Captain Blockbeard

Here's my opinion on the themes of 2010: Atlantis: None of the vehicles impressed me, but I made sure to collect enough of the sets to get one of every sea creature minifigure (except the Portal Emperor-type figure). The 2011 Atlantis sets are more attractive for features beyond minifigure-collecting. Castle: I collected many of the oldest castle sets, and in recent years, I may only pick up a few of the smallest ones just for the minifigures. This may be the first Castle theme in 20 years that I decided to collect every set. The King's Castle was unimpressive at first, but after seeing one assembled on display in a local toy shop, I had to have it, making it only my fourth castle ever. City: I personally love City sets, and 2010 was an excellent year for civilian vehicles and structures. 2011 is looking slightly promising too due to the Bank and Money Transfer. Otherwise, I was glad to see 2010 City deviate from Police, Hospital, Fire, and Coastguard. Creator: This may be the first year that I didn't buy a single Creator set. None impressed me. Harry Potter: Too many repeated concepts from the original HP sets I own, so my only purchase was The Burrow. Hero factory: I only got Meltdown because the color scheme and concept seemed interesting. Plus, I especially liked those canisters of radioactive waste. Power miner: Again, I only purchased the cheapest set, mostly for the silver-clad minifigure. The overall designs of the sets were not of interest. Prince of Persia: This was definitely among my favorite themes, and like Castle, I have attempted to collect all of them. Space Police 3: Undercover Cruiser is my favorite, but I'm tempted to get the Lunar Limo sometime soon. Before this, I already collected Star Wars: At this point, I only collect the Star Wars Battlepacks for minifgures. Toy Story: As much as I love Toy Story, the pricing of the sets kept me away. Only the bare minimum purchases were made to acquire most of my favorite characters. I'm still missing Jessie and Bullseye, though. World Racers: This theme grew on me over time, but I only collected the polybag sets and Snake Canyon for the figures and the motorcycles for my city.

Besides having a few decent (but not new) pieces, the marina is poor. Then again, it could just be that I'm spoiled by the awesomeness of what Lego used to provide as a marina: http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6543-1

A few months ago, I ordered a number of part 64645 ship hull sections from Bricklink with the intention of creating a taller hull exactly as you are now considering. As others have mentioned, I too found that the way these bricks are designed, you cannot connect them together...at least not directly. However, I'm not disappointed by my purchase because I've found a workaround that suits my needs, and I'll describe it here for your consideration. First off, even if multiples of this brick could be connected together, the "inverted slope" forming the bow/stern will not be continuous. To approximate a continuous slope, I found you will need to offset the top 64645 brick forward by an additional 1/2 of a 1x1 brick dimension than normal when mounting it to the lower 64645 brick. Secondly, since you cannot connect the 64645 bricks together directly, you will need something in between that can form the connection. To resolve both of these issues simultaneously, I'm using a set of reddish brown 3794 modified plate w/ single stud to connect the upper and lower 64645 hull bricks, filling in gaps with reddish brown tiles. It's a crude method that does have issues: 1. the unavoidable 1/3 brick height layer between the 64645 bricks that will be continued into more of the hull beyond these parts) 2. it introduces a vertical gap due to that 1/2 brick offset. This gap can be filled in easily, though, with tiles mounted sideways. Part 3794 on Bricklink: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3794 I hope this helps give you some ideas or perhaps some reassurance that there are indirect ways of connecting the 64645 bricks and maintaining a reasonably continuous hull. Sorry that I can't provide pictures of my use of this method because while I've tested it, I currently don't have access to the parts to recreate it nor do I have the finished MOC using this method. (If only Lego Digital Designer had the parts, I could recreate the hull to demonstrate.)

I love this set but will definitely cry if it costs $150+. Please, Lego, make it $120-130 at most. And I don't need it to come with power functions, increasing the set price, seeing as I will likely slap a 9v motor in it anyway since I only own/run 9v Lego trains.

