Robianco

I managed to pick up the whole of the last wave at 50% off in the UK so I'm hoping we'll get the same deals for these... Then they'll be worth it. Witch King Battle is the only first day purchase for me... The rest can wait until the discounts.

Wow... Those are some horrific moulds there for those bootlegs but I'd say they're old... Even some of the lesser clone brands have moulds identical to the Lego ones now. My 5 yr old loves the CMF line now and has asked for the house! If only I though she's actually play with it rather than trash it I'd be tempted.

I stand corrected! It was in Menorca... Not Lanzarote!! Just down from the town square where the market is held. We had something to eat in one of the restaurants in front of the shops as it was raining and then popped in!

I saw some Jack Stone sets when I was in Lanzarote a couple of years ago. I'll be in Majorca in a couple of days so I may make a venture into a shop or two for any possible lucky finds.

Is it a Chima torso?

The only reason I bring it up is due to your reasoning that the original is the best... hence your desire to build the hangar of original sets. If you look at the piece count of 7140 compared to 9493 it's less than half... and that includes the rebel cart. Maybe that's why we don't get things like the carts anymore... the piece count is already going up... even when we take into account small pieces like Technics pins that's a big jump. The B-Wing definitely missed out with not having a support structure compared to the older one but the B-Wing in general isn't the best set Lego has put out where we can see a definite evolution of the X-Wing through many sets since 1999. 7140 is definitely more of a playset. 'Better' is a term that's open to interpretation. It all depends on what you want from the particular set... Accuracy? Scale? Minifigures? Dioramas? Nostalgia?

SDCC was last month?

Skywanker - Not sure who gave me this one but it's because someone flagged a typo on the new Snowspeeder box for Dak Ralter and I retouched Luke's name instead. I think someone laughed. Maybe once.

I'm also slightly confused by the desire to keep the 8038 AT-ST (which probably looks the most accurate from the system scale sets) over the earlier sets when you've stated that the original sets feel more 'Lego' and if it's not a first set then it's not a collector's item and should just be for children to play with. I'm assuming you'll be looking for 7190 Millennium Falcon and the 7144 Slave 1?

If people want first editions of things then that's fine... Although I find it odd to state that they're the 'best' as most first edition sets seem vastly inferior to later sets due to new parts and better design as time goes on. I'm putting this down to translation as I'm assuming English isn't your first language. It's going to get very expensive very quickly though.

I'm guessing that's the figure from the SY set with the head from the NYTF SY figure and the eye area painted white.

Right... I'll be setting mine up later. I'm liking the Count's thinking... being a blue myself I'm hoping his prediction is right! :)

The more I think about some of those Rebels sets the more I like the idea of them as OT crossover sets. As the troop transport will always be associated with the OT for me then that's a must and a real chance to get some good imperials (excuse the oxymoron there!). TIE Advanced Prototype could be lovely... I'm not sure of how this deviates from the TIE Advanced but any TIE variant will, again, always be OT to me so I'm in! Seeing as the pilot figure with the Microfighter X-Wing had a new unique helmet print the I'm hoping we get the same for the Snowspeeder. Wes Janson would be perfect as his helmet was also Red Twelve in New Hope. I'm assuming that the numbering also leaves space for the (kind of) confirmed Slave 1?

Well if it stays like that it'll be a cheap wave for me... I hope the microfighter Snowspeeder is Wedge or Wes Jansen. Troop Transport from the Kenner toys sounds interesting... Just a T-16 as a OT set then... Shadow Troopers BP also sounds interesting.

