nove teme nam dolaze u 2016
wo new subthemes: Volcano Explorers and Airport, which we didn't know about until today.
Volcano Explorers was described to us as being like the City Arctic sets but with the danger of volcanoes. The 6 sets were all vehicles of some sort, lime green and dark grey/black, which looked pretty good. Several of the vehicles are tracked and several come with drill attachments because, apparently, the volcano is spewing out some sort of boulders with crystals/rare metals/whatever inside. The boulder elements are new but similar to the older design which has been around for years.
The volcano research base is not a base as such, it's just a couple of vehicles and a, I have to say, rather pathetic volcano which is about 15 bricks high maybe, and 20 studs square -- yes, rather more square than round -- made primarily of BURPS (big ugly rock pieces). It has a mechanism inside to eject the aforementioned boulders.
Some of the vehicles looked quite nice but the best of the bunch for me was a helicopter which looked great in lime green.
The Airport theme consists of 5 sets:
- starter set
- VIP service: private jet and limousine
- Passenger terminal and jet, much like previous ones but with new wings, apparently, and a blue nose cone. It certainly looked less 'juniorised' than the older ones.
- Airshow: Two jets of different designs, in red, white and black, and a orange biplane complete with wing walker attached. This also comes with a rudimentary hanger, large enough for perhaps two of the planes.
- Cargo plane, a small green and white plane.
So, really, just updated versions of what's gone before. I'll get them added to the database shortly.
Perhaps the most interesting City set was 60143 Fun at the Park which was hidden away on a shelf, which I didn't see. Lucy, however, did and said it looked excellent: a dozen or so minifigs with some very attractive and new torso prints, a new baby piece, a wheelchair, park bench and one or two other accessories. When she's written up her notes we'll know more.
Update: here's what Lucy knows about it:
60134 City Fun at the Park £34.99 - *I think*
I had spotted the title of this set in the Brickset database but couldn't see it on display when I got to the City section (I had gotten left behind the boys a bit as all the "girly" stuff was at the beginning of our tour!) so I asked and it was tucked away on a shelf.
The lady I spoke to said that LEGO get a lot of feedback from customers complaining that they have lots of vehicles and buildings in their Lego city but lack civilians and want to buy essentially a City minifigure pack. This set corresponds to this problem, though the lady said to me it's sometimes tricky to do a set like this because the set will come in a relatively small box for the price point. My feeling is that this will be a big seller though.
It includes an Alsatian dog and 14 minifigures - some adults, some kids. None were actually on display but the display card showed a grandma and grandpa in lovely knitted jumpers, kids with some new torso designs (one with the yellow sleepy head hair, one with the bob hair new in tan), a female handyman in paint splattered blue dungarees. In addition there is a brick built pushchair (stroller) to accommodate the brand new baby fig - not the baby in papoose seen with the tribal woman but a figure that's roughly the height of minifig legs and one stud wide, with little arms and head. It looked very cute on the illustration :-)
The other brilliant new piece is a wheelchair mould - a prototype piece was on display -, a seat area with rear handles, to which wheels are attached. It's long overdue, but I think it'll be worth the wait.
There are a number of little builds of things you'd expect to see in or around a park - picnic table, bench, bus stop, a little football goal (slatted windscreen piece with a tile across the top), a hot dog cart (again reusing that new bun part!)
All in all, my favourite set among the City theme but then I do love my minifigures!