Clone OPatra

INDEXED Before I review something larger (which I will do soon, I'm just missing a big dog), I'll present you with another small review featuring a horse and rider. If you are confused why I say "another," check out my 6009 Black Knight review, and enjoy that too! Today the horse and rider comes from Paradisa, in… Set Title: This issue is oddly disputed. Bricklink says "Show Jumping Event," Peeron says "Jumping Course." I cannot verify which is correct, can you help? Set #: 6417 Theme: Paradisa Pieces: 35 Minifigures: 1 Year of Release: 1997 Price at Release: USD $4.00 Buy it? Inventory? Bricklink Peeron INTRODUCTION So, you might ask, what is a male like me who's got lots of Star Wars and a good bit of manly Castle sets doing with a girly, pink Paradisa set? Stop being sexist, geez. Actually, I did not buy this set, nor was it given to me, nor is it really mine now. It actually belongs to my mother, who was given it by my father. Isn't that sweet? Well, it turns out that just because I was into LEGO doesn't mean everybody in my house was. Anyway, I got it from her so I could review it, so that's what I am doing. Paradisa is an interesting theme that I actually like in some ways. It's basically city with a fabulous "let's go to the beach and party!" twist. There were restaurants, stables, lighthouses, carnies… everything awesome, check it out! All this fun was directed at girls, because LEGO gave all the sets hues of bright green, pink, and other girly colors. This line also had more female characters than any other single line. Now, you might say "Hey, just 'cause it had bright colors doesn't mean it has to be for girls!" Let's face it, LEGO is sexist. LEGO always says it's target age range for most products is boys 6-12. That would mean that a girl-oriented line might not do so well, if LEGO is a boy's toy. But no. Paradisa lasted from '92 to '97, so I would say that means it did pretty well. Let's look at what makes it special… BOX I had no box for this review, so here is the Bricklink picture. It has the classic style of the '90s, without much writing on the front and the triangular logo in the corner. I've always liked that smiling guy in the yellow box with the ages. He's just so happy (or she, girls get short haircuts too). INSTRUCTIONS Alas, I have no instructions either, but you can build this set from just the picture. Instead of showing the instructions pic from Bricklink (which is basically the same as the box), I'll show this official set picture. We find that the horse's name is Beauty. That's too girly for me, I was calling it altacocker (google it, it's yiddish). PIECES The last two sections proved to be mostly useless, so let's look at some pics that I took of plastic! Here are all the parts, minus a shovel and broom. I forgot to put those in the picture. There is quite a good color selection for such a small set, and I love pieces in pink and bright green. All those flowers will make a lovely flower garden, too (pictured are the 3 extra flowers). I just had to take another picture, they're so beautiful! I really do love pink, and there was plenty to be had in Paradisa! ACCESSORIES The accessories (this time with shovel and broom) are another great thing about Paradisa sets. There are lots of household items, which come in handy in MOCs. This is similar to the more recent girl line, Belville, which also feature lots of accessories. On top of that, there is the ultra-rare yellow trophy (in other words: lame trophy). You may wonder why the hair is here as an accessorys: it's because Paradisa girls are bald, of course! It's actually because that's the way it is in the instructions. You will see. ANIMALS In this set, we get a horse and a kitten. The horse is a given, of course, but the cat is a complete extra, and a nice one! Kittens are not even that common, having only appeared in 19 sets in white. The set, like most others, also provides you with two ways to make the horse, saddled and unsaddled. What I like in this set specifically is that they give you a tile, so that the horse shows no studs at all when relaxing and no pesky minifigures can jump onto him and stay on. MINIFIGURE Here is our girl from the front. She looks like quite a preppy rider, which I suppose is good. The hardhat works as a riding hat, and LEGO will use it as such many times. Like most (or even all) Paradisa girls, she's got that face, which has appeared in about 146 sets. This exact minifigure, though, is only in this set. You can also put on the girl's wig, if you wish. I like her better this way. She looks too hairless with the hardhat on. Back then, there was never back printing, so there's not much to see from the back. In sum, a fine, boring, plain minifigure. BUILD I don't have the instructions, but I took in-build shots anyway of what I thought the build might be, so here you go: The Trelllis I am not going to repeat many times that the build is quick and easy; you know it is. What I like about the trellis is the pink trellis parts, and that the designer put the green plants on them. The design looks very good and thought out, even for such a small set. My mom had then put two of the extra flowers on the plants to make it prettier. This is a great use of the extra parts! The Accessory Rack You start out on this build with the lovely bright green plate, a cone, and a barrel. Not much too it. Then you add the lovely arch piece and a few accesories. The third step has you adding the rest of accessories. But wait, why is her hair on a cone? Is she *gasp* bald? I guess so, if she hangs her hair up to wear a helmet. The Obstacle It's two pieces. You get another nice arch piece for it, though, which is nice. And it adds some playability. The Award Podium The problem with this part is that big, oddly shaped sticker that goes over both of the bricks. People who don't like stickers will really hate this. I don't mind it so much, as I don't really need the two white bricks for something else, and I wouldn't want the bricks without any pattern on them. Printing on the bricks would have been nicer, though. You can also see that lovely, exclusive trophy. That thing is sure impressive. Being serious, LEGO should have made a different trophy piece, not just used a yellow goblet. COMPLETED SET All together, it looks like a big mush. I guess that's good for setting up different displays, but it might get annoying to make sure the flowers don't fall over all the time. A plate for them would have been nice, but the set would still look like just a lot of different little parts. PLAYABILITY Let's take a look at what fun you can have with all of those different parts and accessories. I'll start with the obvious, horse jumping. I'm not sure how long the fun lasts when you're just flying a horse over an arch with your hands, though. Once you get tired of doing that, you can have your girl win the top place trophy (or fail, if that's how you feel). You could also have the girl go for a relaxed horse ride, fun for another two or three minutes. After the ride, feed the horse with the last extra flower. Hmmm… what else? I guess you could brush the horse… …or the kitten. I can't see doing this for very long. You could also shovel some flowers or sweep them, I suppose. What I'm trying to say here is that there really isn't a whole lot to do here. CONCLUSION This is not a great example of the Paradisa line, just average. Paradisa was a nice idea that yielded many sets that were unusual among pirates, cops, firefighters, and lots of other boy-oriented sets and themes. (I said boy-oriented, not for boys only.) This set displays the nice bright colors found in all the Paradisa sets and the tendency of LEGO to throw in lots of accessories for extra amusement. That amusement only goes so far though, and this set really falls down on playability. The minifigure, while a girl, is pretty average, and those huge lips have always seemed a bit too sexist to me. It's an ok set, but I'd recommend really anything else in the Paradisa line instead. RATINGS Minifigures: 5.5/10 - A bit of a *yawn,* but the outfit is nice. Pieces: 9.5/10 - The amount for $4.00 is good, and the range is nice. Plenty of accessories, and a kitten! Build: 7.5/10 - The trellis was nice, but there wasn't much else great to build. Price: 8.5/10 - The price is almost right for the amount of pieces, but the result is a bit dull Playability: 5/10 - There is really so little you can do with it for more than a second. Overall: 7.2/10 - Not a great rating. There are some good pieces, like the kitten, but I suggest you look for them in better Paradisa sets that have more going on. You don't need to search for this set on Bricklink, and I wouldn't have recommended it back in the day.

