Alexandrina

Why should Lego only cater to people who want to make primarily-white spaceship MOCs? I grew up in an age where varied colours were starting to become a thing, but you still never got many of them. Specifically, Dark Red, Dark Tan and Dark Blue were introduced to the colour range during my childhood collection - but I never built much in these colours because the parts weren't there for it! In fact, I can look at the old stop-motion films I made and it becomes obvious that almost every one was in the same setting: a base-under-siege with white walls and blue accents. Not very exciting, but I had an abundance of white and not much of other colours (indeed, I once bought a Recycle Truck set I had no real interest in simply because it had orange bricks and panels and orange was impossible to come by in any substantial quantity). Nowadays, both basic buckets and the common themes include a far wider variety of colours. It means that you can buy the sets with colours you want to use, but so can people who want to use a lot of pink and not much white. (This would include me. I have, according to my collection spreadsheet, 101 Bright Pink 1 x 2 bricks and 79 Bright Pink 1 x 4 bricks, most of them bought specifically off Bricklink, because I wanted to make MOCs using the colour). Really, for maximum audience, Lego should be including the full spectrum of colours in its basic/City/Friends lines - including Dark Yellow, which for some reason they've never done - and the most appropriate colour for specialist/Licensed sets, so that it's easy to get bricks in whatever colour you want. Then we can all choose. As a consumer, I have zero interest in cars and thus little reason to buy these sets over other sets. And yet it's not all about me, and it would be churlish to call them a failure just because they're not tailored to my personal tastes. I'll keep buying the sets I am interested in and letting other people buy the sets they're interested in.

Further investigation has cleared up my confusion - the part has been released in sets every year since 1993, but the police station was its last appearance in red. Still, it's easy enough to come by on Bricklink.

Don't forget though that Doctor Who, during the Matt Smith era at least, was at its peak in worldwide popularity - and while that did decline with Capaldi, it didn't immediately drop overnight. I suspect there's a reason they put a Matt Smith minifigure in there, but it was still popular and tbh I reckon it was a popular enough licence at the time to sustain a full theme. True. So probably adding in Oscar, Andy, Kelly, Meredith, Kevin - honestly at that point they might just as well bump it to eleven and make the whole set. So maybe we will get them all!

Flowers you can get dirt cheap from Bricklink (here for red ones - other colours might be more expensive). I'm not sure what rails you're referring to - as far as I can tell, every part that could be described as a rail from 7498 is still in production. If you're looking for specific parts for a specific MOC, you could try building it in Stud.io first - that way, you'll know exactly how many parts you need, rather than buying a load on spec and possibly ending up with too many or not enough! Or if you're just wanting to build stuff on the fly, job lots on eBay, Facebook, etc. are a good way to get lots of parts quick and for FAR cheaper than buying them individually - my personal average for job lots is a 10x higher cost if I'd bought the same parts individually. I'd personally advise against 'New' bricks. They're going to be more expensive than 'Used' - especially for older/desirable parts - and also harder to find; there's a finite and decreasing supply of 'New' discontinued parts. In any case, if you're planning on using them in a MOC, they won't be new any more, and 'Used' parts in good condition are perfectly serviceable.

I'm looking forward to seeing how they handle minifigures for The Office. It's a show which really relied on a large ensemble cast, and I can't see Lego putting in ten or more minifigures. Wouldn't surprise me if we get the absolute main characters - Jim, Pam, Dwight, Michael, maybe Ryan - and the others have to be mocced.

Guess who just learned a new thing today that she's definitely going to be using from now on...

The sheep is an incredibly new part. It's entirely possible that the TLG part number simply hasn't been added to Bricklink's database yet (I don't have one on hand to confirm, but I suspect the number 74188 will be somewhere on the physical part). In fact, I imagine that's the case for most parts: the alternate number hasn't been added to the database yet. The database is as far as I know primarily community-drawn - there are gaps. I know there are sets which haven't been inventoried, for instance. For what it's worth, Bricklink use the Lego element IDs as an alternate number rather than the main number because they're comparatively inaccessible. I do a lot of sorting of old job lots, and many a time I've come across parts I don't recognise, from sources unknown. Typing in the number printed on the brick will lead me to the Bricklink category listing.

I'm confused - what about that article isn't praiseworthy from Lego? They've conducted a study and set out an action plan to improve gender equality. Beyond the simple fact that Lego sells a product for money and thus makes profit, I'm struggling to see what profits have to do with this.

