AmperZand

I understand your concerns about cost. If you're equipping a large army, the cost can quickly mount up especially if you're outside the US and have to pay shipping, duty and other taxes on top of the purchase price. Though not mentioned by you, I also appreciate that some AFOLs feel that they would be compromising the purity of their collection if they used third party products. I'm surprised by your concerns about quality. The main third party providers such as BrickWarriors, BrickForge and BrickArms and quite a few smaller providers such as BrickFortress produce LEGO-quality parts. You can find out which providers are most trustworthy through forums such as this one.

Yesterday, I received the City Watch parts I ordered. They're even cooler in real life than they appear online. I was afraid the halberds might be disproportionately large but they're fine.

The preference that boys show for stereotypically male toys and girls for stereotypically female toys isn't the result of social influences; it's biological. That's not an opinion. It's a statement of fact. When young children in cultures that don't have the gender associations found in industrialised societies are given a choice of toys, boys still have a preference for playing with toy lorries and girls still have a preference for playing with dolls. But perhaps those studies are flawed and even in societies where they don't have real lorries, boys are somehow still socially influenced to prefer toy lorries. So what happens when you minimise social influences? What happens when you test the biological basis not on humans, but on infant chimpanzees raised in captivity? Well it turns out that chimpanzees show the same gender preferences that their human counterparts do. Is that to do with their interactions with humans? The jury is still out on that one but preliminary evidence from primatologists indicates that infant female chimps in the wild use sticks as dolls. Infant male chimps in the wild don't show the same behaviour. It's getting close to impossible to maintain the fiction that preferences for stereotypically male or female toys don't have a basis in biology. Of course, just because a behaviour or preference is biologically driven, it doesn't necessarily mean it should be encouraged. We're biologically driven to like sweet, fatty foods, but in industrialised societies, most people don't need the extra calories and their excessive consumption is harmful and shouldn't be supported. So can we "rewire" the brains of children through socialisation to have androgynous preferences? Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), for ethical reasons, we can't conduct studies to determine that. But there are researchers who have tried it on their own kids, most famously Sandra Bem. And it turns out that attempts to influence the gender-associated preferences of children through socialisation don't work. As the old adage goes: boys will be boys. Should TLG try anyway? TLG is a business. They may do lots of great charitable and educational work, but without sales - mostly to kids - they would not exist. As a business, there is only so much they can do to combat prevailing gender preferences. My guess is that TLG has done market research to simulate the effect on sales of having more gender "neutral" sets such as police sets where half the minifigs are female or smaller police sets where the only minifigure is a WPC. My guess is that they have found that it would only slightly increase sales to girls and hugely decrease sales to boys. As much as TLG might like to counter prevailing gender preferences, commercially they simply can't.

If you're willing to use third party pieces, i.e. non-purist parts, you might want to consider helmets such as the one on the right head in this picture: Or the back one in this picture:

There's a tutorial and discussion on this topic already on EB. You can find it here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=25491

Very funny! And the way the workman reflects the sign behind him is a nice touch. Nice one.

I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect it's fairly straightforward and not too costly for TLG to produce a new colour. On the other hand, maintaining a colour in lots of different parts probably is expensive. So TLG can produce a part in a new colour if a set requires it, but once the production for that set ends, so does the colour. It doesn't get revived unless a specific set needs a part in that colour.

I also got mine some years ago when the prices were more reasonable. I wouldn't get them at today's prices. It's a cool piece but not worth the inflated asking price you see them for now.

I have a mis-moulded hair/beard piece from the Collectible Minifigure caveman. It has chunks missing, making it look mangy. I got it new from TLG. It works well as a zombie hairpiece. I also have a red wizard's hat. It's definitely LEGO but was never included in a set as far as I know. You can see it on the Red Wizard on the left of this picture: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/AmperZand/Fantasy/wizards_witch_and_druid.jpg My oldest parts only date back to the early 1990s when I came out of my DA, so not very old.