I also have a few of the alternate hard swords (that's not what anybody said), which I found while pawing through my accoutrements bin the other day. I wonder what was up with that. I like the odd hard ones much better than the normal soft kind. The soft ones get all scratched up at the hilt. Also, I'm not entirely sure that the Falcons were supposed to be bad. What I do know, though, is that on another poster I have it says that the Black Knights and Wolfpack will have to stop the fierce Dragon Knights. So that's for sure, and sorry to confuse anybody about Falcons. I really don't know about them.

I still don't understand how the Falcon Knights could be badguys. They are the least evil looking of everybody!

That looks really great! While it's kind of stubby, you still captured the shape well and made it look really cute. I too was amazed at all the details inside. It looks really swooshable also, which is always great. @JCC1004, you can tell it's not white in the picture with it and the X-Wing. The X-wing is certainly white, while this is grey. I can't wait to see more midi-minifigure ships. What else do you have planned?

What better way to use my 500th post than to review a Knight? Enjoy! While on my lovely beach vacation, I popped into an intriguing new store that sells old toys, called Yesterday's Fun. Apart from lots of old action figures (about which I care not), there were also old LEGO sets in the front glass counter, and a bin of minifigure parts from which one could assemble a minifigure for $2 a piece. Most of the sets in the case were Star Wars, and since I didn't really care to get another Ewok Attack (for $108), I decided to go for this… Set Title: Black Knight Set #: 6009 (flip it around and it's the same!) Theme: Castle, Black Knights (surprise sunrise) Interlocking Pieces: 19 Minifigures: 1 Year of Release: 1992 Price at Release: USD $3.25 (according to Peeron. A picture on Bricklink shows the box with a "$2.69" sticker on it, but this might be discount) Buy it? Inventory? Bricklink Peeron INTORDUCTION I already introduced how I got it, but let me set the scene of the set. This set came out back in the good old time of human protagonists and antagonists. Sure, there was the occasional ghost, like in 6034 Black Monarch's Ghost, but there were none of these trolls, undead skeletons, Lord of the Rings rip-off dwarves, or anything of that sort. All there was in '92 was the bandits (the Wolfpack) and Knights in not-so-shining old dark grey armor (the Black Knights) who fought the Black Falcons, I believe. What it really boils down to is that both sides were humans and both sides looked pretty much the same, so the kids could decide who teamed up with who to fight who, and so forth. But hey, all this history stuff is getting a wee tad boring isn't it, let's look at some plastic, or at least pictures of pictures of plastic. BOX If you pay quadruple the original price like I did, you better get the set MISB. I even took pictures before I tore the box open this time, and the box is so small it fit in my makeshift studio (apologies about the flowery napkin pattern appearing in all the pics): The front. I love the very plain look of these old sets. They displayed the contents nicely, but did not overdo it. The eternally happy-looking knight just seems to be having a nice horse ride. I must also note that there are the ages and the Black Knights logo on this box. While that may not seem so important, these features are not on the box shown in the other review of this set on Eurobricks. I believe my version was from a later run, or else just a different release. The back. LEGO even went to the trouble of making alternate builds for a set with just five bricks. That's dedication. I'm not sure I love the alternate models, but it's still fun that they're there. And if you couldn't figure it out, they showed you how to open the guy's helmet. The top. This is the only place with the set name. Somebody also seemed really excited that building instructions were included! This is the only side that says the piece count. LEGO sure liked to spread out set info in those days, but I like it not being all cluttered on the front. You can also see the price that I got it for. This side displays a different picture of the jovial knight and his trusty steed. There's no to-scale minifigure picture on this box, but I don't miss it. Overall, quite a nice little box. Not too big at all for a small set, and the contents hardly rattle around. I like the plainer design of the box, but I can see why kids might rather go for all the bright colors and action that we see on boxes nowadays. In some ways, the plain yellow background and pose of the knight remind me of an Akira Kurosawa movie. CONTENTS Alright, time to punch open