Seijitai

Just found this bad guy on Ebay, in Christo's "Custom Bricks and Minifigs" shop : Link : http://stores.ebay.com/Custom-Bricks-And-Minifigs Honestly, I will not wait for the TLC version in august to get this guy !

The same for me, I started depleting his Star Wars sets, and was really pleased by the sets/minifigs condition. I can't tell about the shipping as I'm from Belgium too, but he is indeed a really nice person to meet... The only flaw is that it is really hard to get off his car ! Thanks again Jyves !

He he, the same price apply for Belgium ! And they also have 8092 Luke's Landspeeder at € 20... It's a promotion, so get it while it last !

I agree with you, he looks quite better with it's normal arms... I wonder if Lego will upgrade the standard batlle droids model following Grievous release... I mean separated legs, new arms orientations and so... Overall, I'm pleased by most of the sets... The Wampa set seems pretty cool, a cheaper way to get Snowspeeders (don't yell at me please, I was in my Dark Age when the previous models came out (excepted for the 7666 Rebel Base). So for me, it's overall a good set. The Clone Turbo Tank looks really improved since the last version. The wheels looks quite good to me, I just feel that the belly of the beast definitely lacks armor, compared to the movie/TV serie model... A quite expensive set, but the Ayla/Bane duo rocks, and I still hope we'll see a tactical droid in the final version... Palpatine's shuttle. I don't like the model... Not at all. But I didn't liked the Republic Attack shuttle either, so it might be an allergy . The new shuttle pilot and the medical droid are great, but I don't think it'll be enough for me to push me to buy it... Good Old Bricklink, my friend... Plo Koon's starfighter. Another one I'll pass on... The model is beautiful, the minifigs and price are pretty good, but the simple fact that it'll most probably come with a large dreaded sticker sheet ruin the whole set IMO... Slave One : bleeding-nose overpriced, but who can resist a new Boba Fett, a new Carbonite Han, and a new alien like Bossk ??? I just hope that this flick-fire-machine-gun will work as well as the previous 6209 set cannon... Otherwise, I like the dark green color scheme, the rest of the set is almost 90% the same as the previous version... Grievous starfighter : I like it a lot. The model looks pretty cool, especially the cockpit. The minifigs are really good too. I'm always happy when we have a new Jedi, and it was quite time to give Grievous a new body... It's neck is a bit long IMO, otherwise, I like it... The droid is... good, but I somehow have the feeling that it's not the final version... Don't know why, it's just the feeling I have seeing it...

Glad to have you aboard ACPIN. It's after seeing your artworks (and Phil Morgan'ones) that I decided to come out of my dark age ! Great Bunker, impressive compared to the Lego version !

Agreed. I would'nt be surprised to have the "bad guys" battlepack being four Mandalorians, one with a jetpack, and with different helmet markings (just like the Death Watch leader... They are popular, and Lego already have the molds... Now I just wonder who would be their opposite... Maybe the last episodes will reveal a new kind of clones, or Lego will at last produce an ARF trooper helmet...

I like both of them... Boba's helmet is great, and I see it as a nice tribute to the original concept art from Ralph McQuarrie... I would'nt be surprised to see a Mandalorian battlepack next year, following their Clone Wars Season 2 recent apparition and this OT Boba Fett version... About the torso. Highly detailled, like most of the recent minifigs. The lines are bolder, they overall look a bit more cartoonish. Maybe a bit too much, as they don't fit quite well with old minifigs from the same theme... As an example, I would point to the recent Hoth rebel troopers which, IMO don't fit well with the old type of Hoth rebels... (just my opinion, don't fire at me please...) Grievous. Great body, great head even if the neck is a bit long... Maybe not the best version Lego could have done, but 10 times better than the previous version !

LOL !!! I wonder how much time it tooks you to make that display ?

