gylman

For a small site of recent origin, Eurobricks has become really quite a nice place to call a "LEGO home". Lugnet seems to be dying as a community - mostly a place a post MOCs now (too much politics and too many people who take themselves too seriously I guess). The other strong sites (BZpower, FBTB, classic-castle) are too specialized for a general Lego fan. "legofan.org"..... well, it doesn't seem that being officially associated with TLC helps it much - they seem to get about a post a day on the forums. Eurobricks is often first to note new sets, new developments, and the bigger sites will link to it. Forums here are active, people here are nice, opinionated (which is good), and like to post about nothing at all of importance (which is good actually). What more can I say. Good job Jipay (and whoever else is behind the scenes). I hope to be here a while. Cheers. Gyl

Huh? (glyman) aka gylman I guess I gotta get me an avatar. never really bothered with those until now.

My pirate sets: (all opened and built at least once) 6248 Volcano Island 6250 Cross Bone Clipper 6256 Islander Catamaran 6262 King Kahuka's Throne 6264 Forbidden Cove 6268 Renegade Runner 6270 Forbidden Island 6273 Rock Island Refuge 6274 Caribbean Clipper 6276 Eldorado Fortress (truly a beautiful set) 6279 Skull Island 6281 Pirates Perilous Pitfall 6285 Black Seas Barracuda 6286 Skulls Eye Schooner The only one I wish I had that I don't is 6277 (trading post) so I can enlarge Eldorado Fortress Gyl

If I am not mistaken, Roseart made the Makuta board game for TLC. They may have done some others. Guess that's the end of that collaboration. No big loss...... that game was kinda lousy, even for bionicle fans.

What a beautiful ship - makes me want to unpack and rebuild mine. One of the things abuot the pirate sets I found is that I generally could not improve upon them with more pieces and figs , unlike castles, town, etc, where you can add or combine sets and do something better than TLC came up with. Problem is I never have enough room to display all the Lego - my wife prefers contemporary vases and glass as home decoration for some reason. Unenlightened. Sigh.

Boy, pretty ambitious topic. I can answer selectively In what way has the LEGO brand let you down? -Castle theme has become junionized and lame. I am told KK2 is better, but it is no 6080 or 6085. Same for pirates - OMG remember the awesome Barracuda! -Bionicle hasn't evolved since 2001/2002, when it was original and good. -I badly want to get into Mindstorms, but don't want to invest myself in an obsolete 8 year old product that may be abandoned by the company. Recently, how has the LEGO brand improved? -2003-5 were good years for big technic sets (i.e. the awesome crane of 2005) -the Ferrari sets of 2005 are very pretty. Nice for display purposes. I put some in my office and everyone comments favourable on it. -web site is good, but needs to be better -I really think TLC is trying to communicate more with its customers What would it you like to see LEGO (re)introduce in the next three years? -Mindstorms 3.0,with a modern interface -Classic Castle, with 1000+ brick counts. Focus on architecture, and keep KK2 for focus on playability -more adventurers (my kids love this and miss it) What does LEGO need to do to sell more products for less cost to them? -get rid of many overspecialized pieces What reason(s) do you have for not buying new LEGO sets? -too <insert that tiresome argument> (Jack Stone, Pirates 4+, many city sets etc) What would it take for you to spend more money on new LEGO products versus buying sets/parts on the second hand markets? -20% lower cost -original new sets that I can't et on the second hand markets for a few years. For example I bought and paid full price for both the giant crane and Vladek's castle (poof! 400$ gone in a flash). What are your home country, name and age? -Canada. Age >30 Is there anything you would like to say with this last question that you feel someone at LEGO should not go without reading? WEB STRATEGY. In the final analysis, TLC will sink or swim on sales to children not to AFOLs like me. What I said above applies to me as an AFOL. Speaking from my experience with my kids, at the important age of 5-10 having games, information, and activities readily accessible on hte web that promotes the toy set is critical. That's what got my kids into Bionicle, Adventurers. The flash cartoons and games for Adventurers were awesome. My kids played them again and again. My kids were keen on KK1 at first, but lost interest when the web activity of KK1 faded. When MNOG was active, my kids had bionicle on the brain 24/7. But it was a buggy program and frustrating to use after a while, so they gave up. Today they spent 3 hours on the Neopets web site ^%@%!. I know TLC does not want to do "violent" play,or "sexual" play which is against their philosophy, and which I agree with. This no doubt costs them some sales in today's world. How to fight against this? Humor. Humor is timeless and ageless and trumps sex and violence any time. Lego should be both a fun, and a funny, toy. Adventurers does this well. Bionicle sometimes (more the books, not so much the web site). Kids respond to humor very well at any age. LEGO should be 1) the best toy inthe world (which it clearly is) 2) known as the best interactive website for children and adults in the world. Tons of free games, flash or similar cartoons, an active community, contests, frequently update content (UNLIKE NOW!!!!) Some thoughts. Good luck TLC - please be around forever.

