Mr Benn

It is indeed from the Captains Cabin POTC set - I have a few of these so I'd like to make the globe a bit of a recurring motif throughout the bank at some point!

I was in this film, I was outside the pub when they were filming the 'Don't Stop Me Now' scene. Good times :) Proof? Oh, ok then. Here's a pic I took of Simon and Nick in some downtime between scenes (note the dart stuck in his head!)

And we're off again! I managed to snag a full box from TRU today as they were just doing a major restock - they had approximately BILLIONS of the Series 6 figures... So I got three full sets An extra one of: Space girl, Leprechaun, Skater girl, Flamenco dancer, Alien and mechanic (one of whose hair will be devoted to Lego Elvis...) And an extra two of the Minotaur, Highlander and Bandito All good - plastic does in some instances feel a bit cheap, especially in the accessories. The Statue of Liberty and Robots are just brilliant though - will be replacing at least one Liberty with yellow head and hands to make a 'person in Statue of Liberty fancy dress outfit'

I hope I'm not alone in thinking that it's actually quite nice that Lego doesn't make military themed models. Yes, they do have the 'conflicts' - Cops n' Robbers, Alien Conquest, Pirates etc, but all of these (except, perhaps, for the Police themes) are fantasy based. War is quite real, and quite un-fun, and it's a very mature topic overall. Yes, we all used to run around with sticks and shoot each other in the playground, but you didn't need a toy to make those stories up for you. And for all too many children in the world, war is a terribly real thing, either having had to deal with it themselves or lost family members in such events. There are some amazingly detailed war-related MOCs around, and 3rd party suppliers providing the guns etc so there's no barrier for adults getting in and making their own war scenes if they like, but I'd always vote to keep the military out of Lego...

It's not a symptom of this particular forum at all, but there are, in some circles, a real impression that if your MOC isn't SNOTty at all, then it's a much more 'basic' build compared with those MOCs which are SNOTtier... it's as if for some reason having a little bit of SNOT raises your model an echelon higher than it otherwise could have been, even if it's really only very basic stuff... in comparison, sometimes it just isn't needed in a MOC - there are plenty of nice techniques that can be achieved through simple one brick on top of another stacking depending on the bricks and styles that are actually used... So I'm interested to hear what other people think - whilst SNOT is a tremendously useful building technique and some brilliant effects can be had with it, is SNOTty becomeing a bit snobby?

This intrigued me enough to go check out the seller you're talking about... how did he/she get so many in the first place though?! Interestingly, if you look at those which have been sold (just click on the '17 sold' link!) all of them sold prior to the brick Friday weekend for between £12 and £15, nowhere near the comedy asking price now. Standard ebay price for these is looking like £20-30 at the moment, with some sellers doing their usual trick with high postage prices too.

Very nice review of the set - I've bought 2 of them as well - it came a little too late for my own wedding! Agree that the groom's outfit all looks a little last minute. For my invitations which we made out of Lego, I just used the torso that's in my sig there... Real shame that the prints on the torso and dress don't line up properly either. I haven't opened mine yet - is this a common theme for all of the sets or have you just been a little unlucky? And for the record, I wore a top hat on the day, I can't get enough of a good hat!

1 point each to: 16 (Snowboarder) 20 (Detective) 27 (Zookeeper) Some really nice builds in here though, hard to choose just 3!

I don't have one immediately to hand to test it out, but can't you just turn around the connector at one of the connection points - this will effectively be doing the same thing as crossing your wires over?

What I'm interested in is the various translations on the side of the box - the English name is Raptor Chase, as is the French (or 'Raptor Pursuit'), but it looks like the Spanish on the box reads 'The Persecution of the Raptor'. Are Spanish language speakers generally considered to be dinosaur sympathisers, or has my GCSE in Spanish 16 years ago failed me?

I think that the corners are 90 degrees per piece - that's my experience from the first space monorail anyway...

If you have a VIP card, just login with your details and it will all pop up. I've tested it already (twice!) and got all the promised stuff on my orders. It will apply to everyone next weekend too though, it's clearly a ploy to get their VIP members to have two weekends of overspend!!!

The Lego VIP day has kicked off - just for 19th November - on S@H. Spend over £50, get the 2nd Christmas vignette set Spend over £100, get 10% off your TOTAL order, not just what you spend over £100. The Death Star shall be mine. Or, more correctly, will belong to the wife once she finds out I've gone and bought the Death Star and goes all Vader on me.

