Nagyzee

Not interested in this line at all. Maybe a few body parts / accessories could be useful, but that's all. However it's great that Lego has gone back to the 3-4-5 distribution. Here's hoping it will stay like this for the normal collectible minifigures, too. 2-4-6 was awful.

Now worries. No, the rest of the summer sets are not available, just these 3 retailer exclusives. A shop started selling them early by accident, I guess.

I did. If something in my reply indicates that I overlooked something and you'd like to point that out then please be less cryptic.

Have you also reported it to Walmart? The set was stolen from them, not eBay. When Shop@Home is used by these stolen CC dropshippers TLG quite often asks the recipient to return the goods to them. When you unknowingly buy stolen products the original owner can still demand it sent back. It's a bit worrying how you just seem to be shrugging this off like it's no big deal and are already happily building your stolen set. On a more general note it's a bit perplexing for me how naive buyers can be.* I'm shocked how literate, educated people can't resist the temptation to buy 500 dollar UCS Millenium Falcons and stuff like that. Have you given it a thought before buying where the seller could have sourced the set so cheap? Small time eBay seller John Doe can't buy at wholesale prices just as you can't either. And even if he somehow indeed could buy a few at rock bottom prices why would he sell them so cheaply, leaving money on the table? When he is selling at 100 USD, he will end up with less than 90 USD after fees. *Another sentiment is that "I'll just go in recklessly, eBay, PayPal or my CC company will have my back anyhow if the 99.99% chance that it is a scam materializes. Hey, no risk for me, why not take that 0.01% chance that it's legit?" To me this one is even more annoying than those who are simply naive and just can't help jumping on a great deal. --- Btw I'm a Nigerian prince and I need 1000 USD to access my heritage of 150 million dollars. Just send me 1000 USD with Western Union please and we will both be filthy rich. (/jk)

Sets of similar size and price (3061, 3184, 3187, 41006, 41007, 41035, 41056) all have two minifigs. The only set of roughly the same size with only 1 figure is 3186. I'd say it's very far from the norm to have only one figure in a 30 USD / 30 EUR set.

A full set of pictures of 41059 Jungle Tree House: http://oi58.tinypic.com/15zkp05.jpg http://oi58.tinypic.com/oi68lt.jpg http://oi61.tinypic.com/24pciv6.jpg http://oi57.tinypic.com/2s1u15k.jpg http://oi61.tinypic.com/2up7kg6.jpg http://oi59.tinypic.com/98x7h1.jpg http://oi60.tinypic.com/6qcohv.jpg

First off I'm not expecting to sell it for that much. That's why I accept offers. Secondly over here it will retail for about 1.5x more than 60 USD. (And I bought it at retail price.) Factoring in eBay's fees and free shipping which is damn expensive for a parcel I'd have to sell it for more than 150 USD just to break even. If you want it at US RRP (which is the lowest RRP in the world) then you'll have to wait a few more months I'm afraid. Additional pictures below. 70147: http://oi62.tinypic.com/2llmwl1.jpg http://oi57.tinypic.com/4rupsn.jpg http://oi60.tinypic.com/2dbry9l.jpg http://oi59.tinypic.com/245iys8.jpg http://oi61.tinypic.com/2i1mmat.jpg http://oi60.tinypic.com/ra5jrp.jpg http://oi61.tinypic.com/11jlouu.jpg http://oi60.tinypic.com/2gyaxbq.jpg http://oi58.tinypic.com/13zbfqf.jpg I'll upload pictures of 70135 in a few minutes. Images of 70135: http://oi58.tinypic.com/161wzzl.jpg http://oi60.tinypic.com/2rfzm3c.jpg http://oi57.tinypic.com/2gxlpcj.jpg http://oi57.tinypic.com/20hkb6g.jpg http://oi62.tinypic.com/2ivblnd.jpg http://oi61.tinypic.com/2upu2c9.jpg http://oi58.tinypic.com/20iaw3n.jpg Edit: Retail price of 70135 will probably be 40 EUR (and thus 35-40 USD in the US). The set weighs about 630 grams. 70147 weighs 1140 grams.

It will retail for about 65-70 EUR. I assume that translates to 60-70 USD. I can't help with part count as it's not mentioned on the European boxes.

