brickzone

I'll add my name to those grateful for this news! Thanks Legomilk! Rather interesting to wonder what the progression will be. I don't think one could guarantee anything, for all that the idea of elves, another human faction, etc. seem attractive to many! I hope the Castle '08 does well in the shops here, because only Argos (catalogue retailer) had Castle '07 - they didn't sell all their stock, and by the nature of the shop (catalogue only) it meant no Castle '07 on shelves in the entire country. If Castle '08 does well for the toy store chains here in Ireland, we will hopefully get Castle '09 in the shops too.

This is just stunning! I love the bay windows on multiple floors standing out from the building proper. The balconies also look very nice, more substantial than those of Market Street. Sand green is very nice! I wonder what all food the grocers has; it looks to have food inside (see through the window) as well as on the street. Also curious as to the detail at the back (shown in a small panel). Could it possibly be a fire escape or is there not enough there for it to be that? The level of detail is astounding. I think this set may well outdo Caf

However, unlike that photo, all the gold bricks are pearl gold, as opposed to the gold used for "gold bricks" as in Town Plan. It's a pity, cause that photo it looks like the clips etc. are in the other gold, which looks far better. I'm not that enthusiastic about pearl gold and silver.

This manages to just about be odder than Spongebob Lego. Which I a) found very odd indeed and b) ended up buying a set of. Krusty Krab was on sale, was a decent selection of bricks, and an actually very well done set design. Plus it has flying hamburger aliens. I was given four spare chrome harpoons while building it, and I made the mistake of putting two of them in spongebob's hands for safekeeping; he looks rather worrying with them.

I keep the boxes; I package them one inside another. Currently most of my boxes are contained one inside another within five large boxes; City Harbour, King's Castle Siege, Caf

I don't have enough space to display all that I have built up, but I generally keep City and Castle apart on separate surfaces. I currently have a table-sized area arranged from Lego S@H DHL packaging boxes, a set of shelves for models to sit on for display on their own, and a counter area along one wall that has to serve as my building area too. Hah, yes, there wasn't much chance of Lego yellowing due to sunlight here in Ireland this year. It seemed like it rained solidly from May to September. That said, I wouldn't keep Lego on the windowsill, cause despite the jokes, we do get sunshine from time to time, and the ambient light wouldn't be great for the Lego either. Some of the sets I have plans for (as part of a display or for amending) are actually packaged away, for example I have a cupboard full of spaceship sets that will come out when I put away some other Lego (City or Castle) and build a space port.

My main objection with fleshies, the concept aside, is the vile hue chosen to represent "white" people. I mean how did they come up with such an obnoxious lurid light pink colour. It's not remotely skin-like. Something more subdued would be far better, and if the right hue was used, could be used for tanned skin as well as pale skin.

The shade used by bley/dark bley is too "new" looking for rock. Sure you can use it as some expensive stone that's been used in a grand castle, but it's not appropriate for most castles or really for rock faces etc. I know because here in Ireland our countryside mostly consists of rocks, stone walls and castles, between the bogs, fields and hedgerows. That said, bley is here to stay. I buy sets with lots of bley, and I do mix it with the old colours as you describe. I appreciate others may be sick of hearing people complain about bley, and I certainly don't expect it to acheive anything. Nevertheless, even if people are happy to use bley (and I am one of those people) it's misleading to describe the shade as looking like real stone.

Castle 07/08! Caf

Cardinal Brick: That's leaves on the line you're thinking of. Which would indeed be a problem in the garden, and it would indeed form mush that affects traction of the Lego train too (nevermind gunging the whole show up horribly). Bleugh, not nice to think about!

Has anyone else noticed that with recent hinge bricks, the clips on the lower part stress the very first time you click the brick together? I daren't even think about switching the top and bottoms on newer hinge bricks to have different colour combinations; it seems as though the clips on the lower part of the hinge bricks would just break.

For Ireland, Lego S@H had the Heavy Hauler at the exact same price as Argos,

The new police station, which is surely just about the largest one ever, is

I was happy even to have the extra black tile bricks included as well as the figs! Made it just that little bit extra better value. If I ever got really desperate, I could even remove the baseplate from the box. However, I'm not short on baseplates for now.

I'll probably get the nice green Cargo plane. But not this. How can the same hull pieces be used for full size jets and what's supposed to be a small seaplane.

