Zeya

Wow he looks great. You did a fantastic job! About how long did you spend on this project? I used to work on video games, and one of our artists probably would have spent a week or more making something like this. (Although, they have certain limitations to adhere to.)

For the large, standard sized instructions, I use these type of things meant for magazine storage: For anything smaller, they go in binders. The small things are the real pain because they come in all kinds of different sizes. I dislike using the binders, because stuff is always moving around in the plastic sheet and falling out the backside. I need a better solution for small instructions. I feel like some kind of bin to throw them in and forget about would be best. (Sometimes I wonder why I keep instructions at all...)

I saw Death at a Funeral. Apparently there are two versions; I saw the older (2007) British version with Peter Dinklage. There's quite a bit of shock humor, but it also had its moments. Three stars, worth it for a few laughs. Then we watched season 2 episode 2 of Game of Thrones, also with Peter Dinklage.

I'm voting Classic Castle. (Wait, can I vote classic Pirates? ::) Classic themes are more open-ended, and they're cheaper as well. Emphasis on cheaper. Other lesser factors are compromised set designs, and less enthusiasm for fleshie figs. I also want to voice an opposition to the old rounded sword mold criticism. I think most of the newer sword and weapon models are too large and bulky for my taste. Also, with the old sword, you can stick all 3 sides of the hilt area into a hollow stud, and that means some interesting construction possibilities. I think that Lego sometimes forgets about this aspect when making certain new molds.

I received two BL orders with a bunch of 1x1 round studs, some flower stems and blooms, plant leaves, a small pine tree (why am I a sucker for those?), and then these 3 minifigs:

Haha, how much can you really be into tupperware? Does she get as excited about the 2012 spring tupperware catalog as we do about the Lego catalog? This is very funny and clever. I especially like the other part you mentioned where they patted you down for Lego sets! As if that's the thing to be worried about, and not beer/cigarettes/worse. Is there a "mothers against covert Lego shopping" support group?

You're right, he was there for St. Patty's day. I guess it just feels like I got them all a couple weeks ago, but maybe it's been a couple months at this point. I think the graduate was another one that was just a little late as well (for late spring graduations), if I'm remembering correctly.

I'm confused. What do you mean by "LEGO California took over"? The Lego Group is based out of Billund, Denmark, which is where all the product design happens (for core sets anyway). There is a Legoland park in southern California, but that's just a park, and they aren't the ones calling any shots about retail products, I'm pretty sure.

Wow, you nailed it! That's a really good job there.

Is it just me, or do they have terrible timing with the seasonal figs? Series 7 has a "bunny suit guy" that would be great for Easter. But Easter is on April 7th this year, and series 7 won't even be in most places until after that date, let alone hitting a nice saturation where they are available on shelves in decent quantities. I feel like the same thing happened with the Leprechaun fig in series 6. Just barely missed St. Patty's day. I think those seasonal figs should really have moved back a series earlier so they would be available in time. Hey, doesn't matter to me because I get them all anyway. But it would be nice for TLGs sales figures and casual customers to get a fig out before the target holiday, not just barely after.

I've had hobbies like that before, where the whole thing got out of hand. A few years back I was spending hours a day playing World of Warcraft, until like 3am. I didn't have it so bad as some people, and luckily interest wore off after about 3-6 months and I stopped playing. Another time, I thought it would be cool to get back into Magic The Gathering. I bought two full boxes of booster packs and a nice binder to put them in. I got all the cards, and the goal was to get 4 of each. But then I discovered that I didn't care too much for actually playing the game, just collecting the cards. And then I realized I wouldn't ever do anything with them and sold them all on eBay to what I assume was a nice comic book store in Florida somewhere. You did the right thing, cutting it off. I'm guessing you weren't willing to accept an in-between solution, such as selling most of it and maybe just keeping certain themes or collections. If you're the type of person who is "all-or-nothing" or just can't cope with a watered-down solution like that, then I think you did the right thing. It's important to keep in mind what Lego really is (plastic toys) and what that means to you and how the hobby affects you. I've only been into Lego for 1 1/2 years or so. I've had to ask myself how far/deep I want to go with this hobby. I definitely draw the line in the sand at buying multiple sets and/or keeping things unopened as an investment. (I've had minor violations of this, but the spirit is still there.) I also had to draw a line and not collect Star Wars, because I know where that would lead (broke, must collect everything, sad). You really have to be pragmatic about this hobby and ask how much money, time, and time away from loved ones you are willing to spend. It's like the buddha said, it's all about balance. (Or something like that, right? :)

Thanks for mentioning this. The Santa Clara store is my local store too. (San Mateo is a little to far for me though.) The grab bags are usually on an easy-to-overlook shelf on the left wall of the store, just below the CMF packets. Or maybe sometimes hidden on that little counter area between the PAB wall and the registers. I have yet to pull the trigger on them, but they're tempting. The one's I've seen there gave me the impression they were packed with not enough variety; maybe these were the ones passed over by people who got to the fresh batch of bags first though. If I'm going to buy a grab bag, I want it to be a healthy mix of stuff, preferably smaller elements and not just a bunch of 2x? bricks.

