Svelte

About 1200, according to Brickset. Probably at least 100 of those are droids/ skellies. I've sold a few over the years, and bought a few, so this number is probably about right. Interestingly, the Brickset minifig counter doesn't include Advent Calendar releases, so that adds another 50 or so right there! Yay for this topic - it made me update my Brickset finally *and* look at the new minifig counter

Thanks for the great review, Kanal-K1! I like the new Camper, but I do agree that the 6351 method of having the roof hinge up is more logical and aesthetically pleasing. It provides access to the interior for the figs without everything flying off into space! And the solid brick walls are also an odd design choice considering the limited space inside. I still think it looks like a souped up Joker's Ice-Cream surprise van mated with one of the 2008 trucks with that chunky roof piece

Congrats to the winners, and to everyone who participated

On brickset, it says this information came from a flyer given out at a local Lego store in the USA ('Rick A picked up a flyer in his local LEGO brand store in the USA'), so unless non-NA residents have seen similar advertising in their stores, the presumption is that this is for NA only. Has anyone from Europe seen similar info at their local stores?

Looks like Olive Oyl has had some work done to me.

That construction worker with the creepy, bulging eyes will haunt my nightmares tonight You also have to include your shortbread recipe as part of this review. Don't you know we're putting together the EuroBricks cookbook? I already submitted a cake recipe. As soon as we review all the *other* kitchen related products with accompanying dishes we'll have a bestseller on our hands! Anyone who wants to make submissions should post a review or PM me

Mz Iz, can we have a closeup of the poorly decorated icing figs on the packaging? You *have* to whip out your piping bags and food colouring and make these babies shine. There's no avoiding it! What kind of desperate housewife are you if you don't do that? Also, how high are the cutters? The scale was so big and things like the salt 'n' pepper shaker so teensy that I have no way of judging Lego merchandise any more

Cute! I love how the handle works, and how the hollow studs are extra secret compartments! It is a shame there isn't room for any really long pieces (or scissors) for that matter. Now get baking some biscuits with the cookie cutter!

Well, it wouldn't make commercial sense to let Model Builders have access to unlimited parts in an unlimited palette - not to mention the inadvisability of letting the kid loose in the candy store argument We see many rare and exotic parts for sale on bricklink that were never officially released in any set. Heck, Horncklez even ran a competition not long ago featuring such supposed impossibilities. If Lego really was doing production runs especially on the request of Model Builders I am sure we would see some leakage of these rareties - and more discussion of them as well. However, I am sure that certain useful parts *are* produced in bulk on the request of builders - like the three-pronged tan old-skool hinges used for Miniland-scale hands, as featured in the most recent issue of Brickjournal. Mariann, your professional insights are very interesting so do keep posting your thoughts. Like fans of anything, we all like to glean as much inside information about the 'other side' of our interest as we can. I am going to choose option 'C' and believe everybody!

Sounds like a load of Poffle-Waffle to me! (Sorry - that acronym overload is crazy ) And cutlass_iz's bday present is the Toolbox! Woo!

Mr Fang, does this classic count as a road baseplate? Bricklink describes it as 'Baseplate, Road 32 x 32 with Driveway with Light Gray Cobblestones Pattern' I was thinking of having something set back a little from the main street, but with an entrance at the front to blend in with the rest of the conceptual streetscape.

Wait... so we can use parts from new or old sets, as long as the minifigs have the classic smiley? Does this extend to other considerations, such as colours (can we use dark red/ dark green/ dark tan etc) or are colours like bley disallowed?

I like this game! Star Wars - 6210 Jabba's Sail Barge - and you're probably buying lots of plastic storage tubs so she has somewhere to put her Lego that *isn't* all over the furniture/ computer/ floor

Happy birthday Zorro!

Welcome! There are many Antipodeans at EB. I'm sure you'll have a fine time at this site. Just don't be too scared of the fearsome overlord of the Star Wars forum, KimT...

I know, it's been like that for a week. $122 Aus for a Cafe Corner! The Lego gods are taunting us. I was in Myer City yesterday and saw a giant brick built Glaciator display for the Power Miners section. It had a soft foam hammer which people were talking from its hands and whacking it with! Hilarious.

Someone in the pricing department in 07 really stuffed up with these 2 Batman sets and the Spongebob ones that were recently discounted (Mrs Puff & Chum Bucket). Both these licensed lines were ludicrously overpriced in the non-US market - it was no surprise to anybody they didn't sell! But I've never seen prices jump so high as they have for the Batman lines after the cancellation. A year ago, you'd have a tough time giving it away!

Thanks for the heads up, DarthSion! I would have missed this otherwise. Look forward to watching it.

Hilarious yet strangely terrifying! Thanks for showing us the innards of this minifig collection, as well as of your own deeply twisted mind I don't mind Pinky McPinkerton the Pink-Vested Pirate, aka Uncle Anchor, but the two wrongly positioned Classic Space torso symbols are a deal-breaker for me. Which is a shame, as I really want to support these vintage collections, they just haven't incluyded anything to really appeal to me so far. Siegfried will probably beat me, but it *is* true - icecubes from the yellow tray taste better

Yippay for Zhee-pay! (said in a bad Australian-trying-to-do-French accent) The original... and the best Happy birthday!

Reading between the lines, I think TLG clearly intends to make more regular but less steep price increases in future. They don't actually say the prices were unreasonably high; just that from a consumer point of view they were too steep without notice. I think the new palette is fantastic, so if prices have gone up because of it, I don't mind too much. The range of window, door and glass pieces is extremely tempting since these are often so expensive to buy on bricklink and for me personally offset the increased cost that people are finding elsewhere (individual bricks bigger than 1x1 seemed priced oddly, at least for Australians).

Actually, space-wise I don't think this set is any more economical than the 4999. The 4999 is very tall but sits on a single 32x32 baseplate so should easily fit into most layouts. The turbine blades would also sit above most Lego buildings so are unlikely to clash there. This transporter looks to be longer than 32 studs and like many City vehicles needs somewhere to be housed when at rest.

re the mafia thing, does this mean there's been an increase in the number of tags a member can have? I thought the previous maximum was four...

Umm, no. Lego never does that on box art in order to avoid being misleading, and they haven't done it here either. The only thing they have done is take one blade off and put it on the transport truck. The set *is* a wind turbine transport - how big can you possibly expect the turbine to be?

The new sets are good, but they're not amazingly great. The builds are kind of simple and not really that interesting. (However, I think they're targeted perfect for the slightly younger builder). As many others have said, where they really shine is in the new parts and minifigs department. That said, I think a lot of the older Pirates stuff is fairly awful too, relying on increasingly repetitive iterations of the same sets/ ideas. Even adding factions did nothing to reverse this decline, culminating in disparate messes like the overrated Enchanted Island. Don't get me wrong, the first year of Pirates in 1989 was absolutely brilliant, top-notch stuff that more than holds its own today (Black Seas Barracuda, Eldorado Fortress, Forbidden Island), but after that the creativity and design fell off rapidly. So... Pirates 2009 - not as good as the first wave, but much better than a lot of the dross that came out under the Pirates banner the first time round. Heretical but true!