brickzone

Thanks for the info. Based on the odd non-round prices (e.g. 79 cents), I'm guessing that ironically (with the UK reduced VAT notice) it includes the Irish VAT *increase* (21% to 21.5%). Not that it should make much difference, my phone bill for example is a whole 10 cents more since the VAT increase. No pirates then? Oh well. I posted a thread about what I saw in Smyths Toys in Blanchardstown, including Pirates. If I weaken on waiting for a cheaper price on the Shanghai Chase, at least I can get it at Argos for €30 or so - I have one of those €5 gift vouchers from the pre-Christmas deal. Still would be nice to get visiting the North with a fistful of Euro.

I'll have one shortly, but I think I'll want a second - you can fit two back to back seamlessly. I think it's a welcome addition alongside BURPs etc.

First of all, much of the 2009 line-up has been available on S@H since the end of December. Mostly pricing is as expected, but Ireland for some unknown reason got a bum deal on Mediaeval Market Place, €116.99 instead of €99.99. Smyths does not yet have '09 sets on the website (www.toys.ie) but I was in the Blanchardstown store in Dublin, and they had a number of '09 sets. Of particular interest were the Cannon Battle at €4.99 (instead of €5.99 on S@H), the Dump Truck at €16.99 (instead of €19.99 on S@H) and Construction Site €79.99 (€89.99 S@H). They also had the Kraken Attackin, Crawler Crane, some new Creator Sets, and the Castle and Fireman building sets. I should be able to check stock at Limerick Childers Road at some stage in the next week or two. No new stock in Cork city centre last weekend. Argos should have the new catalogue out on Friday or Monday I believe, so keep an eye out. Last year we got the new police station at a knock-down price of €55 right off (rather than €75 on S@H). Art & Hobby in Limerick had some shelves cleared for new Lego last I was there, but they had none at that time. Tesco had rearranged their meagre remaining Lego onto two shelves and filled the "empty" ones with Megabloks :/ Also I recommend keeping an eye on the exchange rate and Amazon.co.uk (so far just Power Miners - good value for them though) and other UK retailers (e.g. www.toysdirect.co.uk - Brickbeard's Bounty at £49.99, shipping similar to S@H, £11 or so, so bulk ordering recommended).

Wow, harsh words from some people about Brickbeard's Bounty! I think it's entirely undeserved, and certainly deserves measured criticism rather than outright derision. In fact I would go so far as to say that I perhaps consider it to get second place behind Black Seas Barracuda. There's something about the colours and style of Skull Eye Schooner that just doesn't appeal to me in the same way, although I would still put it ahead of any of the rest of the pirate ships (some of which are a horrible mess of colours and awkward angles on the deck construction).

I bought Brickbeard's Bounty and the Soldier's Fort from the UK and saved myself €30 compared to a S@H order for Ireland. I should probably have got the rest of Pirates from UK too, but I already ordered them from S@H figuring the difference wasn't so great on smaller sets, and the Shipwreck set might have been S@H exclusive. Unfortunately the euro is back down around 88 pence, or I would have saved even more!

Thanks for the comparison, interesting to see photos of them side-by-side. I have the BSB myself, and it is a beautiful ship. SES, I would like to have but it's not as delicately designed. The BB does suffer from having all four main sails the same size, the square rigging, and so on. However, the actual deck/cabin part I think holds its own against BSB. It is not only using nice colours and parts, but it is quite well designed, with a fair bit of detail. I think Brickbeard's Bounty does phenomenally well when one considers the price. I have a catalogue for the UK from the late 80s, and it shows BSB at a price of £99.99 *back then* (that was worth a lot more then!) and I have just purchases Brickbeard's Bounty from the UK for £49.99 today in 2009, 20 years later. Lego has never been as good value, and despite some instances of corners being cut in new sets, I consider today's Lego sets to be as good as any previous Golden Era - although perhaps not in the same way (what I mean is that although new sets fail in some regards compared to old sets, it is made up for in other areas). Perhaps most of all, I think Brickbeards Bounty is possibly the most appealling to kids. Not just today's kids - I think we would have gone for Brickbeard's Bounty if it was on offer when we were kids. It's kind of sad considering the nostalgia I have for BSB (never could afford it till I was an AFOL) but I think back then it would have suddenly looked dull if Brickbeard's Bounty had come out the following year. Now, I would think that I would have picked up on all the BB's flaws even at a younger age, but given a choice between it and BSB...

