meyerc13

You should be fine waiting on the Grand Emporium. If the pattern continues, Fire Brigade should be the next modular to disappear, probably near the end of the year. Grand Emporium should stick around well into next year, probably middle to end of next year at the very least.

Very nicely done. When you look at the thumbnail shots of the front end, you can't tell it isn't the real thing!

I often hear that Belville must have been more successful than Paradisa because it was around longer. What's the source for that assumption? Without a source for that I think it's just as likely that LEGO ran a manufacturing production run of the original Belville pieces and has been releasing sets for so long just to use up what they originally produced. I've never seen Belville outside of a Toys R Us store, and I've never seen anyone buy a set or even look at a set. My wife worked for a time at a Toys R Us, I should ask some of her former co-workers if they've ever sold a set. I honestly wonder where LEGO gets their focus groups, are they purposely ignoring parents who buy LEGOs already? Because I think most of us would love to have more options to buy for our girls. They've shown with the Farm, Harbor, City House, and recent Kingdoms Mill Village Raid that they can make sets that appeal to both boys and girls. Why they can't do a Circus, Veterinarian, Zoo, etc. I don't understand. Instant appeal to *all* kids, boys and girls. Making a girl specific theme that isn't minifig compatible is likely to turn off a big chunk of those who are most likely to buy this, parents with both a boy and a girl who already have a large investment in LEGO. As for the comments that these will still be LEGO and still compatible, while that's true it is also true that for certain themes like Belville, the price per piece is much higher than on a typical LEGO set (easily 2x normal), no doubt due to the oversized figures and animals. So while it is true that I could buy Belville or this new theme for my daughter and it would still be LEGO, I won't because I'd have to be crazy to pay those kinds of prices for bricks, when the figures would go in the trash.

Well... if this is true, bad news indeed. My daughter is three, and she loves playing LEGO with her slightly older brother. She loves minifigs. I will not buy LEGO sets that aren't minifig scale. I don't buy Belleville now and won't buy this theme if it isn't minifig based. I guess I'll have to stick to the harbor theme, Creator houses, and collectible minifigs for my daughter. I don't understand what LEGO is thinking. I think this thread should be moved to the Special themes section, because if this news is true, clearly it isn't City.

This reminds me of the Micropolis and The Classic Castle dot Com City standards. Once you've defined a standard, anyone can build to it, and whenever two or more people who build to the standard come together they can join their creations.

I have two little kids (3 & 5), and the LEGO daddy builds is for them to play with. My daughter loves to take off hats/hair. To this day, I don't know where some of the helmets have disappeared to. I have two theories, first is that it has somehow fallen into a small crack in the hardwood floor or between the floor and wall. The other theory is that either she or one of our animals (3 dogs, 2 cats) have eaten them. One of these days I'm going to have to put together an order for construction, police, fireman hats and hair. When building sets, I've dropped plenty of pieces. Sometimes I swear they grow legs and run off once they are out of your sight. Sometimes you see a piece go flying and think it landed 4-5 feet away only to find it right on the floor next to you. Other times you'd swear it just fell off the edge of the table and should be right next to you on the floor, only to find it on the other side of the room. Just yesterday my son was moving a Kingdoms set and thought he heard a piece fall down the vent. A search turned up a single LEGO piece, but not a piece from that set. Not sure if that is the one that fell or whether that piece was there from a previous instance. The worst thing is this... why is it always the rare or unusual piece that goes missing? Why can't it ever be a basic brick in a common color?

4) The Monster Entry (Build by Titolian) - 1 point 17) Hazmat Guy Entry (Build by Diidy) - 1 point 26) Punk Rocker Entry (Build by SjoMiLu) - 1 point Touch choice... good luck everyone!

Thanks for another great review of this set. The photos are much better than on the first review, although I'm glad the first review was posted too since it has been up for a while now and it is nice to get an early opinion on the set. As I said in the other thread, my son bought this set yesterday and it's a great way to build an army of the aliens and ADU members. The alien ship isn't very good at all, but the parts used to make it are quite useful. So definitely a great value for $5. I compare this to the army builder in the Kingdoms line and it sells for $7, so this is a much better value.

