Grover

Don't know if anyone has mentioned this before, but there is a little Friends polybag (30412) available at Walmart here in the US that has *two* of those white birds that are not sold on B&P because they are 'licensed'. During the Coronavirus crisis, many of the Lego sets are on sale at Walmart, including these, which makes them cheap to pick up (<$4/bag). https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=30412-1&amp;name=Park Picnic polybag&amp;category=[Friends]#T=S&amp;O={"iconly":0} As long as you can use most of the pieces, it makes it a worthwhile buy to pick up white birds since they're expensive on BL and unavailable on B&P.

My last order came in today (earlier than expected!). Looks like color #5 had some alignment issues on the rainbow tile.

It's not just the Pirate set. My orders from 26 and 27 of March were delayed and still in warehouse, so they were having problems before that.

The team I'm a part of is myself, @LittleJohn, @Aurore, and @Basiliscus. Our build idea (thus far at least) furthers the aims of the de Fiori, di Carlo, and Conzaga families.

That's lame. Your reviews are great, and half the reason I make my decision to buy or not buy certain figures. TLG is doing everyone a disservice by not sending you a box to review. I hope they recant and send you a box!

Hmm, I tried to welcome you earlier and my post didn't go through... but welcome! We look forward to seeing your intro!

You have a good point... I was thinking of an outdoors scene where vertical won't help as much, but thinking about it from another perspective, that may work. Now I just need to see what I can cook up...

The houses and the marketplace scene are really well done. I love the architecture. It gives me a very medieval Europe feel, and the marketplace is busy and full of things that you would expect of the times. It would take a lot of time and plates, but if you paved the marketplace in brown and cut down the main roads, particularly where the wheel ruts of wagons would be, it would help give the whole thing a finished, organic feel. Add a bit of green against the edges of the buildings where no one walks, and presto, it's perfect. Love the imagination with the witch burning and the broken chicken coop. Did you use custom stickers on any of the torsos? I have never seen the white forestman outfit before, and don't know where the white female torso on the far right of the last picture comes from either. Very nice work, and I love the extra pictures!

They're also still working. I got notice that my last B&P order shipped today.

Looks like there were some heavy metals, more specifically cadmium and barium (although no lead that I have seen): https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.est.7b04685

Oh, I'm good for part B. I'm just struggling to figure out how to get a good story in with a build of 28x28 that makes sense for part A...

It is good news. The virus causing us to work from home has been disruptive to getting anything done. @mrcp6d, I hear you on at least Part A. It seems to beg for an in-depth story, which is hard to accomplish in a 28x28. I think we will see some really creative builds from this, but I, too, am struggling to think of things for it!

I agree with @Mandalorianknight. There's no reason to think it won't reopen. They've closed before for holidays, website revamp, etc., but they do reopen. It's more of a support function that's not a big money maker from what anyone can tell, so it's probably a lower priority than say, selling sets. Because of that, it is one of the first things to get turned off when they need labor to focus on something else. However, they do have to have people in the same warehouse sending out missing or broken pieces, so it's not like those people are going away. Since they are open somewhat sporadically, I try to order early and often!

Love the faces on both of them!

I am concerned now that the medieval blacksmith will be drastically altered, too, perhaps a throwback to the 80s blacksmith, or Daniel Siskind's. I think the new pirate set is a good one, but has little to do with the original design. I hope that the redesigned medieval blacksmith will be the same way. If they do something akin to what you suggest, as in the MMV or what not, it would be totally awesome. If they go bold, bright colors to draw kids in, I will be disappointed. I also really want a goat!

The new pirate bay seems to have a sign (I hope printed) as well as a few torsos and heads that might be useful for medieval settings. Not sure if the price point will be useful for buying solely for parts, but there appears to be a lot of brown there. I was hoping for the much darker initial design, with dark browns and blues. Looks like we do get some more gold pieces, though.

I can see both sides of the coin. On the one hand, the new set is cool in that it's a 2 in 1 and an homage to the original Black Seas Barracuda. On the other hand, it also strays significantly from the original very dark design. For those who voted for the original design, it may be a disappointment depending on why they voted for it. Did they vote for it just because it was a pirates set? If so, they're probably happy. If they liked the color scheme, they'll be disappointed. While I think the new set is cool, I do wish that they had included pieces for an alternate build, much like the autumn build for the Treehouse. They could have made this whole thing on a dark blue baseplate and given a second set of dark cloth sails and some darker colored pieces instead of the white and yellow in order to make the thing look weathered, without a whole lot of extra expense. As someone not a particularly large fan of pirates, I will have to take a look and see if this set is worth it in the pieces that I want, since I'll likely part it out if the price point is good enough. The original design I would have bought multiple copies of for all the awesome dark pieces. This one? Not as much.

@Guyon2002 already got it, but: 6275293 / 26073 It is the backpack from the CMF line. Sometimes certain pieces are available. The Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz CMF was available a year or two ago, sometimes SW stuff is... just gotta look.

Second to last order just arrived. My last order, placed just before they shut down, has moved to 'in warehouse' from 'backordered'. Be interesting to see how long it takes to get here.

You have some really beautiful outdoor builds. This is no exception. The sophisticated and detailed nature of the bridge is really impressive. Is it pretty solid or delicate? I'm curious how you're supporting it (if at all). The edge of the water looks very organic and does a lot to keep the viewer's eye focused on the bridge, rather than detract with some blocky edge. The new 3 leaf pieces for the trees are great, and the story of the goats is hilarious! Really outstanding work. Great job!

Really beautiful tower. It immediately brings to mind many of the keeps of Scotland to me. I love the steep pitched round roof on the corner tower, especially with all the snow. The snow is very well done, piled higher than the path and with bits of the trans clear for ice here and there. Your use of the dark bley on the corners and interspersed throughout is really tasteful as well. The interior of the keep is great! I love seeing interiors when they are possible. Great job, and way to go on the front page, especially during this lull in builds here on GoH.

I will be super disappointed if they assign him to designing the Lego dots sets.

The shoulder armor looks great. I hope they release it on B&P. The spiky shoulder armor from TLM sets still isn't out.

I second sand red. Super useful for buildings and off-colors of old walls, quarries, etc. Pipe dream, but I prefer the old brown instead of the reddish brown immensely. The light bley and dark bley I can live with (although still don't prefer), but the reddish brown looks terrible to me.

Oh, that's a good point. I can totally see kids getting excited about them!