ibecks

Here's my haul from the new Manchester Arndale store on their opening day. A careful cup build yielded a total of 791 pieces - 0.014p per piece 36 Black Slope, 33 3 x 1 9 Light Bluish Grey Bar 7 x 3 (ladder) 2 Trans Black Windscreen, 6 x 2 22 Light Bluish Grey Hinge Plate 1 x 2 Locking with 2 Fingers On End 21 Light Bluish Grey Hinge Plate 1 x 2 Locking with 1 Finger On End 24 Reddish Brown Minifig, Utensil Seat 2 x 2 with Center Sprue Mark 27 Reddish Brown Brick, 1 x 4 72 Dark Red Brick, 1 x 2 59 Medium Blue Brick, 1 x 2 28 Lime Brick, 1 x 2 47 Lime Brick, 1 x 1 12 Tan Plate, 2 x 6 12 Green Brick, 1 x 3 8 Tan Plate, 2 x 8 49 Lime Plate 1 x 4 113 Black Plate, 1 x 2 150 Lime Tile, 1 x 2 with groove 25 Trans Orange Slope 30 1 x 1 x 2/3 29 Trans Red Plate, Round 1 x 1 Straight Side 46 Trans Clear Plate, Round 1 x 1 Straight Side

D@mmit! I'm in the US in August. :( <sulk>

The Arndale store is opening tomorrow. I'm assuming this is the 'soft' opening... Manchester Arndale Lego Store

Very nicely done. I used to live in a very similar (but white) house in Kensington.

A recent box of Coco Pops had a free bag clip in it, but that's the first thing I've seen in the box (other than the cereal, obviously!) for ages. I have the Weetabix house from when I was a kid. For a 'freebie', it was a great set.

Very insignificant news, but I walked past yesterday and noticed the sign has been updated to say opening 2012, not 2011. When I say updated, they've added a bit of vinyl over the top of the old date.

A bit more about it here

Isn't the Discovery Centre one run by the company that runs the theme parks, rather than Lego Group themselves, hence not stocking the Exclusives? It is a very poor excuse for a Lego store, so I hope a city centre one will do well.

This is very cool. I've been spending a lot of time in San Francisco recently and I keep thinking the houses in the city would make great MOCs.

Me too! The idea of having a PAB I can check as often as I want is so exciting :)

My friend just sent me a photo of an empty unit in Manchester Arndale (downstairs in New Cannon Street Mall, next to Clinton's) with Lego Store branding on the front. It just says 'Coming Soon - Opening 2011*' As I work in the Arndale I'm considering just declaring myself bankrupt now to save time! ;) Does anyone know any further details about this? *Yes, 2011, from what I can see from the photo! Oops. ETA: Manager job listing here Jobs at Lego This states expected start date as July 2012 Further ETA photos:

Yeah, if I do build it I'll be replacing the flag with something else!

I bought a Fire Brigade at the Lego Show last weekend. I'd pretty much talked myself out of it as it's my least favourite of the modulars - I generally prefer the more everyday buildings and I really dislike the flag. On the other hand, I have CC (Bricklink built), GG and GE with plans to get PS and TH, so when I saw it there (probably the last time I'll see it for sale anywhere) I figured I'd complete the set. Plus it's a Jamie Berard building and you've got to love that guy ...and, as one of my friends pointed out: "it's all very well just having shops and restaurants but what happens if there's a fire?" I'm debating not opening it and seeing whether the prices increase, but looking at GG, there's only a £45 difference between used and new. Do you think this is likely to be the case for FB?

Agreed - that was awesome. Especially liked Superman with the bus.

:( I was going on Saturday but now going on Sunday instead. I'd love to come and hang out with the AFOLs as I missed the AFOLCON deadline.

I missed the deadline for AFOLCON, but I'll be at the show. Looking forward to seeing everyone's creations again.

Target in San Jose have the superheroes stuff in but not the Series 7 minifies yet. Not that I've been shelf-stalking, of course...

