Lockt

Thanks for posting some examples of this problem. I have read about it, checked my minifigs and almost visited a doctor to check my eyes. On the pictures the difference is clear, but I couldn't find it in my figs. Somehow I own the entire collection (including battlepacks) without this pink knights... ...of course it is very realistic if they washed the clothes by machine to hot :P

Funny to see that also a lot of Eurobrickers fell in the trap a lot of Media walked in with open eyes. Even not being a lawyer the ruling of the European court is quite clear. It is just about the trademark, not about the brick itself. Competition is already sold in Europe (however is fairly weak). Please read also TLGs official response to the ruling (maybe add a link in the OP?): LINK This ruling will not affect prices or the market function. Also keep in mind Lego is not (only) competing with "clone-brands", but most importantly with other toys. Price/quality ratio is critical. This is one of the reasons why Lego made such a comeback in the economical downfall of last years: parents remember Lego as a durable product and switched back to it. This all under the motto: If you spend less, spend it on something that last longer...

Building a tunnel is often quite a huge brick-eater. I always wanted to built a tunnel for a layout, and when I finally tried it, I was shocked how fast it ate my bricks away. For the full core I used a lot of the brightly coloured bricks, and still I used all my grey from my castle collection. Of course it all depends on what you want. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3891418

For me this set was quite a nice addition. First of all, I really like the green colourscheme of the dragon knights, second I like the colours of choice for this set a lot. For me it is more a gate house as a tower and I can imagine it will be usable as such in future sets or in MOCs. Downside is the number of dragon knights, but I will correct that with some battle packs. Finally on the whole colour thing: I checked and double checked, but unless I am starting to get colour-blind, I don't see any problems with Pink, fading colours or less then bright red figures? So lets hope it is just a "wrong" batch, although its a pity it was made...

The battlepacks are very nice: - The dragons one seems to be helmet heaven - The Lions one seem to be shield heaven Two minor downsides: - Whats with the flags? - The dragons have a lance-carrying knight in it... so that will cost me a horse again :P

I agree with the statement this exclusive will be around for at least 2nd half of 2011. The ship is immensely popular given the fact that it is on backorder now for the 3rd time since release (at least in Holland). I think every production run of Lego was sold out within 2 weeks. Of course the decision to stop Pirates while the selling rates weren't that bad (I think TLC even claimed it was better as expected) baffled me, but I still find it "convenient" that the cancellation of the theme was close to the announcement of the Disney Licencing. Given the fact that Disney is planning for a Pirates of the Carribean 4 movie in 2011... 1+1 is still 2 for me (at least I hope so :P) From a Marketing point of view it makes sence to "bridge" the gap with an exclusive like the IFS... All arguments for quite some run time of this set...

Difficult question asked here, and to my suprise I alsmost had a tie in chosing between these. Built Lego Track vs Prefab Lego Track Round 1: Storage A clear winner for the built Lego Track. It requires less space for bigger tracks. A major advantage when it comes to storing or transporting your track. However, only a small victory here, since it doesn't happen much you don't have enough space... Round 2: Flexibility Again a win for the Built Lego Track. It is far nicer to built a MOC truck, where the individual iron beams are transported, since it is more realistic. Also you can play with narrower tracks (like Lego did e.g. in Dwarves Mine) etc. A clear advantage here for the MOCers! Round 3: Convenience Here finally Prefab Track starts to gain. Of course large lay-outs save considerable amount of time by using this system. Putting done the rough layout of your train lay-out is very easy and if you miscalculated something in size of number of pieces, it is easily modified. Round 4: Endurance And here the Prefab Track makes a pure knock-out round versus Built Lego Tracks. Although I am very cautious with my Lego collection, there are only one type of pieces broken and that are the these prefab Tracks. They are very solid connected but when disconnecting you have to put quite some force on them... *Crack*... not terribly damaged, but those tiny connection points are the first to go. The track can still be built, but is not very solid locked anymore. Only because I hate broken parts Prefab Track wins this fight...

I am really excited about these first pics. I really loved the fantasy line coming out of my Dark Ages, but this new line reminds me more of the "old days". From what I can see I really like the colour scheme used and that tower looks like a power pack in useful MOC components.

During the first wave of Pirates, also a comic book was published (in 1989), and I happen to have it. It is clear that already back then Lego put the Pirates as very sympatathic and funny, while the Soldiers where grumpy old, brainless grunts that only wanted to hang Will (a young Pirate) because he fell in love with the Govenors daughter. http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/6255-1

English originates from an EU country, namely England (sorry had to say it) On the OP question: how long will it take to build CC? I can remember it was the first set in years I didn't finish in one evening. I remember start me building at approx. 7 pm till 11 pm and it wasn't finished. I think in total it took something like 7 or 8 hours to build. I would advice you to take your time, since it is an extreme enjoyable build :)

I am a big fan of the Creator Houses in general, but this one of the best they have made as of yet :) Thnx for the pics!

I am shocked to read that all these sets are from 2010. I have been on a city "buying-spree" last year... Eniwee, my favorite must be the farm, closely followed by City Corner

First of all: Petition Signed! A bit of my thoughts: I really hope that this abrupt end of the line was indeed planned for long and that all becaus PoTC licence was coming TLGs way. But maybe that is wishfull thinking, at least I will speed to the store to pick up some of the Pirates sets, just to add a little turnover boost to TLG.

This is one of the two forestmen sets I own and I love every part of it, except one tiny little detail that always annoyed me: its name. There are so many minifigs involved with coloured plumes that it is not very much camouflaged if you want to put them all on the set :P No, this set is absolutely briliant and I am glad somebody bought this for me a long, long time ago :)

Again a beautiful masterpiece Alien! Although there are many things to praise on this I want to emphasize two items I really like about this MOC: - Like before, you often build structures from the late medieval period, so when gunpowder is introduced in the form of bombards but still the "knighthood" is applicable. I like that period and it produced most mature medieval castles. You picture that very well in this (and many of your) MOCs - The use of light green to make the walls more realistic. This colour I haven't seen before (at least didn't notice it), but it is a very nice idea and very fitting to make your walls more detailed. Thank you again for a nice MOCs for us to drewl on ;-)