Gryphon Ink

Well, this set is an odd one. I like that it gets me a crab, which is rare enough that I don't have any, and an orange fish, which is a nice change from the usual dark grey. BUT, the fact that you have Andrea dressed in the standard Friends ruffly miniskirt and strappy shoes - in fact, the exact same outfit she's wearing in the Cafe set - is a huge problem if she is supposed to be chilling on the beach and wearing flippers. We wouldn't want to see a firefighter in a City set wearing a clown suit. No kid would ever buy the set. They'd be all "WTH is this, Lego People? Firefighters don't wear clown suits!" TLG really need to come up with some new body parts for the minidolls if they want to lure girls away from the Polly Pocket and Barbie sections, or get AFOLs to buy multiple Andrea sets.

Just for the record, in case anybody thought I was bashing the designer's color choices, my post about the colors of the three big media houses was not meant as a complaint about THIS house's color. I actually think the sand green is a very fitting color. I was just making a factual correction to a post that claimed all three of the "historical" houses were themselves sand green. Because they weren't. If anybody, especially the designer himself, thought this was a slam on his design, I'm very sorry. 10228 is an AMAZING design, a perfect color, and a set that I will definitely save up my pennies for. And although I think there are some elements of the design that are very similar to the other house, there are also many distinct elements. I don't doubt the designer's sincerity here.

Ahem. The Bates Motel is a greyish-tan color: The Addams Family mansion was only a real location in the pilot episode, where exterior shots were filmed at a house on Adams Boulevard (yes, really). This original house honestly looks white in the only picture I've ever seen of it, but since that picture was black and white I couldn't swear to it. More importantly, though, every other exterior shot of the "Addams Family house" actually uses a black-and-white matte painting. There is no grey-green in it. There is no color in it at all. 1313 Mockingbird Lane is very, very brown. (Edited because there's only so many times you can use the word "actually" in one paragraph...)

WHAT?!? Where is the CRAB?!? All the early pictures of this set showed Olivia holding a yellow crab. It was practically the reason I was going to buy the set. I mean, it is a nice set and all, but I really did want that crab. EDIT: actually, on looking at other pics of the summer wave to make sure I hadn't gone completely crazy, I see that there is a yellow crab in the 3063 Flight School set. It's possible that was what I was thinking of.

Nice review. I like this set a lot, except for the "pillow" piece which just looks silly. Useful pieces here and a great design. The drum set is awesome. I do wish they'd used the shorter bars for the drumsticks. I could really use some more of those short bars.

Great review, LuxorV. I like this set. One thing that has impressed me with Friends so far is the fact that they've done a great job making little sets with lots of personality. This set, the drum kit and Olivia's little sand castle are all must-buys for me. I do wish TLG would have made a few more parts options for Andrea, though. Looks like Andrea and Nicole are going to have a very limited selection of outfits throughout the theme.

Great builds for great stories, Si-MOCs. I am severely depressed by Bradbury's death, but he left a remarkable legacy. It's awesome to see tributes to him here. Of course the Sound of Thunder scene is bigger and more detailed and just beautiful, but I have to say I especially dig the little Fahrenheit 451 build. I like the old-school design touches, very appropriate for the old-school vibe of the book. If anybody seeing these MOCs hasn't read Mr. Bradbury's work, both of these pieces are highly recommended, along with the Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked. You don't even have to like science fiction to enjoy them. Bradbury was a humanist, and even though the setting are futuristic, the stories are all about being human. Dude was a grand master.

Wow. This is the most gorgeous set I've seen in ages. I've never bought a set this expensive, and I have very little interest in Monster Fighters, but I might just have to save up for this baby. I'm guessing this is the grand finale of the Monster Fighters theme, like MMV was for Castle. Too bad for the theme, but what a high note to go out on! Mega kudos to the designer of this amazing house. So, obviously, we are going to mod this to look even more like the Addams Family mansion. Now I need to find Morticia and Gomez lookalikes.

Agreed, but in this case I think the project contributor was actually trolling. It's a joke. There's no way any mature adult could be unaware of the fact that there isn't a chance in hell this project will ever come to pass. Sadly, no matter how unrealistic a proposition may be, there are always going to be some people who take it seriously. Those people are now going to be upset when the Dark Bucket gets turned down.

This set makes a great addition to the current Creator Seashore House, and I'm sure it was planned that way. I know a lot of AFOLs are going to be ticked off by the fact that their coveted collectables are going to be worth less, but this is a great way to expand your minifig population. There's a five-pack of CMFs out now that I'm much less thrilled with, because it gives you nothing but minifigs in an extremely random assortment. But this kind of thing, where the minifig selection is themed and it comes with some actual bricks, could be useful.

I knew they would start repackaging these guys eventually. What's the fig in the middle? I can't make it out.

I seriously doubt it. The Kenner/Hasbro action figures are on almost every list of the top selling/most influential/highly collectable toys of all time, and they stayed popular even in the decades in between the trilogies. All through the Eighties and Nineties they were selling millions of action figures, and the collectors' market in the Nineties was unbelievable. Lego in general is near the top of all the same lists - but that's overall Lego, not Lego Star Wars.