Not really enough there to do much other than tantalise, but so far it certainly looks better than Mars Mission at least. I shall have to hold out on judgement entirely though - the space police ship doesn't entirely seem that cool of a colour scheme - a bit like Exploriens but with more distracting details in other colours. But it is kind of "police-like", so if the various ship designs are well done and make the most of the colours, it could be great.

Dunno about the US, but a lot of UK/Irish stores have cash flow problems - due to lack of credit/overdraft from banks. Businesses are holding off on paying bills, which means other businesses have problems due to not receiving that money, and so they hold of on paying their creditors, and so on... So I suspect that some retail outlets have problems finding money to restock. In fact, it is expected this side of the Atlantic that more retailers will go bust in the new year - not just loss-making ones, but ones with thin margins who can't balance the payments due to the "credit crunch". No sign of 2009 sets in stores here in Ireland. The local Tesco has only two shelves of Lego left (the unsold Magnetix and Megabloks spread out on what were the other empty Lego shelves) - a quarter of that is unsold Speed Racer.

That is truly amazing! I want to do the same to my own one, right now! Apart from the orange switch, the battery box casing arrangement is perfectly acceptable as part of the vehicle body!

Interesting interview, especially with being a relative newcomer to the site. I didn't realise that EB had a "leaker" reputation! I enjoy the discussion here most of all - I spend a lot more time reading than commenting!

Very nice - that's way cooler than a Lego Agents MoC I started work on before Christmas (currently it is in suspended animation awaiting further time and inspiration). I think it would be even more impressive as a "control tower" for a much larger base! I also like the smaller version of the Agents sports car.

We had a whole bunch of Megabloks back in the mid 90s when cash was tight. My brothers appreciated having them rather than sticking with their sparse amount of Lego - the Megabloks was good for providing a lot more ordinary bricks cheaply. Obviously in more affluent times, we aren't so interested in them (there is a boxload of them still) but my sister took them to fill out her small enough Lego collection (with a family, she can't afford to spend much on Lego, though she's got a fair bit more now from presents). My youngest brother got some of the Dragon megabloks, and while obviously inferior quality to Lego, it's cleverly enough done, and good fun for kids. The "<insert that tiresome argument>" parts (e.g. decorative wall panels) have plenty of use in adding flair to a castle creation. I wouldn't buy non-Lego brands for myself, but that's just because I have more cash. Also having a credit card and shopping online does offer the prospect of more substantial deals on Lego than the Irish retail scene (the main player is not bad, they have much of the range and at S@H prices or even sometimes less, but a lack of competition and other shops means little chance for frequent sales and deals). I did buy some non-Duplo for my nephew, but only because it was €15 for a giant bin of ordinary blocks from LIDL. He already has now about €100 worth of actual genuine Duplo that various family members including myself got him for Christmas.

Thanks for the great review. I liked the photos displaying all the minifigs and special parts together. That's a fantastic bargain for all the sets! I would love to own all of them, although I bought the three largest ones for a bit less than that - the Dragon Fortress in particular was great to get, as it is very expensive sometimes, and not unsurprisingly so, as it is a masterpiece. Orient Expedition was very well done in my opinion, and had a charm to it that Indy doesn't have, even if it is really cool too.

My last set bought in 2008 was Exo-force 7713 Bridgewalker, picked it up for €15 in Galleria Kaufhof in Munich. I'll likely use it as parts for Space MoCs, but it's a pretty cool set in its own right, and amazing at that price. My first set of 2009 was Lego Agents Swamp Chase, for Christmas, completing my full set of Lego Agents Missions 1-8. (Also got the Prisoner of Azkhaban Hagrid's Hut, but I built that second).

