IAmWillGibson

Oh, that'll be a good venue, I think. I haven't been down to Humber South for a few years. It'll be... nostalgic. I used to go there for show tapings now and then for the program me and the wife helped in the producing of through our respective college courses. Anyway, I hafta say I'm new and dumb when it comes to an event like this. It's over 4 days, but only one public day? What are the other three days? I'm very interested in this whole scene, man, but I'm a little befuddled as to the actual mechanics of it, as in who is doing what and when and where and for how long. And how involved I get to be. At least I have a few months to figure some of those out. And to design and build something impressive enough to warrant showing off. My cemetery ain't cuttin' it anymore.

I'm sure this'll seem distressingly weak compared to some of the rad stuff I'll see over the next few days, but I can't say no to a raffle. Here's the Spookytown Shipping refrigerated container. The masonry and iron bars make the cooling system less than efficient, but nothing really needs to stay that fresh. Also, boo! I'm a sucker for play features. [sorry for the abysmal video quality.]

I just applied for this one. I don't know if I'm qualified to manage the place, but I'd certainly be in for customer service. I feel it'll be a pay drop from my current job, but more consistency would be good, and being around LEGO all the time would, like, rule.

Nice to see some wide exposure of this sorta stuff, but did CNN need to interview this guy so soon after waking him up? And not to gratuitously self-promote, but I think my takes on the Oscar films were better. Or at least funnier.

I saw it specifically at the TRU in the Dufferin Mall in Toronto. It's not an actual figure, or a picture of one, either, but rather a CG version like LEGO uses all the time now. It's cool, while also being a tease of a figure that does not, as yet, currently exist.

How carefully do you have to look to reach that conclusion? 'Cause it ain't that way to me.

Canadians, has there ever been an official LEGO Mountie Minifigure? I was at the local TRU, and on the display there was a big picture of one, and it made me realize how much I'd love one or a few. The elements are there, certainly. We'd just need a properly printed torso. Seeing as how there's an official LEGO recognition of the design at least somewhere in the system, I'm sort of holding out hope that something like this might pop up at the LEGO store opening in Toronto.

What sucks specifically and unequivocally for me is the non-transforming aspect. It's just... I can't even say. I mean, I know transforming LEGO-style structures are hard, but I've seen enough examples online of ways of doing it that don't seem to compromise the kid-friendliness of the model. That's what bugs me. As tot he quality, I'm not gonna speculate one way or the other. I know that one person's opinion on the "quality" of plastic can vary hugely from anyone else's, because it's such an unspecific thing. [As to 'swirliness,' aren't all of LEGO's gold bricks swirly?*] I personally never had any problem with the BTR bricks physically. The set designs just sorta stank. But if these are like the U-Build bricks [also Hasbro] well, yeah, they're thinner and lighter than one would hope for. But Kre-O being designed, I'd assume, more for rugged building and rebuilding than U-Build is, I'd hope the sturdiness would be upgraded. End of the day, the designs of these sets look good. And also terrible, as they don't transform. I remain uncomfortably conflicted. *Sidebar, related both to gold and Hasbro: Do you think LEGO's gold elements might ever succumb to Gold Plastic Syndrome? Ponder, and fear.

I'm pretty interested in this, but as I said elsewhere, that's the same weekend as the Fan Expo, which is, like, the convention in Toronto. I dunno if convention competition is a thing, but if it is, nothing can stand against that juggernaut. So I feel if BricksNorth happens [which I hope], it happens on a different weekend.

I know I'm not making some staggering new argument here, and I'm sure it's been discussed before, and if someone could direct me to a satisfactory answer, thanks. But I'm too incensed right now to go digging through the forums. But why, dammit, why in an age where we're so close to parity all the time are LEGO sets so much more expensive in Canada than in the US? I'm looking at the fun new Kingdoms stuff, and the mind-blowingly rad Alien stuff, and then am saddened by the giant, inexplicable cost difference. Blargh!! Ahh, vent complete.

I just got my order from JSN [skye Exile's Bricks]. Top notch for a first crack at Bricklink. Made the hole thing less scary than it seems at first.

To be the devil's advocate a bit here, I think it's more accurate to say a screen-accurate TIE isn't possible at that scale within those restrictions. But that's in the opinion of you, an adult SW fan. I hate to have to take it back to it, but the target for Advent Calendars is definitely and specifically the kids. And to the kids, the definitive shape of a Tie Fighter is that it looks like a bowtie, not that it has hexagonal wings.

