Daenerys Targaryen

As a massive Dragon Quest fan, I've been feeling rather kicked to the curb by Nintendo as of late... First we miss out on DQ Monsters 3DS 'Terrys Wonderland' localisation, and now it's almost a guarantee that we're going to get shafted and miss out on localisation of DQ 7. And with the shutting down of the DS wi-fi servers in May, there's no more chance at fully re-playing DQ IX due to the loss of a bunch of download only exclusives *sigh* Currently I'm replaying DQ V and I've started my initial run-through of DQ VI! Still, as good as the Zenithian trilogy has been thus far, my all time favourite Dragon Quest game is DQ III! (though IX is a very close second due to all the extra content and the addition of the Legacy Bosses!)

Into the Storm. Very surreal and moving at the end as they show off a montage of the damage from the April 2011 tornado outbreak, including a couple frames of footage from Joplin.

For those who might not want to spend on the TMNT sets, odds are all the extras they don't give away will end up in the little shelf racks alongside the other promo polybags the following week...

At the local Toys 'r Us today, I picked up: 1x Star Destroyer microfighter @20% off 3x Deathstar Troopers battlepack @20% off 4x Spider Crawler polybags And a Despicable Me 2 Minions lanyard!

The Toys 'r Us in Burlington has a few of the Chima Spider Crawler poly bags. Hopefully other stores have them as well! I picked-up 4 of them today, and it is such a cute little build! Even if you're not really a Chima fan at all, I recommend this set as it's only $5 and looks adorable!

Sweet, looks like Chapters/Indigo will be releasing that new Character book on July 22nd or thereabouts according to their website!

Been a few weeks since I've been to the movies, but the last time I went was for Winter Soldier, which I enjoyed way more than the first CA movie. (honestly, I thought the first one blew chunks) Best movie I've been to this year however was Pompeii, but that was more to do with the fact I walked over in a raging blizzard, despite it being only like 5 days before Spring "officially" arrived! Got home from the theater and had to shovel a 3 foot snow drift that's normally my driveway!

Soooooooo... Any idea when we'll finally see photos of the next Speedorz wave? Hopefully we get a bunch of 'not the 5 man dudes we already have a speedorz set or three for!' I really don't want to see yet another Eris or Laval et all... C'mon LEGO, give us some of the poor underused characters!

Lol! Blizzard Bowl?! You guys need to watch some proper Canadian Football! As crazy a game as that was, it was still only around the freezing mark temp-wise... Green Bay looked a bit harsher as it was really cold out there, but it's nothing like watching the Grey Cup being played in -40(with windchill) on turf so cold it's basically ice! (or some of the Stamps or Eskimos games, where it's snowing 10cm+ before Hallowe'en.) I wish we'd get more of the crazy weather games!

Be careful with the 20% City/SW sets promo, as it's only on selected sets though. I've been wanting a second Battle of Hoth set so my other Rebel pilot has his own ride to fly about with Luke, but it's only the summer wave sets + A-wing fighter that are 20% off this week.

I had a $10 off any $25 or higher purchase gift card from Sears, so I pulled the trigger and used it alongside their current 20% off all Chima sets + scratch & save event to nab the Ultimate Speedorz Tournament set for only $19.00!

I didn't hit-up any Lego brand stores over the Black Friday/week madness, but I did hit up Sears today and between a promo $10 gift card, 20% toys sale AND scratch and save events, I got the Chima Ultimate Speedorz Tournament set for only $19! Last Friday I hit-up the local Toys 'R Us for their 50% off all $19.99 Speedorz sets. Got a second Eglor & Winzar and a Lagravis to add to my ever-growing tribes.

Lego, like most retailers, loves to release their new sets within the week or two after Xmas in order to: a) cash in on all those gift cards/xmas money kids/collectors got on the 25th. b) stimulate continued spending in what is the slowest time of the season, sales-wise. (Jan through Feb) While none of the new winter wave sets are really big buys $$$-wise, they aim to help increase the age-old impulse buy. Being small to medium sized sets, it's not too hard to stimulate a decent volume of continuous sales, as most people figure they can excuse the odd $20 - $40 purchase, whereas it's much, much harder to justify those $70+ purchases when you're still paying off those Xmas credit card bills!

