Isavarg

The carrots are a bit expensive at 1.99, though.

Mine arrived today and thanks very much for running the raffle.

I would definitely buy something like this, and it would be nice to re-release some of those old animals that aren't currently being made.

I have noticed this problem too, and from my perspective, I'm not interested in collecting most of the licensed stuff, mainly because it's not something I'm a fan of. On one hand, I don't think there's anything wrong with it because as a child, I would have loved Star Wars in Lego, which we never had then. I even pretended at some point that some of the Fabuland figures were Ewoks. What does concern me is the fact that sometimes Lego makes these sets which are hideously expensive (over £100) and I can imagine many parents having to say no to their kids if they want the Joker Mansion, for instance, or the Death Star or Millennium Falcon, and then having to deal with disappointed kids. Even as an adult, I balk at those prices, even when I am a fan of it. The main problem I have with the licensed sets, and most of Lego's original themes, is the seeming lack of interchangeability of them. I was looking at the new sets and saw that there were a couple of farm sets (something which I've been on the look out for as they'd go well with what I want to create), but then found out that they were Minecraft ones and so the feeling of meh replaced the feeling of excitement. I don't think it's wrong that they do licensed sets, but there should be room for traditional themes too, and what children play with and get bought is down to their parents and family.

I had a large blue base plate crack once (It was from when Lego made the deep base plates from the 80's or 70's, I think. It was so old, I'm not sure when it was made, and most likely started out life in some lego that my brother had.) It had very heavy use though and had been built on and taken apart many times before it snapped. I've had some issues with arch bricks (probably because the arch naturally weakens the plastic more than you'd get from a complete, solid one. One arch that you use for trees broke from my Bag End set because when I was transferring from one room to another, the roof fell off and landed on the tree, so it's hardly surprising that broke. One piece I've had trouble with is 4211066 from the 2012 Star Wars Desert Skiff - it's very delicate which broke while it apart from the piece it connects to and any part like that now I keep intact when take a set down. I am surprised to see the extreme breakage that some people have suffered from the more robust parts as mine have only ever broken through heavy use, or had a natural weak point in them to begin with.

This is the first online give away I've won, and it's quite impressive that there are so many prizes. Good luck to those who are still waiting.

I would like to see the Vikings sets redone, as I missed out on those before I started collecting Lego again, I'd love to see the Winter Village sets redone because I've missed out on those for one reason or another, the Medieval Village set (for the same reason as the Vikings one), and the classic Star Wars ones like Jabba's Palace, the Rancor pit and one or two others of the Castle line, such as the Blacksmith shop. I'd like another chance to get some of the Hobbit/LOTR sets that I missed, but I doubt that they will be done. It seems that the sets which are more likely to be done again are the Star Wars ones or the Winter Village sets from looking at what they've re-released so far.

Some advice on image hosting - I use nickpic.host for my photos. Photobucket images will not show up anymore unless you have a paid account with them, which is horribly expensive. There's no way around it now.

I would change the door to one of the curved ones and change the windows to lattice ones. They just seem more Christmassy to me.

A fox and squirrel prepare for winter by gathering pumpkins and apples. The fox has also dug a nice burrow under the apple tree to keep out the worst of the cold weather when it arrives.

I don't recall anything major, but nail polish is usually a causality while playing with Lego, espeaically when I'm taking pieces apart.

I tend to store mine by the set they were in, but as it gets bigger, and I'm getting more into doing MOCs, it will need a storage system. I spent ages the other day trying to find a part from the 'Classic' sets I have, only to find it in a box I'd not bothered looking in after giving up searching for it. I'm considering getting some really useful box storage boxes. (I've used them before for sewing for keeping needles and threads.) I've found the boxes used for storing skeins and small beads to be useful for the really small, easily lost parts, but I don't have enough of them to sort my collection out properly now. (They are useful if you don't want the room you keep them in to resemble a garage.)

Despite the fact that I normally buy sets with animals, if a circus one was made, I would give it a miss. Circuses aren't good for animals, even domesticated ones and Lego does have a policy of not producing toys which promote cruelty to animals. This is probably why you see log cabin sets, but never hunting sets even though the theme could easily be adapted to one.

My ideal Christmas tree is one which I can enjoy somewhere warm and cosy on during those cold December nights, and what would be a better place than The Shire? (Of course, I can really only do that in RL with the Hobbit and LOTR movies, books and LOTRO game...) Keep out that freezing weather! (Sorry about the background - it's quite a gloomy day today and all the photos I took inside were dark and blurry, so this is the best one.)

