Ash

Love it. With the Gatling Guns and the general shape it looks more like some kind of in-atmosphere fighter rather than a "spaceship" to me. Either way... love it. Actually looking at it a bit more the snot wings are particularly impressive. A really interesting and smooth shape. Makes the whole thing really elegant.

This is pretty much how I was going to respond.... I mean almost word-for-word in some places. It's creepy! Another issue I have is that outside of the Earth Defence HQ (best set ever!!!) there really isn't all that much to the ADU sets. The little car is OK. Fairly standar with a couple of nice design elements, but it feels more like a space buggy than an earth-bound military thing. The Jet-Copter I just find as ugly as sin. The set has never appealed to me. I would loved to have seen a second wave though.

That's an interesting response, thanks for sharing it. It reminds me of the fact that professional authors never read fanfic of their characters for a similar reason. Whatever story they write there's a good chance that someone has already written something that has some similarities and their best defence from being accused of plagarism is simply to have a zero tolerance policy with regards to reading other people's take on their own intellectual property. Assuming everything he says there is correct (and I see no reason to assume otherwise but I really don't have enough knowledge of Lego design to really have an opinion on the build aspects of it) it's a shame tat something that is obviously a massive deal for him has been soured somewhat by these accusations. The thing I find most annoying about those issues is the fact that some posters seem to switch between "these look very similar, but we can't make any judgements because we don't have all the facts" to declarative "stolen design" statements... sometimes within the same post! It's pretty clear a lot of people are making judgements even though they aknowledge they don't have all the facts. Welcome to the Internet I guess I love this set. I have no real interest in the modulars. I mean I appreciate them and understand why people love them. But they're not for me. This however is great. I'm not wild about the whole Munsters/Universal Movie Monster thing, but still it has enough going for it (and the reasonable UK price doesn't hurt) that this has rocketed to the top of my MUST HAVE list. What I'm hoping is that if it's a big success (and I really can't see why it won't be) we'll see similar big exclusive theme sets in the future.

I got a friend to get me one on Amazon (who are price matching). Even with shipping and (possibly) import duty it's going to be well under the UK retail price... when they finally decide to show up here. I'm really pleased. Weathertop is the only "must have" set for me despite being a big LoTR fan. However it's a little bit pricey. This is such a good deal so soon after release. Hopefully I'll get some other sets if/when they come down in price. But for now I'm happy!

July! Awesome. I'm really looking forward to this. I've never even been to a proper Lego store before.

WHY WAS THAT EVEN THERE! Got a laugh out of me. Not a system seller, but the missus will probably get a Wii U at some point (when a Zelda or Animal Crossing comes out for it) so I'll have to go back and check it out then!

Ruins are awesome, especially the Fell Beast! Although "Imagined price point: $50" seems a bit on the optimistic side.

I bought Rise of the Sphinx... again. It was too cheap to resist. It's the first time I've bought a duplicate set just for the bricks. I think I have started down a dark and dangerous path from which there is no return.

I love the Boushh figure. It was always my favourite action figure as a kid. Unfortunately I can't justify buying the whole set for it and I shudder to think how much the single figure would cost on the secondary market!

This is great. Some kind of licensed/fantasy Architecture line would be so awesome.

That's actually pretty neat. Nice one.

Score! I love that set so much it's ruined other Lego for me a bit at the moment. I forget that ebay thing exists and should check it more often. Link for those who don't know: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Argos-Outlet

I'd like to do something like this at some point but there are several issues/problems. Most of the don't have a way to check prices easily like Amazon so you have to page scrape which I'm trying to avoid. Also they tend to be a bit annoying about continuing to list out-of-stock stuff forever. King's Castle at Argos is a good example of that.... it's been listed at near half price for as long as I can remember: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4621485/Trail/searchtext%3ELEGO+CASTLE.htm but no chance of finding it anywhere (I wish)! But yeah, maybe get something sorted at some point though.

