ZO6

Thanks for doing this review, Algernon! Upon seeing that initial blurry picture of this set, I was skeptical. However, with better pictures (and reviews such as this), and seeing the set in person, I've come to really like the Star Slicer. The design is really neat and out of the insect faction reminds me perhaps the most of something from the Insectoids theme. I'm really digging the colour scheme of the insects too. Also, it's great that the buggy isn't some throwaway vehicle - it's actually well designed and has a cool play feature. The large quantity of technic parts is a bummer, but the construction of those limbs would have been a lot trickier using traditional system elements.

For things like that I always build them on their side. I let whatever surface I'm building on keep edges flush as I stack the pieces. Works like a charm every time. Also, I've already been thinking about my first comment, and I have a bit more to add. I feel as though I was downplaying the importance of one's use of imagination, and I didn't mean for that. Using one's imagination is of the utmost importance when it comes to building and playing with Lego. And when it comes to action functions and whatnot - the best ones are those that do neat stuff without negatively affecting the integrity of the model. I would much rather take neat details that enhance the look of the set then some wacky play function that ruins how the model is built. In this case, the security desk, examination area, and office space all add loads of charm to the model in a way that say a trap door couldn't. Thinking about the target age range for this set, I think the balance between construction techniques/overall look of the model and play functions was well handled.

That's what I figured. Well, it's good that Lego is so popular as a gift. I'd likely pick up 2-4 sets from this list, depending on what's around: Town Hall Sopwith Camel Villa Savoye Farnsworth House TMNT Lair Arkham Asylum (Hope this hits stores on the 27th, so I'd probably make a second trip for it then). Do you happen to know what days of the week or how often the store gets new shipments in? Thanks.

Wonderfully detailed review, Cloney! What a beautiful set! I'm really glad TLG has released a new Arkham Asylum, especially one with this many pieces and details. I quite like the new figs in this set, particularly Scarecrow and Penguin. The rest of the figs round things out nicely. I'm glad to see that the truck is of such high quality. I always hate it when a set comes with a vehicle that eats up lots of parts but then ultimately ends up being somewhat of a throwaway. The gate looks really nice too - it's like a beefed up version of the one from the Haunted House. I'm a bit disappointed about the physical size of the asylum. I totally get what you're saying about modern sets often feeling small. New sets are made up of so many tiny pieces that contribute to high piece counts and highly detailed models, but they also leave you with a feeling of your model having been shrunk in the dryer. It's a fine line to balance. We AFOLS are often complaining about large pieces being used in place of smaller ones, but this is the result. I'm all for highly detailed models, but it's a bummer when the final product doesn't appear to have given you your money's worth. I personally think that if you're happy with the look of the final model, and it has the features (whether they be play functions or figures) that appeal to you, then it doesn't matter what the size of the final product is. Anyways, moving on. I'm glad that TLG took the route that they did with this model - making it highly detailed. Both the exterior and interior of the asylum are gorgeous, and there are plenty of little things to fiddle around with. It's a shame that a big set like this couldn't have gone the extra step and included more printed pieces, but I suppose it would have only jacked up the price more. And yet, looking through the pictures of the set, I can't help but feel that it's still missing something. Maybe I'm still too much of a kid at heart, but I want more functions and things that move. The security station, office space, and examination room are all well and good, but they lack traps or action features (I don't mean flick-fire missiles, but instead things that move or explode). I guess it's fun to place Harley in the office or a guard at the security desk and use your imagination for some scenario, but this is a Batman set and it needs more action. And while there is ample floorspace in some spots (examination area), there is a completely lack of studs in other key places like outside the cells or by the rotating make-up thing. This set is also just begging to have two small "rooms" behind the two roof sections. The ceilings on the second floor just go up forever, it would have been nice to have had an attic/loft space. Ultimately this is an amazing set. I'm really happy that something like this was made available for Lego fans. I'm planning on picking up my copy in a couple days. Despite my complaints, the strengths of the set far outweigh any negatives. Thanks again for the early review!

Ok, thanks for the heads up. What are the general product stocks like at the Fairview store? Did they get to be mostly depleted over the lead up to Christmas or have they been managing to keep their shelves somewhat full? I stop into the Sherway store every week or two (closer for me), but I haven't been to the Fairview since the summer.

Thanks for sharing the latest and greatest, whung! I look forward to the cargo sets the most. I hope that the Cargo terminal is substantial - and not just made up of lots of huge parts like the recent port, but reasonably detailed with some playability. I wonder if the starter set will be a few figs, a bench, and some other street side odds and ends, or if they'll surprise us with something new? Either scenario would be ok with me. I look forward to seeing pictures of all of these.

Regardless of how the movie turns out (I hope it's not too bad - I always love a fun western), I'll have to buy all of these. While this isn't the ideal Western theme that I would have hoped for, these are all really nice looking sets. The Mine, Train, and Carriage are the big standouts from the line, but the other three aren't far behind. It'll be interesting to see how much track the train comes with. I'd imagine it'll just be a circle, but maybe it could be more interesting.

