#893 of Year 3 Hot Wheels A-Team Van

I was asked to assist this dude who I knew from Facebook to help him complete his college project.  It had something to do with toys and photography.  So I made an appointment and spent a few hours with him, just hanging out and assisting where possible.  By the end of the evening, he handed me this small bag and told me it was in appreciation of the help that I had given.  Wow.  OK.

#891 extra of Year 3 MASK Rhino

I was trawling ebay the other day, the first time I've done so in ages and I noticed this red Rhino truck for a pittance.  So I put in a bid for some ridiculous low amount, and after about a week, I actually won it at below my maximum bid.  Whoa!

#891 and #892 of Year 3 Hot Wheels Eternia and Panthor

From a Lamboghini to a truck and a pick-up?  Yup, I got two MotU vehicles the other day, so here they are!

#890 of Year 3 Lego 8214 Racers Lamboghini Polizia

I'm not a huge fan of the Racers theme, but I do like the Lamboghinis that have come out from the theme.  Of course, that's a licensed property, but their cars are huge and the first version was a nice yellow convertible.  So I was hoping that this version would be as awesome.

#887a of Year 3 Bricklink Order to restore Lego 6970 Command Centre

It's the 30th anniversary of my first Lego Space set, and I thought I'll get some of the missing pieces from the internet to spruce it up a bit.

#886-889 of Year 3 Lego 8831 Minifigures Evil Knight, Galaxy Patrol, Viking Woman, Bagpiper

Well, I guess I've gotten bitten by the minifigures bug.  I can't seem to help picking them up each time I get anywhere near them!

#885 of Year 3 Lego 9486 Oil Rig Escape

This is the big set from this year, and kudos to Lego for making an oil rig.  The last time we saw a rig has been quite some time as part of the City Coastguard subtheme.

#884 of Year 3 Lego 9483 Cars Agent Mater's Escape

Another day, another Lego Cars set.  Today, it's a set from the second movie, where the bad guys, or lemons try to take out Lightning McQueen by shooting at him with a microwave disguised as a camera, and Mater zooms in to save the day.

#883 of Year 3 Lego 9485 Cars Ultimate Race Set

I think this is my favourite of the releases this year for the Cars theme.  One box with three vehicles that we've never seen before.  Heck, they probably only included Lightning McQueen so that it sells, but he's the least awesome part of this set IMO.

#882 of Year 3 Lego 9479 Cars Ivan Mater

Ivan Mater is one of the four individual vehicles in the release this year, but unlike Jeff, he's mainly a "repaint" of Mater with blue bricks.  Still, I guess he does look very different from Mater.

#881 of Year 3 Lego 9484 Cars Red Water Rescue

This is one of the smaller sets from the second half of the Cars year not to features just a vehicle.  And it features a vehicle from the first movie instead of the second one.  Cool beans.

#880 of Year 3 Lego 9481 Cars Jeff Gorvette

I was a bit estatic when I saw that we were getting more cars.  I was less estatic though, when I found out that three of the four were variations of what we already have.  The fourth though was someone (or some car?) that we've not had before in Lego form, Mr. Jeff Gorvette.

More Lego Cars...

This is my existing Lego Cars collection (vehicles/characters only) and these are the six unopened boxes that I have.  Guess what's happening the next 6 days?  If you guessed that I'm opening up the six boxes of Lego, you'd be correct!

#879a of Year 3 Lego 8684 Minifigures Spartan Warrior

I have been hunting for this figure high and low, and it has been no secret.  So imagine my surprise when this dude that I know gave it to me... for free!

#879 of Year 3 Lego 8684 Minifigures Mariachi

I finally got my hand on a brand new, unopened Series 2 blind bag.  I ordered the Mexican, which was the original name Lego gave this figure until it was decided that it was a bit racist, so they changed it to Mariachi.

#878 extra of Year 3 Lego 7190 Millennium Falcon

I think this is the first Millennium Falcon that Lego produced, and like all "vintage" Star Wars sets, it's a bit dated.

The box is nice, it does show off all 6 minifigs on the front.  I didn't have to build it because when I got it more than a decade ago, I had lots of time for toys.  Heh.  The model does seem a bit odd with those UFO segments.

But it does have a whole lot of nice printed bricks.

The top can be removed to show the inside of the ship, and it seems huge on the inside.

Every room has all sorts of goodness, but my favourite is the pilot's chamber.  As I said, this is way way dated.  The modern sets are probably a whole lot better, but I don't have any of those...

#878 of Year 3 Lego 9678 Star Wars Planets Series 2 Twin-pod Cloud Car and Bespin

The final planet for Series 2, and for 2012 is Bespin.

#877 of Year 3 Lego 9677 Star Wars Planets Series 2 X-wing Starfighter and Yavin 4

I have no idea where Yavin-4 is or why it's mostly green and looks like a melon, but that's not a big deal since I'm not a Star Wars purist. Remember, I'm only getting thse for the Christmas tree at the end of the year and I'm more concerned that this melon will get lost in all the gree of the tree...

#876 of Year 3 Lego 9679 Star Wars Planets Series 2 AT-ST and Endor

With a nice start to the first series of Lego Star Wars planets, Lego brought out the second series in the second half of this year.  I dutifully headed to the Lego store to pick these up, despite the fact that I was in another country... but then again, Lego is sold most everywhere.

#875 of Year 3 Lego 9675 Star Wars Planets Series 1 Sebulba's Podracer and Tatooine

This is the final planet in this series, and it's an interesting one.

#874 of Year 3 Lego 9674 Star Wars Planets Series 1 Naboo Starfighter and Naboo

We are still on my Lego Star Wars Planet jaunt and we fly across the galaxy far far away from the Death Star to Naboo.

#873 of Year 3 Lego 9676 Star Wars Planets Series 1 Tie Interceptor and Death Star

I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, so I haven't been picking the series up recently.  But when I saw that Lego was doing a planets series, and being a big fan of planets (please no Uranus jokes), these sets really appealed to me.