That's a Space Station!

So yup… she’s official. The Lego Death Star Playset. Holy SMOKES. I would love to have a set like this, because it just looks like so much fun to actually play with. It has 3800 pieces, and so at $500 CAD, the price has dropped to 13 cents per piece (usually 14 cents). On the other hand, the price in the states has risen to 10.5 cents (usually 9.5 cents). Good for us… bad for them. But here’s the kicker. When I mentioned earlier that it had 24 minifigs, I failed to notice one. The Dianoga! How sweet is that? (That’s the trash compactor monster for the uninformed out there.) So here’s a list of all the people you get.

Luke Skywalker™ (Stormtrooper™ outfit), Han Solo™ (Stormtrooper outfit), Assassin Droid™, Interrogation Droid, Death Star Droid, 2 Death Star Troopers™, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi™, C-3PO™, R2-D2™, Princess Leia™, Chewbacca™, Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight), Darth Vader™, Grand Moff Tarkin™, Emperor Palpatine™, 2 Stormtroopers, 2 Emperor's Royal Guards™, R2-Q5™, a mouse droid and the all-new Dianoga™ trash compactor monster!

Ayup… that’s a good amount. Anyway, I am pleased with this set, though at $400 US, I don’t think I have the means to buy it at this time… even for Alex. Perhaps in 3 or 4 years if it’s still available. Hey… my Star Destroyer is, and it came out about 6 years ago.

That's no moon!

Holy smokes! A Death Star playset is coming, and it looks like it will be very playable with. I just might have to buy this one, and put it away for Alex for when he's a touch older...

You can go here to see more pics. There are 24 minifigs that come with this set! TWENTY FOUR!!! 3 different Lukes! That's crazy! It also comes with a not quite mini TIE-Advanced X1 which also floats my boat.

Kudos to the Lego group for this one.

Happy Birthday Lego! Part 2

This is a fun time line of Lego's life, stolen from gizmodo.com.

If you look at the guy on the box in the 50th Anniversary set... he's the kid that appeared on the first set Lego made 50 years ago. And it was the same set! Neat, huh.

Happy Birthday Lego!

Yay!!! I guess. Today marks the 50th Anniversary of the World’s Favorite Building Material. No… not concrete. LEGO! This continues to be my favorite toy, despite the fact that they still have yet to match the Canadian Dollar with the US Dollar. Anyway… as Google reminded me today…
…Happy Birthday you crazy interlocking brick that never gets boring.

New Star Wars Lego Sets for 2008

So Lego has released its list of what Star Wars sets are coming out for 2008, and I must say I’m a little excited. I’m also a little bit nervous.

First off, they have already released a picture of the rerelease of the AT-TE, which for the uninitiated is the 6 legged walker in Attack of the Clones, The Clone Wars, and Revenge of the Sith. I already own this set, so I won’t be getting this new one. Actually it looks to be pretty much the same, except that this one comes with a STAP, where as the one I got 5 years ago (HOLY SMOKES!!! Has it really been that long???) came with a burgundy Speeder Bike, which shows up in Battle Front, and the Novelization. Anyway, I’m happy with the set I have.

What gets me excited (and nervous) is this. The list included a TIE Defender, which is pictured here. The TIE Defender is from the old MS-DOS video game TIE Fighter, and it was the ultimate TIE ship. It had a hyper-drive and shields, and if I remember correctly was more maneuverable then the TIE Interceptor. This ship just looks mean as well, and if it does come out this summer, I will be picking it up as soon as I see it in stores. The thing that has me nervous is that on one list someone has that set (7678) listed as a Droid Gunship, which the TIE Defender isn’t. I just hope that they made a mistake, and it truly is the TIE D, because… well… Boromir says it best...

Lego Pricing Rant

Some things, I just don’t understand. The new Star Wars and Indiana Jones Lego sets were released yesterday, and guess what! They are on average 1.4 times the price as those sold in the States. Why is this? We are at par with the US dollar, should we not have the same buying power as they do? I can understand the older sets staying at the same price, but why aren’t the new sets priced to match. This bugs me. Lego does have a few sets that are “on sale” that match the US price, but only a few, and not the one that I really want for my collection, which frustrates me even more.

I went into Toys R Us last night, and found 2 sets that I wanted. The prices were not listed on the shelves, so based on the piece count, I guessed that they would be $40 and $55 respectively. I went to a price checker, and they were $55 and $70 respectively. When I checked out the price on the US Lego page, I found that the first was actually $40 US and the second was $50 ($5 less than I thought it should be). Why this discrepancy? Why won’t the distributors match the prices? I would have bought both sets for $90, but I put both of them back because $55 is too much for a set that only has 390 some pieces. 10 cents a piece is perfect, though Canadian distributors feel the need to charge 14 cents. Grrrr. It makes me mad.

Oh, and they only had 1 Indiana Jones set, and of course, not the one I was going to buy! We Canadians always get the shaft in the toy department, it seems.

Note the difference in price!

Lego: The Force Unleashed and The Clone Wars

Well, a few new ships and a walker are being released into stores already. These are on the 2008 slate, and one of them is a “need to get” as it is clearly an Imperial ship, though it is not from the movies. This one is from the upcoming game “The Force Unleashed” and is called the Rogue Shadow. It looks like a pretty funky ship, but the crazy thing about it is, it comes with a Battle Damaged Darth Vader. And by the looks of things, he gets pretty battle damaged. I am very much looking forward to this game, and fortunately it is coming out on the Wii platform. Will the Wiimote handle like a proper lightsaber, or will it fall short like Red Steel? Wii will see.


The next set is a walker. This one is called an AT-AP which stands for All Terrain Attack Pod, which was shown somewhere in Episode 3 on Felucia. It comes with a retractable 3rd leg which will stablize it when firing the main cannon. This one is another "Need to get" as I have all the other walkers that Lego has made.




The next set is from the upcoming cartoon series “The Clone Wars” which looks great. This set falls into my “wouldn’t mind having” list. It’s Anakin’s Jedi Starfighter, which is an altogether different model from Episode 2 and Episode 3 (and may even be different from the Clone Wars shorts that came out before Episode 3). It looks… interesting. What I really like about this set though is the hair that Anakin is sporting. That’s quite the mold that Lego has made. He also has very different eyes then other minifig heads have had, and think this is because it's based on a cartoon.

Sorry that all the links go to amazon.de but they aren't up at amazon.com yet.

Asteroids do not concern me, Admiral. I want that ship… not excuses.

Coming in at nearly 5200 pieces, this is the Madre con Lego. Being a self proclaimed Dark Lord of the Sith, I have stated that I will only collect Imperial (and possibly Republic) Star Ships and Fighters that come out of the Lego Group. However, even a Dark Lord knows a nice looking ship when he sees one, and this would be one good spoil of war. The only thing that stops me from purchasing this today is the ghastly price tag of $679.99 CAD. This really irritates me, as Lego sells this model in the states for $499.99 USD. Have they not heard that the Canadian Dollar is bouncing around par with the US Dollar? I *could* have it shipped to my sister in Seattle, but The Eradicator weighed an impressive 10 kilograms (22 lbs) and it was only 3100 pieces, and I wouldn’t want to drop this package in her lap to somehow get it to Edmonton. What makes this model even cooler is that it is scaled to fit the minifigs, so you can fit Han, Chewie, Luke, and Old Ben in the cockpit to make the experience complete. I guess Leia would be outside giving it a push to help it off the ground.

Just like Darth Vader, this starship will continue to slip through my grasp as I watch it inexplicable continue to make the jump to hyperspace… which makes me sad.