gylman

As a Canadian, I run into this quite a bit. Many sellers ship only nto the US. However, it's not that they have stuff that no one has in Europe, or on Bricklink. I doubt there is a single such case. But for sure sometimes it is cheaper. However, I think that when you include the extra shipping costs involved, it would get kind of crazy. I did this once for Mattzitron with Batman sets, and I was stunned at what he ended up paying for three small batman sets. Of course Canada Post shipping costs are prettty crazy sometimes, but still the US postal service is not so different. Copmike can you give a particular example where it would have been worth it to do this? I don't mind trying to help if I can. Oh, and one other thing. A lot of those US sellers who won't ship outside the US also will not take a Paypal payment which is from outside the US, and which is not from the same person to whom they are shipping. It has to do with PayPal insurance protection.

Meh - making the stuff harder to steal would not be hard. THat's not a good reason for crappy boxes. Heck, it's a good reason for better, stiffer, more plastic-surrouneded boxes. I would not be so foolish as to suggest that TLC should make every box like this. Only the high-end stuff, that costs 100$ US or more. This is a tiny proportion of the market. I have no doubt that the cardboard from the 5$ to 50$ sets ends up in the garbage 95% of the time. But the biggest sets, bought and used by older kids and adults, or collectors, probably have a much higher retention rate. Even if they used cardboard separators, with only a single moulded clear plastic layer on part of the box (this was used commonly in the 1980's and 1990's, it would be a vast improvement. Like I said before - the amount of infinitely-surviving Lego bricks made every must weigh 1000's of times more than the amount of plastic that such packaging would involve. To use "environmental" factors as an argument is not logical. And the notion that most Lego bricks are "recycled" on eBay is just plain funny. TLC sells more bricks each year that the year before. Heck, if they didn't they would go out of business. Where are they all going?. I doubt if eBay/bricklink recycles more than a few percent of the total amount produced each year. Most Lego is not bought by huge fans like us who store, worship it, or resell it. It is bought by "normal people" who eventually toss it out like any other toy - hard as that is to for us to imagine. I TOTALLY agree, though, that with their current product they need to make smaller boxes with less air in them.

That's the second time you've hinted about something..... hmmm.... can you be bribed?

Jeez what a dickhead that Murphy guy is. I've never quite seen anything as stupid as that online from someone who has a real job and responsibility. Wierd.

Yes, the older bricks had sharper edges, both at the corners and on the studs. They make a "clickier" sound. They seem to grab slightly better. They feel stiffer, just like you say. Yellow, gray, and white will also practically always show some aging (yellow) due to UV exposure, although often it is subtle. I am sure there are other differences. No doubt some fan has listed them extensively somewhere. I mix them. It is already too hard to keep everything organized. To duplicate the filing system for old and new bricks..... OMG that woudl be crazy. I used to keep my old gray and bley separate, but even that got too much. I just lump them all, and when I build I choose the right colours.

Mainland china = 1 billion people. They can't all be poor. Someone has to be exploiting the poor. If only 1 in 100 is rich or middle class, that makes 10 million Same as the whole population of Belgium. And, by the way, this collector I believe is from HK. HK, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea have a per capita GDP at purchasing power parity not much different than that of any European country. Japan and HK in fact do better than Germany, Sweden, or France (essentially the same, though, just a few percent different). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_count...PPP)_per_capita

I understood this discussion to have more to do with how we change, and our interest in Lego evolves. We've kind of gotten off this, and turn it into yet another thread about how Lego has changed. Whatever. But, personally, I htink that The Lego Company has done great things for The Greatest Toy Ever Made by Man in the last few years. Lego itself is not going into a dark age as far as I can tell. 2006 was not as great as 2005, but the direction is much stronger now than 5 years ago.

http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=G577 Available in Canada, haven't checked all other countries

That sums up a lot of my "collecting" as of late. Except for the new Star Wars and Technic, I've been going back and scooping up all the old sets I used to play with (Classic Space, Expert (early Technic) and Town). I came out of my dark ages about 20 months ago and I love finding (usually on Ebay) the old sets I used to love playing with as a child. In addition, I found it very relaxing to find and build the sets that I never had (like Castle, Pirate and Trains.) I remember seeing the castle sets in the catalog as a child, but I never had any. I have a somewhat stressful job and I spend many nights building these old sets and leaving them out for my kids to find in the morning. They are soooo excited and can't wait for me to get home from work so they can show me all the things they did with them and we can play together. What could be better? I could not have explained it better.

