Inzane

For the most part, I support new parts development. On the negative side is the chance that whenever new parts are introduced there is a potential for the retirement of others. This is what I dislike. Too many parts have been put to pasture over the last few years. Of particular note are numerous doors and window pieces. (If you've been involved at all in discussions around bricklinking retired sets like cafe corner, market street and green grocer, you'll know what I'm on about). Also when new parts come out, they can be slow to introduce them widely in a variety of (useful) colors.

I think you guys mean "blue". The awning on GG uses regular blue, not "dark blue". (dark blue = earth blue) I suspect that is just an updated part #, similar to what's been discussed earlier in this thread for other pieces (e.g. the dark blue arches for CC & MS). It could be as simple as hollow studs vs. partially filled studs, etc. Or perhaps nothing at all if its just a new mold. When I receive my orders the first thing I do is I sort all the parts and verify the lots and quantities are correct for each order. Then I sort the parts by set, because I'm BLing multiple together (CC, MS, and GG). Once they are sorted by set, I check off against the set inventory for parts I've received so far for that set, and THEN they get dumped into the appropriate freezer bag or plastic container (something like the shoebox size rubbermaid or sterilite containers ,for example).

Sorry I might be partly responsible for the confusion earlier. If I recall correctly it was Cafe Corner that included Hermione's hair. The harry potter piece in GG belongs to one of the Hogwart's teachers (forget the name). The one in GG is even rarer.

That's the OTHER female hairpiece that comes in GG (there are two). They are listed side by side in the parts inventory for GG on the BnP site. How did you miss that?

WHICH of the ladies' hair pieces? Certainly not this one: (?) Element ID: 4506002 Design ID: 59362 Please confirm, but I've been checking and checking and even called to ask at customer service. They didn't have it and even said it was licensed (because it came in harry potter set(s)). It's not showing in stock right now.

Jabba's Palace. Just barely got one during the clearance at shop@home, and got a MM in the process. Whew. I built it last night and it's a pretty cool set.

Just a heads up. The white cat is available from lego via BnP. My PaB order didn't come in time for the weekend. :-( I may have to open a set and build that instead. (E.g. I have Pet Shop NIB, in the que waiting to be built).

GGRRRRrrrrr... that PAB order still hasn't arrived yet. Its driving me crazy (ordered on Feb 18th). Every night after work when I get home I'm hoping its there so i can finish my Green Grocer. I can't even really start Market Street because there are a lot of key parts for that one I'm lacking too. Please please please let it be in my mailbox tonight.

I started building my Green Grocer the other night. However I'm still waiting for one last PAB order which is taking forever (should arrive this week I hope). Most of that last order contains parts for MS, but of the remaining GG parts I need those include things like 1x8 and 1x10 light bley plates, 1x8 light bley tiles, etc. I was only able to complete the 1st ground floor up to a point. Then I started on the 2nd and 3rd floors, again to a point. Unfortunately those plates were needed to finish the floor in some spots so I didn't complete the walls very far around. Yes, I still owe some pictures. Working on it. :)

Having a pin or knife blade handy can help with that.

I don't disagree with what you're saying at all. (And I wasn't really focused on the bricklink vs. PAB costs). My point was intended to be more from the "OMG look I bought $1200 worth of lego for only $65!!". While that's technically true, devil's advocate is just the point that "yeah sure, but ~$900 of that is useless filler crap so really you got ~ $300-ish worth for $65". Still great at the end of the day, just depends how you want to look at it.

That's a nice score for sure, and impressive when you analyze the pricing like that. But lets be honest, your numbers are heavily schewed by the last two line items which literally were "filler". ~8000 trans-blue 1x1 round plates really are a useless item, IMO. (and nobody in their right mind would actually buy 1x1 round or square plates by the thousands, especially paying lego 10 cents a piece for them).

^ That theme based strategy sounds strange, especially given Lego won't sell any pieces related to licenses. if they did star wars for example, it would have to be carefully selected pieces used in certain sets that are also broad enough to not fall under the license specifically.

Have you seen the new one? You shouldn't be judging unless you've seen the new one yourself. I'm a huge fan of the original and just saw the new one last night. I didn't have high expectations but I was actually pleasantly surprised. This was one example of hollywood not screwing up a redo/reboot. The two films are different enough not to be directly comparable to each other. And can both coexist as different interpretations of the story. What is fair to say is that the new movie is far better than Robocop 2 (which was a turd).

So you're going embrace a tradition that really is akin to a person putting an 'M' badge on a 323i, or a Cobra badge on a V6 mustang, etc.? ;-) Great work sin. I like your changes on MS. Curious on the masonry bricks, did you BnP or BL those? I'm still waiting on several key parts orders before I can get started on either GG or MS.

You made me look. I paid ~ $1.70-ish for mine, but I spent > $2 on the white cat for GG (maybe I should've have bothered, I've got a couple already from the Holiday Train and one of the Winter Village sets (toy shop, I think?). Also, there's one particular reddish-brown female hairpiece for GG that's even worse than the CC one. It's > $4 in most listings (one US-based sub-$4 listing that doesn't sell internationally. boooo!) and even rarer. Only ever in GG and one Hogwart's castle set. Grrrrr.... Curse TLG for using such a rare piece. When you ask at replacement parts about these, even though out of stock anyway they mention "that's a licensed item, can't sell it to you anyway.... ". What the? I still need to source this one but I'm tempted to skip it honestly and substitute with a different piece.

