David Thomsen

Town Hall was definitely on my top five most wanted modulars list... I wonder if it will be a big 'hall', or lots of smaller offices? Or maybe a large hall on the ground floor with offices above it? And a mayor's office with a balcony facing onto the street... Maybe even a new torso print for a 'mayor', featuring mayoral chains? They got a new print for a cat in the Pet Shop, maybe they have enough leverage for a torso print now. Okay... time to wait for badly translated and ambiguous set descriptions, followed eventually by leaked images.

Hey, I just built both of these sets, and the GE can get extremely repetitive at times. Particularly the four pillars on the ground floor, and the windows. Not to mention that the first and second floors (or second and third, depending on how you count floors) are almost exactly the same. At least all of the floors in the PS buildings are different. But yes, I'd go with the GE as well. It's just a more impressive building.

I finally finished mine, and I did quite enjoy it even if the set isn't my favourite. I decided not to add the extra flowers that are on the cover, because not only are they excluded from the instructions, they're excluded from the parts list as well, and the parts are only included as spares. The unpainted room/moving boxes thing is obviously a way to not bother with furniture, but I don't mind it too much. To furnish both buildings you'd need two beds, two kitchens etc. and I don't feel the need to create two sets of furniture in one modular set. At least this offers some kind of explanation. It does feel much like a 'fill in' set, but that's okay... not everything has to be an architectural wonder in itself. Incidentally, I think the next modular building is going to be a police station. Anyone remember how in the box art for the Fire Brigade, the cat from the Green Grocer was up a tree? I think in the box art for the next set, a burglar is going to be climbing up the drainpipe of the residential building in the Pet Shop.

Aanchir wrote the book called 'What Happened to Lego in 2006-2007'. Incidentally I don't think the Speed Racer was so bad... how were they to know the movie would fail so badly? The cars themselves were actually quite good. Unfortunately they didn't bother creating proper headgear for a lot of the figs, which was something they should have done in the Last Airbender theme as well. I don't think they've made the same mistake since then, though.

I think a lot depends how you order the buildings. The GG clearly doesn't belong next to the GE, and I don't think it belongs next to the PS either. But the PS looks in scale next to the GE. I think the CC kind of suits any scale, so for me it's going have large-scale buildings on one side and small-scale buildings on the other. I hope that works.

I don't see how this could happen, since the retailers need to know what it is that they're ordering in. I know Lego is a trusted and reliable brand, but if I received a retailer's catalogue where all the sets were missing their pictures or were only represented by question marks, I would probably be cautious when deciding numbers to order. Also it would be difficult to put a distinctive watermark on every single catalogue, so tracking leaks down to their sources is almost impossible. I think it's a risk they will always be required to take that images will be leaked from retailer catalogues. In fact it's probably something they factor in when they decide on their preliminary images - screw the retailers, what will the fans think?

I agree with Gryphon Ink in that this 'Summer House' is probably not the major Creator House next year, more likely something the same size or slightly larger than the Log Cabin. I'm still excited, of course... makes me wonder what the bigger House set is going to be. Or is it going to be a house at all... ? I wouldn't mind a classic brick-built plane with a pilot minifigure. I don't mix my City buildings with my Creator buildings, so I don't mind. Actually I prefer the regular plates because they lend more versatility, like the raised plate in the Hillside House set.

The rumours were based on (a) the Ambulance that is coming out in 2012, and (b) the fact that it's been a long time since we last saw any Hospital sets. No one ever suspected that they were actually just going to do yet more police and fire sets next year.

Hmm... I'll just repeat my speculations here. 'Summer House' will be the inevitable Big Creator House, which following recent trends will include a minifig. Probably also some kind of vehicle. This one is already on my 'must have' list. Safari Set will probably be one of those sets where you can create various animals. Police Set actually sounds like one of these Bricks and More sets, but it's listed as Creator, so I'm not sure what to think. Since they had a Creator House Lighthouse this year, it's possible that this is some kind of small Creator House Police Station, but I'm not 100% convinced. Will have to wait and see.

I wonder how many of those Creator sets are the new kind that include a minifig. The Summer House almost definitely will be. The others I'm not so sure about. Safari sounds like one of those ones where you can make a variety of animals. Not really interested. Police Set? I am intrigued. This year they did have a Lighthouse, so they're doing more than just generic minifig-scale houses now... it could possibly be some kind of small police station. Those ones are categorised as 'bricks and more', so I don't think so, unless someone is conflating the two lines.

It's not the size I have a problem with, it's that the windows of the GG are four studs wide and four studs apart, whereas the windows of the PS are two studs wide and two studs apart. The bay windows also seem half the size, and the height difference adds to the impression. Together the PS buildings and the GG building look like three buildings that should be the same width, but are not. The weird thing is that that the CC has two different scales of window in the same set. The first floor has four closely spaced windows on the side and the second floor has two widely spaced windows, and I never had a problem with that. I think it's that the PS buildings and the GG look so similar that they should be the same size. I realise the obvious solution is to place them next to the GE, or somewhere else they won't look so disproportionate, but the fact that I feel I have to do this puts me off the line a little.

There needs to be a petition about this, or something. How hard can it be to commission a slightly different mould exclusively for skirts? Also it would be great if they reprinted this new piece all the skirts I currently own, so that I can replace them all...

