meyerc13

You are probably thinking of: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=3840pb17 Edit: It's from the 7239 fire truck, which is still on store shelves.

If these are accurate, I have to agree with the others. The five vehicles are perfectly priced - I was afraid they might be $25. The police and fire sets all seem over-priced. Compare that police station to the current fire station. The fire station is the same price, but comes with two garage doors, while this set has none. The Garage doors are generally only in the $80+ sets, so they are expensive on the secondary market. Other than the new brick pattern 1x2 pieces and the bear, I'm not seeing anything super exciting as far as parts in this new police station. And while the new 1x2 brick pattern piece is interesting in theory, in execution it looks odd (but hopefully that will be corrected in final pics). I'm thinking that these CITY sets are going to drop in priority on my want list (except the five vehicles - which I'll snatch up very quickly), and oddly enough the Friends sets are going to be high on my want list if the prices that were leaked are accurate.

Looks good, as usual. Looks just like the ones I see driving around town (except some of them have more rust!). I like the third brake light in the back. Are you planning on adding some stickers to break up the white sides a bit?

Are you missing Sean's first book, "Cool Cars and Trucks"? I stumbled on that one in a bookstore 2 years ago and immediately bought it for my son. At the time it was the closest thing I could find to the old LEGO Idea books. Now this year, it seems we have a few options. I wish LEGO would reprint or redo the old Idea books (I say redo because some of the pieces used in those books are no longer made). I'd love to have a mint copy of the 6000 book without paying an arm and a leg.

When you're ordering from Amazon, don't forget Sean Kenney's new "Cool City" book, if its as good as his last two it's worth a look.

Here's something to ponder... here in the US it seems like Toys R Us carries LEGO in a separate section away from boys toys and girls toys. However, Target and Wal Mart seem to put LEGO in the boys section. If major retailers pick up this line, do you think the LEGO aisle will move to the area between boys and girls toys? Or do we end up with two LEGO sections? Both my son and daughter are into Squinkies, and they have two sections of them - one for boys and one for girls. For my son's birthday, one of the moms knew he liked them but picked up a girlish set, she had no idea there was a second Squinkies section in with the boys toys. So it will be interesting to see how Target and Wal Mart decide to handle these if they pick up this line.

I absolutely love that we are getting vehicles outside of an annual 'theme,' but I know what you are saying. When my son was old enough for LEGO and my dark ages ended a few years ago, I started picking up sets and bought some road plates to do it old school like we did in the 80's. Our LEGO City roads quickly reached gridlock (especially with 18 wheelers that stretch the length of a whole baseplate and then some), and with the exception of a pizza place and bike shop, if I hadn't built some buildings the town wouldn't have have had a structure in it. My basic houses and structures have been replaced with a fire station, police station, bank, town house, etc. However, we still have more vehicles than we have streets to drive them on. It's tough to build a town when almost all of the buildings are $80-100 sets. Thank goodness for Target and the $50 sets they've had the last two years, but I'd love to see some small buildings sold separately just like these new vehicles. If the price point is right, Friends might be just the ticket.