I was fortunate enough to get one along with the Hobby Train. They are the first trains I have ever owned (mainly by virtue of them having been half price). It's a fantastic selection of parts with the Holiday Train, as well as it really looking the part as a set. I'm happy not to get a motor; as I think the 9V setup would prove expensive, and the IR control system for the RC setup seems a bit poor. I got some "dead" track for with it to have just as a push train for now.

I finally received my post-Christmas Lego order today, including Town Plan. I was very impressed, it is even better than I could have imagined. Some little details: It includes a train base! (Used for cinema roof) This is really useful to have, so much more valuable than two smaller flat plates. The part count of 2000 is not only made up of small pieces; there are so many flat plates, some quite large, and pillars and so on as well as ample quantities of medium bricks. The fountain has a trans-blue 8x8 plate - how cool is that? The town hall uses the new house window frames; they have no shutter holders, but unlike the train windows that Market Street etc. used; they have a raised line to stop window panes pushing inwards (although unfortunately tolerance is not quite perfect, so they don't stop quite level). This is something I'm glad to see and to have; the train windows were wholly unsuitable for houses/window panes IMO. The little car and the petrol tanker were a joy to build. For the former, it is impressive the detail they fit into a car model that is the scale of the old 4-wide standard. I loved some of the little touches like the popcorn for sale in the foyer of the cinema. The cinema was a reasonably elaborate build. Finally I have an admission; I really enjoy the challenge of lining up the stickers :) The one place I didn't like having stickers were the round tiles at the petrol pumps with "Octan" stickers; these should have been printed (I consider the other custom bits perfectly reasonable not to have printing). Just a note; the car wash doesn't work if you point the taps (holding the elastic band) in the wrong direction. I was puzzled for a while as to why the mechanism kept exploding when I would push a car through. The build took most of the afternoon and evening; though I am suffering from a cold so I wasn't entirely concentrating fully at times.

A Jules Verne theme; you could have various locations from Around the World in 80 days (kinda like Adventurers, but perhaps opportunity for more modern locations - of the book's era). Journey to the Centre of the Earth would also provide some amazing set opportunities. Then of course you have the undersea opportunities of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. --- Another idea would be Greek legends; huge scope for all kinds of creations. I mean, I don't know about kids nowadays, but those always held great fascination when we learnt about them in school.

I'm back playing Civilization IV again (with Warlords expansion, haven't been able to pick up Beyond the Sword expansion cheaply). Seriously addictive game. I am poor at finishing games, I generally end up with a bunch "on hold" which I do go back to from time to time. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion I finished the main quest but I've a lot more playing to do in it. Neverwinter Nights 2 I have a lot more to do in it, and I now have the expansion also (it was on clearance). Titan Quest and Immortal Throne I have nearly finished once (on my third character). Two Worlds I didn't get very stuck into, it's definitely high on the list of games I want to go back to. However, one disadvantage it has is that it doesn't play well on my laptop, which I generally use when at home at the weekends.

I have no idea, cause my Dad was into it and got me some really early (I must have been about 3). My Mum says there were definitely flowers in it, as they got stuck in the deep pile of the 1970s decor carpet. I did have Duplo even earlier. However, the one set I can remember having parts from for a long time, was 6080 King's Castle. Oh how I would love to own that again. I have managed to get most other classic castles totally complete at great prices, but not that one. And unfortunately, it's just that bit plain enough that nostalgia isn't enough to have me pay over the odds for it.

Impressive amount of buildings! I unfortunately don't have enough time to do everything at once, and since I'm busy with a Castle, I can't get started with my other intention; to have a large town layout to fit with Caf

There is no longer a World of Wonder in my area either; but they are one of the toy chains in Ireland nevertheless and have various stores around the place. Art and Hobby (branches) aren't a toy shop per se, they stock arts and hobbys/crafts as the name implies; Lego manages to just fall into the latter category. They have a decent enough selection, but unlike Smyths, at higher than S@H prices. Smyth's sometimes manage to beat S@H! Unfortunately Smyth's had no Castle '07, as Argos had the exclusive for the theme despite only selling three sets. My orders to S@H have mostly been large ones due to the high shipping for Ireland. Yes, I do remember Nathan talking about getting something organised; he was in contact with me on Classic Castle.

I may be slightly biased, but I like the one without borders or red "Imperial" territory :) There's something funny going on in Sligo though, with that stray pixel in Donegal. Also Galway bay seems to have moved south!