I positively look forward to when I can eventually share my Lego hobby with my (as yet unborn!) child... I even foresee a weaning onto the brick via Duplo (which for small children is a wonderful little toy in itself, gutted they don't have the Thomas the Tank Engine licence anymore though!) I appreciate that any resolution that you create prior to being a parent flies out the window as soon as you have children, but I would foresee that my nice buildings and SW ships aren't to be taken apart - but can be played with (in a fun roleplaying way, not a petulant bashy-bashy sense) - as well as the trains which are likely to be the most fun. My brick inventory is fair game - if you've ever seen how excited kids get in Lego stores, and just how pleased they are when they're making something, or how they want to show off what they've made - in 10 years time this will definitely be a hobby shared! Chewing on bricks will however NOT be tolerated... My Transformers collection however - that's staying off-limits for a LONG time!!

Really nice - really nicely represents the character, no mistaking him! Clearly inspired by the Masterpiece toy - so even better - loving the leg vents especially!

My greatest recommendation is to try to avoid your Lego smelling of sausages (or, for the retired sniffer dogs, cocaine). Or distract the dog with a good smelly sock or slipper that they can run off with and hide. In my experience though, cats with their smaller mouths are much better at having a good chew. Firstly Lego models are really good to rub up against and scretch themselves with due to all the nice point bits, and pirates rifles especially (for some reason) really have a good chewability factor. You would rather not have any animal swallow your bricks though - it's not really going to be that good for them - so for both your sake and theirs I'd recommend just keeping animals away from building areas!

To follow on on the Tesco thread - there are a few things with a little saving, but the Alien Conquest mothership is now only £35 as opposed to £40 in ASDA and £50 at the Lego stores and S@H - just enough of a saving to warrant getting one!

I think this is really superb - it really captures the real essence of the Alien! Ok, it isn't wonderfully accurate, but then they change between films a lot anyway so who's looking - there's a nice faceless menace and spindliness to this model. It's certainly a model that could do with being put with a few multiple versions of itself... perhaps pitted up against a few of the Alien Conquest guys!

If you check out the UK 'what's on in store' calendars, they're all mentioning a 'Brick Friday' event from 25-28 November - aside from some good deals this is when they will be giving away the second half of the Christmas vignette with purchases of £50 or mre - quite a tight window!

Some really great buildings there! Your pictures are killing my internets though, I recommend resizing them otherwise I suspect that the hand of Mod will be coming down on you soon... Whenever I've been to Amsterdam I've always thought that the houses there, with their characteristic steps and gables, would make brilliant modulat projects - you've done a great job in capturing some of the spirit of the city here - such a shame it is so hard to depict canals unless you have a lot of bricks to raise everything else up!

Studded - if I was really organised like in the other PaB thread I could show a big layout fo what I bought... but I'm not :P

... And if you're going to run it around your Christmas tree, the lights will really make a difference - they even make my boxy cargo train look pretty atmospheric in low light!

Looks great Dede... And I'm sure that you will remember that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - I find that it's looking at the Lego official sets and then looking at other people's creations that enables me to be able to build my own original design - all artists and designers have been copying each other since art began, it's how things evolve! And if you're going to copy, you might as well copy from the best... really like the design of this building, especially the ground floor and roof ... any change of seeing it in a street along with a few other modulars?

The new trains are Power Functions so a slightly different system - they are radio controlled, but 'RC' refers to a specific control mechanism that was previously used. The track Lego uses has always been the same gauge so any era train will happily be pushed around any of the track. 9V track had metal powered rails - the motor had metal wheels to run thr current through the motor - so you can't run a 9V system on a plastic track. 12V track was plastic, as it is today, but had a 3rd, central conducting rail - 12V motors have pickups underneath that run this current through the motor. The conducting rail can be fitted to 4.5V and 12V plastic track easily, but is a bit of a pain to fit to later-era track due to things like the spacing between the sleepers and the alignment of studs. If you are only going to use Power Functions for your train, the currently available track is going to be your best bet - if you're avoiding flexi track then both the curves and straights are still pretty inexpensive. I would strongly recommend the acquisition of the yellow cargo train (7939) (still available in a lot of shops and off the website but being replaced by a new, not-as-good red one) - it's a nice set in its own right to start off with, and it'll give you the track you'll need for your oval. It'll also get you a few of the PF bits you'll need - the Emerald Night does however require some 'special' PF parts that don't come in the sets because it's gear driven. Lots of info on these boards about how you get that organised (and also in the instructions - maybe download a copy of the instructions off the Lego website to see what you need to do).

Sorry to resuscitate a slightly older thread, I hope it's sill relevant... I did this last year - you have to pay to get into the park, but because your ticket is timestamped I think you get about half an hour - if you then return to the customer service booth (which is pretty much right next to the shop in the courtyard area) then they'll give you a full refund. Have never been that impressed by the Merlin-owned Lego stores - they don't have the full variety of exclusives - though the PaB wall sometimes has some different stuff in. The experience I've had in the Lego stores has always been much better!