fred67

Sometimes.... Like, Luke's Landspeeder... I think it was worth it because of the figs... in other words, I wouldn't have bought it for the figs, but the figs made it worth the price (IMO). I guess the answer is no... I don't buy just for minifigs, ever, they just add value to what I am buying.

and....

Well, in pure cheapskate fashion, after seeing the price is going to be $40 (just discovering this now? what, have I been sleeping under a rock? I just wasn't paying attention), I'll stick with my cheapskate Snow Speeder and leave it at that. I guess the only thing I'll be buying is the Slave-1, no matter how stupid the cost is. I'm glad I'm just not that big of a SW LEGO fan.

So I don't care about bar codes or anything; it seems it's been guaranteed that you'll get a complete set in a box, so I'd just like to buy a box... I can wait until June, but the question is "where?" I've seen a few sites offering them for preorder, but they want more than list. I'm certain if I walk into Toys R Us or my LEGO Store and ask for a box, they'll kick me out. It would be cool to be able to order a box from LEGO.com, I'd be comfortable doing that, but I'm afraid they will only sell them separately, and limit it to like 5 or 10, like they do for so many items (especially new ones). I could even wait longer... I won't even be in the U.S. for most of June anyway, I still don't see it happening for third or fourth shipments.

What makes Zev "Zev?" The name on the box? It's just a minifig in an orange jump suit. Throw a lightsaber in his hands and he's Luke, change the name on the package and he's Wedge... And they all sell for different prices on Bricklink.

When did they start selling these? This is AWESOME, I love it. I'm not a fan of Atlantis, but I love the giant squid in the Gateway of the Squid, but wouldn't buy the set just for the squid... but on my last bricklink order I picked up a handful of these tentacles, so I'd love to get a couple of these and add the long tentacles. Yes, I know it's not a squid.

That's awesome... you're so much more detail oriented than I am. I don't really care about the caboose opening or being able to manipulate or pose characters on the inside, but your designs inspire me and I can get away with doing things a bit simpler. I could probably do this from parts I have, but doubt I have enough orange. Keep 'em coming.

Huh. How much is this set going to be? I wanted it just so I could get a "real" Snow Speeder because I didn't have one, and figured that the Wompa and cave and everything would just be nice extras... but then I built the cheapskate Snow Speeder, and now that I'm seeing more pictures, I'm not sure I feel like spending money on it (I am a real cheapskate; LEGO is not a good hobby!). My cheapskate Snow Speeder even has a Zev Senesca from the Battle Pack. I'll probably end up getting it for anal-retentive "completeness."

Yes... the canopy, and the large slope/wedge pieces were what I had to order to build the ship. Everything else I had, but not in the right colors, so I did add a few other wedge plates in white. Then, on a later order, I threw in a couple of pilots. EDIT: To be fair, though, when I was using the black wedge plates (which I already had in my inventory) it actually looked pretty cool.

Luke seems pretty happy to be killing that dude... are we sure he's not Sith? If only I could figure out how to use the force to keep me regular. Try living on twigs and bark, you should; then complain you would not.

Great idea, but since I already have this Fast Food Joint, I may be tempted to add it to my town.

These are awesome, a great idea. I like the new microfigures from LEGO, but they can't hold anything. LEGO should make them with clips on each side, but I won't hold my breath. But I will need to build an army from my mini-Castle, and these are just great.