that old tab and see what we get on the inside! I like the old tabs much better than the new taping style: no scissors needed! Inside the box are five things: a warning, the old kind of bag without all the writing on it, a loose horse, a poster, and the instructions sheet. WARNING! Don't eat it. I'm not so sure why this was thrown in. The warning was already stated on the box, but maybe that happy little knight proved just too tempting for some young mouths. INSTURCTIONS The front of the instructions sheet is quite similar to the box front, which makes it great. One side shows you how to assemble the complex minifigure anatomy and horse variations. The odd thing is that to make the horse without the saddle you need two pieces that make the weapons rack stand up. I'll illustrate that later. The flip side shows how to build the detailed weapons rack, and a different picture of the completed set. Quite simple, as it should be. A close up on that cute picture also reveals that these instructions were printed in Denmark by my favorite Danish printing company. Mmmmm… danish. POSTER A great thing that came in this set and a lot of sets in the early '90s is a nicely photographed catalog poster showing sets around at the time and advertising some new sets that were not yet available. This being a Castle set, one whole side of the poster is taken up with a nice Castle picture and Castle sets. The other side has a smattering of other things: Pirates, City type stuff, Space, and Belville. I love the pictures of the set all together. There is one strange thing about this poster in relation to the set. While the set clearly came out in 1992 (all sources agree and the box says ©1992), the poster advertises sets new to September 1994. Also, in the other review of this set on EB, the poster is different and older. I think the set was still being produced in 1994, and I got one of those. Still, it's a nice poster, even if it doesn't advertise any Black Knights. PARTS First let's look at the loose interlocking piece: the horse. It comes in this set in the most common of colors, black, but you couldn't expect them to throw in a rarer brown horse is such a small set. This particular black horse appears in roughly 48 sets, while the white horse appears in 42, and the old brown one in just 19. There is also a newer reddish brown horse that appears in just two sets so far. Here we have the old style hole-y bag that contains the other 18 of our 19 interlocking pieces. (I think the horse counts as an interlocking piece.) I laid all the pieces out nicely for you to see. There are only five bricks, and all the other pieces are accessories. Who knew a Knight would need two shortswords, a lance, a crossbow, and a shield? This is a lot more weaponry than is found in today's impulse, which only has a spear, a sword, and a shield. The rare or more interesting parts, in my opinion, are these. The dragon plumes appear in just 19 sets, the most recent of which being the Dragon Fortress in 2003. The breastplate armor in dark gray was not rare at all at the time of this set's release, but the last set it was in was a Castle accessories pack in 1994, so fifteen years later it is hard to find in this color. The shield was only ever in seven sets in the early '90s, and was last produced in a 1995 castle accessories pack. In sum, quite a fine parts selection for a tiny set. Comparing it with today's impulse, this set certainly wins on parts for having a horse and way more weapons than a knight can carry. MINIFIGURE Ah, herein lies the biggest draw of this set, the powerful, no-nonsense Black Knight. Just the name makes him sound an intimidating foe! First, let's see the Black Knight in all his glory, topped with red dragon plumage. I'm not sure if the Black Knights were good guys or bad guys (you decide!), but he seems pretty ready to beat up some peasants in this pose. This exact minifigure was exclusive to this set, which is also a big draw. Now from the side, he still looks intimidating. The black pointed visor gives him a stern look. In a Hollywood movie, a knight that looked like this would definitely be the bad guy just for wearing so much dark clothing. I also like that while he is a Black Knight, he isn't clothed in all black. Black just seems to mean dark in this case, which is good, because the different colors work together to convey darkness. There is not much to see from the back except the lovely molding on the armor piece that has become so common today in shiny colors and with printing. In some ways, I like the plain look of the Black Knight's armor more than the ungabluzzened prints on today's knights. Perhaps it's a good thing, perhaps not, but when the Black Knight takes off his armor, he is revealed to be an almost comical