It seems like 2012 will be the year of the 6 wide SUVs and Pick-up trucks, much like the one in the horse trailer set from the farm theme. I think they look awesome, but wonder how they'll look next to a fire truck or semi. I guess it might be time to MOC some eight wide trucks... but then I'll have to make my buildings bigger so that the trucks aren't bigger than the buildings... oh dear - now look what you've made me do LEGO! Here are my thoughts Fire: The airplane set seems a lot like the helicopter set from the last wave, I wonder if parents will skip over it in the store not realizing it is a new model. I love the Jeep in that set, though. I used to own a Jeep and that is a very good likeness. This may be a set I have to buy just for the Jeep. I wish the firetruck were more Americanized. Why can't LEGO just once give us an American style fire truck? I may pick it up for parts, but it's low on my want list. The ATV looks like a nice small set, probably pick up a few of those. Police: The police station is a must buy. I like the helicopter in that set, reminds me of the one from the Helicopter transport - much like an old Bell 47 open cockpit (think M.A.S.H.). The SUV is also nice, as is the ATV for the crook. The police station itself is growing on me. It wasn't what I expected, but I like the roof and the deck above the garage area. Of course the bear may be the coolest part of the set! I think this set will be much less than the current police station. It doesn't have any garage doors, it's much smaller... I'm thinking $60 instead of the $100 for the current police station. The Chinook and Gator (that's what the 6 wheeler reminds me of, just move the front wheels up a bit) - This is a very nice looking helicopter, but I'm not sure my police need a Chinook. But yet, maybe I need a Chinook. This one is tempting. Much better than the one that came with the old 10159 airport. The police car and the K9 van are okay. I'm a sucker for small vehicle sets, so I'll probably pick them up for the parts if nothing else. The best thing about the K9 set is probably the crook's car. Something about the police car reminds me of a VW Bug. I like the crook's pickup in the set with the police ATV. Have to get used to 6 wide pickups though. I love the front bumper and the light bar on the roof... and really love those new fenders! Vehicle sets These are all incredible! I was hoping for an American style ambulance with the cab narrower than the back, but this looks much nicer than the last LEGO ambulance. Reminds me of a Mercedes Sprinter Ambulance. Our local ambulance service had one of those but the most recent rigs they've bought weren't that style. I'm sure they prefer the more roomy style they were used to. The Sanitation Truck doesn't seem all that different from the last one. I wonder if they fixed the problem with the back falling apart due to the weight hanging down from the roof. Is this style truck still used anywhere? Most I see are side loaders or front loaders now. The Highway truck looks awesome - love the wheelbarrow and more construction barriers are always good. I might pick up a a few of this set. Love the motorcyle trailer set - nice truck and drawers instead of doors on the cabinets! Camper set - Finally a car that isn't red! Too bad we didn't get any car doors. I'm not sure I like the front of the camper, that windshield piece just looks odd. But I know my daughter is going to love this set, especially if it has a good interior. Overall 2012 looks like it is going to be an expensive year for LEGO City. I like the direction with these vehicles, finally we get something other than police cars and fire trucks for our LEGO City. Let's hope that line continues on for quite a while. The police sets are a nice change. I never thought I'd want more LEGO police, but these are different enough to intrigue me. The Fire sets are probably the weakest, but there's enough of interest there that I'll probably pick up a few of them for parts if nothing else.

Have to join those who love the sets but hate the figures. Seriously, riding an ATV standing up? What is she, the 21st century equivalent of a horse trick rider? So the question comes down to price. If these are priced around the same as most themes (10 cents a piece), I'm in. If these are priced like Belville, I guess my daughter will have to wait for them to hit clearance.

Oh no, missed the last two pics! That's what I get for putting work before LEGO.

If you can still find the Front End Loader, you might want to snap that up since it is getting hard to find. I found one in an out of the way toy store last week, picked it up for my nephew for Christmas. I hadn't seen that set in probably a year, so I was happy to find it and didn't hesitate. Likewise, I stumbled across another store that had a bunch of the red convertibles with the pay phone and tree, so I picked up another of those since it is a nice little set. That store also had the Space Police Container Heist, which I always wanted but thought I had missed, so I picked that up at full retail, since retail beats paying marked up prices online plus shipping. Overall, I'd say if you are still finding old sets in stores that you like, get them now because the price will only go up once the inventory disappears out of your local stores. The Series 5 minifigures are great, and readily available in stores, but I'm still finding Series 3-4 so I don't think you need to hurry on those.

Thanks for the review, but it solidified what I already suspected - I won't be buying this one for my kids. If I find it on clearance I might pick one up for parts, but a building spread over multiple days - sorry my kids don't have the patience and I wouldn't expect them to. And then the other days include two cops and two robbers and another dog... our City is over-run with all three! The ironic thing is that it will probably sell quickly, how many parents are AFOLs and would know what's in the box? Next year might be another story. If parents are disappointed by this one, next year they may decide to skip it, so here's hoping it's a better set that maybe will have a better chance to make it to clearance because of this dud.

I don't know about grab bags, it would be highly unusual for the pick a brick wall to have a non-basic brick in six different colors like that large piece is in the picture. Maybe an order from online pick-a-brick?

I picked it up last week at the LEGO store at the Mall of America. It's a fun set to build. The construction of both of the cars is quite interesting. I especially like how they carry the dark gray color of the frame through to the rear of the car. I think the set is a tad overpriced, but not terribly so. For what you get, it is equivalent to the 8402 Sports Car ($10) plus the 7236 Police Car ($6) plus a $5 set for the three wheeler. So $20 would have felt better, but $25 isn't bad.

