Tohst

Thank you for the great review. This set just went from my 'avoid' list (which really doesn't have many sets in it) to my 'must buy' list (which has rather a lot). Its the truss pieces that the initial pictures of had me swearing it was one stupid useless piece that you've shown is a bunch of rather useful pieces that made me turn the corner. -Tohst

I just did the same thing. Interestingly enough the actual Black Friday ad says $50. Could this be a case of they didn't clear a clearance price of $48.88 out of the computers before getting the BF stock in? There is a chance that on Friday the price will go up $1.12 -Tohst

To add to the fun, Black Friday sites are saying Toys R Us is going to have 'doorbuster' deals. Thats when the sale is only early morning on Friday or Sat. 50% selected Bionicle ...interesting. 40% selected Lego (Star Wars, other) wait, Star Wars lego....40% off. Now into speculation corner. Toys R Us around me seems to have stocked up on the MTT and Jedi Fighter with Hyperdrive Ring. Those are my guesses for 40% off. They also have stocked up on all the current Clone Wars toys but I would bet thats just because they think they will sell well and they won't be on sale. But one can hope. If you're gonna be up at 5 am on Friday checking, I hope you find something you want to buy. Me, I'm telling myself I don't want to wake up and go...but I might, I just might. -Tohst

Okay, As many of you know, Target has for the past several year had a large Lego 50% off item as part of their Black Friday sale. I've been noticing set 6211 Imperial Star Destroyer reappearing at my local Targets so there is a good chance this will be the set. Until the time of the sale it is at its normal $100 price. And just for good measure check out this thread from last year for more details. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?...mp;#entry213909 Oh, did I send you directly to my prediction post ;-) My next year prediction was way off as Exo-Force is dead. I'm currently thinking next year might be the big Agent's truck or if we are lucky, the Clone Wars Gunship. -Tohst

You can disagree with me however strongly you want. There is definately some room for interpretation here. But read this article: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/50/lego.html from August 2001. The venerable company was not strong. Then look at http://www.lego.com/eng/info/default.asp?page=timeline and some of the deficits they were running. There are also articles in magazines such as Brickjournal you can look at where the convential wisdom boils down to: 1) Lego was having a very tough time in the late 90s and early 00s. 2) This was due to multiple factors including bloated processes, tougher competition, and the stagnation of set design based on insular thinking 3) Bionicle, introduced in 2001 was a big factor in making enough money to get them trough the end of the rough patch to the healthy company they are today. Believe it...or not? -Tohst ETA: check out the company's annual report, especially for 2003, an especially bad year. Star Wars/Harry Pottter/ and Bionicle sales were all down, but Bionicle was the best selling line they had.

Even if I didn't like the sets, as a fan of Lego I would love Bionicle. Why? Because they made Lego money when they really needed it. Bionicle is the reason Lego is where it is today giving us amazing non-Bionicle sets. Now, having said that. I do think the sets are cool. -Tohst

Sandy, Great collection. Always nice to see another HP fan here. I always wish we had gotten 1, just 1, character from Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. Sure, I'd have spent all my money on Bricklink getting multiples but it would have been worth it. Since you have such a great collection of figures, have you given any thoughts to a Luna custom or something of the sort to finish off the 'main students' -Tohst

Please add me to the raffle. -Tohst

I agree with you on some of this, but... Agree, I like white but white and orange need to rest after a couple creamsicle intensive years. Disagree so much. We've had trans-black canopies out the yin-yang in Star Wars for a decade. Give us colored canopies that allow us to create ships with a mixture of the old and new pieces. Yes, I want trans-yellow, trans-green, trans-blue and I'm willing to hold someone else's breath until I get them! I don't think that was UFOs downfall. I think it was the dependance on one large new piece over and over and over again (my friends.). Which was also the downfall of the MM Alien's ships. Are you saying you prefer the stickers because then you could just leave them off? Tohst- on the eve of desctruction

I'm going to be optimistic. The first pictures of Agents didn't look that good to me and the line turned out great. Rock raiders was a horrible <insert that tiresome argument> line (Yes, I have all the sets -sigh-). But if this new line is to Rock Raiders as Agents was to Alpha Team (which had a couple gems in an otherwise substandard line-up) then its going to be great. -Tohst

