Lord Admiral

This doesn't look more than 350 pieces. But I'll be willing to bet it'll land in the $70-$80 USD range, seeing as there are 9 minifigures (including the snowman). I can see it in the $60-$70 range as well, but think that's less likely. I definitely wouldn't believe this was $100. $100 sets are pretty big, and this just isn't that large.

Typically, sets are decent enough that I can live with the way they are. At the most, I'd try to incorporate any of the left over pieces. However, there was one series where I practically had to mod every set I bought: Alpha Team. Man that was one horrendously designed line. It had great pieces, don't get me wrong; I'm a big fan of the old school hinge canopies. They just weren't assembled correctly or coherently. The models were weak, fragile, and certain features were completely pointless. Fortunately, I got all of the sets heavily discounted from KBToys (or perhaps because it was a terrible line that they were all in KBToys). Better yet, I was able to mod every set I needed to into something fairly acceptable without drawing on pieces outside of the set. Otherwise, I really haven't had a need to do more than a bit of touching up every so often. Admittedly, there are a few sets balancing precariously on the edge--mostly factory sets--but I'm keeping them as is for now.

I've never sold or thrown away a set. I'm something of a packrat, and every time I get rid of something in perfectly good condition because of whatever reasons there are for getting rid of things, I find that's about when my need for it crops up, and I have to go rebuy it again. For LEGO sets, it's not possible, so I haven't gotten rid of any set, ever. Older sets that are MSIB are not always available for purchase. And as more time goes by, such conditions for any set gets rarer and rarer. So if you do see one, and it's one of those sets you really want, there's no reason not to purchase it. On the other hand, if you're not terribly concerned about owning the actual set and are interested in the lowest cost possible, you can download/figure out the instructions, buy the bricks off pick-a-brick and bricklink, and rebuild it. Or cross your fingers and wait for a re-release, which TLG does every so often. For the former, I'd suggest using peeron, which has complete set inventories for a lot of sets and instructions as well. Most of my old sets are currently in boxes, and I plan on bringing them out and replacing whatever parts I discover are missing with what stuff on bricklink. I'm pretty sure those are few and far in between though. I'm not terribly crazy about picking up old sets that I've missed, but if I do find a set I want at a decent price (no more than 150% MSRP, roughly adjusted for inflation--a quick check at the inflation calculator says $100 USD in 1980 is about $260 today, and $100 USD in 1990 is about $165 today), I'd weigh my enjoyment of building the old set with what I can get from the next sets I'm planning on buying spending the same amount. Sometimes current sets get discontinued suddenly, so that factors into the equation too. And if it's worthwhile, only then would I go for it. Personally, while I take exception to some of the new sets released, there're always other sets to buy, so it's very rarely really worth it. There are always new sets that I want. For example, I might forgo the new farm/construction/transportation sets, but that just means I'll have the money for more Star Wars classic sets, including the Death Star and Battle of Endor playsets. That, and when stores discount certain sets (like this past weekend), they become more worthwhile to pick up than at full MSRP or slightly inflated prices, so I might end up picking up a set I'm not terribly into at a discounted price. So only if there's nothing new to buy and nothing about to come out that I'd like to buy, would I seriously consider an old MSIB set. But this is my method, and deciding on which set to buy is a personal thing, entirely dependent on how you enjoy your sets.

There's always somebody who gets motion sickness or something who'll want to sit on those. Or an adult with a child too small to ride the horses but old enough to enjoy the going round and round motion. I'm intrigued by this music box from a technical perspective. If it's digital, I wonder if it can be reprogrammed to play anything...

