dunamis

Excellent! I love the Skulls Battle Jitney and the Skull Walker. Glad to see more of your designs getting out. Chris' Skull Stomper and Icon Fighter are cool too. Although the Icon Fighter looks very familiar...

Thanks for the review! I bought this set when it first came out and it is still in the box. It is stuck in my fairly lengthly backlog but after seeing your review, I'll have to put it to the top of the queue.

Regarding The LEGO Store and shipping: Yes, it is their policy that if they do not have a set in stock AND it is available on LEGO Shop @ Home, you can pay for it at the store and they will place the order for you with FREE shipping. The only inconvenient part of this is that (at least at my local store) they won't give you the stamps until you bring in the packing slip. Presumably, that is to keep people from ordering a bunch of stuff and getting the stamps then going home and cancelling the order. I've had them ship stuff to me a few times and it worked out well. Just have to remember to take the receipt and packing slip back in the next time to get your stamps.

That is really cool! Thanks for taking the time to post the photos. In my Cafe Corner review, I made a suggestion (I I think it would work with Green Grocer) that LEGO have sell a parts pack for just the middle floor. That way you could buy how ever many middle floors you needed to make a tall building. They could sell it through LDD. Not sure why they have not done this yet...

Very nice! I like your color scheme. The turbo tank always bothered me because it had too many uncovered 'holes' on it.

I just went through the instructions and it looks like a really nice build. Very involved and lots of steps. I'm guessing the piece count will be closer to 900-1000. It looks like there are a lot of little Technic pieces and when you add the stand I think it gets it close to at least 900. Probably looking at a $80 USD price point I would guess. Looking forward to the build.

Very nice. Can't wait to build it. Hopefully, we'll be getting some of these sets in the next 60 days or so...

there are a bunch of them right here: 3gp converters Download.com usually has pretty good stuff and it should be spyware free. I have not used any of these so enter at your own risk...

Looks awesome! Can't wait to see it when you are finished.

They are both $99.95 USD as stated in the review. I have no idea what they sell for outside the US. This has more/less been covered on other threads. I have to respectfully disagree with your statement that LEGO is not enthusiastic with this line. I believe we should be happy that LEGO has embraced the AFOL community and allowed sets such as Market Street, Hobby Train Set, Star Justice and Space Skulls to hit the retail market. Especially given the fact that they were designed with LEGO Digital Designer. I can only think this will encourage more people to use LDD and we will continue to get excellent sets that we ordinarily would not have access to. One can make an argument that the pricing needs some tweaking, but perhaps this will encourage LEGO to try these sets mainstream which will lower the price (due to volume.) In addition, it sounds like (from posts on these threads) that we will be getting additional instructions for other vehicles in the themes. I'm willing to pay a price premium for that flexibility and to learn from great AFOL builders on some new and exciting building techniques. The sticker issue is what it is. Maybe we will see a wider variety in LDD printed pieces in the future and in 1-2 years it may be a non-issue. If LEGO allows non-LEGO designers to make sets that gets the community excited and drives up sales, this can only be good for LEGO and the in-house LEGO designers will not be 'showed up'. It will likely spur additional healthy competition to make even better sets by all. I would contend that in general, set design has taken a step forward in the past 3 years.

Thanks for the reply. This makes a lot of sense and thanks for sharing the design decision with us. I'm fascinated with the whole design to making it a retail set process. Although I suspect that once you go through that process (especially with your own creations) the process becomes somewhat less fascinating... Noted! Thanks for sharing that as well. I was wondering what those were for and you are right, they are not needed.