Looking good sin. Man, I gotta get some pictures up. On mine I went with a "used" light grey (as opposed to bley) right door for the side door. Its not too bad, other than the obvious fine scratches on the plastic (typical of used parts like that). The color difference between grey and bley is not too noticeable there. For the main front door, I'm using the proper door piece, "borrowed' from my building bonanza set. It is a curious design decision why they decided to use 5-high doors for these early sets in the first place. Maybe it was a transition period where there weren't a lot of 6-high options yet. I definitely don't like the "new" skiis. It's good that you have the old ones. I'm in the process of sourcing them. I've got 6 on the way and just need 5 more. One of the problems with the new ski design is without that little nub/protrusion on the top of the ski, its much harder to space them along the hose. I've got all the correct minifig parts. The last piece, which is still coming is the one bloody reddish-brown female hairpiece that was actually from harry potter sets also. Hard to get. I'm also waiting for a light-bley garbage bin (the 4-tab variety that you suggested... thanks). For the red bicycle I'm just going to borrow the one from my little city camper van set.

Not too shabby. My total when converted to USD is around ~$930-940 USD. I had to pay more for shipping to Canada likely (particularly for US -> CAN BL shipments), and I had a few parts duplications, and also didn't separate out some other "extra" parts I bought for other projects. On the other hand I do have a few more items I still need to source. There are still about 5-6 items I need to source for MS, and for GG one of the minifig hairs I think. For CC I'm trying to get the original white skiis, as I'm not liking the new style really.

Bear in mind I was quoting on the low end of the used set listings, and of the ones I've seen a lot tend to be w/o box, and some are even w/o instructions as well at those (lower end) prices. So I don't think the overall price differences I was quoting are too far off. But either way, you get the point. And if you want to talk brand new sealed box sets (which ensures you get a nice box and minty instructions, etc.) vs. bricklinking, I think the sum of the three sets is easily in the neighbourhood of $3000 or more at current market prices.

The good news. That PaB order I was waiting on arrived yesterday. yay! It contained a tonne of 1x6 and 1x8 bricks, both for CC and GG. I was able to build the rest of my Cafe Corner, with the exception of still waiting on 6 of the reddish brown 1x2 inverse slopes that are coming in a bricklink order. BTW, those "new" 1x2x3 panels w/ side support actually don't look too bad once installed in the model. However I did follow up with an order of 1x2x3 window frames (and glass) to swap out later, to see how that looks. The not so good news... I did that dangerous thing we should never do. I added up my credit card statements for all the BnP, PaB and BL orders I've placed so far. The total is in the ballpark of ~ $1000 CDN and change!! However, that is obviously including tax and shipping charges, the odd few (oops) parts duplications, a few extra parts for experimentation (eg. different window frames, etc.), and of course the main point... this is all THREE modulars together: MS, CC and GG. By comparison: Original CDN MSRP for those three sets was $560 CDN (CC: $200, GG: $220, MS: $140). And it looks like from "used" set listings I've seen, you'd be looking at a minimum of $2000 CDN to buy them (let alone the cost of "new" in box). That's assuming > $700 CC, > $700 GG, and >$600 MS.

You tease! Unless I was looking in the wrong place they weren't showing in stock last night when I checked.

I started building my Cafe Corner last night, despite still waiting for that last pesky PAB order. I had enough light bley 1x8 and 1x6 bricks on hand already to get me at least up to step ~10-11, then I jumped forward and built those two yellow & white awnings and the hotel sign, and I also added the outdoor bench, lamp and patio furniture. So far, it's been a fun build! I can't wait to get those remaining pieces. I sure hope it's in the mail tonight. If so I'll probably build the whole thing this weekend. Otherwise I'll look at what else I can start building in the meantime. Maybe the roof and some of the window assembles. Just a note for those that are thinking of starting the project of BL'ing this set. If you don't care about being totally accurate, you could cut out some of the rarer colors. For example, those two dark blue half-arches are completely hidden under the stairs. You could pick any color you want for that and it wouldn't make any difference. Also you could reduce the number of dark blue 1x4 and 1x2 bricks for the portions that extent around the back of the building. You could probably go with dark bley or black and accomplish the same general effect. (and you could probably also subsitute out some of the medium blue 1x2s as a well). I will admit that all the dark blue elements that are visible on the front exterior of the building really add something nice and I wouldn't substitute those, IMO.

Hmm... maybe the small cups are $12-13 here in Canada then. I've always gone for large (whether in US or CAN) and thus haven't paid too much attention to the little cups.

In Canada I thnk the small cups are $15 and large cups are $20. I could've sworn in the US they were $10 and $15. The large cup is definitely the better value.

I need to correct myself. That PAB order still hasn't arrived yet, but I went over the parts list for that order carefully and noticed that I DID order the 1x6 and 1x8 light bley bricks for Green Grocer at that time. Phew... :) (one less thing to worry about)