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Must admit that I probably bought a little too much LEGO when we were on holidays (which I'm sure I'll let you know almost everything we did eventually).

But here's a run down of the LEGO purchases... if you gave me money for my birthday this it probably went towards something in here...

Bought from LEGOLand
7945 Fire Station
6239 Cannon Battle
6240 Kraken Attackin'
6241 Loot Island
6242 Soldiers' Fort
6243 Brickbeard's Bounty
852271 Knights Battle Pack
?????? Troll Battle Pack
852341 Minifigure Ice Lollipop Mould
851915 LEGO Brick Cake / Jelly Mould
7641 City Corner
852737 Star Wars 10th Anniversary Stormtrooper Magnet
50 Years of the LEGO Brick book
A whole bunch of Pick a Brick
LEGOLand membership (giving 10% all merch in LEGOLand and apparently LEGO stores, 20% food at LEGOLand, free entry to LEGOLand and one free entry for someone else once).

Bought from LEGO Disneyland
10185 Green Grocer
10193 Medieval Market Village
7079 Drawbridge Defense
10194 Emerald Night
7895 Switching Tracks
8293 Motor Set
10181 The Eiffel Tower (for urbabe)

From LAX Airport
The Brick Testament: The 10 Commandments

From AKL Airport
7744 Police Headquarters

The photo shows mostly boxes opened and Green Grocer and the Eiffel Tower are in the big red LEGOLand bags. Sadly one of the pluses of buying a lot of LEGO from the US is the extra effort in getting it home.

I'm pretty sure I'm missing some extra stuff, but urbabe will probably point it out, or I'll remember :)

Myer is having a sale with 20% off all LEGO. The sale starts today (June 25 2009) ad lasts until 26 July 2009 (unless sold out).

Some of the more interesting ones are the Taj Mahal, which exclusive to Myer for $399 (going up to $499 after the sale). Myer's other exclusive, The Eiffel Tower is reduced to $295 (from $395). This is a little annoying as we just bought Eiffel Tower from the Anaheim Disneyland LEGO store. Doh. The lady at LEGOland in Carlsbad did mention that the Eiffel Tower has been discontinued (although it's still listed in the online LEGO shop as available), so this is probably the best time to pick it up.

From Brother's Brick, the possible solution to the question mark in the Emerald Night video.

It turns out that it's a fire station. It's a sort of classic US fire station, which makes for a change to the previous modular buildings such as Cafe Corner and Greengrocer.

Set for release in September 2009.

Quote:

10197 – Fire Brigade
Ages 16+. 2,231 pieces.
US $ 149.99; CA $ 199.99, UK £ 97.85, DE € 149.99

Build an authentic vintage fire station!
Ding ding ding! There’s a fire in town! The fire brigade drives to the scene from this detailed and realistic 1930’s fire station. Designed to fit with other modular buildings like 10182 Café Corner and 10185 Green Grocer, the station features rare LEGO® pieces and innovative construction techniques. It includes a ‘30s-style fire truck, 4 minifigures, a fire-dog, an opening station garage door, and a removable building roof for interior access. It also includes 2 fully-furnished floors with fire-fighting tools, racks for the firemen’s helmets, fire-pole, ping-pong table, kitchen with fully-stocked fridge, couch, bookshelf and a roof with a water tower and bell. Measures 14″ (35 cm) high and 10″ (25 cm) wide.

* Includes a 1930’s-style fire truck, 4 minifigures and a fire-dog!
* Features lots of realistic details including fire-fighting tools, racks for firemen’s helmets and even a fire-pole!
* The station house features an opening station garage door and 2 fully-furnished floors including a kitchen with fully-stocked fridge and a ping-pong table!
* Remove the roof for interior access!
* The roof is equipped with a water tower and bell!
* Fire Brigade features rare LEGO elements including bricks and plates in dark tan, 1×1 dark red tiles, a red hot dog and the 3×6×5 Belleville® arch. It also features gold fireman’s helmets, a tan hand bag and a red sliding garage door!
* Measures 14″ (35 cm) high and 10″ (25 cm) wide.
* Add Fire Brigade to your LEGO® Town and combine it with other modular buildings like 10182 Café Corner and 10185 Green Grocer!