Bah, what's great about Bionicle is the great new things you can do with them - does anyone older than 8 actually build and keep the original models? They are just part packs. You all should check out what can be done with Bionicle and Technic on bzpower contests. This is an example (a good one, better than average to be sure, but there are many like it). Check out the BBC contests at BZpower. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Isaga/Bi...1entrydraft.jpg The community at BZpower is more active than lugnet or any other Lego site. I think they had more entries for the last MOC contest than Eurobricks has total members. Or close, anyway. I know, many people only like building castles and boats and cute vignettes with minifigs. OK. That's OK. Boring. But OK. Peace.

Although I hated it at first, because of my kids I'm now a bionicle fan (well, as much as any adult can be), and I don't think these new playsets are a useful addition. The first two years of bionicle had some very nice technic sets both large (8558 Cadhok and Gadhok) and small (Boxor), among others. Look them up people - they were fun builds, very clever. Real technic, coming from a guy who just bought 8421. There were some nice sets there. I see no use in these new <insert that tiresome argument> lego system sets. For 90$ they can give us an awesome technic set with tons of functionality, pneumatics/gears... whatever. However, they are marketing to kids, not AFOLs. I assume they want to transition some of the kids who grew up on bionicle to lego system because in hte long run most kids outgrow Bionicle. So it's hard for me to judge reasonably. Time will tell if this was a successful gamble for TLC. I wish them all the best (make as much money as possible so I can get more complex Technic sets).

Usually I build my sets within weeks to months of buying them (sometimes hours, but life is not usulaly that kind). However, some special sets (usually sentimental reasons) I keep extra copy MISB.

Just ordered me own set at S@H canada. "ship by june 30" ( but usually they ship before). Can't wait. Cost was $70, which is cheaper than 50 Euro I believe. I have seen, as pointed out previously, some awesome lego chest set MOCs but there is no substitute for an original shiny MISB Lego set. Cheers from Canada Gyl

Looks awesome. 100% guaranteed I wil buy this. Way to go TLC! Hope it comes to S@H Canada! They should make one of these for some other themes (Adventurers comes to mind right away, Star Wars too, of course)

I don't see what TLC would be missing by not doing Narnia. Just more fairy castles and dragons. We have enough of those **** cough**** Belville***** cough**** Glad they stayed out of that.

In Canada, there is also: Winners Selection is poor, but when they have stuff it is always at least 40% off, usually 50% or more. Best deal was Yoda for $20 Canadian in a beaten up box. www.winners.ca Gyl

Ebay is not an issue - I live on eBay. Over 500 purchases in 4 years. I can always get them there, but one gets tired of paying $5 for an item, and another $5 for shipping. Multiply by 10, and it makes me feel guilty for wasting money. Cheers. Gyl

Am I right in assuming that the best place to get lego keychains is at the various Lego theme parks? The selection at S@H is limited. Of course there is always eBay, but heck TLC must be selling these somewhere. I have a collection of minifig keychains and I am hoping to add to it at Legoland California this summer. Anyone been there? Do they have a decent selection? What do they cost? Thanks, Gyl

I voted "other". Mobile Suit Gundam (or similar)

