brickzone

Thanks for all your comments and observations! m'kheyl: I have thought about doing such a thing. I don't have a lot of small plates for detail - but I have lots of large and medium plates - so I'll see what I can do. You can see my initial attempts on my "What does your April Fool do for a living" contest entry here. Also - I did have MMP for at least a month before doing anything - and even then my initial church model wasn't really a proper extension of the village. It was two months later before I added some real MMP-style buildings. eti: You're right that some more colour and it would fit in better, but I think probably there isn't much scope for it. I think the model itself wouldn't look so good with another colour of roof (nevermind the fact that I doubt I could manage any other colour other than black). Cap'n Blackmoor: The upside down flail is an incense burner/disperser (don't know the exact name). At least, that's the idea. I admit it's stretching things a bit, but I wanted to give him something else! Zepher: The inside is indeed squashed - I narrowed the church profile by four studs from the earlier church I made. However, to acheive the same building shape, I would have had to make the walls taller, and I didn't have scope to increase the window heights (due to their construction method and a lack of any more trans 1x1 or 1x2 plates - i.e. not round). In any case it isn't so bad when opened out! Landscaping the village will be my first proper attempt at landscaping - so it may not be done for a while (plus I really want to finish my Lego Agents Base - it just needs interior fit-out).

I had some input from an expert, who suggests that an *ordinary* (i.e. not Lego-ified) battery of this type might be in the region of €35 for *bulk* purchase from <random-asian-supplier>. Apparently it's fairly high spec, and you would need some electronics inside to control the charging*, as well as it being two units in one for the 7.4V. As such, the Lego price is probably not surprising, and only slightly on the high end of what could be expected (Up to €10 less might be reasonable, but probably not including development costs for "Lego-ifying" and getting manufacturer/supplier chain). It's still something I had not myself anticipated - and although I still plan on getting Emerald Night, I now have a tough choice as to whether to get the power functions gear as well or not. Probably not, as the money would go a long way to ordinary Lego or just day to day living expenses, even if I was just paying the UK price. *Presumably the alternative is the unit going "kaboom" under certain charging situations.

My jester? Why, he races cattle of course! The village custom is to wave food items at the crazy cow racers (although the poor old man doesn't even have a drink to wave, and one of the soldiers seems to have picked up something very fresh). A great day for all, although mind you, that Orc has a vicious temper... why do you think the villagers have food on hand - to placate him of course! The jester is a crazy rider and usually wins - one theory is that the bells on his hat spur the cattle on! Yes, the lady with the knife is slightly unnerving - although the way that peasant woman is waving the apples is a bit unbalancing too!

I have opened quite a number of sets recently mind you where the stickers are tucked safely into the instruction book, or even one instruction book tucked inside another as well as the stickers. A better packaging solution is needed though. It doesn't help many ordinary consumers who don't know about it - but Lego customer service does replace broken or missing parts - and as far as I know, this extends to stickers and instruction books. You can do this online on the Lego website.

Shocking prices, although it seems there are a few new elements (was the princess hair always available?). €1.34 is terrible for torsos!

Yes, I forgot to mention that one of the local shops here, "Art & Hobby" just stocked the mail van this year. The main toy chain Smyth's has had it since last year. No problems with availability "on the ground" here in Ireland yet.

Well, I took time out from my Lego Agents Base construction to revisit my MMP church. I decided to build a new church, incorporating the same hinging arrangement and stained glass. One incidental goal was to reclaim the black roof bricks (I'd run out). I succeeded in adapting my arch arrangements over the stained glass to allow me to have two-wide walls instead of three-wide on the front and sides. Once I had built the main part of the church, the nave, I was stuck on how to proceed with the chancel at the rear. My intention had been to have a tower of some kind (I was considering bell tower). I also ran into problems with the projection on the roof - meaning I had to make the chancel area taller. Considering I had previously wanted to have a simplistic older design of church, it struck me to attempt to make the church "Norman-like". So it became simplicity to stick on a simple tower room with crenallations. There are certain design errors in my church for it to be a proper Norman one, but it gives the right feel. Such churches were later extended to have a transcept and choir - i.e. into a cross shape, but they started out much like my model! Without further ado - the photos: (click for large image) (click for large image) View of the church in the surrounding village: View of the rear of the church: (click for large image) View of the church in the village from this side. From left to right - original MMP buildings, my brother's Alchemist MOC, my bakery MOC and my apothecary MOC. (click for large image) Interior view. I found myself limited concerning a priest minifig - so I made a kind of monk-type figure: (click for large image) (click for large image) There is an opening cupboard behind the altar, and some rungs beside it to reach the tower (I wouldn't like to use this method in person - but it was the best I could arrange): View from the top of the tower, through the hatch to the room below: Interior view of the tower room. You can see I ran out of dark bley tiles! Looking down to the chancel below: Hope you enjoyed looking at this little MOC. Just for comparison - here is the old church: In retrospect it looked more like a small rural church from maybe 19thC?

