SilentMode

More boyfriends? I haven't seen any (I'm going to leave Olivia's daddy out of this)!

Thank you guys for the comments!

Emma's Bath House by the guy whose alias is in the watermark Number of parts: 245 As part of her beauty ritual, Emma has had a Japanese-style bath house installed, and she's so excited about it she invited Andrea over to check it out. Little did she know that Sarah was tagging along as well... Sarah: "OMG Emma, you didn't tell me you were having this done!" Emma: "I wanted to surprise everybody! Isn't it so cool?" Sarah: "It totally is!" Andrea's phone alarm goes off Andrea: "I gotta go, I have, like, hours of singing practice!" One thing leads to another and... Emma: "I can't believe how good this water feels!" Sarah: "I can imagine something feeling even better, like..." screeech Emma: "Who's there?!" Sarah screams EvilMode: "Oh *$&%!" Emma: "EVILMODE!!! You ba More photos in my Flickr set.

Very nice work on this build; lots of detail inside, and my favourite part the glass ceiling.

My money's on the Eve project, but we'll see what happens.

As much as I try to remind people, unfortunately it is about the representation of the idea, much like in competitions or anything else. Perhaps unless it's a licence project, it doesn't matter how good the idea is or how well thought out it's been; for most of those potential supporters it's going to be about what they can see visually.

