Bearded Castle Guy

If they really wanted a theme to have lots of animals, they could just to a Game Preserve theme. There could be various animals, the Preserve's Ranger's, researchers and tourists on a Photo Safari... Perhaps an evil poacher or two for the Rangers to catch. They could do an Africian version one year, North American another year, South American yet another year, Asian yet another. They could even 'slip in' sets sets for areas that might not warrant a whole theme like the Antarctic or the like. They could even do a separate Ocean line, lots of possibilities.

I probably spent a couple of grand overall, perhaps a bit less. As much as I could I tried to buy on sale/clearance to stretch my dollars. In regard to to mostly have 'just pieces' back in the day, many early sets were 'just pieces'. When I was growing up the early LEGO me and brother had was mostly used garage sale/flea market finds, it was a treat to get a new set.

Target has had a history of 'recycling' their DPCI's, I've seen it before just not as much since they switched for a 6 digit number to the current 9 digit one..... I had seen the DPCI and listing on Target.com when I did a search on Lego the other day, the picture along with the listing *IS* Series 7....... Just because it's the same number they used for series 4 doesn't mean it's the wrong number for series 7 .....

Perhaps but it was late and I actually used the wrong term, I did mean the LEGO Element ID opposed to the Design ID. I also had not checked the Online PaB, I guess I assumed the original poster had done so already. I see both Bricklink and the Online PaB as having different advantages, so they both can have a place in your online parts buying strategy. I had spent some time tracking down Element IDs for my LUG's LUGBulk order so had developed a 'system' or at method to trying to find Element IDs, so I basically outlined it in broad terms above.

Look in recent instructions, for the last few years they've included a list that includes the LEGO Design ID # for the parts contained in that set. Each color DOES have a separate numbers. You can download many instructions to get a digital copy of the page containing the Design ID's. You can find set numbers if you need to via Bricklink's Inventory feature.

I've seen foliage from time to time but as others have said, it's not a perennial item in stock like the 2 x 4 bricks are. I'd suggest taking a look @ http://www.brickbuildr.com/view/pab/ and then click at t6he sub link for the store closest to you. It's only as accurate as the folks updating it care to be, as well as how recently it's been updated.

Lol, you put 'The Salamander' in charge? Hope the Republic of New Jersey's navy see a bit less action than she had in her RMN gig

The edit shows now, it didn't show to me when I posted, but I have a habit of having many open tabs and perhaps had opened the Guidlines post before the edit showed up, it's all good now.

This change should reduce the quantity of folks joining just to sell stuff, never a bad thing. Should I assume that the sticky(and locked) Guidlines for B/S/T/F Forum post will be updated at some future point in time? You might get some confused folks if the topic creation requirement is left out of said post.

I don't see resealable bags as a 'Final Solution' for sorting or building out of on a regular basis myself, but they can make a good intermediate step or even a low access long term storage solution. I can see having issues with durability if you are constantly moving them around, opening/closing and digging thru them for sure. I've done some rough sorting into bags before and even with lower use I've had issue with the closure system, I do tend to use freezer weight slide closure bags which have heavier sides. I expect even if I 'Finish' the main sort of my pieces (not guaranteed as the project waxes and wanes) I'm still going to have low access priority/overflow stuff in resealable bags in boxes. The ability to get more in long term and still not have it mixed like the 'Lego box' me and brother had growing up is priceless, especially balancing it against amount of space a decently sorted and organized system can take.

You could just sort piece type by color and use multiple containers if you like the ones you have now but having a couple of different sized containers is usually good. My main point is pick something you can get more of and are happy with using. It sound like you have already settled on a workable solution for the way YOU sort and likely build, now the job is finishing.

@rriggs, You may want to check out the storage thread here http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26213 if you have not already. I've not been that systematic in deciding the categories I use to sort yet but I've only buckled down on my sorting a few months ago and decided to move beyond ziplock's in plastic shoeboxes or even just the plastic shoebox itself for a sorting method. I decided upon the Stanley organizer's with the lift out 'cups' mentioned in that thread. A couple of reason I went with those, a number of parts I decided I want to sort out to a the level of specific parts in a single bin or even a single color of a part in a bin. By swapping around the bin between different copies of the same depth organizer I can arrange things more to my liking. I like that they have a positive latching ability and stack nicely. The 25 compartment ones are smallish compared to the deeper 10 compartment ones but you get a bigger number of the smaller bins to sub divide into. My one bit of advice is to try choose a style of containers that's widely available in your area and try to stick with it. I have at least 3 styles of the plastic shoeboxes that don't stack quite so well with the other styles, they're from different eras basically and it can be a pain to have a stack fall if it was a stack of mixed types. There have been times where I've had to choose between sets or more storage even, the Stanley Organizers are not always as cheap as some of the other options (especially for a given capacity) but I do NOT want loose drawers (or potentially loose drawers) so that's the price I pay for my choice. *IF* you go with plastic shoeboxes or the like buy enough or rather buy MORE than you think you'll need, trust me you'll still use them all.....

