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The LEGO Movie Discussion Topic


emily
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With the film premiering in US theaters tonight, I thought it would be a good idea to set up a place for us all to share our reactions and thoughts. That does mean, of course, that this thread is destined to contain SPOILERS, so you may want to stay clear until you've had a chance to see the film. 

 

My theater is showing it at 10:00 tonight. Not sure why/how they are doing it 2 hours before its release date, but I did a random search and found another theater across the country that is also showing it at 10. So I guess they know what they are doing.

 

I hope you all enjoy watching the film as much as I do (or more, in the case I hate it or something)! I'm looking forward to discussing it.

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Wow wow wow. That was all kinds of awesome and I don't even know how to begin to respond. I think I'll write up something big a little later to fully articulate things.

 

My only complaint, and it is an incredibly petty one, I assure you, is that we didn't get much more of Johnny Thunder that hadn't already been seen in the previews. He's in the foreground of a shot where it shows The Dog being blown up (or something like that), I think diving or falling toward the camera and pulling out what looked like a whip. That was it as far as I could see. He's probably in the background a couple of other times, too, but I was holding out for the impossible that was a brief speaking role for him.

 

That's all for now. Long live Vitruvius the ghost. OOOoooOOOooo.

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Generally, I hate it when reviews are entirely positive, stating all the good facts of the movie and nothing else, the bias irritates me.



Now I know WHY those people write those reviews. :P

This movie was the single best animated movie I have ever seen. Put it down to bias, nostalgia, or whatever you want, but it was amazing, and you should see it even if you absolutely hate it.

Firstly, the animation. Oh gosh, I was giggling with delight at multiple scenes in the movie just BECAUSE of the special effects. Explosions, water towers tipping over and flooding, the OCEAN(Oh my G O S H the ocean, it was PERFECT). Not to mention the characters. Either moving in hilariously slow-mo hair flip sequences (WyldStyle) to moving ridiculously fast in a Sonic-speed plethora of destruction(Angry Uni-kitty), the characters animate in a way which only the richest brickfilmer could afford to create. Every single characters had defects, whether it was Benny's helmet, WyldStyle's hair dents, or President Business' face. Still on the subject of character animation, the facial expressions. Wonderfully done, every character's gurning looked perfectly in place, a hilarious example is when Metalbeard angrily spits in Emmet's face, upon which his face suddenly gains little 'spit' droplets.
And that's just the beginning. The special effects also include, but are not limited to, microscale overviews of the worlds for comedic effect, letters in the sky, glorious modelling which will be dutiful recreated by AFOLs when the movie goes to DVD(or for the richer ones, before then), lazors, and everything in between.

Now that I'm done with that, let's get to characters(as a whole, not just their animation).
First off, cameos. DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO BE SURPRISED.
I am also skipping the more prominent ones(aka Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Superman).
1. Gandalf- Speaking role. Small humorous dialogue with Dumbledore. Appears in a few fleeing scenes when the Dog is breaking apart.
2. Dumbledore- Speaking role. Small humorous dialogue with Gandalf.
3. Shaquille O'Neal- Speaking role. Small humorous scene where he constructs a catapult with some other master builders to launch his basketball into a police dropship. Let's just say it doesn't end well. I was expecting something along the lines of a Chaos Dunk from Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden but meh, it was funnier the other way.
4. Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and Lando- Speaking roles. Small humorous scene where Batman leaves with them to go party.
5. Red and White Classic Space guys- They appear in the Dog and once where Benny's Spaceship Spaceship SPACESHIP! goes flying through the 'realms' towards Bricksburg.
6. Johnny Thunder- TWICE. UNGH. Once in the Dog(as identified in the trailers) and once running away from Cloud Cuckoo land, he's running and a boulder of something or other(I believe it was cloud_ comes rolling down the slope after him before a quick scene cut to other parts of the master builders. Essentially, they stuck an Indiana Jones reference in there, except with Johnny Thunder. Unless you count Scorpion Palace.
7. Others - Those were generally the cameos I caught, the others were probably in the dog... or elsewhere. This was a FAST paced movie, you'd have to watch it frame-by-frame to catch everything.
NON-CAMEOS
Emmet- Perfect. Perfect perfect perfect. Emmet is the nobody of Bricksburg, in a world where everyone goes through the exact same routine. This makes for a bittersweet police interrogation scene and a rather dejected Emmet towards the end of the movie.
Also, his obsession with the double-decker couch is hilarious.

