Well, I waited to have a little perspective on the thing before writing here and I want to be precise not to say anything ...

As some of you already know, the set 10228 Haunted Houses of the Monster Fighters range has suddenly seen its price increased by 40 € on the official LEGO site to go from 139.99 € to 179.99 €.

Recall the facts:

The Haunted House set 10228 went online in early July 2012 on the LEGO Shop UK at the attractive price of 139.99 €, with the impossibility of ordering it due to its availability date fixed on September 1, 2012.

The version of the set page still present at this time in the Google cache is dated August 17 and still displays the price of 139.99 €.

As soon as the price changed to 179.99 € (i.e. 40 € difference) by LEGO on the night of August 20 to 21, 2012, the AFOLs realized this significant upward price change and decided to request an explanation from the manufacturer via the contact form on the official website.

Un Brickpirate forum member got a response from LEGO to "explain this rate change".
The customer service person responsible for responding to the query includes this sentence in their response: "... I was amazed to read that the price had changed, so I checked with our product specialist and she confirmed to me that the price in Euros was posted at € 179.99 on our site from the start. .."

However, on August 17, 2012, the product page displayed the price of 139.99 € as I indicated to you above.

It therefore emerges that the person who answered gave false information. Blatant lie or incompetence? At this stage, difficult to judge, only one response of this type has been sent for the moment. Others who also contacted customer service by email have yet to receive a response.

What to think of this price change made long after the product was put online and just before its actual availability?

Error when uploading? It's hard to believe. This set has fueled all conversations and the price difference seen with other countries has been mentioned often on the forums. Someone at LEGO should have known this long before.

Rate change planned in advance? I find it hard to admit that LEGO uses this type of marketing technique to create demand and buzz around an upcoming product and then reindex its price discreetly overnight.

Note that the official LEGO press release, extensively relayed by the various sites dealing with the latest news from the manufacturer and sent for the launch of the product in early June 2012 mentioned the following prices:

"... US $ 179.99 CA $ 199.99 FROM 149.99 € UK 119.99 £ DK 1499 DKK ..."

It clearly contained an error because the price of the set on the German site is currently 179.99 €.

Anyway, it's bad publicity for the manufacturer with French AFOLs who are already some to have expressed their dissatisfaction by email. A gesture on the part of LEGO would be appreciated.

Error is human, correcting it is legitimate, recognizing it would be honest, compensating for it would be smart ...

Small quick clarification, following comments and emails received mentioning the above image found by some in Google images.

These are NOT the official minifigs planned for 2013. The symbol used for the packaging comes from a creation proposed by a fan (see this article).

The real 2013 packaging with the official illustration is presented in this article.

ALL visuals currently circulating with these minifigs of Clones Phase 2 in The Clone Wars sauce (Season 4) are fromone and the same project presented on Cuusoo by ZSpace.

Don't be fooled, the official images have yet to be shown, and the reseller catalog pages that a Eurobricks forumer may have discovered, appear to contain only preview minifigs.

Well, I agree, the image above is not exceptional at first glance.

Although if you take a closer look, you will see that it is a presentation of an MOC of mmccooey which details all the points of articulation of the Spider-Man figurine he presents.

And there are no less than 48 points of articulation that open up multiple possibilities that I let you discover on the flickr gallery of the MOCeur through the many photos that are there ...

We reach new heights when it comes to playability with this type of Action Figures, and LEGO should think about taking an idea or two to mmccooey for his next figurines.

The man is not at his first attempt and you can also go admire Dead Pool et Batman, both designed in the same spirit and presented in detail in their dedicated spaces.

You all know the Planet Series line that LEGO launched this year. Moreover, everyone is groaning at length of topic on the forums so that LEGO leaves such or such planet accompanied by a new minifig ... Here is the opportunity to make your own Planet Series set as part of this organized competition by myself, and for which LEGO Denmark and Artifex are participating in the endowment to which I add a few things.

