drevim

This has been one of my major peeves with the company since my return to Lego. This wasn't near as much of a problem in the Late 80s/90s, since they had the thicker boxes with the lift up flaps. Instructions always seemed to be laying flat on the bottom with the bricks on top, but never crammed in from a side packing. Hope it takes, but I can't see it going to the mass porduced sets, I would think the cost to do the bundling with cardboard would be a drawback for them.

Great review, hadn't seen it earlier, mostly due to myself not being interested in the set. Turn the pages ahead 2 months to mid- December, when my son (6 yrs.) took an interest. He received the set for Christmas, and we finished it this afternoon. He's fairly new to Lego and had the expected issues with the string on the crane and the gearing , but the one that stumped me was the base to each girder. The 2X2 round with the technic pin in it to help attach the girder. Seems like they would have just had the girder attach to the base plate for easier assembly for the little ones. Overall he enjoys the set, and has played with it for a good while. So I think it's a winner. For the AFOL side of things, not alot here, but I don't think that was Lego's plan. I can see potential for the crane, maybe for a train, a high rise building, or construction site. Although it would require looking past the simplified rigging. Can always use more girders, but I don't think this would be a cost effective way of getting them

The most obvious Disney themed sets coming out are the Pirates of the Carribean sets, due out in 2011. Although I suspect you are talking about character themed sets (Mickey/Donald/Goofy), to which I don't have any info. I'm pretty sure that there have been block built sets of the main Disney team, probably a Disney owned sub-company. Duplo did do a set of Pooh back in the mid/late 90s, but I'm not sure what happened to the license on that.

Great review. Like the minifigs, even though I'm not into CW at all. I agree with this the above in general, but to do what is essentially a full wrap of green with grey line over green brick seems overkill. Just make the grey an overlay. I understand this seems to be the trend across most of the lego lines, but it's a direction I wish they would seriously look at getting away from, or back to what we were used to back in early 90s. A few stickers are cool, what we are getting here, a bit much. I guess this isn't a new argument, but the engines bother me here more than most.

Found 3 cases at a TRU today. Every last one had a 1/2 inch cut in the back of the package and all the tougher to find figures were picked. Don't know who I blame more, the a-holes that did it, or the employees who are constantly in the Lego area, that overlooked this.

Great MOC. A tribute to one of my favorite train sets. Really like the way you brick built the A-frame support and the crane bridge. It gives it a much more substantial feel.

Very nice!! PLus I love the fact you went with the hinged opening. I don't care for the current "snap down" style for the planes and trains.

Sure $20K seems like a lot, but what if 20,000 of us threw in $1.....Plus I'm in the 500 mile range of delivery, so I'll sort them out into 20,000 small packs, and mail them out to everyone, so this should be done by about 2016. (and that would only be about $100K in postage, figuring $5 per package)

I think an equally interesting question would be when the term SNOT came into lego terminology. I don't recall seeing it used back in the newsgroup days (mid 90s).

Like the new cross, LT. Although I'm debating between leaving the technics side arms in the current position, or rotating them 90degrees, although that may be too "old school" looking for a war memorial. All your mocs make me wish midwest USA was more interesting, so I could create a local moc, but how many 32 x 32 baseplates of cornfields do you need..

Thanks for the HP series of reviews. Really enjoy your reviewing style. I agree about this set, save the figures, it's a Quiddich BP. But I'll eventually get a second one for a complete pitch, unless I can get the old set on BL (without figs), since I like the hoops better, personal preference I guess. Now to start on that "phantom poop in the desert" MOC....

Very nice set!! The Bill and Charlie are sweet. Been thinking about a group of the Order of the Phoenix (new group), so the Bill and Charlie figures help me see them better. But that's not Fred, it's George..."Honestly, can't you tell us apart"

I picked up a bulk lot this weekend that was supposed to be all Legos. Of course it didn't turn out that way, so I touched my first mega bloks this weekend. Mostly 2 x 4s and 1 x 2s, castle wall 2 x 4s, etcs. They definitely offer colors not seen in the lego universe, which made the sorting pretty easy, but the blues and blacks took some getting used to. The yellows were the ones that seemed cheapest in quality, kind of flimsy-er, I guess. All and all, and not having ever looked at any of their sets, I would think the way they don't snap together well would get old real quick. For a young kid or those on a tight budget, I can see where theri appeal lies.

I was thinking the same thing. Looks like it would fit perfect with a small shack style airport, and a dirt runway. A kin to so many movies we see of the outback type airstrip. Really love the MOCs, LT. Seems you are always thinking two steps ahead, and fitting each piece into your town.

Thanks guys, seems pretty unamimous. I know we'll be in the greater area to hit the Field museum and visit friends in the next month or so. Will make the trip to Schaumburg for sure, and maybe squeeze in Northbrook too.

Thanks for the peak at Troy's store. I'm about 5 hours from the Chicago stores, and 4 from Cincinnati. But Chicago has 4 stores in the area, so it may be worth the extra hour. If anyone has experience in the ones in Chicago, I'd like to know if one is better than the others.

Think the changes look great. Since you mentioned this in the thread I started, I've been planning to get another PF system and switch mine over too. Really like the cargo carrier as the second car now too.

This is great to all the MOCs coming together in your own Aussie town. Looks really good. so far. As a wise person has said....I'm a conformist!!!

Couldn't buy them, didn't even get one with buying sets. Went in 3 hours after the store opened, and they were out. "will you get more in, it's only been a day?", I ask. "Sorry, once they are gone, they are gone"...Guess I'll try again next week.

Welcome from the other side of the Ohio (IN).

I think you are seeing 12 diff storage units stacked. You can get them at WalMart/Target/etc in the US. I would assume any type of Bed,Bath,Beyond or that type of store would also have them. Not sure where to send you in the UK, but hope ths gives you some sort of direction to look.

Good piece. May need to try and make it VA next year to see "the mist rising" in person...

Being a huge anime fan, I think these are great. Han needs Goku-ish hair, but short of clay, I can't thing of any lego hair that would work. I think the Leia face is great, but I agree Ben is probably the best.

Yep, got beat to the punch, but I was going to suggest the Wild West bugle. Not sure how it would look, but the bow from the forestman line may work for a bow (although the flex is exaggerated), with the arrow trimmed out.

Not to detract from Diagon Alley, but.. Is there any chance that TRU has an exclusive release for the sets today? The reason I ask is, I was told both at WalMart and Target that they couldn't put out the sets. I mentioned that they were available on their online stores, and both said they couldn't pull them out. Unless they are confused by the Oct 1 release as in tonight (USA tonight). Just seemed odd that not one but 2 different stores said it. TRU has them out, but it's hard to choke down an extra $5 ($16) for a $11 set, and extra $20 for a $129 set. Guess this is the price I pay for not preordering.