Bad Cop- PERFECT TOO. His bad side is hilarious, kicking chairs everywhere, angry, irritated, all business. His good side, well, I don't want to spoil all of that in case you were reading this before the movie. Go watch it. It'll explain it better than I can.
Wyldstyle- I think I'm spelling that wrong. About what you'd expect. The bit where you find out she changes her name is rather funny, I think I heard Vivitrus say "NoHappiness" somewhere in there, but she really is the standard animated movie love interest, although her relationship with Batman is hilarious.
Batman- This was done even MORE perfectly then the aforementioned characters, Will Arnett is perfect. From his theme song(touched on later) to his hilarious wisecracks, Batman is, in my opinion, the FUNNIEST character in the film.
Vivitrus- A beautiful performance by Morgan Freeman, his blindness is hilarious(to the point where I was surprised they made so much humor out of it). His eyes are truly the window to his soul, and he has a surprise martial arts section towards the very end of the movie. Also, he likes being a canoe. Emmet's mind in particular.
Uni-Kitty- Wasn't expecting much from this character, but she honestly made me laugh with her attempts to stay positive and her final 'freak-out' transformation at the end, reminds me of the targeting midair spin-dash thing from the 3D Sonic games(sorry, not an expert on those). Her homeland being destroyed is rather touching, and reminds me of that dejected moment you get when your enormous LEGO space base is knocked over by your little brother with Superman.
Benny- YES YES YES SO MUCH YES. First off, he wants to build a spaceship through the entire film, but everyone keeps getting mad at him(leading him to whack his fist angrily against his partially-built spaceship and making it fall apart). Also, his inability to work with any sort of technology but '80s leads to some humorous scenes, and honestly, his facial expressions were the best part about him.
Metalbeard- His backstory was hilarious, but honestly he wasn't that great of a character in my opinion. Not because of what he did, but because of how much the film seemed divided among all the others. It seemed that he didn't get enough time to be what a giant pirate robot should be. Also there's a few bits of crude humor associated with him, those robots of Business' are WEIRD.
President Business- Perfect character as well. Tough, fierce, funny. Has the world under his control. Also makes for an awesome third-act whateveritscalled which all the other reviewers rave about. Live action parallel to every AFOL ever. Awesomesauce.

Music- PERFECT. From the catchy 'Everything is Awesome' which sounds corny and is, but won't get out of your head, to the saloon piano version of it(which I MUST LEARN TO PLAY) to Batman's theme, ('DARKNESS, NO PARENTS, RICH!(that helps)), the music makes it a joy to watch the credits to the end.

Story- Overall, the very beginning seems short and hurried, especially the backstory of the Piece of Resistance, the Kragle, and Vivitrus, but its to make room for the touching live-action bit. Believe me, its worth it. In between and afterwards is a high-speed awesome ride, filled with action and wisecracks.

Music/Sound Effects
Music- Awesome. Also, Batman's theme is perfect.
Sound Effects- Hilarious. A lot of them sound like a kid making fighting noises, which is exactly what they should be. The MicroManagers in particular, even though that's more of a voice, sound like a little kid talking in an accented robot voice. BTW, the micromanagers in this movie are superb, and remind me of Chicken Little's alien ship thingys. Also, Metalbeard's ship in the microscale scenes, the sound it makes is a little kid goiing 'bbbbbbbbbb' like an engine. :P

