Legogal

These are so cute...adding more in the foreground is a great idea. Cheers!

Yup, many of us feel that the uncertainty of what is in the package is attractive to kids of all ages. To avoid damaged mini figs, I try to buy from newly opened boxes, which can be difficult to find. Have you found any good LEGO stores in Beijing? My son is living there now and still builds in his twenties. May you have many fun times building with your son as that is how many adults got into LEGO.

Have to admit I love my 3 modern Playmobil dollhouses....they are just too cool with their lighting and furniture kits! And the high quality of mostly German parts. Wish LEGO had something like these; I guess that is why they came out with Friends, which I really like playing with, too.

Wow! Maybe some other generous soul will offer you shelter during BrickCon. It sounds too good to miss. And would certainly benefit from your fine builds. How are the airfares looking from Toronto to Seattle these days? It might be worth a try on Priceline if demand is low as I suspect. Or if you really are lucky, maybe someone who loves very much you has some extra points to get you a free ticket! GOOD LUCK!

Just finished Martin Walker's Caves of Perigord...a fascinating tale that weaves together the 17,000 year old caves of Lascaux in France with WWII Resistance fighters and modern art historians/anthropologists. His four book series about Bruno Chief of Police is also lovely based in a small French village. If you are into Italian things, you may enjoy Donna Leon's series on Police Commissioner Brunetti. Parts are beyond hilarious, and the description of Venetian culture is superb. She has been an English lit professor in Italy for 30 years or so, and knows how to use it. Fun! Great background for visiting Venice. Cheers!

Yup, I agree about TRU's high prices and lack of variety. Many of their sets are old at our store. And the prices are really a turn off. I would rather buy sets for less or even the same price at the local LEGO store and get VIP points and freebies and cut out the middleman...because I feel that TRU is such a lousy store because they carry so much junk as in poorly made products. Stopped by over Labor Day weekend to see if anything decent was on sale, and it was not. They had a few Series 8 minifigs for $3.19, but the selection and the price at $2.99 were better at the LEGO store. While it is nice to have more than one store that carries LEGO in the area, TRU is not a great choice.

Stacy, If you want to plan a Friends event for the gals, I would be glad to help you with it. Could you consider something similar to what you did at Brickworld? It would be a great way to meet the other gals at the show. Cheers!

Yup, I am planning to be there...with my new knee! It is quite hilly downtown, so the gals may want to leave their 6 inch heels at home. Seattle is a lot of fun, so you won't be bored for sure! Just bring a good rain jacket and an umbrella and some waterproof shoes because it can rain for days. But when the sun does pop out, it is stunning with the nearby mountains, ocean, and lakes. Anyone else from EB coming to Seattle?

9. The Friend Ship - Oky-5

4. Emma's Garden Room - Kristel-5

6. The Friends Assemble - Oky-5

5. Heartlake Tower- ZCerberus-2 1. Spinel Fox-Siercon and Coral-2 3. Stephanie's Cool Submersible - TAFOL-1

2. Oky's Pet Store-Oky 5

Wonderful lighting in the lid and gorgeous jellyfish!

YUCK!!! SICK!!! EXCUSE ME WHILE I BARF!!! But very nice Friends colors!

Wow! Fantastic Friends colors! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Love the parrots, aquarium, flowers around the top and other very creative details. This would make the perfect Friends set! It takes a strong man to build something so Friend friendly as this....way to go!

Wow! The Friend painting the wall with a roller brings back too many horrible memories....must have painted about 50 entire houses in and out in my lifetime. But you did this build so well! Love the windows jutting out at the top....such a cute touch! Your colors and design are wonderrrrrrrful!

Yup, we've been telling LEGO that these Friends need more boyfriends.... The bamboo walls are a lovely screen.....maybe they need to be taller and deeper!

A great entry! Purple windows from the HP Bus are wonderful! Maybe a bit too much blue in the walls here to relax and go to sleep; sometimes just one colored wall will do. The accent rug is beautiful! Keep up the great work!

Love the design of the windows, the colors, the contents and the way it attaches to the house. Congratulations!

