As you may have noticed, we had some problems with our Argos product data feed before Christmas which meant our listings were showing old data. Luckily I got that resolved last week just in time for the publication of the new catalogue over the weekend. 

The Buy LEGO at Argos page on the new site shows what's new. Interestingly, the new UCS X-Wing, 10240 is being sold which inevitably means you'll be able to get it at a discount in a 3-for-2 offer sometime in the future, probably over Easter. 

The catalogue also includes a number of items that are not available yet, such as the Disney Princess sets, Mixels, new Creator sets and Simpsons minifigs.

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.

Once again, I thank everyone -- over 800 of you -- who have tested the new site and provided feedback. I've responded to many of your feature requests and fixed most of the bugs, so I've decided to launch it as is, in two weeks' time, on the 3rd of February. 

This is not to say that once it's launched that that's it, and nothing will be changed; it will be continually improved and refined and new features added but if I don't draw a line now to prevent feature-creep, it'll never be launched.

The header font still needs to be improved, and I'll be doing that later this week. I'm replacing the free Google Font Arvo with a commercial font, Museo Slab, which is higher quality and renders much better. Also, I'll be running the site through markup validators and improving accessibility in some areas.

As promised, I've pulled 10 names 'out of the hat' who will each receive a box of polybags. So, congratulations to Simon Johnson, Nathan, Peter81, Mark Soileau, sebfrogs, abri, Nick Tomlinson, Ben Lesso, shamrockgold and David Graham.

I'll be in touch to get your addresses.

Please continue to use the site and let me know, via the contact form or the feedback form, if you find any more problems.

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.

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Beyond the Brick's video inverview with Keith Severson, head of the LEGO CEE team, is now available to view on YouTube. I haven't watched it myself yet but Josh tells me he did ask several of the questions that you posted.

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.

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Yesterday, myself, DrDaveWatford,  'Big' Pete from FBTB, and Gary, the Brickish Ambassador, visited the LEGO stand at the London Toy Fair. I got back late and was tired hence not posting this until today.

It's the first toy fair of the season (Germany is in a couple of weeks and New York a couple after that) and for reasons I've never been able to fathom, LEGO does not allow photography which is rather odd given that in a couple of weeks, they do. Also, much of the what's on show is very much pre-production with blank minifigs standing in for the real ones, prototype pieces in the models and so on. Nevertheless, you can get a good impression of what's coming and in this article I will attempt to remember what I saw and give you my opinion on it, with the help of set listings from All About Bricks who have done a great job of capturing prices and other details.

So, here goes...

Star Wars

75048 The Phantom £19.99
75049 Snowspeeder £34.99
75050 B-Wing £49.99
75051 Jedi Scout Fighter £59.99
75052 Mos Eisley Cantina £64.99
75053 The Ghost    £69.99
75054 AT-AT £109.99
75055 Imperial Star Destroyer   £119.99

The original trilogy sets looks pretty good. The Cantina was perhaps a little on the small side, but does come with three band members, Greedo, Han and a couple of other figs. It's a 'concertina' design so can fold into a square building, or fold out into a long wall. It comes with a sandspeeder which looks much the same as all the others but featured new 'salmon pink' parts. 

The snowspeeder and B-Wing looked OK, but much the same as previous versions, the ISD was smaller than the previous minifig one but, according to DrDave, a much sturdier design. The other 'extended galaxy' sets were just plain weird and did not appeal at all. The At-At was also smaller than previous versions.

Legends of Chima

More Speedorz and constraction figures which AAB has listed but which were of little interest to me, and

70141 Vardy’s Ice Vulture Glider £17.99
70142 Eris’ Fire Eagle Flyer £24.99
70143 Sir Fangar’s Sabertooth Walker £34.99
70144 Laval’s Fire Lion £39.99
70145 Maula’s Ice Mammoth Stomper £69.99
70146 Flying Phoenix Fire Temple £89.99

Apparently a crack has formed in the earth's crust and the Chi has fallen into it. Thus the lions and eagles are battling with long-extinct animals, mammoths and sabretooth tigers that has been awakened (or something like that!). It looked pretty awful and far too abstract if I'm honest although it did have some cool figures, including a mammoth but they were only visible in pictures.

