Mr. Elijah Timms

Not a church. We've been through that. TLG has taken a secular stance in all their themes... so as much as I'd LOVE an old stone church all trimmed for the holiday season, it won't happen. I'm still yearning for that Santa and his team set, complete with a brick built sleigh and new reindeer molds...!

I was waiting for someone to comment on him. Saw him in the print catalog several weeks ago. I think that's the same hairpiece as the Teddy Bear guy, right?

That's just wrong... TLG pulls these things before they can end their own cycle. Obviously TLG pulls these lines based on sales numbers of that particular theme, but I often wonder if the overall sales are reflective of the rising prices of TLG as opposed to the subject matter itself. I'm still waiting on the 7946 King's Castle to drop a bit lower on clearance before I pick that up. If it was even $15 dollars less I might have grabbed it over a year ago... Just a shame to see a theme with so much potential go unfinished.

Grogall-- you're literally helping me decide how to spend money. Thanks alot! I'm in for all of the vehicle sets, most of the police, and the Fire Truck and ATV. Very cool stuff!! LOVE all the new torsos!

WOW. Series 7 is incredible... so many new parts! Some initial thoughts: LOVE the Viking Girl, and can't wait to swap one of those headpieces out onto a bearded viking warrior right away. This is probably my army builder for the set. Anyone notice the red eyes on the black knight?? Wonder what his deal is all about? Love his shield though. Computer nerd looks like he's got the same hair as the new (Red) Robin. Classic space logo on the Space Marine's shoulder. Fig is really cool but he looks very immobile. With that same weapon, he almost looks like he could be a front line soldier for the ADU. REALLY wish we could see the Aztec's shield fully-- could be some amazing printing on there. Triton has Sensei Wu's beard-- another really nice shirtless muscle torso. Tennis player has the Teddy Bear guy's morning hair. Possibly the weakest link of this series for me. The 'stuntman' obviously has the mechanic's hair. Crazy mustache! Bagpiper-- Is that bagpipe instrument one piece? Almost looks like Technic pins on the end of it, but I suppose it's to small to be that. The hippie has arm printing-- can't quite tell what we're looking at there. Very cool-- thanks for the hi-res, Grogall!

WOW-- 4438 IS REALLY COOL!!! A little cabin/shack in the woods where the crooks are hiding out with their roadster parked out front. Unbeknownst to them, the forest police are on their trail in their 4x4 truck and 3-wheeled ATV, not to mention the ginormous bear whose sleep has been disturbed by all the ruckus! LOVE THIS SET, perhaps the best of the Forest Police line!!!! Also looks like we have a definitive look at the figs (forgive me Aanchir if I don't have the exact color names right): Police is a medium tan with blue pants, and a light tan 'trooper' brimmed hat. Fire is an orange jumpsuit with a maroon fireman's hat. Also, the fire plane pilot seems to be wearing a new torso, red with stripes and navy legs with the white helmet. Unfortunately we don't get to see a glimpse of the police copter's crew.

Agreed-- got mine last week and it's without question the best set I've built in 2011. Huge and fun!!!!!!!

I thought we had confirmation sometime around the initial reveal that Iron Man's mask would consist of a hinged faceplate on a typical red helmet, allowing us to flip it up to see Stark's face inside like a Kingdoms knight. Can anyone else confirm or deny this?

Wow, personaly this is the biggest news I've seen on this thread in a LONG time! As a dedicated OT collector, these are my thoughts: Desert Skiff - Weequay or bust, period. The main focus is that we NOT need the core characters here, TLG. We all have them. Give us Luke if you must, but populate the skiff with more of Jabba's crew. Cloud Car - This can certainly be done better now with all the rounded pieces that weren't available the last time we saw this thing. I'd be happy with two Cloud Car pilots and an Ugnaught. AT-ST Endor - I just built the new Ewok Attack yesterday, and am pretty much convinced we do NOT need an Ewok village at this point. Just give me another Ewok or two (Teebo, the gray/gray striped pig-skull wearing Ewok?) and another AT-ST pilot and I'm good to go! If you really want to wow us, throw in a 'Prune Face' (still thought they could've dropped one of those guys in the Home One set)! Jabba’s Palace - This is the big one... They have the ability to make something really special here with the right layout and the right figs. But MAKE NO MISTAKE-- IF THIS DOESN'T GIVE US LEIA AS BOUSSH, I might give up on SW altogether. There is NO MARGIN FOR ERROR here, TLG-- give me all of the Jabba legions you want, even give me another Bib Fortuna if you must-- but BOUSSH is essential for success. We'll see what happens! I feel like a politician: BOUSSH OR BUST IN 2012

Dang-- that's a really expensive series right there. Looks like TLG has made a decision-- if you want Marvel figs, you're gonna pay for 'em.

I experimented on my ninja princess this morning, and it wasn't pretty. I tried the hot water technique, but I presume it just wasn't hot enough, because it never really gave way. In the end I finally resorted to cutting through the studs on the magnet with an X-Acto knife. My princess has two blue circles on the back of her legs now, and some of the plastic was roughed up a bit during the prying. I didn't even try to get the torso separated. Long story short, I think the best resort is to just do what you have to do to get the fig off, then pop each of the legs off to have an undamaged torso/hips assembly. Then go into your collection and find a set of legs you're willing to part with-- and there you go, instant fig. At least, that's how I plan on moving forward with the forestmen this week.

