Svelte

Hey all! Some pics of the new Lego factory space sets are in the latest issue of BrickJournal (vol 2 no 1). Digital version available to download now. I have uploaded some pics to Brickshelf - links below. If this violates Brickjournals copyright in some way (although I have modified the images to remove text so it should be within fair use) let me know. The 2 sets come togethere at USD99.99/ Euro 99.99 and contain 4 models in each, with 4 minifigs (and the Star Justice line with 4 robots as well). Release date April 16. From what I can see I'm not impressed by what's in Brickjournal but maybe the larger sets will be better - Brickjournal doesn't have pics of everything, just some of the subsets. 10192 - Space Skulls Picture here The Skeleton robot is like a mobile version of the facade of the Castle Skeleton Tower with 12 of those awful, unstable little-click-hinge made legs that were used for the Aquaraiders beasties such as the crab and lobster. Very unoriginal although there's some nice SNOT work I guess. It just seems like it's what the Castle skeles evolve into in the future, peoples! Haven't we seen the Skeleton facade used in Lego sets so many times before? Ogel, Pirates, castle? Seems an odd choice and hardly eye-catching. 10191 - Star Justice Picture here In Brickjournal there are pics of one small vehicle and a little outpost, bley and ordinary blue colour scheme. The little vehicle (Mobile Cargo Transport) is nothing to write home about and the fuel cell outpost is fairly small and not airtight. Looks like Lego if Lego launched a proper Space theme aimed at kids at a retail level - small little sets, limited colours, common pieces like ladders on plates with bars to move between levels. At those prices I'd have expected something bigger and more exciting, something with the detail of Modular Houses. Very disappointed as I was expecting much more along the lines of Classic Space - proper airtight cockpits, detailed bases, interesting colours, parts used in different ways. Especially at a price point of 99 euros/ USD. To be honest, I think Mars Mission is more visually interesting with its bright colours and the organic design of the alien ships - and I don't even like Mars Mission that much! Sorry to be a downer, I just think we were probably expecting something better. As always, final judgment will be reserved when all the pics are available.

I agree - definitely milk chocolate and dark chocolate! Maybe it's Lego cost-cutting exercise... less pigment... more cocoa beans... :-) My Troll Warship arrived yesterday but sadly no extra sail - I think Dr Sinister was just lucky!

Ah, I see, it's a density issue. Thanks for explaining that. I will have to recheck those sets and have a look.

I prefer bley - mainly because I have so much of it now having only come out of my dark ages in 2003 and only really starting to buy a lot of sets after then. Mixing bley and old grey just looks wrong though, as the shiny bley makes the old grey look yellowed, which is never a great look for lego bricks! Now that there a lot of great castle parts in bley it's much harder to go back to old grey at all for MOCs. BTW, what's the issue with the white/ 'trans' white colour? Just different shades? I didn't notice any huge discrepancies in Town Plan. I though the dark red/ ordinary red colour variations were much worse. Market Street's varying shades of dark blue were a huge disappointment, and for the price point, Cafe Corner's tan and especially frown colour problems were a real eye-opener. Did TLC ever officially respond to complaints about this?

Wow, so much good stuff. - Agents is definitely silver, not chrome - which is good as I find chrome wears badly. So much dark blue! Must-have on the number of those parts alone. Definitely exceeded expectations. - Indy - great and the temple is much better than what we'd seen before. A great looking playset and fantastic for dark tan. - Batman - not so interesting - vehicles look ill-proportioned or blocky and it doesn't love up to the 2006 sets. I guess if you're desperate for the Penguin or Mr Freeze and didn't get the Batcave they're useful, but the vehicles are ugly. - Mars Mission - the huge ship would be a mustbuy if it wasn't for the huge plane wing piece in the middle. Don't get me wrong, I love the new planes, and I think this piece is OK for the job it does in those sets, but it's just a shame to see this massive piece in a space set that looks solidly brick built and detailed everywhere but for that wing! - Creator - less keen on the ferry than when I first saw it. I think the City coast rescue sets will take precedence. Does anyone know if the August dates are just for the US and the rest of the world will get them earlier, maybe June? It looks as if the US production/distribution shift will be taking place before these are released since all the Castle sets have been pushed to August as well.

