snefroe

1) bionicle is one of the only things that sells. so it would be stupid if they would drop the line all together 2) some have been saying on BZP that TLC is using masks of older sets... the reason is simple: they want to save money on designing and producing new parts. so they use old stuff. happens in the minifig world as well... 3) the problems between TLC and the community of websites isn't new. however, it shows a lack of marketing and communication but most of all, before punishing websites, TLC should re-evaluate her own distribution of information. Members of the community aren't responsable for leaking photos. They get them thru retailers, employees,... 4) i think it's not really smart for webmasters to make deals with TLC. First of all, there's no contract, but just a given word (probably Jake's) to give a website certain photos if they follow his lead. So Jake can easily take back his word without real consequences. Besides, we're talking about a multinational here, they don't usually care much about a website of just a few 100 members... Second, the webmasters almost have no control about what's being posted, they don't control the members and i think most members would leave if a webmaster would actually delete messages because of a sensitive content like leaked photos... 5) using teasers isn't smart either. Look at what happened to FBTB. There's but only one good strategy: if you get something, get a confirmation asap and post it. If that makes TLC angry, then that's their problem... We never signed a contract with TLC on these matters... 6) it would be nice to have a central website with all information that all the other websites could use, or a small community of webmasters of different sites working closely together to share information,... However, as long as Jake is running the marketing show we won't see anything of that... He just doesn't think in terms of multilateralism...

Apo, can't you centralise the avatars? now they're all to the extreme left, what gives the impression that your images are too big, but if you put the avatars in the middle, than perhaps it will look perfect

ah... a genius added belgium to the list! :oD come to think of it, i guess there are two belgian members, Khorne and I, but i know a few others are lurking guests ... they still need to be seduced by the eb-side... :P

hm... i didn't think the size thing would become such an issue... it's big, but not that big of a deal to modify the system... suvied's idea sounds nice. only the "first to report good news" would be a bit difficult, tho... but in general, it's sounds very good indeed!

that's not fair... i ... i .... i... can't vote... 8-| :() *sing* Belgium is not in it...

i'd have agree with hobbes on this one. they look really cool, but the size turns them into something hugely important...

they've got this: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=81621 i guess they have instructions, boxes and the real sets for a majority (or all) of the stuff they've produced thru out the years i don't know if the molds and the machines are at one piece. Perhaps they can replace the mold by another... i don't know how that works, but they clearly have a large collection of molds standing by, in case they would want to use one of those. Sometimes you see parts appearing they haven't produced in years, like the technic link in the wookie attack and sandcrawler... rereleasing old sets is an entirely different question. First, they've replaced some colors. it's highly unlikely that they can reproduce the galaxy explorer, for instance, because of the old grey. some of the machines/molds may have already been written off as well... i believe there was a problem with one of the legends about not having the right part/mold any more... And then there's the problem of costs. i don't know how expensive it is to bring old molds into the system again. Perhaps not all the machines/molds are compatible...

i used to be a regular visitor of the chat room. however, in the last couple of weeks there's hardly anybody around... so, i'm wondering now, what's the use of having a chatroom if people don't use it...

sorry to revive this topic as well, people, just this note: as some one on lugnet wrote: it should be "DodelijkE klompschoen". the first word means "deadly" the second word is a variant of "klomp", which means a "wooden shoe"; a wooden shoe is a typical shoe the dutch farmers used to wear... so basically your ship is called: "Deadly wooden shoe"

i guess the question on violence and children is in the hands of the parents. some friends of mine don't have tv because they don't want their kids to see all the violence on tv. it's their choice. i guess they've got filters on their pc as well... i think it's always a risk to use toys in a certain context, be it violence, sex,... because toys are associated with children and most adults would want to educate their kids about those elelements on their own terms. Lego pics of even harmless sex might not fit their agenda... I would react the same way... why does smith do this? 1) it seems to me that he's got quite a lot of success with his bible themes. don't forget, lots of communities in Europe but most of all in the US are still very much into religion. Remember the fight that's going on between darwinism and creationism (if that's the right word) in one of the US states... Many relious people don't find this to be cruel or disgusting, so it seems. i think the guy has even written books with this concept, he's been in newspapers... 2) he may just like what he's doing. no particular reason but the fun of creating this...

