JesseNight

Now there's something you don't see every day! Gonna keep my eyes on reviews of that portal.

Oh, by "creative" I was more referring to uniqueness of designs. For example, if you release a Star Wars X-Wing, you want it to look as accurate as possible and the only question is how well you can realize that. I will not doubt that this will require creative solutions within the boundaries of what can be done with the bricks that are available. But if you release a 'spaceship' for an in-house theme, you have a lot less boundaries and a lot more design freedom for what the final result will look like, and what sort of play features you wish to include. And the buyer's question will be what the set will have to offer. That's the sort of creativity that appeals a lot more to me personally.

I think the issue isn't whether the old or new designs are better. Designs have to change and evolve to keep their appeal to the masses. And sure there will always be those who prefer the old over the new (myself included), but there's only so much you can do when not embracing change, before things get really stale. I absolutely agree that I miss more creative in-house themes and would love to see many of the licensed themes gone or reduced. It's fine having a few of course, but bring back more in-house themes and start investing in creativity again. And that was a major thing that made it work for me in the 80s and 90s, every year I couldn't wait to see what new models but also new factions they would bring to the table. And sometimes even a completely new theme that we hadn't had before.

Because it's obviously not very appealing to the Lego Space audience, so the Pharrell fanbase or people who like the movie are the best they got to approach with this set (aside from those wanting unique pieces from it). And it wouldn't be weird that a fan would love something to look familiar and connected to their idol. It feels a bit like they're just missing the appeal to all potential audiences, but that's something the movie will have to clear up.

That last part remains to be seen, it will likely be related to things going on in the movie or possibly new songs being made for it. It's not gonna be for me, like so many I had hoped for the focus to be with the spaceship, and for its price being significantly bigger and less basic.

Well considering you can search on sites like Bricklink for all sets containing specific parts (and assuming their database is complete for that period), I don't think it's official. According to BL, there's only 7 sets containing the large yellow gear, none in the quantity displayed above. Most sets only have 1 or 2, and no more than one contains 3 of them. Cross referencing with another recognizable part like the white turntable and the amount of blue bricks, I came to the result of possibly one or multiple 801 sets combined with others. Because the red turntable and the single red fence on the blue object to the left don't seem to match with the earlier results. Also gave the Ideas Books a look from that time, and didn't find any matches (but in this case, I'm not sure if I have them all).

Glued does indeed indicate it was a display model, but I cannot find any single model with this inventory. It's not hard to double check, there are only as little as 7 sets including these old gears, and even less when including the rest of the parts. I think the closest I can find is this set (801 for non-motorized, or 800 if it includes a blue 4.5V motor): https://brickset.com/sets/801-1/Gear-Set It's not a perfect match, your pictures seem to contain more parts. Maybe a display moc to show off these new gear pieces? Maybe something from an early Idea Book? I'm just guessing at this point...

This attitude to just flip it for profit is exactly what I call greed, but that's my opinion. I'm not here to offend anyone and I'm not fully blaming the sellers, I'm honestly more surprised how many buyers are willing to pay crazy prices in times of life itself already being really expensive, although that's probably a bigger thing here in EU than in some other parts of the world. I can't complain about my income, but to spend 500 on something used is just crazy to me. But yeah, that's just my opinion. The creating scarcity kinda was a different story. It's a well known that resellers for profit use tricks to play the market to their advantage. Call it creating business opportunities by doing research and studying the market, sometimes knowing or even gambling on an item to become more wanted in times to come. Buying up something that's limited (say it has like 20 offers up and you know for a fact that chances are fairly low that many more show up), then selling it 1 at a time to make it appear even more rare, is what I meant by creating scarcity.

The point is paying someone 2x to 10x msrp (depending what it is) just for making a smart business decision. Idk about you, but my budget to spend on a hobby is not unlimited. For example there's still something I really want that once cost 70 and now cost 500 from people who made such a smart business decision to invest in, and who created scarcity while sitting on the leftover stock that exists in the world. Sadly I just missed the initial run, and now find myself stuck between making some sacrifices to feed someone's greed to still get it, or let it go. I'm not even talking about boxed/sealed stuff here, just limited run stuff.

