistake, I would of course be delighted to be able to afford these machines without having to spend a few hundred euros on bricklink to invest in 2008 sets like the 7888 The Tumbler: Joker's Ice Cream Surprise which is sold over 400 € in MISB ....

I would be happy with a set of the type Tumbler chase with an Tumbler black one Camo Tumbler, Batman, Bane and some extras .....

At the start of the evening, I am posting here a good quality visual that I had not seen until now of the Wonder Woman minifigure which had been presented holding her lasso at San Diego Comic Con last July. 

I paired it with a visual from the Wonder Woman animated series, which shows that the LEGO minifigure is clearly inspired by this version of the character.

This minifig will be available at least in one confirmed set from the new LEGO Superheroes range: 6862 Superman vs. Lex Luthor, alongside Superman and Lex Luthor.

Note also that this successful minifig has a silkscreen print on the legs, like that of Superman on the preliminary visual of the set, while Superman's exclusive minifigure from New York Comic Con did not have screen-printed legs.

Here is a good example of what SNOT allows to achieve to give an appearance model to an MOC.

This Tie Advanced, which took two months of work from its creator, benefits from a high-level finish and an impressive level of detail. The rendering is ultimately very close to that of a model or a model of the type produced by Hasbro in its range of Star Wars toys.
One can even wonder if these MOCs with SNOT finish are still in the LEGO spirit. It would indeed seem that the gap is widening between the techniques used by MOCeurs of all kinds and the manufacturer who often uses SNOT sparingly.
The most recent models marketed by LEGO retain their share of visible studs, which remain the only visible indicator that we are still dealing with a construction set ...

LEGO does not communicate or very little about the alternative models that can be built with the original sets and the licensed products are sold as toys that can be assembled once and then have fun with or display them. . Creativity is not necessarily put forward and there is a paradox here between the mode of marketing and promotion of LEGO toys and the diversion of the primary function of these toys by the community of MOCeurs, who favor the use of parts for reproduction.

To see more, visit the flickr gallery d'Imperial Fleet.

He insists the guy, he is on track in all the competitions of the moment and it is for the contest Wheels of Justice organized by FBTB that he designed this original BatMobile.

Personally, I like this MOC which makes an original use of certain parts (I let you zoom on the photos of his blog to find out which ones) and I have a weakness for the cockpit which I find very retro-modern. The BatMobile can accommodate a minifigure and the canopy opens like a real ...

Finally, there is a little Mad Max side to this BatMobile. Good luck to LEGOManiac on this contest.