MicroM

Impressive MOC, perfect splashes of colour across the model. The cockpit is perfect. And I love your heavy weapon specialist. Well photographed as well.

Myer at Carindale (Brisbane) had at least a dozen Endors. Also stocked with TS3 and those 2 SPIII kits (Rapid VPR & Smash 'n grab).

Very, very nice. I love the colour scheme. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the great review. I'm in the process of accumulating City and the Modular kits for a LEGO city for my boys to build (when they are old enough - currently 21 and 3 months). I've thought about adding a few classic sets to the ones I've still got intact from my childhood. I never had this kit, but often dreamed of it. I do think it might go into my "shopping list". Thanks again, really detailed review.

Tried Myer for the 20% off this morning. Got told it's not in addition to the sale prices. But I'm sure some of you will have better luck than me, cause one thing you can guarantee with Myer is that they are inconsistent!!!

This news was posted a few pages back - this thread tends to fill pretty quick. It was also stated that Myer One cardholders will get an extra 10% off (till Monday). I'm going to try for this tomorrow - last time I was at Myer they only let me have one sale or the other, not both. See what happens this time.

My TrU didn't have the Fire Brigade. Damn it !!! Well done to those who got it for $200.

Thanks for the heads up on the Myer deal, strange that it run between 11 - 3pm only, but suited me.

My Myer had the disclaimers all over both offers. And I had to get Store Manager approval to use the "buy 2 get 1 free" offer instead of the 20% off. I've decided I'll go and re-try tomorrow. Those who've got both deals - Well Done !!

My Myer was all over the dual offers and the "can't use in conjuction disclaimer". I even had to get store manager approval to use the "buy 2 get 1 free" offer instead of the 20% off. Hopefully others weren't confronted with such agro staff like I was.

I really like the look of these new kits. My Castle collection is pretty small, with only a few of the Troll kits (mountain fortress and warship), so will be great to get a Castle for some non-troll warriors. Can't wait for some high-res pics from NY TF this weekend. And I like the human v human aspect, and when you place them with the Trolls you can have a 3 way tussle for supremacy !!!

I really like the look of the SP Base and the new SP Vehicle. Wish they'd tried a new design for the new Alien vehicle, this just looks like a bigger version of the existing vehicle. I wasn't going to bother on any SPIII, but after getting a few of the 2009 kits on clearance I think I'm now hooked.

Great MOC. Everything is so well done. Thanks very much for sharing.

Maybe around $20 (assuming a $300 sale price), including eBay fees (assume you post 1 pic) and the winner pays by PayPal. Yes the boxing is quite the logistics, I literally trawled through a cardboard "dumpster" at the local shopping centre to find a good sized box for the larger kits I mailed out. Good luck

"What is MISB?" - That was the most asked question I got when I list items through eBay. I would just say that the box has "Some minor shelf wear", that should just about cover it. eBay is a good way to go, just be prepared for the logistics of getting boxes to ship items in, taking to the post office, and getting your info right so that the postage calculator gives a decent estimate that will cover the actual cost. Oh yeah and the fees

At least it didn't take the others too long to correct my mistake. Sorry, forgot to type Kmart.....somehow!!!

The upcoming (from Thursday 21st Jan) catalogue has a few of the new SW and Toy Story kits at "Introductory prices". - The Freeco speeder and Tri Fighter are $38 (price jumps to $48 after the promo) - SW Battle packs + Toy Story army men - $19 ($22 normal price) Must say I'm considering a Freeco at that price....maybe !!

Thanks for the feedback. Yes that old Space Police line was pretty good. It was fun to build an old kit, and know I'm hunting for a few of those other kits from the original line. Doing a review is actually a good way to enjoy the kit, get's you thinking of the pros and cons as you go along. I really like this theme, hopefully they have some further releases later in the year. Though judging on the stock still left at my Kmart, it wasn't a huge hit with the kids.

Don't be put off by the "UCS" number. We've had plenty of kits with that 5 digit numbering that have been minifig scale, eg Sandcrawler, AT-OT / Dropship, Tantive IV (latest edition). Anyway, its all good fun speculating. Its hard to think its anything other than the shuttle, given we get Luke, Vader, Imperial Officer and Shuttle Pilot.

February 14-17.

Interesting with the poster, it doesn't show any figures from the second 2010 wave, eg Luke in Hoth, Cad Bane, etc. Makes you think that this extra kit (10212) is due for release shortly, perhaps NY Toy Fair.

Wow, great news. Looks like Luke in Jedi robes is also included, so seems like a ROTJ set. Perhaps a Vader delivering Skywalker to the Emporer (via Vader's shuttle). Would love to see a re-vamped Imperial Shuttle. Thanks for the news.