And with being common instead of rare or limited, it loses value (for TLG too). Value is determined by supply and demand both. Would it solve everything? Probably not. Scalpers also make use of items no longer in production that still have a decent but limited supply. Some buy up all there is to create a fake scarcity, reselling them one at a time as if there's no others left in the world (and if one appears for a lower price, they buy it instantly). I honestly HATE it, but as long as there's demand >> supply, this will always be a thing.

Ohhh I see, sounds perfect then!

I'm with @Murdoch17 on the '60-'70 rock bit. Although I wouldn't go with the vinyls while building, having to swap them every few songs would distract me too much.

I'm afraid more blindness would not solve it, and nothing really would when we assume people won't play it fair. tore workers who happen to be collectors/scalpers would have the advantage, as well as family/friends of store workers. That's how life works, if you have connections you get in front of everybody else. I'm against all the blindness. If there would be open minifig packs, I would gladly buy them and I would gladly pay Lego a bit more for it too when I know what I get. Scalpers have nothing to earn in this case, except when it's limited edition and limited runs. That's where they benefit most in the end.

Of course. Because someone who just collects Lego as a hobby and has limited hours a day to put into it (and possibly a limited budget) ends up paying insane prices for collectibles because of these people. Of course it's smart what they do from a business point of view, but it keeps some collectibles always out of reach of people who collect for fun. As for the discussion about diversity... I'm 100% for diversity but I think it's opened a big can of worms. This was never a discussion when all the heads were still yellow. And while I personally am a fan of skin toned minifigs, there's always going to be people out there who don't feel represented bc diversity is just too big an area to fully cover.

Did not know or care? In 2024 this just doesn't work anymore as a fun and social trading game between kids like it was once intended. People do anything to get what they want. It's obviously a business model that still works.

Wouldn't it be an idea if the administrator disables allowing to upload pictures and only allows to post links to them? That should be possible in a forum's admin settings.

Assuming you're logged in, there is an option on the main page to click the 3 dots on a recommended video and pick "Don't recommend this channel", to at least filter them from being thrown at you. "Loot boxes"... don't get me started. To think this once started pretty innocent, when people would collect cards, and gather irl to trade with friends. But yeah those days are long over and scalpers make sure to own the wanted ones and drive up values even more.

Interesting to read this history, and very nice that it still exists in a time where most people lean more to modern social media. Personally I find forums so much better structured to find exactly what we want to see (rather than to be spoonfed what others want us to see).

That brings me back 35 years... when I was little and my dad used to be just like that. I bet before the term AFOL even existed, plenty of dads loved to join their kids enjoying this most creative line of toys.

Might work, if you somehow manage to fit those bases next to each other. I don't think I could settle with 1-2 whiskers only. Rope might work if it's stiff enough to stay mostly horizontal. Think this is one of those few situations where I would consider a non-Lego solution, like some thin wires with the right stiffness.

That's cool. Exploriens and Aquazone are themes I mostly missed (I quit childhood Lego shortly after M-Tron, with the exception of Technic). it's just cool having so many "new" parts that aren't of the original Futuron, yet clearly keeping the color scheme and therefore still feeling familiar.

I have to agree with MAB here. But if we do want whiskers, it's probably the best option we got (unless you wanna do for a non-Lego solution).

Don't phret about it (sorry, couldn't resist) The "problem" with searching is often to find the post with the solution between so many more posts from people asking the same question. Luckily it's not bad on this board, it gets far worse on boards where every such question is answered with "use the search" and you just don't find the actual answer.

Are there still pictures out there of the original Siamese version? Can't help noticing there's a pair of blue eye pieces still lying at its feet. I don't know, I think what we have on bars and antennas will easily be too thick, but love to see it if you come up with something!

Actually it was 1987-1990, but close enough. Builds were typically white with black accents, red lights, and dark blue windows. Was also the first to feature astronauts with motorcycle helmets with a (blue) visor.