caperberry

Eurobricks Citizen
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Posts posted by caperberry

  1. Posted · Edited by caperberry

    Hi Gunman,

    I have bought K boxes from Stratford. Pretty sure you can buy them from any Brand Store; they don't advertise it but just ask the Manager or duty Supervisor. They cost £45. However there was a recent article published by an AFOL that claims that generally, the best value PAB is not K boxes or large PAB cups but actually the small PAB cups.

    Contrary to what others have said here - the London PAB walls have actually been fantastic the last few weeks. Perhaps the best I've ever seen in 3 years. Hopefully they still will be when you arrive. Westfield (i.e. Shepherd's Bush) seem to have been a little bit better than Stratford when I last went a couple of weeks ago, but pieces change regularly at the moment.

    Westfield and Westfield Stratford are the easiest to get to; 30min maximum on the Tube from central London. Stratford is always much more chaotic with kids - the other Westfield is much posher and quieter. But I prefer the atmosphere at Stratford, plus you can go see the Olympic stadium. Bluewater have a slightly larger PAB wall, but it takes a bit under an hour to get there from central London - it is a train and then a shuttle bus.

    If you decide to brave the English seaside in Brighton, one hour by train, they have a Store too.

    I hope you have a great stay here!

    [edit] - I've not been to Windsor, but be aware the Stores there are run by Merlin and not TLG. Prices, especially PAB, are apparently not as good. But you are more likely to find EOL sets at Windsor, I am told.

  8. Posted

    Nice! I hope you will add the audience too... and how about some 'blue elementals' maybe using 6162b?

    For the record, that's from The Unquiet Dead written by Mark Gatiss, it is episode 3 from series 1, 2005 and was the first time we saw Rose travel backwards in time. Although it was an early one, it remains one of my all-time favourites!

  9. Posted

    ...

    (Not to mention that the skyscrapers n the background evidently place the setting on Earth.)

    The concept image with skyscrapers is from the first wave. But it was indicated to me that some of the models shown in it were intended for the second wave. Sorry for any confusion... and indeed, I can't really confirm that it was definitely true! Just relaying what he told me.

  10. Posted

    Some nice discounts in there. Guess they're winding down on these themes to make room for Monster Fighters and LoTR. Thanks for the tip!

    And thanks Praiter :laugh:

    Yeah some are ok. I've not seen Tripod Invader significantly discounted anywhere as yet so very happy to finally buy some multiples. And the Hulk really made the deal :0)

  16. Posted

    Are these grab bags available in the UK? I haven't seen them but I never really browse the shop as I know what I'm purchasing. Sorry if this question has been asked before.

    Yes, but not always. Depends if the staff have things to put in them, plus if they have time :O) In the ones I've seen, they tend to be on a bottom shelf, near the back of the stores.

  17. Posted

    Wonderful! Love the projecting floors, very authentic medieval construction. It has all the ramshackle character of a very old building too.

    I have also experienced the joy of an idea you couldn't execute in minifig scale working out in micro!

    Good luck!

  19. Posted

    Interesting stuff Alex, thanks for posting it.

    I've just had to cost up one of my models and it was an interesting process. It looks like the cost of parts + BrickLink S&H = about the same as LEGO would charge for the model if they were releasing it themselves. i.e. all the other costs Alex mentioned above would push it way (way) over the price LEGO would charge. And seeing as most consumers consider official LEGO sets to be expensive, I imagine 'MOC sets' could only be sold to those who really appreciate the MOC and understand the work involved... i.e. probably other LEGO fans.

    Unless of course you design MOCs to a 'price point', as LEGO designers do, which in our case would mean coming up with MOCs using common, cheap parts. Not easy or nice!

  22. Posted

    We have designer Mark Stafford to thank for this. I met him at AFOLCON last week and had the chance to play with Samurai Mech, and it's an awesome set all round. I asked him about new parts pushing up the model price but he didn't seem to think it was a huge problem; maybe new moulds are not as expensive as I always assumed. The more interesting point he made was that LEGO have a policy of only having a fixed number of parts in production; so if they start making a new one then an old one stops getting made. I think they have this policy because one of their many issues in the early 2000s was that they were making too many elements ('elements' = all pieces but also all the colours they come in. From memory I think it was 12,000 back then and now it is 7,000. I could be wrong about the figures, but it was definitely a little more than half of what they were making a decade ago.)

    Mark seems to do many good things for us builders! - in the feet of Samurai Mech there are Dark Red train windows. He decided on the colour of this part by going to a fan site and checking what the most 'wanted' non-existing colour of that piece was! He also prints off lists of the most expensive of the more common parts on BrickLink and gives it to the other designers to include in their models, to get the price down for us builders, yay!

  24. Posted

    That brought a huge smile to my face. I think converting adults into "Adult Fans of LEGO" is one of the unstated aims of all LEGO shows default_laugh_new.gif Wasn't it incredible? The Rubik's cube solvers blew my mind, but so did many other things like the Modulex planning board rescued from the Yorkshire Building Society offices, and all those amazing creations kids were making out of 2x4 red bricks.

    And your choice of sets was excellent I've heard nothing but good things about Unimog. If you don't want to make too big a dint in those savings, there are sites that keep an eye on Amazon LEGO discounts. I missed so many great sets in my Dark Age but many of the ones from the last couple of years are becoming cheap on Amazon. And for your official LEGO Shop/online purchases you can apply for a VIP card which gives you £5 for every £100. (By the way, the LDC isn't an official LEGO store, it's run by Merlin Entertainments, so you wouldn't have got any VIP points there, in case you were upset at missing out!)

    Happy building and welcome!

  25. Posted

    If we take an example set, say 8110, and try to buy all the parts from Bricklink or Lego, roughly how much more we shall be paying compared to the price for an official set?

    Actually I have some examples default_blush.gif

    The first price is LEGO's, the second is BrickLink part-out value.

    3859: CAVERNS OF NATHUZ £14.99 £21.46

    5549: LEGO BUILDING FUN £19.99 £31.91

    3841-1: Minotaurus £17.99 £21.40

    3860: CASTLE FORTAAN £19.99 £34.26

    9395: PICK-UP TOW TRUCK £49.99 £84.92

    4626: FARM BRICK BOX £12.99 £15.30

    5933: AIRPORT BUILDING SET £19.99 £23.93

    5932: MY FIRST LEGO SET £9.99 £14.63

    5770: LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND £40.99 £52.24

    7325: CURSED COBRA STATUE £20.79 £24.88

    5891: APPLE TREE HOUSE £40.99 £48.64

    7978: ANGLER ATTACK £11.39 £21.95