Rumble Strike

Thanks for the kind words! LightningTiger, you really don't want to know where the screwdriver goes when he's not using it! I know what you mean Out of Sight, I was pleased with the sturdiness of the construction, it's a very compactly built truck, very durable. Not many bits to fall off.

Hi, Here is a pic of the Knight without the helmet. I'll add this to the review too.

As it was my first review, I didn't take a pic without the Knight's helmet. Apologies! I'll see if I can get one taken to add to the review.

Thank you for the kind words. The teachers at the Reviewers Academy have been giving me advice on photo setup and composition and I think these ones turned out very well. My favourite is the photo under "Completed Set" with the Dragon Knight catapult approaching the outpost at an angle. I would definitely recommend this set to anyone who is undecided about it. I had a great time playing with it! Ogre, I have bought Escape From Dragon Prison as I was fascinated by the Dragon Knight General on the armoured horse. Hopefully that will be a set I can do as an Academy review soon!

I think this has a really nice "Classic Town" feel to it. Great job!

I was always excited for this wave since it was first announced, and this review and these wonderful pics certainly keep the excitement going! Thank you WhiteFang! My favourites are the Cavegirl, with one of the best female faces ever , the Gladiator, with the elbow detailing, and the Mafia Goon. I just completed Series 4 last week (bag feeler extrordinaire, no unwanted duplicates!) so will definitely be trying to complete series 5 when it arrives in the UK.

