AmperZand

There is no absolute guarantee that your LEGO won't degrade over time. That said, some of my minifigures have been in my display collection since I bought them new in 1993 and they are still fine. I also have some bricks from the '70s that I bought on the secondary market in 2014. Apart from having to re-whiten a few when I got them, they are fine too. Blackout curtains will help considerably to block UV light, the harmful component of sunlight. Of course, there is still the light that reflects off surfaces so there will be ambient sunlight from around the curtain. But that's far less damaging than direct sunlight. Of the two evils, sunlight and heat, sunlight is the more damaging. Ideally though, one should keep heat down as well. A fan will not help to do that. Fans work through two processes: evaporation and convection. If you're wet from perspiration or from getting out of a swimming pool, a fan cools you by evaporation. But as your LEGO doesn't perspire/get wet, evaporation doesn't work. A fan also cools you (or anything that generates heat such as a motor) down by convection as you (or the object) heat(s) the air around you (it) and the fan moves the hot air away. But LEGO doesn't generate heat, so a fan won't help that way either. The blackout curtains will help keep the heat down. If it's still hot, you might want to consider an air conditioning unit. However, AC units are expensive to buy and run, and damaging to the environment. How hot does it get by your west-facing window? Is it in an attic or roof space which are generally hotter than lower floors? As you're in NL, it shouldn't get that hot except possibly for a few weeks in summer.

*Alarm bells!* LEGO and sunlight do not a happy combination make. The breakdown of ABS, the plastic from which most LEGO parts are made, is catalysed by sunlight (and heat). So you really shouldn’t expose parts to sunlight. You risk them discolouring and possibly even cracking in time.

Cool 😎. It appeared in General for me but maybe the mods were moving it as I was typing. LEGO does sometimes produce some obscure minifigures such as a few from the latest Mos Eisley set. So I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of some less well known characters appearing in future sets. They are sometimes in larger, more expensive sets however which can be a problem because their rarity pushes up their price on the secondary market.

@GermanLad, I’m not a mod but have a feeling this thread should be in the Star Wars forum.

@BrickHat, How did Guinness determine that they were all different? From the video, it looks like it established their number but not uniqueness. Was there an accompanying database with a description and photograph of each minifigure? Some collectors on Brickset have vast numbers of sets that, even excluding duplicate minifigures, could well have a larger collection of minifigures than this record. I don’t have a stake in the game and have no interest in having the largest collection; I’m just curious.

Don’t know about IG but there are official images at Brickset. Brickset images expand when you click on them and expand further if you then click on the crossed arrows icon in the picture’s corner.

Thanks @WhiteFang. Appreciated Most likely. When it comes to ensuring the right assortment, it seems like LEGO is not as good at feeling packets as AFOLs are

Like I always say: A LEGO minifigure series ain't a LEGO minifigure series until Fangy has reviewed it! @WhiteFang, Great review and pictures as ever. Thank you for yet another super useful minifigure guide. One question if I may: What BrickLink colour are Speedy Gonzales's face, hands, feet and tail? Are they dark nougat, medium nougat or another colour? Which one? You can tell by comparing the parts you have with ones from BrickLink's colour guide and reference parts. Unfortunately, it's not easy to tell from pictures online. Dark and medium nougat are particularly hard to distinguish. I've had an idea for a MOC using one of Speedy's parts but it depends on its colour. Thanks in advance

Can someone who has these CMFs please tell me what colour Speedy Gonzales’s face, hands, feet and tail are? Are they BrickLink colour Medium Nougat, Dark Nougat or something else? I’ve been trying to figure it out from pictures and videos online but it’s hard to tell.

While I wish I didn’t have to, I have stooped to ‘tainted’ methods to get round that problem:

The Lord of the Rings/Hobbit short sword (Sting) fits quite well. The gladius also works but doesn’t rest quite so snuggly.

The sword of Gryffindor fits, but not well. You can get the blade in but only as far as the ricasso, not all the way to the guard. So the hilt protrudes further than it should which looks funny.

