AmperZand

Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask, but are the US and Australian Bricks & Pieces a different kind of service from the UK one? Whenever I go to Bricks & Pieces on the UK site, I get options to request missing or broken bricks but no opportunity to order extra parts. The nearest TLG equivalent in the UK seems to be Pick-a-Brick, but that doesn't have many parts and none of the newer ones I was looking for that have been posted above by @jonwil. I am .

@Peppermint_M's post.

@Juxtapoisson W H Smith By the way, you have a cool username!

Not at bargain prices, just the now regular £2.99, but WHS has broken the street date on CMF Series 18. I got some yesterday. According to the staff, they were out on the shelves on Monday.

Update: I have that minifigure now and I was right: the arms are bright light orange. They're available from some bricks and mortar stores. I don't know about lego.com, but if you ask the manager at a WHS if they will reserve an unshelved box for you, they usually will. However, they may insist that the box be opened so they can count the packets as they won't necessarily trust TLG with the count. They will open the box in front of you so you can see that nothing has been swapped. No. The gap is much too small to fit minifigure leg pins.

There is already a trend of shopping centres closing. Some retailers are focusing on small format shops in city centres and at/near major transportation hubs (as well as online of course). Some out-of-town shopping centres will likely be demolished and replaced with residential complexes or light industrial parks. Others will focus more on goods that favour in-person purchases, infrequent purchases and challenging returns such as furniture, or goods that can be combined with a shopping 'experience' such as makeup with a makeover. I am not convinced that TLG should be seeking out-of-town shopping centre outlets but if they do, they should emphasise the play experience for kids.

I don't have that minifigure yet, but I'm pretty sure the colour is what BrickLink calls bright light orange.

@legostarwars1425 Review of BrickWarriors' katar dagger. Review of BrickWarriors' lute. Review of Crazy Bricks' differently angled arms, satyr legs and afro. Review of BrickFortress' articulated short legs. EB thread on third party weapons and accessories but also touching on other third party pieces. I have some 3D 'printed' parts including the Gondorian helmet pictured below, a Pharaonic crown (not shown) and a European crown (not shown) made by an AFOL in Monaco. I think he used to sell them on BrickLink. They are well made and are fine for display but because they are painted, I suspect they wouldn't stand up well to play. Also, they were pretty expensive. I use lots of third party pieces. Check out my BrickShelf gallery!

Apologies if this has already been posted and I somehow missed it or if posting a link to YouTube is verboten, but this video of every Classic Space set is really impressive! The filming isn't great but the collection is. I don't have anything to do with the collector, the interviewer or the event. As someone who has fond memories of the earliest Classic Space sets and recreated 6927 All-Terrain Vehicle in 2014 (see here, here, here and here), I just thought the video was super cool.

I really like this set even though I'm not into HP/FB. As I've mentioned in the Licensed forum, I'm planning on using the carriage and demon-horse for one my vampires. The minifigures and accessories from this set will serve for parts. I'm particularly liking the new wand and dress pieces. I'm not sure but I think the body of the carriage and hand rails separate from the undercarriage to form a free-standing cabin. I also suspect the roof comes off.

No problem. I should have mentioned that the cloudiness may be caused by micro-abrasions on both sides. You can tell by either looking at the piece close-up from a very oblique angle or by touch. If by touch, you'll need to wash the part with soap and water and then dry it before applying the Pledge. Some people say you should allow the Pledge to dry with the part horizontal and the Pledge side up in which case, you'll need to apply the Pledge one side at a time. Others say that because you're applying such thin coats, it won't run so you can do both sides at once and allow the part to dry vertically. I favour the horizontal, i.e. one side at a time approach, but maybe because I'm overly cautious.

Polybags used to be exclusively or predominantly TRU's gimmick (apart from newspaper promos). I have just discovered that the Entertainer has moved full-square into that space. Didn't take the vultures long to swoop in! It wouldn't surprise me if the Entertainer or some other chain, e.g. Argos, filled the exclusives void. Of course, the LEGO brand shops/S@H will continue to carry those, too.

@legostarwars1425 Is the cloudiness just the transparent parts? If so and if the cloudiness is caused by scratches that are not individually visible to the naked eye, you can reduce the cloudiness with Pledge Multi-Surface Wax (formally, Klear). Make sure the parts are clean and coat the cloudy areas with an extremely thin coating of Pledge. Treat it as you would varnish. Allow it to dry for 24 hours and, if necessary, apply another extremely thin coat and allow that to dry. It's very important that the coats are thin. This doesn't work on opaque (ABS) parts.

I'm not into HP/FB, but 75951 Grindelwald's Escape is a very cool set at a reasonable price point. I'll be using the carriage and demon-horse for one of my vampires and the minifigures and accessories for parts. I could be wrong but I think the body of the carriage along with the front and back rails separate from the undercarriage to form a free-standing cabin. The rails either fold down to make the legs of the cabin or up so it can be carried (by the demon-horse?). I think the roof might be detachable, too.