Friends

41030 Olivia’s Ice Cream Bike £9.99
41031 Andrea’s Mountain Hut £9.99
41032 First Aid Jungle Bike    £12.99
41033 Jungle Falls Rescue £17.99
41034 Summer Caravan £19.99
41036 Jungle Bridge Rescue £24.99
41059 Jungle Tree Sanctuary £24.99
41038 Jungle Rescue Base £44.99
41058 Heartlake Shopping Mall £79.99

The girls have taken to the jungle. There were some interesting new vine pieces evident, but not many actual animals: just monkeys from the CMF series (IIRC) bears and pandas, so God only knows what part of the world it's set in! 

The Animals collectables looked interesting and series 6 will feature a lion, seal and panda.

Ultra Agents

70160 Riverside Raid £9.99
70161 Tremor Track Infiltration £17.99
70162 Inferno Interception   £24.99
70163 Toxikita's Toxic Meltdown  £34.99
70164 Hurricane Heist   £49.99
70165 Ultra Agents Mission HQ £79.99

The return of the popular and, it seems, successful, Agents theme. However I was very disappointed with them. There was no coherent design or colour scheme that made the previous theme appealing, they were just a mish-mash of odd-designed vehicles in strange colours. The big selling point seems to be not the contents of the sets but an 'augmented reality' mission based app that is activated using codes in the boxes. 

Ninjago

70727 X-1 Ninja Charger £34.99
70728 Battle for Ninjago City £89.99

I can remember nothing about the former set but the latter looked pretty similar to the last Ninjago temple, a oriental-style building set on a rock and thus fairly boring.

City

60032 Arctic Snowmobile £4.99
60033 Arctic Ice Crawler £9.99
60034 Arctic Helicrane £24.99
60035 Arctic Outpost   £34.99
60036 Arctic Base Camp £69.99

Now things start to get a bit more interesting. These sets are not unlike the previous Arctic range from 2000. They are predominantly orange and the designs look realistic, particularly the ice crawler. The story here is that the arctic is being mined for crystals found in blocks of ice. It features polar bears, the same as the new-style bear, and huskies which were very cute.

60050 Train Station £49.99
60051 High-speed Passenger Train  £99.99
60052 Cargo Train    £139.99

Train fans will be pleased by the news of a new range of City trains but I suspect will be disappointed by their execution. The station in particular was very disappointing and like no station I've ever seen. The passenger train consists of three cars which are white. It uses a new huge great nose piece for the front and back and thus stylistically looks the same as every other City passenger train we've seen over the last 10 years or so.

The cargo train, however, was much better. The locomotive is blue and yellow and based on US-designs, like the Mearsk and BNSF locos. It comes with three wagons, one for carrying cable drums, one for containers (in this case a small tank which fits on the back of a truck) and an open cattle truck complete with cow. While this looked great there hasn't been anything even remotely like it on European railways since the 19th century. It also features an overhead gantry crane a bit like this one, track, motor, battery and remote control. 

Creator

31023 Yellow Racers £19.99
31024 Roaring Power £19.99
31026 Bike Shop & Café  £64.99

The first two are 'More of the same' but the bike shop and cafe were quite interesting. They are a bit like mini modular buildings, fairly realistic with a lot of internal details. They are hinged so can fold into square buildings or out to a single wall.

Mixels

All 27 mixels from the first three series were on show and to my mind they were 'best in show'. They are innovative, cheap, highly collectable and most of all fun. The first series features red, yellow and black creatures, the other two contain purple, lime green, blue, brown, orange and another colour that I can't remember. Apparently the cartoon will air in the UK, on the Cartoon Network. To be honest, these were the only sets I saw that I can't wait to get hold of.

HERO Factory

44023 ROCKA Crawler  £8.99
44024 TUNNELER Beast vs. SURGE  £8.99
44025 BULK Drill Machine £12.99
44026 CRYSTAL Beast vs. BULK  £12.99
44027 BREEZ Flea Machine  £12.99
44028 SURGE & ROCKA Combat Machine  £24.99
44029 QUEEN Beast vs. FURNO, EVO & STORMER  £34.99

The second half of year HF sets sees our heroes heading underground to battle with fearsome creatures. The most interesting aspect were 'cocoon'-like pieces that the HF minifigs can be put inside once captured.

