Alywin

We all know police and fire teams are recurring for every 3 years as an informal practice, but it doesn't mean I and probably some other AFOL are satisfied with this. TLC has every right to do so, and we have every right to voice out our disappointment, that is. One could rationalize why fire team comes again, which I perfectly understand, but can't stop me voicing out my disappointment. And of course I would very selectively buy those recurring themes. I have my 7240 and 7945 merged to build a large fire station already. The third one, if added to the existing one, would form a fire service highrise building...

Seriously, I am pretty frustrated as I suppose Amazon.de wouldn't mess up their product list... TLC is rather stupid, I have to say, to go back to the old dark road of massive new sets of civil servants. I thought TLC opened a new road of lifestyle and environmental range very successfully in 2009, and I do expect more daily life sets like post office, banks, houses, shops, or farms-related sets. But we ended up having to expand our fire service team for like the nth times... Sorry for my complaining...

Again, not my own discovery, but just forwarded from some other HK AFOL (from HKLUG) fan's findings. The pictures are originated from somewhere called "happinetonline.com" which seems to be a Japanese website: - formal name: Winter Toy Shop - 815 bricks (which is more than I originally expected), with a light brick included! - Available in October 2009 at that Japanese website Enjoy!

As introduced by very resourceful LEGO fan whung in minifigs.net in Hong Kong ( Source: http://www.minifigs.net/forum/viewthread.p...ge=1&extra= post #13), there are more new products at Shop@Home on top of new Pirate Tic Tac Toe 852753 - Vintage Minifigure Collection Vol. 4 - Included the 1st generation castle solider! Good to see the forestman and Santa Claus around also! 852747 - Pirate Battle Pack - Good for expanding your pirate population! 852748 852749 852750 852754 852745 Update by WhiteFang Mentioned by whung below, Let me add some words. These photos are obtained from LEGO shop@home cache. They are not all available until this moment. But it is believed they will be available very soon. Apart from above products, there are a few more accessory products found. 852741 852742 852744

Sorry, but I am afraid you might get disappointed. Based on my limited knowledge in Japanese, the offer is actually just a lucky draw, for which there will be 35 lucky persons to get the gifts for each category. Altogether there are only 140 lucky persons to get the special gifts. Nevertheless, it is still a good promotion.

The new "Plate, Round 1 x 1 with Open Stud" is going to be very useful. Just imagine you can put so many things upon it in a much more neat way than now and do a lot of things.

Very informative and well made review. Thanks. The thing moves much faster than I expect! Is it possible to adjust its speed? Your new toy has spun so fast that one of the horses has broken its neck...

I heard from some local fans in HK before that certain departmental stores in S. Korea (who knows about anythig inside N. Korea...) actually do sell LEGO. But you might discover that in S. Korea, a brand called Oxford, which is a LEGO-like brick system but is of quite good quality famous of military models and not really a counterfeit/ fake, are actually quite strong in the market. So LEGO actually does not sell as well as in other markets. This is just like a double-bladed sword. You might not have so many LEGO products in Korea, but at the same time there might be some old sets selling at substantial discount because they became slow moving/ obsolete items. The other thing is Korean Won (its currency) has depreciated a bit so if you bring over US$ to buy LEGO, it is like you enjoy a lower price relatively. I have not verified such statements, but hope you get some ideas and find out the truth when you land there. Good luck.

Does that mean S@H will open to Japan soon?

Contrary to the majority, I do not immediately get addicted to it, mostly because of a relatively low level of interior details (at least for the ground floor which has been disclosed) and beautiful but oversimplified and old-styled fire rescue car. I know 10197 is already a big building, but still think a fire station should be larger to house more details, equipment and bulk vehicle... Maybe I should go back to my 7945... The style of this 10197, I would turn it into a garage instead.

Talking about the most naked, I would say transparency surpass being not covered by clothes, and so the respectul transparent/ semi-transparent (at least conceptually) ghost should conquere in this respect.:p

I assure you that the Japanese description does indicate it is a toy shop. But anyhow your observation to note the toy locomotive is brilliant!

Thanks for the nice review of this great set, WhiteFang! I always want to grab one, but the price to buy it now is too forbidding... I also always think the girl minifig is supposed to be a customer... LEGO is really up to everyone's own imagination...

