Because there are a little fed up with speculations of all kinds that turn into absolute reality from blog to blog or from topic to topic, I come back in this article to what has been spelled out about the collaboration to come between LEGO, Warner / DC and Disney / Marvel as of 2012 and this over several years as indicated by the mention "... multi-year agreement starting as of January 1st, 2012... ".

By relying on the official press releases released by LEGO that few people have finally read to the end, it is possible to clearly define what we are going to be entitled to, and what is only pure speculation. 

First of all, let's remove the doubt about the Marvel range. LEGO announces clearly in his official press release what will this range be made of: "... three Marvel franchises - Marvel's The Avengers movie, and X-Men and Spider-Man classic characters ..."

It is clearly stated here that the lineup will be based on the movie The Avengers which will be released in May 2012 and the classic characters (as opposed to those in the licensed films) of the X-Men and Spiderman. Exit therefore the X-Men seen in the various films, or the Spiderman of Sam Raimi. Back to the good old comics.

Regarding the Avengers, and as I announced in previous articles (6868 Hulk's Helicarrier Breakout ... et 6869 Quinjet Aerial Battle ...), the sets will be well based on the film, and by extension, the vehicles and the theme of the action as well.

The characters confirmed in the Avengers lineup are: "... Marvel characters as Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Loki and Black Widow to LEGO minifigure form ...Wolverine, Magneto, Nick Fury and Deadpool ... Spider-Man, and Doctor Octopus ... "the rest is pure speculation as well.

The minifig of Wolverine was presented at the San Diego Comic Con in July 2011. It will likely be delivered in the set 6866 Wolverine Chopper.

Regarding the actual release on the market of the Avengers range, here again LEGO gives a clear and precise indication which leaves no room for speculation: "... The retail debut of the Marvel-inspired LEGO SUPER HEROES collection is timed to coincide with the highly anticipated Summer 2012 blockbuster movie release of Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures feature film Marvel's The Avengers ..."The official release will therefore be based on the release of The Avengers movie in 2012.

On the DC Universe line, again the official LEGO release leaves little room for interpretation. 

First of all, this agreement is considered as an extension of an already existing partnership, and which had allowed the development of the LEGO Batman range a few years ago, with the success that we know, especially for video games. taken from the license sold 12 million copies since 2008: "... Warner Bros. Consumer Products (WBCP) with DC Entertainment (DCE) and The LEGO Group has announced the extension of a successful partnership ..."

The planned launch date, January 2012, without geographical precision is written in full: "... Construction sets, minifigures and buildable characters and creatures inspired by the universe of DC Comics are slated to launch in January 2012 ..."

The confirmed characters of the range are: "... Batman ™, Robin ™, Catwoman ™, The Joker, The Riddler ™, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn ™, Bane, Bruce Wayne, Superman ™, Lex Luthor ™ and Wonder Woman ™ ..."

We also have confirmation that  Green Lantern will at least be entitled to a minifigure, the one distributed during the San Diego Comic Con in July 2011. No set has been announced with this character yet.

It is clearly stated that the DC Universe line is a reinterpretation of the LEGO Batman line released between 2006 and 2008: "The company will revisit their previous successful collections like LEGO BATMAN ™ ... Given the fan enthusiasm for previous LEGO BATMAN collections, we couldn't be more thrilled to continue the build-and-play adventures ..."

In short, these two press releases give us sufficient details, it suffices to read and translate correctly what is mentioned therein. Everything else is pure speculation and should be seen as such.

To put in the box contradictory information : The catalog page that I presented to you in this article clearly indicates in French that the launch of the LEGO Superheroes range is planned for MAY 2012, at least in France. The images from the foreign catalog which presented the Ultrabuild range also indicated a launch in MAY 2012.

To put in the box speculation, no evidence is officially available:

The biggest sets in the LEGO DC Universe range will come with a comic inserted in the box. I got this info from one of my sources, and it is confirmed today by another source on Eurobricks.

