Yucca Patrol

I bought mine yesterday and there were only three left at the local LEGO store when I arrived. A second one was bought while I was at the pick a brick wall. If you want one of these, better get one now before they are gone and the resellers jack up the prices.

I agree with the previous poster. Until you show off your vast array of unique and never repetitous MOC's, and give back to the community by sharing your techniques and tricks in detail by writing tutorials such as this, it's probably best to stick with "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". One thing I have quickly learned is that the LEGO community is about the friendliest group I've even been a part of. Leave your negativity at the door, please.

That sounds like a very reasonable and thoughtful way to do it, Locutis. You are definitely right that buying them early just gives LEGO more sales and more opportunity to make more of them for everyone. It is possible to enjoy capitalism this way. I approve

Here's a perfect example why i think it is absolutely wrong for adults to hoard a children's toy with the intention of selling it at a huge markup once it is discontinued. Today, when I went to my local LEGO store to buy my Fire Brigade, I was told that there were only 3 left and that they would not be getting any more. The good capitalist in me thought "I should buy them all and then sell them at Christmas time when demand is high for this newly discontinued item." I stuck with my original plan to buy one and only one for myself, took one down off the shelf, and headed to the pick a brick wall. While I was carefully packing my cup of loose pieces, a mother and her approximately 10 year old son came into the store. I was the only other customer in the store and heard everything this excited child said. Apparently fire trucks and firemen are his favorite and he wants to be a fireman when he grows up. With delight, he exclaimed that he couldn't believe that this day was finally here after spending the past 6 months saving his allowance and doing odd jobs for his family and neighbors in order to save up for the biggest and best fire station LEGO ever made. He literally had his piggy bank with him and he and the sales associate counted out a huge pile of loose coins in addition to a giant grubby roll of single dollar bills he had saved. His mother told him how proud she was of him and that this is the sort of reward that comes from hard work and dedication to a goal. Imagine what the scene might have been like if the sales associate had told the little boy, "I'm sorry but we only had three of them left today and that gentleman over there greedily over-packing his pick a brick cup bought every single one of them to sell for three times the price on ebay." Although I knew this already, my experience today clearly demonstrated that too many adults get caught up in the collector's fever and forget that we are playing with children's toys that are actually made for children. Hoarding rare, soon to be discontinued sets for speculation purposes is basically guaranteed to cause children to be disappointed and saddened somewhere down the line. I like $$$$ as much as the next guy, but I don't need it so much that I am willing to indirectly cause harm to children to get it. I know that my bleeding heart is not typical, and that there is actually nothing wrong with buying something in order to later sell it at a profit, as that is the basis of capitalism that I believe in, but I simply love LEGO too much to have my love for it have any chance of causing any child to be disappointed. So I've changed my mind and will support the return of the modular sets simply to give children a second chance to get them and to devalue the sets that adult LEGO hoarders have stashed away. Now how about adding the Green Grocer to Cuusoo too? Our family wants that even more than these two!

Bought the Fire Brigade today. My local LEGO store only had 3 left and they said they cannot order any more. Glad I got mine when I did.

Love it! You don't even want it at all and yet you'll buy two of them!

I didn't mean to sound selfish, especially as I believe that jacking up the price of discontinued sets is a very distasteful and selfish practice and I could care less that a set I buy today might be worth more in the future. More than anything, I take somewhat of a Buddhist approach with such things as I simply accept things as they are and do my best not to let greed and desire control my thoughts (something hard to do when all you think about is LEGO). TLG is going to keep on making great modular buildings and my life will not be incomplete if I am missing a couple of them that I missed out on on the past. I'd much rather have 3 future sets than pay three times the original price for a single discontinued set. I'd also rather TLG put their limited resources into producing new sets than bringing back old ones. If you really want one of these discontinued sets and are willing to do it, go out right now and buy two or three extra Fire Brigades as it appears that the last production run has been finished. Save them for a year or two, sell them for an outrageous price and then give your profit to someone who will sell you your desired set for an equally outrageous price.

We just started building the modulars, and as much as we wish we could get a Green Grocer or other discontinued set without paying 3x or more for it, we are just as happy to build what is available and look forward to building new sets as they appear. Like the previous poster, I rather like the idea that a couple years from now my pet shop and fire brigade will be highly desirable exclusive items that can only be had from people who get more enjoyment from $$$$ than from LEGO.

The window is helpful because the transparent plates are very rigid and refuse to be inserted between the studs of the previous layer unless they are absolutely perfectly aligned, and the window helps to accomplish this. If you were to use regular colored non-transparent plates, it is easy to insert them by hand since they are much more flexible and forgiving.

I didn't realize there were specific LEGO hull sections that limit the width of the ship. One thing that I noticed while touring the ship was that this ship had ZERO creature comforts and was built as a warship only. Even the nice wood paneled officer's area was quite spartan. I actually got a tear in my eye as the sailor giving the tour told the story of how it came to be called "Old Ironsides" in the battle against the HMS Guerriere. That captain was so incredibly gutsy when he waited until he was right alongside his opponent to begin firing. Definitely make sure to add the ship's bell as they rang in several times to mark the time during my visit and that was a very memorable detail.

