the Toy 'Nthusiast

NECA issues WARNING regarding Gears of War Lancer Replica.

NecaOnline reports a faulty design with their GOW Lancer Replica. The Lancer is the iconic weapon from the XBOX mega-hit Gears of War. It combines a machine gun and a chainsaw, which is quite an ingenious move considering the history of first-person-shooters (i.e. why didn't anyone think of that before?)

During production of the Lancer, some of the plastic enclosures had a piece reversed, which had no effect on batteries made in Asia. The Asian batteries have longer contact points and made the connection each time. On some batteries made in the US and Europe the reversed piece does not allow for the batteries to make the connection. We have already developed a solution (a small thin metal plate, with instruction sheet) and we will gladly mail the metal plate to anyone with issues. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please email me your name and mailing address to melaniec@necaonline.com if you are encountering this problem.

Now Neca doesn't explicitly state what will happen with your Lancer while leaving these batteries in place without the modification but they do state "DO NOT USE" in the title of the article.

LEGO Trademark Rejected by EU Court.

In what may be an interesting side-note to my last post, ToyNews Online recently reported that LEGO's trademark has been rejected by the EU Court of First Instance. Back in 1999 LEGO had registered their bricks for trademark but that has since been successfully challenged by Canadian building-block company Mega Brands. The recent ruling stated that LEGO's brick design was a functional, technical shape that was not any one company's property.

The ruling rejected Lego's claims that its bricks have special characteristics that set them apart and ruled that Lego's two rows of studs on top of the brick performed a utilitarian function and were not for identification purposes in the trademark sense.

Lego had submitted details of consumer surveys showing most people identify the 2 x 4 red brick as the company's brand and that perception had to be taken into consideration when the judges made their ruling.

So what does this mean for LEGO? From my point of view, I doubt that it will have any immediate impact on LEGO's market. LEGO's success should depend on its ability in making unique and creative designs, rather than relying on monopolizing the shape of its bricks. And remember it's just a trademark for the brick (like the one in the picture), not the other components or the mini-figs (which I believe are more iconic).

In the future it's possible that we may see cheaper LEGO brick knockoffs, ones that may be compatible with the original LEGO bricks. I don't see a real problem with that. I think there could be a valuable sub-market of LEGO-compatible parts manufactured by other companies. That could be a huge benefit to the many custom builders in need of large supplies of parts for a reasonable cost. Plus competition will keep the LEGO market from becoming stagnant (or it may already be stagnant for some LEGO fans).

I believe Monopolies breed complacency, lack of creativity, and overpricing. Where would Coke be without Pepsi, or Microsoft without Apple? I think losing this trademark case may encourage LEGO to evolve even further, and as a LEGO fan that's a good thing.

Interview with Peter Reid: LEGO Lover, LEGO Master

I've been a LEGO lover for many years and a big fan of custom LEGO builders who have the ability to create what truly are amazing works of art. The amount of detail and scale that's put into these pieces is really something else. I recently stumbled upon the work of one such gifted LEGO builder, Peter Reid.

His work has been featured on popular websites such as BoingBoing and The Brothers Brick. When I was browsing through his Neo-Classic Space and Robot flckr galleries, it definitely stirred a lot of memories of the old sci-fi manga and cartoons I loved growing up. Being so enthused about his work I contacted him and had the pleasure of asking Peter a few questions about his craft.

How long have you been building custom LEGO pieces? When did you start taking it as seriously as you do now?

I’ve been building my own stuff since I was a kid. I’ve always done my own thing with LEGO. I guess I threw myself into the LEGO scene wholeheartedly around 2002, when I discovered other LEGO fans online. But I have been taking it more seriously recently – my Neo-Classic Space project is very exciting to me, and I want to make sure every model is as good as possible. LEGO is my main creative outlet, and I devote a lot of time, thought and money into it.

Review of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" TV Series

I've been a Star Wars fan all my life. A big one at that. As a result I've had my heart broken many times over the years. First were the "Special Edition" versions of the original trilogy. The alterations of the Han Solo/Greedo Cantina scene, the new Jabba the Hutt palace music number which seemed like it came out of a muppets movie, not to mention the deletion of the Ewok song. It started to make me question what Lucas was trying to do. Then The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith were released and my Star Wars universe was completely shattered. Storm Troopers started out as clones of Boba Fett (well Jango Fett but it's the same thing)? Jar Jar Binks was responsible for the start of the Clone Wars? Darth Vader built Threepio? What the...? Well what's done is done. 

So this post is really about the recent direction Star Wars has taken, that of a TV serial. So far the series has had some success on the Cartoon Network. The premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Friday Oct 3rd was the most watched premiere in Cartoon Network's history and was also the #1 program that night during the 9-10pm time slot. A decent start. However the real question is, does this series have legs?

The Easy-Bake Oven, mmmmm. What a great toy.

Yes, I'm a dude. So what? I happen to think the easy-bake oven is one of the coolest toys ever created. Why? What sane kid wouldn't want to be able to create delicious (well maybe not all of the time) sugar-loaded treats, on-demand, 24/7. Now I never had one. But I always wish I did, or had a sister who might have had one. I had a few female cousins growing up who had one and hey, I was always IN when they asked if I wanted to help bake some sugary delights. The EASY-BAKE is actually over 40 years old now, this toy has serious longevity. Now I have a little daughter, she's still a little too young for it. But rest assured, one day I'll be getting her one.