Palathadric

Very true. Yellow minifigs definitely are not brown or black. And definitely the lighter population of the world will identify with them more than the darker population. Perhaps this is way such toys as Lego do not seem to be such great hits in African countries...although I seriously doubt that this is the real reason, I could imagine that making more brown minifigs, may boost sales in such places. Who knows? I definitely do not believe the Castle or Pirate themes have to be historically accurate as far as the ratio of females to males are concerned. After all, they are not very accurate in other ways as well. However, I don't think we can blame them for having a greater ratio of males to females in those sets, because that was the way it was at the time. It's therefore, in my opinion, the obvious choice. Nevertheless, I would also like to see more female minifigs in these themes...maybe just more minifigs in general.

Well said, Gryphon Ink. A lot of this stuff is debatable and it depends on what each person considers to be "right" and "wrong". Honestly, I do not see anything inherently "wrong" with the "Friends" theme. I think of Lego wants make toys suited for boys and toys suited for girls, let them. I do not think it's sexist to make pink blocks for girls and blue blocks for boys. I think it's ridiculous to continue having the mindset that "girls like pink" or whatever, but at the same time, if Lego wants to think that way, then the loss is theirs. I do not think you can call a company "wrong" or condemn them for having the stereotypical image of what boys and girls like. Of course, one would think that they would be able to move on and change with the times, but I do not consider it particularly bad if they do not. I do not know, I am not a parent, but do most parents really care whether their daughter plays with pink bricks or blue? I doubt it, and if they do, then I don't see why they should, but it is entirely up to them. I think it's interesting what you mentioned about rascism, because it is a very big issue in the modern western world. I, personally, think it's ridiculous to look down on someone because of the colour of their skin. But how "wrong" is it? Of course, I think like you were saying, if someone denies someone else a job on account of their skincolour, I think that is very wrong. Nevertheless, it is my opinion that if the aforementioned rascist person, does own the company, he should be able to hire whomever he chooses. If he wants to hire an uneducated person over an educated one just on account of the person's skin colour then, once again, the loss is his. There is a lot of controversy in the football world right now, over the "Suarez-Evra" racism. I do not know if any of you are familiar with it. In my opinion, what Suarez did was wrong. Obviously, he didn't mean it in a playful manner or anything. He was trying to wind Evra up, plain and simple, and attacked him verbally with his rascist abuse. Nevertheless, however insulting his comment was, it was still just an insult, as far as I am concerned. It should not have been said, but at the same time, if one is going to disallow such insults, than is it not hypocritical to allow other insults? It's part of team's strategies these days to try to wind up the other team's players by insulting them or suchlike. Is that really fair? Why should Suarez be given an 8-match ban and another player gets to walk away scot-free after, more or less, the same offense was committed. In my opinion, all abuse on the field should be stopped, but this would be an almost impossible task. Anyhow, I could write on and on, but suffice it to say, that for this time, these topics are very debatable but it's always interesting to read all the different sides to the story. I find it interesting anyway. PS: Once again, forgive me if I have offended anyone in my comment. Please let me know if I have done so and please also know that it was in no way my intention. GB!

Well, it's about time that I put some sort of introduction about myself, right? I mean, after all, I've been a member of EB since quite a while already. Well, here is a post I made in the "20,000 Members" topic, so I'll just paste it here. It's about how I became a member of EB: [Well, I had an odd comeback into the world of Lego. It started with me getting the Lego Indiana Jones Video Game, followed up by Star Wars and Star Wars II. I had already done brick flicks before, but due to a lack of bricks it never really took off the ground. Seeing the digital possibilities of Lego I searched online for Lego software and discovered LDD and LDraw. Somehow LDD didn't work on my system (was running XP at the time), so LDraw was the option of choice. Once I was hooked on that I began searching the web for more software programs, since MLCad didn't completely suit my fancy. Right now, I generally, use SR 3D Builder. I discovered this forum by accident searching for I don't remember what, and somehow they didn't allow me to download all the fantastic pictures until I was a member so I signed up a little while later. I think...don't remember exactly, even though it was not too long ago. This is a fantastic forum though! Happy "MOCing, etc.] Well, there you have it. Ummm...a bit about me...phew, this could take a while. I am French but a volunteer worker in Africa, in a country where the nearest Lego shop is about 900km away, if even that close. Seriously, it's impossible to find Lego, even in the city in which I live. Hence I am mainly an LDraw person, and it's not likely that you will see too many none-LDraw or LDD MOCs from me. Recently, I have been making a lot of the Official Sets in LDraw. My parents are both also volunteer workers and have never in their lives worked for a salary, despite raising eight children (all of us were home-schooled). Nevertheless, they were, quite obviously, not the richest in any terms and therefore most of the Lego I have is from twenty to thirty years ago and is pretty well worn, having been played with by just about every one of us eight kids. Anyhow, I'm a drummer in a band, and am into producing as well. I also have worked on a number of Music Videos. I play football, fairly well I think, and in general I like sports a goodly deal. I also have a hankering for novel-writing, but shhh! Anyhow, as you can probably tell, an awful lot of hobbies, but there is not really time to work on them all so I end up kind of doing a little bit here and a little bit there but, I guess, not really doing anything exceptionally well. Anyway, please feel free to ask questions, or whatever you feel led to do.