The rules, arbitrarily decided by me, are very simple:

- You have until September 30, 2012 midnight to participate.

- The object of the competition is to create a MOC (plastic, not virtual) based on the Star Wars universe without any particular restriction (OT, PT, TCW, UE, TOR, SNCF, ANPE, fictitious creation, etc ...) using the principle of the sets of the Planet Series range: A planet (+/- 10 cm in diameter, like the real ones), a machine, a minifig and a support.
- Prohibition to use the planets Children existing already exited: The sphere must be composed exclusively of parts, I know it's tiring ... (Dozens of tutorials are lying around on the internet including techniques for designing a hollow sphere without using too many parts ...)
- The craft or vessel in micro format must be novel him too (existing machine or not but designed by you and not pumped too blatantly on what exists ...).
- You can associate it with the minifigure you want, official or custom.
- The support can be the exact reproduction of that delivered in the sets of the Planet Series range. 

Take a nice photo of the MOC, preferably on a neutral background and with sufficient lighting (avoid Grandma's checkered tablecloth or the living room parquet ...). 

Remember to give a name to the different elements of the MOC (Character, ship, planet)

When you have finished, you send me the photo of the MOC (max. 2MB / 1024x768) via the submission form below:

- You enter your username and your email.
- You attach the photo (It's better ...).
- You briefly describe your MOC in the message.

It's nice to make you work, but what do we win ? and who decides?

So I put you at ease right away, no bogus voting sequence or cronyism in the program (I vote for you, you vote for me and not for him, etc ...). 

Entries will be collected, displayed on the page dedicated to this competition and a mysterious but honest jury will determine which MOCs deserve to be recognized. It's totally arbitrary, surely unfair and not objective at all, but that's how it is.

The judges are MOCeurs, people who play with their bricks, people who sell bricks and your servant who will give his opinion as usual.

To be won for the best achievements:

1e place (The best of the best) :

1xLEGO Star Wars 9496 Desert Skiff 
1 x LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia
1 x LEGO Star Wars 6005188 Darth Maul (Polybag)
1 x LEGO Star Wars 5000063 Chrome Silver TC-14 (Polybag)
1 x LEGO Star Wars 30052 mini AAT
1 x LEGO Star Wars 30053 Republic Attack Cruiser
1 x Artifex Brick Lights Pro Kit 

2th place (The least better but still a little) :

1 x LEGO Star Wars 9679 AT-ST & Endor
1 x LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia
1 x LEGO Star Wars 5000063 Chrome Silver TC-14 (Polybag)
1 x LEGO Star Wars 30052 mini AAT
1 x LEGO Star Wars 30053 Republic Attack Cruiser
1 x Artifex Brick Lights Mini Kit 

3th place (It's less good, but not so bad) :
 
1xLEGO Star Wars 9677 X-wing Starfighter & Yavin 4
1 x LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia
1 x LEGO Star Wars 30052 mini AAT
1 x LEGO Star Wars 8028 Tie Fighter
1 x Artifex Brick Lights Mini Kit

4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th  (Well done anyway) :

1 x LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia (alone...)

So, if you feel like it, don't hesitate, you have a little over a month to master the art of the sphere, and you can win some cool stuff. I would also draw lots for a few entries with a small bonus gift.

[contact-form-7 id = "3985" title = "Planet Series Contest"]

Well, I'm not going to tell the movie so as not to spoil the fun of those who haven't seen it yet, but Tiler offers us here something frankly successful.

I recognized this truck at first glance, and anyone who saw The Dark Knight Rises will agree with me that it really looks like ...

Tiler also offers a new version of the machine that LEGO should offer us in the next set based on the movie : The Bat.

Again, it is very similar, and LEGO will have to surpass itself to offer a Tumbler in camouflage version and this machine without disappointing fans who already know the achievements offered by the most talented MOCeurs.

I don't expect a miracle, I just hope the passage to the LEGO mill profitability / number of pieces / scale System will not detract too much from the design of these two iconic vehicles ...