Tenorikuma

I'm pretty sure I've gotten other sets recently with three pieces of tape on them.

Category A: #5 Category B: #4 #5 Category C: #3 #6

So here's a philosophical question. Once they're out, will the Big Bang Theory sets exist in the Big Bang universe? Or will it be like how on Star Trek, no one in the future has ever heard of Star Trek?

70006 (Cragger's Command Ship) has two interesting trans-red canopies, though I guess that's part of the 2013 Chima lineup. (I only mention it because I saw it at the store today.)

I decided to build some ambitious MOCs by first laying out the design with software, and then using Bricklink to locate and purchase all the pieces. It's been a learning experience so far, so I thought I'd write about the process here. The first model I'm going to build is a Forest Tower I've decided to build for the forest king and his men. This is actually the centrepiece of what I hope will be a large fortified outpost. I'm trying to avoid the look of typical castle MOCs and go for something a little more fantastic. The architecture is sort of a mix of Nordic and Japanese, almost elven. The bulk of the model is sand green, with dark blue roofing, reddish-brown timbers, and gold trim. Here's the model being worked on in Bricksmith, a Mac building program that is Ldraw-compatible: Here's what the almost-final draft looks like in LDview, an Ldraw renderer for the Mac: Building an Ldraw model that actually works is challenging. You can't rely on the software to know how well pieces fit, and whether your construction is sturdy enough to hold together. It's also surprising just how limited some pieces are when it comes to colours. I kept referring to Bricklink's database to see what was available, and was surprised over and over to find that pieces I needed didn't exist in colours like brown or dark blue. A certain amount of revision had to accommodate this. Once the model was finished, I used another app called Brickstore to analyze all the pieces used in the model and upload a wishlist to Bricklink. Then, from the Bricklink website, I began shopping. I ended up opening up some of the larger stores in parallel tabs, and, using the "show all parts in wishlist" feature, doing price comparisons and adding parts to the shopping cart of whichever store was the cheapest. Since this model has over 1000 pieces, it only made sense to buy each part from the cheapest source possible. In hindsight, I should have focussed on buying from the fewest number of stores possible instead. I ended up purchasing from 12 different vendors, and a good 30% of my cost has gone into shipping. Live and learn. At this point, about 70% of the parts have arrived by mail, and I've already begun the foundation. In doing so, I've discovered a few pieces I missed ordering (I definitely need a better way of tracking the parts I need), and I've had one slightly messed up order already — one vendor sent me mostly brown tiles instead of reddish brown. To be continued…

I have to ask, why do you keep your money in a bank that's bankrupt? Surely there are other banks around.

I love everything about this model! It's even got an armillary!

The current "crisis" is a correction. Hundreds of billions of dollars of bad investments have been destroying wealth, dragging the economy down, and generally preventing people from being able to buy enough Lego. With the correction, the banks responsible for the bad investments (mostly located in countries with poor monetary policy, like the US) will go bankrupt, and their assets will be transferred to other banks and companies that can use them in a profitable manner. In the meantime, the exhaustion of lendable resources will force people and companies to increase their savings rate for a while, but ultimately we'll be better off than before, and be able to buy more Lego than before, so long as governments don't screw things up more through inflation or something. In the meantime, Lego is getting an increasing share of business from growing markets in Eastern Europe and Asia. Hopefully that will help to offset any problems elsewhere.

I second Neuschwanstein Castle! What a terrific set that would be. Minifig scale, bitte. I think a classic architectural wonder set needs to be both interesting to build and display, and well-known around the world. I'd suggest: • Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria (thanks, Fluyt) • The Golden Pavilion, Kyoto • The Forbidden City, Beijing • St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow • The Acropolis, Athens

I would try inserting the barrel part into boiling water for a few seconds. The heat should cause it to expand slightly, during which time you might be able to push the hat out with an axle.

• I like the figures and the barding, but I dislike how KK2 has no or nearly no torso printing. • Mini-catapults are lame, but at least this one has better pieces than the catapults in Fantasy Era castle. • I don't like the octagonal shields with the symmetrically rotated emblems. Completely inauthentic-looking. If it weren't for some of these complaints, I'd probably be snapping up all the KK2 sets I could find

I always contact Lego if even a single piece is missing. Not just because I want what I paid for, but also because they'll realize there's a problem and fix it more quickly.

