jonwil

Now all we need is a 20% off (with 10% more for MYER ONE members) and MYER will have everything flying off the shelves and making massive sales numbers :)

Others have reported seeing them at different Toyworld stores so if you want one and want to buy locally, Toyworld is your best bet (although I have heard reports that select TRU stores are getting stock, good if you happen to have TRU vouchers for some reason) Unless MYER gets stock in at the same time as a sale, I wouldn't count on seeing a discount on this so if you want one, $400 is likely to be the price you will need to pay (I really really want one but I just dont have a spare $400 lying around, plus I need money for Series 11 and for the BTTF set when it comes back in stock at Shop @ Home)

I bought one when they first showed up and was VERY impressed with it as a set (and as a parts pack) Well worth the $250 I spent on it. (unlike, say, Arkham Asylum which isn't worth what they are asking for :)

Was talking to a staff member in MYER earlier today asking about Series 11. He said "I haven't heard anything about those" then I said "1st September is the official release date" then he said "there is a sale/catalog coming up on the 9th, maybe we will have them by then". No details beyond that. The store (Perth CBD) did have stock of the Horizon Express and Mini Modulars though if anyone is still looking for either of those. So anyone who has MYER vouchers/points/whatever to spend, it would probably be worth holding off until the details of this sale appear in case what you want to buy comes down in price. Only other thing I spotted of any note was a 25% off sale on Chima sets at Toys R Us. Also, someone on another forum (who aparently works at Toys R Us) said "Got told we can sell series 11, as target broke the embargo". So firstly that shows that LEGO Australia does have official street dates on product (something I didn't know) and secondly it shows that Series 11 will hopefully start showing up soon :)

This Flikr gallery http://www.flickr.com/photos/10981478@N04/sets/72157635193668888/with/9574278133/ shows more pictures of the set including the instructions parts-list and the fact that yes it does include the gold bar and palm leaves.

Has anyone spotted these in Oz yet?

Nope, its the same ship-in-a-bottle printing from before.

The engine placement on the 8880 fits very much with the kind of rear-engined layout used on a number of Lamborghini models (who have the engine right on top of the rear axle or slightly forward from it)

The Marina Bay Sands is not a mall, its a full-on luxury resort with some interesting-looking architecture. Just the fact that it has 3 towers at 600ft tall all joined together by a massive sky-deck is pretty unusual not to mention the floating bits and the lotus-shaped museum.

You forgot white :)

Just looking at that parts inventory, WOW. I bet there are quite a few AFOLs who will buy this set for the dark tan alone (even if they dont care for the Opera House)

I concur that the Fedora in Purple is the most likely hat for Joker. Also, +1 to all the people asking for DC comics sets without Batman. So far the only DC comics sets we got without Batman have been the Superman/Wonder Woman set and the 3 sets for Man Of Steel, more would definatly be nice. As for Marvell, less Spider Man please and more X-Men. (and make it some of the more interesting X-Men like Professor X or Beast or Gambit, not the same X-Men we haven't already gotten) Marvell sets at the same size/piece count as, say, set 60000 would be nice as would cheaper sets with the harder-to-get Avengers characters like Hulk. (only reason I dont own an Iron Man yet is that even the cheapest Iron Man set is too expensive in my country)

Nice sheriffs office, I love the guy using the judge gavel to fix the sign :)

Fact is, if you ask the target audience for City sets what color a fire truck is (or should be), most of them would say "red". So LEGO builds fire trucks (and stations and other things) in red because that's what kids want.

Nice job, you really captured the look (and the grouchiness) of Oscar with your creation. And the trash is really cool looking too.

For those in WA, Toyworld in Fremantle has a LOT of stock right now. Including the Super Star Destroyer, Grand Emporium and Kingdoms Joust. No other modulars though. MYER in the CBD has a full load of stock including Horizon Expresses and Mini Modulars (no VWs or Sopwiths though) Bit late since the sale has finished but Target in Fremantle still had the Hobbit Goblin King set when I was there earlier.

I just wish I could convince my LUG that its worth the effort and work that goes into LUGBULK, I can think of quite a few things I would love to buy in larger quantity than you can get easily in sets/from Bricklink... But they dont seem to be interested :(

Oh and for those interested, there IS precedent for a new mold to appear first in a D2C set, the train wheels on the Emerald Night (although I suspect at the time the mold was green-lit, they already had buy-in from the Toy Story team to use the wheels on the Toy Story train)

The biggest negative with City is that many of the coolest sets (like the Town Square, Public Transit set, Bank & Money Transfer, Recycle Center and Parking Garage often end up as retailer exclusives around here (which means they are less likely to go on sale and be available at a good price)

One story I remember about tampering is with the 8455 Backhoe Loader. I was in a shop and they had some (on sale most likely as I dont think its a set I would have bought otherwise). They had 2 copies left, both of which had been opened. I took one of them up to the counter and said "this looks like its been opened, can I check to make sure its complete". Took a look and it wasn't complete. The other one wasn't complete either. So what I did was to take both opened boxes and make one complete set out of both incomplete boxes.

I am ok with another police theme as well as long as it has interesting new parts and details (or existing parts in new colors or in hard-to-get colors) The City Police stations (I own all of them since the World City 7035 station except for the one with the light-up cop and the later non-light-up-cop reissue of the same station) are great parts packs and a good source of trans-blue.

It may well be that LEGO will do what they have done with Minecraft and release the Ecto-1 only as a first set then later on if the Ecto-1 sells enough, release a firehouse set down the track. Even if all they release is the car, there is no reason you couldn't build your own firehouse (that's what LEGO is for after all :)

Its not this years City advent calendar as that doesn't have the tan log bricks or the purple hat. It has a knit cap but only in dark bley.

The modulars have been good for getting new part/color combinations. The dark green windows for example first appeared in the Grand Emporium and the dark green quarter dome pieces are exclusive to that set according to Bricklink. And the large windscreens first appeared in that set (and to date the only other set to include that part in that color is a Star Wars UCS set). The PoP half-arches also first appeared in this set in Tan. Until the Pet Shop brought them back, the Cafe Corner was the only set to include the dark red 2 x 1 x 3 slope pieces. And the green grocer first introduced the 1 x 2 brick with garage door groove in sand green Not to mention the dark orange dog in the Pet Shop, The Pet Shop is also still the only place to get the 1 x 1 clip horizontal in orange and the white saucepan and the only mainstream-release set to include the orange fish. And it was the first to include the 1 x 2 garage door groove brick in sand blue. And it is the only non-board-game set to include the yellow frog. The fire brigade introduced the fire helmet in metallic gold and the minifig shoulder bag in tan. The town hall featured an exclusive bride torso, an exclusive clock-face print and an exclusive shield print. Then of course the Palace Cinema has the sticker sheet, 2 x 2 printed tile with star pattern and red 32 x 32 baseplate. So there are definatly examples of where the modulars get new part/color combos made for them. (some of which then end up in other sets later on). Although some of the examples above were probably green-lit because they appeared in another higher volume set that was being designed at the same time and then the modular designers were able to get it because it was an "active" part/color combo.

Our LUG here in Western Australia has had airports on our big annual train layout before. This is the best photo I can find of the airport terminal that we had: