Shadows

A myth they perpetrate to convince people that errors are few and it must be your fault if a single piece is missing. They make a point of mentioning it in every email concerning missing parts and on the website itself. It's simply not possible to be that precise weighing something like this. Think about it. Weigh an entire set, with and without 1 part. Even a somewhat large part. It's very unlikely that you'll even see a difference. Now try doing that to thousands of sets in which small variances could occur due to the amount of glue used in box assembly or even very slight differences in the parts themselves. Now expand the idea. Let's say you can tell that there is a .01% difference. Do you, as a company looking to make a profit, toss that box, or just let it go out the door anyway? You let it go, of course. Compare the cost of trying to either restock those parts, toss them completely, or just sell them and replace the missing part IF the recipient even realises it and requests it. The smart decision is to just sell it. Taking the current situation into account... if you weighed every set and didn't ship those that went beyond a reasonable variance, 6 parts would be far too many to pass through (unless they were all 1x1 plates or something equally light). Yet the package shipped. I've received a perfectly sealed box (the old glued kind even) that was missing an entire bag. You can't honestly tell me that passed any kind of weight based inspection process. The simple truth is that they try, and they have surprisingly accurate machines filling those bags, but things happen and they expect it. It would just be bad for public image to make that widely known. I just wish I had a good explanation for what changed in the past couple of years to throw quality control so far off. I went decades before receiving a set with a missing piece. Now it's probably 1 in 20 (of the ones I even build immediately).

Megablocker... >:-( *pulls out his cell and dials* *Time passes* *a Honda pulls up and a cute Chinese girl gets out and comes over this way* Just what I ordered, a little Chinese to go! >:-) *y* (sometime I'd like to track how often new members return when greeted in the style to which we have become accustomed, and how many simply run in terror) *wacko*

A very nice gesture, but I was really hoping you'd wrapped up the real-life inspiration of your winning figurehead entry and were sending her my way for a little unwrapping of my own ... Oh well. :'-( X-D

Great job and one that could be easily converted to a Wild West theme as well. I really like your layout, and honestly the old water tower is very nice as well, just a newer style. I'd find a way to use both, just in different settings. Train Accessories On! *y*

I'm sure these aren't the most original votes, but here they go anyway ... Best "New" Theme: Castle. I have a hard time calling castle "new" but for the sake of this poll, it's clearly a new direction for LEGO, or more correctly, a step closer to an old direction that worked so well. Classic knights, undead factions, and the surprising and much appreciated trolls and dwarves pretty much sums it up. We like our castle themes to have strong factions and some variation. We got that this time, and I believe it will continue. Best Overall Theme: Star Wars The one theme that was able to bring me back, and the one that keeps me in, year in and year out. Was it the most brilliant assortment of sets ever? No, not really, but the battle packs go a long way toward keeping me happy. Hoth and the AT-AT cover most of the rest of it, though the short lifespan of Hoth was clearly a mistake as an exclusive. The Republic Cruiser and TIE Crawler, on the other hand, were perfect exclusives. Not as widely appreciated, they needed the added sales incentive that comes from exclusive status. Hoth didn't need it, it would have sold widely anywhere it went. My hope and dream is that LEGO will look at the success of Hoth and realise that next year (2009) would be a fine time for some Hoth related battlepacks and the long desired taun tauns. All in all, a winner of a year for LEGO. Well, except those damn jellies. >:-(

*watches Sinner looking out the window waving at Hinckley* *wishes Sinner had used his hand to wave instead...* *wacko* I'm not sure this stalking a stalker thing is going to work out after all. Oh, and welcome to EB, whoever-you-are :-P Be sure to check out my somewhat updated but not entirely reliable Big Billboard o' Doom

You know, I'm almost tempted to not pick him up from the hospital once he's patched back together. >:-( Should I tell this story? Oh hell, we're already this far along. He lost Hinckley's answers too and had to write him back to get another copy after I yelled at him for not supplying me with any interviews to work on. *wacko* In other words, anyone out there who has answered questions but not appeared here, please send me a copy of your answers if you still have them, and I can guarantee you'll appear soon. Anyone think we can get the kid chambered for a day or two, just for kicks? >:-) Oh, and I'm New Years, and I'm doing it all by myself. At least I know that I won't lose my answers or forget to send them to myself. Or something like that. :-P