WEEK 2 DEALS Are admittedly quite weak in comparison to Week 1. Courtesy of ToysnBricks:

WOW! Pictures-- what a great start to the day! 6858 Batman vs. Catwoman: Pretty much a perfect return of Catwoman. Batman with the wings is fine-- but why are his legs blue???? 6860 BatCave: Batman, Robin, Poison Ivy & Bane. The figs are great-- but the structure itself is certainly underwhelming. In some ways it actually does remind me of the video game, so that's kind of interesting, I guess. 6862 Superman vs. Lex Luthor: ABSOLUTE HANDS-DOWN WINNER OF THE DC WAVE!!! What a fantastic little set!! The only thing that could possibly make this better was if they included the Rock 1 x 1 Crystal 5 Point (ie the Blacksmith's ore) piece in transgreen to serve as Luthor's kryptonite! That piece actually showed up in Power MIners set 8957 Mine Mech, fwiw. Still, absolutely spectacular, and I'm neither a Superman or a Wonder Woman fan. 6863 Batman vs Joker: The Joker's the clear draw here. Actually surprising how very much like the old 7782 Joker's Aerial Assaultset this one is-- smaller Batwing, and not an overly impressive one at first glance. Who cares-- they could have Batman flying a rocket-powered toilet and this set would still fly off the shelves for the Joker. 6864 Batman vs Two Face: Man, that Two Face does the symmetrical split thing on everything, doesn't he? Even his minions and their truck is split up the middle, this time in an orange/blue color scheme. The Batmobile seems a bit small, and I would've loved to see it as a two-seater, but this will ensure it fits into City scale, which is good. Perhaps my favorite part of this set is the uniformed GCPD officer-- LOVE THE HAT! Great find on the pics-- great to see how our 2012 will be shaping up!

These magnets defeat the purpose of their existence. A magnet that is ALSO a fig is awesome. A magnet that is and only ever will be a magnet is meh. CopMike-- do you have any information about the Week2 sales? I'm DESPERATELY trying to find this info!!

Great! Looking forward to it. Hehe.

Outstanding review, SM-- you clearly put a lot of effort into it and that certainly deserves some recognition. These sets are the perfect example of why Lego sets can and do succeed without any sort of antagonist/protagonist approach. There are no good guys or bad guys in these sets, only happy people celebrating the season-- and I for one can tell you that kids CANNOT stop playing with these!!! I'm looking forward to this one, and getting it set up with its 'brothers' under the tree in a few months.

Count me in as well. It seems like with both the PotC and the possible LOTR licenses, there's almost an admission of sorts that the core Lego unlicensed Pirates and Castle are or have been a failure-- which COULD NOT be any further from the truth. I'd challenge any opinions that state that the licensed pirate theme is/was better than Classic Pirates, or even the 2009 relaunch. In the same way we felt like Lego left a lot on the table before launching PotC, it feels like killing Kingdoms to launch LOTR is a firm step backward. Now, on the other hand, licenses must be very appropriately timed to tie into the marketing blitzes of movies and other entertainment, whereas a core theme is timeless and can always be introduced later. So I'm assuming that would be TLG's motivation, regardless of whatever Kingdoms momentum they might be killing in the process. IF the Hobbit/LOTR happens. Personally, I think they're stopping a great thing to create licensed mediocrity. But I suppose I should wait until we see the sets. At least we WOULD get more dwarves and elves...

Finally got this for the 30% off Bricktober deal... and after all the speculation and online examination/drooling, it is finally mine, and I can definitely say: THE SET OF THE YEAR. Hands down.

I love this set, but must admit that the biggest seller for me is the Falcon knight. It'd still be a great little set if that was a Dragon knight or something, but the Falcon shout-out is what makes it a must-have for me!

Okay, so now that Bricktober is here, I have a decision to make... Mill Village Raid for $49 USD AC Earth Defense HQ for $63 USD I've considered even springing or the Mill and the King's Chariot set for a combined $77USD, but it is admittedly above my price range. At the beginning of the year this would have been a no-brainer for the Mill, but I simply fell for the AC line this summer and the HQ is obviously its flagship. Decisions!

Positively outstanding... This set is amazing proof why a certain licensed castle/fantasy/medieval theme will never be better than plain old traditional Lego Castle. This has positively everything!!! And beyond all else, the shout-out to the Black Falcons is bittersweet. They could TOTALLY run with them as a new faction and sell millions of units. And that's just sales to me alone, haha

I'd love to see Lego roll the dice and put out a little set like this, under the Creator line. Lots of little pieces that could be used to put together all different types of furniture to populate all the Creator homes. Some really clever ideas here, sir, hats off to you.

UPDATE: To partially answer my own question, Toys N Bricks offers the following information about Week 1 FOR TOYS R US CANADA ONLY: Still looking for information about deals to be offered in the United States, Europe and the rest of the world. I'm hopeful that if the magic number is $35 in Canada, it'll be $30 again in the United States. (The key word there being 'hopeful,' of course.) I'll keep looking! As for the gluing... I've read that if you put them in hot (but not really hot) water and let them sit for about five minutes, the glue will loosen. The problem is it that the chemical they use actually adheres the plastic of the legs to the plastic of the magnet, so when they eventually loosen it does indeed create an unsightly texture of imperfection on the back of the fig's legs. As far as I'm concerned, I'll take it, especially if I can get the forestman's torso off the legs too-- I can find more green legs!!

Does anyone know the DEAL?? Last year I believe it was "FREE with any $30USD purchase." I know Kyle Johnson reported on his blog that the number is now $75, but I think that's just the free shipping threshold. I'm wondering how much we have to spend at TRU to get them. Also very curious what the actual Lego sales are for each week at TRU. Anyone have any advance knowledge????

Haha! I had the Explorer too, and that was some epic stuff. Good times! Welcome to EB and don't be a stranger!