AmperZand

I'm using the patronum as a snow spirit stag companion for my ice elf maiden (seen picture centre here without the stag).

@zoth33, Apologies for the distracting background. I tried other angles but because of where it is, I really can't take it better from any other direction. The proper way to photograph it would be against a plain white background which would require taking it down from its current position. But getting it to balance as it is now took some doing and I am reluctant to touch it in case I can't get it right again. Hope you understand.

The new Hungarian Horntail doubles for a generic wyvern with little or no modding:

That is really cool! It is instantly recognisable even without the sign post. All it needs is a minotaur minifigure ?

I saw that too: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48797245 Would be 'awesome' if Chessington and Alton Towers amusement parks became Legolands!

I once got my hands on one of the oversized CMF packets used as store displays. The store was going to throw it away. I asked the manager if I could have it and he was happy to give it to me. I mentioned it on the discussion board of a LUG I was a member of at the time and within minutes I had received offers to buy it from me.

@koalayummies, Thank you for your kind words. I can't abide the lighter skin tones for minifigures. It feels like a betrayal of the brand. Others disagree of course. It does mean that fleshy elf ears need to be recoloured which is not something I like having to do; I regard it as a necessary evil. In my display collection, the ice elf pictured above has been joined by a snow spirit stag for which I am using the recently released Harry Potter patronus.

Very slightly modded dragon from 75946 Hungarian Horntail Triwizard Challenge makes a neat wyvern for my orc regiment. The BrickWarriors' Ranger Helm works well as the orc rider's headgear.

Pretty certain they are ABS, but @Thrash can tell us for sure. For the most part, I have been pleased with BW's quality. Occasionally, I get a part that has a patch of weird lustre, and BW's orange colour seems a bit washed out compared to LEGO's. But mostly, the quality is pretty good. The designs are often more elaborate than LEGO's but not more than LEGO's printing, so still within aesthetic parameters. I agree. BF has significantly reduced the number of new moulds it produces - at least in historic/fantasy themes.

I have reviewed BrickWarrior parts here and here, and BrickFortress parts here. As seen in my BrickShelf gallery, I favour the use of third party pieces, though I can understand why some FOLs don't.

Very cool! ?

@leafan , You want non-stretch beading cord/string in a natural fibre. I believe that the thickness that corresponds to the one you linked to is Size 10 (0.9mm diameter). This in black for example. Hope that helps, Amps

Great topic, @Medzomorak ! No historic reckoning is going to please everyone. The best you can realistically hope for is that a plurality agree. You might want to check out Blocks Magazine. They recently completed a series looking at System’s history. While the focus was thematic rather than epochal, they tacitly covered each ‘family’ through the eras.

Excellent series of MOCs: entirely true to CS's late '70s design principles! I especially like the large ship. Do the pods on its wings detach as escape capsules or escort vessels? I'm a big fan of the era (and that of the early '80s) perhaps for nostalgic reasons but also, I think, for its aesthetic. I apply the following - admittedly subjective - acid test of whether a MOC succeeds in being retro: if @toastergrl had a time machine and had paid me a visit in the late '70s with those MOCs, would the younger me have believed they were TLG's own soon-to-be-released designs? The answer is most definitely 'yes'. While I haven't gone so far as to design any CS MOCs, I did recolour/mod one of the 2019 City Space sets to give it an '80s CS feel. Perhaps I'll take the plunge and actually do some CS MOCing.

Great ship! The SNOT work on the wings is excellent. And the buggy is a neat design; I might have to copy it ?

Pretty much as soon as pictures of the City Space 2019 sets appeared online, AFOLs were pointing out their conceptual similarities to Classic Space. I have taken that a step further by recolouring one of the 2019 sets, 60224 Satellite Service Mission, making it consistent with the Classic Space sets of the early to mid-1980s. It is not a true retro mod as the parts and building techniques are those of today, not those of 35+ years ago. So it should really be called Neo Classic Space. I replaced the minifigure with one more in keeping with the earlier period. The repositioning of the wingtips, if you're wondering, was not to make the ship more retro. I just think they look better attached underneath than on top. Here is the 2019 set: And here is my mod: I like to think that the satellite to be deployed by the ship will be communicating with the Classic Space mobile station (and ATV) I recreated a few years ago and still in my display collection: I haven't yet decided whether I will retro mod any of the other 2019 City Space sets. If anyone wants to post below their own mod of 60224 or indeed any other of this summer's releases, please do. I would be most interested in seeing what is out there. Questions, comments, classic colour confusion?

@joe38658 While a nice idea, I’m not sure it would be practical. BAMs have few exclusive parts and the quantities they do have vary by store. Any list of them by store would be out of date almost as soon as it was posted. If you mean parts that have been BAM exclusives in the past, I know the chimp with a brown face ( https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=95327pb02#T=C ) was one. I bought one from the BAM at the Shepherds Bush, London store ages ago.

Very nice! I especially like the roof texturing. It looks like there's a window to the left of the first picture. You may want to move it out of the light to a cool, dark place. Sunlight causes ABS - the plastic from which most LEGO is made - to degrade.

Sorry, MAB, that is incorrect. While the parts may be getting more brittle, that is due to the light and/or thermal degradation the ABS is undergoing regardless of whether and how frequently (or how strongly) you recolour it with H2O2. Please see this analysis. What you said about heat also being responsible is basically correct. Heat can also trigger/sustain ABS's degradation. Ideally, one should store LEGO in a cool, dark place.

@Digger of Bricks Thanks! I wasn’t sure that it would be clear that that was what I intended to convey ?

I have been an AFOL with a minifigure-centred collection for over 25 years. In that time, minifigures and their accessories have diversified tremendously. The change was inevitable driven by licensing, consumer expectations and lower production costs in offshore locations among other reasons. The change has not always been consistent across ranges, with some benefiting from new moulds sooner than others. Some developments I have incorporated into my collection by updating older designs with newer parts, while other developments I have ignored completely (e.g. extremely oversized swords as one-handed weapons) or partly (e.g. I still use the older slope piece for dresses as well as the newer purpose-designed skirt piece). A degree of hand-waving is required. How else do you explain classic spacemen with identical facial expressions and visor-less helmets? It should be remembered that if LEGO had never updated its design standards, we would still be using blocky figures or slabbies (pictured below), not the articulated minifigures we know and love today. I would not want to see minifigures completely redesigned, but change can be a good thing.

My modded minifigures from the Disney 2 CMF series, plus some minifigures that benefited from parts from the series and a few thematically related minifigures: My intention was to create generic fantasy and horror/fantasy minifigures, not to re-imagine characters from Disney or any other franchise. Arguably, the houri is just a yellow version of Jasmine, but I can live with that ?. Questions, comments, consternation?

I don’t know about the states you are visiting, but I was in a Walmart in a different state earlier this year, and they definitely had polybags. I picked up two different ones from TLM2. They were situated in bins at the end of the toy aisles.

That does help. Thank you again. You’re a star! ⭐

Another great review and set of pictures! Thank you, @WhiteFang . Like I always say, a minifigure series ain’t a minifigure series until Fangy has reviewed it. A question if I may: Does the ‘fancy’ beard piece, i.e. the Ninjago one pictured below, fit on Jafar? Or do the pauldrons or headdress get in the way?