ogelivation

Sorry for the delay replying - I'm following this topic but not getting email notifications for some reason. Anyway, thanks for the tips, everyone. I'll see if I can find other parts priced reasonably. For some reason when I bought this (as part of a larger order, no big deal) I assumed it was self-powered like the light-up brick in the Ninjago Temple shadow theatre.

I just built this yesterday. Overall I love it, the colour scheme, the build techniques, the new pieces (new to me, anyway) and the details. I know nothing at all about Ninjago and only bought the temple because, well, it's a temple and I don't have any Asian-inspired Lego. So I don't understand or like the modern elements such as the "Cole's Stuff" crate and the tourists but these are easily removed. I do think the bridge is a let down. I would love to have a nicely built footbridge (in any genre) but this one seems like it's pieced together from leftover scraps. It doesn't match the level of detail of the rest of the set. I also find the trees funky (not in a good way). I like the new leaf colours but don't like the tree construction. I'm used to building modulars and this set went together in a really odd way. That is, compared with modulars where you can see what you're doing as you do it, the three buildings of this set started out with several layers of apparently random bricks and tiles. Of course it all comes together in the end, but it's a strange feeling to stick random parts all over the base plate with no idea why you're doing it. The shadow theatre is really cute! I do wish it was easier to access so you can change out the scene, but this isn't a modular where the layers are meant to come apart.

Bought an awesome tray from Ikea. To avoid dropping bits on the floor, I use trays to sort Lego when building a set, or to sort through a box of single-coloured bricks when I'm "just playing", but the only trays I had were multi-coloured. This one is white and HUGE! Perfect.

I bought a "Light Brick 1 x 2 with Single Side Light" (6035) and I have no idea how to use it. What else do I need if I was going to, say, use it as a room light in a Lego house? Thanks.

I'm afraid I buy them NOT for Christmas. Just bought the new Ninjago temple yesterday, which is a line I never thought I'd look twice at.

Yay! Just down the road for me. Although the article doesn't actually say if the place will *sell* Lego?? Or, dare we hope, a pick-a-brick wall?

This is available today for Aussie VIP customers on the Lego S@H site: A$299 (which sounds bad but it's actually US$219 on today's exchange rate). Urghh! I *really* want it but just placed a big order with them last week... *Thinking up excuses to justify it*

These 3 are back in stock at Lego Australia - I bought the Pet Shop a few weeks ago (shipping was delayed though) and today I bought Parisian Restaurant... yay!!!!!!

We have some Homemaker sets I played with in the mid 70s, which are approximately 1/12 doll house scale. Not sure exactly which sets but definitely the kitchen with a very cool sink and stove, and several of the weird jointed people. They must not be popular these days as they're not worth much, but I still like building with them. [Can't post image]

Lego takes up a good proportion of the toy section here in Australia in stores like Kmart and Target, so I imagine it's popular, but we have not one single Lego store in the country. :( It pains me to read that you guys in the US have more than one within driving distance! We have an online store but shipping is $35 unless you spend $200. While it's not too hard to spend $200 on Lego, it does mean longish gaps between my orders so I can hike the shopping cart up to $200 and get the free shipping. I would also love to see an actual real live pick-a-brick wall. They have that service online (the bricks ship from Asia) but the range is limited.

Beautiful! I checked out the close-ups on Flickr - so many great details, even just on the frozen lake. I spy Elsa, Anna & Olaf!

I shop online quite a bit, so now every time a package comes to the door I'm back to shaking it to see if it's my Lego order!

Thanks for the review and for enabling me to finally figure out what that thing in the bedroom was - i.e. the lantern. In retrospect it seems obvious but after building this set I had no clue what it was (a bug catcher!?!). I think the handle is all wrong although I'm not sure what piece could be used there instead.

I'm Sara from Melbourne - I'm an AFOL who joined to enjoy the magnificent MOCs posted here. See, I'm learning the lingo. And I'm totally in awe of the imaginations on display. Every Christmas as a child my siblings and I would shake our wrapped presents under the tree to see if they had that "Lego jangle". Back then (ahem, the 70s) sets were a lot more generic and I don't think I followed a single instruction booklet in my childhood. Pretty much the only thing my sister and I made were little houses complete with furniture, using the (now) vintage 2x3 doors, which is a smaller scale than minifigs (did they even exist then)? We would build anything from mansions to tiny caravans where we squeezed in just enough furniture to be functional. While our brother used the "blocky" 2x2s and 2x4s in primary colours to make his cars and trucks, we were only really interested in the thin white bricks to build walls. My parents still have a drawer-ful of that old Lego (used to be 3 drawers, but it got redistributed among grandkids), which I still play with despite its rather unhygenic state. More recently I've started buying myself new sets and learning how to follow instructions... the first time around. Then I take it apart and build mansions and bedsits again. My daughter at 5 is now old enough to join in. I was pleased to see how well she coped with instructions, then astonished by the little creations she's started to make. She's obsessed with the Lego movie so her sets are all from that theme. I prefer Friends, Elves and the Creator houses because they have the pieces I like for my architecture. Phew. That's me and my lego!

My Pet Shop does have the fences with 4 knobs. I prefer the original ones. I might have to redesign that door decoration anyway. The "skis" fall off very easily. Also the parrot perch, which keeps detaching from the floor. Other than that it was an enjoyable build. I put all the furniture from both buildings into the apartment as I didn't like it half-empty, so I'll need to make new furniture for the apartment over the shop itself. My 5-year-old was intrigued watching me build the PETS sign and the way it came together. It's a unique technique, for me anyway, with my experience in the last couple of years being mostly Lego Movie, Friends and Elves sets but no modular buildings before.