bamaker

I'm in.

This photo is from the Flickr album mentioned a few days ago: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pac_man/27920...57606751482940/ Does the color of Han Solo's shirt & sleeves look a little off to anybody else? The sleeves appear to be the same color as Obi-Wan's outfit behind him, and the shirt on his torso looks to have a green tint -- even the flesh area appears a little green-ish. I haven't had an Episode IV Han since the Mos Eisley Cantina set in 2004 (which I only had for about 3 mos. before selling it -- at a loss. Dammit!); is this how LEGO originally designed this minifig? After looking at all the other photos on Flickr, I can't wait to own this set. The trick is trying to save up for it and clearing a big enough work area (and clearing my calendar) to allow me to build it.

I work in the scholarship program at a local state university; overseeing student housing, scholarship probations, and directing two summer intern programs.

I'd like to apply for admission to the Academy. I have plenty of sets and a camera, but I have problems taking good, quality photos. My pictures always tend to be too dark, or overwhelmed by long shadows.

Thanks for the the pics! Clone Battlepack looks awesome. I'll take ten, please. Droids Battlepack looks weird. I'll take only one, please. Hyena Droid Bomber looks weird - like a Droid Fighter, but it's EXTREME!!! Pass. Trade Federation AAT looks awesome. Yoda! Super Battle Droids! Clone Trooper! Where's Whorm Loathsome? DV's TIE Fighter looks awesome. I'll take one, please. What kind of special features do you think will be inside the box to celebrate the tenth anniversary? Sure the box proclaims it, but will my displayed model also proclaim "Look at me, I'm the special tenth anniversary set!" EDIT: I missed the pics on the earlier pages, too. So, Republic Attack Shuttle looks awesome, but the red/yellow color combination looks unusual on a Star Wars set. Liking the non-LULS Mace Windu, though ... and another Clone Pilot! I'll take one, please.

[fingers crossed for luck] I am in. [/fingers crossed for luck]

I'm curious Skipper 24 what exactly do you mean by "better value?" Value as judged by the aftermarket; value as judged by the number of unique bricks and unique minifigures, or the opportunity to amass a large number of bricks usable for MOCs or minifigs for army-building; value as in how much fun & enjoyment you get out of the sets; or value as determined by some other criteria that I have not mentioned? If you're looking for aftermarket value then I'd have to say the Star Wars sets are the better purchase. There are two built-in hobby groups -- the Star Wars fans and the LEGO fans -- that will keep these sets in demand. And any search on Bricklink or eBay shows that some retired Star Wars sets go for big money. If you're looking for unique bricks and minifigures, again I'd have to say the Star Wars sets are a better purchase. Castle cannot compete with the number of unique and interesting minifigs available in Star Wars. Sure, you may end up with a dozen Obi-Wan Kenobis, but you can also pick up aliens, Imperial & Rebel troops, grunts, commanders, jedi, droids, etc. Also, the number of unique pieces that you may be able to get in a Star Wars set surpasses those found in the Castle sets. If MOCs are your thing, then Castle would probably be a better choice. There are many more brick elements that are easier plugging into an MOC. A lot of the Star Wars sets are heavy on the plate and technic elements and don't lend themselves easily for MOCs. Also, if you like to army-build, Castle allows you to accomplish this much more easily and much more quickly than Star Wars. Finally, if you define value by fun & enjoyment, well then you'll have to determine the "better value" by yourself. But since you're asking for input, I can tell you that I collect both LEGO lines, and personally my fun & enjoyment differ for both lines. The Star Wars sets I will build and then admire the completed model, maybe tinker with it some, and it sits -- and I have a great time doing this. But I don't let my kids play with them (if a minifig gets lost, especially a specific character, i.e. Luke or Han, I don't want to have to pay the cost of replacing it). The Castle sets, however, I will build with my daughters and then once completed we will play with it and take it apart, and alter it, play with it some more, create story lines for the minifigs, and just have a blast. If a minifig gets lost, so what, I'll just grab another impulse set to replace it, and at the same time add some LEGO bricks & pieces to my collection. I hope I've been able to give you some useful information. Really, though the best judge of "better value" for your money is you. Buy only what you can afford, and then buy what you like. If you figure those two things out, then you'll never regret you purchases.

Edit: I'm pretty sure we got a Yoda in the Wookiee Catamaran set from Revenge of the Sith ...runs to check Brickset... yep, there's a Yoda in that set, as well. But the Jedi Duel is the only reasonably priced set with the green Force-guru. Nevermind, looks like a couple of other members already covered Yoda's availability in other sets. Back on topic: Great review, and a real blast from the past. I never did get this set, just didn't care for the speederbike or the weird piece of equipment. Thanks for explaining that it's supposed to be used to "force-jump & spin" Yoda all over the place. I never knew that's what it was for. Anyway, wish I had known Yoda and Dooku were going to be impossible to get later; I may've picked this set up just for the minifigs.

