The Middleman

Of course they're printed! On the topic of printing, I'm pretty sure that the shields, horses, flags, and figures are the ONLY printed pieces in the set, and there are NO stickers whatsoever.

Either way, although the gear is easier, and I think they meant you to use it.

The right building. It thinks it is better than the left, but is sadly mistaken. That window spins around to reveal... A wall. Yes, a wall. BUT WAIT! There's more. I can only assume this is for people to break through with their fifty million catapults. The back. Scorpions milling around a fireplace. Spears and a pillar. Seeing as the pillar is prominent, I'd like to take this time to say that there are NINE of those dark-stone pillars and THREE of those HUGE black pillars in this set, not to mention the tons of other prominently displayed castle pieces in black and stone gray. Spears! There were spears in the last picture, too. That spiderweb is weird. Must be a 1337 spider to build a web in midair. And finally, the montage of figs. The shields are much better for everyone. I like the triangular ones better, and the designs are more castle-ish. I foresee armies wielding these shields. THE DARK KNIGHTS' ARMOR IS INCREDIBLE. I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE VIKINGS WITH THIS MOTTLED METAL COLOR. IT'S JUST AWESOME. *cough* All three dark knights have Vladek faces. I think that's about it. FINAL VERDICT: 9.7/10. Huge step forward for LEGO Castle! Largest castle set ever in terms of pieces! Great figures, introducing a new armor color! New shield patterns! INCREDIBLE PIECE SELECTION! GREAT CONSTRUCTION! Absolutely horrible vehicles (-.3 points ;)). Until next time! :-D

The left building. Better than the right. The back. Yes... an unexciting room with an overlarge table and a weird crystal ball! WOO! Another unexciting room, this time with spears poking out the gaps. They like those, you'll see. This room is the best. A staircase! Nice step forward, after that Castle of Morcia. The fire pieces down there are actually placed on one of those 2x2 circular discs that are always put on the underside of ships, which gives it a nice wobbly effect. Wobble... wobble wobble. I like that word. Anyway. The catapult. Has a distance of about 1.5-2 feet. On to the next!

Dum dum dum... Drawbridge lifted by turning the thingy - spinning FORWARD works best, actually, but either way works. The ugly underside. Ah well. Doors open... (the entryway is empty) Side view... A hot tar dumping barrel. Turning the axel (it extends past the back) dumps the lava onto the drawbridge. That's it for this building!

Well well well... thank you, Amazon! Do note the new (to me) 'tope' color on all those plates in the back. I like it - it's reminiscient of wet sand.] The finished product! Impressive, isn't it? Yeah, the vehicles suck. That's not even a real 'launcher' thing, there. See what I mean? Careful - this thing is SIDE-HEAVY! Best vehicle of the lot by far. I LOVE those shields. The entryway next...

I agree, bildur. I also think that out-of-contest members should be forbidden from giving advice/tips/hints/etc.

A TRAGEDY! WHAT'LL HAPPEN TO ALL MY PICTURES!? :'( Oh. Oh wait... I use Photobucket. :-D

Final verdict: holy megablock. So many incredible pieces. SO MANY. And the figs! Oh the figs. Somewhat a lack of interior decoration and contraptions, but still. Tons of great castle pieces. TONS of regular 1-wide bricks. The little 'siege' vehicles aren't fantastic - when have they ever been - but are still fun. I got like 20 extra metallic teeth! Pictures tonight.

As far as the crane review, I decided not to review it, since it caused me a lot of stress. Take that, LEGO! :P But this is a great set. No, it doesn't have a back, but I do have the KK2 'good' castle, and this is ten times better.

Yes it is! And I'm only on the third bag, but my review so far: Wow. Best castle for a LONG time.

Hint: it's the biggest of its kind...

I'm in, of course! Although, I may be illustrating the mystery, so I might not be able to participate...

Could you post a picture of this e-mail?

A few reasons. For one, the PS2 was ahead of its time when it was released two years before the XBox. Surely, five and a half years later, it's improved exponentially. The XBox, on the other hand, has had three and a half years to develop. I don't doubt the quality of either system - it's simply an issue of time available. Second, the XBox is basically a computer that's had barriers put on it so it can only do a few things, namely gaming. While this is in theory a good idea, the computer industry itself hasn't really evolved exponentially. I don't expect the XBox to have better graphics than the modern computer. The PS3, on the other hand, is evolving on its own. It's an estimate of two times as powerful as the XBox 360, and the graphics are so realistic that for a while there was a protest of people saying that they couldn't be real-time (real gaming), but rather had to be a staged graphics video. Sony confirmed that it WAS real-time. That's pretty damn impressive. So, my money's on the PS3.

They're on the english Amazon as well...

PS3 is a definite for me. The other two, I'll wait for reviews on.

Well, I bought Wild Hunters at Toys R Us today. It's pretty good - lots of good parts, especially tan. I still hate those clicky KK2 joints they use for Designer sets - they're so bulky and useless. It's hard to cover them up, too. But I absolutely adore the 1x1x2/3 slopes in dark stone gray. I'm using them for the front steps of my latest project! I'm ordering the Dark Fortress tonight. If I can wrangle it, it'll be fast shipping - I hope to get it by Friday or Saturday!

No topic about a new set is ever 'solved' - and we don't randomly lock topics. There's still the set itself to discuss! I'm personally glad they're using the old Dr. Jekyll torso for doctors. It's a good one. However, I'd say it suggests that we won't get a hospital - with CITY, they seem to be making new torsos for the figures. :'(

No no no, you both misunderstand me... I was talking about Wolf vs. Akkhraziel. It was getting kind of personal. And I don't doubt the 360 is going to be great - I just think the PS3 will be better.

This argument stops now. If it continues, I'll lock the topic. Anyway, competition between the PS2 and the XBox isn't really fair - the XBox came over two years after the PS2. If the PS3 and 360 are being released around the same time, I'd put my money on the PS3, since it's had so much more time to improve. The stats being thrown around support that.

WAY COOL!! AWESOME FIND! I want a hospital! :-D

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...v=glance&s=toys http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...v=glance&s=toys The new designer sets, as well. No Dino Attack or Vikings, though. I'll order the dark fortress on June 1st, when I get paid. Should be fun - biggest castle ever!

By "avenge me" I automatically assume that means get revenge upon Spiderman for killing me. It doesn't seem to imply doing anything good. But that's not Harry, that's Norman. Harry could decide not to listen to his father's voice.

Personally, I have enough regular gray. I've been stocking my blay collection like a madman. I have about... 1/6 as much light blay as light gray and 1/3 (!!) as much dark blay as dark gray. I also have about 1/2 as much sh!t-brown as brown. So unless you don't have enough gray, stock on blay. It's not like it's going to change.