ILikePi

Well, I just watched The Zillo Beast Strikes Back (I always go to starwars.com to watch episodes now ), and it was a great episode! Of course it had a sad ending, but the Zillo beast was very cool. The episode commentary for it was also hilarious ("No, he's a Sith lord...look! He's bad!!!"). And I wonder where Palpatine's orders will play in? Perhaps at a time when we all forget about it?

Those aren't spam surveys - I believe that they were sent to everyone who ordered a copy of The Brick 2010 magazine, since I received an e-mail with the same survey link (probably with a different "password" extension in the link, though) saying that they would like to get my feedback on the magazines. I've already completed my survey a while ago, and it does seem legit.

Your police ostrich rider is hilarious, Peppermint (great use of flames for the police lights)! I also see many extraordinary market stalls in that category; they all look very cool! I won't be entering due to a lack of time (and limited parts), but I wish everyone good luck in this contest.

Neat! So I guess that TLG always uses different packaging for North American sets (the ones with set name, piece count, etc). I'm guessing that the NA ones are going to have some extra words or choking hazard warnings...

No need to worry, the Brick Show is working hard and is producing reviews of all three of the sets! They have a video review of Lotso's Dump Truck out now: Their reviews on Trash Compactor Escape and Western Train Chase are coming soon! Chunk's face is on a "rolling pin", which allows him to have two different expressions, just as I thought! Interestingly, the inside of the truck is only 4 wide - there's one of those smokestack things that takes up two rows of studs on the right of the truck. The driver minifig has a dark blue hollow dome piece as his body. Not sure why, but he probably looks like that in the movie. The set seems a bit pricey for $20 since it only has one play feature (the dumping tipper bed that retracts back because of a rubber Technic piece), but I guess that the size of the set had to be reduced because of the new tipper bed piece and the cool minifigs you get. EDIT 4/22/10: Brick Show's Western Train Chase review is out:

Ah, that sucks. Hopefully when these come out to North America and the UK, someone will do the same thing as these kind people have done. Also, it seems that the barcodes are actually quite easy to differentiate! That'll help people who don't have scanners/cell phones very greatly.

Some notes regarding your collections: (Speed Racer) You're missing Chim-Chim, the monkey; he appeared in this set (Ninjas) Do you have the monobrow white ninja from Vintage Minifigure Collection 5? (Star Wars) Your pilot droid's torso is reversed (Star Wars) Your R5-D4 astromech droid seems to have a head that is rotated 180 degrees; his 'eye' should be facing fowards (Pirates II) The female pirate with dress isn't an official minifig; the dress only comes in the Medieval Market Village, which is a Castle set - also, she should have this head, not the eye patch one (Castle: Fantasy Era) BrickLink lists this minifig, which came in the Castle Building Set, as a Fantasy Era minifig, but it's up to you to decide whether or not to include it in your collection (Castle: Fantasy Era) Both of your jester minifigs have the same expression showing; maybe you could show the sad version of the face on one of the jesters? Of course, it's all up to you do decide if you want to fix/add these minifigs, as it's your collection. Good luck!

WOW! You've really increased the size of your collection since November! It's really cool seeing all the minifigs of a theme lined up together. Thanks for sharing! I'll have a look at your collections and will see if I can find any gaps in your completed ones.

Thanks for the review, our favorite LEGO Ambassador! Looks like a great set! Two very cool minifigs, both of which have some neat head prints (Agent Charge and a new 2010 City head, I believe), detailed torso prints, and one with leg printing! Also, they both have some awesome back prints! The catapult is neat, and the weapons stand does look cool. However, my only gripe is that the stand only holds one weapon when there's three in the set! I'll only be buying this set, the two impulses, and possibly the advent calendar of the Kingdoms theme due to my budget, but if I had enough money, I would definitely purchase most of the Kingdoms line.

I agree with everyone else; every single one of these MOCs are brilliant! The Disney characters are instantly recognizable, as with Artoo and Threepio, the bulk ship looks awesome in dark red (also, neat details on the back part!), the Volvo truck looks lovely, the color chart looks very useful (does the asterisk mean that the color is discontinued?), and that luxury yacht is amazing - you fit in so many details in a microscale vehicle! All of the other MOCs I haven't commented on are brilliantly designed, too. I think that you should've posted each in different topics - they're all deserving of their own.

Great find brickerik! I agree, the Toy Fair pictures don't do it justice. It looks much better than I thought before! The flat top of the trailer is a bit ugly, but it's fine. I wouldn't want a large price increase just for a tiled top.

I gave my votes to Oky Wan (looks like you've got the contest in the bag ) and fallentomato - excelllent vignettes, guys! The spinning wheel of specialized Toy Story heads is hilarious and I like the use of a Power Miners wheel for the chandelier. I would have loved to vote for Mr. Tools and LuxorV, as their creations are equally great, but unfortunately we can only vote for two. Good luck to all!

Darn, that sucks. I won't be able to afford a whole case, so it seems I'll have to resort to feeling the parts in the bag. EB member Mariann Asanuma posted on Flickr that you can feel the parts, so it might work.

The first piece that comes to mind (thanks to smokebelch's pictures, which are excellent as usual ) is the dewback. It looks so cool in LEGO form! I wasn't a fan of LEGO when 4501 Mos Eisley Cantina was released, so I haven't been able to get one. Hopefully it'll be reused in an affordable Tatooine set some time soon! I can't think of any other parts right now, but that's probably because I don't know about the vast assortment of discontinued parts out there. EDIT: Oh, I would love to see a return of the cypress tree!

