ummester
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Everything posted by ummester
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neat designs - I really like the tank and wonder what currently available part colours it could be realized in.
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I think it's a high price for 2 neat minifigs. I like Brent Waller's Tumbler - unapproved ideas project, with instructions, here: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/8919 I think this set would be better with the same figs, a smaller tumbler, such as Waller's and a lower price point.
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You could be right. I was discussing the Simpson House with someone who is a minor collector - whether that set would increase in value quickly once retired. We considered that every second person interested in LEGO is becoming a collector/minor investor to some degree and that the Simpson House could be being purchased in duplicate by every AFOL that can afford it, with dreams of profit down the track. It may be the secondary market that is becoming saturated, more than the market for collectable sets. I personally don't understand why people don't get bored with collecting the same thing, just in new packaging - but I don't really have a collector's mindset anymore. Had it briefly with Star Wars - was trying to get a LEGO version of every vehicle from the classic trilogy. When I got to the point where LEGO was re-releasing models I'd already collected, I thought it was a mugs game. I gave up on expecting anything fresh from TLG sets entirely.
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Here is an X Wing, from the OT before Lucas CG enhanced it - ie the original ILM model. None of the LEGO sets are accurate to it, by colour or shape. None, including the UCS sets, have gotten the nose right. It's fine for people to prefer what they want and like what appeals to them aesthetically - though I just think that the actual design being discussed is important to a conversation.
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You can pander too much to something klinton, make people bored of an idea. I'm suggesting 'collectable' LEGO may be reaching saturation point.
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I don't think TLG will kill the appeal of it's brand overall, obsidianheart - I think they have learnt enough to adapt their way out of trouble with this. I only think that they might kill the appeal of LEGO as a collectible item. Evergreen themes will survive - LEGO City, for instance, will always be able to be designed and marketed at the right price point for a toy. I think Star Wars is interesting because it is almost evergreen now, it's a licensed property that has become a LEGO mainstay and has pretty much replaced LEGO space. City and Star Wars both now have set definitions that work with all price points and age ranges. You can get Star Wars fig packs, or small city vehicles at the right price point for when your children are invited to birthday parties, all the way up to modular buildings and UCS style sets to keep the AFOLs, and spoiled kids, happy. I only think that the set's packaged more for collection than line expansion or play may be due for a crash.
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Just thinking on this - I recon the LEGO bubble will pop also. Mainly because LEGO keeps releasing more and more collectible sets. The market is becoming saturated - it's similar to what has happened to certain video game franchises - Guitar Hero, Modern Warfare - they just kept pumping them out until everyone was over it and the idea lost it's appeal. I was looking at the new LEGO Tumbler, the LOTRs set with Smaug and some of the upcoming Star Wars sets. Totally tailored to collection of minifgs, priced a little too high to be a mainstream Xmas toy for the kids and a little too low to cater purely to the AFOL collector. I think LEGOs marketing is going to destroy the appeal of it's own product - and this is something that always happens when things become popular, corporate greed always pushes things too far, trying to squeeze every last little drop out of something.
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Just Starting to Use BrickLink - Question
ummester replied to rockethead26's topic in General LEGO Discussion
I have never had an issue with shipping prices either - I have more often found that Bricklink sellers will try and help you get the most from shipping. Many stores have given me the grams left in my shipping and the option to add to the order without increasing the shipping cost. 9 times out of 10, Bricklink orders are packed with great care to protect the bricks on their journey and some stores even throw bonus parts in for big orders. Currency conversion can impact shipping costs a great deal and cost me far more on a 5500 piece MOC than store handling fees or individual store variants. Being from the US rockethead, you will likely find that a lot of your inventory can be filled locally and shipping will be relatively low. I found that the US and German stores had the most extensive stock, by nation. -
At what point does the LEGO minifg become more of a collectable action figure than LEGO parts? I prefer flesh tones to yellow, purely because I like the idea of trying to make a build as realistic as possible. But I have a bunch of different Bobas, Lukes and 3POs and wish they were all the same. It seems odd to me that Slave 1 Boba looks so different to Sail Barge Boba. (It's the first Sail barge and latest Salve 1, I think). 3PO, I guess, looks better the more gold he is. As long as his colour is right, meh, they are all the same. I have some odd coloured 3PO's and always hide them inside things - they are an embarrassment to protocol droids.
