Lego Otaku

mostly just the brick separator. It also helps inserting a brick in a small spot.

So LEGO is using light saber clip hold that saber? (Same with Darth Vader's fighter) Wonder how that ship stayed together when light saber could cut through it all and in real life it'd have fallen apart. ;)

A 3 wide window would be nice! There are many panel that could be used as window, as well as 4 wide panel and window. But no 3 wide window or 3 wide panel for window. :/ I would also love to see a 1x1 tile with clip like http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=2555 but has stud on the bottom instead of socket. Addendum: Plant leaf 6x5 in other color would be nice. Brown for bare "branches" as well as red, orange, and yellow for autumn scene. Still would like the flower stem (1x1, 3 pins) in yellow for making corn field.

Very nice!!! I like how you made those treadmill look really good with tiles and cheese slopes, creative. I'm sure the final version can be finished, despite the concern in early posts the structure might not be able to support the weight.

Very nice!!!! I keep expecting to see a large landing area nearby sized to fit a #10179 Millennium Falcon. :)

Aye, and tricky to line them all together. download LDD file I haven't checked with 2x4 wedge pieces but I think the MOC used 2x4 because it's larger with little or no visible gap. If he used 2x3 wedges to make tower that large, there would be gaps at the narrow end. That was a great MOC though, it must have taken days to build natural looking cave system. Lots of various slopes so it's probably an expensive MOC to make as well.

Forgot to add this, I got 7188 Carriage Ambush set (which I reviewed yesterday) and the new large Atlantis set 7985 which has crazy number of 2x2 round bricks with grilles.

Don't forget you may get hit with custom tax if you buy LEGO abroad and try to bring them back to your home country. It does not matter if you carry them in suitcases or if you mail them to yourself, tax can wipe out any saving you would have otherwise. Unless it's exclusive to country you're visiting or it's hard to find, it's better to skip LEGO shopping.

Usually most of the good pieces are taken as soon as they are put out. I did pick up 15x mermaid torso for one pack (some stores allow this instead of requiring 3 of each types)

There's official red with white spots that I know of: 2x2 dish http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=4740pb04 4x4 dish http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3960pb06 The mushrooms he has pictured are not official LEGO parts. Most likely they came from Brickforge: http://www.brickforge.com/store/home.php?cat=380

Also try this link: http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemType=I&catID=710&itemStatus=U Directs to BL's listing for custom instruction for modular building and accessories. There's also a few custom modular sets: http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemType=S&catID=710&itemStatus=U but they cost an arm and a leg -_-

Could have been you. I was there May 13th (Friday) around noon time, and I remember some guy who was there filling a few cups of dark gray bricks and grabbed a handful of reddish-brown 2x2x2 barrels as well. He didn't stay as long as I did.

excluding the wheels and the harness, the carriage is 14 studs long (plus towballs on rear, towball clip on front) and 8 wide. 9 bricks plus 1 plate high from bottom of carriage to top not counting flags or wheels. Total height with wheels and flags is 13 bricks + 1 plate high. The price will be the thorn that may kill this set prematurely. Stock up when they are on sale just in case this set ends up a short lived set that gets killed quickly.

I was at one just this morning, they had like 20 boxes of ostrich race set for $17 and a couple other PoP sets on sale 20% off. No other sets on sale at this time. No $25 Space Police III set either :(

Waiting with bated breath for the package to show up :)