The Hobbit

Three sets will be available in October. They did not have names. One was a small rock piece, the middle-priced one was another part of Lake-town, a tower IIRC, and the largest featured Smaug. It was a nondescript structure made predominantly from sand green. I'd like to tell you what minifigs are included but I can't remember.

Turtles

There are two different Turtles series -- actually three if we could the one coming out in the 'Juniors' range -- this year: sets based on the cartoon which feature bright colours, and sets based on a movie coming out later in the year. These were just labelled 'Ninja Turtles' and were 'darker' than the cartoon ones: even the turtles, which are dark or olive green. 

Super Heroes

Two ranges of Super Heroes were on display which I didn't much attention to to be honest. Under cover, but revealed to us were the three Guardians of the Galaxy sets. As usual with SH sets they looked to be very minifigure-focussed with weak supporting vehicles, although the largest, some sort of blue and yellow spacecraft, looked fairly interesting. These are apparently out in June.

Technic

Three sets to be released in the summer: a bulldozer, a 4WD pickup truck and a Volvo-licensed remote-controlled trench digger.

The LEGO Movie

Just the three sets we already have pictures of. Benny's Spaceship looked bigger than expected and will cost £70, IIRC.

That's just about it. By all means ask questions but don't expect me to remember every little detail, but hopefully DrDave will be able to pitch in too.

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.

Chris/CapnRex101 and I both have a Simpsons House and we'll be doing a joint review. I received mine today and have built bag one which contains Bart, Homer and the car so I thought it would be worthwhile kicking off the review already to give you something to talk about rather than what the next wave of sets may or may not contain. Let's enjoy and celebrate what we can buy today, and not worry about what won't be in the shops for 6 months!

Let me start off by saying I know nothing about the Simpsons beyond their names and have never watched an episode in my life. Nevertheless, the quality of this set -- probably the best house LEGO has ever made  -- made it a must-buy for me despite the high price tag. It's too early to say whether it's worth that much but I like what I see so far...

I'm not going to post pictures of the box -- which is massive, the same size as Tower Bridge and the Town Hall -- or the contents in their bags because, well, there's just so much of it. Luckily the bags are numbered so it's worth seeing how the model is broken down into sections, which the first page of the instructions shows:

The minifigs are split across bags. Bag one contains Bart and Homer. Quite frankly I would rank them among the best minifigs ever made because not only do they have excellent heads, but also brand new arms and, in Bart's case, legs. Yes, they are NOT printed, they are actually moulded with two colours of plastic and look absolutely superb. Homer is in his work clothes, complete with Sector 7G ID card. Bart's top is, so Chris tells me, a little too red but as regular orange would be too bright, the best choice of available LEGO colours.

There's no printing on their backs.

Chris says "The car is very accurate in my opinion, and includes the aerial on the bonnet, the radio inside and the dents on the front left of the car". It's certainly a very nice model to put together. I'm not 100% sure but aren't the wheels and tyres new?

It has an open top, presumably it does in the cartoon?

The boot/trunk is hinged.

Bag one also provides parts for outdoor odds and ends including the best LEGO barbeque I've seen complete with sausages (hot dogs).

A small skate ramp for Bart.

A wheelbarrow, new in lime green, with a couple of potted plants which utilise the new inverted dome piece.

And finally, a pair of sun loungers which are very cleverly constructed.

That's your lot for now. Bag two, the garage, will be constructed and reviewed next...

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.

Last August, Senteosan uploaded an amazing Jurassic Park project to Cuusoo.  Since then, Jurassic Park was barred from Cuusoo (due to a licensing conflict) but Senteosan relaunched his T-rex as, well, a "generic" dinosaur project.

Yesterday Senteosan uploaded their second project, Bricksauria | Stegosaurus which is sure to please any dino fan. 

This new offering appears to have a lot more posability, and stability, than the T-rex predecessor but manages to pull this off without sacrificing the great, organic feel that is very tricky to pull out of these bricks.

The T-rex does however, have the better head, hands down.  That is not a knock against Senteosan's work, as I think the Stegosaurus head is a very clever use of brick, but relative to the T-rex, there is really very little real-estate to be clever with.

A Finer Diner

Diners are rather popular on Cuusoo and often in the modular style.  Usually I don't have much to say about them.  They tend to be pleasant to look at and iconic Americana, but Nathan's American Diner really stands out with its astounding internals.

