Vorkosigan

I just built my Smaug and he truly is magnificent! Definitely the best LEGO dragon, although I like other recent molded dragons quite a bit as well. Smaug casts a quite impressive shadow. I do wonder how well the soft rubber wings will age however. One I think they will attract dust, but more importantly I'm concerned they could get brittle over time. I'll just have to hope for the best.

Two overlapping layers of with a few stepped layers of then transitioning to and then finally vertical wall. That's my idea, there will be some gaps and the decreasing radius circles will probably require some clever attachments between the ribs. Another possibility is to build the whole thing sideways as stepped plates with cheese slopes. This is conceptually simple but would use a ton of parts.

Looks great! Can you upload larger pictures on a site like imgur or flickr?

Name: Painting Easter Eggs Theme: LEGO Year: 2015 Pieces: 153 Pieces Minifigs: 2 minifigures Price: USD $9.99 First the box, these holiday sets are theme-less but honestly it would fit well into Creator. The back shows the vignette's scenario in detail with the kid dropping the egg because he's busy thinking of chickens... The one picture is a bit odd to me, it shows the egg falling AND one already broken on the floor. A chicken for scale, cute. Three bags, two loose plates, and the instructions were well preserved and not excessively bent. No numbers on the bags for the small build. The instructions have a plain baby blue backgrounds that provides great contrast compared to some of the overly busy backgrounds these days. Some of the great parts in this set. 7 dark red masonry bricks are the big standout. These currently sell for upwards of $0.75 so half the price of this set can be represented just in these bricks. The round plate with jumper is a fairly recent and very useful piece. The orange 1x1 round tile may not seem too special but it has only appeared in 6 sets previously. Of course the chicken, classic space themed torso, and painting supplies are all great pieces as well. The first stage of the build is the chicken in the wild with its egg. Simple but a nice way to get the chicken into the set. Here is the base with tiled floor and beginnings of the back wall, the alternating tiles and plates provides a nice flexible base for positioning the figures. Note the cookies in the oven, I also like the simplicity of the "fume hood" represented by a 1x2 cheese slope. The completed back wall, of course it must have a coffee maker. Simple but very evocative of a kitchen scene. The completed vignette! The brown flowers make good egg holds but I kinda wish they'd used the normal 1x1 round with hole as those are more versatile than the flower shape. The leftovers, the brush is the main standout. Playability: 7/10 You can splat the egg, get the cookies out, but in general this is meant for display. Thats not a bad thing in this case. Design: 9/10 Very evocative of a home kitchen with nice parts use throughout. Price: 10/10 Good price per piece though many small pieces, however the unusual parts like red masonry bricks elevate this. Minifigures: 8/10 Good prints, the kids shirt especially. Perfect figs for the scene. Parts: 10/10 Great selection of rare parts for such a small set. Total: 44/50 Colorful and creative build with great parts. Thanks for reading!

People sell their own figure creations, I don't think they're ripping people off. Whether you think the price is worth it is up to you.

They probably can't make any other dinosaur sets until the JP license expires.

Shopko (a midwestern chain) has buy one get one 40% for all LEGO sets that they carry. It is available online as well as in store. They don't have a huge selection but do have some 2015 sets that haven't seen much if any discounting elsewhere yet: http://www.shopko.com/catalog/brand.jsp?brand=Lego&brandId=7#

Good thread, thanks for the comparison. While I'm not a huge LOTR fan I had to pick up TLM for Smaug. I've been saving it because of the lack of new Castle related sets on the horizon, but maybe I better build it so I know whether I might really need to pick up some more!

Awesome! Different subject matter, tricky to get so much detail in this scale. Your stickers look very nice. Great job!

Does anyone in the US have higher sales tax than this? Here in Wisconsin its only 5%. Generally big cities have their own tax, I remember PA has 6% but in Philly its 7% because the city takes their own percent. Breakdown makes a good argument but I think its tricky to take sales into account. There are many different stores across North America, though if you want the really big sets that is more limiting.

Well I didn't bricklink any parts for this, its hard to quantify exactly what the cost of the bricks are. I did use many of the parts from Medieval Market Village, a few from Kingdoms Joust, and some parts from pick a brick wall trips: 2x2 and 1x1 light bley tiles, 1x4 brown tiles, flower stems, 1x2 trans clear plates, and 1x2 sloped bricks. The rest is just from my collection.

I hope you do it because I live close enough to go see! I would start with the uhaul cost both ways (make sure you take into account all their extra fees and tax), gas, any packing material, and at least minimum wage for how much time you think it will take to pack it and set up and do the reverse afterwards. Maybe round up from there. If you want to charge a rental fee per day you could try that but I don't know where to start with an estimate for that. In terms of security, they do have "Yellow" in a case but all of the rest of Nathan's work is out in the open. I understand he glues the bricks though so its not really comparable. Definitely a good idea for this sort of MOC to have it roped off or in a case.

