Jeff S

We just finished building this set and its a good one. I think besides the simple fact that the wench does not lift much, its flawless. The only set we are missing from the Coast Guard is the "Tower w/ Ship". We have the rest including the Platform. I guess we are missing the promo Motorcycle or what ever that set was, but thats about it. All the big ones we do have. I have not pulled the trigger and got the Tower yet, just waiting for price to drop a bit. Having the platform and paying way to much for it before it released in the USA, I am shying away from the Tower for now. Nice review and as many have stated, its a great set! Jeff

With all of that. This was a fun build. I am sorry that I didnt list all of the details. I can see why no one had done a review on this set, a lot goes into it. I was one of them who picked a few of these up at Walmart for $50. Again thanks to the board for that tip. The review was not planned, but since I was taken pics of the kids, I figured I would kill two birds with one stone. A lot of great detail is in the set. The falling out wall is one that I really liked. The best part of the wall is it is so well hidden, and does not fall out unless provoked. The dragon is a pretty cool, easy build and has some great detail. Just so many little accesories and such. The countless weapons, the gems, and even the sheilds on the buildings. The minis are nice and a good start for an army. One of them has a great two faced head. The knight is great! The kings gold sword and gear can;t be forgotten. The drawbridge is very fuctional and has good play. As I mentioned before, I may try and mod a wench into it so it can be cranked down rather than just pulling the lever. The large catapult is great. Works really good and is very sturdy when it comes to playing factor. The smaller two on the other hand..........The buckets on both do not fit well into the block they go in. Way to small and just slide out. I actually used the outer edge of the sticker sheet to wrap it and make it a tight fit. Ahhh yes the stickers. Only a couple and were used as the corner brick on the corners. Thats all. I can't compain about that. The BURPS are nice, good idea to add the ivy to them. All in all this is a great set. Ten minis, a horse, a dragon, TONS of accesories. If you can find it for $50 still or that price range, by all means go buy it. If you can't and its going to cost you a $100, save the money. That same $100 gets you the Market. I know it doesnt have the soldiers and skellys, but those are readily available. Thanks for the read. By all means if anyone wants pics of anything please let me know. I may have snapped it, and if I didnt, I will. The one thing I did find to be very nice was the way it fit onto a 48x48 plate. I leaves about 1 row on each side and 2 rows front to back. They had that planned out very well. Thanks again. Jeff

Here is a shot of the inside of the castle. Nothing much happening. A rack of weapons is about all. A set of steps are at opposite end that lead up to middle level. The "busted wall" that falls out is a very nice touch. It is not noticble from the outside and fits well. The smooth plates allow it to just fall as it may, but is still very sturdy if not pushed on. A final shot, not a great one but a final pic. Just a shot of the inside, part of it. The falling wall. The box and isntructions show a battle near it and the wall falling onto a warrior. The final shot. I added the 7090 Crossbow attack to the pic. It is the only other Castle set we have, but for the price I could not pass it up. The 3 minis and the skelly horse make it a great buy. I think was $5.99 US at TRU.

As I was saying...............This first section of wall was the most plain of them all, but it does house the largest of the 3 catapults. Next we have the kings area. The kings thrown and treasure room are next to the jail/treasure room ? They have a connecting bridge that spins. The base above the large double doors of the castle is where the king sits. The base is done with smooth plates and the kings room is pinned in from the rear. Allows easy access. Also in the jail area 3 of the 4 gates are built into place and the back side is double stacked so it can be removed for play. The plainest of all of the walls. The king and his stuff. I got defective crown, it just shoots off of his head or any other head for that matter, right after I put it on. Where the kings room sits above the rear double doors. The back view and how the kings room is pinned in.

The towers next to the bridge were matching on each side. Pinned at the bottom to hold them to the bridge. The catapults are on the top of each one. Each come with 3 shots of ammo. The towers seperated. And then joined with the bridge. I just realized the time..... To Be Continued.

The minis! There are 10. The King with his gold sword and crown. He has a knight to and 4 warriors with him. For the evil side we have the black skelly, 2 whites and a chief skelly. He is the "pilot" of the big evil dragon. We also get the knights horse. One of the minis has a great double faced head. Was only thing extra special of the minis. The kings gold is always a nice touch. Sorry for the rotten photos. Im a rookie here, bare with me. Some of the men. A few more. And the dragon. The entrance! This was the easiest of the building process. It has great functions to it. The inside fence lowers and raises (by hand) and the shield on front is on a pin that slides in and out to lock the gate at the height you want. The bridge itself just raises and lowers . A quick mod would add a working wench but not on the first day of the build. Bridge Down..... Bridge up and well as the gate up and locked. The laborers hard at work. Lots of thought going into their build.

