Pandora

Another U2/LEGO fan here Yatkuu! This is a faithful mini rendition of the stage for that tour, you've captured the aesthetic very well, but am I right in thinking that the olive is on the far right of the stage? If so, would it not stand out even more if it were lime green? I really hope one of your upcoming MOCs will be the Zoo TV tour with the Trabants, however I'm looking forward to seeing them whatever they may be.

After having such an amazing time this year, I'm pretty sure we'll be trying our absolute best to make it to Billund. After all it's Billund with the promise of meeting so many fabulous people again and for the first time, and some guaranteed great fun. It's too soon to be able to say for definite, but knowing the dates early on is a huge help when it comes to organising time off work etc. Add us to the "dreaming and hoping" pile.

Thanks Big Cam! Thanks Donut, they are much happier now they are free! To the best of my knowledge, each set came with its own story booklet which provided a sort of jumping-off point for creative play. I'd love to be able to say this with certainty, however the other Fabuland sets and pieces I own no longer have their boxes (and my memory is rubbish for recent events let alone 30 years ago!) Aside from that I don't believe the single figures (packaged on their own with an accessory or two) had story booklets, but great question, thank you.

Thank you. I am aware of it. I think you are missing my point.

Unfortunately for my bank balance I prefer the instant gratification of buying from TRU or the LEGO store, rather than waiting for an Amazon delivery despite the reduced price. It would be great if this thread could become a valuable resource on LEGO sales, newspaper offers and the opening of new LEGO stores.

As the author of the review you mentioned, I feel I should comment. If you read the review you should notice that I explain why I personally am a fan of Fabuland, and that it relates to having, albeit not very much, Fabuland as a child. I am an AFOL of a certain age, and those within my age-range tend to be those who are Fabuland fans, though not exclusively, and in fact that review received very little attention overall. If you also read some of my other reviews you will notice that I am not always favourable in my appraisal of a set. I should also state that it was done as part of my Reviewers Academy training, however I chose to review it because it had not been reviewed and indeed because I thought it was a nice set, however I do make a few small criticisms. I don't really see problems here. I really don't think it is that surprising that a bunch of adorable animal characters would receive enduring love, and even if they do, does it really matter that much? Age ranges are completely ignored all over these boards, because when you're an adult fan of LEGO all bets are off. There are so many Fabuland resources around, the MOC index, the reviews, the comics and the Mafia games, and I would suggest that having a bit of a read through some of those will give you a better insight into why there are a notable number of EBers who feel differently to you.

I watched you build this; it was the work of moments and was instantly recognisable by the group without prompting. To create something such as this from two unrelated polybags (which you didn't even choose) in such a short time was incredibly impressive. I'm very glad you've decided to share it in the forums.

We also had an amazing time, and had tons of fun. Sincere thanks to Bonaparte and CopMike for the presentations, contests and so much more. It was great to meet everyone. While everyone's wending their way home, and I too hope everyone gets home safely, here's the 2011 Event Photo to be going on with: The weather was superb, but the company was better. Thank you to everyone for making it such a memorable and fun weekend.

Knows what a member looks like- after the above astute observation by Quarryman, I had to reply that it was indeed very good to now know what some members looked like. Flamin' galah and fair dinkum mate!

I didn't realise you had already reviewed it Silent Mode, I do apologise for not linking to your review or mentioning it, but this was done as part of my studies in the Reviewers Academy. It seems great minds think alike eh? I don't have the Town set, but I shall look carefully at it before purchasing, and it's good to hear it compares favourably. Thanks guys.

Thank you Rick! This is a beautiful, if simple set, and the tricycle does go well with your scooter; I would love for a more accurate translation than my school-days German can provide (my Italian and Spanish is sketchy at best ). As to opening boxes, well I just can't resist, especially with cuteness such as this inside! Thank you Kiel! I really do agree that Chester is a chimp; heaven knows why some areas made him a Gorilla, and I believe "Affe" actually means "monkey". Thank you both; it seems there is little love for Perry and Chester....

Thank you all very much for your interesting replies, and once again I'm glad to have provided an opportunity for this set to be seen in more detail. It's clear that there is a divide of opinion on this set (and indeed some debate as to whether it is a "set" ) and it is fascinating to read your individual opinions, so thank you all again.