Thank you, Fangy. You're a star! ⭐

Thanks very much for your replies, Fangy . What does the spider boy's human torso back printing look like? Can you please post a picture?

Like I always say: A CMF series ain't a CMF series until @WhiteFang has reviewed it! Thanks very much Fangy for yet another great review and set of photographs. Really appreciated. A few questions if I may: Is spider boy's torso's back plain black? I don't mean the arachnid part, I mean the human torso. Are you sure the clown's balloons are ABS? I suspect they're polycarbonate like most trans LEGO parts. Is the cactus girl's outfit BrickLink green? And the flower girl's torso BrickLink bright green? If possible, can you please post a picture of the dragon suit guy with the dragon from Dragon Mountain to which you refer? If you don't have that dragon and want to send me a dragon suit guy, I can take the picture instead! I can't promise to return the dragon suit guy. Incidentally, I'm not sure the soft parts will eventually go sticky. None of my LEGO soft parts have gone sticky despite some being over 20 years old. In contrast, some toys I have that are other brands that have been kept in the same conditions as my LEGO have become sticky. The stickiness can be eliminated for a time by smearing the part in isopropyl alcohol or alcohol-based hand sanitiser such as Cuticura. When the stickiness eventually returns, simply repeat.

Very clever! I especially like the way the steam is done and the handle.

When a retailer calls in the receivers, there are various arrangements with creditors. But what often happens in the UK is that the retailer continues to trade at full or nearly full price with branches closing as the terms of their leases dictate or as negotiated with the lessor. When the last few branches remain - often the largest - and are a few days away from closing, any remaining stock is heavily discounted. Depending on the type of good, this can be 50% or more. So if you're near a big branch that is still open, keep an eye on it. It may suddenly have very good deals. Also, please let us know about it here! Updated 14 March 2018: According to this BBC News report, all UK TRUs will be closing within 6 weeks.

I would say 'yes' unless you buy drones purely for work, e.g. because you're a drone cameraman, drone market researcher or journalist. That is really cool! If someone had told me that was a photo of actual stormtrooper actors on the set of one of the films, I would have believed them. Reading through this thread I realised that I didn't really say what my own non-LEGO toys are. It would take me too long to list all of them in my display collection, but the major franchises are: Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit (various sizes and brands including Burger King), Narnia, D&D Miniatures, generic fantasy (various sizes and brands), Greek mythology, Slavic mythology, Heroclix, Disney (McDonalds), Marvel, DC, Star Trek, Star Wars (Kenner), Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Ghost Busters. Here's a picture of four ogres from my collection, part of the generic fantasy toys. To the best of my knowledge, this action figure only comes in these four colours and this is the only picture online of them together:

Some explanation of LEGO's financial performance in 2017 from the BBC News site. It was already known that the company had had disappointing sales in North America, but the article also points out over-production issues. There is a connection between poor sales and over-production of course, but some of the excess stock may be in addition to lower-than-expected sales. If LEGO over-reacts in the opposite direction, i.e. cuts production too drastically in 2018, we could see stock shortages and sets being retired sooner than we have been used to. Here is LEGO's press release.

Those are my two favourite LEGO channels. I also like TalkBricks. Of non-LEGO channels, my favourites are scholagladiatoria and skallagrim. The guy who presents scholagladiatoria knows his stuff but takes soooo loooong to get to the point, while skallagrim's presenter is often guilty of stating the glaringly obvious. Still, both are interesting channels.

I had some of the first wave of Zoids. I recall having a Zoid elephant, frog and dinosaur and may have had a spider, too. They were powered with a wind-up mechanism. I really liked the designs but found the wind-up engine more trouble than it was worth.

You want to use the least amount of Windolene that you can. I apply it with a cotton bud so the brick is only just wet. The excess liquid and bubbles are easily pressed out. Once the sticker is firmly pressed down, the sticker and part can be gently dabbed with a tissue which will soak up any extra fluid. Apologies to the OP for the digression into sticker placing tips.

As a yellowist, I would be perfectly happy if minifigure torsos had neither fleshy nor yellowy neck-lines. Some designs such as those with considerable decolletage can't help but be one or the other. But for a lot of torsos, there is no need to show skin at the neck. Exposed neck-lines only serve to reduce the versatility of those parts. With regards to forum/AFOL community peeves, the notion that minifigure collecting (or MOCing with a focus on minifigures) is somehow a lower form of AFOLdom really gets my goat. For example, for a long time on these forums, a thread that was purely about minifigures - even if they were purist, had absolutely no customisation and were themed (e.g. Star Wars or historical) - was relegated to the minifigure customisation forum. An interest in minifigures was deemed, and still is by some, lesser to 'proper' LEGO MOCing and collecting.