850451- Lord Vampyre Key Chain

Another person to add the the Halloween/Autumn Party that is my quarterly rotating display table.  This well detailed figure is a member of the Monster Fighters theme, of which I have only one small set.

4200- Mining 4x4

This vehicle is part of a city mining set, but I pretend it is a construction one to go along with set 4201- Loader and Tipper and put it to work fixing up my City.  Likely with mini set 5610- Builder helping out.

This set comes with one minifig worker, vehicle with construction accessories and crate, and openable boulder with rocks and gold pieces.

9469- Gandalf Arrives

I squeak when I think about this set.  It is simply so heartwarmingly iconic and has the added benefit of some very cute accessories.

This horse-drawn cart set illustrates the first moments Gandalf comes back to the Shire and meets up with Frodo, before any notion of Middle Earth saving adventure is whispered of.

To help us reacquaint the wizard with the hobbit folk of the Lord of the Rings world, we get Gandalf the Grey, Frodo, a well constructed cart, brown horse, barrel of fireworks, satchel with letter, brown book, and a carrot.

850487- Halloween Accessory Set

In opposition to what it may say in many ebay ads, this set is not related to the Monster Fighters theme.  It's formally named a Halloween set, but on the lego shop site it is under the Collectible Minigifures theme.  Lego created a few of these "combi-packs" with figures in a related theme (Rock Band, Beach) from different CM series', along with some items and little constructions to bring it all together.









The figures in this set are meant to be a collection of Zombie from Series 1, Witch from Series 2, and a ghost from no series.  We also get a tombstone construction, plants, accessories for each of the figures, and six animals.

40025- New York Taxi

This polybag seemed pretty adorable, so I decided to buy it as a retired product on Amazon.  Originally though, it was available in Lego Stores in New York  for a limited time and in Toys R Us stores during December 2012.  I really liked the concept of a little yellow taxi, as the one in my Train Station set seemed a bit bulky.  However, what I didn't know is that this car is actually a model, meaning not to Lego figure scale.

850507- Spider-Man Key Chain

This was my first Lego keychain and I had intended to  remove the chain and screw from this and all Lego keychains I got so that I could buy characters I liked without having to get costly or unappealing sets.  With the help of some youtube videos, I decided that I would be able to remove the keychain part without too much difficulty, but that proved wrong.  My poor Spidey got a little dinged during my attempts with various pliers.  Maybe removal is possible with pliers, but I recommend a soldering iron.  The keychain he comes on is a simple short chain and ring.

5002889- DK's Batman Visual Dictionary

I never liked any of the Batman sets enough to purchase, but I was happy to buy this book since I'm always interested in pictures of cute sets and love the Batman minifigure that came with it.  As typical in the DK Lego licensed-theme books, the front cover is a thick cardboard containing an exclusive minifigure.  So, the book may seem twice as long as they actually are, but all the DK Lego books I've gotten have never disappointed.

3061- City Park Cafe

I'm not too fond of the flamboyancy of the Friends sets in general, but it's not too common to see these everyday life sets in the City theme, so this was really welcome.  Compared to normal sets of this size though, this was a bit simplistic to put together.  Lots of stickers are used and you can see the sheet below.  The mini-dolls in this set are of Andrea and Marie (not pictured).  Andrea is wearing a pink top and a pink skirt.  Marie has a orange top and a light blue skirt.  See below for an image of the back of the box.

This set comes with a cafe and small outdoor area.  Inside the cafe is a table and seating area, condiment table, sink, oven, full set of kitchenware, milkshake machine, pie display case, and cash register.  The outdoor area features many flowers, a small table with two stools, and food.

3933- Olivia's Invention Workshop

What drew me to this set was that is has a nice science theme.  I'm really happy that while the Friends theme is targeted at girls, it explores all kind of different interests people may have.  It's daily life without having to be police or fire.












This set features the mini-doll Olivia.  She's not pictured here, but is wearing an orange-yellow tanktop and lime green cropped pants.  Included in the set is a table with a Lego model microscope, flask, and seat; a model robot with remote control; a shelf unit with bottles; a printed blackboard; and a workstation with drawers, tool wheel, and model clamp mechanism.

3936- Emma's Fashion Design Studio

This set always seemed to be in limited supply, and taking a look at all the accessories, it's no wonder why.  More on that, but first note that while Emma is not pictured, she is wearing a purple tanktop and a dark blue skirt.  See the back of box image below to get a better look at her.