I couldn't agree more. I think of the sets exactly the same way. And it's extremely unlikely that I will buy a new Winter Village set if it costs the same as the VW van or Helm's Deep. Sets in that range are my big, once a year purchases. There's no room in my budget for another one in that range. And I know many dedicated AFOLs actually do buy many more expensive sets than I do, but I suspect the Winter Village makes most of its sales from casual buyers, not superfans. This would explain why the Post Office didn't sell as well as the first two sets, if in fact it didn't. That relatively small price bump pushes the set into the "big once a year" category for many casual fans and people who are buying for their children. A bigger price hike would make that even worse. Also, speaking from an artistic perspective as a fan of Lego design, I think there's a lot more artistry involved in making a $60 set that is a small, well-crafted, complete building, than there is in making a $120 set that does the same job. Of course a chalet could be twice the size of a rural post office. And yes, you could pour in details until your piece count was the same as a modular building. But it's a lot cooler to see a $60 chalet that still has a beautiful design and character, and doesn't dwarf the buildings we already have.

Another thing to consider is that Gandalf's staff gets an upgrade after he fights the Balrog, so any later versions of him will not be using the same piece. It would be great, if not especially likely, if there is a new mold for his Gandalf the White staff. It's a lot cooler than his first staff anyway.

I haven't seen them all in person, but I'd say Gimli and Theoden are the two that look the most impressive in pics. Gimli's helmet and beard are just perfect. Eomer is running a close third place - they got his face just right, and he has an impressive array of gear. The hobbits' torsos and faces are all wonderful, but the fact that they have limited accessories and didn't get the true hobbit foot printing makes them a little less special.

That's pretty cool. My daughter actually has that cat from the Hogwarts game, and keeps rubbing it in my face because it's one of the few coveted Lego items that she has and I don't. It is an awesome kitty, and I definitely prefer it over the Friends cat. It just sounded very weird that they would use an extremely rare piece from a different theme in a Friends giveaway.

That's confusing. The regular Friends sets don't use that cat, they have a different, more cartoonish cat. Wouldn't they use the Friends kitty in a Friends mini-set?

I like the new horse, and I especially like that it doesn't look totally different from the classic horse. You could pose them side by side in a big cavalry scene to accomplish a variety of poses, and it would look just fine. But although the NuHorse doesn't look too, too different from Your Father's Horse, it IS prettier and makes a welcome addition to the Lego menagerie. I think a lot of people have missed the fact that the joint in the horse's legs doesn't only allow it to rear up - it also allows the horse to be posed running. If you stretch the legs out as if to rear, but push the whole horse forward so its front hooves touch the baseplate, it stands in a fine galopping pose. It's maybe not a 100% authentic gallop posture, but it looks fine and is certainly a lot more lively than OldHorse's one, very static, pose. If you wanted to MOC something like the charge of the Rohirrim, your MOC will look ten times better with the new horse than it would with the old. This is a minor change that makes a HUGE difference in how a scene will look. I hope that in time there will be different color variations and not every brown horse will have a white blaze, but I'm sure that within a few years of LOTR and/or Castle sets there will be at least a few different new horses.

Has anybody seen any LOTR sets at US Targets or Walmarts yet? I'm craving them and planning an expedition tomorrow, but don't to pay TRU prices.

Much as I'd love it, I don't believe TLG will put three molded trolls in anything less than a flagship set, and I don't see how that scene could possibly be the flagship. So my prediction is that they will either ignore the troll scene or put out a smallish set with just a few characters in it and one troll. I bet Rivendell won't be in this wave, either. I suspect if we see Rivendell at all, it will be in a later LOTR wave featuring a couple of Nazgul and a certain charming Elf maiden. A set the size of Rivendell MUST have some conflict in it, and that's the only conflict that ever came near Rivendell. Betting on Riddles in the Dark as the intro set for the first wave. Just Gollum, Bilbo and some rocks. Also betting Beorn will be ignored, although given that they just released a new bear mold I hope I'm wrong on this one. Beorn's house would be heaven for animal collectors, but I doubt it will happen.

This is a great little set. The Creature is perfect and Frank Rock is cool too, although I question the sanity of any man who wears a sheepskin vest to go monster hunting in a swamp. Two cool minifigs are all a set this size really needs - the fact that you get other cool parts, like a frog, swamp vegetation etc., are just icing on the cake. I really didn't think the Monster Fighters theme would interest me at all, but this set and the Zombies set both look wonderful.

What a wonderfully thorough review, Pandora. Great job on descriptions and photography alike. I may fall in love with this set. I haven't seen a house I wanted this much since, well, the Beach House. In fact, I want two or three of them so I can put all the builds together, but yeah, there's no way that's happening. Hope this set sticks around for a while, 'cos this is going to be a really expensive summer in the Lego department.

If the "incredible idea" you're talking about is the concept of blind packs that you are meant to collect, then yes, it WAS an incredible idea - when the tobacco companies invented it, with the first collectable trading cards back in the 19th Century. Since then we've had sports cards, movie cards, hundreds of collectable card games, collectable model games like MechWarrior and HeroClix, and "Constructable Card Games" like Pirates of the Spanish Main. TLG are very far from being the company that came up with this idea.

The date sounds about right for the sets. The Hobbit's release date in the US is December 13. On the other hand, the "YOUR journey begins" second-person wording is unusual and might indicate that it's a game they're talking about. I think Lynx could be right, the board game is the only thing that fits the date and the phrasing.

Just wanted to let everyone know, this wonderful set is still showing up on TRU shelves around here. It really is an amazing set and will go great with the LOTR lineup with minor mods here and there. And who knows when we'll see another set with goats in it. So, highly recommended to keep an eye open in the "unsorted" Lego section if you're in TRU, and grab it if you see it.