Yeah, I'm in Japan. Eurobricks is by far the slowest website I visit regularly (and most of my regular sites are overseas in N. America or Europe) and frequently (2-3 times per week) it doesn't load at all and I just have to try again later.

It's not just the Pirates forum; all the Eurobricks forums are slow. Let's face it; Eurobricks's server or ISP sucks. Just loading this page took several minutes, and the site fails to load at all about 50% of the time. I'm on a fast fibre connection and can download torrents at over a megabyte per second, so the problem's not on my end. My daily browsing habit is: 1. Try refreshing the Eurobricks main page. 2. Go have coffee. 3. Open interesting Eurobricks forum threads in tabs. 4. Read all my other websites. 5. Go back to see if the Eurobricks forum pages have finally finished loading.

Sorry, I got your quotes mixed up. So he made that cool formation without even being a geologist then!

That is a brilliant model. Nicely done! Leave it to a geologist to make the nicest Lego rock outcropping I've ever seen!

Is the ambassador still reading this thread and relaying the best ideas to Lego, I wonder? At any rate, I'm bored of work so I'm putting in my two cents. No matter what themes Lego comes up with, the key to success, I feel, is quality models. The newest City sets are really good, for example, and I think some themes that were discontinued (like Harry Potter) might have been greater successes if the models had just been better. Original Lego Themes World Explorers — Make this a modern extension of the "Adventurers" theme. Have a team of explorers (and maybe some nogoodnik rivals as well) that search for sunken treasure, ancient treasures, and so on. This theme would be vehicle and location-oriented. Orient — An Age of Pirates theme that covers towns, palaces, and ships from the Far East — China, Korea, and Japan. This theme would be structure and army-oriented. Other Brand Themes Lord of the Rings — This one's a no-brainer; it's the only movie brand that has as much widespread appeal among children and adults of all ages as Star Wars and Indiana Jones, including the lucrative demographic of guys who like owning movie toys and merchandise. Like with Batman, a LOTR theme could be based on the books as well as the movies. Possibly the only fantasy brand with more fans than Harry Potter Narnia — This brand might be less popular than LOTR but provides a wider variety of fantasy creatures and animals. World of Warcraft — This theme would provide opportunity for numerous unique factions, from humans to elves to orcs. The downside is that certain markets (like Japan) will be largely unfamiliar with WoW.

Those photos are really well-taken, and the way you've avoided showing any background makes it really seem like a Lego world. I'm curious, though — why didn't you get a Lego soccerball?

A D-40 kit (body plus lens) is $442 at Amazon. It's only an entry-level DSLR, but it'll be miles better than any point-and-click camera you can buy.

If you're a teenager or younger with a tight budget, I apologize in advance. If you're serious about taking pictures for years to come, you can't do better than to get a cheap digital SLR like a Nikon D-40. You could even get one second-hand. You'll find that a D-SLR is much easier and less frustrating to use than any regular digital point-and-click camera and takes much nicer photos. The battery pack in a D-SLR lasts weeks between charges even with heavy use, unlike a regular camera which only lasts a few hours at most. You'll never need another camera unless you decide to become a semi-professional photographer or a really serious hobbyist.

Hey, that's pretty cool. "I built a flying machine!"

Terrific review! The set looks like a lot of fun, if a little monotonous to build. It would be great for pieces too, all that dark brown.

Great article (and some of the comments are pretty amusing too). I enjoy comparisons of similar or equivalent sets from different years. The new police surveillance truck is actually one set I haven't been able to bring myself to buy ... the set itself looks great, but the subject matter bothers me a little. Fortunately, there are plenty of other great sets this year still waiting to be purchased.

Count me in!

Soot! A log cabin burns. Sparks fly upon a windy draft. Gusts carry bits of ash to and fro. Soon what was my lodging is now a black ruinous mass, a dim shadow against a crimson sky, a sinking sun.