The smaller windows (2 x 2 and 3 x 4) in the Beach House 4996 and Green Grocer are even worse than the 1 x 4 x 6 panes, which at least have only one big circle in the middle. The small 2 x 2 windows have 4 dots in each corner and the swinging 3 x 4 pane have even more than that! Really looks cheap compared to the panes in the 2004 Creator house with the older windows.

Available in Aus, too. Yay! These weren't there yesterday. Must... resist... urge... to... place... order.... before Green Grocer gets listed as well, even if it is 1 March.

I was largely indifferent to Exo-Force, but could see it had a lot of appeal and agreed with many that the 2008 sets were a lot better looking than the 2007 range. It does seem a bit like Lego may be shooting itself in the foot if the 2008 line does really well. I guess in a company that size with marketing/ sales people breathing down the neck of the design departments its hard to make the argument that improved design = increased sales down the line. I'm sure TLC has done the numbers though and would prefer to reallocate design/ production resources elsewhere. (Hoping for another Bionicle miracle, probably.) But can it really be profitable to introduce a new line every year or two and then dump it? Sometimes it seems by the time the sets hit the shelves the decision has been already made to abandon the line, eg Aqua Raiders. If I was a parent or kid buying these sets without detailed knowledge of TLC's intentions, I'd be probably be surprised and disappointed if a line I was collecting just vanished.

TLC always puts a few new pieces/ colour variations in every year to make sure you *have* to buy the sets :) I'm not impressed by the Dwarves Mine Defender, but the Tower is better than expected with lots of nice new dark brown slopes. I kinda like the Troll Warship but still prefer the Viking version. The main selling point for me is all the figs and the troll flags - very cute.

I loved the pics in the catalogues but was a bit disappointed by the build and end result. My own thoughts: CONs: - as noted, the cargo space is really small considering the size of the plane, although I can see this is restricted due to playability - without the barrier in the middle, the cargo would slide all over the place while the plane was being swooshed - the cargo 'lift' (I'm not sure how else to describe it) is very weak and snaps off, although it is a clever design I think it's badly implemented - there is nothing to hold the cargo pallet to the cargo lift truck so it tends to slide off all over the place as soon as the truck moves - colour issues - I had at least 3 shades of green with the larger plane pieces and noticeable variances even with identical cargo hatch pieces. At least one of them also came quite scratched, which was a little disappointing - At $79.95 AUD it's $10 more than the Passenger Plane was with less pieces and figs, and no printed pieces whatsoever! more $ for less, methinks. PROs: - Lots of nice cargo crate pieces and even the stickers for these are pretty good. - landing gear piece adjusts very well to height differentials so the plane doesn't lose its gear as often as the earlier passenger planes - the hinging mechanism works very well to open the cargo holds - opens very smoothly and is not noticeable - I'd definitely like to see more of this technique - the little vehicles work well chained together and are all good small designs OVERALL: - I really like the large planes since 06 but I don't think they've still quite hit the nail on the head. Whereas the earlier planes were a little flimsy, this one is sturdier but has its own issues. The look of the Cargo Plane is nice, and the new landing piece and cargo hatch pieces are really great, but some design weaknesses and colour issues detract from the overall product. It's a shame as with a bit of tweaking this could have been a must-have set.

Yays! Building instructions for the new Castle sets have sprung up at the Lego building instructions page: I don't think these have been posted here before... 7048 Troll Warship Book 1 Book 2 7037 Tower Raid Book 1 Book 2 7040 Dwarves Mine Defender Book 1 OT: for anyone interested, 10185 building instructions are also now available, I've posted these in the Green Grocer thread.

Jumping Jehosophats! Full building instructions of all 3 booklets are now available from the Lego building instructions site. I didn't even think the set had been officially announced yet. http://cache.lego.com/bigdownloads/buildin...ons/4534534.pdf http://cache.lego.com/bigdownloads/buildin...ons/4534535.pdf http://cache.lego.com/bigdownloads/buildin...ons/4534536.pdf Swoon. Now hurry up and release the set already!

The new set is very cute and a bargain if it's $US10. Nice figs, weapons and the classic tent. Will sell like hotcakes and better than Motorcycle Chase in my opinion. I think there's some confusion with the Race for the Stolen Treasure truck cover. Some people here have reported its paper, other think it's cloth. I found mine to be a very stiff canvasy type of material - definitely not paper but not as soft as other fabric pieces like the flags on the Durmstrang ship, for example. It seemed even stiffer than the Vikings sail but a similar type of material - maybe that's just the size of the piece? I think it would have to be fairly stiff on the truck to stop it sagging where its unsupported by bricks at the end. Maybe there's a production difference between US and Europe sets? Does anyone know?

