Zeya

Let's see... series 6, 7, 8 at $2.99 per figure with 10% tax: 3 * 16 * 2.99 * 1.1 = $158. Maybe $190 considering I plan on keeping about 3 MISB packs for each set. Totally worth it. On the subject of repeats, I don't mind that if they look different or complimentary enough. The skater wasn't really my cup of tea, but they look different enough but still go together to make a nice moc of some skateboarders doing tricks. I like how you can kind of pick out themes that go together. I really like how over time you end up with a circus collection, and a halloween / horror movie collection. And I absolutely love the forestman/trojan/musketeer/viking/gladiator figs. I can't wait to see what the designs are for series 6/7/8.

Thanks for the review! The minifigs look great and I think all of those faces are new, at least to my collection. The new dragon armor with the one dragon face looks like an improvement over last year's armor. The structure isn't much to write home about, but I think you can make it be the backside of last year's prison tower. The idea of parts of a structure released across multiple sets is both intriguing and disturbing to me; I wonder if we will see more of that in the future.

Hey, it looks like they've added a box on the website to enter the codes from the cards: http://www.lego.com/piratesofthecaribbean/en-us/Default.aspx I'll have to look at my cards when I get home. Has anyone tried to enter a code yet? What happens?

It's the same for me, too. We can probably assume everyone got the delay email They also didn't say when they might ship. This might be the one and only time I preorder like this, or even buy from B&N. As of right now, you can order from Amazon, and that is tax free, essentially matching the B&N preorder savings. I thought a preorder meant I would get the sets as soon as they were released, too. But I guess not.

I just put together my copy of the London set. Both of my soldier hats have this misprinting. It's like extra paint coming down the side. Has anyone else seen this?

I'm sorry to say I think I'll be passing on MBA too. I think this program is fantastic for kids. I was interested in learning building techniques. But without interesting pieces in other colors, I have to pass. I was hoping to maybe see some other themes like castle or some exclusive minifigs, or maybe some houses or other buildings. But it seems like spaceships, dragons, and other swooshable vehicles. I think this will be a big hit with the core Lego audience of 6-13 year olds. The subscription would make a great birthday gift that lasts all year. Also, to be honest, I don't need to spend more money on Lego than I already do! I do wonder about a couple things. They mention secrets and bonuses. I wonder how much of that is concrete rewards, and how much is silly web stuff like comics and funny pictures or whatever. I also wonder what happens if you miss the first year, if they let you jump in at kit 7. I guess time will tell.

I found the info on the prices. It was hidden away in an obscure Q&A section where it's hard to find. http://mba.lego.com/en-us/Guide/What_is_LEGO_MBA.aspx That's a total of (a few cents under) $100 for a full year's subscription. If that part count is true, then the price per piece is under 9 cents (before tax of course). For your money, you also get a big book and brick separator. There are also 2 minifigures with unique torso printing. It looks like mainly standard bricks (kind of like the Creator theme) in pretty garish colors. They probably use bright colors since that makes it easier to tell apart areas of the model. I see a lot of bright green and purple, and not a lot of earth tones. It's pretty much devoid of minifigure accessories, animals, etc.

It looks like they just posted a ton of information on the Lego MBA: http://www.legomba.com/ I saw info on pricing and part count at some point, but it's buried in there. (No time to dig for it right now.) It looks like preorders start in May. There's an initial kit with a big book, a bunch of bricks, a minifigure, and a brick separator. And then I guess if you subscribe, you get something like a polybag every 2 months. There's a second minifigure to be had after a few kits come. Can somebody spot the prices for all this in there?

Yeah it has dots just like series 3. This issue has been discussed extensively in this thread, by the way. You can find tips on bag feeling, images of dot patterns and what they map to, and so on, right in this thread.

Fair enough on the Han Solo clone issue. I did enjoy the character and ship also. I had no idea that it made an appearance in the special edition movies. I liked the wise-cracking droid too; he had the vocal skills of C-3PO and the sense of humor of R2D2.

