Svelte

Happy birthday, YG. How I miss your bulging eyed avatar! Yay for the birthday Sandcrawler The last proper birthday Lego present I got was this , so good for you!

I agree, the base looks pretty good but there were definitely leftovers from that 07 Exo-Force beast of a machine that they wanted to clear out

Happy birthday, especially for Zooooolooooo and Sandy!

Haha! Well, it's more reliable than S@H and the dollar is still good. I am *still* waiting on a S@H package ordered on April 29. I waited the 28 business days (since it had PAB components) and then 2 weeks ago queried where it was. 2 weeks later and it still hasn't arrived!

They're listed in the catalogue, so I imagine they will be on shelves with the other sets. Off topic, the Endor set is brilliant! Great playset, fun build, detailed interior to the bunker, useful parts, and amazing figs. It feels like a complement to the Death Star set in terms of the build and playability. Which makes it such a tragedy that it's so overpriced here - it's the kind of set you want two of, so you can have a couple of the new AT-STs, a few more Scout Troopers, more Ewoks... If it was cheaper it would be easily the SW set of the year so far, but who can endorse that price? Clonepants, you're going to have to bite the bullet at some point and get a copy. Siegfried, what did you think?

ISC, thanks for the BigW update! I am really looking forward to the Galactic Enforcer! Hopefully we will get a good discount - they don't have sales as often but sometimes are more generous, knocking 30-33% off their big items (Hogwarts in 07, 08 Police Station & Troll Warship etc) It will be very interesting to see how retailers price the Venator. SW is loopy, sets are supposed to be better value at the higher price point, not less! Siegfried, thank you for your kind offer, my bricklinked Endor arrived today with some other new SW sets - and even with BL markup and postage all up about the same as if I'd paid retail.

I would like to twist the tape and then play it backwards. It seems that many of the townsfolk seem to have been touched by Beelzebub, so it makes sense to test the cassette for signs of infernal tampering. Perhaps that's how the Town Council gets its messages across...

This is looking great! The angled wall breaks up the squareness of the building nicely, the smoky little industrial windows are appropriate with their minimalist decoration against the dirty great slabs of brick wall, and the garage is simple and effective - the door looks especially nice with its mix of black and trans pieces. I especially love the factory floor with all its great details. Look at those happy Lego workers, mincing up the entrails, organs, offal and assorted leftovers to make those delicious looking sausages!

This pic in the catalogue is literally 2cm wide and printed across a page crease, so don't expect any clearer pics from me! I am sure we'll get something better soon. It's actually easier to see here than it is in print!

Target's Toy Sale starts July 23, which makes me think most of the Aug-September sets will be around by then. No Toyworld near me! Boo! I don't like this trend at all! I bet the hike in price for Endor was due to the exclusive deal between TLG and Toyworld. I wonder if that means 7754 Home One will be at a similar price point? I can't see Toys R Us looking at another retailer snap up a popular set which isn't even an exclusive anywhere else, rack up the price, and not get ideas themselves.

Instructions for the new sets are now downloadable on lego.com: http://us.service.lego.com/en-US/BuildingI...ns/default.aspx

If I hadn't already been told the studdy green thing was a pingpong table I probably wouldn't have figured it out by myself. The fridge looks clumsy and a bit gappy. The kitchen, while nicely detailed, isn't anything new, nor is the sofa. You can see corners have been cut - when that railing piece near the stairs was used as a balustrade on the upper floors of Cafe Corner, it was made more attractive by using round 1x1 round plates, 1x1 round bricks and tiles to make it more ornate. Here it's just plonked as a stand for the dodgy ping-pong racquets! Green Grocer also used a technique with bley goblets to make these railings a bit more interesting.

The Star Wars summer sets are now showing up at S@H with Aussie prices and availability. Sadly not yet 7753 or 7754.

Did anyone post a pic of the Underground Mining Station yet? There's a teensy thumbnail in the Aus/ NZ catalogue, but it sits right across the page crease. It does look interesting, it's the PM's base and is more of a building than a vehicle.