Here's the inventory page:

Actually, there are two sets of wheels included. The instructions actually show the sports car built with the other set of wheels, yet all of the photos on the cover and in the book show this set of wheels.

I can take a photo of the inventory page and post it tonight.

This book is now out. Picked it up today at a local Wal Mart store, only $21 (list price is $30). For those who haven't bought a Brickmaster book, the book includes 130 bricks, two minifigs, and instructions to build various things using the bricks. Generally the instructions allow you to build 1-2 models at a time using the pieces, before you have to take those models apart to use the pieces to build the next model(s). The book has "seven different building experiences", but nine total models. Two of the 'building experiences' allow you to build two different models each using the parts: -Police Pickup truck and safe -Police helicopter and sports car for the robber -Police Plane -Police Hovercraft -Fast Car -One-person Police Car -Getaway Jeep The first model I tried was the sports car which is pretty nice. Too bad you can't build it and the police pickup at the same time (although the parts you'd need to do this are fairly common). The Helicopter you can build at the same time reminds me of an old Bell 'MASH' style chopper. The police pickup is nice, but it is paired up with a safe... not sure how much playability there is in a safe. Other models that look nice are the hovercraft and 'fast car.' Overall this is a nice book for the kids, especially if you can pick it up discounted like I did.

This set is finally available in the US, from WalMart.com for $24.97. When this didn't show up with the first police sets, my hunch was it would be a Wal Mart exclusive, much like the limo/helicopter last year. It looks like I may have been right. This time I'm not going to drag my feet picking up this set, because the limo was sold out around me before Christmas and never restocked.

Very nicely done. I can't wait to see the progress as you build this. I've been considering doing something similar for my kids, and hope to get some ideas from what you are doing.

My first thought was $50 as well. I think LEGO likes to shoot for 1 minifig for every $10 in price for larger sets, and on top of that you have to add the Star Wars mark-up. That would put it at the same price as the 6212 X-Wing, although that did come with 6 minifigs so maybe this will be a bit less.

Yes, it is rude (and illegal) to violate copyright, but the problem with the Internet is that it isn't always possible to know that something is copyright and what the original source might be. According to the original poster, later in this thread: Assuming that is true, I think you should harbor ill feelings toward whoever posted them to Brickpedia, rather than the OP. Hopefully the OP will properly attribute these now that you've come forward. In my opinion, it would probably be better for you and Brick Journal to allow someone to repost with proper attribution, because there are a lot of people like me who don't know much about Brick Journal, but find this type of content interesting so I'll probably look into it now. Thanks for doing the work to uncover this material, it really is fascinating, and sorry that people aren't giving you credit for that work.

Thanks for this great review! With the exception of the car, I think this entire set would fit in well with today's modern harbor sets.

The other day I was in Target, and saw a girl of about 6-7 looking at the LEGO City Space sets. She was telling her mom she wanted to buy one, and her mom told her that they were too 'boyish.' Even the girl's older sister was standing up for her, arguing that the girl should be allowed to buy the set if that is how she wanted to spend her money, but the mom wouldn't give. Whatever LEGO does with this theme, they have to get it into mainstream retail stores, and not just Toys R Us and LEGO brand stores. I grew up in a town of 50,000, and the closest Toys R Us is over an hour away. So this line must make it to Target, Wal Mart and other retailers. I still think LEGO is wrong going with a different scale, but time will tell. As a parent, the only way I'll buy them is if the price per piece is on par with mini-fig based sets, especially because the figures sound like they'll be going in the trash. If the price is like Belville, I can't see myself buying them unless they are majorly discounted and include some incredible, unique parts. I just asked my 3 year old daughter "If LEGO made sets for girls but they didn't have minifigs would you like it?" Her response, "Noooooo." I responded, "Why not?" "Because I'm not going to play with it. I like to have it with minifigs. Minifigs are my favorite."

I really like it! Since I was a child in the 80's, every proper LEGO building should have an open back like this. I have a question, how stable is the roof? I build LEGO now for my kids to play with, so sturdiness is important.