My son picked up this set today at Toys R Us. This is a great set to pick up, especially during a sale like today's BOGO50%Off. The alien's ship isn't particularly great, but the parts are nice. The best thing about this set it picking up an alien and an ADU for $5. During the current sale, it's two minifigs and some parts for $3.75, which is only a quarter more than TRU's new regular price on the collectible minifigs! What a great deal.

My daughter picked up this set today at Toys R Us. It seems this harbor theme is almost as popular with little girls as the Farm theme. One thing I have to say for this set, once you have it built it sure seems quite big given the low number of pieces. For only $1 more than most of the polybags are selling for these days, this is a much more substantial set.

I had a hard time figuring out that comment too, but I think what he meant is that the cars look like they are driving every which way and that there aren't clear roads laid out to show where the cars should be driving.

I had to comment because I love your pizza sign! What a clever idea and I think it works perfectly.

There are a list of differences between the sets. See here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=54861&st=15

In case the OP doesn't have instructions, you can buy instructions for a similar ambulance here: http://www.brickcitydepot.com/instructions.html (I'm not at all affiliated with the site, just something I've considered buying myself!)

Sometimes I think it would be interesting to look at which of the categories in Eurobricks that people spend most of their time. I've noticed that in some categories like Star Wars, people will point out the slightest inaccuracy in a MOC or LEGO model. I spend most of my time in Town, and for those of us who like LEGO City, we're just happy if a LEGO vehicle has doors! With that said, of course I love this MOC! It's been some time since I've played WH40K (15 years?? wow I'm getting old), but these were instantly recognizable. However, as a fan of Blood Angels, these are the wrong color and should be red. Although I suppose they could be part of the Death Company. Overall, great job!

That last picture really puts the size of this into perspective. I've seen many of those planes up close in real life, and some of them are decent sized, but this makes them look like toys. Very well done!

Your TV van reminds me of the Fisher Price Adventure People TV Action Team van from the late 70's. Nicely done!

I get to the Mall of America store every couple of months, and I have yet to find parts that would be worth buying. I'm not even very picky, because I've wanted to buy them for my son and daughter. The last two times I was there they only had a single torso to choose from! That might be nice if it was a decent torso, but it wasn't anything exciting. I haven't been there since reports started popping up about Series 1 parts at various LEGO stores, so hopefully my next trip will be more fruitful.

Interesting if true. The timing is right since Medieval Market Village is on the way out (according to Amazon.com it is discontinued by the manufacturer). If the theme of the set is jousting, I wonder what it would include? Perhaps some tournament tents and food vendors?

For a discussion of that new piece, see here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=47568&st=817

I think for mini-fig compatible buildings, it becomes a matter of scale. 1 stud is about the equivalent of 35 cm, in real life you'd find most walls are less than 35 cm thick. So even 1 stud wide walls are probably too thick, 2 stud wide most certainly so. True, 1 stud wide loses some stability, I've built 2 stud wide walls into a building and I could pry the whole building off of the baseplate without losing a brick. But as others have mentioned, you can design enough structural support into a 1 stud wide that it will withstand normal play. As you can see, I generally prefer 1 stud wide walls for my buildings. However, I have seen buildings that combine both. One example of that is: I liked this building so much I made my own, although I don't have pictures of my version of it right now. One thing I will say is that this combination is even less structurally sound than a 1 stud wide building, very tricky to do, but it can be done.

Yes, that is correct. These are not related to the Brickmaster subscription, except in name. These should be readily available from most Bookstores, Amazon.com, etc.

Those must have been Idea Book 6000 stickers I spotted on your hairdressers, because now I see more of them (plus your house design). Very nice work. I really like these houses better than the originals, much more spacious.

I like it! Is that the old sticker from the 6000 Idea Book? I love this idea, and may have to add one to my kids' LEGO town. My haircut is always the most basic, so I rarely pay attention to what they have, but maybe raise the chair up a bit, add a hairdryer and one of those perm dome things? (again, sorry I don't know the name)

Thanks for the great review! Unfortunately it still isn't convincing me to buy it. I can't understand what LEGO is thinking on the price. For only $10 more I can buy The London Escape set which has two horses, 5 mini-figs, two carriages, and a nice building - in a licensed theme! I'd have to find a pretty good sale on this set to give it serious consideration.