KristofBD

Interesting! Could you tell me which store it is? I've been looking to order a box for a long time! (PS you can also send the name of the store through private message if you prefer that)

Excellent MOC! What I like most is the fact that it uses simple bricks in a sophisticated way. By doing so it has an old school feeling that fits the forestmen very well!

Congrats to the winners! It was nice to have a contest where quality did not matter for a change. The winners are definitively lucky, as this series is truly great!

The face with the tooth missing was also seen in city sets. The goatie face was also used in the vikings sets and the fantasy era. The face of the Lion knight that is in the prison is new, as well as the dragon knight leader (if I'm not mistaking ), the blacksmith, the soldier on the carriage, and the three civilians in the mill set. I also see a new kind of cheese slope brick, one that has an extra 1x1x1 stud attached to it. Don't know whether that is really new, but haven't seen it earlier. In any case, these sets look just great! I am also very anxious to get them. Hopefully they will be out at the end of May like the last wave!

Title: The Swindle Minifigures: Series 1: Forestman Series 2: Witch Series 3(Imaginary): Elf Theme: Medieval (Fantasy era) Story: The forestman challenged to Elf to a shooting contest with a superb prize: a rare e elvish dagger. The tournament is held deep within the forest and both shooters only have one arrow. He who is closest to the middle of the target wins. Who shall it be? Well, to everybody's surprise it is the forestman! His yellow arrow hits the mark, while the Elvish purple arrow is nowhere near the mark! Something must be wrong here... If you look closely at picture 1 two hints can be spotted. Yep, one could spot a bat and a piece of a broom. It seems that a witch was involved! Through magic trickery she caused the elvish arrow to be redirected towards the bushes, while she also made sure the yellow arrow went straight into the mark. But it seems quite shortsighted of the forestman to make a deal with the evil witch. My guess? He'll be turned into a toad by the end of the day... PS. @Mods: I arranged the leaves in such a way that none of them crosses the two stud overhang limit. If necessary pictures can be provided.

Here in Nijmegen (the Netherlands), some Kingdoms sets are virtually sold out (King's castle and the impulses), while others are still available. Nevertheless, it is good to hear that this is a popular line in Brazil. I hope it is as popular elsewhere! (means higher chance of more sets in this great line!)

Four wizard hats... (and four drunk wizards...)

Great find! The interior of the mill is indeed very good - much better than I expected! The little boy also looks great. Look at his face...

To be honest, I am not so sure that the MMV was so much cheaper. Sure there were two great cows in the MMV, but in the MVR you get a new horse, new pig, two new goats and three chickens - hence regarding animals I don't think the MMV was better. Moreover, the 3 civilians in the MVR have unique torsos (which is also a plus). Lastly, the MMV included zillions of very small pieces. Well obviously this inflates the number of pieces. The pieces included in the MVR are in many cases both useful and in rare colours. The only thing that was definitively better in the MMV were the interiors. But then again, the MMV was an exclusive, while this is only a normal set. In sum, I think the MVR is a actually a very cheap set. Moreover, it has a great design and well it's about medieval life (not just medieval warfare). I will buy multiples of it, and (hopefully) send out a signal that I want more of such sets. Keep 'em coming! Regarding pictures of the new sets, I don't know whether this picture is already out here, but it shows the head and (to a lesser extent) torso of the blacksmith. Look good - and luckily different from the old torso and faces Blacksmith This picture shows a new face for the dragon knights. Can't say I particularly like it, but I will just replace it.

Thanks for the high quality pics! Especially the London Escape looks great...

Agreed - and one can always use the pieces of the captain's cabin...

The king's torso is probably the best and most detailed king's torso yet. It is truly great! I still think the carriage is perhaps a bit ooverpriced, but looking at the pics convinced me that it is a nice set. The Blacksmith is excellent value for money, and though the mill and barn are rather empty I still love them. Just a little moccing and these sets will fit easily in my village. It is a rather cheap set, so I did not really expect that the interior would be good. I only hoped it would be, but hey you can't have it all...

The Forbidden Forrest is a perfect set. It is just very cheap, includes great minifigs and has an extra mushroom! Great! The Knight Bus on the other hand is not that interesting, while the battle of Hogwarts is only a good minifig pack. Hence, I guess it will only be the Forbidden Forrest for me, which is good for my wallet anyway...

Good job! Is especially like how you mixed all these different colours and pieces. Looks excellent!

@Juppy: When I first saw the Borgin and Burkes store, I was also skeptical. Especially the interior seemed so empty. However, I think this is a typical building that grows while you are building it. The build is so clever and all in all the exterios really looks good in real life. Regarding the glow in the dar pieces, I noticed that as well. Luckily there are a lot of those pieces in the roof. Those bricks do light up easier.

I just bought "the Burrow" from the current HP line. Compared to that set, the Hogwart's battle actually looks kind of lame. It seems to me more of a collection of larger bricks with some nice minifigs. Admittedly I like the minifigs, but the set itself is somewhat bland. May be the interior is better, but for now I'm not convinced by the set.

