AmperZand

It's most obvious on Aragorn. His shirt is grey but should be brown. Conversely, his inner jacket is brown but should be grey. You can tell that it isn't just a trick of the light because the legs appear fine. I agree with Edmond Dantes that it may be worth hanging onto Aragorn's colour-inverted torso.

Scrib, I came out of my dark ages in 1993 thanks to a wizard set and a Castle accessory pack I bought at Boswells or "Bozies" as we used to call it. I don't live in Oxford anymore but have fond memories of Bozies. Everyone else, Apologies for the off-topic post. Amps

Please be aware that if your order is stopped by customs, you won't just have VAT to pay on the value of the goods. There's also duty to pay. And both VAT and duty are levied on the postage as well. But that's not all: the Post Office slaps an £8 "processing fee" on top. I won't comment on the taxes and charges as it's probably against the forum's rules to do so. Incidentally, Argos is taking advanced reservations for the LotR sets for collection later this week.

Join SilentMode, another AFOL and me at John Lewis Oxford St London on 5 July for an opportunity to swap (and buy identified) Olympic minifigures. We'll be convening at the Toy Department on the 4th floor at 6.30pm. If you arrive late, we may have moved up to the café on the 5th floor. Please post below if you'll be there. If there are any minifigures you're particularly after or spares you have to trade, please post that, too. Hope to see you Thursday, Amps

As a lover of LotR and of LEGO minifigures but a hater of fleshies, I have resigned myself to trying the Sharpie method of yellowing offending neck lines and ears. I intend to protect the yellowed areas with satin coat. But I'll be testing it all on a redundant fleshy part first. Since the images of the LotR minifigs were released, I've been buying heads mostly through BrickLink that might make good replacements. I'm not necessarily aiming for yellow equivalents of the fleshies. Rather, I'm trying to capture the essence of the characters and their predicaments as described by Tolkien and portrayed by Jackson.

Yes, they should. As far as I know, since Victorian times, clans and regiments have each been associated with one tartan each and no one mix 'n' matched. More offensive though, is the minifigure's underpants. Real Scotsmen don't wear anything under their kilts.

Great thread! What a cool topic. As a fantasy/history minifig collector, my favourites are mostly ones that TLG hadn't done before plus a few they re-imagined. In order of preference: 1. Elf 2. Ocean king (Neptune/Poseidon) 3. Genie 4. Minotaur 5. Musketeer 6. Evil knight 7. Spartan 8. Werewolf 9. Gnome 10. Zombie 11. Viking woman 12. Leprechaun 13. Evil dwarf 14. Aztec warrior I really hope the rumours are true that there will be a fairy in S8. I'm also keeping my fingers crossed for a faun/satyr in a subsequent series.

Completely agree about the elf: to my mind the best CMF so far. Arguably, the 2002 Studios vampire wasn't TLG's first. For one thing, it was supposed to be an actor dressed as a vampire. Admittedly, most AFOLs that I know treat it as an actual vampire - I have one and consider it as a vampire, not a thespian. For another thing, the Bat Lord from the 1997 Fright Knights range is pretty vampiric. I don't think that TLG ever described him explicitly as a vampire, but I'm pretty sure that's what they had in mind (link to BlickLink catalogue entry: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?M=cas022 ). I've got one of those, too.

I don't speak Czech and will gladly defer to anyone who does, but in most Slavic languages ending a noun in 'a' (or 'ka') feminises it. So it looks like we're talking about a bride for the vampire in Series 2. I'm guessing she will be fairly similar to the Monster Hunters vampiress, but that is pure conjecture.

A few animals that LEGO has done but I don't think have been mentioned in the opening article or in this thread: - Manta ray - Crab - Alligator/Crocodile - Ant - Clam - Sawfish The reason that TLG has done pigs but not sheep is that pig farming and its products such as bacon are more common than sheep farming and its products such as lamb and wool in Denmark. I suspect there will be a re-issue of the City bear later this year or some time next year but in a different colour. I don't want to reveal any spoilers but my suspicion stems from a creature in The Hobbit. My personal wish-list of animals would be full of fantasy ones. But of real-world animals, I'd most like to see: - Lion/lioness/other great cat especially if it could be ridden like a horse - Eagle/hawk/falcon/other bird of prey - Giant turtle - Anaconda/large snake - Hippopotamus Incidentally, for a non-purists, BrickForge does a cool sheep as well as other animals. I have a number of their animals and they are extremely well sculpted (more Legoey than Lego!) and made. -

Great review and pictures, SilentMode! "To be honest, I'm not really sure why this set exists." Kinda says it all. While I'm generally positively inclined towards TLG as a company, I really can't stand brands and stores that 'sterlingise'. Yes, I know UK prices include VAT at 20% and US prices exclude sales tax, but there's no justification for it. It's not as if the £ and $ are close to parity. Sorry for the rant. Amps

