Svelte

Simply beautiful. That first pic in particular is wonderfully atmospheric.

I agree for *exactly* the same reason. It's an interesting phenomenon because a previously dormant and disregarded theme has been entirely rejuvenated through the force of one man's will. Thank the Lord he's not a politician... yet. We know Hinckley will have truly made it when Lego Factory suddenly starts popping out bley walrus heads and we get news of the S@H exclusive - 10199 Fabuland Housewives In Flagrante Delicto.

Dammit Darth_Legois! Now you've made me want one too! NOOOOOOO! In other news, the K-Mart big toy sale starts in 21 days. Start saving! I bet this is when most of the second half of year stock will hit all at once - hopefully including Star Wars

We come here because Eurobricks is the best Lego forum in the world . Ricecracker, last time I checked Canada wasn't part of Europe either... Anyway, welcome xNick! I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself.

As Sinner has noted elsewhere, some instructions are now being released with highlighted borders around the pieces:

I don't have problems following the instructions but I'd love it if they were mere economical in how they lay them out, just to save on space. Those instruction books add up! I'm considering doing a purge of some of the paper versions and replacing them with PDFs just to conserve room. However I don't think slimmer books are going to happen anytime soon. Last year saw the introduction of the extra 'never mix, never worry' approach to numbered bags and 'grass is bad' page. In 08 I've noticed with the new Mars Mission sets that the instructions now come with a *full-page* warning about projectile pieces at the end of the booklets. More lawsuits, more warnings! Maybe when the new magnets are released there'll be another page showing a small child eating a train coupling with a big red line through the middle I also think in the interests of keeping the age-range of a set as low as possible they make the instructions as simple as possible for younger kids to follow. Lego does extensive product testing so I'm sure they're doing what best suits their market. Below - how to say 'IMPORTANT: never modify the elements or use other projectiles than provided with this toy' in 29 different languages

I'd prefer to see 'normal' sized buildings. I think this would be sensible in initially building up a revived theme - ie, lots of playable subsets in one box, like the Factory Space line. I also think Wild West as a theme lends itself to smaller buildings - eg small saloon, small bank, trading office, jail etc to keep in with the frontier feel of the old line. It's probably a popular culture thing, but when you think of the Wild West you don't think of enormous cafes and apartment blocks with intricately paved boulevards If it was successful, I think there would be room for a larger building set down the line.

I agree with Athos. I've seen no evidence that it's a copyrighted term and it's used all over the place by loads of different companies.

Did you ask the staff if they had any out the back or check on the top shelves? Often with sale stock it won't go out all at once, so if the first lot sells out, they'll put another wave out there. Anyway, $60 is not that great a sale price since TRU retailed at $69.99 to start with. I realise this is poor consolation for you hewman but I'd be surprised if it was snapped up all by resellers when the discount isn't that huge over the original retail price... just my thoughts.

I think AFOLs aren't so keen on them because they're not minifig scale. I bet kids love 'em. I also think everyone would agree that they're great parts packs, especially for the small slopes. I bought Tuner Garage just on a whim on-sale and the piece selection is fantastic. Incidentally, anyone in the UK should buy 8154 Brick Street Customs NOW as it is insanely priced at 35 pounds for 1021 pieces. (The Australian price is $120 and for Europeans, it's 70 Euro - not so good). In fact, it's the same price in pounds as last year's Bullet Run, which is only 796 pieces .

If Lego's own in-house staff are getting confused, then it's probably because the way they've marketed the troll thing *is* confusing, if you know what I mean. Hopefully someone will notice and there'll be a rethink.

I visited the real Taj Mahal last year and I think they could make it minifig scale without too many problems. It's a big building but nowhere near the scale of the Eiffel tower. The main issue I have is the colour - is it going to be pure white, like the real thing, or will they bley it up in parts like they do some of the SW craft?

I love that McGann hair! Would never have thought of it myself, but it looks great. How is it from the back? Very clever idea. I think either face for Rose is fine, although I think your second choice is better. More individual looking. However I'm not sure about the girly girl pink top with cats on it. Doesn't seem very Rose, somehow. Good work, Mr Spielbrick, I love seeing all your figs even if I don't always agree with your choices

Ditto. The figs look completely different as well, it's not like they even resemble similar species. Trooperdavinfelth, I'm puzzled by your comment that 'orcs' is a licensed term. Who owns the license?

i voted for ricecracker, i really loved the simplicity and grandeur of his icy tableau. i'm also a sucker for polar bears! nice work, i look forward to the other rounds.

