fyrmedhatt

This looks like the work of an artist to me, especially due to the weird message. Lego would never do a stunt like this, the littering problem aside, why would they be printing weird messages on the torsos of these guys. Now the real question is whether an AFOL is the one behind these "minifigures", as there are quite a few of us that are also artists.

I'm starting to believe this rumor as well, the announcement of Lego Batman along with a future Hobbit game seems curious, especially since the studio for the Hobbit game is not announced yet. Why would they withhold the name of the studio unless necessary, as it would be if it is a Lego Hobbit game, where announcing the game would be announcing the Lego product line. I'm envisioning an October launch, pretty much replacing the Harry Potter sets, which would then have been released two years earlier. The LotR movies were extremely popular, and sold lots of merchandise to "geeky" adults and teens, as well as kids. It's pretty much the same market as they've tried to reach with the PotC, late Harry Potter and of course Star Wars, and they have been successful. The Hobbit will probably be more child friendly as the source material is so as well, but somewhat adult subject matter does not stop kids from enjoying it. I was totally into Jurassic Park and Star Wars as a kid, and in many ways I don't see them as much more juvenile than LotR. The excitement of the media and older siblings will have even young kids getting excited for this product line, so it's understandable that Lego is willing to try it.

MMV has everything: great pieces, great build, great minifigs and great value. I almost think this set has the best value of any set currently available, and you'll truly regret not getting. The joust could easily be available until 2015, so you'll have plenty of time to pick it up in the future.

I don't know about New Zealand copyright laws, but in many places around the world you'd be in the right to make personal copies, that is the case in Norway at least. I hardly think Lego would ever care given they only produce a limited number of stickers for support, so when a set is out of production, there is probably no other way to get replacements than homemade copies unless you pay the Bricklink premium. I will do the same with my stickers, I have not been applying stickers to my sets for the longest time, but finally I've started to buy extra sticker sheets. They add up in expenses rather quickly though, so I think my plan from now will be to keep one mint sticker sheet, apply one, and have a digital copy for the future so I don't have to apply rare sticker sheets.

+1 to Corweena. Great transaction with safeley shipped items and awesome communication!

I've had the same thing happen with things shipped from amazon, I ordered the fire brigade and the imperial flagship, then when it arrived I saw the box was badly damaged. Upon open the box, I noticed the shipping box had torn, as had the two boxes for the sets, the fire brigade polybags were pouring out of the box, and the Imperial Flagship box had been torn completely open, then resealed with clear shipping tape. I might upload some photos of the carnage later. This is partially Amazon's fault, they often do ship their sets in inappropriate boxes that are not sturdy enough to withstand crushing, unlike S@H that often double boxes their shipments, as well as using heavy duty cardboard. Luckily, Amazon customer service is great, and I was able to return the damaged sets and the replacement sets were in great shape. I really hope Amazon will learn and start providing more sturdy packaging for Lego sets, I think that will be a lot cheaper than having to replace damaged sets in the long run. I wonder if Amazon is able to file claims with the shippers, because poor packaging or not, the ultimate responsibility is with the freight companies and their handlers that treat packages like punching bags.

I'd advice everyone in following prices on Amazon right now, while they are not having an official sale, they are matching ToysRUS sale prices, as well as having some other sets on sale, most notably: 7946 King's Castle for $73 7965 Millennium Falcon for $105 3368 Satellite Launch Pad for $49 7915 V-Wing Starfighter 10193 Medieval Market Village $90 10212 Imperial Shuttle $233 7051 Tripod Invader $15 Keep watching, as new sets are discounted all the time. It seems these prices are as good as they are because of Bricktober, so most of these sets have similar prices at TRU, but at TRU you get a free Star Wars Battle Pack with a purchase above $40. Edit: New sale information

Great project, I think it's an admirable goal to take the most classic of all castle sets and restore it back to its former glory, this was the template for all castle sets, so it's easily one of the most important sets in Lego's history. The yellow color might not be as out of place as many seem to think, covering the walls medieval stone masonry with chalk was quite common, and would normally make the buildings white, and I would not be surprised if additives/paint could make the buildings yellow/tan as well. If not maintained, the chalk would peal off, leaving the grey color of stone that we see in most medieval buildings today. A famous monastery on a small island outside my hometown in Norway (Utstein Kloster) was restored from it's grey stone walls to a more authentic white chalk surface finish (Old look and new look). Many other old buildings in Europe that are a little newer than from the medieval still sport a tan/white color, just look at the various royal palaces. I really like that you are using the authentic pieces from the time period, I find that Lego bricks from different time periods has a distinct feel to them, something which I assume can be attributed to modifications in clutch as well as aging. I'll advise you to go look on Bricklink, I know there are sellers there that sell yellow pieces sourced straight from the yellow castle, at a slight premium, but at least you'll know they are the real deal.