Those creations are amazing! I wish the seasonal sets that TLG sold were as detailed as these - I'd buy them in a heartbeat. I love all the little details, such as the wheels on the reindeer cart being made out of small pieces instead of rubber tires!

Glad to see everyone gots lots of Lego-y goodness. I treat myself to lots of Lego seemingly every week, so I didn't get any today. I did however receive decent sums of cash which I'll use to splurge on Lego over the coming days. I predict some Architecture sets (Villa Savoye and Farnsworth), Arkham Asylum, and maybe some other smaller sets. Actually, my sister did find a Lego calendar which she gave to me as a gift. It's got pics of most of the largest sets from different themes from this past year, as well as as couple giant custom creations.

Are the scratch cards going to be just tomorrow or for a few days? In any case, it's nice to hear they'll be doing them - those extra savings sure are appreciated! I look forward to filling up my 6 pick-a-brick boxes as well.

Thanks for doing this review. Not surprised by the price, but still disappointed. I would have liked to have seen the speeder bike ditched in favour of some more base defences. I'm pretty sure my Hoth display is going to have more speeder bikes than my Endor one soon. Why are we always getting speeder bikes when they were hardly featured in the battle? I like certain elements of this set, but it feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity.

Even if you don't do full reviews for the sets, I'd be interested in hearing your opinion on them in here anyways. Of those two I have the Vaporizer, and I think it's great, but I always love to hear what others think too. I've seen the Star Slicer in person and thought it looked wicked, so I'd like to know what you think of these two sets a companion pieces.

The Podracer set (now around $72) and Obi-Wan's UCS ship (approx. $53) look to be 40% off at TRU as well (Have everything that's on sale already though). Some other Star Wars stuff might be on sale too, but it's not listed on the site. Definitely not as good a sale as other years (50% off Prince of Persia comes to mind - from two years ago). I've got a TRU gift certificate to spend, so I'm sure I'll pick up something. I'll probably take most of my business to one of the Lego stores. I've fallen hard for the Architecture line (have Robbie House, Fallingwater, and Big Ben), so I might grab Villa Savoye and Farnsworth and some other stuff. Anyways, Merry Christmas everyone!

Great review, Oky! Thanks for sharing! I really like this set! It's nice to see 3 unique (for now) figs come in a small kit. Like some other members, I'm not a huge fan of the Mr. Freeze figure (I prefer the old one), as the new one just seems too much like an Atlantis figure in a different colour with a ridiculously ugly white face. The little ice trap looks cool, and the Batboat is even better. It's got a great shape and looks nicely detailed but thankfully doesn't go overboard. Sometimes vehicles of this size have all sorts of weird parts slapped on at all sorts of angles and it makes the final product look cheap. I couldn't be happier to see flick-fire missiles replaced with those disks - and hearing that they actually shoot a decent distance is great. I kind of wish the bombs had some sort of mechanism to drop them, but considering the size of the vehicles, such an omission is acceptable. I look forward to picking up this set!

I picked up Vermin Vaporizer and Bug Obliterator a couple weeks ago, and I'm really digging the theme so far. I knew going into the Lego store that Vaporizer was a must have for testing the waters of this theme, but the store had the Obliterator built and on display and it looked far too cool to pass up. I'm not sure why, but building these sets (Vaporizer in particular) gave me massive flashbacks of building space sets from the late 80s and early 90s. The Vaporizer reminded me of something from Space Police 2, while the Obliterator reminded me of something from the first Blacktron wave. In any case, they were both really enjoyable builds. Highly detailed - like anything we've come to expect, but buried underneath was something kind of retro. I was surprised that the Obliterator came with only one largish instruction book - however, this is because large quantities of pieces were added every step (this was a nice change from the snail pace of adding 1-2 pieces as is the norm). Both sets came with a healthy dosage of new parts. I was delighted to find lots of inverted tiles in both sets, though they weren't put to that great of use. They served no purpose at all on the Vaporizer, and on the Obliterator they were used to allow the main flying vessel to glide smoothly across the floor when attached to the wheeled vehicle - however, because of them being square tiles, they kind of dig into carpets and soft surfaces and don't work as well as conventional rounded inverted tiles. It's obvious they were mainly thrown in because they are new parts and TLG knew we'd want to get our hands on them. Vermine Vaporizer and Bug Obliterator both look really great on display. They also offer loads of playability. I've barely been able to keep my hands off them. My local Lego stores had some of the insect ships built and on display too (Warp Stinger and Star Slicer), and they looked even better in person then in pics. The colour schemes are really eye catching, and the designs are really unique. I was particularly impressed by the size of Star Slicer - it's a pretty substantial set and would no doubt be a great companion for any of the good-guy stuff to create some intense battles. I look forward to picking up all the sets in the line, and I really hope they do come out with that second wave so that we get multiple vehicles for each colour, and a good sized base.