I'd argue that in many cases it isn't anybody's fault. I'm not going to blame sellers for me not having all the cool 80s and 90s sets that I don't have, but equally it's not my fault I didn't buy the sets before I was born. Lego's been about for over 60 years now, and even the Golden Age of the 90s is pushing thirty years now - lots of people will feel frustrated that they can't get the sets they want when they never even had the chance to. That's nobody's fault at all, it's just life.

Bricklink does use Lego numbers (apart from the sub-numbers to designate different patterns, but that follows a simple pattern). It's not the same as the element number (which afaik is a unique number for that part in that colour) but it's definitely the official numbers. On most parts, those numbers are actually on the brick itself. For example, the standard 2 x 4 brick is part number 3001, and this is usually found on the part itself. If you look at the Pick a Brick listings, Lego use that number too. Every colour has 3001 listed as one of its numbers, as well as a unique element number. The exception, I believe, is parts which don't have an official number. However, these tend to be old parts that are not and have never been available from Lego.com (an example that comes to mind, simply because I've never seen numbers on any parts I've owned myself, is the old Homemaker bookcases and cabinets). It's been a while since I used Ldraw, but as I remember, they used the same parts number system. (This, incidentally, is why a certain number of minifigure head prints follow the 3626bp(x) pattern, while most follow the 3626bpx(x) pattern - where the parts were in the Ldraw library, bricklink took their sub-numbers; for the other patterns, they used their own system)

I love a good Western as much as anyone, but Red Dead seems to be an exception, with mitigating circumstances. Namely: it was an eagerly awaited follow-up to a hugely acclaimed game from a decade ago, released by a studio that had a track record of producing great games, and it was itself getting very consistent excellent press. ANY game that hyped would do just as well. (It's also a bit disingenuous to say "Western Videogames such as Red Dead" - it's just Red Dead, really, there aren't any other Western games that are making mad money.) The problem with the genre (problematic tropes aside) is that recent acclaimed Western movies have tended to skew towards a much more mature audience than the children who are Lego's main audience. Films like Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight and Bone Tomahawk were widely acclaimed and very popular (disclaimer: I have no idea how Bone Tomahawk did in cinemas) but their contents are widely inappropriate for a Lego set, and they're doing nothing to build an appetite for Westerns among Lego's target audience. Combine this with the other side of the issue: there's no single large-scale set indicative of the entire genre that could be released to target the adult fans of the genre. As an anecdote for the decline of the genre's popularity, at least in the UK: the famous PSA film "Apaches" was released in 1977 and depicts children playing 'Cowboys and Indians' on a farm. This, evidently, was partly down to it being a popular game to play. I grew up a quarter of a century later and literally never encountered anybody playing 'Cowboys and Indians'. We played similar games, but usually with Star Wars characters. I imagine the current generation play Avengers too. In any case, Western is undeniably not a popular genre in the UK right now. We have no TV shows and it's very rare that a film in the genre gets widely promoted here, and it's without fail the smallest genre section in HMV too.

I find stuff like this incredibly interesting - the unreleased sets, the minifigures that have somehow managed to reach the market but nobody knows where they came from. It's interesting to me the head they chose to use for the figure - I know 2002 was when Fort Legoredo was re-released, but it had been a few years since any new figures had used this head, and afaik none of the other revived prints were ever incorporated into new sets at the same time.

Yes, well spotted! It appears to instead be the Emperor

Wait wait wait... Achilles and Patroclus? Ulysses and Circe? Dang. If I'd been a Playmobil collector rather than a Lego collector I could've started a Madeline Miller collection!

What you have there is a motley selection of Star Wars figures: You have the head and hair of Episode II Anakin from 2002 - this'll be from either set 7113 or set 7133. This is paired with the body/legs of Darth Maul You've also got the helmet of a Snowtrooper on the body of a Clone Trooper w/ Sand Green Markings And the torso looks like Plo Koon - I'm not 100% on this one as I don't have a Plo Koon

Hang on, are Lego making a Leona Lewis set too?

