Svelte

Vig. 43d Brickbeard the Felonious Fishmonger! There's a new taste sensation in town. Everyone from the Lord Admiral to the Governor's wife is queuing up to buy delicious seafood treats from Brickbeard the Fishmonger. Gold bars, jewels - no price is too high to pay for Brickbeard's delicious aquatic bounty! The most prized dish? A rare and special caviar, the flavour of which is unsurpassed in its salty, juicy bliss! Rumour has it that Brickbeard's background is less than honest - some even whisper he was once a Pirate Captain! - but who cares where he comes from as long as he keeps on dishing up that addictive caviar! Meanwhile, locked in the tower high above Brickbeard's glitzy storefront, a lone mermaid sits weeping. Captured by Brickbeard and kept confined in a bathtub, the poor mermaid is forced to hatch fresh spawn on a daily basis to satisfy Brickbeard's demands. Each morning the cad collects her produce and takes it downstairs to be sold off as none other than his famous caviar! What can the mermaid do? Will she ever escape? Or is she doomed to die, locked in the tower, sucked dry by Brickbeard's greed, her bones to be eventually dumped under the dock like the former Pirate Captain's previous captives? Overview: Front-on perspective of the mermaid's tower: The pushy Governor's wife shoves the Lord Admiral aside to grab that sweet, sweet caviar: On the seabed, a variety of strange life grows... and in an abandoned crate you can just glimpse the remains of one of Brickbeard's previous victims: The mermaid in her bathtub: Back view of Brickbeard's shop. Among his other prizes is a gleaming pearl in a clamshell:

The skull sails are on top in the instructions but not the box art - I think as the box art cuts off halfway through the top sails. Since only 2 sails are printed with skulls, these are easily replaced. Design wise, the BB is extremely stable and the cabin is a fantastic design. The BB does suffer a little in the middle for detail but I think people are overstating the difference. The BSB has a few arches to build some hard to access storage areas but they're more decorative than practical. The one thing BSB does have is a great little cabin near the prow which the BB lacks. The thing that seems to send people into a frenzy is the masts and especially the sails. The new ones have clearly been designed to be (a) very strong (b) easily assembled by a 6 year old. Complicated string rigging and brick built masts would probably have pushed the set into another age bracket which Lego probably didn't want to do. They intended to make the set appealing to a wide as age bracket as possible, especially for an untested theme in today's market.

I'm scared but I'm easily led. Oh, look, lemmings. I wonder where they're going? Count me in too.

I'll be out today so I've posted the Myer 15% off voucher here. That's 15% off toys, and another 15% off already reduced catalogue offers! Ends today!

Badsneaker is right. Check USPS for estimates of what you might be charged. I find this web page useful. You can click on each country and it will give you all the shipping methods available via USPS and what each costs by weight. Most sellers use First Class or Priority mail unless you have selected something else. It sounds like maybe the seller estimated it was going to be a parcel (which, for example, in Aus, the shipping rates start at $US22 for) but instead the size of the packed product ended up being small parcel or letter size, hence the much cheaper rate. Some sellers also add extra costs for packing or have a flat shipping fee of a few dollars.

You are a braver man than I am to review this baby, I Scream Clone. It took so long to build I didn't have the stamina to even try! I did try and take build progression pics but it felt like the seasons were changing around me and the lighting was all over the place! I think 10188 is one of the most satisfying sets ever released. The non-minifig UCS sets look great, true, but to me Lego is fifty percent aesthetics (the build) and fifty percent playability. On the latter score, this wins hands-down over pretty much every other SW set (and probably most System sets) ever produced. There are so many neat functioning doors, levers, lifts, traps, guns etc that you can spend hours twiddling with them all. The really clever thing is not that each room is so detailed - although each one is like a super-detailed smaller playset - but that they all interconnect so cleverly between floors (eg the operation of the Death Star laser or the drop through from the prison cell to the trash compactor). Even better, the set is 90% bricks, not just lots of Technic pieces with a plate shell. Woo! The build, although long, is really enjoyable too as every section is different and you get a real sense of building up as you complete each floor. In comparison, spectacular as the 10189 Taj Mahal set is, once you've built every large section four times you do need to take a break between build sessions.

