merman

Today I received the VIP newsletter and it said: Finally, keep an eye out this month for a very special early access announcement, just for LEGO VIPs! Coming very soon… Anyone has any idea what this could be?

The black lamp post is not a novelty. It was also in 10222 Winter Post Office

Is the video for this set already availble? And I was wondering: what white plates and maybe trees you should buy to connect all current winter sets?

Nice plane but the propellor piece of course is not in 8110.

First of all: I am also wondering what TLG's stance on the recent Technic instructions is. They no longer show the slits between the holes in studless Technic beams. Did they change it to save ink? Or because kids otherwise get confused? Or because the parts may change in the future? Whatever the reason is, it is very very ugly. Please ambassadors check with TLG! Second of all and a much bigger concern, i more and more feel TLG is beginning to rip-off AFOLs with their exclusive sets. What did it for me was the sudden 30% increase of the 10228 Haunted House exclusive (in a nutshell: announced in the press release and on the website for €149.99 or £119.99, then the euro price went up to €179.99 and the pound price went up to £149.99 soon after that. The dollar remained a steady $179.99). Then the 10227 B-wing was announced: 1,487 parts for €199.99 or £169.99. This is what I e-mailed Lego today as an example: "Just to give you an idea of these exorbitant price increase of recent exclusive sets (not even justified by the licenses used): - Set 10218 Pet Shop - not licensed - 2,032 parts - GBP 119.99 - price per part: GBP 0.059 - Set 10224 Town Hall - not licensed - 2,766 parts - GBP 149.99 - price per part: GBP 0.054 - Set 10225 RD-D2 - licensed set - 2,127 parts - GBP 149.99 - price per part: GBP 0.071 (but OK: It is licensed) - Set 10228 Haunted House - not licensed - 2,064 parts - GBP 149.99 (used to be GBP 119.99) - price per part: GBP 0.073 (used to be GBP 0.581) - Set 10227 Star Wars B-Wing - licensed - 1,487 parts - GBP 169.99 - price per part: GBP 0.114 (which is insane even for a licensed set!!!!) Both licensed and non-licensed set had a sudden increase of 30 to 50% in just a matter of months!" I understand price increases but not this rigorously!

Could it be TLG is changing its price policy? The 10228 Haunted House is 30% overpriced. Same seems to be the case with this model. Are they going to increase all prices for AFOL exclusives knowing they will buy the sets anyway? The SW license still does not justify this extreme price.

What a lousy excuse. It was in the press release for £120. They accidently shipped it to manchester and sold it for £120. And now it is £150. Sure.

they still refuse to give a proper reply to my complaint. They even now want me to prove the press release. I sent them 3 sources (Eurobricks. Brothers Brick and Brickset) and also sent them a screenprint of the website showing the old price.

Well then I still think €180 is quite high but then we would not have known it any other way. It makes it extra harsh the price was very very reasonable (which was my initial reaction when I read the press release), but now it feels like a rip-off. R2D2, a licensed set with a similar piece count is also €180. But remember Mr. Lucas wants to be paid.

I think the main issue here is not the regional difference of pricing (hard to do anything about it), but the really sh*tty price raise of 20%(!) after expectations and cravings have been raised. If it was an error they should have fixed it right away... Not first the euro price and on top of that the pound. I refuse to pay 20% more than the initial press release. Considering the amount lf bricks and compared to the modulars €150 or £120 was pretty reasonable. Come on TLG: it is not even licensed! So unless they bring down the price within reason, no scary house for me. Matter of principle...

they also sell 9393 and 9396 part count: 9393: 353 9396: 1056 9398: 1225

This is the new axle:

erm it's a 30 euros difference, not 20.

I received a reply to my complaint. They cannot elaborate on it because the set is not yet available and the price is not definate and may be subject to change. So when did this ever happen? Did they ever lower or change a price prior to its release? It's nonsense since the set is listed on their site WITH a price.

I really think it is an error. Otherwise it also would have been GBP 139.99

This is just really stupid. It is not a licensed set and has fewer pieces than most Modulars that are EUR 149.99 Besides the press release clearly stated 149.99 In British Pounds it still is GBP 119.99 (as stated in the press release) which is about 150 euros What I did is go to service.lego.com and file a complaint. Let's all do that!

It's about bloody time for a Technic Exclusive! There have been exclusives in a lot of themes but never a true BIG Technic exclusive.

To show you what I mean (it is a photo made by an iPhone so you may want to click it to see the best resolution): The bottom picture is of 10224 Town Hall, the top picture is of 10230 Mini Modulars (that is also of 2012 but some months older!!!). Notice the black outlines of the parts that are thinner in the bottom picture. The bottom picture also clearly shows the jagged nature I decribed as the top picture shows thicker and smoother lines. The bottom picture is what I see in all new instructions! These instructions were photographed together so the disctance and angle is the same.

I am worried about the quality of the printed instructions. As of 2012 I noticed TLG is cutting on quality and especially resolution. Not only did they stop showing the slits between the holes of studless Technic beams, the instructions overall are of poorer quality. The black lines of the parts are thinner and edgier. Diagonal lines now look jagged. You can sometimes even see the pixels. I noticed this with the 10224 Town Hall and 10226 Sopwith Camel, but also with the LOTR sets. TLG started offering lower resolution instructions digitally (I still believe Technic B-model should come printed, building from a computer screen is rediculous/Creator also comes with ALL instructions printed), now the cutting of costs has reaches printed instructions also! Anyone else noticed this? The instructions look cheap. Like Megablocks or some other clone brand.

Thx for the review. Could you post some more pictures of the building process? Now you post 1 picture of the finished first section followed by the completed model... Nothing in between.

If we are talking about re-issues: a PF version of the 8421 Mobile Crane in Blue!

Thanks so much for this. TLG has gone a bit awry with the colors inside. Can you please give us the long numbers on the back of the instruction booklets? TLG has only put online the first booklet. The other two might be there also...

Part of the instructions are now online. Guess LEGO forgot to put on the other 2 instruction booklets. R2 looks like a rainbow from the inside Part 1 of the instructions

yes, rereleasing 8421 in blue would be an amazing idea to please fans and new Lego builders. It provides us with beams and bricks in blue (I have experimented with turning the light bley beams to dark bley, which looks amazing). They can put in PF motors and LA's. The biggest flaw of 8421 is the fact the pneumatic is not strong enough to lift the arm, which can be solved by using one or two LA's. They could build in two driving rings. One for the arm to extend and the rope to unwind. The other for lifting the boom with the LA's and the outriggers (the axle for this can go through the turntable). They can exchange the wheel for turning the outriggers manually by a wheel that turns the boom (which now has to be done by hand, another flaw). The steering can be modernized by using the new 7L gearrack and pinning them on regular 13L studless beams. They could use the new panels to hide the battery box and the XL motor. The superstructure needs some updating to build in the PF though, which is the hardest part... An idea for CUUSOO???

I recently have built 8421 in LDD in blue. Looks great. A rerelease of that set (with the new gearracks, LA and PF) would be SO awesome!