J.V.D.

For those in , or near, Belgium : I picked up a 79006 Elrond Council in Dreamland today.. at 25Euros. Sounds like a standard US retail price, but compared to the official Lego price here (45 Euros) a nice deal.. I am not a real LoR or hobbit fan, but this set allways had my attention.. just didn't pick it up before because of the ridiculous price tag..

I never did buy this specific basic brick box, but did buy a couple of others in the past... When you want to start to expand your basic brick collection they are ideal ( as the name sugests) and also pricewise you cannot really go wrong.. However, it really depends on what you need them for.. usually I find the mix they offer rather poor in more "special" bricks. What you do e.g. with only 2 4073 round studs or 4 cheesy slopes of a certain color? On the other hand these boxes contain a lot (more then I need) of "thick" x*2 wide bricks (2*2 ; 2*3 ; 2*4), while for mocs I mostly use x*1's , plates, slopes, modified bricks etc.. which usually you only find in very limited quantities in these boxes..

I have seen already impresive work from you Gideon, but this must be (one of) your masterpiece.. Not only because of the size of the build, or techniques used, but also and mostly because you made such a vivid scene of it. All the little details and the minifig activity, .. it realy looks like a snapshot of a busy streetscene. One can easy imagine that, if the pictures were taken 10 seconds later, it would look completely different. So much happening here.. I also realy like the way how you managed to blend other colors into the typical Kaliphlin tans, and make it looks like something that has organically grown.. Not that evident.. I tried to build some Kaliphlin or Tatooine themed mocs myself some months ago, but most of the time the so needed tan just makes it look bland.. I think he used a lot of these arches Bregir.. a couple of them came in tan in the Simpson house.. but they are rare.. hence their price on Bricklink I guess..

At first sight next year will gentle for my Lego SW budget. The T16 and... that will be about it I guess... maybe one of those "black ops " battlepack too. I was planning to get several of the ITT battlepacks, but not if it contains those Droopy style helmets.. I just dont like them.. Maybe spent the budget I had foreseen for this on bricklink, buying some classic stormies and sandtroopers..

Today I got the 75050 B-Wing and 75052 Cantina, taking advantage of Dreamland's ( toy store chain in Belgium) september 20% off offer. And as a bonus my son got a free SW T-shirt. I was considering getting the 75055 ISD too, but since from that set I am mainly interested in the Palpatine hologram, Imperial officer, crewmember and navy trooper (though having a couple of 9492 TIE's , I already have some), I will probably just get them from bricklink.. Still waiting on a decent reduction for the Sandcrawler.. the official Lego shop in Belgium is having a 10% off on SW too at the moment, but apparently not on the big ones like 75059 Sandcrawler or 10236 Ewok village... and belgian prices on those ar a bit to hefty for my budget..

I have collected all series so far, even series 11 that for some mysterious reason was not offically available here in Belgium, and I am finishing the Movie series. But this Simpsons series I will pass. Not only because I never watched the show, but I just don't like the aesthetics of these figs. They have something un-Lego-ish about them.. I know in the recent past there were a handfull minifigs that , according to my taste, crossed the border too, but a complete series / theme?.. No thanks.. Seeing them on pictures together with "normal" figurers just looks creepy... What I do applaud however is the new distribution used for this series.. its more balanced. 3 complete sets out of a box.. at least 3 of each figure.. I hope they continue with this kind of distribution in the future.

Personally I find a perfect and logic choice to include (a replica of) the first ever Star Wars minifig in this book that kind of commemorates 15 years of Lego Star Wars... Do all the whining people here, and on other fora, realy only buy those books for the minifigure?.. Sounds like a big waste of money and resources to me.. If I buy a book, its for the book itself.. whatever comes with it, is a bonus.. just that.. When it is a Lego product I want to buy.... I just buy Lego.. but.. that is just me. In fact, I am getting a bit tired and annoyed with all those "exclusive" figures that you can only get when you buy a certain product (be it a book, game, blue ray, spent an amount in a certain shop), or go to a convention.. Many of those end up in the hands of exploiters anyway.. I also find it a bit strange that people blame TLG for this "bad choice".. Maybe they propose possible exclusives, but I guess it is still the publisher (DK) who decides if and which minifig is going to be included as a bonus.. And, despite .dk being the www-suffix for Denmark, to my knowledge TLG and DK are not the same company..

