Inigo Montoya

http://www.geocities.jp/jun_brick/yamato_m.html Found on Gizmodo this morning... "Like its real counterpart, this Battleship Yamato is the biggest Lego ship ever constructed. At 22 feet long, it took 6 years and 4 months to complete by one of our Lego contest winners. [updated] The Yamato—along with her sister ship Musashi—was the largest battleship ever constructed: 862 feet and 10 inches long and 121 feet long at its widest point. Made by Jumpei Mitsui, the Lego version was constructed at minifig scale (1/40), which is an amazing task that resulted in these specs: • 22 feet long. • 3 feet wide. • 330 pounds. • More than 200,000 Lego pieces. And of course, it looks amazing:"

http://new.mocpages.com/moc.php/105030 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=374203 Good...god. Unbelievable scope and detail...words don't do this MOC justice.

http://www.neatorama.com/2009/02/23/lego-p...-on-the-thames/ "One of the largest Lego creations ever constructed is a 16-ft-tall model of an Egyptian pharaoh that looks suspiciously like King Tut. The giant pharaoh is currently floating down the River Thames on its way to Legoland in Windsor, England, where it will be the centerpiece of Legoland’s Kingdom of the Pharaohs, which is set to open March 21. This is the final leg in its 1,395-mile journey by truck and boat from the Czech Republic, where it was constructed. The pharaoh required more than 200,000 Lego bricks and weighs one ton."

This is great news, even more impressive with the current worldwide economic crisis affecting nearly every other company. I guess instead of multiple hundreds of dollars in video game consoles and $50+ video games, kids and parents are flocking to Legos and other less expensive but more replay value added entertainment. This strong growth allows Lego to be even more leverage in rolling out new sets. And, like the poster above, I agree that it's the top class sets that continue to impress year after year.

Based purely on execution of the theme, and taking my personal bias out of it, I'd have to go with (in no particular order): (1) star wars. This line continues to get stronger and better as time goes on...the early versions of ships left much to be desired, but how can one look at, say, the $50 x-wing fighter and not be impressed? Or the way it scales up to the massive $500 Falcon? The sets range in scale and size so they have something for everyone. There's not many themes that have this range, and they execute every set very, very well. (2) technics For a pure 'playability' standpoint, and if MOCing is your thing, how can you not love technics? Legos that actually 'do' something is, in my eyes, among the most impressive. Throw in the larger scale and workings of a real model, technics really delivers. (3) city Again, for the playability factor. Unbelievable number of sets that allow you to build a real, functioning town. Truly limitless rebuild value, tons of vehicles, lots of figs. I don't personally collect city but if I had the room for it, I'd be all over building a nice long street with tons of buildings and vehicles on display. Now, for the bad...and for my choices I look at execution (or lack thereof), presentation, and replay value: (1) spongebob Just seems like they tossed the lego brand and the spongebob brands in the blender, and didn't put a lot of thought into the results. I think it's tough to get this mix right: the typical viewer of this show is probably too young to really appreciate legos and building their own sets...just kind of 'bleh' to me. (2) power miners I just don't see the appeal of this set. Not that everything has to have a commercial tie in (mars mission is infinitely more appealing to me), but this just seems...I dunno. I've seen the sets and I just can't get enthused over mining. (3) agents I put this one in here with hesitation but end up doing it because it could be so much more. The sets themselves are fine, but where are the baseplates to frame the action? The space sets of the early 80s had plenty of baseplates that let you set the scene, let you anchor your buildings to. With this everything is just...floating. For the vehicles of course that's great, but it would be a boon to the sets if they had some plates to attach buildings to, or you could build a secret lair for. As far as the original poster goes, I'm not sure if berating people for giving their input on their favorites is the way to go? If people want to bash on star wars, for example, because it seems tired and dated to them, how is that any less a valid reason than the ones I've given or anyone else has?

I saw some pictures of the upcoming indy sets from the toy fair, and say this plastic display thing the plane is resting on, and thought they'd be awesome to have for my own displays. Does anyone know where they can be acquired? I can't upload the picture, but the link to what I'm talking about is below: http://i.gizmodo.com/photogallery/legoindy09/1007088131 Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Not sure if this is the best forum for it, but I just saw that the Falcon is on sale at Amazon for $400 which is a $100 savings. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WLW3W...ASIN=B000WLW3W0

They both have their pros and cons. The older sets definitely have the nostalgia going for them, but the newer sets definitely have a much better look to them.

I got this set for myself a present for christmas...I, too, got it at the 'black friday' sale from Target for $60 (what a steal!). Some things I noticed from assembling (which I did last night): -getting the assembled sides that form the bottom edges are quite difficult to line up. -I had the same complaint about the 'floor' being quite unstable and wanting to fall apart when you pick it up -for such a huge ship there was very little repetitive building - quite nice -unbelievable size...if you haven't seen this thing in person its difficult to comprehend its size. -the amenities are quite strange...as was noted the helmet delivery system is just bizarre and seems hokey. Overall though I love the set...massive size makes for an impressive display. Thanks for the review!

http://gizmodo.com/5109381/lego-nes-mod-sh...s-our-nostalgia with video!

I'm sure they have limits on how much they can buy, and I have to think that limits in place that prohibit the purchase of any more than one of the same set. Also, sets like star wars are likely not discounted much if at all.

There's a Target right near where I work but I abhor black friday, and the typical shopper frantically shoving people aside trying to get their hands on this item or that. I rolled in tonight at about 8pm, wanting an ISD, but wouldn't be crushed if I didn't get one. Went up to a rep working near the lego aisle and asked if he could scan the tag to see how many were in stock, as there were none on the shelf, he said 30, I asked 'is that in stock or before today's sales' he said 'in stock', but couldn't explain why there weren't any on the shelf. Found an older guy, wearing a long sleeve target shirt, figured he was a manager or lead of some sort, the same thing. He became quite distraught that 30 sets were missing (I figured they had been scattered around the store by people wanting them but coming back later to buy them), he couldn't find one, so I left. On the way out the front door I hear 'Sir!' and turn around and he's motioning for me, telling me he's found one! Great deal for me. No waiting, no getting up early, and I still get the set. Looks like a great deal at $60.

I'm finding a lot of stores started running sales on a lot of black friday stuff early...was in best buy yesterday and they already had all their DVDs from their black friday ad displayed at the black friday price ($3.99). I suspect we'll be seeing a ton of stores with their 'black friday' sales starting early.

http://www.slipperybrick.com/2008/11/legos-safe/ "You might think that a Lego safe would be easy to open. Maybe just remove a few bricks and you’re in. But that’s not the case with this thing, the cutting edge of Lego safe technology. The safe weighs 14 pounds and has a motion detecting alarm so it can’t be moved without creating a huge ruckus. The lock takes five double digit codes to open it. That translates into over 305 billion different combinations. It even boasts an electronic status display showing the numbers as you turn the combination dials. When you enter the combination, the door electronically opens itself. It’s a great place to store all of your valuable geek stuff. Check out a video below."

K-mart has a 'buy 2, get one free' promo (with the free being of course, of equal or lesser value). http://downloads.bfads.net/BFAds-Kmart-Friday-2008.pdf