Artanis I

Thanks for mentioning, I keep forgetting to. Big W website is being a dog, too much traffic - just a FYI. Most sets from the sale next week are available to order, many big markdowns are not eg Olivia's House ($78) so you will have to wait for that one and others like it. Most do not have the free postage available, but I ordered some Orc Forges and the (already low) postage charge was discounted away during checkout anyway - so try your luck with that. As a BTW I saw no R2s at Target last night at 8pm, and an empty shelf in the SW Lego section... not that I was going to buy one anyway. All other SW sets were there in abundance (bar exclusives, whenever/wherever they turn up). No LOTR.

For any Australian* (like me) who does not have a Big W nearby (still - after 10+ years of development planning setbacks), the 9476 Orc Forge set is currently available from their website for $64 (RRP $70), the same price it will be at the sale next week. It does not qualify for free postage, however you only have to pay (cheap) postage for 1, if you buy 2+ the charge is the same. That said, when I went through checkout I got a mystery "SHIPPING_DISCOUNT" that removed the postage charge anyway. Unlike S@H, your order is not sent from Denmark but Sydney, so it will arrive a lot quicker. They're also flexible with delivery instructions. So it's cheaper and faster than S@H. The trick is to be incredibly patient, as the site is currently undergoing a lot of traffic. I got timed-out of the checkout process @20 times over 90 minutes and had to login again each time. So relieved when it finally went through! * like Target USA, Big W do not sell overseas unfortunately.

Wow, what a bunch of brainless fools in that comment stream. One set bought by one person has insufficient dye in some of the parts of one colour, and apparently "the quality of the plastic is poor" "Don't buy 9466, all those sets are poor quality" "Don't buy Monster Fighters, all the sets are poor quality" "All Lego released at the moment is poor quality" "I assume the sand green in the castle is identically affected" "All the swamp creatures have off printing" "Lego is no better than M*gabl*ks despite more expensive" etc etc... Claims that quality is going downhill and you never have problems with pieces from 70s are balls. Ever heard of yellowing? Leave any Lego in the sun for 10 minutes and it would go yellow. Doesn't do it these days. Claims the old pieces never break, and old minifigs never have problems are also balls. Torsos and arms used to crack, all the joints would go loose and refuse to hold a pose. Heads would refuse to be removed from helmets and hairpieces. Plates could not be separated, and would crack easily. Clips broke easily. I don't have the Frankestein's monster set, but I have 4 of the others from this line and have noticed NO problems with printing (including the swamp creature), translucency/opacity, colour consistency, brick softness/brittleness, clutch power too much/little, instructions wrong/difficult to read/scrunched... I paid reasonable money for excellent products. If anything, in general Lego is higher quality than it ever has been. Printing of minifigs is amazing, far better than it ever was before. True, every now and then something not-so-good creeps in, (eg pink Kingdoms knights, problems with early CMFs, ripped instructions, off-printing, incorrect gold bars, inconsistent colour: brown had a real issue for a little while) but TLG ALWAYS provides excellent customer service and fixes the problems. So to sum up, don't hold off buying anything because of this. In the unlikely event of you receiving something you deem as not-good-enough, contact TLG's customer service and they fix it for free. What do you have to lose? There you go, it's not even that bad.

Damn you lightningtiger, you always beat me to the punch, I had one more post to read and no one had mentioned the Myer catalogue yet... Additional to other stuff already mentioned: K Mart catalogue includes SW board game Battle Of Hoth at 40% off. Also, a bunch of other sets are 20-25% off including Jabba's Palace, new planet sets, Desert Skiff (SW), LOTR, Friends etc. edit WHOA! Minitaurus at K Mart for $10, RRP $23

What if "trader" means "tradesman" ie builder etc? Just an idea. The list we have is translated to English from Czech, but probably originally from Danish so it could be anything?

Has anyone seen the Bespin + Cloud Car + Lobot SW planet set (series 2) in stock anywhere? I have seen the other two (Yavin 4 & Endor) at a few places. Just wondering if it is slightly delayed or just really popular. Series 1 & 2 are currently $14.75 at K Mart btw, if my memory serves me correctly.

The SW head looks great for the Undead Wizard! Is the torso from Vikings?

I received a request for the game code from the Werewolf set instructions. Top one is from that set, bottom one is from Vampyre Castle.

Uruk-Hai Army & Attack On Weathertop are better than the Aussie price by about US$10! The rest is much the same, so don't despair. It isn't actually, B&N are selling at or under retail price, everyone on BL is selling higher.

