Dfenz

My Cafe Corner arrived yesterday from LS@H. Also my sister-in-law kindly returned from Houston Texas with a Y-Wing, V-wing, AT-ST and last but not least an Imperial Landing Craft, (the second one in the fleet acquired for $49 - its

I unfortunately acquired most of the Spiderman sets before I actually built any!! Had I built some of them before hand I probably wouldn't have picked up the remainder because I didn't really like the Spiderman sets at all with the notable exception of Doc Ocks Hideout which I think looks very well, especially the window stickers. Leaving aside the <insert that tiresome argument> sets in the series I think that there were simply too few characters in the films worthy of minifigure fame with the result that anyone buying all the sets got multiple spidey minifigures and multiple copies of the two baddies, namely Doc Ock and the Green Goblin. This got tiresome. At least the Batman sets contain a variety of characters for playability and as someone else noted these Spiderman sets were predominantly play sets with hardly a vehicle in them - I don't count runaway trains or cable cars. The other point is that compared to other licences I seemed to be able to pick up these sets at decent discounts in local stores so whether or not they sold well is anyone's guess. I know Harry Potter also has a similar problem with multple Harrys and its playset format but that line had a wider range of characters and had an excellent concept of a modular castle that collectors, once they started would want to keep adding to. While its always worthwhile to have reasonable stand alone sets such as Hogworths Express or the Durmstrang ship for variety I think Harry Potter started to go wrong when the class rooms began to dry up. Anyway I digress. Unfortunately in my view the Spiderman's playsets didn't really have a collectabiity aspect to them. I for one am not sorry to see the back of them. Incidentally, my litmus test in all these things is my son. I recently raised the prospect of having to retire sets from display to make room for others and the Spiderman sets became the sacrificial offering to the Lego gods - at present residing on the altar that is the top of a bookshelf and only one final step away from attic immortality. David

[ there are many things wrong with this contest nowadays...but hey its supposed to be just for fun.. its just a bit difficult to remember that some times... Exactly my point. The best bit about the contest is not the songs - many of which are absolute rubbish and frequently reside in a Eurovision time warp. Anyone looking at the You Tube videos in isolation would wonder what the fuss is all about!! In my view the attraction has always been the voting and its unpredictability. No matter how bad a song is, some country will muster enough support from a far outpost of Europe to get the douze points. That's the fun bit. Its just that in the last year or two the voting has become far more predictable especially when it comes to one of the two main voting blocks, i.e. Balkans and Baltics. As far as Greece and Cyprus are concerned I'm sure the voting history speaks for itself However, it didn't matter too much when only a handful of countries played love thy neighbour. As far as the UK/Ireland goes there is a bit of history there that actually forces the UK to work a little harder for votes from many members of the Irish public. I don't recall the UK getting too many 12s from Ireland but then again in recent years the UK hasn't picked up too many votes from anywhere never mind a douze points. Anyway I'll be tuning in again this year - its almost a family ritual at that stage irrespective of the quality of the songs (or more likely because of the lack thereof) David

Right I'm going to get this off my chest as its being bugging me for some years now. In my view the Eurovision has gone down a lot as a TV spectacle in recent years. It is noticeably more difficult for smaller countries that are not part of particular power blocks to win especially since the introduction of newer countries from the former Soviet block. The big problem is the televoting system. This affects not only the contest itself but how songs are selected. For many recent years the Irish public voted which song to send over to the Eurovision. The main problem with this approach is that certain demographics are more likely to vote using text or mobiles and these tend to be younger people ,especially young girls. This means a boy band or solo artist is more likely to get selected with a woeful song than a more traditional tune that actually has a melody. When Ireland won the Eurovision three times in a row a few years back we had a special selection process that narrowed down the choice to 8 songs which was a wide enough selection to choose from to guarantee a shot at the contest. I for one would like to see a reversion to that system. As for the contest itself - well we've always had the Greece/Cyprus voting pact. But in recent years its got so bad I think the credibility of the contest is at stake. I accept that many of the new entrants speak a common language and this might make it easier to give votes to a neighbour but this love thy neighbour approach has gone too far with all the top marks being carved out frequently between Baltic or Balkans states. The televoting process does not allow people to vote for their own countries but this doesn't factor into account large migrant communitites working just across borders thar are free to vote for their home countries. Furthermore mobile phone networks can be accessed from more than one country so for example there are people near the border with Northern Ireland that could dial into the UK networks and give a vote to Ireland and vice versa. I can only imagine that the position could be even worse in countries with more land borders. I believe the general public is likely to vote along national flag lines than a specialist jury. That's not to say that good songs don't come from one of the power blocks - there are many good songs and if I recollect correctly we gave douze points to Lordi last year (more likely because it was a song that people remembered when it came to voting than because of its musical composition) it just makes it more likely that countries outside of these zones, e.g. Ireland will face relegation battles year in year out even if the song deserves a higher placing. I for one am prepared to accept a certain amount of neighbourly voting but if the show continues on the path taken over the past few years I can see viewers like me getting fed up with it. The best part of the show over the years has often been the unpredictible nature of the voting. If the voting gets predictible with only minor points in play the biggest draw will cease to exist. David

