brickzone

I should add that the torsos I have are from 2 Cannon battles (one from S@H, one from local toy store), Kraken Attackin (S@H) and Brickbeard's Bounty (UK retailer). I think I'd prefer to have the dark green stripes - they look better.

The 10,20,30,40 are lego cents, and the 100 is 100 lego cents - i.e. 1 lego dollar. Except in the Western cents where it is indeed 100 lego dollars, and the Pirate sets where the coins are bullion. That's my take on it.

I have four of that torso and all are green striped just like the centre minifig above, rather than dark green like the two either side.

Is chlorinated water bad for Lego? You might want to check before putting any into the pool. I've been considering options for MOCing my cargo tanker hull too. I did consider a passenger liner of some kind, although I'm not sure how well the hull shape can be used. Nothing for it but to try I guess! I'd like to try out the ship in water - I have the motor from the fireboat (not sure how powerful it is).

Actually I think an even more "Belville-like" park setting with happy animals etc. around would be far more surreal and creepy than a Hell setting! I think the figures are quite well posed. It's the facial expressions that top it off of course!

Well, perhaps unfair to Lego employees, and perhaps unethical, but if true I'm happy all the same to have the confirmation! That would take some neck to phone and bluff like that! Dark red would be nice - I'm curious as to what form this will take. Café Corner of course has Dark Red too, so hopefully the colour scheme is suitably different despite one of the same colours. If there is a second modular building to be released too - I'm broke!

A nice piece of memorabilia to have! Just some of the old "ideas books" and some old catalogues here.

Further to my earlier Bakery MOC, I've added a mediaeval apothecary. I like the roof - but I have to admit it was a case of using my remaining black slopes, which were mostly corners! Complete with "scales" and mortar+pestle! Have to head to Dublin for an Irish Lego meet-up, so I don't have time for more posting/better photos, sorry! One thing about this that I'm pleased with - I did the building/exterior in three hours flat!

Thanks for all the comments! I've created the shell of another MMP-style building this evening - I've to decide its purpose and kit out the interior appropriately. Having satiated my desire to build more medium blue, I've created this new building in a much more different colour scheme to the existing buildings. I do remember seeing that model - I like the style of it. Also it shows that red and blue and so on do work well for these buildings (despite my earlier comments), but they end up with more of a "traditional Lego" look to them. I have plenty of classic Lego, but I've a greater brick selection in the newer colours, so I'm building with those now (having used almost all my old grey for "Craghold Castle"). What I would really love is oodles of sand red, sand blue and sand green (I have Green Grocer, but I'm still not going to use it for parts - indeed when I tire of it in its original form, I'll likely just modify/expand it and still keep it mostly as a set). These colours would look nice I think for the painted timber frame houses. I've still got nearly all my tan bricks to play with, and there are a lot - that will be the basis for the next major MoC.

As regards colour scheme - there are limited colours that would fit in with the look. Plus I only have mainstream colours plus a select few others. White would work, but it would look a bit more boring compared to medium blue. I'll use white on another building using black cylinders for the timberframe (I've not got much red brown left, and not enough old brown). Tan of course works too, and I've oodles of it too, but then the building would simply look like the stables/blacksmith and again, not as "interesting" as the medium blue. I did use white downstairs, as I am using up most of my bley for an Agents base MoC. Dark bley will probably be used for the downstairs of the planned building with white upstairs.

Hello all. I have another addition to my Mediaeval Marketplace (having added a church previously). This time it is a bakery, a quite essential part of any medieval settlement (bread being the main thing people ate). I got to use some medium blue pieces I got from pick-a-brick in Munich Lego Store before Christmas. I also ended up swapping windows from Brickbeard's Bounty (very evil, I know). Without further ado - picture of the village scene now: Zoom in to the bakery front and rear (opened view outside). I put the chimney on the front, oddly, because it seemed better than squishing it between the side that hinges backwards, and the other side has stairs/upstairs door. Plus the chimney at the front emphasises it as something different. Closer view from an elevated angle. Here you can see my own bay window design. Fun to do! Partly dictated by bricks in stock (surplus of those particular wedge places and the need to use 4x3 windows). I retained motifs from existing MMP buildings, partly to help in the initial stages of putting together the building, and partly so my building "fits in". Closed up elevated view from the rear. Looks like a neat little house in this form if I do say so. The door and stairs are copied but modified from the inn (e.g. I actually have a door - final step is at the door so that the whole 4-wide doorway opens onto the same level. The baker has barrels of stuff under the stairs (perhaps not flour - mightn't be so good outdoors). The same view from across the marketplace. Closed up view of the front. Can you tell I had a scarcity of surplus 1x2 brown upside down slopes? :) More than one element in my design was dictated by bricks available - but it cuts down on decisions, adds randomness, and provides fun troubleshooting and resourcefulness! Finally an interior view. Here we have the baker and his wife. A somewhat cramped workspace, but bread can cool at the bay window, there is a table for making loaves, and an oven to cook them. I left out one item from the photo - a broom. Not to matter, it looks like the baker wasn't going to use it anyway (the floor is a bit floury). Upstairs, a bed, some drawers, trunk, table, stool and a fireplace. I got those two large medium blue arches in a bricklink order on a whim - wasn't sure when I would use them - and was rather pleased to find I needed them. Close-up on the rooms. Comments appreciated - I had fun doing this. I like Medieval Marketplace a lot!