I put this set together over the weekend, and I had an extra pair of Asajj's curved lightsaber hilts, as well. I thought there were two extra regular lightsaber hilts, too, but they're actually used on the speederbike. My overall impression of the set is "Neat, but I thought it would be better." When closing the big doors, are they not suppposed to slip underneath the 4 mini-storage crates on the main body? This really bugged me. Anyway, maybe my finished version is built wrong -- I was doing some serious multi-tasking while building and I screwed up a couple of steps wrong -- had to dismantle the front section, and I had the wings in the wrong spot. I'm going to dismantle the whole set and rebuild it this weekend. Remember this lesson, never build while multi-tasking. Also, my DSS came out of the box with a nice hard crease right through the twi'lek girl and the monkey creature. No biggie, I'm going to call customer service and get a replacement, but it would be nice to have my new toy at least look new when I open the box. Some of the things I do like about this set: I like the gunner pods on the wings, can't wait to get clones to actually put in them. I like the medical tube. I like Commander Cody, especially decked out in his commander gear I like Assaj Ventress. She just adds some variety to the sea of clones and droids, and Obi-Wans I've obtained over the past year. I like that it's a really big set. This sucker is heavy!

GET YOUR POPCORN READY!!!

When I first saw images of this set, I didn't really see anything that I liked. It just didn't look Star Wars-sy to me. However, after your review I may go ahead and pick up this set. I am curious to see what the underneath side looks like -- how many wheels does it have?

Great review simonjedi -- I really like that you included lots of photos of your build. I put together my V19 Torrent last night, and I was surprised by how heavy the completed ship is. It has some real heft. Once it's finished, WOW! it is a really cool ship. I was disappointed that the central wing doesn't really lock into place once it flips down. It just kind of droops there, so I attached a technic pin to the locking arm so it could plug into the 2x4 brick that's on the underside of the starfighter (this brick can be seen in your photo of the bottom of the ship). Overall, the build is one of the more confusing that I've seen (I had to dismantle and re-build the first engine after I realized I'd left out a piece) and I kept thinking of the poor 7-year-old that gets this set as his/her very first LEGO set ever.

I noticed the minifig between the Grievous starfighter & the mod-Dino2010 vehicle and it looked like a little person sitting in the pod of his podracer. Guess my eyes are playing tricks on me -- my eyesight is shot & my wife keeps pushing me to go visit the optometrist.

Nope, he's talking about this piece that came in the Mission 6 set. It can be switched out with the Dr. Inferno slide during the Agents briefing -- just a wonderful little addition to this awesome set and more evidence that this is really a well-thought out LEGO line. I'm so glad I took the plunge into the world of Agents.

Great review! I bought this set when it came out but sold it a couple years later for some extra cash. I have no regrets selling this one, as I was never really impressed with it (different story for the 4483 AT-AT - oh how I wish I still had that one). The snowspeeder was alright, just didn't have any sort of "wow" factor to it. The best part of the set is probably the Rebel Trooper. Looking at the last photo in your review, looks like you're about to have a major battle in your hallway. Apart from the snowspeeder & motorized AT-AT, I see the ARC-170 Fighter, Grievous's starfighter, and is that a podracer I see -- and what is the set with the treads? It's not Star Wars, but looks like a pretty cool set (maybe a Mission Mars vehicle).

Football: Dallas Cowboys Hockey: Dallas Stars Basketball: Dallas Mavericks Baseball: Texas Rangers Soccer: I guess FC Dallas; gotta root for the home team, but I couldn't tell you their record or name a single player.

Great review, just need to sharpen the images. Building on carpet - risky! I got this set last week and had a great time building the harbor/fort part, as well as the skeleton ship. I was a little disappointed in the firing mechanism on the ship -- it's not very strong & results in some pretty limp missiles flying through the air. The catapult on the fortress wall, however, can really launch the cannonball pieces or your castle knights. My 8-year old and I had a lot of fun sending knights soaring across the kitchen. I will point out that this set is the only set that I have felt compelled to mod as soon as I finished it (I typically follow LEGO instructions, and am very pleased with the end result -- not the case this time, though). The storyline has the skeleton ship attacking to steal the chest of gold/jewels, unfortunately the instructions call for the chest to be 'hidden' outside the city walls in plain sight. That really bugged me. What idiot king would build a city wall, man it with his best knights/soldiers, and a big-honkin' catapult, all to protect the treasure, and then keep the treasure outside the walls. Anyway, so I switched a couple bricks around and -- Voilà!-- I had the chest on the inside of the city walls. Overall, though I am very pleased with this set. Someday, I'll bust out this set, the King's Castle, & the Tower Raid and see if I can't get all the Castle components to fit together.

