Vorkosigan

You can fill build a fig boxes with all one type of accessory? I will have to think about that next time. What are the rules for this or is it up to the individual store's leniency?

Amazing! Very stylish and full of great details.

Why would the other store have to close? There is a discovery center near Chicago and there are at least two other stores less than an hour from there.

Really awesome dragon. I like that it goes in a different direction with an almost catlike look.

I don't think the 2 whole previous non-licensed TV show themes is enough of a precedent to say all TV supported themes for the rest of time MUST have mechs and planes.

For this MOC I conceived of a small Roman outpost deep in the wilds of Britain. A skeleton crew of 6 men are occupying a small fort. I debated putting a walkway on the the palisade wall but decided it is mostly to keep out the wolves and discourage causal thievery, in the event of any serious assault the troops would fall back to the keep.

You want light gray. That is the original gray. The newer shades are the "stone" versions. These are the LEGO official names I believe.

38 bins is brutal in a small store with only 60. If they really are going to try to ban you from using those parts in PAB cups then this is really bad news.

Welcome! Nice looking castle, I like the two part structure with moat. It has an imposing look overall.

My closest store only has 60 spots so losing 12 just for the display, plus more for the parts is a pretty big chunk of whats there. Sadly there is probably a market for this. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it build its own creations! I just thought of one advantage to this. Since they show new models on the website it means you have a very good chance of getting the parts in that model. At least for my local store no one ever updates the wall of bricks website (I did once 6 months ago and that is the latest), so its nice to have at least some indication. For example the giraffe has 1x2 brown bricks and what looks like 2x2x3 brown 75 degree slopes which are parts I might get.

Very cool! The custom figure came out well. I haven't played that game, but the MOC reminds me a bit of some of the fairy caves in The Legend of Zelda.

Thanks crossmr, Oxford has some great stuff out. This is pretty incredible, 5944 pieces! And for under $300 USD. "Sold out" though. This is also quite cool: Bicycles with movable steering! Last one, note the 1x1 masonry bricks:

They do however include 16x16 plates fairly often now. In some ways more useful, in some ways less.

I'm gonna go a different direction and mention how frustrating it is to drop a drawer or tray of small parts and have them scatter all over the floor. Especially since they tend to go underneath a couch or something. Definitely encourages me to clean the floors more. In terms of saving money I try to ask myself if the set will both be fun to build and have a good amount of useful MOCing parts. I try to discourage myself from buying sets that just look cool on the shelf but aren't really the parts I need to re-purpose.

Those filled in places are on purpose, either for structure or to stop the part from sliding all the way for a certain construction type.

Is it a metal detector?

Thanks for the really nice review and great pictures! Its good to see they put beds in the boat, always like to see living spaces in sets that aren't houses. Couldn't really justify the cost of the boat hull so I got the main research base instead, but this is a cool looking set. I wish they put more structures like the little ice cave in the other sets, because there isn't enough for the figures to do. There is just ice spheres laying around in most of the sets, its too easy to get the crystals.

I made a thread in historical about converting the Elves spa set into a Castle style set: http://www.eurobrick...howtopic=107339

Thanks, I've thought about making it a Forestmen set, but I'm not sure if I want to spend $50 on it. It would require replacing a larger percentage of parts. When you turn the hot knob a dragon breathes on the water. It doesn't really make sense with Elves either.

Forest Ambush is a great little set, I hope they have some similarly good sets in the next line. Most of the non-minifig parts are fairly useful, and its always good to get more leaves. I just wish the dog was a goat. I may be somewhat biased though since I paid between $5.50 and $8 for each of mine, never the full $12. Sets definitely seem better when you get them cheap.

I know when Elves were first leaked many hoped it was a Castle theme, well its still possible to convert the Elves into Castle style! Naida's Spa Secret is the only Elves set I've picked up so far, so I did a conversion and created a bit of a story for the Castle version. Here is the main action feature, there was a map hidden in the waterfall, now there is some ill gotten gold. Here is the story. I call this set The Nobleman's Vices. The nobleman goes to relax in his hidden spa in the forest. He is surprised to see a beautiful maiden in his pool, but is quick to try to spin the situation to his advantage. I'll let you guess what's going on here: To his dismay he finds its a setup! The guardsmen have trapped the nobleman in some shady dealings. But there's more, they find his hidden ledger that reveals he's been embezzling from the King. They also uncover the gold hidden in the waterfall as seen earlier. Off to the dungeons!

Awesome build. A very realistic looking ship and a great variation on the original.

It is a normal firm connection. Should work fine. Also see this GIF from New Elementary: http://www.newelementary.com/2014/12/review-lego-10246-detectives-office.html

You make a good point, the cover is misleading because there are only 5. They shouldn't show the one falling AND also broken in my opinion.

Any ideas on when this wave will retire? I kinda feel like it will go away around the end of this year to make way for the 2016 Castle line (that hopefully exists). That seems like a short run but I'm not sure how it usually goes with licensed themes. The fact that very few Hobbit sets were ever on shelves around me makes it seem to me that it will be short lived but maybe not.