Fantasiaverlag doesn't ship to Australia, but I ordered through Amazon.de without any problems. Amazon.de suggest a release date of 30 June but that is probably just guesswork on their behalf as it was supposed to arrive in June and it obviously hasn't so far I imagine it could be any time in the next few weeks - publishing shipping dates are rarely exact down to the day.

Thanks for the news, legomilk! Although it's currently showing up as backordered until 4 August Maybe this will change in the next few days?

Thanks for the nice review - it was one of the first ones I got when emerging from my dark ages . I bought two of these, just for Buckbeack - I thought he would make a good statue in a Persian temple type MOC. I also liked the minifig head pumpkin and plant part in bright green - both new pieces to me at the time. All in all, it was a good castle or forest building set with a nice selection of pieces for rocks, grass, plants and trees. The dark bley plume piece also now appears in the 10185 Green Grocer set as detailing on the roof of the turret.

Thanks for the awesome review, Batbrick! I have to concur, I really love this set. It's the best of the 08 Batman sets and one of my favourite small sets this year. It has great figs, 2 penguins, Robin's scuba-jet is small but well-designed and sleek, and the Penguin's vehicle is a fantastic medium-sized sub. The periscope idea is neat and the Penguin looks great peering out the top. As Batbrick says, the technic shooter is easily modded. Best of all, I think the price is reasonable ($AUD34.95) for what you get. Buy it on sale, Sinner! You won't regret it!

I see what you mean now. For some reason I imagined you meant the gap was in the base. Easy to mod, anyway. Personally this didn't bother me as I presumed it gave access to the missiles. I guess the missiles are fairly useless though - not even flick fire

Yay for you radiant7! I didn't notice a gap in the front cab I'll have to examine it more closely. I'm sure I would have noticed if the Agents were hitting the tarmac! I'm confused about the box art though as to me it looked like the whole box including the incorrect back print was one large printed sheet of cardboard that had been folded together and then glued - that being the case, I don't see how the inside flap would attach to the sides that it is attached to, if you know what I mean. I'm no papercraft expert though and I haven't flattened it to find out exactly how it's printed/ attached. Have fun building the trailer!

I third Arkham. Back in the dark days of 2006 - before we even knew about the modular houses coming around the corner - Arkham was one of the best large buildings we'd seen for a long, long while. As noted above, lots of useful window, door, arch and detailing pieces. The figs were good for customisation too. Shame it didn't seem to sell but being a TRU exclusive probably didn't help. Apart from that definitely the 4956 town house, just because there's so much tan, windows and good roof parts. A lot of large MOCs on brickshelf rely on this one and I can see why as it is often hard to accumulate so much of a colour that doesn't come in the basic primaries. 4757 Hogwarts Castle - the 2004 version - was great for the same reasons as both above - lots of windows, slopes and log bricks in nice colours - and it went to clearance as well.

This is a great contest Sinner! My mind has been bubbling away for a few days but in the early hours this morning I finally came up with my concept and will commence work on the long weekend. Thankfully it's still pouring here I love that the story is also a component of the contest as well.

Pics of upcoming sets often appear on the Lego website before they appear officially on shop at home. eg http://cache.lego.com/images/shop/prod/8636-0000-xx-13-1.jpg where 8636 can be changed to any set number (if listed). Changing the '13' to '23' or '33' and sometimes the last number often reveals different views of the set. If you were looking for the new coastguard set, it is in the City 08 thread. And it is sweet too! Actually, with all that orange 4210 could be nicely modded to make a Dr Inferno seabase as well - some of the new sets even come with extra stickers so it wouldn't be too hard to decorate! Hmmm... I have some of the big 'bridge' pieces in orange from Sentai Fortress... now you've put ideas in my head .

Great rebuild, Batbrick. It reminds me a little of the Agent jets with the cockpit and wings - maybe this can be their camo jungle fighter