With the introduction of the Royal Guard and Sherlock Holmes, Lego has created the last of the figures I wanted to see in the Collectible Minifigure Series. (The Musketeer, Artist and Geisha in Series 4 were also on my list of "must-make" figures.)

I've only seen this situation firsthand once in my area at a Target. It wasn't with Legos but instead an action figure. (Which is absurd considering the packaging is clear so any clerk or customer will be able to look right at the item and tell the parts inside do not match the action figure it was meant to be). Lately, I find myself more frequently checking the boxes when I pick them up, searching for anything suspicious. Sometimes, I even pick up multiple copies of the same set and feel if their weights are approximately the same.

Strange enough, as I thought Space Police III was disappearing from local retailers, my nearest Target just got a fresh shipment of Galactic Enforcer sets in. However, some of the smaller sets that I'm missing are not making reappearances. I can't complain, though, since I was able to get about half of the sets. If I could afford it -or find a sale-, I might finish off with acquiring the Space Police command center.

Futuron is probably among the first Lego themes for which I collected quite a few sets. I had many of the small and medium sets but never the monorail. My only experience with the monorail was seeing it set up in my neighbor's basement, and indeed, it was an impressive set. My personal favorites from Futuron were 6953 Cosmic Laser Launcher and 6848 Strategic Pursuer. So, to answer your question, yes there are Futuron fans still around.

I agree with SpacySmoke. Within the blue circle, the top row of minifigures are from the City Bank and Money Transfer and the second row of figures are from the City House. The Target US website currently lists the City Bank and Money Transfer set but does not include a price or date of availability. Combine that information with the box's packaging that includes the "Special Edition" label, and it becomes apparent that the set is most likely Target's latest exclusive. I guess I now know what I'm spending my Lego Target Bullseye gift cards on...

Great review and what a lucky find! I received this set way back when it first came out, and it's among the few castle sets that remains intact on my shelves to this day. The Dragon Knight figures back then were fantastic, especially for their helmets. That set was also my introduction to Lego wizards. (Since then, I have only acquired the old Witch minifigure and the current dark green Dragon Knight wizard.) This set is probably also the most played-with castle I own due to all of added playability of the traps. Lego, I know you won't, but I wish you would please offer the modern Dragon Knights an updated fortress of this awesomeness.

Great review! Thanks for all the images! I definitely plan on buying this set as soon as it becomes available in my region.

Lego is nerdy in the best of ways.

This was an unusual Christmas since Legos dominated the presents. 2011 will seem boring since I already got most of the sets for that year that I was interested in. The haul: Pharaoh's Quest - Scarab Attack Pharaoh's Quest - Golden Staff Guardians Atlantis - Seabed Strider Atlantis - Angler Attack Atlantis - Gateway of the Squid Atlantis - Octupus w/ Ring Atlantis - Mini Sub Harry Potter - The Burrow Space Police - Raid VPR Hero Factory - Meltdown City - Police Minifig Collection City - Helicopter & Limousine City - Public Transportation City - Family Home City - Toys r Us Truck Kingdoms - King's Castle Kingdoms - Prison Tower Rescue Kingdoms - Outpost Attack World Racers - Snake Canyon World Racers - World Race Powerboat World Racers - World Race Buggy Toy Story - Army Man Jeep

Personally, I loved Time Cruisers and owned Flying Time Vessel, Whirling Time Warper, and Twisted Time Train. Of course, by now, most of the parts have gone on to build new creations, but for a while when I had all of these sets put together, the odd aesthetics didn't bother me. They also made for some of the best parts pack sets of all time, which I suppose was their ulterior purpose. Ninja Go has useful new figures (Blue Ninja, Ninja Master), and the bizarre skeleton vehicles are looking more and more like useful parts packs to me. I vote Ninja Go for being the weirdest Lego theme and look forward to seeing how well or how poorly Lego markets it. Honorable mention goes to Exo-Force which I could never fully understand or appreciate.