It looks really good, you can see more photos of the set here and some lower quality, but informative photos here. The interior looks nicely filled, not so much as Greengrocer, but not as empty as Cafe Corner.

Annoyingly though one of my purchases (which was more of an after thought, having to go back to Legoland to pick up a book which I purchased but wasn't in my many bags) was 7945 Fire Station. They are very different, 7945 is fairly modern in design compared to 10197.

Yes I'll probably get it anyway...

I'll skip my usual joke of not being able to spell Assassin. Chrome has a spell check.

Kotaku reports that there will be a special edition for Assassin's Creed 2.

Called the "Black Edition" it will come in black packaging with a “unique authentic holographic signature”. Maybe Leo da Vinci's. I don't know...

But what's inside the box? Well it includes the game's soundtrack, behind the scenes interviews, 3 in-game bonus quests, a “64-page finely crafted leather style hardcover and parchment-finish” and a really cool (but who knows how big) action figure as seen above.

Pricing is set at $149.95 (Aussie). Ouch? That's a fair whack. That action figure better be really good.

Assasin's Creed looked really well done at E3. They seem to have improved on the original and the inclusion of da Vinci's inventions seems like it will be a lot of fun. Plus the ability to take out guards that are below you is something that I wanted in the first game. Oh and the ability to swim... but that's what sequels are all about right?

OXCGN reports on EB Swanston Street's advertising for Red Faction: Guerilla earlier this month.

Quote:

Renowned 3D chalk artist, Jenny McCracken, took to the shop pavement and worked frantically after-hours to create this vibrant piece of artwork.

Essentially it's a whole in the ground. Everyone loves chalk holes in the ground. Go take a look at the photos here and here.

decoder has a hands on with 3mobile's HTC Android handset the Magic.

The hands on points out some problems, but also some great things. In the end though...
Quote:

I would highly recommend this handset to anyone who wants an iPhone on the 3 network, or simply wants tight integration of their gmail account with their handset and a powerful, desktop like mobile internet experience.

Well that's pretty much what I want. It seems that as more and more Android based phones come out more and more (and better) apps are released.

Still trying to work out which plan to get though. But very excited, haven't had a new phone in years.

Android image sourced from richd.com

This is old news, so just to keep it quick. Disney and LEGO announced in Feb 2009 that the would partner up to bring a whole heap of new LEGO sets based on Disney (mostly Pixar) products.

LEGO System products based on Toy Story and Toy Story 2 will launch in January 2010 and sets based on Toy Story 3 will be released in May 2010 (just before the film). LEGO DUPLO sets will launch in June 2010.

Cars will get a line of DUPLO, set for release in June 2010. Just wonder how different it will be to the Mega Bloks Cars sets.

Finally, Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer are making a Prince of Persia: Sands of Time film. Set for release in May 2010, LEGO sets are scheduled to be released in April 2010.

Just to make the news a bit fresher (earlier this month), LEGO has also joined forces with Cartoon Network in creating LEGO BEN 10 ALIEN FORCE, set for release in the U.S. in spring 2010, with other regions following later. There's not a whole up of excitement across the LEGO communities about BEN 10. But we'll see what happens when the sets are released.

Traveller’s Tales will be releasing LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues in US Fall 2009.

The game includes the original LEGO Indiana Jones levels with some extra bits, such as the vehicle chase in Shanghai with Short Round. The game also includes levels based on Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The characters from Crystal Skull will also be available, including Oxley who has a Crystal Skull Power.

Probably the most intersting inclusion is the Build Your Own Adventure Mode. This mode allows you to create your own levels and environments and share them with friends. This is the first time that a TT LEGO game will includes this sort of mode and it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. The levels can be combined with the existing ones in the game.

The game will be coming out on Wii, DS, PS3, PSP and 360.

Oh and the LEGO Harry Potter video game has been announced too. It includes Years 1-4 and um... Hogwarts. Yah! I don't actually know much about Harry Potter...

Maybe you should go look at the video...

The game is scheduled for release in 2010. Systems not announced yet.