Since coming back into the Lego fold last year, my buying habits have been largely unfocused. Most of the Atlantis range at first, then some City, some Star Wars, some Pirates of the Caribbean, all of Prince of Persia. But it hasn't been until I found the Kingdoms line that I really felt back “at home” with Lego, as these sets seem to remind me most strongly of the sets I had when I was 25, 30 years younger, when Castle was all the rage. This is a review of the mid-range set in the 2010 Kingdoms line, the Outpost Attack. BASIC INFORMATION: Set Name: Outpost Attack Set Number: 7948 Number of Pieces: 194 Minifigs: 3 Price: USD 19.99, GBP 20.99, EUR 19.99 Theme: Kingdoms Year Released: 2010 ADDITIONAL REFERENCES: LEGO Shop @ Home Brickset Peeron My photo set on Flickr THE REVIEW: BOX: Front: We start with a bright, colourful box, akin to the other Kingdoms sets, showing off the contents of the set well. It presents a very striking and attractive package on the shelf. Back: If the front didn't show off the Lion Knights in the outpost at their most alert whilst being attacked, then the back of the box again does them no favours as the Dragon Knight catapult attacks from behind while they pose for a picture. Side: The side of the box shows off the three included minifigs, with the 1:1 picture turned on its side, similar to 7949 Prison Carriage Rescue. IN THE BOX: Contents There are only two numbered bags in this set, which seemed a bit low, but they are chock full of pieces. The first bag makes the catapult and the minifigures, whilst the second bag makes the outpost. There is a tiny sticker sheet, and one instruction booklet. Instruction Booklet: There is an oddity with the instruction booklet that eagle-eyed readers may well have spotted between the last photo and this one. The cover of the booklet is in landscape but the inside is in portrait! Very strange! Apart from this, it's very easy to follow, with colour differentiation being spot on between the various greys and blacks. The booklet takes you through the catapult build and then the outpost build, so that's how I'll do it here. Sticker Sheet: Here is the sticker sheet, you can see mine was curled up a lot in the box. It only has two stickers, both of which are used on the tower to provide extra detail. BAG 1 – MINIFIGURES AND CATAPULT: The Pieces: This is bag one's contents. A nice mix of earthy greens and browns, and stark black. Pieces of interest: Parts of interest in this bag include 4 large black round pieces, used for the wheels of the catapult, a bucket and arm piece, which is the primary mechanism of the catapult's throwing action, and lots of cheese slopes in green and pearl gold. Yummy! MINIFIGS: Front: The front of the three minifigs. Note that whilst the box art and booklet front have the archer wearing the chain-mail torso, in the instructions he is given the Lion Knights quartered torso. This may be to differentiate him from the poor guy being taken prisoner in the Prison Carriage Rescue set, as they would both have the chain-mail and the pointed helmet. Back: There is back printing on all three of the minifigs, but sadly not one alternate expression in the group, which is a shame as all three wear helmets which would conceal them. Accessories: Quite a few accessories for these minifigures, it's nice to see. I love all the different weapons the Kingdoms sets give us, and especially in 2 different colours. I really like the wide-brimmed style of helmet too, they look like they really mean business! Let's take a closer, individual look at the minifigs with their accessories. Lion Knight Archer: The Lego site calls both good guys “King's soldiers”, but this guy is definitely an archer, because he has his quiver and crossb- wait a minute! Where's his crossbow? Is he just going to throw arrows at the enemy? Don't worry Mr archer man, your crossbow isn't actually part of bag one, it seems as though the bow is an armament of the tower outpost and therefore is in bag two, so we will just have to see pics of him fully armed later. The face is slightly inappropriate, as he looks fairly cheery. It's not really a surprise as the box art shows, he clearly can't actually see when the enemy is right outside his door and so remains blissfully ignorant and happy. Lion Knight soldier: This guy looks really imposing due to the spear and the wide-brimmed helmet. You can see the detailing on the helmet, with all the rivets. A lovely piece. The expression on the face is one that has been used with great regularity in other Lego sets – I'm sure I have a policeman with the same face – but it does