If you look at the modular sets, they are clearly designed for teenagers and adults in mind, as I don't see how children would be able to build them without help and most of the sets that I have now are built with small pieces, so I don't see how young children (younger than 10), would have the patience to build a lot of them. I was also under the impression, too, that Technic Lego was made for teenagers who were interested in engineering and electronics, so I wouldn't say that you are too old. One of my other hobbies is building dollshouses and miniatures and saying that someone is too old for Lego is like saying someone is too old to build those, but for people who are really skilled and experienced at making them it is a form of art.

If people collect Lego only for the purpose of hoping that it will go up in value, then they are collecting it for the wrong reason(s). People should collect it because they enjoy building the sets and making their own creations. It does not bother me one bit, and I really wouldn't mind seeing other sets released.

This is amazing, and I hope that you'll be able to reconstruct it soon. I know what it is like not having the room to work on large projects. One of my hobbies is building dolls houses and I've not been able to indulge in that for quite some time now due to not having the space.

When I join a forum, I find waiting periods before I can post to be a big turn off for the forum, as are things like having your account approved, having your post reviewed, etc. (If there is a topic I want to talk about, I'd like to talk about it immediately and not wait for days on end before I can post it.) I don't know the inner workings of this particular forum software, but most forum software usually have developers who make plugins to stop spam accounts from signing up in the first place. I would install something like that before implementing features that will annoy people. People also like to make their accounts quickly, so I don't think bombarding them with questions on sign up is a good thing either - I like to take my time and fill in the profile properly after I've created an account, not as I create it, if that makes sense. Capchas are good, but make sure that they are easy to read and work properly. I've found a lot of capchas are unreadable, or if they are photo ones, they make me go through several layers of them before I can actually make an account.

You need to change your image host as you have to pay photobucket to show your images, or get a free web hosting account that allows you to direct link them.

The detail you put in is incredible. I love it.

The building is great, but the theme of fishing doesn't appeal to me. I'd probably make the inside into something else.

I've experienced the 'missing pieces' problem after dismantling a set and rebuilding it again. No idea where the piece went, or how it went missing because I am always careful about storing them properly. It may be that large pieces get mixed up with other sets but as for the small parts, they just seem to multiply.

I did get the animal themed ones and would have preferred the original vet clinic because it was bigger and seemed a more detailed build. I do not think that you can rule the pieces out - I had the Modular petshop and town house last year for Christmas and was disappointed with the house on two counts - the upstairs didn't have any furniture in it and the grey floor is a bit grim looking. I bought the Friends Advent Calendar and was able to make some nice bits out of it for the house and that made it more complete (though I don't know what I will do with the minidolls.) There are bits I like about the Friends line and bits I don't but if used creatively, I think they can brighten up the modular buildings and I can't help but think that some of the moaning about them stems from 'it's a girl's toy, with girly colours and items, so let's hate it!' rather than it being a bad theme in itself. I don't know what the other modular buildings are like, but if there are ones which have empty spaces in them with no accessories for furniture then it's a weakness.

I'm going to list the ones that I'd like to get which are now currently available. There are quite a few which are discontinued now which I would have liked to have got, but I can't remember what the prices were. According to Google Currency Converter, $800 is about £592.8. Winter Toy Shop - £64.99 The Simpsons House - £189.99 Nasa Apollo Saturn V - £109.99 The Simpsons The Kwik-E-Mart - £179.99 Park Street Town House - £ 44.99 If I'd known the prices of the discontinued sets which I wanted, mainly Christmas themed ones, the large Dol Guldor set, the Erebor set with Smaug (those two are the only Hobbit sets I wasn't able to get hold of) and the Medieval Market, I would have chosen those instead. Even though I am a Star Wars fan, I find the pricing of the good sets to be excessive. I'd collect them if they were more in the price range of the Creator Modular buildings, but even that is really a yearly one off for birthday and Christmas, and not something I'd do all the time.

Thanks. After looking at some of the current sets, if I try to look past what it has been made into, there are some useful pieces in them. After some problems with e-bay sellers I try not to buy from there if I can help it. I'll just have to be creative and the bricks I don't find useful for the Middle-Earth stuff will probably be useful for detail on the modular buildings, etc. It's funny in some ways as when certain colours are used in the fantasy themes I find them too garish, but when used in the traditional modular buildings they soften the grimness of the colour schemes that's used.