Looks good, not only the figs, but the car too.. I have been doubting a lot before finaly buying the BTTF set, and I am still not realy conviced by the looks of the DeLorean.. but this Ecto1 looks realy great.. another set for my to buy list..

The look of that stormtroopers helmet reminds me of ... I am so happy... NOT

Not that I am unhappy with the fact the we will receive the Bith bandmembers, on the contrary, but it is true that it would have been better if Lego gave them via another set. In an ideal world the cantina set should have Ponda and Evazan, as suggested by so many here. Including those two would give us a "conflict situation" for Luke and ObiWan too, something Lego seems to find important. Wuher honestly isn't that high on my desired figures list. He is just a human with a 70's haircut afterall.. A stand-in is easy to make with other minifig parts. Any other cantina alien over him.. Personally, I saw the bandmembers as ideal battlepack (well, musicpack) material: they are generic enough, no main characters, it makes sense to have several (2 or 3) of them in the same set, and it would realy have people tempted to buy several packs in order to have a complete band. Give the Biths brickbuild instruments and a small bandstand in order to solve the "no minifigs only" problem and top it up with another rather generic Tatooine citizen.. (Jawa, Tusken, or just a human civilian/moisture farmer) or sandtrooper... voila, I present you a nice little set for OT fans.. Bit if one now wants a "complete" band, and isnt able or willing to burn some cash on a second cantina set, only option will be bricklink or ebay.. but I fear a lot of future cantina owners will try to do the same, so the demand will be reflected in the asking price of those biths. Anyway, since I missed the first one, I am already glad that I will have another chance to buy a cantina with Greedo and Dewback. While I will skip most of the SW winterwave , only got 2 DS battlepacks and that will probably be all, this summerwave looks a lot better. Certainly getting the cantina, ISD, and depending on if it looks better then my 6208, the B-wing

I was already tempted to buy some friends sets in the past, but though they sometimes have great parts in interesting colors, I never did. But this set I will surely get. That scooter is just to good to pass, and the rest of the parts look nice too. Is that the normal minifig pilot helmet in red that is included in this set? or is it a new model? Just can't get used to those creepy minidolls..

I am in fact rather hoping, and would prefer, it will not be a (real) UCS set, but an update of the 10144. A system (play)set under the 10xxx UCS flag. Just like the former one, the Ewok village, Death Star and Cloud City. Because a) it will maintain the price "acceptable" ; for being called a real UCS it should be something similar to Marshal Banana 's thus unpayable ; b) a big brown box, just for display might indeed be a bit boring ; c) an update is overdue. It is true that the crawler doesnt receive that much screentime in the movie, nor has it key role, but it has a unique design, and some even more obscure vessels already had their 27th rehash.. d) a sandcrawler is still one of the biggest gaps in my OT system collection ;

Not quoting/reposting his entire post here, but mechamike makes quiet some valid points. I mainly visit EB to get inspiration from some of the great mocs that are posted here, and for some of the in-depth reviews that can be found here, and reading the opinions of others about the discussed set.. pointing out special parts, merits but also flaws.. But some threads just get clogged up with literaly 100's of just one line posts.. to and fro between a handfull of members.. just showing off with the scoop they found on another site, or working towards their next X00-th post.. I wouldn't mind donating from time to time, not sure about regular subscription fee though, and I don't even need special perks or tags in return. But not in order to maintain some kids chatbox..

It seems Lego is realy aware of the fact that most people buy these SH sets just for the minifigs... so why still make an effort designing a decent set? Just throw some bricks together with a handfull of desired minigigures.. If there ever was a good argument for having a superheroes minifigs line, in blind bags or not, then it is this wave of 2014 sets... Bricklink, here I come... I might eventually get the Cap - Hydra set; the tank is rather , but I like all the figs in it, don't have a cap yet and those olive color pieces are welcome. So buying the set will be more economically then BL-ing it.. An as others mentioned before.. lets hope for a way to get some more Hydra soldiers. Just one serving as a stand in for a complete army seems a bit poor. Allow me a moment to dream about a "Hydra battlepack".. including 3 of those goons and, why not? Viper/ Madame Hydra Another maybe is the Hulk lab smash.. depending on its price. Again a poor build, but the 2012 Hulk figure goes for about half the price of the Helicarrier Breakout set it was in, so.. anyay, despite being to expensive for what it was, 6868 looked better than this new one. Should have bought it back in 2012...