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Female minifigures - do we need the hourglass torso and make up?
ummester replied to williejm's topic in General LEGO Discussion
I think, autorazr, that the road to hell is often paved with good intentions. My comments in this discussion have mostly been an attempt to broaden it from the singular aspect of female minifig waists being somehow offensive to modern sensibilities. There are many viewpoints to any discussion. The waist can be considered a throwback to the 50s, or it can be considered a simple artistic representation of the feminine for a toy - all depending on your point of view. -
Female minifigures - do we need the hourglass torso and make up?
ummester replied to williejm's topic in General LEGO Discussion
If a young girl is going to get unrealistic expectations for female body shape, wouldn't there be so many other potential sources - magazines, video clips, Disney princesses, TV shows like I Carly or Hi 5 which only feature thin and attractive women - than the female minifg? Isn't either not being pretty or thin enough a bigger concern for developing female minds than not having a waist? -
Yes, I was just discussing how the greater majority of supporters on Ideas may be from the US and that the 2 things, though not connected, are likely things that US supporters favor. NASA models, for instance, always seem to receive more support more quickly than models of Russian spacecraft - it's an observation of trends I am noticing and posted initially in response to the 'I don't see the attraction to these space program sets'. I thought this thread was the best place to discuss how LEGO Ideas may function, what patterns there appear to be in project support and so on. For instance, another pattern I have noticed is that although well made, big projects often get supported to 10,000 - they never get produced. The guidelines say to be realistic and take official TLG set sizes into account, with the largest being around 5,000 parts, though it seems to me that there might be a part cap limit for ideas projects that get turned into sets - probably less than 1,000 parts, or less than $100 US set, or something like that. These are the nuts and bolts of ideas that I am most interested in discussing in a thread like this.
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So, why don't X-wing sets get released in either light tan or very light grey - or a combination? Same for Snow speeders and other rebel craft - there are 3 current shades of LEGO grey, why not use them all? It would make me a lot more interested in buying a second copy of the same vehicle if there was a significant colour upgrade like that.
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Just Starting to Use BrickLink - Question
ummester replied to rockethead26's topic in General LEGO Discussion
Brickficiency could help, there is a thread here http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=82975&st=50 I only know how to sort Bricklink search results by a single argument - lots, unique lots, price, location - etc. I think you a are looking for a solution that sorts a wanted list by 2 arguments, namely unique lots and price. I don't know how to do this, or create some kind of exclusion list so that Bricklink only displays results with over X amount of unique lots, for instance. -
LEGO is destroying creative play according to this article.
ummester replied to legoman19892's topic in General LEGO Discussion
New parts are more sophisticated though Lind and combined with LDD, MOCing has never been this good. The brick itself still has immense creative potential - but how many kids LDD and Bricklink MOC? I would love to see more parts packs though, especially for earthy colours, tiles, plates, corners - all those parts that allow detail and texture to be added to MOCs. -
Hi all - I designed this set idea in LDD. The full flickr album is here: https://www.flickr.c...57646375803421/ Anyways, I don't know if anyone has ran into this before on LEGO IDEAS, so I thought I'd ask. The project got rejected saying that the brand was not appropriate and needs to be re-submitted. I only thought the brand was appropriate because there are already 2 Terminator ideas posted on LEGO IDEAS. https://ideas.lego.com/projects/24420 https://ideas.lego.com/projects/61760 So, I removed the branding and submitted a project called AHK Chase, with no reference to the Terminator brand. Now it contains content or themes not appropriate, which it didn't before? It is also still listed as awaiting re-submission, rather than not approved. Has anyone experienced anything similar before? How do you contact the ideas moderation to find out exactly what the issue is and why other Terminator projects are active but this one can't be? MODS - if this should be posted in Embassy and not here, it's fine to move it. I wasn't sure where to post, as it's a bit of a Sci Fi MOC and a bit of an IDEAS question.
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It's true Lind - but it's also still TLGs brand and I respect that - they get to to call the shots on what is in and what is out. The full idea would make a nice AFOL & Terminator collector set, I think - though it may be better marketted and sold through one of those companies that produces custom AFOL minis and/or weapons. A company like that would probably have no issue chroming up the T800 and AHK parts, which would make them look really sweet for the build.