Andrea's Bunny House Set 3938 Release Year: 2012 # of parts: 62 # of minifigures: 1 RRP: GBP 9.99 / USD 9.99 Links: LEGO S@H Brickset Promotional image I know what I thought of when I first heard this set was called Andrea's Bunny House... but no, it's actually a bunny house. I'm not female, but I've been eager for the second wave of the Friends theme to see what else LEGO have got. The first wave proved to be very popular with the target audience, and from the models shown at this year's The LEGO Show in Manchester it looks like the game has been upped. There seems to be a summer vacation theme going on with the second wave, and right now I'm going to take a look at one of the less expensive sets in the range. The Box The box for Andrea's Bunny House is roughly the same size as the similarly-priced sets in the first wave, and as things are taken outside this time the colours are a lot brighter and cheerful. You'll be pleased to know that Argos' BFF promotion is still on, with either this or this as a claimable gift. Back of the box Today's featured main character, if you haven't guessed, is Andrea. While the other Friends have gone on different adventures, it looks like Andrea chose (or was perhaps forced) to spend time in the rabbit hutch. Sides of the box As usual the sides of the box are flat, but have the curved appearance of larger sets. Following my eager question at this year's AFOLcon: there was no scientific or research-based reason for the curved boxes, it was just something LEGO decided on to make the sets stand out. The usual warning on the side of the box in several different languages; no indication of where the parts were made, however. Note the spelling error on Argos' white label. The Contents We welcome back the familiar configuration of two unnumbered bags, a large plate and the instructions folded in half. There wasn't such a great need for padding this time, and on seeing the contents for the first time I thought just one bag would have been necessary: maybe a smaller bag inside a large bag for the small parts. Girly colours You'll be pleased to know that Andrea's Bunny House is home to quite a few exclusive and elusive parts. This set offers just a small selection of plates and tiles in Bright Pink. The 1 x 4 tiles are exclusive to the Friends theme, appearing in four sets so far. While the 1 x 6 plates in Magenta aren't exclusive parts, their only other appearance was in a 2005 Belville Snow Queen set. Bright Light Orange Bright Light Orange is one of my favourite colours (re)introduced by the Friends theme. Again the 2 x 2 plates were last seen in a 2005 Belville set, while all the other pieces are exclusive to this set. Greenery This set is the by far the cheapest you'll find that Green 8 x 8 plate in, while the 2 x 6 plates in Lime appear in three Friends sets and one Ninjago set. Along with the 1 x 4 Bright Pink tiles, this set shares the Lime 2 x 6s with Heartlake Vet and Heartlake Dog Show. White parts Most of the parts in this set are white, and here we have a nice assortment of "architectural" pieces. As the 1 x 4 picket fences have started appearing in PAB walls, they're not as useful to find in a set as before. Utensils and such There are some other small pieces in the set, but these are the more interesting ones. That red bucket, which will probably be one of many hoarding pieces, only appears in three Friends sets right now. Stars of the show The Bright Light Orange parts can't be missed, while everything else would be very useful for building a house or something. The Magenta plates didn't make the cut only because there still aren't that many parts in the colour yet, but they are ones to look out for. Andrea and her pet, Jazz Please welcome back Andrea, who is sporting the same torso as in Andrea's Stage and the legs from City Park Café. It would have been good to have her in a slightly different outfit, at least one that isn't easily replicated, but then we can't have everything. It seems that Andrea has gotten into pet rearing as well, as she's looking after Daisy the bunny... except it isn't Daisy, despite looking exactly the same. From the official description she's named the bunny Jazz - perhaps a nod to Jazz Jackrabbit, or just the kind of music she likes. R.I.P. Gewinne!th We were very sad to learn that Gewinne!th is no longer with us; she was snuffed out by these two no-names. Let's have a moment of silence for Gewinne!th and that chilling grin of doom. But on a more cheerful note The inside front cover of the instructions shows the Friends doing what they do best: Andrea finally getting her shot on Figures Got Talent; Mia surrounded by stray animals; Stephanie successfully hot-wiring a plane; Emma learning how to ride; Olivia with crabs. The Build As hard as it is to believe with the small number of parts, Andrea's Bunny House is divided into three builds. Garden #1 This first build, consisting of literally five parts, is of what LEGO calls a "garden". At this point it's a little disappointing, but more realistic I guess, that the red bucket doesn't have a matching handle - or a silver handle might have been better. But there's a useful technique with the Trans Light Blue round plate: no more imaginary water. A Trans Light Blue round tile (which will be in the upcoming Winter Village Cottage, so I hear) would be even more impressive, but try it with a Trans Clear or White version. Trans Yellow if you're feeling cheeky. Garden #2 This equally small garden uses seven parts. Much like Stephanie's Pet Patrol there's a carrot sticking straight up out of the ground... it's no ordinary carrot! The rest of the pieces will go towards making... The Bunny House This is a very simple build, using familiar techniques but with a couple of tricks for effect. Starting with the foundation, the Bright Light Orange flag forms a ramp (not a door as I'd previously thought). The multi-coloured walls of the house are slowly added, along with an easy-access gate on the left. The arch bricks form windows on the sides and back, giving the house a slight Spanish/Mediterranean look. A simple rodent water bottle is constructed from three pieces, before being added to the house along with a broom. The broom takes some effort to attach in the direction shown in the instructions. Two hinge plates are placed at the back, ready for... ...the roof, which - thanks to the bamboo parts - forms a gentle slope upwards. The Completed Model This mimics what's in the instructions, but of course you can set it up however you want. It looks just as small as the similarly-priced sets in the first wave, but it looks pretty good. Leftovers Including the extra flower piece there are six spare parts, all with varying degrees of usefulness. They're okay, I guess. The end of the instructions points you to the LEGO Friends web site, after which follows a small checklist of the new sets. The Verdict It's probably more sensible to compare Andrea's Bunny House to Stephanie's Pet Patrol: both at the same price point and both featuring the same bunny mould, even if they are named differently. Both from a parts and build perspective, even with the tiny "gardens", the Bunny House gives Pet Patrol the kind of scrubbing Stephanie was subjected to in a previous review. (In plain English: I would recommend this set over Stephanie's Pet Patrol.) In comparison to Andrea's Stage, which is set in a completely different environment, I think the Bunny House is a more complete and aesthetically pleasing set, although both have exclusive parts. Although this set has less parts than both Stephanie's Pet Patrol and Andrea's Stage, I think this set has more of the useful parts for MOCs. On its own this set is a must buy for parts, discounted or not, as well as for Andrea. If you switched some of the white parts used for the bunny house to Tan, it might make a good addition to Olivia's House if you'd made the investment. Again it would have been great to have Andrea in a slightly different outfit, and perhaps a different coloured bunny to distinguish it from Daisy (in Stephanie's Pet Patrol). Design: 9/10 If Paradisa had a bunny house this would be it. An effective design with a small part count. Build: 9/10 A five-minute build, if that. Perhaps one small garden instead of two tiny ones would have sufficed. Parts: 9/10 A must-buy for Bright Light Orange, the 8x8 Green plate, Magenta plates and whatever else takes your fancy. Playability: 6/10 Fairly playable on its own, with just Andrea and the bunny, but more suited as part of a larger setup. Price: 7/10 Much less painful to buy than Stephanie's Pet Patrol for a similar kind of set, and worth it if you're after the four BFF stickers. Based on these scores I'm giving this set a straight 8, which means it gets one of these: Stay tuned for more second wave Friends reviews. Andrea's dark secret # Hmm hmm hmmm hmmm... # Daisy: Aaaaannnndreaaaaaa... I thought you looooooooved me..... Andrea: AAAAAAAAAARGH!

I guess Street Fighter would most likely be classed as "modern combat", but I do agree that there have been some loose interpretations. I do think it was an awesome idea for a minifigure pack, and I would have bought one.

New Friends sets are listed on LEGO S@H, will be off to grab some if they're in the stores. No reviews from me this time, though.

I'm having a poll to see which "band" will be included with the studio: voting takes place here. Also, is there a dedicated place on here to post new CUUSOO projects?