I guess hot-dog impulse set probably has been covered by 8398 already. I agree public transportation centre would be covered by the big Toyrus fans' elected set. The other thing we might like to see is that, emergency rescue lines probably would be put a lighter emphasis in the coming 1 or 2 years probably, if TLC really goes for more "daily" style, though I do want a "proper" hospital (Don't even mention the odd 7892... ). You know quite a lot of City fans' towns are populated by excessive civil servants. It is strange we got one cop and one fireman to cover one or two citizens, though it sounds safe...

For what we are going to have for City theme, it seems the presentation in this thread is overlooked. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=28776 2009 City new sets and the 2010 fans-elected Toyrus big City set are heavily, if not totally, directed by the conclusion of such survey results. So it is a fair guess that some other ideas of the survey not yet realized in 2009 could be put into execution in 2010.

Thanks for the news. From the box cover, clearly it indicates that it can play music. Also, judging from the structure, it seems the "horses" might actually go up and down duirng rotation! Oh, actually, the right corner of the box cover clearly indicates that the horses can go up and down during rotation!

Thanks for the review. I believe this set would be a top pick for children for its playability and being "cool" with the robot. Even (childish) adults like me find it very interesting! A bit pricy though...

The tan beards are those tan/ yellow feather-like parts at the corners at the kind of round roof. I guess the 4th child you are talking about is the one with light bluish grey legs. After magnifying the picture to have a look, I agree.

LEGO is very well developed in terms of sales and MOC in Japan and there are a lot of professional players there, and Japan is worth watching out on and off. You could probably get the feel just from the ClickBrick Book, which is made in professional manner. Also culturally I think Hong Kong is more influenced by Japan. That could be the reason.

Thanks Whitefang. Firstly, let me briefly explain the legitimate source of 10196 news. The initial source of 10196 is from Clickbrick Book 2009 in Japan. Clickbrick Book is the annual book distributed by the Japanese LEGO chain store ClickBrick to customers for free. The 2009 version has started being distributed since 1 May 2009, and that's why LEGO fans in Hong Kong knew the news about 10196 (earlier than the western peers). Below is the look of the Clickbrick Book: From my side, the understanding up to now is very limited and merely based on the Japanese description. With my limited Japanese ability, the catalogue does mention that it contains motor and sound bricks (so does the English description on it... ), and also mentions in Japanese that it "practically rotates and play music" with a "!?" following such statement So it is the best guess we could make so far. Other noteworthy features: - 48 x 48 green baseplate (new?) - Includes 9 minifigs, 4 of whom are children - Seems to include some mirror parts! - Contains a lot of decorative parts including clown heads!? golden dishes, tan beards, etc. - The horses are not those "real" horses used in Castle and City themes, but are built by bricks It is speculated that its price would be around that of 10189. Enjoy!

Very good find! Thanks. I checked the file that it was created back in August 2008. So it seems that TLC did considerably follow the insights gained from the Ambassdors in 2009. As a City fan, the survey results match my thoughts also. So, hopefully, we might be able to see more and more interesting City sets satisfying our needs!

I sort of agree with this statement. Reading some of the comments in this thread, I am afraid some fellows here might have misunderstood. I think I have to make it clear for myself. The source of my information is from publicly available, targeted to normal retail consumer and officially released information, just that it has not been released in this part of the world. It is not like those confidiential seller catalogues or preliminary box designs, which I understand are of confidential nature. So I believe that this incident is some sort of lack of control of release events. I have been trying to be cooperative to help TLC keep the surprise in this part of the world, but it does not mean what I posted previously is not legitimate. By the way, I would say some "findings" by fans here about the Merry-go-round are NOT correct, and so you might actually have not found the real one.

Some surely legitimate public source, which I won't disclose (even not by PM, so please stop PMing me) for the time being.

Oh, really? I deleted mine after hearing from WhiteFang about the need for cooperation.

Sorry, WhiteFang. No idea at all. As you know, the news roots from Japan and S@H is not available there also. So the only certain thing is they would be available at Japan. LEGO sales channel in Japan (which itself seems also different from other parts of Asia) is quite different from the West, and this news gives no insight as to the official availability in the West (and Hong Kong).