Don't look at me. I told him to interview you a while back, and never heard another word. I'm just the host, editor, creative genius, and popular one, he's got to do something in all this ;-) To make matters more complicated, I think Staudie might still be recovering when it comes time to do the show, so it might be me interviewing me, and then heckling myself. It'll be great! X-D

Welcome everyone to our very special holiday edition of EB News Presents! This evening we're fortunate to have Hinckley as our special guest! What? Oh, yeah, we've had him before, but his ego was too big he was just too interesting to limit to one interview, so we decided to have him back! As always, I'm imperialshadows and cub reporter Stauder will be taking care of the questioning work! It's a pretty big show this evening, so let's get started! Q. Why the name, and what happened to the 39? :'-( A. Well...I'm a stage actor and my first big role in college was as John Hinckley in a musical about US Presidential Assassinations and attempts called "Assassins" by Stephen Sondheim. The 39 came from my other big college role, Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar (Jesus gets 39 lashes). I used it as my e-mail in college and for every username since because it's easy for me to remember. I dropped the 39 so that I could just be Hinckley. I don't know any other reason. Maybe I didn't want people to think I was 39 years old... :-$ Staudie used to go around telling everyone it was your IQ. I told him that wasn't nice. He switched to telling them that it was the number of seconds into any conversation before you'd start talking about yourself. I didn't really say much there ... ;-) Q. Why must you have a sigfig I am unable to build? Oh right, Nobody wacks the wacker... A. Lord, if only that were true. I get my megablocks kicked pretty regularly. As a smartass with a tough guy complex, I get in quite a few sparring matches with my friends, and don't always come out looking better for it. :-$ What's so hard to build about my sig-fig? Yellow Hagrid, Cantina Han Solo, Forestman, Fabuland hammer. Aren't those pieces common nowadays? Don't feel bad, I have a sigfig he can't build either and he's in charge of building the studio broadcasts. WTH is that red thing I'm wearing??? Q. How long have you collected legol, Is it true, that you'd sell Jocko just to be in the same room with the Lego CEO? A. What the hell is legol? Sell Jocko to be in the same room with the LEGO CEO? No. Of course not. What would I do with the CEO? Discuss numbers and figures and Human Resources concerns? Of course I would not. There's so much else Jocko does that the CEO could never do. :-$ (I'm trying to end all of my answers with that "humble" emoticon. It's an attempt to seem like I've dropped my voracious ego. ;-) ) I took that as less the humble emoticon and more the "I-can't-say-what-Jocko-does-that-the-CEO-wouldn't-do" face, and that made me smile an evil grin. Q. What is your favourite Set? (Say top 3) A. Great Question! I'll answer with interpretive dance. I mean pictures: Eldorado Fortress, represent! Q. What is your Favourite Theme *Cough*Fabuland*Cough* ? A. Don't try to stereotype me. I am more than one thing. Just because I write Fabuland Housewives and build Fabuland MOCs and have the biggest Fabuland collection of any adult doesn't mean it's my favorite. My favorite is Fabuland. I mean Galidor. Actually, City is my favorite. I really want to develop a highly detailed beautiful architecture city that looks as realistic as possible and functions like a downtown with public transportation and commerce... Q. Best In Real Life Lego Moment? A. Recently Copmike and Ras 74 came in from Sweden to spend Thanksgiving (and Black Friday) with me and Jocko. Shopping with the crazy Vikings on Black Friday was probably my favorite real life LEGO moment. We stayed out late hanging out in the lounge on the 95th floor of the Hancock Tower Thanksgiving night. I ended up getting an hour of sleep before we went out to catch good deals. We were very loopy and crazy all day. Then at noon I left for the theatre I'm working at to open a show. It was our first show with press and theatre committees...and I had slept for one hour then drove all over Chicago looking for LEGO deals. I was a wreck. :'-) Q. Best EB Moment? A. It's anytime I make someone laugh, really. I like when people say I made them laugh, it makes me feel good. Therefore, as I said last time, I think the Ice Cube tray/Whack-a-Fig fiasco is still my best moment. It was so spontaneous and fun. Actually, why don't I just quote myself from the first interview: "The ice cube tray was really defining for me on EB. I was stuck at home recuperating from hernia surgery and I was bored and kind of down and somehow that all just happened. When I made that first post I remember thinking that no one might even respond to it. I was just annoyed, crappy ice cube tray, you know? But, it went out of control and I got to show so many sides of my personality. If you have a few hours someday and you follow that whole thread through