My first review so please feel free to criticize me. Don't bother flaming me since I have 10,000 flame element, I am virtually immune to flames. ;) Info Set # - 7188 Name - King's Carriage Ambush Theme/Subtheme - Castle/Kingdoms Year - 2011 Piece Count - 285 Minifigures - 4 + 2 horses Price - MSRP $40 US Box The front of the box is nicely done with 2 bandit ambushing the carriage, while both the King and the driver are ready to fight back if needed. The forested area and the 2 bandits are almost reminiscent of my favorite castle era: Forestmen series. The carriage's wheels were blurred to simulate speedy movement. The back of the boxes shows 3 small panels and a larger pictures of various battle scenes between King, the driver, and the bandits. It also shows how the hammer attack works, by flicking the 5L lift arm to flip the hammer. The larger picture also has very nice picture. I may cut the box up and frame the 2 nicer scenes =) box content 3 poly bags numbered 1, 2, and 3 and 2 manuals. Manual 1 is for the carriage and requires bag 1 and 2 to complete. Manual 2 is for the 2 forest pieces and requires the last bag. Instruction By miracle, the manual arrived flat and wrinkle free! I took a couple random pages: from book 1 from book 2 2 pages of part list. Pieces Front of King and Driver minifigs and 2 horses. Cloak and helmet was not attached. Back of the Driver and King minifig. King has no alternate face but the driver has a fearful face. Same 2 minifigs, fully outfitted (minus King's cloak) and some interesting pieces from bag 1 and 2. There are 2 arches of style I hadn't seen before, and the elusive square macaroni bricks, first discovered last year in the train sets. Not pictured, this set had lots of warm gold pieces including 1x1 with clip, 1x1 round plate, 1x3 curved slopes, horse's helmets, etc. Bandit minifig's front and some pieces. There are some darker green (compare with LEGO's "Dark Green" 6x8 plate) and some brown bricks that doesn't look reddish brown. There's also a clear bottle that could pass for wine or whiskey bottle. Back side of the bandit minifigs. The Build Darn me, i was having too much fun putting this together I didn't take enough picture of its progress. Like most other, I started with instruction book #1: About half way through with the carriage. The treasure chest contained a cup, 2 round 1x1 plates, and 2 gems. Nearly completed with the carriage Completed carriage. There are 2 halberds and 2 shields mounted on either side of the carriage. The roof of the carriage comes off easy as it's held in place by only 2 studs, which should make it easy to insert and remove the King. The harness is a bit more flexible than the older harness I'm used to seeing in older castle sets. Another view of the carriage with more of the warm gold pieces visible. I was left with 3 leftover pieces: warm gold 1x1 round plate (can add it to the chest), brown 1x1 round plate, and black 1x1 round plate. There are also 2 of 1x2 white plate and 2 of 1x2 white bricks, which are used on the horses if you remove the harness so not an extra pieces. Onto instruction book #2 About half way done on the tree #1. The lift arm there holds another lift arm for the flipping hammer part. The hammer goes onto the side, on the naked brown technic pin. Completed tree #2. Flick the lift arm, it causes the hammer to flip over and smash the unsuspecting minifig on the other side of the tree. Nice big hammer, might steal that one for a hulk type minifig ;) A bit before half way on tree #2, the wine bottle is up in place. Completed tree #2, the spider web flips to reveal hiding spot for the bandits to sleep and drink. On top there's a missile launcher (seems out of place somehow) for attacking the passing carriage. One reddish brown cheese slope and one technic pin are leftovers as shown in the picture. Final Thoughts Design/Build: This is quite different from most of the castle themed sets, and I had some fun putting it together. This set is very much like it's from Robin Hood, if you think of those bandits as good people who steals from the rich to give to the poor. If you replace the 4 minifigs included with older series minifig, you could probably merge this carriage and tree sets into the 80's era castle sets. Especially the Forestmen sets. 9/10 Pieces: For $40, it's on the pricey side in term of piece counts. However it does have a variety of warm gold pieces, large wagon wheels, some different arches, and it could be worth getting it. Plus those darker shade of green leaves, when mixed with normal "Dark Green" leaves could make for colorful tree, and brown pieces were rather hard to find recently when LEGO choose to stick with reddish-brown color. I'm a tad dissapointed there's only 1 alternate face from all of the 4 included minifigs. if you're buying for parts, I'd probably wait until your local store has a good sale on these series (such as Toys R Us' Buy One Get One 1/2 off deal) to buy them. 7/10 Playability: Defiantly fun concept for playing when you use this with some castle sets or with Forestment sets. By itself, it will get a bit old quickly. I'd suggest a few decent castle sets first before getting this one though. 8/10 Verdict: I'd rate this one rather high on castle fan's must have list because it's different from the usual sets. And good collection of pieces in hard to find colors. The only real negative point is the $40 USD for only 285 pieces, which comes out to about $0.14 per pieces. Which is about on par with most of the licensed sets but a bit pricey for non licensed set. EDIT: few typo, couple formatting issue EDIT #2 forgot about 2 leftover parts from bag 3...

