Masked Mini

Speak for yourself. I'm kind of German, Bavarian to be precise, and I'm hilarious. I tell my wife that all the time! Even my kid agrees! (Ignore the eye roll) But I fully agree with your point. The more marketing wank I hear the more I think someone is trying to trick me. Just come out and say it. You want my money. No problem, offer me what I want to buy. Done and we're both happy.

They have updated the FAQ page. Some good answers in there on points we've debated here. https://www.bricklink.com/r3/announcement/lego_bl_faq.page

None of those themes got anything remotely as thought through and loving as modulars. If TLG wanted to stick a vacuum cleaner into my wallet they'd release a Medieval modular line and a Golden Age of Piracy modular line. People had houses then too, yeah? And shops. And town squares. You can't tell me benny's spaceship equals the effort put into modulars. Classic Space was almost made for modular space bases. Or if you add a bow and stern section, even modular space cruisers. And yes I realize that there is a huge difference in build quality between the start and the current run of modulars. But that really just reinforces my point. Modulars ARE successful because TLG put in the effort. The three classic themes largely got re-heated 30-40 year old left overs.

It forced me back to the start of the "solution"/FAQ tree 6 or 7 times before it would let me actually write the email. They got an email alright, let me tell you!

Ordered Feb 2nd, got an order and payment confirmation email with my Order number. Order doesn't show in my order history but my Shop at home order from Feb 3rd does show up. Emailed customer support. First time I've had an issue with BnP and my god it is frustrating to get to where they actually allow you to write an email (on mobile).

If I spotted that right, the creator built two versions. One on that baseplate and one without. Atleast in several of the renders the baseplate doesn't appear to be used. I just started to think about replacing the old castle raised base plate with GURPs and BURPs to try and bring back Eldorado and Imperial Trading Post. You set a really high standard with your builds. You are doing to Castle what we here wish TLG would do with a Pirate re-release.

Well you're technically correct and that's the best kind of correct. Wouldn't change the BOM (bill of materials) much for a re-issue though. Change hull pieces over and add maybe 21 technic pins to the list, update 3-4 pages of the instructions. That's nothing compared to trying to re-issue the Skull's Eye Schooner, Armada Flagship or Caribbean Clipper. Even re-issuing the IMTP Trading ship would need more work than that. The mast, sail, hinges (bow and cargo/bridge) and foc'sle plate are out of production and would require a drastic overhaul of the model.

Unless I'm grossly derelict in my memory, that is not right. It uses the same new flat hull pieces as the POTC ships and the Dolphin Cruiser. It definitely uses the newest style of mast. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=64651&idColor=120#T=C&C=120 bow and stern. Unless you are talking about going from brick connections to technic pin connections. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=2560&idColor=120#T=C&C=120 vs https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=95227#T=C but that's such a minor update.

And @pantelis continues to prove that it can be done. His MOCs are straight out of early 80's catalogues.

Citation needed! Literally in the article and cited below it.

I'm super stoked for us, but no lie a little bummed for the Classic Castle primary crowd. I was excited myself to get a Castle castle in Hidden side, but I'll take a new source of Pirate bits anywhere I can. I have ~120 of the classic Blues and around ~80 of the classic Reds. I just love the original print. The redesign of the Redcoats is repellant to me. The redesign of the Blues is barely acceptable. If I have to resort to them to increase my Blue army I will, but with poor grace. Once I've exhausted my ability to source Classic Reds I will go with (yuck Chinese) customs based on Classic Reds. The print quality isn't as perfect as I'd hoped but it blends well with used 30-40 year old originals. The saving grace there is they added a printed back to the torso that is well done. Makes them easy to identify and sort out later if needed. Yes. I hate the New Reds so much I'd rather have custom prints on knockoff torsos. I've been talking to my wife about justifying the cost of a 3-4 color pad printer just to churn out Classic 'Coats in Blue, Red, Green and Yellow. But the only way that would have made financial sense would be to sell them on bricklink and that's been shut down now by TLG.

NEW bluecoats. Damn. I guess it's better they revert to that than the new Redcoat design. Can't say I'm not disappointed they didn't go all the way back to Classic with the design. OH! This castle is a Pirate/Soldier castle not a castle theme castle. It's starting to look like my Lego Store Employee wasn't wrong with "Pirates coming back in a big way" after all. That makes 3 Pirate(ish) sets this year.