seem to work very well inside the enclosed helmet. Dragon Knight Soldier: As usual in these sets, the Dragon Knight soldier is outnumbered. Which must be why the Dragons have started cloning their soldiers. He has the same face as the solitary Dragon Knight soldier in the Prison Carriage Rescue set! He does get a Dragon Knight-coloured version of the wide-brimmed helmet to call his own, though, and it looks even more imposing in the darker colour. He also gets a spear and a flaming torch, utilising the telescope piece for the holder. This is a good extra. Here is a shot showing the two Dragon Knight soldiers from the two sets, this one and Prison Carriage Rescue. As you can see, although the expression is the same, with the distinctive sneer, due to the different styles of helmet as well as the different accessories, it isn't all that noticeable. Lego just about gets away with this reuse. THE CATAPULT BUILD AND COMPLETED SHOTS: Next up is the Dragon Knight siege weapon, the catapult! By step 5, the base of the catapult has been established. At step 10, there is more of an emphasis on the brown pieces. See the Dragon shield in the middle? There's another one on the other side. Nice! It's just about ready now for the catapult assembly... ... which is the next stage. The catapult assembly is a similar mechanism to the one in the Knight's Showdown set, but on a much larger scale. This one is already looking a bit bigger than I anticipated. The final steps are to put the four wheels on, with the innovative use of the cheese slopes as decoration. I think those make the whole thing look really sharp! There are also two barrels constructed for use as projectiles. Here's a shot of the completed catapult with the Dragon Knight soldier. You can see from this angle that the barrels fit nicely into the bucket. I didn't seem to be able to spot an easy place to put the spare barrel, though. These next two pictures compare this catapult to the one found in the Knight's Showdown set. You can see that the Dragon's catapult is much bigger and meaner looking! From this birds-eye view you can see how puny the bucket is on the smaller catapult. I know it was in a smaller and much less expensive set but the Dragon catapult here is a clear winner. I guess it helps level the playing field a bit when the Lion Knights have the numerical advantage in every set. BAG 2 – OUTPOST: Now we move on to the contents of bag two. The Pieces: Lots of greys here, along with red accent colours signifying that this is a Lion Knight outpost. Pieces of interest: Parts of interest in bag two include a window piece and casement, a large castle wall, a printed flag piece with the lion crest on both sides! And red cheese slopes, along with red and pearl gold flags for the top of the tower. THE OUTPOST BUILD AND COMPLETED SHOTS: Last thing to build is the titular outpost. I'm really looking forward to this, it's my first “castle” building in years! By step 8, the ground floor is built and the ivy detailing stickers are put on the big castle wall pieces. I know people don't like stickers but I think these are pretty harmless, and do add to the look of the outpost overall. Step 14 has the ground floor finished off with the two axes either side of the entrance, and work beginning on the second level. By step 19, the side battlements are added. Can you spot the rookie mistake in my build? That's right, the second dark slope piece at the back should be facing the other way. I fixed it before the next shot! Step 25 finds the ground work done for the third level, I especially like the way they used brown slopes because they look like wooden joists. Step 30 and we are almost done. The third level has the battlements set up and finally the archer has his weapon to use. Notice the big hole in the second floor? That's because the last step constructs a window and wall piece that slots in to the hole. These were the extra pieces. The two cheese slopes on the left are from the outpost, while the cheese slopes, Technic doohicky and flame piece are from the catapult. Let's take a look around the completed structure: The front of the outpost. I like this, I think it's big enough to have fun with. I love that printed flag piece, it makes the whole front of the outpost really pop visually. The side view shows how thin the outpost structure is. There's not a great deal of room in there really. It's certainly not deep enough to fit more than a couple of figures. The other side view is practically identical. Pic is on my flickr set if you really need to see it. The back shows a couple of sins. There is