AmperZand

I'm not sure they're available anywhere in the UK yet except TLG brand stores. I tried JL and WHS today with no luck. According to JL, they won't have them until some time next month. Useless! It could be that TLG UK realised that there's a surge of initial demand and want to capitalise on it. Not sure the reseller network including WHS and JL will be too thrilled about having their supply delayed to TLG's advantage.

The functional play features of the classic space ship such as the detachable front and wing tips that separate to form small crafts remind me of MB's Starbird from the late 1970s/early 1980s. My suspicions would be confirmed if the rear section contained an escape pod which seems possible under the flip-up radar dish. If you're wondering what a Starbird is, see here: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Bird

Interesting topic. I'm with jonwil in wanting more blonde male hair pieces. I'm not a mod, but I'm thinking this thread should be in the Minifig Customisation Workshop forum, not General.

He-Man and Battle-Cat are brilliant! I would not have imagined that Battle-Cat could be MOCed, but you've done a great job. Instantly recognisable.

For the last few series, I bought a whole box, kept the ones I wanted and gave the ones I didn't to my nephews or sold them at cost to fellow AFOLs. I don't think I'll be doing that this time though as there are so few from this series that I want.

A very useful review. Thanks, Clone O'Patra. The barbican is well designed but not worth the £25 asking price. I'll only consider it if I can get it for 40%+ off.

Wardancer, Custom Crazy do some nice parts. Their modular hafts and weapon heads are particularly clever. I used a couple of the morning star heads and some LEGO parts to created a double-headed flail for my cave troll. I ought to take a picture of it. KingPixels, Yes, the hair is BrickForge. Amps

Wardancer, It's a bit of a trick question because TLG is indeed one of the companies. And you're exactly right about which other parts aren't TLG: the legs, weapon's handle, and hair. But the hair isn't BW. Here's a massive clue: if you don't know which company made which parts, I've already given the answer in another AFOL online forum. Find the forum and you'll have the answer! Amps

If the print on a minifig's back needs to be hidden to make the front usable, then that torso isn't "particularly well suited to being used back-to-front" (to quote from my opening post). "Particularly well suited to being used" and "usable" aren't coterminous.

In Europe where I'm from and where LEGO is from women have breasts on their front, not their backs. So a minifig torso with a bust couldn't be reversed just by swapping the arms as I suggested in my opening post. Of course, women in the US where you're from might be different with breasts on their back, not their fronts. I really wouldn't know.

Here are some Gundabad goblins I created from those in the Mirkwood Elf Army set. The one in the front has parts from five companies. One of them is BrickWarriors. Kudos if you can name the other four!

Is there a list anywhere of which minifig torsos are particularly well suited to being used back-to-front? If not, what are your suggestions? If you're wondering what I'm talking about, please take a look at the Mirkwood elf with the spear on the right of this picture: His front was originally his back, but the back print matches up with the leg print, so it was an easy way of creating a variant. All I had to do was swap the arms. (And for the perceptive among you, yes, all the minifigs in the picture do have yellow skin including their ears and neckline.)

There's nothing in the book or the films to suggest a two-headed uruk. Just a child of my imagination. I guess that if Saruman could breed orcs that were larger and more resistant to sunlight than their mundane kin, it's not too far-fetched to imagine that Saruman might throw a few mutations into the mix.

I live in the UK and have been to Australia and have never heard an 'r' added to a word ending in 'a'. Making an 'r' sound requires a particular action of the tongue whatever your accent and no such action is taken in the UK or Australia. Back to the original question: the staff at the Lego store nearest me pronounce it "nin jago" but I pronounce it "ninja go". The theme revolves around ninja and, as such, the word should be preserved in the theme's name.

Sure, quite a few people will buy their stuff at full price, but many won't. I bought MEA when I was at the Lego store in Paris last week but only because I had some spare euros. If I hadn't had those euros, I would have waited for it to be discounted on Amazon or Argos. I reckon it will eventually come down to £22/$36. If you consider that that includes tax at 20%, the discounted price here excluding tax will eventually be the same at the MSRP in the US. And most US states/cities have a sales tax. Of course, it may eventually be discounted in the US as well...

Really cool minifigs! I don't go in for fleshies myself and swap them for yellow parts. I'm surprised all the BF parts weren't perfect. I've generally found their quality and design to be equal or superior to TLG's. Where did you get the custom Thors? Do you have a link?

Don't think either BrickForge or BrickWarriors sell BrickArms parts. As far as I know, BF and BW have only ever sold their own ranges. That said, BF may have had a cross-promotion with Arealight at one stage, but I'm not certain about that.

I bought a Mirkwood Elf Army from the Lego store in Paris this week. I was going to wait until it was discounted on Amazon but as I was there and had some Euros burning a hole in my pocket, I gave into temptation. Last Friday, I was given a couple of the promotional Mirkwood Elves that were being given away with the Hobbit: TDoS movie tickets. I've seen them described as a polybagged promotion, but they're not actually in polybags. The bag is just a plain zip-lock. It does come with a card explaining what the minifig is though. The minifig itself is identical to the hooded one in MEA, so nice but nothing special.

Drizzt Do'Urden. Oh, and can I third the suggestion of an armoured female torso? And not just a print but an actual part.

I tend to mod official sets and try to keep the changes sympathetic to the original. I might verge on the boundaries of what TLG might do in the density/variety of parts. But I suspect a non-FOL wouldn't be able to tell where TLG's contribution ended and mine began. An example of one of my mods can be seen in the Dragon Mountain modification thread in the Historic Themes forum here on EB.

What a great creation! I especially like the way you created the mosaic on the floor. Am I right that you set pieces on their side to make the pattern? If so, that's ingenious.

Do you mean something like this...?

I have quite a few smaller sets in unopened boxes/polybags for the spare parts. The oldest unopened one I have is the 1997 Shark Attack, set 6599-1 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?S=6599-1 . I bought it about 10 years ago when I was building up my undersea world. I had bought the same sharks that are in that set on Ebay but as they were described as "used", I wasn't sure they would be in good condition. Before they arrived in the post, a mint-in-box 6599-1 came up for sale on Ebay that I managed to get for a surprisingly reasonable price. It turns out that the used sharks were in very good condition, so I never needed the 6599-1 set.

Thanks, Luke. Yes, Captain, Legolas's ears are indeed yellow. I used a Sharpie plus a coat of Humbrol satin for permanency. I generally don't go in for re-colouring parts, but I prefer it to fleshy bits.

Arealight does curved torsos: http://www.arealightcustoms.com/shop/Curved-Torso/