Since it seems we are getting a Hydra based set next year, I would love to see next figures appear one day too (but not as convention exclusives..): WWII Captain America, with leather jacket and helmet, no mask and angular shield Viper ; just the version as she appears in the Marvel game will do fine, thank you very much..

I am not an expert on the matter ; though I know some main characters like Superman, Batman and Spiderman, superheroes were never that popular here... We had other comics. A wider range of heroes and side characters I only know because of the recent movies. So maybe somebody more familiar with the topic can explain me why Red Skull and the Hydra soldier on that picture have different colors of uniforms? Shouldn't they be both black (like in the Captian America movie) or both green like in the classic comics? Or is there another story-line where you have them in this combination? Personally I would have prefered to see them both black ( dark grey?) or both (dark) green..

Those micros look even better than I expected ..cute.. Not interested in them all but I am certainly getting the X-wing and the the SD, even if alone for the figs. And that AAT seems to be a nice parts pack... if I am not mistaken its the first time we have those quarter domes in tan... very usefull for Tatooine or Kaliphlin mocs...

I came here to check if there was some more news, or people that noticed something special, about the the new upcomming series of bagged minifigures.. only to find a discussion that is mainly about semantics.. I'll pass this tread and better wait for WhiteFangs traditional review..

Nahoj remained a bit vague when he registered under that name as a resident of the city of Barqa. Though generaly harbour cities welcome strangers, he chose to be discrete about his origins, genealogy and past life.. He only mentioned that he selected Kaliphlin as his new dwelling place because it reminded him somewhat of the home of his former employer; Tatooine. So, until somebody has a need for his talents and hires him, he lives in a rundown part of town, dresses in rags, and scrapes together a small income on the local markets. Helping the shoppers by taking some excess weight from their purses...

Rumors about a Historical Building Program at the Petraea University are spreading through the galaxy. This might be a good opportunity to venture more into building / MOC-ing instead of mainly collecting. So I plan to head my flying saucer to a remote spot in the Siccus badlands, hitch a ride with a passing caravan to Petraea, and check if I can apply for a Kaliphlin residence permit or green card..

Well, its not the first time something similar happens. In e.g. the 9490 Droid Escape they missed the perfect opportunity to give us an (updated) Dewback, but we received a crappy speeder instead. I am starting to suspect that there is a chapter in the "Ultimate Corporate Lego Marketing and Product Development Manual" that demands to exclude some obvious or key elements from a set (but contrary include some random ones).

Only a DS battlepack for me in this wave I guess.. (and maybe a Kashyyk one... depends on how future reviews manage to convince me..). But I still think it is a pitty the DS pack doesn't offer a greater variety. A pack with a DS gunner, a guard, a DS trooper and a stormie (or officer) would have been ideal and have me buy multiples.. now it will be probably just one, 2 maximum.. I'll have to bricklink a new Chewie too I fear... not that I like the new version that much, but the old version looks so outdated next to all the newly printed figures.. The new blasters? Yuck! nothing more to say about those..

I treated myself with another 9489 Endor battlepack and a 2nd 9492 Tie last week. You can't get enough Lego brickbuild trees stormtroopers and every self respecting imperial fleet needs at least 2 of those flying sandwiches, if only just to serve as wingmen for Vaders Tie advanced. Also when the 2014 DS battlepack was announced, I was hoping it would include a DS trooper too.. unfortunately this seems not the case. So since the average (in europe) bricklink price of the DS trooper already adds up for about 25% of what I payed for the discounted TIE, I had another excuse incentive..

... and a nice / impressive event it was. I was first a bit disappointed that the location where it was held changed, since it used to be literaly around the corner for me. But I am not sure the old location could receive that many visitors.. When I left around 3pm, people were queuing to get in. Congratulations to all that participated.

Sometimes I wish we were able to hand out as many points as there were entries.. but of course then it would be hard to have a winner in the end.. So my 3 points are distributed as follows: 4) minton : 1 point ( a very dynamic scene thanks to the scattered window, the curtains that fly up, facial expresions etc..) 12) rodiziorobs : 1 point (interesting idea and execution) 16) irrad : 1 point ( despite , or thanks to, the vibrant and colorfull build, the most disturbing entry of them all)