I'll preface the following comment by stressing that I have never bought off-brand Lego new - all I've come in contact with has been second-hand stuff as part of bulk lots, or when I was younger the contents of friends' collections. Therefore, anything in the last few years won't have hit me yet (I've never seen anything from TLG newer than 2018 in a bulk lot, so I can only assume off-brand stuff follows the same age pattern). That being said, for me the quality is a long way from being equal. None of the off-brands I've ever handled come close to matching Lego, and usually you can see them a mile off. Funnily enough, the best alternative I've ever seen is Tente - a product line that's older than the golden age of Lego, has been discontinued for decades, and uses a similar but distinct connection system. Unless they've come on leaps and bounds in the last three years, I can't see the off-brands holding a candle to Lego any time soon.

To me, this is overblown. There's nothing in, for instance, the Candy Castle Stage that can't be used for other purposes. The only parts that genuinely don't look as though they have a System use are the strap and possibly the clear part of the Beatboxes (I haven't got any of them, and it's not immediately apparent from an image of the part how they connect). Every other new part has other possible uses - and it's not like Lego haven't made single-use parts before. What can you use the Lego Games dice for, apart from as dice? Maybe a SNOT centre to a very niche sort of MOC but precious little else. Plus, Belville did perfectly fine for years with parts that have about as much incommon with the System selection as the strap.

Fair play on the Client, and tbh I honestly thought we'd had Kuiil already! We've had Ahsoka twice in the last twelve months so I don't think she's urgent. Feel free to strip me of my Star Wars fan credentials, but I have no idea who Pershing is! Even after looking him up, I don't remember him.

And more than that, almost all the new content since Rise of Skywalker isn't out yet. Yes, we're getting a load of shows next year, but there's hardly going to be sets from Andor out already, so from a Lego-release POV they're immaterial. IIRC the only significant release since Rise of Skywalker is the Mandalorian, and we've had everything important from that covered now apart from Peli Motto.

I know Vidiyo hasn't exactly set sales records, but is it really that bad? The minifigures seem to be generally desirable - I know I've bought sets entirely for the figures, and from what I read they're all quite popular. Plus, Lego's minifigure parts in the early 2000s were a fraction of what they are now - a grand total of eight hair moulds beyond the three standards of the time, all designed specifically for Licensed characters. In comparison Lego have been doing 20+ NEW moulds a year for the last decade all while growing. On top of that, there aren't many large pieces being made for a single set only, and we aren't even getting moulded baseplates (). Lego survived making the die for Lego Games, they'll survive making the Beatboxes.

No, next year we get the Gryffindor common room again in a brand new Hogwarts system - but this time, the castle roof is sand purple! On a serious note, though, do GWPs tend to follow a theme - as in, linked sets year on year? My impression was that it was kinda arbitrary!

I've not kept up with these figures religiously in the past, but I can't help but find the absence of Ninjago interesting. Now, I'm not saying that the theme's about to die - but could it be that it's entered a decline? All evergreen themes have, eventually (apart from Town/City) - I wonder if we'll see some new action/adventure in-house themes coming along to try and get the thunder before Ninjago can't hold the fort any more.

I'm not sure we'd get so many named characters. The Dark Trooper pack, iirc, is one named major character and three unnamed army builders of an in-demand figure. I doubt we'd get the Order, because I can't see them putting four named characters in a set like that, and the Order doesn't have unnamed characters. Others are possible, though: as you mentioned, the Death Eaters and Quidditch Teams are a distinct prospect. Death Eaters could very easily be one named character (Lucius, maybe, or Barty Crouch Jr) and three in the hood/mask. Quidditch Teams could be side characters 'insignificant' enough to be generics. Alicia Spinnet is essentially a glorified extra in the films, and Katie Bell during her Quidditch days is just as insignificant (does she play Quidditch in the HBP film? I know she does in the book, but there's far less of the Quidditch stuff in the films), so them + Angelina + Harry would make a logical set. It could also easily be paired with a Slytherin set including Malfoy + Flint + Higgs + someone else (probably the female Keeper from PS, to keep gender balance - and it's not like there are any other named Slytherin players in the films, so including her wouldn't mean missing out on a named character. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw would be tougher prospects. Who do we know from their respective Qudditch teams, other than Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang? Roger Davies for Ravenclaw, Zacharias Smith? for Hufflepuff. If anything they'd probably combine the two houses into one.

A few months ago, I found myself needing to buy two of Part 30209 in blue, something which hasn't been produced by Lego in sets since 1998. Those parts cost me four pence each. Tell me: where exactly could I have gone to buy those parts for less money? It's odd that you are continually so irrationally against Bricklink - but this genuinely confuses me. There's not exactly a surfeit of secondary marketplaces where you can reliably get individual out-of-production parts.