jonwil

Hopefully these dont take forever to appear in Australia (but knowing the way Australian retailers think and knowing that .au seems to always get things months after the rest of the world, I am not holding out hope)

I am definatly liking these even more now. As for the "no bar codes" thing, I am sure people will just feel through the bag. I certainly will :) That or people will buy whole cases.

With any luck the instructions will be posted online and I can build my own (minus the printed tile) just like I did for the Empire State and Solomon R Guggenheim

As long as the aliens arent as UGLY as the Mars Mission aliens, I think this could work. Especially if it means more greebly and funky bits for space creations :)

Looking good although IMO 1 or 2 more items in the "Safety" section would help (not sure what though)

Ultimatly, its a question of how best to use the limited SKUs available in any given year (and its been explained many times why LEGO limits the number of products it releases). When it comes to a choice between using a SKU for a train car that will only sell to AFOLs (and not all Emerald Night purchasers will want more than one car per engine, myself included) and using it for a far more proffitable mass-market retail set, its a no brainer from a business perspective what to pick.

That door is a newer version of an older door and has also appeared in Harry Potter, the Kingdoms castle and the Winter Village Bakery.

So far I got Belatrix, new McGonagall, Crown Princess and the old witch. Would love to get the one with the black cone hat and the keys on her belt.

Looks great there, perfect thing to have in a town the size of yours

The new pictures of the boxes look even better. Although I think the only set in this line that I will buy (if any) is the small one. New staff piece, new swords, scarab shields, new torso (and yes it does resemble Bruce Willis and would be PERFECT for some Die Hard MOCs), bike, dynamite and the headdress piece (not new but its a new color)

I am hoping that the punk is more like a punk rocker and comes with an electric guitar or something.

I suspect its a molded lid for a bucket. As in, the lid of the bucket is also the baseplate. With the cut-out bits being where the lid is held in place (e.g. by plastic tie straps)

Is it just me or are those RAF logos on the wings of that biplane and machine guns on top? The new curved swords (Kopesh) on the various mummies along with the Scarab beetle shields look cool, as does that red motorbike. The only set that really interests me is the small one with the motorbike, the others only look good as sources of tan parts. The only guns I can see in these sets are the old Rifle piece that has been around for years and the Batman machine gun (with the round magazine) stuck into various other parts to make the barrel longer. I dont see any "assault rifles" in these sets.

A few interesting parts in these sets (like the bone piece) but not enough to make me want to buy.

Hockey Player, I am guessing that it will be an Ice Hockey player. Sailor sounds good especially if he has a new hat of some sort. I am hoping "Man with Safety Suit" means someone inside some sort of full-body-suit like firemen use in dangerous situations or like is used to protect against toxins/biological agents/chemical weapons/etc (or like they use in clean-rooms to keep dust etc out) Mad Professor sounds cool especially if he has a new hairdo and maybe some lab equipment Speed skater sounds interesting, are we talking ice skates or roller skates...

Police van is a MUST BUY for me (new windscreen in trans-lt-blue will be PERFECT for various car and truck designs and I hope I can get more than one without spending a fortune. Police fig pack is definatly a must buy, crowbar, new dog, new backpack, new criminal shirt with jacket, ATM. Police station is a must buy, far too many cool things not to buy one. White bike, more blue windows, new grille piece (that matches the old door grille but is fixed) plus all those bits that say "police" in exactly the same lettering as the last police station (which means they will match if I build more police MOCs) Dog Squad van and Police Truck are the big letdowns here. Why are so many civilian cars in LEGO City red? (I am sure TLG has focus group testing that shows that "kids like red sports cars more than they like sports cars in other colors"). Police helicopter is also a bit of a let down, it looks like the helicopter from the heli and limo set only in police colors and slightly larger in some places mixed with a yellow/black version of the little pickup truck from the most recent garage set So for me, the police van, fig pack and police station (in that order) are on my wishlist :)

Damn, so many choices for 2011.

The log cabin doesn't have a baseplate, it looks like its got some 6 x n plates instead (in blue and green) I like the 2 small sets (the ones that come in those containers) and will buy both and I may buy a log cabin for brown/tan parts but other than that, none of those sets appeal to me.

If Minifigs are so expensive, why do we see sets like the Star Wars battle packs that have like 5 of them in a single small set and yet town sets get maybe two in sets that are much larger than the SW battle packs? Is the dynamics of Star Wars such that they can produce smaller sets with more figs (and therefore a higher price point) and yet still make money?

If you go the BrickForge route, you can also buy some Shepherds Crooks for your Shepherds. (and maybe other things for your scene :)

The flex system was used in the 8444 Air Enforcer helicopter also.

Anyone know where on the ISS model the Cupola window is located or can see what parts TLG have chosen to use for it?

I ran out of suitable printed tiles to do anything more :)

Well I will be adding landscaping and footpaths and stuff around the edges later on (once we know where in the layout its going to go)

Its loosely based on that building. Didnt come up with a way to do the exterior verandah :) And I dont drive a Holden :P My brother drives a VY SS and my sister drives an Astra though :P I would have replaced the red with trans-blue if I had enough trans-blue but trans-blue 1xn bricks are almost impossible to get in quantity. As it is, this MOC used up a large chunk of my trans-blue supply (and my red)