Thank you very much everyone for your comments, they make for very interesting reading! There never seems to be a a bathroom, but they've at least got a tree! Thanks Rick It really is a case of "buyer beware". Thanks Zorbas! This would have seemed like a massive set if I'd had it when I was younger. I must be honest here, Arigomi, and say that I do find your story quite macabre, however the beauty of LEGO and indeed Classic Town, is that each individual can project whichever story they would like, and indeed different stories for different occasions, so it is interesting to read how you view it, thank you.

That is actually a very fair point, "We will see each other on Monday again" is completely valid, but to me implies that the two involved meet every Monday, rather than have met and will meet again on a day which happens to be Monday. I'll leave it there as I don't wish to be accused of philosophy again!

Comments and questions (and quibbles!) are always welcome, and I agree that the skull is a different head, I just didn't view it as a minifig head. It is a fair point, and I can see from your avatar you have a vested interest. I'm glad that you view this set positively, and I'm also glad that my review has played a part in that, so thank you. To be honest, that's pretty much the conclusion I reached, however I'm glad others have had the opportunity to see it up close and decide for themselves too. I also agree with your later statement that BrickLink is good for a small number of parts, but I suppose it depends on what an individual is looking for. Thank you for your comments. Thanks Big Cam, you flatter me! I wonder if the sale of this set was just an anomaly to our local LEGO store, but it has given me an opportunity to find out more about the Education line, which does include some very sweet little sets.

Thanks Sandy! It really wouldn't have taken too much effort to make the whole set a bit more interesting and thus more saleable. Curse you and your encyclopaedic (or Wikipaedic) knowledge! You are indeed correct, but I liked my serial killer version better! Thanks for your comments, Rick. I agree that this set is part of the Education line and that is clearly marked on the box to be fair, however it was on display for sale in my local LEGO shop, like any other set, and therefore puts itself forward to be judged like any other set. The implication (that I fell for) was that there were a number of interesting and diverse minifigs together all in one set. I would like people to have a good look at the contents up close if they are tempted to buy such a set. Outside of that, evidently there is much any of us can learn from the set ( ) and it works well for that purpose.

I'm not entirely sure if I'm understanding you, but if I am then we would say: "Here the prison warden is the law." and probably leave off "and order" or you could say: "The prison warden's word is the law" but I agree that "the" is required. Similarly despots have been known to exclaim: "I am the law!" I agree with you, it is "We will see each other on Monday" and if you want to add in the "again" then it would be: "We will see each other again on Monday" "Seeing us" implies both seeing both at the same time (e.g. in a mirror.)