looking Scotsman with crazy red whiskers. Notice that like most minifigures back then, his face print is a smiley face with additives. My Black Knight also has a weepy eye. I really like the old body print that appeared in a variety of colors back then, but the happy face is just so silly in comparison to his stern, armored look. But maybe I'm just being too stereotypical, wanting a stern face on a stern knight. Maybe LEGO is saying that inside a tough knight is really just a jovial person with a big heart. From the back, he's just plain and simple. Could be anybody. But then he puts his armor back on and weapons up, and you know this guy means business no matter what his smile and red whiskers might imply. In other words, he looks tough and awesome, so great to get in such a small set. BUILD The build is very straightforward, seeing as it only uses five bricks. Here are the first three steps: The fourth step is adding the weapons. The instructions do not show you how to put the flag on the pole; I guess they think you can figure it out yourself. COMPLETED SET Here is the Black Knight, showing off his Black Knight pride in front of his trusty steed and lame weapons rack. He is obviously the biggest draw of the set, and the only thing that pushes this set above other sets. Had this set included a regular stock knight without armor, it would be a fine army builder, but nothing special. You can see a better view of the weapons rack in this angle. Looking at it, it's pretty bad. It is completely unrealistic, and is unimpressive next to the awesome knight and his horse. If only this set had had a proper weapons rack, like the one in the 2008 impulse. One of the options in the instructions is to fill in the horse. This, however, creates a problem, because you must take away the support of the weapons rack, and the rack is so poorly designed that it won't be able to stand up with the pole on it. The only option you have left is to stack it all up on the filled in horse, which I guess is a good playability feature… To conclude this portion, I can just say that the Knight with his horse would make a fine set without the three-second-build weapons rack, but at least you get more weapons this way, which is always great if you're building armies or just changing up how your Knight fights. PLAYABILITY If you think I'm going to have YouTube videos for a $3.25 set with one guy, you're out of your mind. Oh. In all seriousness, though, there isn't a whole lot you can do without a second minifigure. But hey, that's not what an impulse is about, is it? It's just about expanding your ranks, and then once you have two big armies, they can fight each other, same as today. However, if you happen to have bought this set in a shop that has a make-your-own-minifigure-for-$2 option, you can have more fun… CONCLUSION This set is great. It has an exclusive and awesome Black Knight, complete with cool red dragon plumes, that old standard body print, and an insanely happy face with equally insane red whiskers. At the time I'm sure it was also a great set and a great way to build up an army of Black Knights with lots of weapon options. The exclusiveness of the figure, the horse, and the amount of weaponry all put this set above the 2008 impulse, which had two measly weapons and another stock crownie. The only thing better about the modern impulse is the weapon rack, but I think we can agree that the Black Knight is way better than ten well-designed weapon racks. As time moves along, and LEGO sets and minifigures get increasingly more detailed, even minifigures from as recently as the early '90s become classic and their simpleness give them an everlasting charm. No Mars Mission or SPIII minifigures will ever out fly the classic smiley spacemen, and no gold knight will ever outshine the one clad in black and gray wearing a ridiculous grin. RATINGS Minifigures: 10/10 - Did I not say why already? You can't ask for more than an exclusive guy in a cheap set. Interlocking Pieces: 8/10 - Weapons are good, but a better five pieces could have been picked to make a better stand. Build: N/A - Sure, I could give this a lousy rating instead, but you can't expect to build much of anything in a set so small. Price: 10/10 - I actually didn't mind paying $14 for it, but if I was paying $3.25, I'd be more than happy. Playability: N/A - I have to go with "you can't expect any" for this too. It's one guy, and that's all it needs to be. Overall: 9.4/10 - It's a little less than 10 out of 10 because of the lame weapons rack, but 9.4 is still a very solid "go get it!' You can get it for less than $14 on Bricklink, but not MISB. You could also try to get just the minifigure, he is worth it! So if you can get it, do it, you won't be disappointed. Until next time!

