Shadows

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Brilliant! Still needs regular blue pants though. ;-) I'm too cheap broke lazy busy SOMETHING to replace my camera (I keep intending to buy a new one, then I buy LEGO instead. It's a disease, a disease I tell you! :-$ *wacko*). The bricks are all safe and sound and in the process of being organized. I don't really have the dedicated space to spread it all out the way I'd like to. So really, it's a combination of things, but that's ok. I like having sets piled up. It's like a stack of future happiness. That sounded so corny. 8-|

First, great job! The custom work looks exactly right, even down to looking like official LEGO colours, which I know is something that you were working on at one time. Not being familiar with the character, I went to google and the only difference I could see was that he is usually represented in purple instead of blue, or at least with matching torso and legs to give a more flowing look. Since I don't know what source material you worked from, I don't know if it should be the same or not. He's definitely different than the clone version and much closer to what I saw at google. Score one for the good guys! *y* All he needs now is: for those times when his face is supposed to be covered. I like how you incorporated it in the neckline to show that it was pulled down to reveal his face. Your Lao is still a winner in my book, I never could see anything wrong with him. I just don't know how you have the patience to apply the arm stickers. That seems incredibly difficult. As for giving one away... whoa. That's very generous. Almost makes me want to rush in an entry, but digital sucks, it loses all of it's atmosphere. Please continue to share your wonderful creations and thank you for naming your thread so well! ;-)

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I was able to get to the correct place directly from the main page, but navigating around did seem like a rocky ride. They do mention ... Not all the bugs & kinks are worked out yet so if you find anything funky post it in the forum. ... so at least they're aware. You know, we need our own set of templates here. Someone get to work on that! *snaps fingers* :-$ Well, I'd do it but I don't know a thing about the process. As for that redirect, it isn't just a new front page, it's a whole different addy. I guess they have a lot of changes in store.

You needed proof? :-| ;-)

Great idea! It's good to see something positive here! *y* You can count me in for a Chinese restaurant. :-$ Um... Oh, I'll think of something better than that and I can probably get Staudie to do the EF version of the tv station we broadcast from. You realise he'll want a mech now to go with his tanks. :-|

As the year began, I made an honest list of the sets I expected to purchase and their likely prices. *sweet* I added it all up. :'-( When I was finished crying, I decided that a line had to be drawn somewhere. :-/ That line was going to be Town Plan. I had literally convinced myself that I could live without it. I won't mention that I hadn't seen Green Grocer yet. 8-| You have, in one lovely review, erased that line and most certainly guaranteed me a place in the halls of bankruptcy. X-O Congratulations on a job well done and thank you for saving me from myself! *y* A great review of a great set. What more is there to say? *wub*

Welcome to EB! Be sure to check out the Big Billboard o' Doom

Welcome to EB! Be sure to check out the Big Billboard o' Doom

4888. Better parts, better price. 7774 looks good though, aside from the technic cannon and crab. I've never really done the underwater sets. The only ones I even own are: 6199: Hydro Crystalation Station 7776: The Shipwreck 7770: Deep Sea Treasure Hunter (Brickmaster set last year) The first was sitting in a KB Toys Clearance store in 2000 I think, for about $30, The Shipwreck was for a Pirates shipwreck experiment I haven't gotten around to. :-| Now I want a 4888... *sweet*

Very nicely done, it's like looking in a mirror. Well, it would be like looking in a mirror, except for that whole not-reflecting part. You know what I mean. Or not. *wacko* Great job! (and very well titled thread) *y* Any chance of seeing the closed mouth side of the face as well?

Ok, I'm literally stunned. This is incredible! *wub* I love how you mixed parts of official sets like Cloud City with so much of your own work. The bar scene is a thing of beauty. A lot of people try to avoid showing studs, you seem to embrace them, with studded floors and walls everywhere, and that gives it so much more of a LEGO feel. Then adding the lights and smoke effect pushes it right into the real of believability. Now, in my typical manner, I do have to comment on one thing... It's Nar Shaddaa, with two d's. Though honestly, it's been spelled your way so many times that I don't think anyone will care anymore. I am such a friggin' geek for even realising that. :-$ :-D I laughed when Falgruu commented on people hiding guns under the table. Nice jab at Greedo there. *sweet* Please continue doing such a great job! *y*

Excellent work! I'm saving a copy of this one myself. With the new Town Plan, I can see a lot of people wanting to add their own time travelling DeLorean and here's a key component. *y* Oh, and great job naming your threads! *sweet* I am very fond of the title being the specific description of the custom and then including who it's for is absolutely perfect. *y*

Midgets in green tights, as opposed to green midgets in tights *yoda* :-P X-D

Watch it buddy... I can send Staudie over to interview you again and again and again! >:-)

Welcome to another exciting episode of EB News Presents! This is going to come as a bit of a shock to our loyal viewers, but Staudie forgot to do the interview again. :-| I'm sorry, boss. I was really busy this week. Washed your hair? And trimmed my nails. Oh, well sure, that explains it then. That said, it's going to be an hour of me, telling stories by the fireplace, just like I used to do before you all were born. Ah, the good old days. No electricity. No phones. No LEGO. 8-

