Svelte

Just a superfast Bricklink shipper - the same one I used to get the big Agents truck earlier this year! I think it will retail in Aus for $150 and I couldn't wait since it is not yet confirmed (that I've seen) when these come to Aus (Jan or March or May? We'll probably find out when the catalogue comes out with the next issue of Lego Club mag). I would have ordered it off S@H anyway when it presumably becomes available like the first-half of year sets did Jan 1, so I paid probably $50 extra for the convenience of having it 2 months early (at least!). And I paid for it before the Aussie dollar dipped again last week which saved me 10 bucks! As for your other question... the hull pieces for 6243 are red-brown; the Orc ship ones are dark brown. The Viking ship ones are compatible and you could probably find some spares on Bricklink. I assume it's because we still followed the UK in a lot of things, being a colonial country and all. This set was produced for the North American market so they do have inches marked on the box as well! As for things you didn't know about Australians... we also drive on the wrong side of the road, everybody has a pet kangaroo at home and Russell Crowe is our current President! (Kidding.) It isn't supposed to be - probably just the mix of pearl gold plastic was a little denser when the lid was produced. It isn't so noticeable in the flesh - the difference is emphasised here because of the camera flash. Yes... Dance of the Brick... it describes the graceful leap into the air one makes when stepping on a sharp, upturned brick. It is usually accompanied by a sweet, short yelp of pain.

I like the dark red octopus. The deep rich colour makes it a little freakier than it's older counterparts (not as freaky as the Agents version though.) The parrots are probably not quite as nice as the printed versions, but I do like the red/ green combination. I love the little raft - the construction is clever but simple, as in the best sets - but the technic axle mast is a bit ordinary. Lots of 2x2 red brown round bricks though, great for building trees etc! Thanks for the review, The Brickster!

Hi metalandi, I didn't have the numbers with me when I posted the review, so thanks for reminding me to add them! Here are the codes for all the sets I have: 6239 Cannon Battle - 4550002 6240 Kraken Attackin'- 4550158 6242 Imperial Fort Book 1 - 4550173 6242 Imperial Fort Book 2 - 4550174 6243 Brickbeard's Bounty Book 1 - 4550864 6243 Brickbeard's Bounty Book 2 - 4550862 & the Impulses: 8396 Soldier's Arsenal - 4550209 8397 Pirate Survival - 4550211 And this is the URL, where xxxxxxx is the number above. http://cache.lego.com/bigdownloads/buildin...ons/xxxxxxx.pdf As I said, they are not yet up though. I didn't note this in my review, but the masts do look better than the Viking ship as the long thin pieces from that set now sit atop the much sturdier 2x10 long column pieces. This helps with the proportions (as well as making them stronger) as the masts have a clear narrowing effect the higher you climb. It's hard to describe exactly, but the overall effect is that they look a lot more solid as well (as opposed to the mast piece by itself, which is kind of hollow on one side.) I can see what you mean. The deck is a bit sparse and there's nowhere for the gunners to stand on the bow - there could have been a little cabin or some storage area built in that section, but I think that's easily modded. I do like how they have left room for four cannons (even if you have to purchase some smaller sets to fill them up) and if you want to raise the area, you can. As for the sails, I think they have tried to make them as easy as possible to construct (ie no string etc). When I was taking pics it was quite a windy day but the sails held up quite well.

Hahaha, I saw the frontpaged comment. I wasn't dead... just comatose. I think it was building the DS followed in quick succession by the Taj Mahal... chronic RSI of the brick-fingers. Your first born probably ran away after they witnessed the horrors happening in the Belville Dream Home Anyway, nice to have such a warm re-welcome!

Thanks WhiteFang! So much happens here that if you dip your toe out of the water by the time you dip it in again sometimes you find the current has slipped away! And congratulations on the recent well-deserved promotion! (You too The Brickster if you're around somewhere.)

Not really. There's no room to angle them that way.

No, they pivot up as well. They're facing straight here so you can see through the cannon bays. The one on the stern faces up if you notice. And to answer you and hollisbrick, this set comes to you via Bricklink and USPS. Australian landlubbers will have to be patient until Jan or March or whenever the release date is here - probably the next Lego club magazine will have the Jan catalogue with dates.