Space Skulls Reviewed by Dunamis Set 10192 956 Pieces $99.95 from The LEGO Store (Glendale, CA) Build time 3.0 hours If there is one thing that really chaps the hide of the Star Justice (set 10191, reviewed here ->10191 Review ) commanders it is those rotten, down and dirty scoundrels, the Space Skulls! Nothing strikes fear in the average Classic Space citizen like seeing one of the 3vil Skullships bearing down on the family picnic to cause havoc and general mayhem. For my second review in three days I’m quite excited to review the 3vil Space Skulls creator set designed by Mark Sandlin. I think LEGO has done a great job in letting some of the best and brightest from the community add to the lineup of great sets we have for this year. So, let’s see what those baddies have been up to lately… The Box: Again, a standard creator type compact box with the familiar style. I was incorrect in my earlier review of 10191 when I said the back of the box was the same as the 10192 set. In fact, they are different (but very similar). Inside, we have 11 bags, two manuals and one sticker sheet. The Manuals: The manuals are slightly shorter than the 10191 set, checking in at 28 and 48 long. Strangely absent are inspiration photos for other Space Skull vehicles that could be made from this set. However, from discussions on this board it sounds like these will be coming in the future. Nothing new to report on the manuals as they provide the LEGO standard of high quality and features we expect. - Piece callouts - Models divided into sections - Large images - Page numbers Parts inventory: Random manual image: The Pieces: I love the color scheme Mark chose for the 3vil faction. You will immediately notice a lot of red, black and white pieces of all types. Of particular interest is all of the black articulating arm segments (I might have just made up that term) that make up the tentacles on the skullships. There must be over 100 of them. Also, you will notice quite a few trans-red pieces and lots of little pieces in general. Yes, we have already beat to death the fact that we do get a sticker sheet. The stickers have a clear background so that you can apply them to (almost) any color tile or torso. To me, they feel different than the usual LEGO sticker so maybe these will be better quality. These stickers are applied to tiles and minifig torsos. Here are a couple of examples of a control panel tiles: Here is a 2x1 sized control panel sticker that gets applied on a 4x1 tile. It might be interesting to know the decision process on why a 4x1 sized sticker could not be made (since it goes on a 4x1 sized tile). Just curious. Here is a Space Skull logo on a modified slope tile (I think that is what this piece is): And some skull stickers on 2x2 tiles: It is worth noting that we do get some printed pieces (actually a lot of the 2x2 round tiles) as seen below: The Minifigs: In this set, we get four 3vil Space Skull baddies: And when we apply the ever-so-simple stickers we get these dudes: Doh! Son of a #$^@, I screwed up the second guy on the left! Don’t try to pull it back off and re-align it because it’s on there! Oh well. Notice that we get a commander-type guy and three minions. Perhaps that is 3vil Grand Admiral Sandlin? Or perhaps it is this guy: Another burning question is why do undead 3vil skeleton guys need helmets with visors? These things keep me up at night… Bottom line is we get four minifigs (with helmets and visors) but you need to be careful applying the stickers. There were no additional minions (like the robots in 10191). The Build: The build is nicely paced and with the helpful instructions, feel free to jump to whichever vehicle you want to build first. There were no issues or gotchas. Building the large skull is quite a treat. There are some fantastic SNOT techniques in there that you have to experience to appreciate. The photos won’t really do it justice: Here are more SNOT techniques: Some parts of the build were a bit odd in that there were steps where you take three 2x1 trans-red plates and stack them together to essentially make a brick. I can only assume this is LEGO telling Mark it is cheaper to include three plates than one brick. See below: Then, you get to stack the just-made bricks to make a larger ‘window’: Not sure about that one… Here is what is left over: The Design: This well-designed theme is fun and has lots of detail. Here are some examples: Laser cannon: Rockets and beam weapons: Adjustable thrusters: Here are the four ships: Tentacle Skull Drone (I’m making up these names by the way…) Skull Interceptor I love the landing gear on this ship and that the bottom set of teeth act as front landing gear. These teeth also fold up to bite (see photo). In addition, the head opens up for the pilot (this is where the crooked sticker guy goes.) Skull Gunship Skull Commander This thing is much bigger than it looks. It is also very sturdy and the tentacles articulate well. It is solidly built and my favorite of the four. Here is the fleet: And both sets together: Overall Thoughts: A really cool set that compliments the Star Justice set nicely. Both themes fit well together and offer a lot of playability. These vehicles are very well designed and are very swooshable. Doesn’t have as many accessories as 10191 (air tanks, etc.) and is lacking additional sub-minifigs (i.e. the robots from 10191). Leaves you feeling like there should be a little more for the price. The detail is outstanding and really brings out the feel of the 3vil Skull theme. You have to appreciate what Mark has done to get four great vehicles with this amount of detail while staying inside the constraints of LEGO Digital Designer. I get the feeling we will never know the number of changes he had to make to cut costs here and there. I’d love to see what his original plans were. Given the price would I buy it again? Of course! Not only for the unique vehicles (I have nothing else like them on my shelf) but also to support the AFOL community and the LDD plan. I hope to see more of Mark’s designs and hopefully some alternate models. Final Rating: 82% Build 10/10 (Excellent – Very well done, sturdy, playable. Several SNOT techniques used.) Minifigs 7/10 (Only four minifigs, no sub-minifig theme) Design 10/10 (Excellent – really brings you into the 3vil skull theme. Nice functionality.) Parts 7/10 (Lots of trans-red and tentacle arms. Small parts galore.) Price 7/10 (OK parts-price ratio. Lots and lots of small or the same parts. Still feels overpriced.) I did catch myself comparing this set to 10191. I kind of felt like I had two as they are somewhat complimentary. Keep in mind they both stand on their own very well, but are even better together. As usual, please provide your input, comments, complaints, etc.

