robuko

Maybe this is old news already but, the new Millennium Falcon, Republic Frigate, Dathomir Speeder, Ewok Attack, podracer and Sith Infiltrator are on public display in Tokyo Station clickbrick and Yurakucho bic camera. I have some pretty terrible pictures in my flickr stream. Notable points - lots of stickers on the Dathomir speeder and Anakin`s podracer. Horrific shutlines on the Falcon, a huge huge disappointment to me as that was the set I thought I would definitely get. The Republic Frigate looks really good and the wolfpack clones are lovely. Captain Panaka is great, Watto and Sebulba have awesome printing, Sebulba`s podracer is held together with a lot of transparent (7 long?)technic beams. Great minifigures but I am not convinced by the sets, and I am gutted about the Falcon. I actually thought it must have been built wrong when I first saw it, but the second one was the same. Robuko

DLuders, thankyou very much for the link, Mega does not really have good distribution here so I did not know about the pro builder sets. The Endeavour Shuttle looks interesting. Some of the Halo sets are good too. I wonder why this doesn't have the Gundam sets like Zaku, I would like to see the instructions for these. Just noticed the Mega Cars 2 range. Anyone done a head-to-head vs Duplo? Rob

Why was the UFO commander looking for Schwartz? What really happened to Captain Dash? Where are Lance and Vance? Rob

+1 WhiteFang Cheers!

15 Rise of the Dread Colossus 1 point 23 Serpent Ruins 1 point 28 Excavation 1 point 34 Temple of Anubis 2 points 38 Colosseum 1 point 20 walking Pyramid 1 point good luck all!

I thought Lego was supposed to be about creativity. It looks like the design brief for this was, "Copy the MB set. Make sure the figures can stand in the wheel when it's rolling." Are the terms of the licenses really so tight that they have to remake the exact same set? I am a big fan of conchman. Hope we get the rest of the crew too!

Seems to be 266 pieces> Previous advent calendars have contained 8-10 minifigures. I would love 10 new minifigs but I doubt that. I wonder if this will be OT, PT, CW or a mix? My gut feel is it will be a mix, because that is cheaper. If so, one clone and one droid are a given, probably 1 stormie too, leaving room for 5-7 name characters. Any guesses?

I was lucky enough to go to BrickAdventure today. I have posted a bunch of photos in my flickr stream Excellent MOCs all over the place, too many to mention. Lovely Japanese scenes, looks like Kamakura and Kyoto were the inspiration.

Have you seen Peter C's RX-78? A truly exceptional microscale Gundam build. Does yours have the same joint system for shoulders and hips, do you think? Looks pretty fragile, but with amazing degrees of poseability for a micro. I am not really so familiar with Gundam wing, but I would guess that bigger feet might help with stability, and I would recommend more armour on the legs. Great work so far!

Andybear, this is fantastic. What a great train, and I like how you managed to get the new Samurai yukata in there. If it was a real Japanese cityscape, there would be another 10 grillion people on the platform and they would have demolished the temples to build the train tracks I have just moved to Hong Kong, and I am so coming to Brickadventure tomorrow to see this. Maybe see you there!

The shot with the Geonosian emerging from the catacombs is really good. A slightly creeped out 7. A lot of good men didn't make it back from that one.

Launched in HK with ToysRUs this week at HK$21.9 each. I got 13 different figures by feeling them at the counter (actually, I took a few bags back to the lego shelves and did my feeling there!). Only missing cyborg, chief and hula dancer. They are pretty much all better than expected, apart from the sumo wrestler. I got a red pocket voucher for 10% off my next lego purchase over HK$500, so might be back soon for SW and Ninjago stuff which was launched last week too. When I examined the packs, the dots were all accurate and I could use them to tell which was which before opening. Series 2 still in stock too.

Oky, this is just brilliant. The Harry and Snape photo with the darth helmet is one of the best vigs I have ever seen. It perfectly sums up both series. Of course, for this scene, Lily is Padme, but we have not (yet...) had a Lily figure. Awesome.

+1 What is not awesome about the creative, artistic, mathematical, and scientific aspects of this hobby? And now it's getting quite social too. Of course, it is much tougher when you are younger and peer pressure is strong, and different towns/countries/societies have different levels of peer pressure. My guess is the big cities will be more tolerant and welcoming than small towns in the USA, Sirens-of-Titan. I think you have to judge for yourself if you want to keep it secret. You will experience more admiration and more approbation for being open, it's a personal choice how you will respond to that. My colleagues at work know I like lego, outer space and dinosaurs, just like any normal 5 year old boy, and on balance I think they have a lot of respect for that. Though, this is Japan and so geekiness/connoisseurship is well valued. If you choose to keep it secret at home, at least you will always have the fellowship of EB and similar forums, which is a big advantage we 30somethings never had. Play well

Could be... although, there is a properly cleaned up shadow of it underneath. It is a bit hard to tell because of where the glare is. Maybe it's a claw coming out of the mothership. I think my initial rifle excitement was misplaced. Yes, Toyfair will be especially awesome this year!

