Arigomi

It is technically a 2011 set so S@H won't actually sell it till the official January 2011 release date. The majority of TLG's income come from stores selling the sets. The main priority is to make sure that retailers get enough of the 2011 sets. Thanks TheBrickster for the wonderful review. The wood grain in the background was a nice detail that evoked the wilderness feel of the set. It think this is a pretty successful set considering how it is meant for a lower price range compared to other Creator houses. I think the tree would look better if you rotate it so that the corner points away from the house. The scene would look "cut out" from the landscape, resulting in the tree getting partially cut. It is understandable why the base plates are not thin baseplates. There are only 2 sizes for thin baseplates and they don't really fit for the size of this set. The log cabin really needed that blue plate because the landscape wouldn't look as interesting without some water running through it.

I went to the companion website and found the second commercial in the series. The website also has instructions for quite a few interesting models. I think the clownfish (they name it as a generic "fish") is my favorite.

The mummies are so much better than what you get from the Collectible Minifigure Series. For a while I thought that this entire theme might end up being pricey after hearing about how much 7327 Scorpion Pyramid costs. It's good to hear that Scorpion Pyramid is probably just an exception rather than the rule. I find it amusing that people are still arguing over what the spots on the mechanic represent. The spots could be anything. It just means that this torso is very useful in a variety of different MOCs.

It is used in the board game 3862 Harry Potter™ Hogwarts™ in the same color. The high prices seem to be a direct result of TLG deciding to use a lot of gold printing and new molds in this theme. The mummy wings, Horus headdress, Anubis heads, khopesh swords, scarab shields, and raised baseplate definitely affected the prices.

Don't forget about the 50 jumper plates (34 gold, 4 red, 4 yellow, 4 green, 4 blue).

TLG has never put too much effort into promoting the stories except with Bionicle. I suspect the motivation behind this search is to create a brand new theme that isn't inspired by something TLG has already done. If you look at all of the themes that are currently active, you will see that the core concepts haven't deviated too much over the years.

A couple of blog posts by the designers about the evolution of 5893 Offroad Power and 5868 Ferocious Creatures: http://creator.lego....?date=9/29/2010 The last picture of the croc is not the final model. You can see that the joints and feet underwent several revisions. Those brick built cheeseburgers are are really cool.

People have used log bricks for cabin-type buildings in MOCs. The problem is that it requires a lot of advanced SNOT techniques that can make the model extremely fragile. Unlike MOCs, official sets have to be designed so that they are sturdy and do not use illegal constructions that could damage pieces. After all, Creator houses are advertised for kids ages 7 to 12. This set seems a little smaller than previous Creator houses. It makes me wonder if there is furniture inside since previous Creator houses had empty interiors.

Are the black "panel 1x1x1 corner" pieces new? edit: Nevermind. It was made in yellow for a 2007 promotional set (7875-1: Backhoe).