I agree. If they are serious

I agree. If they are serious then they have to be hurting to pull something like this. Who could this possibly be directed/marketed at seriously?

Unless they are going to start swiping ideas from LEGO and competing against them, I don't see a big market here at all. The only people I can think of who would be interested in this are the hard core people Microsoft already have locked in (as evident by the "Offer good only to the first 5,000 residents of the U.S. or Canada that attend at least two live MSDN Webcasts or complete two MSDN Virtual Labs, or one of each, between March 15, 2007, and April 15, 2007"). They certainly won't attract Linux or Mac guys and even the people on the edge of switching are not going to suddenly think "well now that they have action heroes I can collect I am going to stay!"

The only way I could see this working is if it is a complete joke that will die out by the weeks end (or April 15th...whatever). I am hoping that's the case because then I can just write this off as something silly some guy did on his free time. That sits better with me and I am OK with that versus thinking Microsoft spent tons of $$$ 'developing' this. That thought bothers me.

I expect to see a lot of these on ebay for 1$ in May...