Meiko

It's different with different designers. It all depends what they're skilled at. Sam is a senior designer so he's spent time working in different areas over the various years he's been at LEGO. Some designers only work in specific categories (such as "girls themes", Technic, etc), and some work in various areas like Sam Johnson. Another example is Jamie Berard, who did mostly Creator sets (sets that use basic parts and include multiple possible models in one set), but also does a lot of complex large-scale sets like the Tower Bridge. But for play themes especially, a lot of designers work in groups to design sets. More creative minds behind a single task can sometimes achieve better results.

Brickipedia is in the process of adding that factoid to articles about sets and compiling a list on articles about set designers. What we have so far is here. Still a long way to go, but it's a start. hojojicek is right in what he said though: many sets are a group effort to design, and thus have multiple designers.

There's an identical topic at http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=105974

If you want to find a LEGO Users Group near you, you can look on this map that lists all Registered LEGO Users Groups. There are also various LEGO fan conventions across the globe, most of which are open to the public. I couldn't tell you which convention would be closest to you though.

I wouldn't be surprised. Good observation.

It's very similar to BrickFair, so AFOLs and other fans will be exhibiting their MOCs and there will be various seminars with LEGO fans.

Even higher res images than were shared earlier. http://images.brickimedia.org/a/a6/LEGO_Constraction_LukeDarth_RGB_PRE_2000x2000.jpg http://images.brickimedia.org/a/a7/Vader_Teaser_FINAL_RGB_2000_300.jpg

I think your first mistake was that you're believing everything people on YouTube tell you. LEGO as a product is much better than it was several years ago. Piece diversity and versatility is better than it was when I remember just getting started with LEGO as a kid. LEGO as a company is still doing fine and has been doing many things to ensure that over the past couple of years and is now the largest toy company in the world as of September 2014.

I don't think I've ever seen such a piece. I'm not too familiar with current Duplo pieces, but if you've seen a part like this before then it could have been Duplo. I don't know of any System pieces that meet your description though.

Cool to see word on Doctor Who. It'll be nice if that could be expanded into its own theme if the LEGO Ideas set is successful, like Minecraft. I could see that being very successful for LEGO.

Thanks for sharing. Already own the LEGO books I'm interested but cool news regardless.

That'd depend on the store. Could be anywhere from mid-February to mid-March depending on when the store orders it and when shipments are made to the store. Most stores will likely see them in mid-to-late February though.

76042 Avenger's Helicarrier is set to be released in March 2015, and thus will be available to VIP members early in the middle of February.

Ha, very neat. Glad they used the Speed Champions sets too. Good advertising.

The new website is awesome, my only concern being that the parallax background images are upscaled on large screen resolutions. On 1920x1080 which is what I'm using, it's clear that the images are low quality pixelated JPEGs that have been upscaled from the 1128px native image size.

Sure, if you go online and buy it.

The easiest way I see would be to join their Facebook group and post your questions like how do you officially join and when the next LUG meetup will be. You could do the same in their Flickr group.

Yup.

A frightened Lloyd could be nice too.

Got the set on my birthday (28 November). Image: http://i.imgur.com/izXxpxw.jpg

Nope, none of those have disbanded. You can see a map/list of current LUGs at http://lan.lego.com/lugs

My best suggestion would be to use baseplates and cover them with white bricks. You can likely secure some baseplates for cheap prices at yard sales if you don't want to buy them in bulk online for a retail/pick-a-brick price. Also, there are actually quite a few LEGO User Groups in Southern California as that's where your profile says you are located: LUGoLA - LUG of Los Angeles SandLUG - San Diego LUG OCLUG - Orange County LUG LBLUG - Long Beach LUG

I hadn't looked back at that image since final images came out, I forgot the differences between the two. I would really like to see what solid-coloured Protector masks would look like. I wonder if any prototypes of those exist...

Recycling the concept of Galidor pieces

I've seen it happen before. Even had a drastically incorrect piece once (a LEGO brick in a Bionicle set instead of a shoulder armour). The good thing is you can get replacement pieces for free from LEGO Customer Service. Go to http://service.lego.com and select Replacement Parts.