Other: REFERENCES AND FAN CREATIONS
References- Bionicle and another half-dozen themes receive a mention when Wyldstyle is listing 'realms which are unimportant'. Star Wars receives a mention with the Falcon, which appears and loses a hyperdrive to Batman. Classic Space appears, in all its glory with a Benny SSS fly-by shot where you can see the Red and White CSmen master builders building a weird steampunk-space rover thingy. You can also see a building in the background, which I believe is 483 Alpha-1 Rocket Base, though I could be wrong. I'm sure there were TONS of other awesome theme references I missed, and there's a nice collection in the end trailer.
FAN CREATIONS: Oh my gosh. I only saw two which I recognized, but there were so many which I didn't I feel ashamed to call myself a TFOL. First off, we have Gorgy the Cyclops, a brickfilm made by Brotherhood Workshop for the Rebrick brickfilm competition a year or two ago, which featured briefly(I believe) on a screen in the very final scene). Secondly, an MOC(one of tons I didn't notice I believe) which technically wasn't in the film, but on a promotional cardboard thing in the movie theater, the moon from Le Voyage dans la Lune built by V&A Steamworks. I suppose it could have been their own version, but it looked very similar.

Overall: AWESOME. This was like, the perfect LEGO movie. And they are making a sequel. Oh gosh. This is gonna be GOOD. I doubt they can top this.

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Well Aokpisz covered it pretty well, there isn't much I can add. But my own thoughts.

was NOT expecting the Live-Action scene with Will Ferrel towards the end. Turns out he IS president business, and the whole LEGO world is his elaborate diorama that he does not want his son messing up, while all his son wants to do is play with it and create stories with the characters. I actually found Mr. Business to be the most relatable character in the film and I left the theatre feeling guilty for having only official sets on display on my shelves. :C

The names of the relics were creative. I don't remember them all but one that stands out id the "Blade of Exact-Zero" (an Xact-O Knife).

I did not see hide nor hair of Johnny Thunder. Apparently he had two scenes but I missed them both they were so fleeting.

SHAQ out of no where, that was awesome though. Also MILHOUSE IS A MASTER BUILDER.

I repeat.

MILHOUSE. IS. A. MASTER. BUILDER.

Yeah. Simpsons sets have been out for, what, a month?

Also, there was a short scene where Wyldstyle/Lucy was talking about all the different realms, they put up a map onscreen for just a brief second. I wasn't able to read all of the names of the realms but I caught one: DINO ISLAND. It was in the north-west corner. DINO ISLAND AAAAAH I SO HAPPY.

Man my head is still swimming I'm sure I have more to say but I just can't pull it out right now.

Also DOUBLE DECKER COUCH SAVES THE DAY YEEEEEEEEEES.

EDIT: one more thing, but there were no Rock Raiders. Not that I expected any, but i thought I should mention that.

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All right. I've been to see the movie twice now. Let's see what I can pull from my thoughts to share on this digital page.

 

 

I seriously could not stop laughing the full way through - both times. This film just drops the gags relentlessly, and it doesn't use their profusity as an excuse to slack on their quality. Everything is so incredibly self-aware. On the surface, the story is very by-the-book, but it's great that the writers were able to see that and had fun acknowledging it through plentiful lampshading. The characters are poked at, too. No way Wildstyle is gonna get off free with a name like that - not in this movie. "Are you a DJ?"

 

I want to touch on the animation, but I don't even know where to begin. We've already been over how great it is that the minifigures don't have parts that bend impossibly, but there is so much more going on. They refused to let the restriction to only real LEGO elements be a shackle. Instead, they took that restriction and used it to make the visual style of the film incredibly distinctive and a full embodiment of real LEGO bricks. Even some of the trickier limitations of LEGO are acknowledged and brought in as part of the fun - anybody want a pizza, turkey leg, croissant, or giant sausage? Because that's pretty much all you can get to eat here. Reminds me of something else from LEGO... ("If you think the family's ready for a plate of good spaghetti; Sorry if it makes you cry, but all we got is pizza pie!")

 

Even going into the film, my biggest fear was that the story would follow the generic "hero finds relic and must go on quest to use it to save world from evil villain" formula. It did, and I couldn't have been more happy. Aside from the constant lampshading of it that I mentioned earlier, the plot is appropriated expertly to deliver the film's message. And goodness, what a message! It's really layered and forces you to think about it to really spell it out for yourself - excellent.