These are the unofficial numbers used by bricklink to inventory the new items/minifigs. Most of the parts have a number engraved somewhere on them. That number is used in bricklink database... But minifigs doesn't have any numbers.... So we simply add the new minifigs from the different themes, and the catalogue administrators verify and validate the new data. For example, check this : http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?M=sw268 . It's the new TIE Defender Pilot minifig that I added some weeks ago... I simply followed the numbers... To the question "why is there some numbers skipped ?". It's simply because some minifigs are deleted or never released... Two examples : 1st example, the 10188 Death Star had two Death Star troopers in it. The minifig was added to bricklink catalogue as "sw208" . Then, in set 8038 Battle of Endor, that same minifig was named "Imperial trooper". So a new entry, the "sw254" was created. The minifigs were 99% the same, excepted for a tiny black circle on the belt... After a verification with TLC, it appeared that the original sw208 from 10188 Death Star was a missprinted items and that the standard minifig was supposed to have that black circle... So the two minifigs were merged and sw254 is now empty... 2nd example : people who submit new entries sometimes commit mistake... There is currently a "sw278" Ki Adi Mundi minifig pending approval. There is no TLC Ki Adi Mundi... But the item is pending approval until there is a proof of a real minifig... When we will add new minifigs, if we reach sw278, we will simply either push back the "Ki Adi" one, or name the new minifigs sw277,... sw279, sw280... I hope that helps !

I know, I was just adding my two cents to your two cents to make it four That's indeed a short life span in my opinion. The AAT was one of the best sets IMO. Quite a large range of minifigs and a nice vehicle to go along... Well, RIP AAT...

I don't know if the following can be considered as official... But I bought two weeks ago their last AAT set from my local "Dreamland" (one of the biggest toys resellers over here in Belgium, ) and the seller told me it was the last one they had in stocks, and that it was discontinued...

And me with Drock !

Christo's shop is back online at the bay : http://stores.ebay.com/Custom-Bricks-And-Minifigs Not yet a lot listed, but it shouldn't be long before getting more

I agree. TLG marketing makes some fantastic works in some departments. The Lego advertisings which air on TV are well done (Star Wars, City theme,...) the 3D comics are hilarious, but when it came to direct, "specific" communication, there is nobody on the line. I don't understand them. While I can understand fear of plagiarism problems in some themes (City, Pirates,...), they can't have the same fear on licensed themes, as these (SW, Indi, Prince of Persia,...) are part of (we can be sure) heavily armored agreement with rights owners . Talking of Star Wars, I don't think it's part of the license agreement with Lucas, as Hasbro communicate 10 times better with websites and fans (example here : http://www.jeditemplewarroom.com/forum/ind...hp?topic=1903.0 ) As I said, if, at least, we could have clearer pics of sets coming out one or two months after, I would be already happy... It's almost as if the retailers themselves were having a hard time getting the pics, as we have seen with Amazon Japan switching the battlepacks pics for progressivly larger versions... Sic... Ambassadors, could you please raise this subject to TLG ?

Ok, browsed the nine pages to see if the following questions have been asked... and no, so... Why don't we have any official informations from Lego about upcoming products ? Here's some facts : - January line is already available in some parts of the world, have been sold, bought, re-sold, reviewed, and... we don't have yet a single official picture from TLG. Furthermore, they will be officially available worldwide starting january 1, and yet, no pics. - I know they don't want to reveal new products until "officially announced", and what did we have yesterday ? A video from a room full of 2010 sets, not the january line, but the mid-year line ?!? I can quite understand that they don't want to tease people with products that might not reach production, but I'm talking of products revealed by the leaked retailers catalog, so products that will certainly be produced. I also undertand that some of them are not ready, but some others are, just as we saw these boxed trains sets, General Grievous Starfighter, Slave One poster... in that same video. Sorry if this sound like a pure rant. It is not my intention, but I truly don't understand TLG marketing department, and I think that we, the various communities desserve really better from a group we praise and buy from, year after year...