I think it doesn't make sense to expect Lego to put a whole lot more females in their more male-dominated themes. For example, consider the "Pirates" or "Castle" themes. Historically, in those days, it was a very male-dominated society. Men were the warriors, pirates, guards, etc. There were very few female pirates, or rather, let me say, that the ration of female to male pirates in Lego is probably far greater than the ratio was in actual life. Are people, in this case, really expecting there to be as many female pirates and male ones? Even amongst knights, warriors, etc. In modern films and the like, there are often a number of female warriors fighting and even being the head of an army of fighters, but in European society in the middle ages (no doubt the time and area, roughly, that the "Castle" theme is meant to portray) there were no woman warriors, or, let me say, very few. It wasn't like Joan of Arc was leading an army where the ratio of men to women was 1/1 or even 100/1. It was probably 1/0 plain and simple. That's why it was such a big surprise. So unless one wants a whole lot more Princesses or Queens Duchesses or Peasant Girls (I wouldn't consider it a bad idea to have more of these, by the way, but in that case you would need more male servants and courtiers, and lords, etc. Thus changing the "Castle" theme into more of a "Middle-Ages" theme) then, they need to be fairly happy with the ratio of females to males in such sets. Honestly, the "Friends" set are not my favourite, but I think that has more to do with the people than anything else. If they had proper mini-figs I would like them. However, I do know that a lot of girls who normally would not like Lego, will be attracted to the new figures and I do not think it unlikely that the "Friends" theme will add a lot of new customers to Lego. I have to admit that it is a good marketing scheme, in my humble opinion. That saying, just because "Friends" is a toy more designed for girls' play, that does not make the rest of the Lego more of a boys' toy. Granted, there are more males than females in most other themes, but I do not think that prevents most girls from enjoying it all the same. Still, I think some themes, take "Town" for instance, could have a great ratio of females to males. What do you all think? PS: I hope my post is somewhat understandable. Forgive me if it is not, or if it came off in an unsuitable manner.

Alright, now I'll be working on the Castle sets: 6041-Armour Shop (Crusaders) With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 4806-Axe Cart (Knights Kingdom I-Bulls) With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs I just had to use the closest head and torso for this minifig that I could find. 6024-Bandit Ambush (Dark Forest) With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs I had to use the old Forestmen torsos for these guys. One of their faces was also not available, and I had to use SW hoods for them. Humph! EDIT: Not anymore! Anything else?... I don't think so. 6007-Bat Lord With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6027-Bat Lord's Catapult With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6062-Battering Ram (Crusaders/Big) With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 1979-Battering Ram (Black Knights/Small) With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs I couldn't get both his hands to connect to the handle of the battering ram. Humph! 6018-Battle Dragon With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 2539-Batwing Flyer With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6009-Black Knight With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 1547-Black Knights' Boat With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6086-Black Knights' Castle With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6034-Black Monarch's Ghost With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 1888-Black Knight's Guardshack With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6011-Black Knight's Treasure With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs I still don't know why they call this "Black Knight's Treasure", when it appears to be a Black Falcon, but...we can forgive them.

Here are a few more: the Maersk Sealand and the Taj Mahal. I did them in SR 3D Builder. There are no stickers for the Maersk Sealand and I'm sure I must have gotten some of the colouring in the files wrong, but otherwise they should be okay. Oh, also the corners of the Taj Mahal don't fit together that well, but I do not think it is noticeable. 10152: Maersk Sealand L3B File 10189: Taj Mahal L3B File Just had to add more images of these beauties.

The Imperial Armada soldier is such a great minifigure! I don't know if he's definitely my favourite, but definitely among the top three and I'm pretty certain he is the best. I love his face, I think it may be my favourite minifig face LEGO have ever made. I think I posted something to this effect in the review on "Pirates' Perilous Pitfalls" or something.