They had the Unimog in stock a couple days ago. Can't recall whether they had the Crawler or not, so I'd be tempted to say that they were out.

Sherway has all the Hobbit sets, all but 1 Galaxy Squad, a handful of the new Town stuff, and a couple of the new Technic sets.

Congrats to the winner of the competition. That has always been a dream job of mine (as I'm sure it is with many people), so it's really neat that such a position has finally been filled at such a nearby location. Also a heads up - I picked up the Kingdoms Joust from the Sherway Lego store this past weekend for $120 (normally $150). I didn't know about the reduced price until it rang through on the register. I'm not sure what the scoop on the pricing is (whether is was on sale but unadvertised or what), but if anyone is interested in the set (which is amazing BTW) you might want to look into it.

Gah! I love the look of these! I was really sceptical about how a modern Insectoids-like theme would turn out, but these sets far exceed any expectations. This seems to be a rare theme were there isn't a set in the bunch that I wouldn't want to purchase. In fact, once I find these in store, I'm buying all of them in one go. I really love how detailed all the vehicles are. There are some neat building technique and angles in there too. It's nice to have a good variety of vehicle colours while still seeming like they belong to the same faction. Overall I'm very impressed.

Very cool! Thanks for sharing, Rufus! I totally admit that I'd heard of neither this building nor this set before you posted this review. The house reminds me of something out of the Woody Allen film Sleeper. I haven't bought anything from the Architecture line for a really long time now. After seeing this latest set I not only want to go out and buy it, but also a lot of other ones in the line too. These kits are just so darn ritzy!

I dig some more digging and came across more pictures that I'd taken. I'm disappointed that apparently I didn't take more pictures as I missed capturing a good 75% of the sets that I picked up/had on display. I don't have any pictures from my first stint in college from 2006-2008, but I do have some pics from when I went back for a different program starting in 2010. This is part of my room during the 2010/2011 year. At this point I had a Technic backhoe, the Tower Bridge, the Royal Knight's castle (MISB from Bricklink),a bunch of NinjaGo, and series 1-3 of the CMFs. That year was insane, I remember at one point I had the entire first wave of Kingdoms, Atlantis, and Pharaohs Quest on display - every square inch of my room was covered, but it was worth it. Here's a different view of the same setup. That room was great for displaying Lego, there was so much shelving on multiple walls. I believe I got the Tower Bridge when it was released in October and built it over Thanksgiving long weekend (Mid October here in Canada). When most other students returned to residence after the long weekend, I think a lot of them made messes in their pants when they saw the Bridge on display! I eventually caved in a bought the Royal Knight's Castle off Bricklink. This was one of many MISB Lego sets that I had delivered to me in residence. This was the room that I had from 2011-2012. Though the room was bigger than previous rooms, it had way less shelving. That didn't stop me from buying lots of Lego. This would have been right near the start of the semester, so I'd only just picked up the Fire Brigade, the NinjaGo Fire Temple, and the VW Camper Van (not in the picture here, but in was on the table at the bottom left). My bedside table that originally hosted my printer and the Fire Temple was eventually replaced by Hogwarts. This would go on to be replaced by various other stuff. My Fire Brigade sat comfortably on my Blu-ray player beside my TV and in between some speakers. The FB and the VW Van were about the only two sets that remained in my room the whole year. At some point I had a Technic Ferrari on my desk. The model on my desk got replaced around every couple weeks as I got new stuff. Unfortunately for my wallet there is not only a Lego store very close to this college, but also an independent Lego shop that sells old and rare stuff. This was one of the hauls from that independent place. Luckily there was a huge amount of space under my bed, so I was able to store all my boxes no problem.

I managed to find one picture of Lego in one of my past dorm rooms. UCS Imperial Shuttle with the Fire Brigade kind of hidden behind it. I'm pretty sure there is a polybag promo lizard on my alarm clock too. One of the perks of being a film student is that you can get away with having just about anything in your room! I'll see if I can hunt down more photos of other past college dorm rooms.

I know it must be getting late your way, but I hope you had a fantastic B-Day, Pandora!

What an incredible review, Pandora! About halfway through the review, I stopped and debated whether I wanted to run to the store that very second to see if this was in stock or finish reading THEN run to the store and try to buy this amazing set. Ultimately I was compelled to read through to the end, but now I'm all but foaming at the mouth as I anticipate the acquisition of this fab camp. I'm really blown away at the amount of stuff that's included in this set. I really wish TLG would include this many accessories and neat details in more of their themes! Thanks for sharing!

Good to have you back for a bit, def. Next year we should do an exchange though - I'll visit Japan while you're here! Anyways, hope you enjoy your stay, and may the weather treat you ok and you find some Lego deals to your satisfaction!