Svelte

Great news! I had one of those red roof part packs from the early 80s as a kid - I had to save up for ages to get it. Nice to see these basic packs return and a good complement to the Creator houses. Hopefully we'll get some other colours in future releases as well.

The obsession with trash cans.

The Annual Report did say that Star Wars was well on the way to becoming a 'classic' line, which is an interesting choice of words. TLC obviously is interested in pursuing the SW licence past the expiration date (2010 or 2011?) but probably sensibly from a business point of view you don't want to make a licence the central pillar of your sales or you'd be in trouble if the license agreement wasn't renewed! Thinking long-term you'd probably want a few major themes doing really well so if one experienced a major crash in one finanical year your sales would still be strong overall. I think that's what's happened with City and probably what they're trying to do with Castle at the moment.

Thanks Dr. Brick! It was a lot of fun to do. Go Block Block! It's as if the new Agents line was designed by crazed janitors :-P

Very evocative. I love the wilted-looking pine trees - great technique - and the sand green tips on the rocks are very nice.

Yes indeed. I smile whenever I think of the Totally Unnecessary Quadruple Shooter Thingy. It is perfectly named and absolutely accurate. Lego take note. Samantha the popcorn girl freaks me out though. 8-

Theme: Superbots Earth-Save Set #: DDT12 Set Name: Recyclotron vs Compostia! Piece Count: Approx 260 Price: $24.95 (AUD) Description: The evil Compostia uses her deadly weed-whip to convert the residents of Blocktown into zombie plant-slaves to guard the source of her power - the pink Poison Pod! As these poor souls decay from human to plant to skeleton, Compostia feasts on their delicious human nutrients. Can the valiant Max Tastic in his vaguely feline Recyclotron mulch Compostia before the entire population of Blocktown is devoured? Or will Compostia use her fatal flowergun to triumph against the forces of good? Only you decide! Superbots Earth-Save! Relation to theme: This set is third of six sets in the first wave of Superbots Earth Save, ranging from a small $5 set to a $90 base. Each set features earth-friendly battle machine vs villainous polluter! Minifigs: Max Tastic (pilot of the Recyclotron), Compostia, three human zombie plant-slaves and half a skellie. Design Notes:- I wanted a set that Lego (in a parallel universe) might reasonably release and considered what the characteristics of a small-to-mid range set might be - simple build, medium number of pieces, some play value (eg moving legs of the Recyclotron), small building (brown wall), treasure (pink watering can), one 'good' battle machine vs one 'evil' battle machine - I wanted to include recognisable Block Block design elements such as the brown wall and dancing figs to establish it as fitting recognisably within the Blocko-verse - I wanted the Recyclotron to look vaguely cartoony and animal like to also fit in with the Block Block theme - hence the tail and the attempt at a vaguely Hello Kitty-like face on the Recyclotron. Don't know if this worked though :) - And for anyone who is wondering why the Recyclotron is a mod of the Recycle Truck - I was short on time and thought doing a straight-out mod of something related to the theme I wanted to explore would be easier and more fun than trying summon inspiration from out of the blue. Within the limits of only using pieces from the set (apart from Max Tastic's Troll breastplate armour), I think it worked quite well!

Sad but true. Maybe TLC will start selling sets of compressed tanks of super-fresh Danish oxygen for the serious collector to circulate through their vaults. Of course... you'd then have to open the tank to pump back into your regular sets, which means your licensed air would no longer be mint either :-( It's a no-win situation. That's a great idea. Allan Bedford's Unofficial Lego Builder's Guide is a nice introduction to different kinds of building but I'd like to see a publication with a bit more advanced tehcnique - maybe standout AFOL MOCs where some of the techniques aren't immediately obvious, photographed and then explicated - the sort of 'How did they do that moments?' like the 45 degree angle or ski signage on Cafe Corner. Kind of a cross between an art book and a how-to.

Wasn't sure as I hadn't seen it... maybe it just appeared as an Aus thing :-)

If I had a vault I'm sure I would definitely agree with you. My problem with MISB boxes is the Schroedinger's cat of the sticker sheet/ instructions problem. Is something really mint if the instructions are folded, torn and generally look like they've been through a spin cycle? And the stickers are contused, mutilated, and peeling off? Since this happens in pretty much every 2nd set I've bought over the last few weeks this is a genuine niggle. You just don't know if it really is a mint set you have in your condition until you open the box.... at which point it is no longer mint.