Check towards the upper right corner of your screen, you probably have a different country selected and it will show a different flag. It happened to me yesterday when I was getting Dutch prices. it's got a drop-down menu where you can select the US store again.

I like how Lego is paying homage to their origins through the Kingdoms theme as well as various collectible minifigures. Both the Lions and the Dragons are recognizable as the old factions that have appeared several times over the past 25 years, and so with the latest Black Falcon Knight in the Kingdoms Joust. I have no illusions of a true return to the designs and minifigures of the 80's and early 90's, and in all honestly I don't think I'd want to, todays kids have different standards than back then. Those old designs are quite dated in both colors and graphics, compared to the modernized designs seen in Kingdoms using excellent color combinations. I do hope later themes will also include such homages, building on the Black Falcon, the Forestmen and the Wolfpack would work great, as the minifigures and sets will still be modern. Kingdoms does a good job at taking the spirit of the sets of 20 years ago and incorporating it in todays designs, and I have no doubt that helps the appeal for AFOLs, and I hope it also does for todays kids so they can be as sentimental about the Lions and Dragons as we are in 20 years.

I'm over the moon about all these new sets, I'm so impressed with both the sets and especially the minifigures. I'be been pretty clear on buying all the OT sets of the line, but I assumed I would be able to ignore getting the new Jedi Interceptor as it seemed to be another Clone Wars set, but as it seems to be a revenge of the Sith, it'll fit in really nicely with Emperor Palpatine's Shuttle. Along with the City sets, next year seems to be getting expensive for me right off the bat, unlike this year where many of the spring sets were not as interesting.

I'm very interested in some of these sets, I'll send you a PM.

4438 is a really cool set, and might be the only one from the forest police that I would buy, although 4437 looks good too. I'm all about the civilian stuff, I figure if I buy the civilian sets I'll get enough tag-along policemen anyways to populate my city, and it might not have a police station until we see a police station modular in the future, but I'm ok with that. The 4438 will look awesome alongside the 6552 Rocky River Retreat. The rest of the forest police line looks pretty awesomely good though, it's certainly growing on me.

1. I don't really think so, Lego has most of the same products then as now, licensed and classic system sets, technic, a girl theme, Duplo, AFOL sets etc. Lego has more focus on providing a coherent experience these days, the common thread is building, versus 2004's "instant play" that described the whole Jack Stone line, plus most of the system sets back then. 2. Lego sets are NOT simplified, rather the opposite, today many themes provide interesting builds, and there are more and better AFOL sets. Juniorization of pieces is also a lot better today versus back then in my eyes. 3. More sets and themes, at least if you look at what Brickset is telling me with around 500 sets today versus 350 back then. Not surprising considering the financial turmoil the company was going through back then. Also, the time period was characterized by mostly action themes and even the licensed themes during the time had simple builds, look at the Spider Man and NBA themes. Just looking at their sets, the only ones remotely interesting to me are the Star Wars, Harry Potter and Technic sets, and maybe some of the Spider Man sets. Pretty much every other build seems so dull, not to mention half their sets appear to be 4 juniors and racers sets. 4. Sets are infinitely better today, they show better and more interesting builds overall, with great variety of pieces. I have a feeling that this time period for Lego will be considered a second golden time period comparable to the eighties and early nineties. In comparison, 2004 was the low point, with mainly simplified designs. I think you have a point if you mean cool in the trying to appear trendy sense, in 2004 TLC tried to be cool and trendy, as is seen from their set selection, with flashy action packed box art, and the NBA/Xtreme sports sets available at the time. 5.The piece palette today appears better to me with much less juniorization. The only thing that's good about the 2004 pieces is that they included more of the pieces I remember from my childhood, but that's just nostalgia. Sentimentality is funny, and it makes us look at the past with fond memories that overshadow the negative things of the time, I still remember the sets of the mid to late nineties fondly, but looking at it in retrospect I can see the decline in design quality starting. The sets from your childhood will always be very special, but looking at the two years objectively, I think it is a very clear conclusion that Lego today is far better off than it was in 2004.