I think these things wax and wane. Maybe you need to be away from a hobby for a while because you get too saturated and it loses its excitment. Then, something catches your eye a year later and you're excited again. Or maybe people just move on.. life changes, you change. Sometimes we don't want to admit to ourselves that we are moving beyond something that was very important to us for a few years, or for many years: a hobby, a group of people, a spouse (yikes!). Most AFOLs don't keep their Lego hobby until they are old, do they? There is a constant influx of new blood, and the oldies fade away gradually. You don't see too many 40 and 50 year olds at Bricklink do you? I may be the oldest regular at EB at 41. I am in something of a dark age now - haven't built much this year mostly due to lack of time, but previously I would do it even if I was too tired, and would be up 2, 3 after midnight trying to figure something out. This year none of the sets have really excited me, Technic was especially a disappointment, The lack of Adventurers sets also cut down on the amount of time my kids play with Lego, since that's their favorite, and one of mine too. I had hopes for Avatar, since they really love that show, but the Avatar sets were not quite as good as they could have been. I never seem to find enough time to start a really big project. But, my keychains keep my going with little things that don't take much time, and I have rediscovered how great the old castle sets were, partially thanks to the discussion here (esp. Norro's reviews). I have spent relatively little on new Lego (pretty much only for the kids), but significantly more on parts and sets on eBay and bricklink. Also, even if I am not building EB helps me stay involved with Lego - I should probably spend less time posting and more time building.... but posting is so much easier, and can be done in 5 minute snippets, which is how my time is organized these days.

Wow, so much amazing work. Thanks for the pics Dillon Really the Brickfest people should hire a professional photographer and sell a CD of the displays. I would happily pay a few bucks for something like that.

Well, I think the message is don't use bleach. It damages the bricks apparently. I have used it, and it works in abuot 1-2 weeks. I believe I used standard Javex household bleach diluted 1:1 with water. I have just put my whites into 3% hydrogen peroxide, and plan to keep them there for 2-4 weeks. We will see.

I have never seen a Xmas train around a Xmas tree in the houses I went to during the holidays (family, friends). Maybe it is more an American tradition? Dunno... But if this trains make more people buying lego trains, TLC will probably continues to develop this line (after the news of a creator train set). I'm pretty sure that's a North American or Canadian thing. I think that's important to realize: The creator train and this train suggest that Lego really is taking its trains seriously, more seriously than they have for a few years. This should be all good new for train lovers (which I have not been until now..... we shall see).

I think you guys are being a bit harsh. I think this train has a chance to pull some new people into Lego trains. Many families buy a train to put around the Xmas tree around here. It is almost a bit of a tradition I see all the supermarkets selling "christmas trains" in Nov/Dec, usually costing 30-50 dollars. It is too expensive for sure, but I think there will be some people who are already intersted in Lego, who see this train, they might buy it as a "christmas train". Me included. I will buy this unless the price is insane. And, also, from the point of view of children, it looks fun. There is only the "small problem" of no rails and no motor. >:-(

I think some Lego sets are really like art. Beautiful to look at, and much nicer decoration than most of hte pictures I have in my house. Also, for many there is very important sentimental value - they played with these as children, and now they are grown up, have money, and buy this for pleasure, or for their children to play with the same toy they did. One thing for sure. It's not just a toy.

Apologies. :-( My fault for starting the humour.

Well, for 500$ you can get it now! http://www.bricklink.com/auctionItem.asp?ID=6740672

"I wil pay you 1 million dollars if you......... .......help me sort and build the ISD for one night!"

Excellent transformers Alan. Best I can recall seeing. I tried doing them in the past, and totally failed. It's MUCH harder than it looks. Welcome to EB.

Well, then, what could be better, A pretty girl, with lego bricks sorted, building a Lego HEART FOR THE MAN SHE LOVES!! WHAT COULD BE BETTER! This could make EB a hotspot! We could change the image of LEGO totally. It will be the hottest thing to change the Lego image since Mindstorms. You could post instructions for making Lego hearts. Lovers all over the world will be making these for one another. All those South Korean Lego fans would come out of the closet, and the craze would spread to China, where 1 billion people with (until now) no access to Lego will get the fever. Lego will finally open a Shop-at-Home in China. The Lego Company will probably have to come out with a Heart promo set to meet the demand. They might even call it "Aredhel's Heart". They will probably want to make it in six different colours, and modify the heart each year. EB would become the #1 Lego site, linked to from Lego.com A few blogs will mention it. Time magazine, in an attempt to stay current, will report on the new craze. EB will get 1,000,000 plus hits a week (You'll need new servers, I guess. ) EB would get licensing fees, as well as enormous advertising revenue. You, Yoda, DT, and Jipay (hope I haven't forgotten anyone) could retire, living a life of luxury on the Riviera, logging on remotely from the beach I can see it now....

Like I said.... if Aredhel doesn't mind being used as a advertising, we can plaster pictures of her playing with Lego all over the home page. I think this one is the best, personally: A chick, some bricks, and wild sorting action shot! We might want to get a building action shot too

More info on bleaching. It is best avoided http://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=161145

I believe this is the reason for the post. http://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=160945 Follow the thread. I didn't think it was right to just give out the info to any old person who asks. But YOU guys did! Notice that Panda joined yesterday. Could it be that Panda joined JUST to find out who she is? Hey! We can use Aredhel as advertising for EB. "JOIN EB and hang out with pretty girls like this!" We're not all LEGO nerds! (or at least, if we are, at least some of us have good looking girlfriends/wives) (and THEY sometimes play with Lego too!! WWW. Eurobricks. COM The COOL Lego fan site! :-D