When I heard about the SPIII wave I was very excited. I’m a Star Wars LEGO collector now, but was well and truely into Classic Space collector back in my childhood (80’s). I recall the Space Police line, although it was released when I was well into my teens and not really buying / playing with LEGO anymore. I did however buy 1 original Space Police kit - 6895 Space Police Prowler. The 5979 kit really reminded me of that kit so was on my shopping list for 2009. I didn’t actually buy it until Kmart put the Galactic Enforcer on clearance and I decided to pick it up and then a few of the other SPIII kits, including 5979. Before I start on my review I a going to put a few pictures of the old 6895 Space Prowler kit up, as I used this as reference point for my review. I don’t have the box anymore, but here’s an old catalogue picture: I’d really love a few of these older kits, but I only ever did get the 6895, oh well there’s always the secondary market. Before I put together the new one (5979) I did search through pounds and pounds of old LEGO to rebuild this kit. Was fun to build an old kit, and thankfully nearly all the parts were there (only 1 missing piece, but I was able to replace with a different coloured part). It really is a great little kit. The mechanism that turns the vehicle, although basic by today’s standards was (at least for me) an innovation in LEGO when I built it all those years ago. The use of a technic axle to connect the front and back portions and then a piece (where the “Police” logo is in the middle portion) sits over the top to move the wheels from left to right. Here’s the 2 minifigures you get, 1 Officer (although no specific uniform) and one bad buy, in the form of a Blacktron minifig. The jail cell is pretty cool, especially with the Police logo on the side and trans red pieces, which I always imagined as lasers keeping the prisoner in his / her cell. The kit had 148 pieces Lastly here’s a shot from the instruction manual, it was pretty thin, and a lot would happen from step to step. And no little legend telling you which pieces you should be using. To be honest I rarely look at those little boxes now, I’m sure that’s a hangover from my youth where you just had to look at the picture and work out what was added. Anyway, I digress. Here’s the actual review of the 2009 Space Police kit - 5979 Maximum Security Transport Kit # - 5979 Space Police - Security Transport Price - $45 AUD (got this in a pre Christmas sale at K-Mart, down from $60 - it was an exclusive at Kmart, which is thankful as Kmart always go on sale and don’t add some arbitrary markup to LEGO’s RRP) Pieces - 330 pieces Minifigs - 3 - 1 Officer + 2 Aliens Box Very big box, as usual half the box is dedicated to wasted space, I really wish LEGO would reduce their box sizes, surely parents don’t just buy based on the size of the box. Anyway it’s nice art work, the little “Wanted” pictures at the bottom right hand corner is a nice touch. The rear of the box shows the transport in its “Flight” mode, along with a few smaller pictures showing how the vehicle converts into a smaller ship. It was nice to see a Space themed kit on the LEGO shelves, outside of the SW line. Box was opened by pushing in the 2 push tabs on the back of the box, mine was really wel glued and caused a fait bit of ripping to get into it. Contents: - 3 bags with pieces (which are numbered 1 - 3 and the kit is built in 3 stages); - The eight wheel pieces, loose; - Sticker sheet (I don’t put stickers on anything, so this is useless to me); and - Instruction manual (its 75 pages long, includes a parts list and a few shots of the completed vehicles. The old 6895 instruction manual was 12 pages long, and didn’t include the now obligatory warning about empting the parts on the grass - how did kids ever know that was a hazard??? ). Random instruction manual page Minifigs Bag # 1 contains the minifigs. Initially I didn’t like the Aliens, but now after opening them up, and also remembering back to my childhood (where you had to invent bad guys, before Blacktron) I think it’s good they’ve come up with an Alien or “bad guy” for the Police to catch. I hope this line has some longevity, but given this year has only 2 new releases I’m thinking its time is short, but I would have liked to have seen them build on the theme and added some more depth to the Aliens (perhaps a hideout, that's more substantial than the pitstop). Here’s a picture of the green alien, his face is covered by the helmet, but I thought I’d show the detail it has The Space Police Officer has a good torso and legs design and the helmet is OK (there’s no reverse face print him). I think some sort of armor suit, like from the Agents line would have been a nice addition to this. Though he would have needed somewhere to keep it, as the cockpit is tight. But I think that would have been a nice touch, as would have a gun. Does he just ask the Aliens to stop when he catches them ?? Stage 1 This is the pile of parts for Stage 1, where you build the Alien bike and the frame of the Transport. The competed bike is better than I thought. Again this is something that initially turned me off the kit, as it looked a little flimsy. But after building it and seeing all the minifigs and the vehicles together I think it is better they provided something. I really don’t like the flick missiles that are littered over all the SW vehicles, but this larger gun is much more fun, it actually shoots out some distance. Stage 