Well have you tried inverting (placing it upside down) the barrel and attaching whatever attachments, details etc to what is normally the bottom side of the barrel? It's an interesting build to be sure, I just don't wander thru the 'Space/SciFi' forum very often. Your finished build should be interesting

My Catagory B votes 2) The Lord of the Rings scene - Elf and Dwarf Warrior Entry (Build by Thor Lund) 1 votes 6) Planet of the Apes scene - Caveman, Gorilla and Cavewoman Entry (Build by CorneliusMurdock) 1 votes 9) Spartacus scene - Spartan and Gladiator Entry (Build by Space Terrapin) 1 vote

My votes 12) Woodcutter Entry (Build by Skafte) 1 point 14) Eskimo Entry (Build by Skrytsson) 1 point 20) Detective Entry (Build by CorneliusMurdock) 1 point

Toys R Us has 25% Hot LEGO sets shown http://toysrus.shoplocal.com/toysrus/default.aspx?action=entryflash&ab=Tru_homepage_aspot:bottom:Find-these-SUPER-DEALS-and-more-in-this-weeks-ad Also they have Series 5 Collectible Minifigures 2 for $5 (must buy 2 to get the price). The 11-13 to 11-19 Target Ad lists 20% off All Hero Factory, Kingdoms and Pharaoh's Quest LEGO sets.

I have talked to a few folks while shopping, even passed along a few tips on places to find stuff. I'd prefer that folks know what they are getting into really with the clones but I'm not going to bug folks too much about it.

Not necessarily so, I was checking every couple days at the store I frequent near work, the Atlantis, Toy Story, NinjaGo and any of the others that were usually up at the lanes NEVER went clearance here. It's late and I'm being too lazy to dig up the set numbers, but the 2 poly bags that were stuck in the Halloween section did go clearance and thus 'poof' around here pretty quickly.

The Target I visit most still had them at the full $3.99 price, good finds there at both the $1.19 and $0.39 prices.

http://aboutus.lego.com/en-us/pressroom/Archive.aspx?y=313333&l=200071&n=2518 In the lower right hand corner of the page is a link for their 'high res' picture of the design.

I fail to see an issue with feeling the bags to find the ones I want, to make them truly blind (random) they could've designed the package differently including using a box. These sets will be purchased at some point. I'd prefer to get the ones I want verus the ones I wish one of to have a 'full set'...

The commercials for 'Tower Heist' are showing them planning part of the robbery using a LEGO model 'built to scale' of some of the area they plan to rob...

Searching shows Exo-Force posts over in the SCI-FI forum so they are likely there but a ways back with the 2006-2008 era posts. Such as http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11430&st=0&p=196741&hl=exo%20force&fromsearch=1entry196741

The 'Grab Bag Supply' is what they fill Grab Bags with of course! Grab bags are prepackaged ziplock style bags that are filled with assorted parts form what tends to be 3 main sources. One is damaged sets that are unable to be sold even at a discount, usually it means that these sets are ripped open vs merely being crushed. Second is the 'Sweepings' from the floor in front of the PaB wall, parts that are dropped on the floor don't go back into the bins, they go into the 'supply bin' in back. Third are the small leftover quantities that are insufficient to remain in the wall bins. They run $7.99 and the one I got the other day looks like it's fill a little over a PaB cup and a half or so. I'm unsure if they fill by weight or volume, either is possible. While the parts are random it can be a good value for contents IF the parts are ones you can use... There were some white fences, some white hinge bricks, white steering wheels, trans-red 1x1 round plates, plate click hinges, 1x2 black 45 degree slopes, and a few other odds and ends. One point to make regards paired items, you may or may not get equal quantities of things like hinges, I got 14 more of one side of the white hinge bricks, you just have to know that going in.

I don't claim to know all the mysteries of the PaB wall, but at one point they normally got their trucks in on Monday's. One of the things about duplicate bins of parts is they don't seem to rush and empty out full bins of the duplicates, they let them sell down until they can combine them and then put out whichever part they've selected to from the new shipment, or if a bin is getting low and there's no bins to combine and no stock in back they seem to put the 'leftover' parts into the Grab-bag supply bin in back. A couple months ago I saw a guy refilling the wall in the afternoon, he was combining some bins, topping off others and in a couple of instances removing the low stock parts from a bin and changing that one out for a different piece. I know some of the folks in the local LUG get there once or twice a week since they live or work close and it's easy to take a couple of minutes to see what's new. My observations are based on what I've seen mostly, some guesses based on past retail experience and some on second hand knowledge from conservations with others. More on topic I did pick up a large cup with primarly 4x4 Light Blueish Gray plates, some 2x2 Dark Blueish Gray corner pieces and a lot of trans-blue 1x1 round plates as filler, and Medium Blue 1x2's in the bottom circle of the cup. Not had a chance to count the parts wouldn't drive me insane keeping track of the numbers but it's a solid pack job.