Here you go: http://oi58.tinypic.com/15zkp05.jpg

UK seems to have gotten a quite fair price. It's about 50 EUR (20%) cheaper there than in continental Europe.

Most likely their licensing deal with Disney didn't allow them to put out western themed sets while the LR theme was running. It's quite logical.

This is a bit of a disappointment. The concept is nice but not everyone has access to a 3D printer. The texture of the 3D printed parts on the example pictures is also somewhat distracting. Looks a bit odd among Lego pieces. But the main problem is that so far this concept doesn't offer a solution for the biggest flaw of LEGO's own track design: the switches.

Agreed. The awful geometry of the switches is the biggest issue. It doesn't allow for compact and nice station design. I don't even understand why they went this way instead of the normal solution virtually all model rail track systems have. From the curves, I'd opt for the standard plus one. That is probably the most useful addition to the standard curve as it would allow for building nicer parallel tracks.

Krazy Glue (it's in the Lord Business' Lair set), chewing gum (Superman is shown stuck into it in one of the trailers), Band-Aid (also seen in one of the trailers / promo videos), and probably there are more.

Track gauge is the same, structure gauge not necessarily. UK locomotives are usually noticeably less tall for example than continental ones. Here's a picture depicting a Hungarian diesel shunter together with an Enligh mainline electric loco: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=302296&nseq=27

I really don't understand the design of the station. Why is the roof going over the track and leaving most of the platform uncovered? The supports on the two ends of the station building are an even greater mystery. What do they represent / model? What is their function and what do they add to the design?

They usually don't show the limited edition / store exclusive sets at toy fairs. Why promote it to retailers / vendors if they are not allowed to order it?

12 GBP as UK RRP usually means 15 EUR as European RRP and 13-15 USD as US RRP.

Hmm, isn't the beacon even further up the hills than the Citadel?

Mirkwood spiders was released in 2012 December, before the 2nd wave of LOTR. The quest of the fellowship did indeed continue in 2013. But apparently it won't in 2014. There's only a fool's hope left for a 3rd LOTR wave now. :(

No, the LOTR game wasn't released for other reasons. TLG has shut down its Games department completely. The LOTR, Batman and Chima games were also axed but as they were already in production, they saw a limited release. From the Batman and LOTR games only the Western European version did ever come out. They didn't do the North American or the Eastern European localization.

Hmm, and will the Arctic theme feature a polar bear in at least one of the sets? As they have an updated bear mold it would be weird to not capitalize on it. But the leaked text descriptions make no mentions of bears...

I quoted you the German prices. I don't know what you exactly meant with the Denmark sentence but Denmark's prices are even higher for example. The Hungarian RRP is usually the same or a bit above the German ones because of the higher VAT (the difference is usually 0-10%). As for the prices of the webshop, I'm 99% sure that they are not jacked up. On the contrary, a slight discount compared to RRP is more likely. (Hungarian webshops almost always sell a bit below RRP.) My guesstimates: 79015: European RRP: 13-14 EUR / US RRP: 12 USD 79017: 35-40 EUR / 30 USD 79018: 90-(100) EUR / 80-90-(100) USD (Usually the bigger the set, the proportionally smaller the mark-up compared to 1 USD = 1 EUR is.)

In the case of licensed themes the conversion between European and US prices is usually not 1 EUR = 1 USD but even worse. A 30 USD set might very well be 40 EUR in Europe. Mirkwood Elf Army has an RRP of 30 USD and 40 EUR respectively. Lake Town Chase is 50 USD / 60 EUR. (The most outrageous is the Stagecoach Escape from Lone Ranger: 30 USD / 50 EUR. The latter is more than double of the US price.)

It seems there will be at least 4 sets. Notice that 79016 is missing on the above list. Since they moved to 5 digits there should be no reason for holes like that so most likely it indicates a limited edition / store exclusive set. October as the release date is a bit late for LOTR but a bit to soon for the last wave of Hobbit. I really hope it turns out to be LOTR though. Hobbit sets are usually in the winter catalogue and not the summer one. Going by the price points a big Helm's Deep-like Minas Tirith playset can be ruled out. Maybe it will feature as a wall element / gate with siege weapons attacking it.