You are truly one of the more reasonable voices I have heard when it comes to this debate on whether or not Lego should venture out to do rereleases of these sets, I feel there are many complaining about scalpers, failing to take into account the effects of supply and demand on discontinued products, and then there are many who feel lego should never rerelease sets because investors and collectors will lose their investment and get pissed off with Lego. Many of the customers who paid dearly for such sets will not get pissed off, they will be glad to have the opportunity to pick up another copy, or they will be happy other people will be able to enjoy the sets. When it comes to Market Street and Cafe Corner, I am one of them, I have paid WAY above MSRP simply to purchase the set in pieces, but I'll celebrate the day they are rereleased, as I will be able to pick up more of them, and I will be happy for those who will be able to complete their modular streets. Checking on the Millennium Falcon on Bricklink, a total of 70 new and used sets have been sold in the last 6 months, so I hardly think there are going to be that many disgruntled second hand customers. I agree with you completely in your assessment that these sets are not meant to be rare collectibles, but are toys, albeit expensive ones. Lego will probably rerelease or at least release something similar when it makes economic sense, I'm thinking in a timeframe of a few years when there are more potential customers out there. There is money to be made from these sets, and as a whole, I think the lego community will be excited to get their hands on them again.

I really like this, it looks like it fits with the other modulars designwise. I think the ornamentation done on the front of the building is good, it has just enough variation with the different tile and ladder pieces without being busy. I think the front stairs with the columns is a great touch, it looks like a federal buidling/courthouse/bank.

I'm really loving this MOC. It has the perfect mix between the modern dark blue roof and modularity and the classic open backed buildings and vintage pieces used. The asymmetry and attention to details makes it look like it could actually have been released by Lego, heck, if you uploaded this to CUSOO I'd certainly vote for it.

You are in for a fun process, I did the same for my Cafe Corner, and it was a blast! I'm currently finishing up my market Street using the same method. Please be aware that using shop at home replacement parts service for many of the hard to find pieces is possible as they are currently in production. This includes the 1x4 dark blue brick which can be quite expensive and hard to find in large numbers on Bricklink, as well as the dark red slopes which are significantly cheaper bought directly from Lego. The pieces that are by far the most expensive and hard top find right now are the 1x2x3 white panels with hollow studs and without the supports. Lego currently do not have these in stock and they are hard to find on Bricklink in quantities high enough (20), the 5 stud high clear and grey door with right hinge is very expensive, as well as the 1x8 dark blue arch. I personally bought the new type white panels, the don't look that different, but the windows will be slightly smaller. For the Door, the left hinged version can be gotten for cheap and you can barely notice the difference, so I think that's a good idea as well. The most difficult to find and expensive piece is the dark blue arch, I was lucky and found a cheap one for my cafe corner, but this time around I bit the bullet and bought the super expensive ones from Bricklink for my Market street, if you are getting only one, it isn't that bad really.

Staggered releases aren't exactly rare with Lego, especially not in themes which are thought to be big sellers. The same thing has happened for the last few years with Lego Star Wars, where the Star Wars sets are released in continental Europe in May, but do not arrive in North America until August. I think it is due to limited production capacity; while it may be possible to fulfill European purchases, the same can not be said of those in North America. And as we all know, paper releases where things sell out in hours or days and are not replenished for weeks or even months is a recipe for grumpy customers. We all saw how people were annoyed by the lack of Queen Anne's Revenge ships this summer, so it's far easier for Lego just to wait with releasing the sets in certain regions. In this case, I thought Lego said that DC Comics sets were coming in January for North America during SDCC. I'm assuming the US is by far the largest market for comic related Lego sets. Growing up in Norway I remember Superman and Batman were fairly well known, but most other superheroes were curiosities for most people unless there was a movie or TV show out, and I can hardly ever remember people reading this kind of comic books. So Lego prioritizes fulfilling US market demand, but does not expect to do so for the European market until May. It really is not farfetched of an idea and we see it all the time with other times as has been already mentioned.

Very entertaining review! I really do not care for Spongebob, and I can't say I've ever watched any episodes, so I doubt I'll ever get any of the sets. This set does have one major selling point though, and that is the parts: supposedly, the blue pieces used here are in the new azure blue color, used in the Alien Defense Unit soldiers of the Alien Conquest theme. So a large amount of the parts of this set are actually unique for the time being, which is pretty awesome in my eyes.