My weblog post about S8, will be primarily after Cheerleaders, cue personal attacks and mobbing. More seriously: this series isn't on the same level as S4 and S7, but I don't think it's that bad. There's something for everybody, and plenty of scope for trading figures, which is cool.

If you haven't heard, Westfield London's (Shepherds Bush) LEGO store has S4 and S5 collectible minifigures in one of those yellow boxes, for £1.39 each. I'm going back later today for their PAB wall, which has 1x8 and I think 1x2 bricks in White.

I managed to get 16 of them in a large cup, all squeezed together.

Speaking of advocating, at long last I decided to put this up and see how well it does. Would appreciate the support. CATAWOL Records Studio One (Music Recording Studio)

25?! Sadly I can't find any of them, username searches doesn't appear to work. Seriously, I've felt the disillusionment and frustration from the near beginning when Minecr...aft took over. I'll spare the tirade for now, but especially since it looks like only four winning products will be produced in a year, a lot of people with really great ideas are going to be left disappointed - seeing that it really doesn't seem to be about LEGO sets any more but riding on popular licenses.

I picked up a bunch of those white picket(?) fences at Stratford earlier this evening, along with some Green 6x8 plates and 1x2 bricks in Bright Pink and Medium Blue.

I decided to grab some Minotauruses, just in case.

Not only are there no eyebrows on the box art (see spacing between eyebrows and eyes), but they have different mouths. Thanks very much for the feedback!

