ZO6

Sorry once again for a bump... Knowing that I would eternally regret it should I miss out on this set, I finally got around to picking up a copy of it a week ago. Upon opening the box I was surprised to find that the four white sub-boxes no longer had the geometric shapes on them, but instead they were marked 1-4. I thought little of this change at first, however as I began dumping out the contents of each box I was shocked to see that the bags were numbered! The largest box (1) contained bags marked '1-3', box 2 contained bags '4', box 3 contained bags '5&6', and box 4 contained bags '7'. As per usual with numbered bags, each number was used to build a certain section of the model. While I'm sure a lot of people would be overjoyed to find such a large set contained numbered bags, I was quite disappointed. I was really looking forward to having to search through 48 bags of parts and enjoying a lengthy build. When building smaller sets with numbered bags, I usually dump out all the parts in one large pile. With the Death Star I really didn't feel like having a mound of parts made up of nearly 4000 pieces. With other large sets with unnumbered bags (such as the Taj Mahal or Tower Bridge), I open all the bags and just pick out what I need as I go. I must say though that the builds for the Taj Mahal and Tower Bridge weren't particularly fun/memorable - the joy of dealing with massive amounts of bagged parts was killed by repetitious builds and having to deal with 90% fiddly little parts. The Death Star on the other hand deals with relatively larger parts, and it is a very varied build. Anyways, to make a long story short (too late) - while I thought the build for the Death Star was incredible, the numbered bags severely dampened my fun and build time. At a snail's pace I was able to complete the set in around 15 hours. (Note, I'm not some sadistic maniac, I just love searching through loads of bags of parts from time to time). Numbered bags aside, this set has really lived up to all of it's hype. If this isn't the most playable set ever, then it's at least way at the top of that list. I truly believe the Death Star will go down as not only being one of the greatest Star Wars sets of all time, but being one of the best Lego sets, period! Pictures really don't do the set justice, it's a good size and has got more neat little details and functions than you can shake a *insert noun* at. I agree that it could easily host way more minifigures and actually feels borderline barren. These extra minifigures would have to come free of charge however, as this set is already very expensive. In any case, I'm extremely pleased with this purchase and I know I'll only cackle maniacally when this set goes out of production and instantly skyrockets in price on places like ebay and Bricklink Death Star, how I love thee!

As someone who does relatively little mocing, and instead keeps all their models built for display or to mess around with, I find the current onslaught of stickers in sets to be overwhelming. Since I always apply the stickers, I first back them up by scanning them. Modern stickers seem to be a lot more durable then ones in the past, but you never know what might happen to them so I always like to have a backup solution. Stickers detract from my Lego experience for a couple of reasons. First, the application disrupts the flow of the build. I always build my sets at a nice leisurely pace to enjoy the experience, but having to stop constantly to apply sticker is annoying. Second, colours on sticker never match the bricks all that well and thus they really stick out like a sore thumb. Stickers always stand out and IMO detract from the look of the model. While I've mastered the art of perfectly applying stickers, I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for small kids (the intended age group of many sets) to apply all these sticker properly. I'll bet loads of them go on crooked, or else the application does not go well and then the stickers soon fall off. I didn't have to apply many stickers to sets in my childhood, but looking back at ones that I did makes me want to cringe - they were just so poorly applied. Some of my favorite sets are really high on that list because of the wonderful elaborate printed parts that they contain. Take many of the original desert Adventurers sets for example, the beautiful printed pieces are part of the charm of the sets. As on the other hand, I've never found myself thinking - "Gee, these stickers sure look nice". Sure IMO the stickers enhance the aesthetics of models, but they will never replace prints in terms of looks. Also, as you guys have covered somewhat - stickers on common parts for me is unacceptable. I understand the logistics of stickers for one time uses, but having stickers on parts that pop up in many sets is overkill.

Beautiful review, Pandora! I adore these kind of classic town sets. While all of the creator houses are fantastic, and the recent City House was nice, I still find that they lack the charm of these older homes. Some of the alternate builds for the creator houses come close, but they often still lack the open backs of classics like this. In any case, I must say that I'm grateful for the current steady releases of houses to help expand our towns. Thanks again for the lovely review of this wonderful set!

For those who are interested, on the back of the 3rd instruction booklet for the Fire Temple, there is a sneak peak for the 2012 NingaGo line. Glad to know that the line will continue, I already look forward to seeing what the Ninja based sets will be like.

After seeing these pics, I'm actually pretty excited for this set. I certainly agree that the overall design/recognizability of the set is a bit lacking, but it will no doubt provide a huge amount of play value (let's not forget the intended target audience). The real winners are people who already have the 7666 Hoth Rebel Base, but lack an actual base/command center to put behind the wall/door. The Echo Base looks like a lot of fun.