There is a wide array of well detailed diner elements ranging from a napkin dispenser to a grill vent.  The real marvel though is the jukebox.  I have never seen one so exquisitely rendered in brick. 

Tiny Pirates!

For my personal Cuusoo blog this week I have selected the miniature 6285 Black Sea Barracuda by Bangoo as my favorite new project of the week. 

I picked it based on a lot of personal preferences though.  I love the pirate line as well as homage builds and micro-builds.  Fundamentally I also like the idea of having appropriately scaled LEGO builds for display on desks and such, and this checks all those boxes. 

I am very curious as to what the Brickset crowd thinks of this build though.  I was extremely surprised by the huge turn out for The Scorpion's Soul so I am wondering if this response is only reserved for super-sized vessels or do these tiny ones also appeal. 

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.

Continuing with our review of The Simpson House, today we'll be taking a look at part two of the build: the garage.

'Whoopie-do, a garage', I hear you say, big deal...  Actually it is, with new parts, new colours and fantastic details that bode well for the rest of the building.

You will no doubt notice straight away that the garage doors are an 'odd' colour. It's certainly one I haven't come across yet. It's like the 'Prince of Persia' medium nougat colour, but not quite. It may well be a Friends flesh colour and I think it could be the same as that used on the Landspeeder in the Cantina set. I should have put a medium nougat part on top, not a tan one, when I photographed them. D'oh!

It seems that the tool-wheel sprue that's been around for years has been replaced with this selection of parts. They featured in some 2013 sets and also a couple of older sets that were manufactured in 2013, according to BrickLink.

Last but certainly not least in terms of new parts are these 2x2 corner tiles. It was only a matter of time until these were made, wasn't it? There is also four of them in this year's 41039 Sunshine Ranch Friends set.

The garage is built on a 16x16 and a 16x8 grey baseplate. There's a workbench and tool rack on one wall, both very well detailed. I'm not entirely convinced by the robot arms to hold the drill and oil can, but other than that it's perfect. The broom from the opening tile sequence is also included, along with many of the other major features which are visible, including the tools hanging on the wall and the paint cans on the shelves.

Here's the completed building. It's a straightforward, solid, build.

The door hinges at the top to reveal the workshop inside, and of course to drive the car in.

The roof is in two sections that just rest on the walls. Note there are plenty of 1x2 cheese slopes in tan which I don't think are very common yet. Note also the 1x2x3 brown window frames that are mounted horizontally.

Here's the underside of the roof. The inverted domes are used to hold the panels in place: they sit in the corners of the garage and prevent the roof from slipping.

Finally, at the side there's a mound. This is occasionally seen in the show, although this is inconsistent from one episode to another as are many things in the Simpsons (be honest, how many of you knew that the house actually includes a rumpus room in the show?)

We haven't started on the house proper yet but already we have new parts, new coloured parts and great details. It's not such a boring garage after all, is it...

Bags #3 build the upstairs front of the house and we'll try and get that reviewed tomorrow.

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.

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Images of the four TMNT cartoon sets that were seen at the London Toy Fair have surfaced on Eurobricks.

If you're a TMNT fan let us know what you think of them.

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.

We're just over a week away now from the new-look Brickset being launched. This will be a landmark in the site's development and will finally confine 'Brickset blue' to history. I know many of you will miss it and claim that the site is 'too bright' without it at the sides, but I do wonder, those of you that say that, don't you visit any other sites? Virtually every mainstream popular site these days is all-white: Google, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, BBC news, CNN, you name it. Even Eurobricks and MOCPages are. 

Anyway, CapnRex101 had the great idea of taking a look at 'Brickset through the ages' to mark this monumental occasion. So, here goes...

1997

In 1997, Internet users, using dial-up links, were provided with web space for a 'home page' by their Internet Service Provider. I used mine for LEGO-related content and the 'Promotional LEGO set reference' was just one aspect of it. At that time, many LEGO co-promotions were running across the world and this page was my attempt at keeping track of them. 

I can't find any web archive of the pages, probably because they were on my ISP's server and not at a 'proper' domain address but I did find a copy of the site on a CD-ROM, from January 1998:

The earliest reference I can find to it at Lugnet is in November 1998. 

