Trent

I bought a bulk lot off a friend ages ago, and it took me forever to sort out the clone brands from the Lego...and a lot of the Megablocks is this Western theme. It's a bit soul destroying because I love (and missed) the Western theme in Lego, but although the sets look ok built up in this photograph, the joy of Lego (for me) is the building...and even from the photograph, you can see that most of the buildings are large pieces stuck to other large pieces - which makes it more of a toy for children to play with rather than a toy to build with.

Yes, this is the real thing that seems to wind people up (me included). It doesn't only happen with Lego, but it's saddening when you see someone swooping in on cheap sets with the sole intention of making a profit, when you've got other fans/children who don't have as much disposable income who would like to build it and weren't planning to flip it on eBay for over RRP. If you see an entire shelf of Lego that's on sale, you don't need all 50 boxes - you could leave some for other people to get a bargain too. When something isn't finite - i.e. S@H are selling it as part of its standard run, then you can go crazy...I don't see any problem in stocking up if that's what you want to do.

I wasn't really expecting this type of house when I opened up the thread. Ignoring the theme of the build, the actual build is incredible. The standard of detail is very high, down to the small things like the burglar alarm, the men playing cards etc right up to the standard of the shower, toilet, staircases etc. The themes for each room are very well done. As for the theme...I guess these places exist, although I wouldn't know if your work is accurate or not! My biggest problem is the way you said, "Lego has given us such beautiful female minifigs, I just had to build something for them." There's a BILLION buildings that you could've made for beautiful minfigs; just because a woman is attractive, it doesn't make her only useful for sex (and/or a prostitute). You don't really expect to log onto a Lego forum and experience casual misogyny. But your actual Lego techniques are fantastic.

The interior to this model is superb. I also love the well, the tree, the doghouse and the panelling on the cabin. Awesome!

The blue and white colour scheme is very striking and refreshing. I really like the booths and the stools, and the sink/counter area is very well made. Gorgeous work.

The lettering in your sign is very good, and I like all of the little touches, like the fuel cans, and the drawer of tools, and the chain. Brilliant work; it would look great in any town layout.

Wonderful! I adore the underground section and the detailing throughout is very good. I'm not surprised it won - well deserved.

Fantastic work.

Wonderful; very clever and a lovely smooth technique to your build.

I really like this - what a great idea! I particularly like (well, you know what I mean!) the rubbish that's been dumped...how often have we all seen that?! I like the lowered pavement too.

Wonderful; I love the bridge and the water, and the scene looks really cohesive. Great work!

I would love to do this in my local library, but I guess you'd need input from a LUG (or a decent investment, which is unlikely given the situation with libraries at the moment) to get a starting amount of bricks?

That is an awesome technique! I like the island itself too.

I do take your point, but Clikits weren't introduced until 2003, Scala was dormant through the 80s and only resurrected in the late 90s and Paradisa and Belville were both 90s efforts - so maybe the 1981 advert worked during the 80s and there were other reasons as to why Lego took a different approach in the 90s...or maybe the sales during the 80s weren't as good as they'd hoped, so they did something "girlier" in the 90s. I'm just trying to say that it's misleading to draw conclusions when we don't have the evidence why something happened. I think your comments about the girl in the advert are interesting, though. I'd quite like to have seen a range of adverts in the same style, both genders used and all of the kids having very different appearances....so rather than a tomboyish girl, there's also a girly girl - and their counterparts for the boys...really showing that Lego is for everyone. Edit: This is a really good point - I was going to write something along those lines (about her clothes) but I couldn't recall if my own clothes being like that was down to me being a tomboy, or the way society was at the time. I definitely don't remember the explosion of pink like it is now...

It's not self-evident at all. You're simply assuming that it didn't have the desired impact, based on the company's position at present - but that position could've been reached due to an enormous number of factors. I'm not saying that you're wrong; you could well be right - but without the statistics to back it up, it's illogical to make sweeping "obvious" statements. Very often, what seems obvious at first glance, isn't obvious at all.

This is a brilliant scene - I love all of the creatures that you've used to great effect!

Do you have statistics to say that it didn't work in the 80s? The thing that I still can't get over with Friends is that Lego has neglected its female market in two major ways. Firstly, they rarely produced female minifigs - you buy a City set, and you always get a bunch of males. The occasional time that you get a female minifigure, it seems that she's passive - you don't get a female train driver, but you do get a female passenger. There are exceptions, but those two things apply for the most part. Secondly, the newer themes have got more and more masculine as years have gone by - Ninjago, Star Wars, Hero Factory, Alien Conquest...they're all very male orientated. The Creator line taps more into what I would've loved as a child - the likes of Modular Houses (not even the grand scale of the Modulars, but things like Hillside House etc), Lighthouse, various Animals (e.g. the Safari set, Dinosaurs)...but even that has a leaning towards vehicles in the impulse sets. It's not that these themes can't be enjoyed by girls, but over the years, Lego seems to have focused its lines at males - and now, to try and get girls back into building, they're having to overreach and make a stereotypical product instead. This reminds me of when the Wii came out a few years ago. When I was a kid, you had all sorts of computer games on the PC that were great, and even on consoles like the Mega Drive, there were lots of games that were suitable for both genders - think of how popular Sonic and Mario were; neither of which were strongly marketed to males or females. By the time the XBox came out, the landscape was dominated by first person shooter games and most women seemed to lose interest in playing games. The Wii came out, made a bunch of games that weren't "shoot someone in the face" and ta-da, the whole world seemed to marvel at the fact that EVERYONE, including women and old people, were enjoying computer games. I can't help but wonder if some of the cause of this was because your world is re-enforcing... 15-30 males enjoy playing FPS games, 15-30 males get into the gaming industry, 15-30 males make games that they would enjoy...etc. I think Lego has accidentally fallen into the same trap. I wonder how many female Lego designers there are? (Not that it's necessary to have females designing sets for them to be enjoyed by females...but if the female voice isn't heard, the designs become more and more masculine.)

Very smooth feel. I really like the piano and the chairs are great too!

I like them both, but the Weaver is truly fabulous. I really like the overhang (there are lots of Tudor buildings in my hometown and they have that overhang), the brown and white detailing, the steps up to the door with the handrail is wonderful and I love the round detailing over the window. I like how the two overhangs make an archway, which is a good feature - but the overhangs would work as a frontage onto a street as well. Absolutely brilliant.

Good lord, that's wonderful! The flooring is excellent, and the buildings look brilliant. Some more photos (or close-ups) would definitely be appreciated!

I was a tad grumpy that I'd missed this (I was waiting for a better price and it seems to have disappeared entirely in the UK) but on closer inspection, I'm not that bothered. I would like a level crossing so that I can integrate my train line with my town, but I don't have too much use for the vehicle, so I guess you're paying over the odds for the crossing itself, when I'd probably be better trying to make my own?

This definitely feels like old school classic Pirates to me! Great work.

I built my second train yesterday. I bought the Emerald Night (who hasn't?) earlier in the year and soon decided that I wanted to have a go at motorising it. I figured that it would be easier to buy another train and steal some of the parts from it (track, PF etc), so I got the red passenger train for Christmas. I built it yesterday and got it running tonight...and now I can't fathom why I didn't get into Lego trains earlier! I can't wait to expand my layout.

If Ben Kenobi's sale falls through, I'd be interested in the Soldier's Fort.

Ah, wonderful! Thanks for the reply.