In the video, at exactly 14 seconds, you can see on the left a small part of the General Grievous Starfighter box... Too bad they didn't shoot it. Now the questions are : - Where was this filmed ? Would it be possible for a british gentleman to phone Sky News and ask them where the hell did they filmed it ??? - Why is there a display of most of the 2010 sets and nothing on the net ? We are far from Toy Fair (either US or UK) On the sets : Ice Cave --> MUST BUY. I just hope the Wampa will get a machine printed head, it look a bit too plain like that... And my supposition : some of the sets (Plo Koon, Ice Cave and Grievous) seems to have already reached the "production" level. I bet that we might get them earlier than june (well, officially august, hem...)

No I agree with you. I think that there is room for everybody, from purists to customizers... I'm half of each. I don't like using sharpies, or paying huge amounts for a "decal" minifig that is not permanent... Or seeing weird things like minifigs with Hasbro heads ... Hopefully, we have some good customizers like Christo, Arealight, Kaminoan, Brickforge and so,... which can provide my large needs-of-new-things The only thing I do sometimes is modifying some Lego pieces using Brasso... You can have pretty good results doing that...

Hummm, well, it's Star Wars. It does not seems more "unreal" to me than the standard TIE fighter, or the Tantive IV... Overall, I like the set, overpriced for sure, but I think that it can be easlily converted in a more standard TIE Interceptor... And the new pilot rocks ! No offense Penitent !

Honestly, it depends... He usually sell them through auctions, and I've seen several going for expensive amounts, other ones at a really good price... He's also not opposed to "direct orders" if you contact him... I know it for sure, I equiped a full Endor/Jungle rebel squad of 15 minifigs for a pretty good price... Along many other orders I made. YES, I'm a deep fan of him...

Here is a link to Christo's shop "Custom Bricks and minifigs" (formelly CAB Custom Technologies) : http://stores.ebay.com/Custom-Bricks-And-Minifigs He's closed now (as he does each end of year), he should be back by mid-january... I hope with new products ! And a pic of some of his products (until end 2008, it miss most of the 2009 productions) - Credit to Darthtangent from Brickshelf for the pic. And here's a few close-up shots, including some of the 2009' series, credit to JP's Flickr for them : http://www.flickr.com/photos/jps-custom-mi...57619945562392/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/jps-custom-mi...57619945562392/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/jps-custom-mi...57619945562392/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/jps-custom-mi...57619945562392/ And my favourite ever helmet (pic from exobrick's Flickr) : http://www.flickr.com/photos/8355391@N04/4080731525/sizes/o/

I agree with you, I had the same hope... I would be pleased if Lego was secretly cooking a set with Obi-Wan, A Cold Assault trooper and a "standard" Talz warrior... Time will say... Anyway, I'm impatient to get my hands on this set, thanks for the review KimT !

They don't need it, they're bound by contract... AFAIK, Skywalker Ranch choose the box art for their licensed toys... 2009 was the "three clones" box art, while mid-2010 will be "stormy" Captain Rex... It's Clone Wars era... Edit : @Zzz : whoops, sorry, didn't saw you already replied... My bad !

Thanks to an Ebay reseller, I was able to see closer shots of some of the new minifigs... Here they are : Enjoy !

Thanks for the infos 501st Commando ! If you don't mind, can you tell us if the eyes of the minifigs are standard Lego Star Wars eyes (full black) or white dot eyes ? And if the "crown" on top of the Talz head from the Freeco can be removed ?

No problem. I prefer to use bricklink than Ebay. Less problems, less fees, specialized site, you usually know what you get when you deal with a recommended seller. Honestly over 250 transactions I made over there (selling / buying), I encountered 3 problems, all of which were solved. But you have to carefully check who you're buying from, as always. And ask for a shipping quote before buying if you're in doubt. I gave you that link to the only Texas seller. I told myself that you might contact him and arrange something like pay-and-pick-at-home if he is close to Spring or Houston. Well, regarding the price, it will be hard for you to find that set at a small price as it is from 2002... Anyway, let us know if you got it in hands