jonwil

Some of these sets are looking better in the final pictures. Police bike is a no (dont need any more motorbikes of that style) High-speed Chase is a maybe (would be good to get the bike wheel in a new color and the torso on the crooks with the leather jacket is nice) Prisoner Transporter is a yes (split-windscreen in white with trans-blue glass, some sort of new hook mold with a peg attached so they can use the chain on it, jacket on the crook and what looks to be a new ball-and-chain element on the other crook) Mobile Police Unit is a maybe (a few nice parts like the baseball cap, police hat, ball-and-chain and some nice stickered parts). If one of the stickered parts happens to be a map of some kind, this set goes from "maybe" to "yes". Police Patrol is a no (don't need any more boats and I have enough cops) Helicopter Surveillance is a no (I dont like the helicopter, looks crap compared to some of their recent attempts) Police Station is a yes (I own every City police station except the one with the light up cop and the non-light-up-cop version of the same station so I need to get this one to keep my set complete plus this has some useful parts) Race Car is a yes (the wheels alone make this set cool, let alone parts like the green 1 x 2 curved slopes on the front and some other nice green parts. May even get multiples of this for the wheels) Light Repair Truck is a yes (its got a 1 x 1 plate with clip in orange which I really need although it would have been better if it came with the newer tool wheel like last years Octan Race Truck) Tow Truck is a no (only good things in it are the blue car doors and the smokestack pieces) Camper Van is a maybe (depends on what the stickers inside look like and what torso the female has underneath that life jacket) SUV with Watercraft is a yes (nice minifigs, some good parts on the SUV and those great new wheels on the trailer) Logging Truck is a no (nothing in it I didn't already pick up from this years helicopter thing) Auto Transporter is a yes (blue car doors, blue wheel arches, clipboard and that cool torso on the car transporter guy. Plus, can always use more pinstripe suit torsos :) No sign of the Airport Fire Truck, Monster Truck or the new crook hideout though, just hope the crook hideout isn't a TRU exclusive like the last 2 crook hideout sets have been)

Great MOC, these plants and things remind me of some of the plant ingredients and such in The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (one of the best RPGs of all time :)

Don't forget Technic :) And Juniors :)

For those in WA, MYER Perth CBD has the Horizon Express (quite a few) and 2 of the Opera House. Target Perth CBD has at least one Arkham (didn't check if there were more behind it) and at least 3 R2s. David Jones has plenty of Opera Houses as well as Town Halls, Pet Shops, Yellow cargo train, Red passenger train, Train platform station, Friends 2013 Advent Calendar, VW bus, Star Wars Jabbas Palace, Star Wars UCS X-Wing, Star Wars 2013 Advent Calendar, Palace Cinema, Grand Emporium and Fire Brigade.

Lots of great parts packs here. 2014 is going to be an expensive year for me. Hopefully the LEGO Movie sets dont have too big a markup here in Oz (and that none of the GOOD sets end up as exclusives at stores that never have sales :)

I dont like McDonalds food but I DO like this MOC a LOT (bonus for the photo with the guy in the Ronald suit :)

Only good things in the set with the big mean-looking cop car are the cop guns and those goggles, will probably just try to BL those parts (although I already have plenty of guns and I have some Brickforge goggles so I may not need to get these :) The evil lair set looks great and has some wonderful parts that will be great for MOCs. Not convinced the set with all the pink and stuff is worth buying, no enough parts in it I have a real use for :) All in all, I recon the LEGO Movie sets (and CMFs) has to take the record for the most number of new molds in a single theme ever (especially once you account for things like the fact that the trans-clear minifig bases in the evil lair set would have to be a new mold as transparent parts use different molds to opaque parts and this is the first time that the part has appeared in a transparent color)

Liking the car transporter even more now, the fig is great, as is the clipboard tile and its great to get another set of blue wheel arches and blue car doors :)

That set is looking great. And now we know where the Mexican wrestler guy is from (the one people thought would be in the LEGO Movie CMF) I will say this though, this theme (including the CMFs) has to take the record for the most number of new molds in a single wave of sets. LEGO must be hoping these will sell in big numbers in order to recoup the costs of those molds (many of which probably wont have much use outside of the crazy characters in the movie sets)

I dont have any details about the barriers, sorry (they are provided by the event organizer and not by us)

At the big event our club did last time we had barriers provided by the organizers that were basically made out of the sort of stuff scaffolding or the posts for chain-link-fence is made out of. The fence is joined up at the corners and has some tubes that go into the center that act to stabilize it so it cant be pushed inward. And in a few cases the tubes going into the center go underneath the tables and join in the middle to keep things really stable.