i wasn't going to respond to the topic because theology is not my cup of tea, but here it is. 1) Smith has the right to give his interpretation of the bible. We're living in a democracy, he has the right to write about it what he wants, even when that might shock people. in fact, he clearly states that part of the content is not the right stuff for children. If i had a kid, i wouldn't show him/her pics of a gang rape, even tho i would most defenately want him/her to read the children's bible. I'm not churchgoer, nor a practising catholic, i'm an atheist, but i do think people should read Bible and Koran, because they're both extremely important, relevant and interesting as RELIGIOUS documents. They are by no means HISTORICAL documents. Mary, if she even existed, wasn't a virgin after having given birth and i'd be very surprised if Jesus was her only son... What it says is that Mary is thru and thru good, she can't be tempted by evil, she is the one person that will always be pure, be there for you,... A "virgin" is a title... Jesus, the hero, always is alone, alone in his fight... he can only be faithful to his father, God, like any priest... Don't read the bible in terms of facts, this is not about history... that's what i hate so much about cnn and other media. they very often try to link history / archeaology with the story of Jesus... that's impossible. it's like trying to prove Superman exists in real life... 2) Smith wants to stimulate people to read the bible, or at least parts of it. This is hardly the way to do it. 1) i find his selection of stories highly questionable. if you want to recruit young and old to read the bible, then it might be wise to select the great classic stories of the old testament. He more or less selected controversial parts... It's like showing only the violent parts of Lord of rings, where elfs fight Orks, men fight men,... The violence isn't the essential part of the film, in fact, it's not even relevant, the essential part of the film is friendship, is living in harmony with people who are different,... I think Tolkien, a WWI veteran, would have been shocked, but most of all sad if some one were to reduce his story to a compilation of violence, sexual abuse,... In my opinion, that's what Smith is doing. 2) he's passing by on the essential element of the bible, which is not a document to take literaly, it's a code of conduct, the essentials aren't written down, it's what is behind what's written. Quoting the bible as such, without explaining what is meant by it, is nonsense. You're not a catholic if you know the bible by heart, you need to accept the meaning of the chapters, quotes just won't do... there's a lack of context that makes those pics meaningless... he uses humor.... Great! but you can also use humor when telling the real stories of the bible... 3) of course there's a lot of violence in the bible. many parts refer to real events (like Nebu burning down Jerusalem,...), most of the stuff is 1500-2500 years old, the position of women, for instance, is quite different these days... it only shows that the bible was written in a different time frame. But again, the violence is not essential, a child doesn't need to see a gang rape to get the meaning of a text, a reference to hurting people, in whatever way, will do... there's lots of violence in our national anthems as well (many 19th century), but nobody cares about that because it's not the essence of the song. the essence of the song is that we love our country, our culture... 4) the bible is by far the most impressive work in our literature. it's a compilation of the best stories of ancient times, like Mozes' escape from Egypt, Noah,... The new testament (life of Jesus) is still the most succesfull story in human history. I'd give a Nobel prize to all writers of the entire masterpiece, even tho that would be very difficult. After all, dozens of people have been involved in writing, rewriting, interpreting, translating texts, paragraphs,... In terms of social influence, it's by far the most important document ever written in western civilisation and it's really a shame that people don't read it anymore. You'd be surprised to see how many elements of the bible are now part of our language, culture,... There's so much depth in this work that focussing on the element of violence is insulting to all people who are trying to use religion in a good way. i think western society doesn't need yet another source associating religion with violence. it should in fact do the opposite... Cutty tells us that there's lots of violence in the bible and it's an elite that actually controls how books are being interpreted. no doubt about that. However, that's only one side of the story. An interpretation of a document like the bible not only tells us about the writer(s) and the society in which they lived; In this case, it tells more about the time frame of this new interpretation, the time frame we're living in today...

