brickzone

I think you could use Black Monarch's Castle pretty successfully. I don't own Vladek's Fortress so I don't know how it would be. Skeleton Tower works very well as an entrance to an MoC castle. It really looks the part! I think it's a great set.

Nice review - good to see all the components of the set up close. I agree about price being too high - not least because the price here in Ireland is even more, at €75!! Needless to say that this is the one Indy set I do not yet have! I would like this set though - the aeroplane is very well done, and though one doesn't really need another Indy and duplicate baddies, the minifig parts are great for custom minifigs (cool hair, hat, jackets, etc.)

In all probability, really it is just a couple years of a downturn, and many ordinary companies like Lego should weather the storm fine. One has to assume that the worst-case scenario shall not come to pass; that of the Western economic system continuing a downward spiral, with financial institutions collapsing one-by-one and ultimately leading to most business being halted and mass job losses. Folks with jobs, although they may be worried if they have mortgages etc. and worried about job security, there are plenty of them who will very soon feel richer in real terms - when they have money and others don't. Such people are going to be buying Lego! I am glad that the European Central Bank is concentrating its efforts most on trying to dampen inflation - because that is the one thing that makes everyone poorer. Of course, with money saved in a deposit account, I am also somewhat biased in this respect. Anyway, Lego seems to be selling quite well as of yesterday in my own area. Maybe people are going for traditional toys, or those they remember in the last recession (early 1980s Ireland), or else toys that last. Whatever the reason, the stores seem to have an extensive range which is selling well. I do look forward to the shops making a bit more effort to get business. We have had very little competition in most areas of retail for the last number of years here in Ireland - due to too many undiscerning well-off consumers who'll just pay any old price.

I like it, and I think some of the criticisms are actually positive points. Some realism may be lost, but the design chosen allows more fun, more features, and a style not hampered by trying to squeeze a select few not quite fitting bricks in (having 8 wide at the back is necessary I think to make it interesting, while six wide at front means it doesn't look too huge). I think some designer attempts at more realism just result in a contrived Lego model (example would be the hinged doors on the Custom Garage set cars), whereas this looks more "Lego set-like".

I voted average. I did buy this set, but it is quite sparse, and poor value for the price of it. It seems the dragons add about a €15 premium (at least here in Ireland) to sets they are in, which I think is too much (€5 extra would seem more reasonable). King's Castle Siege (€100), Skeleton Tower (€60) and Troll Warship (€70) are all of a set size that would normally be €15 less. Positive points are that it is indeed a troll warship in appearance, and has orcs/trolls and pretty cool sails. Dark brown is very nice indeed! So I would say the pros and cons match up to make this a pretty average set - it's not above average in my opinion, and there are a lot of sub-par Lego sets to compare with to see that this is not below average either.

Well here in Ireland it is €20 which is nearly $30, and then add shipping. Some in the US are ordering two - well to do that here would be shipping of €12, a grand total of €52 (approx $75). So I do not think those in US are getting much worse of a deal.

Yep - Transport Ferry is now listed at €59.99 on their website (www.toys.ie) They too have the Agents Mobile Command Centre now at €80 rather than €100.

Shipping for 2kg from Ireland, just for comparison, would cost €30 by standard mail (i.e. the very slow cheapest service). That's nearly $45!

This was a fun review, and it encouraged my brother to get this set. I also bought one, and neither of ours had the muddled up box art in the photo here. I did get an extra sticker sheet (the smaller one) in mine though :) As regards the set of drawers, I believe they date back to Fabuland days. Those Agents are not very observant of health and safety - because the drawers, which are in a medical cabinet, are *EMPTY*. Yup, lets hope there are no nasty accidents with the crane, or the various cutters/saws on the tool racks. It is hard to capture in photographs just how large this set is. Just consider that it has 1150 or so pieces, even without the nice helping of large parts, and the tiny parts as well, there is a massive bulk of bricks and plates in this set. The final construction is very solid. The little vehicles might seem like extras thrown in next to the bulk of the truck, but when you start out building them first, you realise that this Agents set is the ultimate vehicle or space parts pack (esp. navy but grey also). Anyone in Ireland, you should check out your local Art & Hobby shop, as I got them there for €80 rather than €100.

This is a nice set, thanks for the review. I too bought this at half price on S@H around last Christmas. It was my very first train. I bought some of the plain track for it to run on (9V seems a nice idea but it is too expensive). The selection of minifigs is nice, it's got good train parts, and nice extras like the three pine trees, animals, etc. It was a fun train to build and display during the Christmas holidays. Quite festive :) I hope the new train system (2009?) is sensible and I can motorise this train for it relatively cheaply and easily (or whatever else I build from it).

I find it usually not worth while to buy from ebay sellers in France, even just shipping to Ireland. The usual postage method ("Collissimo"?) seems to cost a small fortune. I would not assume the seller is trying to con you unfortunately.

I can't make up my mind whether I prefer sorted or unsorted. I both enjoy hunting for parts in a vast array of unsorted bags, but I also like the simplicity of sorted bags. I'm against the whole "dumbing down" trend that seems so prevalent in Western society today, and so sorted bags kinda seems yet another example. But on the other hand it perhaps is just being sensible, and actually things like sorted bags, modularity, more building steps in instructions - they do mean that Lego sets have been able to increase in complexity again (yet still presumably not too much a challenge for some of the seemingly less skilled newer generation). I can draw this conclusion though - I certainly wouldn't be interested in paying extra!