TLG would have you capitalise ‘LEGO’ and use it adjectivally for legal reasons. But both the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries, while acknowledging the trademark, define ‘Lego’ as the toy itself as well as its method of assembly. So someone saying they built a house of Lego is using ‘Lego’ correctly even if TLG doesn’t like it. I compromise by using ‘LEGO’ as a noun which is both right and wrong for its capping and syntactic function depending on whether you ask TLG or lexicographers.

Fortunately, the culprits are easily recognised. They usually look like this:

I prefer the colour of 6081. I’ve been to Ghent and visited Gravensteen. Can’t say that 6081 or indeed any official LEGO castle made me think of it. Then again, I have been to lots of castles across Europe and none of them has reminded me much of a LEGO set.

The word on the street is that all three builds are indeed castles. (The A build includes a brick-built dragon, the B build has a merchant’s stall and the C build is a tall tower.) So while you’re right that 3-in-1s tend not to include highly specialised parts, it’s still possible we will get some panels for added volume.

Fantastic in every sense! The only thing I would change would be to make the minifigures yellow, not fleshy. But I recognise that yellowism is a personal preference with which others disagree.

I would urge you and everyone thinking of getting it at £35 to hold back. It will only encourage LEGO to increase UK prices even further if we give in. The minifigure scale Batmobile from 2019 (set 76119) had almost the same number of pieces and also had two minifigures that were the same characters as this latest set but was priced at £10 less. Inflation doesn’t account for the 40% price hike. A message needs to be sent to LEGO HQ that stupid pricing does not happy customers make. As much as I like this latest Batmobile, I’ll be waiting until there’s a substantial discount at Argos, Amazon or Zavvi.

It’s listed as £35 in the UK which, even allowing for the 20% VAT included in UK prices, is still about 37% more than the US price. Sure, the US benefits from economies of scale, but £35 (about $41 when VAT is removed) is still ridiculous. I was going to get it on day one but not anymore. I’ll wait for it to be discounted.

I can believe that. According to Promobricks, it’s Euro 100 and about 1500 parts. For comparison, the 3-in-1 Creator Pirate Ship (set 31109) is that price point and 1264 pieces. So perhaps the Castle will also be around 1300 parts (1500 being something of an exaggeration). To give a ship’s hull curvature without using large, specialised pieces requires lots of fairly small parts. A castle has no such limitation. So with the same number of parts, you can make a bigger castle than you can a ship as the pieces can be larger. So I’m not expecting an enormous structure, but certainly something larger than the Pirate Ship, which itself is fairly substantial. Hope we get the first images soon!

@Alexandrina, I don’t have it and have never seen one IRL, but if I come across it, I’m happy to let you know. Do you have the LEGO design number? If so, LEGO Customer Service (CS)may be able to get it for you even if it isn’t listed on Bricks & Pieces. You will need to talk to CS on the phone though.

I agree that the latest Classic 66 Batmobile is brilliant. Definitely a DOP (Day One Purchase) for me. It’s a shame about the stickers on the doors. Would have preferred if those had been printed. Will have to think whether to use the stickers or not. I have to disagree about Robin. I’m glad Joker was included and not the Boy Wonder. Why? I’m a yellowist, not a fleshite, and Robin is not easily turned into a lovely, yellow minifigure. Joker, on the other hand, requires no body parts be substituted. Mr Joker is fine as is.

Cool. Looks like a build LEGO itself would produce as a polybag. I particularly like how the feet/talons are done.

@Toastie, I understand your point of view and share that sentiment to an extent. Most of my unopened sets are because I already have an open one or have something similar opened already such as a polybag with the same Ninjago character. The sets that I don't have in duplicate or something similar that are unopened do play on my mind. I'm waiting for special occasions to open them which I will... eventually. By the way, I didn't find your reply 'nasty' at all. I've been at the receiving end of far, far worse both online and off

Yes. I think @valon is just being coy. From the Promobricks site with some paraphrasing by me: ‘The LEGO 31120 Knights’ Castle will cost Euro 100 (RRP) in Germany and is thought to consist of about 1,500 parts. The set is scheduled for release in June 2021.’ Promobricks has a solid track record of describing sets accurately before their official reveal. So it’s a pretty safe bet that the above - and indeed the rest of what it says about this set - is right.