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AmperZand

Eurobricks Dukes
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Everything posted by AmperZand

  1. AmperZand
    I once adjudicated a collection record for Guinness (not LEGO; the record was awarded and even made it into the book). This was some years ago. At the time, Guinness had a rule that repeats weren't allowed unless the item in question ordinarily existed in multiples, e.g. two earrings or two socks because those things are normally in pairs. I don't know if Guinness still has that rule but if it does, a huge number of identical minifigures would still only count as one towards the record attempt. Another rule was that the collection had to have been amassed over a period of time. So if you had a vast army of Knights and changed the heads and weapons just for the purpose of setting the record, it wouldn't be awarded to you.
  2. AmperZand
    It wouldn't surprise me if someone did put it on YouTube. They're not supposed to, it's a copyright infringement, but it happens quite a lot. I don't think the programme will be dealing with what happens in LEGO's factories, only what went into the opening of the Leicester Square store. The store contains a number of large display pieces. I would be surprised if the people who made them wore gloves in their construction. More likely, the large displays got mostly assembled and glued with bare hands off-site, moved to the store where they get their final assembly and then wiped down with a soft, dry cloth. That's my guess.
  3. AmperZand
    I was looking through the telly listings for the holiday season when I spotted this: I haven't seen this programme mentioned here on the EB boards or elsewhere so thought I should point it out. I was at the Leicester Square store on the opening day and queued for 4.5 hours to get in. There was a film crew outside the front door but I don't think I was ever in shot.
  4. AmperZand
    Sadly, I think you're right in that too many people online are writing and not enough reading. The interwebchatweetbook is a graphomaniac's dream. Thanks for your reply and the additional pictures, Fangy. You're the best!
  5. AmperZand
    I'm into minifigures, mostly fantasy/mythology/Tolkien/horror/historical and superheroes (Marvel and DC) with a few sci-fi/Classic Space and Star Wars ones. I have bigfigs, animals/monsters (mostly moulded but also a few brick-built too), buildings and vehicles to go with the minifigures but the minifigures are at the heart of my display collection. Some of my minifigures are as sold by LEGO, but most have some degree of MOCing including quite a few with third party parts by BrickForge, BrickWarriors and SI-DAN - I'm not a purist. I don't go into modding parts when I can avoid it. The main exception to that is that I do yellow the ears of my LotR/Hobbit elves. I abhor fleshies. I'm not a completist in any way. I just get what I like and can afford. You can see a small sample of my collection in my Brickshelf gallery.
  6. AmperZand
    I think - but could be wrong - that the first glow in the dark pieces were the ghost shroud in 1990 and the wizard's wand in 1993. No, not all LEGO parts are available in glow in the dark. In fact, it's a fairly rare feature. I don't know the exact percentage of parts that are available in GitD, but it's not huge. As far as I know, there has never been a set that only used GitD parts. There might be an obscure promo set, but I'm not aware of any. There have been animals that were entirely GitD, e.g. a spider, a skeleton horse and a translucent blue octopus. Trans GitD parts certainly exist, but only a small proportion of trans parts are GitD. Hope that helps.
  7. AmperZand
    Fangy, Thank you for yet another great review and set of photographs. A CMF series just isn't a CMF series until you have reviewed it! I don't think anyone has mentioned that you got Glam Metal Batman's cape on slightly wrong. It should go over his pauldrons, not under. Speaking of Glam Metal Bats, is the back of his torso plain black or does it have printing? Here's a little titbit: March Harriet is a prostitute making her an extremely questionable character for a film and toy aimed at kids. What was LEGO thinking? If you have time, can you please post a picture of what various costumed CMFs look like with Orca's open-mouth head? I'm particularly curious about the Series 5 Lizard Man, the Series 14 Plant Monster and the Series 15 Shark Suit Guy. Thanks! And if anyone else in this thread points out that Calculator's visor says "HELLO" upside down, they deserve a virtual slap.
  8. AmperZand
    Best minifigure: Faun from CMF 15 followed closely by Lavaria from NK set 70335. Best set: Spider-Man - Ghost Rider Team Up (76058) Worst set: Anything Minecraft but especially the Skin Pack (853609)
  9. AmperZand
    I'm pretty sure that AFOLs were doing fabric skirts years before TLG too. Even after TLG did fabric skirts at the waist, they were still using the neck connection to attach parts that were supposed to originate at the waist such as this one: http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=11101pb01&idColor=150#T=C&C=150 . For both fabric and plastic parts, AFOLs were years ahead of TLG in their use of the waist. I do agree that the editor function is absolutely awful. Not only does it not allow you to split quotes, it punishes you if you try by preventing you from replying to the thread.
  10. AmperZand
  11. AmperZand
    Cool MOC! I especially like how each of the hydra's heads is different.
  12. AmperZand
    Is there any independent evidence of that? I suspect that that was just TLG's excuse for taking so long to tap a market that AFOLs had shown already existed.
