drdavewatford

Superb - looks very accurate to me. I love the detailing on the outside. How many bricks ? <edit> Just saw your follow-up message with all the stats.....amazing !

Love it - cracking little set ! Thanks for reviewing and sharing a set which I and probably many others had never seen before. Dr. D.

You're not wrong ! Personal import thresholds are ridiculously low in the UK if you buy online, although for some reason you're allowed to physically bring back items of a somewhat higher value without incurring tax. Given the mark up on sets over here vs. the U.S., it can still work out cheaper to import, believe it or not. It's not for discussion here, but I still marvel how LEGO can justify pound for U.S. dollar pricing on some of the sets given the current 1 : 1.5 exchange rate..... Dr. D.

Great review, Svelte - thanks. I wasn't expecting one to appear for this set, so it's a nice surprise. I have the 4 original Architecture sets (21000 - 21003) which I picked up on a trip to the U.S.. I was delighted to find that the 'second wave' including Fallingwater is now available in the UK, but have been hesitant to splash out what I consider to be silly money for them. Very interested therefore to hear that I might be able to buy them in $U.S. and have them shipped for a more reasonable price - I will investigate. Looks like a typically luxurious Architecture experience - sweet box, nice spiral bound instructions, info about the building itself and an interesting (if fiddly) build. Clearly not for the 'average' Lego buyer (if such a person really exists) but a great niche product let down by the premium price which would even give Lego Star Wars fans nightmares..... Cheers, Dr. D.

Superb review. I actually just ordered this set earlier today, so your review has really whetted my appetite. I think £60 is pricey for this set, but for any UK Eurobrickers, the set is 20% off at Amazon as I type this, and with free delivery, which brings it more in line with the US price and makes it a bit less painful. I have to agree with Prateek's comments - the finished model looks a bit messy with it's blocky splodges of colour, and the dorsal fin just doesn't do it for me with studs on one side and anti-studs on the other. I'm wondering whether the designers could have instead just used standard 1 stud wide slope bricks for a smoother finish like they did in the old 7166 Imperial Shuttle. The figs look nice, though - I love the head of the medical droid ! This is the Summer 2010 set that I was least looking forward to, but it sounds from Rufus's review like an interesting build, and maybe this is one that you just have to see in the flesh (or should that be "in the plastic" ?) in order to appreciate. I guess I'll know in a few days......... Dr. D.

Thanks, Rufus- another excellent review ! I'm just building this set at the moment so the review is extremely timely. During the build I was wondering how the new snowspeeder compares with the old ones, so you obviously anticipated this question ! I agree it's a nice set, and the wampa is great. I have no problem with Lego splitting iconic scenes into multiple sets. They really can't win - if they put everything into one set people complain it's too expensive, and if they split into multiple sets people are unhappy with the lack of authenticity.

Rarity is theoretically a driver for high prices BUT I'm not sure if any of us really know how many of each set were sold. We might think that because sets were sold off cheap at the end of a run its because they weren't popular, but there could be a few reasons for a cut-price sale, and in fact cheap prices probably end up decreasing the rarity of sets because more people buy them than otherwise would have done..... Some sets seem to be perpetually discounted (e.g. the new TIE defender on Amazon) while others seem almost never to be, and it's hard to know why this is. I think that in reality the common theme with many of the particularly expensive retired sets is the inclusion of exclusive minifigs, coupled with the explosion in popularity of minifig collecting. Thinking of 'overpriced sets' Cloud City (Boba with printed legs and Lando) comes to mind, as does Imperial Inspection (stormies with printed legs). Same goes for otherwise pretty ordinary sets like Jabba's Palace, Mos Eisley Cantina (with Greedo) and others. It's not the whole answer, however - some old sets with 'exclusive' minifigs can still be bought for a pittance e.g. Twin-Pod Cloud Car (with Lobot). So I guess the moral is : try to buy before the set gets retired ! Dr. D.

That's fine, but remember that not everyone feels the same. Pesonally I'd rather see reviews than MOCs. I want to build, and unless the maker of the MOC produces instructions and a parts inventory (which they almost never do, apart from Anio/Oxycrest and a few others) all these MOCs will ever be to me are pretty pictures, and that's not what I'm interested in..... Reviews of 'real' sets are what I enjoy because I can actually buy the set and build it myself if I like the look of it. One thing I have noticed is that it sometimes seems that you have to produce something really spectacular to get frontpaged from the Star Wars forum, compared to some of the others where some pretty modest creations are frontpaged. I love reading the trains forum, for instance, but IMHO there have been some pretty average creations frontpaged from there. Overall, however, I think the mods do a pretty good job of balancing all the different and diverse inputs and interests, so thanks and keep it going ! Dr. D.

The Death Star (10188) brought me back into the fold - my wife bought it for me as a present. And same as Grogall, the Santa Fe loco got me back into Lego trains last year when I bought one on eBay.

Peeron has been treading water for a while now - my understanding is that the site owners are no longer as engaged with the site as they were for personal reasons. It's a huge shame as I absolutely love the site - the interface is simple and clean, and it offers a great way of keeping track of my parts inventory that other sites don't seem to offer. Brickset is my top choice for keeping track of my sets and I can highly recommend it to anyone who has yet to discover it. It's pleasing to hear that people are chipping in to keep Peeron ticking over, but as time goes by it becomes more and more out of date because it's not keeping up with new set inventories. If an agreement can be reached for others to pick up the baton and return Peeron to its former glory I for one would be absolutely delighted ! Cheers, Dr. D.