The Bank Transfer set looks like a promising addition to City civilian buildings considering I failed to get the last bank set released (pictured a couple pages back in this thread).

My vote is: Bi-wing Baron < Spirit of Luis <= 5909 Treasure Raiders Biplane

I didn't recognize the smell as being distinctly printing ink, but yes, I noticed a rather odd, strong smell from inside the Series 3 packages which I don't recall experiencing with Series 1 or 2.

I also like what you did with the combination of elements of the Series 2 Pharaoh with the Series 3 mummy. I'll probably use that idea with the spare parts from my Egyptian Queen (modified Series 2 Pharaoh) and the Series 3 Mummy. Also, just to note that the Pharaoh's Quest Pharaoh Mummy is different from those. See here: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?M=pha007

If I didn't have final exams to study for this weekend, I would certainly attend this event, no matter how the workers or parents react. Technically, there's no upper limit to the age of participants after all.

I can't believe the images for Series 4 are available so soon! My must-haves are definitely the Musketeer, Hockey Player, Hazmat, Punk, Artist, Mad Scientist, and Geisha, but of course, I plan on collecting most of the others as well. What I find most interesting is that among my favorites is the Hazmat figure which, upon originally reading the rumored Series 4 concepts, I would have considered a figure to ignore. Meanwhile, the Wolfman is a huge disappointment. It would have been better as a clone of the old Movie theme Lego Werewolf. Also, the Musketeer needs a cape, but even as he looks now, I'm impressed. Before the Collectible Minifigure Series came to be, I wasn't a Lego army builder. Now, I find myself unable to avoid amassing Spartans, Elves, and, soon, Musketeers.

Has anyone else had an issue with buying a package with the dimple pattern for an Elf and discovered the packet to contain a fisherman? Yesterday, I bought what I thought were 3 Elves. (The three packages had identical dimple patterns.) However, when I returned home and quickly opened them, I found one to be a fisherman. Considering how vastly different the dimple code is for the Elf and the Fisherman and that I had already tracked down a couple Fishermen so that I knew its dimple pattern well, I'm fairly certain it wasn't a mistake on my part. I mentioned this on Brickset and had one other person mention having a similar experience of getting a Fisherman instead of an Elf. I'm not complaining since the Fisherman is a rare figure and one of my favorites, and I'm glad it turned out to be a Fisherman instead of a figure I didn't want duplicates of, but I still found the situation odd and thought it worth commenting on.

To my surprise, I found 4 boxes at a Toys R Us in southeastern Pennsylvania today. (With Series 2, PA was among the last, if not the last, state to receive any shipments.) The Lego Reps. were still there checking inventory of 2011 sets and told me that I had arrived only 10 minutes after they put the boxes out. The dimple cheat sheet, despite being incomplete, enabled me to accurately pick nearly all of the minifigures I wanted. Only the Gorilla and the Indian Chief were indistinguishable. I doubt I'll need to search any further for Series 3 unless I build an elven or Blacktron army or hunt down that missing Gorilla. The haul: 3x elves 3x Blacktron 2x tennis player 2x mummy 1x baseball player, snowboarder, hula girl, sumo wrestler, indian chief, samurai, and fisherman From what I read here and on Brickset, I expected the dimples to be considerably more difficult to read. Yes, they are challenging after the ease of memorizing/reading barcodes, but it still enabled such an accurate judgment of most bags.

I'm not surprised they're staying with the $14.99 price from previous battle packs, but this one is so sparse with what is included, that I would consider it a rip-off even at $9.99. Actually, it's more cost efficient just to buy the $9.99 Staff Guardians and $19.99 bi-plane sets to get the same type of figures plus so much more for only double the $14.99 price.

I've been wondering why someone hasn't done this sooner. I planned to have my Spartans facing off against Dastan and the Persian Hassassins.

For me, it's a tie between the City Public Transport and PoP Battle of Alamut. If I had the money and the opportunity, I would buy duplicates of both without hesitation.