Ogre

CONGRATULATIONS! That is soooooooooo cool!

Thanks for the review 'HJR'! Looks like quite a nice set. I'll start saving my pennies and hopefully this baby will be on sale in May. *crossing fingers*

'Anio', that is simply AWESOME! You must have more patience than I can even imagine. LOL Great job. Just GREAT!

Ah, yes...but, that's the "average family shopping at a LEGO store", not "an average family". I'm going to guess that the 'average family' just hits their local toy store/big box retailer to get their offspring a new LEGO set, instead of making a concerted effort to hit a "LEGO store". The "family average" of those shopping at LEGO stores will be factored into the OVERALL "average family expenditure". Those $300 per year shoppers will be added to the mix with those that just pick up an 'impulse set' here and there for their child and the results averaged-out.

Hmmm...there's nothing on his official website about it... Or, perhaps are you referring to his WIFE? She passed away in July (I think) from what they are saying was a self-inflicted OD (suicide note was found).

They're available at Shop@Home as of about 9am this morning, with free shipping on orders over $75 so...buy two and you're set!

Ordered my 'City' and 'Kingdoms' advent calendars from S@H this morning, as soon as they switched from 'not available'. Since they are listed as 'limited quantities', I didn't want to wait...plus, with the free shipping on orders over $75 (CDN), I figured it was a decent deal.

Totally agree!

Price isn't that great...20% off 'City' or 'City fire sets' at TRU brings it to $87 and change.

Yanno...I totally forgot that they were 'blind'. I'm so used to the whole 'barcode' thing now, I never even gave it a second thought, even though I didn't have the barcodes when I bought my first batch of series one. Geez...I just laughed so hard, I think I pulled something... *edit* And speaking of 'barcodes'...be unlike myself and pay proper attention when picking yours up (yanno, instead of say, talking to your wife), or you'll end up with another 'ringmaster' instead of 'disco stu'.

It's actually five expos in one...sci-fi, comics, horror, anime and gaming...in it's 16th year, IIRC. The LEGO stuff was in the sci-fi area, from what I was told.

Exactly...so, why not make MORE of the one or two figures that will be the most 'in demand' and thusly, SELL more of those figures? Of course, their decisions never cease to baffle me, such as what they did with that Stormtrooper Hoth Battle Pack. Terrible decision on figure inclusion, IMO.

Spotted at "Fan Expo 2010" here in Toronto this weekend: No, I wasn't there (sadly) so I don't know what all was there, what 'exclusive prize' that sign is referring to, or anything else about what LEGO was in attendance. My friend who WAS there is kinda lacking in the 'details' department. She was there for the anime and gaming stuff and doesn't really care about the rest. LEGO, Stan Lee, Summer Glau, William Shatner, Adam West, Burt Wart, Julie Newmar, the 1960s Batmobile and Batcycle, the Winchester's Chevy... Man, it SUCKS to be broke! *edit* Two more pics added. There was also a LEGO Darth Vader statue but, for some reason, my friend's pics of that didn't turn out very well.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of 'Atlantis', either. I saw the shipping cartons for those BPs when I was in there (they were still on the skids in the aisles) and I thought I was mis-reading the labels when I saw the 2009 ones. Guess I wasn't. Oooooh, I'm guessing the manager already knows, since she was getting testy with the manager on duty when I was there a few days ago. Merryland Toys either BECAME "ToysToysToys", or was taken-over by them. Not sure which. They're a small chain now, too...and generally quite a bit more expensive than either TRU or Mastermind. Mastermind is good, but rarely has sales...best thing about them is their annual 'warehouse sale', usually held in Scarborough at their warehouse but, they often don't have LEGO, or much of it, anyway. The year that their sale was held at Yonge and 16th, they had a TON of LEGO on sale...Cafe Corner, several Batman sets, Sandcrawler, etc., etc. Some weren't great deals (Cafe Corner), others were pretty sweet. I scored the Sandcrawler and two Batman sets from there. Long lines, of course but, worth the wait. Yeah, the indy stores here can't compete, price-wise. No way. They get muscled-out by TRU, Mastermind and Wal-Mart...though Mastermind is not even any real competition, especially with their crappy weekday hours. Zellers sometimes has some good sales but, it's rare.

Good luck! If you get the older lady who works in the toy section, be carefull...she's getting 'testy' about the whole thing.

Also, rather short-sighted of them to only include THREE Spartans in every box, rather than the FIVE they've included of less desirable characters. They need to think in terms of 'army building'. Sure, grab all sixteen figures for a complete set...but, then what? TLG needs to think in terms of "How do we get people to purchase a WHOLE CRAPLOAD of our product?" Spartans are short-shipped, plus, they are VERY desirable...hence, they are hoarded and will cost INSANE amounts of money on the secondary market. They modeled this 'collectible minifigure' thing on collectible card games but, they forgot that those are GAMES and 'rare cards' work in that context, whereas 'rare minifigures' in a format such as this DOESN'T. These are INTENDED to be collected and traded, unlike say, minifigures in expensive LEGO sets which only appear in THAT set. If you can afford it, you buy it, or you buy the figures later. No big deal. With these though, they're all the same price and all equally sought after initially, due to the 'complete set' mentality of most collectors. After that though, 'rarity' becomes a major issue and many folks will not even bother TRYING to find more, due to how difficult it is and the scarcity of their preferred figures and hence, TLG won't sell as much product as they otherwise would have. "Bad call, Ripley."

Yeah, unfortunately. Called again yesterday...still no sign of them and no new shipment.

I was thinking that an employee stashed them, to pick through at a later time.

Man, I checked EVERYWHERE in that store and had the shift manager ripping up the stock room looking for them! Their system said 120+ in stock but, they couldn't find them ANYWHERE. And yes, I'm in Scarberia.

12 of 18 at this moment but, I hope for it to be at least 16 of 18 by the end of the year.

Soooo...called two Wal-Mart stores near me last night and was told at one "Yup, we have about 400" and at another they said "Yeah, we've got about 80 of them." Soooo...I figured I'd hit there first thing this morning...and I mean FIRST THING. Walked an hour to STC in the east end of Toronto (yes, I'm too cheap to pay bus fare if I can walk there) and found THREE BOXES of 'em on the shelf. Problem is, they'd been obviously picked-through already. Sure enough, not ONE Spartan in the bunch. Another "barcode bandit" had beaten me to them. And worst of all, the stock dude in the toy section said "That's all we have.' Far cry from 400, yes? Soooo...I walked ANOTHER hour to the other Wal-Mart (Agincourt Mall) and not only did they have none out, they didn't know what I was talking about. So, I pulled out a fig from STC, they scanned the barcode and said "Well, it appears we have 120 of them," BUT, they couldn't find them ANYWHERE (and they looked for an hour, while I waited). Soooo...by the time I got home, I'd been on my feet for five hours, walking for over three of those hours and came home with ZERO Spartans for my efforts. Hmph.

Great review. Thanks. It was especially nice to see the three speeders side by side for comparison. I'm not a fan of the Wampa's arms but, you get over it pretty quick, especially once it sinks in that YOU'RE HOLDING A LEGO WAMPA! On a side note: you aren't kidding about the 'short lived' Hoth Rebel Base! I noted it's release, saw it in TRU about a week later (when, natch, I had no cash)...went back a week after that and they were sold out. So, I figure "Ah, they'll get more..." and they never did. Total bummer!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Unfortunately, I never snagged this set...it was released during my 'dark age'...a period when I missed out on some of the coolest LEGO sets ever.

Good question. There are some GREAT suggestions and personally, I'd really hope to see more than just "the top five" or some such thing.