That's an incredibly difficult question to answer! It really goes by a case by case basis. BTW, Bricklink has a great feature where you can part out a set directly into a "Wanted" list. Then you can go into that wanted list and delete the parts you already have. The first time I tried doing that was for discontinued Santa Fe train cars. Ultimately, to get an EXACT duplicate of what you would get in the set, it would have cost just as much as it would have been to buy the set on bricklink. But there was one part in particular that made it difficult... gray curved sloped bricks used for the roof. In order to buy the quantity you needed, the prices on BL were around $1/each, and you needed 32 for each car (and I was building three at the time). But LEGO was still selling the same part in black for much less... so that's eventually what I did. I don't mind that it's not exactly like the set (just like these ships I built). BTW... sometime prices are actually cheaper on PAB S@H!!! I always check, especially since my habit lately is to buy only new pieces, if possible. In the case of the Home One A-Wing, it's certainly cheaper to buy the pieces on BL than to buy a whole Home One set... but then you miss out on everything else in the set, and it's not a good example or easy to figure out if you saved anything. With the Home Ones currently on sale (which is how I bought mine) it seems a no brainer to buy one if you can... but I wasn't going to buy 3 of them just for extra ships. You can buy the older A-Wing on BL (7134) for less than $20! They are not identical, but who needs a removable engine except if you're using it with the Home One? The decision to build it stemmed from the fact that I have a WALL of LEGO parts, including tons of slopes and wedge plates and hinges and so forth... while I was building the A-Wing from the set, it occurred to me that I might have the pieces to do it from my parts. I did end up ordering some parts... maybe $15 worth (including the minifigs) to be able to build TWO,, but then I can't tell you what I paid for the pieces I already had. I'd roughly estimate it cost me $25 total to be able to build both... but that's not the end of the story, and a lot of my purchases get intertwined between two or more things I'm trying to build. So, for example, when I figured "hey, maybe I can do the Snow Speeder, too," and discovered I needed the canopy... I added the two A-Wing pilots to the order. I wouldn't have gotten them otherwise... the place I bought the canopy from conveniently had two A-Wing pilots. I also bought a bunch of pieces for my mini-castle MOC. So how much shipping and handling to I apply to the minifigs? They were an extra purchase to help bulk up the order to make shipping and handling more worth it. Lastly, you will not likely be able to find all the parts you want to make any particular set in one bricklink store. You will get slaughtered on shipping costs if you try to just build a ship from buying pieces on bl unless you can limit the purchases to very few stores. The cheap bastard approach to building this way takes a lot of time and patience. I spent months collecting the pieces for the Santa Fe cars while I was ordering other things; I would order something specifically that I wanted right away, and say "Oh, this store has these Santa Fe pieces I need, so I'll get them, too." MONTHS. Sometimes I bulk up my inventory of parts (no, I'm not a seller) when I see a good deal on things... this is why I have so many spare parts to begin with. It's impossible for me to tell you exactly how much I paid or how much time I spent. But that's the trade-off... time versus money. I'm a pretty patient guy, especially if it saves me some scratch. I'm also not a "collector," I don't need New MISB sets. I enjoy building things from my parts and often come up with alternatives. Both my version of the A-Wing and Snow Speeder are not exactly like the set instructions... neither in colors nor in bricks. It's difficult to tell, but I adapt where I have to... And just to add to this novel length post... I've also discovered that the LEGO designers don't always do things the "best" way. Have you ever built something where they, for example, told you to put two 2x2 bricks next to each other and you asked yourself "why didn't they just use a 2x4?" Stuff like that happens all the time... it seems sometimes they try to bulk up piece counts, or they are told they have more of a certain piece and are encouraged to use it where possible. The opposite is also true. I had one time where I bought 2x3 bricks of a color that I had 1x2 and 2x2 bricks of; but when I actually built the set, the part was not needed at all for structural stability... I could have just used the 1x2 and 2x2... so read through the instructions beforehand.

Ok, my two cents... licensing is a symbiotic relationship, and depends on the success of both LEGO and the rest of the franchise. At this point, it seems like POP and Toy Story are REALLY good prices compared to similarly sized sets (both licenses and unlicensed). My two cents is that this is because the movies have not even come out yet (POP and TS3), and so the licensing fee is actually quite small, if anything, and the company holding the rights (Disney) considers loss of revenue on licensing to be a promotional cost for the movies and the potential ongoing licensing fees. Star Wars LEGO sets leaves me scratching my head... it used to be that, if you wanted a bargain - the best price per brick, you'd buy a larger set. But now the prices seem to have gotten all topsy-turvy. The TIE Defender, for example, while a really cool ship, seems WAY over priced. But the low end sets... something like the Battle Packs, or the Land Speeder, seem like downright bargains when you put them in perspective and try to value the minifigures. People actually complained about the Land Speeder, for example, but you get FIVE classic Star Wars figures AND a classic ship to go with it. The Battle Packs, with four guys in each pack, seem like an awesome deal... but the TIE Defender seems like an absolute rip off by comparison. And I don't think I've ever seen LEGO raise prices ON AN EXISTING SET like they did with the Battle Packs last year... but then I don't have that much experience, over all. But it's true... looking through the Spring catalog, the POP and TS sets seem like absolute bargains by comparison to even non-licensed sets. If the movies are very successful, though, look for licensing fees to go up. I would be willing to bet the contract was short term, and depending on the success, would be renewed for higher fees. This benefits both LEGO and Disney.

