Rocketbilly

Hmmm that's something I frequently do. I'd recommend one of the small Creator sets for parts, outside of sales you really can't get a better deal for that price. The pieces are useful and have a wide range of purposes. But I'm sure you know that already If it's figs you're after, then the obvious choice would be a Star Wars battle pack for sheer volume, but personally I find the figures to be a little generic when looked at as figure pieces as opposed to a whole figure - there's not much you can do with them - if it's more unique figure parts you want then I'm personally fond of the Space Police line, if Aliens are your thing. If not then you can't go wrong with good old City! So yeah, I myself would recommend the small, green Creator car "Street Speeder" (6743) but the more recent helicopter one, "Rotor Rescue" (5866) looks quite nice, too. Hope this helps Regards, Will/Rocketbilly

Welcome to Eurobricks! The Modular buildings certainly are inspiring, aren't they? fantastic sets, if you can afford them. I wish you and your wife the best of luck with your planned build - do you think you'll be posting it here when you finish it? would certainly be nice to see it! Also, good luck with starting your LUG, if that is indeed what you have to do to get one in your area. I have no doubt you'll be doing the Lego community a service! Enjoy your time here, it's a great community. Regards Will/Rocketbilly

No problem! How obscure. I recieved this not too long ago: "Dear William, Thanks for getting in touch with us. i just spoke to our expert for the Space Police range and he told me that those sets are available in normal shops as well and are not exclusive to us. LEGO toys are also sold through loads of different shops: toy supermarkets, speciality shops, national chains, department stores, catalogues and our Brand Retail Stores (they're the official LEGO shops). Unfortunately I cannot tell you exactly which shops have the sets you need but i hope you will be able to complete your collection. Thanks again for getting in touch. Happy building! Carolyn Voss LEGO Direct" I seem to recall you mentioning you got something similar in a thread not too long back, too (at least I think it was you) I wonder what it is, then? will we or wont we get them? ooohh the suspense. I just sent an email to Dominoe's toys asking if they'd be getting some in stock soon, so maybe that will help clarify. Will/Rocketbilly

Very nice work! I like this vignette, especially how the twin appears to be diving forwards whilst firing, that's a great touch, and I like how you've used the new laser gun but also kept it consistent with the theme by using the trans studs on the end. I also really like the blood effect pouring out of the not so lucky twins helmet - I myself would have used a different colour for the blood, maybe trans neon green - it's an alien, after all, so why not? Though of course red makes it that much more realisitic. Great work! I'm still waiting for the sets to appear here in the UK since I too got an email from Lego confirming that they'll be available, have you had any luck yet? Will/rocketbilly

Ahh, silly me! I'm sure there's an Innsmouth here in the UK, too I also prefer the droid bodies for aliens, but you're right about the lack of headage, plus they tend to be fairly pricey, for what they are but you can make some lovely robots with them. Will/Rocketbilly

Above all I hope Space Police 3 continues next year, even just a final wave in January to send the theme off but I doubt it. Western would certainly be welcome but we have to look at how Lego sets are today compared to how they were back in Western's time - A fair amount of Lego's sets in most themes are vehicle related, whereas the core of Western's sets were more "playsets" buildings, scenes, locations really, very few vehicles. Also, it's hard to see how the Western sets would stack up faction wise. Lego's very fond of having two distinct factions as of recent, it's hard to see two "good" and "evil" factions, really. Bandits versus The Law? possibly. Cowboys versus "indians" (Native Americans) highly unlikely.... I don't know, that's just my opinion - Western's just too different to the kinds of sets Lego is releasing nowadays, though I hope I'm wrong. Hopefully that made sense. Hero Factory will likely continue. Star Wars of course... But if Space Police has now finished then I hope for another Space theme, with a focus more on exploration and adventure rather than conflict or "factions". What I think would be interesting, would be a theme similar to the Competition Technic sets of the nineties, but as a system theme although I suppose World Racers is similar in a few regards. I hope I've contributed something towards this great topic, and I for one can't wait until the first blurry catalogue scans or whatever is is we usually get. Even Rumours would suffice! Will/Rocketbilly

Thanks for the canister help, everyone. I purposely sought out the sets in Tesco, and yeah.....the lids have that Skrall Maze pattern thing on them which would obviously mean that it wouldn't go wih the HF sets. Oh, and by "sought out the sets" I mean the Bionicle Stars. Wasn't expecting to see HF sets, and there weren't. Will/Rocketbilly

Really looking forwards to these sets. I intend to get one of each hero and then a second Bulk and a second Stringer to MOC my own all-black Hero. One thing though - are the canisters the Hero sets come int he same as the Bionicle Stars sets? they look similar but I'm not sure. Will/Rockebilly

Funnily enough, I was just Googling E3, and now here's your topic. I'm looking forward to seeing footage of Fallout: New Vegas and hopefully we'll see something to do with Resistance 3, too. I'd also love a look at a new Hitman game or even TimeSplitters, though I very much doubt we'll get a new 'Splitters any time soon. I'm sure there'll be plenty of other exciting new stuff, though. Will/Rocketbilly

Fantastic MOC! I really like the way you've got it to fit so well with the theme with only the one set, certainly looks authentic. It's also good to see another British Space Police fan. It's my favourite theme, I wish it was more commonly available here! Oh, and that four armed alien is great, too. I've been meaning to pick up some Bionicle figs to use in SP3, but I had no idea how versatile they are!