I feel your pain. I bought a batch of around 60 packets that was probably 3/4 fresh box and 1/4 picked over packets at TRU. At the end I was only lacking Lady Liberty. I'm telling you though, what you really want to do with these things is buy like 60 or 80 of them, take them home and take your time, and then return a bunch of them later. I wish there was still a way to buy these in bulk online at MSRP, but there's been some sort of conspiracy against that starting with series 6 it seems. At least around the launch date I guess. I'm going to call it right now - Lady Liberty is going to be highly sought after and valuable on the aftermarket for years to come. She just has that appeal and will never go out of style; independence day happens every year. If Lego ever made a proper Santa Claus or christmas elf figure, it would be all over! I would love a Christmas sub-theme in the CMF series...

Thank you for another fantastic review, Whitefang! My only suggestion for improvement would be a dedicated section that iterates over all the figs' back printing, arm printing, and leg printing. I was left wondering if any of the other figs besides the bunny suit guy have back printing. Maybe you could do that next time? But we all appreciate the hard work you put into making these reviews. It must take you hours to put this together! I have to say as an avid collector of CMF, this series is looking to be by far the best. There's only one or two that I would consider ho-hum, and for the first time I'm thinking I want multiples of more than a couple of these figs. I'm really swooning over the black knight and the bride, in particular. I can't see how series 8 can top this! I also can't believe series 7 is almost here. *pant pant* Just finished series 6!

I saw Hugo. It was really good, maybe just a little too drawn out in the first half. The sets and characters were very nice.

These things are fantastic. They were super hard to find, but I managed to get six or seven of them. (Couldn't find a single one in 2010.) It really takes the edge off a miserable holiday shopping trip when you run across them. Like TheWarden said, it's essentially free Lego! I really like the pieces with the target printing on it in particular.

Very nice! It definitely has a lot of charm and fun going on.

No it's actually good for regular amazon.com purchases as well.

For minor variations like that, I keep them together. I'll sort of try to keep them sub-sorted, but for things where the variation isn't readily visible (e.g. on the underside of something) I don't even bother. If you would ever need to part together a pure, canonical set with the official pieces, you would just have to dig through. But really if you're selling something out of the box down the road, the "bloom is off the rose" at that point anyway if you know what I mean - your buyer probably won't be scrutinizing it that much anyway. For the particular case of a 1x2 with a clip like that, I'll keep it in a drawer that contains other modified 1x2 bricks, such as ones with a technic pin hole, or a 1x2 with a hinge on the side, etc.

Hard to tell if this has been asked/answered in this thread (30 pages). Does the viking lady have a sloped dress printing piece, or regular minifig legs? It's hard to tell from the photo in the first post because the space marine's head is in the way.

I got engaged this past weekend. I had to put the ring somewhere for a little bit to keep it safe, so I gave it to this pirate.

Welcome to EB and classic-pirates! I would only add that there are 4 polybags for the PotC theme. Here's a link to a list of all the PotC sets: http://www.brickset.com/browse/themes/?theme=Pirates%20of%20the%20Caribbean And there's a "battle pack" with a few figs that you already have from the main sets. My advice is just stick with the main boxed sets; you aren't missing out on anything, unless you really like the voodoo jack sparrow. Of all the polybags and the battle pack, only the voodoo jack sparrow has anything unique to offer. Have fun making pirate stuff and make sure to share!

Here's a storage / Lego room idea I spotted. Basically gluing baseplates onto the wall. LINK

I broke down like a rusty old El Camino and bought a Professor Trelawney fig and a Marauder's Map Statue fig on eBay. This is significant because it's the most I've ever spent per unit weight on a Lego item. I got Trelawney for $36 USD. I feel insane! I'm tracking down all the dress-print minifigs to collect them all. I was inspired by a thread on these forums somewhere. At least Trelawney is the most expensive. Looks like some of the other ones go for 10 or 12 bucks. But I want to get them quickly because they're from 2009 and I think their prices will start to rise soon.

I had a dream last night that I opened an eBay lot I bought. It was a large castle with white bricks for the walls. But everything was spray painted with this half-clear glittery paint, which I couldn't tell from the eBay photo! I was a bit stressed about it. Then, ironically I woke up and before work opened this ebay lot I bought of a bunch of minifigs, and they were all in pretty bad shape with all kinds of dirt and scrapes on them. That's probably why I had that dream, because I had a feeling that would happen. I also had a Lego dream a while back where I made a sweet MOC with a guard tower near a tree with a bridge going between the two. (I actually want to make this MOC based on my dream by the way!) I also dreamt that the tree had the little apple pieces on it, but instead of a known color, they were like a translucent golden color - golden glowing apples.