 

First, we have the big "believe in yourself, you are the best you and that's amazing" moral that is rather common in films. That's the core of it, and it's a great and continually relevant moral to use. Then it's tied in to building with LEGO bricks. Emmet is able to find confidence in his unique building style, one that happens to involve following the instructions a lot of the time. He's able to push his boundaries and learn from the Master Builders (look at that Constructo-Mech), but they learn just as much from him about the value of guidelines when working as a team. You would expect the film to unconditionally advocate the Master Builder way - but it didn't, opting instead for a much more nuanced perspective.

 

Then we have President Business. Wildstyle comes out and says it early on - the guy was scared by the unbridled creativity around him. He absolutely overreacted - rebuilding the world to suit himself and maintaining his own order - but the basis of his actions was something that I think many of us relate to. He felt powerless and out of control. What Emmet showed him was that he didn't have to be a bad guy, forcing everyone to do what he said, in order to be confident in himself, and control his own life. He just needed to believe that he was a person that was worth just as much as any other old 'fig. And people do appreciate him - just look at all the stuff they built inspired by his own creations!

 

And then we get a whole 'nother layer thrown on top of all that with Finn the LEGO Maniac and the Man Upstairs (aka Will Ferrell the AFOL). Will, who is obviously made to parallel President Business, shares his control issues. But he isn't motivated by fear, and his feeling of ownership of the LEGO world is entirely justified. His problem comes down to an inability to realize that having his son add his own touches to the city is not necessarily bad - he is building off his dad's world, and it is an incredible opportunity for them to pool their creativity together, have fun, and bond (all of this from LEGO toys! Buy some now!).

 

So the message, in a nutshell, is: be confident in yourself, value others and their contributions. Then there's the whole subtle commentary on consumerism buuuut I don't know that I'm quite ready to tackle that.

 

 

TL;DR I am this kid right now

 

JOHNNY THUNDER UPDATE: Spotted him a few more times on my second viewing. He's sneaking in front of a billboard in Bricksburg and gets a spotlight pointed at him in the flashback to the Master Builder hunt. Right after that, when the Master Builders are fleeing through the portal, he's the last one in. His hat falls off and he grabs it before the door closes. So basically he was just used for Indiana Jones parodies (counting the golf ball thing Aokpisz elaborated on).

 

Which is ironic because Indiana Jones was based on him, am I right? Right?

 

EDIT:

Also, there was a short scene where Wyldstyle/Lucy was talking about all the different realms, they put up a map onscreen for just a brief second. I wasn't able to read all of the names of the realms but I caught one: DINO ISLAND. It was in the north-west corner. DINO ISLAND AAAAAH I SO HAPPY.

Excellent! I tried to catch as many names as I could in my second viewing but I just ran into Middle Zealand and some others that were prominent in the film. I did see 'Pharaoh's Quest' the first time, but Dino Island! Glad that was in there.

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Oh my goodness gracious. I got back from "a day on the town" 30 minutes ago, the main purpose being for me and rio to go see The LEGO Movie. In the words of Emmet, "I am so pumped out!" I seriously do not know where to begin here. Everyone so far has said what I would, and I don't want to spoil the many remaining jokes. I will say the Star Wars gag with the hyper drive and Vitruvius the ghost, those had the

entire audience laughing.

 

When "Everything is AWESOME!!!" first played, all the kids (boys and girls ages ~5 - 10, there were a few older ones there. Rio and I were possibly the oldest non-parents there :P), started singing the song.

 

Also MILHOUSE IS A MASTER BUILDER. I repeat. MILHOUSE. IS. A. MASTER. BUILDER.

 

Yea...... Wut?

 

Also, there was a short scene where Wyldstyle/Lucy was talking about all the different realms, they put up a map onscreen for just a brief second. I wasn't able to read all of the names of the realms but I caught one: DINO ISLAND. It was in the north-west corner. DINO ISLAND AAAAAH I SO HAPPY.

 

I caught Bionicle (the first year. McStudz will like that) and Fabuland. In fact, Fabuland was on the screen when Lucy said "and the ones to avoid". Again, the entire audience laughed at that, but I think was more "oh it's what was on the screen when she said it" rather than that and considering what Fabuland was. :P

 

The adults that were present (and obviously there were many) were also truly LOLing. The lady one seat apart from rio was probably the loudest one there.

