The Cobra

One of the best sets ever! I obviously voted "Outstanding". I wish I could buy one MISB without having to sell a kidney. I never understood how could Lego fall from this to those <insert that tiresome argument> 1997 city sets.

Sorry if I always kind of write the same things but: How come both 2008 Advent calendars were in the Italian catalog and - the castle advent calendar was only sold (to my knowledge) in one shopping mall (Bossi)? - the city advent calendar was nowhere to be found, not even in Toys Center which usually has most limited/exclusive editions in Italy? Copmike usually says that it's the retailers decision, but are really Italian retailers so dumb?

I sometimes wonder... why do some people pay twice the price? Link.

I bought all the three 2009 Impulse sets available so far, and I have a question: do they come with the same set listing (on the back of the instructions sheet, see here) regardless of the country they're sold in?

I said it in the "sets unavailabilty" topic, I'll say it here too: In Italy we have all the 2009 Pirates sets, except my favourite: 6253 Shipwreck hideout. I don't know if it's coming out later or if it just won't (no Italian catalog yet). Edit (after I read what phoinix wrote in the following post): sets are priced like on Shop@Home.

What a great review! The set is good; I'm not a Shuttle fan, but I'd love to own at least one of those 4_to_5 studs trucks (my fav being the Octan Indy truck).

Id' say: If it's no longer available (to your country/continent) on Shop@Home, chances are that it has been retired!

January: (click to enlarge)

ITALY - 2009 Pirates - 6253 Shipwrecks hideout City - 7746 Single drum roller now available. Plus: we still have the police motorbike with black stickers, and we're back to black stickers on the Prisoner transport too. Last year they were blue. Star Wars - Count Dooku's Solar Sailer But, for the first time ever (to my knowledge): Spongebob is available (Bossi, Saronno) Belville is available (Toys center; all of them, I think) ITALY - 2008 Mars Mission - Full line (except for the earlier Impulse sets 5616 and 5617) Batman - Full line Castle - 7041 Troll battle wheel <- has been spotted in an Auchan mall, priced 40 Euros as it should be. Impulse - 5618 Troll warrior - 5619 Crystal hawk - 5620 Street cleaner - 5621 Coast guard kayak (5620 available form January 2009) Agents - 8637 Volcano base City - 7235 Police motorbike (2008 edition, with blue stickers), 7724 Advent calendar Castle - 7979 Advent calendar (only spotted in "Bossi" - Saronno) Spongebob - Full line Belville - Full line Star wars - sadly, some sets are marked as "Limited edition" (usually limited to Toys center) ITALY - 2007 Mars Mission - 7691 ETX Alien Mothership Assault, 7693 ETX Alien Strike, 7695 MX-11 Astro Fighter. Aqua Raiders - Full line (available in 2008 in one toy store chain only) Castle - 7009 The final joust Other - 7907 City Advent Calendar 7898 Cargo train deluxe and 10182 Caf

I wished there had been a global release for Mars Mission, instead. This new "space" theme looks lame to me.

Me too! (and lots of 1x1 round plates, mainly transblue). Another big surprise was all the extra pieces in 7093 (I was worried I missed sopme building steps so I asked for help: link). And a really odd one was the Steven Spielberg head in Mistalnds tower (but it's a "regular extra").

Can someone please tell me what that b/w "4" box is? Auction link.

Yep, that's exactly what I think.

Great review! As for the set, I voted "average". Downpoints are: crane is a rip-off of a much better set, and the digger looks &lt;insert that tiresome argument&gt;.

1) Design (and that's what I voted for) 2) Price (Who doesn't want a cheap set?) 3) Pieces (mostly, minifig accessories) 4) Figures (female nurses anyone?) 5) Availability (living in Italy, it could be #1 because of all the stuff we don't have in ur shops; thanks to Internet, taht's mostly a minor problem) 6) Pieces / price ratio (If the price is good, so is the p/p ratio) 7) Theme (I like to own at least one set per theme) 8) Impulse buying N/A: Play feature (I don't play with Lego), Suggested age (unless "-" means "*" I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaay too old), Collectability (becaus I can't find them -for a low price-)

I thought it only happened here in Italy... there's nothing except a few Bionicle on the shelves! (and Mega_you_know_what.) And, unlike in late 2007, in November and December what was gone was never to come back. No restocks! That was kind of shocking. And I remember in January 2008 I went to a local toy store chain shop, and they had plenty of sets, including AquaRaiders (let me remind you, AR were not available in Italian shops in 2007) I can hardly believe Lego has become every kid's favourite toy. What are shopkeepers the thinking? "You won't see a Lego set until we get rid of all this cr*p"?

