AmperZand

@MAB, Interesting point. Does that mean that a MOC can have multiple finishes? Is ‘a MOC’ even meaningful if so or is it a different MOC? How much needs to change for it to be a new MOC? It’s an ontological conundrum!

I do more modding of LEGO’s builds than MOCing. But either way, my baseline is if it’s as least as good as LEGO’s own design standard. That doesn’t tell me when to end though. So what’s my top line? I usually start with a concept or a particular improvement to one of LEGO’s design and consider it done when I reach that point. Sadly, cost is sometimes a limiting factor - my LEGO budget isn’t nearly as big as I would like!

@williejm Please see the PM I sent you. I don't think EB is showing mail as having been received unless you click on the envelope icon. Also, if you have EB messages copied to your e-mail, they sometimes wind up in your junk folder. Please check!

UPDATE: Sorry, the parts have been claimed. I have 6 LEGO fleshy heads and 4 LEGO fleshy hands for which, as a yellowist, I have no use (see picture below). All the parts are brand new. I'm giving them away. If you have a UK postal address and would like them, please PM me. What do I want in return? Any new LEGO except: more fleshy parts damaged/scratched parts (yes, new parts can be damaged) dirty, mouldy or smelly parts, e.g. from smoking/vaping non-LEGO parts I'll leave it to you to decide what those parts are. Just want to send me a single 1 x 1 plate? That's fine! I have no expectations There will be no need to send me anything until you have received the heads and hands below.

That’s baaaaad! Reminds me of the scene from Notting Hill when Hugh Grant’s character asks Julia Roberts’ if there should have been more horses in a film she has just released (she plays a movie star) and she replies that that would have been difficult as the film is set in space!

BrickClicker’s reports almost always turn out to be correct, so I’m inclined to believe we will see four series next year. Good news indeed! I thought the same thing. My understanding is that subscription levels to Disney+ have far outperformed expectations in key markets so it would make commercial sense for LEGO to continue to ride that bandwagon. In fact, it may have negotiated the licensing deal before the streaming service’s success was assured, resulting in a lower licensing cost than it would have had otherwise. So this may be a very good deal for LEGO and likely mean the retail unit price will remain unchanged - which would be good news for us.

I visited the Heddal stave church many years ago after seeing it in a D&D book. It’s a beautiful building and your recreation of it is excellent! If I may make a suggestion, I would replace the reddish brown parts with dark orange or nougat ones. In your version, the colour of the roof is too visually impactful and needs to be balanced with more vivid walls. It’s a shame LEGO shies away from* representing churches. If it did an Architecture one of Heddal, I would definitely get it. *Yes, I know LEGO has done churches before, but it doesn’t do standalone ones now.

The bridge is indeed excellent. You can see more shots of it, and one in particular that really shows off its construction, if you click through to Rafael’s Flickr page (link in the OP). The round tower is also very well done Overall, a brilliant little diorama!

Matthew Ashton has hinted that we may be seeing a frog minifigure. If the Muppets rumour is true, that would be Kermit. I doubt that S22 would include a frog costume guy the same year as a Kermit minifigure. It’s not impossible but seems unlikely.

@Aurore, Thanks for the clarification. Disappointing that they’re not classic fantasy beasts

Promobricks has also said that there will be a Fantasy Forest Creatures 3-in-1 set. What creatures they will be hasn’t been revealed, but hopefully at least one build will be minifigure scaled, e.g. a giant or troll. Promobricks’ leaks are almost always right.

In the fairly recent Disney set Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck's Farm (10775), the ears of corn are depicted by 1 x 1 x 2 cones in yellow. See picture below. I’m not aware of a specific System corn piece.

If you can get a flight directly to Billund from the US, I recommend that even if it means getting to a hub in the US first. It’s generally better to get the shorter leg of a journey out of the way before the longer haul leg. Once in Billund, it’s easy to get around by bus. I took one from outside Legoland to the airport a long time ago. I don’t recall it being a problem. The service was punctual though not very frequent.