I guess it all depends on what you consider good value for your money. I can understand that the minifigs can be a reason to stick to only one of those sets. I think it a good set because of the weapons and armour, and the bucket and the chicken as well as the two minifigs and some good building parts. But obviously if you value these pieces less, it may also be less of a good set to you.

Theme: Medieval (fantasy) Minifig: The Elf Title: Just one more step... Story: Hordes of orcs plague the forests. Here we see one orc in search of the dreaded elves. But he is unaware of how close the elves actually are. Nor does he have any idea about what danger is lingering in the trees. He is just one step away of triggering one of those clever elvish traps... The back side of the vignette shows how the elves molded the tree. It shows the tree-ish stairs, and a basket of cherries (if you're waiting for orcs, you might as well enjoy yourself by eating some nice cherries). It also shows how the trap is attached to the net. On top of the tree sits an old owl. He couldn't care less about the fuzz between orcs and elves... At mods: I carefully placed all the leaves of the tree in order to stay within the two stud overhang limit. If you need extra evidence of this, just let me know.

Oh and it also seems that the king has a new torso (the colour of the arms and torso is different from the current one).

Excellent stuff! I like all four sets, and it is nice to see that there will be four new civilian torsos (great!!). Originally I thought the Dragon prison was not going to be super, but I really like how that set turned out: the dragon mounted knight is great and there seems to be a more casual part to the structure as well. I also love all these animals. I tend to disagree with people who want brick-built animals. The chicken in the MMV was ok, but it did not fit the cows and the pigs. The new mold is just far more compatible. Now the only thing I am still curious about is the interiors. What is inside the will and the barn? How does the backside of the dragon prison look? Is there anything in the trees of the carriage set? Anyway, I will have a hard time waiting until all these sets come out!

Excellent MOC! I like the story and the multiple 'stages'. The dog is also very nice. Good job!

Excellent creations! My points go to: Geertos13 - 1p tin7_creations - 1p Bricknave - 1p