nothing in the outpost! No boxes, barrels, fish, bottles or assorted animals, basically it lacks anything Lego usually puts in to a set to make their structures appear less empty. Also, due to the size, there are no stairs or any way for the figures to move between floors. One of those fold-down ladders would have sufficed. It's always going to look a bit empty without any minifigs though. Here we see the archer, happy now that he actually has a weapon. The top battlements have plenty of room for at least a couple of figures. The second Lion Knight soldier stands guard in the doorway. See how nicely he fits in, even if there's not a great deal of room behind him. The side battlements offer another vantage point for the minifigures but it is a tight squeeze to get one in there. In this shot you can see the archer happily waving to us – that's because he can't stand there with his arm down as it's blocked by the battlement. I also moved the second soldier further inside the building so he can be seen in the side doorway. That shows you how much room there is on the ground. I have a couple of closeups of the two soldiers in my Flickr set. Here is a shot of the removable window piece. It's the outpost's main action feature. However you can see that the outpost itself is constructed so that without the piece, the two arches on the first and second levels match. This is a really nice design touch, giving a different, more open look to the outpost if wanted. You can see how the window piece slides onto the brown tiles, pushed in from the back of the outpost. Once it is in place, the two brown cheese slopes make sure it can not fall out from the front. COMPLETED SET: As with many of the Kingdoms sets, there is a great deal of playability to be had here, as we have built a Dragon Knight siege weapon and a Lion Knight stronghold: The Dragon Knight soldier approaches the outpost with his deadly catapult. Closer, closer... He needs to set up his shot perfectly. From high atop the tower, the Lion archer can see the enemy approach, but his arrows are sadly molded into his quiver and his crossbow and he can do nothing. See how high the outpost is? The valiant spearman can only watch as the leering Dragon Knight soldier readies his terrifying weapon. The Dragon Knight catapult strikes a fearsome blow, as the projectile flies through the air and smashes into the outpost, obliterating the second level window! (I actually lined the shot up as I was taking these photos, thinking “This'll never work”, and hit it first time! Go me!) The barrel projectile perches precariously on the edge of the second level battlements as the window is smashed cleanly through the outpost to the outside. The Dragon Knights have won this day! Totals: Design: 9/10 – I'm giving this a high score here because I think both designs are very solid. Sure, there are minor quibbles about the outpost deco being a bit sparse, and I know some might wish that Lego had ditched the catapult entirely to free up more parts for the outpost, but I think both sides come out well. Parts: 8/10 - There are a lot of nice parts here. There are many different arch pieces, lots and lots of weapons, not just on the minifigs but the axes on the outpost and shields on the catapult. Lots of cheese slopes too, and who doesn't love them? Plus, that printed flag piece! Build: 7/10 – With two distinct builds here this is an interesting set to construct. I really enjoyed building the outpost, and the vertical build was refreshing. Minifigs: 8/10 – Three very good minifigs with lovely printing, but conversely, three well-used faces with no alternate expressions. Can't argue with all the helmets and weaponry they come with, though. As always, an extra minifig here (preferably a Dragon Knight to even up the numbers) would have been amazing. Playability: 8/10 – As mentioned before, the Kingdoms line seems to want to offer playable scenarios straight out of the box, with no other sets necessary. This does the job in spades. The catapult is a real threat to the outpost as proved above! Price: 8/10 – The parts per piece ratio might not be stellar with this set but you do feel like you are getting a lot for your money with the two distinct constructs. I am certainly satisfied. Total: 48/60 – A great mid-priced set for the Kingdoms line, this combines good minifigures, nice parts, tons of weapons and conflict. I love this set, and hope that other sets in Kingdoms are as good as this one. I hope you enjoyed this review; the third of my Reviewers Academy reviews. I would love constructive comments and feedback below. Thanks!

