Zeya

I'm about 3/4 of the way through Game of Thrones. I watched the HBO treatment and now I'm reading the book. Both are very good. The show got pretty much everything right, by the way. Only some minor differences and some inconsequential scenes dropped here and there. I look forward to reading the sequels too.

Sure. From my email:

I got a very nice email after giving them the part pack number. They even told me why they were pearl to begin with in those sets. They're sending me a bunch of chrome coins. Thanks everyone.

I found a 2x2 red brick and an old light gray sideways bracket in the back yard dirt. It was probably from the former occupants' kid back in the day and they must have been out there for over a decade. The red brick was pretty sun faded on one side.

If you guys aren't aware yet, on the Barnes and Noble website (a retailer in the USA), they seem to have had an accidental leak of all the set numbers and most of the names for the January wave. There don't seem to be any PotC sets in there. Furthermore, I see a set for Spongebob called "3817 The Flying Dutchman". A google search shows some cartoony thing that looks like this:LINK. I don't think that set name bodes well for a PotC set for the Dutchman. I don't see them having both sets on shelves at the same time, because that would cause confusion. My personal opinion - I'm getting skeptical that this theme will continue, at least immediately. Maybe in 2-3 years if they make that 5th movie we might see more sets. We shall see... P.S. There's a Ninjago ship coming out too. Could be an okay source for parts. Perhaps that's another indicator of a lack of pirate sets into 2012...

Alright I combed through this thread (twice) and found the info I was thinking of. Link I guess that's two gold bars and 4 coins? I think I needed 4 bars and 12 coins (3 sprues) total. I'll try emailing back with that link and see what happens. Otherwise I'll call customer service some time.

Do you guys share a spreadsheet template, or do you all just make your own? If I ever do a PAB run again, I'm interested in making a spreadsheet comparison like that too.

Wow. They're discounting them already? The movie just came out 4 months ago. That's 30-31% off for those. Shoot, if I knew they would drop that low so soon, I would have waited to buy them. I do still need a QAR though. Maybe that'll hit discount too...

Hmm. I had been procrastinating/busy for a while. I finally got around to doing an online missing parts form. They don't list the coins or bars for any of the POTC sets, so I wrote in the box that I got pearl coins and bars and wanted chrome instead. Perhaps I should have mentioned this thread or something. I got the following email today, basically saying they're sending pearl gold instead of the chrome. Can anyone advise? Wasn't there some number or identifier you could give them? Sorry, I can't find the details in this thread. I just assumed they would know about this at this point. I guess it's a small minority of us that write in to them about this.

At least not for first wave 2012 (January), it would seem. Aside from the Pearl I suppose. But PotC appeared in the summer, so maybe there will be more sets in summer 2012.

Ha, you guys obviously didn't have sisters growing up or daughters etc. (Just teasing here!) Barbie and Skipper etc would drive Corvettes around and apparently Barbie has every occupation under the sun (nurse, veterinarian, pearl diver and on and on). I think these days it gets more ambiguous than it was growing up (80s/90s for me). Not that I'm paying close attention, but you see all kinds of dolls where they have lipstick and scanty popstar-like clothes and are apparently in some kind of junior high or high school or something... Point being that little girls want to fantasize about being a little bit older, like running a salon and driving and cell phoning, all with their friends. (Hey that kind of sounds like a good time actually... ) Good question about female designers at Lego. I wonder if there are any. I'd bet good money that they have women on their marketing team though.

Oh that's awesome. So headpieces and accessories are interchangeable. Very smart of Lego to do. That makes it easy for buyers to migrate from one to the other. Perhaps as girls get older they'll be more likely to collect "System" sets since they can use their old Friends parts from being a kid. And in the meantime we will all have more female variety. Too bad we can't get more female figs (torsos) in System sets though, but that's another matter. Yeah, I just had to come up with a "con" for all of my "pros". It does seem to be a bit sticker heavy. Either that or they will have a lot of printed pieces. I wonder if little girls like putting on stickers. They probably do, I imagine. :) I only dislike stickers when I put them on crooked by accident. But I don't want to start a sticker-hate tangent so that's all I will say.

I have to say, having seen a "preview" of Dino, City (forest), Ninjago, and Friends... Friends looks like the most intriguing. Putting on my "toy designer" hat, it seems to be well designed with engaging structure builds, accessories, and color design. Aside from the figures, I see all kinds of new colors and new molds (or at least new to me). I think this theme has a bigger chance of success than past Lego "girlie" offerings. It looks like the builds are a step up from what Belville had - the houses look bigger and more detailed. There seems to be less pandering here, not shooting for the lowest common denominator and giving the Lego building aspect the short shrift. Nice design work here. On a slight downside, it looks like there is going to be quite a bit of dreaded sticker sheet action. And I'm not convinced that regular minfig parts will fit on these new figures. It looks like the hands are the same diameter as a minifig, but the heads look bigger to me. I guess we'll see.

