Zeya

So what's stopping people from piecing it together and then selling for 800-1000 bucks? Time and effort? The fact that very few people will buy a $150 set for 5x the price and it's hard to sell?

It's very similar to the old tricorne Jack Sparrow ("Captain Jack Sparrow"). To me, it looks like the head is the same, but his torso/leg printing has a blue coat over everything (but under the belt). The older Jack minifig with a tricorne has a brown coat on. So it's as if they've just turned the old brown coat into a blue coat. What do you guys think? Can you spot any other differences here?

I identified my 60-pack preordered lot from TRU. Last time around with s4, I got all 16. But this time I'm lacking the Gladiator and the Gangster. I'll be posting on the trade thread soon. I might have to do 65 or 70 next time to get my set of 16. What I don't want to do is keep visiting stores looking for one or two specific figs.

7952 Kingdoms Advent Calendar 2010 for $40.54 USD, shipped from an eBay buy-it-now. The box is slightly crushed on one end but I don't care. The seller had a photo of the damage and he's got 100% feedback with like 25 sales in the past month, so I'm not worried. I'll be opening the little compartments every day, come December!

My main frustration is lack of time. I don't get to do nearly as much MOCcing as I would like. I buy from about 3 themes (if you count CMFs). It's about all I can do to make the sets I buy, break down the old ones, and sort all the parts away. I can't find enough time among house/dogs/girlfriend upkeep to MOC. I guess it's like most other pleasures in life; duty and responsibility comes first. Money is a distant second frustration. But I find if I'm patient and spread my spending throughout the year, then I can get most everything I really want. Besides, I knew I was going to be giving up my old life of carefree spending when I shackled myself to a mortgage loan, and I only have myself to blame for that.

I came out of the dark with Kingdoms, when Castle was disappearing from shelves. I look into the past every now and then on Brickset or BL to see what past years were like. It really seems like some of the old designs have a little bit of that Atlantis/Ninjago feel to them. What I'm talking about are things like large, almost cartoony siege weapons, monsters with designs kind of like Bionicle… And those old "jellybean" knights make me think of the neon Alien Conquest uniforms. I think if I were to go back in time, I would buy very little of, say, the Castle line, for example. It looks fantastic for kids, but for people like me that are more interested in a pretty shelf piece and a fun build, it's not the best. The discontinued (recent years) themes have plenty of merits. The standard sized minifigs are great and some of the designs are actually neat. But there's just that last 15% that feels a little cheesy for me. I don't want giant trolls or skeletons, but I would have liked those orcs. Basically, for me, it's not about theme; I don't have a vendetta against high fantasy. I would be tickled pink with dwarves and elves. It comes down to some of the bulky flash-bang designs and the feel of the set designs themselves.

Hmm that link says that the set will be available on October 24th. Translation below.

Lego Digital Designer (LDD) is a good way to start. It has a bit of a learning curve as far as controls and at first it can be frustrating to find the piece you want. But I used it a lot at first because it's great when you have a very small collection of bricks. Once you get used to it, you can actually build faster than with physical bricks, just because you dont have the overhead of locating and pulling apart real world bricks etc. I also had fun on these forums recreating old sets from my youth in LDD. You can find old instructions online. Another thing we've done on these forums are relay builds where we pass the file from person to person and you build up the model on your turn. I'll give some links tomorrow. I'm typing this up on my iPhone and I don't want to go copy/paste right now.

My first minifigure that I can remember was one of the red or yellow astronauts from the classic space theme. These guys came in a big bucket of bricks from my cousins (who were getting to be teenagers when I was old enough to start using system Lego). (photo courtesy of bricklink.com)

I remove as much air as possible, just to save on space, and I suppose that prevents a bit of motion inside each bag too. I can't speak to long term damage; I've only had this hobby for about a year.

Lego commercials play during kids shows. It's like how they play life insurance commercials late at night - they know who the audience is. In the US, you can go watch Lego commercials with Comcast On-Demand. You can probably watch them on youtube, I imagine. Are there Kingdoms commercials in existence? And would the lack of commercials imply that they don't need any to sell units, or would it mean that they don't care about the line? (I think the former.)