I was hoping someone would see that I put that Star Trek the Motion Picture photo in there for a reason. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought that. Just you wait until you see how I butchered one of my Space Skull minifigs with a frickin' crooked sticker! I should have the review with photos up tonight (it may already be public on my brickshelf if you can't wait...)

OK, first off, I fixed Admiral Giddens’ minifig so all is now correct in the Classic Space universe. *sweet* P.S. How cool it must be to have a minifig of yourself in a retail set that you designed! On to more photos of the Interceptor (Hinkley’s request): I really didn’t do this vehicle justice in my original photos. There are a lot of cool details here that you miss at first glance. One thing I thought was neat is on the little radar display it shows a little tiny skull on the radar. I guess when you get to design your own sticker, you can put whatever you want on it. Nice little detail that ties in to the Space Skull set. I’m about 80% through the Space Skull set and hope to have the review finished tonight.

(sorry, double post)

Great review! Thanks for taking the time. I'm glad to see another reviewer out there as there are a lot of sets to cover. Nicely done.

Ack! Sorry 'bout that Admiral! I'll fix him up right away when I get home. I really enjoyed your designs. Well done! Right you are! I've already fixed it. Thank you. Unfortunately, there are no alternate models in the instructions. Perhaps the good Admiral has some to share?

Definitely! I'll post some tonight. I'm going to start on that as well. The more I look at the box, the more I want to build it. LOL, yeah it was late last night when I finished the build and took the photos. I started writing the review this morning and thought, "uh oh..."

Not a complaint but a mere observation. All of the Classic Space sets I grew up with had an open wall for playability as you suggested. I only mentioned it as there is usually someone who will point out that the cockpits don't make an airtight compartment or buildings aren't 'structurally' complete. Not an issue with this set. Sorry for the confusion.

I forgot to mention that there were no other 'inspiration photos' in the instructions. It will be interesting to see if LEGO adds any other set instructions on LDD for it or maybe Chris has some he can share.

