sharky

I would wager that Diagon Alley will go away before Grand Emporium. I still saw Grand Emporium on the latest Lego catalog I got in the mail, while all the Harry Potter stuff was not in the catalog.

What's worse than clone brands are the clones of the clone brands. For example, the Super Blox brand marketed by Crazy Art seem to be a clone of the Oxford stuff. Oxford being the Korean brick brand that also makes Kre-o sets for Hasbro. Wow, talk about some worthless bricks.

Efficient and elegant design. Works for me. Could pass as an official set IMO.

If an actual picture was seen I'm sure it won't be long until we see a pic online. Looking forward to this set.

I wondered about that, but upon closer scrutiny he may have something on his feet representing weighted boots which gives him extra height.

I think it's fine to give an honest opinion even if it's negative. However, I think some of your comments are very uniformed and you seem quick to judge without fully taking in the merits of some of the minifigures you decided not to like. For example, the Santa is a much improved Santa that has a proper Santa hat. That is something many Lego fans have been requesting for a long time The "boring guy in black suit" is a banker set in 1850's England perhaps. While it may be a boring character it could be a nice way of getting a bowler hat that some may find useful. I too have mixed feelings about this series. I didn't feel compelled to collect the entire Series 7 either. Honestly, this is all coming at us so fast that my collection of minifigures is starting to overwhelm me and is causing me to take a step back. I seriously feel that Lego should only do 1 new series each year. I say that, but at the same time I loved some of the minifigures of the more recent Series like the Classic Alien and Galactic Patrol. We probably wouldn't have seen these minifigures until much later. So, the best thing is to take it in stride and only get the ones I feel most interested in.

I noticed TRU.com in the US has the summer Star Wars sets listed. Of course they have the typical TRU mark-up. I'm going to wait until the Lego store gets them and/or Walmart and/or Target.

Considering it's based off of the most recent movie I'm not surprised it came out looking the way it does. It was already at a disadvantage styling-wise. That new Enterprise is awful all buy itself without Kre-o putting it's take on it. The problem I've had with Kre-o from the beginning are that the sets are really poorly designed. I suppose one could argue that it's a building toy. You can modify it as you wish. The problem is who has lots of spare Kre-o bricks laying around in the proper colors?

If you are only gathering sets to pass down when your child gets old enough to enjoy them I wouldn't worry about getting an extra to keep sealed. I'm sure he/she would love to play with them even if they are not brand new. If you plan to sell them later as an investment, then I would keep 1 extra that remains sealed.

It didn't look like the cockpit was auto-leveling. It looks like he is rotating the cockpit manually. It would need a smoother spinning function and some weight on the bottom to achieve a self-leveling cockpit.

I agree. A brick built canopy would probably allow a more accurate look. The canopy he used ruins that area IMO. The rest of it looks good. Seeing this makes me wish they would someday do a UCS Medical Frigate, but I doubt they would do something that obscure.

And you were able to get it for a lower price. Good for you.

Earth Defense HQ no question about it. I was so pleased with that set. In fact I'm thinking about picking up a 2nd one if I can get it on clearance somewhere. I would love to have 2 of those nifty starfighters that it comes with. I'm actually looking to buy the GE myself. I was able to sell enough of my current toy collection to get the Fire Brigade, and now I have my sights on the GE. Next will be the Pet Shop, and Town Hall after that. Somewhere in the mix I may save up to get the Haunted House this year. I am extremely curious what your Nesquik Rabbit figure looks like. Is it Lego? Here is my suggestion

When Indiana Jones sets were out I was in my dark ages and didn't pay much attention to them. I do remember seeing the Flying Wing on clearance at Walmart for at least 2 weeks. I was kind of tempted to get it. Probably would have gotten me out of my dark ages sooner. I didn't buy it, and I completely regret it. Now I am going back and buying them from the secondary market. Now, whenever I hear reports of certain lines getting discontinued I make getting the remaining sets a priority above anything new coming out. I just picked up the HP Hogwarts Castle and Diagon Alley a few weeks ago. Now I have all the HP sets that were on my want list.