I think the first time I built 'official' sets which clearly used SNOT was the classic space sets, using the 2 x 2 bracket piece. Specifically, the set was 928 Galaxy Explorer, with the brackets used to mount large booster rockets (i.e. cones) on the rear of the ship and also on the 'wings'. I don't recall building anything before then where I was constructing anything fixed at 90 degrees to the horizontal ALTHOUGH thinking about it, some of the old wheels had studs on them so I often built on them, meaning you had pieces rotating at 90 degrees to the horizontal when the wheel was turning on a level surface.

I recently bought the Spiderman First Chase set from eBay (4850) and was disassembling the cars from the set (which use SNOT for front and rear lights etc.). It got me wondering when LEGO started to use SNOT techniques in their models. When I was a kid the piece selection didn't really allow the use of SNOT construction techniques, but now we're spoiled for choice. Anyone have any idea when LEGO started to employ SNOT techniques in the sets, and which theme started it all off ? Cheers, Dr. D.

No need to wait - the "Discovery" range of sets from a few years back should be right up your street if you're after NASA-inspired sets, and you can find them on Bricklink or eBay right now.... "Discovery" Theme I'd love to see a picture of this new shuttle alongside 7470; Lego actually has a fantastic history of space shuttles, from the Technic shuttle (8480) to the Discovery shuttle and a bunch of less realistic 'playsets' including 6339, 6544 and 6346. I love them all !! Dr. D.

I've probably bought more than 100 sets from eBay; it's often the only way to find older sets at an affordable price. Bricklink is certainly more reliable in my experience BUT you usually pay handsomely for that privilege - prices for sets are often astronomical. Perhaps half of the supposedly complete sets I've bought from eBay have had pieces missing. I genuinely believe that most sellers aren't being dishonest, they just aren't AFOLs and don't realise that it's not acceptable to substitute one piece for another OR they aren't aware of resources such as Bricklink or Peeron and therefore don't have an inventory to check against. Thing is, missing pieces usually aren't a problem. I always do an inventory prior to building a used set (whether from eBay, Bricklink or wherever) and missing pieces can almost always be replaced for pennies via Bricklink sellers, who have always sent my parts orders quickly. It's a choice - save money and buy from eBay, or pay a big premium for the same set on Bricklink but buy with much more confidence. Perhaps I'm just a masochist, but I quite enjoy the chase for missing pieces, and feel really quite satisfied if I can get a fantastic bargain from eBay and then replace the missing pieces for 50 cents plus postage !! But if you can't bear to chase missing pieces and/or you don't mind paying a premium for your used sets, it has to be Bricklink, every time. Dr. D.

I'm with you, Kim - a few subscribers in the U.S. will get one of these, and the rest of the world will either be totally oblivious or else pay hugely over the odds to keep their collections complete. Why can't LEGO quit teasing the OUS fans and make these available by default via S@H, or in the bricks and mortar stores at least ? Dr. D.

LEGO shop@home have always packed the (many) sets I've ordered carefully, using a cardboard outer box and air-filled plastic filling material. Very occasionally receive a set slightly creased if the courier has been really careless, but usually everything is mint. I order from shop@home without fear ! Amazon are also generally pretty good as they ship items in cardboard boxes, although the Home Delivery Network who sometimes deliver their items seem to be quite careless - I've had a lot of bad experiences with them. Argos are terrible. Even when I pick sets up in-store the boxes are often dented. They also put large white stickers on the boxes which are really hard to remove in one piece and often damage the boxes. On the few occasions I've been stupid enough to order online the sets have arrived in a plastic bag and have been damaged everytime. Again, the Home Delivery Network seem to treat the parcels without much care. It's a shame as Argos often do sales and have a good selection. If you don't care about the boxes then I'd highly recommend them because of the price - they're second only to Amazon for bargains in the UK. TRU I usually avoid - on the plus side you can choose a nice box off the shelf. On the downside they rip the customer off with huge mark-ups; even when they have a sale, the sale price is often the RRP. And The Entertainer are even worse - I never give them my money as they consistently have the highest prices with a massive mark-up. Rip-off merchants. Everything considered, Amazon are number 1 for me - free delivery always, excellent discounts and they ship items in cardboard outer boxes - but shop@home are best if I want the best chance of an undamaged box.... Dr. D.

<sigh> So the scramble for series 2 begins. After the chaos of series 1 I was hoping for a little more time to get my breath back..... Let;s just hope that LEGO (and the retailers) have learned their lesson from the first time round and that there's enough for everybody this time. Dr. D.

2 points for circus arena, 1 point for Class 8 British Shunter. Good work, guys ! Dr. D.

2 points to Anastasia Hotel, and 1 point to Winnie the Pooh - both superb ! But really the standard is incredibly high. Honorable mention goes to the clone helmet, for instance, which is great ! Dr. D.

Stunning ! Colours look pretty realistic to me. A "must buy".

You and me both - so many sets, so little time..... I already built Anio's podracer - lovely ! Next I plan to use some of the same building techniques to improve the podracers in set 7171 and then photograph them all together. It would I fear be a DISASTER if Atix-Naid's Venator instructions were available online because it would probably then be impossible for me to resist sourcing the 5000+ pieces and building a copy....! Dr. D.

Fantastic ! Did you make your own version or use Atix-Naid's instructions ? Dr. D.

Thanks, Anio ! Dr. D. PS. Did you build your Venator yet ? If I remember correctly you were waiting for instructions.

Fantastic job as usual, Anio ! Please let us know when the instructions are available for download....... Cheers, Dr. D.

Great review ! I agree that if you like this set and have the money just go and buy it because it seems to get more and more expensive over time; I bought mine a year ago and prices have certainly risen since then. I think I like it because it's such a varied and interesting build. So many of the Star Wars sets involve a lot of repetition, but not this one. Unique minifigs are also guaranteed to raise levels of interest, and this set has more than its fair share. I agree that the old MF looks too big on the landing pad - the midi falcon looks much better.