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How did Lego become a gender battleground
ummester replied to grum64's topic in General LEGO Discussion
The dino skeleton in Research Institute looks nice fred67, though the original idea was designed around an agenda. As a matter of comparison, an idea I recently supported is here: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/74885 This one also features a female paleontologist, though doesn't draw attention to the fact. It could be subtle pandering, who knows - though, if you read the creator's comments and comments they have passed on other dino builds, it seems they are primarily trying to design an accurate representation of dino skeletons, to get kids interested in museums. -
I did consider making the car look 'beat up' Behmoth - with some carefully positioned cheese slopes and colour variations but I didn't want the piece count to get out of hand. I think it may be best to make a display stand for the AHK, include the T800 on the stand and present it as a display piece with playable features. The car might have to fall by the wayside - I don't mind the car but I can always make one if I want and, thinking about it, killer robots trying to vaporize guerrilla soldiers isn't really child's play :D And, the first film, that I got the scene from, was adult rated.
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The bitch is back! Love the shot with Benny
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LEGO is destroying creative play according to this article.
ummester replied to legoman19892's topic in General LEGO Discussion
Oh fore sure MAB - a box of brick's is unappealing compared to a plane flown by super heroes, a train or a fire engine, for both kids and AFOLs, no doubt. As I came to understand in another thread, there was a reason the minifg evolved to be LEGOs flagship element and, as most of us realize, the bricks would probably have been doomed if they didn't take on licenses like Star Wars. These things have changed the LEGO set though. The was a discussion about the X Wing models in the Star Wars forum. The initial Star Wars sets were closer to 70s/80s LEGO sets than the new ones are - now they are models with some collectible figures, it's like a box has to advertise NEW MINIFIG! just to sell the build. It's difficult to articulate what has changed exactly and there is probably some nostalgia on my behalf - but licenses and minifgs have changed the product, they have made it more desirable but less malleable or versatile somehow. -
I'm probably thinking mostly on sale. Where I used to live, if Target or whatever did 20 % off, you could guarantee all of the popular lines were gone from shelves immediately. I was only shopping for my kids at this stage, I used to go after work to try and get the big Spongebob for Xmas or whatever. Anyway, I got to know some local AFOLs down the track and found that a preferred method was to go as soon as the store opened and put a bunch of popular line sets on Layby. 1 to build, 1 to keep in the box and some for Ebay - the plan was to try and pay for the Layby with the Ebay sales. Of course, there may have been some parents employing similar methods to get their own children sets at little to no cost - 1 for their child and 3 for Ebay kind of thing. This was 5-10 years ago now. The AFOLs I befriended were happy to grab whatever set my kids wanted, once they realized how frustrated I was trying to find sets on special after work. Yet it was a serious eye opener for me at the time - that the buying of toys on special for your children was made difficult because of adult collectors/flippers.
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LEGO is destroying creative play according to this article.
ummester replied to legoman19892's topic in General LEGO Discussion
I think that Dr Spock is ultimately correct on this and it can be applied to many other discussions about LEGO - it is more the parent's responsibility than TLGs to ensure that a child plays creatively. Yes, the world has changed and yes, LEGO has changed with it (whether all of these changes are positive is obviously debatable) but none of this stops the parent from being the primary source of influence for their children. I do wonder whether the people writing the articles or creating the fuss about toys are parents themselves, or just self proclaimed experts with less vested interest. -
Cheers, LEGO Train 12 Volts deraven, good points. I was only considering designing a set that captured the essence of that scene from the film - in which the AHKs chase people in cars and the people in cars shoot back :D I didn't stop to think that the scene itself may be questionable - I just thought if it is a brand that is up on Ideas, then everything about the brand must be ok. I just designed the AHK originally - as that was a LEGO design request I had from someone. Perhaps the best way to present is 2 sets - 1 with the AHK and the T800 and the other with Net-Comm soldiers in the resistance vehicle (probably coloured blue and not dark tan).
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How did Lego become a gender battleground
ummester replied to grum64's topic in General LEGO Discussion
That Idea was one of the one's that came to my attention. Personally, I think it is well enough constructed and don't care if it has a male or female protagonist - but I will not support it because it is pandering. If it just had the female astronaut standing there - without creating a fuss about the choice - I would definitely support it.