snefroe

my fear is that if we ever get pirates, the ship will be stocked with catapults instead of cannons. sure, city has improved compared to 3-4 years ago, but that is a major lego line, not one of the smaller lines. most of these are still not all that impressive. Pirates would be sharing the same fate as space i'm afraid..

yeah, we've had this discussion before, but oh well... There is no "reality vs playability" in Lego's strategy. Lego is a toy for kids and therefore has to be recognizable by kids. A pirate ship only has to look like a pirate ship in her basic structures. It's more a stereotype than realistic, like a pirate having an eye patch or a wooden leg. Even the best city sets only look like the real models, they're not perfect copies. still, they're very well designed, giving at least the impression that they look realistic. Unfortunately, the emphasis is on playability for most sets these days. They add elements that stimulate the playing process, the story telling behind the set, rather than building a set that looks good and is a challenge to build. For them, a pirate ship no longer is a BSB, but a BSB with catapults and a seamonster. Details would have to to go... That's what happened to Mars Mission as well. The viking line was a nice compromise between playability and high quality design, but they decided to dump the line, probably because of the playability factor, sure, there were still dozens of potential sets, but none of them with sufficient playability, so they got rid of the line... It seems to me that, a few years ago, Lego used to think: "kids are the main market, so we'll produce sets with high playability. if afols want them as well, that's a nice bonus". Now they've changed that strategy, realising that Afols want different sets, but can easily be convinced to buy the kid's sets as well, increasing Lego's sales. so now they're producing several sets more or less especially created for afols, sets with high piece count and great building capacity, and less playability. Maybe Lego thinks that kids will want these sets as well, once they're a little older and are bored with the playability sets. after all, Lego knows very well that many kids disappear from the toy market once they're 14 or so... Caf

nonononono, people! Gods and mythological creates? are you kidding me? all these weird crappy parts? Again? i want ARMIES!! Athenes fighting Persians, spartans, ... and all the others... Who wants Socrates if we can have Pericles?! so basically, it goes like this: 1) small set 3 soldiers 2) small set 2 soldiers and catapult 3) medium set: boat and soldiers 4) medium set: tower and soldiers 5) large set: fort 6) large set: battle field Year two: Enter Alexander the Great year three: ROME *wub* *wub* *wub* voli

happy birthday! and eh... mutex.... i don't think yoda will send you his MM sets... X-D

there are dozens of sets i'd like to see: bus station bus stop postal office garage motorcycle shop road repair truck flower shop park zoo restaurant city pub school moving van lorry truck large classic container truck summer house snackbar truck to transport windows,... cable repair truck park maintenance truck shops, lots of them so basically, the entire old catalogue + some new things, but my guess is we'll be getting a fire truck again next year :-|

that was also the first i thought of. the good thing about this one is that he handles small details pretty well. if this guy can produce a cross on a helmet, then surely he must be able to add other decorations to the helmet as well. That would solve the trouble with Lego, if there ever would be any...

THAT's A CLASSIC SPACE LOGO!!!!!! HOW COULD I HAVE MISSED THIS? :-| GOTTA HAVE THIS FIG!! :-$

hm... it seems you're right, i guess i saw a modified version then... which is also weird because they're not released yet, still...

no my guess is it's because sw sell in huge numbers, so they get more money to build good sets. after all, "City" has a high quality as well, so basically, i should start a topic: "Why are the space sets crap compared to city and sw?" :-|

well i guess there's also a risk that we "look" for low quality when we open a bag, thinking it doesn't look as good as the old parts when they where first opened years ago. maybe we think there's something wrong with current parts too fast, too easily... I very often think my brand new white plates don't look that good, they look like "cheap plastic" but maybe it's just a feeling, not a fact. maybe the white plates looked like that 20 years ago as well.

what is starting to annoy me about the sw line, is that sw gets all the good stuff: special minifigs, guns, great detailed sets, a fairly large number of high quality sets,... If only that MM line had this attention and budget, it would surely look lots better... instead we get really crappy aliens and models that are really not up to the standard of even average rated space subthemes...