all the whack-a-fig threads, there are friendships built, people banned, chambered, arguments and of course a lot of fun but that thread was just so crazy and fun and really cheered me up during my recovery. I remember laughing so hard the stitches were straining and I had to shut the computer down because I was literally in pain from laughing..." That was the thread that brought me back after I sort of lost interest in EB early on. It was then that I realised that the level of insanity here was worthy of my further attention and began posting like a madman. If anyone ever complains about me, it's your fault I came back with such a vengeance. For that I applaud you (but I'd suggest watching out for stray tomatoes as you leave the studio). Q. Best Ego Feeding moment? A. Easily, being the first to review the Dwarves' Mine and Indy Motorcycle Chase. I love attention, what can I say? :-$ Also, and this isn't so much ego but on my birthday when Sinner, LuxorV and Mr. Mandalorian made special MOCs and comics for me, I was really touched. I got pretty choked up when I saw that and it made me feel really good. That was an excellent brithday and those guys made it really special. :'-) Q. If you could design a cutom set, what would it be? Whatever you want. ( I wonder if its possible to order a custim set made.. Like a EB communtiy set, wilt eveyones sigfig! Id go for that!) How many different ways can Staudie typo custom? The world may never know ... A. Why do you tell everyone else "no whack a sig-fig sets?" I'm incredibly offended by that. If I could design a LEGO set, I would want to design a modular building like Cafe Corner, but I would want to make it a big honking one, like Chicago's Rookery building and make interior add-ons available, i.e. a restaurant or a subway station. Q. I'm sure you've met some EB members here. Can you describe them to us? Are they "Crazy...lol" as Vader once put it? A. I have met two: Copmike and Ras 74. As I said, they came out over Thanksgiving and yes they are crazy. Quite clearly crazy. And also amazing. They are really great guys and we had a good time. Too bad I spent half the time they were here working on the show, but they hung out with Jocko and he showed them some fun stuff to do in Chicago. It was more like my comics than I would have imagined and I have the bruises to prove it. :'-( Q. Can we see your lair? Actually, nevermind... I don't need your ego to explode from over feeding... A. Why don't you just copy the first interview if you're going to ask me all the same questions. *wacko* Q. Can we see the sets of your Comic "Wacker and The Walrus" ? You know, Some Behind the scenes? A. Yes, I have posted them in these threads: Sinner & Hinckley's Tree House Victorian Haunted House Gylman's Train Car Diner Q. What is the 42nd root of The Universe? A. My size 11 boot up your annoying megablocks. Good answer! Q. Who should we Interview Next? (Or re-Interview) A. Interview Dr. Sinister. He's very creative and has an awesome sense of humor. And what about Phes, TheBrickster, LuxorV, BrickMiner or Bonaparte? imperialshadows, you say? Good choice, that's exactly who's next! (but all of your suggestions are, in fact, slated for future appearances, don't worry) *glares* You know, it would be a shame if you pulled some random stunt right about now, especially if you pulled it on us... *Hint* X-D (Oh well worth a try) Subtle, Staudie, subtle. Okay, I'll behave myself. :-P Yeah, right. Here you go: Let's see...ImperialShadows...we'll give him a swirly: and we'll just introduce you to the woodchipper: Note: No actual important members of the staff were harmed during this stunt, that was my double (and it's nice to see that SOMEONE around here knows how to build me properly). Staudie, however, is in emergency surgery to pretty much have all of him reattached to the rest of what's left. All in all, a great job there Hinckley! So, as the plastic surgeons continue to work on Staudie (oh, he'll be fine, I'm sure, well, whatever) I'll take this moment to thank each and every one of our loyal viewers for your continued support and wish you all a Joyous Holiday, whatever it is you celebrate this time of year, and if you don't, make something up. Everyone deserves a good party! *phone rings and imperialshadows picks it up* What? Speak up doctor, I'm having a hard time hearing you clearly with all that screaming in the background. *chatter from phone* Oh, yeah, I recognise the screaming, just speak up or tell him to quiet down some. Geez, some people have no respect for telephone etiquette. Right, so how are things going? *concerned sounding phone chatter* Really??? That's horrible! Can you fix it? *chatter* I don't care what you say, that's what insurance is for. *angry chatter* HEY, look here buddy, if your ambulance bumped my limo, you sure as heck are going to pay for it! *chatter* Huh? Oh yeah, him. How is he doing? *very concerned chatter* No, actually he looked like that before... *signal fades*

Disturbing. Delightfully disturbing! :-D A pleasure as always, and definitely one of the best! *y*