Landscapes and buildings, definitely. The modular idea behind the 6242 Soldier's Fort is good as it encourages you to expand the length of the dock as long as you have some . It's a shame they've abandoned showing alternate models as having a pic of a really long and varied Soldier's Fort on the back of 6242 would probably inspire a lot of kids to pester their parents to get more copies of that set! Obviously you can't have a Pirates theme without vessels and vehicles but it seems that TLC will always produce more vehicles than places to navigate them between, so I agree with Fluyt that it's really a question of priority.

Myers and DJs seem to have had a very strict sale policy this year as compared to previous years. They seem to prefer to promoting deals on specific sets rather than having the flat rate percentage discount. I haven't seen DJs do a flat 20% off all Lego at all this year. Myer has a few times but not nearly as regularly as they used to. EDIT: Somebody just sent me an electronic flyer for a special 'families and friends' sale at Myer valid today and tomorrow. There's an extra 15% off toys ON TOP OF catalogue offers, which means for example that Transport Ferry, Brick Street Customs and Troll Warship are all $68 instead of $79.95. PM me if you're interested with your email and I'll send it to you. Looks legit. Ends tomorrow!

A few years ago I saw a 1993 6076 Dark Dragon's Den in a pharmacy in King's Cross of all places (Sydney's red light district)!

It's very unusual here for one retailer to have a whole *line* as an exclusive but... Vikings was an exclusive to K-Mart. I hope that's not true about Pirates... It would be a real shame to restrict them.

I thought Sinner is in Tassie? I think we will find approx dates in the December Lego Club magazine. They were pretty accurate this year. You're right though that all the first half year sets will be available from S@H on Jan 1. Too cruel if Pirates are available from S@H on Jan 1 but not due in store until a few months later (like the March Indy wave last year or the April City Cargo sets.)

I voted Brickbeard's Bounty! Woo! BSB has better rigging but the colours don't hold up. A lot of the criticisms of BB I don't see (such as cannons not being high enough) as they look similar in the pics above. Similarly I don't see how the sails are that different to the BSB to deserve the 'juniorisation' tag.

20% off at K-Mart this week.

Lovely review. Beautiful, crisp photography and very detailed overview. The circus action shots are especially fantastic I have to agree with Righteous Squid though - I always found the elephant kind of annoying tp play with. You have posed it superbly!

Having looked at the great older ships, I know what you mean but I think this is probably due to (a) cost (b) keeping complexity of the build down to the 6 year minimum age group. I find Lego's string entanglements irritating and confusing sometimes and I'm 30+! So I can imagine they wanted something kid-friendly and easy to assemble. There was a comic inside, split between different sections of the book like the other sets - a great idea to keep you interested during the build. I didn't photograph it for this review because I hate spoilers and hope people enjoy the comic in the instructions as is - a little surprise! The masts are VERY stable, as is the whole ship. I as pleasantly surprised as I find the Viking Ship and Troll warship prone to break up. The long mast specialty pieces sit on 2 x long black 2x10 column pieces. The 4x28 boat rigging piece clips onto the crow's nest of each large mast and then on the boat sides (next to the cannon bays) attached via these sturdy technic pins (a la Durmstrang): Having had it and played with it for a few days, the only flimsy bits of construction are the rudder (I suspect a parts issue though), the potentially shaky figurehead, and the front-most sail, which probably needs another short technic piece to hold it onto the hose. I imagine so. It looks that way but I'm not disassembling it yet to find out for sure! Each of the top hull pieces is 3 bricks high which may make the hull too high though, depending on your needs.\ Sheesh, Darth_Legois! Russell Crowe *is* our President - Cate Blanchett is our Prime Minister Don't try and confuse the good people of Eurobricks with your misinformation!

It's part of the same sale and it lasts until Xmas. VW Beetle is 'reduced' from $199.99 to $159.99 Green Grocer and Cafe Corner are also reduced from $249.99 to $199.99, but like others here I didn't see anything in the Sydney CBD store requiring you to sign up for the DJs credit card to get the discount!

Great review as always, The Brickster! This is probably my most anticipated set after the big ship. Who doesn't love a shipwreck or a pirate hideout? And here's both! It's a two-for-one deal. With a female pirate! Three-for-one deal! The crab I don't think is new, though. It was in that colour in the Aquaraiders sets of 07 and if you Peeron it it's been around for a while. Shame about the dark tan bridge. I only know that piece from the Mt Everest set of 03. Is it the same plastic there or different again? I'm not convinced about the large single mast piece here either. Compared to the quite detailed shipwreck it seems a little spartan and obvious. Maybe some seaweed or decorations would have helped.