There are several threads on the difference in pricing in different regions, and while Lego is obviously expensive in Australia for me I always think of it in terms of this question. How much does a can of coke cost in Australia and how much does it cost in the US? Do you know, or care and if you did and a can of coke cost twice as much in Australia would it bother you? Substitute something else is you don't drink Coke! We're only aware of this with regards to Lego because we choose to be. Yet it's likely that half the stuff you buy costs more than it does in the US. I don't know why you expect "equal price" when it comes to Lego. There's really no reason why they should be an exception. There a loads of different factors that lead to differing prices between countries and you simply can't convert currencies and compare like for like. It's just not the way things work and it will drive you insane if you do.

A lot of it will be down to the nature of the license in question (exactly what property they are licensing) and getting approval from the holders of the license. Beyond that the sets are designed for and marketed as toys for children and aesthetics will be largely based on that. There may be some practical/cost decisions as well. The minifigure format presents it's own limitations as well and there may be some things that simply don't look good in that format. With Superheroes you have to take into account that their costumes and appearance can vary a great deal over the years within certain parameters. Deadpool's various holsters and scabards are often leather/brown (sometimes black, sometimes silver and often not there at all, swords just seem to magically stick to his back), Macfarlane and Bagley's Spider-man (probably two of the most well known Spider-man artists in the last couple of decades) both have large eyes. You'd have to talk to the designers to be sure. Sometimes they give talks on this kind of stuff at conventions, however I'm not sure if they go into so much detailed for license properties as they do for their own original lines. But to be honest, at the end of the day the number of people who care about this kind of stuff is almost certainly negligible compared to the number of people buying the sets and it's unlikely to have any impact on sales whatsoever. They're never going to please everyone so they'll design what they feel are the best and most marketable sets within the limitations they have and go with that.

This would make a really good add-on for the new creator house.

That's well worth it. It's a great book(s). I seem to recall reading there was going to be a new edition somewhere recently (???), but still a good buy at that price 115 Euro including postage form Amazon.es, which is about £93 if that extra £6 makes a difference Always worth checking for sets over £50 or so. There's usually not much in it, but hey, you wouldn't be checking this thread if you weren't a bargain hunter and six pounds is six pounds!

Awesome thanks! Batcave is still discounted and has been joine by the Batwing Battle Over Gotham set at 29% off as well. That brings it down to £25 which is actually pretty good given it has two substantial vehicles. I passed on the Batcave but I might pick this up as I really like the look of that Batwing.

That's pretty neat. Hopefully we get more like this.

We knew it was coming from the Toy Fairs... but beyond that that's the first time I've seen the set number. The price is on par with Hogwarts and the Battle of Hoth.

I finally got my Earth Defence HQ. I've been wanting it for a while, but money and space make lots of Lego a luxury that can be hard to justify. The box is just so damn.... big. I was thinking it's easily the biggest set I've had since I got back into Lego and when I was poking around in it I realised it's actually the biggest set of Lego I've ever owned full-stop. As a kid I would get Lego all the time because I loved it, but we could never afford big sets. I got rather nostalgic and emotional. We're off for a vaction in the country and there's not much to do in the evenings so I'm taking it with to try and get some quality father son time on a couple of quiet evenings.

That's one of my favourite "historical" scenes I've seen recently. It's just got loads of character in a fairly small scene. I really like it. Love the water effect, nice and simple.

Hi Rafael/Jetboy. I really like some of the stuff on your flickr. Really creative use of some parts.

Batcave is £49.99 at Amazon.co.uk (-29%) at the moment. Cheapest I've seen it and actually pretty good value at that price. In general prices were really stagnant for a couple of weeks but there have been lots of movement over the last two days. I'm guessing people are dumping stock to make way for the summer sets, lotr and monster fighters.

Great job. Dapper Loki in particular. With all the duplicates it's a shame we couldn't have got a figure in that outfit.