A really clever version of 7079 with loads of charm

I doubt that the exact numbers of each set produced are publicly disclosed though we do know that limited production runs, e.g. for limited edition sets, are in the 5,000 to 20,000 sets range. It may be possible to roughly approximate the number of other sets based on the financials that LEGO provides in its annual report. We know, for example, total revenues, proportion of sale of goods (99% vs 1% for licences) and revenues by region (38% NA/LATAM, 44% EMEA, 18% AP). I'm guessing that of the retail sales price (less tax where that is applied in the price, e.g. in countries where VAT is used), LEGO derives revenues of 60% (the rest goes to the retailer). Of course, D2C sales shouldn't have that proportion deducted. As @Lyichir suggests, sets are likely produced in the same proportion as their price or their physical boxed volume. With all of those data points, it should be possible to get a very rough idea of how many of each set are produced a year. You could then back check the estimate against what seems reasonable, i.e. a 'sanity check'. You might be surprised how close to being right you could get using that method. I used to use a similar top-down approach when estimating unit sales of a completely different class of products and later found out when I got my hands on some actual figures that my guestimates were surprisingly close. I don't have time to do it for LEGO sets, but the methodology does work and is an accepted approach in all sorts of industries.

I didn’t get an invite. I’m a VUP: Very Unimportant Person. I believe LEGO has been targeting those who neither buy lots nor nothing at all. I expect it’s testing the hypothesis that the packs encourage spending, and wants to know by how much more. If you bought almost everything anyway, this incentive wouldn’t encourage you to buy more - it couldn’t: you’re already at the top of the spending scale. And if you never buy anything, I imagine this incentive will not turn you into a high spender. So it makes sense that LEGO is aiming at the Goldilocks segment.

UK Only For sale: Mini Adidas Originals Superstar, set 40486. It's in mint-in-sealed-box condition. The box is also in mint condition. Kept out of sunlight in a smoke-/vape-free, pet-free, clean home. Stock image below. Will accept Paypal payment of £20 plus postage at cost. Interested? Please PM me. Questions? Please post below or PM me.

I used a different shell from the one provided for the hermit crab:

Rubbing/scraping it with your thumbnail will sometimes take out stress marks in plastic. Of course, the structural integrity will still be compromised even if you can’t see it. You may want to consider ordering another one on BrickLink.

Thanks for your reply. I’m guessing that if it isn’t marked as exclusive to LEGO’s own sales channels, it will eventually show up somewhere else. Hoping that Argos is one of them as I have credit there. LEGO’s delay in supplying other retailers makes sense to an extent: LEGO gets to mop up the sales to early buyers. On the downside, that strategy is unlikely to please retailers who, after all, are also LEGO’s customers.

UK questions.... Batman Classic TV Batmobile 76188 is not listed at S @H GB as an exclusive yet I can't find it anywhere else. Has anyone found it in the UK anywhere but at LEGO itself, online or in-store? Does anyone know if Argos will have it?

The texturing, recolours and extra minis are cool! 31120 really lends itself to modification. You may find this article on Brickset along the same lines of interest.

Admittedly a different aesthetic, but there was a greyhound in the Simpsons theme.

Not sure that’s complete. The glow-in-the-dark trans light blue octopus isn’t listed.

I returned to LEGO in 1993 when I was already well into adulthood. The internet was still in its infancy and I didn’t have access to it. As far as I knew, adults didn’t collect LEGO, but being the non-conformist that I am, I started getting fantasy themed sets that appealed to me anyway. I didn’t become aware of AFOLdom until the early 2000s. I think I placed my first BrickLink order in 2006. In one sense, those who become AFOLs today have the advantage of all the resources of the internet from sites like this one to fan media, peer-to-peer selling (e.g. BrickLink, Ebay) and recognition by LEGO itself. They also experience less stigma of being “an adult who buys kids’ toys”. On the other hand, by having been an AFOL for 28 years, I didn’t miss out on many themes or minifigures of interest.