Number – 9349 Name – Fairytale and Historic Minifigure Set Theme – Minifigures Year – 2011 Minifigs – 20 (plus 2 Skeletons) Pieces – 227 Price – GB £39.99/ EURO 47.99/ US $49.99 Links : LEGO Shop@Home, BrickLink, Brickset, Peeron Information from LEGO Shop@Home: Build a fairytale! This set features a variety of minifigures that enable children to create and act out beloved fairytales and popular themes. A great addition to any LEGO® brick set. Includes 22 minifigures: pirates, a witch and wizard, a king and queen, mine workers, a mermaid and merman and many more Features a variety of accessories Explore the differences of real life, make-believe and historic roles! Provides endless hours of creative play! Teaches storytelling through characters and their functions! Promotes the development of fantasy, imagination and imitative skills! Given the success of the Collectable Minifigures, it’s fair to assume that Minifigs are somewhat sought after by many. This set promised a full complement of minifigs for various occasions, arbitrarily ascribed to the theme of Fairytale and Historic, and with accessories to boot! So the question is, is it worth it? The box doesn’t actually state “Fairytale and Historic” anywhere, but the large print is reserved for “education”, which didn’t make much sense to me, as I thought that was what LEGO was all about. However investigating further reveals a whole new world of LEGO I didn't know existed - the education line. From the education website: Are you LEGO® smart? LEGO Education offers unique solutions to day care professionals and teachers who want to bring more innovation and creativity to their classroom practice. Using our tools and hands-on teaching methods your children will be better able to learn by experiences, collaborate with their classmates and think creatively to come up with unique solutions. That’s LEGO smart. Exploring this site further reveals many desirable sets, my favourites being 9337 Harbour, 9311 City Buildings and I know someone who'd just love 9333 Vehicles! The specific information about this set states: Age Mark: 4+ Key Learning Values: Exploring differences to real life, make-believe and historic characters Storytelling through characters and things they do Developing fantasy, imagination and imitative skills Brick Type: LEGO® System bricks Related Products: 9384, 9279, 9386, 9286 Piece Count: 227 Featuring a variety of minifigures that enable children to create and act out their favourite fairytales and stories. A great addition to any LEGO® brick set. Includes pirates, witch and wizard, king and queen, mermaid and merman and many more characters. 22 figures and great accessories too. 9349 - The Set So lets have a look at the box. It has a pleasant minimalist feel, yet still manages to show all the minifigs, some of whom are in scenes with an attractive background. The blue colour is very pleasing to the eye and there is a more mature design to the box, as it is intended to be bought by adults to use to teach children. The back of the box shows pretty much everything that’s in it, and for some reason LEGO chose the shortest pair of minifigs to put in the “actual size” picture. The base of the box is bland and uninteresting, but continues with the attractive blue colour. The box top is similarly blue, but has a fine print warning that “colours of and decorative designs on elements may vary”, so in theory you could open the box to find everything is trans-nougat or something. The left side shows where all the parts are made. And the right side shows a very small warning in English: “Warning! Choking hazard. Contains small ball”. Because the only thing you can choke on in this set is a small ball? Really? ( Although I must admit, I haven’t personally tested that theory.) There are no instructions inside the box. There are five poly-bags of assorted items each – in this, the largest, you can see torsos, legs, hair and bricks. The second largest contains an equally disorganised mix of minifig parts and accessories, and plates. The three smallest poly-bags contain the remaining small parts, with the only organisation being to keep the male and female heads in separate bags. Decanting the poly-bags and removing the items for the minifigs themselves leaves an assortment of bricks and plates and remaining accessories: Plus a few bits of greenery: A few containers: And an assortment of critters: For the minifigures, I have tried to pose them similarly to the scenes on the box. As there are no instructions, one has to rely on the box to ensure the correct torso is paired with the correct legs, assuming that that concerns you. The first pair are the shorter of the bunch, are they children playing dress-up as a knight and a princess, or are they actually a knight and a princess who happen to be short? I guess it’s up to you. The second pair are a couple of soldiers defending the world’s smallest fort. They have matching helmets, and brandishing their fearsome weapons, they are ready to fight! The third scene shows a Jester-girl who is also a juggler. And a weightlifter? Huh? The next scene has a couple of mer-people, with a few elements for an underwater scene. The crab and the clam-shell are not often seen, and the merman has a nice pearlised gold trident, but it would have been nice if his torso had had a little definition, like the surfer from the collectable minigfigs. Next up we have a royal pair. The queen looks rather casual, and the king has a rather odd sceptre with ingenious use of a Technic pin. To my eyes red and trans-blue don’t go together well. We also have a pair of standard scary-but-cheery skeletons, evidently cursed souls from a lost shipwreck given their piratey hats and cutlasses. The set provides a green-themed wizard, complete with a bottle of something magical. I really like how the bottle has been constructed and this is one of the most interesting items in the set. The wizard’s outfit is a little plain, and grey seems an odd choice for his torso, especially when the Kingdoms line has had dark green wizard torsos and legs complete with printing. He’s also given a matching snake and a stick to hit it with (I know - it’s a wand!) To go with our wizard, we have