Thanks for the pics, Grogall! It was upon seeing pics of the Fire Temple (back whenever they first appeared) that convinced me to collect the Ninja based sets from the theme. The skeleton faction does not appeal to me, but the Ninja stuff is alright (I suppose nostalgia is playing a large role in my desire to acquire them). The Fire Temple looks stunning. It doesn't appear to have as many play features as I'd hoped, and the splitting function is rather bizarre, but perhaps there are still some features not yet known. In any case, it's near the top of my must-haves for this year. I quite like the dragon from the Lightning Dragon Battle, but the skeleton helicopter would be put to the side should I ever pick up the set. Sure the design of the helicopter is quite elaborate, but it's just not for me. I'm really looking forward to this summer wave of NinjaGo sets!

Happy B-Day Siegfried! Hope you get a bucket load of plastic goodness! (It's been another year already... )

Thanks for sharing this great review, BC! I think TLC has done a pretty good job of creating the Black Pearl using only 47 pieces. Of course for that price range I don't think you could expect too much more from a little polybag set. It doesn't look outstanding, but it's recognizable enough and seems as though sufficient effort was put into the design. I'd say this is certainly a welcome addition to the PotC line.

Really nice review, Cloney! I'm not particularly interested in any of the Cars sets (the first movie also happens to be my least favorite Pixar film), but something in the cheeriness of the two vehicles almost made me reconsider my views. The printed parts for the vehicles look really great, and that blue is lovely. If the japanese stickers were prints than this set would have become a must have for me, but alas...

Thanks for yet another informative review, Catanas. This was a real pleasure to read! This seems to be a nice set - the purple bricks are of course awesome, and the minifigures are interesting. I don't know what it is, but something about the bus just doesn't appeal to me. It's not the design of the bus that turns me off or anything... I'm not sure I can put my finger on why I don't have a desire to pick up this set. The playability is good too, so it's not that... In any case, I agree that it's good to have variety within the Harry Potter theme by including a vehicle.

*Breathes sigh of relief* I was worried there for a moment that you might use your amazing reviewing skills to sell me on a set that I'm really not keen on. With that out of the way, I can congratulate you on a fantastic review - of a set that remains to be judged in a sensible way! I really wanted to like this set, but alas it is just not up to my standards. I'm a huge fan of the Farm line, but even the inclusion of the green boat cannot sway me. Despite my general enthusiasm for sets with lots of playability, far too many other aspects of this set were compromised in order to achieve that. I went on a longer rant in the other review of this set from a little while ago, but I don't feel like getting myself worked up again so I'll stop here. Maybe I'm not quite finished yet... But people were able to build Lego sets for decades using instruction manuals with less luxuries than modern day ones. At the age of 5 I was able to build fairly large sets without too much difficulty (except if there was string...), and usually 10+ pieces were added each step with no special indication of where they went. Whenever I build modern sets I often find myself flipping a couple pages ahead between steps so that I can add more than 1-2 pieces. I believe TLC has gone a bit too extreme with the simplicity of their manuals. I have a larger stack of manuals from the past 3 years of collecting than I do from the 20 years before that - simply because manuals are so much longer or else there are multiple ones. I think Rufus was complaining more about the thin baseplates as opposed to the inclusion of baseplates. The general consensus seems to be that most of us want raised road plates for our harbours. While I'm on the topic of baseplates, it seems as though most AFOLs aren't opposed to regular 16x32 or 32x32 baseplates, but instead it's the elaborate raised ones that they are less keen on. I think you mistake that sometimes.

Thanks for this look at the King Carriage Ambush, Lego Otaku! I really like this set (along with the summer wave of Kingdoms sets as a whole), and a carriage for the King is just what the theme needs at this point. TLC seems to have fixed most of the issues with the previous carriage...err chariot - such as including two horses, making proportions better, plus the added Dragon knights hideout and traps are a bonus. This has a decent selection of minifigs, and the printing on the horses is gorgeous!

This is a very good first review, Catanas, very detailed too. Thanks for sharing! It's nice to have a couple harder to get characters in a small set. Other than the figures though the set of the set isn't particularly interesting. I think if more trees or scenery had been included then a more interesting set up would have been achieved - these inclusions however would have also driven up the price of course. In any case, not a bad little set!

The Tower Bridge came out in October last year and will likely have a 2-3 year lifespan (meaning it should be around until late 2012 or early 2013). I would not worry about it being discontinued this fall, though it would be great to pick it up on its 1 year anniversary

It really depends what you're in the market for. If you want to boost the amount of vehicles for your town then the Public Transport set is the way to go (I find that the structures in the set are borderline throwaways). If on the other hand you want something a bit more unique for your town then the Farm is the way to go. I give the nod to the Farm as I found it to have a lot of charm and was a nice change of pace from most city sets. To each is own though, hopefully whatever choice you make is to your satisfaction

Thanks for this incredibly in-depth review, Pandora! It was a real pleasure to read! This is without a doubt my favorite set from the 'Harbour' city subtheme. I'd love to see TLC go all out again and produce something more along the lines of the superb Sail N' Fly Marina, but the small town feel of this set is quite pleasing never-the-less. I quite like the colour scheme of the set, and the amount of accessories is very welcome, but I feel another civilian - perhaps in a bathing suit would have been appropriate and helped make the set feel more complete (well, and a nice big blue baseplate too).