Just read in this post. The rest of the posts (most of it) are members asking to be admitted into the Reviewers Academy. If you meet the conditions, we will be glad to accept you in. Thanks! I do meet the conditions, but the Lego I have is quite well-used and worn, but if that's okay then I'll gladly be a part!

If you can solve the problem then please let me know how you did, because I encountered this same problem and have not yet found a solution, although I really could use the LGEO Library working properly.

How did I miss that, I wonder? Thanks, though. Wow, there are a lot of good ones there. I have done the Maersk Sealand, but I saw that it is already here. Finished the Taj Mahal as well, but there were a number of errors so I was going over it, by my laptop is having some problems so cannot do any more work on it for now. I have also done a couple of Castle models, but will have to wait for my laptop to get up and running again before I can post those. Thanks again!

Very well made. The gold looks terrific and the sides of the pit, or whatever you want to call it look neat too. I think the stairs could have twisted around and the entrance to the mine have been a bit more hidden, although I don't know why, really, but it is still very nice.

I love the way the red roof jutts out of the angled castle wall. The entire building is done very skillfully. Well done!

Once again I will say it, the best thing about the sets from this wave were the minifigures. Absolutely fantastic and, in my humble opinion, the best minifigures in the entire pirate theme. However, though the sets are kind of nice, they really do lack in quite a number of areas. I find the abundance of skeletons in these sets somewhat annoying, although in this one, with the shipwreck and all, I think it makes sense. Still, I would prefer just another normal minifigure instead, or even a monkey (who wouldn't? ) The pirate with the anchor tattooed on his chest is also found in "Pirates' Ambush"...not to undermine his value though, he is still a rare and exciting fellow to have in your pirate fleet. I gave the set an average rating, as it does have a lot of nice pieces actually, not to mention the whole rack of spears for the prison.

Yes, it is definitely great for the price. There is no arguing with that in my opinion!

Wow! This castle is awesome! I like how little or nothing of it is square or boring. Very nice design. Awesome technique.

Well, I don't know what it all takes to participate, I am sure it was mentioned somewhere in this thread, but I don't want to scroll through 70-some pages of posts to find it, but yeah, I would love to participate...I think. Honestly I don't have a lot of new Lego sets (I'm still not out of my "dark age", if you will) but I do a fair bit with LDraw and I have a host of Building Instructions downloaded in PDF format. Just let me know if I'm worth accepting.

I don't mean to be completely stupid, but where is the index?

An okay set, but not incredible! A cheaper version of the Lagoon Lockup to be sure. Kind of cute/kind of sweet, but not exceptional in any way, I would say. Although, thinking about it, this set would be great combined with some other imperial sets. I gave it a two though, but evidently most members seem to rate it at a much higher score.

And the remaining ones from before the classic pirate sets. 6263-Imperial Outpost With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6271-Imperial Flagship With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 1795-Imperial Cannon With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6245-Harbour Sentry With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6270-Forbidden Island With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6276-Eldorado Fortress With Minifigs Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6250-Cross Bone Clipper With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6257-Castaways' Raft With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6274-Caribbean Clipper With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6266-Cannon Cove With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6235-Buried Treasure With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6259-Broadside's Brig With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6247-Bounty Boat With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6285/10040-Black Seas Barracuda With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs For some odd reason I had a lot of difficulty with the rigging in this set and could not get the rigging to clip onto both the top and the bottom clips. I know it is possible because originally this is the first ship that I did the rigging correctly with, but somehow I copied over the original file and the present one somehow does not work with the rigging. I believe this is the only ship with this problem though. 1492-Battle Cove With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6244-Armada Sentry With minifigs: Without minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6280/6291-Armada Flagship With minifigs: Without minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs Well, that's all of the classic pirate sets. I was working on some of the 2009 series, but some of the colours are a bit difficult to discern the correct colours for some of the parts.