2010 wishlist: City: More modular town sets. I was a big fan of the new construction and farm sets, until I found out they all have decals. Well, except for the harvester. But suffice to say, what a disappointment. So I'm not going to root for another city set until Castle: Elves. Would still like to see a modular tree city or some such for them. I was a big fan of the Wolf Pack sets, despite not actually owning any... The castle village is awesome. No enemies, no war implements, just straight up build and play. And gives all those trolls and skeletons someplace to invade. Pirates: An imperial warship. So far, most sets feature mainly pirates, with the imperial or two as an enemy. Another faction. I'm tempted to say ninja, but that's unrealistic. Perhaps a merchant convoy, or guild outpost or something. Wouldn't expect anything until 2010 at the earliest though, the advent celandar notwithstanding. Space: More SPIII. I'm not feeling the current sets that are announced/out, but there's nothing stopping me from liking any future sets. And maybe if I see a box in the store, I'll change my mind. Until then, I remain unconvinced. Blacktron, space organized crime. The continued use of the non-human bad guy theme in everything is starting to irritate me (which is why I love the pirates line). In general, more spaceships and less vehicles, which is the trend with SPIII. Vehicles I can get through the City line. Spaceships are a unique feature of the space theme. Others: Trains looks like its off to a good start. Would like to see more, especially the return of some of the old support sets (stations, cargo yards, docks, etc.). Not sure about Power Miners or Agents. Liked the old Agents sets, haven't built a Power Miners set yet. Not interested in anything without minifigs. Licensed: Big fan of classic Star Wars. I'm hoping the B-Wing makes it back in. It's my favorite fighter. Classic Indy is awesome, and except for the flying wing, it lacks decals. I'm hoping we get to see a tank, as well as something around the first scene in Last Crusade on the train. The bridge fight in Temple of Doom with crocs, archers, and gunmen would be sweet too, but probably pretty minifig intensive. As for the Flying Wing, I think it probably could be designed better, without decals, and without those huge wing pieces. Personally, I'm hoping for a proper. Otherwise, I think the Indiana Jones and Star Wars themes are exhausting all of the good ideas. Once that happens all that's left to do is remake the old things or end the line. Batman is over, I think. Or maybe they're taking a break with the line. Either way, I'd like to see a real bat cave with a baseplate to connect to the town road baseplates. Transformers. I recently saw the MOC of Warpath, and I thought it'd be awesome to have lego Transformers, not to mention completely appropriate. I want it to be minifig scale though, and that might not happen. But if anything, a line like that would be the perfect replacement for the defunct Exo-Force. I'm of the opinion that Exo-Force didn't do well because the mechas were too flimsy and because it relied too heavily on stickers to convey detail. I'd wager the Transformers line would do exceptionally well if TLG released one Autobot and one Decepticon set a year, both $100 and designed properly (no skimping on the details with stickers, though I'm sure it'd look less like the movie versions and more like the current action figure versions), for the next n years. Maybe they should've done that back in '07 when the movie initially came out.

That christmas tree looks absolutely badass. Finally, I've found a use for all those various extra little pieces. In fact, I'm feeling a contest/challenge potential to see how well people decorate that tree (or a LEGO christmas tree in general).

M-Tron Blacktron Ninja Classic space and ninjas all the way. Space ninjas would be even cooler, but that might be a little difficult to pull off.

A mid-size Millenium Falcon... Does this mean they'll be phasing out the UCS version early 09?

Thanks for the review! I'm in agreement that the single wing piece is disappointing, to put it lightly. I'd much rather pay five dollars more for multiple-piece wings than this decal-laden single-piece wing. The best part about the multi-piece wing is that it wouldn't need decals, and you really could stage the fight from the movie on it, as opposed to being restricted to wherever there are studs. Of course, I'm heavily biased against decals, so take that comment with the appropriate grain of salt. The new printed clear pieces are nice, and I'm a huge fan of the canopy design opening like that. Though it makes me wonder whatever happened to the hinged canopy design on the older town vehicles...

Hey, I gotta get my Lego fix somehow. I can't help it if the only pirate ship Lego has released in the past year is the skeleton one, and they took it away the moment I tried to order it from S@H. I've got my fingers crossed that they'll bring it back... Heh heh, I'd completely ditch the town line with their sticky decals in a heartbeat if only there were more ships announced for next year...

As long as those sails and flags aren't made of the cheap thin plastic (think flags from KK2)... Especially with the economic downturn, I'd have to do some serious rethinking about it if those weren't canvas sails. I'm partially ok with the flags not being the old thick plastic flags, but the ship better have decent sails. If all goes well, I'd be buying the ship and the imperial and pirate fortresses next year, as well as the impulse sets. I definitely wouldn't mind them coming out later in the year though, as then it won't contend with my buying the new castle set and the town construction and farm sets. I just hope they don't come out with more good sets during the latter half of '09, or I'll be broke all through 2009. I've already expended most of my '08 budget with the reintroduction of the AT-AT and the Sandcrawler...

I've sent an e-mail to TLG through the S@H feedback system about this and The Good Wizard. No reply yet, obviously, but I'm sure somebody has heard it. And I'm certain if more people e-mail or call them instead of merely lamenting the sets' unavailability online, our collective disappointment might grab their attention that much quicker. That having been said, if they still refuse to sell to US/NA customers at least through S@H, there's very little we can actually do about it except purchase it overseas. I for one, will be doing just that. This just means I'll need to bring a bigger bag and less clothes.