a witch, who is accompanied by numerous creepy-crawlies and a toadstool and cauldron. She has her broomstick poised and ready for her to fly off with her fab red cape flying out behind her, which will make up for the plain torso she’s been given. The snake-charmer is another of the few who have structures to build. The simple Eastern arch is topped off with a nice pearl gold slope and helps to set the scene. The snake-charmer does have a printed torso, but for some reason our turban-wearing friend appears to be either the Kingdoms’ Prince or Lion King in disguise. Next up are a couple of pirates, well evidently a pirate captain, complete with telescope and a pearl gold hook, and his first mate with a sextant. The telescope and sextant may be useful, given that they seem to have lost their ship... Now this is one of the oddest scenes (and that’s saying something). From BrickLink, this female torso is listed as “Bride” (although it also appears as the Admiral’s daughter in the Pirates’ Chess Set), and the male outfit is a Town suit. She has a bunch of flowers, so far so good, but he has... a morning star ready to stove her head in and a ladder to make good his escape? Or is he a chimney sweep, with brush and ladder, but if so, why on this earth is he wearing a suit and a top hat. Answers on a postcard, please. Aside from the oddity, they are a nice pair of figs, and it’s always nice to get a top-hat. Back to something more recognisable, a male and female pair of Imperial soldiers, the male a drummer with his drum, and female with cutlass. They also have a chest full of butter. It might be gold, but given that the contents are a few yellow studs, I’m going with butter. Our last minifigs scene has the most going on. There are a couple gold prospectors, and they have actually managed to find real gold, after blasting the mineshaft behind them. The scene comes with a nicely designed cactus, and also has..something on the ground. I really hope that’s dirt, but maybe there’s a good reason why he’s wearing a bandanna? He has a nice tan fedora, that’s common enough, and she has an almost ubiquitous Pirates/Kingdoms torso. Not hugely exciting overall, but nice enough. Included in the set are also a number of minifigs accessories, including some pith helmets and a shotgun. After all the scenes are built, there are naturally a couple of bits left over, including a spare red cape! So have you spotted it? Yup, all the female minifigs faces are the same. But not only that! All the male minifigs faces are the same! Grrr. The female minifig’s face, which lets be honest isn’t one of the best, is at least double sided. The male fig’s head has just one placid, passive expression. Here are comparison shots of the two Imperial soldiers to illustrate: Here are all the girlies together, there are only 8 of them out of the 22 minifigures. You can see the same old face across the picture, maybe they’re all related? From the back, you can see a few of the ladies have printing on the reverse of their torsos, and it's a bit of a shame the Imperial soldier girl's double sided face is visible. A French Legionnaire type helmet, with a flap of material at the back would cover her annoyed and annoying face. There are 12 male figures in total (I've excluded counting the skeletons) and so I've split them into two groups for a closer look. Once again, the same bland expression listlessly gazes out. The reverse of these figures shows most of this group have some printing, but the wizard and merman remain disappointingly plain. I still don't understand why the wizard's torso is grey, not dark green. The second group of male figures are slightly more interesting to me (identical facial expressions notwithstanding). Here you can see the snake-charmers' Kingdoms torso more clearly, and the lovely gold printing on the pirate captain's torso. From the reverse, again most torsos are printed, but as with all the others, none of them are new. I'm not convinced the snake-charmers torso fits with the rest of his outfit. To show the set off as a whole, here's everyone together, with all their bits and pieces. Conclusion Design 7/10 – the small structures that go with some of the scenes are nicely designed, especially the arch that goes with the snake-charmer, and the curious magic bottle that the wizard has. Otherwise, the set is mostly minifigs. Parts 7/10 – there are a couple of nice pieces, the gold that comes with the prospectors is always welcome, as is the dynamite. The use of the red technic pin as a sceptre was unusual, and there’s a good selection of creepy crawlies including a nice bright light orange crab, but there’s nothing here that hasn’t been seen before. Build 5/10 – mostly consists of putting minifigs together, really, but there are the occasional structure to piece together, none of which are tricky. Minifigs 7/10 – given that this set is all about the minifigures, they are actually quite disappointing on the whole. I’ve highlighted my thoughts along the way, but overall there could be a lot more printed parts, or even substitution for other, more appropriate parts already in production. Playability 6/10 – the idea behind this set is that the minifigs and scenes provide a starting point for the creation of stories of a fantasy or historical nature, but really you could do the same with a couple of small Kingdoms or Pirates sets. Price 6/10 – really this seems like an awful lot of money for not very much, and certainly nothing exclusive. It’s tempting to want a large amount of minifigs, but for the same price you could get 20 Collectable Minifigs and, although you might get a few duplicates and wouldn’t be guaranteed female figs, the overall variety would be better. Overall 63.3% – this is a somewhat disappointing collection (as it’s not really a set) that seems an expensive way to gain minifigs. Even the yearly advent calendars have more interesting bits and pieces, and they are are good deal cheaper. Given that even small impulse sets have a minifig or two usually, and will have more actual LEGO with which to build a scene, so I tend to think you’d probably be better off sticking to those. Comments welcome. For high-res images here's a link to my flickr.