So as I'm not very interested in this one, but correctly guessed that it would be the next TT game to be released. So... I'm going to punt on the next games. Here's my thoughts... LEGO Spongebob, LEGO Spider-man, LEGO Pixar. Just throwing it out there.

Missed it by that much.... We'll be going to LEGOland on the 15th. Which means that we'll miss this by a day. Doh... But it sounds like fun and I'm sure some of the merch will still be around.

Quote:

THE FORCE RETURNS TO LEGOLAND® CALIFORNIA FOR STAR WARS™ DAYS

Special two-day event features Xbox 360 gaming, Droid Hunt, daily costume contests and a special visit from Darth Vader himself

CARLSBAD, Calif. (April 20, 2009) – The Force returns to LEGOLAND® California on June 13 and 14 during LEGO® STAR WARS Days. Darth Vader and his 501st Legion of stormtroopers will invade the family theme park to interact with fans all weekend long, and LEGOLAND guests will also be able to take part in out-of-this-world activities like the Droid Hunt, video game battles, trivia competitions, building activities, scavenger hunts and daily costume contests.

For the first time ever during LEGO STAR WARS Days, fans of all ages can experience the new Xbox Family GameSpace, where they can play LEGO STAR WARS games all weekend long. The Xbox Family GameSpace features 13 game stations, providing an optimal gaming experience. Xbox Family GameSpace is a new permanent feature at LEGOLAND California where guests can experience LEGO STAR WARS and other family-friendly games year-round.

One of the most popular LEGO STAR WARS Days events is the Droid Hunt. Guests of all ages receive “droid badges” if they are among the first to stop by a specially marked table in The Beginning of the Park, where they will learn a special droid quote from within the STAR WARS Saga. When guests wearing droid badges are “caught” within the Park by members of the 501st Legion, they must recite the quote to receive a raffle ticket for the chance to win fantastic LEGO STAR WARS and LEGOLAND California merchandise.

Other features and attractions include the LEGO STAR WARS Fan Gallery, highlighting LEGO STAR WARS creations built by local fans and LEGO Club members; Jedi Trivia Contests, which allow guests to use their STAR WARS knowledge to compete for fabulous prizes; and a Miniland U.S.A. scavenger hunt to discover scrambled letters hidden by clone trooper mini-figures. Those who locate all the letters and unscramble the secret phrase will be entered into a contest to win a family four-pack of LEGOLAND California tickets and exclusive LEGO STAR WARS merchandise.

Also, guests are encouraged to dress as their favorite STAR WARS characters and participate in daily costume contests. Prizes will be awarded in two age categories: 8 and younger and 9 to 15. Each prize is valued at more than $500 and includes exclusive LEGO STAR WARS toys, collectible gear and tickets to LEGOLAND California.

According to Eurobricks, the 10th Anniversary Chrome Silver Stormtrooper Magnet has been released. Hopefully there will be some available at LEGOland by the time I get there. They look awesome.

Lego Rock Band is looking fun. The game will feature many different minifigs (not just limited to rock) including Pirates and Knights. There's a new difficulty setting called super easy (similar to GH:WT) where you can basically play anything you want as long as it's on the beat.

You get studs during songs, which can then be used for building things like cars. A neat touch is that the highway will now contain studs instead of the normal gems.

The game has challenges (but I think we know that from the original press release).

Check out the video for more information

Harmonix showed off The Beatles: Rock Band during the Microsoft E3 press conference (the first item no less). They trotted out Yoko, Olivia, George's son, Paul and Ringo.
The game itself looks really good and seems to traverse the styles of many epochs of The Beatles career.

Especially wonderful is the intro (directed by Pete Candeland of Gorillaz fame). The Beatles run from gig to gig, from gig to studio, from studio to trippy land. It's really well done and hopefully sets the tone of the game.

Check it out:

With three part harmonies and a story line, should be an interesting game. According to Harmonix each song from the studio years will have it's own dreamscape (or video representation of the song).

They also announced that "All You Need is Love" will be an Xbox exclusive DLC, profits of which will go towards Doctors Without Borders.

Harmonix are planning on releasing full albums of DLC, starting with Abbey Road after the game's launch (the DLC can't be used in other Rock Bands though).

Events...

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