I have very fond memories of Lego Town from when I was little, I probably had more Town sets than I did Space or Castle, although most of my creations were a bizarre fusion of the three! As a new AFOL now, my focus may be slightly different, but I have been buying a few City sets, partly due to the Collectable Minifigs which are City-themed in the main. This is one I picked up on eBay fairly cheap new, although I actually regretted buying it afterwards (ah, eBay buyer's remorse, I'm sure most of us have been there!) so I thought it might make a good subject for my second Reviewers Academy review. BASIC INFORMATION: Set Name: Repair Truck (also known as “Lighting Repair”) Set Number: 3179 Number of Pieces: 118 Minifigs: 1 Price: USD 12.99, GBP 9.99, EUR 12.99 Theme: City Year Released: 2010 ADDITIONAL REFERENCES: LEGO Shop @ Home Brickset Peeron My photo set on Flickr THE REVIEW: BOX: Front: We start with the very recognisable Lego City- blue-coloured box, with a good picture of the contents you can build inside. Back: The back shows our intrepid engineer man setting out fencing and going up in the crane. All in a day's work for him! Side: The side of the box shows off the accessories for the truck as well as the 1:1 look at the engineer. IN THE BOX: Contents: We get two bags, folded instructions, a sticker sheet, and two larger plates. Quite why they weren't in the bags I don't know. Instruction Booklet: The booklet was clear to follow, and has a lovely blue background. The colour differences weren't too bad, although as usual the grey and black pieces weren't always easy to work out. Sticker Sheet: Here is the sticker sheet, with some pretty nice stickers such as the “electrical hazard” ones and the yellow and black hazard lines. The Pieces: Here is a pic of all the pieces jumbled together as they came out of the two bags. You can see from here that the minifig torso has no back printing. Boo! Pieces of interest: I don't expect a set like this would thrill any longtime Lego City fans, but I'm new enough to it all to be going “Oh, that's a cool windshield piece! And transparent fence piece!”. That is, if I talked to myself whilst building *shifty glances* There are also some translucent pieces – always nice to get those – and the engineer guy's tools are stored in a big round ring sprue. Not seen that before. MINIFIG: Just the one minifig in this set, so he has to drive around AND fix the lights, though hopefully not at the same time! Construction Worker: I call him an engineer but this minifig is outfitted in the style of the Lego construction workers, with his orange overalls, blue trousers and red hard hat. The face has a smiling expression, with glasses. He's obviously a bit of a nerd who enjoys his job. As mentioned before, no back printing on this torso, which is a shame. Also no dual-expression, although I guess the reason for that is that you'd be able to see it on the back of his head, as the hard hat would not hide it. THE BUILD: Build: Whilst we only get one minifig, the truck isn't the only thing to build in this set. First we have a lamppost on a small base plate, with a green recycling bin next to it. Obviously the truck needs a light to replace! Lamppost: It's a very simple build (hence no pictures) but it does the job nicely. You can see the size of it better when the engineer is also in shot. Repair Truck: After this little appetiser we then start on the truck itself. By step 8 the building of the truck chassis and cab has begun. By step 15 the cab has been furnished with a steering wheel – in a somewhat bizarre blue colour - as well as having opening doors put in. These take me back to the classic Lego Town of my childhood. I am aware that not all recent City vehicles have been given doors, which is a real shame, so nice to see them here. By step 27 the truck is taking shape, with the cab fully finished and the crane area being worked on. You can also see my terrible placement of the “electrical hazard” sticker, which is noticeably crooked! By step 33, the truck is complete. It's a good size and the bright yellow colour pops at you. It's unfortunate that from this angle you can still make out the red brick which forms part of the chassis. Extra pieces included a grey cheese slope and some translucent slopes and bricks. Yay! COMPLETED SET: Let's take a look at the set and its playability: Our engineer man fits in the middle of the cab quite nicely. I'm sure you could get 2 minifigs in there if you really wanted to. From this angle you can see the back of the truck, with the crane flanked by the two safety fences with the translucent orange lights. You can see how the connection point at the base of the crane allows it to spin freely 360 degrees around its axis. There are also storage points for the engineer's tools on either side of the truck, as you can see in this pic and the one above this. This side also has two cupboards with opening doors that hold more tools and spare lightbulbs for the lampposts. Here is the full set, with the crane deployed and our fearless engineer ready to fix the lamppost. The safety fencing has been arrayed around the area. A close-up shot of the engineer in his bucket. He stands in it securely and the crane itself hoists him up to a good height, level with the lamppost. Totals: Design: 7/10 – This set does what it sets out to do very well. The truck itself is fairly big and colourful and with the addition of the lamppost there is some playability inherent in the set. Parts: 7/10 - A good amount of parts for the price point, and some interesting ones to boot. Pieces like the windshield as well as the crane bucket are useful, as are the many translucent pieces in the set. Build: 6/10 – A simple yet enjoyable build. The only clever techniques are seen on the front and back bumpers, with SNOT construction for the lights and number plates. Minifigs: 5/10 – The downside to having a fair few parts to this set is that only one minifigure is included. I guess he is solid enough but without any other printing other than the torso he can't be considered to be very exciting. I know it's an easy thing to say but the set would have been much better with two minifigs, one to drive and one to go on the crane. Playability: 7/10 – As mentioned, it's not like you have to go through your other City sets in the hope that one of them has a lamppost this guy can change the bulb on. We get one in the set. Instant playability, but sadly, not all that entertaining or exciting. Other City sets have police or firemen, or even people driving big diggers. Carnage could ensue with any of those. This guy, well, he changes lights. Price: 7/10 – The value here isn't at all bad if we look at it in terms of price per piece and also in terms of how cool the pieces actually are, however, only having the single bog-standard construction worker minifig does hurt it a bit. Total: 39/60 – A set that does what it's supposed to do, hence the very reasonable score here. This set is certainly a worthwhile addition to your City streets, but only if you have had your fill of the more exciting sets out there. The engineer had been sadly misinformed. Sheik Amar did not, in fact, need his lights fixing. Or even know what lightbulbs were. I hope you enjoyed this review; I would love constructive comments and feedback below.

