Whittleberry

Look here...what's all this about? I really REALLY hope that this eventuates into something worthy of the LEGO brand, and not another badly planned film based on toys like Transformers or that GI Joe movie. More news stories related to this can be found here.

Yes, I remember that game. I played it on one of the free Internet computer things n Singapore airport years ago...good times.

Yes, that's right. We already have to pay tax.

Say what now?

If they do come to Australia, then the first one will definitely be on the east coast. However, there's a bad aspect of having a LEGO Store around, as pointed out by someone in the local LUG; if we have LEGO Stores, chances are that the exclusives will be sold there alone, which means having to buy them at full RRP unlike this past year when we can buy <$300 Eiffel Towers, $120 MMVs, $160 Town Plans and $200 Green Grocers.

Is that so? Does that include the 41 stores which already exist in the US, UK and Germany? Also, will these new stores be only in the US, or in other countries too?

When, while holidaying abroad, you make a point to check out the local LEGO offerings.

I went to my Target today, and they had a restock of the early 09 and some 08 sets. Indy Temple Escapes, Castle Troll Wagons, Tower Raids all restocked. Some pirates stuff had also been restocked, but only the Fort and Cannon Battle. No sign of the Bounty. I'm still waiting eagerly for the new Indy and SW sets...

I would consider myself a purist: -I would use any SYSTEM or TECHNIC part made by TLG, except for &lt;insert that tiresome argument&gt; pieces or the Belville/Scala figs and their oversized clothing. -I have quite a distaste for the new bricks with clips on them, as these would have been built from individual parts in the recent past. -I apply TLG stickers to some sets, but then store the stickered bricks carefully so they stay in good condition. -I would make custom minifig torsos by using stickers, so long as there is no damage done to the original torso when it's removed -I would make my own custom cloth and string elements, but I wouldn't mix them in storage with my official LEGO -I would NEVER EVER buy clone bricks, not in a million years -I'd like to buy some Arealight Vespas. Although not produced by LEGO, they're a high quality fan-made product, and they are only selling something which LEGO doesn't provide. I would store my Vespas separately though. -I LOVE printed elements and chrome elements -I MIGHT cut a brick if one of my brickfilms required it, but it would be a spare from bricklink, not from my collection.

What a beautiful station! There's only two things that I'd improve. Firstly, as Rick said, the Fachwerk style diagonal lines on the building are distracting because of their blockiness. Here is an example of how people use slopes and tiles for fachwerk houses. The other thing is, maybe you could give the station a name, and have the sign say "Bahnhof" rather than "Station", since the design is based on German architecture.

I also don't see the point of including so many classic spacemen in these vintage packs either, since real collectors want spacemen with the real helmets. Might be good for getting new torsos if your gold has faded off though. And what's up with the castle guy's helmet? Would that be Old Grey or what? Hardly "vintage" if its MdStone. Besides, it should be easy for LEGO to produce Old Grey since they now use those colourless ABS pellets. I agree with what people are saying about the battlepack; you can't have an army of admirals or whatever The coin bank looks cute and the gold magnets look a bit gimmicky, but they're chrome so no complaining. Now the xmas stuff. I'm glad TLG is making more christmas-themed sets, it hasn't made anything except advent calendars for years. The candle looks nice, except I think it should have been built out od round bricks. The candle is obviously an advent calendar, hence the numbers on the side. Take one off fo each day in December, and the candle burns down. Here's hoping they're printed The second christmas set looks like a little present you'd send someone. Maybe that thing down the bottom is a christmas card to send it with? And lastly, baubles. I wonder if they can be opened up, or if they come preassembled and sealed.

Just went to my Target and picked up the Kraken and Cannon Battle pirate sets. The sale there has been quite successful...most of the LEGO stock is gone. No MMVs...but I've had one for months now so that doesn't matter. Hopefully we'll be seeing those new sets soon, just after the sale ends I would imagine. Didn't bother checking DJs...