My vote would have to go to the UCS Imperial Star Destroyer 10030. Its so impressive in terms of detail and size compared to anything else. The build was a bit tedious though. Of the smaller sets I like the Sail Barge and the most recent Slave I. I was disappointed somewhat with the AT-AT as it actually looks quite fragile compared to some other sets, the side panels on the front are far two flimsy. David

There was a discussion on this topic last week on Bricklink under the thread description "Did anybody ever lose their Lego in a fire?" I insured my collection for the first time last year as part of the household contents simply because I was worried about the unusual nature of the collection and the fact that there was a real risk of underinsurance. While I only started collecting a few years ago I believe I have the entire Harry Potter and Star Wars range together with a significant amount of other sets, many of which, while of new vintage are fairly large. I compiled a list of all my sets and valued them using local store, LS@H or Bricklink prices depending on availability and adding estimated postage costs where relevant (a not insignificant cost where most sets are cheaper overseas). I specifically named the collection on the policy at the renewal date. The insurance company reverted asking for a valuation so I simply provided them with my own valuation list. They never reverted so presumably they were happy with the methodology. The biggest shock was that when I totalled the figures it was about 3 times higher than I had estimated before I started the list and well into 5 digits!!!! This is probably not suprising when you consider that UCS Star Wars sets cost a small fortune these days and are extremely expensive to replace. regards David

For anyone visiting Ireland the Smyths stores (also operating under the name Ken Black) offer the widest range of Lego at competitive prices. I've discovered that many of the sets are sold below LS@H prices. for example the 6211 Imperial Star Destroyer has been priced at

I've used Bricklink a lot and agree with what other people have said regarding trying to get as much parts or sets from a single seller to minimise postage and handling costs and avoid minimum order problems. I've found that US postage costs to Ireland are remarkably reasonable compared to European costs especially considering the distance from the US (where most of the cheapest parts are located). Continental European postage costs are sometimes not too bad, e.g. from Germany. However, when purchasing from continental European stores be very careful to read the 'splash' page. In addition to the minimum order and postage and handling fees, which in fairness I've found not too bad you've also got to watch out for VAT. Some prices are quoted exclusive of VAT and this is added for European customers if the store is VAT registered. Some stores also add a surcharge for paypal payments. Worst of all is that some continental European stores have fixed exchange rates. Bricklink prices are generally quoted in US dollars but some stores require European buyers to pay the 'dollar' prices as euro amounts. What might seem like the cheapest price will not end up being the cheapest if the exchange rate is fixed at an artificial rate. Watch out for this. I've found UK stores to be far less likely to engage in these type of practices. You can created a wanted list of parts and use this to identify which stores have the most items. Unfortunately my understanding is that if you add items to a cart in a particular store and move away from that store (for example to check a price in another store) you lose the items in that cart. Its best to have an idea as to the average price for items before adding items to a particular cart. Its usually possible to add items to an order at a later date before shipment if you notify the store that you are still looking for more items and may add to the order. The store will hold the order open until you add to it and everything gets merged in a single delivery. This allows you to purchase the minimum amount and add things later. One warning. While Bricklink has many excellent sellers in my view there is less buyer protection than say for ebay purchases. One of my first bricklink transactions was to purchase a set from a zero feedback store. The inevitable non-delivery arose and I was only able to obtain a partial refund from paypal. I'd suggest exercising the same caution with low feedback stores as you would on ebay bearing in mind that some stores have managed to get negative feedback removed too easily for my liking. Its worth reviewing the forum discussions to check for any adverse references to the store you propose to purchase from. On a final note Bricklink is not like LSAH. If an item doesn't arrive its not simply a case of ringing up the store to ship replacements free of charge. For this reason many stores will require insurance and for US purchases this is normally an inexpensive add-on although everything is relative to the price of the parts. David

You're probably aware of this already but Brickset have user reviews of most sets including Star Wars. I liked the fact that each set is linked from Bricklink so I could jump from the technical details and inventory etc. to the review. Helped influence the buying decision taking into account the price. regards David

I just received some sets from LSAH, namely the Santa Fe superchief, two rail cars, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe locomotive, the Holiday Train set and 4 packs of 4515 9v straight rails. All I've got to do now is hide them until I'm ready to build them. When I add this to the 10 packs of curved 9v rails acquired on Bricklink, the Cafe Corner set which I've yet to receive from LSAH, and a half dozen clone trooper battle packs ifrom a local toystore its been a very expensive past few days. Its just as well I've already acquired enough Clone Turbo Tanks as they are mighty tempting at

Here is the Irish entry. Sounds a bit stereotypical to me. I don't think it has a chance unless they do some radical editing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TlGREikBRA David

Hi There are some pictures floating around of the new Harry Potter castle set coming out this year. If I recollect correctly there are 2 of those skeleton horses present in the set (I believe they are called thestrals or something similar). David oops - missed the earlier reply - sorry