gylman

UCS Yoda Sculpture $20 Canadian (at Winners) in 2005. I didn't buy it! *yoda* :-X IDIOT! Best deal I ever bought in a store? Republic Gunship, $50 Canadian in 2005. Sold it a year later for 250 US$, and probably if I had hung on to it now, I could have gotten even more. eBay: some Hong Kong guy sold me a box of LEGO for about 8 bucks. When I got it I realized it had a full Airtech Claw Rig in it, Shock Cycle, and several other pounds of useful studded bricks, gears, and classic technic stuff. I felt so guilty that I sent him more money after I got the LEGO.

The colour change. No doubt. From own point of view killing JT and the Adventurers was even worse, but overall in terms of impact on LEGO fans everywhere, killing old gray was worse. If we are talking about changes in parts, I would say that the Technic change to using liftarms and farings instead of Technic bricks, has largely turned me off Technic, as has the abandonment of useful pneumatic functionality. I am curious also about how NXT is doing sales-wise. I think they made a big mistake creating a product that does not actually look like LEGO, with awkwardly shaped motors and the new control unit. My impression is that sales are slow on this - I remember speaking to the manager at one big LEGO-affiliated store in Ontario who said that they had sold about 6 of them in nearly half a year, whereas they could not keep the Mindstorms stuff on the shelf at the time that that had come out. I, for one, gave up on NXT. I had a moderate interest in Mindstorms, but NXT killed it.

Welcome. BionicleSector01 was an important place for my kids when they went through their Bionicle phase. Still lots of good memories. Are the Templar animations still around there somewhere? Weren't they on the previous site? And what the heck is going on at BZP? Even Google is warning me not to go there. Is this for real?

EEK! :-X I'm a pretty big fan of the Ferrari series, but at least based on this picture, this looks pretty fugly.

So, does that mean that we have no more surprises left for 2008? All done?

LOL. Way to revive an old topic. Oh well, I never mind talking about my keychain collection... The space model is about 3/4 done, but has sat in limbo, along with much of my life, for about 3 months. It is probably the next project I will finish once some free time emerges. January is a total writeoff, but February is looking more promising. Target date end of February 2008...

What I want to know is WTF is the Johnny Thunder choice doing in the LAST option spot. IT SHOULD BE FIRST. And no, I can't recognize myself anywhere.... :-D good one.

What kind of school is it though...a regular highschool in England?

I'm curious. What's an R1C class? What kind of school is it?

Thanks for reviving this excellent set with your review. For your first review, or for your 10th review, it's an excellent job. Just the focus a couple of pics needs to be improved, and when you take a picture of something small, like the individual figs or small groups of them, or the jewels, it doesn't need to take up the full page. In fact it kinda hurts the eyes to look at a fig that is the size of PC screen. A small picture will show just as much. Excellent job, though, particularly since this was my favourite Adventurers set, and in my opinion the best set released by TLC that entire year. So your taste is impeccable. Better than anything released for Indiana Jones this year, and all as far as I can tell better than the slightly similar set planned for Indiana Jones 4 in later 2008 http://eurobricks.hosting.ipsyn.com/eurofo...showtopic=13478 Lots of attention to detail and a fun build of the main palace too. The structure really is beautifful, and looks authentic as a Chinese palace. Loved the lanterns - amazing how a little detail can make such a big difference, especially when repeated (take note MOCers) The only weak point was the sucky vehicle. But then, nearly all Adventurers vehicles tend to be sucky. Good bye Johnny - we'll miss ya. :'-(

A thougthful discussion. Let me add one thing I witnessed when I saw my two kids playing with JT and the Adventurers between the ages of 5 & 7 (they are girls, and are 2 years apart) and 8 & 10. A span of 3 years, to this year. Johnny's strength came from the humor and childishness of the character and his adventures. They would actually pretend to be Johnny and Pippen playing outdoors, searching for the "Golden toilet", and other very funny kid-ish things that I wouldn't have imagined would come from a LEGO line. Much of this came from the little comics in the sets, and web site, and the supporting material. LEGO did an excellent job of supporting the Adventurers with the Orient Expedition set, and at least at my house it paid off. There is no way my kids at these ages could have watched the Indiana Jones movies. They are too violent and scary. They tried to watch the first one a year ago, and gave up before the first chase scene. They have expressed zero interest in the Indiana Jones line. Fact is, other that the Ferrari sets that one of my daughters likes, they kinda lost interest in new LEGO after JT was gone. They still play with their old stuff, and JT still is strong in there. Because it was fun, not violent, and there was a strong female character, the Adventurers line was TLC's strongest line for appealing to girls (IMHO) except for Belville and stuff like that. Indiana Jones will not have that appeal. p.s. my kids refuse to play with fleshies. They think they are wierd. All fleshies go in the "bin of doom" upon arrival.