Conceptually, very cool! I especially like the colour scheme of the red and blue knight. And no, your MOCs aren't older than me! In fact, a couple of years ago I was chatting with some fellow AFOLs. One asked when I came out of my dark ages. I hadn't thought about it before so had to figure it out. "About 1993," I said, "so not so long ago." I got funny looks from some of the AFOLs present; then I realised that in 1993, they would have been (small) kids. I was already well into adulthood by then! Amps

Ryman is selling 12-Sharpie sets for the special price of £4.99. What's that got to do with AFOLs? The set includes the yellow one that can turn nasty, iconoclastic fleshies into lovely yellowies. I've seen the same set at WHSmith for £12, so £5 is a good price. Apologies if this is the wrong place for this post. And for the record, I have no financial interest in Ryman. I'm just strongly philo-yellow. Amps

A chance to trade Series 7 minifigures. We'll be meeting at the Toy Department of John Lewis, Oxford Street at 6.00pm on Monday. Please indicate you'll be coming by posting below. I have lots of carefully opened extras as I bought a whole box. I'm looking for an Ocean King or two. Someone else who'll be there is looking for Romans from the previous series. Hope to see you there, AmperZand

Perhaps a bit OT in which case I apologise, but Series 7 is now available in the UK. I picked up the Valkyrie, bride, bagpiper and jungle boy earlier today. Amps

Not me. As a yellowist, I would rather the hobbits had no printing than fleshy printing. I would only agree with you if the skin tone were yellow, but that isn't going to happen as this is a licensed range. Amps

Thanks, Lyichir, particularly for the nail varnish tip. I hadn't thought of that. It might make for an interesting conversation when I buy it though... Me: I'd like some bright yellow nail polish, please. Shop assistant (hesitantly): For you, sir? Me (indignantly): No, for an elf. Shop asst (confused look) Me: For his ears. They used to be pink until I rubbed them with metal polish. Now they're yellow. Shop asst: And that's good? Me: Oh yeah, that's great but they need to be even yellower than his hair. So I'm coating them in nail polish. Shop asst (backs away towards phone to call security) Apologies for that OT interlude. I couldn't help myself. Amps

Does anyone know or want to guess whether Legolas's hair-and-ears piece is yellow ABS with flesh painted ears or flesh ABS with yellow painted hair? I'm hoping the former so that I can remove the flesh paint from the ears to get a completely yellow piece. In case you hadn't guessed, I'm a yellowist, i.e. an anti-fleshist. Thanks in advance for any info or your best guess. Amps

Perhaps because of me: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1770027 I suspect that if you don't like the double cape, you'll be able to exclude one (if they are two separate capes) or cut part out (if it's one cape folded over). Amps

General Magma said: "Attack of the Witch King: Minifigs: Éowyn (armored), Merry (armored), 2 Riders of Rohan, King Théoden and the Witch-king of Angmar." Congratulations to General Magma for being the first person in this thread or the other to propose this scene as a set without forgetting Merry! If you don't include Merry, the point of the scene is totally lost. Amps

Totally agree. While I'm thrilled to bits that they're doing LotR LEGO, fleshy heads, hands and neck-lines are a disappointment. I'd dearly love for TLG to do conversion add-on sets with just the heads, hands and torsos in yellow, but realistically, I can't imagine TLG ever doing them. Amps

Hello Johnny, I don't know the answer but I do know something about how collection records are set as I was called upon by Guinness to officiate over a collection record claim (a non-Lego one). Guinness stipulates that collections must have been accumulated over a period of time and can't include duplicates unless the item being collected is normally in multiple quantities, e.g. socks or earrings. So some rich person couldn't buy a vast number of the same minifig from TLG and be awarded the record by Guinness. Amps

Hello, foolio and vgsprites, I'm going to be at the Aria Resort & Casino Citycenter. I'm happy to sell them at UK cost, which is to say US$3 each. I currently have the following spares that I have carefully opened just to be 100% sure of what they were: Cleopatra (x2) Gangster (x1) Lumberjack (x1) Graduate (x1) Are there any in particular you're interested in either from the list above or others? I can try to track others down. Please let me know soon. Amps

I'm going to be in central Vegas Sunday, 7 August and could bring some Series 5 minifigs from the UK. Would be happy to sell them at cost if you're willing to meet me at one of the main casinos. Please PM me soon if you're interested. I'm not sure I'll have online access while I'm in the US but we can make arrangements ahead of time. Apologies, by the way, if I should have posted this in the minifigs trading thread but I wanted to give our Series 5 deprived cousins in Nevada the chance to see this in time. Amps

Hello, SilentMode, Do you mean Sunday 24th? I think I can make that. I have a BF scooter for you. The only trouble is that it's in storage while I move home and I don't expect to have access to it, the rest of my extras and most of my collection until October or November. Let me know if you did mean Sun 24th and if so, what time. Take care, Amps