jamtf

The scythe/sword that you are talking about is actually a "kopesh", a typically Egyptian sickle-sword that did not make push cuts but slashes. Lego obviously made a new mold for this item as it was previously only available through BrickForge. The older Egypt sets from the Adventurers line (for instance 5978 Sphinx Secret Surprice and 5988 Pharaoh's Forbidden Ruins/The Temple of Anubis) did not have Egyptian warriors carrying this weapon since the only figs of Egyptian origin included were pharaoh Hotep and the (dead) skeletons with pharaoh headdresses.

I managed to get hold of a German Lego dealer catalogue from the Vedes toy stores chain. It contains pictures of all the new sets (with the confidential stamp) and it says that Pharaoh's Quest will be released in April 2011 ("Lancierung im April") which is confidential information according to the catalogue (it has a small banner with the word "Vertraulich"). I guess that April 2011 is the German release date. It also reveals that the new Pharaoh's Quest theme will get commercial back-up on TV ("TV-Unterstützung"). The newest Star Wars line will be released in February 2011 and the Ninjago sets will be released in March 2011. The newest City and Atlantis releases are both due January 2011. Fact is however that Pharaoh's Quest already is part of the featured range of products on Lego.com and that the December 2010 date is clearly mentioned in the diary of Prof. Archibald Hale. Perhaps they managed to speed things up (production, etc.) which enables TLG to release the theme earlier than first planned.

The color for the 4th range will indeed be orange. The Spartan helmet (with the feather in gold metallic = same color as the helmet itself) will be part of the biggest 2011 Atlantis set that looks like an underwater (Greek) temple.

How curious. I drove to Germany last Thursday (August 12) as I expected these series 2 figs to be released in Germany earlier than here (like series 1 was released a couple weeks earlier as well). I did not have any luck since all I found were those typical leftovers from series 1. Only one day later, I located a box of series 2 figs in my hometown by surprise. Could have saved on the fuel, oh well...

If you buy sets second hand, anything could have happened. You might be lucky and buy a 100% original set with all the correct pieces that originally came with that set. Some people have been really careful with their Lego and stored all the pieces back in the original boxes after building. On the other hand you might run the risk of getting a complete set that has been picked together from a huge Lego tub. Many people throw their Lego bricks in a tub that is being used as brick fodder for creative building. As soon as these people want to sell their collection, they simply take out the instruction leaflets and start picking bricks randomly that seem to match the set. In other words, you will most likely receive a complete set but it might consist of a mixture of 1980s, 1990s and bricks from different era's. More than once I received very old pat.pend. bricks (from the 1960s if I am correct) in more recently released sets. That is usually an indication that bricks that belonged to the kids were mixed together with much older Lego bricks from their parents.

Found some series 2 figs in my hometown this morning. They had been delivered to the store yesterday and already, some people had picked the box in order to get the best (most desirable) ones out first. Fortunately, I still managed to get a complete set of all 16 figs including the ones I like best.

Hmm, nice move I suppose. Let's hope it is for real and that this is not a fake try-out minifig that gets us excited for no reason. I would like to see more of it before I can say whether I like it or not. Furthermore, wasn't Pirates of the Caribbean previously linked up with Megablocks sets??? I always thought they had the exclusive license.

Basically, you expect it to be something like the werewolf that was part of the Lego Studios series (see link below). Werewolf

I was in Germany yesterday. The stores were still flooded with the first wave minifigs. To my surprise, they are actually quite easy to find over there and you can find each one that you still need. Some stores have been visited by scalpers of course but most stores still have their share of collectible minifigs. The hardest one to get clearly was the cheerleader since that character is usually hoarded in multiples. No trace of series 2 figs though, although I have been told by a store employee that these are expected to arrive somewhere in August, most likely around mid-August. They were quite confident that they would have a shipment in some time next month. If the availability of series 2 is comparable to that of series 1, it will most likely not be too hard to get a complete range and some extra's of the ones that appeal the most or are suitable for army building such as the classic ancient warrior / soldier (I do not like to call him Roman, Greek, Trojan or Spartan, etc. since I simply do not know and consider myself too lazy right now to investigate this and I would like to avoid pointless and righteous discussions such as the one started by the now banned Asterios).

Either that or some people paid a visit to Legoland.

The first batch of Series 2 minifigs is already hitting the online auctions, see this example for a pantomime minifigure: Collectible minifigures Series 2 Pantomime minifigure on German eBay And someone on Brickshelf seems to own them all already: Collectible Minifigs Series 2 Brickshelf folder Edited. Links should work now.

The barcode sheet for series 2 is available through brickset. The person who made it must already have had access to these figs. There is no information on how these barcode ID's got accumulated so soon other than the fact that Legoland Billund supposedly has the figs for sale. Perhaps Legoland Günzburg (Germany) has them for sale by now too.

I was in Eindhoven last weekend and the Intertoys store over there had about 12 - 15 boxes up for grabs, some unopened and some opened. They were stacked on top of each other next to the counter. Some boxes were ripped open by customers, most likely to get an extra portion of the minifigs they liked best.

Great review. I am happy to own this set also MISB and MIB (used with original green storage bin and everything present + in excellent condition).

Don't forget that all these were made in China and suffer from the "cheap plastic parts syndrom" (see banner below ). TLG decided to outsource production of this series (and perhaps the upcoming series as well) to their Chinese plant. That being said, it is obvious that the part colour differs from "normal" figs that were manufactured in European countries such as Denmark, Czech Republic or Hungary.