Hewman

Yes, the forum on bricklink is dominated by a loud few. Over here, there's better information on upcoming sets, reviews, and generally a less antagonistic attitude. I'm sure you'll like it here. There's a topic somewhere on where to find lego sets in NZ. I'll see if I can track it down for you. Edit: here it is NZ Lego

Welcome! So is that latitude North or South of the equator? There are plenty of down under people here. Is Gidday, the Kiwi version of G'day?

Use of the barrel for the spider droid was inspired, I love it!

It's awesome (for those that don't watch the show, there's a good reason I used this over-used generic adjective). Just started on season 2. Now if only I could get a bag like Morgan's with Tyrell Corporation on it.

I for one thought you were perfectly clear. I have no idea of the relevance of year of release. Your post was the first I've heard of the bbq stand being available in Aus. I have seen the pirates at toyworld, but they were $5.99. Anyway, thanks for the info.

A perfect review for a near perfect set. Thanks for taking the time to show all sides and combinations of the minifigs, it's greatly appreciated. I'll b eaddin gthis set to my collection when it arrives down under.

Great use of Rotta. That is one mean looking speeder, it reminds me of a troll version of a speeder bike. Is that competition still running here to combine another theme with star wars? If so I reckon if you put a troll on it, it would be perfect.

It's pretty hard to put an exact value on such things. Marbled bricks seem to be becoming more common in recent years and they do come up for sale on bricklink. I've seen some spectacular examples of marbling, looking like an almost 50-50 split of two colours and sometimes a very basic brick might go for a couple dollars rather than a few cents. I guess in your case being a bit more specialised piece there may be a niche market for this variant. Maybe a bionicle expert out there would have more idea, but bottom line is I don't think you'll be able to retire if you did sell it

What? You let other people touch your creations? You're way less a control freak than I am with lego

Captain Greenhair - 1 point (for the great ocean) Erdbeereis - 2 points

Thank you. I actually suggested it just hoping someone with more talent and pieces than I have decides to make a star wars carousel so I can look at it and drool. What about a sound chip that plays the Star Wars theme?

Comparable to a tree or 4 large pieces? According to bricklink, a 32x32 plate weighs 107 grams, a large pine tree weighs 6.7 grams, that's about 16x the difference, and would be about 35x the difference for a 48x48 plate. Personally I think baseplates are good value, it's just a pity they don't come in more colours.

I think it'd be a great set to display in a child's bedroom. My only dislike of the set are the horses' heads which seem too skinny and it looks like stickers for eyes. I can imagine some creative MOCers doing some great things with this set, like having little star wars ships instead of horses.

I thought they did as good a job as possible with trying to attract new fans while not offending long time fans of the franchise. I particularly enjoyed the new updated aliens, it's good too see they've developed from all aliens just being a human with a bit of rubber on their head.

Brilliant, love them. I may have to buy some pieces and 'borrow' your design*! Simple yet accurate. *this would only be done for personal use and not to sell as MOCs, but given they're not MY creation I guess they'd have to be listed as Some Person's Own Creation, SPOCs. Hmmm, guess who just saw the Star Trek movie

20% off all lego at Target from Thursday.

Thanks for the review, I didn't realise the complexity they were able to cram into that little set before I saw the review. And at that price of $19.99 from toycorner, I think I'll just have to take the 15 minute drive to the shop and pick one up.

Excellent review, I love how you highlighted all the interesting parts of the set. I remember seeign this set half price ($25 AU at Target) and then reduced to that price with a bonus small Harry Potter set a few years ago but I passed on it because what I had read about the inconsistency in the purple colours. But about two years ago I decided to actually buy it and I don't regret it for a second, even though I paid about $55 AU. Sure the purples don't all match perfectly but they're pretty close, and it has those great features like Sirius in dog form, the bush, the street light and those great beds which slide around the bus. The bus runs really smoothly and can be incorporated with a city layout. This would be my 2nd or 3rd fave HP set, behind the Shrieking Shack.

To those that haven't read the starwars.com interview with the Home One designer (or one of) I thoroughly recommend it, it includes a great pic of the minifigs. And for those too lazy to go back and find the link, here it is again Home One interview I love the sound of opening rear doors on the A-wing, it reminds me of the old classic space ships. I haven't seen anything mentioned before but apologies if it has but it looks like the release date of the Star Wars visual dictionary has been delayed. I received an email from Amazon saying it won't arrive (that's in Aus, not when actually available on amazon) until late October now.

This might be national, my local k-mart which I'm pretty confident is nowhere near your local k-mart has the warship for $70 as well and they seemed to have plenty in stock as well, if only it floated...

It doesn't happen automatically but there is a little check box you can select on check out to remove the items from your wanted list. It's pretty small and not obvious, but it's there, so keep an eye out.

Great review, I didn't even know this set existed until the review. You're right about the monkey, that'd take it from being a very good set and make it a brilliant set. I think your assumption about it being about $20 AU would be pretty spot on, I'll have to get one when there's a 15 or 20% off sale. It must be nice to have connections (or a deep wallet) to get these sets so early, but thanks for sharing them with the rest of us here!

Although I'm generally not a fan of minis at all, the design of the RGS is elegant if it becomes widely available at some stage I'll definitely pick up a set.

Wow, quick response, but I also believe it's missing the minifig pieces making it hard to tell which version of the Durmstrang Ship it is, I'm guessing it's the one without the extra minifigs because I believe that was a USA exclusive.

You've done a great job of looking after your collection. As for value, the A-wings would actually have fallen significantly in value since the release of the new much more sleaker A-wing. However, I think you'd be able to get a top end price for them given condition. Check out bricklink to see what they go for. Many older sets were available really cheaply a year or two after release and then rose rapidly in value a few years later, take the original 7190 falcon as an example which was fetching up to $1000 MISB, but now is pretty easily available for about $300 MISB. The key is to getting your timing right and a great deal of this depends on the re-release of sets. It's too late for the tie advance/y-wing pack as far superior versions of both have already been released. However, if it's purely profit that you are after the next month or so might be a good time to sell your ewok and speeder bike sets before the new endor set is released. The 7139 in my opinion is one set that has maintained a look that hasn't dated as it isn't al lblocky like some of those other sets.