snefroe

by the way, these pics, are they coming from official sources or are they really leaked by some one who knows about it? Setting up websites against each other, is that tlc's core business these days? why not put the real picture on the lego website and get it over with...

unfortunately, we've seen even worse natural disasters in human history but it probably is too sinister to compare disasters with one another... sure, we've seen it all before in Africa, Asia, Middle East, but i guess you never get used to seeing humans suffering, where ever they are. my heart goes out to all of the people who are victims of this calamity and i hope the US government, the people and the state of Louisiana are learning from their mistakes, because, either way you look at this, they could have preveted this distaster from turning into a real tragedy... it will probably take years to recover from this and on a hman scale, many individuals never will, let's just hope that they won't get another hurricane anytime soon...

you've got a point there. sometimes it seems people have an illegal channel that reaches all the the way up to the lego factory ;)

they sometimes do. it depends on your operation... in this case, a lego seller is just like any other trader: products need to be checked, sorted, stored,... it takes time, money, people and space. they're just businessmen dealing in lego, that's all...

there was a shop called "usedbricks" or something and they had pictures on their bricklink site showing the warehouse, the incoming lego, the sorting process,... that was really impressive. i think they're closed for the moment because they had to move. their place was getting too small... but then, they had more than a million parts to sell... not sure how many parts you have, pirate, but i surely don't have a million pieces and i already need a room or two. and how much time would you need to sort 100000 bricks coming in every week or so?

i just think that these boxes are too large these days. they hardly fit your suitcase, yoda :P

how big is the box, yoda, just out of curiosity...

don't forget, pirate, a few of these sellers have a huge network of people in large communities. it reminds me a bit of diamond dealers. they travel to africa and then they just visit all the small centres and let people know they're buying diamonds. in this case, it's probably the same, but the goods come to them, they just use all sorts of distribution networks...

second hand, pabs, lego stores, individuals trying to get money of the old toys,...

i agree, but that's marketing. they just want to make more money buy combining different products, even tho all the products are the same as usual. it happens a lot in the music/ film industry. the idea is to sell more, without having increasing costs. i know, it sucks...

i love bricklink. i only buy parts there and thery'e always cheaper than what i find on ebay. sets might be more expensive, tho... but for me it's ideal. for instance, i need tracks for my tank. the only way these days to get tracks is to buy the crawler. Wham! 170

some sellers have a real company in trading lego; some even have large buildings with 4-10 people working in them, don't forget, they get 1000's of pieces. they need to be sorted, sometimes cleaned, checked for quality, there administration,... they buy lego from whoever sells, i guess... they sell stuff everyday and they probably have a discount at the post office... others only have small operations, going to the post office once a week or so, doing all the work after official hours,...

thanks for the pics :P i gotta get me this graveyard set !! great parts!!!

us dollars

i find the second set to be funny. i like the car, but i don't think you will drive very far if the dino decides to stay where it is :P

prices at bricklink are quite high in my view: the longboat 59$ to 70$ small boat 12$ to 15$ fortress 85$ to 100.99$ catapult set 25$ to 28$ wolf set 5.8 to 7$

only sorry for the canopy. i think you have to take it off by hand to get to the cockpit, nice set tho

Let's look a little at the consequenses of that remark. TLC want lower prices. TLC moves production to countries that means lower costs. That is great for AFOLS! But let's take it a bit further! Your Dad looses his job at LEGO meaning that your allowance is lowered (or are zero) You can't buy any LEGO! Won't get any LEGO at birthdays! Every time you think "great this is cheep" - jobs are lost in the west!!!!! Every time you buy a cheep product jobs are created in the East!!!!! China and India alone have 2 billion people ready to do YOUR work - Are you prepared? This is a doomsday vision I know but think about it !!!!!! well, in this case, john, jobs stay in the european union, but we get your point. however, your point is also just a little bit one sided, after all, the poor asian or indian , who is without a job now, gets a brand new job and will be able to send his kids to school so they get at least one shot in life... prices can be lowered, btw, by reducing other costs, like getting rid of the airplanes, selling the airport, reducing the number of working hours, without sacking some one...

think that's the lego designer software, yoda;

i also think using a computer to design your own models is a bit against the spirit of lego. i mean, lego is all about building models and being challenged by problems like a lack of enough parts/colors, structural trouble, whatever... in the process. it's all about being creative and finding solutions. this software package basically gives you whatever you want (or that's the idea, in the end). i'd like to have my models in a physical capacity, so i can "feel" whether it's a solid design... (i guess you know what mean...) sure, it's nice to see your own model as an official model in a lego box and all (i'd like to have a lunchbox that way, one day), but i don't really find it to be practical, apart from the fact that many people already spend too much time looking at a computer screen...

is belville minifig sized, yoda?

i think what's going to happen, or already is, is this: two basic platforms: duplo and system having the same subthemes sharing the same parts in some cases first platform is for 1-5 year olds; second platform 4-7 year olds so the 4+ was a bit sandwished between the two and didn't really get a decent profile, so they got rid of it. this means they need to fill the gap by stretching both surviving platforms, integrate them more or less... this means both platforms have to grow even closer to each other, meaning, moving more large bricks to system and perhaps moving parts from system to duplo. i remember a news article a while back about lego and tru, i believe, saying that TLC was going to focus on smaller children in future, because there was more money to be made there... this means, as a worse case scenario, more duplo, less system i don't think they'll try and set up a line for older kids, too much effort, too much investment, market not big enough...

i'd like to nominate ras for a good deal, even tho i was just an intermediary, not a trader.

i like the parts of this mini and i hope we'll see the set in a shop one day