samshaw44

Amazon currently have a 20% discount on the 8043 Motorized Excavator if anyone is interested, at £114.40 down from £142.99 its almost £30 off. I've just gone ahead and bought one.

The last Technic set I purchased was the 8421 Mobile Crane in 2005 and I remember at the time thinking that it was a fantastic set to build and play with. I've been trying to collect together the pieces for it, somewhat unsuccessfully, and so for the moment I'm putting that on hold and have decided to just buy something brand new. After reading through this topic I had pretty much decided I was going to buy 8258, but I've just noticed that Amazon have got 8043 quite heavily discounted today, so I have instead gone ahead and purchased that. I just hope that 8258 is available for a little while longer so I can get my hands on it before its too late.

The Grand Emporium will no doubt be readily available for at least another year if the availability of the previous modulars is anything to go by. They all last for around 2 years from release as a general rule.

Having only owned the Super Chief, I'm obviously going to be a little biased towards it, but I have been eyeing up that Maersk for a while now and its definitely grown on me. I never really found the Burlington Northern too appealing, the proportions seem all wrong to me, although the colour scheme is quite nice. Until I get a closer look at the Maersk, I'm going to be sticking with the Super Chief for now.

Ooh nice, I've just put an order in for a couple of those kingdoms battle packs.

I think it could be possible that they would release a second modular in a year for two reasons. The popularity of the line, I don't have any official figures, but my general feeling is that these modulars are quite popular. Secondly, if they were to release half size modulars on 16x32 baseplates, like the two halves of the new pet shop buildings they would be cheaper and wouldn't take as long to develop, therefore being able to be released earlier than the once a year timescale we have at the moment. Cafe Corner wasn't 'bad' but I see your point about already having something similar to a coffee shop. I don't think Lego would remake Cafe Corner, although it would be nice if they re-released it with an interior, because so many people missed out on buying it (including me).

Shame about the picture quality, but other than that it's a great review so far, can't wait for the rest. I'm not sure about value for money on this one though, Lego's odd pricing strikes again, £119.99 in the UK whereas both Fire Brigade and Green Grocer with higher piece counts cost less at £99.99. I'll still end up buying it though, I love these modular buildings and this being no exception. I'm still annoyed I missed Cafe Corner and Market Street, the prices for those are now utterly ridiculous.

It's a really nice review of a really nice looking set, I'm planning to buy it in a couple of weeks when I've got some free time. I know I'm a bit late to the game, but I'm really loving the kingdoms line at the moment and I'm trying to find all the 2010 sets before the new 2011 sets are available next month in the UK.

This is absolutely amazing, especially as it is essentially just a base for something I'm imagining will be incredible when finished. I cannot wait to see that, especially the scale of the thing, seeing the beginnings of the hill already.

He's got some really nice sets there, I love the football stadium as well. Bit of a shame about the dust but I don't suppose there is much you can do about that without dismantling and washing the whole lot. I have to say I was also guilty of drawing on road plates with permanent markers when I was younger.