I normally just buy sets, but I want to get back to thinking for myself where Lego's concerned, so today I went to the Lego Store in Santa Clara and packed this: View from above: Stacked but out of the cup Unstacked (mostly!) Grand total of 747 pieces... and I got a compliment on my cup-loading technique from a passing architect! :) Dark Blue Slope 45 2 x 2 Double Convex 4 Light Bluish Grey Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with Arm Up 8 Black Brick, Modified 1 x 2 with Grille 7 Light Bluish Grey Tile, Modified 1 x 2 with Handle 8 White Tile, Modified 1 x 2 Grille with Bottom Groove / Lip 60 Light Bluish Grey/Black Lever, Small 14 Orange Plate, Round 1 x 1 27 Tan Brick, 1 x 4 1 Green Plant Flower Stem 26 Red Plate, 4 x 6 3 Tan Plate, 4 x 6 5 Red Plate, 2 x 8 7 Red Plant Flower Small, Sprue of Four 24 Red Brick, 1 x 3 24 Red Brick, 1 x 6 9 Tan Plate, 2 x 6 12 Tan Plate, 2 x 8 3 Trans-Red Plate, 1 x 1 48 Trans-Yellow Plate, Round 1 x 1 38 Trans-Red Plate, Round 1 x 1 38 Red Slope 33 3 x 1 28 Red Brick, 1 x 4 22 Reddish Brown Brick, 1 x 4 24 Tan Brick, 1 x 3 24 Dark Bluish Grey Brick, 1 x 3 50 Lime Brick, 1 x 3 33 Lime Brick, 1 x 2 39 Red Brick, 1 x 2 28 Lime Plate, Round 1 x 1 133

I bought a couple from Booksmith in San Francisco, after much hunting around in B&N. They're a nice novelty for AFOL and mine will sit on my desk, being gradually covered in random bricks when I'm not actually using it.

Does anyone in the US know whether Lego stores are stocking these or is it just Moleskine stockists (eg. Barnes & Noble)? I'm a bit frustrated that the green one isn't available in a large, ruled version but I'll be picking one up anyway.

I just finished building my Bricklinked CC. The only issue I found was that the window frames I ordered from Lego using the part number in the instructions PDF are a tiny bit too small to fit the windows, so I've left those out for the moment. The zookeeper seems to be drawing quite a crowd (maybe it's that leg-sized banana she's holding) Pepe Le Mime thinks the crowd appreciates his performance, but he's sadly mistaken. Oh yeah, that would explain the crowd - the cheeky monkey's escaped and is trying to throw a scorpion off the roof!

I briefly wondered why there was a kettlebell in the accessories photo. Then I realised it was a handbag. And they say I'm not a girly-girl!

:wub: LOVE :wub: I need one immediately!

One advantage of the older style animals is that they lend themselves to other things, like architectural details.

I have to say that I completely agree with the other comment - if you can afford to buy all of those sets in one go then you're in a very small minority of AFOLs and should think yourself lucky. I loved Cafe Corner the first time I saw it, but couldn't afford to buy it at that point. By the time I could afford it, it was discontinued. I could whinge about it and say 'it's not fair that they didn't keep making it long enough for me to get a copy!' but I don't - it's just unfortunate that I couldn't afford to buy it when I originally saw it. In the vast majority of cases, Lego don't produce limited numbers of sets - they'll carry on making batches of them for a certain amount of time, but you can't possibly expect them to keep making sets forever. As someone else pointed out, how do you think you would now acquired a set that was discontinued two years ago unless someone else had the foresight to buy more than one copy of it? It means that those who can afford it can buy a boxed set on the second hand market and those who can't can at least get the rarer parts through Bricklink from sellers who bought the set and parted it out. We're fortunate to be fans of something which can be made easily from (mostly) readily available parts if we want to recreate rare sets. Just be grateful you're not a fan of Ming vases or something!