I've avoided posting in this thread but one thing I'd probably stick my neck out to point out is whether a figure of a game designed figure... such as the Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider etc... is released by a Chinese bootlegger or a customiser then it's stolen. The licenses are held by Lego on release from Marvel or DC and as such the right to replicate those characters either in hard plastic form or digitally in a game belongs to Lego. I've had my work as a designer copied... I've had it stolen from a pitch and used by a client... so I know how that feels. These were things that were entirely unique... entirely my thought process. That act is sickening... literally... it makes you feel physically sick. There are a lot of game designed figures released by customisers and those of us who like custom figures, as I know some people prefer to be purist, are glad of this service... and we pay our money for our figures... whether they be pad printed, machine printed... whatever... and they range in costs. But ultimately those designs are stolen as they're been created by Lego designers for use in a Lego game. Whether the artwork for these is then recreated by a customiser or then replicated by a bootlegger there isn't a great deal of difference. Some customisers don't replicate game figures at all... Phoenix Customs for example.. their designs are completely original and therefore are not replicating and existing Lego held designs... you could argue that the reproduction of those likenesses still breaks some kind of copyright law but I don't think it's the kind of scale that would see Marvel, DC or Lego asking them to stop... besides... I see the real skill in creating those designs are there's real intricacy involved... just look at the Winter Soldier figure for example. The Lego designed muscle torso is generally a generic base to any superhero design and as such once it's drawn it's easy to copy a game design and as long as you have a good printer then off you go. There are very well respected customisers who have copied game designs as well as create their own designs. They've also created their own moulds for parts which add to the unique nature of their figures... but that in itself means that the figure you're buying isn't genuine Lego... another thing that's thrown at the Chinese bootlegs. I can even think or examples where an actual Lego figure has been copied to the exact detail of facial expression lines but people have still argued that the minutely different curve of a moustache means it's their own design rather than a clone of an already release Lego figure. That's a hard thing for me to understand... There's no difference in that example and the Chinese bootleggers making clones of figures. I own a lot of customs and my genuine Lego will never be replaced by clone brands or bootleggers. I for one wouldn't be happy with a bootleg of a figure if a genuine Lego variant was available... at a reasonable cost. That brings me onto the SDCC figures... I've had people say that if you're a genuine Lego fan that you'd want the original SDCC figure... I think we all would... but then again we all have budgets we work to... some larger than others and if you can pick up a clone of an SDCC figure with a quality that's perfectly reasonable... if not excellent (depending on the QC of the maker) then why give money to a profiteer or scalper for it? Not when you can pick up genuine Lego sets and put your money back into Lego... or even pick up some good quality custom figures on genuine Lego pieces if that's what you want. But I see no reason that paying £200 to a scalper for an SDCC figure is in some way more noble and beneficial to Lego than paying £2 to a bootlegger and spending the other £198 on Lego at a Lego store. If people want to stop buying Lego sets and pick up bootlegs just to get the figures then that's up to them... but that's not for me. But if I can't get certain figures that AREN'T available and someone is going to make a set of 8 available for the price of 2 CMF bags then I'll pick them up.

I do hope Lele improve their products... They've actually got a new range coming out with a mix of DC and Marvel and there's the potential for a couple of interesting items in there... although most will be clones of existing figures.

I'm thinking the Storm figure in the new X-Men set might be your best bet although her eyes are regular black ones.

I've got Sheng Yan's armed Snapper so I'll be comparing them to each other and can always use the SY arms with the wrench hands.

I've actually updated all mine with the Lando Skiff head although they're now getting trickier to buy in higher numbers. I've got some custom printed Bespin Landos that I've used Winston Zeddemore's head on. It looks really good and they're available for a very reasonable price too. You can also flip the head over for a 'worried' Lando when Chewie decides to grab him by the throat!

Black Widow is actually pretty close to the concept art they worked from... even the positioning of the blue lines in the uniform... it's just a shame that it was nothing like the film version!

It was more the fact that there are several characters that can use that mould if needed... Rather than taking the poster as a cue. It just happens that Reverse Flash is on there. I can't think of anything that the Modok head could be used for.

...and right there is a perfect example of how even $6 is too much for some of the bootleg sets. As I'm not from the East I'm not sure how these 'competitors' position themselves against each other... Decool and Sheng Yuan are miles ahead of any other manufacturer, with SY very much ahead of Decool when it comes to quality. How do IQ Blocks and Lele even exist?

Mostly OT... well pretty much entirely OT but if there's something from the EU that I like I'll pick that up. The trailer for The Old Republic was fantastic so I've always held that in high regard as part of the SW Universe. I've never bough a PT or Clone Wars set... I just didn't like the character development and ultimately how they were on screen enough to want to buy into it. I actually didn't mind some of the Clone Wars but I don't like the Lego figure design for that range. I'm waiting to see Rebels before pressing the button on that.

Escape from Knowhere is £29.99 in John Lewis in Liverpool One.

I've ordered mine from a seller there. I'll let you all know when they arrive! ;)