It's difficult to tell with all the mirrors, but it looks like 11 Rohirrim on horses, 7 on the 2 wall sections, 4 on the ground, + Haldir, 8 Uruk Hai & a ballista, with reinforcements on the way. They'd better get there fast, or it'll be too late. So far my Rohan army is 5, and Uruk Hai army is 14...

Oh, man. That one isn't in the castle set...

But I'm slightly impressed by the Grimlock & Rodimus Prime at the top... is that Hot Rod on the left too? Optimus Prime's legs don't look like the original version. I had Ultra Magnus, Menasor, G2 Megatron and a big bunch of smaller ones. Fairly modest SW Lego collection, but it is still bigger than mine.

Target toy sale catalogue will be revealed on Saturday. Still don't know when the sale starts though... BTW LOTR is available for order on S@H if you hadn't noticed already. Orc Forge is priced at $69.99 (vs US$39.99), still unsure where it will be available here. It's Target in USA, but could be different here.

Great idea. When mine turns up I'll work on something and try to enclose it.

1 KielDaMan 2 Macoco 4 Mutley777 3 Orange FrootLoop DuckHead With Cracked Beak

It is a pricey set, that's the drawback. But I agree with the following comments included below. Although it takes up roughly the same amount of space, it's FAR more solid than the TIE fighter, which is essentially 2 great big plates attached to a cockpit. I took a photo of them next to each other (1: because they're the only non-small SW ships I have & 2: ) to get an idea of the difference in density of parts - maybe it didn't come through well. I would highly recommend the set if you're the type that buys half->most SW sets, but if like me you only pick up SW on the odd occasion wait until it's a bargain.* * my 2 conditions for buying SW are 1: I want all or most of the minifigs, and 2: I can really use the parts or it's just not cost effective to BL the minifigs alone. But on the rare occasion I'll pick something up if I really like the look of the model.

Ordered Mines Of Moria + some little sets yesterday. Shipping confirmation received today, despite my pessimism.

I don't know of any Capt Hooks with beards though. Other than that perhaps...

LOTR has appeared on S@H Australia, prices are: 9469 $22.99 Gandalf 9470 $39.99 Shelob 9471 $59.99 Wall 9472 $89.99 Weathertop 9473 $119.99 Moria 9474 $199.99 Helm's Deep 9476 $69.99 Orc Forge Unfortunately saying "Out of stock, will ship in 30 days" but if you can wait 6 weeks & don't fancy your chances at the upcoming toy sales...

If that was the end of the story, yes. But I got the set from S@H with free shipping (plus the freebies) thanks to May the 4th, and we are also expecting this set to be available to independent toy shops that stock Lego. They would surely sell it at $180. A particular local shop strictly sells all of its Lego at RRP (except CMFs, for $1 less than RRP). Regardless of the cheaper deal, the unwarranted markup of $20 is not cool by Toyworld. Who do they think they are, TRU?

I noticed that there is a topic showing a few photos of all(?) the new sets but most sets have not been fully reviewed yet. I bought and built the 9500 Old Republic set Sith Fury Class Interceptor so if you'd like to see a few more photos of that set have a look here. It's a nice solid ship, I really like the underside of the wings being made studs on bottom. One thing that irritates me about some ships (eg new Mandalorian ship) is when the underside of plates is showing. Regarding the build, it was a bit repetitive making the same wing section 4 times (2 left, 2 right) for both the front and back, but not as annoying as building the same engine rocket heaps of times - as can be the case in other sets. Darth Malgus is a realy nice minifig. The torso has identical printing to the armour piece where it's hidden by it. The sith troopers aren't as good as I first thought they'd be when box art first emerged, but they aren't bad figures at all. The helmets are very reminiscent of someone we know very well... A downside of the set is I couldn't really find a good one-handed grip to pick it up. On the plus side though, all 3 minifigs fit nicely inside the ship. (Darth Malgus seated isn't great for the cape, but the cockpit can close with him standing & holding his lightsabre.) Flick-fires are on the side, fairly low key and no hassles with their use/inclusion. Rear wings fold out like so:

But I don't think Jack McHammer is based on M.C. Hammer somehow... One thing AFOLs learn in time is that system sets are supposed to be playsets... and therefore buildings are never enclosed.

That is disgraceful. S@H has it for $180.

That's where mine came from! I don't think anyone here's reviewed the Zombie sets yet. I was just wondering if mass imports were being interfered with. There's all that merchandising that won't sell after the olympics are over, so maybe they're waiting for all of that to come and go? Who knows. Just a thought that's all.

You win...