caperberry

375 Castle. Finally. And the condition is just stunning, looks like it was always kept as a set and greatly loved. Instructions incredible, stickers barely frayed and even the sticker sheet was there still with four left on it. So, so happy today. Now all I need is a worthy box.

Spooky, this one. I had a dream that I used the new yellow 1x1 round plate with hole as windows in a micro Bag End MOC. Just days before the micro Bag End appeared at SDCC! But they went with Technic bricks which are probably better scale . Now the instructions have been posted out there I'll have to give it a try though!

And thank you Erland and your colleagues! It's great to have a gamechanging part revealed so far in advance of release. Lots of time to anticipate! You may be best placed to answer a question someone posed; many of us are assuming the couplings are a tighter fit than the existing towball connectors so that the friction is a bit higher to enable model strength. Is that correct, and have existing elements such as the 2X2 plate with towball been remoulded?

Funnily enough it's the studless look that has really drawn me to collecting some Homemaker sets recently. That and the box designs make some of the small figureless sets look very minimalist.

It doesn't matter how many times I see pics of sets like 261; it just looks wrong! Like some weird mash of parallel universes. I see quite a lot of Homemaker figs and sets on eBay; as there is relatively little interest in them, you can pick them up (even MISB) cheaply if you are patient.

Awwwww! A pal managed to convince his WOAFOL to display his MOC in their living room by building the church they married in.

I would avoid seeking advice on the manner in which to tell her. You know her and yourself best. Birthday present idea sounds fine as an icebreaker. We're here for you when the time comes ;O) I enjoy meeting WOAFOLs (widows/widowers of adult fans of LEGO, pronounced 'woefuls') as generally their demeanour is one of tired resignation, which as a single guy I find very sweet and a bit hilarious. Of course, she may become an AFFOL but I wouldn't push your luck! A friend of mine has struck a bit of a deal with his wife, where he equally tolerates her shoe fetish. So they can complain/negotiate/have ammunition against one another if any party feels aggrieved at the money being spent by the other.

Press Release is now out. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cartoon-network-and-the-lego-group-reveal-groundbreaking-ip-development-with-new-mixels-franchise-216463171.html Yup, it's a co-production; seems CN approached TLG and TLG already had a suitable idea. The cartoon will be shorts, not a half hour show or anything. There's an online game mostly driven through an app - let's hope the idea is original or at least engaging for kids. The sets will be 'low-priced'. All good with me; roll on March!

Clearer pics of the three guys now posted by TLG on FB. Plus more great SDCC pics. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151570015643403&set=pb.6665038402.-2207520000.1374517196.&type=3&theater So that def looks to be Flame Yellowish Orange to me, and good to have the colours confirmed on the grey guy - seems those new towball plates come in both LBG and DBG.

Some are the current parts yes, but on the grey fellow, I've never seen those parts before. Both the male and female couplings seem to be 1x2 plates and you can just make out they have hollow studs.

I'm very interested in how Mixels came about (as I worked for a long time in children's entertainment - no, not as a clown, but developing digital content for existing intellectual properties and starting new ones). LEGO own the Mixels trademark but CN (or rather Time Warner) bought the mixels.com address. Who partnered with who, was it TLG's idea and they brought CN on board to produce a TV show for it? Or is just it the more traditional route of CN having the idea and getting LEGO to make some toys as a tie-in? I feel it may be the former, which could be very exciting. The presence of CN suggests a TV idea is included but the fact LEGO owns the trademark and have launched the brand before CN have said anything makes me feel the CN part is not the majority of the concept. From the name Mixels and a tweet I spotted, there seems to be a "mix 'n' match" concept behind the characters. What that means, I don't know, but it sounds like a LEGOish idea. As 'Mixels' also suggests pixels, I think there's also a big online idea behind this concept too. TLG have a department called FutureLab who are responsible for creating the future of LEGO play, a huge part of which is to imagine the place of the brick within the wider ways that kids are 'playing' these days and in years to come. The success of Ninjago has surely encouraged TLG further in their pursuit of creating their own intellectual properties (like Licensed Themes, but LEGO invent the license) with a wider presence than just as a bunch of sets. The UK and other countries I believe do not allow TV shows based on toys because it's mostly just advertising to kids in a new clever form. So this makes TV a less useful medium for a new intellectual property. Still very very very important, since it's allowed in the US and other places, but semsible companies won't wholly place their eggs in that basket. All of that makes me feel like Mixels is a LEGO idea and the central concept of mix 'n' match has been rolled out into online games and content plus a supporting TV cartoon which they've turned to CN to produce, as TLG are not a TV company. I'll be interested to see if I've got any of this right, and whether the actual idea has legs (interchangeable legs of course).

