Last weekend, Kris Abel from CTV News visited the Canadian Toy & Hobby Fair and got a good look at upcoming LEGO sets from the LEGO Canada display. He posted a lot of pictures (would have loved more from some of the Atlantis sets) and a lot of them I was surprised at. They were some of the first good photos I’ve seen of some of the unreleased sets scheduled for later in the year.
A few highlights:
8077 Atlantis Exploration HQ
8078 Portal Of Atlantis
My observation on the Atlantis sets:
* The 8077 Atlantis Exploration HQ looks to be shaping up well. The first blurry shots I saw a while back made it look closer to the 7775 Aqua Raiders Aquabase Invasion. It looks to be a square-ish/self-contained structure which makes sense. I’m assuming the vehicles will dock on top.
* The 8078 Portal of Atlantis (the infamous Shark Temple or Shark Castle) is bigger than I thought and looks to have a lot of really cool and unique parts. It’s hard to get a sense of the minifigs since they were mixed together with other sets. There looks to be some parts in colors that we haven’t seen before. The box shows 898 pieces but that’s obviously subject to change since it’s a prototype. I’m not sure on new minifigs – there is a skeleton with some diving gear on that has a trident symbol on their head. You can barely make out what looks to be the “turtle warrior” on top of the Portal, that’s been discussed in the past.
* Kris mentioned when discussing the Space Police sets that Atlantis was the focus this year, hence the lack of a lot of new Space Police sets.
As Kris notes, a lot of the upcoming sets are prototypes/mock-ups and details are not yet finalized. Nothing from Harry Potter and nothing new from the Toy Story line that’s not already out. I’m not quite as interested in the World Racers line or the Hero Factory line, but it looks like both could give us some new parts or older parts in new colors. Looking at the boxes for the World Racers, I think they’ll probably sell very well to the target audience.
Some of the other sets shown (besides 8077/8078) include quite a few sets that are currently available and some that are limited right now or unavailable (depending on area), such as:
* 3181 City – Passenger Plane
* 3180 City – Tanker (Go go Octane!)
* 3221 City – LEGO Cargo Truck (it has LEGO logos on it and is yellow)
* An impulse set from the Farm line
* 5868 Creator – Ferocious Creatures (a crocodile that can be rebuilt as perhaps a dinosaur and something else)
* 5892 Creator – Sonic Boom – Jet that can be rebuilt as a two-engine turboprop or a boat
* 5893 Creator – Offroad Power (Pick-Up) that can be rebuilt as an off-road/dune buggy or a large tow-truck.
* 8683 Collectable Minifigs (we’ve talked about them previously)
* 7946 Kingdoms – King’s Castle (see notes below)
* 7953 Kingdoms – Jester’s Court
* 7955 Kingdoms – The Wizard (Comes with what looks to be a little green dragon or owl plus a table and some potions/magic items).
* 7947 Prison Tower Rescue (possibly)
* 7949 Prison Carriage Rescue (possibly)
* 7950 Knight’s Showdown (possibly)
* LEGO Game Series – Minotaurs / Minotaurus
* LEGO Game Series – Robo Champs
* LEGO Game Series – Hogwarts Challenge (3862)
* LEGO Game Series – Creationary
* LEGO Game Series – Dragon
* LEGO Game Series – Monster 4
* LEGO Game Series – Pirate Code (possibly 3848 Pirate Plank)
* LEGO Game Series – Ramses Pyramid
* LEGO Game Series – Race 3000
* Some Prince of Persia sets – 7570 Ostrich Race and 7573 Battle of Alamut as well as 7571 Fight for the Dagger. I’m very interested in these sets, but can’t/won’t talk about them at this time.
* 8190 Power Miners – Claw Catcher
* 8191 Power Miners – Lavatraz
* 5983 Space Police – Undercover Cruiser w/317 pieces – very cool looking
* 5984 Space Police – Lunar Limo w/391 pieces – very very cool looking
* 5985 Space Police – Space Police Central / Central – 630 pieces and a very welcome addition to the Space Police lineup
* 8089 Star Wars – Hoth Wampa Attack
* 8093 Star Wars – Plo Koon’s Jedi Starfighter
* 8096 Star Wars – Palpatine’s Shuttle
* 8097 Star Wars – Slave 1 – very much looking forward to this
* 8089 Star Wars – Clone Turbo Tank w/1139 pieces
* 8043 Technic – Excavator
* 8051 Technic – Motorbike (cool looking)
* 8052 Technic – Container Truck
* 8053 Technic – Mobile Crane (very cool looking)
Kris posted some shots of some Kingdoms sets, which is replacing the Castles series/theme. WOW! The main/flagship castle is awesome. It feels like some of the older sets, but there are sets that still tie it to the modern Castles theme such as the 7955 “The Wizard” which is reminiscent of 5614 The Good Wizard from 2008. There are red knights and green knights shown, and possibly a set or two that we don’t know the title/number to.
Read: Krsis Abel’s Tech Life