Ash

Lex Luthor Power Armour 25% at Amazon. Still £15, but I know it's a lot of people's favourite from the Super Heroes line.

I'm really liking that mine set as a good kid's play set. Lots to do, lots going on and it just looks like the sort of stuff I remember playing with as a kid.

Did you have any plans to do any vehicles? There are some great iconic cares from that era, but I'd imagine they'd be really difficult to get looking right. Also whenever I see it I feel like it needs a Salvation Army Band. For some reason that seems like a typical 50s Aussie thing to me! It's looking fantastic though. When you're done there's a few parent's of friends back in Australia I'll be linking to it, I think they'd appreciated it.

Good call. Also Deep Sea Raider which is still full price on Amazon. A couple of the other smaller 2011 Atlantis sets as well. Damn that Deep Sea Raider is one ugly set though. A couple of pieces look like they might be good for ginat robots or something, but even at half price I'm not touching that one!

Well HQ ordered anyway. I have fond memories of playing with stuff like that and I think my kid will like it. Maybe stash it away for a rainy day. I think I'll hold off on Portal. For the price I'd rather wait and see if The Alien Conquest mobile HQ goes on special again. For the price I think I prefer it.

Portal of Atlantis is today's big Amazon half-pricer (well 49% off). Tempting for £41, but I've already bought too much in the last week or so. It looks interesting, but I'm not a massive fan of Atlantis (except Deep Sea Striker which I love). I guess I'll pass. Big Bentley is cheap again as well, but that's nothing new. Edit: Oh actually Atlantis HQ is down a lot too 44% to £23. That's a possibility for me. I like HQ/Base type sets for playing with with my kid and we don't really have any at the moment. Might pick that one up. Might go look if I can find a review first.

Rise of the Sphinx just hit 56% off (£18.16). They must of had a hell of a lot of these. It's been around 30% off for a while now... I bought mine last week, I should have waited! Edit: Uh, on Amazon. I probably should have said that bit!

Yeah, I wsn't sure where the original one was on this one. Thanks for the heads up. I tend to favour Amazon because (a) Prime and (b) they tend to be in stock longer than the place they're matching. Although these look like they're still in stock in both. Meanwhile Golden Staff Guardians half price. The set itse;f is pretty rubbish but a couple of mummies and a sweet motorbike for < £5 isn't bad.

Some good deals on Superhero sets at Amazon including 29% off Battle over Gotham. Actually that, the Batcave and the Two-Face set are just a flat £10 off so Battle over Gotham is the biggest percentage (and probably the best set of those).

One thing to keep in mind is that they're specifically going to be based on the movie rather than the book. So it will probably depend on which scenes/locations the movie focuses on or where they ramp up the action a lot. Given the first half of the hobbit isn't exactly actioned packed, and much of the action is fairly low-key or twee they're probably going to spice it up with stuff that is only referenced or described in passing in the book. For example in the trailer there's some Gandalf action that is referenced in the books but not actually described.

Please tell me that bridge collapses? It looks like it might. And it goes without saying... I love it. Great stuff yet again.

4643: POWER BOAT TRANSPORTER been 67% off at Amazon.co.uk on and off over the last couple of days. I resisted yesterday. I mean I don't particularly need it or collect City stuff but.... it's like under 4p a brick and I couldn't hold out any longer when it got cheap again today.

They're both absolutely gorgeous. They really capture the small-town spirit of the film as well (something totally absent in Cars 2 and most of the Lego sets). I've got an Ultimate Francesco sitting under my desk that I picked up on special a few months back that I still haven't got around to building. These make me want to do it even less, he just won't compare! I hope you do more.

That's great. Straight out of the Sullivans (anyone? I think I'm really aging myself here). Either way loads of Australian country towns don't look that much different 60 years on!

Love the Mantis. I also enjoy the old-school trees :)

Good thing you don't want to build an Elf or Dwarf army! Orcs are really the only one that's possible with this batch.

At the very least I'd expect the new horses to appeal to animators!

I think you have this the wrong way round. Lego has been always been primarily marketed as a toy for children from around 5 to pre-teen/young teen. That is their core target audience. They're obviously aware they have other audiences and do things to cater for them, but to think that they. The explosion in interest amongst adults is a relatively new phenomenon and they're an audience they cater for differently. You're looking at lines intended to be toys for children as an adult and raging about the fact that they're not "mature" enough for you. You don't think that's kind of... odd? I think the lines you cited as "the good old days" are a good example of that. I'm guessing I have a decade or two on you. To me "Jhonny Thunder, or Alpha Team, or Rock Raiders" (What, no TIme Cruisers? For shame) are far from the good old days. They're the kiddie Lego that makes me nostalgic for the glory days of classic space and the like. I mean Rock Raiders as a paragon of traditional Lego? Seriously? If you think Rock Raiders and Alpha Team are Lego's traditional roots I don't think you're as much an old timer as you think you are! You just have fond memories of the stuff you grew up with. We all do. My good old days predate your good old days and when my kid grows up he'll be complaining about why his good old days and why the new lines aren't nearly as good as Ninjago. I'd go so far as to say those lines in particular represent the early stages of the trend you're talking about here. Also... Rock Raider: Intended for 5-10 year olds. Not adults. Not teenagers. Lego haven't shifted their target audience. You've just got older. The changing fortunes of TLG over last 10-15 years or so would suggest otherwise. I think a strong argument argument could be made for the fact that it was divesifying in directions other than their traditional roots that saved Lego. Fortunately they've managed to do so while maintaining seperate lines (Creator etc) that hold close to their traditions.

This review is the best review! I laughed my megablocks off at the invisible jet. Looks like a really cool set as well. Probably my favourite from the line. Edit: Oh OK, got another laugh out of that word filter!

The subject to approval thing is just because they're prototypes and not finalised yet. The license is a done deal and they'll be coming out later this year. It was announced at the London Toy Fair. There's more about a minute in on this video: I have no idea if Character Building distribute stuff outside the UK though. I know their Dr Who range has a bit of a following, but am not sure if people outside the UK need to import it or if they can just buy it there. And... a bit off topic... but holy crap the animation style on the new Ben 10 series looks absolutely awful.

These sets are all so good and I love what you're going for. I'd buy each and everyone of those. I thought Bag End was an interesting take I had mixed feelings about and then I started noticing the little details like Sting mounted on the mantlepiece Can't wait to see more. I finally got around to writing the blog post that I'd alread checked in with you about: http://www.legolordoftherings.com/2012/02/21/weathertop-ambush-the-black-rider-wizard-duel-bag-end/

It's not out yet. It was just at the toy fairs. I think I saw some images on a Dr Who blog. I'll have a look and see if I can find it again. Done: A couple of images here: http://merchandise.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/character-building-ben-10-images-subject-to-approval/

Haha. I only just noticed the "flick seesaw" thing here. Those things are turning up everywhere all of a sudden. Do they have a name? If not, I'm going to go with flick seesaw from now on. That said I kind of dig the one on one of the Ninjago sets my kid got. It reliably fires snakes halfway across the lounge room.

Sorry yeah... FWIW = For What it's Worth Character Building is the brand name under which the Character toy company releases their (fairly succesful) Legoish building stuff.

Yet another half price Atlantis set from Amazon! Had to go check: Guardians of the Deep. I have 3 Atlantis sets tucked under my desk at work now. I don't even like the theme but I can't resist half priced. I'll get round to taking them home an building them one day.