I believe this was featured before on The Brothers Brick. Here it is, from June 12, 2009. I loved it then, and it still looks great now. It's quite a funny scene with a great setup. I love the rocks, and the Power Miner's skull, and especially the flame thing. Awesome job!

On the whole, Star Wars sets have definitely gotten better since the first waves. Most sets have way more detail, and the models look sleeker. there are also now a few lovely playset type things, which you can't even compare to the shlubby command center that came with the original B-Wing or any of the other scenery in the original sets. I'm not sure the minifigures have gotten better, they have just changed, and I think variety is good. I like the cartoon faces because they're something different and funny in their own way. Sure, if you're a purist you can't combine them with minifigures from non- Clone Wars sets, but they're still cool as their own thing. The original minifigures also looked nice, and I don't agree with people who say that the moulds have gotten better. The moulds have stayed the same, just look at Jar Jar and Qui-Gon's hair, they were great then and still are. The one exception to the sets getting better for me is the X-Wing, just like Tohst. In the movies, the X-Wing looked basically like a little gray kid's toy. Actually, that's what it was, a gray plastic model ship (if I'm not mistaken). That's why I like the original X-Wing best, not for nostalgia factor, but because it being gray and clunky makes it look more like the actual ship than the newer sleeker versions do. Apart from that exception though, sets have certainly evolved for the better.

I actually quite like all of the Toy Story minifigs. Woody and Jesse are not Jack Stone style characters; they have minifigure bodies but new arms and legs. I like the idea of making a new size of minifigure legs to make taller guys and such. And about the heads, I'm not sure they would have looked right at all if LEGO had just designed normal minifig heads. Just look at the first version of Squidward, he was all wrong! I think that they did a brilliant job capturing Toy Story while still retaining their LEGO-ness and providing new minifigure parts that will be great for MOCing. This is actually going to be a theme where the minifigures look exactly like their movie counterparts, which I find very cool! Prince of Persia also seems to be bringing a lot of cool minifigs and some animals too.