Sidebar... I was at Target (large general store in the US) yesterday and in the toy area there was a display case for some toys where it was like dinosaurs fitted with saddles and helmets and maybe lasers. It made me think of these toys I had as a kid called DinoRiders. But it wasn't using that brand name. Sorry, I didn't pay much closer attention than that. (P.S. I also noticed a bunch of new DC comics action figures in a display case too.) You know, sometimes there are trends in the toy world. So it will be interesting to see what Lego does with their dinosaur treatment. Will it be faction versus faction like Atlantis? Maybe the humans will live peacefully with the dinosaurs. Maybe the humans will be "cavemen" like we've seen in the CMF line.

This is a solid vignette. I like it. The vegetation is really nice. You might want to raise up the landscape around the stream, so that the water is lower than the surrounding land.

The Black Pearl is almost certainly the only set coming before the end of the year. It's only speculation whether there will be any more sets at all. There haven't been any solid (or even vague) rumors of other sets coming out.

I finished up Midnight Cowboy. Anything with Dustin Hoffman can't be all bad. It's known as the only X-rated film to win an Oscar. But I have to say by today's standards it would be more like an R rated film, and a mild one at that. I guess I'm desensitized by Tarantino or something. The movie did a really good job of using symbolism and other subtle techniques to make you feel what the main character is going through. I also was semi forced to watch Silent Hill. I player the original Playstation game back in the day. The movie wasn't too bad, but still not quite worth recommending. It had its moments.

For my collectible minifigures and licensed figs, I also use 2x3 inch ziploc bags. I got mine from Michaels (USA retail chain) in the section with beads. I just can't bear the thought of them scraping and knocking together, for some reason. For yellow minifigs, I break apart head, torso, and legs and they get sorted into bins, i.e. sorted by shape/mold like I do with all my other elements (more or less). Although, I do leave hands in the arms and I don't take legs off either. I like to mix and match figures for MOCs, and I especially like stacking and sorting the heads to see what face printings I have. I don't know why I don't break apart my collectible minifigures like that; I guess I just have a mental stumbling block and feel they should stay whole.

A sleepover? And you got a hangover at this sleepover? Uhh...

I preordered online from TRU, and my order just shipped.

How about the first wave's impulse sets and polybags. We had a Wizard impulse and a Jester impulse. There was also a Target Practice polybag here in the US in somewhat sparse/limited release. I don't suppose there's any chance of seeing some little sets like that for 2011? Are those things usually a surprise or announced ahead of time? I saw that, and didn't act on it right away. After my lunch break, prices were back up to $49 or so. My loss. :(

I took the liberty of adding the finds to Kyle's rollout map. LINK TO MAP These are all my local TRUs too! But I've wisened up since S3 and I ordered a large batch online from TRU, so I'll go ahead and let you have all the brick and mortar store stock.

I saw Public Enemies. It was bad. The movie dragged on, and to top it off there was some cheesy dialogue at the end that made me yank out the DVD about 30 seconds before I assume the credits start. Of course the movie dragged on so badly there could have been another hour from that point. Skip this steaming pile and watch another movie.

I got 10218 Pet Shop from my local Lego store (Santa Clara,CA,USA). As bonus promos, I also got a Max keychain and an Alien Conquest jetpack polybag. I also got a black fedora from the BAM because my girlfriend asked if we could buy just that and they said to take it for free. FYI, I also spotted the dragon polybag, CMF 3, and CMF 4. They also had grab bags by the PAB wall priced at $8. The PAB wall itself was pretty standard stuff for the most part; I was mostly looking for plants and landscaping stuff but there wasn't much of that. (Only some red flower sprues.)

This is beautiful. I like that grand tree and the men practicing in the yard. The area over the portcullis is nicely detailed. The stairs are very nice. And the red roofing really worked out well here; it really helps to break up the grayness, as do the tan bricks. The landscaping is fantastic too. :thumbup: Who's that guy hiding behind the tree? What's he up to? (Your brickshelf photos link says "This folder is not yet public.")

Whoa there, Mr. Spoiler. Give people a warning.

It seems to be fairly rare. Here in the US, it was available if you preordered the video game from certain outlets (TRU and Gamestop). It was also available for purchase for $3 during a narrow window of time (a few days only) back in... May, I think? I think in the UK it was part of a newspaper promotion. But these are the only ways the polybag was available. I have a feeling it won't be available at retail again. According to the Bricklink sales history, it tends to sell for around $6 right now. It looks like it's selling for about $14 now on Amazon, I assume due to scarce stock. Interesting.