 The two official LEGO releases: 

The LEGO Group to create LEGO® DC universe SUPER HEROES (20 / 07 / 2011)

Marvel Entertainment and the LEGO Group announce strategic relationship in construction toy category (21 / 07 / 2011)

Echoing the version offered these days by TrueDimensions and partly composed of Bionicle pieces, Omar Ovalle offers its version System of this Droid Destroyer. Obviously, the overall shape suffers from the use of classic parts and this Destroyer Droid gets a little clumsy. Omar Ovalle has retained a certain modularity with the ability to partially withdraw into himself.

I am not really convinced by this version which remains very scholarly and which does not pay homage to the real Droideka, but it will at least have the merit of showing that we can recreate this machine very simply and using classic parts . We can therefore consider this MOC as strictly respecting the concept System from the LEGO range.

Let's not forget thatOmar Ovalle is above all a designer and that his work is part of a global creative process in the LEGO universe. His work also includes the highlighting of his creations visually with the design of the boxes, some of which are really very successful, and the staging of his achievements by placing them in a fictional context of the Star Wars universe that it describes under each creation. 

You can discover his three series of LEGO-themed creations on these dedicated flickr galleries:

Star Wars Custom Lego Set 1

Star Wars Custom Lego Set 2

Star Wars Custom Lego Set 3

You have to put back this photo on which I just spent long minutes trying to recognize each character and which dates from 2010 in its context: Julian Fong alias levork created all of these minifigs long before LEGO announced the Superheroes range .... 

Aquaman, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Red Arrow, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Flash and many more are gathered here in a family photo that we would love to be able to do soon with the official LEGO minifigs. But let's not dream too much, the Superheroes range is not going to be so exhaustive ....

To learn more about these minifigs and their design, visit levork's flickr gallery, you will learn a lot about these creations that have inspired many fans to in turn create custom versions of the most famous heroes of the DC Comics universe.

Special mention for the version below of SuperGirl, cousin of Superman ...

It is one of the vehicles that gave me back a taste for LEGOs and that made me dive back into this universe that I had put aside for various reasons, with the set 8018 Armored Assault Tank released in 2009. Since then I obviously ruined myself to assemble the Star Wars range and I was therefore able to appreciate the 2000 version with the set 7155 Trade Federation AAT to which was added in 2011 the mini set 30052 AAT.

This machine, a cross between the tank and the hovercraft used by the Trade Federation during the invasion of Naboo has always fascinated me. I recently fell in love with ten copies of the set 30052 on Bricklink without really knowing why. Maybe I dream of having an AAT army and replaying the Battle of Naboo .... And you can get it new in its bag for less than $ 3 which makes it a steal if you like it. tan ....

The original tan-beige color was replaced by a mixture of blue and gray when the Federation of Commerce joined the Confederation of Independent Systems.

This MOC ofDarkness pushes a little further the level of detail largely obscured by LEGO in its versions System of this AAT, and makes this machine a reproduction much more faithful to the original model.

Everything is there: Colors, overall shape, functionalities, respected minifigure scale. I also really like the choice of parts used to respect the characteristic design of this machine without harming the aesthetics.

A beautiful achievement for which you can admire other views and some close-ups of the cockpit on the flickr gallery d'Darkness.

If you have a Mac (iMac, MacBook) and have been waiting ages to be able to play LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, your ordeal has just ended, or almost.

Indeed, the game has just appeared on the Mac App Store with a price of 23.99 € and a download of 6.42 GB.
Unfortunately, it seems that Feral Interactive Ltd, a studio specializing in porting many games to Mac, has not fully optimized this conversion and some complaints are already emerging about the heaviness of the whole and the lag present in the phases. of game.

The fact remains that this game is exceptional, that it will appeal to the little ones who will love lightsaber battles and to the adults who will salivate in front of so many machines in LEGO pieces that we would all like to be able to discover in the form of a good set. real ....

You can buy this game directly online at the Mac App Store or on the site of Feral Interactive for the modest sum of 25 €. Note that a mini site rather well done dedicated to this game has been put together by the publisher.