How do I keep my Star Wars Collection? By fighting off those who try to take it away from me. Thank goodness for the right to Bear(sic) Arms! They're always after my lucky char....er, Star Wars collection. On a more serious note. Star Wars is really the only sets that I keep together for a long period of time. Its because I keep sets together until the theme moves on and Star Wars just keeps going. So, as it keeps going, I have slowly filled up shelves in the basement. Organized along army lines (Imperials, Clone Armies, Rebel Armies, etc.) You can see most of my Imperial army in this picture...and the basement sans shelfs. http://www.flickr.com/photos/14802561@N05/1676054365/ I should get a couple pics of the shelves. or...not. -Tohst

So, and here is where I admit how stupid I am. The other day I was sitting looking at those rail pieces you used to make the door slide and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what they were used for. So, when I saw this, my head almost exploded. But I contained it because that would have been just plain rude. I really like the shape of the trolley. 8 wides don't do much for me as trains. In my opinion they look too big for their wheels. But as a trolley it really works. I know its not a San Francisco trolley but I keep thinking you need an ad for Rice-a-roni on it. Whats a good treat from Stockholm? -Tohst

What if he -was- that guy and the end of this story arc is him becoming a great being and wanting to create an orderly universe with protectors called Toa that would mean no little guys like he used to be would go through the chaos he did. It doesn't turn out that way but he starts with that best intention. -Tohst - just thinkin'

Ah, it was a rhetorical question. But if we're looking for an answer. We had 1 mini-fig scale with the Y-Wing as you say. But then we had a new version in the TIE collection. And then this new version was released with the Y-wing. So 2 or 3 depending on how you count it. And the mini-mini-fig sized one that comes with the Death Star - so 3 or 4 mini-fig and then the UCS and the actual mini-mini one. So, this would be either the 6th or 7th and the 3rd or 4th mini-figure one. And thats not counting doubles if you wanted y-wings...or more TIES than you could shake a stick at I suppose. ETA - oh no, I think there is a 'dangler' too. So we're up to 8 (or 7) -Tohst

Looks like a good start. Hogwart's is daunting so I'm impressed when anyone takes it on. Best of luck. -Tohst Who has his own little Hogwart's project going.

See? Thats why I don't work for Lego. Lots of love here for the new Vader's TIE which I just feel we've had way way too many iterations of already. -Tohst

Wow, So much stuff, not just pictures of early 2009 but rumors of late 2009. Let's break this down: Town: Mixed feelings. Tractor and combine are awesome but the rest, eh. I know I know, I'm not the target audience for these any more than I was for Jack Stone and they are quite a bit better than Jack Stone. But the big farm set itself looks like a mixed opportunity with skeletal buildings that remind me of the bad ole juniorization days. And one of our fine custom parts makers makes cows and then, boom, official cows. I like BrickForge's cow's better. They fit in with the horses. And that bulldozer is huge! Mon Dieu! Space: What? Mid-year? No sets. Diss- Castle: Again? Mid-year? No sets. -Appointing! (see what I did there?) Pirates: I guess they are back. My only issue is outside of additional pirate mini-fig decorations there isn't anything new here. Again, for pirate lovers this is great. For me, I kind of feel like I do when a new Police Station is released. Thats great, but I have it already. I'll probably pick up a set or two but its not the must have that the return of space or castle were(even before the sets got better). Star Wars: Clone battle pack what we expected. A little dissapointing that visor-dude is just normal clone with a visor and not specially decorated. I had a brief hope that they would randomly put in one of the three decorated dudes in each set with the normal clones but it was brief and kind of silly. The assassin droid pack is a 'huh?' moment especially because if they were going to do it, give them two speeder bikes from the Gendy Clone Wars (before it was cgi and sucked ;-)). Otherwise, nothing too interesting. Are we sure thats a new yoda head and not just the old one? If they put out Mace Windu as a generic smiley face I will be very happy. Oh, and Darth Vader's TIE? How many do we have of those now? Two mini-fig designs in three sets, UCS, cute-mini-fig one from Death Star, mini. Am I missing another one? At least with the x-wing its not a unique ship driven by only one person that I have 400 mini-figs of already. Rassa and Frassa IJ- One good set, one dissapointing set. Bionicle: A new direction, indeed. I'm torn. I'm not a fan of the new X-TEEEEME OMG BBQ! look. But I like all the old pieces in new colors. Finally no protodermus everywhere! Bold move to drop the term 'Toa'. Bold indeed. -Tohst

