Hewman

I was wondering if they would use stickers or not. I can see lots of 4 or 5 year old girls liking these and although they generally love stickers I'm not sure they like accurately placing them on lego pieces. The prelim pics were definitely stickers, but that doesn't mean there isn't a chance they'll be printed once the sets are in production.

I think most people would say the Mill Village Raid because the animals (particularly the goats and pig) are brilliant. However, I own both and would have to say the Battle of Alamut. Firstly because I think it looks better on display and it is certainly a more interesting build. The build of the windmill part of the MVR is ok, but the barn is very simple and both halves of the build are almost exactly the same. Also the Battle of Alamut is a much older set so may become hard to find (it's impossible to find where I'm from (Australia), whereas the MVR is everywhere).

Welcome, dogfin. There are plenty of us Aussies here, we even have our own sales thread here if you haven't seen it. If you are having trouble tracking down some of last years Harry Potter sets, there are a number of overseas places to get them from including amazon.uk (I'm pretty sure they ship most of last year's HP sets to Aus and amazon.fr (who ship everything to Aus and also have the excellent Winter Toy Shop available at a very good price)

They even had a couple 6212 X-wings that won't be around much longer with the new one out early next year. So if you've always wanted one, I don't think you'll be able to do better than the $56 you can currently grab one for.

No worries. The sets are tempting given the lack of availability of non-licensed Lego Pirates. Some of the photos of the sets give a very misleading impression about them. If you look at some of the pics Bulko provided you can see the vastly inferior quality sails and also notice how shabby some of the bricks look for new bricks. My building experience was completely frustrating with the one ship I built, all those little things you take for granted with lego come to the forefront of your mind pretty quickly, like string that doesn't come apart as soon as you try to thread it, sections falling apart in your hands as you build, and not being injured as you build! The minifigs, besides often having bizarre looking faces are exceptionally poor quality, arms are loose, headgear is often either near impossible to get on or so loose it comes off with even the gentlest playing. If many of these sets were made of genuine lego I'd buy them in a heartbeat, but after my experience I'll never go near one again.

The last time I heard of something like this, it turned out the ebay seller was using a stolen credit card to pay Lego shop at home. Hopefully that isn't the case here, because Lego has previously blacklisted people from buying from shop at home that have received goods paid for with a stolen credit card.

I completely disagree, the bricks are awful. Clutch power is highly variable, in many cases too strong, not allowing them to be taken apart easily (even with the aid of the lego brick separator). Then some bricks are completely loose. They have super sharp corners which in the process of just building one ship, I cut my fingers (with minimal bleeding) twice. The sails are appalling quality, cheap material with frayed edges, and printing that soaks through to the other side in many places.

A great idea if I was close to a Big W (and could guarantee they had them in stock and without security device destroyed boxes), but there's a local Target I go past twice a day, so it's much easier to go there.

Were the Kingdoms sets in with the rest of the Lego, or were they somewhere else in the store (eg the sections used during their big toy sale) because I looked on the weekend there and saw the new collectible figs there but no Kingdoms in the Lego section? I was hoping to grab the windmill set when the sale starts this week.

How about a small dilapidated house belonging to a crazy old cat lady. Every town needs at least one odd-ball resident. Are you stocking up minifigs in overalls and high visibility gear to put in your town?

The ones I've seen don't actually transform, you can just build the two models separately from the same pieces which sort of defeats the purpose of it being a transformer. I think someone here created a very clever Transformers MOC that did actually transform but I can't find the topic.

It's probably too soon, most of the shop at home exclusive sets (the 10XXX numbers) aren't usually available at retail stores until they've been available at shop at home for 6 months. The Campervan seems a likely candidate to show up at the winter sales next year, which probably means about a 9 month wait until we find out who will stock it (assuming one store does). However, the Pet Shop has appeared a little quicker than that so maybe someone will stock it for Christmas, but I can't think of any exclusive sets coming out between October and December except for some of the Modulars that DJs have had, but I'm happy for someone to correct me.

The Pet Shop will be at DJs in October. I wouldn't hold my breath that they'll be stocked well. The only time I've seen them stocked well with a Modular set was with the Fire Brigade that everyone had. Star Wars advent calendar available September (probably not tomorrow though) at Myer, independents and Toyworld. My guess is we won't see the Winter Post Office at retail until next year. I'm going to test my patience on that one and see if there's free shipping on May 4 as it probably isn't worth importing (if you're prepared to wait until next year and don't want it for Christmas) as it's $70 US even though some places have reported it as $60, but the definitive source, shop at home says $70.