Number - 6370 Name – Weekend Home Theme – Classic Town; Subtheme – Leisure Year – 1985 Minifigs – 2 Pieces – 187 Price – original selling price unknown but likely GB £6 – GB £7. Bought for GB £23.50 on e-bay. (It was a present.) Only sold once through BrickLink (April 2011) for £3.26 Used (unknown condition). On 9 wish lists on BrickLink and wanted by 338 people on Brickset. Links: Brickset, BrickLink, Peeron. Spring has sprung and summer is hot on its heels. With the advent of better weather, it’s time for our minifigs to get back to nature and enjoy some leisure time on their weekends, and where better to spend that time than in the: 6370 Weekend Home! The Box This set was purchased used and without box from e-bay, so in lieu of a 360° degree overview, the best we have is a small picture of the box as a whole from BrickLink. According to BrickLink its dimensions are 31.5x19x4.75cm, so a reasonably sized box, but not particularly big. It is bright and colourful, and emblazoned with the LEGOLAND logo - the classification used before the sets became LEGO System. Brickset list a picture of the instructions, rather than a picture of the box itself. The Instructions I received the instruction booklet, which is often lost in second-hand boxless sets of this age, and it is in reasonably good condition, despite a little crunkling at the bottom left and top right. The picture on the front is a cropped version of the set as a whole, with pictures of the minifigs underneath, and a diagram to indicate how to put a minifigs together. Just in case it isn’t blindingly obvious. There are no part call-outs for the build, rather a sequence of “spot-the-difference” pictures that are easy enough to follow. For the beginning of the build, stud counting to ensure the basis is correct seems a little trickier on the eyes than in more recent sets. There are brief instructions on placing some specific parts and the placing of stickers is mostly left to the builder’s own logic and reason, unlike building the minifigs. The first double-page spread of instructions covers the ground floor, which is mostly red bricks with some doors and large windows and the details for the kitchen. The second double-page spread tops off the ground floor and starts the basis for the first floor, with the addition of furniture. Once again, the minifig is set in place and the building constructed around her, as with her fella on the floor below. The third and last double-page spread then adds in the bold blue roof and the skylight windows. Here the pictures are larger making it a little easier to see where to place elements at the back of the roof. Unlike more modern sets, the pictures are always seen from the front, with no swivelly icon and rear picture to indicate to turn the model around and build that way. The very back page shows the completed build, with an inset indicating how to piece together the lamp post and a charming weekend scene. The Stickers Again, this was something lost in the mists of time along with the box, however the majority of stickers had already been applied (reasonably well) thus removing any fear of applying them. The only sticker missing from the parts I received was the “picture” sticker (top right) which is the only one to be applied across more than one element. I can only speculate, given that there is no residual evidence of a sticker on those parts, that the original owner was also unwilling to stick across bricks and therefore that sticker is still attached to the original sticker sheet. Wherever that may be. The picture is from BrickLink: The Parts I must stress at this point, these are the parts I received from the seller, and unfortunately they do not exactly match those listed in the parts on BrickLink, nor those seen in the instruction booklet. More on that later, for now I’ve tried to split the parts into colour groups – there is a 16x32 green baseplate: A reasonable selection of red bricks and plates, mostly for the ground floor. They are a little grubby, and they are someone else’s’ grubby at that. Not the best feature of classic LEGO. There’s a good amount of blue slopes, which, as one might expect, form the roof, and a few bricks for the first floor walls and a couple of cupboards – one of which is stickered to be the oven. As far as I can tell, this is the only set with the oven sticker, and the stickered door (not including the cupboard) is currently available on BrickLink for between GB £1.96 and GB £ 3.93 and is on 6 wishlists. The yellow, black and white pieces are more for detailing and furnishing the house. Note the frying pan and the two white mugs, which are pleasant enough for adding detail, however they are far from rare. The set comes with a good number of windows and doors, given its small size. The stickers had already been applied on mine and the “glass” of the windows was quite badly scratched. The three smaller windows open, but the floor-length panes are fixed. To add external details and give a nice, relaxing countryside feel, there are some greenery parts (trees and flowers ) and a bicycle. The parts list on BrickLink and the instructions show a red bicycle but I received a black one, which I don’t really mind given that it’s a good colour, and ever so slightly rarer than a red one (not that either are particularly rare). The Minifigs The couple spending their weekend in this little house are a coordinating couple who like to wear different shades of the same clothes, which makes me want to name them “Howard” and “Hilda” after a similar couple in a distinctly unfunny sitcom of the same era. Those of you with eagle-eyes may also have spotted that something dreadful has happened to Howard’s right hand, in that it is now white rather than yellow. Again I must make assumptions: that he had had an unfortunate accident with a meat-grinder and his previous owner took it upon themselves to restore him with a hand transplant. How kind. A brief further note on the parts. As mentioned this was a second-hand purchase, and you can’t always tell what you’ve got until you get your hands on it. According to BrickLink, there were supposed to be four of these 2x8 blue slopes: But as you can see there are only two. The seller had instead replaced