[Note@mods: I just noticed that there was already a review of Diagon alley. If this review has no added value, please remove it]. Some time ago, I went to the LEGO store in Cologne to buy the Harry Potter Diagon Alley set. When I arrived there, there were five sets on the shelves. When I left 2 hours later on, only one of them was left. For a set that costs 149.99 euro, this is quite remarkable, I would say. The lady behind the counter told me that the set was indeed hugely popular. So is this set really worth all the fuzz? Read on and find out! Set Information Set Number: 10217 Pieces: 2025 Set Line: Harry Potter Price: 149.99 euro Release Date: January 2011 Review First, regarding the box and the instructions, there's nothing spectacular here. The box is the same size as the Hogwarts castle box. Given the high number of pieces this means the box is filled for 3/4. The good thing about the instructions, is that the booklets and the sticker sheet are packed in plastic with a piece of cardboard. Hence, the three booklets and the sheet were in perfect condition. The booklet are normal in the sense that everything works the way it should. The last pages show the play functions of the set. 1. The Cast Now let's move to the more interesting parts of the set. Surely the cast is one of the reasons to get this set. There's some usual suspects (Hagrid, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Lucius Malfoy, Fenrir Greyback) next to some exclusive minifigs (most importantly Ollivander, the two goblins and... the Weasley twins. (Sorry for the background noise on the pics - I have too much lego...) Ron, Harry and Hermione are in leisure suit. Next up are Ollivander and the two goblins. The Goblins are somewhat disappointing. Their torsos are the same as the old goblins, and so are their heads. At a time when even animals are printed, I think it is normal to expect the goblins to have at least eye printing. They don't however The hands of Ollivander are darker flesh. I guess that is a mistake However, I fiulled in the form on the lego-site and got a replacement without any delay. Ollivander also has a double-sided head. The twins are really gorgeous! The colour of their suit is great, their facial expressions are good, and have backprinting. The details on these guys are simply perfect. The Weasley twins are certainly one of the highlights of the set. Before I I will discuss the main buildings, just a few shots of the extra subsets. Normally these would be worth examining closer, but they are really peanuts compared to the rest of the set, so I’ll just present some pictures. The first half of the extra subsets is nice. We get four owls, a rat and a bat in this set. The second half of the subsets is less interesting. Two cauldrons - but they are a bit unnecessary (I have enough of them already). 2. Ollivander’s Regarding the other pieces of interest, I will discuss them per subset as there are so many interesting pieces! First up is Ollivander's store. This set features lots of gold pieces, two white plumes (one extra), two Prince of Persia slopes in tan, the Maurauder map, 16 dark tan pieces and 4 dark red square pieces. Not bad. Oh and next to that it features a lot of sand green pieces. Personally, I don't like the colour, hence I did not include in this section. The build is fairly simple. Except for the hinges used to give the windows the round shape, I learned no new building techniques. The whole building breathes the atmosphere of the 19th century. The side view of the buildings are nice. I like the poster with Sirius Black on it. The other side features a somewhat odd “roof”. I don’t see why it should be there. The colours (dark red and gold) are very nice though. So may be this is LEGO treating its fan with some nice extra bricks? (Note: the upper part of the building is the same as on the other side, hence I did not include it in the picture) In fact, there are a lot of hidden 'extra bricks'. For instance, underneath the roof of Ollivander's, there are two tan 4x1 SNOT bricks. They are invisible and the SNOT function is not used at all. Further on in the roof, there are two 4x2 dark green bricks that are also invisible. Nice bricks, but completely hidden. The interior is nicely detailed. The counter has a somewhat odd play function. So what do I think about this building? Well, somebody said that it just is a bit odd. I agree. I think the main problem here is the colour scheme. The sand green does not match the dark blue roof tiles and the tan and dark tan bricks on the ground floor. Additionally, the side windows on the first floor seem to be ‘flying’. Overall I was a bit disappointed with this building, as when I first saw it online, I thought this building was the main catch. 2. Borgin and Burkes. Luckily the other two buildings really made up for the relatively weaker Ollivander’s store. Especially the Borgin and burkes store is an absolute win. At first I found this building quite boring as its interior is quite empty. However that is the only downside about this set and it is made up by all the other wonderful features it has. First the pieces of interest. I only showed just a few of them. The Weasley twin comes with this part of the set and one of them (is it Fred or is it George? ) has a chocolate frog. The other has a copy of the Daily Prophet. There are also a lot of glow in the dark pieces (23!). And overall this building really looks creepy in the dark because the bricks are well distributed over the whole of the store. Well done LEGO! Furthermore, there are 13 dark purple round bricks. They will serve to be the flowers on the plants attached to the ‘chapel’ and the roof of the store. We also get the Bellvile piece and Prince of Persia slope in black and lots of dark green pieces, including 25 windows. (everything in this set seems to come in large quantities…). I am absolutely in love with the roof. The build is so clever and creative that it was pure fun to build it. Overall the build of Borgin and Burkes was the most difficult, but also the most pleasing as it was clever and not repetitive. An absolute joy… The building itself looks great from the outside. It also breathes the atmosphere of the 19th century. The right side view is also nice. It shows a number of papers attached to the wall. Very nice sticker. A close-up of the sticker: The lower roof is also a bit funny. 12 black skeleton legs are used to attach the poles to. Given the sinister nature of the store, I find this very fitting. The interior is a bit empty. Both ‘means of transport’ are nice, but especially compared to the other two buildings the interior is quite modest. There is also a play feature included in this building. As Fenrir demonstrates, the chimney can be turned. 3. Gringott’s bank The bank comes with the goblins and Harry and Hagrid. There are an insane amount of white bricks used in this build. The whole building will be decorated with SNOTted tiles, so we get a lot of the snot- and studless bricks. Furthermore we get 29 Greek pillar round bricks and a lot of studless dark red bricks for the entrance. We also get a gate, a Power Miner crystal and the pirates coins (which will be located in the safe inside the bank). Overall, great stuff. As the Goblin shows, there is some room for minifigs to stand. The build was less spectacular than Borgin and Burkes. Yet this may simply be due to the fact that I was just still in memory of that build. The building is top notch. Everything is perfect. It is also very symmetrical, which is why I liked the build of Borgin and Burkes a bit more. I like the interior. The chandelier is very well done and fits well. The office desk and the vault are also very nice. Overall the interior looks very suited. Though the building looks fairly small on pictures, it is actually quite large. Even when closed, the building is impressive in real life. Opened it looks, however, best. The diagonal columns are also very nicely done. Part of the 'mystery' lies here: The columns remain firmly euh diagonal because on top they have this piece: It floats in a 3x1 empty space. Clever indeed... Rating. So how do I feel about this set? Build: 10 Great build. Especially Borgin and Burkes… Design: 9.5 Again, Borgin and Burkes and Gringott’s bank are some of the best LEGO has ever built. Minifigures: 9.5 Three exclusive figs, two semi-exclusive (the goblins) and the main characters in fairly rare clothes – I say this is a win. My only beef lies with the Goblins: their faces should have been printed. Playability: 8 Two explicit playability features, but you can forget about them. The real playing lies with the figs and the buildings. Price: 9 Steep, but nevertheless worth it. There are so many pieces included in this set – and many of them are rare. Overall: 46/50 A classic set already. Definitively worth all the fuzz!

The pics look great. even though I am a castle freak, I will probably buy at least Isla De la Muerta, the London Escape (the new window piece is great!) and the Whitecap Bay (which actually features an excellent coastal castle - I especially like the desert brown underground). all in all, this looks set to be an excellent theme!

Excellent work! I like the forestmen hideout and the buildings inside the castle's walls most. Good job!