Sherlock Holmes is public domain in the UK, but not in the US. Or the other way around. I forget which, but it's not completely PD. But yeah, as neat as buildings and sets from that era would be in LEGO, I really don't see it happening officially. Either way, I'm shamelessly addicted to these things, so I'm'a get 'em all regardless.

I myself am really into the Advent Calendar. I don't get many SW sets, so the minifigures shown are all pretty new to me, and Santa Yoda is the best thing ever, possibly. I'm also really a fan of micro-sets, perhaps inexplicably. So yeah, I'll have to make the call this October as to how to get this. If I see it in major stores, I'll be happy to snap it up. But will it be like the Castle/Pirate calenders, which I've never seen in TRUs or Walmarts? At least by then the Toronto LEGO Store will be open, so I have time to plan.

While I like the tanned look, and this is all very appropriate as I just watched the two Conan movies just a few nights ago, I think a variant version with the palette swapped to standard yellow might be nice, too, and easier to implement. Slap the Pop Star hair on there and you're good to go, although I'm not sure how far down that'll sit on the forehead, and it may look a bit too glam.

My wallet is bleeding a slow death, but I'm all-in for Heroica. It looks badass. Hopefully the game itself holds up.

There are only two figures in this season that I'm bleh about, which is better than season 3, all of which I now really like. The Snowboarder is... questionable, but I guess the mission to represent every winter sport with a male and female must continue [there will be a lady skier in season 6]. Other than that, this is a great set of figures. I'll need to start saving up for 13 Dwarves for my Hobbit set [along with figuring out some way to differentiate them]. PS Forgive my use of "season" instead of "series." That's weird that I did it all the way through. I'm watching too much TV on DVD lately, I think. BIG EDIT Nevermind, way late to the party.

Just so no one gets the wrong idea from my previous post, I'm not defending Megablox's quality or virtue by any means, but rather soapboxing about my general disapproval of defining one product's quality based on a different product's failings. Megablox does, technically speaking, offer stuff that could be seen as good that LEGO does not. But yeah, at the end of the day picking on Megablox is like picking on the slow kid at the playground; mean-spirited and too easy. [Oh, and Scout's point wins the argument hands-down, of course.]

See, that looks like a good storm. I'm embarrassed how much Toronto looses its mind when it snows here. We got hit by "the storm of the century" but it's, seriously, like 10 cm maybe, hardly anything, and they cancel all schools and everyone goes into high alert. Yeesh!

I know, right? One is so textured, features superiorly articulated figures with uniquely sculpted features, and an attractive price-point. LEGO good, I mean.

If that site is accurate, that's a terrible weekend for the convention. That's FanExpo, man, and this town can't handle two nerdy conventions on the same weekend. Everything stops here for those days. For reals.

Feels sort of... I dunno, morbid to ask, but how powerful is it? Like, does it hurt? Not that I'm a gun dude, but I think I might wanna try to recreate this in LDD, at least outwardly. I think there's only one thing I can see that wont work. I think. NO, wait, there's more in there now that I looked again. Eh, either way.

Ooh, they have an actual store. Maybe I'll have to pay them a visit and see what I can see. (I hates me some shipping costs.) And re: T3, it's mostly about selection of certain rarities, and randomly, because their costs are so out-of-butt, you CAN find deals. I got the Army of Vikings a few weeks ago for $35, which isn't a steal by any stretch, but is certainly on the low end of BL pricing. And having worked there, I can say they effectively prey on impatient moms and Grandmas. It's kinda gross. But that's a whole other thing that this isn't the board for.

For anyone downtown Toronto, Toys Toys Toys seems to have gotten their supply of Series 3, although they led out of the gate grossly overcharging for them, at $4.99 each at the Eaton Centre location. At least with Series 2 they started at $3.99 [although they're now inexplicably $6.99 each]. Different T3 locations charge differently for the same stuff, though, so if you're desperate, look around. The Indigo upstairs has Series 3 for $2.99, though, so go there first. Loose in a tube thing near the Kids' section checkout. I'd assume Masterminds around town may also have them, as places here tend to get stuff at the same time, although I didn't check there. While I'm on it, is a new 8823 Mistlands Tower worth 80 bucks? I'm really bad at adjusting LEGO values over time, so I can't really calculate if that's appropriate inflation or just more T3 gouging.

Hmm, I'd assumed this theme was generally lamented, and sorta hoped figures would be more available around here. You guys are gonna force me to break the seal and jump into Briklink, ain't ya? I remain reluctant.