 

"Babe, if this relationship is going to work, you have to let me go party with strangers when I feel like it." OUCH MY SIDE

 

"I'm just a blind old man who can't see." Yup. That's Morgan undermining every "voice of authority" he has ever done. Amazing. Also in that scene, when he said "Meet me upstarts in 30 seconds", the text at the bottom of the title card said "Copyright Octan Title Card Group".

 

Speaking of title cards, I did not expect those. I think they worked. And Octan cows? xD

 

EDIT: Who sat through the credits? We stayed until the very end. We were the last ones to leave. It seems the animations at the end were real brick. That was a nice touch.

 

I see a Blu-ray disc of The LEGO Movie in my future... and I did not make that up. ooooOOOOooooo :P

 

 

That does mean, of course, that this thread is destined to contain SPOILERS, so you may want to stay clear until you've had a chance to see the film.

 

I'll say it contains spoilers. There's a lot of

BBCode on this page.

;P

 

EDIT: You can tell I'm pumped when my spelling fails as much as it did in this post. :P

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Gotta say, I really loved the movie. I was a bit skeptical on what they'd do at first, but I really, really enjoyed it.

 

I really enjoyed how the explained the existence of various themes as separate realms, all making up the same universe. It kinda conforms with the headcanon I've always had with LEGO. Explains how the can crossover in the games, ha. The live action bit was handeled pretty well too. Had a nice message behind it.



Only thing I was a bit disappointed in was the lack of cameos by older themes. The were there, and there are probably a lot we won't notice until we can view some scenes frame-by-frame, but most of the general population seemed to be made up of minifigures made specifically for the movie, when there was an opportunity to represent some more themes. Still loved it though. :P

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EDIT: Who sat through the credits? We stayed until the very end. We were the last ones to leave. It seems the animations at the end were real brick. That was a nice touch.

I did not. Was there anything of note? I didn't want to force my mom to stay (as I sort of forced her to come with me), but if it was just me I would have. I might see it again during the week in 3D, just to get the PJ Emmet figure, but I probably won't. So go ahead and tell me.

I caught Bionicle (the first year. McStudz will like that) and Fabuland. In fact, Fabuland was on the screen when Lucy said "and the ones to avoid". Again, the entire audience laughed at that, but I think was more "oh it's what was on the screen when she said it" rather than that and considering what Fabuland was.

I saw the Bionicle one too :D It was actually the original catalog image, which I thought was cool. But that was when they were flipping through individual images for each realm, I was referring to the big map with all the realms on it at once. I want a shot of that map, to see how the worlds fit together and if there are any listed that weren't mentioned out loud (like DINO ISLAND).

Also I keep thinking of things I want to add but keep forgetting them :/

Oh here's one: It was brief, but in the live-action segment Will Ferrell mentioned moving all of Finn's stuff to a corner, and we see that he is referring to CLOUD COOKOO LAND. When CCL was destroyed it was actually Finn's Dad moving all of Finn's creations out of the way to make more room for his diorama!

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Oh, and one more thing.

 

I liked how they used Octan as Lord Business' company. Kinda makes all those Octan signs you see in in all of your old sets, and in Racers, a bit ominous, now that you know it's secretly an evil megacorporation, at least temporarily.

:P

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Oh, and another thing. From what rio and I could see, there was

no Chima present in the movie! Hip hip Hooray!!!! :D

 

This should have named the kid in the end Zack. I believe that requires no more explanation. :P

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ProfessorBrickkeeper

was referring to the big map with all the realms on it at once. I want a shot of that map, to see how the worlds fit together and if there are any listed that weren't mentioned out loud (like DINO ISLAND).

gallery_5463_291_122666.jpg

There you go. :)

So the known realms are:

Bricksburg

Pirate's Cove

The Old West

The Forest of Obsolete Products

Clown Town

Technic Mecha Mine?

Viking's Landing

OCTAN HQ

Dino Island

Middle Zealand

Pharaoh's Quest

Cape Space

Vladek's Realm (On second look, that may say Vladek's Koala)

Cloud Cuckoo Land

(Bionicle and Fabuland also fit in there somewhere.)