WOW, just WOW. Going to get: maybe 1 female construction worker (because of the hat/hair, face and the interesting looking torso and legs) 1 Lincoln (for the torso and whatever scroll/document is in his hand) at least 1, maybe 2 or 3 barista guys (dont like coffee myself but the torso/legs look generic enough to be usable in any number of food-service settings and the hair is awesome too and hey maybe some of my minifigs DO like coffee :) 1 Shakespeare (because of the hair, quill pen and scroll) 1 Mexican guy (because of the hat and plate) 1 of the fig with the black clipboard (the clipboard is cool and the hair is interesting and maybe the torso and legs could be useful) at least 2 of the fig with the Hawaiian shirt (the shirt is awesome (great for civilians in my town stuff and the head is great too, always need more "I am really really happy" heads :) 1 businessman (the torso is nice, as is the new hair, the "angry/mean" face and the Octan coffee cup, only need one though as I have plenty of suits in my collection already) at least 1, maybe 2 male construction workers, (the face is awesome, the torso is interesting and different to all the other construction workers I have, the hat/hair is nice and the printed legs are great, as is whatever the yellow thing in his hand is) definitely at least 3 cops, (the helmet is great, can always use more sunglasses faces and the torso is nice, as is the cellphone) 1 cat lady (the hair is great, female faces with glasses are always nice and the sweater with the cat on it is really good) Lets hope these appear in Australian retail shops as early in the year as Series 9 did :) Best part of the lot IMO is the cops cellphone, its great to finally have a 100% non-girly cellphone print (to date all we have gotten is the very girly pink cellphone from the first wave of Friends set, the somewhat girly cellphone from the Trendsetter figure and the still girly Medium Azure cellphone from this years Friends sets) Now I can finally give my male citizens a cellphone more fitting to them. Oh and the Octan coffee cup would be perfect to use alongside a coffee machine in an Octan gas station (if I hadn't just done an Octan station last year I would acquire a few and do exactly that)

hmmm, good point. And it doesn't look like these sets are going to be taking over the rest of LEGO anytime soon (unlike the crap in the Town Jr/Jack Stone/4 Juniors years when themes like Space and Castle and Pirates joined in on the juniorization)

I hope that the Hulk set next year doesn't have the massive Australian markup the Hulk Hellicarrier Breakout set got.

The main issue I have with Junior is that it seems to be introducing a number of big specialized one-use-only pieces again (ala Town Jr/Jack Stone/4 Juniors). Lately the large pieces we have been getting (when we get such parts) have been a lot more generic and useful in multiple ways but these Jr sets seem to mark a return to parts that are only usable for one thing (and could be made out of a few medium sized parts instead of just one large part)

City AC spotted at Big W Whitford City.

Anyone else notice that in the prelims the jetski SUV is dark red but in the instructions-scene-picture its black? I suspect the instructions-scene-picture is likely to be correct (i.e. black rather than dark red)

Any train sets that show up are going to be mid-year releases.

I hope the Jr sets dont introduce too many one-piece specialized parts (the one-piece car body part that first appeared in this years bricks & more type sets is bad enough) That said, I bet (and hope) a few people will buy the Jr Batman set for the figs and flog the rest on Bricklink on the cheap so I can pick up some of the bits :) Whats Hulk doing in that Spider-Man set?

some reports from the BL thread (people who contacted LEGO customer service) indicate that its down because of system issues.

Too bad my LEGO budget is wiped out right now (mostly thanks to that massive Opera House :) otherwise I would go and pick up a few things :)

I will no doubt buy the police station to keep my collection complete (I have every City police station dating back to the World City police station except for the one with the light-up-cop and the non-light-up-cop variant of the same station). Plus it looks like it has some useful bits in it. After how good some of the helicopters from this year are (coast guard helicopter, the dark blue one in that robbers hideout), the one in 60046 looks crap. Will need to see better pictures for final judgement on that big police truck, the smaller boat and the van.

Some nice parts in these sets, agree the RV looks too much like the last one. Gotta stop buying so much LEGO though (both because I dont have a lot of money to devote to LEGO and because I dont have a lot of space to devote to LEGO)

I doubt they can use the Rotta mold as Slimer because A.Its probably not an active mold, possibly even retired (it was last used in 2008) and B.Its a licensed piece that looks exactly like a character from Star Wars. Therefore, its not something they can use outside of SW. (that and it doesn't even look much like Slimer)

I dont see anything in Ghostbusters that would cause it to fail on "brand fit" (the movie was rated PG in the US and in Australia and the "Real Ghostbusters" cartoon was even tamer). If Ghostbusters gets rejected it would likely be for one of 4 reasons: 1.Cant get a license from Sony 2.Requires a new mold (e.g. if they want/need to include Slimer or another ghost and the Monster Fighters GITD ghost piece isn't good enough) 3.Requires too many new printings/part-color combos (print wise though it needs one new torso, 4 heads for the guys if they dont have suitable heads already plus printing or stickers for the GB logos on the car) or 4.Is deemed not to be marketable enough (e.g. due to BTTF existing)