London Toy Fair Report, part 4
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London Toy Fair Report, part 4
Posted by Huw, 23 Jan 2013 03:38. Filed under Miscellaneous.
This picture is taken from the gallery above the LEGO stand. As you can see virtually all of it was covered over thereby preventing photos from above. They really are paranoid, aren't they!In this final Toy Fair report, I will cover Star Wars, Friends, Games and anything else I can remember. So, read on...
Star Wars
The Star Wars sets were the usual mix of the fantastic and the mediocre and ranged from must-have OT sets to obscure vehicles that nobody will recognise. However, again as usual, the minifigs in them all are stunning. Not many of them were on display, probably because they were not manufactured yet, instead all we had were pictures of them.
There will be nine sets released, not including 'power' items offered to specific retailers, which are not shown at the show.
- 75015, Corporate Alliance Tank Droid, £20, featuring a new Jango Fett (at last!) a clone trooper and a battle droid.
- 75016, Homing Spider Droid, £30, Adi Galia, Clone Trooper, Super Battle Droid.
- 75017, Yoda vs Dooku playset, £40, quite an interesting set that's hard to describe. Basically it's a battleground with various obstacles and traps and a small speeder. It features a brand new Yoda with a olive green head, a new Dooku, Dooku's pilot droid and Poggle the Lesser, whoever he is!
- 75018, Jek 14’s Stealth Starfighter, £60, this is apparently from the Yoda Chronicles. It's a fairly large craft, black with red accents which looks a bit like an X-Wing without the top wings. Minifigs are Jek-14, Separatist bounty hunter, Special Forces Clone Trooper and R4-G0.
- 75019, AT-TE, £80, Mace Windu, Coleman Trebor, Clone Trooper Gunner and two battle droids.
- 75020, Jabba’s Sail Barge, £100, this looks excellent. I can't say whether it's larger or smaller than the last one because mine is still MISB. It certainly looked big enough. Minifigs are Jabba, Leia, R2-D2, Ree-Yees, Weequay and Max Rebo.
- 75021, Republic Gunship, £110, although the guy on the stand said it was much improved on the last version, superficially, it looks pretty much identical and seems to employ many of the same building techniques to form the shape of the ship. Contains Obi-Wan, Anakin, Padme, Clone Pilot, Clone Trooper Officer and two Super Battle Droids.
- 75022, Mandalorian Speeder, £25, two Mandalorian super commandos and a new Darth Maul.
- 75023, Advent Calendar, £25. No minifigs for this were on display but as I said earlier, it contains Santa Jango Fett.
Games
Three new games to be released in August:
- Chima. This looked attractive and involves collecting CHI.
- Batman. Chase baddies across Gotham City, looked to be just 'more of the same' and similar to other games.
- Story Mixer. The most interesting of the three. I wasn't quite sure how it was supposed to work, but it seems to involve collecting small vignettes, on 4 x 4 plates which represent trees, cakes, houses, trains, planes, animals and all sorts of other things, which you have to use to make up a coherent story. It was said to be equally appealing to adults and kids, and as it didn't involve any actual building (unlike Creationary) it will be easier to play with non-building grannies and the like.
Friends
Discounting the collectable bags for a moment, there will be six new sets in August:
- 41009, Andrea’s Bedroom, £10, dressing table, sofa (might be a sofa bed) small table with laptop.
- 41010, Olivia’s Beach Buggy, £10, beach buggy, ice cream stand, palm tree.
- 41013, Emma’s Sports Car, £13, light and dark pink sports cabriolet, picnic table, signpost.
- 41006, Downtown Bakery, £25, two minifigs, similar in size and design to the cafe, but different colours: tan, dark pink, orange.
- 41005, Heartlake High, £50, very attractive looking school building, probably 48-odd studs wide, but only eight deep. Made mostly from light yellow bricks with a dark blue roof. Three figures including an African-American boy.
- 41015, Dolphin Cruiser, £60, large pleasure boat which, like many Friends sets, is a bit of a mish-mash of colours making it look a bit messy. It''s primarily white, with turquoise and pink. The top half is removable to access the bedroom and galley below deck. Three minifigs including a Caucasian boy.
The three series 3 collectable bags were on display, which feature a puppy and kennel, a fawn and a tree, and a green parrot in a open cage.
Super Heroes
I know a lot of you want more information about these but to be honest, they were very underwhelming. There were no minifigs on display, as I said, and the Marvel sets in particular were very un-memorable, I can't even tell you what they were. Pete has recalled some of the minifigs over at FBTB so if you have an interest in SH, please take a look over there.
I think that just about wraps up my coverage of the event. Hopefully more details, and photos will emerge from the German toy fair in a couple of weeks.
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