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The Forest of Obsolete Products
Vladek's Realm

Vladek! Man, he was about the last minifig I would have expected to get a shout-out. Would have made more sense if it had been called Ankoria, but you take what you can get.

 

I wonder if the Forest of Obsolete Products is where they keep Galidor and Scala. :P

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There you go.

Ah, thanks for that :D

Let's see... Hm. The placement of Bricksburg next to the Wild West checks out, as does the Wild West bordering Middle Zealand. It would seem that Emmet and Co. doubled back on themselves, going south then back north again...

Cape Space is probably where the Space themes go, I would assume.

The Technic area is hard to make out... Mecha Mine sounds like it could be right but it looks like it starts with 'A's. To me it reads "Apcha Algol" which makes no sense... Eh.

EDIT: Lighting changed here, it's definitely "Mecha Mine"

So next to MZ we have "Vladek's Realm"... I had to look that guy up but it would seem that this is the 'evil' castle area while MZ is the 'good' side. Maybe the Fright Knights live there?

Pirate's Cove and Viking's landing seems pretty self-explanatory, but there is an unlabeled stretch of land between them.

DINO ISLAND yes. Pharaoh's Quest is probably an ancient-Egypt inspired Adventures area, which fits with being so close to DNIO ISLAND.

And lastly, the forest of obsolete products... probably have fabuland and all the other "places to avoid" in there. Or maybe it's a realm of themes that didn't last? Would be sad seeing Rcok Raiders in there :C

Also, to the west we have "Atlantis". Not much to say about that, just saying it's there.

EDIT: messed up tags, fixed.

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I internally groaned when they used that generic punching sound effect, but then they made a joke of it and it turned out great.

 

I can't tell if some of this stuff is scripted or if it was animated off of recordings of real things the actors said. It seems surprisingly authentic in a lot of ways, but then they all use their proper character voices without falling out of them. The Vitruvius "You are the Special" one took one of his lines straight from the film.

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ProfessorBrickkeeper

The LEGO Movie Experience just opened at LEGOLAND California. Someone took pictures. It looks like it's everything that was used for the Man Upstairs' LEGO basement. Pretty neat!

I guess LEGO and Warner Bros. unloaded most of their extra stuff from the movie onto LEGOLAND California. If I recall, all or the actual models which were used in the clever stop motion sequence accompanying the credits were sent to the LEGOLAND California Resort and set up for the premiere of the movie. I think there are some pictures if it floating around online, if I can find them again, I'll edit this post and link them.

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ProfessorBrickkeeper

Sorry, to double post about week apart but I thought some of you guys may be interested in an article which came out today. http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-lego-movie/ covers the process of creating the stop-motion credits sequence at the end of the move and was something that I read and watched and found to be quite interesting. It also has some media in the article including pre-production renders, storyboards, design screenshots, and the final sequence. It's quite neat, overall.

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I have a lot to say about the movie, most of which was already touched on. So I won't say much.

 

BUT,

 

We've all seen Benny's Spaceship, right? I looked up the "LL-929" seen on Benny's ship, and look what I found:  

00-SF-Infinitum.preview.jpg

 

Look familiar?

 

MrNFlvH.jpg

 

Now, who built the white MOC? Why none other than Mark "I-Killed-Teal" Strafford. So three guesses as to who built the official set here. And the MOC was built almost five years ago.

 

Wanna see more of the MOC? HERE YOU GO.

 

I just thought this was very interesting.

 

[iNB4 jamesster says something along the lines of "this was common knowledge".]

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lol username

It's a reference to classic space set/spaceship numbering, McStudz, in which the spaceship names were LL-[set number], usually 92X. LL presumably stands for LEGOLAND. Specifically, it's the direct successor to the LL-928, easily one of the most (if not the most) iconic classic space sets.

Edit - Another fun fact, see what you notice about these:

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=3754pb01

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=3754p01

(If you don't get it yet, the classic space theme was launched in Christmas of 1978, and really went into full swing in 1979, which is when these pieces were included in sets...)

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