Graysmith

I really like the way they've used the brighter and darker blue and green colours in those sets, rather than just using the regular blue and regular green across the board. Not that there's anything wrong with the red and orange sets, but that bright/dark variation is really nice.

Hahaha. What a blooper by Amazon. But at least it's an error, and not a sign of Amazon UK following in Amazon IT's steps of not shipping to other countries.

When you say that it should be "similar style" to existing WV sets, how similar does it have to be? Would the building have to be open in the back? Is a light brick required? I've been working on a Winter Village-style MOC prior to this contest being announced, and since I'd like to show it off either way I thought about maybe submitting it for this contest because why not? But my building doesn't have an open back, nor does it use a light brick. It's otherwise very much in the same style and size as the WV sets though, so I'm just wondering how strict you are about that.

A user on the Swedish LEGO site/forum Swebrick said that he'd seen a distributor's catalogue (of sets due next summer) and mentioned that KINGDOMS is COMING BACK! He didn't give any details as it was only mentioned in passing, and I haven't been able to get him to say anything more about it, whether he saw any photos of the actual sets or anything like that.. But yeah. Kingdoms 2013!! So excited.

If the waitress is indeed a retro roller-skating diner waitress I think she most likely will have a hair and hat combination headpiece, like the S8 Cowgirl and the S7 Viking Woman had. Just the butcher's hat would look really weird on a female waitress. It'd make sense for something to be new and unique to the minifigure too, assuming she'll use the waiter's tray and the existing rollerskates.

That's my thinking too. Of these six sets, three of them are of the blue squad. Why would LEGO even bother making a red, orange and green squad if they only get a single set? Brickshop.nl lists four more sets for an August release too, which could mean another set for each squad (or preferrably, one base of sorts plus another set for each of the red, orange and green squads). Then you'd have 10 sets total: one base, three blue sets, two red, two orange and two green. Wishful thinking maybe.. :)

Nice review! Agree on pretty much everything you said! This is my least favourite of the Galaxy Squad sets, but I'm warming up to it. The fact that the wings rotate around the cockpit is pretty nice, and I love that they hid the flick-fire missiles. Usually flick-fires look pasted on and not "organic" to sets, but here they really fit well. And yeah, the stand-alone "missile turret" looks really odd on it's own. I'd be much more inclined to pretend that the wings folded together was simply a different flight-mode (like how the X-Wing changes its wings) rather than it being legs.

By the way, isn't it odd that there's not even a teaser site for this theme? It's available on (some) stores, up on LEGO S@H, yet no site. Can't say I keep up that much with the official LEGO microsites, but isn't the norm to have something up before a theme goes on sale?

I suppose. But that's also true for the Hobbit sets (all those new hair molds! wargs! pretzels!). But like I said, it's not like these sets are priced like it's a highway robbery, but I do think it's a bit curious that nearly all of them are above the magical 10 cents limit.

You mean mosquitoid. I quite like those names for the alien races. Not the most creative, but they're suitable. Plus, it's not like they're any worse than LEGO's names for the heroes... Solomon Blaze, Billy Starbeam, Chuck Stonebreaker, Jack Fireblade and Ashley Starstrider. But I suppose in a way it's okay. There's Luke Skywalker after all (who originally was to be called Annikkin Starkiller).

Surprised to see that nearly all of the sets are priced above 10 cents per piece in the U.S. Especially considering the new Hobbit sets are nearly all priced below 10 cents per piece.. Usually it's the other way around. Not that these Galaxy Squad sets are wildly expensive, but still, they could've surely taken $5 off of most of them. But I wonder when these are supposed to be released in Europe. I've only seen talk of March, which completely sucks if it's true. But no local web shops are listing them for pre-order either (while they are listing new City/Ninjago/Chima/etc. sets for pre-order) so I'm definitely worried that's this won't be out here for another QUARTER of a year. UGH.

I never even knew you could attach studs to those rims.. It never crossed my mind. Kinda crazy to learn that from an official set, that sort of stuff is usually reserved for the crazy MOC people.

I just noticed that one of the new Galaxy Squad sets is using wheel rims (3464) in a very interesting way (look at the cannon in the front). It's never crossed my mind that you could even attach a stud to these little rims. so that's a new building technique learned! However, you can't attach anything to them in LDD so.. bug!

I'm fairly certain that this will be a polybag. The two recent Hobbit polybags are numbered 30212 and 30213. Should be interesting to see what it is.. Maybe a Galaxy Squad version of this Alien Conquest ADU Walker polybag?

