mrklaw

Hoping to see more OT than those previews suggest. Have season passes to legoland so hoping to see it as soon as the park opens late March

I got those in my Grand Emporium, bought recently in the UK. Thought the quality was really bad to have marks like that, but I assumed it was 'normal' (my first modular)

This is interesting, and perhaps we can discuss this a bit more. If we get the ontology right, then the organisation would be fairly simple. I think the ultimate aim for anyone is to look at an instruction manual (or think of a piece for a MOC) and you can get to it instinctively within just a few seconds We have basic first level groups - Bricks (cuboid), plates, wings, slopes. Then I break those down simply into sizes that make it easy to filter. Its the odd pieces I find difficult. Anything technic goes in an organiser, and then most 'weird' normal lego pieces also go in an organiser. But is there a logic to them? eg headlamp blocks, cheese slopes, cylinders etc - they're not that 'weird' anymore are they? Perhaps they should live somewhere more normal? And what about wheels/chassis parts, or doors/windows and wall panels?

there is 'rare' and 'expensive' and the two might not be the same piece. While that sticker might be the rarest item, its value as a piece is determined by demand. I would assume most collectors interested in that set would want it boxed and complete, so the sticker on its own wouldn't be that valuable. some of the one-off UCS millenium falcon pieces however (Radar dish and rear rigging) are relatively common in comparison, but the demand is high and so are prices.

I'll definitely disassemble, but I've only recently bought a bunch of big sets (cafe corner, fire brigade, GE, Pet Shop, Tower Bridge, Imperial Shuttle, VW camper) and I'm not sure what to do with them. We have a general collection of parts organised by piece type and size, but some sections are at capacity already. So do I disassemble and keep in 'sets' for rebuilding/reselling later on, or put them all in the main collection (which will require significant expansion of our system)? The former might be easier, but the latter will give us more options for building MOCs etc.

fantastic instructions, clear and easy to follow - thanks!

I'm not sure I'd even put it in a street. If I buy it (will have to wait towards the end of the year, have too many others to build), I might try and put windows in the side and have it standalone - perhaps with a green area/fountain in front of it.

argh. I hate Darth Maul and I hate Yoda. Not personally, just the blatant marketing that this is giving the Lucas re-releases. Even on OT sets you have Darth Maul sitting there going 'hey, don't forget episode I in 3D is coming to a theater near you soon'. GO AWAY! Its star wars, we get it already Looking forward to the 2014 sets, with emo Anakin gurning at us from the boxes. Urgh.

I can see the need if your alternative is a computer - just too fixed and clunky to work around, and takes up valuable building space. But an iPad is a good alternative to a printed manual IMO. I've collected the parts for cafe corner but am waiting to build until I buy an iPad 3 (had an iPad 1 but sold it recently) Edit: of course if you're a collector and want the whole set too - I was only commenting on the functional aspect of building from digital

Why wouldn't they use technics pegs to connect the modules, like they do with the modular buildings? its clever how they talk about you buying more than 1 set, smart thinking. I can see lots of potential for casual users making MOCs that would normally be unsure where to start - its a good MOCing for beginners set :) I think having all the modules in a line, showing an underground mine, would be fun - kind of like an ant farm.

Modular doesn't *have* to be attached on the sides. The 'scary house down the street' is a staple of many small towns and being detached could work well And aren't these designer videos usually limited to higher end sets? I think it looks fantastic. I hope its a modular series just so I know the detail will be there. If its just a large monsters set they might just go for scale without the intricacy that modular is known for. And if it isn't modular, hopefully Lego have enough sense for any large buildings to at least be 'modular scale'

there aren't 35 x-wings and 18 AT-ATs on sale at the same time though, just one of each. Kids aren't really collectors and will get a few sets a year maybe. So just running through the evergreen ships/dioramas for the OT can fill a childhood of fond memories. Not so much for AFOL maybe, or edge cases like those that collect 750 sets ;)

Does anyone have the dimensions of the UCS Imperial shuttle, both when 'landed' and 'in flight'? I want to start looking at display cases/shelves and I'm figuring to use this set as my maximum sized needed. If you have any recommendations for display cases that are flexible for positioning of shelves etc and value for money I'd be happy to hear them

whereas I was thinking 'oh there isn't much coming in 2012, I can take a breath and save up for 2013'. I don't like LOTR, don't care for the Monsters theme, or Marvel/superheroes. And the UCS SW themes don't look that interesting. people are different, so you need a range of products to have something attractive to as many people as possible.