That's fine... if you define yourself a collector. I like to keep the boxes if I can, but some of them just take up way too much space and I don't have room to store them all. Does that mean I don't own the sets that I've bought and then discarded the packaging of? I think that definition is too strict. What if I have multiple copies of one set, but only keep the packaging for one of them? Does that mean the second set I've got isn't really a set at all? To stretch it even further, since 2006 we now have sets that inventory every part - if this set inventory list doesn't include sticker sheets, the box or instructions, can they really be counted as part of the set itself? Is the set the physical parts or the concept, the copyrighted process of construction laid out in the instructions? On the other hand, if boxes and instructions are so essential, what about bits of the set that can be discarded, ie bags or elastic band bricks? After all, these are supplied by TLC as part of the original product you purchase. I would argue that it is mainly in the context of collecting *as an activity and interest per se* that original packaging and instructions become extremely important. You could extend that for to say that for the true collector, you don't *really* own the set unless it's MISB. Ie, sold as the Lego group originally released it - sweet Billund air inside and all :-) I have a lot of Lego but I wouldn't call myself a collector - I'd rather bust open those enticing new boxes rather than keep everything sealed and unopened.

There's now a little pic of the Star Justice explorer pic we've seen on one of the S@H frontpage Flash ads (also shows a train and Market Street) The Factory website itself hasn't been updated. Hopefully more pics soon!

Hopefully we don't have to wait another 50 years! I'm very excited about this news. Great as brickset or peeron both are, it's nice to have a paper copy to flick through - just as a casual 'coffee table' reference and also to see how different themes/ styles have ebbed and flowed over the years. I think it will be a great source of inspiration as well (depending on how big the pics are - at 800 pages I wouldn't have a clue.)

Wow! Thanks - that's a great image and great news. I'm sure we'll see elves in '09. Lego is really going all out to make the Castle theme a proper integrated and interesting world with a variety of races, not just a slightly modified year-after-year Good Guys vs Bad Guys KK2 approach. Definitely the right way to go to keep people interested. Sadly I don't think we'll see much in the way of villagers/ civilians if the constant stream of catapults and battle machines is anything to go by. They are obviously still big sellers.

I think they would have to honour orders placed before they changed the price (if they did change the price). Australia is just strange when it comes to pricing, probably because we're such a tiny market. Generally we do better on the small to mid-range sets and worse on the larger sets. Ie, the smaller 2007/ 2008 Star Wars general sets were cheaper in Aus than in Europe and the UK, but the walking AT-AT and UCS Millennium Falcon were way more expensive, comparatively. However, it's not like this hasn't happened before. I think the the Holiday Train was 99 Euros and was also 99 AUD (someone can correct me if I'm wrong as it's gone from S@H, but if it wasn't 99 Euros it was 89 or something similar.)

Love the medieval CC, especially the recessed verandah so you can take a stroll around the second floor on a balmy evening. Lots of potential for lovely new MOCS with all those delicious new dark brown slopes that are appearing in the 08 castle sets.

Maybe you should check with Lego - send an email. Has the amount shown up on your card yet? You can probably tell if it's in AUD or GBP from that. Anyway, Lego can't legally charge your card again unless you actively authorise it. If they did I'm sure they'd offer a refund. Anyway, 150 GBP is just as wrong as 150 AUD... Most confused!

Don't stress too much - I put in an order 2 weeks ago with S@H and although my order was in AUD on the website the confirmation email came in with prices marked as GBP. (180 pounds for an ISD 6211 not $180 - what????) But I emailed Lego and they confirmed I had only been charged in AUD.

Think of us in countries with no Lego stores who will have to wait 2 weeks for it to ship when it is finally listed on S@H!

Sorry - I wasn't being nasty, I was trying to make light of the tendency to prejudge on a small number of preliminary pics when I became aware the designers were involved in this thread. I wasn't meaning to insult eurobricks generally or any of its members. I was just as excited to see the first pics as anyone - which is why I posted them in the first place as soon as I saw them :-) Anyway, we can only judge on what we have seen. I appreciate what the designers have said, and maybe Brickjournal could have used better pics - but I definitely look forward to seeing the rest. ;-)

But this is Eurobricks! We reserve the right to make sweeping statements about whole lines based on a few pics. See also: Agents preliminaries. :-)

The Brickjournal article states that there are 4 subsets in each larger set (10191, 10192) - so there are obviously pics we are yet to see before the April 16 launch. The 2 sets are priced USD99.99/ Euro 99.99 and contain 4 models in each, with 4 minifigs (and the Star Justice line contains 4 robots as well). At that price point, I would hope to see some larger subsets! I still think the Skeleton look has been done to death in a lot of other themes, and the Star Justice is less classic space than what people might have hoped for. Ie, classic space fans seem to prefer closed, airtight sets (like real space vehicles/ stations) and neither of these smaller sets fit the bill.

Kmart Australia also has some 2007 sets on clearance - Monster Dino - $89 - Mars Mission Alien Mothership - $55 - Mars Mission Armored Drilling Unit - $69 - Exo Force green tank thing - $90 - Exo Force Golden Tower - $55 and a few others With the extra 15% off, that's pretty sweet. Also spotted the Technic Bulldozer for $165 in Toys R Us last week ($85 off) and Battle of Metru Nui still on clearance there for $50 (nice dark red parts pack)

Just added pics in edited post above. I guess I was being overcautious what with the 'remove all Agents pics' hoo-ha a while ago. There are pics of the human figs, yes. Since this has moved to a new page... 10192 - Space Skulls 10191 Star Justice