Welcome Kaykay, your enthusiasm is very normal for those rediscovering lego, and 28 is younger than many of us here. At least you're buying current sets, when I came out of my dark ages (time not spent buying or playing with Lego) I tried to buy all the sets I wanted as a child but couldn't afford and the price of many of those in new or good used condition is huge compared to current sets. If you haven't come across it, there's an Aussie sales thread here that might save you a few dollars.

Thanks for an excellent review. I think Lego have really dropped the ball with the "build a car over three days" and a "build a station over four days". An advent calendar is about a small bit of instant gratification and who wants to see half a police station built for several days as part of their display. The Advent calendars tend to be one of the few City sets I buy, but not this year.

My local woolworths (Athelstone, SA) had some Cars duplo on clearance for half price last week, but didn't think anyone would be particularly interested. That's great that Toy Corner (Adelaide) will have the Black Pearl, all I have to do is hold out for a 15% off sale, if I haven't got it from overseas already that is. For those without an independent retailer near them and don't like ordering from overseas I believe Toy Corner still takes mail order and their service is outstanding.

Thanks for the info, LT, it's disappointing the Black Pearl won't be widely available, because the chances of a decent toyworld sale are pretty small, and that's if you can even find the set in stock. Did they happen to mention a price? I'm guessing around $160 just based on the QAR's price.

My guess is that it will be a motorised R2-D2, maybe with some sound bricks.

The Winter Post Office ($110) and the Volkswagen camper van ($170) are up on shop at home now but not for sale yet. Re the toyworld sale, it says limit of one coupon per customer. I couldn't find anything useful to pair up to get the maximum 25% discount at Adelaide toyworld. They did have the Space Police 3 set with the big yellow crate at the back reduced to $30 (I think it's called Container Heist). If anyone desperately wants the coupon, PM me, unless someone here wants to do a great favour and post it here.

Thanks for that pic. I don't mind a little bit of damage on the box but that was awful. Because of your experience I've just tried to cancel my order with amazon.fr, now I'll have to wait and see if the cancellation is successful or not as shipping was 'imminent'.

Is that for $160 + shipping? Or was the deal better than that last night?

Me neither, I looked all over it and nothing. Although I doubt it's good value as it could store what 12 minifigs?

Oh and for some real news on Lego that actually exists and available for purchase, I saw the minifig display boxes (it's not the case one that was recently released, it's smaller but I can't find it on brickset) at the counter at toys r us in Adelaide today. They also had a bunch of Atlantis and Toy Story sets on clearance (well 20-30% off). Also had the Slave 1 at about 20% off.

How thoughtful of you. So for those that also want to be scammed, the email address is robotkits@hotmail.com (a quick google search brought it up). They also have batman sets (advertised, I'm sure they don't have them) at way below current going rates. Here's one of the many links for them available Scam To all those that can't resist something that seems to good to be true, I'm sure you'll get a good life lesson. Edit: Wow, I'm going to turn a huge profit really fast, look at all these super rare sets they have at low prices (yes this is sarcastic) Lego 10196 Exclusive Grand Carousel Creator City Town ... $155usd Lego Taj Mahal - Make and Create Set 10189 RC Toys .... $200usd Lego Star Wars Death Star - Star Wars Set 10188 Toys .... $250usd Lego Exclusive Green Grocer Set 10185 .......... $135usd Lego Cafe Corner - Make and Create Set 10182 ..... $131usd Lego Eiffel Tower - Create and Make Set 10181 ..... $142usd Lego Star Wars Set Sandcrawler #10144 Death Star II .... $140usd Lego Star Wars Set #10143 Death Star II .... $125usd Lego Castle Set 852293 GIANT Chess Set ... $180usd Lego 10019 Star Wars Rebel Blockade Runner Star Wars .... $240usd Lego Star Wars 10123 Cloud City Rare Toys ..... $242usd Lego Imperial Star Destroyer - Star Wars Set 10030 Toys ...... $350usd Lego Star Wars Trade Federation MTT Toys #7662 .......... $118usd Lego Imperial Star Destroyer - Star Wars Set 6211 .... $140usd Lego Jabba's Sail Barge - Star Wars Set 6210 ..... $175usd

Absolutely brilliant work. I love the details in the eyes. I'm hoping you do more more big cats.