First off I do not see a review for this set. If its a year or two late, then by all means I am sorry. It would be my first review here as I mainly just lurk and read. If the review is not wanted, I wont do it. I am in middle of uploading pics, it was a fun set and really time consuming. Anyways................ I will start the review and if any mod thinks the review is redundant, by all means do your duty and remove it. Jeff Im going to start off with I am a City guy but could not pass these up for $50. The 10 minis and loads of accesories sold me. My oldest turned 7 today, so this was a fun build on a special occasion. LOTS of peices! One Happy Kid! The Box... Loads of bags.

Thanks Whung. I had saw the promo plane on ebay for like 50-60 $ US Jeff

The 7743 Police Truck is a good set. Acts as both a vehicle and then a station to some extent. The 7243 Construction one even though you said no to construction, IMO is the best of the consturction sets. Its the crane,the dump truck and the gravel seperater/converyor belt thing. With a brown dirt road base plate its great. We have about all of the Coast Guard sets, including the platform. The one I DO NOT reccomend is the Truck and Boat one. The smaller jetski one is ok, the larger one just lacks a lot for the price. As it was already mentioned, the cargo truck is a great deal and a good set. Goes great with the stacker. The only other thing you may want to consider, is the new Market via the Castle series. Best of luck, get some pics when you can! Jeff

Happy Holidays to everyone. We had a pretty fulfilling Christmas via the land of Lego. Castle Seige 7094 (Couldnt pass these up fo $50, Thanks guys for the tip) Police Truck 7743 Coast Guard Helicopter 7738 Coast Guard Kayak Coast Guard Truck & Boat 7726 City Gas Station 7993 Truck and Forclift 7733 I think that was it. The kids each got a Nintendo DS. Jeff

Outstanding work. Was the third FabFig in the black car ? Jeff

Why am I on a stretcher and why is he holding a knife ?

I had many of the Space sets from the mid to late 80s when I was younger. Before then I had a few sets, but got into them a lot in the later 80s. The fad lasted through Jr High for me and then was over. It wasnt until this years Olympics that I saw someone had duplicated the major venues of the Olympics. At that point I got a set and let the kids play with it. They liked them and was a good time for us as a family. I have always like model railroads and at many a train show saw lego layouts and was always impressed. We are planning a layout of our own and at this point have been basically buying City sets. Looking forward to doing a couple larger MOC's but until then we are content on sets. I have a pair of 6 year olds and the boy likes to build his own stuff, and the girl likes to follow instructions. Best of both worlds I guess !!! Great topic by the way. Jeff

Here is what I learned. The one grey race car looking thing is a Pull Back Racer, not sure which but it does have the working motor. The Dinosaur is the Mosasaurus 6721. The two sub sets are from the Alpha and are 4791 and 4792. Was the Mini Falcon a set ? With the painted top I have to assume it was..... If anyone knows what set has the Skeletons with the red and black outfits and green masks, that would help on the small set inbetween the long yellow car and a sub. Thanks again. Jeff

Well... thanks. I will post better pics when I get home tomorrow . All I can tell you for now is that the little ship thing has a giant fin on it, and the fin has a mini fig skeleton head sticker with some red trim. I am guessing it goes with the skeleton minis that have red/black outfits and a neon green mask(got like 5 of them). I got everything in a lot, on ebay of course. I am starting to think I paid to much, as I got it to just keep parts and some minis. It had 60 or so minis, including a few decent ones. The lot had some road plates and smaller plates but alas all are in horrible shape and most ended up being cracked, not to mention the stains. I will disclose that I paid $90 for it delvd, but again had 60 minis or so. Including Spiderman and Green Goblin as well as the Train Car from the one spider set. Beyond that I havent spent to much time going through it all. The sets you see is how they came. I already busted them apart and gave em a bath. I will try and put everything back together and get some pics. Was one of them things that at the time seemed good, but now makes me wonder if I didnt dive to deep into the shallow end of the pool.. Thanks again for the help. Jeff

Anyone want to make my life simple and clue me in on any of these sets. I had found one of the yellow ones, but dont recall what it was. Sorry for the small image, if not the set where the parts came from would help as well. I will try and update the images as soon as I can, I am not home so it wont be easy. Thanks Jeff