bought the Imperial Shuttle last weekend. Not yet started on it - its sitting there just teasing me. I think i'll start with my Venator first though, as a starter to whet my appetite

I just had a heretical thought, please forgive me. My daughter likes the Dino series, but to get a reasonable range of dinos you need several large sets which is expensive. For my daughter, the fun isn't the building of a particular set, its the play after. Most of the non-dino part is fairly generic buggys/helicopters/compound. I'm almost tempted to just use her existing plastic dinosaurs and build some sets ourselves. I like the Lego dinos but I don't like being forced to buy particular sets. A 'bucketful of dinosaurs' would be much more attractive to me. For these classic themes I don't think you need such prescription on how and what to build, but Lego don't give you the choice.

Isn't this just a generic dinosaurs theme? They had one a few years ago, with similar hunter approach - even similar small dinosaur/jeep, t-rex/helicopter etc. My daughter doesn't care that there isn't an official story, or that the theme might not continue. She just likes dinosaurs. Simple really.

kids *do* focus on specific lines. Its what they do. My daughter really wants a Dino set. Actually all of the Dino sets because one has a T-rex, one has a pterodactyl, one has a...etc. But she isn't interested in city. My son likes creator but doesn't care about atlantis for instance. Kids will have particular interests so you need a wide enough range of different subjects to capture as many of those little pockets as possible.

Cuusoo is just a nice way to get new ideas for Lego. The votes is just a filter. Lego can choose not to release a set that gets >10k votes, and presumably they can choose to release something that gets 1 vote if they think it really works well and fits their portfolio. The 10k just reduces the noise.

Dark side: Royal guards - bishops AT-ST - knights (as they can move around othe pieces and are like mounted equipment. Probably need microscale or special piece though) rancor, those orc things from jabbas palace, AT-ATs, or destroyer droids from PT - rooks. Heavy and hard hitting TIE pilots or probe droids - pawns. Would have preferred stormtroopers but, well, they're white.. palpatine-king. Doesn't move around much but is the ultimate power Darth Vader - queen. Main trouble maker Rebels: (a little trickier as a lot of the main characters are all on a similar level) Pawns - r2d2 or rebel troopers. Prefer r2 to keep it all OT, plus rebel troopers turn bad Knight- han on tauntaun. Similar shape to AT-ST but smaller bishop - obi wan Kenobi in cloak Rook - chewie. Big and heavy king - yoda Queen - leia I realise I'm missing luke here. Maybe the knights could be one Han and one Luke (but on tauntauns you might not recognise them) Doesn't matter if you have duplicates of characters - its chess after all. Piece recognition should come before wanting lots of characters on the board

I'm guessing these lower end printers would not be good enough simply as their output isn't accurate enough, and requires too much finishing. Plus for any printed content, you won't get the strength that you would from a high pressure injection molded process like Lego uses. But for some custom made minifig accessories it could be interesting. And for non-structural items like bley rigging for the UCS falcon.... :P

I think those two are the same - looks like both instruction books just stuck together into one file. Total size about the same as the two individual ones from lego, and quality looks identical (might actually be the lego ones edited together?) thanks though. It shouldn't be a major issue, just surprised that they're so small

I've just put in my last order on bricklink for parts to make Cafe Corner. Probably not the best choice for a first timer using bricklink, but what the heck :) But I find the downloadable instructions on TLG pretty bad quality. Printed instructions can be bad enough to distinguish dark colours etc, but the artifacting is really bad on these. Its only about 15MB for 125 pages, so its pretty compressed. Are recent instructions better quality?

I have a wanted list. I go to see which stores have my parts, and then click on the store. Often I'll have parts duplicated - once for new and once for used. So 'auto fill min' doesn't give me what I want and I have to manually check the order over for duplicates. Is there a way to avoid this? I deliberately don't limit notification to just new or used, as I don't want to limit my choice - eg a store may have all my requirements in a mix of new and used.

definitely interested in instructions. I love this and your Venator. I'm putting up with the lego versions so far, but your MOCs are hugely better (and hugely huge!) :P