I planned to go back and get my Master Builder brick since the store was packed and I didn't want to hang around all morning. I wonder if they are all gone now that you mention they were just handing them out to anyone. Technically, you are supposed to hand them a small slip of paper saying you participated in the build. I have my slip of paper, but I haven't had a chance to go get it. I won't be able to go until this coming weekend. Didn't notice any dirty looks from anyone. There were a lot of AFOL's there with no kids like me. I have a daughter, but she wasn't able to go with me that morning. The Seaside House I bought was for her though, so she didn't feel so bad that she couldn't go.

I see most if not all the D2C at Walmart.com and Target.com as well. The good thing is that TRU.com usually doesn't mark up the D2C stuff as far as I can tell.

Well, anout 1.5 hours to go before store opening and there's a small crowd of around 20-30 people adults/kids. I think if you get here at store opening you're sure to get a set. I'll keep you posted. Edit: 1 hour to go and the crowd is probably 30-40 people now. Mall security busted out more railing to manage the crowd that's slowly building. I can see the large R2-D2 sculpture that is being built across the way in a small atruim. Some guy mentioned the t-shirts on Friday sold out around 2pm. Edit part 2: 30 minutes to go, more or less, I guess the crowd has doubled. Maybe, 80 now? Crowd is becoming more excited with anticipation and more lively. Edit part 3: They let everyone in with about 20 minutes to 10am. So, they opened early. I'd guesstimate about 100 people were there when the doors opened. No tickets or group numbers. Once a bunch of people were in you had to wait in line outside. I assume as people left they would let more in. I was in there early. Maybe 20th in line as they opened the doors. I got in and out ASAP, and I didn't linger as it's a small store and very crowded. Once you selected what you want to buy you had to get in line to pay and get your free stuff. As long as you quickly get what you want you can checkout fairly early. The checkout line started backing up pretty quickly once people were inside shopping. Here's the kicker. I asked the lady as I was checking out if the free sets were one per customer. She told me it was 1 per $35 purchase. I was only buying the Seaside House, and I commented that I guess I would have to select another item and get in line. She asked me if I knew exactly what I wanted. I told her the Orc Forge set, so she quickly walked over and picked it up for me. So, i was able to get 2 sets with 2 seperate quailfying purchase.

I'll be there for sure bright and early.

I've recently started to take an interest in Nerf blasters and having fun shooting them and modifying them for performance and aesthetics. Kind of a fun hobby that is safe to do with my daughter as opposed to paintball or airsoft.

My must buy list of the 2012 sets Destiny's Bounty Samurai Mech Helms Deep Haunted House Batcave Lex Luther's Mech Hulk's Helicarrier Breakout Town Hall Seaside House The Zombies Desert Skiff Palpatine's Arrest Jabba's Palace CMF Series 7 Galaxy Patrol CMF Sereis 6 Classic Alien

I like this. Great job. In fact, Lego should consider putting a theater in there modular plans for the future. It would compliment the modular series quite well I think. I'm sure everyone has the image of an old time city theater building with the traditional entry with ticket booth and marquee.

It was discussed in one of those threads, but the info came from issue 17 of BrickJournal which discussed the development of the Alien Conquest theme. In it they had concept sketches for the Hazmat guy and Classic Grey Alien. I'm hoping for a similar article on Monster Fighters. Not to stir up anything, but I'd be fascinated if they could get into the development of the Monster Fighter theme and the Haunted House in particular.

I seem to recall the brick wall stickers for the 4867 Hogwarts castle add on set are upside down in the instructions. I'd have to double check to see if I remember that correctly. I think the box art has it correct. Edit:Nope, I was wrong. They are correct. Must have been thinking of some other set.

This is their catch-all which basically means what the market is willing to spend on it. So, in the end it is pointless to aggravate oneself in trying to debate costs of doing business, profit margins, etc, and comparing them to different countries. The bottom line is if they determine that they can sell a set successfully at a certain price then they will do so. It's everyone's individual choice as a consumer to choose not to buy it. That's the only real power a person has to let Lego know you are not satisfied with their price.

My guess is the humans will stage an invasion of the planet. I don't think humans would give up that easily if the mineral they are mining is as valuable as what the movie states. At the same time, the tribe needs to be rebuilt. I'm guessing Jake will be made Chief or perhaps there will be a power struggle for leadership. You know Jake will at least have some kiddos running around. Maybe the Na'vi need to adopt some technology for defensive purposes. There's actually still a lot of story that could be told. Not sure about 3 more movies, but I guess Cameron wouldn't even try to make them if he already didn't see how it will all play out.