Well, the highway maintanance looks pretty well done. I too would like if they weren't orange - but considering orange is a colour that TLC use now, it makes sense to re-use it over and over so that people/kids end up with a usable amount of it. My recommendation would simply be to try out building some orange-based MoCs - the colour does offer plenty of scope despite the brashness of it. As regards the poor quality pics, when scaled down you can get a reasonable idea of the set, just not the detail. I certainly like the look of these sets. The corner shops/bus stop looks nice. The truck repair/garage looks insane - pricey, pricey, pricey surely! Like the look of the camper and sports car. My brother always wanted the old 4-wide camper as a kid, but when he finally got it recently it finally put the issue to rest - 4-wide was quite a constraining medium and it doesn't really cut the mustard today (or even in the 90s). I look forward to a 6-wide camper van myself. Concerning the updating of topics - I certainly find that the first post is not always up to date, and indeed I sometimes miss posts in fast-moving threads, so I empathise somewhat with those getting a bit hot under the collar about it all. I think people need not to take things quite so seriously though - I certainly favor mods taking action to close dupe threads/posts (indeed doing so with an iron fist gets my vote) and do their best to inform people (over-and-over again as necessary), but I think the rest of the posters could just do their best to ignore such "grievous" occurances and give the "offender" and mods both a chance! I would agree that even the best intentioned members, new or old, could accidentally post what they think is "news" and turns out to be "olds" (you know, news broken three nanoseconds earlier ;).

Well, it changed today on S@H for Ireland to "Backorders accepted, will ship by 26 January", so I got the jitters about availability and went ahead and ordered at the €116.99 price. However, I hope to make up for the high price by buying the more expensive pirate sets from the UK if they appear on amazon.co.uk or the one or two UK toy retailers I've found who ship to Ireland.

Is the new part too short to use a short axle with stud on one end, instead of the half technic pin?

You're not kidding, I was really looking forward to ordering this as soon as it became available, and now I'm in limbo not sure what I'm going to do about it. There's no way I can justify paying an extra 17%, especially in the current climate. If I can sort out ordering from the UK of course I'd be sorted - €75 for it!!! However, that may not be quick or easy to arrange. I emailed Lego to complain about the pricing for Ireland, but they're sticking to the line that the price is what their beancounters came up with for what people here can pay. I'd really like to have just been able to order it for €100 the same as the rest of the Eurozone (well, except France). What do we have a common market in Europe for if companies can act like this? Would people in the US stand for a company charging more for east/west coast mail orders than mid-west mail orders? Btw - welcome to Eurobricks Karl, good to see another Irish member.

Well, response to my complaint about this pricing is basically that they do indeed set higher prices for markets where they can get away with fleecing people. I'm sick of this from every retailer and company concerning Ireland, now including Lego too. It may seem like such a little concern, this one set, but it's just yet another annoyance.

Well, I have emailed Lego about this, and failing any change in pricing for Ireland, I think I'll have to get someone in Northern Ireland to order it (and other sets) on my behalf at UK prices, and I'll collect next time I am visiting them. Awkward to arrange and a bit of an imposition, but when the price difference is so vast, how can I pay over the odds? I'll be buying enough Lego next year (e.g. Pirates, Castle, Farm) despite the circumstances that I can't afford to pay over the odds for anything. I'd be happy to pay €99 rather than the £70 (€75) I'd pay from the UK - I understand the UK price being so low, as people there aren't getting higher wages just cause the pound has depreciated.

Hagrid's Hut from the Prisoner of Azkhaban - something I hadn't yet bought because it's often overpriced on ebay. Also the Agents Swamp Chase - completing my collection!

Might have to see about shipping to someone in Northern Ireland to get UK prices and make use of the pound/euro exchange rate. Irish price for Mediaeval Market Village is €116.50 plus €15 shipping :(

Same wheels as the big coastguard 4x4 (which I switched the wheels of onto my modified Agents Gold Chase off-roader - it should have had them from the start). Nice review, and this does look like a well designed set. I was tempted when I saw it in Munich recently while I was there - but I have other sets to get.

Of course, bricks per dollar/euro is not a perfect measure. Many sets now have a lot of little detail added by bucket-loads of tiny pieces, but then again, some sets have more than their share of large parts (in some cases, *as well as* a decent truckload of ordinary brick/plate). I rely on some intuition as well as the brick/price ratio, but the only way to know for sure is how satisfied you are after a) opening the set, and b) building it and having the finished model. Some seem way better value when you build them, others less so! Box art can be deceptive both ways!

Nice to see this. I like the sleek look of the ship. Space MoCs are my plan for my exoforce parts, although I think I'd like to have some exo-force-like space vehicles to make use of the oodles of knuckle joint parts I have.