Of course LEGO is stagnant in Europe. The market is fully saturated. Eastern Europe and Russia are partially penentrated and not large enough markets. LEGO sales growth is going to come from China mostly, and the rest of Asia. This enormous unpenetrated market will totally dwarf anything in Europe, and LEGO brand name recognition gives TLC a huge advantage. Increasingly affluent and foreign brands carry special cachet (see this article - Chinese parents prefer foreign made toys http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...27/0/BUSINESS06

The last was Orient Expedition in 2003. Most people thought Johnny was done after that, but the diehards held out hope (and wrote innumerable emails to LEGO) until Indiana Jones came along, and then we knew Johnny was dead.

Is there LEGO sales information on 2007? I'm always very curious about that sort of stuff

It's hard to believe that Johnny and Indiana Jones can co-exist in the LEGO lineup. So, the Adventurers are done for at least 3 years. Depending on how successful Indiana Jones will be, the Adventurers may be done for much longer. Personally, I think drawing an analogy between Indiana Jones and Star Wars franchises is false. I predict Indiana Jones will have nowhere near the success of Star Wars. Not even close. However, he may close the door on Johnny forever, and I think that's a terrible shame. IMHO, except for the truck and Jeep (Race for the Stolen Treasure), the Indiana Jones sets are inferior to Adventurers sets so far. Adventurers vehicles always sucked, and LEGO did a much better job with the Indiana Jones ones. Meh. It's depressing to think about it.

..... so far, no sign of Adventurers.... :'-( I'll keep holding my breath. Nothing much to say about the sets.... not impressed. Not much here for this AFOL except the Creator convertible, and maybe that little boat-truck hauling thingie. I have to say that this thread has become very confusing though. It began a couple of months ago, has added pics gradually, the pics are now 17 pages of posts ago, and it's a pain to go back and forth. I wonder whether it wouldn't be easier to create a new thread when a really significant new bunch of new set information is released. No one reads the old posts anyway. Anyway, happy new year everyone.

Full Indiana Jones series, single set or whole series, now available for preorder S@H (Jan 2) http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Leaf.aspx?cn=519&d=70 I feel obliged to point out the Belville sets, especially the Sunshine home, preorder for Jan 22 http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=7586&cn=400&d=70 A good selection of power function elements: http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Leaf.aspx?cn=57&d=70 And many other things now available, too many to list.

Freakin' brilliant. You definitely get the award for most creative use of body parts I've ever seen.

Merry Xmas to everyone at EB. My special thanks to all the MODs, SUPERMODS, GLOBALMODS, ADMINs, SUPERADMINS, HYPERADMINS, etc etc You know.... the people who run this place, with infinite patience, for no reward except maybe the knowledge of the contribution that they have made to the worldwide LEGO community.

That's sweet! Thanks. I wish I had a colour printer to print it out and use in my office. Great work! Merry Xmas.

Pretty surrealistically funny Hinckley. Had a great laugh with the body cavity searches. Gotta get me one of those Tuba!

LOL. I remember that scene. The cabbage man has become a classic inside joke at our house. I enjoyed that. Thanks!

They moderate the reviews, and after I submitted my review of the Christmas train they said it would take up to 72 hours to get it approved. That's OK if they moderate it. What's not OK is if they selectively edit the review. We'll see....

I just noticed this. Not sure when it became available, but now we can review sets on Shop @ Home. Check the "submit a review" under the set picture. None submitted yet. So must be new. You have to log on to do it.

Avatar is hugely popular, and in my opinion probably the best American kids show in the preteen agegroup. However, LEGO made a very half assed effort with these sets, and the Avatar people blew it by delaying their third season by a whole year, while the Lego sets sat in store shelves. It was bad marketing coordination. They could have done a lot better. It depends on what Nick has planned for Avatar next year. The first story arc should end this year. What they do after that.... who knows? I think this was an opportunity lost.