def

I'm a married dad as well, and my wife generally took my return to Lego well. Compared to dad's blowing money on cars, bars, or sports, Lego isn't so bad. She took issue when spending went beyond $100 a month though, and I had to reign it in. It really is just a hobby. No better or worse than building model battleships or having a train set in the basement. Enjoy your Slave I, and consider diving into the big sets, like the modular buildings. They cost more, but feel more mature and you might even be able to place them in the living room

Up close and personal with the "Gaga" Sensei Shiroba (aka Whitefang) I assume. I recently accidentally walked into the middle of a Lady Gaga mini-press greeting at the Tokyo airport and showed up in every Japanese entertainment news article that week. Plus I was on the plane with her, from Toronto to Tokyo, though she was smuggled on: as the second most famous person in the world after Barrack Obama, she can't have real privacy. Unfortunately, I didn't get to hit on her or anything Strange and fun, and it's been a long time since my last EB title, so it's a breath of fresh air. Here was my best photo looking at all the news photographers taking pic of her: I have another 10 blurrier ones too

This made me smile today: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/22/legoland-prank-swaps-volv_n_882656.html

Thanks for this review! This is one set I've been keeping my eye on since it was announced; I loved the old cruiser, and this was one of my favorite ships in CW season 1. I think the things they changed on this one compared to the old cruiser are interesting. The escape pod is changed, the release mechanism is a little different, and the insides of the ship look greatly improved; the original was somewhat Spartan in interiors. The turrets are interesting, and you said it's a bit longer too. I don't love the mini-figs here, since I barely remember any of the characters except Yoda, but there is a lot more effort put into them than in the ones with the cruiser. Unfortunately, I'll ultimately end up voting with my wallet, since it's about ¥15,000 here, a steep markup from the ¥10,000 cruiser. If I find this on sale, I'll be very tempted to pick it up though. Thanks again for the review, always glad to see high quality ones

It's not great with continuity, with the comics or the first movies, but it's a lot closer to the set up of the films. Stuff different from comic continuity:

I saw X-Men First Class today. It was amazing. As someone who's read X-Men comics for 25 years, this had so much stuff the last movies were missing, even X2, which is considered the best X-Men movie... til now. Magneto owns this flick. By the end of the movie, you know why Magneto hates humans. The female roles were a little underperformed/underwritten, but the movie is really about Magneto and Professor X, so most of the other male roles are underwritten too. But the movie captures a lot of the wonder and hatred from the comics. When people see their powers, they are amazed and terrified. I saw the other major comic movie so far this year, Thor, too. X-Men is much better. The film has a lot of weight to it. Thor was pretty breezy.

That's something else I should add to my review. The head piece is simply like a sort of hat. Very easy to remove. Yup. But it was a quickie. The colors and all I simply lifted from a Clone Wars screen shot.

Somewhat. The prints are dark, so I did some levels adjustment after taking the pics. But, if you want to get a good judgment on it, his hands seem to be a standard LEGO minifig shade of yellow. His headpiece is slightly off color from his head, it's a touch brighter. I'd put this down to it being the soft rubber that they use for these odd shapes. But it's really not that noticeable. I didn't pay much attention to it until I was taking pics.

It's a joke, not a real crush And Opress is a cartoon character

Thanks so much I want to take a second out, since it's that time of year, where lots of members are desperate to share the first review of the new sets. I love being first as much as anybody, but I still put time in to this review. I'm pretty let down when someone takes pics for a review with their cellphone on the kitchen table with cereal in the background just so they can be first EB is a classy site ( ) so when we do first run reviews, like ones that are titled "Review: xxx", they should take some effort. Anyway, I'm glad you all like it. I know where you're coming from, nobody is a fan of stickers, but these are pretty essential to the design. The ship would look pretty dull without them. It takes a real man to admit a man-crush BC. You are a real man

