into the blue

Went to the Lego store in Cardiff today to pick up some bits and pieces and saw that they had just started selling series 9. Had an interesting conversation with the guy behind the counter. I told him that WH Smiths had started selling them about two weeks ago. "Yeah, that's a bit naughty, they weren't supposed to do that." "They did the same thing with the Team GB sets." "Oh yeah, they got fined for that, that's why their packets were more expensive, to pay off the fine. They'll probably get hit with another for doing the same thing again." Naughty WH Smiths.

Thanks for the merge and the deeplink pic Rufus. Won't be long before series 9 is in there.

Thanks for the PM Mark. Update: Three knights and a mermaid available now. Curse you WH Smiths and your policy of not letting me feel your packets! (shakes fist at sky)

Hi Markypops, Anything is good for me, just pick one at random. PM me your postal address and I'll try and get your plumber in the mail by the end of today.

Both the recent Sopwith Camel (10226) and the VW Camper Van (10220) are really nice sets and look great on a book case/mantlepiece.

Traffic cop for the chicken guy sounds fine. PM me your postal adress and I'll get it off to you in the post tomorrow.

Title pretty much says it all, I have a plumber, knight and chicken suit guy from series nine, would like to swap for anything from series 1, 2 or 3. Figures are open but will be posted with their empty packet and tick-off list. I'm in the UK but can post worldwide. PM me if you're interested.

Yep, just picked up my first packets today from WH Smiths in Llanelli, UK. Chicken suit guy was the first one I opened. Get in!

Yep, those are very nice too. The only thing is I have limited wall space, and would need around ten of those Ikea frames for a complete set of minifigs at the moment (which I'm not far off getting). This deep frame can fit (at least) thirty minifig series in one go. That would work out at spending £150 on frames at Ikea. I'm sure series 9 won't be the last series, so I'm thinking long-term here. Thanks for the link to the videos though, they provided some neat ideas.

Just a heads-up for UK collectors, picked up a nice display case from Lidl today, £29.99. Solid, easy to put together and with shelves deep enough to store at least five rows back of minifigs. It's also a nice coincidence that a whole row of sixteen minifigs fits nicely across the width of the shelf. Will be able to fit a whole lotta small folks in there. Pic here.

Just came in from watching it. Bum-numbingly overlong with a lot of stuff that didn't need to be included. Maybe I'll feel different about it if I get to watch it in the comfort of my own home at a later date, but at the moment this gets a meh out of ten. Seriously Peter, we let you go nuts on Kong hoping that would get making marathon movies out of your system. Just go easy on the second and third installments, k?

Jeez, what kind of brush were you using, a wire one?

My apologies if I came across as abrupt Samiam. That wasn't my intention. Can you give us an idea of where your numbers came from for Maul and the TC-14?

Yes, a little research did give me some exact numbers, that's why I put amounts on both Stormies and Fett. Chrome stormtrooper - http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/4591725_Chrome_Stormtrooper Shadow Arf Trooper - http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/2856197_Shadow_ARF_Trooper White Boba Fett - http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Boba_Fett There were no numbers for the Maul or TC-14. That's why I asked. Sorry Samiam but it looks like you're guessing and that doesn't really contribute.

Wow, I didn't realise what a jump in price the chrome Vader had made until I did a quick scan on eBay. I think I bought mine for under £20, but now the average seems to be between £50 and £80. Didn't realise that the chrome Stormtrooper, white Boba Fett and Shadow Arf trooper were also limited to 10,000. Looks like their prices will soon be skyrocketing too. Can't get any numbers on the shirtless Darth Maul or the TC-14 (although it seems like every Lego store had TC-14s coming out the wazzoo), can anyone enlighten me on those?

I just got to the part where Boromir got shot with... well, let's just say it wasn't an arrow. Priceless.

I found this information which suggests the numbers are a bit lower than 30,000 or 40,000 but hey, it's the internet and you can't trust anything on there these days, right? http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/4547551_Chrome_Darth_Vader I too shelled out around £90 for mine on eBay about a year back. At the time I thought it a bit of a foolish buy, but I'd had a few glasses of wine so I thought, "What the hell!" and hit 'Buy It Now'. It was an early Christmas present to myself. And yes, I can't open mine now either.

Just a quick question. I understand that the numbers for the chrome Vader were around the same for the 3PO, 10,000 right? If that's the case then why is the value for 3PO that much more than the value for the chrome Vader?

A guy who owns a zoo figures he could do with a few more animals. So he writes to another zoo and says, "Dear zoo-keeper, please send me two mongooses." After looking at the letter he's written, he figures it's not right, so he starts again. "Dear zoo-keeper, please send me two mongeese." Nope, that's not right either. "Dear zoo-keeper, please send me two mongii." Whoa, that's definitely not right. So he knuckles down for one last time. "Dear zoo-keeper, please send me one mongoose. PS, please send me another." I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.

Wow, this figure is getting to silly-money prices. Do people actually buy these things at that price? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STAR-WARS-LEGO-CHROME-GOLD-C3PO-C-3PO-FIGURE-NEW-SEALED-IN-BAG-SUPER-RARE-/400341566075?pt=UK_Construction_Toys_Kits&hash=item5d3637827b

Picked up The Batcave 6860 from Smyths today incorrectly priced at £40 instead of £70.

Wow, someone bought a LOT of newspapers in the UK this weekend! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190-bags-of-LEGO-30211-SUN-PROMOTION-URUK-HAI-Lord-Of-The-Rings-New-Sealed-/230876507921?pt=UK_Construction_Toys_Kits&hash=item35c14fef11

Noticable that there weren't huge queues outside WH Smiths for the polybag offer this morning. The Sun hasn't really pushed this one as much as previous offers, I think I've only seen one TV ad. I suspect that people will twig as the week goes on though and next Saturday's orc set will be a sell-out.

Snyder dipped his toe into the Joker pool with The Black Mirror storyline from Detective Comics #871 - #881.

Visited the Lego store in Cardiff today and picked up an entire series of series 4 minifigs with a little help from a great assistant. Already got full sets of series 5, 6, 7 and 8. Now all I need to do is try and get 1, 2 and 3.