Galaxy Explorer

Your layout is very impressive! You must have a great Universal Building Set collection to be able to build all those MOCs. That Fire Station looks really good- in fact, the whole thing looks a two-page spread right out of a 1980's Idea Book, but turned way up. I'm looking forward to seeing more updates- I love your brick-built animals!!

Very nice review! This is one of those sets I had no idea about- I was making my weekly shopping rounds close to Christmas of '99 and saw this on the shelf along with the Desert Skiff and A-Wing. It was wonderful seeing the very first Boba Fett minifig, and to this day remains one of my favorites. The ship, however, was disappointing. I thought it should have been bigger, somewhere in the $40-50 range, but I got it anyway. Besides, all the green slopes were nice to have, generally uncommon at the time. I think I ended up with a few of these sets- they got marked down at Target the next year, and then showed up in a Combo Pack as well.

Nice display, mutley! I love seeing sets from the same "era" together. It reminds me of the store displays from the LEGO Imagination Center at the Mall of America. Regarding the 2010 AT-AT, I must say that to me it looked a little off- the non-printed dishes were a big disappointment, and it was generally lacking any Wow Factor. When I first saw pictures of 4483 ten years ago I was stunned. It was huge! Over a thousand pieces! New Snowtrooper figures! And a speeder bike as well! I had wanted an AT-AT since 1999 and LEGO really delivered. This set became my favorite Star Wars set of all, and still is. The 2007 version, although visually inaccurate, walked, and that was good enough for me. It's a real treat showing it off to friends, too. For whatever reason I never picked up the 2010 set, which is strange because AT-AT Walkers are my favorite vehicle in Star Wars. I guess it just didn't impress me enough to jump right on it. I would imagine if I actually had one and built it my opinion might change. I would welcome a new, updated System-scale AT-AT in 2014. Something closer to 4483 in design and piece count, with a 6-8 minifigs and a Rebel Turret. The Snowspeeder in Battle of Hoth needs an opponent!

smokebelch your pictures really sealed the deal for me on this minifig. The one with Solo riding the Tauntaun really captures the feel of LEGO Star Wars- it looks so official. I'm looking forward to this figure as I think he'll make a perfect addition to this year's Battle of Hoth. I missed out on the 2010 AT-AT, so I'm due for an updated Han. Thank you for the review!

I'm sorry SheepEater, I was thinking about sets in the CITY theme (2005-present) but yea, some of those Classic Town sets were loaded with minifigs. In fact, the Metroliner came to mind when I thought of sets with a high minifig count. I think eight figures in a current CITY set is very generous. I hope we get more of that in the future. I'm also a fan of the Coast Guard sets this year, they all look very good. Unfortunately my layout has reached its maximum size and I'm not sure if any of them will fit, not to mention the new Cargo stuff.

Thank you for the pictures! Well I'm now convinced that Town Square looks like the best set of 2013. There is almost nothing I don't like about it. Sure, the crane really isn't needed, but I'm not against it being there. In fact, it's a very nice looking crane. I'll just put it in a different area of my layout. I'm not sure about the sweeper, though. Hopefully it will grow on me, but it will not replace my sweeper from the Public Transport set. Both buildings are beautiful. I'm not really a sports person, so I might try modding the bike shop into a clothing store. The sandwich board is a nice detail- very common in my area. The statue looks good and since I have a park in my layout it will fit in perfectly. I love the bus- great use of the black train doors. They look better than the clear doors. I hope there are extra stickers to designate which route the bus is on. And eight minifigs! Has any other CITY set had that many? I can't think of any. So this set is a big winner for me, and I'm looking forward to getting one. It will be, however, bittersweet as I'll be removing City Corner, one of my favorites, to make room.

Yes, table space is now open. I got an Email the other day, so I registered today with no problem. Now the pressure is on to get my MOC's going!

I filled four holiday boxes last week. I got mostly tan and bley bricks, plates, and slopes. The selection of parts wasn't bad, but not thrilling, either. Wall panels and 2x4 tiles would have been nice to find, but I can't complain- it was free!

Andy D, I've sorted parts before assembly since around 2000-2001, right about the same time LEGO started releasing UCS sets. Sorting 1000+ part sets does take up some real estate, but looks pretty cool. To save on space I stack plates, slopes, and some bricks. All those stacked parts remind me of a huge sprawling metropolis! But I also sort small sets, right down to the polybags. The challenge for me is getting the UCS sets together in a timely manner or risk my cat starting to explore! You should try it sometime- go large so you get the full experience- I think I might look around for a giant Technic set, but the SSD is very tempting, too.

