Bustajesse

Exactly this. Other than the lift arms, the little speeder thing and the few storage boxes, there really is not much to remove from the Sandcrawler. It would probably only be a few hundred pieces. Not worth it IMO. It is a fantastic set. I would say pass on some other stuff or sell something to get it.

Finished mine the other day. Was missing one of the big 2 x 14 plates so my roof is not totally complete. Had to bricklink some stuff anyway so just bougt one since it was like 10 cents. Added an orange stud to the pool table to cover the one exposed stud. Replaced the blue technic pin at the top of the fire pole with a black one. Stickers are not too bad, just wish the Logo was printed. Overall amazing set and have very few complaints. A +

I would like to see: -Large Stay Puft -Rooftop battle set with Zuul -Museum with Vigo My dream would be to get a Real Ghostbusters Ecto 1 with the guys in their Animated suits and blue proton packs.

Looks like it has great play features. If I was 8 years old I would be in heaven. As an adult collector it leaves me a little cold. The set looks like a jumbled mess. I feel like they compromised too much to include the Batpole feature (I assume you send Bruce and Dick down and they switch to Batman and Robin). I do like the minifigures but I am a little bummed there is no Batgirl. Hopefully we get her in the future. Anyways I will be buying this day one. It's a freaking 66 Batman set!

Seems like nitpicking. Personally I like that the baseplate doesn't open. The hinge is only a problem if you take the roof off. Looks solid when it is on. We have come along way with LEGO "dollhouses", this makes the Death Star look sad.

It comes down to cost and what LEGO thinks would be profitable. I think it would be safe to assume the designers were given a price and parts count to work with and had to create the HQ within those guidelines. I'm sure the back was not intentionally designed to look awful, but perhaps making it match the rest of the building without sacrificing the interior exceeded the budget? The reality is, most collectors are going to either display it opened or the front facing towards them with the car driving out. I get that people want perfection, especially at this price point, but I think you need to look at other sets released by LEGO and have realistic expectations. Very few are universally loved and considered perfect out of the box. To whose standards? Is the finish of the back of the HQ really necessary to the point where the set is neither enjoyable or functional in anyway? Do you get upset looking at the bottom of the Ecto-1 because it doesn't look like the bottom of a real car?

The back of the building is being blown out of proportion. The real building doesn't even have a finished back since most of it is attached to another building, and honestly, a lot of the older buildings in New York look dumpy from the back anyway.The back of the LEGO set actually reminds me of the back of the firehouse in California that was used for most of the interior shots in the movies. The great thing about LEGO is you can always customize and mod it yourself. I'm just thankful this set is even happening. I never thought in a million years LEGO would make a Firehouse, let alone one of this size. It's a day one purchase for me. Lol I see what you did there............