Back when I was a small child my top 3 LEGO themes were Town, Space and Castle, probably like most little kids! Since coming back into LEGO fandom at the end of last year, I have been eagerly revisiting the successors to those early 1980s lines. LEGO introduced the Kingdoms line in 2010, and this is a review of one of the smaller sets, the Prison Carriage Rescue. BASIC INFORMATION: Set Name: Prison Carriage Rescue Set Number: 7949 Number of Pieces: 50 Minifigs: 3 Price: USD 9.99, GBP 9.99, EUR 9.99 Theme: Kingdoms Year Released: 2010 ADDITIONAL REFERENCES: LEGO Shop @ Home Brickset Peeron My photo set on Flickr THE REVIEW: BOX: Front: We start with a lovely colourful box, showing off the contents and the inherent playability of the set very well. Back: The back shows how the soldier might well escape, it's handy that the door folds down, isn't it? Side: The side of the box shows off the included minifigs, with the 1:1 picture turned awkwardly on its side. IN THE BOX: Contents Two bags, folded instructions and no sticker sheet! Woohoo! The horse is loose in the box, no separate baggie for him. Pieces of interest: Gotta love the horse armour piece with the horn. It comes in a separate baggie inside one of the other big bags. It's a very detailed piece, sculpted with overlapping plates and even rivets. And I know it's not a new piece but it's always nice getting a horse! MINIFIGS: Front: The front of the three minifigs. I have the terrified expression showing as default on the soldier as that's how he's depicted in the instructions. Check out those incredible detailed torsos! Back: Back printing on all three minifigs, although only the soldier has an alternate expression. Accessories: The soldier comes with no weapons but does get a helmet, the style of which I remember fondly from early Castle. The King's knight and the Dragon Knight soldier get swords and shields in their respective faction colours, as well as helmets, including a new knight-style helmet for the King's knight. Let's take a closer, individual look at the minifigs with their accessories. King's soldier: This guy is called a King's soldier in the blurb on the LEGO site, but he doesn't have the lion faction badge anywhere, and despite his chain-mail, he would fit in pretty well as a civilian-type character. The dual-expressioned head works very well in the context of the set. Dragon Knight soldier: This is the Dragon Knight soldier, he drives the prison carriage but does have armament to protect himself from ambushes. The print on the shield is awesome, and overall the detailing apparent on this minifig is superb. The expression on the face is an appropriate scowl. King's Knight: As nicely detailed as the other two minifigs are, they pale in comparison to the King's knight. He has so much detail, including leg printing! The look is enhanced both stylistically and colourfully by the shield and the plume on the helmet. This guy is definitely one of my favourite non-licensed figs I've seen. Here he is without his helmet. He is unshaven but with a slight smile. I'm glad he has a different face to the other two. THE BUILD: Build: At stage 5, the base of the carriage has been completed. At stage 10, the prison walls are starting to take shape. You can see how cramped and small the prison will be. By stage 15, the prison carriage is complete. See how nice the horse looks with the head armour. From the back you can see the ineffective gate piece that hinges down as well as the tiny size of the prison itself. A figure barely fits in there! The carriage is well finished off with the spear and the fire, though. These were the extra pieces, a couple of cheese slopes and spare fire and plume. COMPLETED SET: The nature of the set does allow for playable scenarios to quickly develop: Oh no, a soldier of the King has been captured! But wait, here comes a valiant King's knight, stepping bravely in front of the thuggish Dragon Knight soldier and his unwilling prisoner. The mortal enemies duel as the terrified prisoner realises how to escape. After a brief skirmish, the tables are turned as the Dragon Knight soldier is imprisoned. The King's knight makes sure the Dragon Knight soldier doesn't even think about trying to get free! Totals: Design: 5/10 – The prison is tiny and looks unfinished. Obviously the design was hindered by its price point. I'm sure it'd be pretty easy to modify into something bigger and more prison-like. Parts: 6/10 - A low amount of parts and nothing really exciting apart from the horse and the armour. Like the design aspects, this is to be expected at this price point, and with the focus on the minifigs. Build: 5/10 – A very simple build. No real interesting techniques and it's all over and done with very quickly. Good for kids though, who will be able to get the set up and running easily! Minifigs: 10/10 – The standouts of the set, and the main reason this was considered to be one of the “army builder” sets of the first wave of Kingdoms. Three quality figures with great accessories. Playability: 8/10 – For all the design flaws, this is still a very playable “battle in a box” set, with two factions able to duke it out over the prison carriage. A nice addition to the other sets in the wave, for sure. Price: 6/10 – This retails for the same price as the licensed battle packs from the likes of the Star Wars line, but it would have been nice to see this set a bit cheaper than those, due to it being an in-house Lego theme. I actually paid 25% less than retail for my set, so was pretty happy with the price. Total: 40/60 – A solid set for the price, the design of the carriage is underwhelming but the set is rescued by the minifigs and the horse, and the opportunities and scenarios that can be created. I hope you enjoyed this review; it is my first review as part of the Reviewers Academy. I would love constructive comments and feedback below. Thanks!

