Delta 38

Wow, nice! If only the upcoming Hoth board game could be remotely like this.

That may be true, and I can't be certain either. I've spent a couple of hours trying to analyse them through the packaging, and personally, I can't find anything wrong with them. The most logical explanation for why production of the spinners' parts are mostly in Billund now is probably because word has circulated about them being cheap plastic, even if that isn't necessarily the case. I did think of that at first, and then I saw others complaining about minifigure quality. My initial plan was to buy every spinner for the base alone, regardless of the figure itself, but the price of $20 a spinner put me off that entirely. Bottom-line is, whether you hate them or are impartial to them, the spinners have changed as a result of disinformation about quality issues. Now, back on topic... Cole's vehicle's underside looks a lot plainer. It's just the underside of the vehicle with a little bit of green. The preliminary images had a vine/snake tail theme to it, which looked cooler. The transformation feature also seems to be flipping over the vehicle and rolling the cockpit, due to the way the cockpit is positioned. Note the engine part behind the cockpit is missing on the transformed version, so it's probably as simple as that. A bit lacklustre when compared to the other sets and considering the underside.

You have good points, however... (Mark Stafford on Brickset) So the switch from Chinese manufacturing to European is apparently because the spinners sold badly. "The damage to sales" is probably true, but I'm almost certain it's not because of whatever plastic it's made of. The real problem is, the spinner sets are too expensive. They're around $20 here, and you could buy a battle pack with that. I guess the assumption is because they sold badly, it had to be because of Chinese production. If the origin of the spinners were made clearer (as a ridiculous example, if the price tags had the country where the set was made in large print), there will undoubtably be less people buying. Probably because of a combination of the cost and people thinking "wait, this isn't standard Lego quality because it's Chinese, right?" But that's not what's happening. The spinner sets don't look any worse if you don't know what you're looking for. Even people that do know and don't really care about supposedly lower-quality plastic issues would be cautious in buying spinners anyway because of the price tag. I was fine with the Toy Story minifigs, and collectible minifigs are mostly unique so they're fine too. With the spinner sets, it's kind of a waste to buy one spinner just for the minifigure when you could buy a small set to get the same one and with actual pieces. If they had started with booster packs from the start, I think they would have sold a lot better and could have halved the price. Because of the rising cost of everything, I think people here are actually very cautious about where products are made. Everything these days is pretty much made in China, which doesn't necessarily mean they're bad, but when people see a product that's primarily made in Europe, such as Lego, they tend to trust the brand and product a lot more.

That may be true, but whether they are better or worse, I don't really want to mix them in my collection for consistency reasons. Also they're terribly expensive. I believe the reason was because people were convinced that all Chinese plastic is bad plastic, and the switch was because people were thinking that the spinner minifigs were inferior in some way. So it looks to me that this was a consumer-orientated move, and I don't think the price will increase, personally. I think it was also stated that some parts like the tails are still Chinese, but that's to be expected.

Woo! Okay, collective sigh of relief. Unfortunately, I still will be getting the sets because they're nice. Also, Brickset has some nice new images of the packaging. Pretty.

No, the map isn't new, but something funny is happening to the server. Lots of commands are removed, and there seems to be a higher rate of crashing. F3 also shows a higher rate of activity.

Yep, you're right. Looks like there's also a promotional brick for Lego Games. One thing though, I'm not sure if it's a sale or just a few discounted sets. I hope it's a sale, though I'm running out of money.

I saw the Black Pearl at Big W today, $148. Not the cheapest, but still. So the Black Pearl's now confirmed in at least three locations.

Wow, amazing detail! Great displaying area, too. I like the lights.

Wow, that Tardis is great! Like something you'd actually see if the Chameleon circuit was working. Nice work.

Nice find. Are these polybag or boxed impulses? An easy way to build an army, provided you can find them.

Are there any sales coming up for TRU? I'm keeping a very close eye on the AT-AT, Hoth Base and Republic Frigate, all at my local TRU for about $170 each. Another Target sale? We had one last week! I'm running out of discounted sets.

Australia's a continent as well. So we need a Lego store in our continent. I thought the colours thing was a little irrelevant, but eh.

Apologies for the double post. Hello there. Just because we may be moving to a new map in the near future, that does not give anyone the right to grief or destroy other people's stuff. Disclaimer: I've tidied up the damage, but if you own a water feature or fountain, you might find it a little more empty than usual.

Hmm, I don't think the server will be updated until the official release, mainly due to stability issues. There have already been three 1.9 pre-releases, I think? Your stadium is quite nice though, that would probably be good in the city. That should be fine, they'll fit into the city anyway. After some discussion, because the city island alone isn't enough...

After a quick discussion with Pinioncorp, the server will (most likely) be starting a completely new map after Minecraft is fully released, or at least 1.9. This is mainly because the current map is somewhat cluttered and isn't exactly an ideal place to build because of the strange land. It still ultimately depends on whether you guys want a new map or not. Currently-existing buildings can be moved to the new map, though they may need to be fixed up a little due to minor issues. Some buildings are marked for deletion though, so if you want to save your buildings, you should tell Pinioncorp. Here's my impression of a possible future map: Edit: added better image.

Neither do I, really. Just that it would be nice to get a B-Wing again. The A-Wing might be a possibility. Home One was fairly recent, but it's not a standalone A-Wing.

Ah wait, that's right! It was the B-Wing that was the UCS, not the Y-Wing. Is there a chance of a system B-Wing being released alongside the UCS?

Oh, I see it now. There's also one less pair of ribs, and the ribs appear whiter. It is different, but not by much. The two-headed snakemen don't look that intimidating, I think they looked better in the prelim pictures. The figures look as if someone's cut one large head into two smaller halves.

I had an excuse! They were all sold out near me. Yeah, I think the Riddler was confirmed as being in a set a while back. The response is interesting though... ..."isn't available to buy at the moment"... that's possibly a broad way of answering (i.e. it's not 2012 yet, so the sets wouldn't be out), or maybe it hints at future waves.

Thanks for the pictures! I thought the Y-Wing was a UCS set, like everyone's been saying. I'm relieved that the Y-Wing is a normal set, since I missed the previous ones. It's pretty close to the 2007 version, though the cockpit is less streamlined. Also, a third Astromech with the new head. The Stormtrooper torso's been changed, which I didn't notice before. I think the old one had a "cleaner" look, and it's a bit odd to be changing it.

*Re-counts* Okay, maybe I jumped the gun a little. Still, it's significant enough to make some people buy them, I guess. We haven't had spinner sets where the minifigures weren't available in sets yet, and I don't think we've had them before they came out in another wave.

Hmm, Lloyd isn't as intimidating now. Shame about the grey hood. I just noticed, most of the spinner and booster packs seem to have minifigs which are exclusive and aren't in sets. Interesting approach, that means people can't just buy the spinners instead of the sets to get the full lineup.

Hmm, some of the dinosaurs look a little... stranger. Also, looks like I was wrong about the gun clips. Oh well, but clips and a slightly-altered gun mould probably would have been easier for compatibility.