RichardGoring

From LEGO Bricks & Pieces https://www.lego.com/en-us/service/replacementparts/sale/location Although they're out of stock of all of these elements now.

Yes, I've had the same experience with backordered sets, and I don't want this particularly quickly. It's just the only set available at the moment that should give the GWPs, and it will be irritating if it ships without them. Even the small polybags I would normally order to get the GWPs are backordered.

Wow. I didn't get around to ordering it until this afternoon and was miffed that it was backordered until mid February. Fortunately I did it then. After Ninjago City Gardens was pretty much available for the first two weeks, and is back in stock now, I had hoped they'd figured out supply. I also hope that I get the February GWPs with this order and they don't run out.

Using the Brickhound service is a great way to be notified. I've found that the LEGO website notifications are poor, but Brickhound is very reliable. https://brickhound.com/ It's only in the US though, so depends where you are.

Ah. That's very frustrating. Sorry!

Who buys a $300 LEGO set and doesn't have a VIP account? It's going to be a tiny fraction of sets sold. I always thought the VIP early release thing was just a way to get more people to sign up to the program if they were new to LEGO.

Interestingly, it's still in stock on S@H in the US, which I was surprised about.

Nothing is mentioned in the video or description. The tone of it is that he cobbled it together ad hoc, so I suspect it's not planned formally with instructions. There's an email address under the video, so maybe ask for more images?

Video of a lovely layout of CIty, Docks (x2), and Gardens, along with the Temple of Airjitzu and Green Ninja Mech Dragon. Mixing things up, the depth you get from the extra sets is really terrific, but in this example the large waterways are somewhat lost. I think it looks terrific.

Any reason for getting two? Seeing this and Ninjago City together, I'm thinking that they really need something shorter between then too separate the towers. But with the Docks so expensive now, I wondered whether to Bricklink them. Of course, that's even more expensive than buying the set, about $650 without minifigures, but you get about a third of the pieces you need from the Gardens set. I have another third, roughly, in my random parts collection. So either Bricklink the rest of MOC something with other parts from the Gardens. Then the whole thing becomes an excellent display set for my Zoom background, and fun for my four year old.

I wonder if they'll do any weighting of the categories? The way their categorised means you could have a very odd result. Things like Adventurers, Bionicle, Paradisa, and Studios are all somewhat unique. Anyone who likes them will vote for them, so they capture 100% of the relevant vote. But Pirates and Imperial are essentially the same thing, so may get a split vote (in fact I have the pirate island set with an imperial figure in it). And then probably the biggest split is for castles. There are six or seven categories for castles, just with slightly different aesthetics or different release dates, but fundamentally, they're all the same, and I suspect a fan of any one of them would likely be delighted to get a set from any of the others. Same for much of the space stuff. I hope that the vote takes that into account somehow. Wonderful idea though. If it goes well, maybe they'll do a classic celebration set each year, like PoBB was in Ideas for pirates, the blacksmith shop, and the upcoming castle in Creator 3 in 1.

That's a great idea. I was thinking of putting the temple island on the right of the gardens (with them connected to NC on the left), but have it all inline, so the temple isn't actually connected. And possible do it on a 32x32 baseplate, so it's a true island and not separated by only a few studs. But it might work well as-is, especially if connected to another island with the blacksmith shop on it.

I think the island is great when you consider this as a standalone set. It adds something to the flow and certainly provides a calmness to the crazy world of the city portion. But when linked with any of the older sets, it feels out of place. The fact that it's removable is really useful and gives options to everyone.

The video is very useful to see. I don't have the docks, but this confirms for me that I will put the city on the lefy and the gardens on the right. It's better balanced, with the two tall towers on the extreme edges of the pair. Likewise, if I do get the docks, I'd do it as he first has is. City on the left, docks in the middle, and gardens on the right. Probably removing the temple and either simply placing it next to the gardens on the right, as an island, or just separately, perhaps next to the Spring Lantern Festival. But any which way, they're all really lovely sets.

A Google search brings up the docks for $383 from Toysonline . com. but I think it's very likely a scam site, which is a shame. They have no history, no links, no reviews. Otherwise, everything is $500+

I'd be willing to buy Ninjago City Docks for $350. Even used. BrickLink's lowest priced listing is $400 in the Czech Republic, so shipping will be loads. Cheapest in North America is $500. Cheapest in the US is $590. eBay doesn't appear to be better. I'm clearly looking in the wrong places. Would be happy with $350 though.

Not quite, but having finished it just hours earlier, there were sighs of resignation at having to spend a chunk more time building it up. It now lives on a piece of plywood that's cut to match the base footprint, so it's easy carry and won't slip off.

Have I missed anything in terms of events or offers for the Ninjago 10th anniversary? The store calendar said Jan 13 and 14, but I can't see anything. Or is it just that the gardens are releasing tomorrow and they needed space of two days on the calendar to show the Ninjago graphics?

@Klaus-Dieter, yes it could be too small and there is that risk. But the Creator Expert set is vast and this is only half the piece count, so hopefully not too bad. The UFO carousel works compared to the much more complex Expert version, and the pirate roller coaster is still great compared to the Expert one. On a personal note, I have the roller coaster, carousel, Ferris wheel and haunted house set up on a shelf behind me as my Zoom background, all with lights. So it's a pain to get them down to play with, with my four year old. If she can have her own version of all of them, so much the better, as it will reduce the frequency of getting them down. Especially when you've dropped the 10261 expert roller coaster trying to carry it from the office to the living room!

That sounds great. The UFO carousel 31095 was so delightful. A Ferris wheel to go with it would be terrific.

That's particularly interesting for Steamboat Willie. Suggests they did a lot of the work, probably all of it, before approval. I wonder why.

It's so nice. I would be happy if they made it but scaled it back by removing the back half so it's similar to the winter village line. If they kept the whole thing with the opening back, then even better. Such a lovely design.

Agreed that it's likely a very small percentage of customers who follow leaks. Yes, people here, but that's a tiny percentage of overall sales. It seems like the strategy of waiting for reveal until very close to the release date is that you get a bunch of content released from reviewers, influencers, and press. And then, critically, people can click a link and buy immediately (well, up until five past midnight when it's sold out). As opposed to a reveal two weeks beforehand, but you can't click through and buy straight away, and by the time you can, you've possibly forgotten or moved onto other things. Plus, changing a release schedule causes even more confusion and misinformation everywhere. It's not that critical to LEGO, but messing around their partners with changing dates all the time is a big deal.

I had the same issue a few months ago. But I signed in during checkout and got both the GWP and VIP points.

But couldn't you just put any future modular on a baseplate anyway? Costs $6 extra, but still much cheaper, typically, than buying bricks for a MOC modular. But on the idea of moving to plates instead of baseplates, does that impact the stability of the whole thing when you pick it up? Baseplates aren't that rigid, but they hold things together. If you used 4x 16x16 plates, you've got some very week points in the base. I don't trust picking up my Fairground Haunted House (which has 4x 16x16 plates) without putting it on a board.