Vee

Or some are quick to judge using different points of view. Each one is entitled to his own judgement.

Pic pls. Well, if you put a ton of pressure in the pages, they will stay open...

Gatorade also uses fire retardant (bromine) in their beverages...

Very nice. The one thing that I didn't like was the bald minifig . Bald minifigs are ugly,

Try doing that in the beginning or end of the book... I dislike these thick instruction manuals. They do not stay open. I like the usual soft blue paper manuals. Also thick books have a tendency to be difficult to see whatever is printed in the inside edges because of the folding of the pages.

Thank you for the thorough explanation, with pictures, dr_spock, Based on the pics and how big the set of necessary equipment seems to be, I would have to find a way here because my basement is all finished and the water main inlet register has very little room around it, it is hidden behind a small wooden door in our fitness room. But I would love to have my water softened.

LEGO does not lose, we lose. LEGO certainly pass on the loss to the final price of their products. It is like in supermarkets, part of the price you pay is due to stolen goods, it is all factored in. About the rest of your post, :thumbup:

I kindly strongly disagree with your reasoning but I have said enough already. Cheers.

You are confusing things. If I want to sell anything for a stupidly high price, I can, there is no law against it (unless I have a monopoly, which is not the case). This is no shady business, this is just business as usual. If anyone is willing to pay my high price, fine, we both are happy, me the seller, s/he the buyer. But buying a product that you know with 99% certainly that comes from a fraud, this is as shady as selling it. I have bought many pieces in BL that were very expensive. I am happy, I don't feel scammed, I don't feel like a fool. I wanted those pieces, I was willing to pay the price, it is my decision, purchase was LEGAL.

So you buy sth that is like 99% a fraud, you don't kind of care, then you get the item, then only then you complain... that is weird.

Hello there! We have two things in common: we both live in Maryland and we both love the Haunted House above all else. Welcome. Oh, and I see a 3rd almost common thing: I wanted to build a replica of my house with Lego also but I gave up. I may one day build it only virtually (LDD).

I agree with you but I have read somewhere that Lego does not allow any merchant to give discounts in their "exclusive" toys, and the modular buildings are included. If someone is selling such toys at such a discount one thing is for certain, something is very wrong.

FREE AT LAST! I am done with my last Lego project, the Ford Model A Pickup and the Morris Minor. I finished building both. No pictures but ... there is a movie. Cheers.

I agree, but still we have to use whatever info we have available - even if much less than optimal - to help us decide if it is a fair price or not (and even if we are going to buy it anyway...).

Yes, that is the problem. I don't know what a water softener is, although I read some articles that mentioned it. I need to search and learn about this subject. In Brazil, I remember that we used to use a lot ultrasonic humidifiers and I don't remember having this white dust problem. Here, it is the first time we buy and use this kind of equipment. I guess my water is extremely hard = too many of these minerals.

Now I can say that the MOD is 100% ready. After a few changes and additions, it is completely done and I close this one more chapter of my Lego addiction period. I managed to rework the position of and the way the light brick is activated. Before, I had it vertically pointing to the floor; due to the low height of the roof, the light brick would create a small narrow beam that would illuminate mostly a small part of the floor. Now, I have two light bricks, in an angle, aiming at each side of the house, with a wider beam, and I am very happy with the solution. I also added "furniture"... No more pictures but there is a small movie in youtube for those interested. Cheers.

This is not a normal dust, it is called "white dust" but it is a byproduct of the process of generating humidity (vapor) by ultrasonic humidifiers. It is composed of the minerals found in tap water that are thrown into the air by the mist. Blowing compressed air seems not to remove it, at least at a pressure not strong enough to damage or disassemble the sets. I am puzzled here in my office. I have removed the stupid humidifier, not run it for some days now, but I clean a surface, it gets clean, then after some hours it is cloudy again, as if the humidifier was still running inside the office. I don't know how to explain this. Well, I have a theory that the white dust is everywhere and as I move about or by itself it is still moving, in the air, somehow. I will wait some days, weeks, until this dust is gone somewhere then I will start cleaning and see if the sets keep clean. Very weird. I should destroy with cruelty this humidifier but considering I paid $150 for it, I will not. I've read that if I use distilled water, the humidifier would not generate the white dust but each gallon of distilled water costs $1. The humidifier can use 3 a day and I am not willing to spend tens of dollars a month with this.

I have a small compressor, but strong enough to blow all loose Lego parts away. I used it to clean my computers every once in a while. I have not tested but I can't see it cleaning the white dust. The white dust is kind of glued to the surfaces, I am finding that only by using a soft cloth I am able to clean it, without resorting to a more drastic solution like washing the pieces. But then, it must be piece by piece. The "glasses" of the houses is where it shows the worse. Dang, I had everything new, recently assembled, now they look weird, depending on how the light reaches them. If the white dust does not permanently damage the plastic, if left unremoved for a long time, then it is ok, sooner or later, one day, I will end up cleaning everything, after all, I don't have many sets, "only" around 20k pieces should have been exposed. But I am afraid this thing can permanently cloud my glasses, no basis for this fear, just a fear by looking at the glasses. Anyway, I'll have to live with the issue for a long time I guess. Dang! I hate myself when I do dumb things.

I am feeling the dumbest person on Earth! I bought an expensive humidifier, trying to make my office more "livable" and to get less static shocks (I hate these shocks) and the darn thing, in a couple of days, tainted all my things with the darn white dust! Now my assembled sets are all white dusty! Now I have a Herculean job of cleaning all of them, probably by disassembling them all, one by one, cleaning the most important parts, like the trans-clear pieces, and reassembling. If regret would kill, I would be dead by now (this is a translation of an old Brazilian saying... "Se arrependimento matasse, eu já tava morto!").

According to the BrickLink database, Pet Shop should weigh around 2150 grams, which makes it a 14.3 g/$ set. The PR should weigh around 1910 grams, which makes it a 11.9 g/$ set, so 20% more expensive. Call it inflation...

That's very true and I am always concerned about it happening with my posts because I have this tendency to tell things that, if you look at them at the wrong angle, you may see a different thing exactly because words can be deceiving without those cues you mentioned that are only natural to spoken language, not to written one. That is why they invented the smileys... My previous post was not intended to offend no one, of course this thread is just an exercise on our dreams, but upon reading many of the comments, I couldn't help but think what I said, but again, I meant no harm.

You may have a point. But, I've come to realize that Lego hobby is like Cityville, the Facebook game from Zynga. I was very addicted to Cityville for almost six months, a couple of years or so ago, specially after I found about a bot that would help me play the game and a myriad of hacks that would allow me to progress in the game much faster than intended (both forbidden according to Zynga's Terms of Service but Zynga actually never cared much about it). What was the catch about Cityville? The catch was that you would go crazy to make your city bigger and more beautiful so that you could be proud of it, and being proud of it meant also knowing that your Facebook friends (which you need to play the game and they need you to play their game) were watching. It was a lot about showing off your "creation", your city. Lego hobby is similar, specially for MOC's and MOD's. What's the fun in creating them if you will not show them off? No fun! Showing our creations is the core thing about them. Imagine you alone in this world having all Lego bricks that you could possibly want, but having no one to show whatever you would come up with? No fun! This hobby is a lot about recognition. Lego knows it and that is why Lego encourages any kind of instrument (like this very own site, for instance) that would facilitate the "recognition" part of the hobby. But you may have a point. It all depends on the contract terms, if there is one, that he signed with the company. And I hate lawyers... lawyer =

Beautiful. I like it. Congrats, nice work.

I'd say I am glad none of you run TLG because certainly running a company based on your personal interests is a bad idea and that's mostly what happens here.