I had the opportuunity to tour this fantasic historic ship this summer and would love to see a very accurate model in LEGO. From my recollection of the ship's gun deck, there are at least 2 cannon lengths in the middle of the ship, but your model has the cannons almost touching. I know you said you are not making it exact, but since you are doing LDD, you might as well put your energy into making it as close as possible.

How about original retail price, minus 25% since it is used, and minus the cost of replacement bricks on bricklink with free shipping (assuming you have the original box and instructions)? Sorry, but I just don't buy into the idea that LEGO is a money making hobby and used items are always worth less to me than new. . . .

Since I am an American and can't get these myself, I decided to send a friendly email to the SUN's customer service department to see if perhaps they might put a packet in the mail for a LEGO fan outside the UK. I received this response: Thank you for taking the time to contact us. Our promotions, CDs, DVDs etc. are available to UK residents only. We cannot supply outside the UK due to copyright and syndication laws. Sorry for any disappointment caused and we hope you continue to enjoy our publication abroad. And to that I say that I am NOT sorry that we dumped all your tea in the Boston harbor and blamed it on the Indians!

I joined this a couple days ago, but this press release explains why all the models seemed to be of Japanese origin. . . .

That was fun! I saw a lot of minifig faces I'd never seen before :)

Very well done version of this real life building! I'm looking at everything I can find so that I can convert my Medieval Market Village into a modular or two. . . .

Skyliner, I'm sorry this has happened, but it is nice to see that you have a pretty good outlook on it. As any sort of legal battle would be cost prohibitive, perhaps the best thing to do is let the sellers know that they are selling your design, hope that they compensate you somehow, but in the end, the best thing to do is simply be flattered that someone thinks your design is this awesome (and it is).

This is really great! We just started building the pet shop and I'm going down to the lego store to get the fire brigade tomorrow. Since we already have the MMV just because we thought it was cute, it will be great to recycle that kit into a modular for our new city!

These are great, and I especially think it is fun that you printed the $2 bill as we basically NEVER see them in actual circulation. And very smart to get proper permission from the government because I can just imagine the absurd but gravely serious scene when the Secret Service shows up to arrest a LEGO counterfeiter!

bThat's so cute! Girl Power! Ha! I'd love to see a photo of just the drum set by itself . . . So Brickforge will make you cool guitars but they won't make me any new plants!

Now I'm getting impatient after reading 2 pages of "looking forward to it" comments. . . . . .

Sorry Algernon. I know I am late to the party, but I was shocked to see a moderator in a LEGO forum behave this way.

A I did read through this thread far enough to see that Peppermint_M sort of half-heartedly apologized for this disparaging remark. I expect this sort of thing almost everywhere on the internet EXCEPT in a LEGO community where people are generally nice and sensitive and friendly to all people regardless of race or nationality. As an American on a European LEGO forum, I do expect some Eurocentricity, but never expected that all the children in my country would be described in such a negative light, especially by a moderator whose comments should be expected to model the friendly and accepting community that I believe this forum to be. An American such as myself could read the store terms of just about any US based Bricklink store that sells to Europeans and conclude that all Europeans are criminals who demand that people in other countries commit serious jail-able crimes by falsifying customs forms so they can cheat on their taxes for something as trivial as the purchase of TOYS, but I prefer to believe that would be an unfair assumption and that there are probably just a very few LEGO fans in Europe who do this and this is not typical of the European LEGO fan. Just to show that not all Americans are violent bloodthirsty monsters, our family would never purchase even a Police set for a child and we remove any sort of weapon from any set that we purchase for ourselves. In our LEGO-land, there are no nationalities, no negative stereotypes, and no violence. All people have yellow skin and there are no mean people on the internet. As for new Dino sets. . . . I would have LOVED them as a kid, but I'll have to wait and see if this theme is something I would like as an adult. I might have to buy a set for my nephew to play with, but only if a minifig fits inside the crushing jaws of a T-rex

Although I am not exactly into historical themes, I am very interested in realistic depictions of rural life and landscaping. I've found that the medieval and castle people do the very best landscapes, so I'll definitely be following this thread.

Lately, I've picked up a couple large crates of used LEGO that have been mixed with Mega-Bloks, Tyco, and other unidentified blocks (not to mention crayons, dead bugs, and a zillion little pieces of Chinese made plastic toy parts). I've bought these collections cheap enough that it is worth it to sort through them and separate the real LEGO from the clones from the junk. Of all the clone bricks I have seen, only the Tyco appear to be about the same quality as real LEGO and are the only ones that sometimes slip past me during the first round of sorting prior to cleaning and sterilizing. The yellow Tyco slopes in particular look and feel really nice. Because I understand that not all parents can afford real LEGO (and some can't even afford the clones), I clean and sterilize the clone bricks just as carefully as I do the real LEGO. Once I get about 5-10 pounds of the clone bricks, I donate them to the thrift store so that needy children can play with them. I also make sure to throw in any older LEGO brand wheels (like the ones with red hubs) to make sure that kids can build cars with the clone bricks. I have also figured out that some of you violence obsessed LEGO fans really like the olive green Mega Bloks for your military MOC's, so I separate them and sell them on ebay once I get 500-100 pieces of them. They're the only clone bricks that seem to have any aftermarket value whatsoever.