1999

On 4th December 1999 (see Lugnet announcement), the site moved to brickset.co.uk (now a link farm) and by this time contained regular sets as well as promotional ones: 1959 of them -- a fifth of today's total -- according to this screenshot from the Wayback machine from March 2000.

2000

On 14th July 2000 Brickset became a .com, as announced at Lugnet, and underwent a redesign. The main new feature introduced at this time was user reviews: reviews written in 2000 are still in today's database.

Best viewed in IE5 and 1024x768... LOL :-)

2002

In 2002 the site was rewritten in ASP.net and had its design tweaked again. We started posting news on the home page, but users couldn't yet comment on the articles.

2004

Another redesign in 2004, but still no news comments.

2005

Yet another rewrite in 2005. I think this marked the start of the Brickset blue header and sides but they haven't been rendered in the Wayback machine's copy of it. More importantly, it introduced the ability to record your collections on the site, as announced on the home page.

2005

Here's a better rendition of it from later in the year. Does it look familiar? Something that's definitely familiar today is the top news story about retailers' catalogue scans...

2007

In 2007, several significant things happened. First, the database was moved onto SQL Server in January: incredibly it had been just an Access MDB until that time. Second, affiliate links to LEGO.com were added, shortly followed by Amazon and eBay. Users could finally comment on news articles and lastly, in June, the entire database was lost due to a failure of the SQL Server and unusable backups. Luckily I had offline copies and it was up and running again fairly quickly without much data loss. This is is why the first news article in the current database is this one.

2008

The site as we know it today was launched on 26th December, but not without issues, according to the comments on the announcement. The rewrite provided a stable platform which has stood the test of time and enabled me to continue to enhance it, although the techniques and technologies used are making it difficult to do so now.

In January 2009 the site had 13,000 unique users per day. Now it's 53,000.

2014

On 3rd February, the new Brickset design will be launched, the first one in 5 years. I think you'll agree that it's long overdue, even if you have grown fond of the current look. Its launch won't be the end: it will be the beginning of a new era for the site and as long as you continue to visit, I will continue to develop and enhance it.

I hope you enjoyed that potted history. If you want to view and browse the old versions, visit the Wayback machine.

Finally, I should take this opportunity to thank everyone that's helped with the site over the years, particularly Grahame, who mostly works behind the scenes on the database, and who's been doing so virtually since day one. 

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.

In this part of the review, CapnRex101 and myself will look at the third section of the set to be constructed; the ground floor front of the house. 

There are no new parts or colours (other than the door which is the same colour as the garage doors) but it has some great features and another minifig as you will find out after the break.

In bags #3 we have our third minifig, the (almost) ever-perfect Ned Flanders who is the Simpsons neighbour. Here he wears his famous 'Hail to the Chef' apron, which I believe first appeared in the episode 'When Flanders Failed.' This is an excellent design and matches nicely with the printing on his hips and legs. Ned's glasses and moustache look great, and are probably the most recognisable features of the entire character, so it is important that they have been well captured.

The apron printing continues onto the back where one can see the straps tied with a bow, and he is equipped with a spatula to be used with the barbecue mentioned in part one.

Construction of this section is interesting because you start off building the floor -- two 8x16 tan plates -- upside down and don't turn it back over until you start tiling the top. It's very rare to see upside-down building within official instructions.

Here's the completed section minus the ceiling: kitchen on the right, and the lounge on the left. This is of course not quite accurate to the TV show, although given the limitations of scale, this is certainly forgivable. Almost all of the main features of the house have been captured, so that is quite satisfactory in my opinion.

The kitchen colour scheme is reminiscent of something out of the 1970s. The orange and blue mix is much like appears in the show, although it would have been great to see those pink drawers in purple, which would have been perfect.

The purple piano is quite well made although the plates on the site don't look quite right to my eye. It is quite accurate to the show, albeit placed in the wrong room, and even includes the foot pedals which you can see in the photo below. It's fixed to the floor via two 2x2 tiles with one stud so can be removed easily. The bar under the floor will presumably facilitate clipping the hinged back section to it. 

Back view, with ceiling. I would have liked to have seen the bay window seats captured a little more effectively perhaps, although they look fine overall. Perhaps it would look a little better with a shallower arch, although as far as I am aware, no such part exists which would span the eight studs required.