I hope the genitalia you're using comes from cavaders... ;)

Thank you for having these raffles!

The link still works. Usually, when things get leaked, companies go into panic mode and the first thing they do in panic mode is to try to remove the information. It's sort of like the way people handle spills by immediately trying to mop up the liquid. Unfortunately, that doesn't work with the internet. Once a piece of information is online, it must be assumed that it will remain online forever. There's no putting the cat back in the bag. To follow the analogy above, information getting onto the internet is more like an acid spill. The best way to contain it isn't to mop it up, but to neutralize it. The best thing TLG should've done was release a statement to discredit the source of the leak, followed up by something to indicate that the information itself isn't necessarily true without actually lying. For example, say something like, "Space Police is so 1990's" or "We're still considering a revival of the Pirates line." Unfortunately, this tactic does indeed make it seem like the list is official, or at least it is accurate enough to merit an attempt to remove it. It is definitely too late to do anything about the information now.

It's surprising that Germany is Lego's largest market, and the US is in a close second, despite the US having 2.5 times the population. Anyway, the drop in value of the USD with respect to the EUR and CAD is very recent, within the order of two or three years. Companies can't simply jack up all of their prices immediately, if they expect to sell anything. And they can't have prices fluctuate with the currencies either. That's just how it is. So what they have to do is either do a bit of speculation and price according to what they think the average conversion will be during the lifetime of the product, or they do no speculation, and price according to what the market will allow. Lego is doing the latter. It wouldn't hurt if they started unpegging the prices, but the fact that the number before the currency is the same across the board doesn't mean Lego isn't looking at each individual market and trying to sell close to the optimal price point for each market. Oh, and luxury items do not drive up inflation. The increase of the cost of basic needs (food, fuel, shelter) drives up inflation. If everybody's suddenly poor because of inflation, the market for luxury items will die.

Actually, I'm so against decals that I wouldn't buy a set that has decals even if it's a set I really want. There are a few current sets that come to mind that I've passed on: town plan, service stations, etc. In the past, I didn't bother checking what sets had decals and what didn't (they're usually visible from the box art), and just bought whatever looked cool. Every time a decal sheet fell out of the box though a small part of me died inside. To make matters worse, the sets with decals were usually sets of mediocre or poor design (KK, Alpha Team, Dino Attack, Exo Force) with lots of large custom parts and no real substance. Actually, I kind of like a few of the Exo Force sets, but the mecha designs, while had interesting use of the pieces, kinda were light-weight and clumsy, and I hated the hair. On the other hand, the sets without decals had excellent designs ('07/'08 Castle, Classic SW, Classic IJ, Modular Town) and were far more interesting to build. That, and I wasn't spending half of the time struggling to get the decals on correctly, and despite all my efforts, the decals still end up being slanted or off-center or otherwise unacceptable. One could almost say that the presence of decals implied a mass-market lowest-common-denominator set, while the lack of decals implied more refined, for-the-hardcore-fans set. Since I don't have too many '08 sets with decals (none, I think, but I haven't built all of the sets I've bought yet), there probably isn't such a relationship, but it certainly seems that way. Regardless, to say the least, my disenfranchisement with decals is utterly complete. I went to Toys R Us the other day looking to spend money on a medium-sized set, and couldn't find anything I wanted that had no decals. I have most of the small and medium Castle sets, I'm not interested in non-Classic SW sets, I have most of the Classic IJ sets, and practically every City set uses decals. I left with the Coast Guard Quad Bike. If TLC keeps releasing sets with decals, pretty soon, I won't have any sets left to buy. Oh, the only time I don't really mind a decal is the information sticker that's in the UCS SW sets. Those I just leave be. OK, that's two threads I've crapped on in 24 hours. To get back on topic, I'd love to see elves, but I wouldn't be terribly disappointed if they didn't have elves but had something else that was cool instead. I wouldn't even mind if there wasn't a big set for the elves, just a bunch of smaller sets. In fact, it'd be awesome if the elf sets were modular, and when combined, could form a tree city. I'd be really impressed if the sets could be mixed and matched in different ways to form different tree cities. Despite not having any such sets, I'm a huge fan of the old castle, with the forestmen and the black knights and wolf pack. That there were multiple warring factions instead of the typical good vs. evil put a whole new spin on things. Hopefully, the elves will be a third faction in the trolls/skeletons vs. dwarves/humans. But as I was saying, even if the elves turned out to be a false rumor, if they had troll vs. skeleton sets, I'd be just as excited.