I looked back, and I don't think this has been posted yet. So, those people saying it was the minis were partially correct. One of them is new, but the other looks like the same AT-TE. Credit goes to jmenomeno on Flickr, check that link for cool Prince of Persia and Toy Story stuff too.

I think that if there was the famous corridor it would be mentioned or pictured somewhere on the LEGO page. I can see why LEGO didn't put it in, and I'm not so unhappy that they left it out. I mean, it was, after all, just a hallway, and there would be no real place for it in the ship unless it filled the middle section, which wouldn't have made much sense anyway. I think a control center and office is the perfect thing for the center of a ship because it does not confine kids to reenacting the opening hallway scene from Ep4. This way, kids can have Leia go carry out secret missions for the Alliance from her own personal desk. I like the idea! I'm not sure why people are saying that the C3PO coloring is new. He had that same color in the Death Star. I am also not as excited about Captain Antilles as a lot of other people. Sure, he's more exciting than another certain Antilles, but he really just has a new jacket and a smiling rebel trooper face. If he has a reverse side, that will make it better, but I wish LEGO had included another exclusive figure. On the other hand, I have no idea who that could be, because there aren't any other people who aren't already minifigures who appeared on the ship. Maybe they could've made a Bail Organa to help Leia carry out secret mission, but he never even appeared in the old movies anyway!

The following is all in the U.S.: I was at my local Target a few days ago, and I was quite surprised to find two or three copies of the Fighter Tank. I passed on getting it though. I was at TRU on the same day, and they had a few Home Ones, one Battle of Endor, and a couple of new Y-Wings, but that was it for new SW. They also had at least twenty copies of the Homing Spider Droid, as did another TRU that I went to not long ago. On a side note, this particular TRU had a huge three level shelving thing filled with just Magnagaurd Fighters and V-19s. I mean, a really huge shelf, what probably was at least fifty copies of each. Is this normal? I was quite surprised that they were so overstocked on those two sets.

I can only give limited advice, but I shall do so. I only have the first addition, but it is quite a meh set. The buildings loko kind of dull in the tan and gray color scheme, the play features are pretty dumb, and the minifigures are not that great, in my opinion. The second one looks a bit better, but the rooms still seem kind of lacking, as is the minifigure selection (apart from Trelawney). The third one, however, is quite big and impressive, with its main Castle, other opening room, and beautiful greenhouse. You also get some beautifully designed and altogether cool minifigures like Umbridge, Snape, and the death eater mask. Plus, there is an exclusive mandrake head and main trio who look a lot cooler then their older incarnation, to me anyway. So, if you can get it at a decent price (which I highly doubt), I'd definetly go for version 3. If you can't find a price that suits you, go for the 2nd version, but I really wouldn't bother buying the 1st version. Though it sold out quickly upon release, it's pretty lame.

That head is the EpIII Anakin with headset, found in his EpIII starfighter and 7283 Ultimate Space Battle.

Welcome Jango Fett! Maybe you can show us your minifigure collection in this Star Wars topic. I'll look forward to it! Your english is not bad at all.

If you don't remember, that's ok, the important thing is you found it! And while you're here, enjoy your stay, and have fun looking around it!

Matn, you can't really tell if the Burrow is burned down or not. It's kind of on fire, but it's easy enough for some wizards to put it out and repair everything. I think that they think ahead enough. They know what they're doing, and they haven't yet made a HP movie that makes absolutely no sense (well, the scenery change between 2 and 3 is debatable), so I think they'll be able to do everything they need to in the 7th movies in their own way. While they might not be "apparently" thinking ahead on some key plot points, they definitely are on little details, like Dumbeldore's brother in the Hog's Head with his goat in the fifth movie. It amazed me to see that there. Even if they did change a few things and add a few scenes for the 6th movie, I think it might be the best of the movie series so far. While you might need to read the book to understand what's going on in the 6th movie, you can't compare the movie too much to the book or else you might always be disappointed.

I have so many HP sets, but their pieces are all jumbled everywhere! I'll do what I can. I have also done tis HP review, which has not yet been indexed: Rescue From the Merpeople Thanks!