Set Number: 6243 Theme: Pirates Set Name: Brickbeard's Bounty Year of Release: 2009 Number of Pieces: 592 Price: $US99.99 Part 1: Box, Parts, Instructions It's been a shamefully long time since my last review, or indeed, post. So I thought I'd announce my return with a bang! Or three of them, since this set contains that number of the new gunmetal cannon pieces Setr 6243 Brickbeard's Bounty is the flagship (so to speak) of the new Pirates line, with its striking image on everything from the large sets right down to the teensy Impulse sets. Mixed feelings have been expressed about the new ship's design, with opinion ranging from those who think it is a worthy-looking successor to such gems as the Black Seas Barracuda, to those that think having the skulls-and-crossbone emblems on pirate sails is tacky and cheap looking (!). However, in Lego as with lemons, the proof is in the sucking (or in this case constructin') and a 2D image can hardly do justice to fresh bricky goodness. A good build can make or break a set. Join with me, ye scurvy knaves, as we journey together to discover whethere 6243 is indeed king of the high seas, or would have been better sunk beneath the waves... Front of box: Back of box. Yes, that's right - this baby is 56cm by 44cm. You won't believe how big it is until you see it! 8 glorious figs: Instructions! Two books as now seems standard, and not too mangled. Best of all, no DSS (Dreaded Sticker Sheet). Random instruction page: Parts - four numbered bags, a bag of rigging and a shark, hull pieces and the sails. Lots of rigging pieces: The hull pieces. The two end pieces sit on top of each other seamlessly - you don't even realise they're separate pieces until you see them apart. End pieces attached. See what I mean? End on view: Sails sealed in plastic sleeve: Sails seem to be made of a slightly nicer (read: less cheap) canvas than the Indy tent and truck canopy, although I could be hallucinating this. There are only 2 sails marked with skulls and crossbones, so you could buy another set or Bricklink the plain red-and-white striped ones if you really feel strongly that Pirates shouldn't advertise their presence so indiscreetly As for the pieces themselves, there's some nice stuff. Lots of dark red including arches (which we haven't seen since 10132), lots of the new accessories, 6 1 x 6 dark tan bricks, and in case you hadn't realised that this was a Pirates line, a heapful of GOLD. GOLD! - in all its pearly bling. In fact, Captain Brickbeard is such an aureophile that he even has his home furnishings made out of the stuff. Check out those window shutters! Frankly it's a miracle that the boat even sails considering the load it carries. Sometimes Brickbeard does a Scrooge McDuck and just likes to roll around in his hoard... be thankful he has kept his clothes (and peg) on for the following pic: Interestingly, the chest here is pearl gold, not metallic gold like the Indy sets. I'm not sure which I prefer. In short, nice part selection. As you'd expect, the hulls, sails and rigging are all large parts, but everything else is small and MOCtastic. Part 2: Minifigs Eight minifigs, a parrot, rat, monkey and shark. It's a floating zoo! Two female minifigs - it's also a floating harem! It's great to see a bit more female representation in System sets. (Maybe this is just a marketing strategy for colonial countries such as Australia which are built on the naval traditions of rum, sodomy and the lash - probably not what little Jane or Johnny is thinking of when they rip off the wrapping paper come present time.) I love the new shark. A shark that can eat a whole minifig! Come on, how is that not cool? The Imperials and the mystery lady - I don't think we've seen any official description of who this comely lass is supposed to be? If she ends up being the Governor's daughter then Disney should definitely sue, or at least send Keira Knightley round to Denmark to beat up the set designers. The new plume in red and the shakos are great, although the printing of the red part on the ones I've seen is a little iffy. Back view - note mystery lady's lovely dress has a reverse side. Look at the detail! That ribbon is just designed for ravishing! The Pirates! Note the gold hook and epaulettes. Great figs and pieces. Brickbeard's hat with the skull print is fantastic, it is a shame we don't have a plume for it. Apart from that we are truly blessed! That bare-chested pirate with the anchor tattoo certainly is... manly. I've never seen a minifig with a snail-trail before His dental hygiene isn't anything to write home about either if that gold tooth is anything to go by. I wonder what else he has that's gold... Back view: And my favourite from this set - the mermaid, seen here in minifig rather than masthead form. I've never had the mermaid tail before and it is wonderful. This lass is also a tad more attractive than the fish-lipped people from the 2005 Harry Potter set. The shell-bikini torso is especially cheeky. You just know the SW fans are waiting for this print to come out in flesh tone so they can swap it on their Slave Leia. 2009 - Year of the Shirtless Minifigs! You read it here first. Alas, on day 23 of her imprisonment, Mystery Lady succumbed to Brickbeard's offer of a celebratory egg-nog with disastrous results: Part 3: The build The build time took about 2 hours - it wasn't too complicated. Both the Viking Ship and Troll Warship I found to be very weak in connecting the hull pieces together, resulting in a flimsy overall construction - bits were always falling off. I am pleased to say this is not the case here. The complete base is solid as a rock, strengthened both underneath and also in brick-built reinforcing housing along the sides. The build is really divided into three sections - hull, the stern with Captain's cabin, and the rigging and sails. (Unfortunately instructions aren't up yet and the code starting with 4 that Legomilk always asks for on the back of the booklets doesn't work yet!) I will save my reviews of each part until the end section - here a just a few teaser pics. I kind of got tired after doing the cabin so it's a bit of a jump to the finished product The bottom hull plates: