TheLegoDr

Well done. Somehow I am just now coming across this! Very inspiring builds. It wasn't too long ago I was thinking of doing some sort of western inspired layout since you don't see them too often. This fits the bill! I love the details throughout. The removable rear and moving pieces is very clever. I don't think I'll incorporate that in mine, but I'm glad to see how it worked. The windmill is awesome. The building shaping is great. And I really like the irregular base. That is something I struggle with. Even in this situation where you have multiple builds on irregular bases and put them near each other, it still feels like a layout compared to (in my mind) everything needs to be plated/tiled to make it cohesive. This proves me wrong! Well done. I will look back at this for inspiration.

I know it won't change things, but with our local midwestern convention, our LUG has multiple people into castle, more so than other themes. I know it isn't enough to sway the company, but it keeps the castle interest alive at the shows. We have a large train layout, castle area, then modular buildings and other original works by people.

I'm always just a little behind whenever those torsos come available...grr One day I'll grab some. Or to the expensive aftermarket!

The March GWP was already available there? Crazy. Definitely smart buy then. Who knows when things will be consistently available, especially to line up with GWPs.

Orthanc is all black and works really well with textures. But it also has a specific shape to it and the varying levels with protrusions. If I were designing one, I'd think mixing colors. Very few buildings are all one color anyway. It'd be good to have accent colors that bring it all together.

I've liked everything they've released, so bring it on. If it happens to be "junk" to others, then hopefully it won't sell well and I can pick up stuff at a discount. Win-win for me.

^you make a good point about stickers vs printed in 4+ sets... I hadn't thought of that. Yes, kids like stickers. But it is interesting that those cheaper KID directed sets don't always have stickers. I understand some pieces not being printed, but sometimes the extent of sticker use is a bit out of hand. And also CDC said surface is hard to transfer the current stuff, so packaging shouldn't be much concern. But either way, I'm sure it is an "environment" thing. And maybe in the long run it will be better for our surroundings, but not on our collections. I don't know. I think the extra bag in TLM2 was because they came from different factories so this was the way to keep it all packaged together? I don't know. But I also heard they have the plastic bag inside these new VIDIYO sets with the boxes, so that doesn't make it better for the earth yet if there is still plastic in the box...

I understand and don't understand this logic: Blind bags are designed to hopefully sell a lot of variety of figures with the collect them all mentality, right? So you may end up spending more than you originally were going to and that helps the company. So blind boxes would still create that variance. For a lot of us, we will just buy less (or none). While others will still want a certain number of them, but maybe not a full set. While keeping it blind packaging, it sells more. If it were exposed to what would be inside each package, that would tell the company which product design is a better seller and which isn't. Maybe that could then curtail their process and create more of what is "wanted" the next time around. There'd be a lot of figures waiting on shelves because very few wanted them. But that seems silly that they would spend time and money on producing figures that aren't good sellers (yet there are always a few duds that aren't as popular in each series). Where is the line? I don't know. But moving forward, it sounds like blind packaging in a box may be a limiting factor for a lot, especially since the price is so much higher than it used to be.

This is incredible. A lot of details packed in there. I may one of the few that actually liked that movie. It was full of camp and that made it fun. I love Nolan-verse Batman of course, but these mid-90s movies were still enjoyable. Plus it had a killer soundtrack. Back to the build. I Love the variance in ice with the different blues. Clever. The dinosaur scale is impressive. The security guard has good shaping being frozen. Well done overall!

This looks incredible. I only recently started watching the show. This is jaw dropping. I don't think I can justify the price on building it, but certainly this is a gem to have on your shelf (or swooshing around). Maybe I'll modify it to copy one of the versions where it is in rough shape so pieces could be missing to save money.. Either way, be proud of your creation. I will keep coming back to stare at it.

I thought someone said March was when they were coming back, so I haven't looked. Naturally I miss out...grr. Hopefully they will return.

Dobby's Sock!...Wizard Swears is also fun. Heck, the entirety of Potter Puppet Pals is great. I showed my daughter them a few years ago and she couldn't stop laughing. I was obsessed with those videos when they came out over a decade ago...

why would you want to take it apart???

If there are no exclusive figures, then there is no reason to buy specific sets. It's marketing and driving people to purchase from you. End of story. That's how a business would stay afloat. If they keep repeating characters/prints, then you can skip over certain sets altogether if there isn't much new in it. LEGO can't have that...

Incredible. I love the little details. The upstairs and the roofing is brilliant. The exterior looks amazing. The colors work really well together. Even the trees (as blocky as they are) look great because of the leaf angles. What did you change to make them legal? I want to follow this so I can look back at it from time to time, but the search drop down is blocking it so I Can't. I will have to just remember the title. Keep up the great work!

I think in the not so distant past they quit selling hands individually. Probably have to contact CS about broken hands.

I saw the Advent calendar is cheap. But I don't need repeats of the characters since 3 were already repeats. The mini builds were fun, but after owning one...I don't know. But definitely a good price! As for Knight Bus, this blows the 2011 version out of the water. The new purple windows are top notch. And they covered the shaping really well. I loved the older one and had both built side by side and I immediately tore apart the old one. NO question. The carriage is clever and neat how it folds open. I have it built still, but it is rather large (I guess it needs to be to hold all the students they bring with them). Very large next to the Grindelwald escape black carriage. If you can find them for the right price, go for it. But only you can decide if the money is worth it. I recommend both though.

Thanks for the reviews. I don't have much interest in city sets or the road plates. Although I don't hate these as much as I thought I would. we MILS our roads for our layout, so it's a bit more brick intensive. But these look good for the immediate play value. As for sidewalk, yes you'll have to build up the connecting plate by a few plates and then tile above that to give a curb/sidewalk. But it has potential to look good, just costly.

I look at it this way..if I don't like it, I won't buy. Money saved to spend on other expensive LEGO sets...

I can assure you that sarcasm flew right over my head. Gotta love the written word

You call a light bley statue a Forestman figure and think that will satisfy fans/collectors/builders? And a Forestman figure in 2010...that was over a decade ago. Yes, I think we could use something more recent than that.

I see. Interesting. Thank you. I'm torn on if I should buy a lot or not..

Much thanks. I don't own either of those sets, so makes sense. I will have to look into that. Looks interesting. Is there a pin opening on bottom to connect to things. (I'll just go to brickset to look). Thanks again.

I'm surprised people believe they used obscure shops in the official set. Quidditch and Daily Prophet are super well known. Scribbulus is iffy, Fortescue's is about the same. When I think Diagon Alley, automatically think of Ollivander's, Flourish, WWW, Gringott's. In theory you could argue the Owl Emporium and Potage's just because of the visual appearance on the street, but not necessarily well known in terms of their names. Malkin's robes, sure, but again, not something people really think of. So I think they hit the nail on the head with what they chose. Now that will most likely limit what they would release next for the other shops since there isn't anything too notable about them, outside of street presence. But characters and scenes are more limited. And I had an idea to build an escape from Gringott's. I may still do it, but knowing (or at least assuming) what LEGO will be releasing in the not so distant future, I may as well scrap it. They have better access to pieces than I do and everyone will think I copied them. I had a microscale Hogwarts (like many others) and once I saw their official one, I just tore mine apart. I can't compete with official designers.

@koalayummies what is that tan piece that looks like a flower stem/crown in the lower left quadrant near the revolvers? I don't think I've ever seen that piece before (I didn't want to quote the whole picture). Thanks!