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At this point, I "Store it in a safe place and never use it" but that won't ultimately be the last word on the subject. A little background. I've never bought any intentionally, but with eBay sellers being basically soulless, they have ended up in my possession through LEGO purchases. Worst eBay deal I ever had was 2lbs of mixed LEGO (as they called it) for under $8, shipped. Of those, over half were clones. It was a sad experiment I've not repeated. That purchase is still sitting in the box it arrived in. I picked a few parts out and haven't had the heart to sort the rest. The ones I have sorted out of previous orders, thankfully few, are all in a box together, safely kept away from everything else. My first instinct was to toss, burn, or otherwise destroy them, but I haven't been able to convince myself of it yet. I did take a moment to look at them, feel them, confirm that I could never use them, and once that was over, I closed up the box. I've considered donating them to a school or somewhere, but for the life of me, I can't get over the feeling that I would be doing a dastardly evil upon the next generation that way. :-/ So for now, stored. In the future... don't know yet. |-/

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Happy Birthday, from one shadow to another! ;-)

LEGO, like most companies, doesn't disclose detailed enough information to completely determine what the market looks like, so all we can really do is speculate. I know that when I came out of my dark ages at the launch of the Star Wars line, I never paid full price for anything. Buy one get one half off was about the worst discount I would take, and especially as the first waves were reaching their end, I was snapping up sets at 75% off without any difficulty. As time passed, that mostly ended. Of the entire SW line, I've only missed a few sets, and they all came in 2002-2003 when I couldn't find a discount on anything and then one day I would walk in a store and everything would be gone. If they were discounting, I was missing the right moment. As a result, I lost out on good sets. Vowing not to let that continue, I started making more frequent stops at the stores, watching closely to see that I wouldn't miss out, and hopefully still pull some kind of discount. Those discounts dried up quickly, and now I almost don't try. I've been stuck in a full price cycle for a while now, only getting discounts on duplicates (mostly ordered directly from S@H). Exo-Force had to die, it was the one theme I could count on never paying over 50% for. :-| Walmart, which used to be a great place to find sets at bargain prices, has significantly cut their discounts locally. I know of 3 stores with large portions of the 2007 line just shelfsitting at full price. I don't know what they plan to do, but I'll keep waiting to see if I can bulk up my dupes eventually, since I have at least one of each already. I don't think that the US market for LEGO is bad, but I do think that the public, especially the AFOLs, became accustomed to discounts. Stores got tired of that and sales have slowed. It's important to realise that this isn't a LEGO only problem. Before this, I collected massive amounts of Hasbro SW products, and can vividly recall the days of $5 figures marked down to $1 in huge bins in every Walmart, or Target throwing them all on endcaps at $2, etc. Then one day, it just stopped. The shelves weren't packed anymore. The bins weren't full of discounted figures. The figures themselves went up to $6+, and haven't come down. Did they suddenly improve the product so much that people were willing to pay more? No. They just took a temporary loss to teach people to stop expecting a discount and pay full price or miss out. Fortunately, SW LEGO came along to bleed me dry instead. I get a lot more enjoyment out of piles of LEGO than I ever did out of hundreds of carded figures. I'll add this. If LEGO corporate distribution is as bad as Shop @ Home, it isn't going to get any better soon. Worst thing LEGO could do at this point is to raise prices in the US. They clearly need to address the high prices elsewhere, but not by trying to bring the US up to that level. It simply won't work. Unfortunately, even with their good name and history, they don't have a strong enough market here to convince buyers to pay a lot more for their product. Megacrap will roll right in and do here what they have been doing in Canada, taking over shelf space, and it will cost LEGO a lot more in the long run. The one thing they could do to raise profit a bit would be to fix Shop @ Home. They make a lot more without the cost of a retailer involved, but I'm barely dealing with them directly anymore after all of their shipping issues. That's how you really lose money.

I voted for Johnny on the basis of variety. A lot more could be done with him, as stated earlier. Indy feels limited. Yes, they could take the "Expanded Universe" angle with him, as Star Wars does, but it would really feel cheap to me. Interesting to note that I'm the 5th vote for Johnny, and each and every one of us posted to the thread to show our support, whereas some of the Indy people just voted and never commented. Clearly, Johnny appeals to those of us who can't shut uplike to participate in conversations. In a weird way, that makes a point I considered while voting. Johnny offered a "do it yourself" adventure within a large framework. Indy offers a "recreate the movie" situation. I prefer the more creative approach. That said, I'll buy all of the Indy sets. I like the theme, I will support and enjoy the theme. I'm glad to get them, since it really wasn't a matter of Johnny or Indy, it was Indy or nothing.

Very nice, I like the trap aspect of it! *y* I used mine as the side entrance to my ill-fated Chinese restaurant from months ago. I surrounded that entire side of the moc with the old red fences and made it an outdoor garden/fountain area.