The source of the rumour was a post on Brick Town Talk that first discussed the dark red firestation, and the post later got taken down. Here's a link to when we discussed it in the other thread earlier this year. I suppose it is possible that the 10199 Christmas set could have been what was being referred to.

I don't think it was ever announced at that price. There were vague rumours of an additional modular type set at that price point, but I don't think it was ever thought to be this one.

Thanks for the tip, but their selection is kind of mixed and a little pricey That said, I bet the Hoth sets sell out quickly. I got my Lego Club mag finally today. What was the point of that SW poster? If it was to rub in our faces how inadequate it is compared to the US version for the May the Fourth promo, then yes, it did a good job That page was in one of the Jan 09 instruction booklets, wasn't it?

Definitely a must have Retro yet discreetly cool.

Somebody take the peg off his tongue before we all go mad

Hint: instead of saying Eleven and Twenty-Two, say it out loud with 'One One' and 'Two Two'

I think it's the binary code (on/ off) for the switches that were found. It could be a secret message... 11 had 1 pony. 22 had 1 2. 11 1 1 race. 22 1 1 2!

I think two of the reasons I'm not so thrilled with this set is that the piece selection isn't as appealing and the techniques don't have the 'how did they do that?' factor. Looking at the dark tan wall, it just seems to be made of those 1x2 plates (heaps of which are in MMV), 2x2 tiles (lots in last year's Indy sets) attached to light bley brackets, and 1x2 dark tan bricks (rarer, but in a few sets now including Dooku's Solar Sailer and the Temple of Doom). Again, the bell is nice, but it's just 4 metallic tiles with a gold bowl stuck on the bottom - clever but not revolutionary. The red fire doors are uncommon and the brick modified 1x2 with groove to hold them in place are new in bley but these aren't a massive selling point to me personally. The new 1x2x3 windows are available via PAB cheaply. Dark red tiles aren't uncommon, although with lots of new basic bricks I think the slight colour change from dark red to brownish-dark-red which seems to have taken place last year will become more obvious to a lot of people. After Green Grocer's inventive use of skele legs and bars, using balcony pieces just as balcony pieces just seems wrong! The Belville bell tower looks too light and delicate, and it doesn't have the brick-built charm of the other sets' turrets. I don't see how anyone can think the interior is more detailed either (although we haven't seen the second floor) - compare the brilliantly tiled store of the Green Grocer shop (not to mention the refrigerators, till, and all the food pieces) with the spartan floor here. With all the recent price rises, it feels like this set has been chopped back or simplified a bit but the price kept the same as its siblings . Look at the lamps - last year we had an inventive reworking of the sextant piece, this year it's back to Harry Potter-style lamps, minus even a black disc to sit below the bulb! The other modular sets presented a plethora of pieces in new or rare colours, but apart from one dark red floor, it's mainly bley, bley, bley With a bit of clever bricklinking to supplement a well-stocked parts bin, this feels like something an AFOL could imitate without too much trouble rather than a must-have flagship set of the modular houses line.

I know exactly what you mean! I usually go away, have a little rest, come back, do a final quick polish, realise it's actually OK and then take some pics. I try and strike while the iron is hot, because all too often I get to 98% finished with a MOC and never do the final 2! That's why I like competitions, they're nice and focussed. I hope we see a sudden burst of entries in the last few hours!

Once we're done in here, I'd like to check inside the barrels which are sitting outside to see if there is anything useful inside, like French truffle oil fuel.

Hmmm, I'm in the 'not immediately loving it' camp. It's great by ordinary Lego standards, but it isn't as revolutionary as Cafe Corner or as wonderfully detailed as Green Grocer. The wide, fat frontage does make it look oddly proportioned compared to its siblings, but I suspect like most sets its needs to be seen in the brick to be appreciated. Some of the detailing looks silly, like the use of those car grill pieces above the windows. Yes, it's nice to have ordinary dark tan and dark red bricks but for it seems primarily composed of bley. Gold helmets and tan Indy bags are all very well, but they don't justify the building as a whole. The dodgy tree and pixellated flag don't help the overall impression of boxy squareness. It's the Twilight of modular buildings!