AmperZand

That's pretty much what I did but using a LotR elf hair/ears piece. I had to recolour the ears yellow. I'm a yellowist, so exactly the reverse bothers me. Recolouring fleshy ears yellow works pretty well, but fleshy triangles at the neck are difficult to turn yellow; they always seem to retain a hint of flesh. I'm not even going to try to recolour decolletage. I'd like to do it for a Wonder Wonder minifigure but sadly I'm pretty sure it wouldn't look minifigure yellow.

I got between 1 and 2.5 depending on the scoring criteria: 1 for guessing the chef 0.5? for guessing an evil elf rather than an elf maiden 1? for guessing a highwayman which is what the mystery minifigure seems to be

Very nicely done! I especially like the way you did the eyebrows and moustache. As an aside, I MOCed a minifigure of the character V using a custom printed head, i.e. a real LEGO head piece but with custom printing.

While I did find a couple of the minifigures and a few parts from TLBM CMFs interesting, I was disappointed that there weren't more variants of the major villains like Riddler and Penguin. If you can have umpteen Batmans in a CMF series, why not variations of the major baddies from the sets (in addition to the Joker)? I'm in broad agreement that two regular and one licensed/film tie-in CMF series per year is ideal, but I'm guessing that TLG has done the maths and found that the regulars aren't contributing as much to either the top or bottom lines or both as the irregulars. So we'll probably see fewer of the former and more of the latter. That's bad for my minifigure collection but good for my wallet.

I apologise if I've misunderstood the tone of your post, but there's no "little bit" about it. There's virtually no doubt that the Battle Dwarf is based on Warhammer's dwarven slayers: please see this post for some compelling evidence.

Give the vet a syringe and replace her head with the retro spaceman's and you have a vivisectionist!

Totally agree! As a fellow history/fantasy fan, those three are also my favourites. The highwayman could be of interest. I'm thinking that the retro spaceman armed with a suitable weapon (maybe a trident or cutlass) would make a fine fantasy character. The rocket boy is cute. His hand drawn Classic Space flag is a nice nod to earlier minifigures/the first space theme. @Yooha, Although there are similarities between the Battle Dwarf and the representation of Dain Ironfoot in the third Hobbit movie, the concept of a bare-chested, red-bearded, red-mohawked angry looking dwarf owes its origins to Games Workshop/Warhammer/Citadel Miniatures. They came up with the idea (though white-bearded and not bare-chested) as far back as the mid-1980s (and with the red beard and bare chest by 1990): Warhammer Dwarf Slayers from 1990. Here's one of their more recent depictions:

Some markers are marketed as safe for CDs and DVDs and, as speciality products, priced higher. I suspect the scare stories of regular Sharpies which don't cost so much damaging CDs and DVDs come from marker companies putting out misinformation to protect their niches. Even if it were true that Sharpie ink damages CDs and DVDs (and I doubt it does), that would only tell you about the effect on transparent LEGO parts. Like CDs/DVDs, they're made of polycarbonate. But most opaque LEGO parts are made of ABS, a class of plastic with very different physical and chemical properties. Sharpies do have a wire that feeds the ink to the tip, so there is a theoretical risk of scratching a LEGO part when you draw on it, but you would feel the wire touching the part and know to stop. I have been recolouring LEGO elf ears with Sharpies for four years and haven't noticed any ill effects.

Although I don't paint LEGO, I do sometimes use Sharpies to recolour or adorn parts such as yellowing fleshy elf ears. I use Humbrol satin coat to ensure the Sharpie doesn't come off. The lustre of the coated parts is the same as regular LEGO pieces and is invisible once dry. Without the satin coat, the Sharpie comes off more easily than standard LEGO printing, but with the coat, it's much more durable than LEGO printing. I subjected various test pieces with and without a coat to extreme abrasion before putting the technique to use in my collection. There doesn't seem to be any long term ill effect of the coat on the parts. I have had some parts protected that way for years and they're all fine.

I don't know who they are using for their deliveries. If they're using Royal Mail, you can only get it if you're in the UK and it's an address to which Royal Mail delivers. Royal Mail has stopped delivering to the building where I live and aren't even returning post to senders. Presumably, they're just throwing it away.

Going from white to black, you might want to try dyeing instead. I don't know how good the results are, but again, the Workshop is the place to find out. Another possibility is taking some black parts, melting them down with acetone to form a black liquid and using that to coat a piece of a different colour such as your white one. People have reported good results with that method, but I suspect you really need to know what you're doing and probably want to perfect your technique with some spare parts before you try it on the one you actually need.

The best place to look is in the Minifig Customisation Workshop. This thread in that forum has guidance on painting parts. I don't know if it covers spray painting in particular (I don't paint parts so haven't looked through the thread), but it's probably a good place to start. If you don't find answers to your questions in the thread, the Workshop is where to ask. I doubt that anyone there will mind that you're asking about non-minifig parts.

I have hundreds of minifigures displayed on studs. Some have been displayed that way for around 20 years. Others such as She-Hulk are just a few weeks old. None of them have cracks, hairline or otherwise, in their feet.

I saw this offer on BrickSet and intend to pick one up. It's just £1.50. Out of curiosity, I checked the recent prices this poly has gone for on Ebay.co.uk. Looks like someone paid £17 for one. Is it wrong to feel a bit of schadenfreude?

