brickzone

And of course there are the Lego racers builds (including in instructions) that combine two different racer models into one.

It seems to all work, so good job on a transition and all the work that went on. As regards the look of the new software, I have to say that it seems pretty poor to me. Giving specifics, it seems that everything is too subdued and there isn't enough distinction between posts or on the buttons by each post. I think some space is also wasted and some things seem too spaced out. In general, first impressions are that idling browsing new topics or reading down through a thread takes more concentration and is a lot less leisurely.

Presumably there might be something like Emerald Night at some stage in the next couple of years? As stated above, I think it seems likely the 2010 train sets will be around for the next couple of years based on how long the old sets were around. Any extra sets are likely to be small, either some new piece of track or else something the size of the level crossing set.

There hasn't been any Space Police 3 in Ireland either. I thought that it was supposed to be released this year in UK/Ireland after it wasn't released here last year (apart from Lego S@H/shops). If Argos don't stock them (Autumn/Winter catalogue) then I would think the chances of seeing any SP3 in shops before it is discontinued are slim.

I suspect it is deliberate. It used to be very hard to lift plates in particular off baseboards.

The Green Brick, Actually I wouldn't blame Lego (except for S@H availability). It looks like some toy retailers in some countries were skeptical about these and didn't order much. As I pointed out, there is ample supply here in Ireland at present and I think it *most* unlikely that Lego is specially favoring us. No, it is that two major retailers here are very pro-Lego, Argos and Smyth's Toys, and both obviously ordered a sensible quantity of the minifigs!

They are still available on the ground so to speak in Ireland at Argos, Smyths Toys, and Art & Hobby for €2.80, €2.50 and €2.75 respectively. Argos seem to have plenty as both outlets I've been to have switched to not only having one box out all the time, but two. They still have stock despite the minifigs apparently selling like hot cakes (according to a check-out operator). One of my local Argos stores is by one of the local Smyths outlets and another Argos is by A&H so it seems unlikely anyone will have a hard time finding the desired minifig! Still interested to see if Tesco stock them, as it would be a handy option for series 2 (I have all of series 1 already now plus a couple of desired duplicates) and would mean a third option for them at the local shopping centre. Tesco did recently add the Yellow Lego Truck and new Racers to their line-up at my local store but I'd expect them to add some more summer sets shortly.

Smyths Toys have an extensive range of Lego, often a bit cheaper even than S@H. At least one of the outlets here in Limerick has some of the 2010 summer sets including the railway station, passenger train, new airport and yellow Lego lorry (albeit at €40). Tesco also have the yellow Lego lorry - at €25 marked as "half price" (it is likely this is another of the "fake" Lego promotions, so Smyths will probably have the yellow lorry at €20 soon - it is €25 on S@H also). You can check availability of sets in Smyths at any outlet on their online website at www.toys.ie, though some 2010 sets have not yet been added (even though they are in-store). Art and Hobby are worth checking too. I don't think they have summer sets yet, but at some outlets they have a pretty extensive range. Prices on smaller/medium sets are sometimes (but not always) marked up compared to elsewhere or S@H but the large ones are often the same, or even sometimes cheaper. Worth checking regularly - I think they rotate stock either between the outlets or else just between shelves and stores (it is a high street type small shop so not that extensive shelf space). Also some sets sell startingly fast (as some locations are high footfall). They have a list of their outlets on their website here (I've been to Dublin Jervis, Limerick and Kilkenny - all easily accessible if you are in those cities). EDIT: One other place that has Lego (other than the above plus Argos) is World of Wonder. The one local to me is a bit more awkward to visit so I don't know if they have the summer sets.

I agree that you'll need to use trial and error. If you have problems figuring out in what direction the colour you have printed is wrong (too bright, too dark, too green, too red, too grey) I recommend getting someone who's got an eye for colour to help you. For anyone who does, it is pretty easy to quickly narrow down how the colour needs adjusted on-screen after printing just one or two times. Of course the other thing is that probably you don't need an *absolutely* perfect match - after all, even before recent colour issues, Lego bricks (especially of different kinds of plastic or in yellow) don't always match absolutely perfectly. So it only needs to be good enough! Make sure to *save* the "correct" colour once you get it. This will probably remain accurate enough for your own set-up. You can even save it manually by writing down on paper the exact Red, Green and Blue values for the colour (between 0-255 for each). Next time you need the colour you can then just type in the values!