Front view. The new-ish 2x2 cut-corner slopes have been put to good use above the windows, and they also look very accurate to the show. You can also see the curved front door frame, which is not quite the right shape, but as close as can be achieved without the creation of a new piece. Naturally, the door opens inward and it is the same colour as the garage door which was discussed yesterday.

Finally, the bag provided parts for the mailbox. The indicator flag can be raised and lowered and there is an envelope attached to a white 1x2 plate which together protrude from the slot.

This is a well constructed section with some cool features. Although the layout is far from accurate, the appearance of the piano and this section of the kitchen is excellent. Already, the house is starting to take shape and looks pretty good, but things are only going to get better from here on in...

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.

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In this part of the review, CapnRex101 and I build from bags numbered 4, which completes the ground floor kitchen and lounge, and also contain our fourth minifig, Marge Simpson.

Marge is wearing her housework clothes, with the ever-present dress mostly obscured by her white apron. Her famous blue hair is captured brilliantly, although her eyes are rather strange in my opinion. I suppose it might be the right expression for her groan though.

The back is also printed with some more of her apron and red necklace. The lime green skirt is a little bit open from the back, although it looks fine and can be flattened easily enough against the minifigure by applying some sustained pressure for a period.

Like the front, construction begins upside down to build the base, then the floor is tiled. Here's the section before it's attached to the front via a plate-hinge.

The kitchen contains an oven and hob, a sink and another set of drawers. You will at this point note that the lime green fridge is not included in the set. This is one of my main issues with the model as a whole, as it seems like something which would be quite easy to build and the fridge frequently makes an appearance in the show. However, you could of course easily build this yourself and replace one of the small chests of drawers.

The iconic couch looks great, in medium brown, and is long enough to fit three members of the family, but is not so long that it looks completely out of scale with the room.  Beside the sofa is a blue telephone on a pink and purple side table, which is again accurate to the show. You can also see the orange rug on the floor, and although it is not quite the correct shape, it is as close as one could get without creating new pieces for either end of it.

The CRT television is showing 'The Itchy and Scratch Show'. This is a brilliant little model with construction in six directions! The buttons are included on the right hand side, and I am glad that this version of the television has been included rather than the more modern version which has appeared in recent seasons of the show.

Here's how the two sections are connected, with the kitchen and lounge coming together to form two large rooms.

This shows the back of the house before the beams and ceiling are added. The colour scheme is very gaudy: Huw is right to presume the Simpsons have no taste! The rather odd looking item in the middle of the room is a vacuum cleaner. If you enjoy constructing minifigure scale micro-builds, look no further than this set!

For some reason, the left-hand side of the stairs appear olive green in the photo underneath, although they are actually tan like on the right. The archway towards the right of the model will lead into the garage when the whole model comes together at the end. You can see the famous sailing boat painting on the wall, which is a sticker on a medium brown 2x4 tile. It looks great to me, and I am delighted that probably the three most iconic items in the show, the TV, the couch and the painting, have all been captured perfectly.

The finished section attached to the front of the house and with ceiling over the kitchen added. The small patio area at the back is included, along with the back door.

Front view, with the depth of the house shown clearly. The proportions of the ground floor from the outside are excellent.

One of the more interesting aspects of this section, parts-wise, is the table and chairs. The 6x6 round plate was new last year and so far has appeared only in this 'medium azure' and also light grey. The chairs are very cleverly constructed from just 5 pieces: a 1x2 / 2x2 bracket, two handles and two of the new 2x1 curved slopes.

The table is not connected to the floor and is positioned in the kitchen. It is a bit of a tight squeeze, although there is just about space for most of the family to sit around the table.

The attention to detail in this section is impressive and the bright, rare, colours really make it eye-catching.

The room in which the majority of the action happens, the lounge, has been given an appropriate amount of space in the model I think. The kitchen is accurate except for the non-inclusion of the fridge, and perhaps a tiny bit more space is needed for the table and chairs, otherwise it would be absolutely faultless.

In the next segment, we begin construction of the upstairs, where there are yet more goodies to be found!

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.