I'm a big fan of those custom cannons as well. Not entirely sure what you used in the middle as the pivot, but it doesn't seem like there are any custom bricks in the design of your cannon. That is always a huge plus for those of us who aren't interested in scrapping sets for spare parts. The ratlines seem to be bent the wrong way though. Usually, they're rigid, but if anything, they'd more often be curved inwards.

Perhaps the increase in minifigure price is due to the increased amount of detail and variation between minifigures. I remember the old minifigures all having one generic face. Occasionally, there were those that had glasses or some such, but those were much rarer. Nowadays, every face is a little different. The same goes with the torso, and sometimes even the legs. While it's a nice touch, I don't think on the generic sets (city, castle, space), this is really necessary. I mean, it's not like I'm going to see much of a dwarf's face through his beard, much less through beard and helmet (hair). And it's not like a dwarf is going to go without his beard and hair. Also, the return to generics is not necessarily a bad thing. There are even generics for the licensed lines (baddies and such). I'm sure if the minifigure designs stayed as detailed as they are now, nobody except us die hard fans would notice. And us die hard fans probably aren't going to mind, since the generic face is what we grew up with anyway. Edit: Oops, didn't mean to thread-crap. To go back on topic, I agree that since Lego lost or just didn't go for the POC license, releasing their Pirates too early would've looked bad. But I think they shouldn't have stopped the Pirates line in the first place. And we did see human vs. human in KK. It's a big reason why I ended up with as much KK as I did, despite the presence of decals on nearly every set... If pirates are going to be in the late '08/early '09 lineup, I'm rooting for Pirates vs. Ninjas. I still regret completely forgetting about legos in the late '90's and early '00's. Ah well.

There are two things that absolutely made the 2007/2008 castle sets for me: Merticulous attention to detail. No decals. I just hope they stick to this trend for the '09 sets. Most of the fun of Lego is in the building. That really is what differenciated it from the toy lines in the 80's and 90's (GI Joe, Transformers, Micro Machines, Hot Wheels, etc.), and it is what differenciates it from the toy lines now. A lesser amount of the fun is in the actual "playing" (and that usually involves some degree of taking apart and rebuilding). The '07 and '08 castle sets have balanced this well, with fun to build, and fun to play sets, whereas KK might've been marginally fun to play with, but they were ridiculously terrible to build. *As a disclaimer, I do have an intense hatred for decals (I refuse to knowingly buy sets that have decals, no matter how much I might like the set otherwise), but it is by no means an irrational hatred.

I'm a big fan of not simply pirates and ninja sets, but pirates vs. ninjas. And maybe even throw in a zombie or two, kind of like the way the current castle set has knights, skeletons, dwarves, and trolls. (Whatever happened to the skeleton ship anyway?) I'd be a huge supporter of Chinese themed sets, but it'd be difficult to market outside of China (on the other hand, it might be a great way to get into the Chinese market). Chinese history is long and convoluted, and the typically more romantic aspects are also not well known even to the less educated among the Chinese. I'd suggest focusing on two aspects of Chinese culture that are more well known: architecture, and martial arts. Chinese architecture set might include the forbidden city with an emperor and such, towers and/or gardens with a princess, towers with traps and warriors, a battle at the great wall, battles at city wall gates, chinese junkers, etc. Martial arts would have the shaolin temple, a monkey king set (to capitalize off the "Forbidden Kingdom" movie, but since the monkey king is in the public domain, no licensing fees), a taoist temple, some martial arts training implement impulse sets, and for something more obscure the 108 warriors in the water margin. There are a plethora of ideas in any of the classic Chinese books ("Water Margin," "Journey to the West," "Romance of the Three Kingdoms") that could be turned into an action/adventure set, and any such idea could rather easily be adapted to a more western audience without diminishing the fun-ness of playing with the set, but the actual significance would be lost to most audiences without any background. Probably the theme I'd be most interested in seeing is a military theme. Tanks, fighters, battleships, etc. They don't even have to be exactly real weapons of war, just resembling them. And the thing I'd most like to see TLG license is Stargate (SG-1 and Atlantis). But since they have Star Wars, I doubt they'll actually do Stargate sets. It'd be just too confusing for the average joe. Of course, I'm always up for rereleases of some of the older sets and retired themes. Space, model trains, pirates, the classic star wars sets, some of the old castle and city sets, *cough* skeleton ship attack *cough*.