Star Justice Reviewed by Dunamis Set 10191 895 Pieces $99.95 from The LEGO Store (Glendale, CA) Build time 3.0 hours Imagine my surprise when I entered my local LEGO store and saw 10191 Star Justice sitting on the shelf. The store manager (Elizabeth) said they just arrived. Immediately discarding my plan of finally buying Town Plan and the Motorized AT-AT during the double stamp week, I made a b-line for the new arrivals section and grabbed both 10191 and 10192 intending to relive my glory days of Classic Space sets from the late ‘70s. In my mind, I replayed the previous evening review of the Eurobricks forums and did not recall seeing anything about these sets being available now. I had thought they were slated for late April. Could I have stumbled into some space-time vortex causing these sets to be delivered a month in advance? Perhaps the more pressing question is could the Eurobricks community tolerate two more of my mindless reviews? Oh, the humanity! The Box: Interestingly, the box is eerily similar to the Market Street box in both size and appearance. It gives the appearance of a compact and sturdy box that is packed with LEGO goodness. The back of the box is identical to 10192 and shows models from both sets: Here is what we get inside: As you can see, we have 11 bags, 2 manuals and the DDS (dreaded sticker sheet). The Manuals: As is the norm lately, we have two very high quality manuals with all the features we have come to expect: - Piece callouts - Models divided into sections - Large images - Page numbers The manuals were 52 and 46 pages Parts list Random manual shot The Pieces: The pieces and color selection really brought me back to the days of Classic Space. The grey, white and blue pieces really work well together. There are a lot of small pieces in this set. Notable pieces include the 1x1 sloped tile, tractor tires, 3 different sizes of radar dishes and lots of robot arms. I didn’t notice any new pieces but I’m not normally one to immediately pick up on these things. Of course, we can’t go too far in this discussion without mentioning the Dreaded Sticker Sheet: I had read about this in the other thread and needless to say the topic has been beat to death. Clearly it was a LEGO decision and there is not much we can do about it. I should point out that there are a few printed elements in the set (1x4 tiles, some 2x2 round tiles and 2x2 slopes). As far as applying the stickers, I am normally adroit in my day to day activities but whenever I come within 10 feet (or meters) of any LEGO sticker sheet my dexterity drops about 10 points and I fail my saving throw every time (hopefully there are some old school D&D players out there who get my lame attempts at humor.) This is especially the case when applying these tiny little stickers on the 1x2 modified tiles: Of course, there was much consternation about the stickers on the minifigs. Again, it was a LEGO decision. The good news is it gives quite a bit of latitude for people to make up their own designs as many have done. Here is a photo of a minifig with the sticker on the torso and a 2x2 tile with sticker: Even with my ineptness, I think it looks fine. Here is what is left over: The Minifigs: We get four minifigs in this set plus we get to build four more robots. Here are the minifigs: Opps, here is the real photo: And once you apply the decals: And our little Cylon, errr I mean, robot friends: Too bad we don’t get the little air tanks and walkie talkies with these guys: The Build: The build was broken down into several smaller builds which makes the progress move along briskly. There were no gotchas or any difficulties. There are a number of cool building techniques that really update the feel of the Classic Space vehicles. I’ll cover those in the Design section below. The Design: I think the designer (Chris Giddens) did a great job of creating that Classic Space feel of the set while updating the vehicles with some new design and techniques. Here are some examples: We have our little scout ship here: Notice the use of the robot arms for the landing gear and how they fold up under the hull. Yes, those are printed tiles on the vents (2x2 round tiles) but a sticker on the 2x2 tile control panel. Also note the wheel rims for the engine and nice use of the slopes all over. Finally, we have some SNOT techniques as well. How about the interceptor: Lots of nice techniques and design here. The detail is outstanding. Check out the interior during the build: And the view from below: Next we have my favorite, the transport: Check out the detail on the side cannons, the side rail in the truck bed and the independent steering on the rear tires. Even the tailgate lowers. Cool stuff! Finally, we have the mission control base. Typical of the Classic Space sets you have a building of some sort with some ancillary devices (rocket launcher, laser cannon, mining facility, radar dish, etc.) and this set does not disappoint. You pretty much get it all. View from the front: Adjacent power generator/shield generator/nuclear device/whatever you want to call it (nice detailing though): Radar, laser, missile launcher: Heavy weapons storage: Those of you who like to complain about non-airtight compartments and facilities will be miffed to see the entire rear of the control tower is lacking a wall. Do not despair as you can easily add a couple of windows and you will be all set: Here are some additional cargo items: The entire lineup: Overall Thoughts: I was very excited to see this announced a month or so ago. I’ve always been a fan of the Classic Space sets. This set does a great job of bringing you back to that era and updating some of the designs. I think there is definitely room for a revival of Classic Space to co-exist with Mars Mission and Star Wars. These vehicles are very swooshable and have high playability. The parts selection is good and has lots of reusability. There are a lot of small parts but not so many larger plates or bricks. You will need to tap into your additional parts stock if you’re looking to build the next Galaxy Explorer. Chris does a great job in adding little details to the vehicles and really has a good grasp of the Classic Space feel. I think people can live with the stickers, but the $100 (US) price is going to turn off some folks. It seems whenever I play around with LEGO Digital Designer my creations are always 2x the price I expect it to be. I kind of get that feel with this set especially with the large number of small parts. I also feel that in some ways the design was cut a few times (at LEGO’s request). Seems like this was discussed on the previous thread as well. No doubt if Chris gave us what he really, really wanted the price would be much higher. Overall, it is a great set and a great return to the Classic Space era. Final Rating: 84% Build 10/10 (Excellent – Quick and smooth build.) Minifigs 8/10 (Nice, would have liked to see some accessories and perhaps different color suits) Design 10/10 (Excellent – Really captures the feel of Classic Space and updates it nicely.) Parts 8/10 (Good. Somewhat limited by LDD and a lot of little parts.) Price 6/10 (Price ratio is lower than expected. Seems overpriced.)

I just picked up both sets today at lunch. I'll try to get started on a review tonight (Star Justice is more appealing to me right now so I'll do that one first.) They were both $100. Approx 950 and 870 pieces if I remember correctly...

Good eye! I could not find the light grey lampholders while I was building and pulled two from my inventory. Later, I found them because I had taken them out of the box and they got pushed to the end of my desk. That's why there were two extra. The wedges were supposed to go in the trashcans, but I always keep little parts like that off the set so they don't get lost. Good question though.

I have a ton of these. Let me look and see what all I have and get back to you in a day or two. How many baseplates/roadplates do you need?

I like both ideas. A band would fit in nicely with the theme and as you said, a museum would be a great way to showcase many different styles as well.