If that's what is referenced in Ben's list, then I'd be quite happy to plop down my hard earned money for it. Also, I'm probably in the minority, but I'd be happy to see a TIE Fighter & TIE Bomber on the shelves again. I sold the two TIE Fighters I had back in 2003 or 2004 (helped pay for a family vacation), and I never bought the original bomber. So, I'd pick up these two sets if they become available. And I'm all for more battlepacks; I don't army build -- just 1 of each for me -- but it will allow me to add more clones & droids to my collection.

I'm really getting a kick out of the fantasy elements that have been introduced in the Castle line - the Skeletons, Orcs, and Dwarves. Like many here on EB, I feel it's a foregone conclusion that the next faction to show up will be the Elves, and I'm more excited about the potential of elvish enviroments that will be introduced -- tree-top villas, and workshops. As for new elements, I'd love to see LEGO introduce Giants to the Castle line. Make them a neutral faction, not aligned with either the Crown King or the Evil Wizard; and make sure they're big -- I'm not thinking of the troll that we saw in the early Harry Potter sets -- I mean really big, like the heighth of the Orc's Siege Tower. Something that would really menace the good guys & the bad guys. And just to note, I do not want them to look anything like the Technic Star Wars characters or the larger Knights Kingdom characters we got a few years ago.

I just got back from the Midnight Madness at the Plano, TX, TRU. There were about 200 people in line, and everyone behaved very well. Didn't see any fights or scuffles break out over the Hasbro or LEGO items. I got there about 3 or 4 minutes before midnight and so I got in at the very end of the line. By the time I got in the store a lot of the big dollar Hasbro items were gone, but there were plenty of LEGO sets to go around -- all set out on pallets in the front area of the store. I grabbed the RGS, the Twilight, V-19 Torrent Fighter, and a couple of the HSDroid sets. I didn't see any prices visible, so I tracked down a store associate and had him scan each set. The RGS clocked in @ $129.99, the Twilight @ $99.99, the V-19 @ $59.99, and the HSDroid set @ $34.99! Wha....?!? I knew LEGO was going up in price, but all of those (except the V-19) are about $10-$15 higher than I anticipated them being. Everything I had read or seen said the RGS would be $119.99 and the Twilight would be $89.99, and there was speculation that the HSDroid would be $19.99. I put back the Twilight and 1 HSDroid set. I went ahead and got the RGS w/ a 20%-off-any-1-item coupon that I received in the mail (for being a loyal customer of TRU); then purchased the V-19 Fighter and 1 HSDroid set, both at full price. I didn't plan on getting the AT-TE tonight; I'll pick it up in the coming weeks (I later found the price tags, and it's marked $89.99). Anyway, I couldn't believe the Twilight was $99.99 and I may return the HSDroid set ... $34.99 for a 200 pc. set! Crazy! Still, I had a good time, and it's always great to see so many Star Wars fans. There were also a lot of moms and children at the store -- not just a bunch of the stereotypical living-in-mom's-basement geeks (though I did see 1 or 2 of those guys there, too).

Picked up LEGO Agents 8637 Volcano Base at the Plano, TX, TRU during my lunchbreak. Went there looking for 6212 X-Wing, but didn't see it (didn't see Hoth Base either, so maybe this location didn't receive any).

8637 Volcano Base is available in the U.S.; just picked it up at TRU on my lunch break. Box has the "Limited Edition" stamp on it, and set retails for $69.99 USD. I'll probably save building it until after the Clone Wars sets have hit (I'm anticipating a respite for LEGO purchases after the hit my wallet takes on 7/26).

Stopped by the local Target on my lunchbreak and picked up 7093 Skeleton Tower, regularly $49.99 but on sale for $34.98.

Wow. I really like the way you made the tower into seperate parts and I think you did a great job of creating a rocky base; it really looks like the tower's foundation was carved straight out of the stone. I also liked the inclusion of the warning signs on either end of the bridge. Mr. Wizard wouldn't want to have to teleport down and verbally warn every passerby that approaches his river-crossing domain If you could create the illusion of the 'river' flowing I think it would send this MOC over the top.

I've been purchasing LEGO for nearly ten years and I have yet to place a sticker on any LEGO brick. I usually put together each set, placing the sticker sheet just inside the front cover of the instruction booklet. There it stays ... forever. I do not want the hassle of having to square & place a sticker onto the bricks so I just ignore the sticker sheets. Some folks may think this results in a bare looking model, but I'm able to overlook items like blank control panels. (I just bought the Agents Mobile Command Center, and I'm hoping that the control center doesn't look too blank once it's finished.)