Haha, I read the book and played the video game when I was a kid. The title for both was "Shadows of the Empire" and the game was one of the first 3 or 4 games for the N64. Please don't take offense to this, but in hindsight, the Dash Rendar character and his ship are basically just clones of Han Solo. It was as if it was too much trouble to talk Lucasfilm into allowing the use of Han Solo, so instead they just made up a new character so they could do what they wanted. It's times like these when I remind myself why I don't collect SW lego. I was enough of a SW geek back then that if I started collecting, it would just ruin my pocketbook. *sigh* That's a really nice little MOC. I like the use of the binoculars and the array with the technic pin is surprisingly articulated and varied. Where does that printed tile come from? Another SW set?

There should be a EB contest for CMF packet feeling. Whoever can identify the most figures in a certain time frame wins, negative points for incorrect guesses. We could set up webcams and stream it live. Just imagine a wall of video feeds of blurry hands and the sound of crinkling foil/plastic material and muffled comments like "what the...". The prize would be a complete set of collectible Megabloks Halo figures.

From that link: As of right now, that minifig is only available if you preorder the video game. It isn't just TRU running that promotion, by the way. It's unknown whether they will sell it at a later date on its own. I can't guess if that will happen since I'm a relative newFOL. I haven't heard about it being available in the rest of the world either.

It varies from state to state and even varies by county or city. There is no federal sales tax. Some states have no sales tax, such as Oregon. Here in California it is around 10%. That's pretty typical for most places in the US, about 9% or 10%.

Well, the old (current?) wall pieces don't have support on the sides. I notice when I stack several of those pieces (I do that for storage), that they tend to bend backwards in a curve, if you know what I mean. I think kids probably have a tendency to break the old ones since there's so little support. So I guess Lego is perhaps re-doing those molds to make them stronger.

My copy of The Mill had its paper goods boarded and bagged as well. Everything in there was pristine; I love it.

I put this set together two days ago. This was my first licensed set, and my first set with flesh-toned minifigures. The great thing about this set are the four minifigures. I find that I don't mind the flesh tones at all; perhaps I even prefer them! I can say that having flesh toned figs next to yellow ones is really more jarring and noticeable than I thought it would be. But The Mill's figures are really cool. Will Turner is probably the weakest (no leg printing), and Norrington is actually the best, I think. It was cool to position Will and Norrington on top of the wheel, deuling, and then stick Jack Sparrow into the hole in the bottom of the wheel, like in the movie. As far as the build goes, it was pretty underwhelming. There were many parts that were extra tall, obviously to save on costs. (Those large stickered window pieces, and tall 1x1 bricks). I found the sticker sheet to be a bit unnecessary too; especially the 1x2x2 brick that has its own sticker. (I have a policy of always putting the stickers on by the way.) And some of the building was uninspired. When putting this together, I realized that some of these sets aren't about the structures. It really is about the minifigs. It really made me realize why The Fountain of Youth and Isla De La Muerta have 3 figs - they're just small sets geared at letting you get your hands on minifigs for a lower overall cost. I also got myself a Whitecap Bay, London Escape, and Cannibal Escape. I'm really looking forward to the cannibal set, because it looks like it has the best figs and parts in it. Thanks for the review!

I got 4 POTC sets during TRUs BOGO half off sale yesterday: Whitecap Bay London Escape The Mill Cannibal Escape

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

I really like the trans-blue pieces of the fountain. I think I will use them to make a frozen fountain for my winter village setup this Christmas (Winter Toy Shop and Winter Village Bakery, etc). Thanks for the review!

I assume you're referring to the head shot of Johnny Depp. But didn't the Indiana Jones boxes have a real-life Harrison Ford brandishing a whip? What is that white coupon-looking box in this shot? I can't make it out: And I guess this set doesn't come with a card either. It's strange; I wonder why some sets have cards and some don't. Perhaps just the sets for the new movie have the cards?

We could add the restriction that you can't use Universe mode (or whatever it's called now). It would be a RCB where the final result is purchasable from DesignByMe. It would be fun to see what happens and how much it would cost. I personally would rather just stick to full MOCcing in Universe mode. :) I feel bad about Aanchir and his self-inflicted color checking duties.

We could make an idea and voting thread. The first phase would be RCB proposal (keeping it short) and then in the second phase we would add a poll and let everyone vote for which idea to go with.

Awesome! It really looks great. I like how everybody couldn't resist adding minifigures. It's funny how we have exactly two trees and a bridge, most of which was done by Brickdoctor in the last turn. And he's the one who wrote that rule!

...when you sometimes wish bricks made less noise so that you can build in the middle of the night without waking your family up.