xray

Here's my Egyptian version, ready to head up the Nile on a Maersk barge.

This is a brilliant concept. I have been experimenting with similar designs, but yours is way beyond what I've come up with. Thanks for the great idea and fantastic execution.

Thanks for the review. i enjoyed the comic as well. This is the one set i was keen to acquire. i agree it is very pricey. I have no use for the skeletons, but the ninja figures are both good. I suspect I'll be hitting bricklink for more of these. The Japanese parts are also useful for MOC work.

Thanks for the review and great pictures. I like this set for the ambush design. I wish Lego would give us more realistic bamboo color. The figures are good and I'm sure I'll get a couple more to broaden my Ninja collection.

Thanks for the to the point review. I just picked up a pair here in Tokyo I and will probably get 2 to 4 more to build up a small army. I like the weapons rack, especially the paper lantern in the middle.

I agree completely. Of course we always want creativity, something new, but what strikes me is a real improvement in vehicle design, most notably the Police Chase. I'm sure I'll pick-up a few of the Satellite Launch sets to modify and build a fleet of shuttle buses. Perhaps I can add a Patriot Missile launch site to protect my town from stray North Korean ICBM's. While the new rocket Station set lacks the elegance of the second generation Shuttle Launch set (6339), I'm sure I won't be able to resist it. As for the Police Station, it looks to be full of many useful parts for city building, I mean, look at all of those windows.

I have recently acquired both series through BrinkLink sellers and share White Fang's enthusiasm for both series. Here in Japan they are only available through gachapon capsule toy vending machines. They have one in the main Tokyo Clickbrick store. At ¥300 each, it is a bit higher than Europe. Not being able to buy a full box or select what you get is frustrating. I got 3 spacemen from the machine I tried, which is probably ok since the ray guns alone will probably go for 2 -3 Euro's on BrickLink. I really like most of series 2. The Spartan is awesome and will quickly become like clone troopers used to be. We can only hope Lego follows up on this popularity with an Ancient Greek series. Love to see an Athens-Sparta or Greeks vs Persians Castle/History variant. I already built a beach house for the surfer and lifeguard. I hope we can look forward to more minifig inspired MOC contests.

Fantastic review. I really enjoy these reviews of classic sets. These samurai/ninja sets were very popular in Japan and several minifig sets were available through Kabaya candy distribution in super markets and convenance stores. I picked up duplicates of the whole series and multiples of the smaller sets when Lego Japan used to have warehouse sales at the end of the product year. While architecturally these don't make much sense with their towers, the gate structure and sloping walls are very well done. The tower bridge 6089, Samurai Stronghold 6083 and Emperor's Stronghold 3053 from the second wave were especially good and have been the basis of several MOC's I built with my son.

The instructions only run in Digital Designer so even if someone downloads the files, you will have to have a computer new enough to run the software. I downloaded them all, but i have a cable connection and a new Macbook. Once you have them and go to building guide mode, they do an animated build which takes some getting used to as you have to constantly rotate your point of view to see where the additions take place. The nice part is being able to re-run the build for tricky parts that may have been hard to figure out in the traditional single point of view printed instructions. My advice: buy fewer Legos until you get a decent computer. I know its hard since the recent sets are so much better than they have been for years, especially the Town/City series.