Good and Swordy

Chima was cheesy and a bit overhyped by Lego, but it wasn't horrible. I mean, it wasn't Galidor now was it?

I don't keep track in a list, etc unless it's an important part. Otherwise, I just keep them stored in bags by type in my Lego drawer and minifigure parts boxes.

In person by a long shot. You can't put loose parts inside containers on most digital programs like you can IRL, and nothing quite beats the satisfaction and fun of holding a physical build.

It's purist inasmuch as no official LEGO parts are being modified, but non-purist in that a third party thing has been introduced. A bit of a grey area. Pedantics aside, I think that's an awesome bow design and I hope you don't mind me sliding that picture into my saved images folder for later reference.

It's a beautiful set, and it captures the Lego LOTR/Hobbit aesthetic perfectly. I like the use of white flame pieces for smoke, that's a clever touch of NPU. My only word of advice is to nix Aragorn's pipe if you want to submit it to Ideas. IIRC there's a rule against depictions of smoking. Other than that, good luck! This would make an awesome display piece.

I wouldn't call it a SET per se, but I ordered Din Dijarin and Grogu, plus some other accessories, from Bricklink and they finally arrived the other day. I've since been going ham in my basement trying to build a decent starship model for them.

Not sure how well it would work on your MOC, but Lavatraz (Power Miners 2010, set 8191) has a fantastic little vending machine build in it. You insert a 1x2 tile and a soda can pops out, it was the best thing ever to child me. The Star Wars Separatist Shuttle (set 8036) has a really neat pair of doors in the back that roll open like an elevator door. I always kind of liked that feature, and I bet a similar door function would be fun for an evil lair MOC.

I like it! The scared Benny face on the knight is the icing on top

Even if Legocon didn't go so well, just remember: it could have ended up like Dashcon. Keep things in perspective, my lovelies.

I like the older bead eyes over the shiny modern eyes in a lot of cases. It's endearing. Gotta love the wide range of expressions on minifigs, but the default c: will always have a special place in my heart.

That's a really interesting study! I will note that when I played Lego with my cousins (both girls) when they were small, they tended to go "Okay these guys are yours and these are mine" while separating minifigs, and then we'd act out a story. So more of the "boyish" play style according to this research. Since I'm assuming the age range for this research was the typical 5-11 y'o Lego demographic, I wonder just how much of that is innate preference vs how the children were used to playing. Maybe the girls couldn't relate to blocky minifigs because they were used to relating to more humanoid dolls. I don't know. It's hard to do that kind of research while avoiding gender essentialism. Also, to stay on topic, I remembered some other unpopular opinions lol. 1. I like the shrinkage of the CMF blind bags from 16 to 12 figures a series. I know reskins and gender swaps are a common complaint in CMF. So maybe now the designers can focus on quality over quantity. Now if only they weren't so expensive... 2. I don't think Harry Potter deserves to be an evergreen theme. Maybe let that one fall to the wayside and let Minecraft take its place as the semi-evergreen licensed theme? Obviously no-one is unseating Star Wars anytime soon, which is fine by me; that one works as an evergreen. 3. I'm fine with themes that integrate phone apps as long as the sets still have playability outside of the app. Hidden Side for example. You can still get plenty of mileage out of those even without the app. 4. It's been a decade and I'm still salty over how Lego Universe crashed and burned.

Exactly, it's not really LEGO's fault, and it isn't as if they've tried to combat overly gendered marketing in the past. Heck, there's the famous "sometimes girls like spaceships and boys like dollhouses" insert from the 70s, and I've seen several 80s ads showing little girls proudly showing off their skyscraper and airplane models. At its heart, LEGO is a gender neutral toy and I wish retailers would understand that. It doesn't have to go in the boy's section just because there's a lack of pink and dolls.

If there really is a 1x5 on the way, I'll be one happy man. I can't tell you the number of times I was building something and a combo of 1x3 and 1x2 just didn't cut it. Maybe Lego will get really daring and release a full range of odd-numbered bricks

Full disclosure -- this is an opinion piece, not a "Lego should do this! My opinions are FACTS!" thing. 1. I'm sick of Ninjago. I know it's a money printing press for Lego, but it's been around for 10 years now and it's partially to blame for us not getting a decent action-adventure theme up until then. They gotta be running out of ideas for it by now. 2. Power Miners was great, you guys are just mean. 3. It's not "pandering" just because you aren't the target audience. (People who complained about the Women of NASA and Everyone is Awesome sets, I'm looking at you.) 4. Girl-oriented themes like Belville and Friends aren't the problem, it's parents who force gender roles on their kids. Little girls who like Ninjago and Racers are great, little boys who like Friends and Disney Princesses are great too. 5. Lego could use a new constraction theme. A Bionicle reboot wouldn't be a good idea though -- we saw how well *that* worked in 2015 -- and I don't think many want Hero Factory again. They need a fresh idea. 6. I don't like double-sided heads where one face is happy and the other is happier. The whole point of a double sided head is that a minifig can have a better range of emotion. 7. I'm also sick of the super heroes line, but that's more of a symptom of my general hatred of superhero movies. 8. City would benefit from residential and suburban themed sets, like apartment complexes and basic houses. I also kind of dislike how everything in City looks so new and pristine, I wish the sets had a more lived-in aesthetic like Hidden Side does, but that's more of a personal gripe. so yeah there are my unsolicited opinions

This summer was the first time I got a brick separator (it came in a Hobbit set I ordered off Ebay.) Before then, I had been using my fingernails and occasionally a seam ripper from my sewing kit to separate stubborn bricks (would not recommend using a seam ripper, btw. Not safe for kiddos to use and it can damage plastic.) I don't know how I got along without it, although it isn't a great help when dealing with smooth tiles. Seeing as though they're cheap and really handy, I think buying multiples might be helpful. Sometimes I worry about losing it, as I only have one for the time being. I haven't tried building with them yet, but they might make a nice dragonfly wing or spider-bot leg.