Space for four cannon bays: The prow and stern are building up: The interior of the detachable cabin: Big skip to the fully assembled thing. Sadly my ocean of blue cardboard didn't extend too far to the left there. For the purposes of display I've rearranged 2 of the the modular sections of the base of 10189 Taj Mahal to form an Imperial port (I haven't built the official one yet). The Taj - it's very useful for things like this! Another view from a slightly different angle: It's such a huge ship it is very difficult to do it justice with one shot. So on to... Part 4: Detailed overview Figurehead on the prow. Isn't she lovely? However, probably one of the few irritants of this set is that the pin that attaches to the mast is a little loose. The redbrown 1x2 log brick attached to the feet is supposed to stop Ms Merwoman cartwheeling but it does mean you can't angle the front masthead too far upwards. Still, it's an excellent touch and really adds class to this classy beast. Further down the prow... two guns (muskets? some Pirate weapons enthusiast please correct me as this is not my area of expertise!). Notice the red curved slope and dark green tooth - a nice little SNOT detail to smooth out where the brick built walls of the ship meet the hull piece. There's 4 cannon bays in the middle of the ship! FOUR! Of course you only get three but that's what the smaller sets are for! I can't tell you what a pleasure it is not to have a useless flickfire missile weapons system taking up a large chunk of the ship interior! Top marks. As you can see, the dark red flags fold up to let loose the fiery balls of war. And open! How clever is that? I love the cannons. Their range is probably three to five metres. There's another thread in the forum which bemoans the fact that the new ones don't shoot to the moon and back, but honestly, how far do you need a cannon to shoot? If it's powerful enough to plow across the room and scare the cat, it's good enough for me. Otherwise I'd just lose all my 1x1 black round cones anyway Note that there are 2 crates of ammunition included with antennas serving for those sticks that you use to shove the gunpowder down the barrel. Mystery Lady Imperial is forced to walk the detachable plank. Those pirate cads! You can pop the plank on either side of the ship. Sadly it's not a sweet swivel one but I guess with all that gold window detailing Brickbeard had to cut corners somewhere. There's a monkey in the rigging. Don't these monkey moulds look creepy? If I was a 6 year old I'd be more scared of our primate friend here than Cap'n Brickbeard. Look at that evil leer! And creepy minifig hands! It's just wrong! Or is it just me... I bet it's just me isn't it The lovely billowing front sails seen from behind: And the evil skull and crossbones from the front! Looks like Mr McSkully here has had a cranial enlargement. And now we get to my favourite part of the ship build - Brickbeard's cabin! A delicious composition of pearl gold, dark red, and new dark brown. Seriously blingy. This guy has taste! No wonder Mysterious Imperial Lady didn't mind sampling his egg-nog earlier. It sets very sturdily on the stern of the ship but is actually detachable to access various parts. The view from the rear is nicely detailed too. Full booty! The rudder is a bit flimsy - more an issue with the clips I think. Top view. One dark brown barrel and the Captain's wheel. This section lifts off... It's like a personal emergency escape life raft! However the interior is disappointingly sparse. One stool and a table with a map and drink! Not good. The Durmstrang ship had lots of flaws but at least it was packed with goodies. On the plus side, at least it's easy to customise and you can see how spacious it is. Room enough for that four poster bed and a pinball machine (well, maybe)! The whole cabin lifts off. Even the door handles at the front are made of 24 karat gold! Underneath... a rat and a keg of rum. The rat shares Brickbeard's minimalist interior aesthetic. Or maybe he is just hungry and ate all his furniture. There's no cheese! The rear sails, front and back: And lest I forget... the dark blue navy boat with Imperial soldiers. The white/ dark blue combination is very sweet. Finally, a view of my quick fix Taj/Imperial port. 64 studs long and still dwarfed by Brickbeard's Bounty! At least whats-er-name is now home, safe and sound. Awwwww Part 5: Final Thoughts As I said initially, the new Pirates theme has attracted mixed reviews. However I think once people get their hands on this set they will find it hard to resist. Lingering trauma from the horrible Pirates 4 Juniors line of 2004 probably still haunt many a Classic pirate lover's dreams, but my impression is that these new 2009 sets are pretty consistent with the old line as a whole. Those were often small to mid-sized sets on baseplates with lots of figs and cool accessories, and pretty simple buildings. Same as we have now. The larger sets that everyone still drools over (Black Seas Barracuda and the Eldorado Fortress) are exceptional Pirates sets but also exceptional Lego sets in general; these hold their own even amongst today's lines as excellently designed and executed models, but that doesn't mean they were really representative of the whole Pirates I era overall. I think on the whole 6243 Brickbeard's Bounty is probably one of the nicest looking and best implemented large ships Lego has ever produced, certainly miles ahead of any of the vessels of recent years. It has an elegant design, simple and classic rigging and billowing sails, dozens of beautiful new and rare parts, and a fantastic minifig selection. All the stuff people wanted is here. Working cannons in gunmetal colours! Shakos! *Printed* shakos! Plumes and epaulettes! *Gold* epaulettes! Fish! Maidens in distress! Dynamite! Spyglasses! People may say the $US price is expensive but I'd rather pay more for a beautiful set well-done rather than half-a-ship (Skeleton Ship Attack) or something that felt a bit unfinished (Troll Warship). This really is a beautiful ship. It's not perfect, but in terms of the balance of playability and design, it's pretty close. Kids will love it. Big kids should too