I voted that it wouldn't have mattered. I bought every Native American set and some of them ended up not being built. MISB still baby. They just weren't that great of sets. They didn't have any diversity. The teepee was cool...once or twice. I think because of this if they would've been sold with the soldiers/town sets they would have been overshadowed by the designs of those sets. Do I think a Native American line would sell better with the right set design? Yes. One with a teepee, one with a buffalo hunt, one with a sweat lodge, one with a casino, that sort of thing. -Tohst

I love the new suits. How do you get the gold planet to look that gold? The ships are clean, which I like. Very nice and welcome back. -Tohst

First, thanks simonjedi for a great review. I'm interested in what you think of the hydrolics. I could spend hours just deploying and undeploying the wings and landing gear. I'm a little worried, the very first batch of the hydrolic piece for, umm, I think it was the off-road 4x4 Technic set, was very fragile and broke after a few uses. These seem to be holding up but I'm anxious to see if they hold up after 100-200 uses. quote name='Walter Kovacs' date='Aug 4 2008, 11:47 AM' post='337841'] Those black pieces used on the landing gear look very Bionicle-like. If they haven't been used before, I'd suspect they will be. Not that I'm a Bionicle expert or anything. Right you are. They are Bionicle Bohrok head pieces. So pretty old in Bionicle terms and fairly useless in my opinion but they do make interesting looking landing gear as I deploy and redeploy the wings and landing gear. Hopefully, we'll get a pilot in the battle pack to help mitigate the fact we only get one here. -Tohst

And today at my local TRU, the HSD was $35. Wow. I did not buy. -Tohst

Yeah, I've seen you say that a couple of times and I'm not sure I buy it. Licensed themes cost more than TLG's own themes. True, but looking at other Star Wars sets, I would've said HSD is $20. Limited Editions cost more. Not really. I mean, TRU usually pumps prices up a couple bucks but both the Twilight and this one seem very inflated even compared to that. Now, I haven't actually seen the Twilight so maybe its bigger than the pictures I've seen look. New Molds cost more. Does this set actually have new molds that aren't in other sets? I think back to Target's ultimate space battle and if you were saying that because it has different colors of parts that counts as new molds than it had new molds. And it seemed very reasonably priced. And it was a limited edition. A twofer counter example. I think we are seeing a general increase due to oil prices and inflation, combined with TRU pricing to give us $30 as the new $20. I stand by the statement I made when we first got pictures. If this is more than $20, I'm only buying one. -Tohst

Another great review! I like the versatility of this set in that we already have 3 different ideas of what that building with the 'car' sign could be. I'll admit, I never saw it as a driving school but it does seem to fit. You wouldn't get that these days. Anyway, the box did show that you could use pieces from the construction equipment to furnish the hotel which I always thought was neat. -Tohst

Thanks Captain Rex...and I hope your information is wrong :-) If its not, I have a thought about the TIE Fighter and TIE Bomber. They could easily be different scales. I'd love a super - deformed TIE to match Darth Vader's from the Death Star. But then we need the super - deformed X-wing which isn't on the list. Anyway, as a full list, it doesn't look that interesting to me other than the AAT. Then again, I'm feeling pretty burned out on Star Wars. Maybe its those scary anime eyes on the Clone Wars figures. -Tohst - stop looking at me!!!

Great remake. I've always loved that set. I do think it is one of the rare occasions where click hinges would have made an older set with non-click hinges better. In other words, my copy was floppy. I always thought it would be a great gaurd post for a base, you send gaurds out in their own little ships that turn into gaurd towers for them to while away the hours. However, there is an official version of a classic-space Twin-Wingers Spoiler. Set 1510, the special two pack with Spy-Bot (one of the only 'Legoland' sets without a mini-fig. Can anyone think of another one?) and Heroic Twin Starfire had a little display on the front with official models like 6883 Terrestrial Rover and a Twin-Winged Spoiler in a different color with a black-suited classic spaceman driving it. Looking online, I can't find a good picture of it. Maybe I have it around here somewhere. I like your take better. -Tohst ETA - I do have it if anyone is interested, I'll scan it quickly