I've been pouring over this review again and again since you posted it, but I just noticed something in one of your pictures - the red printing on the Police officer's badge on his torso looks incredibly dull. Is it just the picture or have you got a badly printed torso? All my Space police officers have a brighter coloured badge. How odd! Anyway, thanks again for the great (and addictive!) review. Will/Rocketbilly

Thankyou! That is promising news indeed! I wonder then, if that really is the case, we'll be getting some of the older SP3 sets too, or just these new releases? I mean I can't really see TRU just stocking three pretty expensive sets. Having said that, I'd rather have just the three than no sets at all any day, I just think it would be nice to be able to pick up a Raid VPR or even Squidman Escape. Will/Rocketbilly

Thanks for this fantastic review! It's an okayish set, definitely not one of the best in the theme, but still rather spiffing. The cockpit looks a bit rubbish though, but I suppose it would have been difficult to get a better cockpit and still have a smooth transformation. Oh well, can't have everything. I too would like to know where you got this set. Since the sets have only just surfaced on S@H, and with SP3 being confined to Lego stores and Online, then it's logical to assume you got this from a Lego store? SP3 is my favourite theme, and living in the UK has made it very difficult for me to aquire the sets - I can't shop online and live miles away from any Lego store of any description, so I hope you somehow found this somewhere like, say Argos or Toys R' US Anyway, despite making a tad depressed at my slim chances of owning this set, this is still a good review. Will/Rocketbilly

Congratulations on your promotion! I do believe the action will be very well regulated. Will/Rocketbilly

Yeah, it's an old set, but still in circulation here in the UK. I got it from Tesco - they have a 3-for-2 offer on at the moment. I picked up two 7245's and a 7942 aswell. I still have the other 7245 boxed. I WAS going to return it to the shop tomorrow and swap it for a second 7942, but now I'm tempted to open it up to see if it indeed has this new piece also. I presume it does, but I'm just so tempted! I presume what they've done is started producing it, and it'll end up in other sets soon. I'm actually going to order a Smash N' Grab from shop at home soon, I've got a feelingthis piece may turn up int hat set, too, unless they're only producing them in black as of present. As for it being a mis-mold, I highly doubt it. It's a flawless piece. If nobody has one and is interested, I'll try to get clearer pics tomorrow if I can procure batteries. Will/Rocketbilly

I bought a copy of 7245 today, and got a "new" piece. I'm pretty sure It's a replacement for the classic space laser/torch piece we've had for a very long while. Here's a link to my flickR stream, with a comparison with the old piece: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44977578@N06/4495030924/ Sorry for poor photo and lack of embedded picture, but it's dark and cluttered here, and that's the best I could do. As you can (probably) see, it's made of a shinier plastic, lacks the ridges of the original piece and the proportions seem to be slightly different. Is this new news, or has it been documented before? it's certainly new to me, but having said that I'm out of the loop a little. Any help would be appreciated! Will/Rocketbilly

Really nice! I especially like the window, how you created that little angle by using the inverted slop brick. Really simple but clever technique, and the flowers make it look really nice, too! Impressive work. regards, Will/Rocketbilly

I really love the texture in the beard, and the way the beard is threaded thorugh the loop things ( I lack the technical terms regarding dwarven beards) is really good, too. I also spotted Mr. Fish.....lurking beneath the icy water. Impressive! Will/Rocketbilly

Great mods, but also really weird - I did the exact same thing to mine, right down to the dials and spotlights, but I put mine in slightly different places. I think yours is better, though, as mine lacks a harpoon gun holder. Did you find the grappling hooks on the flick fire missiles on yours were really loose and fell out really easily? I did. Will/Rocketbilly

I really like this! Inspired use of the large Trolls arms, at first glance I thought they were parts from the new Ben 10 sets. They look fantastic! I also think the croissant claws are hilarious and genius at the same time Will/Rocketbilly

Great review. I really want one of those baseplates! I think even I have some of the pieces necessary to MOC something similar to this, and your great review certainly inspired me to do so! I really like your pictures too. Looking at many pictures of classic space sets makes my hands feel sticky and filthy. Not yours...my hands feel fresh and clean Seriously, this looks like it's fresh out of the box! Will/Rocketbilly

Yeah, the plastic on the Metru Armour is a softer plastic, that goes for the feet aswel and maybe the masks too. It's a good quality plastic though, but sadly it does show scratch marks a ittle more than most Bionicle pieces. Don't know why they're like that, but I'm sure Lego had good reason to make them that way, maybe it allowed for greater detail or something. Who knows. Will/Rocketbilly

Ah, right. Good idea. I always fail at landing gear/ wings in my MOCs, so much respect for that. I had my suspiscions that's where the cockpit piece came from - it just reeks of Ogel! Will/Rocketbilly

Well done, I like this. One thing I would suggest though is putting one of the Atlantean ring collectibles in the temple. That is, of course if you're trying to tie it in with Lego's Atlantis theme, and if you have one of the pieces. The wave is impressive, but looks a little thin to me. Nevertheless, and awesome MOC Will/Rocketbilly

Thanks for the review, Svelte. Fantasticaly penned, humourous, detailed and ridiculously fast as usual. How can you get sets so early and post the review so quickly without it suffering from being so quick? impressive skills! I really love this set, I love all of the modular sets. Escalator technique is confusing, at least to me though. Of course I'll never be able to get this set. Can't afford it now, and definitely wont be able to afford it when it's discontinued but I'd snap the whole series up in a heartbeat if I could. You get a great finished set, great parts, new parts and rare colours! I think these sets really give a lot of credibility to our AFOL world. Thanks for a great read! Will/Rocketbilly