What is it you don't like with the ship? The shape? The color? I quite like the original design of it. The only weakness for me is the flat bottom, but that's only if I compare it to something similarly designed, like the Cloud City Cloud Car Thanks. I might redo the mini fig pics though, it got cloudy today as I took pictures, and it was hard to catch the color cleanly. As for the poll, unless stated otherwise, the questions should be about the LEGO. "Rate this set," not the review

Cool. I have to arrive and start to figure out my schedule that sounds good. Let's see if we can gather five or six people

Love the prequels, hate the prequels, whatever. One thing we should all agree on was this: Darth Maul was excellent. There is something cool about him dying off in Episode One, so that he didn't get all played out, but I miss the little guy. I need more of his tattooed badness in my life. Luckily, there's a whole damn planet of his kind, waiting to get LEGO-fied. Set#: 7957 Name: Sith Nightspeeder/ Dathomir Speeder (Japanese name) Theme: Star Wars, The Clone Wars Year: 2011 Pieces: 213 Minifigs: 3: Anakin Skywalker, Asajj Ventress, Savage Opress Price: ¥3,150 MSP: U.S.$24.99, £29.99 Peeron Brickset Bricklink The box Your standard Clone Wars box. The background conjures up the rugged landscape of Dathomir well enough, plus there's a silly explosion in the background. The back shows the single play feature, disconnecting speeders. They are reminiscent of Darth Maul's crescent speeder in Episode 1. I don't remember them disconnecting in the Clone Wars episode it appeared in. Summer 2011 is a good year for sets. The booklets Standard booklet. Nothing special. Guess who's on the back There are some interesting techniques in this build, so I thought I'd show this The Pieces Three bags, stickers, and a booklet. Here's my curly sticker sheet. Very curly. The stickers really are important to the set. The pieces are a smattering of dark and light grey, with a pinch of brown. Notice the five printed slopes! What? I'm confused. Are we in 2001? These were new pieces for me, and pieces that I could see being very common in the future: 2x4 snotties. Look at these guys, one new minifig, and two classic Clone Wars figs... or are they? The guy on the right is the dread Savage Opress. What a ridiculous name. It's pronounced sa-VAGE His brother's name is Feral (fe-RAL). Seriously. Check the Wookiepedia. It's yet another reason I stopped reviewing Clone Wars episodes. But we can't blame LEGO for that. And all three have back printing. Hurrah! A new Ventress? Nice. I wasn't so satisfied by the first Ventress (on the right), and I think the new one is an improvement. She's definitely lankier. I'd like to see her even thinner and taller though, however they could do it. And of course, the back printing is an improvement from before. Oh God, another damn Anakin. I've got so many Anakins I've started giving them away to people as souvenirs when they visit my house. Wait, what? This is a new Anakin? Huh? A new body print? Wow. A loose circa-Episode Two Tattooine look. Very nice. (New on the left, old on the right) And a new back print Oh, the prices are starting to make sense. So here's Savage as he appeared in his episode. He was pretty awesome. Big, fast and, er, savage It really was one of the high points of the season, and he should be returning in season four. Cool stuff. I love you Savage Opress. Will you go to prom with me? His head has a mini-hat of sorts, the spikes are a detachable rubber ring. Oh Savage, you have a tattooed belly. It drives me mad. Oh, you got muscly shoulder blades too. Maddening. Here's his Facebook page if you want to be his friend: link The Finished Product The first half of the build is these two speeders. Sharp, sleek, with nice SNOT side panels. The second half is building the frame for it. Equally nice SNOT techniques. Note, the front slope is printed, the back ones have stickers. So, this speeder only appears for 30 seconds in the show, so it's hard to get a good idea of the 'real' shape. But this gives you some sort of idea. So this is it. It's not too big, but it cuts a nice shape, and is relatively sturdy. I'm always a fan of the asymmetrical, so I like that the engine is on the left, as nonsensical as that would be in reality. If you just need to go down to the store for milk or something, this is a lot more convenient than a full tank or something. The Final Verdict Design: 9/10 This is a smartly crafted ship. For something so slight, it is holds together, and it cuts a sharp silhouette. Build: 7/10 This was a grueling eight hour build with lots of mistakes in the details. No, wait, it was a brief, 30 minute build. But no complaints. Playability: 8/10 For the size of the set, it is playable. It has a good guy and two bad, and a ship that breaks down into smaller ones. Very swooshable. Minifigures: 10/10 Three new figs, and one has a spiky head and a complex print. All have back prints. Price: 7/10 No, this is a little small for the price, but compared to the rest of the licensed line, it's pretty average. As a collector, I'm feeling pretty gouged. But, not on this set any more than any other. Overall: 9/10 Of the 2011 Clone Wars sets, this is the must-have set, in my opinion. Low investment, great characters, and printed pieces. Savage Opress! I probably won't buy many or any other Clone Wars sets this year, not with the other interesting OT and PT sets out there, but there was no question about buying this set, and no regret upon building it and seeing it up close.