When I was younger I just poured the bags into the box and started building. It would irritate my parents while they would try to watch Dallas, and there I was on the floor pawing through those parts like a cat in a litter box. Later in my adult years I took to laying every part out on the table, which I continue to do. Like others have said, it gives me a chance to examine new parts and colors. When numbered bags appeared, I generally ignored them and sorted the entire contents one bag at a time, and always out of order. It looked pretty cool to see all of the parts from the UCS ISD spread out on my dining room table. I did, however, make an exception with the Taj Mahal- it was just too big and at the time I really didn't have the space to lay it all out. But yes, I prefer to sort.

I worked as a sales associate at TRU for five years, 2002-2007. I have to say it was a rollercoaster of an experience. Black Fridays were a lot of fun for me- I remember selling customers the UCS TIE Interceptor for $50, telling them what a steal it was! I frequently worked in the stock room, unloading trucks, and that was the perfect opportunity to to see the newest stuff- it was complete torture for me when the ROTS stuff came out in 2005. We received shipments three weeks before the street date and were completely forbidden to purchase anything until that time. I guess the best experience I had there was when a Mother with her 11 year old son came in looking for roadplates. He was working on a school project which required building a LEGO city. This was 2003, and the only plates we carried were curves and straights. He needed intersections, but the only way to get those was through SAH. His project was due on Monday, so there was no time. So I told them I would loan them roadplates from my own collection- they were very happy to accept, and the kid got an A on his project. I was just glad I could help out. There have been a lot of unpleasant experiences as well, but no job is perfect. If my "real" job hadn't been more demanding, I imagine I would still be there, happily in the LEGO aisle.

Hi Spider-Man. I'm from Chicago as well and this will be my second Brickworld. If you are a serious LEGO fan I highly recommend you register as a full attendee- you won't regret it. Since you live fairly close to the event, going multiple days shouldn't be a problem. I set up a display last year, but it's not required. However, space is limited so don't wait too long if you want to set something up. Also, there are many presentations and activities that won't be available to the general public. You won't be disappointed!

Pretty impressive collection you have there! I have some of those, but most are built from my spare parts so a few things are missing. I love the yellow house and the Hamburger Stand is one of my favorites. I hope you plan to set all these up together as they would make a great Classic Town layout!

Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! Mono- D'oh!! This could be a very cute theme- lots of Town stuff although we won't likely see a Moe's. A flagship set of the power plant would be awesome, and we even have headphones for Otto to wear. I would love to have a Quick-E Mart in my layout, too. Sign me up for this one, and release the hounds.

I had a layout set up at Brickworld last year, which was my first time. I was very impressed how respectful everyone was to each other and I felt very comfortable leaving my stuff unattended. When the doors opened for the public I was much more watchful, but never had anyone try to touch anything. The fun I had completely blew away any stress or doubts, and I am looking forward to displaying this year. I highly recommend setting up a public display if you can- it's worth it!

Ape Fight I think what you're doing is great! I'm a big fan of the catalogs and whenever I build a layout I try to make them look as close in style to the pictures as I can. Back in the day LEGO Stores used to have really nice layouts of all the current themes, and their Town displays were very inspiring to me. My one frustrating thing was the absurd amount of landscaping they used- as a kid I never had access to all those trees and flowers. I was lucky to have at least one cypress tree, but there were dozens in some of those pictures! Thanks again for sharing!

Nice little trip down memory lane! I've been wanting to set up my 90's Town sets lately and these pics are very inspiring. I'm a little jealous you have an Intercoastal Seaport- that's one I missed and I regret not buying it when I had the chance. It's interesting that you say how much has changed and yet you have a fifteen year old bike shop sitting next to a twenty-three year old Italian restaurant! I agree a lot has changed (scale, minifigs, bricks vs. panels) but current CITY retains a lot of what appealed to me in Classic Town: a wide variety of small and large sets with great primary colors. I would imagine the term "Classic CITY" will appear sometime in the future. Are you finished with your layout or do you plan to expand? I would love to see it evolve!