Absolutely stunning. I'm in love! It's the happy inbetween of the intricate design of CC and the nice interior detail of Town Plan. God, I'm glad I'm an adult and can afford this stuff - if I was a kid looking at these kinds of sets and having to wait for Xmas or birthdays (if then) I think I'd probably explode. Or run away to Denmark.

I've been reading this thread with interest and I can see both points of view. I love the old Adventurers theme, but it did sometimes feel like a cash-in on interest in the Indiana Jones, albeit not directly copying the movies directly. In several threads I've also seen a lot of discussion about where this line is heading and puzzlement about what sets would make up future waves in the next few years - will they be based on the past movie, or the one coming out in May? I bought and built all the new IJ sets, primarily because of I like the gentleman-adventurer type style of sets that the JT themes had rather than out of any love for the Indiana Jones movies. (I buy Star Wars sets for the same reason; I like the movies but I'm not a massive fan and I buy Lego SW more for the great designs and for the satisfying builds.) As a line, the first 4 IJ sets are a mixed bunch but I have to say that the traps in 7621 and 7623 are really enjoyable for play value and are extremely sturdy, reliable and well thought-out compared to some earlier flimsier ones in the Adventurers lines. From reading in this forum I get the impression a lot of AFOLs in this forum aren't buying the sets for play value but seem to prefer the minifigs, new accessories or potential for army building that the line offers. The opinion is not uncommon that this line is not really going to appeal to kids in the same way that SW does or that IJ even has the same brand-awareness. Building the sets, found myself asking the same kind of questions. Who are these sets really aimed at? Why have an IJ line at all, especially one so obviously similar to one of Lego's own previous themes which they wouldn't have had to pay licensing fees on? Basically, what is the future of the IJ line, if even AFOLs aren't sure to whom this line is directed or where it will go in future? My suspicion is that once the next 4 sets come out, the IJ theme will have a limited shelf-life. Ie, that this licensing deal is really a one-off deal with LucasArts to ride on the popularity of the movie coming out in May. I don't really see this line as continuing year after year, wave after wave, with more and more sets coming from the older movies. Even if the movie is a massive success with Shia LaBeouf taking on the lead mantle, there isn't going to be another new movie for at least 3 years. I can't see an endless line of IJ Lego waves in the meantime to feel the gap. Even HP Lego faltered and there was a movie to support that every year, almost - and HP is way bigger with kids than IJ has been in the last ten years. Here's my theory: I suspect that a large part of why this initial line was released was incidental to the production of the Lego Indiana Jones video game. I think TLC is hoping that an IJ game licenced released to ride on the success of the new movie is going to be a larger cash-cow than a line of brick-built sets ever could be. And with the potential for sequels or 're-imaginings' of the old films in game form, this is going to continue to be a lucrative form of future income. We're seeing this trend already with Star Wars: The Complete Saga and Batman, also due this year. Advertising for the yet-to-be-released IJ game is in the January 08 catalogue and in the building instructions for the new sets themselves. The game is going to be an integral part of TLC's marketing strategy for the 08 IJ sets and, I suspect, the cornerstone of their future projected sales for this theme. Once the new sets for the Crystal Skull movie are released, I honestly don't think we'll see much more of IJ in the physical brick form. What could they possibly release in 09 without a new movie to support the theme and without a dedicated young fanbase interested in the old movies? But with digitised minifig designs already rendered and a market hungry for endless platform games, I'd be amazed if we weren't seeing releases and re-releases of IJ Lego games for several years to come.

Sets in other markets have had that 'easy building and instant play' branding since the City sets of '05, usually accompanied by a picture of which bit of the set corresponds to which numbered bag is inside. When they first started doing it every different 'module' had its own separate instruction booklet, which is annoying if you're trying to keep them all together! Thankfully they've cut down on this although they often have at least one vehicle with separate instructions. If this text is appearing in the US then it's probably because this line is a 'limited edition' there so TLC hasn't bothered to remaster the packaging as they would probably usually do.

I guess. Maybe I would have used medium blue instead. But then, I also thought the yellow tiling on CC was slightly bright too! Anyway, it is a great set and the back detail is very impressive. My only criticism of Market Street and CC is that there isn't really anything happening back there, so it's good to see the extra detail. Nice to see they've designed the turret similar to the CC one as well for some visual continuity along the streetscape.