This is why I'm hesitating about buying the set... I can handle the different architectural styles of the first four buildings, but when you put these buildings next to the Green Grocer, they just look kind of out of scale. They have just as many windows and details on the front, but in half the size. They look much better next to the Grand Emporium, with it's equally small windows. They're also smaller, so they make the Grand Emporium look much more 'grand'. A conundrum.

I wasn't interested in City sets until the farming theme came out, then I started a 'small rural farming town' themed city. Some of these new police/fire sets sound ideal... I'll be greatly interested in seeing pictures of these new sets.

Heh. I have three musketeers, and I see three of your musketeers have the same heads - Musketeer, Forestman and Samurai.

One of my favourite sets of all time is the Vacation Camper. I've always had a thing about trailers, my favourite micro machines and other toys had trailers as well. I'm almost absolutely sure that this new 'car with a camper' is going to be my favourite for 2012.

My Lego City has a kind of 'small town' theme, so only small emergency buildings fit in. I got my police building from 7743, but I don't have a fire or a medical building yet... That's why I'd like to see a small 'clinic' in addition to the main hospital. Maybe with a small doctor's car, like 7902. Incidentally, these 'rumours' of the hospital theme returning in 2012... are they based on anything anyone has heard, or is it just that it has been a long time since we last saw the theme, so it seems quite likely to return?

As one of the people who started with the Cafe Corner, I have to disagree... at least for now. Maybe after ten years of modular buildings they can revisit old ones as a 'commemorative' thing, but the range is too new and there are too many obvious building options not yet covered to start doing repeats. Maybe if they had a building with a book store on the ground floor and a cafe on the first floor, this would work, and would give people a properly furnished cafe without having two cafe buildings. I am one of the few who would actually like to see more vehicles in the modular buildings. A 'car showroom' idea is one that had occured to me as well, but I didn't suggest it because I thought no one would like it. It's nice to know I'm not alone! Since it would be made up of a lot of large transparent pieces, the architecture would be an interesting challenge... people love modular buildings with lots of bricks and packed with detail, how do you make them like something with much less detail?

To be honest, I wonder if there is too much material and it's going to be a bit of a mess... at least with the Batman and Spiderman lines they only had to focus on one set of heroes and villains at a time, so were able to be quite comprehensive. Each of these characters has a huge world built around them, enough material for a whole line each. Will each character get enough coverage for the enterprise to be worth it? Or will they be trying to do too much at once?

Hmm, I do like it a little better from this angle (ironic considering everything else is an official picture), but the stern of the ship does look somewhat bland. Are there any shots with a better comparison with the QAR?

Ah... you mean 20 more minutes than when Indiana Jones was announced. Still, I looked it up and the fifth Indiana Jones movie has been announced... so the Lego theme might return yet.

Waaait, I can't find any reference to this anywhere. Are you referring to the fifth Indiana Jones movie, or a return of the Lego theme? Or both?

I'm not a big superhero fan and I won't be buying this theme, so I don't have much to say... but I do love Superman's hair and will definitely be giving it to one of my pirates. Hulk is just a Lego-compatible action figure. I also kind of agree on Iron Man's head. Before I saw it I thought the helmet might look silly as an ordinary minifig head-piece with printing on it, but this actually looks sillier.

I wish there were some pictures of the stern. I was hoping that a nicely designed stern would win some people over, but the fact that they didn't supply any pictures kind of makes me think they didn't do a good job of it. As the ship is basically the same as before, so is my opinion. I understand that they made it a lower price point so more people could buy it, I understand that they included the minifigs they did because they needed to have 'conflict' of some sort, I understand that they designed the cabin low so that the silhouette matches that of the original ship. I don't think they did a bad job, I just think they were working within certain limits. Certainly it isn't anywhere as bad as a lot of people say it is. I'm kind of disappointed by the plain black sails though. I was thinking of buying one and using the sails and hull pieces to make a better ship, but if the sails are going to stay this way, I'll pass.

From 2007 to 2010 the Creator range had a number of minifig-scale houses that progressively included more minifig scale accessories, like basketball hoops and lawnmowers and satellite dishes, until finally in 2011 they released three Creator buildings that actually include minifigs and instead of just being houses, their models include a lighthouse and a log cabin. The change from baseplates to regular plates also seems to signal the unofficial introduction of a new sub-theme. I've had a good look through this forum and apart from reviews of these new buildings, there hasn't been much discussion about these changes and what potential they have. Personally, this new sub-theme suits me perfectly. It fixes a lot of the problems I have with other themes. Modular buildings are fantastic, but there is only one a year and they are intended to be architectural models without much of the 'Creator' spirit. City sets are great for building a little world, but with one-piece walls, open backs and specialised pieces for airplanes and boats they are somewhat <insert that tiresome argument>. Creator houses from 2007 to 2010 are excellent, but without minifigs they seem kind of empty to me. Also there is not much variety other than houses, houses and houses. I hadn't bought any Creator sets until I picked up the Log Cabin and the Hillside House this week, and for the first time in decades it felt like I was building with Lego the way I had as a child, with simple minifigs, alternative models and everything brick-built. I'm hoping they create more of these minifig-scale brick-build Creator hybrid sets in the future. Something like the Transport Ferry would be fantastic with minifig compatibility. Or a set with various truck and vehicles, or anything else that supplies enough bricks and colours to create a lot of possibilities but at the same time is minifig friendly.