Graysmith

Love the truck, but I'm a bit disappointed it only includes one minifigure when all the other Great Vehicles had two (and even three, as the Ambulance did). Maybe it would've been asking a bit too much for them to include a small car like in the flatbed truck set, but surely they could've included a motorcycle and a driver of it so you'd actually have someone to use the filled-up gas pump. It's a minor issue, I still intend to get it, but it does feel like it's a bit less value compared to the other two new GV sets, which have more minifigures and more playability.

Love the ship itself but I would never buy set that includes Pong Krell. Shame.

The arches I got with mine have that little divider and even with those the window still rattles around a bit. So don't think replacing the arches will mean the window stays absolutely still because it won't. I also found that once you built the little table with the book the window will stay put a bit better than it does initially.

Yeah, I heard about that too! One good reason to think it might actually happen is that the Dino theme is now disappearing and LEGO will be sitting around with all these brand new dinosaur moulds that they can't use for anything else. Another year and a half would definitely be enough time passed since Dino as well for another theme with dinosaurs. To be honest, I don't see any reason at all for LEGO and Universal to not team up on a Jurassic Park theme. Fingers crossed!

They don't seem particularly popular where I live, which isn't too surprising since they're so overpriced and don't really offer anything that great. The concept itself is pretty cool, but I think they'd have to start adding some recognizable and/or unique characters or larger models in these if they want people to buy them. I actually just bought my first two Planet sets today, at about 1/3rd the original price, and even at that price they kinda feel like poor value.

At least with The Bat you can place half the blame on the filmmakers for creating such a horrendously ugly whatever it's supposed to be (helicopter?). Easily one of the worst (if not THE) vehicles I've seen in a comic book movie. Even the name is horrible (and seems to suggest even the filmmakers didn't know what the hell it was supposed to be). So that one would've looked awful no matter what LEGO had done with it. The Tumbler on the other hand.. Sigh. Great minifigures, but that's it.

I remember reading a comment on Brickset some months ago that suggested Chima was inspired (to some degree) by some MOCs that Mark Stafford (and others) had done a few years ago, which featured Fabuland minifigures and animal mechs. Here's a mech shaped like a monkey, and here's another shaped like a dog. Whether that's true or not, I leave up to Stafford to say.

I would agree that Laval himself looks dangerously similar to Lion-o (and LEGO posing Laval with a sword held up high doesn't help at all) to the point where WB might actually have a case against LEGO, but everything else about Chima doesn't strike me at all as a Thundercats rip-off beyond the obvious (and acceptable) similarities. Laval's vehicle doesn't look anything like the Thundertank, not even close.

Darth Vader in an affordable set. Hasn't happened since 2009 (8017), which means by next year (assuming there's no such set this year) it'll be five years that Darth Vader has only shown up in really expensive sets (that put him out of reach for all but the most spoiled kids). Personal preference would be a set of the Vader/Luke duel at Cloud City, since that's never been done except as a portion of the 2003 Cloud City set.

I don't mind BURPs at all for Castle sets. Sure it looks nice the way they built Helm's Deep, but brick-building everything would also mean a castle would cost lots of $. I do however think LEGO could design some new castle wall BURPs, some with brick patterns perhaps, and grips for torches and whatnot.. Just so that they don't look so plain and BURPy.

After looking at ramjarjamjar's Jurassic Park vehicle MOCs I realized how much I'd love to see LEGO do a proper Jurassic Park theme. It doesn't feel like an unrealistic dream either, considering LEGO has good ties with Universal (the CUUSOO Back to the Future set is recent proof of that) and they've made themes of Spielberg franchises before as well. Not to mention those Jurassic Park III sets from back in the day. Considering there will most likely be another Jurassic Park movie sooner or later (probably 2014 or 2015 judging by IMDb), I really hope Universal partners up with LEGO and do a full-blown Jurassic Park theme covering all the films (like LEGO and Paramount/Lucasfilm did with Indiana Jones).

It's a shame this is an exclusive set with a jacked-up price. As a lover of all things Hoth I'd really like to get it (no matter how much of it is a repeat), but it'll be hard if not impossible to find at a discount where it'd be worth buying it. Too damn bad.

I wonder if the Coast Guard Helicopter will use the same front as the Cargo Heliplane. That new front piece certainly looks a lot like a Sea King type of helicopter, to the point where I would think the piece was actually created for a new coast guard helicopter, and then they also made that whacky Cargo Heliplane to get more use out of the new mold.

That's the official pronounciation.

I love seeing so many upcoming sets that aren't Police/Fire, though I wish the cargo plane was something more along the lines of last year's police helicopter (4439), something more brick-built and chunkier.. Maybe something like a C-119. That'd feel much more fun and appropriate for a cargo plane than the sleek airliner model they're using.