So I'm the only one disappointed with these pics... the only thing I kind of like is the bad guy. Me too! And if that's the bad guy's car, what's next? This?

Today it would be called an Impulse set, if the box wasn't so large. Are you ready to face (evil) Ogel in the deep sea? Set data: 4798: Evil Ogel Attack Year: 2002 Theme: Alpha Team Subtheme: Mission Deep Sea Pieces: 20 (no extra pieces) Price: 3 USD / ?? EUR / ?? UKP Building time: less than 5 minutes MISB on review: Yes More info: Brickset - Peeron Note: Also available in Polybag with different number (1427), name (Ogel underwater slizer) and instructions with no comics and no theme overview. Box front: Previewing set and comics. Box back: Spotlight on some AT-MDS small sets. Box content: A small bag, a promo poster and the instructions sheet. Random instructions page: Not much to build, but look at the background. Ain't it great? From the instructions sheet: Theme overview, character names (is Ogel that evil to need the AT fighting 6 vs. 1?) and guess the missing piece to unlock secret content on the AT website. From the instructions sheet: 2 comics pages. Ogel reminds me a bit of Homer... Promo poster: the less attractive I've seen so far. Please click on thumbnails to view larger pics. Ready to build?: You're gonna have your hands full for the next two minutes or so... Ogel: With his red eye, his trans red hook, a shoulder pad borrowed from Insectoids and UFO and a large visor like those in the City Space Port theme The showdown: "So you think you're a bricka$$?" The Slizer: The "Vehicle" can be basically split into three parts. No cockpit or seat, Ogel uses his only hand on the left handle. The Slizer: "Beware, humans: here's the slizer from the big propellor side..." The Slizer: "...and here it is shot from my handling side". The Slizer: "Behold: two hinges allow the front arm to rotate". Ogel and the Slizer: let the conquest of the world sea begin! Review: Do you want to own at least one Ogel minifig and for really cheap? Here's your chance. This is as basic as a set could be, but I think an army of these Slizers would look good. Yet it's odd to to have the Big Evil on such a small army-building set. But that's no different from having some 10 Vladeks in KKII, I think. I ended up buying this set even if I already had an Ogel minifig (4796 Mutant squid). Rating: Color scheme: 5/5. Red, black and dark grey; no need to use 10 different colours on a 20 pieces set. Minifigs and accessories: 3/5. Average between 5 for the minifig and 1 for (no) accessories. Keep in mind that poor Ogel has to use his only hand to catch at the Slizer! Pieces: 4/5. TransRed propellors are exclusive to the MDS sub-theme. No more special pieces, but you shall remember this is something really cheap. Playability: 4/5. Nice touch to have the arm moving up and down (close to the propellor) and rotating (close to the vehicle). Design: 4/5. Not bad with so few pieces. Overall rating: 4/5. It looks quite good, minifig looks impressive with those shoulder pads and the big visor (a small visor wouldn't suit an Evil guy like Okel, would it?) and the Slizer is a fine small piece of Evil army. The final words: Watch out, you can still find it for little money on the net.

Those are the only two sets available when searching by keyword (the keyword being "miners"), and as Whung said they are "co-promotion" (with whom? who knows.). Yet they do not appear in the brand search (brand being "inner earth", as Svelte corps said). Well, I really like the Rock hacker, while the Monster launcher looks a bit lame to me. But that's not really a problem, since here in Italy we see a Lego promo set every ten years, and we just did in 2008 (Exo-force with Duracell).

I didn't note the "tipper bucket small" on the back form the earlier pics. That's a plus. Minus are: the blue cap (why blue? it looks totally out of the color scheme) and the "airtight" driver's seat.

I rated it "seaworthy" beacuse we'll never have a set so small with 5 figs. and the ship is not bad too. Thanks for the review.

Thanks for this excellent review. Yet I only rate this theme 2/5. I like the robot finifigs and a couple of small sets, but that's it.

If you asked a month ago, I could have helped you with the big troll ship, the castle and the battle wagon; they all were at least 25% off. Now they aren't. I don't mean they are not on sale anymore; I mean there are just no more Lego sets (except a few Bionicle) in most Italian shops!

I hope they aren't, but you might be right. And, I checked S@H. Out of 12 sets, 8 are sold out, 4 (on the "first wave") are under "check availability".

I checked the 8633 PDF (part 2, <8 MB, page 45), and the hair piece has the same code of the one in the air show promo set (PDF, 1,5 MB, page 23), 4527065. That means, they are the same, and the same color too.