TheLegoDr

If the only way to buy these were blind (as in not feeling) I probably wouldn't buy any, or I would buy a whole bunch, feel at home and then return them. Granted you may end up buying the same bag multiple times doing it that way. So if they were handing them out at the counter, that is odd, although it sounds more legit than the feel method. I love the feel method and I hope that will always be available, but if the theft or opening packets continues, it may head down that way. As far as distribution, it's tough to say since each state has different population so different stores may get different amounts, so multiplying by 50 states is tricky. Although I'm sure the states do get a higher percentage comparatively. All I know is most of the stores around me didn't get in series 9, so who knows how many series 10 will be available around here.

I completely forgot all about this Castle line... But seeing the official hi-res photos only helps confirm I won't be getting any. I wanted that Dragon set originally since I don't have any dragons, but I may end up passing in the end because of LOTR. We shall see. Thanks for the hi-res photos! They really show the sets for what they are.

Finally some news! The set itself is brilliant and I love the detailing. I would not have guessed any play features because most people in the target audience won't be able to afford this, but I digress... I am pleased with the US price regarding pieces/details. I am displeased regarding the price and minifigures. I don't know anywhere else they could put Grima, but to have him the only exclusive figure in an expensive set is hard to swallow. Especially by having a cheap Gandalf/Sarumon set. His robe/skirt is fitting and looks great detailed (even though the lines don't line up like most of TLG. Shouldn't they check the calibration on their equipment???) I'd love a new print of Orc or something to help make it special, instead of another cheap generic Orc without ears above everything else. At least include the headpiece with the ears! But I guess TLG also made the Hobbit Mirkwood elves polybag without ears, so really anything can be an Elf or Orc since the ears don't define the characters at all... I like the set and I will end up getting it, but I definitely have my misgivings about it. It will easily take the place of my summer SW purchases. I'm a much bigger LOTR fan to begin with. Edit: So I assume the light brick is the green to light up that palantir? Has it been available in green before? Or am I seeing it wrong? And I agree, I can't stand that Ent, mostly because I've seen such great designs by fans that this is very poorly done. I realize they have their limits, so that is why it looks like this. It's great to be included, but poorly managed. I will definitely improve on it for my collection, if I even build him.

That is true. I never really thought about it, but the boxes are significantly smaller than traditional. It's good to help reduce the environment waste and less air being packaged. Although some boxes that are huge are impressive to look at, but most sets don't require that.

It always depends on the sets involved. I have King's Mountain Fortress built for over 20 years now. It was in my box when I put it in storage. Last year I re-built Black Knight's Castle and that will be built forever as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately, nothing is safe since I started MOCing. I love my Modulars, but I don't have any together other than Pet Shop. I think I have Hagrid's Hut built still. Otherwise, I want to rebuild my Modulars and Winter Village sets. But most sets don't get put together to begin with unfortunately.

The closest LEGO store is about 3 hours away in Kansas City, so we get there maybe once a year. I think usually I still order most of my sets from S@H when they do special figures or deals, even though other retailers may have better prices. It all depends on what will be better, getting a free figure from LEGO or getting a discount somewhere else and then buying the figure through another way. Although I work near a Target, a B&N, and ShopKo (I never go into the latter two) and then we have 2 other Targets in town, 3 Wal-Marts (soon to be 4), and then probably another 4 ShopKos and a TRU (which is really far out of the way). So basically I only see what Target has to offer since it is close by, otherwise I know everything about LEGO through here and S@H. If a LEGO store would be nearby, I would just shop there instead of ordering them online (thankfully I receive them within 2 days of ordering since I'm close enough to the distribution center). But I know I would get pick a bricks more often (depending on the pieces available). This last time it was terrible, but I still got one since we never get to go. But if I lived near it and it was crap, I wouldn't buy one.

Throwing money out the window and only going with builds, I can't really attest to most of them. However, I did build the Haunted House as a playset for my daughter. It's brilliant and we both love it. I like how it opens up like a dollhouse to play instead of having to remove the levels. I also prefer it as a complete build instead of the easy access of Arkham. But with that said, I do want the other two sets also, so that is a tough question. But even though the price isn't great for you, I think the Haunted House should be considered as a top runner. Otherwise go with Arkham because of the figures (and since you don't particularly care for Town Hall).

Essentially TLG has issues with quality now due to the plastic being used (from what I've heard). I think a lot of it is how many pieces they are actually making and putting out just increases the likelihood that people will notice more cracked pieces?? Just my guess. I've only been back into LEGO for a few years now, but I have LOTS of pieces cracked from new sets. All of my early pieces (pre-1996) still seem to fine quality wise, just not as crisp of colors as they used to be. I recently built a mini scale King's Castle only with new light bley and new red and I counted over 10 cracked bricks including 1x2 brick , 1x4 arch, cheese slope, and 1x2 plate. I was surprised on some of them, but I was aware of the poor quality in the cheese slope pieces. Most of mine are cracked from new sets.

As much as I love Mr. Gold, I don't particularly care for the chrome gold look. It makes sense to have it that way for a rare figure, but I actually prefer how it looks pearl gold in the stock photos more than the chrome gold official look. Clearly if I come across one will be a different story, but after seeing it in the wild, I'm not as crazy about "gotta have it." I've heard someone mention scratches on it, and I think scratches will be quite common because doesn't the chroming pick up all of the surface scratches more easily? I have a few TC-14 and they all look scratched even though they are still in the package and never touched. None around me so far though, but maybe I haven't looked at enough places. But most stores around me never got in series 9 (and the few that did had a very limited run of it).