Cool Tatooine pictures smokebelch! They really make me want a LEGO dewback (the movie versions were ugly, but the LEGO ones look awesome). Wonderful shots fenris! The smoke in the Tantive IV picture is very cool, and I like how you built the walls. And the one about the buttons on Vader's chestplate is hilarious! Excellent use of lighting to make the metallic colors of Vader's torso show out.

Since this topic has been revived, I thought I'd point out that you can buy a keychain version of the Max minifig online at the LEGO Shop for only $5 USD: It seems that you can also buy the minifig in almost every country listed in the country list. I might be buying one of these during the May the Fourth be With You promotion.

Great find Oky Wan! I'm guessing that this year's exclusive will be another poster. Since you can get the item free with any purchase, it seems unreasonable that you would get a white Boba Fett just from a $3.50 impulse set purchase. According to the poster, this offer is online only.

It is extremely depressing to see one of the most talented builders in the LEGO community just pass away all of a sudden. I was very impressed at how he built so many things using techniques I never thought possible, and how he posted new creations almost weekly. I feel sorry about how I never actually paid much attention to all of his amazing MOCs. In an effort to show my condolences, I've commented in his group pool, his last MOC, changed his contact status on Flickr to "friends and family", and I will keep my one and only small rubber band holder in the best condition possible for years to come. I also believe that the best way to show how saddened you are is by chroming your rubber band holder. Anyone up for the task...? RIP nnenn, rest in peace.

Thanks for the review CopMike! Looks like a very cool set - the dark green and dark red color scheme work very well together, and there's a huge amount of each color! Also, when compared to the 2006 Slave I, I have to say that the dark red is much better than the reddish brown. It's not enough to justify $80 for me, but I bet that many others will definitely purchase this set.

Ooh, more early release items for our beloved ambassador, eh? All three minifigs (plus the carbonized han) look lovely! Boba's helmet is filled with detail, and I like the metallic printing. His new design of tattered cape is very cool, an antenna was a neat addition, and it's great that he finally got a separate jetpack piece. Now the snowtroopers are due for separate backpacks too... We've already seen Bossk, but he still looks stunning! Very cool head mold and torso design. Does he (and Boba) have any back printing though? Han Solo looks quite accurate to the movie (I just watched episodes IV and V last week), and his carbonite block looks fantastic! Does his head fit perfectly into the depression that's inside the piece? EDIT: Ahh, here's Bossk's back printing:

Rex's arms are made of rubber and move together simultaneously. His legs move separately, and his tail can spin (all parts stay in place when moved, including the hands). Quite a lot of poseability than most animal figs if you ask me!I'm not sure if his tail or legs can be removed, but Profound Whatever said that the legs can be taken off, and the tail looks like it can be removed too. I don't think that TLG could even afford to put another windshield piece in. There seems to be a total of 12 windshield pieces in the set (6 are as mudguards, 2 for the front, one for the top hatch, two for the side, one for the back bumper)! Unfortunately I did not ask about what store it's exclusive to or the price. I was too happy to see the sets to remember to ask questions!

Sorry for the double post, but I've got pictures to share with you all! I've omitted three pics from this post because they've already been shown on Inky and Mariann's pics. Another side view of the truck: Rex's feet: Door and interior close-up: Side view of Rex: Front view of Rex: Bird's eye view of the Evil Doctor Porkchops: The Evil Doctor Porkchops without bowler hat (basically, Hamm ): Interior of caboose of Western Train Chase: The aforementioned trap door on top of the "$" door wagon on the train: Inside the hood of the truck: The three wagons: Western Train Chase box (held by Steve Witt): A different angle of the controls in the caboose (it's just two levers and a blank 2 x 2 round tile): Enjoy!

Thanks for the pictures Inky! Yours are much clearer than mine. I didn't know about the pizza launcher, and I didn't get to see the set's box either, so thanks for those! I'll have my pictures of these sets up in a couple of hours. Most of the parts in both the train and truck are printed instead of stickered (the truck's stickers on the doors are stickers, but it seems like almost every other part is printed)! Under the hood of the truck is a cylinder piece (the part in the Builder impulse set) that holds the launching pizzas, and it seems that most of the train is empty on the inside, except for a box of dynamite and some controls at the caboose. There's also an interesting trap door mechanism at the top of the train section with the "$" printing on it. You pull this piece off a 1 x 2 technic brick and it falls down. Aww, that's too bad. This was my first LEGO convention, and it was quite exciting to see all these amazing MOCs and two new sets on display. Hopefully you'll be able to attend next year!

Great review Inky! Your pictures are even more crisp than ever. This looks like a wonderful set! Some highly detailed minifigs, a very cool camel (with baskets!), some neat play features, and quite a large selection of accessories and some interesting parts. I like how there are so many of those new arches here! It'll provide for tons of MOCing possibilites, along with the other parts like the pearl gold quarter domes and all of those tan corner bricks. And that final pic is hilarious If it ever goes on sale, I'll definitely buy a copy!

I agree with everyone else, these decals are quite detailed for a first try and by only using paint! Do you mind if I save them to my computer in case I want to make some TF2 minifigs in the future?