snefroe

that's a very good question, pirate! i voted "yes always", cos i do, always... i buy lego because i want to build models, i almost never buy sets and keep them assembled for a certain time. at best, i assemble a model, and once i've seen it, i usually dismantle it again. i also try not to buy sets with lots of useless , very often <insert that tiresome argument>, parts, i already have a blue bucket filled with these, so i try to avoid getting more of those, unless the model is really really good. i never assemble a second, third,... example of a set. i immediately sort the parts.

i think the choking hazrd is exacly why they're going to juniorise the sets if these sets are intended for a younger audience. sure, these sets could be a good toy for 3 year olds, however, the age criteria doesn't have anything to do with quality of design. the system sets aren't marketed for 3 year olds, not because the design would be too complicated, but because of the choking hazard. the way to cover that problem is to make pieces bigger. i think that's why tlc is expanding duplo even further to quite a few subthemes, themes like airport, ferrari, trains,... the minifig world used to be the heart of the lego catalogue, that isn't the case anymore... i don't see 4+ in the 2005 catalogue. is it already gone then?

they're getting rid of 4+? that's weird. that stuff is hugely popular in belgium... it's obvious that tlc is trying to shift her products to the youngest children. there's too much competition with lots of other products in the older age categories, and those categories aren't as profitable as 1-5 age category. but if 4+ gets dumped, aren't we then going to see more <insert that tiresome argument> sets to cover that age category? "they're extending duplo and pushind SYSTEM down"... i don't think belville is going to fall. it's the only line for girls and i think tlc will try to keep this option open hoping they'll be able to get a better position in that market in future, when they're out of financial trouble... Paradiso would be better because it's basically a part of the city theme but that's not going to happen.

in any case, the way j describes this software sounds very familiar with the designer software i got from the lego shop a year ago. i instaled it once to see what it was all about but in the end never really used it. however, there were some rather old parts on the list of that software package, like the 6 x 4 blue transparent canopies... things they don't produce anymore. there was also a direct link to the pab shop but that wasn't activated at the time... i'm looking for it, but i can't find it...

to 15000 or so doesn't refer to the 80's-90's?

another question on the 7000 piece subject. are we talking about the minifig world, or the entire catalogue, including bionicle, duplo, ...? 7000 is not very much, tho, i mean, if you have 10 colours (including transparent colours) then you're basically looking at 700 different parts per colour for the entire catalogue... don't forget, minifig components are also parts... i think it also means goodbye to the printed parts. in future we'll have a red tile or so, with a sticker

yes they are fasing them out. the sw tri-pod for instance also has this new type of hinge for the canopy, even tho the life on mars trike of just a few years back had the old style hinge. i guess it gives compatibilty problems when you're building models and they're not always practical, but they are stronger than the old type... anyway, in the case of the slave I, i guess the new type looks better...

hm... sure... the colours are looking good, but the rest looks basically like the second slave I we already have, not a huge improvement or anything...

true, but if you open a shop, all sorts of other costs step in, like wages of the employees. i'm familiar with the lego store in K

TT warned us about one really bad surprise... i was number three, i think, to pick a surprise pack. it turned out to be a bionicle set, my first ever! My first thought was "oops... this must be the one, the terrible set.", especially because the first surprise Morten picked out was a very cool car (i think the small car from the firefighting theme)... then tt suggested that getting the bionicle set was not as bad as it seemed... ;) then, it was Kim's turn and that more or less, saved the day. he got a duplo cow! from that point on, thru out the weekend, morning 'till night, we fooled around with Kim and his cow, like "hm... Kim, nice viking longboat! i'll tell you what: if you remove the canon, you actually have some room to put your cow in... :P poor kim, that creature must be giving him nightmares... in the end, tho, it was yoda who couldn't keep his hands off the bionicle creature. we practically had to give him a straightjacket to keep him away from the set! he didn't toutch his playmobil set, tho :P

thanks people! I had a great time. wow... it took me a week before i even discovered this thread... :P

i was walking around in town when my eye caught this small shop with toys. "i haven't seen this one", i thought, so i got in, and immediately saw these rather olds lego sets. that happens from time to time in belgium. we still have these small shops that used to sell lego, like newspaper shops, close to international roads. i once saw a galaxy explorer, i guess in 1994-1995 in such a small shop. i didn't buy it, tho, after all, i was going thru the dark ages in 1994-1995. the worst mistake of my life... :( :() *sing* anyway, i went to the shelves with the old sets and i couldn't believe my eyes. i saw the classic space robot ( http://guide.lugnet.com/set/6951 ). behind that one there were two futuron space sets: the lego space train and one of the white starbases... then there were several classic space sets i'd never seen in my life, like a "gray helicopter kind of thing" and another gray set... i recognised it, but i couldn't put my finger on it... there were also these old legoland sets, the sets with the different color stripes on the cover ( http://guide.lugnet.com/set/112_2 ) i was going to buy those, no doubt, but i urgently needed to go to the bathroom , so i asked the guy if i could use theirs. "no problem", he said... by the time i got back those two gray sets were gone, so i started checking out all the others. one set i really wanted was this huge gray gate... it looked very old, and i turned the box around to see the back side; the gate was basically a huge gray plate that could be lifted upwards, like a traditional garage lego door ( http://guide.lugnet.com/set/6369). i turned my head and i saw these tan sets, they represented all sorts of figures and statuetes. i'd never seen those before either, but i'm not really into memorising the entire lego catalogue, so i wasn't surprised... then i picked one up and there was this sticker on it: "free set for any pre 1988-1989 lego set you buy". i should have known at that point there was something wrong with this picture. after all, only real lego fans have any clue on release dates of sets, the general public on the other hand, doesn"t know anything about that. obviously, my enthusiasm was blinding me, i got every set i could find and went straight to the counter, ready to get my wallet... the next thing i remember was that i was standing in the living room of my home... empty handed... then i woke up... damn!