Yeah, I'm not going to be doing anyone's brick-list on my vacation, sorry

I think I'll go to Sherway Gardens store either next weekend or the one after. Anyone interested in a Sherway AFOL/TFOL meet up? People would have to be at least over 16, since I'm 35, and feel creepy hanging out with kids...

The truth about the prequels:

This is beautiful, great job! It also has broke all over the Internet. I'm sure you've seen some links, but it may be hard to track down all the places blogging it. http://www.geekologie.com/2011/06/theyre-stealing-my-other-blocks-impressi.php http://dvice.com/archives/2011/06/10000-piece-leg.php It seems to have started from a Brother's Brick blog post

Thanks. I'm not really shopping for much. I bought a Grand Emporium, the 1932 Fire Station, The Temple of Doom in the last two weeks, and the missus was... tolerant of it. Actually, the Temple I kept a secret. But, the Pharaoh's Quest and Aliens Attack aren't available here right now, so I'll at least consider some of those. The Alien's Attack battle pack seems worth buying. I declare it'll be a lot more fun to visit in the summer than at Christmas! Just a visit though. I'mm coming to renew my driver's license. It expired two years and 10 months ago, and after three years, you need to do all the tests again, so it's worth the money to come back. See you guys at the Sherway Gardens food court

Hello Canadians! I'm coming back to Canada NEXT WEEK! Unbelievable. But I plan to check out the Sherway store if I can, though I'll be staying east of T.O. Out of curiosity to you who've been there, a few questions: -does the store simply sell everything at the Lego.com rate? -do they have anything special there? -is it even worth going to if there isn't a sale? -is there a place online to see specials? Thanks.

That was an... interesting game Great hosting, as if the host had been to mafia school himself The players were a bit erratic in places. It can be challenging to play with players who don't know how to play. They zig when most players would zag, and can really mess a strategy up (ie. the crazy day one vote). Big congratulations to Donut, and to the others who passed

Have a great one, Cammy

Oh yes, I forgot to say, Thank you very much. It really is an honor to be part of the great EB mafia tradition. Thanks. And Rick, you die early next time I play with you

I don't think POTC will ever be comparable to the SW series/prequels, simply because the story is not continuous. They are a series of adventures, maybe comparable to Indiana Jones. Johnny Depp publically stated in an interview last week that he never even watched the second and third ones, and that Verbinski told him he didn't know what was going on with the story while directing. I think you can tell they were junk movies just from that. It's a shame that a quality actor like Depp is doing this to himself, but I won't begrudge him it, I'm sure he's putting the cash to good use. True movie fans should boycott this on principle in hopes to discourage a fifth one. It won't stop Bruckheimer, but it may open his eyes up to the importance of quality, and not rushing a movie to meet the summer release deadline.

I agree, that's the real point of the bagged figures, the randomness. But, at that price point, it's too much to not know what you're getting. For Japan, it's pretty standard with the popularity of these machines and the collect-ability of their contents. I'm not used to it though.