jonwil

I cant remember too many really good finds I have had over the years. I do remember missing out on getting the Ice Station Odyssey at a good price (not once but twice IIRC) and am kicking myself now for not taking the deal on one of them (I STILL don't own one and there are none on Bricklink OR eBay in Australia) Haven't bought anything from secondhand type shops since there aren't that many that are easy for me to get to plus the ones we have here (both the charity shops like Salvos and stuff and the retail second hand shops like Cash Converters) don't generally have LEGO. Second hand shops more carry electrical, sporting goods, jewelery, video games etc. Charity shops generally mostly carry clothes and some misc crap like household goods (kitchen stuff etc) One thing I remember finding though was when I was in a store that had 2 different copies of the 8455 pneumatic backhoe loader, both of which had been opened and appeared to have polybags missing. Ended up taking both of them to the counter and finding one complete set (which I bought) from both partial sets.

Are there any other pictures of the city center set (with the bus) other than the 2 posted in the first post of this thread? Especially more of the bus.

Given that the set is clearly available at least somewhere in the world, is there any chance someone who has it can post a scan/photo/whatever of the various inventory pages from the instructions? And some pictures of all the new parts (the front wheels, the drive wheels etc) Also and more to the point, can anyone tell me (by using the pictures or the real parts if you are lucky enough to have them) how large the wheels (both front and drive) and whether there are any other wheels, train or otherwise, that are close enough in size such that I can use them as a temporary substitute until the set is available to me (so I can start working on my locomotive now and just swap in the real wheels when they become Bah, stupid LEGO making us wait until 15th April for this set, I want one now :P (Even if it was just available for pre-order I would place a S@H order right now)

Anyone got any better pictures of the city center set, its buildings and its minifigs?

If this is real (and its comming out when the rumor says it is), our train club will HAVE to get one to run (or modify and run) on our layout. Also, the reason why the picture looks so crap is because someone somewhere converted it (likely from a jpeg or other true-color image) to a gif image which is why all the colors look so washed out and stuff.

I agree with those who say there should have been more in this set, they could easily produce a Black Falcon figure with a flared helmet instead of the black classic spaceman.

Great review, has made me move this set even higher up the wishlist. Combine the black fedora + suit, a suitable head (not the Asian ones from the set, something else) and the tommy gun from the Batman sets and you would have a perfect mobster fig (Al Capone etc)

I believe the palm tree trunk is the same piece as seen in e.g. the 4+ pirate sets, i.e. its not a new piece. TLG have probably gone with it as its much cheaper to use that than it is to make the 3 or 4 pieces needed for the classic pirates palm tree.

I like this. I for one intend to buy the canon battle ("telescope" piece, flame piece, canon that fires, 2 figs and some other nice pieces) and possibly more stuff. Of course, knowing the way Lego Australia (and the big retailers in this country) work, we will be lucky to see the sets this side of Easter :(

Does anyone know if the cannon in these new sets are going to be the projectile firing kind? Some of the pictures seem to imply this. Would it be like before where the firing cannon are available in countries with sane legal systems and disabled/non firing cannon are available in the US (and other countries with screwed up legal systems)?

With regards to packaging, I notice that some large sets come in boxes where the top flap opens upwards (such as the dwarves mine) and some large sets come in boxes that open from the side (such as the town plan). I would like to see all large sets come in the former style where the top part of the box is hinged.

I would like LEGO to do more about making sure that sticker sheets for sets arrive intact. I bought the new Town Plan and the sticker sheet was a little damaged. I have had at least one set in the past (I forget which) where the sticker sheet was useless and LEGO sent me a new one. There has to be something that can be done to make it less likely that sticker sheets get damaged.

Things I would like to see: 1.More civilian vehicles in the City line. How about a bunch of cars in a similar size/piece count to the yellow car in the recent petrol station but in different styles (sedan, hatch, pickup/UTE, SUV, bus etc). Or how about some civilian motorbikes (just a guy on a motorbike would work) 2.Postman impulse set. Include a postman minifig, a red bicycle (or a motorcycle same as in the Indiana Jones motorcycle chase but with a red body) and a mailbox made the same as the one in the postal van with some letters. 3.Paramedic impulse set. Include a paramedic minifig (like in the recent ambulance), a stretcher and some accessories for it. 4.Petrol tanker to match the recent gas station. 5.City accessories (road signs, traffic lights, street lighting, trees, fences, bus stops etc) 6.Hotdog/food cart set. Would include small food cart, chef minifig plus food pieces for a hotdog. 7.Rock band/concert set. Picture a small stage with a rock band on it including speakers, amps, rock band with instruments, keyboard, guitar, drums, microphone, use those girder pieces to build some lighting. 8.Civilian minifigs (sets with a pile of normal generic non-specific-occupation minifigs wearing everything from suit+tie to jeans+t-shirt to fancy evening dress and with headgear ranging from baseball caps to hair to fancy hats) 9.Restaurant/bakery/fast food outlet/cafe/greengrocer/other food type place in the City line (no the Cafe Corner and Market Street and Greengrocer dont count) 10.Auto repair type shop (again matching the gas station) with tow truck.

I too wish to know why its so expensive to ship to Australia. I would be happy to pay those kind of prices if it meant I could get the item in a reasonable time (my last order of books from amazon.com took a week or so IIRC)

You have to remember that when us Aussies buy from Shop @ Home, the money gets converted into Euros or Danish money or whatever and not into USD. So the AUD-USD exchange rate has no bearing on how expensive stuff is. Because the set is so big and isn't going to be produced in massive numbers or sold in retail stores (LEGO store being the exception I guess), they cant spend the huge $$$ making new molds for it.

Nice set. Personally thought I would have dropped the doctor dude and instead inserted an early castle fig (95-96 or so) between the fireman and the octan guy. Still, if I can get hold of this without spending a fortune (even shop @ home will be expensive due to shipping costs to .au) I can see myself wanting lots of classic space guys (mine all seem to be missing the gold on the torsos). The prisoner dude looks good too and I can always use more Octan guys :) My vote for volume #2: Early civilian minifig from earliest town sets (i.e. not cop, fireman or gas station worker) Black Falcon minifig Pirate captain from Black Seas Barracuda Ice Planet female Yellow jacket train driver guy with red tie, <-0-> logo and red hat.

Brickset does list a set with a set number of 10188 labeled as "SW Death Star" and "Ultimate Collectors Series" with a date of 2008...

This is a NICE set. Look at all the various window pieces (including the new windows from the 2008 sets) My hope is that they make the windows easier to get than buying multiples of the beach house (or buying an expensive set like this green grocer)

Now that is a NICE set. Although if I had the money, I would probably buy the 787 Dreamliner and not the beetle :)

My guess is that we will see new City products that aren't police in the second half of 2008 (same as we saw the harbor, gas station, garbage truck etc in second half of 2007)

The down sloping window is not a new part, I own one myself. Peeron calls it "Boat Window 2 x 8 x 2"

I too LOVE the Black Seas Barracuda. When I was a kid, I got the original as a reward for learning to ride my bike. (that set is long gone). Then when the Reissue hit Toys R Us here in australia, I HAD to have it :) I even managed to trade the 4 non firing "crossed cannons logo" cannons for 4 proper firing cannons. (not a 1:1 trade though IIRC) One of these days I intend to take the boat bits (including the sails and such) and turn it into the Black Star Barracuda, a new ship for Captain Blackhole, the scurviest pirate ever to fly the spaceways.

Just FYI, the new weapon is not a morningstar, it is correctly refered to as a Flail. Very cool sets in any case. If they add a "evil skeleton castle" with black walls and stuff, I am SO there :)