@CM4S: Sorry mate, that's Sparracon, who comes in the Rogan's Rock Flinger set. Brickset as had those photos up for a few days now...

I wonder when we'll finally get pics of the two exclusive sets? Granted I'm not the least bit interested in Lavertus' Base set, (*groan* yet another lion set! ), but I'm itching to see Spinlyn's Cavern and what minifig assortment we get in that one! (please - no more lions or gorillas, we have them currently exploding out of every possible orifice atm...) I'd be content with a couple spiders and a Rhino, since those guys are stupidly non-existent with only 1 featured set thus far, but if I could wishlist, I'd love it if that set comes with Spinlyn + 1 other spider + 1 Bat + 1 Eagle.

Only thing Lego related on my wish list is the 'Battle at the Black Gate' LotR set, as it'll make a stellar background piece for my Easterling army display.

Local Target store *finally* finished setting up the full Xmas department, and I snagged a pair of the Mirkwood Elf polybags from the Stocking Stuffers section. Only a couple more sets to look for and my 2014 collection will be considered complete!

I'm betting we'll see a decent selection of some winter wave stuff hitting store shelves next week as part of the Black Friday craziness. I'm hoping we get some decent sales up here, as there's a couple of Chima sets I've been waiting (im)patiently to get my gribbly little mitts on!

Do we know yet if the Police Gunship will be a Toys 'r Us exclusive? Really hoping it's not a Walmart exclusive, as their sales are not only few and far between up here, but they also suck big time! (really, just $5 off when across the boarder it's half-fething-price? Thanks for nothing!)

I just wish the minifig selections were a bit better, ie: Scorpion vs. Wolf, Spider vs. Eagle, etc... I simply don't want things like the Gorillas or yet more goody-two-shoes Lions.

ToysToysToys in the Eaton Center and the PATH to Union Station have all the new Ninjago and Hobbit sets... if you don't mind getting absolutely eye-gouged by their inflated prices of course.

It's the way they do their mark-ups honestly... Their price stickers for example on Jay's Fighter at the top say $34.99 and then below that "Sale $29.99". They're selling the Mech Dragon IIRC at a 'sale' price of $150, and I'm betting that in reality it is meant to be a $130 set... (and Toys 'r Us will eventually get it and have one of their 20% Ninjago sales!) I just think it's entirely dishonest the way they price gouge their customers by essentially falsely advertising their so-called 'sale' price when it's really still well above other retailers prices. When they did a 40% off all Chima/Ninjago/LotR/Star Wars "sale" for example, they first increased all the base prices by 30-35% or more! so in reality you ended up only really saving at most 10% - 20%... and with some sets, that so-called "sale" simply brought the price down to RRP! For example, they jacked the Helm's Deep set upto $240! at which point 40% off made it $144 - an actual savings of roughly just 18% off the RRP. (meanwhile, Toys 'r Us last Xmas had an actual 40% off any one LotR set sale, meaning you could really cash in, while they seem to do 20% every 6-8 weeks or so!) I don't mind waiting honestly as I'm a very patient person... (2-3 month waiting time is like the blink of an eye when you're a Warhammer fan! )

Chapters has some offers right now like 20% off LEGO this week, plus a 'freebie' $20 gift card for being an I-rewards member. Between all the discounts, I got Eris' Eagle Interceptor for just $14 and change!

I spotted the complete line-up of the new 2014 sets yesterday at a pair of ToysToysToys locations in downtown Toronto - one in the Eaton Center and the other location in the underground PATH that connects most of the downtown core. Of course, being ToysToysToys, they're jacking their prices by at least $5 - $10+ above RRP...

So now that the photos of the Star Wars winter waves are out, I guess we hopefully get our Chima fix some time in the next few days!?