I'm not surprised they're not real LEGO...oh well. I wonder if they are made in China...I'm not sure about whether LEGO would put their logo on something which was low quality. As for the German stuff on the website: The main writing in the middle of the cars says: All of the cars' pieces can be combined as you like - and also with the LEGO Racers Tiny Turbos in the shops! The writing over the individual cars says: MONSTER RAD (monster wheel): Off-road vehicle in white and black. It's built from 3 parts. KURVENCRUISER (swerving/turning cruiser): Racing car in blue and grey, with number 27 and big rear spoiler. It's built from 3 parts. TURBOBOOSTER: Racing car in red and white featuring the name "Rallyfire". It's built from 3 parts. SPORTPFEIL (sports-dart (as in, it's a fast sports car)): Racing car in yellow and dark red. It's built from 3 parts. Again, I'm not sure all that stuff about combining them with real Racers sets would be coming from LEGO if these are poor quality Chinese things.

Do you even have that set? If, like me, you did, I'm sure you would know that its made up of two bar pieces.

I've never been a Toy Story fan, and I hardly even know what PoP is, but there's some pretty nice pieces there. I don't like the Toy Story figs though...most of them just aren't normal minifigs. I like Hagrid from the Harry Potter sets, but these oversized figs are like little action figures with LEGO style hands and feet which can attach to studs. I'm just worried about an excess of new parts which don't look like LEGO elements. The camel and ostrich aren't exactly nice and simple like the Castle horses or the minifig scale dog, but they look ok. Whether I buy any of these sets or not will depend on pieces I think.

A few of those 1 x 1 round plates with holes could be useful, but I really hope they only put holes in a few of them. Otherwise, cars which use them for headlights will look silly, and we won't be able to make nice gravel beds for train tracks or pebbly roads with them anymore.

- More Minifig parts (licensed parts, such as Admiral Ackbar's head, would sell like hotcakes) - More Minifig accessories - More minifig Food - More printed parts also, include more pieces which are relatively rare, yet in high demand (aka printed pieces, agents barbed wire, pieces which can only be found in a few sets)

That's surprising to hear, I'm pretty sure all of mine have been stamped with Danish post office stuff.

Thanks for telling us about it! I added "less stickers and more printed parts" and "LEGO stores in more countries e.g. France, Australia and the Netherlands" to the opinion thing. Interesting to see all these questions about brickjournal...

Hi, I've made a kmz file for Google Earth showing all the locations of LEGO brand Stores past, present and future. Click on the different pins to see opening/closing date information, as well as a brief description of which shopping centre/area the store is located in. You can download it here (Google Earth kzm file, 8kb). (Current as of 11/7/09) You'll need Google Earth to open the file. Open the file with Google Earth, or open the file from inside Google Earth (File->Open) Pushpin colour code: Red= Closed Store Yellow= Current Store White= Future Store Blue= Unsure of existence of store/ unsure whether or not the store is an official LEGO Store Please reply if you know any information about Store opening/closing dates or locations which isn't in the file! I'll update it as new info becomes available to me.

It would make sense for LEGO not to want cheaply-bought US sets being shipped to EU countries where the price of LEGO is higher, however I think it's HIGHLY unlikely that they'd shut down Bricklink. Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen was just at Brickworld looking at all the models that people had been able to make as a result of Bricklink, and he wouldn't want to put a stop to that.

You have good taste in themes Have a good time here

Well Toy Corner doesn't, coincidentally I was there just the other day. DJ is the other retailer not having a toy sale...all the DJ's I've been to seem to have run out of puff - poor selection of stock (the sets no-one has wanted to buy, as they've been sitting there for ages) and no discounts. I really wonder if they're giving up on toys, and are just selling what they have until they're all gone, since my local DJ and the one in the city haven't restocked since last year, I don't think... I really don't see the likelihood of a DJ exclusive this year, unless it's the only thing LEGO-wise that they bother about.

Is the magnet set available in Aus? I would have thought that as long as it wasn't here, some idiots would be still willing to fork out this crazy amount of money... It's sad to see TRU always abuse the sales of their exclusives... Look how Target is doing it, it's taking its (already well-priced) exclusive and making it cheaper!