KateB

Now that's a good rant, couldn't have said it better myself!

Just trying to lighten the mood Although I've just seen the figures for the increase in Royal Mail prices so feel mighty peeved. Seriously, this country is ridiculous. We won't be able to afford to have lives soon. I mean, come on, you spend your life paying tax and then when you're dead and inheritance tax kicks in, they tax you again!!!

Hi and welcome Daisy, from a fellow AFFOL, Friends fan and mum. My little girl will be 3 in July and she currently likes building with her Duplo and looks in awe at Mummy's Lego set collection, with the new addition of a couple of the Friends line. I wish she was old enough that I could buy her some of her own small Friends sets, I'm very tempted but worry that she's a bit too young at the moment. When she's older she can enjoy mine with me I guess, but only the Friends ones, all my others are strictly off limits!

That is probably my favourite Creator house, got it a couple of birthdays ago. Just love the dark blue and white colours. The house is fairly small but looks lovely, very aesthetically pleasing

You're welcome, thank you for saving me money!

Good to know. Got the beauty parlour on my birthday list, along with café and house. Going Friends mad, not sure what's got into me! Have to have something to tide me over until the Monster Fighters line comes out. Have you reviewed Olivia's House yet SilentMode? Dangerous but essential

Unfortunately yes, you have to be quick. That's why I get Tweets on my phone from Brickbadger with up to the minute reductions on Amazon.

Friends 3183 Stephanie's Cool Convertible and 3065 Olivia's Treehouse. First was a good price on Ebay and second is on 35% reduction at Amazon. Can't resist a Lego bargain

Friends Olivia's Treehouse reduced 35% on Amazon, from £19.99 to £12.99

Yikes, this thread is getting rather heavy and depressing! I thought the talk of the rubbish British weather was a downer without all this. Are we not getting a little off topic? I have recently made the decision that I want to be somewhere in between being American and English in relation to emotional repression; we seem to personify the two extremes in that respect. I'd like to be a little more emotionally open like most Americans (without the gushing, nauseating aspect) and not so completely repressed like most British people that it causes psychological issues when I'm in my 30s. Oh wait...it's too late

Great stuff, that's very helpful thank you. I figured the topic may have been covered previously but couldn't find it when doing a search. I love the idea of buying custom instructions so this will give me plenty to get my teeth into

Not sure if this has been discussed before but wanted to hear opinions on this. I am solely a Lego set collector, I like working from instructions and am content to know what something will look like at the end before I start building (I have an intolerance of uncertainty issue!!) I lack the creativity, imagination or vision to design my own MOCs, at least for now, so whilst browsing ebay I came across a seller in Australia who designs sets and sells the instructions: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lego-Victorian-Town-Custom-House-Modular-Instructions-10224-10190-10185-10197-/290694125552?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43aeb857f0 The Victorian House particularly caught my eye and wondered if anyone has purchased someone elses custom instructions before and what their experience was. Generally what do you think? Instructions for the furniture would be a good thing to have as I primarily collect house sets. I can imagine that buying bricks for the whole set would cost an absolute fortune! Comments/suggestions welcome Thanks.

Unfortunately not. Most of my family think I've lost my mind a little though they always knew I was a little on the 'quirky' side. I can see my husband's eyes glaze over whenever I start droning on and on about different Lego sets! I think he's thinking, 'oh hell, how much is this going to cost now?!' My 3 year old daughter likes her Duplo though and loves to look at 'Mummy's Lego'.

Are you trying to be funny?

Unfortunately I'm not fortunate enough to know anyone in the US/Canada so that's not an option. Probably a good thing as they would get sick of me asking to buy stuff on my behalf! I did happen upon a website called www.useusa.co.uk which appears to import US products for sale in the UK. The Iris 6 case storage unit was on there but it came to a total of £82.00 including shipping which is pretty ridiculous for a plastic storage tower. Oh well, back to the drawing board

It's more the fact that it has a building station on top really, that's what I'm after. The fact that the baseplate is removable is great too because as I'm a set collector, once I build something I generally put it on display for a few weeks before taking it down. So with this I can move it off the top to display elsewhere. We are currently re-doing our bedroom, where I originally built on top of a chest of drawers and that was my designated Lego area, so now I don't really have anywhere in my house where I can build and leave it in a half built condition without it getting in the way. The chest of drawers are going! Having a toddler in the house it has to be out of her reach and I only get to build for 30 minutes or an hour at a time. I figured I can keep the set pieces in the drawers and then build on top, very convenient and compact and can be cleared away quickly. As usual the UK doesn't have anything that fits the bill. I've spent half my life sourcing everything from haircare products to Department 56 Halloween collection pieces from the US because the choice and variety of pretty much anything in the UK is rubbish! All the best stuff comes from the US! What's more annoying in this case is that Lego is European in the first place!!

Since learning of the release of the new Lego storage drawer unit on the US Lego Shop I've been lusting after it with avengeance as it's exactly what I've been after: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/3-Drawer-Storage-Unit-5000248 After many emails to Lego and their affiliated partners Iris who make the storage units, along with a couple of other ones, it seems that they have no plans to release them in Europe as Iris is a US company. Totally gutted I contacted Iris directly who were very nice but the minimum postage cost to send to me in the UK came out at £65 - yikes! Not likely on an item which costs about £25 in total. Borderlinx also came in at about £65 postage which included import duties. Anyone had this kind of experience before where the thing you really want is only available in the US - what did you do?

Very nice review, thank you :-) This is just the cutest house and whilst trying to think of all the reasons why I shouldn't expand my range of sets to include Friends (as I'm currently spending so much on Harry Potter Lego) I've realised that resistance is futile. Especially as I am a Lego house collector and clearly, this is a house so the rules dictate that I must buy it. Damn it! Let's be honest, what girl could resist this set, however much she tried to (raging feminists aside)!

I wonder if anyone has ever requested replacement stickers from Lego because they botched up their application? I'd be interested to find out!

Thank you, clearly you've done this before ;-)

As I'm really a set collector and not a MOCer I do indeed apply stickers but they fill me with dread. I'm a total perfectionist and when building my Winter Village over Christmas I was disheartened to find more and more stickers appearing in the 3 sets - strangely the stickers increased in number through the years of release, ie the Post Office had more than the Bakery and the Bakery had more than the Toy Shop. They fill me with dread much the same way as the thought of applying a screen protector on my phone. If it's not perfect it bugs the hell out of me. Plus, they just don't look as good as printed bricks and their longevity concerns me. For me, it taints the joy of the build somewhat. Having just ordered Hogwart's Castle, and realising that there are quite a few stickers within this set, I feel the OCD anxiety stirring within me! There's no denying it, I HATE STICKERS!! ;-) (but then I am a bit mental clearly)

Ordered Harry Potter Hogwart's Castle from Tesco Direct after the great tip that it was £67! Couldn't resist as I've gone Harry Potter mad. Will be adding to my Hagrid's Hut that I got for Christmas and The Burrow which I treated to myself with vouchers (some of which were my husbands admittedly!) That will make 4 sets still to be built - should keep me busy :-)

Oooh, thank you for this. Ordered Hogwart's Castle - at this price I can't resist :-)