snefroe

not sure about fbtb, tho... we've always tried not to attack, hurt,... other websites and people involved...

thanks jon... think i'll buy the graveyard... lots of interesting pieces, like these chains...

it seems you're just proving my point: they don't produce army building sets because they're too expensive to produce. the fact that they're releasing certain characters only for one set is not particularly relevant here. there is no Luke skywalker or Harry Potter in a classic castle set anyway, just knights and soldiers. the only reason i can think of why they're not producing these minifig sets is because the production of minifigs is too expensive and can't be compensated by the production costs of other parts because there are none. i never said that the legland parks aren't profitable. what makes these parks profitable is not a pab, but the entire merchandising of lego products, like t-shirts, keyrings, sets, cups, ... and the lego experience. it's a family park where people spend an entire day, drinking, spending money, eating,... a ticket isn't really cheap either... further, all themeparks in europe have been in a recession in the last few years. Only last year was a major success again. That's probably just international economics and stuff stepping in. No reason to think that's any different for legoland theme parks... we're obviously living in different worlds; the pab in billund and windsor sells for the most part, traditional bricks and plates, stuff they also sell via the lego shops... i rarely see the real specialised bricks there. i also saw old bionicle parts they were just trying to get rid off... the sets sell very well in the shop, the pab itself is not, as far as i can tell. i was in windsor not even a month ago. the pab was completely empty throughout to day, the lego shop where everything else is sold, was very busy... you're also thinking about costs for a minifig. a minifig (for instance, the blue overall guy) is a collection of parts. consequently, the cost of this blue overall guy is the sum of the production costs of all produced pieces divided by the production number of the minifig; however, blue legs are also used for lots of other minifigs, lowering the production costs for the blue overall guy. in other words, there is no average production cost for "the minifig". all differently produced minifigs have different production costs and i'm quite certain that the knights and soldiers are not among the cheapest figs around. you're making the same mistake with selling sets. some machines produce 15000 pieces an hour, others produce only a few thousand a month depending on the number of sets they're working for. what you get at a pab aren't pieces of sets they did not sell, but extras from production runs of certain parts, that's all... i've never been able to build a complete set based on what i find in pabs... for instance, i have found indian torsos in pabs, but never wigwags (if that's english :P ), indian boats or whatever is in these sets... i've seen wings of airplanes, but never cockpits... you're also talking about damaged products. the stuff in pabs is not damaged at all... the pab boxes in Belgium are not a spectacular success at all. they're giving lego away now, but still the shops can't seem to get rid of them. it is my experience that only adults are pretty much interested in these things, yong children don't show the slightest interest for the pab. in fact, i've known young boys refusing lego bags even tho they had just bought a set. every time i see some one picking bricks, and i'm a very regular customer for these things, it's an adult... i also talked to the lego rep who was behind the pab in Belgium and he said that these parts were overstock. it's either a pab or being destroyed. the reason why TLC is improving her financial situation doesn't have anything to do with the parks or the pabs, it's increased efficiency in production, killing stock,... selling overstock for ridiculous prices or giving it away for free is probably even cheaper than to stock these parts... i have told the forum weeks ago that there was a free pab in Belgium. it's also on Belug.be

the lego rep. in Belgium clearly stated NO MORE EXOTIC THEMES FOR LEGO you can probably forget next year as well because they're already working on next year's sets...

on the page jipay copied for us, you see a "limit 5 per customer" note for the DSII. the first time that i'm seeing this... the crawler is very early (june). perhaps we'll see the first decent pics of the model next week already the crawler does have 8 tracks...Sam lied to us :P :P :P

well if they're making a profit on these 1

i'm really not sure about all of this. 1) you don't know the real costs of minifigs, you don't know costs for every part of a minifig. massproduction red legs are a lot cheaper than the legs of the Alpha team, this issue with the torso even is a lot more complicated because there are a lot more different torsos... this is basically economies of scale... the more you produce, the lower the cost per item... and don't forget, COST is not the same as PRICE. for all we know, tlc might produce minifigs for 5$ per item, but set a price at 1$. she just balances costs and price with other parts of the set... 2) what you bought was probably bulk, left overs, stuff tlc wants to get rid off... obviously, you get a reduced price, that happened to me in Kingston, a price, btw, of 1 pound per minifig 3) the production costs of minifigs are very high: production runs are limited: OB's head will only appear in sw series, probably only for this year and the next; you need to spend lots of time on design (very expensive!!!); these parts are the most detailed parts in tlc's inventory, with probably quite a few pieces with flaws, like only one eyebrow on the head, missprints,... also lots of different colors,... they're also quite sophisticated, with turning arms and moving legs... 4) minifig parts are fairly small (hands, headgear,...) not easy to produce... 5) price of legosets is based on two things: production costs and weight of the set, including the minifigs, which are quite heavy... honestly, i have no idea whatsoever, how high/lowthe financial share of minifigs in the price is, but the fact that tlc doesn't produce minifig sets anymore clearly indicates they're waaaaaay too expensive...

it seems a guy from australia buys his parts and instructions for the old sets at bricklink. many of the old sets were never released there, so it seems... that was the only way to complete his collection... still, must be expensive... especially the rare parts...