This set comes with a small table and stool with a sandwich and Lego laptop, a printed design board and stand, four drawers with four bolts of cloth and hairbrush, a larger work table with stepladder and lamp, flower cluster, mp3 player, mug, camera, and printed measuring tape.

3939- Mia's Bedroom

I was pretty psyched to see a more domestic setting like this in the Friends series.  This set is works fairly well, scale-size for normal Lego minifigures.













This set is made up of three main parts: bed with side table, table with radio, and a drumset.  The mini-doll Mia is not pictured but she is wearing a white halter top and a pink skirt.  Is anyone else really excited to have a proper Lego drumset?

79000- Riddles for the Ring

I'm a fan of well-developed low price licensed sets, and this one fits the bill.  Representing a well-known scene in The Hobbit, this set includes Gollum and Bilbo minifigures, a boat, and an interesting cave/rock construction with special placement for the Ring.

3300014- Limited Edition Christmas Set 2012 (Brick Friday)

This is my first Holiday season as an adult Lego fan, so I was really happy to find out that Lego offers a special exclusive set free with qualifying purchases on Black Friday (known to us Lego fans as Brick Friday).  As a Lego VIP Member, I was glad to have the chance to get this set before Black Friday.  I'm very impressed with the little set as it is a great wintry scene.

40034- Christmas Train

New for Christmas 2012, we have a lovely little festive train.  This polybag release features a train engine connected to a train car containing two model candy canes.

The mostly red engine has two small side windows and one large one in the front.  Unfortunately, the little space in the cab isn't quite big enough for a minifigure.  The engine has three slightly shiny silver wheels and some gold pieces in the front to represent the lights and grill.  It also has two smokestacks and two green circle decorations on each side.

40033- Turkey

This is my very first Holiday set.  With this order, I purchased a couple Christmas ones, but I've decided to hold off on opening those until mid-December.  I don't really like calling these "sets", as to me, that implies that the scale fits in with the rest of the Lego Universe.  Micro, Architecture, and Mini sets are at their own varying but micro scale, which most collectors or hobbyists can imagine easily, so I think I'll settle on calling these Holiday sets "models".

4201- Loader and Tipper

I'm not very impressed with the larger sets of the Mining theme, so this will be my most expensive set.  Mining in general doesn't feel like it belongs in my Lego Universe, so I easily can pretend that these vehicles are just construction ones.  The yellow colour certainly aids in that.  If the crew happen to find some gold or gems during the daily grind, then that's nice a nice bonus for them.  To fill out the crew, I've also purchased set 4200- Mining 4x4.

40076- Zombie Car

I got this little set in September of 2012 as a "Free with $75 purchase" promotional lego.com was running.  I'm not beyond admitting that this car influenced how much I put into my virtual cart that day.  O.o

I like the idea and the figures of the Monster Fighters theme, but I don't like any of the sets enough to purchase, so this set was a nice way of getting a little bit of the theme without having to really buy anything.

8909- Team GB

What a fantastic idea Lego Group!  Unfortunately, I was not in England when these collectible minifigures came out, so I got stuck paying high prices on ebay and only purchased two (received one as a present later).  The baseplates these athletes come with are extra special because not only are they white but they have some printed words and symbols on them.  All the minifigures come with gold medals which I love because.. they are Lego gold metals (!) and also because they fit around the head of the figure so that the head can be pushed all the way down.  Every other neck accessory I've seen makes it so that the head cannot be depressed all the way which makes the neck look slightly odd.

8833- Minifigures Series 8

I own 11 of the 16 collectible minifigures in this series.  Five were obtained in my first attempt at using the bump or dot codes on the bottom of the packet.  Every packet is supposedly marked with a few indents or bumps that indicate what the figure is.  This didn't work too well for me as at first glance none of the packets I looked at had the exact pattern of the ones I was looking for.  However, if I knew what was inside I could kind of make out the pattern it was suppose to be.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, then don't worry yourself over it.  If you want a specific minifigure, I suggest first seeing exactly what accessories the figure is holding, if they have a special leg or dress piece, and/or any special type of hair.

8831- Minifigures Series 7

Not pictured: Jungle Boy (10), Computer Programmer (12)

I own 10 of the 16 Collectible Minifigures in this series.  See below for back of leaflet image.