Hot Dog... I'm a real boy Pirate! Now I need me a hearty crew and a lungy ship.

I just laid up the keel of my copy of La Grenouille (SEC by: MOC your bricks). Built on 8 white prefabs and it is STILL ~2700 pieces. Bricks go fast if you need to build out the shape of a hull. Let's wait for the alternate builds before we render judgement! I hope the tavern build will be awesome. And the island build will be a nice consolation to those YARR-fans who can not afford The Pirate Bay.

That's a problem. If we are getting serious here, then neither side gets to presume or assume or guess. We need to KNOW in order to make good arguments. Or we resort to speculation which means that any result we arrive at will only ever be … speculation. Now speculation is fun and has it's place but if we are trying to prove or debunk figures, which we as a collective will throw around for years as definitive fact, then they need to be proven out as facts not presumptions. The article IS written in a way that sets off my bovine swirl stud detector. Very curly writing of statements derived from cited but private sources flowing into and around statements quoted from a Lego Gmbh Staff member. What is clear right now is that nothing is clear. I am a native German speaker and will try to find, read, translate the sources and original article tonight. This has gone beyond fun speculation for me.

Lego's internal numbers are literally the best possible information that exists in the world for what people by what Legos and for who. They don't need to know about your single purchase in Tesco. Statistics is a thing, and it's not a "guess', it's actual math. Facts don't get much more solid that this number. Are we actually certain that it was TLG internal surveys? The source listed, but not linked, by the author is "BEAT internal market research, period January – October, age of children 3 – 12 years" I can't connect that to TLG myself, what entity is "BEAT"? I can conduct an internal survey regarding Lego purchasing patterns at my company too, results mean nothing. It could just as well be an internal survey for "npdgroup Germany", the source of the rest of the numbers cited in the article. In fact, NONE of the listed sources include The Lego Group or Lego Germany Gmbh. Quick google search for his "sources" on my lunch break fails to come up with any useful results. Until his sources turn up the journalistic integrity of the article is highly questionable.

of course we are! Be all you can be!

Teamwork makes the Dream work. I'm sure you gents would return the favor if the boot was on the other foot.

I'll PM you.

Mailed them out and pm'd the tracking information lads.

Maybe, but it's funny and adds to the picture i was painting. I'm just a Quality Control Inspector far away from the discussion making sure the end product does what it says on the box. I very often run into the above stereotype. Lots of bright ideas and understanding of what sausages we sell but no idea how we actually make the sausage*. (*We make Military Aircraft not sausages) He's picking up what I'm laying down. You guys are passionately arguing your points from two different but equally valid and necessary perspectives.

I'm hoping I can convert it to civilian use fairly simply by omitting the skull and maybe trying some crossed anchor pixel art instead. IF that is the case I might pick up multiples or at least kitbash a few together like I'm doing with IMTP ships. The lack of robbing/escort/defense targets has always annoyed me in Classic Castle and Pirate. Moar civillians, more animals, more GOATS!

This is an amazing and gorgeous train wreck. You put so much care and love into your kids. *sniffle* I'm so very put off and so appreciative of this mash up at the same time. Chewbacca with the cannon. - perfect R2 units. - great part utilization, very sailpunk. Luke has a saber. But Ca['n Darth needs the big jagged cleaver saber instead of a Woodsaber or Luke needs a Woodsaber. The ship is waaay too boxy and angular for a ship BUT the strip of greebling is so very much star destroyer! The Imp. cockpits for windows was a stroke of genius. The whole thing is sick, demented genius. As far as constructive suggestions... expand the cabins by lengthening the ship. Needs more play room in there. And a cell to rescue Piratess Leia from. And a compactor sea monster in the bowels. This is terrible and you should be proud of yourself!

This is a fantastic microcosmos of a corporate board meeting. We just need an accountant to chime in on the financials of the City+13 line. Maybe a visionary designer with no connection to reality to pitch his 500pcs poly bag promos for the line. And maybe a thoroughly baffled senior board member who hasn't touched a brick since the early 70s Samsonite era. And the Technophile who is pushing Enhanced Artificial Reality for every theme because it will engage the smartphone addicted millennial kids (doesn't realize we're in our 30s now).

That has serious potential!