I am not sure AFOLs are the best judge of what keeps TLC going. The best example may be Bionicle. 99% of AFOLs hated it on sight, myself included. 95% of AFOLs still hate it (myself NOT included - I rather learned to like it, and my kids are mad about it). Yet, I understand it is their single biggest money maker. I don't believe the people at TLC are idiots. I believe they were a bit insulated from their fan base, but are correcting that - legofan.org, and the work of Jake McKee (did I get his last name right?) being good examples. What percent of lego sales go to adults? Probably FAR FAR less than those that go to kids. Otherwise Jack Stone would be 6 feet under by now. Yet he lives on, curse his <insert that tiresome argument> heart. Personally, I would rather pay $100 for a great set than buy buckets of bricks. I just finished building the Airtech Claw Rig again. OMG what an amazing model. The people who made this are pure geniuses. I would pay $150 for something as complex and functional as that in an instant. Personally, I have no use for Star Wars and Harry Potter sets except as part packs. So, AFOLs are not a monolithic mass of buyers who all like the same stuff. Anyway, this is an old debate. I see it in every single Lego forum. I just hope people from TLC are reading these forums and come up with a balance that keeps all of us happy and Lego profitable. Gyl

Bah! Lego needs to make money just like any other company. If they go out of business we are all out of luck. They were asking what would it take for us to willingly pay more for the sets. I want TLC to be profitable. If you go to legofan.org, and bricksinmypocket (google it), you will see that TLC is waking up to the fan base. It's slow, but it's definitely there. Very different from 5 years ago. I am not so pessimistic about the future of TLC. Their main problem is making a high end product in a world where nearly everything has become a commodity.

Prediction: The Lego Company will sponsor brickshelf. TLC is already working with brickshelf, impliciitly or explicity I don't know, given the copyright issues. My impression is that TLC Is much more attuned to AFOLs now than they were a few years ago, and for the chump change it would cost them to support brickshelf, the good will would be enormous. Gyl

that hasn't really happened with the big castle sets. They usually keep their value and lego practically never puts them on sale at S@H. Even the lousy castles of hte last few years are still expensive to get new in box (not including shipping cost, which just adds). My strategy is buy the biggie off the shelf, and wait for the littler ones to appear on eBay or S@H for extra parts, figs, etc. Gyl

I bought all these at Toys r' Us in Toronto yesterday. The eBay seller is getting a tidy profit if he sells the items (which so far, he hasn't, because they are overpriced IMHO) 8877 sells for 139.99 Canadian, so the seller is asking for a premium of about 35% allowing for current exchange rates. 8877 box is HUGE! Will cost big bucks to ship. The designer set with submarine is out too. That one is nice. 39.99 canadian

Does anyone have any info about when the new giant crane is comig (8421)? Any idea what it would cost? I need to budget out my year, and that one will blow the budget I suspect. Thanks for any help. Gyl

The nice little cab is perfect. The problem is with the huge lunky trailer thing that contains the Ferrari - that's where thethe roof won't close properly because this 32 stud wide thing is off by a millimetre. I'm gonna have to re-engineer is so it will work more smoothly, and that will make it look not as nice from the back because I will have to leave a gap. I've never seen a set with more 16 stud pieces. It woudl be a great part pack if it wasn't so expensive and hard to get a hold of. Cheers Gyl

Has anyone here tried to build the Scuderia Ferrari Truck (8654)? It looks just awesome from the pics, so I got it to build and decorate my work office, but I have been quite disappointed - it's very flimsy, and I can't actually get the roof of the truck to close - it's off about 1 mm off kilter so that parts which are supposed to slide smoothly past each other actually block each other. I rebuilt it several times, in case I messed something up, but no luck. There are lots of very long but thin pieces, and I wonder if some warping has occurred. I've never seen this in a LEGO set before. Anyone else built this truck? Any comments? Gylman

Gali as a name is actually quite nice. It is an Israeli sounding name, but really quite generic. Agree naming a kid after a toy is stupid, but.... the character is brave, smart, and poweful..... Hmmm. In 10 years no one will know who Toa Gali was (if not already).... so what's the harm? We have enough Dianes, Marias, Susans, and Elizabeths in the world. Gali is easy to say, easy to type (IMPORTANT!!) and does not rhyme with any obvious obscenities. Sounds like a winner to me. G