Alldarker

Ahhh... So nice to see this, even if just in a picture. I'm going to have to agree with mobricki: promoting this item within both the Lego community and the Star Wars community will most definitely be the way to sell this for a five figure sum. There are PLENTY of very wealthy people who are huge fans of Star Wars or Lego and who will have very little problems laying down BIG money for this kind of crazily exclusive AND intrinsically valuable item. I collect Transformers, and in that collectors community a PLASTIC Transformer like Grand Maximus (though relatively very common compared to this item) sometimes goes for sums up to $3,500. This C3PO is insanely more rare than Grand Maximus is, it's made of SOLID GOLD and it is based on a license which is far more popular than Transformers.

Actually, I've found that displaying the Death Star doens't actually need to take up that much space as some people might imagine: the footprint of this set really isn't that big, and I have it displayed on a corner of a wardrobe. It's stable enough not to topple (or roll!) over, and hardly takes up more floor area than a set like the Endor Bunker (actually, it probably takes up less floor space). Of course, it is pretty high, but I have less problems displaying tall sets than I do with displaying wide sets (say, Home One).

I bought this set last week: built it two nights ago, put it on my Lego cupboard (next to the Endor Bunker) and really haven't looked at it since. It's just a very underwhelming set, with which so much more could have been done by the designers to make it more attractive. Even just leaving out the Speeder and the Scout Trooper in return for a more interesting tree (comparable to, say, the Forestmen's Hideout) would have been much preferable.

I can't imagine that Lego would actively recall a set just to replace the coins: and other sets in the theme also have the coins in them. I guess it's just a popular set: relatively cheap and it contains a couple of great figures. Even though I live in Europe (Netherlands) I too received three sprues with the old style gold-plated coins as a result of my question to Lego's customer service, along with a letter stating that they would have the proper gold coins with gold bar available from Denmark in 7 - 10 days. I guess that until then, the chances are likely that Lego customer service will indeed send old style coins (both in Europe and the US) due to having a relatively low stock of the new style coins.

I bit the bullet today, so to speak, and bought the DS PotC game on HMV.co.uk, mostly due to the bonus Voodoo Jack figure being the most accessible to Dutch buyers from HMV. I have a rarely used DS and an often used PS3, but this isn't a game I was actually planning on getting anyhow, so I had to go with the cheapest option. Lego Star Wars (for PS2) was a lot of fun though, so I'm hoping this too will be.

I'm having the same problems here in the Netherlands: I was able to check the circle for adding the ARF to my order (AT-AT), I was able to convert a couple of VIP points into an extra discount off the order and i could see the catalog code for the figure (NLSA) but after confirming my order, no more signs of the minifig added to my order! Strange is also that the print I made of the checkout DOES show the VIP points cash subtracted (not the minifig though), but now, when I log in on Lego.com and check my order status, I can't see that VIP points have been used in this order or that a bonus minifig was added: it just shows the regular (discounted) AT-AT price and nothing else! Also, I made my order over an hour ago, and yet I have had no e-mail confirmation of the order. Ah well, good to know I just need to wait a bit longer.

In my opinion, the UCS label defines nothing about a set and never really had the pretense to do so. To me, it's just a marketing label without any real strict definition or meaning. It could never be the reason for me to buy or not buy a set, and a Lego set having (or not having) a UCS label means exactly nothing to me. I only ever judge (and make decisions to buy) Lego sets based on their design (including figures), parts to price and overall cost. Actually, as a pretty passionate collector of Star Wars Lego myself (since 1999!), the only reason I'd have for buying this 10221 UCS SSD is if it DOES open up to reveal the bridge scene from RotJ.

I was thinking more of this Captain's Daughter...

Good and clear review! I'll be honest, this set was my least anticipated set in the PotC line, and the review hasn't really changed my mind. I am still very disappointed in the tavern: it's just a facade with very few play features, and especially compared to the inn in the Medieval Market village, it's a very severe letdown. It almost looks like this set was neutered to fit in a lower price category than the Mill or Whitecap Bay. I guess the carriages are pretty nice, as are the figures included in this set of course, and the printed parts are very welcome. But of all the sets in the PotC line, this one is definitely the one I'm most hesitant about buying, and probably won't.

Nice review! The Queen Anne's Revenge was definitely one of the sets I was looking forward to most from the PotC line. This review gives a very good and very fair account of what we can expect. I too am slightly disappointed with the interior of the vessel; it's a bit sparse, without a proper deck, without extra cannons (it really should have that fourth cannon, if not five extra cannons!), and without an enclosed captains cabin. However, my collection is primarily display based: I won't really be playing with this set, but mostly just admiring it on my shelve. For that purpose, it's an excellent set with lots of attention paid to the exterior details like the bones, skulls, lantern and figurehead. The masts could also do with some more rigging, but all in all none of this can't be fixed once I am able to buy it here in Europe.

Very nice MOC of a game series which I really loved (well, parts 1 to 3, at least). I like that mirror effect... and good choice for the face of that guy.