In this pic the guy being facehugged has a big gun I don't recall seeing before EDIT - might be wrong here, it could be that the facehugger is drilling him open and the drill looks like a gun?

Ninjago is released in Japan, including a magnet set with blue and black ninjas in their ordinary clothes and Knuckal. The pack says the lego elements are glued together. Anyone own this? If so, are the figures also glued to the magnets? I am just not buying magnets any more I guess. I will probably wait for wave 2 of Ninjago, only the white dragonrider ninja is a must have for me so far.

I can see pink on the back of all the alien heads now in the hi-res pics, apart from the headcrab. Hope it is brains! clearest in this shot Oh sweet, the aliens have rogue factions attacking under a false flag. Can anyone see if the second alien in the Earth HQ (in the saucer) is a pirate cyborg too? Maybe these are the Mars Mission payback freedom fighters. Are they allied to the other aliens, or chaotic neutrals? I think I see 3 new human guns, a double barrelled black pistol in UFO abduction, a different design (?)double-barrelled pistol in grey in the HQ and Alien Striker, and a monster new rifle in the mothership.

I agree with Fred67 that manufactured and traded goods prices have generally been in deflation, and this is very clear in toys. Lego is unusual because its prices have not come down rather, than because they have gone up, in real terms. I can't agree economically that it is insanely overpriced. Clearly demand matches and in many cases outstrips supply, it is hard to see how this could happen if it were overpriced. The financial near-death experience of 2003 really focused their minds at TLC and I think they simply understand their custmers and business modle better than they used to. Big Cam, we do know what it costs lego to manufacture, its annual reports are published on the website. Right now, it is certainly one of the most profitable and highest return on capital companies I have ever seen. Profit is a good thing, in that it gives an incentive to reinvest in the product. Current profitability looks far too high, but if they reinvested in pricing to win market share, would it work? I don't think so, lego is in super-hot demand at current prices. Here in Japan, lego is priced at around 100% premium to the USA. As a consumer I am scandalised. But as a business decision, Japan has tiny houses, lots of money, and few kids, so it's probably exactly the right strategy.

What sort of police state are they "protecting" out there? How ridiculous to have red lights as the guide, anyone who is speeding will be well over the speed of light to start with so this is totally ineffective. I am with Vexorian on this. Even more egregious is Raid VPR. What is Rench doing wrong? Bearing arms? the description is: Equipped with twin flick-launching freeze-ray blasters, the Space Police's Raid VPR super-pursuit spacecraft is ready to chase down any criminal in Galaxy City. But when Rench comes to town, the Space Police Commando will need all of his hi-tech vehicle's speed and maneuverability to bring an end to the space-crook's futuristic crime spree! On what grounds? The judging happened before the conviction in this case, it is absolutely clear species profiling. Back on Alien conquest, sweet hi-res pics! I am liking this more and more. The exposed brain on the alien commander is a briliant touch (if the designer is reading, please can we have it in a bubble helmet?), so is the abduction function - I guess a magnet in legs. Awesome. I really hope these guys are payback for Mars Mission. Those trans blue-clear discs on the mothership are massive! On the close up of the EDF truck HQ, you can see that the bug-eye alien soldier has one tentacle and one normal hand, and a great printed head

That big ugly green guy reminds me of Vogons! constructor fleet approaching I already have my series 1 Marvin, now how to make Zaphod?

Fantastic theme, love the vibe. Not sure about the Earthling blue tones, though blue and yellow together is of course The command centre is a great set. I presume the aliens are the invaders here, which makes a nice change; hope they are the good guys like the human invaders somehow were in Power Miners, Rock Raiders, Mars Mission, Atlantis I agree with others here, the UFOs are more exciting than the human stuff. But there are only so many ways to make a flying saucer, as we found out last time. Which ones I buy will be all about the minifigs

Happy Christmas everyone!

Press the reply button under the quote you would like to respond to, rather than at the bottom of the page. I need a bigger bigger budget for 2011. SW, PoTC, dragon ninjas, new alien theme, Diagon Alley, Atlantis temple, flying mummies, ISS.... I am amazed at anyone having a strong view on the new figures from these pics. Anyway, with the Quinlan Vos and shapeshifter controversies still fresh, figs could all change. I am loving the new Falcon, finally feel a bit less bad about not buying the UCS one.

I just picked up from legokei, a couple of Ninjago adverts showing the play features. The skull tank biker weirdness is even weirder than I thought skull tank dojo this guy is from the ATV, I haven't seen him before. nice. All prices now up on Amazon.jp