Excellent advice that I've had good luck with as well. Nothing spectacular in LEGO, just a few buckets with a small set or two mixed in, but it's free LEGO that came out during my dark ages as well, so I'm not complaining. I've had even better luck with video games. It's amazing to me that people will spend many hundreds on a console and games and then decide one day that it's time to trash it. Oh no, it's never time to trash it when I'm around. I never owned an original NES in the day, but now I have 3 and about 100 cartridges, plus as many SNES consoles and a lot of other odds and ends (Atari Jaguar ... odd and end there...). Bottom line, it pays to let people know what you like and that you're willing to 'help them out' by disposing of said things for them. ;-) It's better for the planet as well. (ok, it delays the inevitable I guess, but allow me that one delusion) X-D Recycle On! *y*

Sneakalicious! *sweet* *y*

I have heard, those it is unproven as far as I am concerned, that the forestmens hat is basically a dead part. All of the molds wore out or were disposed of. Doesn't mean they couldn't recast, but ... That said, a line of well planned out generic townsfolk would be excellent. Finding a way to keep them action oriented enough for the kids, but made of the right parts for the rest of us, LEGO could make a fortune. Definitely bring back the old cowls, use the new SW hoods as well, keep up the quality level of the new sets. Here's a plan... whenever they add a new faction/race, they should also add some generic varieties of normal people. Call them the townspeople who are being attacked or whatever, but use them as filler to keep the ratio of "new" down with recycled parts for the regular people. Ultimately, it'll raise profits while giving us exactly what we want and satisfying the kids. So, for example ... Elves, as mentioned earlier. Elf sets include an elf or two, plus a troll from the earlier sets, and a couple of humans. Maybe one soldier and one civilian. You get to mostly use preexisting parts, and guarantee a sale with the new figures. The older ones serve another purpose as well. What do you do when you have one or two knights? You buy more. One troll? Gotta buy more, etc. Oh, and cross promote. Just because you're designing for Castle, doesn't mean you can't think of other themes. All those SW Jedi make fine Castle people, and including parts of them in Castle sets will help sell them to SW people looking for more Jedi. See? Sneaky. *y* This is a bit rambly, but if you read it carefully, you just might get a headache good idea out of it. ;-)

Greetings and salutations! Please be sure to check the Big Billboard o' Doom

Terrible. Pure trash. The sole reason I haven't bought a single MM set yet. Ok, one reason, the other is that none of them inspire me much. Either way, I'd even settle for the old LoM's, since I could at least use them to make something, ANYTHING... If LEGO had been smart enough to design a new head style and recycle the body concept from them, but in more traditional colours, say black, white, the bleys, bronze, pearl grey, whatever, they could have easily seen a lot of additional sales from people buying them to build Star Wars droids. Instead, we got ... jello. It's hard to figure out how LEGO makes their decisions. How can you get Castle so close to right and blow it so bad on Space, over and over?

I couldn't agree more! *y* Excellent! May we look forward to a review? An errant Adamsian reference in a famous online LEGO comic??? Our very own All Douglas Adams All the Time Forum??!?!?!?!!? I think I went overboard there. :-$ Anyway... nice job on their titles *sweet*