  13. AmperZand
    I don't deny that there could have been coincidental invention: it isn't just possible, I think it's quite likely. But that's not to say that LEGO designers haven't been inspired by AFOLs either. Here are my suspicions: For years before the release of the official sets, AFOLs were MOcing Star Wars vehicles, showing them off at events and posting pictures of their MOCs online. It was so widespread, it was practically a hobby in its own right. I find it hard to believe that TLG wasn't aware of the trend before they sought their first SW licence. A number of minifigures were designed by Alexandre Boudon and posted online when he was just an AFOL. His designs were subsequently bought by TLG and, I believe, he joined the company. Quite a few minifigures in the CMF line are based on those designs. For some years, AFOLs have been using the connection between minifigure hips/legs and torsos to add custom accessories at the waist. TLG didn't start doing it until just a few years ago (2014, I think). Now, LEGO tails, belts and skirts that attach at the waist are fairly common, but that wasn't true until recently. Could it be a case of coincidental invention? Perhaps, but I doubt it.
  14. AmperZand
    While I don't deny it's a possibility, I've never seen a minifigure that showed the kind of damage you might expect from sebum. If LEGO were susceptible to skin secretion, parts would have indelible finger prints. I'm not aware of permanent finger prints being commonplace, not even where you would most expect them, namely on older and second-hand parts. If it were an issue, it would be widely known and discussed in fora such as this one just as the problem of discolouration is. The fact that few if any discussions of finger print removal and damage repair exist suggests that it's a non-issue.
  15. AmperZand
    This thread discusses the effects of temperature and temperature change on LEGO. It seems that ABS parts aren't affected by temperature extremes (-30 to +60C) except, possibly, to loosen clutch. Humidity in itself should have no effect on ABS parts according to this thread. I mentioned in that thread that any mould is removable with vinegar followed by a rinse of distilled or soft water (which is what tap water is in Japan) and then dried. I don't think print would be affected by temperature or humidity, but both can permanently damage stickers. I'm not sure what the effect of both are on rubbery parts. I'm not sure whether vinegar will remove mould from rubber parts and if it does, if it will damage the pieces.
  16. AmperZand
    I have reason to believe that what TLG told you is wrong as far as ABS minifig parts are concerned. I have been an AFOL since 1993 and still have the minifigures I got back then. Apart from some discolouration of the white and grey parts, they're still in perfect condition. There's no sign of the kind of damage that skin oil acids can cause to other materials such as some metals. As I said in my last post, ABS is pretty acid resistant.
  17. AmperZand
    This topic has definitely been covered on the EB boards before. If there's a friendly mod around, perhaps they could merge this thread with the last one. If not, here are a couple of errors: Powerful is misspelt "powerfull" with two l's on this tile which appeared in three sets. One of the Vikings sets is variously shown with either one viking minifigure such as on the cover of the instructions or two minifigures such as on the box art and inside the instructions. If memory serves, the set actually came with two minifigures so the cover of the instructions and various promotional publications were wrong.
  18. AmperZand
    I'm as susceptible as anyone to "the cult of the new" when it comes to minifigures and bigfigs, prone to oohing and ahhing over LEGO's latest creations. But sometimes I don't get that feeling and find older versions better than newer ones. Here are some examples: This is my favourite Joker (though with the big smile on the double printed head, not the smirk pictured), not the forthcoming one. And here is the Hulk I like most, not this one that came out a year later. I like this Spider-Man more than this one despite it being 10 years older. The ghosts I prefer are this one followed by this one. The more recent CMF one is cool too and I have one in my display collection with a different head, but the ones with the white shrouds are top of my list of phantoms. I realise that these preferences are entirely subjective and that opinions will vary, but was wondering what older versions or minifigures, bigfigs and moulded creatures other FOLs prefer to newer versions. Are there any that have disappointed you or do you always like the latest ones most?
  19. AmperZand
    I think the hair is this, the torso this, the arms & hands these and the legs & hips these. There are four different heads. Perhaps this comes closest to step 4's.
  20. AmperZand
    In a word: Marilith!
  21. AmperZand
    Excluding some national archetypes and licensed characters, I don't think there are any clean-shaven long-haired male minifigures, and not too many with moobs either. Is that sexist towards men? No, it isn't. It just helps differentiate the sexes. 2014's Research Institute has three scientists, all of them female. The 2017 Police (City) sets have roughly equal numbers of male and female good guys (cops) but many more male bad guys (robbers). Those are just two of a myriad of examples proving that LEGO isn't sexist. In fact, LEGO is pretty politically 'correct'.
  22. AmperZand
    I was going to say that I didn't know about the possible effects of Play-Doh, but Mr Greeble has answered that. With regards to the possible effects of Blu Tack, there is already a very recent thread about that in this forum.
  23. AmperZand
    It's not really a competition despite the way I may have cast it . I just wanted to encourage others to post too. If you want to think of it as two categories, purist and non-purist, I'm fine with that. I can see why comparing non-purist with purist minifigures could seem unfair. There's no way using only LEGO of creating my bird-man ghost. But the others could be closely approximated using nothing but LEGO. The blood underneath the zombie girl's basket could be done with trans red 1 x 1 round tiles for example. And the only non-LEGO part of the four-armed oni is his head; there's probably a LEGO equivalent with equally sinister eyes - I just don't have one. You could be right about that! Any representation of JJB is troubling.
  24. AmperZand
    With Halloween rapidly approaching, I thought I'd share the scariest minifigures ever! Most of these are MOCs, but one, the mutant Dr O'Neil, was as sold in the TMNT range. How TLG thought such a creepy minifigure was suitable for kids is a mystery. Anyway, here are my contenders for the freakiest minifigures of all time: Don't think they're that scary? Let's see your spooky minifigures - purist or not!
  25. AmperZand
    Thanks, Giantorange!
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