I paid $60 incl P&P for the rock island refuge *plus* Imperial flagship. Eldorado Fortress wasn't quite as good, nearly €50 incl. P&P (although postage to Ireland is high - about €7.50 in this case I think). I'd been waiting for even that price for a couple months though at the time I was watching on ebay for it. No boxes - I've seldom got a boxed lot off ebay - it's a nice extra but I wouldn't pay more, and I think many people do - so the prices would put the lots outside my interest. The one thing I would still like to get is Skull Eye Schooner - but this is always expensive (I did do well on Black Seas Barracuda - just €70 including P&P. If I remember correctly, it was a buy-it-now too, taking a lot of the hassle out of the picture). Most of my ebaying was in 2007.

€75 for the Farm on S@H for Ireland - if I do get it, I'll pick it up from Smyth's Toys which will have it at €65 from 9th March! Also they will have 4x4 at €16.99 - S@H is €19.99! Art n Hobby already have the Farm sets in store, but the farm is €75 there too.

Note the pictures of the bags, the curved green panel parts seem to indeed be *printed* with those gold lines - less stickers! (and there do seem to be plenty elsewhere!)

Art n Hobby have the new Farm sets in already. Despite the markup (more so on small sets than large) they have a quite extensive range of sets in quite accessible shop locations (e.g. they are the only sensible Lego buying place in Crescent Shopping Centre, Limerick). Farm is €75 (probably S@H price) but Smyth's will apparently have this at €65 (they have prices more comparable to UK on some new sets - probably cause unlike other Irish retailers they have a UK operation and can easily buy stock in UK at UK prices rather than the "special" prices offered to Irish retailers generally). Also there are some special offers - some of these reduce prices just to S@H (e.g. Indy Swamp Chase at €25 rather than €30) but some are reductions like Speed Racer Grand Prix for €30 (down from €50 - I picked this up for the minifigs and parts). Also Flying Wing at €45 which is cheaper than S@H (€55) but I think I'll still pass on it. I'd love to get Shanghai Chase reduced - but Art n Hobby have it at a whopping €40. Art n Hobby are one of the few places I've seen Belville - they have more of it in, and some reduced prices on it. Also they have quite a bit of Duplo again (my nephew liked the look of the Bob the Builder Duplo). They also had an Agents Mobile Command Centre display case - slow work by the Lego Company I think, because the local Art n Hobby sold most of the MCCs before Christmas when they had no display! They also have a Power Miners display in the front - great to see so much Lego on display and indeed being sold! (Just a pity about the markups!) Still waiting for Tesco to restock!

And Ireland, €102 for Emerald Night.

An Irish month with a shamrock-themed scene taking over for March? March 17th being all-important of course! You could even include some banker minifigs with cowboy hats! As regards real themes (or is that rail themes), Trains sounds appealling with Emerald Night coming out, but maybe April is better for that reason. Space Police 3 - well, we don't get that here in Ireland apparently (although I'm still hoping for S@H-only release for here). One could of course have a farm-themed banner, with that on general release in March!

€4 is pretty good on price! I'll be buying some if they are still available when I next order (probably Emerald Night - although it would be nice to get that from UK somehow). Quite interesting the way the old torsos/heads/headgear are combined for the characters here.

The groundhog saw his shadow this year I guess :)

I think a significant amount of this success must simply be down to the top-class quality of their recent output. Fantastic themes, great set designs, and a great attention to making them attractive and fun for kids, as well as pretty appealing to most of us AFOLs too (plenty of whom buy for their kids/relatives too and affect purchases by those they know). Long may it continue - I just hope I have cash for the great Lego coming out this year!

A nice little scene and a nice idea for a "city life" MOC. I like the interior and the setting, but I think the giant "orange" would look better with some more slopes and/or those curved slopes (e.g. from Speed Racer car). I like the businessman relaxing (not a banker I hope :) - the sunglasses head goes surprisingly well with the much older suit.

I guess you could consider selling the sealed one and buying a good condition used one if the price difference was sufficiently significant.

On S@H for Ireland it has an "Exclusive" tag on the item page, and also the set shows up in the exclusive category when browsing by theme (also shows up in Trains>Engines).

€101.99 on S@H for Ireland £68.50 for UK on the other hand is flabbergasting (even with euro down a bit again against £). The proper Lego pictures are very nice indeed though - worth zooming in on a lot of the detail.

Mmmm... I love it. I'm really looking forward to this, the new wheels, the stunning design, the lovely colours (tan windows++). The price is good too at €90 and I'll probably stretch to it despite the current economic circumstances (besides, who knows how safe my money is in the bank). Hinckley, fair enough not liking the doors, but by contrast, they were the second thought I had about nice features of the carriage (the first were the simple feature of the "diamonds"). I find the doors neatly done and quite realistic (we have carriages here in Ireland with old slam-doors that hinge like that - the doors curve slightly around the end of the carriage) and they really stood out to me straightaway as a plus! (Link to Irish train carriage with similar door style)