It was my birthday today and I got: Kingdoms Outpost Attack Kingdoms Prison Tower Rescue Kingdoms Blasksmith Attack And I picked up an eBay win of Castle Drawbridge Defense from the post office, so the "Lego fairy" was very good to me today! Definitely feeling that for all my dabbling in different themes, the later Castle/Kingdoms stuff is where I want to be. I built the Outpost Attack this afternoon and was very impressed by every aspect of it.

I didn't see anything about price on there but it does seem an interesting project.

Bernard Cribbins got in a lot of childrens TV voice-acting back in the day!

There have also been exclusive Minimates 4-packs for Disney stores. I am not sure if Lego would want to get involved with the Avengers, but personally I'd be very excited if they did!

A fantastic series of builds accompanied by some superb photo work. Amazing stuff!

I'm using Rumble Strike as my friends and I have our XBox Live names as <something> Strike. Originally the idea came from the Desert Strike series of games from EA in the 90s. When we all play Call of Duty on the same team it looks pretty cool! I chose Rumble as it sounds cool with the Strike suffix, like an avalanche or something, and it's also the name of one of Soundwave's tapes in Transformers. It's also usually available! I do tend to get through user-names with regularity, I'm not someone who has had the same online name for years and I tend to change it on the hobby/forum that I am in.

That is a very cool polybag set! To get a fully-fledged car in a bag is good when, as sok117 said, the main cars individually are not cheap.

The Collectable Minifigures got me out of my Dark Age. So while I like them, when trying to collect full series without getting too many extras, my wallet hates me again!

As a child Fabuland at the time was too much like Duplo to me in that it seemed a lot more simple (and, yes, childish) than the System stuff I liked, such as Town and Space. So I never had any as a kid. However since playing in Hinckley's Fabuland Mafia I have developed a new appreciation for it to the point where I'm looking to pick up a set or two on eBay. I think I agree with its defenders here - it is much cuter and at the same time more subversive than the later ecquivilents Aanchir mentions.

I would like to join. I have been reviewing toys for years for my own website but would like to learn more about the craft for reviews I can show here. I think my Mill review is a good starting point, but am always looking to improve.

Bit of an odd one this. Cirencester Tesco had 3222 Lego City Helicoptor and Limo back on the shelves at £13. They must've found them in the back somewhere as I thought this set had finished production. At least, it's what eBay leads me to believe.

TRU has the big main wall full of Cars 2 stuff now and I simply couldn't resist picking up this set, figuring that if I want to get Flo's V8 Cafe at some point I don't really want to repeat characters. I really love Guido and Luigi, they are bright, colourful and really cute. They are also very solid, something I wasn't too sure about beforehand. The printed bricks are lovely, and they both just really work as Lego representations of their characters. The pit stop stuff is a bit throwaway, with these "2 character" sets the emphasis is clearly on the cars themselves. Still, it looks suitably "Cars-esque" so can't grumble too much. Can't wait to add more Cars to my collection

The scale of it is pretty impressive then! Thank you for the pic!

Lovely review, very enthusiastic with some good pictures! I have tos ay out of all the Cars 2 sets, this would be the one to get for me. I know it's based off Cars rather than the second film. To get so many printed and different coloured pieces just makes it so tempting as a parts pack as well as a top-notch representation of the iconic Cars locale.

Top class review as always! Very useful to see the comparison between the alien saucer and the mothership saucer. Any chance of a shot of the two with the mothership completed? Love the last pic