It has been a busy month or so in our little lego land. I am currently working on a layout and once its up far enough to take pics I will. These are the past month or so worth of pic ups. First off the Fire stuff. The Boat 7906 and the Off Road Rescue 7942. As well as the Transport Cargo Stacker 7992. Next is one of two new Contruction sets. The XXL Mobile Crane 7249. And last but not least, the set that I am wondering if I really "needed" Coast Guard Platform 4210. It is a great set though, it has such great eye appeal. A few more that did not get in the picture shoot are the Cargo Truck and Forklift 7733, the Construction Site 7243 and last but not least, the Screaming Patriot 6646. All sets were new except for the Patriot which I did manage to get instructions with. EDIT: I guess there is a Drop Ship in there as well... Starwars dont belong in my City. Enjoy Jeff

Well, had a large order come from Lego.com and then a pile from ebay arrived as well. So in todays haul... 7243 Construction Site, 4210 Coast Guard Platform, 7733 Cargo Transport , 7624 Indy Jones Duel, 3 buckets and some pieces, all from Lego. Ebay packages that arrived were some parts, lots and pieces including 63 Minis, 24 baseplates and Spidermans Rescue. This makes for a busy weekend!!!! Jeff

And................ Here is the email I recieved 9-25 from Lego. "The Vestas promotional item was created specifically for that company. There may be a possibility that it could be released to the public but there is no guarantee. We do not have stock of the item to sell. The set number is 4999 and the building instructions are available on our website." Take it as you may. Jeff

Wishful thinking here, but I'll play the optimist part. Lego has pretty much said NO that they won't be releasing them from what I see. However if we go by the 2009 "to be" sets, this was one. With that............If you ask Lego if they are going to produce a Farm Combine, they will probably tell us NO to that as well. It could just be a so called cover up to keep the 09 releases hidden from the public until they release. The sets already released to Vestas could be in a "limited edition" box or something that will off set them from ones that could be made public. Again this is wishful thinking. I wrote a letter to Lego, I figured I would help the cause so to speak. Hotmail is down, but I noticed I had a reply. When I get the email I will paste it. Jeff

Craigslist about a week ago. Doing a regular LEGO search and saw 7249 XXL Crane listed NIB for $35. It was late at night and I emailed, even twice from two different accounts. I was worried it was a hoax or I was late, but I woke to an email that said ITS YOURS !!! I wrote her back and asked if she had more..... she stated she had the 7942 Fire Truck as well and would take $5 for it. It appeared that her grandmother is in Germany and had sent both sets to her son for his birthday. Grandma had forgot that she already sent the same sets at a different time. They figured for what shipping back to Germany from the USA was, that she would just sell em. Both were NIB and was my best deal to date. Just picked up last years fire boat and hovercraft as well this week for half price at a local store here. Jeff

Hinckley, Actually the kid is 6 and my son. One of them. In my original post I stated I was in my 30s. I will be in contact for sure when I come that way. Jeff

I dont know enough yet from what I have seen here, but I really dont expect anyone to be paying that price. I just figured for those who dont search the bay that often, that it would be worth watching. I doubt it sells. I am a frequent poster on a few other types of boards and I know how spamming of auctions gets frowned on over yonder, so I didnt want to link it. I think it was an easy find none the less. I do hope that the windmill makes it as a public release, seeing how enthused some members here alone were, I think the set would do well. Thanks for the welcome, I look forward to being here. Jeff

Hello people. First off, I have only been reading a short time, but have enjoyed what I have seen so far. Second off the said auction is not mine or am I any way affiliated with it. I read the long 14 page or so post of the set and realized what a hot topic it was. So I posted. If I am not allowed, remove it or remove me please mods. Thirdly and sort of first off. I am a collector, a new one at that. I am in my 30s and live in Michigan. This is my first post and as I mentioned I have only been a reader. I have a couple kids and 2 of them are starting to enjoy their legos, so its becoming fun times. We are currently working on a city. I have yet to build the display but as a carpenter, it should be a snap. As of now we have been buying CITY sets, and some older sets as well. Snagged the 7249 XXL Crane a few weeks back on Craigslist, brand new in box for $35 and the lady tossed in the 7942 Fire Truck NIB for anothe $5. Was a steal !! We have the Cargo Stacker, the Fire Boat as well as the Hover Craft and a few others. We finally got our first big piece and its the Coast Guard Platform. So far its just a box, but as soon as its busted open, I will be happy to do a post of pics and a review. Well I think I said my hellos, I know there is a proper forum, but the post was meant to be about the Vestas. I figured I would kill two birds with one stone. If at all any of this is out of line, please email mods and let me know what I did wrong. Hinckley I saw that you are a Chicago native. I visit often as I have a close friend there, may be going this weekend actually. If you dont know the place, please go eat at Fogo Da Chos for me one night. Downtown on Ohio. Take your appetite. Ok enough said. Thanks and sorry for the long read. Jeff