I think these will have some appeal for kids who would go for a playmobil style static plastic play model, but would enjoy mixing their existing Lego/Megablocks with these scenes. I'm not in absolute opposition to <insert that tiresome argument> parts or "toy-like" parts if it is a case of construction toys muscling in on other toy market segments. I'm only opposed to such parts if they are *replacing* detailed building blocks. It's the same reason I think Racers are a great idea even if I don't care for them myself - it is great if some kids are getting these rather than toy cars! Far more versatile! The same goes for Duplo stuff, even the likes of the Disney Cars theme (although a bit more customisability of the models would have been preferable). Better to see this stuff as a building toy (even a "pseudo" one) than static plastic toys. Actually Duplo is double the size of System, and Quatro quadruple the size, hence the names. In terms of scale, each dimension is doubled for Duplo bricks and quadrupled for Quatro. Along each side a Duplo 2x2 is twice the size of a System 2x2 (Duplo 2x2 is four system studs long on either side). Four times the area on each side/top/bottom of course and in terms of absolute volume, a Duplo 2x2 is eight times the size of a System 2x2, but the category that counts is the relationship for any given dimension (height, length, width) which is doubled for Duplo.

Here in Ireland you can just buy them in Tesco, although I think perhaps they indeed weren't really available a decade or so ago (then again, neither was McDonalds in my own city until the early 90s).

Hmmm... I thought there was nothing special about the German entry, but I suppose it is popular music so thus gets a popular vote! Not my kind of thing though. I thought Azerbaijan, Armenia and Denmark were great, even if the latter was a bit of an Abba-esque tune (catchy and effective though!). I thought the Belgian guitar/singer was good (but not something that would be in the top of my favorites) and so too were the Turkish entry. A lot of songs that should not have had much points, had average scores due to neighbourly voting. Ireland would have had such an average score except we don't have enough near neighbours (the UK would need to separate to give us all a boost). However it was also a very average song (yet another ballad/diva performance) so although other songs were worse and got more points, I don't think it realistically affects things. We could win again if a unique and popular song was entered. As the top entries showed, you simply need a great/memorable song that had a prospect of winning for the neighbourly voting to be irrelevant. I don't know what the UK are thinking! Yes perhaps some songs I could stand to listen to less but really their entry deserves to get little attention. They need to scrap public voting in the UK for picking their entry and just delegate it to a panel of "experts". Either that or disband the UK and then Scotland, Wales and maybe Northern Ireland can have their own great entries and England can continue to submit poor facsimiles of pop music. Plus side, Celtic block voting :) Anyway, it was entertaining to watch as always, a great mix of types of song despite the predominance of strong female singers and many songs with very very contrived/stereotypical/meaningless lyrics (including the winner). The Irish commentator was a bit hard to listen to during the voting, he was so depressive about our lack of votes, but I had earlier on decided against the BBC coverage as Graham Norton just doesn't stop talking - he's exactly like his Father Ted persona in my mind.

Thanks to Svelte and Eurobricks for running this contest, it was fun to build my entries! Congratulations to the winners. There were a lot of very nice entries across the board!

Another option for Irish AFOLs, Art and Hobby are stocking the minifigs too - €2.75. That's at least three options now (apart from S@H), as Smyths Toys have them for €2.50 and Argos have them for €2.80. Pretty handy as apart from my first experience (the first day they were available) I haven't since been browsing a fresh box. In my local shopping centre there are both Argos and A&H, and there is also an Argos Extra near one of the local Smyths Toys. Presumably there may be the possibility of Tesco stocking them too? (Would mean a third option at the shopping centre!) I'm not likely to buy more of series 1 (excepting giving in to impulse buys of duplicates) but it bodes well for series 2 and it helped me to finish up my collection. I only hauled in 12 in my initial purchase (due to checking for unique codes and giving up eventually) and got each of the remaining ones on separate trips due to availability, apart from the diver which I'll skip on.

3221 City Truck (big yellow one) was available in my local Tesco for €25 today (along with the Fire helicopter at €22 in a standalone cardboard stand near the end of an aisle).