Name: Infearno Interception Theme: LEGO Ultra Agents Year: 2014 Pieces: 313 Pieces Minifigs: 2 minifigures Price: USD $29.99 This set is nearing the end of its run on shelves as the new wave comes in, but still awaits a review. Personally its my first Ultra Agents set, I went for it because of the Blade Runner similarity. First, of course the box. The back, showing off all the action features and app tie in. The build is divided into two stages in numbered bags. The instructions has a very simple pale green background with grid pattern. Some parts that were interesting to me, I believe only the flame helmet piece is new. Nice to have the space armor in red. I don't buy Star Wars or much action themes so this is my first set with spring loaded missiles. This is the completed first stage of the build. Here you can see the ejection seat mechanism The figures, Agent Soloman Blaze and Infearno. The mech leg is a nice touch but while Soloman is a decent looking figure, Infearno is the clear standout. He really reminds me of a Mega Man villain. His armor, flame throwers and flame board are simple builds but come together very well. The printing on Infearno is very cool, its a shame the armor covers it up actually. But its great to have the printing available. The final build, look familiar? Getting even more Blade Runner-ish in this mode. All features open, the spring fire missiles work reasonably well and its nice they can be hidden. I feel like this should've been reverse printed or else the instructions should show it going on the inside. Lastly, here are the extras. Thanks for reading. Playability: 8/10 Nice articulation, typical flick fire missiles, ejection seat. Great swooshability for a small vehicle. Design: 9/10 The car design comes together very well. Unusual but functional front wheels. Doesn't feel fragile despite nice detailing. Price: 7/10 Average price per piece, I think this would be better at $25 despite quite a few trans pieces. Now is the time to get it on clearance. Minifigures: 8/10 Soloman is classy but not too exciting, Infearno is excellent. Parts: 7/10 Good amount of trans bricks, there are 1x2 trans light blue used that could have been simply dark bley. Total: 39/50 Solid build, good design, I'm tempted to pick up more Ultra Agents sets.

Thanks everyone! I forgot that I wanted to mention I drew a lot of inspiration and parts from the Medieval Market Village and Kingdom's Joust. It is probably obvious, but several pieces of furniture are only slightly modified from those sets, and the use of light azure for the upstairs exterior is from MMV. I also saw a similar carrot patch from a MOC on here, sorry I forget the name.

The concept for this MOC is that a couple runs a small blacksmith and produce stand on the roadside in front of their rural cottage. The scale is perhaps a bit compressed but I think it still gives the impression of a cottage set back from the road by gardens and wild fields. This is my first attempt at a detailed house.

Its from the 14th-29th, refer to the calender: http://stores.lego.com/en-us

Great MOC, really like all the controls and computer interfaces in the interior. The use of the white space wheels inside the treads looks great. One thing I thought when I first saw this was that it would have a heck of a time turning. But seeing the ice planet details I started to envision this on a mission across a huge desolate snowy plain where turning was not much of a necessity.

All the quite large parts in the new space shuttle are counter to that argument though, in terms of domes. I agree that base plates seem unlikely though.

Given these are showing up in a lot of stores I'm surprised they still aren't on S@H as "coming soon" like Elves is. I hope they are available on S@H on March 1st.

Name: City 30313 Garbage Truck Theme: LEGO System / City Year: 2015 Pieces: 48 Minifigs: 1 minifigure Price: USD $3.49 I picked up this new polybag in the Easter section at Target. The parts. Front end could use a bit more detail, but a nice little utility vehicle vehicle. The extras, not much but the black arm is a nice piece. Playability: 7/10 For a $3.49 set its not bad with the trash and shovel and cans to put them in. Design: 8/10 Its a polybag, but the little mechanism for the cans is nice. Could use some sort of front fairing. In general this stood out to me more than some of the recent City polybags. Reminds me of a John Deere Gator type vehicle. Price: 7/10 Average price per piece, nice printing on minifig but nothing new. Minifigure: 6/10 Pretty typical blue collar worker type figure. Seems like a lot of these guys have facial hair in the LEGO world. Parts: 7/10 The trash cans are moderately valuable, the arms with hooks are always useful, and the oldschool car base is not found in too many sets these days. Total: 35/50 A pretty average set but would make a nice addition to a park scene. Will be watching to get a couple more cheap if they make it to 50% off the day after Easter.

Well personally it seems like almost all sets I buy already have reviews, in the one case that it didn't I wrote a review. I don't buy a huge number of sets though. I think it varies quite a bit across themes. Friends doesn't have a lot of reviews for example. You don't need any approval to post a review so give it a try. I plan to write some reviews of upcoming sets if I get them before a review goes up. Not a big fan of all the video reviews these days, I would rather read than listen to someone talk.

Saw a bunch of sets on clearance at Target today: Benny's Spaceship for 70, Police Dropship, all Ultra Agents except the largest set, Battle of Ninjago City, a couple TNMT sets. Mostly 30% off. I have some details on the blog in my signature.

From this thread: http://www.eurobrick...howtopic=105913

That shuttle had way more small pieces where this one has some very large pieces for the nose, boosters, and bay doors. Still does seem high I admit but I don't know that the size of this is much less than the Expedition from a quick pic comparison.

The talk in the Castle 2016 thread is that there will be a new theme in January 2016 and that it will be bigger than usual (and probably fantasy related). I think it may be an Action / Castle theme meant to replace Chima. Some Castle fans hate the idea, but I think it could work, depending a lot on the specifics.