This is SilentMode, aka Mr Hand Over Them Gorillas, and here's another review. Minifigure Presentation Boxes Set 850423 Release year: 2012 # of parts: 89 # of figures: 1 RRP: GBP 9.99 / USD 9.99 Links: LEGO S@H Brickset Promotional image I bought this set as part of my spending spree during today's "AFOL Shopping Day" (or rather hour) at the LEGO store in Stratford. Having seen pictures of it beforehand on the web, I knew that the only way I'd purchase one was if I'd gotten a discount. The purpose of this review is to determine whether or not it was a wise choice, as - from the outset - many don't think so. It appears that the first wave of Friends sets has started a new pricing trend for The LEGO Group: just charge the same number of pounds and Euros as the price in the States. Right now this works out at around a 40% increase before charges. The Box Back of the box As shown also on the front of the box, this set's major selling point is the inclusion of a minifigure: a throwback to Classic Space. The box itself is very similar to the one for the Minifigure Wedding Favour Set, with a similar design and thick card compared to the usual packaging. Sides of the box One of the long sides has the barcode/price on it, and not much else. The other long side has a 1:1 scale picture of the minifigure (just in case you missed it at the front!), along with a warning for all you China-phobes. Very interesting is that while the manufacturing takes place in Denmark, distribution is also handled by the States. The short sides have the usual warning about choking on small parts, as well as a plain background (apart from the logo and set number). It makes sense, because everything we have to know about this set is shown on the front and back anyway. The Contents A little surprise awaits in the form of a strip of card, the same thickness as the box, but other than that here's what's inside: Just like the Minifigure Wedding Favour Set, there are essentially no frills. Apart from one of the display boxes that has been supplied built, all the brand new parts are stuffed into one bag (though not as tightly packed as the aforementioned set!). The instructions, folded into sixths, is as crisp as we'd expect. But take a look at the packaging around the figure and the assembled box... The first part is this, which forms the transparent window shown at the front of the box, and houses both the box and the figure. Take off the first part, and there's a second part that sits between the sides of the box and the base. We'll have to carefully remove the sides from the base to remove the plastic from the box. The plastic houses the main selling point of this set, the minifigure. The way it's been packaged, you'd almost think this is an incredibly valuable figure, wouldn't you? Well the figure, as mentioned before, is a tribute to one of the most (if not the most) iconic minifigures that ever existed, the Classic Space figure. As it's a new set, the classic helmet has obviously been replaced with a modern version, but the torso is virtually the same design as the original - although the Space logo is slightly larger (compare with this torso). With five colours to choose from (the others being black, red, yellow and white), for whatever reason LEGO decided on blue - and that's the only one available. One major thing I noticed on looking at the figure - and it may not be noticeable from the photo - is that the legs and torso are of a different shade than the helmet, oxygen tanks and hands. Yes folks, it looks like the curse of Chinese plastic. To add to the woes, I've just noticed a very noticeable join at the front bottom of the helmet. In terms of quality, that's no good. But there's more... The included figure uses LEGO's modern basic head with the eyebrows. However, the box clearly shows a version of the classic head (with pupils) with no eyebrows, which I think looks far better on the figure, even without considering that it's a tribute to the classic. As probably the only Jubilee-related pun I'll use today: I am not amused. As I've just finished shaking my head in disapproval, let's move on to the parts selection. Bearing in mind that one of the display boxes comes pre-assembled (which will be unassembled in order to remove the packaged figure), the set contains a total of 12 of these 1x4x6 door frames, each with a "glass" piece. The remaining glass pieces are packaged in a small plastic bag to protect against scratches, which was a wise move on LEGO's part. In terms of plates: we have these beautifully squeaky clean offerings, most of which form the bases. The 1-wide plates will probably be the most useful out of these for other exploits. But in my opinion, the most valuable of the parts in this set are the tiles (although the jumper plates are classified as modified plates). Who couldn't use more 1x2 and 1x4 White tiles? The 16 White 2x2 jumper plates - for me - are the highlight of this set. While it appears in 10 other official sets, this set has by far the highest quantity (twice as many as in this year's City Alarm game). By the way, I'm pretty sure all of these parts (apart from the "glass" parts) are White, unless it's some new variant I haven't heard of. If they're not, it may be time for me to retire. The instructions are incredibly brief, and like other sets with the same packaging there are no advertisements for other LEGO products. The Build The instructions show you how to build one of the boxes, as demonstrated by the pre-built one that comes with the set. It really is very simple: just make sure you don't lose any of those pieces. Congratulations, you've built your very own display box, just like the professionals. Now do it two more times. As is shown in all three cases, you have three walls with windows surrounding the base, and plenty of space at the front to place and show off your minifigures. The jumper plates on top of the box can be used to attach other boxes to form any kind of display you can think of. The only issue here is that, without a baseplate or some spare plates, it's not possible to attach these horizontally. It really is that simple! Collect and build even more sets to build even bigger displays! Although a tiny bit fiddly, the jumper plates are fairly simple to fix on the underside of another box, and do a good job at holding the boxes in place, while making them easy to remove. It's a technique I'd used in my custom version of LEGO's calendar set. Demonstration I've included this picture to demonstrate how one can show off their minifigures, whether custom or purist. As you can see there is ample room for your Friends minidoll collection, even ones with larger-than-usual hairpieces. The Verdict To be honest, I'm not really sure why this set exists. There are already minifigure storage and display products (with and without LEGO branding) available, and most people who want a brick-built solution would invariably build their own, either of their own design or by following someone else's instructions. I'm not sure what to make of the design of these minifigure display boxes. On the one hand, the set includes some very useful parts in White, as well as those elusive panes of glass which I so crave for my other projects. It's also quite impressive that there isn't a single brick used in the set. But as grateful as I am that these parts all come together in this one set, I don't think I would have used them to build a displaying solution for minifigures. I wouldn't have used these parts to build a display box, and put together they don't look that great in the photos or up close and personal. By far the biggest crime is with the included figure. Now I wasn't expecting an actual classic figure from the 1980s in this set (those will set you back around GBP 13.56 on average on BrickLink!), and I suppose the issue of Chinese plastic - in terms of discolouration and quality - is something that has been around for a while now, particularly with the collectible minifigures. The issue is with the difference between the minifigure head shown on the box and the actual item - which sounds like I'm making a big deal over nothing, but if not addressed could lead to other issues in the future with chopping and changing. One of the set's other strengths lie in a price comparison for all the parts with BrickLink and LEGO S@H's Pick-A-Brick service. Take it for what it's worth. Design: 4/10 Although they have the benefit of being able to hold minidolls, I just don't like the overall design of the display boxes. I suppose one's opinion of the design depends on their requirements for displaying/storing figures, but one major thing pointed out elsewhere was that there's not much dust protection. Build: 7/10 A simple build with only the smaller parts to look out for when constructing the boxes, as all the parts (apart from the glass) are White. The minifigure comes pre-assembled, so nothing to worry about there. Parts: 7/10 There are a number of very useful parts in this set, although I get the impression someone really badly wanted to use White versions of the collectible minifigure display tiles. The quality of the included figure (and the incorrect head!) lets things down a lot. By the way: there are no spares. Playability: 1/10 Although not really intended for playability, the stacking options for these boxes are fairly limited on their own. Price: 8/10 It works out cheaper to buy this set than the same parts separately from BrickLink or LEGO S@H, but would you use these parts to build a minifigure display solution? Not me. Based on these scores I'd give this set a 5/10 - maybe worth picking up if it's discounted or for parts, but for a brick-built solution I would go for something else. Perhaps something like this: Thanks for watching.

I've updated the parts list for the Westfield London store. Finally we are starting to see some decent parts come in, including some windscreens I was unable to list.

I will be at Stratford tomorrow, aiming to get the CUUSOO Parts Pack x 2 and whatever's on the PAB wall.

Argos is very, very, very, VERY annoying when it comes to trying to find where certain items are in stock, especially discontinued sets, as they only search by postcode.

There's a Flickr group that features MOCs involving microfigures, as it turns out.. but thank you!

I have two projects going (<100 supporters), but I've really seriously been thinking of putting this up: What do you folks think? Would you support it if I did?