Mabes

As a longtime fan of Castle/LotR and Star Wars (mainly OT), yeah this has been a disappointing year of Lego. The escape pod, resistance X-wing & troop transport, and some battlepacks were the only highlights... as well as the Classic Castle promo set.

So what was the 1993 and "103,688 bricks they used..." clues supposed to lead to? That seemed to be the number of bricks in an exhibit in the 1993 World Lego Expo, but I couldn't find anything else about it other than on wikipedia. Overall the game got frustrating with circular clues (especially regarding the RLS grave), but it was fun overall. I certainly know a lot more about pirates in general after all that googling.

I'd have to go with Eldorado Fortress (6276), because it has a little bit of everything; a good sized docking area for the Caribbean Clipper (6274), a jail cell, the raised private room for the governor, a loading crane, the below ground storage area, a couple cannons for defense, and the simple but elegant architecture and color choices. One item of note though, I've never owned the Imperial Trading Post, so I didn't consider that set.

I was going to put a long response, but then I realized the basic sum of it was I agree with most everything you mention. In my opinion the sets released between 1984-1992 was the classical golden age of the Castle theme, but the last 3 or so years have kind of started a modern golden age for the theme. Personally, I stopped buying castle sets entirely around the Fright Knights, and didn't get any until Kingdoms came out. I've since gotten some Fantasy sets and enjoy them a lot as well. Overall I'd say I'm pretty optimistic about the theme for the future, and if the Star Wars sets keep increasing in price it may overtake Star Wars as my favorite theme.

I'd say the negative connotations associated with the terms "nerd" and "geek" have been slowly disappearing the last couple decades, due likely from the incorporation of technology into almost every facet of life. At least that's my opinion of the social environment here in the States. Now the term "dork" though, I feel that still has an association of awkward social skills, though other people's perceptions may be different.

Yeah my biggest complaint is the utter lack of Dragon Knight cavalry, of course you can get spare horses off bricklink, but I'd love to see a dark green saddle piece, along with some Dragon Knights themed horse barding.

I go through phases, usually focusing a 1 to 3 themes, with a few random small sets thrown in if it catches my fancy. My phases have roughly been: late 80's/early 90's: Castle, Pirates mid 90's: Space, Western, Aquanauts/sharks late 90's to mid 00's: Star Wars late 00's to current: Star Wars, Castle, SP3

Am I sick of Star Wars Lego? No way! Though I will say I'm a lot less enthusiastic about the theme in general the past couple years, mainly because of the higher prices. All this has done though is caused me to get sets when they're discounted near the end of their lifespan rather than right at release. That and not buy re-releases if little has improved (and adding a unique or uncommon minifig does not count as improved to me). As for which sets, it seems every fan has their own opinions of which sub-theme of Star Wars they enjoy. Me personally, nothing will beat the OT, and I do enjoy the PT, neo-Clone Wars, and earlier EU. However I do dislike the first CW cartoon, and most of the recent EU material. To each their own I guess.

Ah, on first glance I thought that scorpion build was very similiar to the Atlantis scorpion set (Deep Sea Striker 8076), though seeing your pictures this one uses more bricks than large parts, and more hinges rather than technic pieces for legs it appears. I like the color scheme for this new set's scorpion better too, so I'd say it's slightly better than the Atlantis scorpion. Basically all of the non-adventure minifigs in this set are fantastic looking (I'd use them along with my castle/fantasy sets), though personally I have no interest in any of the modern elements from this theme. I'm excited by what I've seen for 2011 Lego sets so far, very nice review Hinckley.

What about Medieval Market Village, do you guys think it will be discontinued soon? I've been meaning to pick it up for a long time, but Star Wars sets keep diverting my purchases...

I sure hope they release more Kingdoms sets, I actually haven't gotten anything castle related since probably the original Ninja sets, and the Kingdoms line interested me enough to buy at least one of each Kingdoms set released thus far. I may even buy another King's Castle for parts, I really enjoy that set, reminds me of my first castle set 6074 Black Falcon's Fortress. Plus it's discounted right now to $85 on a few sites like Toysrus and Amazon, with free shipping on either.

I'd say it's close between Shaak Ti and Saesee Tin for me, as I want to be able to assemble a full Jedi Council of minifigs someday. Probably Shaak Ti gets the nod, simply because Tin had a pretty wimpy death after about 5 seconds of combat against Palpatine.

All I can say is holy cow, that is amazing! I love the scene and idea, reminds me of a classic American Gladiators event. Very impressive

Taking a look at whether the sets will be from Season 2 or 3 of Clone Wars, let's consider the 2010 release timetable: Season two of Clone Wars was broken into two parts, first in Fall from 10/2/09 to 12/4/09, and then after about a month break the second half went from 1/1/10 to 4/30/10. Lego sets 1st wave Freeco Speeder - 1st season Greivous Starfighter - mainly seen in 1st season ARC-170, Droid Trifighter - Seen often in both seasons Leg sets 2nd wave Cad Bane Speeder - 2nd Season Turbo Tank - Featured more in season 2, might be in season 1 as well Plo Koon Starfighter - Plo Koon's in Both seasons, but I believe his starfighter is just season 2 So if we consider 2010 as the precedent, my bets on the first wave Clone Wars sets to be from Season 2, and the second wave will be Season 3 sets. Though Season 3 starts in the Fall so it's not totally out of the question for some Season 3 sets in early 2011.