Not really a surprise you haven't seen any of them: no-one anywhere in the world has seen any of these sets for sale in stores yet! On April 16th, we HOPE these will be available on Lego S@H and perhaps in Lego Stores... But don't even hold your breath for that: it might even be that they will be available on US S@H before they are available at European S@H.

So, Barnes and Noble have become a department of the Government: charging you income tax. I guess you mean sales tax!

Great review of what is definitely one of the standout sets of the PotC line. There's simply nothing I don't love about it: the minifigs are great, the parts, the look and size of the whole set. Even though I am an adult, I still get excited when a set looks like a complete 'adventure in a box' (something which the Lego Adventurers line really did well back in the day), and this one certainly delivers on that front again. I really, REALLY can't wait to get this set, along with the QAR, when it is released.

In fact, the most 'realistic' set-up would be to only have one single Maersk train running: in real life only one single Norfolk Southern SD40-2 was ever painted in the Maersk color scheme, as a promotional 'stunt' for the opening of a new cargo pier in LA, back in 2002. And in the meantime, it (Roadnr. 3329) has actually been repainted back to NS's colors and Horsehead logo, so no real Maersk colored loco's even exist at the moment! The BNSF loco's are a lot more common in the USA (although they are more commonly SD40's than GP38's)!

Wow... Even the ones that got 0 points are absolutely amazing. It would be impossible, of course, but I'd love to see a complete armada of all these ships together!

Hi Smack, R2-KT has an internet site dedicated entirely to her, which you can see right here, and which gives all the information about R2-KT. The R2-KT droid was indeed a tribute to Katie Johnson, the daughter of the founder of the 501st Legion, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor and sadly passed away on August 9, 2005. If a version of R2-KT would be the exclusive figure in either the advent calendar or the book, I would be absolutely delighted! And it would again be a most worthy tribute to Katie Johnson... And considering the 'clues' given, it would make quite a bit of sense too.

I bought the 7930 Bounty Hunter Gunship yesterday in my local Intertoys. Together with the Battle of Naboo set, it was the only new SW set they had out, but I'd imagine the whole wave to hit the Dutch toyshops in full force this week. Most of the cheaper internetshops (and I certainly don't mean Bol.com, which is crazy expensive!!!) will also have them at -20% of regular retail price, later this month.

Ogh dear, it's my Star Wars OCD, and no offence meant: but it's either Nien Nunb or Ten Numb. It's a common mistake...

I haven't bought any Lego Star Wars set since the early (Amazon.fr) release of the mid 2010 sets, and I do like Luke's new helmet and the fact that Han, Veers and Luke are all 'new' figures. And I am pretty much an OT completist. However, I own one mechanized AT-AT and two of the definitely superior 4483 AT-AT's, I haven't got the space to display one more and I really dislike the small size and bad dimensions of this new AT-AT. So, although I am very slightly tempted, I am still severely doubting buying this AT-AT.

I was lucky enough to find the series 2 Collectable Minifigs in a brick & mortar Bart Smit toy store in the Netherlands. The two boxes they had were barely touched, and I had enough time to check all the barcodes and collect the 16 different baggies (although I've only opened one as of yet: the Greek hoplite soldier)... I've also read that other Bart Smit stores have the series 2 collection out. Just a warning: just like with series 1 (where I bought a complete box and checked all the positions of the figures), I once again had the idea that the bags have been arranged in the boxes in such a way, that a single row often contains several of the same figures packed directly behind each other.

Please do not feed the trolls.

Thanks for the excellent review! I bought this set with one of my very first paychecks earned with a real job. I had it on display for five years before finally succumbing to the lack of display area, and now it's pulled apart but still complete, waiting for me to some day move to a bigger house. Hopefully, in that new house I will also have room to display the UCS Death Star II and the UCS Millennium Falcon... To counter the sagging, I actually built the two triangle frame parts directly on top of each other instead of facing each other: it add a lot of strength to the inner frame. One tip though, for those who were wondering: the ISD and cats don't mix well. I have two cats, and they have both jumped on the ISD at one time, with the expected catastrophic results

Hmmm, I knew there was unpleasantness between Hein-Jan and Jeff, but I never actually was able to find out what actually happened. Thanks for the repost of this old e-mail. I guess there's always two sides to every story; but Jeff was never very forthcoming with his side of the story, and back then topics concerning the problems were often locked pretty quickly. Anyways... I never took sides in this. Back in the day I ordered Little Armory weapons from both Jeff directly and later also from Hein-Jan (who also lives in the Netherlands like me). As far as the quality is concerned: the original LA weapons are top notch. As the pictures show, some mold flash does remain, but a hobby-knife does wonders in shaving this off, and what remains are weapons with excellent fit to minifig hands. Not the quite the quality of Brick Arms though, truth be told, but the designs are excellent and fit in well with real Lego Star Wars...

Well... If you say that is the correct way to build the rollcage, I find it highly strange then that the official online building instructions from the Lego cache really DO show the roll cage placed the other way around then... Nice review, for the rest. But the whole set looks as ugly as sin. Terrible designs, much, MUCH worse than the Agents line.