There was a certain stage when I came out of my "Dark Ages" where I was a bit embarrassed about the quantities of Lego I was buying (I collected a *lot* of old "wanted" sets off ebay in addition to keeping up with new sets). However, I'm now mostly finished with ebay, I only rarely bricklink, and a couple times of year get some of the new sets, and then just the occasional impulse or sale buy. That's quite a lot, but it's nothing compared to a particular couple of weeks when it seemed there were parcels delivered daily - I'd come home at the weekend and find a whole bunch waiting! My friends do find it somewhat amusing, but we all have our own disparate interests - and others cost more than Lego! I think for the most part us guys have it fairly easy - it's expected that men have hobbies, some quite eccentric (Lego is not remotely high up the list!) Indeed I think it's usually regarded as better for guys to have some particular interest rather than being Joe TV viewer (apologies to soap-a-holics etc. in the audience). Anyway, my family are all into Lego too now (dark ages ended all round).

It's a cute little set, and I'm disappointed if it indeed didn't sell well. The US situation maybe is a factor, but that is even more disappointing - it's not as though I'd really want Lego's range of products to be dictated by US tastes! Besides, I think the yellow and red is far more attractive than USPS colour scheme. I've a vague notion of making a post van in green - the colour used here in Ireland (unsurprisingly enough). However, I'd need to get some parts off bricklink, and even then the part selection in green may complicate matters. The local postman uses a small Peugeot van that could be approximated using those curved roof parts (such as used for the police car roof). A post office would have been nice, but realistically, I don't expect to see one from Lego anytime soon. Maybe one of the modular buildings could be a GPO - that would be great!

I'd like a new, "more clever", car door part, including a window. It would have to hinge similarly to the existing car doors, and would be "panel width" wide, but would have a window atop it (i.e. just window, no frame). If it clipped on to the bottom part of the door (not sure how) you could have different window colours and even shapes. As car doors already "stick out" due to the handle, there is maybe scope for making them "fatter" on the outside, so you would have sufficient width to allow a slot for a window part to clip into on the top edge. Just thinking out loud - surely the clever Lego designers could come up with something. For having so many small model vehicles, there seems to be a distinct lack of suitable parts. Even two of the wheel arches pieces that work well are very recent additions indeed. We need more windscreen/window types and perhaps one or two shaped side body panel parts (like a modified tile, and can be applied SNOT to the car).

€240 for the complete collection here in Ireland, compared to €220 for Germany. Woohoo... I may well try to organise something about getting it from the UK - £160 (~€175), or even just £68.50 for the train (€75). Plus cheaper shipping. I could even factor in postage from someone in the UK and still have a cheaper deal! I'm tempted to forgo the power functions kit altogether though and just get the train.

No theoretically about it! I have to pay €15 shipping here in Ireland as well for the privilege of buying the €102 set!

I think the 3-in-1 Creator sets are a pretty reasonable offering. I sometimes liked the look of the alternate models on old sets, but I think overall the concept only sort-of-worked. The most recent one I recollect is the one for the Viking Ship - I did consider trying to build that one. The instructions online for combined models are a reasonable alternative too. It would be awesome though to include a giant model using parts from all sets in a theme. I'm sure for Castle for example you could do that (including all sets still available).

Looks great, although I would omit the beard piece - the scraggly printed beard on that head probably sufficiently reflects the description in the books! I'd love to have one of those red wizzard hats though!

I would like a few more printed parts, but by and large, I'm not opposed to having stickers. Much of the time it adds extra flair to sets, and the alternative would simply be no stickers rather than printed parts. I usually apply all the stickers, but occasionally I don't for parts I don't otherwise have, and when I have duplicates of a set or have bought a set for parts. Even then I may apply some stickers - the Grand Prix Speed Racer set I got on sale I applied most stickers except TV screen and advertising - the latter I might apply later if I have surplus 1x2x5 white columns. I put my stickered parts in the same sorting bin/tub as my printed parts and use them in the same way. Almost all offer possibilities for custom usage. I do not like stickers over assemblies, but I still apply them and just keep the assembly complete (e.g. for the police station stickers over two 1x2x5 columns, I store them held together with 1x4 plates top and bottom).

It looks awesome. This may join the select few games I have for DS (one of the others being Lego Star Wars). I find the DS invaluable for planes/airport, trains and any waiting around to be done - but a game like this I may even spend some time at home on (even if it could be used for Lego building!) I'll have to wait for the budget price though - I seldom play a computer game long enough to justify paying the original price tag. I can't believe I missed this piece of news. It has the potential for a lot of fun if the promo stuff is anything to go by. A teaser for Lego Universe?