Cute CG kayak? Count me in!

City looks fantastic, much better than this year's so-so crop. The construction vehicles are chunky and amazing! The construction is great too, it looks as if they're scaling back vehicle size somewhat too if you compare that large crane thing to the one they released in 2005. I love the detail with the roof on the truck and the half-completed building. The Farm subtheme is OK, yay for cows, and the building is OK for a launch set. Finally, a city minifigs pack with a female minifig, street lights, signs etc! Again, the vehicles are much more nicely proportioned than the giant behemoths we've had for the last few years. I love the curved horse trailer end - space fans will rejoice as well I suspect. Pirates is fantastic too, just what I'd expected - lots of smaller starter sets and army builders with a moderate fort and a big ship. I am loving the new tan baseplate too - very sand-duney. I don't know why people are disappointed with the ship - lots of great pieces in gold, with another metallic treasure chest, cloth sails, epaulettes, cannons, a female pirate wench, mermaid detail on the front, monkey, multi-coloured parrot, cannon, shark - and all the figs! Really a stunner of a set. Sob - 2008 not even 3/4 over and already 2009 is beckoning with its siren call!

I thought the AT-TE featured fairly prominently in a few different places. You're right about the Droid Gunship and Spider Droid though. Anakin's Jedi Starfighter and the Republic Fighter Tank were the other ones I didn't see.

TRU has the 7675 AT-TE on sale for $130 and the 7681 Separatist Spider droid $10 off back to its actual retail price of $40! K-Mart seems to be getting stuff in, if in batches. One had the AT-TE for $145 and another had the Gunship for $169 with nothing else from the CW range in either store.

