jonwil

I too would like to see a return to genuine human vs human space themes (instead of human vs alien as is the case in UFO, Insectoids, Life On Mars, Mars Mission, Space Police III and Alien Conquest) Also I would love to see a return to some spaceships along the lines of classic ships from the golden age of LEGO space (the Deep Freeze Defender is my favorite ship of all time)

Even worse than this is when there are parts only found in one set in ANY color. And there are numerous of examples of those...

I believe that someone said something about the plastic used in the Chinese factory being different to the one used in other factories due to the Chinese Government requirement that a certain amount of the raw materials come from Chinese suppliers.

I was on the fence about this one because I don't build in the colors that make up the majority of this set. But now I WANT IT (especially if it follows the Grand Emporium and appears at retail here in .au) I am especially miffed that I never got a Green Grocer :(

Nice MOC there.

Loving this new batch. That male snowboarder could be great for my snowboard mad sister and her snowboard mad boyfriend :) And that mobster is excellent. Even the detective and zookeeper are starting to grow on me (and may find their way into my collection :)

Lets hope Target has some London Escape sets in during the next 20% off sale (as there is no way I am paying full price for that set, cool though it is)

Obviously some store guy didnt read the "dont put on the shelf until x date" labels on some of that LEGO :)

This is a perfect Creator set. Plenty of great parts and in colors that are easy to get. The only reason I didnt buy the Apple Tree House is because it has too many parts that are either so common I have more than I need already or that are too hard to get to be useful (the blue roof pieces for example are a lot less useful when building large roofed buildings due to the difficulty of obtaining enough whereas red is common as muck and easy to get) Although if an Apple Tree House appeared on clearance (unlikely to happen) I might snag one :P But this new Hillside House, that I intend to buy at least one of regardless, its just too cool. I suspect a lot of parents are going to get annoyed with kids over the sound brick (it seems to be the most annoying of the sound bricks to date) and they might take it away from the kids. Just as long as they dont try and remove the batteries because that can damage the sound brick beyond repair (something which may have happened to my motorbike sound brick)

Target and TRU in Joondalup had POTC in stock. Target had the fountain, captains cabin, mill, cannibal escape and isla de la muerta. TRU had the London Escape. No sign of Whitecap Bay or the QAR. Bought the captain's cabin (only set worth buying at those prices, will wait for a sale before going for anything else such as the London Escape :) Also spotted the new Cars Duplo in Target (but not the regular LEGO sets)

Nice McDonalds there, you captured the look of the worlds largest fast food chain perfectly.

Damn, no Captains Cabin in Perth yet :( (the only POTC set I want) As for independent stores, the person I spoke to at Toyworld regarding POTC basically said "its not in the catalog so we wont be getting it" (the retail catalog that is, not the wholesale dealer catalog) Also, for future reference, if TRU doesn't have an item on the shelf, dont bother asking them for a release date or details because the TRU employees have no clue about that stuff (I think its a case of "we get whatever the warehouse puts on the truck")

That set looks amazing (as usual for a modular). Need to see more pictures and a full set inventory but it doesn't look like its as useful to me parts-wise as the Grand Emporium was (now the real question is, do I buy this or do I buy the HP sets including the Diagon Alley...)

I am looking for ideas (heads specifically) for building some Turkish/Lebanese/middle eastern people to work in my middle eastern restaurant/kebab shop MOC. I am only interested in yellow heads, not flesh (so dont suggest I check Price Of Persia) Are there any yellow heads out there that would work?

If anyone in Perth wants train track, TRU in Cannington had the flex track, points and I believe the other packs. Plenty of the bank robbery set in K-Mart at Carousel also.

Why must LEGO keep tempting me with so many great parts in these new lines. That new printed control panel with the scanner pattern would be great for a hospital or med-lab (say a CT scanner or MRI machine) It has yet another variant of the laptop (I have yet to own even ONE :( ) That scientist guy is great (and with a helmet of some sort would be good for someone who works in a bio lab or something) Just when I thought "I don't build space so most of the Alien Conquest sets aren't worth buying", along comes LEGO and puts cool parts for my City/Town MOCs into these sets.

Wow, even the New Zealanders get better prices than us Aussies :( (20nzd for the captains cabin = 14aud, the set has an AU RRP of 25aud) As for the 3 missing sets, I think some of the POTC sets have a street date related to the release of POTC4 in theaters (or so some .au retailers have said)

If you look at the bonnet of Ultimate Build Lightning McQueen you can see the edges of a sticker on the large tile piece. There is also what may be the edge of a sticker on the pump in the V8 Cafe set and on the "Flo's" and "Cafe" signs. Also evidence of stickering on the large panels on the side of Mack I suspect we will get a combination of stickers and printing. Printing on things like the cars and parts used in multiple sets (and things hard to sticker like the curved bumper parts) and stickers on things used only in one set like the gas pumps or the panels on Mack

I only buy the ones that will fit good with the City MOCs I build.

Yet again WA gets shafted. Not a single POTC set has made it across the Nullabor :( Tried every Target store I can get to as well as all 4 TRU stores, none have stock.

I dont know if this has been reported before but LEGO are now selling the Architecture sets on Shop @ Home to Australia They have the Farnsworth House, Empire State Building, Space Needle, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum and Fallingwater listed. Not sure if this is better/cheaper than buying it from Bricklink though.

Great job there, I especially like the decoration of the Octan offices.

Only problem is that Toys R Us USA wont ship outside of the US :(

Looks like my best chance of finding the captains cabin is to ring around all the Target and TRU stores to see if anyone has stock.

I hope we see some actual pictures soon. And that it appears at retail here in Australia like the Grand Emporium did last year