I don't think the curtains are stickers, more like the inverted dark red slopes atop ordinary dark red slopes. Still look good though. There does seem to be something else red in the top left hand window. I like the Viking tiles around the door - I've used that style in MOCs before - gives it a nice old-fashioned, ornate, carved feel. Colourwise... I'm not a huge sand green fan and there does seem to be an awful lot of bley. I would have preferred dark green to be honest. The blue awning also looks a little out of place - too bright for the rest of the colour scheme. Still, definitely a must-have but not revolutionary like CC was. A worthy addition to the modular houses line! I, too, am glad that CC seems to have been a success. In the run-up to Christmas in Australia one of the major retailers was selling a whole lot of CCs directly to the public, which was a nice surprise as I thought it was a S@H exclusive. However even at 20% off they didn't seem to sell very well and after Xmas when pretty much all other Lego lines sold out, there were still an awful lot of CCs taking up shelf space. It's heartening to see the line continue.

Archdoom, your best bet would be to wait until K-Mart had a 20% off Lego sale. They're retailing RS at $89 so it would end up being about $AUD72. That's 28% off retail which isn't bad! I check the catalogues on line every week - they have sales fairly regularly. In fact a 15% off sale just finished. I wouldn't bet on a Toys'R'Us sale. Toys'R'Us in Aus rarely has big discounts unless they're really trying to clear something (eg Arkham Asylum). However just to contradict me this week Toys R Us has the TIE Crawler for $45 and the Y Wing for $35!

I love that too! It makes me want to get a creator spider just so I can re-enact the movie! It's a really nice touch. I've built the garage and the vehicles/ fountain/ petrol pumps now but I've debagged everything - just my thoughts so far: - part selection isn't bad, but it's definitely a different experience to the glory that is Cafe Corner - as noted above there are less very small pieces overall (1x1 tiles, 1x1 plates etc) but the colour selection is kind of lacking in comparison - lots of basic white, red, green, blue rather than their darker (and rarer cousins). OK, there is a lot of dark red, medium blue, and way more dark green than I've ever seen in one place but generally it's a lot more classic than CC. This does reflect the more classic design of the set though. - And yes, there some nice parts in colours we don't see often (I love all the trans-clear garage links and big curved panel as they are usually in trans-blue, which I find a bit garish for city MOCs). 8x8 trans-blue plate and gold bricks are the obvious ones but there's a lot of nice stuff sprinkled throughout and in decent quantities as well - in the garage, one of the octan sticker signs goes over a 1x2 white brick modified with the groove that allows the garage pieces to move up and down - this is a bit dodgy as it means a sticker is going over a large groove - this doesn't help its long term prospects for survival. I know this is to save sorting costs as all the other 1x2 bricks in the garage section are these modified bricks but it does seem a bit of a cheat - the little tree outside the garage looks a lot less strange in person than it does the way it's photographed on the box art! it's actually kind of tropical looking, like a flame tree. - the car wash apparatus is very cool - you can't really see it from external pics but the mechanism contains 2 vertical sets of brushes and one horizontal - very thorough and better than the smaller City service station set sold last year I think this set does lack the instant appeal of the Cafe Corner but together with that (and Market Street and the 2 last very nice Creator houses) Lego has basically given us a massively detailed and beautiful town/ city in one 12 month period! That is truly astonishing considering the lack of decent non fire or police themed buildings we've had over the last few years. 4886 was hailed as revolutionary in 2004 for providing the first building with a back in decades, and already that looks clunky and old-fashioned now. I'm looking forward to finishing off Town Plan and then to the rest of 08!

New creator sets are now up at the building instructions site: 7796 House 7797 Bi-Plane 7798 Stegosaurus 7799 Cargo Chopper I love that the house is a mini version of 4996. Nice dark green 'cheese' pieces and teeth on the steggie as well! To be honest, these look too small to be 'regular' creator sets like Mini Trains or Mini Vehicles etc (limited steps, no alternate models). Are these supposed to be in something like an impulse line?

