daisy

This is lovely. I love the super fancy bathroom! So many good ideas! And the lushness of the garden is just beautiful.

I love the idea of a farm. We are a farm family. We would like an orange tractor please :). A beach house sounds cool too.

This is awesome!! My mum is native to Toronto so I spent lots of time there. Like someone said it is instantly recognizeable. So amazing!

Sci-fi E.G.G. Counter Translation: somewhat socially oblivious unintentional ruiner of others fun by being overly analytical, who had a total mental lapse regarding the concept of guessing... I am so embarrassed, and so sorry. I just noticed this today. (I have been gone for several months). And of course this happened months ago. basically i was an idiot and counted entries instead of actually guessing. I had no intention of cheating. I am really not a jerk, just an occasional oblivious idiot who has a propensity toward "Sheldon moments" I had to investigate my history to figure out what the title meant because I never read anything in that thread other than the original post. I never even went back to it. I am terribly non competitive. Just thought it would be fun to count because it was a really awesome contest that I had been following for weeks. Again I am so sorry. Tempted to run and hide since all my posts now bring a rush of shame. But I will try to be a big girl since in general I like it here. I feel really bad about it, wish I had realized this when it happened to apologize at the time and withdraw my guess. My apologies, Debbie

As I have posted up thread I am a big fan of Lego Friends, it is how I discovered the joy of Lego. I tend to be annoyed when people are intolerant of "girly" toys. I have 2 daughters a "princess" and an "adventurer", and I don't consider my girly princessy daughter's preferences to be less valid than her tomboyish sister. I wanted to note some observations about crossover into other lego lines for those of us who were brought into lego through lego friends. The minidoll/mini figure compatibility is a non-issue. They all live together in harmony in our heartlake city. Both girls like CMF's. But not the scary mean ones. We also have mini figs from some bricks and more sets. As far as crossover, I have 3 sides, my adventurer, my princess, and myself as an AFFOL. 1. First of all my adventurer is a bit young for much of lego. But she is fairly advanced for her age (4). The sets she asks for tend to be vehicles, Stephanie's car and airplane, and the pet patrol ATV. The big sets she was most excited about this year are the pool and the boat. She loves Pixar Cars, so she has 2 of those sets. She also has the bricks and more Safari set. She has always been fine with shopping in the "boy aisle". We don't call it that, it is just the aisle where the cars and Buzz Lightyear are. This is speculation, but I don't think she would have gotten into Lego without the influence of her sister and I, it is a bit quiet for her. 2. My princess (almost 6 y/o and advanced in math) is the bigger lego fan and more vocal about her opinions. While she definitely has preferences for pink, rainbows, and glitter; she is also very mathy and also loves the outdoors. Lego friends hits all these sweet spots for her. She has also been asking me to build a castle for her. But when I showed her the new Lego castles she was not impressed. First she stated they were all boys. (That one locked up princess is barely visible). Second she was disappointed with the lack of interior. "There is nothing to do inside". When we walked passed the boxes in the store she told me she didn't like it because they were fighting and I should just build her one. Today we visited the lego aisles at Walmart and target. In the regular lego aisle they took an interest in the city sets. The discussion was interesting. My younger one was interested in the police sets because "they are stealing jewelry". My older one however pointed out that there were bad guys and we don't need bad guys in our city. So the cops and robbers sets were dismissed. However my older girly daughter fell in love with the garbage truck. "We need that to clean up our city." They also were enamored with the coast guard rescue helicopter. So now we come to my princess's dilemma. There are so many awesome friends sets she can't decide which ones to ask for for her birthday. Now she wants the garbage truck too. She has to weigh the merits of the garbage truck verses the cupcake bakery, its a tough decision. The garbage truck does seem to be winning. But the helicopter will definitely lose out to the adventure camper. 3. I became an AFOL when I started to play with my daughters with Lego Friends. My definite preference is MOC's. I am more inclined to make purchasing decisions based on a combination of price per piece, and desirable pieces. I do also have a strong weakness for CMF's and poly bags (from any theme) since I can just throw them into my grocery cart as an impulse purchase. While I do like the Lego friends sets, I tend to find creator sets to be a better value for what I am looking for. Oh and the PAB wall is heaven on the rare chance I have to visit a lego store. :D so, to draw some conclusions from my very unscientific observations of a set of 3: -We have had some theme crossover: CMF's, bricks and more, CARS, creator, and now possibly city. -crossover is somewhat limited by the high number of great friends sets. Most people are not going to buy that many sets a year, so they are not going to need to search out other sets. In our case if friends sets disappeared we would still buy lego, but not nearly as much. -the violence/bad guys depicted on some traditional lego sets is a turn off for some girls. - the lack of interiors and space inside is also a turn off for some girls. (Even my adventurer prefers an interior in a building) By the way, I do question the idea that crossover is a goal. As if non-friends lego sets have some higher merit. Friends is a hit in own right, and I think it somewhat diminishes its well deserved accolades when we focus on it as a gateway. If someone only purchases friends sets, they still will have a pretty great lego collection.