I don't think these sets are going to be that much different, build-wise, from Kingdoms, but the style definitely feels more childish with the Red vs. Blue factions. It doesn't give off that classic vibe that Kingdoms did/does. But hopefully these are just prototypes, they just have to be considering how odd some of it looks (most notably the grey wheels on the catapults, which just looks weird). But I have faith because there's really no way LEGO could screw it up so badly that we'd be talking about it being on par with the stuff from 10 years ago. Anyway, what I came here to discuss is this little non-Castle Castle set, 10656: Is anyone planning on getting this? It hadn't really crossed my mind, but given the price (about 10 $/€/£/etc.) it's actually not that bad of a deal considering you get a unique princess minifigure and one of the new horses. The pink and lime bricks may not be very useful for building Castle MOCs, but they are at least not the most common colours around. I'm thinking I'll probably get one if I find it at a discount.. Wouldn't mind adding another princess to my Kingdoms Joust set. :D Apologies if I'm tarnishing this thread with all this pink princess stuff, but it felt like the right thread to discuss it since it is a 2013 set and sort-of a Castle set.

Summer sets look brilliant. Hard to really judge based on thumbnail-sized photos, but it looks like another nice mix of bug-shaped alien vehicles and GS ships. I'll definitely be skipping the Bug Obliterator now and saving the money for the Galactic Titan, which looks similar but far more impressive. Also, to those who keep going on and on and on (and on) about the red team's lack of a larger vehicle; as others have pointed out, they're the speed team so it makes a lot of sense that they would keep to small, agile ships rather than large, slow vehicles/ships.

I do apologize for earlier saying that these would be Kingdoms-themed, but that's what my source said. Hard to really judge any of these sets based on such microscopic images, but I really thought it'd be Kingdoms returning so that alone is a crushing disappointment. These could still be some pretty decent sets though.. Looks like there will be new barding for the rearing horses, at least! But I'll join those saying (after just now realizing) that these are probably meant for a younger audience (than usual) to go alongside the more older-skewing and advanced LOTR/Hobbit themes. Makes a lot of sense, really, when you think about it. That way these "childish" Castle sets can be sold alongside LOTR/Hobbit for the next couple of years without them stealing too many sales from each other.

Now that I've seen The Hobbit I have to say I'm much more impressed with the Goblin King set than I initially was. A great small-scale representation of what was in the movie, I especially like how LEGO incorporated the little scribe goblin in the bucket. Still not sure whether I'll get it or not, but definitely more interested now than I was (and the wallet weeps). Same goes for the Wargs set (despite the inaccurate minifigure).

The brand new Ninjago set 70505 Temple of Light includes an old-style Castle sword though, so it doesn't seem like it has been discontinued. I'd be more inclined to say that the new sword was made specifically for the upcoming CMF Heroic Knight but somehow ended up in some chess sets. It has certainly been known to happen that alternate pieces (of equal functionality) have been included in sets, though I can't say why LEGO does that.. But I've got a few sets where that's happened anyway.

Sweden. LEGO released the Hobbit, City, Ninjago, Friends and Star Wars sets here yesterday. I would but I don't have any set-up for it. Don't think there's anything I could've added anyway with such a little set, especially now that there's that video. The mech can definitely hold onto the sword better than it does in the video though, and like the video also shows, the set includes a spare golden sword. It's not officially part of the set, but it's pretty nice having an extra since you can equip Kai with it when he's not in the mech and still have the mech hold the larger sword.

I was just looking through older advent calendars on Brickset and realized that if Castle/Kingdoms is coming back, maybe there'll also be a new Castle-themed advent calendar next year too! Fingers crossed.

Picked up 70500 Kai's Fire Robot today. I'm not really into Ninjago (I own a few small sets that I've picked up on sales and that's it) but I love mechs and this one is really terrific, especially considering it's only like 90 pieces. Cool minifigures (both have backprinting) and lots of great pieces. Definitely one of my favourite sets of this size in a long time, to be honest. The only thing that's a little bad about it is that the sword doesn't attach to anything, and the mech doesn't exactly have the steely grip of a minifigure. It'll hold it just fine, but not as securely as I'd personally like.

The minifigures with the aviator caps aren't pilots, they're police officers with riot helmets. I think the aviator cap works quite nicely as that, though the hockey helmet would've looked good too.

Thanks guys. Some of the previous year's entries look like they didn't have an open back (and light brick use doesn't seem too common?) so I think I'll be okay. Worst thing that happens is that I'm disqualified, but I don't think mine differs that much from past entries.