The reason that WHS puts them behind the counter is that people - mostly kids - steal them. If you're an AFOL, go when they're quiet, ask the manager politely and offer to stand out of people's way, I'd be surprised if they turned down your request. If they do, you can buy a whole bunch, feel them at home and return the ones you don't want. As long as you have the receipt and the returned packets are unopened, WHS will give you a full refund. There is a time limit but it's fairly generous. Depending on how many boxes they have, how long you take and various other considerations, you may not even be denying fellow FOLs the opportunity to get the ones they want by taking loads home.

Mordor especially if the orcs are new and varied, and led by the Witch King of Angmar.

Not exactly the same thing, but I once called the nearest Lego brand store to me to find out if they had the latest CMF series in stock. They told me that they did and asked me which ones I was after. They then offered to search for the ones I wanted ahead of my arrival and reserve them for me. I didn't take them up on the offer as I wasn't certain I could make it to the store but thought it was very kind of them.

The movie CMFs are finally available from WHSmith. They're £2.49 each. The WHS in Kingston has 4 boxes. Turns out one of the cashiers is an AFOL and a couple of the managers wanted specific minifigs for their KFOLs. In return for finding the minifigs they were after, they gave me one free. How cool is that? Amps

They're finally available from WHSmith for £2.49 each. The WHS in Kingston has 4 boxes. Turns out one of the cashiers is an AFOL and a couple of the managers wanted specific minifigs for their KFOLs. In return for finding the minifigs they were after, they gave me one free. How cool is that? Amps

I find the Brickshow tolerable in small doses. I usually watch their reviews of sets I'm considering alongside other reviews on YouTube. Brickshow's delivery is too shouty. I also find them annoyingly inarticulate with far too many misnomers and lazy descriptions. I'm surprised that the most popular reviews on YouTube are so amateurish.

Really? I haven't seen Argos's 2014 paper catalogue yet, but according to their site, the movie minifigs will be £2.29 each, not £2.50 when they become available.

As a fan of historical/fantasy minifigs, I wish TLG did: - a burning candle - a lute - a lantern - a main-gauche - a pilgrim's hat - a dark brown musketeer's hat

Sometimes a set may be officially available worldwide, but much easier to find in one country than another. Fortunately, if you live in a country where a set is either not available or hard to find, you can find sellers online who will ship to you. They may charge a premium but at least you can get it. When I was a KFOL, people didn't have computers at home and there was no internet. You probably didn't know what sets weren't available in your country, and if you did, you would struggle to get foreign sets unless you had friends & family abroad.

Very cool! The shower curtain and plumbing are particularly well done.

Excellent detailing! I especially like the quoins and cyclopean walls. Amps

There's a Monster Fighters polybag from 2012 with a grandfather clock, set 30201-1: http://www.brickset.com/detail/?set=30201-1 Don't know if that helps.

Funny you should say that. Since I took the picture, I removed the tear. So he's still sad, but not tearful. And secretly, he's delighted he's not a fleshy.

I can't stand fleshies but do like the LotR/Hobbit sets (as well as Castle for the last 20+ years), so I replaced the heads and hands, and recoloured the ears and neck-lines as seen here: and here:

Most things that develop a mouldy odour can have the smell removed through exposure to sunlight. However, this method should never be used on LEGO as sunlight yellows it. If your LEGO develops a musty or damp smell: Remove the smelly LEGO from any non-smelling parts Dry out your storage space as advised by BTHodgeman above Remove any visible mould from the smelly LEGO using your fingers and a soft cloth. Dispose of soft cloth afterwards. Loosely wrap the LEGO in uncoated, crumpled paper. Newspaper will do. Place a tumble dryer sheet next to the crumpled paper but not touching the LEGO. Place all (the LEGO, crumpled paper and tumble dryer sheet) in an air-tight plastic bag and leave in a dark, dry place for 1-3 months. Check LEGO for smell. If it's still there, repeat from step 3 with fresh paper and tumble dryer sheet.

Yes. I'm also disappointed by that, but thanks to Whitefang's review, I already knew it. I won't be after the Lincoln minifig.