These are the most read articles that we've posted over the last couple of weeks:

• London Toy Fair report(22 Jan, 20195 views)
• Review: 71006 The Simpsons House, part 1(22 Jan, 11732 views)
• The Simpsons House available now(17 Jan, 10242 views)
• Review: 70804 Ice Cream Machine(15 Jan, 7716 views)
• Summer LEGO Movie sets(13 Jan, 7630 views)
• Review: 71006 The Simpsons House, part 2(23 Jan, 7209 views)
• Review: 71006 The Simpsons House, part 3(24 Jan, 6905 views)
• Anything you'd like to ask the head of LEGO CEE?(18 Jan, 4941 views)
• Review: 70811 The Flying Flusher(16 Jan, 4283 views)
• Senteosan returns with more Dinosaurs. Also, a fine Diner and a tiny Barracuda (23 Jan, 3573 views)

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.

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In today's part of the review, again written with much help from CapnRex101, we add bags #5 and #6 to the house, which completes the front upstairs section of it -- two bedrooms and the bathroom -- and the front of the roof. Also included in the bags is the penultimate minifig: baby Maggie Simpson.

Maggie has a new one-piece body which is one plate shorter than a normal minifig torso when attached to short legs. The flared bottom of it prevent the arms from being rotated fully. This is the first appearance of a baby in LEGO, although it is rather large to allow a suitable level of detail to be captured. As you can see Maggie's bow is printed on her hair, along with the famous pacifier which always accompanies the character.

It has some sort of 'tail' at the back, presumably trailing flaps of nightdress. The spikes of her hair look great in my opinion, and there are the correct number I believe.

The top front of the house is built directly onto the bottom and once construction of bags #5 is completed this is what it looks like:

As part of this stage of construction, you build the first half of Lisa's bedroom, in which one find a bed, two bed side cabinets and some shelves. On these shelves are some books (actually just stacked 1x2 plates), a magnifying glass, which is similar to the one which has been around for many years, but is a slightly updated mould, and what looks like a hat box, although I cannot see such a thing in her room on the show.

In Homer and Marge's bedroom is a king size bed, two more bed side cabinets and Maggie's cot. The wall has some medium nougat patches on it due to the construction of the chimney. This is a bit of a shame, but it can be overlooked and is not much of an issue really.

Maggie's cot is found in her own room in the show, but in this model it has been placed in Homer and Marge's bedroom. Again, this is not consistent with the show, but I do not consider this much of a problem as a true recreation of the house would be too large and expensive to be profitable (or affordable). Maggie cannot lay down in the cot, but is able to stand in it.

The bathroom is full of great details: toilet with cistern, toilet roll (a vehicle door!), sink unit with shelves and shower which is completed with parts from bag 6 so is shown further down.

Here's a view from the top:

The front of the house. The windows seem a bit narrow, although they are accurate to the show. One design flaw that's apparent in this picture is that the bed headboards obscure the windows.

The contents of bags #6 complete construction of the top front of the house. Note the 'Jazz Fest' poster on Lisa's wall and the air conditioner which Homer has 'borrowed' from Flanders!

Here's the completed shower in the bathroom, complete with shower head, screen and hot and cold taps on the wall.

Completed front of section, without roof.

The roof is constructed, and held in place, in the same way as the garage roof. Constructing it is actually quite tricky, not because of complex building techniques, but because the instructions are very dark and it's hard to see what's been placed where. LEGO has recognised this as an issue and has outlined parts as they are added in yellow, but it's still not totally clear.

You can see the television aerial on the roof here which is placed accurately on the left hand side as we look at it from the front. It does not stand quite straight due to the angle of the roof, although given the traumas that this has gone through in the TV show, this is believable.

Rear view.

This first section of the upstairs is excellent. Many of the main features have been captured effectively, and the few inaccuracies are not a huge issue in my opinion given the limitations of size and price.

Tomorrow we'll complete the model and draw our conclusions on it including whether we think it's worth £179.99/$199.99...

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.

The GrooveBricks team has just alerted us to video taken at the German Toy Fair, which started today, of new Star Wars sets 75048 and Phantom 75053 The Ghost.

Look out on the 'net for more coverage from the fair and post a comment if you find any.

Update: there are a lot more links in the comments!

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.

ChicoCheco has found boxes of polybags in his local Nille stores, much like those that were available in stores across Europe last year.

The selection of ten polybags, most of which have not been available elsewhere yet, can be seen in this query.

This article was originally published at Brickset.com.