I picked up the 8096 Emperor Palpatine's Shuttle today but came across some bizarre pieces. My complaint is regarding the 6x12 wedge plates (both left and right variations). Half of them are the normal hard/shiny plastic that one would expect, but the other half have matte backs and feel softer. My best description as to how the backs are is by comparing them to large baseplates - not as dense or shiny as smaller plates. I'll see about taking some pics in the morning for archival purposes and posting them here. Edit - I recently picked up the 10188 Death Star and had the same issue with the plates. Here are some pics: The piece with the matte backing is on the left, the normal glossy one on the right. Again the bizarre piece is on the left and the normal on the right. This picture also allows us to see that the one on the left has round tubes, while the normal one has tubes that are more of an octagonal shape.

Sorry for the bump, but I have some comments... First off - great review, Rufus. Moving on - After a certain "dress up as your favorite Star Wars character and build Star Wars Lego while watching all 6 Star Wars films day " at the start of the month, I've had a resurgence in love for Star Wars Lego. I finally got around to picking up a copy of this set today and I must say I'm very pleased with it. I was very skeptical when looking at pictures of the ship, but to me it looks far superior in person and it's size is also fairly impressive. The colour scheme doesn't seem as jarring in person either, nor does the asymmetrical top/center wing. There are a couple sections here and there that seem kind of messy or unfinished, but they can be remedied pretty easily. The 'Vader transformation' interior has really grown on me, and its inclusion is appreciated much more than say just a handful of seats. The included minifigures look really great, though in an ideal world it would have been nice if two Shock Troopers had been thrown in too. I'm pleasantly surprised at how swooshable the ship is too - it seemed as though it might be pretty fragile but it holds together well.

I really want to like this set, but it just fails to impress on so many different levels. I guess for people who have the 2007 City Harbour, this new one would be a nice change of pace. However for people who don't have much of a harbour up and running yet this is pretty disappointing. I want to like the green farm boat, but that hull has been used on so many sets that it just doesn't stand out. The dock and pier really need to be raised more, it's ridiculous to have the road at the same level as the water. While the 2007 version featured lots of primary colours, it didn't seem forced. This new one just screams "LOOK AT HOW MANY DIFFERENT COLOURS I AM!", and the set is borderline an eyesore. Perhaps this could be remedied if there was more road and dock so that the blue structure and yellow crane didn't seem so overwhelming. What bothers me most is that it seems like TLC shrunk the 2007 version by 2 sizes but then slapped the same price sticker on it (I can usually look past price tags, but this time I'm too rattled) I am satisfied with the amount of playability offered by the set though. And despite my seemingly complete lack of enthusiasm for this set, I would still like to pick it up at some point when it is discounted to a price I see fitting.

Unfortunately Bricks N Blocks closed down about 2 years ago. The equivalent store has been open near London for a while - ToyBuildingZone. As you've probably noticed, the first official Lego store in Ontario just opened at the Sherway Gardens mall last week, though most of their prices will be MSRP. Another interesting place is Lasting Toys which specializes in Lego and often has a wide variety of sets (sometimes rare too). Also as others have said, Toys R Us often has 15-25% off selected sets or themes, it's just a matter of checking their weekly flyer either online or in the newspaper to see if there are any sales on. Hope this helps.

I have no allegiances to any specific themes. I buy whatever appeals to me, generally this is dictated by set design and playability. I don't go out of my way to acquire specific minifigures, nor do I place a restriction on how much money I'll spend on a specific theme. I don't go out of my way to test the waters by buying a set from every theme to see what I like, though I find there is generally at least 1 set I like from most themes. I find just about every year there's a theme that I wish to collect in its entirety. However, I don't put a huge priority on getting sets from that theme in any way that would restrict me from buying sets from other lines.

Another excellent review, Fangy. Your pics keep improving with every effort too! I really adore this set. My desire for beautifully printed parts has increased in recent years, and this set delivers some of the neatest printed pieces I've seen in a while. Personally I don't mind the tradeoff of a minifigure in able to acquire these fine parts. As mentioned before, it's a shame that the contents of this set can't tuck away nicely into the QAR, but at least this displays nicely on its own.

Thank you very much for this review, RubeusHagrid! While this set is certainly no Sail N' Fly Marina, it's definitely something that our Lego towns have been craving for a long time. I was initially pretty disappointed with the set but it has really grown on me. I nearly bought a copy today but I ended up picking up some other exclusives instead. I find the colour scheme of the marina quite pleasing, and while some will cry 'juniorization' in terms of pieces used the set will undoubtably integrate perfectly with any modern Town sets. Oh, and is it just me or is the windsurfer dude (the second from the left) ridiculously creepy looking? ...actually all three on the left are pretty sketchy characters

Thanks for the review, Whitefang, and lovely pictures! There was once a time when I convinced myself that I wouldn't collect the Atlantis line. Unfortunately for my wallet, the theme just wound up with too many good sets and I could no longer resist jumping on board. This polybag set is is exactly what I need to complete my collection, in fact I think I need multiples of this. While the sub is compact, its got great details and simply looks fantastic!

This is fascinating to see evolve! So tedious to work on something so large and make it so detailed, but the results are well worth it. Everything looks great thus far. I look forward to more updates, best of luck!