IAmWillGibson

If anyone's mad about the Frodo in his Kitchen polybag and has access to one [or three] of these, I could organize a trade... Because Frodo is quite populous, but this Ghost is what I really want.

I think I reacted so negatively because it wasn't one of the other ones I was far more hoping to see. Maybe I should go grab a bunch and start a cottage industry. There was literally a pants-load of them there.

Man, how do they decide who gets what polybags? It's gotta be one of the most frustrating aspects of this silly little hobby. I was in TRU today and just about plotzed because I saw a tonne of an LOTR polybag at the checkout, and pfft! It was the Frodo in a Kitchen set. Not that that's a terrible set, but of all the possible polybags out there, it's literally the least interesting. Not a figure that you'd want in multiples, that came in a must-own set already, and a few other pieces that are not awful but hardly inspiring or interesting. I was hoping it'd been the Uruk-Hai, which I would have grabbed at least two of. They also have a whole bundle of Friends polybags, the blonde girl with the mailbos and the brunette with the ice cream and the black-haired girl with the car, which according to the front page are "rare" but, again, hardly something I'd want to seek out for it's own sake. My point is, who decides which one goes where? And why does it seem that when Canada finally sees one or has unique access to one that is apparently rare everywhere else, it's almost invariably the one no one wants? I'm bummed is all. Bummed I'm likely to not get my Ghost with Grandfather clock, but will be endlessly taunted by Frodo for the coming months.

Picked up the Zombies set here [in Canada] yesterday, and it's really pretty swell. There's something morbidly wonderful about a zombie Bride and Groom. I spent some time trying to reorganize the grave-popping action to work sort of the opposite way, so that the corpses raise from the proper position, but it turned out to be pretty hard to do in the space confines. I'll keep at it. But it's a pretty great set. No if only they'd get the ghost polybags up here.

I have a healthy respect for Not-Lego stuff. I mean, it's not as good. Let's be up front. Say it and know it and then move on. Not that I have much stuff by other brands, really, and I would avoid the KO stuff like the plague not out of some elitist respect for LEGO but rather because it's just a bad toy. But there's stuff to like in these other guys' sets, and I always enjoy seeing pieces that aren't ripped off from LEGO designs. Kre-O, questionable set designs aside, has some interesting stuff here and there, and certainly offers things LEGO wont. I said elsewhere, the weapons in the Battleship sets are up there with Brickarms as far as I'm concerned. I mean, yeah, they're a small percentage of the parts, but they're very good parts. They also have a pretty swell dual-sided stud element that I'm waiting for LEGO to just happen to produce as well. And I'm really psyched about the Transformer Kreon blind packs and Combiner sets. They're just so dumb that they can't not be charming. Which is awesome because Kre-O IS Oxford.

I've tried to remake Mirage in car form in LDD, and it was generally pretty simple. The reason I remain sorta interested in Kre-O though is for the parts that aren't LEGO knock offs, and there are quite a few. The Battleship stuff, while sorta crappy design-wise for the most part, does have much better guns than the Transformer sets did. They're really good. Good design, very good quality. The Land Defense set is a good one to get [on sale!] just for the armaments and minifigure accessories it comes with. And the double-barreled gun emplacement thing is relatively badass. [The new wave of Transformer stuff looks shockingly crappy, however.]

This is some great stuff. I should overhaul the cemetery I made a long time ago to work as a graveyard around the Haunted House. I mean, I was intending to anyways, but I could whip it up in LDD, too.

Normally I'm not very pro-Fleshie, or at least I was a while ago when I only had a few. I have enough now that they form a large-enough group to not look weirdly out of place. Anyway, I'm perfectly fine with the fleshy Fellowship this round, because last year, just before LOTR was officially announced, I put together my own version. So now I have two, the movie Fellowship, and the [theoretically] more book-based Yellowship. Variety is good, man.

Avatar away! I can never shrinkify things nicely, so the avatar itself is muddled, but here's the actual image.

Did the older version have Zombie Chef and Frankenstein Butler [in glorious Black and White]? No? Case closed.

So I see people talking about Toys R Us jacking prices in the States, and it never really phased me because, besides everyone jacking prices here, TRU was always in line with everyone else. I thought it was a US phenomenon. But yeah, they've got the LOTR stuff now and, perhaps not inexplicably, it's all more expensive than LEGO store pricing [just the LOTR stuff, by the way]. Which sorta stinks. I liked not having to think about pricing because LEGO was like books [if you shop at a major store, it's always the same or cheaper than anywhere else]. So much for that!

On the one hand, I find it sorta funny people are trying hard to note the differences when the similarities really are very prevalent. I mean, yeah, they're both "Haunted Houses," but the specifics of the design, the columns and the edging of the building, and the windows, and the details on the roof are, like... mirrors. They really very, very close to each other in ways that seem unlikely to have just happened. BUT on the other [and more important] hand, when you buy a product from LEGO, you're really buying the parts, and the design is basically a bonus. I mean, instructions are available in PDF online right away, or before a product's release. So there's no money in the instructions. Ergo, LEGO isn't making money off someone elses' design. They're making money off they bricks they're selling you, and the design is gravy. And there's enough brilliance in there outside the simple outside of the building that the official designer earned his keep [the phonograph and attic ladder probably handle that on their own]. It remains the greatest of all LEGO sets, and if it was influenced by that other design [which we will never know], that guy should pat himself on the back for getting so close to the mark.