I saw a lot of discounted Spongebob sets in dept. stores in Munich when I was there last Christmas (incidentally I didn't pick up the boating school for €20 as despite the value, I figured I'd rather spend the money on new sets. Besides, another store had City Airport for €30, although even that I passed on). On the flip side, toy stores here in Ireland are stocking truckloads of Spongebob sets *for the first time* this year. Seems a bit crazy if the line will end (even if it doesn't it seems odd to suddenly stock so much so late in the theme's life after stocking none of it so far). Incidentally not much sign of the stock shifting, but it can be hard to tell (one of the main stores has large inventory and keeps the shelves well stocked at all times). Still, by contrast you can tell from intermittant gaps appearing and prominent displays that Pirates and Power Miners seem to be popular and Agents is almost sold out! So it's not in the same league as those for sure!

Yellow from the Creator house I got here in Ireland last year seemed fairly standard. Just a slightly different look caused by the new plastic (glossier) - no bad thing because it probably means the new bricks will stay looking newish - old yellow bricks look drab even in near mint condition. I have noticed more significant colour differences with the 1x1 plate with clip, but those have at various times been different plastic (softer) and indeed I have older ones from 1980s (I think) that didn't match old yellow lego bricks either.

An excellent animation, I really enjoyed it! The minutiae of the minifig movements are very well done! I particularly liked the waving space flower/plant and the flags used as tentacle/hands for the aliens. It must have been quite a bit of work! The production quality does seem very high indeed too! Green is a useful colour - it was great when it finally became available in greater quantities of brick. Even in early 1980s you could get green plates in particular in sets, but green brick was still a rarity despite that - even the Octan sets were a novelty for me and my siblings because of all the smaller narrow green plates they provided!

I was under the impression that the "pearl" colours are *supposed* to have the swirling shades throughout. Just as actual pearls have. Maybe I'm mistaken. In any case, I quite like the effect, and any of the less "swirly" pieces I have just look like megabloks or something in my opinion. Of course, metallic colours all round instead of any pearl parts would indeed be awesome. But presumably more expensive. Plus the metallic effect does wear off (some wear on the corners of bricks just from transport in box/building the Agents car).

Some of my favorite colours are dark blue, dark red, dark green, dark tan, dark brown, medium blue, red brown. Metallic silver/gold is very nice for detail - I'd love to have more! Ordinary colours I use: black, grey/bley, dark grey/bley, white, tan. I like building some old castle-type buildings in old greys, but for just about anything else I'm beginning to think I prefer bley (plus it's cheaper on bricklink!). The same goes for old brown vs. red brown. I quite like sand green, sand red and sand blue, but I've very little of those colours, particularly the latter two. I don't find the primary or bright colours as versatile, although I wouldn't stop getting them. These include orange, lime green and indeed the traditional colours of red, blue and yellow.

It's back to 15th again for Ireland on S@H - it had been 30th for the last day or two.

No pot of gold here, but I did have a cardboard box full of Lego to sort through yesterday! I might use some of it today, although for once it is stunning bright sunshine for St. Patrick's Day, so perhaps I'll work in the garden instead! Happy St. Patrick's Day to all - and commisserations to those of you who don't have a holiday today!

That missing part narrows it down - looking at the listing on bricklink, there aren't any results other than the yellow castle for what you describe. The only other castle-type building I can think of with substantial yellow is Eldorado Fortress from the Pirates line (and that's 1989).

NOT MY MOC! Another MoC added to the Medieval village - this time an Alchemist's designed and built jointly by my Mum and younger brother (Talin Agasan) from my Mum's lego collection. View of the whole village (spot the new addition?) It's the yellow and black house. Front: Side and back: Opened out front and back: Close-up of front and the hinging side: Inside (makes my own interiors look spartan!). I didn't spot the unseated alchemist upstairs until the close-ups - oops! One of the alchemists at work. *Lots* more potions, a fireplace, chest, more tools (how on earth it all fits in I don't know!) A preparation table with rather a lot of beasties, books, herbs and potions, as well as some apparatus. Even the obligatory skull! The other alchemist at work. The double doors lead to the balcony (the door to the stairs is to the left) A bed, small fireplace, table, more beasties (dead I think - there's a black kitten hanging from the ceiling), even more books and potions on a dresser! Just to repeat, this isn't my MOC, I just did the photography and provided the village setting! I have unfortunately run out of black slopes myself for further MM-style buildings - so just the apothecary, bakery and church for now. I'm considering dismantling the church though as I'm not entirely happy with it.