the fact that this guy also uses white pieces, at almost the same places as in the official set suggests there's more to it, tho...

i think this is an older version of the crawler. i believe i saw this thing quite some time ago, in any case, waaaay before the pics of the official crawler. the reason why i picked it up was because of the trees... can't imagine a crawler driving around in the woods... i don't think it's very surprising to have a version that resembles the official version a lot. once you've decided to use bricks, and to stay close to the original design, the end result should be pretty much the same...

i would paint the helmets, tho... turn it into iron helmets or whatever... the bows i would paint to...

i like the blue helmets a lot... perhaps i'll buy those on bricklink in a few year's time...

they're all part of one subsection of the Lego Group. it means a potential partner has to buy a share of the subsection's economic value, not just a share of billund theme park. it's all or nothing... so, if the subsection is profitable, price is high, if they're losing money, price is low... it's obviously more difficult than that, but that's the essence... about the regulations. I think they're created by the international association for themeparks; they write in coordination with EU, US,... safety regulations and stuff. that's because some themeparks move from time to time to different countries, like a circus for instance. also, it would be insane for a producer of attractions to build one attraction for Japan, another for europe a third for the us, all according to their own national legislation... other regulation, like health and food inspection, might be different in the us and europe, but in all, i don't think they're very different and they obviously apply to all entities involved in the production and distribution of food, not just billund legoland,... btw, pirate, for people in holland, all words in dutch are "male". even a cow is a "he"... we, dutch speaking belgians, are smarter. we use male, female and neutral to refer to subjects... so a cow really is a female to us... :P

1) all i know is that the dutch word for company is "female", so i normally try to refer to tlc as "she". i do know what it is in English... A ship is also "she". in fact, the german captain of the Bismarck (Lansdorf was his name i think) refused to refer the his ship as a "she". a ship like that couldn't possibly be a "she"... :P curious what a pirate has to say about that... 2) windsor, california, billund and munich are part of the same group of tlc;

obviously, all themeparks in europe have to follow the same regulations and it's highly unlikely that US regulations differ very much. after all, we're talking about the health and safety of the general public. i think every themepark in the west is extremely sensitive about those. however, in relative terms, it's more expensive for tlc, because her budget is not as high as Disney's for instance.

1) the themeparks is a different economic activity. you need different specialists and employees to operate the parks compared to TLC as a toy producer. that's all very expensive 2) they have to deal with all sorts of new European regulation, like safety regulations for the attractions, health inspections,... again, very different compared to their core business... and very expensive 3) in the world of theme parks, TLC is a very small player. they probably won't be able to defend their market share unless they get a partner on board, a partner who's very well established in the market, a company that is fully dedicated to this particular part of activity, a partner who knows the market inside out... 4) the fact that the parks today are profitable is not really relevant. the question is: how much would it cost to increase profits in the future, or at least keep current profits? especially compared to tlc's overall financial situation. there's your problem... tlc does not want to spend more money on their themeparks, because they need the money for their core business and they won't be able to defend the parks the way they should, anyway, because it's not really their market...

i didn't use the comparison in terms of believability, but in terms of sensitivity... Billund is the place where it all started... from an emotional point of view, selling billund is the most painfull decision tlc has ever got to make, billund is the very essence of this company... and don't forget, many people in billund, in fact the entire area, are strongly connected with tlc, some of them have been working there for many years... it's not a coincidence that tlc's board has been talking about selling the place for quite some time now... especially the family will have difficulty with taking this decision...

come on guys, this is typical language for companies who are negociating with others to buy or sell assets... news about this is expected in summer, that's all... remember, this is extremely sensitive stuff, selling Billund is like the Vatican selling st-peters, or France selling the Louvre... of course they're better of selling legoland. the costs to operate these parks are huge and tlc simply doesn't have the money to finance it all...

why don't you "hide" the old emperor, take 'm out, i mean? surely you have people for these things... or lock him up in a tower in france... one of your captains lives in france ... there are many ruined castles in france... just a small one will do...

buccaneers nor vikings are very much related to western European history, i'm afraid, even tho the impact of the vikings on western society is well known and buccaneers... i believe a few dutch captains were buccaneers... but they surely weren't active in European seas... and certainly not for very long

Did you ever research Vikings? no

i used to do that university, now i'm not doing historical research anymore, just economic research... i used to do research on economic history of the second half of the 19th century, an era almost exactly as the one we're in today with lots of globalisation, terrorism, decadence,... it was also the highlight of the Belgian Walloon provinces (the french speaking part of the country) and her Soci

ahh... juju.. never seen such beautifull tennis before... but i really doubt she'll be buying a crawler, tho... even tho that extra million should be quite enough...

well... if it makes you feel better, pirate, i'm an historian...

1) Try &img <insert link here> 2) With a lot of patience! ;) But Gamma is right, .zip files are automatically unzipped when you upload them. 3) Try using the tags which are used in the forum, [img*]<insert deeplink here>[/img*] (no *'s) Hope this helps (and works! :P) :) Jon. thanks jon, i'll try to decode what you're saying, first...