I have no problem "feeling" right about buying a set for resale. If you're good, one initial investment could support your hobby from there on out if you're good at picking sets. I bought a Cafe Corner shortly before they went off the market for a discounted price and now they sell for $300... with $300, I could buy TWO Green Grocers, and while I may have to hold onto them for a while, I'm sure their prices will double (or nearly so) within months after it's off the market. I'm not saying I will do that; I bought the Cafe Corner for me... but contrary to what some others have said, I think a wise LEGO collector could do well and make a ton of extra pocket change reselling discontinued LEGO. I personally have tons of sets because I just don't have the time or space to build them... some have been discontinued, and now it's a tough choice to sell them or build them myself. I would never buy a set I didn't personally want; at least that way, if it doesn't increase in value (*), you have something you want. (*) I bought two TIE interceptors because the regular TIE was no longer available... I built one, and still have the other one in the box.... it's not really any more valuable than it was, even though it's a 2006 set that has long since been discontinued... but the reason I bought two was because I figured it was close enough that I could nearly build a complete regular TIE with it... and I can, when I get around to it! Just as an example... knowing now that the modular buildings are VERY popular, you could have: Bought 2 market streets when they came out; built one for yourself, held onto the other. Market Street is selling on BL for over triple the price... over $300, with which you could have bought two Cafe Corners, and built one for yourself. Now Cafe Corner is selling for over $300, enough to buy two Green Grocers... There's overlap between the sets which might make this strategy "dangerous" where you risk missing a set waiting for one to be discontinued, but you could stagger it, too (invest in two sets at a time)... in this case, it's a pretty sound investment. Of course, you didn't know this in 2007 (how popular the modular buildings would be), and neither did I... but you know it now, and I guarantee (as much as an anonymous guy on the internet can) that $150 for Green Grocer is going to be a good investment. People will tell you that you may have to wait a year... maybe even two... this is a possibility. But how many other investments DOUBLE in price over the course of two years? Especially those with what is really, let's be honest, very little risk... in fact, since you could always use it yourself, there's essentially ZERO risk. If I had more expendable cash, you'd better believe I'd be buying more... but again, I would only ever invest in sets that I wanted anyway, that way you simply can't lose.

Hi, hhcBrick, from another newbie... I read this post and I was in the same situation; with a little time and a few bricklink and LEGO.com orders, I was able to build three of the Sante Fe cars (and have enough to build a fourth, but just haven't had the time lately). There are also some people who've come up with their own similar cars, including using the new "Emerald Night" style carriage doors (which eliminates the need for special train doors and windows). The only problem I had was the overly expensive gray sloped roof pieces; I had another solution that worked OK (in gray), but ultimately just used the "correct" piece in black. Peruse the forum... there's a lot of great suggestions for the cars.

It started when I got the Home-One, a set I wasn't really interested in but picked up because it was on sale; I figured I'd at least get ship and some cool figures, but ultimately I was really happy with the build. I don't normally like "play" sets, but usually just build things for display. But when I built the A-Wing, I was certain that I had enough pieces to build extras. I was wrong. But a small bricklink order later, and I was able to build two ships. The next BL order I made I threw in a couple of A-Wing pilots to make it more complete. So the colors aren't exactly right, but I think they turned out OK... I may reclaim the gray pieces on the tail fins for white, but this is what they currently look like: I used some green on the engines, as per the instructions, but in retrospect it didn't make much sense since I didn't have green engines. I may reclaim them for white, also. I never had the Snow Speeder, so I'm waiting for the Wompa Cave set, but while I'm waiting I thought that maybe I had enough pieces to build the Snow Speeder, too. I did (except for the canopy), but not in exactly the right colors. Still, the BL order where I got the A-Wing pilots and the canopy also got me a few more of the correct colors, so I'm pretty happy with how it came out. The pilot is Zev Sensca from the Rebel Trooper Battle Pack. Instructions from the 4500 set. So... I know it's not particularly exciting, but I thought I'd share anyway. In typical cheap bastard fashion, I'd like to thank LEGO for putting downloadable instructions online. But what this brings me to, ultimately, is a simple observation... for some time a lot of people have been hassling TLG for making these really specific parts and making a bunch of non "LEGO-like" sets, where instead of building things up from bricks you had a lot of bigger "special" pieces.... but I substantially built both of these from just regular parts I've collected over the years (typically they were extras thrown into bricklink orders to make shipping and handling more worthwhile). It's not perfect, they still have a lot of specifics and special pieces, but I think they're doing a lot better in that respect. One thing I'll never get is how they can take a guy in an orange jump suit and give him a specific name instead of just "Rebel Pilot." Luke, Dack, Wedge,Y-Wing Pilot... they're all different prices, but I could take any one of them, give it a light saber, and call it "Luke," and nobody but the most anal retentive geek would notice or care.

Awesome job; I'm definitely down with that MkII and VII.

I don't know about that... 3 minifigures AND a horse and some extra pieces... but I doubt it'll only be $10, maybe $11 or $12. I wouldn't pay any more than that, but it's worth $10, IMO.

I like 6209 (2006) better, frankly, mostly because of the colors, but having been in non-train dark ages at that time, I missed out on many cool ships that LEGO is redoing in one way or another this year; I got the A-Wing from the Home One, I'll get this new Slave-1, and I'll get the Snow Speeder from the Wampa Cave. The 6209 is selling for WAY more, used and incomplete, than I expect the new one to sell for brand new, so I'll be quite happy with it. I'm also really intrigued by those curved green "macaroni" style pieces... I'm wondering if they appear in other sets.