I didn't even get to see the video, but this is without a doubt or risk of hyperbole, the greatest LEGO set ever made.

Just to make sure it's nice and legal, I built this guy in LDD. Here's that, if one should care. Thanks for the kinds words!

So I took some input, went back to the drawing board on the lower half, and ended up doing some tweaks to the eyes and nose and a bit of the substructure as well. I'm happier with him now than I was before, and I think I'm gonna sit on it and try not to futz. I'd still want to fix his hands, but lack of brown parts hinder that [not to mention one of the fingers up and broke, so he got dropped from 8 to 6]. Anyway, here's a photo of the updated model. It's hard to tell, but he has a lovely sleepy/bored expression. I need to work on my photography skills.

Thanks for updatin' me on all this, dudes. I'm definitely gonna make the effort to get to BrickFete this year [i couldn't last year], and I'll be looking into some of the other things. In other news, has anyone seen LOTR LEGO at Chapters or Indigos in their area? I got most of what I wanted from the LEGO store, but I have a Chapters gift card with the Mines of Moria written on it... if and when it ever shows up there, dagnabbit.

Now, a big debt is due to... someone who made a transforming Soundwave. I'm really sorry, but I can't remember who it was, or if I saw in on here or elsewhere, but he'd made a very nice little Soundwave which I attempted to replicate, and along the way made some tweaks and refinements and general fool-aroundery. Here he is, in Ghettoblaster mode. And the process by which you transform him: Some parts come off to form his gun: Most of the work I did was in the legs: And he is done. He also has an opening chest and tape: This guy was done quite some time ago, but I only got around to showing these now. Thanks for lookin'!

Thanks for focusing it in for me. I've decided I really don't like this guy from the knees down, and will be working to correct that. I've uncovered a few parts I forgot I had that might help. I only saw Nuju Metru's now, and while the arms are a bit spindly, it does look good, especially the face... Ach, it's hard to look at your own thing after seeing how another person did it, and avoid ripping off aspects of it. But I have barely any of those clicky-hinge brick things he makes use of, which, honestly, look like a way smarter part to have made use of.

For some reason when I was picking through the Bionicle parts, I convinced myself I needed green for the substructure [as I don't have much, if any, brown] although that's pretty opposite what a tree should be. Swapping the parts out with black should be pretty simple, and woulda done half the work I was trying to do covering the green up. The thing in the Werewolf tree is one of the little under-spinner add-ons that came in the Mezmo pack. They're purple snakes, and would have been lovely if not for the large hole they have in them.

So does anyone know if the Zombies set is coming out here, and if so, when? LEGO store employees have given me slightly conflicting information, and I'm pretty eager to get this set. The Zombie Bride and Groom are too perfect, ya know? In other news, what are the Toronto-area LEGO clubs and groups and stuff? I was at the store, and I see the models built and displayed by people, and it occurs to me that that's, like, a reason to be doing all this. I always sorta struggle with reasons with my hobbies, but that's something I could use as an excuse, and be proud of. So now getting a creating on one of those display bubbles is my new goal. But I needs me some more info as to the hows and whys. [i've got a Treebeard here I totally wanna show off!]

Resuscitating this thread on the off chance someone wants these figures. I'm open to trade as well. These minifigs need a new home! I also have one of the Hulk polybags, too [which was probably silly for me to have gotten, but it came with my Orc Forge].

Hello, I have a Minifigure set from the Fairview Mall LEGO store opening that I'm willing to part with on account of it apparently being valuable, and me having very little fluid fundage. The set is a happy chef, an orange-dressed woman, and a slick-haired business guy. The set is #220. It's hard to find an appropriate price for this thing, but based on Bricklink and eBay, and then lowering it a bit so as not to look greedy, I'd be willing to part with it for 100 bucks [plus shipping]. Let me know if this is exciting or exorbitant.

Polybags make me so sad. I still have no idea why they can't carry these things with any consistency in Brand stores or online. I mean, that's what they're for, right? But having just built the Hearse last night, and setting it up next to the totally boss car from the Werewolf set, and letting Rodney Rathbone drive the hot rod from the Sphinx set, along with the other neat vehicles in the other sets, Monster Fighters sort of has a real Wacky Racers vibe to it, which I love. And this Coffin Dragster is perfect for it. [Though it would be perfectly perfect if it came with a coffin lid, too.] But so unattainable!! Toys R Us has millions of those Bricktober magnets flippin' everywhere, and this one Star Wars polybag that's been there forever, but none of this fun, useful stuff. I cry. [Although they did have some of the Friends polybags, so that's keeping some small spark of hope... very small, very un-spark-like.]

Take this idea, replace the figures with three Zombies [replace one of the heads with a print from a Monster Fighters set] and instead of the dune and hibachi, make it a pair of gravestones and, I dunno, a spooky fountain or a larger monument or something, and boom, sold out instantly.

I'm uncomfortably eager for information on this set. The "soft reveal" of R2-D2 was officially confirmed so soon after, but this one has remained a mystery for so long, it's makin' me crazy. Crazy!!