Just to confirm mysticfig is indeed another brother of mine :) One brother left (the photographer) to sign up here! I'll get around to a space MOC myself someday soon enough I hope! As kids I used to build the space bases for my brothers' spaceship models.

The legs on the vintage minifigs are definitely different consistency plastic, they don't in fact sit quite square on the pegs in the middle. The collectable minifigs don't have this issue to such a degree, but on all the colours, you can still detect a difference in the glossiness/colour of the collectable ones compared to ordinary ones. So regardless of any intention to spread the part numbers on arms or lack of printing on the neck, I think that it is clearly shown up that the vintage minifigs in particular are outsourced to different production, and the collectable minifigs also. I can entirely agree that it isn't chinese parts per se is the issue (after all, aren't cows etc. and certain parts in regular sets from there too and they are fine?) but definitely this minifig outsourcing is a slightly lower quality production. Does anyone else notice the noxious odour too from both the vintage minifigs and collectable ones?

Just a heads up for any other Irish posters who check this thread in case the British chain store offers apply to Ireland too :) Although Argos haven't discounted Prince of Persia Lego here in Ireland, guess what? Smyths Toys have! Hassansin set is now just €10, Ostrich race €15 (rather than €18), Fight for the dagger €32 rather than the €38 I spent :( and race against time is €42 instead of €50! I haven't checked to be sure, but I think this means these are a better offer for Irish AFOLs than ordering from Amazon.co.uk (even though we do now get supersaver too). Amazon prices are higher than those displayed, you have to account for VAT difference (21% instead of 17%) which only gets added at checkout and then convert to Euro (not quite as good recently although the rate against sterling hasn't changed too much, it's the US dollar that really isn't as good). The Smyths Toys deals presumably apply in UK/NI stores too, so another option for UK folks? No sign of any Tesco deals similar to UK, although there is a small discount on Racers (was on old racer stock only, but they seem to have extended it to the new Racers stock too - maybe they can't shift it and will discount it more?)

On of my criticisms is that even given price differences, there is no consistency. For the second time in a year Lego have changed various prices on the Exclusives for S@H in Ireland. Previously they increased prices on Café Corner and Town Square from €150 to €180. Fire Station was released at €175 compared to €150 for Germany. Now they have completely randomly dropped the price to €125, and also for other sets like Medieval Marketplace which is now sub-€100, but they have jacked up the price on Imperial Flagship and Grand Emporium - these were released at €150 for Ireland, now they are €175 after the recent price changes. So not only are there discrepencies between countries, but they can't even make up their mind what the pricing is for one specific country!

Just to note that for some unspecified reason, Lego are selling the Fire Station at €125 here in Ireland, rather than the more usual modular price of €150, or indeed the new Irish rip-off price of €180 applied to Grand Emporium (when I bought it right after it appeared it was €150 just like it still is for Germany). So I would expect Fire Station to sell quite a bit here in Ireland just because it is that much cheaper, I guess it doesn't affect things much in the grander scheme of things, but if there are other countries where it is cheaper, it might have an impact.

Well, once again, there are a lot of great entries here, some of impressive scale. My choices: 1 point to greenskull139 1 point to Oky Wan Kenobi 1 point to pedro These were my favorites out of the entries most convincing as Lego sets you might buy.

This was tough to choose again. Quite a number of entries had creative designs or particular clever attributes I liked, though in the end there were quite a lot of entries that though having some great details, didn't quite feel right for the setting. I wish I had had time for an entry as I have an idea for a stall not executed in any of these entries. I'm voting as follows: 2 points for greenskull139 1 point for pedro These capture an effect similar to indoor middle-east markets I've seen or been in.

Again, so many great entries to choose from and some have obviously involved a lot of work and are very well-polished and intricate. My favorites from all of them are: 1 point to Sandy 1 point to pedro 1 point to Dunjohn Nice use of imagination! Apologies to the other contestants, some very impressive entries!

A heads up, they are now on sale in Smyths Toys in Ireland for €2.50 (rather than the €2.80 each in Argos). I now feel silly for not waiting but I'm out less than a fiver. They show up on the online stock checker (product link) as in stock at my local outlet. Smyth's have some outlets in UK/Northern Ireland too so if more convenient for anyone than the alternatives, worth checking. They have a UK site (www.smythstoys.com).

I'm reminded of the Monty Python sketch, "How Not to Be Seen" :)