I bought this set when TRU had it on sale a couple of months ago. My love of Star Wars LEGO is pretty limited to OT and normally just ships or scenes that I can display on a shelf, I don't normally like "play" sets. But I got this because of the sale; my wife was away for the weekend, so I had time to hang out and build it and... I really loved it. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed building it, I love the playability (yes, it's there on the shelf, and occasionally when I walk by I play with the controls to make the ship and admiral Akbar move around). The striking thing for me was the A-Wing. I didn't have one. I liked it so much that, while I was putting it together, I was thinking about what I had in my own collection to be able to build more. So far I've built two more, mostly from parts I had but I did order a few pieces to complete them, so now I have a little fleet, even if the colors don't all match. There was another thread with the same idea. I bought two because they were on sale. I don't know whether to hold onto one, or use it to make another A-Wing bay. Ultimately I'm really happy with it, seeing as how I was at first going to give it a pass, and how it wouldn't normally be my "cup of tea."

Great review... I'd like to get one of these since, as far as Star Wars goes, I'm only really a fan of the OT... but I never liked Ewoks, so it's fairly low on my list. Why is R2D2 naked in back? It's like he's wearing a hospital gown for droids. I haven't looked at any of the R2D2s I have in years (because I only have a couple - one in unopened box, the the other has been in the X-Wing forever... I'd check, but I'm at work), but don't recall them being "bare."

Thought I'd add my two cents... I generally keep sets on display on shelves; if I don't have enough space to display a set, I don't open it, so all the sorting I've had to do comes down to pieces... besides the few extra pieces that come in sets, I've only ever purchased ONE tub of LEGO, all the other pieces have come from PAB and buying at BL, one garage sale, and one bulk ebay purchase. So I used to just keep the extra parts in the tub, but the little "interesting" pieces would sink to the bottom, and I was forever dumping it out looking for what I needed. So I started with a couple of small craft organizers. When that wasn't good enough, I got a few of these: Stanley Organizers: The great thing about those is the whole bin is removable from the box to make it easier to dump and dig in to find the exact piece you're looking for, as many of my parts are still combined. What's better is if I know I will be using a lot of one piece, I can just take the bin instead of the whole case to where I'm working. After completely overflowing the LEGO bulk bucket, I started getting these: Sterilite Shelf Storage containers: I must caution against using them, as there are no tabs on the backs of the drawers to hold them into the "unit" and they too easily come completely out... and millions (or so it seems) of pieces end up in all corners of the room, but they are a good size for some storage. When I outgrew (*) those, I moved on up to these other Sterilite Drawers, specifically: and Those drawers gave me a lot of bulk storage, so that I could actually put entire work-progress in a drawer; I could have tons of train stuff or PF in one drawer, it worked out well. Having larger drawers for stuff, I also use a LOT of plastic bags for parts that may fit in with some other category, but they are slightly different and I don't have enough for their own compartment. So, for example, I have a bin with black technic pins, and a little plastic bag with triple length black technic pins that also goes in that bin. As you can see, I also have a number of plastic "shoeboxes" for storage... they are a great size and stack well. Finally, some pictures of my stuff: These are older pictures, actually, my sets are actually much better organized on the shelves then they are in this picture, and since that time I've gotten a new, larger office at work where I can display some of my sets. Ok, if you've made it this far, these are my issues: 1. Over organization... so I sit down and start working on something and think "Ok, I need one of something," and I get up, walk over to the shelves, find the piece, go sit down and put it on, and then I think "Ok, now I need one of something else." Repeat.... 2. Since I did not plan from the beginning, I hate having so many different types of storage solutions. I have problems finding dividers that will help me organize within the smaller drawers of the sterilite "towers." 3. The big drawers on the sterilite "towers" are too big for pieces (but good for MOCs in progress and other things, and good for pieces like train track). For example, I have a lot of 2x2, 2x3, and 2x4, and the drawers were at least half full. But recently I started putting them together in stacks of 10 pieces to make it easier to: a) count how many I have and b) grab a number of the same color when I need them instead of digging through looking for a specific color. Now these bricks only take up like 1/4 of the drawer, and I have a lot of empty space. I'm also curious how so many people sort by color... I'd always thought it was pretty common in LEGO sorting to sort by type. It's easier to find a yellow 2x3 in a bin of different color 2x3s than it is to find a yellow 2x3 in a bin full of yellow 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, 1x2, 1x3, 1x4.... (*) "Outgrew" doesn't mean I couldn't use them... just that what I was using them for needed more space, so I had to "shift up" the storage space across the board, really, and things that before didn't warrant that space graduated to larger storage.

Very nice, very well done... both LEGO sets and MOCs work great together. Is there some reason the road plates don't seem to line up well? Everything else seems so perfect that the misaligned road plates stand out like a sore thumb.

Not SNOT... SIED (Studs in every direction!) Very cool and inspirational.