I voted no simply because it's a pretty crappy teaser. Really bad photo quality, off "Instagrammed" colours.. They look like someone at LEGO brought them around town and tried to fit them into random backgrounds. Very amateurish for such a big company. A much better teaser would be to release a proper quality publicity photo of each minifigure every day for 16 days. That'd give you something to be excited about seeing every day for two weeks.. Much preferred to seeing their unprinted backs in bad quality.

That's a pretty fantastic set if you don't own any previous Hoth sets though. The last snowspeeder model was utterly fantastic, which is probably why it looks pretty much the exact same here.. there's not much you can do to improve it. You get a tauntaun, a recon drone, a speeder bike, soldiers on both ends. Depending on the price, that's a really great value (especially consider what you had to pay to get all those elements in previous Hoth sets). The only thing that's really missing for me is a rebel turret, but it wouldn't cost much to Bricklink the one from the older (Han Solo on a Tauntaun) set.

Ugh, I hope the Mantis "Star Slicer" isn't an exclusive set. I want it but I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to get it, which I'd most likely have to (or pay more than I want to pay for it). Anyway, here's how I'd rank them: 1. Space Swarmer — Yes, you read that right! Bigger isn't always better. This is such a perfect little set. Great minifigures, great little spaceship and it'll have a price point that encourages multiple purchases for a whole armada of these little buggers. 2. Warp Stinger — Such a cool bug spaceship, probably my favourite ship of the bunch. Loses a little with those weird legs that are only there so that it can stand up.. I imagine it'll look much nicer if you yank them off, but then of course you can't really keep it standing up. Still, a fantastic-looking set. 3. Star Slicer — Another amazing bug spaceship (or mech might be a better word for it). Looks so much like the real deal. Just amazing what you can do with LEGO. 4. Vermin Vaporizer — It's not a complete slam dunk, but it's close. The mech looks a bit overly simple compared to other recent LEGO mechs, but still a very cool-looking set and I love the green. 5. Bug Obliterator — Far down mainly because it's going to be rather pricey and it's not that great. Or rather, when you split the ship up the separate ship and vehicle look great, but together the larger ship looks kinda crappy and odd. Still, if it were on sale I'd definitely get one. 6. Swarm Interceptor — The only set I'm truly disappointed with. The ship just looks kinda dull and uninspired (especially when there are so many other LEGO spaceships to compare it to, which you can't exactly say about an spaceship that looks like a wasp). Definitely a few steps back from the Viper in 7066 and many of the Star Wars ships as far as the design and look goes. Add to that the fact that it has no exclusive minifigures and it's a pass for me.

Does Maid Marian have a new hairpiece? I thought it was the "princess hair" at first glance but looking closer it seems to be much longer and it doesn't have the braid in the back. I don't recognize it, but maybe it's been in some set I'm unaware of.

I feel a bit embarrassed for LEGO writing "Caution: Electrics" on the sticker for the Cement Mixer. It should either say "Caution: Electronics" or more likely "Caution: Electricity". Anyway, thanks GRogall for the pics.. Finally! Here's hoping they'll put more up tomorrow, like the Fire Station, the Ninjago sets and the rest of the Galaxy Squad sets!

The photos they posted on their Instagram are slightly better: Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4

Not sure if this should go in here or in the bugs thread, but it annoys me greatly that the piece that should be the short-billed cap (86035, 4485b on BL) instead uses the same model as the older long-billed cap (4485). Would definitely like to get that fixed as soon as possible.

I think LEGO primarily chooses these characters based on how recognizable they are. Gladiators, Caesars and Roman Soldiers are all very iconic and recognizable figures. There's really no one iconic soldier from China or India so I don't see that happening. Persia perhaps, but I think it may be a bit too obscure for LEGO to do a Persian soldier. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a Ghengis Khan-style Mongolian warrior at some point though. As for Africa, I could see them doing a Zulu Warrior at some point, but I imagine they might be a little wary of doing one given Europe's colonial history with Africa and how Africans were depicted as savages and such. Then again, they have done Native American minifigures so who knows.

Looks promising, despite the crappy quality of the photos. The only one that looks like it'll be a huge disappointment is the rollerskate girl. Those rollerskate pieces look weird.. Not that I know how else they could've really done it, but it looks far less impressive than I'd hoped.

It could also be that this "Revolutionary Soldier" has a powdered wig AND a tricorn. The Intergalactic Girl from Series 6 had a helmet as well as a hairpiece so it's not outside the realm of possibility.

Kinda crazy how all this unraveled so quickly.. and we stil haven't even seen photos of most minifigures in Series 9! Haha. I do feel a little bad for LEGO having all this get out so early though. And it's a little bit of a shame for us to know all this so far in advance too.. There's not going to be anything to speculate or talk about for a whole year!