Svelte

Stunning work! This is easily the best in your amazing series! It's always tricky to use a rare colour, and you've done a great job. I love your column technique and the level of exterior detail seems just right. The equestrian statue looks perfect to me, too. I'm so impressed that you used 'Hermes orange' accents and included some trademark scarves (and possibly a Birkin!) on the interior. I do agree the balcony looks a little odd - maybe macaroni bricks look too chunky considering the fine level of detail elsewhere? I also think dark bley wheel arch pieces look a bit too drab, and the colour of the hose pieces seems not quite right, but these are little quibbles on a fantastic creation!

While the figure looks very nice, that extraordinarily large band of yellow above the leg printing doesn't instil confidence in me. Normal figs with leg printing have some gappage, normally visible when you bend the legs back, but here the yellow band is clearly visible even when the fig is standing straight! It reminds me of the lax printing on the Slave Leia magnet fig vs Normal Leia, where much more of the legs are missed on the magnet version than the normal version. Apart from that, it's a Bill Oddie minifig! 'Goodies' MOCs on!

As has been said many times before, and as it states in the catalogue, April. I imagine everyone will be stocking it. Maybe we'll be lucky and see sets before Easter. Hard to tell with these Licensed themes and there don't appear to be any leaks from the European distribution side - usually an indicator sets are on their way - so maybe brickset is right and it will be more like mid-April. Hahaha! Very true.

It's dueling collectible minifig reviews, and CopMike takes the lead with a new Crash Test Dummy! ZeeK shows us the macho side of the minifig with the Wrestler: CopMike works his magic and brings us the new Magician! ZeeK brings us lovely pics of the hirsute new Cave-fig! And CopMike has managed to get his paws on a cheerleader's Pom-pons! Click on the pics for the full story!

It looks better as a mecha, I think.

New to me! (Although we've seen the sea-dragon separately). Thanks for the pic!

I admit I don't find Kingdoms very inspiring - maybe because it seems quite similar to the 07 Fantasy line apart from the figs and colours of the factions - and I think I liked those aspects of Fantasy better. But then, as an AFOL, I've bought the big KK1 castle, the KK2 line from 2004-2006, and almost all the Fantasy sets. They definitely improved as time went on so Kingdoms doesn't feel like an exciting 'leap' to me - just more of the same. And to be honest I think I'm suffering from BBF syndrome - Bley Building Fatigue I just can't get excited about yet adding more large bley constructions to my collection. I *am* much, MUCH more excited about the Prince of Persia sets with their amazing colours, parts and figs, as well as their unique designs, and even the Harry Potter Hogwarts, which looks much more solid and Castley-based than many others in that line. So even if Kingdoms isn't that exciting, there is still a lot out there that provide Castle-type builds in a more fresh and original way

Funny you should mention the Emerald Night. I bought one when it first came out and the colours were pretty good! I bought one recently and there had been noticeable changes. All the 1x6 plates were especially lighter than the other dark green bricks. It's a shame as it's clear that since the set had been backordered, these were newer parts than the original release but at lower consistency I noticed this in 1x1 white tiles produced in 2008 - in particular, the ones on the Creator Street Speeder set were very bad (the small green Creator car).

Just a misalignment. I was trying to do all these before work when the light was good, I was in a bit of a hurry I agree it does look like dodgy Photoshop

If too many people view your photos in photobucket, you get the 'bandwidth exceeded' message. So either pay up to go pro or move them to flickr or brickshelf.

Great link! I don't recall ever seeing that building before and I can definitely see the resemblance With each Grand Emporium you get 2 upper floors, so it isn't a drastic an investment as stacking all the other modulars - that's why I kind of like it too And it's obviously selling well since it's backordered on S@H already and it's only been out a few weeks Seems like a big hit!

My arm is in a sling and I can't type proper. It's not nice to make fun of blondes Does anyone have any narcotics I can borrow?

I would like to place the two torches in the centre statues hand and then look on excitedly as the Portal of Atlantis opens as whatever happens, happens. I would also like to hand Diesel the only thing I have resembling a hanky - Johnson's bow-tie - so he can clean himself up

Do you mean the model or just the Photoshop? And there I was thinking you'd be there to ensure I did 4

We still have to open the second dark tan compartment. It was implied there was some trigger we hadn't yet activated, or there was a peg holding it in place. Is there anything in the central statue's other hand? The one we can't see? What about in the gap near the foliage above the right 'wolf' head?

I think at this point the ideal version would look maybe like this: I don't think I'll get that far, myself A dodgy Photoshop job works quite nicely

Thanks for the lovely review! This looks like a great little set. I agree it would have been better as a little proper set, rather than a promo. I'd trade this for that small catapult thing any day (yes, even with the gold cheese ).

By selling off other stuff I'm actually consolidating my collection and focussing on Town/ Modulars/ nice Licensed themes at the moment, although you'd never think it from Modular March Madness. *waves fondly goodbye to those MISB Star Wars sets I would never have opened, and some of those Batman sets that go for ludicrous prices*

Following up on my earlier thread, here's the 3 x view of the 10211 Grand Emporium. All pics are links to highres flickr versions. One ground floor, 5 uppers: One ground, 6 uppers. The 10211 i is by far the best-looking compared to the other modulars when stacked to insanity: Some of you disliked the flags above the first floor last time, so this shot is for you : 2 ground floors, 3 upper. The middle section with that column doesn't bother me, I have to say. A very classy combination. Probably the optimum combination for easy display would be to add just one more upper floor: Three full sets in 'L' configuration. This really need more upper floors to look right *sobs* Overhead view. Big Brother is watching you from those billboards. And he doesn't look happy. Escape from the catacombs formed at the rear intersection of 3 10211s is still possible... just!

Let's keep on track, thanks. No more discussion of madoka's collection habits.

*finds 2 torches* Does that work? Howabout we snap off some tree branches from that bit in the wall where they're poking through and use them as torches? Can we set fire to the mystery wooden peg and burn the hinges off the dark tan compartment? Are there any little mechanisms or devices that we have missed amongst the red-moon rising and the gun-pointing and body-discovering? If I slam my beautiful head repeatedly against the tan compartment door, will that spring it open? Can we shoot the lock off? Why am I asking so many questions?

Just to confirm, we still have one dark tan compartment to open, correct? If I remember correctly, that one had a thicker door like maybe a peg was blocking it (!) or there was some other clever mechanism to open it. Can we look at the hinge and try and knock out the peg from this side? I'm all out of clever mechanisms at the moment.

Moved to BSTF.