Thanks datune! In addition to the Bricklink example charlieboy gave, it is always worth looking on Brickset's new parts database as well, as the two are a little different. Bricklink only add and confirm inventories (and any new elements in them) once a set is actually available. Brickset pull the data straight from TLG's replacement parts database; the upside here is that often elements are listed earlier than Bricklink. The downside is that TLG do not list ALL elements in their replacement parts database - I've never heard a reason given, nor understand why some parts are not added. So you might find some elements on Brickset not yet on Bricklink. But other elements might never get listed on Brickset. There are further complications... such as the naming differences, changes to element IDs that TLG implement which Bricklink might not... too many caveats to explain... this is one of the reasons I decided to start the blog! A Brickset example for the part you listed - http://www.brickset.com/parts/search/?query=30357 If hunting a part or element on Brickset you'll find it easiest to use the search box top right, as TLG's naming system takes a lot of getting used to.

I'm afraid not. I could imagine it appearing though; Lime seems to be getting a bit of an appearance in SW recently (i.e. 75021 and 75024) and part 30357 would well be required at some point.

This is the first time we've had the micro spaceman in white, no? That's big news for micro neo Classic Space fans!

Rufus; very well spotted on the grille tile mould change, thank you. As my favourite part, any change is very significant to me :O) But I can't be 100% certain which ones in your pic are the new mould as in my set (and parts collection!) they are all the same. From your pic it looks like 1, 2, 3 and 5 - is that correct?

On purpose? That sounds a bit conspiracy theory to me :0) I'm sure fixing the print and box is an expense TLG can do without. I don't think the misprinted versions will fetch especially higher prices.

It's already been spotted in the US but official launch date is 27th I believe. I've blogged about this including a price comparison with parting-out on BL, which was surprising to me.

The Eu version, as you'd expect, has no piece count and BTTF logo only in English.

It is on shelves in uk brand stores, because of the misprint in catalogues I guess they felt they had to honour July 18. I'm walking into Stratford now...

Now that's what I call a thorough review! Thanks so much rufus for taking such a long time to examine the facts and write a well constructed, balanced piece in the face of such AFOL criticism of the set.

I've read of hypochlorite being used, but again concerns around the brick texture being altered put me off - so it's good to hear you are confident with it Rufus (on white anyway). Looks like another variable to add to my tests!! Erk.

Can't wait to see him looking and waving! Hee hee makes me happy just imagining it. In my ideal world, LegoMan would be at every AFOL event I go to :O) But obviously transport would be too expensive for most people, so hopefully the right person will hear about him and have money to bring him to their event. I have tweeted about him, doubt that will do much good, but you never know!

Interesting, I've read of problems on the computer/gamer forums when allowing cremes to dry. Looks like I have a lot of variables to test! Funny you say "good yellowed"... I've bought some off BL to test with, it's very weird to be hunting down the worst parts you can find for a change!!

I think you hit the nail on the head there for me actually. I'm a little discriminatory towards parts that are 'mixed'! Partly because it limits their usefulness - they're very useful in specific situations but not things I generally pick up and am inspired by - but mostly they bother me because they don't quite belong in my 'slopes' box nor my 'bows' box! Silly isn't it.

Thanks boba - good you have had positive results - to generalise, my research so far suggests those using the creme approach seem to have better results. I'm going to try both. The headless lady with pearls in blue trousers... I'm finding it a little hard to tell her condition in the 'before' pic - feels like a bit of the print got lost, and that her blue trousers have gone rough? Or was she like that already? What was the longest you left the creme on for? [edit] Meant to clarify - by "tricky to get right with Lego" I meant that the results within the vintage computer/gaming communities seem more consistently positive. From the LEGO communities I've found discussing it, reports seem more mixed; plenty of happy customers but also many who didn't get good results, including Rufus if I've read his comments here correctly. I'm trying to figure out if this is something to do with LEGO's ABS formula, or different recipes AFOLs are using, or something else...