those missing parts with these 2x4 blue slopes: They also neglected to supply a white 2x3 plate which forms the top of the dressing table upstairs, however, to make up for all that (and the fact that everything is grubby) I ended up with an extra one of these: Lucky me. The Build The build itself is simple enough, and the red bricks and blue slopes grow around the minifigures to form a quaint little country cottage. An overall view of the front of the house shows the outside Bar-B-Que, greenery and lamp post. You can also see the dreadful condition of the far right ground floor window – it is scratched beyond belief. Here you can see the Bar-B-Que slightly better. I’m assuming it is a Bar-B-Que and not a fireplace as it is situated outside, but it does look more like a fireplace to me. The bicycle has a trans-yellow stud attached to form a head-lamp. From this angle you can see the Bar-B-Que is tucked in front of a short wall, forming a small front garden. It’s surprising to find a lamp-post in someone’s front garden in the countryside, but it adds another detail, and I’d rather have it than not. The view from this side shows the outdoor table and chairs with a solitary coffee mug, and a good view of the kitchen through the far left window. Once again it is evident how appallingly scratched some of the windows are; the ghostly figure at the upstairs window is not a Poltergeist, but actually Hilda, sat at her dressing table. The left side view shows another window in the kitchen, which makes a nice detail, and here you can see more vividly how the ground floor is red and first floor is blue. You can just about see Howard through the window, but we’ll find out what he’s up to shortly. The back view shows the interior, which is furnished. Downstairs Howard is sitting at the dining table, lit by a lamp, and upstairs Hilda sits at her dressing table. I say downstairs and upstairs, but as with many LEGO sets, there are no stairs. Howard and Hilda move about their house by the power of levitation, the hand of God, or by climbing up the brickwork. There is an attractive archway upstairs leading to a solitary and simply built bed. It doesn’t quite seem big enough for the both of them though, assuming more than one of them can actually get to it. The view of the bed through the archway is pleasant, and makes me appreciate the archway even if it is a very small architectural detail. The back, seen from a different view, shows the built in cupboard above (the back of the cupboard forms part of the roof section) and the kitchen below. Here you can see the much coveted stickered oven door, with an open fronted cabinet next to it for the storage of another solitary coffee mug. The frying pan helps, with the oven sticker, to mark this out as a kitchen, but this is before the days of trans-orange studs and black grills used to make a hob. The many windows give the interior a light and airy feel, making it a relaxing home ideal for the weekend. Conclusion Design 9/10 this is Classic Town and very much a Classic Town design with the solid front and open back. Spreading the house into effectively four quarters but keeping it open-plan gives the home a bright and breezy feel, whilst still retaining separate and distinguishable areas. The open back, latterly replaced in sets by hinged walls, allows full access to the admittedly limited play features. The colours are true Classic Town too, and the differentiation between red for ground floor and blue for first floor work better than a single uniform colour would, given the colours that were available at the time. Parts 7/10 the bicycle, though not rare now, was only introduced in 1985 and this would have been one of the first sets to include it, making it a piece of interest for its time, and a bicycle is always useful. Similarly the frying pan had only appeared in 710 Universal Building Set in 1983 before its return in 1985. The oven front, as mentioned in the introduction, is still desired today. Overall, there aren’t a huge number of interesting parts, but that’s perhaps not why someone would but it today. Build 7/10 nothing is difficult or fiddly and nothing is repetitive. The building comes together quickly and satisfyingly. Minifigs 8/10 they are a pair of true Classic Townies, with coordinating jumpers. Both torsos are seen (like the rest of the minifig parts) in a number of sets, although this is the only set in which they appear together. Howard’s red stripy torso was last seen in 6314 City People in 1992, but Hilda’s blue stripy torso was last seen in 1991 in 9354 Town Street Theme which was a LEGO Education & Dacta set. Playability 8/10 with easy access at the back of the build, and a variety of possible scenes within the house itself, there’s a reasonable amount for kids to play with, even though there are no play features per se. The bicycle is mildly “swooshable”, and the outside Bar-B-Que, although lacking in any Bar-B-Que-able items, adds to the outdoor fun. Price I’m going to leave this unrated. Clearly this cost more than the going rate, but that’s based on the price of only one set sold on BrickLink, with no further sets for sale. At the time of release it probably represented good value for money, but as the exact initial price is unclear, that is merely speculation. Overall If you want your Town minifigs to have an abode, these days you can only really purchase a new one through the CREATOR line, the last true Town abode being 2010's 8403 City House. At the time this set was released, a lot of Town was about families and habitation, which is not really so much the case these days. There are features here which crop up in modern sets, such as the Bar-B-Que - which has been reinvented and modernised both for 5771 Hillside House and City House, and the multitude of windows and skylights, which also appear in both sets. This is a charming little weekend cottage, full of fresh air and wholesome goodness and it would make a sweet little addition to any Classic Town. And as Howard stares glumly at the dining table, and Hilda stares despondently at her dressing table.. They both decide that a good ride in the country is much more fun! Thanks for reading, for High-Res images here’s a link to my flickr