Lego Batman Movie polybag 30522 is available free with The Times this Saturday. You can get the polybag at participating McColl's and Martin's newsagents or online. The paper is £1.50 which is well worth it for the poly. ------------- Update: The polybag isn't available at McColl's/Martin's newsagents after all. I just came back from my local McColl's after getting up at 5.30am and trudging through freezing rain only to be told that lots of branches won't have it. You might want to phone ahead, but in my past experience of McColl's, the customer service is so poor, that you're as likely as not to be misinformed, i.e. told they do have it when they don't, or they don't have it when they do.I have complained about McColl's poor customer service before to their head office only to get a stock response full of corporate platitudes back. If ever there was a company that didn't care about their customers, McColl's/Martin's is it.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

I used most of the Glam Rock Batman to create a fantasy Batman. The only changes are the swapped out torso, the bat'leth instead of the guitar, and the yellow head (I don't like fleshies). The arms & torso assembly of the wizard in the picture below is Zodiac Man's though you can't see that well in the photo.

I'm thinking of replacing the Belville cat pictured below that I'm using for Guenhwyvar, Drizzt's magical companion, with the moulded black panther scheduled for release this summer.

I much prefer the two-piece helmet. It looks better and has more display options: closed, open, removed. I suspect that LEGO went with the one-piece version because it will cost less to produce in the long term. The additional hair piece that comes with the minifigures that have the single piece helmet is probably pretty inexpensive. If I'm right, we won't be seeing the two-piece helmet again.

Agreed. I wonder how much the set with the panther will be in the UK. I'm hoping that LEGO takes a leaf out of Playmobil's book and uses the new large cat mould to make lions by adding a lion's mane part. The carnivorous plants are also cool but they're not the first in LEGO. There was this one from the Scooby-Doo range. There may have been others. There were also the cocoons from Hero Factory sets a few years ago. The green leaf parts are especially well suited to making carnivorous plants. You can place a minifigure in a closed flower/cocoon in such a way that it stays in place, appearing to be trapped.

Great harpies! I especially like the middle one. She's the freakiest! How did you replace the minifigure hands with what appear to be skeleton parts?

I'm in the UK, so in Europe but not the continent. Where there is a choice of international delivery methods, I always go for the cheapest airmail (nowadays called "standard") service. Most countries have a rate for items less than 20mm though in some countries it can be as thick as 30mm. My experience with BL spans hundreds of orders over more than 10 years.

I place lots of orders on BL for small parts as I mainly collect minifigures and their accessories. I generally favour UK sellers followed by northern European ones (except the Netherlands) and sometimes central European, too. One should never order from the Netherlands. Too many orders from there are either delayed (I once had an order take six weeks to reach me by air!) or go missing. I suspect it's customs checking small packets for drugs or postal workers stealing them for the same reason. One should also avoid the US. There is an international postal standard for large letter ("flats" in the US) with a maximum thickness of 20mm / 3/4". The standard doesn't specify the contents and the US is a signatory to that. However, the standard does allow individual countries to impose additional physical limits, a stipulation imposed at the US's insistence. The USPS then used those additional restrictions to effectively limit the contents to printed matter. They have a list of requirements for a flat's flexibility and consistency of thickness that are absurdly officious (they're on USPS's site if you want to look them up). If a flat passes all the official tests - as mailers with LEGO often do - USPS workers impose their own tests including feeling packets for bumps (even when the packet passes the test for consistency of thickness when at rest). I have had several US-based BL sellers try to get the large letter/flats rate for me but have been unable to due to overzealous USPS counter staff and supervisors. In all such cases, I had to cancel the order. Frankly, the USPS's approach to flats is reminiscent of the worst jobsworths I encountered in Eastern Europe during the Communist era - and that's saying something. I have only ever had good experiences ordering from Canada. The Canadian postal service doesn't play games when it comes to large letters and orders generally arrive as quickly as orders from continental Europe if not sooner. The only problem with Canada is that there are far fewer sellers than in the US, so you don't always find what you want. I wish there were more Canadian sellers.

Indeed. Either a Wittgensteinian "family resemblance" or what mathematicians call a "fuzzy set". In the "fuzzy set" conceit, the classic minifigure would be at the core of the concept with variations in the "fuzzy" periphery. Whether a "family" or "fuzzy" approach is used, there is still the question of where the line is drawn beyond which something no longer shows sufficient resemblance or belonging to the set to be included. Does an entirely brick-built figure count as a minifigure, for example? Is the criterion aesthetic (i.e. how much it looks a minifigure?) or functional (how much it is articulated like a minifigure?) or maker (how much of it is LEGO vs third party?) or a different consideration, or a combination of them? If a combination, which are the most important and which least - and by how much?

It's the hole that the neck connection goes in. You shouldn't use a carpentry drill bit: that would be much too big. You want a micro drill bit such as those used in modelling. It has to be narrow enough to fit in the aperture in the head with plenty of wriggle room but not so thin that it flexes. About 0.5mm to 1mm diameter should do it. You may want to use a pin vice to help you hold the drill bit. But remember not to use the drill bit as a drill. It's the side of the drill bit that you want to use to abrade the plastic grips holding the key chain in place inside the head. The bigger fig in the picture is a Japanese ogre called an oni and the regular minifig sized one is a water spirit from Japanese folklore called a kappa. There are more details if you scroll down this thread.