Good evening and welcome to another exciting episode of EB News Presents! I'm your host, imperialshadows, and by popular demand our special guest this evening is Snefroe! *Staudie enters, right in the middle of getting his makeup applied, causing extreme damage to the cameras and blowing out three lights in the studio* What about me??? >:-( How many times have I told you not to come in without your makeup on? Huh? HOW MANY? Now you've destroyed half of our equipment and no one can see the show! *skull* Oops. :-$ So... on that note, it looks like tonight will be an experiment in retro entertainment, simulating an era before television. Before television? Like the 1500's? Yes Staudie, the 1500's. You see, television was invented in 1603 of course, so clearly this must be the 1500's. :-| You would have been young back then, wouldn't you? Yes. I didn't really get old until I met you. :-| Let's just get started now, take it away Staudie, far far away. Q. Why the name and the Uninteresting sigfig? A. Snefroe is the name of my cat. I often use it as a username, and let's face it, it's waaaay better than *vader* , *yoda* , or whatever! The uninteresting sigfig was actually created by our notorious Copmike.... but there's a piece missing....all will be revealed in due time... and please no jokes of a sexual nature.... Too easy. Q. How long have you collected LEGO? A. You mean, as keeping a collection of boxed sets? I started when my sister bought me a MISB star wars set for 9 euro when the set was valued for about 190dollars on BL. and then I thought...g... maybe I should collect just a few sets, you know, sets that I would open on a rainy or that I would sell later... they're all still MISB even though we've had a zillion rainy days already... I am living in Belgium after all... Q. What are your favourite sets? (Say top 3) A. 1) galaxy explorer 2) space monorail 3) blacktron 1 message intercept base Galaxy explorer is by far the best spaceship in the universe. it's a piece of art, not a lego set. The monorail was a revolution in lego world. we couldn't believe our eyes when we saw that one in the 80s. a space train in white and transblue parts and some cool looking astrronautes for 6000 belgian francs! it rocked our world... in fact, we were are all staring at it secretely during class. Instead of looking to the teacher as if geology or dutch was insanely interesting, we were all looking down, reading Lego's catalogue that lay opened on our lap... Blacktron base .... just brilliant! suddenly we all hated grey wings and blue ships! Blacktron was what we wanted! Q. What is your Favourite Theme? A. You mean there are other themes than space? You clearly haven't seen Staudie's Museum of Belville. Q. What do you think of the set remakes some members have made? A. Well i think it's great that people are trying to re-invent the models of the past by using modern parts and colours. It's no good to live in the past, we have to move on, Lego has to move on. Classic space is gone, but there's no reason for us to not to try and build some great space mocs based on the old models. I'll always support fans who do just this... Q. Best In Real Life Lego Moment? A. My first entry into the Lego vault 2 years back or so. seeing those lego sets just laying there... and only 6 people in my way to grab a few and run like hell... tempting... think i could deal with the SW freaks... i'd just throw them a few SW sets in the other direction, but TT... hm... would never get past TT... Q. Best Eb Moment? A. The first event in Billund. There were 6. "the Billund 6", Legendary people... one was french, another came all the way from Sweden (i shall refer to him as the guy with the car and the broken window), three were from Denmark, one was Belgian... They were all Star Wars freaks... except for one... they were all sitting on this small table, stashed with rum and beer and cola... and a Santa F

Staudie: I think our first invasion should be *cough*wouwie13*cough* before he has time to prepare completely ... >:-) *y* Invasion On! *knight*

Coincidentally, I wrote them this very morning expressing the exact same sentiment. I don't honestly think it's going to get any better either... :'-(

He doesn't have them all, I have one. They originally came from a seller very close to one of the factories, theories as to how or why are varied and range from the LUG one (but I doubt it, since there is no LUG claiming to have had an event involving them) to a special order (LEGO will make any available piece you want in any available colour you want, if you buy enough of them, but I doubt this too or there would be literally tens of thousands of them and they might not be allowed to do this with a licensed part) all the way down to "some guy snuck a batch through and sold them out the back door" which sort of feels like the most right and wrong answer at the same time. Whatever the case, it's a neat thing to have. Now that they've decided to use the divers mask as the damaged helmet, I can honestly say I have both in red, I just haven't figured out a cool angle to use it. That's not entirely true. I do have one idea for a vig, but until I buy another camera, it isn't happening.

My last (I'm sure) Hoth finally arrived from the blackhole of S@H backorders. Yay! *y*

I'm beginning to wonder if the recent acquisition by an unnamed but incredibly wealthy mystery man could be a front for some kind of Bond-esque attempt at world conquest. 8-| I sure hope so. >:-) *y* As for troops, I like speederbike trooper torsos and this one. Oh, and nice work! *y*

Ok, from memory, the whole point of the level is to make you run back and forth a lot. Fight him on the platform, he goes up in the rocks. Chase him up into the rocks and he goes back to the platform. Back and forth. Just keep looking for things to use the force on, because I'm fairly sure you throw at least one bomb type thing at him, and the rest of the time you're climbing around to get closer so you can hit him and he can run back to the platform. Rinse. Repeat. Win.

Such an effort is a massive undertaking, it's good to see it completed successfully! *y* Now a simple word of advice. After sorting, it's temping to create a bin or two for "parts you've just used" where they can sit until being sorted back where they belong. Don't let that get out of hand, or next thing you know, all the good parts are in there and you're stuck spending all your time trying to get back to the state you're in now. Not that I've experienced this or anything ... :-$ Organization On! *y*

A great idea and well executed! I haven't tried any real customization, just the basic mix and match of stock parts, but this might just inspire me to give it a shot one day. Until then, I'll read and learn. Very convenient!