Yes, the title sounds more like a Sci-Fi MOC, but I consider this to be Trains & Town because it's houses. When the Spacemen got old and retired, they built a strip of custom row houses! I'm not much of a MOCer, but I felt that these didn't need to look as architecturally pleasing as the Green Gocer, they're supposed to look more classic. So far, I have only created the houses for the white and red spacemen: In Classic Town style, neither of the houses have a back, so you can see right in to the minimal and cramped decorations. Here's a top view, so you can see the red spaceman's odd roof. The strip of purple at the front is just for decoration, and I will probably choose a different interesting color for the next set of two. I hope you enjoy these first two houses in my project, and I will return sometime soon to present the next two. There is a pin at the side of the white house so that it can attach to the next one over. For more inside pics and different angles, check the Brickshelf folder (when moderated). Any comments welcome!

Go Cubs Go, I think there is a thread somewhere for "What should I buy?," but since you did post your question here you need to be more specific. Do you want advice on what is a good Star Wars set to buy that's in stores right now, or do you want to hear about people's favorites from years ago that you would have to fork out a lot of cash to buy? I would suggest going through the reviews index and checking out the reviews of the recent set (if that' what you're interested in). Then you'll be able to see for yourself what new sets look desirable to you.

Huh? LEGOscum was not being immature or bragging, he was simply giving away as much information as he was allowed to, just like einsteinonthebeach. LEGO does not want their employees spilling all the beens, I am sure, so I am quite thankful that both of these members have given us as much information as they could. Both have been quite helpful when it comes to discussions about the upcoming book and ending the minifigure and midi-scale queries about the RBR. On another note, I disagree with all those who say that the RBR is the anniversary set, so it should be quite large, minifig filled, and quite expensive. LEGO has released several sets this year that collectively celebrate the anniversary, all of which have been nice and presented a few new figures or elements (Taun Taun, Ackbar, new ewoks, etc.). I think the RBR will be just another nice set to add to the anniversary celebration, without it being definitive in any way. For one, I could not afford something as big and lovely as the Death Star.

Keychains could work, but then you couldn't put accessories like the kama on Rex because he would be glued. I would say you could try to just buy Rex's helmet and then put blue arms on a clone body, but there's only one person currently selling the helmet on Bricklink. You'll have to decide whether it's worth the 30-ish bucks to buy the two figs. Personally, if they are just for an animation and other minifig-related uses, I would go with the 30 bucks, because there is a huge difference between that and a $90 set.

Surely you mean Bricklink. Yes, her starfighter is the cheapest set that comes with Ahsoka, but that is still $40. Buying them both off of Bricklink will also not be so cheap, as both are around $15 at the cheapest.

Wow, that's one pretty sleek looking car. Thanks for the review of it. I just love the interior detail, it looks great. I hope you'll make a review of the Spyder, too.

LEGOscum, I think you just jumped to conclusions on the first line of my comment instead of reading the whole thing. I didn't just say "I think these cards make next to no sense," I said: "I think it's funny how some of thee cards make next to no sense. I guess they all sort of have an idea to them as to what minifigures are displayed, but then they kind of fall down on the job. It seems that whoever designed them just wanted a smattering of characters from throughout the years of Lego Star Wars, such as them putting a sand red battle droid and blue SBD on the Separatist card, and Episode II Anakin on the Jedi card, and a yellow Han and Leia on the "Heroes" card. And then there is the card with Jabba, which is just a smattering of other random characters. I think that if they had picked one time frame per card (except for the Bounty Hunter one, which is good), the cards would look a lot more impressive." I explained how they all do have an intent, but that intent got kind of muddled in some of the cards.

I think this kind of speculation belongs more in the Future Star Wars sets thread, but if they make a Twin Pod Cloud Car for 40-70 Euros or dollars that would be nuts! Or it would be UCS, which would be an odd choice for a UCS. I also am not sure why everyone is under the impression that there will be a wave of ESB sets. When it was thirty years since Star Wars came out, all they did was slap a "30 Years" logo on the boxes. They didn't release a whole lot of ANH sets. I'm really not convinced there will be much of a blip in the SW 2010 lineup because of the anniversary.