I thought the movie was OK. Not out and out amazing, but OK. I actually found Ahsoka really annoying. The relationship with her and Anakin was contrived and out of seeming with the Jedi hierarchy, as legoman notes. Also, people complain about George Lucas but the dialogue was pretty contrived in this one too. There's a topic to do with Rotta that Ahsoka and Anakin go on and on about, basically saying the same thing every time we cut to a scene with them in it aboout 5 or 6 times. It felt a bit unpolished. Ahsoka - cool minifig, annoying movie sidekick. It did look great but as a movie it didn't really have an epic, big-screen feel. I did enjoy it, though and the voice work was pretty good. The ships that Lego released that aren't in the movie - are these featured in animated adventures or in computer games? I'm not familiar with all the CW spin-offs.

"The LEGO Group’s sales direct to the consumer through its own branded stores, mail order and the Internet also developed in a positive direction." Make of that what you will, since most large sets are S@H exclusive. Not exactly glowing words, but OK.

Double digit growth in a stagnant market is nothing short of outstanding. Seriously amazing. The second half of year line-up is as good if not better than the first half, so we'll see if declining consumer spending hits TLC in the next 6 months. Legomilk hinted that we have yet to see impact of rising oil prices on production until 2009, so that will be the year to watch.

It does have that homely feel! There is room inside with technic beams to lay plates etc on, the only issue is that it's kind of fiddly to access. You could do it from either the side door or rear door though, maybe move that tow line at the back. I have to say, it is a set that grows on you

I think a lot of people feel the same way - there was so much good stuff to get in the first wave that this is probably a backburner set for a lot of people, and some are probably waiting to see the movie to see how prominently it features. I will try and take a pic with some other CW sets, I don't have all of them though and some need to be reassembled as I built them on holiday and then had to pack them away I do think this line of sets has been the best SW Lego wave released though. All of the recent releases have been amazing in their own way.

