salty tbone

Thanks for this. I forgot how much I loved Fabuland instructions as a kid.

Cool concept tank, but how does it turn?

FWIW, Toys R Us in the US is having an extra 20% off clearance sale through mid July. I went back and got the last Mobile Devastator for $48 (not a great deal, but it was a last hurrah for Exo Force for me).

Thanks for the review. I got this set free with the Lego store promotion this month and really like the metallic droids. Plus a whopping 11 extra pieces for a 94 piece set! I noticed the same thing, and it makes me wonder who the clones are fighting if kids don't get the droids too?

Sometimes I wonder if safety fears go a little too far. 9v was fine when I was a kid, but firing cannons were not (at least in the U.S.). Now 9v is dangerous for kids with oral fixations and prone to peer pressure, but practically every set has a missile system.

When I first started sorting my collection, I made the mistake of sorting everything by color. I think that was fine for bricks, but for the other pieces it was too hard to find what I wanted or know exactly what I had. (Trying to find a black headlight brick in a bin of black pieces was a chore, for example.) I re-sorted by type using Bricklink's categories as a guide (plate, slope, wedge, etc.) and find myself addicted to the process. Now it's a matter of how far do I want to go. For example, I have 2-wide plates in a tub and could sort further based on length. I also still keep rarer colors separated in their own container. I only have about 50 sand blue pieces, and prefer keeping them together to know exactly what I have. If I sorted them out into the bins based on type, they'd essentially be needles in haystacks compared with the main colors. I also keep brown and original grays segregated to avoid confusion, with the exceptions of accessories and animals. My main storage method is shoe-box sized plastic containers (usually a dollar at Target) and the next bigger size. I use storebrand ziplock bags for when I have a lot of a similar piece. If nothing else, getting the smallest pieces sorted away from the big ones is worth the effort, because otherwise they'd settle at the bottom of tubs and be a pain to find. I'm sure that's obvious to most here, but I wish I realized that when I first started sorting.

Interesting compilation and a good idea for a centralized reference, I think. The oily tires are my No. 1 annoyance. It's like I have to have a washcloth around when I handle them. I wonder if there's a way to make them lose the stickiness faster. I put them in "quarantine" in a sealed container, which I'm sure is just preserving their stickiness for future generations.

Thanks for the review! I love the minifigs but am lukewarm to the whole set (which is how I felt about the Cloud City). However, I'll definitely get one, because I still regret never getting Cloud City.

Thanks for pointing this out, I would have totally missed the Rogue Shadow deal. Unfortunately, the calendar says "cannot be combined with any other offer" and the coupon for the free battle pack says not valid on sale items. Still worth a shot, I guess.

I was wondering this too. I can't tell the difference between the "non-Batman Tommy gun" and the one in Batman sets.

True, although my TRU has had the 8108 Mobile Devastator (the one with big lime green wheels) on "clearance" for $60 since before Christmas. Not a big mover ...

Very nice. I like this a lot. Is there an interior?

In your opinion, did the non-licensed themes in the past few years suffer from the development of Batman, Sponge Bob and Indiana Jones lines?

The available choices in this poll are rather limited. The way some people write, it's as if licensed sets are inherently stale and "own" sets are inherently good. Sure you can point out Airbender that flamed out quickly, but there's a laundry list of "own" themes that frankly stunk. What I want are fun sets that have new pieces or bring back old pieces that we haven't seen in awhile. I've never watched an entire episode of Sponge Bob. I don't know if it's a good show or not, but I love the Lego sets.

There are no critics like Lego critics. Based on the more level-headed criticisms here from people who have yet to see the entire set, it seems the biggest knock is that it isn't as good as the two previous sets. Without seeing the second floor, I'd probably agree. But there's still plenty to like in this set, IMO.

The Adventurers line had quite a few biplanes, although this one is definitely the nicest IMO. Although for the price I think it should have an actual gold brick or two.

I'm not too enthused over this set, but I absolutely LOVE that sticker sheet (which I don't think I've ever said).

When a Lego store opened near me last fall, it was open for at least week or two before the "Grand Opening" date. It wasn't crowded at all, but once the grand opening, it was mega-crowded with a huge line just to get in the store.

I agree that the trailer is pure awesome. I'm not much of a MMO player, though (and the trailer doesn't even show anything of the actual game). Even so, if whoever did the trailer would do a whole Old Republic movie, I'd pay to see it.

Thank you for this and I wholeheartedly agree. For everyone who jumps on the "oh no another license" ledge, take a step back and look at Lego sets as a whole. Now compare to what we could buy 10 years ago (when as far as I can remember there was only the Star Wars license). I would argue we are living in a new golden age of Lego. Ten years ago, when we were staring at Town Junior sets, who would have thought sets like Medieval Marketplace and Green Grocer and Town Plan, etc. would ever be retail sets? So be happy for what we DO have rather than what we fear might be released. Do you have to like licenses? Absolutely not. But this undercurrent of "Lego is a bunch of slack-jawed yokels that don't know what they're doing" that infects these threads gets a little tiresome, IMO.

Thanks for that! Amazing what a difference stacking can make. I've been guilty of being lazy and just shaking the cup (especially if the store is crowded and I just want to get out of there), but next time I'm gonna put some effort into filling that cup. And even though you can save 50 cents bringing the cup back, I've found them to be wonderful for sorting and storage. The lids are very secure and they stack well.

I really dig the Crown King's new torso and legs. Big improvement over the viking torso used in the Castle Siege.

Well, in the infamous 2005 case, the person put a fraudulent UPC sticker over the legit one. http://www.co.washington.or.us/sheriff/media/fite100k.htm

I'm worried about the fact that the trailer only shows fleeting images of actual gameplay. Sure the graphics from the screenshots are bad, but what about the actual game?!? The graphics in a game like Advance wars are pretty tame, but that doesn't matter if the gameplay works, IMO. I can hardly find anything about this Lego game, though, which doesn't bode well for its success.

Another thief gives adults buying lots o' Lego a bad name. "LAUDERDALE LAKES - The Broward Sheriff's Office announced Thursday the arrest of a "serial toy thief" who they say admitted stealing toys more than 300 times from South Florida stores. Max Rodriguez, 34, faces a single count of grand theft, but authorities say more charges are likely after they found at least $7,000 worth of toys in his south Miami-Dade home. Rodriguez currently is out of custody after bonding out of the Broward County Jail. Rodriguez's toy-pilfering days ended Monday after a suspicious loss prevention employee at the Wal-Mart in Lauderdale Lakes noticed he was walking around with six boxes of the same $62 Lego toy, according to a Sheriff's Office press release. After Rodriguez paid for the toys, the employee checked with the cashier and found that the entire tab was only $44.46. That's when the loss prevention employee stopped Rodriguez and the Broward Sheriff's Office was called. Authorities said Rodriguez admitted altering bar codes on the toy boxes so they rang up reduced amounts." http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/bre...0,4156605.story From the video, they were obviously Star Wars sets. I'm sure I've been tracked numerous times by loss prevention because I regularly buy a bunch of Lego during clearance times. But unlike this muttonhead, I'm not stealing from them.