I noticed the increase last week when it started showing up in the Top 20 sellers list! It's no coincidence this happens when the David Jones sale is on. Because I did think it strange that they could sell it at $159.99 on sale from the official Lego RRP of $149.99! Methinks that Lego seems willing to adjust the prices depending on what promotions it's retailers are running. Eerily enough I was going to mention this in your review thread, as a new policy seems to be to over-price some sets bearing in mind that retailers are going to discount them, as happens in the UK. I think the Creator Ferry is an example of that too since it's fluctuated between $80-95 as a 'special' but is comparable to the Tan villa. I remember the Agents truck started off on S@H at $130 before jumping to $150 and it too seems one of the special big sets that is getting a lot of discount promotion ($100-$130 price range). Psychic Sinner! You may be mad, but not from ABS fumes.

Brickette, Medieval Market Village is intended as a special January Exclusive release, so it wouldn't be in the latest (rumored) set list as it's already been confirmed and scheduled.

I love this set! Great SUV and the horse carriage is fantastic . It all looks to be in sensible proportion for playability and design. And another female fig - excellent! I'll be amazed if those beautiful curved window parts don't end up in the new Space sets.

I keep some and throw the rest - I don't have room otherwise! If I buy multiples, I keep one, flatten it and throw the rest. A lot of boxes I could care less about so they go on the trash (eg Creator sets or Exoforce); other ones like the lovely Green Grocer box are too nice to get rid of. I actually really like the new boxes with simple tabs on either end which are easily flattened, rather than the other recent style where you have to tear the corners and then fold up the lid. I find flattened boxs get less damaged in storage than keeping the whole boxes and putting stuff in them as any weight tends to squash 'em over time. I will keep boxes if I think I am maybe going to sell a set in the future as it definitely affects the resale value. The more Lego I buy, the harder it becomes to make choices. I don't really regret getting rid of any boxes though. I figure if I am ever wealthy enough to own a large enough vault to store an archive of unflattened Lego boxes in, I will certainly be wealthy enough to track down desired items and buy 'em on bricklink!

I've had a fairly good run and I've made about 30 orders. I find that once you find a seller that packs parts / sets well and ships quickly you tend to go back, even if they may be a little more expensive. I did buy a MISB set a few weeks ago which came squashed, as it came shipped only in bubblewrap and a large department store shopping bag! I couldn't believe somebody would send a set like that, especially as it wouldn't have been too hard to box it and that's fairly standard practice for sets across ebay and bricklink. That just reinforced my positive preferences for sellers that I know well. The other thing to do is do a small test order with a new seller; if you are happy with the service then you can always make a larger one!

Nice review Sinner! I know you were looking forward to this one. I hope you got it in the Myer sale for $79.99 :pir_wink: I am creaking at the limits of what I can store so I had to pass on this one even at a third off. (Don't remind me of the good stuff to come in 2009... I don't even want to think about it!) I think for a kid or anyone stocking up on basic parts it's a must-have at the sale price though. The models are nice but I think I preferred last year's large tan Town House for parts and design (and it was $20 cheaper too.) However the variety in models is great to see and I think it's nice to see some larger craft and vehicles that aren't trucks or helicopters! The camper is cute and I'll be interested to see how it compares to next year's rumoured System version. I do like the plane though to be honest the Indy Peril in Peru one is probably a nice compromise between the huger Passenger Plane and the blockier version of 7628 which this sort of reminds me of.

I think these are great little starter sets to get kids interested in a theme. The addition of a minifig really sweetens the deal for kids and adults too. I will definitely pick some up for my nephew's birthday next year as he is at just the right age to transition from Duplo etc but probably would be intimidated by some of the larger, more complex sets. Good thinking, TLC.

A few weeks ago Lego updated almost all of their instructions back to the early 2000s - there's heaps more old City stuff etc than there used to be, including Divers, Arctic etc, as well as other themes inc. Pirates. It's actually kind of annoying now as there's so much there it's hard to browse! Brickley's Words is a great site too though.