2 The Transport is a pretty simple build, plenty of variety in the pieces so everything is easy to find. The colour scheme is spot on, I really felt like I was building a Police vehicle with all the white, red and blue. Stage 3 This is where you build the large rear thrusters and the cockpit. I really liked the thrusters, they are a nice upgrade on what used to be a simple one piece that clicked into the rear of the ship (classic space days). The cockpit is nice and tight, though the Officer has to sit with his arms up in the air to be able to sit. I thought they could have done something a little better than this. Rear thrusters Completed kit When finished the Transport has a nice look. Its a bit bigger than I thought, and certainly a lot bigger than the original one. When you look front on it has a low down look, with the oversized wheels higher than the cockpit and thrusters. The colour scheme is spot on all around, the little trans red and blue cheese slopes are a nice touch, something the designers didn’t have back in the “day”. I really like these pieces, I think they finish kits off nicely. Here’s a few shots, both in drive and flight mode: This last picture shows the prisoner transport in lock down mode. This mode also pushes the side lasers up above the wheels (probably a handy thing to avoid a blown out tyre or two). The cockpit and rear thrusters join together to make this neat little ship. Functionality Drive v Flight mode. This is an easy conversion, as the wheels just push down to make it “hover” craft like. I’m not sure when they would use the drive mode if you can fly / hover, but lets just imagine that flight mode drains the power source so to conserve they go back to drive mode. The Alien bike’s missile can be used to aim and shoot at a small disc on the top of the prison cell. If you get it right it will flick open the cell, pretty neat. Though you can “protect” the cell by locking it down, this also pushes the side panels (with the lasers) up into a locked high position. Final Comparison Since I couldn’t stop talking about the older version I’ve done a few comparison shots. In summary the 2009 version is significantly bigger and has a few more play functions. I really like the drive of the older one, its very smooth, the 2009 version makes quite a noise as it rattles across our floor. Prisoner cell Not sure who wins out on the comfort of the cells, there’s a little more head room in the 2009 version, and with its cylinder shape and translucent blue pieces it would feel a little less claustrophobic. The cell in the 2009 version does sit on an angle, with the older version flat, so a slight upgrade in comfort (better rights for criminals…. I mean suspected criminals in the 21st century). Conclusion This is the first Space Police III kit I have built. It was a good build, as usual splitting into 3 stages certainly make it quick. There are some nice details on the transport, particularly those rear thrusters. Though as I mentioned earlier the cockpit lets itself down due to the Officer having to hold his arms up high. It certainly is robust, my 18 month son was running around with it this morning and there wasn’t too much damage. The splitting into a smaller ship is a good feature, I used to have a classic space ship that did this, and used that function all the time. I’m not sure if kids really play with their LEGO these days, but if they do that would be a neat function. The missile shooting at the prisoner cell also adds a little interest to the kit. I like the Aliens and now the Space Police have a uniform (when compared to their SPI forefathers). But they really should hand out some sort of weapons to both the Police and Aliens. I will have one rant about the stickers. It was great to rummage through my old LEGO and rebuild the older version of this. Obviously the printed pieces have stood the test of time and the kit looks just like it should. I refuse to use stickers now, after seeing how they deteriorate over time. I would have thought they could have come up with some pieces that could have “Police” or “Space Police” or at least the logo on them, and then reused across a few kits. Anyway stickers are here to stay, its a sad regression in some respects. Overall I’d rate this kit high. I do notice its not on the Australian S@H site, though my Kmart is still displaying quite a few of these. Its worth picking up, and even more if the price continues to drop. I can’t wait now to build my other SPIII kits. Thanks for reading..... Final thoughts (from the minifigures) Space Police Old to new - "So you now have uniforms, back in my day they wouldn’t spring for them!" Bad guys Aliens to Blacktron - "That black theme was a little too obvious as the baddies, you should have been more discreet, like us"

Have to agree with the pricing this year, seems ridiculous for us Aussies. I had already said I wouldn't bother with a few of the first wave this year (space is becoming an issue for me), the high pricing was the final nail in that coffin. I'm also worried about that Swamp Speeder, as we'll no doubt get the TrU markup (if that's where it settles as the exclusive). So we could be paying $80 for that - INSANE.

Belated thanks for the review. Very well done. This set has now gone on clearance, and after reading your review I decided to get it. One of my boys got a few of the other Agents kits for Christmas, so I'm hoping he likes this for his birthday (though it's still a few months off).