Yep on both counts. I just wish I didn't live so far, it's about $30 in gas for the round trip -_- Now if LEGO store would open closer, like Saginaw or Flint, I'd be very happy. (although my wallet won't be happy...) Yes, newer style with round base, no pin. Set my castle on fire? Or maybe do a little MOC of hell with Osama bin Laden in there... with 70 "virgin" skeletons. I have lots of trans red and yellow 1x1 plates, and I got lots of trans orange cheese slope from last year, that'd do for lake of fire. :lol:

I couldn't find any Toys R Us set in Michigan, at 3 different stores. My parents who went to Toronto last fall found them there and got me one. It's odd that Canada store seems to have more of Lego sets not found in USA stores. Like those crossover train tracks that I got $30 each, just before they were discontinued and jumped to over $60 used.

Shipping is not cheap. Beside I've already asked in PM so it looks like I get to "win" this bargain =) Even with shipping from UK to USA, this set is still considerably cheaper than a complete one on BL. Despite the possible missing piece(s), I'll take the risk and have fun with it.

Oops yeah I got Geonosis and Mustafar mixed up. Not too fond of the new trilogy, more of the classic trilogy fan. :D

Looks a lot like this one: http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=8870&cn=587&d=70

How about the final battle between Obi Wan and Anakin on Geonosis? Just the industrial walkway (which detatches for "floating" along orange baseplate) and 2 minifigs. Yoda's home with Luke and dirty looking R2 minifig for the training in ESB. Also would be nice to have a box full of about 20 micro scale Star Destroyers and micro scale various Rebel ships that could be played along with Death Star II (if you have it) UCS Medical Frigate (with matching scale Millennium Falcon) as seen at the end of ESB. Could have Leia, Luke, medical droid, R2, C-3PO, Lando, and Chewie. This one's probably unlikely but the final scene in ANH with the full complement of rebel soldiers and workers as well as Luke, Leia, Han Solo, Chewie, R2, and C-3PO. over 100 minifigs total. Also it seems LEGO never touched these 2 extra Star Wars spinoff: Ewok's Adventure and Battle for Endor. Would require new minifigs for the human characters and some Ewoks.

At one time, the Toy Shop was going for crazy money, then LEGO surprised by reissuing them last fall along with the new Bakery set. So who knows? LEGO may keep selling these 2, may retire one of them, may add a new one, or may not do anything this year other than a few $5 polybagged sets. A few years ago LEGO also released holiday themed train set #10173, which has not been made available since. Get em if you want one at regular price but do not stock up on them unless you got lots of room and money. Many eBay sellers were left in the cold when LEGO reissued the toy set, which kind of killed the resale market.

Oldest cat I have at 7.5 years old, named Gateway. The name started as a joke about that computer company who shipped computers in black and white box. The name stuck. Next is 5 year old longhaired calico Cuddles: Like her name, she loves to cuddle with people and is often on my lap or in bed with me. Lastly, 1 year old short hair calico with white paw named Socks, and loves LEGO.

very nice!!! I like the angled layout. I do see one minor historical error: in the time era people feared the number 13 and would go out of the way to avoid 13 anywhere. Like hiring an extra person to a meeting to make it 14. And having building numbered something like 12 1/2 rather than 13. Just a little nitpick. ;)