good question! the site must be one of the oldest dedicated lego sites in our galaxy... it's kinda funny to see his creations, built with bricks that are completely out of date these days. it's a bit like going back in time really... 8-|

well actually, the worst thing that can happen for the company, is what has already started: their reputation has been tarnished, their image in being a company that produces high quality products has been questioned, that alone is a very big issue and i'm quite certain it's already been a big element of several meetings of the management and board of the company.

he also says "second hand", but that doesn't say much in this case... i think he's better off splitting this offer. He could easily get a great price for all of them, but asking 2600 from a serious collector without this potential customer having had the opportunity to look at these sets in detail, is kinda naieve...

a lot with Lego space on ebay...hm... 2600 euro... waaaaay too high... .... still.... sooooooooo very tempting....

i read it on a belgian site, but here's the same on an US site

good idea to show us the backside of these shields *yoda* ... i wonder if the handle of these shields are stronger than the old ones. many of my old shields didn't survive my childhood because of those things breaking off... the long shield ... hm... can they hold it to the side of their body *yoda* ?

just read that Dreamworks will be producing 3 Tintin films, one directed by Spielberg, another by Peter Jackson, and a third still to be determined! It's going to be created in a revolutionary digital 3D format that, still according to "Variety", astounded a small audiance after seeing a 20 minute tintin film that's already been produced. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!! what a nice day *sweet* , first master *yoda* provides me with two awsome MM reviews and now this... *wub*

you have done well, master *yoda* *sweet* the dropship sure has some potential! the colors look fine, the over all design looks good as well. *sweet* sure, the cockpit needs some modding, the shooting mechanism has got to go, those orange tubes need to be deleted, but the basic structure looks good *sweet* does that canopy open at all? the black ship seems to have newly designed parts, not the old UFO things, that's cool... thank god they are stickered, not printed! is there any printed tile inside the cockpit of the black fighter, *yoda* ? Is there a cockpit at all?

finally some MM reviews!! :-| i'll just ignore those first few lines... :-| :-X X-D not too fond of this set... i'm waiting for that dropship, *yoda* ! where's the review of the dropship?! work faster, you slave! X-D X-D

in my experience they don't have a special status with Lego that would provide them with extra services, nor do they seem to be number 1 for the distribution services of Lego, so i'm afraid chances are they have nothing new untill any other regular shop has received the new sets.

same here... still, they're pretty low on my priority list anyway

yeah... it seems WW interest is seriously increasing on the second hand market. according to the shopowners i know, people seem to love the detailed sets, the army building capacity of several smaller sets. HP on the other hand is less valuable than garbage it seems. The market gets flooded with HP sets and nobody seems to want them. Maybe it's because of the price. the were fairly expensive to begin with, so even half that price is still a lot for a normal second hand set, especially if you realise that HP sets are not what the average collector wants, or probably, he already has those sets MISB. Maybe we'll see a rise after the next film but i doubt it. 81 dollars for an instruction book... that's either a typo or from a very ignorant or rich customer...

well since i still need lots of sets i try not to buy boxed multiples, unless for a great price, but i very often bought a non boxed first and found a boxed version later. so in several cases i have boxed and non boxed version, which is fine, because second hand sets can have damaged or discoloured parts... So you can get one good model out of two... However, it's really difficult to not buy a double when they're available... I think in the end, it's just a question of time before i give in... then there's the question of MISB sets. Idealy, i'd buy two BSB's, the classic pirate ship, i'd open and build one and leave the other one untouched. Sure, it's impossible to do just that with this pirate classic unless you have lots of money, but i try to follow this line when possible when i buy new sets...

it's hard to put a figure on it, but i would pay extra... but it depends on the condition of the box. In fact, i'll buy a non-complete set if it has a decent box, i can always get the parts on bl. i think it's all about nostalgia; I very often didn't get the old sets that i'm buying now, so i'd like to get the "whole package"