Set: 7680 - The Twilight Theme: Star Wars Year Released: 2008 Piece Count: 882 Price: $AUD149.99 (or $159.99 if you buy at TRU!), 99.99 Euro, $US99.99 Pity the Twilight. When rumours of the set name first circulated, speculation was swift: 'Twilight - that suggests something sleek, elegant and mysterious.' Anticipation mounted! Fan-frenzy grew! Finally a pic leaked! And the verdict was... 'clunk-a-dunk' It appeared that in the Jedi off-season, Anakin was running something that looked like an intergalactic garbage scow, like Roger Wilco in the old Sierra Space Quest PC games. Blocky and bley seemed to sum it up. The set went from being one of the most anticipated to one of the least liked of 2008 pretty much instantly. It's a mark of that dislike that in the EB Clone Wars review feeding frenzy nobody has so far even bothered to post a few pics of this set even 2 weeks after it's official release! I'm here to redress that imbalance now and find out if 7680 is as horrendous as everyone originally thought Part 1: Box & Parts Front of the box. It's quite big, same size as the 10144 Sandcrawler. Annoyingly, it's the old style with the perforated corners that you have to tear to flip open the lid. Detail of the back, showing set functions: Interior of the box - a lot of wasted space. The set comes with 2 instruction manuals, each 76 pages. And no DSS sheet! Polybags! 13 of 'em. Like the other CW sets, these are unnumbered. Parts ahoy! You can tell at a glance that this set is comparable to the AT-TE, although there a large proportion of the 800+ parts here are technic pins and bley plates. Part 2: Minifigs and Build The set comes with 4 figs (or 3.5, depending on how you look at Rotta ): Anakin, Ahsoka, R2-D2 and Rotta. Very disappointing that there's nothing new here for such a high-priced exclusive, although I guess it is maybe movie accurate. Anyway, to paraphrase the wise Patsy Stone, you can never have enough hats, shoes or new Anakin/ Ahsoka hairpieces so it's not too bad. Pics of the build in progress. A quarter of the way through we can already see that this is one of those 'convoluted technic frames with some plates affixed' type builds: Half-way and the smaller wing is added: At the three quarter mark the giant single wing is added: And voila! Done! The final quarter is a race to attach all the exterior surfaces and details such as the engine and escape pod. The build itself is a mixed blessing. It is VERY technic oriented. I'm not a Technic-ally minded person and don't really have much of a conceptual grasp of how everything functions until I see the final result, so I find these type of builds a little uninteresting. Pins, axles and beams? Give me bricks any day! I really liked the 7676 Gunship and the 7679 Fighter Tank although they do contain some technic framework, they are largely brick-built ships, especially the Fighter Tank which is solid, largely brick built and full of neat functions. The 7680 build is one of the most technicy builds I've ever undergone in a System set, akin to the experience of building the 10178 Motorised AT-AT. But whereas with that set you could understand the need for a technic framework (the thing walks!) a lot of this seemed excessive. Yes, the Twilight does some have nice functions, and it is so large and heavy it does need a strong skeleton, but to me it just seemed too much and aesthetics have been sacrificed for (in some cases limited) functionality. I will discuss in more detail what I mean as I look at different parts of the set. On the upside, this is the only non-symmetric set in the CW range, so at least every page and new step brings something different! Part 3: A Closer View Close-up of the main body of the ship: Front-on. It is well-designed how the figs appear in line of sight (unlike the 6211 where Jabba and Leia were photoshopped in to the box art). Don't ask what Rotta is doing out of the line of vision there. Some things are better left unsaid. Side view, showing escape pod (smaller cylinder) and drive: Top view: Rear view, showing back door. The rear deck is huge. Indeed, the whole ship is huge. Oddly so. I don't know if this is movie-scale or not, but I've seen people complain the fighter tank is too big (!) and that set is nothing compared to this baby! It's wider than the Gunship and in wingspan and length is almost bigger. Here's a few pics next to an MTT for comparison. Pretty big, hey? Turning to the dark side must be good for business. Even if all you can buy is a rusty old beast like this, at least you could comfortably squash pretty much every vehicle in the opposing fleet just by landing on it. At least now you can see why it costs so much. The official pics make it look smaller, somehow, by truncating the rear and wing. The ship is in fact so big you can't really pose it with wings open - only hold it that way. I was too lazy to build a giant trans-clear support strut so propped it up on a shoebox instead. The wing opens very neatly - you push a technic lever and a pin holding the bottom wing pops out quite smoothly. The little top turret can move up and down as well to get the full cross-shaped effect. Part 4: Features and Functions The front cockpit folds down very neatly, although I find the build here a little weak. Whee! It goes all the way down to the floor. The mechanism is cool, but it takes up an awful lot of space. Basically the whole front is cockpit and all Lego could manage for controls is 2 printed 1x2 tiles as well (not pictured here, but they're attached to the part that folds up and down). There's also no way for anyone to get in or out of the cockpit. And an invisible windscreen! Technology has come a long way. Side view, looking from wing. R2D2 is here as well as some tools. You can also glimpse here one of the main problems with the set. Despite being a huge boxy ship, there's no interior! None! The Twilight doesn't even have an internal floor. All the room inside is taken up by the landing gear which folds up - again, a clever function but it really gets in the way of the set as a whole. Kudos to the designer for coming up with stable, working landing gear, but too clever by half if it means that this giant ship ends up basically being one tiny cockpit and a rear door at the back that doesn't lead to any interior! Underside showing landing gear when open: And closed - when the wing is folded down, the gear is locked in place, which is pretty neat. Space-consuming, but neat. The rear section. The door, when opened, reveals an orange cupboard and a tow-line, as Ahsoka uses in the box art. The door clicks into place when open and can be released by pressing the technic bit at the top. Again, clever, but pointless as you can't get inside! Ahsoka can indulge in a little recreational bungee-jumping if she so wishes: The rear deck is so large that it is wasted just being used so Ahsoka can bungee-jump. I came up with a much better use for it. Outdoor garden! Despite having one roboticised hand, Anakin was still quite the green thumb. And his light-saber was very useful as a hedge trimmer. So much so that he set up a side business between Rotta-rescue missions. Here's a promotional postcard: A few other bits and pieces. The gun turret on the enormous mega-wing can only hold one flick fire missile at a time (you do get two, though ) Rear engine detail: The escape pod sits neatly on the side and is basically built the same way as the Gunship bacta tank: The pod sits on these tehcnic pins and is held in place by the light bley parts: Part 5: In conclusion The Twilight is a huge ship, with a huge amount of great functions - folding wing, folding cockpit, rear door, escape pod, retractable landing gear! But this functionality comes at a price - a very complex technic build and zip interior. Compared with the Gunship, for example, which is stuffed with nooks and crannies, the Twilight suffers in this respect. I also think it is just too large - it doesn't really fit with the other craft and vehicles released with the Clone Wars line. I may be wrong and it is movie-accurate, but when you have all the CW sets laid out it does stick out like a poor thumb. Part selection is OK, with the only interesting things being a few dark orange plates, the orange cupboard and the big trans-neon green radar dish. Don't get me wrong, I don't think this is a bad set at all. It's just the other CW sets are so sweet! I would say it's an above average set in a field crammed with excellent ones. If you're a completist, buy it, but if for example you'd rather invest in another AT-TE to upgrade your Republic Army, then I couldn't really disagree with you either And to finish on a light note, I'd like to remind you that you do get another Ahsoka hairpiece, which can be used for all sorts of things. Ugha warrior upgrade: Dr Inferno hair transplant: And finally, attack of the deadly blue-ringed octopus, native to Australia's beaches and oceans! Thanks for reading!