My local Art & Hobby has changed some of their stock again - they now have Indy sets, and the Temple Corridor is €69.99, continuing the trend where A&H are selling larger sets at S@H prices. You may want to check your local store, as they also have some larger sets at 20% off, e.g. Agents Mobile Command Centre (€79.99 rather than €99.99), Creator Ferry, Sentai Fortress and possibly others. Don't forget about the loyalty scheme where you get a €20 gift coupon for every €120 spent.

Smyth's dropped the police station price back early in the year (just a couple weeks after it arrived on shelves) when Argos brought out their '09 Spring/Summer catalogue. Argos for whatever reason were the ones who decided to price the police station at €55 rather than the S@H price of €75. Phenomenal value for the set size (nearly 1000 pieces). I'm not complaining, I picked up one despite buying the previous one too. Lots of black, white and dark grey building bits, windows, baseplates, cute vehicles, and enough police to handle a Lego Town riot. I hope to use the 3D plain grey baseplate from the earlier one in a space base MoC (along with some moon plates).

How do you get LDD to update with these new parts? They don't appear in the Factory palette for me, and some of the new starter models, if you select them it warns you won't be able to price check etc. cause they use non-Factory parts.

Fabuland was great for younger kids, boys and girls, and also had enough interesting parts that it would continue to be useful when one was older and still building. Belville for example is much more limited in scope - being just girly girl stuff. Also it's so much more different in scale (Fabuland was slightly larger than ordinary minifig, but its accessories etc. are even now used for ordinary minifigs all the same). My sister for one would *never* have bought Belville.

Haven't seen a single Impulse set on sale in Ireland except for the coastguard one.

It's still available on S@H for Ireland. Probably not sold out because it's €75 here I haven't seen it in any shops here. I'd like to buy it, but it's just too pricey for what it is.

I hadn't noticed that about the absence of the skull and crossbones motif on the sails in the latest photo. I sincerely hope that is the case with the final version. A pity about the chain to hold up the front sail. I'm all in favour of doing away with loose string (it's an awful hassle and always seemed unlego-ish), but surely they could have used that special string piece that has studs attached to either end, rather than a clunky chain halfway up the ship mast?

Just a note that this is now available to buy direct from S@H (at least for Ireland). At €45, I can't really buy it just to have such an exclusive package with the minifig and bricks. I would like to have hardback book rather than the ordinary one, but I would usually pay the normal price (€23 for the regular edition) for a hardback book! I think I'll have to purchase the ordinary edition all the same the next time I order from S@H - it's a nice resource.

Yeah, but Agents is an absolutely fantastic theme! Any AFOL naysayers need to go out and buy Volcano Base right now to see how mistaken they are in not appreciating the theme as one of the best one-off themes in years :) I would not call these sets <insert that tiresome argument> (a *way* overused term here on EB) because they look like quite complicated construction actually with plenty of detail (as with most new Lego sets despite these frequent cries of "<insert that tiresome argument>"). *However* they do look to have far too many technic and custom parts, or at least enough that the sets would seem like bad value to buy for using in custom models. I guess if you want Lime green, or to make your own vehicles of a similar design vein these are good, although I think one would still be hard pushed to make the most of all the parts. I'm not complaining though, as I'll have enough to buy next year with the awesome Pirates line, whatever Lego have planned for Castle 09, and who knows what else in terms of exclusives etc.

Absolutely amazing project, I really love it! Hope you get hold of a dark bley torso to finish that one - newer hogwarts jumper is presumably not too expensive and relatively common (should be in the same shops as some other parts). That's a pity about the navy (dark blue) head and the light blue hands.

No UK version of that catalogue, and also, apparently if you order a catalogue for Ireland, you just get the general retail catalogue (I presume it's the general 2008 one I recently picked up in a shop).

There was some major set recently that I purchased which had the sticker sheet inside the instructions, and I think a couple of smaller sets have had also (Agents?). It certainly does work better. I've had instructions bent a small bit, but only slightly curled, rather than the crumpling I've once or twice had with loose sticker sheets. Of course, I would prefer certain parts to be printed, and only have stickers for added detailing. The main logos or features of sets should be printed in my opinion - like Agents tailplanes, or Recycle Truck panels, or Indy temple panels. Keep the stickers just for added detail - fair enough there are individual decorations which are one-offs that are reasonable to use small stickers for. I say this as one of the few people who enjoy applying stickers - I love the challenge of getting it lined up perfectly (I've only once or twice had anything but dead perfectly aligned stickers!).

Nice review. This is a very nice vehicle, one of my favorite of the newer city ones. JopieK: There are two generations of road plate that are wide enough for six-wide vehicles like this. The current plates are dark grey with plain white printing, and look not great in my opinion. The previous ones are imo the best road plates of all time - green with dark grey road, white dotted line/zebras, drain covers and yellow verge markings (just like we really have here in Ireland). For urban area I would still choose the green-edged plates and just cover up the green - the markings are so much better than the current plates.