Svelte

Listen to the voices inside your head, Darth_Legois On the other hand... Town Plan is pretty good, for $159 I wouldn't complain. And Agents will be around for 2 years!

The front page of the K-Mart catalogue says 'All stores open 8am Thursday 3 July' so I'm sticking with that. If I miss out, I miss out.

That was my review, so I'll weigh in here I haven't bought all the Mars Mission sets, but the alien craft generally I've found weak. The dropship has a nice shape but the trans-orange alien containers have put me off it. I did get the 7699 Armored Drilling Unit on sale and like the look of it, but it's really just a technic frame with plates on it. I think the Crystal Reaper wins out as it has a good design, it's about the right size, isn't too pricy and has extra Power Functions. I did notice from other threads that some of last year's MM sets were on sale at US S@H but I think most of those have sold out.

I don't think my local one is, thank god. That's one step too far for me. But I'll be there early tomorrow. Has Green Grocer been released in Myer or DJs or is this just speculation?

From S@H, an 8636 Deep Sea Quest and a few 8637s Volcano Bases, just to make a giant supervolcano for Dr Inferno. Yays! Also the 50th anniversary book since I've been intending to pick it up.

thanks for the news, radiant7. hadn't seen the myer stuff yet. $159 is a great price for Town Plan, sadly I already bought one in Jan. Personally I think Cafe Corner and Green Grocer are better sets anyway - the only really good building in Town Plan is the cinema. The Eiffel Tower I'm still not sure of, it's a good price but it still looks kind of blocky. well, i've 99% decided what i'm going to track down tomorrow and friday! good luck to everyone in the scrambles. we should check in over the next few days and see how we went. Sinner will probably be on the news atop a 10179 with that feral grin with the headline 'tasmanian devil rediscovered in suburban K-Mart' ps, yes that is old news Darth_Legois

Turbo Chase is very cool. I think it is more impressive out of the box and it's my second favourite of the first 6 Agents sets. The helicopter is huge and nasty looking with a great spider function for Spy Clops, the gate works well and has a neat sound function, and the car is absolutely gorgeous and a treasure trove of metallic silver. All the models are well designed and satisfying to build. At $AUD90 I still think it is better value than the Speed Racer Grand Prix set for the same price, and if you get it in a sale period it will be even cheaper.

Well, the Command Center does have an extra 400 pieces! Still, prices are reasonable and I'm glad the command center didn't end up at $AUD150.

All the new Agents sets - including 8636 and 8637! - are up now too on Shop at Home for countries outside the US! Volcano Base is a bargain!

All the new Agents sets - including 8636 and 8637! - are up now too. Pretty good prices for Aussies!

Really great entry Oky Wan! You have used those baseplates very well and the composition of colour is very nice - it is very different and you do get the sense that the story is taking place in some massive underwater cavern. I especially like the tower in the center and the rope ladders on either side to illustrate the race against each other. The submarine top is a great way to show off the vehicle without building the whole thing! An interesting story as well, but mostly it is the very original and well coordinated colour scheme and overall layout which I like.

2004 was the best year for me by far. A great huge Hogwarts castle with the motorised clock. A revised and much better Hagrid's Hut with the reintroduction of the angled castle walls and great pieces. A Shreiking Shack with a really nicely designed ghost house and sweet shop. Dementors! Buckbeak! Lots of great stuff. Sure, it's the first year in bley and new flesh tones, but the fresh colours did make the older sets look a little dull. Unfortunately it seems to be the year that killed the licence, as so much stuff was in clearance for so long that the line was severely truncated and downsized by the next year. I regret not buying more, but I was only a year or two out of my Dark Ages. 2005 has the best set of the line though, with the fantastic Graveyard Duel, which is up there as one of the best sets ever. Fantastic parts selection, rare pieces, nice figs and some clever designs which had more in common with the smaller classic sets of yesteryear than the oversized sets we'd seen in Knights Kingdom or even town (eg the little crypt and the wonderfully designed funeral carriage.) I think 2007 is probably the worst year. Apart from the fabulous greenhouse and a few great figs and pieces, the one big set released does not have much to reccomend it at all. A definite throwback to a badly designed and not at all detailed Hogwarts.

Nice! I really like your use of colour and the use of those odd slope pieces at the top of the stairs is a unique touch. The hinged scaly/ slopey red underbelly of the serpent looks great too.

From Lego S@H: Please note: we will authorize your credit card at the time of your order. As part of this authorization process, your bank will place a hold on your account for the purchase amount of your order. The hold will be removed after a number of days determined by your banking institution - check with your bank for details. In other words, they will put a hold on your card for the order amount (usu for about a week) but this won't appear on your bill and they won't process payment til before it ships (September).

Bricks to the World is a retailer, their prices are usually spot on. I agree 8634 and 8635 are a bit pricey, I'm a bit surprised.

No official prices yet. Based on the US prices usual conversion, and bearing in mind non-licensed sets are usually cheaper, my educated guess would be: Mission 1 - anywhere between $12.99-$17.99 Mission 2 - $29.99 Mission 3 - $49.99 Mission 4 - between $59.99-$69.99 Mission 5 - $79.99 Mission 6 - between $129.99- $149.99 EDIT - Just missed your post above! Looks like I wasn't too far off. Thanks Darth_Legois_619! EDIT again - you should have asked about CW sets too!

That's great Dr S - all the way through I was thinking - Skeletoid conversion - what does it remind me of? Nice to see I wasn't imagining the similarities. BTW, these would also make nice Silence in the Library figs too...

Maybe they just had excess stock, as I've seen it everywhere but the Rebel one not so much.

They 'authorise' your card to make sure that you've got the cashola, but they don't process payment until just before they ship. At least, that's what they're supposed to do. The authorisation should clear in a week and wouldn't show up on a bill.

It's the miracle of layby, Sinner! Plus, you have another 3 weeks before the Target sale starts. Has anyone had confirmation of a Myer sale start date? If the Eiffel is discounted enough I may get that. I am still trying to resist the call of the Millennium Falcon, as realistically I have no room to display it and I should be waiting for CW sets. But seeing these rare sets loose and in the wild sometimes makes the blood boil - as amply demonstrated by Sinner's rabid expression in the previous page Interesting that the January SW sets are advertised as discounted across all the catalogues - maybe they didn't sell too well. I pretty much avoided Anakin's fighter, the Imperial battlepack and the Rogue Shadow as well.

Big W prices up now too. Great savings on the Castle line. $69 for the Troll Warship and $36 for the Tower Raid.

They should put that slogan on the S@H page when you pay in Euros

Praise be, hewman! Your dream came true

In NZ and Aus it *is* cheaper than the US price - the prices translate to about $US330 and $US385 respectively. Europe still pays extra, but not as much as before! Compare to 2007's 10179 prices for NZ and Aus - approx $US760 and $US940 respectively at current rates - and you can see why we're all surprised.

I don't think this isn't a mistake, as the price is roughly uniform amongst all the non-US countries, whereas Green Grocer was clearly out of line with everyone else. I think I'm moving to NZ - $430NZ is only $340AUD or GBP 165 so even with postage I wouldn''t complain There should be a prize for whichever country works out the cheapest!