Darththeling, what you have described strongly reminds me of the Kenner toy from 1983. That was one of my favorite play sets ever, and if we are getting an Ewok Village from LEGO this year, I hope it includes all of those features you mentioned. A LEGO Ewok Village is something I've wanted since the license began. I remember back then thinking how the Pirate rope bridge piece would be useful, as well as the tree stump part used for Wild West. When the Ewok Attack set came out in 2002, I was sure a Village set was right around the corner, but that didn't happen. I hope after fourteen years of anticipation I'm not disappointed. Best case scenario would be a MMV or Diagon Alley- type set with 8-10 minifigs and 1200 or so pieces. I would imagine since most SW sets have a mix of good and bad guys, there might be at least one or two troopers- hopefully no speeder bike this time. I would just as soon leave out the villains and concentrate on the Ewoks. This would be a perfect opportunity for spirit minifigures to be included. Light blue with silver printed highlights would be fine with me. I'll just hope for the best and see what happens. So far it has been a very interesting year!

There are a few buildings out this summer- A bike shop, pizza place and a gas station, which looks like it's placed on a 32x32 baseplate. But yes, I agree, they are a ripoff.

Thanks for those pictures! The Pizza Shop looks very nice, but I will be sad to see the old one disappear from my layout. I was wondering when City Corner was going to get an update. If the Bike Shop, Gas Station and Pizza Shop are all one set this will be pricey, but it won't matter because I'd get all these separately anyway. The new bus looks beautiful, if not a little similar to the red passenger train. I'm very interested to see how this all turns out. I hope the Gas Station and Bike Shop are stand alone sets, with the Pizza Shop, Bus, Crane and Statue making up the Square. All of these are making me forget about the Cargo, Race and Coast Guard sets!

Thank you for the pictures. I'm not really collecting any Superheroes sets (I collect way too many themes already) but I must say I'm interested to see how the building might fit in a CITY setting. It has a very CITY-like feel to it, and I would love to add a Newspaper or TV studio to my layout. Instead of having Jameson on the monitor I would have live coverage of a crime or fire, referring to other current CITY sets. The fire escape is a very nice detail, and you get lots of black windows. The $50 price tag doesn't bother me since I just spent $70 on the Museum Heist, and that building is much smaller. I love the Dr. Doom figure- he translates very well into LEGO. All in all I think this is a decent set and tomorrow I'm going to go pick one up!

The Cargo Terminal looks great, except that I have absolutely no space in my layout to support an airport. The Cargo Truck, however, will fit nicely, and I like it a lot. That's the one drawback to CITY's scale- you need lots and lots of room! It's interesting to see the racing sub theme return to CITY, but I will pass on those. They do look good, though.

I am a huge Town/CITY collector and have been using 32x32 roadplates since the beginning. Most of the buildings produced back in the 80's and 90's fit nicely on a 32x32, and placing these roadplates side by side still gave you enough studs on both sides to place a building right in between the roads. Today's plates are too wide with not nearly enough space to build on. Plus, larger buildings such as fire and police stations are much longer than 32 studs, so you need two straight plates to fill up the gap. This gets incredibly expensive when you are spending $15 for one usable plate. I have a surplus of curved and cross plates that makes me sick- I have spent $300 alone on roadplates. This would be cut in half if the plates were packed two alike. Since the scale of CITY is so much bigger than early Town sets, I think the best thing to do would be to re-design the roadplate onto a 48x48 plate. I don't believe the cost would go down any, but you would have much more building surface, and official buildings would fit much better, IMO. And yes, I too would love to see some new colors for the 32x32- Brown would really help me out!

As I am a fan of the film series and not much into TCW or EU, 2012 was a very good year for me. Seven System OT sets, three System Prequel sets and two OT UCS sets and I like EVERY one of them. Jabba's Palace stands out the most to me- I thought it was very well designed, and the figure selection was great. The Skiff was also one of my favorites- great price, great figures, etc. The UCS R2-D2 looks like a fun build (I haven't put mine together yet) and I have to say that even though I don't collect EU, the Fury Interceptor looks amazing and fits very nicely in the Star Wars Universe.

Got this in the mail today and since I was unaware LEGO was sending these out I came here to see if anyone was talking about it. I was surprised I missed this topic! I also got an invite to the Pre-Black Friday, so I must be doing something right. I admit I do spend a lot on LEGO, so that must be taken into account. I've also recently used SAH more often, so maybe that helps. I guess I better make a LEGO run next week to make sure I stay on their list!