actually, i think 60

thanks for pointing that out, 'john i was going to wait with a decision on buying this set until after having seen an inventory list. i've decided not to buy the moon. the inventory doesn't impress me very much: lots of traditional parts you can find in other sets as well, no special parts, hardly any detailed stuff. I'd prefer the star destroyer's inventory, if you don't mind... i do hope, however, that bricklink shopowners will buy the moon in order to sell the parts seperately. that would really puch the price of hinges,... down and that would be great...

very nice, yoda :oo is there an interior in the rover as well?

i would have to agree with this. first, the game was in denmark, the referee was danish and we played against a danish team... this is my theory: we, the team of international stars, arrived first at the burning house. at that point, Danish High Command was very upset. After all, Kim and Morton are part of Danish Military Reserve units, so a defeat by three people who, in fact, never even saw each other before the event, would severly damage the reputation of the Danish Army. The danish army would become a joke. i can already see terrorists in iraq saying: "let's not use bombs this time, guys, we're fighting danish troops here, let's just set a few buildings on fire. that'll keep them busy for the rest of the day..." that is why Danish High Command told the lego people to fix the game... we can always have rematch in windsor, the point is, will kim and morten have the guts to do this game in another country? my guess is they will use some lame excuse, like "we're going to afghanistan in september to help people over there, so we can't go to windsor" :P

here's another one on yoda. he arrived at the airport with this HUGE suitcase, i mean, a really really really huge suitcase. the kind you're using when you're going away for an entire month... in fact, it wasn't very much smaller than yoda's hut :P , so instead of fighting for who gets the double bed we should have told yoda to sleep in his own suitcase and be quiet... :P obviously, when we arrived at Ras' car to take us to the village, we actually had to put the other bags in yoda's suitcase in order to make room for the damn thing in ras' trunk (btw, never sit in the front seat of Ras' car, you never know what might happern, like getting the front window in your face... :P ) so next time, when some one says "behave or we'll put you in yodas suitcase", you know what we're talking about... it was a cool sight, a small frenchman, dressed in black dragging behind him this huge suitcase, filled with plastic bags for extra lego :P

Why not in summer ? Luigi, 'll try to be there too, nice occasion to see England because we want to avoid the crowds...

i'll be there :P

the belug group used to order parts from lego like this. according to what i read they first set up a list of wanted parts, lego would then indicate what was available from that list. not sure if there's a price list... i don't think there is a catalogue of parts. besides, the system doesn't seem to be very accurate. some people received wrong parts, wrong colours. i think you're better off buying thru bricklink...

i still feel that this theme came more or less "out of the blue". i didn't see it coming, especially with all the other monster/dino type of themes. if it really does refer to toho movies, then i'd say it's a shame that tlc copies , or whatever you call it, themes, styles, ideas,... that already exist in the world and minds of young people... i think they're at their best when they themselves come up with themes and ideas, the sw licence being the exception.

in my younger days i played a lot with Dune2, 2000 and Emperor. unfortunately, i can't play with the last one anymore cos i can't get it started on windows xp, but i'd love to see lego versions of the military units, like the launcher, trike, wolverine, heavy tank,... it'll never happen of course... but if would have been fun :oo

this must be the weirdest theme ever released by tlc. i like the two small cars, but i guess it's pretty hard to do anything wrong in designing 20-piece models i like the humvee as well, even tho the car should have been two studs smaller... i might buy this one, guns or not. the car looks better without them, anyway... the tank is weird. i'm not really sure what the chief designer was thinking when he came up with this, my guess is that he was drunk... :P the tracks look strange to me, and the mobile cage does not convince me. the entire set lacks details and uses parts that just don't appeal to me, like the red slopes... the small dinosaurs might be interesting for a laboratorium scene or a zoo, but the large ones don't look like they're made by tlc at all i'd like to see the helocopter from up close before i decide what to do with it. still, it seems to lack the sophistication of other large airborne models, like the second slave I...

Huh, have I missed something?? 8-| we kinda agreed in the chatroom to go to windsor late september, apo...

i'll bring my camara, btw... i'm a bit paranoid about that thing, since i've lost my first camera on an earlier trip... so don't be surprised if i protect the thing with my life :P