I have to second what most people are saying here, Lego City in 2005 was weird because Lego had to reinvent the theme from the failed Lego World City, which in itself was a massive improvement over the Town jr. and Jack Stone sets. The one thing that is truly different between todays city sets and those in 2005 is the scale of the vehicles, which was all over the place in 2005, with the XXL Crane truck which I believe was 12 wide and I don't know how long, as well as the XXL crane which I believe to be Lego's tallest set ever. Looking at how expensive these sets are on the second hand market I don't believe everyone thinks they are horrible sets, I do see many people who still integrate them in their city layouts. With the years, Lego has gained consistency in their designs as a result of figuring out what people really want from City, and the period from 2007 to now truly has some great sets and subthemes, and I wouldn't be surprised if it is remembered (almost) as fondly as the Town sets of the 80's 25 years from now. Edit: used the wrong word there...

These threads seem to appear with regular intervals, you might want to check the Millennium Falcon price thread as well. There is a simple reason for those prices: people are willing to pay them. It's a simple supply and demand problem, where there are lots of AFOLs like you and I who come out of their dark ages and we want to buy all the stuff we missed, but there are not very many people selling these items, so the sellers can demand high prices for the minifigs or sets or whatever else is coveted. I really don't see what the problem is, we have a functioning economy in this community where things are sold for market value, if they were priced lower than market value things would sell out in no time, and someone else would be able to sell the items at true market value. This cycle would be repeated indefinitely, it's simple economics. We are lucky that Lego releases very few limited edition sets, so we don't see true scalping like in so many other collecting communities. The truth is that pretty much every product sold by Lego is sold in large quantities, so pretty much everyone has an opportunity to pick the item up when it is sold in stores. The problem with high prices occur on the rare occasion that a set is underrated and sold in small quantities during its regular production time, only to explode in popularity later, this is what happened to 10123 Cloud City. Or on some occasions there is a general large increase in the AFOL population, as is happening right now, so there are lots of new people trying to get all the sets they missed. Just look at membership here at Eurobricks, in the last year, membership has doubled, and many of the new members are willing to pay a lot for those sets they missed, thus the prices skyrocket. Aftermarket supply is also a big problem, many people do not sell the sets or pieces they have bought, even if their kids outgrow the hobby. Things are just put in the attic for their grandkids to enjoy. This is likely the case with many Jango Fett figures, he came in a middle of the road set price wise, so a lot of people probably bought the set and own the figure, but very few people are selling, thus supply is limited and prices rise etc. One reason for those cheaper jango fett minifigs is that people are using the parts from the Jango and C3PO pen set to create their own "countefeit" figures. These days I would not believe any price that is too good to be true as our community appears to be heavily targeted by scammers. In conclusion, we can argue until we are green about what is "fair" or not, our market is guided by the simple law of supply and demand and will continue to be so whether we like it or not.

Looks like it was a false scare for now, it's now back on the S@H website. Link: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Fire-Brigade-10197?c=Hard-to-Find-Items-ByTheme As already said, I would get it now rather than later.

I'm curious Locutis, were you able to get any dark blue 1x4's from the replacement parts service? I called them earlier today, but their parts ordering system was down, and they called me back when I was at work, so I haven't heard from them yet. They are the last structural pieces I have missing now, only other thing I'm missing are the two green hairpieces. I'm hoping since the 1x4 blue bricks seem to be in production and were introduced in several new sets this summer that it shouldn't be a problem, otherwise I'll have to spend a small fortune on Bricklink yet again, like with the other rare pieces. 10190 was truly a mixture of many rare pieces and colors, more so than Cafe corner, I feel lucky to have been able to procure the pieces for this set. Anyways, the latest breaking news is that 10197 Fire Brigade appears to be discontinued from shop at home, as well as on Amazon.com according to Brickset. Searching for 10197 on lego.com only gives me a link to the pet shop, so I kind of doubt it is a random error in their site if they actively link you to another modular. The set has been backordered for a little while, so I'm not surprised it's finally gone, it has been a good 2 year run after all. Edit: The Fire Brigade is back- http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Fire-Brigade-10197?c=Hard-to-Find-Items-ByTheme

7962 is actually a great set for playability, each of the podracers have handles that can be used for swooshing them around, just check out the reviews on this site. I have to second 8038 Battle of Endor though, it's a fantastic playset with several small vehicles and a bunker, not to mention 12 figures! Edited for accuracy, thanks Hollander!