Are you taking reservations for a trip on your lovely Friends' boat? My bags are packed! Just let me know a day before you next sail, and I'll be there! Legogal

I picked up 9 different CMS 8 figures yesterday at TLS in Raleigh, NC. My favorite is a toss up between the Bavarian (search for the pretzel) and the actor (the collar feels like a doughnut, which is a round pastry with a hole in the center in the US.) It would be great to see more females in the line up as we do comprise over half the population I think. And we may actually pay for more LEGO than males do since most moms and grandmoms tend to buy presents for children at least in the US. If we added up the all time number of minifigs that are male vs. female, some of us might cry for days due to the lack of females. This is getting old, and I would guess that more females in a set would really bump up sales. Of course as a lark, we could suggest that LEGO make 90% female and 10% male minifigs for the next 10 years or so to catch up! Wow, that would be fun for many of us, certainly the females! What the heck, we can always dream, can't we!

Hi! They had maybe 3 or 4 sets left in the Raleigh Lego Store yesterday at noon EST. Hope this helps! I see your point of view. What Christa and I noticed was the horse and buggy on the back side of the box and the picture of the five minidolls on the right top corner of the front of the box. If there are only going to be two minidolls in the box, they should not show a photo of five, and they need to clearly indicate this. If I were a young child receiving this in early December, I would be very disappointed about the lack of minidolls, the horse and the buggy. The box is very confusing. And if I bought this for a young child, I would be even more upset that my child was upset. So I guess the Advent Calendar concept is not one that I will be buying into in the future. They really do need to beef up the contents. Cheers!

I just picked up the 3316 Friends Advent Calendar set from the Raleigh Lego Store. And there is hardly enough substance in it to justify a price of 15USD much less the 35USD they charge for it. Mostly it is full of air...so you are paying mightily for cardboard with windows you can punch out and a large plastic tray filled with little baggies of ........next to nothing. Not sure whose brilliant idea this was, but somebody at TLG should take the heat for this rip off. Maybe they can make this a collectible item by ceasing production, but it has "sucker" written all over it IMHO. I asked Christa, the extremely helpful clerk/manager every time I am in the store, what was in it, and she said they had no idea because they had not seen an open one, and this is the only shipment they are getting of them. She thought there would be more than two minifig dolls inside and that there woud be a horse and buggy as shown on the cover. Forget that....their are two minifig dolls in Christmas attire, a cat, and lots of little pieces that don't amount to much. Guess I learned a major lesson about buying sets...one needs to check BL before hand to see exactly what is in the box. If I were 6 years old and this was in my house during December, I would be plenty hacked off at so few items containing more than a few little parts. Come on Lego. You have lots of great holiday designs that could have gone in this calendar. If you choose to use so few and small parts, then please make the box smaller and don't put pictures of stuff not in the box on the box. This is quite misleading. Have not decided if I will return it to the store, but I will call them and let them know how little is in the box. Did however find 13 of the Series 8 minifigs I wanted, so the trip was not a total bust. My Austrian husband adores the four Bavarians with pretzels...he is wondering why they came without accordions. I like the actor, skier, and the angel/fairy. The others are okay, but don't knock my socks off. Did not locate a cowgirl yet.

It is amusing that folks are still lamenting the introduction of new minifigures for Friends' sets. The more I build and play with the Friends' minidolls, the more I love them. I have always felt that the regular minifigs are too blocky looking...especially for females. It will be great when there are more adult and male figs in this line; I did not realize that the parents of Olivia used different molds...how cool. Maybe they will give us some brothers and grandparents as well. I am very satisfied with the minidoll figures and feel no need to compare them to old minifigs. And I use both types of figures in my Friends' builds. And am always ready to buy more minidoll figures from those who do not care for them. Different themes demand different minifigs....there is no reason why they all have to be the same. And the introduction of the new larger and softer hair for minidolls is really lovely because it does fit the older minifigs and allows us to make new, cool, custom minifigs. It is okay if you don't care for these minidoll figures....there are many minifigs I can't stand, but I don't write negative comments about them....I just don't buy them. Let's be more tolerant of a theme that is doing amazing well drawing new target markets, such as younger females, which Lego so badly needs. Here's to more styles of minifigs....may they all be as well loved as the Fabuland figures we see in so many EB avatars. Cheers!