Thanks for the great review, WhiteFang. This certainly is an impressive set! All the mini-realms are nicely done and wonderfully detailed and there's a myriad of great pieces. It's nice to see all four kingdoms intersect, even if it is on a chessboard rather than a UCS Castle! I'm a little disappointed that the minifigs are pre-built as I like to put them together - are they glued as well like the other chess sets? Once again, great review - you have certainly pointed out lots of little details I hadn't noticed!

I just got back to Sydney after 2 weeks away - so I missed all the Clone Wars August 1 release hype - I had a little wander today and I couldn't believe how quickly all the CW stuff must have sold. In Bondi Junction, between a Target, Myer, David Jones and a K-Mart I only found four sets - 1 V-19 Torrent and 3 AT-TEs. The Moore Park TRU photographed above didn't have any V-19s or Magna Guard Starfighters but lots of the other August releases. I am also surprised they've followed the US habit of upping the retail price - to me that destroys any goodwill they generate with exclusives and special offers. I can't remember them doing this before. Sydney CBD was just as desolate - about 6 AT-TEs in David Jones but nothing anywhere else! Quite amazing. I don't remember any SW release of the last few years vanishing quite so quickly.

I had a shipping notification about a day ago, so they're on their way. Nice little exclusives. I love that torso!

Thanks for posting these, Sinner. I have to admit I know nothing about military aircraft but you had me convinced this thing existed... up until the prototype was stolen and I remembered the story of your Indy entry The physics-types explanations you give for various choices about the design are great too, and very plausible. It's interesting to get the back-story of a MOC in a subject something you clearly know a lot about and have thought through carefully. I like the design, the wing span is impressive and I like both versions of the engines. Do engines rotate 90 degrees on similar real aircraft? I never knew that and it's totally clever. The tail also looks great. The only thing that jars is those big dark bley rotors in the final few pics - they just look a little large but I'm no expert. I'd also love to see a version of this in navy blue if the pieces ever became available Thanks again for posting these and I love the sepia tone hero shot as well!

The NZ prices are very good! Practically better than everyone else outside the US. $200NZ for the Gunship is about 95Euros $155AUD - we pay retail $AUD180 and the Euro price is between EUR130-150 For the smaller sets which have the same numerical listed price as the Aus price, you're doing even better! Droid Gunship - retails $NZ59.99 - worth $AUD45 or 28EUR but retail price is $AUD60 or EUR35-40 Republic tank - retails $NZ99.99 - worth $AUD77 or 47EUR but retail price is $AUD99.99 or EUR65-70. You guys have it OK

I'm confused... the finale of Big Brother Australia was last week. So why only now are we seeing pictures of housemates Brigette and Ben performing a striptease? And where is Rory in his signature g-string? Very odd.

UK prices are by far the best - they generally are, though, outside of the US. NZ prices are also pretty good. But 130-150 Euro for the Gunship? That's steep. The Twilight is hilariously priced no matter what country you're in The Republic tank is a great looking set, but it should have been a bit cheaper.