Svelte

Wild fennel... check. Garlic... check.... Onions and parsnips... check. *thoughtfully runs fingers along Ruffy's bloodied corpse*

I would imagine that this is deliberate to celebrate the launch of the Train Tech forum - since August is officially Train month at EB!

S@H has updated with the new Bionicle vehicles, Power Miners (including the Underground Mining Station and Cave Crusher) and lots of Duplo stuff.

Keep on topic, guys. If you want to chatter, do it via PM.

I completely agree with you; I don't like disassembling minifig torsoes and legs as it damages the parts, which seems 'illegal' to me. (I will very occasionally change minifig hands from flesh to yellow or vice versa, but only as a last resort). What about instances where parts that previously came assembled now come separately, like the 2 turntable pieces or the bicycle chassis and separate wheels released in 09 sets like City Corner or the Camper? I think anyone who has tried to disassemble turntable pieces would be able to feel the piece stressing as you try and pop them apart. Would that mean the separate pieces now released are OK, but it isn't purist to disassemble them from sets where they originally came attached? I generally consider myself a purist (although I do cut tubing!) but anything that Lego produces or has produced is OK to use - whether cardboard backdrops, the old elastic band holders, Duplo, Bionicle, Galidor, Scala etc. I don't really consider Modulex a purist substance as it isn't designed to connect with the system (whereas Technic pieces and Duplo obviously were.) I don't have any desire to use clone bricks, as much as for having no wish to waste money on dodgy brands as for Athos' reason to keep within 'the rules' of the system! I don't really have a problem with their use, but to be honest I find a lot of the custom pieces produced by BrickArms or BrickForge tiresome in their exhaustive detail. I'm not a military builder in the slightest, and the desire to produce an infinite catalogue of weaponry whether based on real arms or fantastic ones, doesn't really fit with the spirit of Lego as I see it. Transforming populations of civilian minifigs into merciless killers by outfitting them with ever-more elaborate submachine guns, bayonets, grenades, ammunition packs and so on, is just not something that appeals to me. The extremely fine level of sculpted detail on some of these parts doesn't really seem to fit with Lego's design house-style.

O, Heartthrobs Inlet Zone! *wants to sleep with Arin on one side and Jimbee on the other*

According to the press release in the first post of this thread.... (I missed this the first time around too )

I imagine Family Home is like the Ferry Creator set from last year - officially retailing at $120 but pretty much every retailer discounted it steeply at some point, with Myer and K-Mart having it down to about $80.

I think the width of the separately packaged Taun-Taun parts (especially the large body) means that this box is wider than the Corporate Alliance Tank Droid. The real estate problem is really in the frontage!

I wouldn't mind just seeing a few shots of the villa from different angles, since it looks to be the nicest of the three models and the instructions are still not up

Happy birthdaty, inspirational reviewer! 40 eh? Only 59 years before some Lego sets are out of your reach...

It's not on their website, but it looks like they have stock of most of the other SW summer sets as well as new Creator and summer Power Miners (such as the Titanium Command Rig). Woo!

Yes, which shop is this? And what are the prices like for those 2?

S@H prices are inclusive of Australian GST.

I just wish they'd stick with a fixed ratio with price conversions, and then round out appropriately - at the moment you never know if something is going to be a good deal or ludicrously overpriced! Eg, if the Pirate Tank is 1.5x the US price, or the Hoth Base 1.6x the US price, do all the sets this way. Don't make the larger sets worse value than the smaller sets by making the ratio closer to twice the US price, like the Tantive (at 1.86x), or Endor (2x). Lego is supposed to be better value the more you buy, not less!

I noticed a problem with red with the Guard in the Royal Guard magnet set - the helmet seemed normal red whereas the torso and legs were a darker shade but also looked slightly translucent. Today I received the new Classic Space bag which includes a red Classic Spaceman and was disappointed to find the same problem - the torso is considerably darker but also looks more translucent than the legs, helmet, airtanks and even the hands. It can be hard to photograph these quality issues but I think you can see what I mean, especially on the torso arms (not the hands). Quite a striking difference and really disappointing!

Nice find! I have mixed feelings about these minifig-intensive packs and things like the magnet sets; amazing as they are, I hope they don't damage sales of the actual sets.

The Shuttle shouldn't be an exclusive; K-Mart just had it early as part of the July Sales. All retailers will be able to stock it soon. I think the Pirate Tank is an exclusive, probably TRU, but it may be someone else. You can't judge by what happens in the US. Last year the Republic Fighter Tank & Agents: Mission 7 were Target exclusives in the US but were available in almost every store here. (natelite's faith in the universe will be shaken since it is golden law that all Target exclusives end up priced at $US50 and the Pirate Tank has bucked the trend )

Pfoeey! I did my apprenticeship in a Belgian abbatoir, so a few rancid cuts of meat aren't going to send me bawling. Let's search their pockets for clues! They may have some kind of ID, or letters, papers or some other objects which may tell us something about their identities or circumstances. One of our gun experts may be able to tell us whether the barrel firearm was the one which prematurely punctured these pallid peeps.

I think the mid-year catalogue said August for Home One. But Dooku's Solar Sailer said February and it didn't show up until well after that. We're also assuming it's a TRU exclusive, but there's no official confirmation of that which I've seen, although it's likely TRU doesn't seem to have the strangehold on exclusives as it once did here. EDIT: Siegfried is so shocked by this news he's turned deep blue!

Except for the run of 4+ Pirate sets in 2004

Since the consensus seems to be that the very detailed Toy Story figs are already aimed at youngsters, it will be very interesting to see how the Duplo versions of the figs will end up looking. Just larger scaled versions of the special moulds shown here on a Duplo scale body? If so, they will be huge!

Thanks for the brilliant review! Your photos are top notch, as usual! This is definitely my favourite of the Summer CW releases. I never noticed its an egg with a fin attached, but you're right - and it is a brilliant, simple shape. I agree droids don't really count as figs, but in the context of the TV series, they are probably a necessary inclusion, and at least we get some variations from time to time, such as the blue torso here or the new SBD arms from the AAT. I take issue with the assessment that this is a 'quirky minor ship from a dark corner of the Star Wars universe', though. It's vital to the CW series, which is what these sets are based on. These babies are often seen zipping around, and the set as a whole is obviously inspired by 'Bombad Jedi' as we can see from the figs. It may have a limited interior, but the sliding door mechanism is great, and I quite like to have a palm sized, sturdy model with a reasonable scale instead of the sometimes odd choices that designers make (compare the length of Anakin's Y-Wing to the Venator ).

Before Indy gets the chop, I'd love to see a massive 2,000+ piece UCS style set showing off one of the amazing temples or buildings from the movies. While the vehicles are wonderfully detailed and brickbuilt, the building sets always seem a little sparse, and I would love to see the simultaneous attention to detail and seeming disregard for budgets applied to a non-SW set given to some other line. I choose Indy because of the possibilities for a great architectural model different from the Modular Houses line. Castle could work as well, but there are so many amazing MOCs that anything official would never measure up.

Off topic in my own review, but I'm still amazed that the Carousel is still doing so well, even with the price jump from $300 to $400! Great work with the Pirate T too!