Number – 3628 Name – Perry Panda and Chester Chimp Theme – Fabuland Year – 1981 Minifigs – 2 Pieces – 3 Price – GB £26.14/ EURO 30/ $42.28 (when bought) Links : BrickLink, Brickset, Peeron Everyone loves Fabuland, don’t they? It’s a bright and happy world where sweet little animals go about simple lives, and many real-life people find that they have resonance with a particular character or animal. For hopefully obvious reasons, I personally found this resonance with Perry Panda, who really is.... adorable. Through the power of BrickLink, I bought a used and lonely figure of Perry Panda, but unfortunately, though still adorable, he was a little grubby and faded, and required a lot of photoshop work to restore him in pictures. A return to BrickLink and a slightly more thorough search returned this set, MISB! An opportunity to have a new Perry Panda, plus a friend and a vehicle, for our Fabuland friends must have some of their world around to make them feel at home, this is an opportunity not to be missed! Review: Perry Panda and Chester Chimp 3628. It’s an old box, and the passage of time has not been kind but the front of the very colourful box shows our heroes going about their daily business. An old price sticker indicates the box was likely originally bought in Germany, costing 10.20 Deutsche Marks. The back of the box is equally beaten up. It shows what good friends our heroes are and further scenes of day-to-day business, including an inability to put the ladder in the tricycle, and Perry’s concern for Chester as he horses around at height. The sides show identical scenes of further chimp and ladder acrobatics, and you can see where I have tried (and failed) to open the box carefully. The base shows yet another comic scene. Inside the box are two booklets, one with a specific story for Perry and Chester, and the other showing off other Fabuland sets. The Story Booklet shows a wordless comic describing the adventures of the pair as they set about cleaning windows. It is lovely to look at so here are all four scenes. Another page describes the relationship between the pair, unfortunately not in English, so I have translated as best I can: Percy is the owner of a window cleaning company. They say he is a real a businessman- but perhaps a little too good-natured. Gabriel Gorilla works for Percy. Intelligent he is not, but in the story (or in his mind?), he is king. It’s interesting that BrickLink and other resources call this set Perry Panda and Chester Chimp, when the Story Book clearly calls them Percy Panda and Gabriel Gorilla. The booklet also shows a drawn picture of Fabuland itself and its inhabitants. You can see Perry and Chester at the top of the right-hand side (click the picture for a high-res view). The second booklet shows a photograph of Fabuland and its inhabitants. As this set is not easy to get hold of I’ve included some small pictures of the pages inside the second booklet; please click on them for links to high-res pictures. The last page of this booklet shows Charlie Crow building his own truck (Carry-All) and also has instructions for parents. I shall translate (I hope!): Each box contains a book of stories on the small animal from the box, and gives ideas for building and play. If you read the story aloud, your child will better know each new character. Onto the LEGO! There are but three parts, the first two are a ladder and a red tricycle: The tricycle is an attractive red and seats (stands) one at the front, with space for equipment at the back. When I saw this, I immediately remembered my childhood Fabuland set, Ricky Raccoon and his Scooter, as the tricycle is remarkably similar: The ladder is a simple piece with hand grips at one end and attachments for