Here are some more: But first a few issues I wanted to straighten out. Since LDraw does not have the red-brick patterned wall bricks, I replaced those with the grey-brick patterned ones. Sometimes the figure's brown beards looked more red to me (e.g: Ironhook who, I believe, is supposed to have a brown beard), so I gave them a red one. LDraw doesn't have the admiral's correct bicorne nor Cap'n Roger's, so I used a plain one for the admiral and a new skull pattern for Cap'n Roger. The green Spanish dude's torso was not available, so I used the red guy's (not the regular soldier) one and just made it green. The actual breastplate was also not available, so I gave them the regular Castle ones. I coloured them "chrome silver", I believe. What else? Ah, yes! I have still used no LSynth commands, as I cannot seem to get LSynth running correctly. I used only shooting cannons as I hate the look of the non-shooting ones (perhaps I should change this). Furthermore, LDraw's raised baseplates are not patterned, therefore I had to make them a solid colour. I also replace the cloth flags with the closest plastic ones. Oh, one last thing. The single plume is not available in LDraw so I replaced it with either the triple plume or the plume/flame. Somehow the small plumes just don't look that great when they're not on a forestman's hat. Anyway, here goes: 6254-Rocky Reef With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6273-Rock Island Refuge With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6234-Renegade's Raft With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6268-Renegade Runner With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6289/6290-Red Beard Runner With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6261-Raft Raiders With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 1873-Pirate's Treasure With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6237-Pirate's Plunder With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6281-Pirates' Perilous Pitfalls With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 1970-Pirates' Gun Cart With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 1871-Pirate's Cannon With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6249-Pirates' Ambush With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 1889-Pirate's Treasure Hold With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 1464/1696-Pirate Lookout With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 1481-Pirate's Desert Island With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6267-Lagoon Lockup With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6277-Imperial Trading Post With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs Well, that's all for now. Please let me know of any errors or such things you catch.

Well, I had an odd comeback into the world of Lego. It started with me getting the Lego Indiana Jones Video Game, followed up by Star Wars and Star Wars II. I had already done brick flicks before, but due to a lack of bricks it never really took off the ground. Seeing the digital possibilities of Lego I searched online for Lego software and discovered LDD and LDraw. Somehow LDD didn't work on my system (was running XP at the time), so LDraw was the option of choice. Once I was hooked on that I began searching the web for more software programs, since MLCad didn't completely suit my fancy. Right now, I generally, use SR 3D Builder. I discovered this forum by accident searching for I don't remember what, and somehow they didn't allow me to download all the fantastic pictures until I was a member so I signed up a little while later. I think...don't remember exactly, even though it was not too long ago. This is a fantastic forum though! Happy "MOCing, etc.

Alright here are some more. I hope I am getting this right. By the way, as I mentioned in my last post, I did not use LSynth, so do not expect to find any ropes, chains, etc. Hence, there are also no items connected to the set only by LSynth parts. All incorrect minifig faces, torsos, etc. were replaced with the match that I deemed to be the closest. There is also no gold, just for your info. Here goes: 1747-Treasure Surprise/1802-Tidy Treasure With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 1872-Soldiers' Forge With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6258-Smugglers' Shanty With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs Wasn't sure if this pirate's hair was supposed to be brown or red, but the red I thought looked more like the original pirate's hair than the brown, thus I opted for it. 6286-Skull's Eye Schooner Without Minifigs .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs No ropes. No sails. No trunk hanging from its crane. The ship looks pretty bare without them, eh? I don't recall there being any other issues though. 6279-Skull Island With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6232-Skeleton Crew With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs Had to use a different face for this minifig. 1713/1733-Shipwrecked Pirate With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6260-Shipwreck Island (Small) With Minifigs: Without Minifigs .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs 6296-Shipwreck Island (Big) With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs I couldn't get the correct face for the Spanish soldier. Disappointing because, I think, that is one of my favourite minifig faces Lego has ever made. 6265-Sabre Island With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs Had difficulty with the palm tree, for some reason, in SR 3D Builder, I ended up using the complete one. Unfortunately, it is now cutting through the wall. Ah well! Again I wasn't sure whether the Lieutenant's face was supposed to be brown or red, but I opted for brown in this case. Please post any comments you have and/or any corrections that I need to make. I'm sure I've probably left out some stupidly obvious things, but...anyway.

Argh! When are you going to add the castle on the hill? I am waiting in eager anticipation for that, that's for sure! ...uh oh! Please don't tell me there won't be a "castle on the hill". Maybe I shouldn't even have put this idea into your heads. Just pretend you didn't read this comment and make the castle!

I have done most of the official Pirate sets in SR 3D Builder (minus the LSynth commands) and will post them, starting with this one: 6248: Volcano Island With Minifigs: Without Minifigs: .L3B With Minifigs .L3B Without Minifigs I don't know what you would deem as problems with this one...well take a look.

The "Europa" set certainly seems to be a whole combination of sets rather than just one. It is far too huge and contains too many, not at all connected, baseplates. A set of that size would be far too huge. It sure would be nice though.