I will basically repeat everyone else here. The Modulars are the "must have" LEGO sets for me. Those are the Winter Village series. I will buy those no matter what. As far as official Modulars currently available, I would go with Fire Brigade and not only because it is the first to go (I read on here it will be gone later this year). That was my first Modular Christmas 2011 and it might be my favorite and I don't have an affinity to firefighting. I love the color usage and the build techniques. I was hesitant on Pet Shop for the longest time, but after I got it for Christmas this last year and built it I was glad I did. A lot of great little details and it's fun with the two buildings in one idea. At least in the US, they are all priced at $149.99 except for Town Hall at $199.99. So buy them at that price or cheaper anytime you can. I've never seen a deal on them yet, or when I have I didn't have the money at that time, so I've been buying them full price but ultimately they are worth it if you compare price to piece. Plus, the number of pieces and the new build techniques you learn. Go to that link to read about CC/GG builds because it is quite fun. I am almost complete with my bricklinked CC and I will do GG and Market Street sometime after. Best line LEGO has put out.

Great scene. I always love seeing your builds. This also has a great story along with it. It will be interesting to see it progress. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=30274 are the lion statues. They come in a few sets. And I believe the scrolls are a non-LEGO custom. I've seen them on a few websites before, but don't remember which.

I actually bought that exact combination because I wanted the 4 turtles and Splinter and Shredder. The downside(and upside) is each turtle has 2 variations on their face, so depending on which head you want can determine which set you would pick up. I think overall that combination of heads is most fitting for the characters (Mikey is having fun, Raph is upset at the world, and the other two are determined but no true emotion either way). I don't particularly like Donnie's other head from the Baxter set, so I'm glad I didn't pick that up.

No one around here has the sets yet, so luckily I was a LEGO store last week to pick them up. I guess TRU did have them last night when I looked, but I agree the sale price on all of their sets is ridiculous, so I would have waited if I didn't already have them. They were running a BOGO40% promotion, but naturally LR was not on it since it is brand new. I've only opened/built the Stagecoach set and I really like it. I'm even okay with the scale since I don't see any other way to make it lower unless you use smaller wheels.

I think that the window spot is linked to the machine that makes them. Although I think they look better now than where they used to be when Cafe Corner was new. Looking at those reviews shows it more centrally located, whereas the new windows are more on the side somewhere.

Again, with all of TLG customer service, it is hit and miss. Everytime I have requested pieces, they have given me a total amount. Then when I ask for an itemized amount per piece, they typically will send me one, except for a few times when they say they don't offer that service. If they don't offer it, why has it happened multiple times? Either some reps are just lazy and don't want to deal with that, OR they really aren't supposed to do that and a few skirt the issue and help out us fans. And it does suck what they show online and then you check with them and they say they are no longer available. I'm not sure why it is marked as available online. Why even provide that at all? Why not just require you to call them for every piece then. I realize it is a hassle, but you have to do it anyway to pay. I'd love to be able to pay online and not worry about a thing.

Very impressive. Very clean building. I think the tiling does make it look cleaner, but I think a brick built dome would also look good. Although it may clash with the other tiled roofing. But as far as domes go, this is incredible. I've been wanting to incorporate a dome into some build and I don't see how someone could top this. Also, incredibly/ridiculously/amazingly close to the original structure. I am most impressed with the comparison, although everything about this is awe inspiring. Keep up the great work.

Obviously LOTR was better, but Hobbit was still a fun watch. It was zany and unrealistic at times, but that was part of the fun. I haven't read the books, so I can't compare anything there, but the movie was a fun watch. I did buy it with the figure, but haven't watched it since the theater. I need to sometime, but LOTR is just more epic in scale it seems.

We watched part of Paranorman since it is on Netflix now. My daughter seemed to like it. She is infatuated with zombies at the moment thanks to her best friend. She also really likes ghosts and monsters in general. We watched Monster Squad recently and she loved it. Had to watch it multiple times in a row.

Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

I know. Instead of spending $70 on a set I don't like, I can put that $70 towards other SW sets I only kind of want, so then I can get the Han figure. By getting the Rancor Pit and the A-Wing, I will basically have the $75, so it works out.

There is also the possibility that Mr Gold isn't in a package at all. They did say he will never be where you think (or something like that). I would do it as a special card you find that you mail in to redeem for him. And the special card is actually the back of the pamphlet it comes with. On all of them it says find Mr Gold, except for when you found him, it will say You found Mr Gold. Meaning, it would feel the same as EVERY other package, so you couldn't ever guess if you found him or not and it wouldn't take anything away from the rest of the figures in the series. With that said, no one around here has them from what I've seen. And the Lego store said they wouldn't be released until May sometime, but they didn't have a release date.

I put my build on hold for now, but I was getting a really good start to the gatehouse build for Albion. Hopefully I'll have time in the near future to get back to building. My daughter broke some of it and I never got back around to working on it.

I would recommend getting the Tower Bridge sooner than later. I don't know the official discontinued date, but I read on this website that someone said it would be discontinued this summer because they were going to release a new large architecture set (the Sydney Opera House). Even if that is false, it would be available about 3 years this summer, so I'd say it will be gone soon. I just picked it up in March out of fear.

That is beyond impressive. The size alone is impressive, but then add in the detailing. Needless to say I won't be duplicating his anytime soon. But still very impressive.

I noticed that box art error also. They do seem to make a lot of mistakes. For a company this large and profitable, they should take better care about it. I bought the whole line except for the Mine the other day. The Mine doesn't do much for me, the only appealing thing is the skull and the other Native American. But it isn't worth $70 for me to get that. I think I'll spend the $70 for May the Fourth promotion.