the tricycle at the other. There’s also a brush (but I got two ) Our adorable heroes, Perry and Chester, from the front: I’m slightly miffed that, given the main reason for buying this set was to get a brand new Perry Panda, the 30 years of rattling around in the box has still left his nose and ears a little worn Here they are from the back, and Chester is looking a little short... The build requires simply attaching the ladder to the tricycle. Here you can see the holes in the bed of the tricycle into which the ladder attachment is inserted. The ladder stands upright when attached in this way. It can also be placed using the hand-holds to lie horizontally. Here are all the elements of the set together, emulating the scene on the front of the box. And once you get them all together, you can start to have even more fun! Conclusion Design and Parts –8/10 this is classic Fabuland, not that there’s any other kind, and it’s a beautiful red tricycle. It coordinates well with the scooter, and the fact that the ladder can attach in two different orientations is great. The brush is the same as those used by classic LEGO minifigs and looks a little small. Given that other Fabuland sets have Fabuland specific accessories, a Fabuland brush would have been nice, as would a bucket. Build – 8/10 it takes under five seconds; attaching the ladder to the tricycle is neither taxing nor time consuming, but still makes you smile. Minifigs – 10/10 these are the headline of the set for me. I bought this primarily for Perry, who is just able, but Chester is also entirely loveable, with his cute little ears, even if he is a little short. The addition of the background story adds depth to the characters. Playability – 9/10 the characterisation gives a springboard for setting up scenes of comic mishap with these two, plus the tricycle is fun to zoom around and the ladder attaches firmly in both orientations, preventing dislodgement when zooming. Price – 8/10 At the time of selling, this set was evidently priced at 10.20 Deutsche Marks, which equates to EUR 5.22, GB £4.52 and US$ 7.36 at todays exchange rates. I'm not sure how reliable the conversion is, but GB £4.52 is certainly a more expensive price-to-parts ratio for 1981, but this was the case with Fabuland back then. Nowadays a MISB set can be bought from GB £25.99 to GB £43.28, and used sets range from GB £4.98 to GB £19.06 (values from BrickLink at the time of writing). This was a MISB set with a known battered box, and I paid GB £26.14; I bought from a seller I had used before who also had other things I wanted to buy. This set is undeniably expensive, and I can only comment for myself, but I felt it was worth every penny. If only a secret stash of old MISB Fabuland sets could be found so that they could be cheaper to buy (and I’d feel less guilty for opening it ) Overall 88% I adore this set, it’s just gorgeous. The characters are cute and the story is great, the only thing missing are more appropriate accessories, but those can be acquired by other means. Thanks for reading, High-Res pictures can be seen on my flickr

It's Britain. Bring an umbrella, and galoshes. Seriously - there was a hailstorm this morning and now there's warm sunshine. (we Brits are obsessed with the weather) Safe journey!

Lovely review, Izzy! It's clear that this would be a big hit with little girls and this is a great opportunity to see it up close. The stickers really add a new dimension to the set; it was interesting to see the set with them and without. It's interesting, given that stickers are a big no-no in our house, that there are so many and that they add so much to the overall look. I wasn't familiar with the other characters, but I'm finding a new love in Tippy Bear!