Wow. That Rockefeller PAB wall is impressive. And those other large sculptures are cool, too. My local Lego store is the Santa Clara, CA location. It's a pretty small space - always packed on the weekends etc. I'll try and take some photos the next time I go. Here's some shots from the official page (and another from Yelp): http://stores.lego.com/en-us/Santaclara/LandingPage.aspx If you can make it out there, they have little cubbys with tiny circular windows where you can peer through and see a little setup. There's stuff like brick-built people, or some hodge-podge minifigures. There are a couple of larger display cases where they show off stuff like the super star destroyer or the Grand Emporium. But I haven't seen any very large works of art there, nothing larger than a cubic meter or so.

I just got an email for the VIP program. They have a voting poll to name a new mascot for the VIP program, to replace the generic red minifigure. So maybe that's what this whole thing is about.

I'm not sure what you're referring to. At brand stores and S@H, they sell these cases that hold 15 (not 16) minifigs. It's kind of got a handle like a suitcase. Is that what you mean?

Alien: Still think he's shaping up to be the scariest minifig of all time. :/ Genie: Very unique. He's got a tail similar to the mermaids from POTC. And a pearl gold lamp! Roman: That shield will be super easy to identify in the bag. His helmet is curious. Does he have the same spear as the indian chief? I wish we would get some armor chest accessories with guys like him. Statue of Liberty: Nice, simple, and works well. Bararella: Lol. I like her a lot. The pink twist classic space logo is awesome (the ship/swoosh is pink there). Skater: This is the third one, right? Somehow I don't mind so much. She is pretty cool looking. Cowboy: He might be my favorite here. His torso printing looks awesome with that bandolier. I'm not sure if that kerchief is dark red or shinier than usual. It might be a CG rendering thing. Robot: Actually this guy might be my favorite. I'm wondering if that head is a helmet or a new shape of head. He does seem to have a key. I wonder if his red hands are placeholders. Highlander: That's a new sword mold. But somehow he isn't so exciting to me, and I tend to like the historical ones the most. I'd rather have a helmet accessory here, even if it's just a hood or something. Surgeon: He's great. That x-ray printing on the tile is to die for - it's showing the skeleton torso! That's funny. Dancer: Not the best fig, but she'll be easy to identify. You have to tell her apart from lady liberty though, but that won't be hard. Minotaur: He's cool. I was hoping for some more coloring on the head. Will the horns detach? Leprachaun: That hat printing is great. He's really cute. Teddy bear guy: He can be a patient for the surgeon and the nurse from series 1 (or 2? I forget). Everyone's gonna love that teddy bear. Butcher: An all-around great fig. So many uses for his accessories. Mechanic: I like the oil on the face, that's a nice touch. That hair piece is welcome.

Good answers - special thanks to Davee123. So it seems to me like it's easier to tell a very successful theme and a very unsuccessful one. But there's a wide range in between where it's hard to tell. And it seems to me that the best information you're going to get will be from "buttering up" to a Lego retail person or just a person familiar with stock at a retail store. I'm dying to know if one theme in particular is considered a success or not, but I won't call that out here. I'll just say that I see people speculating both ways, and haven't seen much in the way of "a little birdie in a red polo shirt told me…" So sometimes there isn't even much insider retail knowledge being talked about at any given time. What can you do? Thanks guys. I figured most of this would be speculation. But I've been wrong before and thought I'd ask. I mean for a while, I didn't know about bricklink, so... I haven't been a FOL long enough to experience something so short lived. But I've heard that Avatar was like that, and Speed Racer maybe as well. Hopefully TLG is now better at betting on their ponies, so to speak. True. But it's hard to tell sometimes what has been restocked since the last time you went. And some stores have messier shelves than others. Like you say, it's anecdotal.

It's an AFOL. Grown up still playing with toys.

I've been wondering for a while how people are able to make comments about how well a theme is selling. Are people just speculating, or is there some source for sales numbers? It looks like TLG releases a document with yearly results. I just paged through one. It has overall numbers, but I don't see them breaking things down by product number, line, or "theme", etc - just overall numbers for the year. The only other official type of thing I can remember reading was an open letter to the community regarding the cancellation of the "Pirates" theme. In that letter, there was a quick comment saying that the theme met sales expectations, or words to that effect. So, when people say that "this theme has/hasn't been selling well", how much of that type of statement is speculation, and how much is based on hard evidence?

+1 for Marshallmario

What do you mean by curse mark? Do you mean like a fine seam running down the length of the arm?

We use this: http://shop.lego.com/de-DE/Elementetrenner-630?_requestid=1825333 You NEED one of these. It makes it really easy to remove attached plates and tiles that are hard to get apart.

I just posted my list for the first time. Take a look! I just need a Gladiator and a Gangster to complete my collection. I have a ton of s5 that will be going back to TRU for gift card money, but I'd rather trade for the ones I need so I don't have to hunt more. I will also sell them at MSRP if someone wants to buy - could be great if you want an army of lizard men or boxers, etc. Some of these I have 4-7 copies of.

(Updated on February 20, 2012) Done for series 6. Check back again when series 7 hits... -- HAVE -- SERIES 6 (All are unopened/mint) <N/A> OTHER MISC Max keychain (tag still on, excellent condition) Jack Sparrow keychain (tag still on, excellent condition) -- NEED -- SERIES 6 <N/A> Will trade for my "need"s or for cash at MSRP. North America only (including Canada). I'm on the EB Straightshooters List. Also check out my eBay profile and feedback.