Svelte

Thanks for these links, darthperson. It seems to add fuel to the article that Christian posted in the other locked thread. Maybe you could also add a link to that article in your first post? To borrow a KimT-ism, let's stay 'on target' and engage in discussion rather than speculation in this new thread. Thanks!

Happy birthday, random peeps! ISC, you're going to look like one sick puppy when I change the avatar from 'monkey on gift' to 'disembowelled chicken' later this morning

Moved to BSTF

I imagine the September issue of Lego Club will be out in the next few weeks. We already got the 'free gift' issue with the Power Miner keychain so I doubt any extra presents. Sieggy beat me to it! Basically anything with pre-assembled figs - new Chess sets, the battlepacks, magnet sets, Vintage minifig packs, Classic Space bag fig, Pirates Tic-Tac-Toe and (by the looks of it) the Xmas stuff. The printing is off on some, colours are dodgy in others (especially red looks darker and see through) and you can identify the torsos as they have a printed number on the inside of the fig's left arm.

Fixed!

Good catch! I like the Advent Calendars, but neither of these appeal. The Castle Advent last year was amazing - exclusive figs, and chock full of all the sweet little accessories and builds that they should put in normal sets but are entirely lacking in things like the Trolls' Mountain Fortress. I'm also downsizing generic City figs so I don't want that one either. I'm a little sad they got rid of the Belville version! Siegfried, I completely agree about the figs. It's a PR disaster waiting to happen. Lego doesn't seem to realise that all the crap they've been churning out (bad parts quality and horribly variable colours) isn't going anywhere - it's just sloshing around in people's collections and BL and will haunt their reputation for a good few years to come. It's like toxic waste - once it's mixed in, it's almost impossible to separate and the overall impression of the company product goes down. Maybe figs will be the tipping point that forces them to clean up their act - let's hope so.

Good point, I guess we'll have to wait and see. I was under the impression that the cheaper figs were limited to pre-assembled sets but I guess it wouldn't surprise me if they were spreading.

I was hoping we'd sneak under the radar and stay at the $AUD250 price point of 10182 and 10185. Boo! I imagine DJs will have it for sale before Xmas The figs are all on the box art for the Advent Calendars. The Pirates ones are just repeats of what we've already got (although noone seems to know what the other little surprises are) and City is the usual generic assortment of shortsighted bearded workmen and a KimT fig. I imagine that the City Advent price will be jacked up by $10 to match last year's price (and the Pirates one) when someone gets round to noticing it.

S@H now updated with: 10197 Fire Brigade - AUD $279.99 - ouch! 6299 Pirates Advent calendar - $39.99 7687 City Advent Calendar - $29.99 8036 Tractor with Trailer - $149.99

Let's not anticipate the voice of God! It has been made clear that we can influence events directly, so if the mood of the mob is to throw some people off the train, then I say go for it! Why wait around so they can spring another trap on us?

JCC, please don't minimod. ConductorPete, this is hardly deserving of a new thread, especially since you don't have anything to show us until October. Also, think about the title of your thread. It's not easy on the eye to post a sentence in Caps Lock, and apart from that the title is vague and kind of misleading - readers may think there is some special or exclusive aspect to be found on PaB to do with 7641 when this is not the case at all. Locked!

If you're not going anywhere, then why post? Do you really think people are that concerned that your school is starting?

Yeah, nobody said they are going to die if we push them both off. Better safe than sorry! Go Eleanor!

Tantive IV now available from S@H: http://shop.lego.com/product/?p=10198&...7&ShipTo=AU

Moved to the BSTF forum

Arin made her choice with Jimbee. They can both go next, as far as I'm concerned! The pony is in my name. The bond we share is stronger than that between a man and a woman, a cowboy and his horse, or a knacker and his livestock.

Well, it moves, and looks great, so it's better for play than the other 2 I mentioned, but it is still somewhat limited in comparison to the modular houses.

I also think there's a tension between the narrative play of a child and the desire by AFOLs for detailed, realistic models. For many AFOLs (and yes, I'm generalising) the pleasure is in design and construction, and the satisfaction gained by producing a complex and beautiful piece of work. Kids want lots of cool functions and details, preferably with weaponry - hence the popularity of flick-fire missiles and Technic shooters, even if AFOLs hate them. For me, the modular houses line strikes the best balance between beauty and playability, since they are clearly designed to be lived in and inhabited by minifigs and have features like fire escapes, staircases, mailboxes, firepoles and so on. Models like the Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal and Carousel are ultimately less appealing to me as there is little that you can do with them once built.

No probs, Big Cam. Moved!

[voiceover mode] And that was the final triumph of the Town Council.... ...To transform a train full of civilised and wealthy passengers into a deranged, bloodthirsty mob who cared nothing for the sanctity of human life, and to whom reason and logic were foreign and incomprehensible enemies... ...All this, because of a few days without hot running water and access to cable TV.... ...And so the cycle of populating Willoughby with a feral, drooling mob began again... [/end voiceover]

This is a great review, but this ship is a horrendous eyesore which appears to have been designed by a colour-blind monkey Yes, many vessels in various fleets were brightly painted and ornately detailed, but the effect here is neither harmonious or attractive. It looks like one of those creations you see designed by a 6 year old on page 3 of the Lego Club magazine. If the Armada was hoping to disarm their enemy by inducing violent illness in their opponents, then they were probably successful I do like the nice stern detail and compass. Thanks for the review!

Lego S@H now has the chrome 4x4 magnets, Pirates Battle Pack and Minifig Collection 4 available. I really REALLY hope that they launch 10197 Fire Brigade and 10198 Tantive IV simultaneously instead of making us wait or pay double in shipping I'm not holding my breath, though. 10198 has appeared on BL along with 10197 from a reputable seller so it's clear that the sets are out of the factory.

Can't we, how you say in America, 'throw Momma from the train'? In the absence of any Momma jokes, I'm a sheep and since I don't care particularly for any of the townfolk, I vote Killin' George too. And my Euro-wit is now a Euro-welt thanks to my flesh wound!

I'm glad I got in early with the NOT ITs! The chip on Eleanor's shoulder looks like it could be about 100 pounds, perhaps we could try that first. Failing that, let's just toss whose closest to the end off the side and hope for the best!

I'm torn between Oky and The Cobra. Reading LegoKing's review of the small Mars Mission mining unit made me think about what I liked and disliked about both themes. As Oky points out, while a lot of the builds were crappy and very Technic based in Mars Mission, there were some amazing sets like the vastly underrated 7645 Crystal Reaper (especially when you add the Power Functions) and a great variety in terms of small mining vehicles and even cool retro robots as found in 7645 Alien Infiltrator. On the other hand, if it wasn't for the amazing minifigs, SP3 could be one of the most disappointing themes ever. Yes, the 5974 Galactic Enforcer is well-realised and impressive, and a fun build, but everything down from that is terrible. We already have too many cars and vehicles in regular themes - why base a Space line around more hotrods? Indeed, SP3 includes some of the worst small vehicles to be ever produced as official Lego designs, such as the terrible assortment of junk craft in Squidman's Pitstop or the ridiculous Technic-shooter-on-a-plate in the Max Security Transport set. Even the larger vehicles are largely similar (the front of Space Truck Getaway and the Hyperspeed Pursuit craft). The Mars Mission attempt to create an alien fleet with a distinctly organic feel may not have been entirely successful, but at least it is original. If the figs in Mars Mission had been given the same attention as the SP3 ones, and the stupid foam shooting function had been entirely removed from the first wave, that line would have been much more appreciated. Take the figs away from SP3, and you're not left with much at all