I'm an Australian and I think SW pricing is pretty high. When the 2007 Naboo fighter and vulture droid (280 pieces) & Sith Infiltrator (310 pieces) were both released last July here at the same price point as 2006's B-Wing (435 pieces) I thought even the slim advantage Australians usually have over the UK/ Europe in terms of pricing was gone. We have pretty much shifted to the model of having the Australian retail price be double the US retail price whereas previously the proportionate cost hike was lower (except for maybe the bigger sets in each line, like the MTT.) I think the most frustrating thing is that there doesn't seem to be any consistency about the pricing. If all the prices were scaled and seemed evenly distributed from the smallest set to the largest, I think people outside the US would complain a lot less. I suspect that the prices are set by different people at Lego across different lines as there doesn't seem to be a lot of consistency which does then translate to bad blood when people don't like the price. To use SW as an example. The MTT was priced at $180 Australian dollars and 80 pounds UK - about the same price in real terms at the moment (although that is largely due to the high Australian dollar at the moment). Why then does the 10178 walking AT-AT cost $250 Australian and 90 pounds UK? A ten pound difference in price (about $22.50 Australian) translates to an effective $70 difference in Australian retail price which I'm afraid I can't justify - and Lego doesn't seem to. This is true in Australia, actually, of all the big exclusive sets - Eiffel Tower, the UCS Falcon, Cafe Corner, Town Plan etc - which in Australia are comparately more expensive than most other places Lego ships to worldwide. If Australian prices were just more expensive I'd shrug and deal with it. What I do find bizarre is that the lower priced sets are often CHEAPER in Aus than they are in the UK/ Europe. Eg the recycle truck and cement mixers are about $20 in Aus but a whacking 12 pounds in the UK and 15.5 Euros (about a third more expensive). How does this fit with a bigger set being more expensive? Surely the principle of Lego is like any bulk item - the more you buy, the more value you're supposed to be getting - not less! The problem seems to be that whoever is pricing at both the lower and higher ends of the market are using different criteria and that they don't seem to match up. I personally find this off putting and I can see why a secondary ebay market is springing up in the US shipping straight to Australia as even when the prices quoted for shipping are expensive, you can still save substantially and have your set MISB in about a week! (Personally I prefer to buy from Lego direct to increase their relative income and support Shop at Home exclusives but I can see why others do it.) And on a side note... Is there any explanation why licensed themes cost so much more outside the US market? I don't just mean why Lego is more expensive - why specifically does, for example, a $10 US licensed set suchas IJ Motorcycle Chase or the SW battlepacks translate to a 9 pound UK set or $20 Australian set in their respective markets, when a Creator set like the new Fierce Creatures cost $12 US but is only 8 GBP or in Australia $16.95? I would have thought that the royalty Lego pays for each licensed set would be proportionately the same no matter where you were in the world - is this incorrect? End rant!

Hinckley, If you read down that thread you linked to initially, the comments suggest that physical, corporeal manifestations of this set do exist in the *real* world and are apparently available from markets in Hong Kong. Gasp! Maybe it's all lies... but if your desire really is so strong, maybe it's worth investigating. You could charter one of those Block Block passenger sets slash space shuttles and check it out... Looking forward to the contest. It's just so random, it's perfect. I think the act of explaining to the Lego sales team exactly what it is and how it fits into the theme at large is the icing on the cake. :-)

Instructions for 2230 In-flight Helicopter and Raft are up on the Lego website now - although oddly only the instructions for the raft are there. Still, it's nice to get a better look.

I got this set last week and just to add a few of my own points CONS: - The forklift spring feels a bit flimsy - I don't know how long it will last or how much stress it would take - and the end coil isn't really heavily secured to the lift mechanism. Time will tell on that one. - 30 stickers! It's the Exo-Force of City sets! The truck set does look less plain with them on though. I would reccomend lining them up with the green brick in the second container rather than applying the first lot without a guide or they may end up uneven - It's very hard to put the minifig in the forklift without dismantling (or breaking open) the set slightly - The cargo box attached to the main cabin of the truck doesn't hold very strongly - Minifigs are dull - that dark blue torso with pattern is way overused - green stickers are a different green to the bricks themselves PROS: - lots of nice pieces including the large white panels and cargo pieces, and i like the green/ white colour scheme - the cargo doors open well and the hingeing mechanism doesn't stand out to the detriment of the rest of the set (as some people have complained about the mail airplane) - studless floor in cargo containers makes it easy to move pallets in and out - fits in better than the Heavy Hauler to a minifig sized city - new 1x1x4 slope! (at least I hadn't seen it before) OVERALL - nice set with some good pictures, although a bit flimsy, and way too many stickers - the same issues I have with the Cargo Plane as well (although that had more colour issues).