i wasn't going to respond to the topic because theology is not my cup of tea, but here it is. 1) Smith has the right to give his interpretation of the bible. We're living in a democracy, he has the right to write about it what he wants, even when that might shock people. in fact, he clearly states that part of the content is not the right stuff for children. If i had a kid, i wouldn't show him/her pics of a gang rape, even tho i would most defenately want him/her to read the children's bible. I'm not churchgoer, nor a practising catholic, but i do think people should read Bible and Koran, because they're both extremely important, relevant and interesting as RELIGIOUS documents. They are by no means HISTORICAL documents. 2) Smith wants to stimulate people to read the bible, or at least parts of it. This is hardly the way to do it.

sure, the company has to blame herself for this last major leak. I wonder if 1000steine took the initiative to take the pictures off line or was there any request from the company... in any case, the website doesn't show these pics anymore... or do you suggest that the company had this weird plan of "leaking" pics of 2006 sets with the help of retailers?

well i guess it's never great to see your pics leaked to the press. At that point an organised marketing campaign is impossible, because you no longer control the situation.

just heard on the news that all .com websites fall under US law. that's why the EU has created ".EU", it seems... When i was still at university learning about these things, there wasn't any european legislation on this subject, so i honestly don't know, but it might be wise to check it out, just in case... I don't know if the server has anything to do with that.

i'm not entirely sure you're right. For instance, i see a lot more buckets with basic bricks in the shops than ever before. in fact, these buckets are lego's success story of 2005. they've sold better than ever before and some shops even sold more buckets than plain sets... BUT: on a larger scale, i think the height of the "construction toy" as a concept is over. Even the lego group doesn't really build sets with lots of optional models anymore, they prefer one basic model that is easily put together (very often by daddy) and then the child just plays with it. The exo force is an excelent example of this... "Construction" as such is no longer priority, playing with the model is... i don't like that choice, but that's the way it is...

i guess we would have seen something of the ucs in the 2006 sets if it really existed...

brilliant! where did you get these large white parts from? the domes are from bionicle boxes, right? it would be nice if you could add landing gear, so you wouldn't have to use trans-clear parts to place it somewhere. i would also add red navigation lights or so to make your ship visible as a medical, "neutral" ship... i would also add a ladder on your pilot's seat (if the guy is the pilot), cos i don't think he can get there without it :P

the company moves in mysterious ways... they probably started the ucs as a star wars theme for older people, thinking these people would never buy the minifig sets. then at some point they may have said "let's put the expensive sets in the series as well, but to save us some money, let's just use the standard boxes, without an extra "UCS"-title on it... Or perhaps they just wanted to indicate these sets are a lot more expensive, even tho still a part of the minifig world...At some point, they also added yoda and darth maul to the list. i guess, by then, they just used the ucs series for sets they, for some reason, think do not fit into the traditional line. then they may have gone back to their original idea with the destroyer and the y-wing. in any case, i don't think there's one big plan or a correct definition for the ucs. i guess they're just using it when they see fit...

well... everybody likes the underdog... :P

i've always assumed they are...

i'll vote for fellowship as well, even tho it's not on my all time top 10. the other two have great special effects but the story of fellowship is better, i guess...

using leaked information to inform a public is a very well known element of journalism. Sure, it would be better if the entire lego community would sit down with the company and get to some sort of an arrangement so we would have a healthy relationship and dialogue with each other. Belgian judicial government had major problems with the press getting leaked information a few years back. Both parties decided it was in both their interest to sit down and work something out. now, they work with each other, if there is a leak of vital information, judicial reps usually ask for just a little time to do what needs to be done before actually bringing it on air. That is what i don't understand in this context. Why is it that the community and the company can't come up with this type of solution, or why don't they use their own platform to bring the news, before even sending it to retailers? Quite a few retailers are not lego's best friend, they surely know that as well... in fact, it's even worse. the company turns websites against each other. Remember the teaser stuff on FBTB? that was "leaked" with permission of the company. Why would lego give certain information only to one website, not even affiliated to them? Eurobricks falls under American law, i'm not familiar whith US copyrights, but they don't risk anything if they were belgian based...

we have the same deal in belgium: firefighter theme: 50