What modular should I buy. Pet Shop or Grand emporium? I will likely build it and display it for a few weeks or months, then break it down and MOC with it. I don't have any of the modulars, my budget allows just one of the $150 (USD) ones.

This is gorgeous!!! I better not let my girls look over my shoulder or they will want me to try to build one. Lol I love the colors and the fence out front. The spaciousness of the rooms and bathroom is great. I really like how sophisticated it looks in dollhouse style! Even the base is gorgeous!

22. Oky - 2 4. Kristel - 1 36. Harton - 1 64. Tohst - 1

2. Alien King Kong 3000 - mephistopheles - 1 7. Saturn V launch - Legonardo - 1 23. Micro USS Enterprise NCC-1701 Bridge - toutouille - 1 32. Survivors - Teazza - 1 43. Kashyyyk - Digger1221 - 1

15. Chicken Moonbase - vecchiasignoraceppo - 2 pts 22. Pigs VS Cows - Ninja Nin - 1 pt 37. rEvolution - zane_houston - 2 pts

58/90/55

That is awesome. I have seen the movie several times, it is perfect!

This is so lovely. It looks very complete on the inside. I really like the old style sewing machine and the knitting grandma is just innovative :)

Thanks so much y'all I initially used the lime round plates because I didn't have enough 1x1's. but I ended up liking the look, one of those limitations bringing out creativity things ;) I am not surprised the facade looks more domestic. I have never lived in or near a large city and am not used to seeing attached buildings like the standard modulars very often. I would love to do more of the detached buildings i am used to, but I didn't have enough lime to build more than a facade. I decided the greenhouse needed to be on the roof, because that would be the spot most likely to have sunshine in a city building :)

Wow! that is an amazing gorilla mech!!

It is in Etibicoke in Richview plaza I believe. The interior of the shop is based on her layout, though of course she has a much larger workspace and more inventory. I had another white horn, but I enjoyed "pretending" that she was experimenting and had one sucessful new variety grow in her batch.

This is my very first modular. And definitely the largest LEGO project I have ever built. I have a limited collection and only used what I have on hand, so it forced me to be creative and colorful. Welcome to "The GreenHouse Florist Shop" The first floor has the florist shop, with flower cooler, plus a small work area. The shop is loosely based on my cousin's florist shop in Toronto. The second floor is the main living area, including bathroom, kitchenette, and sofa. The top floor has the bedroom and a rooftop greenhouse. More pics and details on my flickr Thanks for looking. I had such a blast building it, and my girls are now having a great time playing with it

This is just gorgeous!! As a medical professional I find the interior very "realistic". So great. And I love the surprise twist under the dome =)

This actually does cause a bit of a conundrum for Americans when speaking in a personal context. If I were to say to friends "I was building with Lego bricks yesterday" they will think I was limiting myself to only rectangular parts. If I said "lego toys" people would wonder if there was some other type of non-construction item made by lego. If I just said "bricks" people think real construction materials. If I say plastic bricks people think I am being cryptic or silly, or it is just plain confusing. I can occasionally use "lego sets" but that implies I am building a specific set according to instructions, as opposed to making MOC. ( is it "a MOC"? That doesn't seem grammatically correct either "a my own creation") I am making an effort to comply with TLG by using "Lego" in conversation. However I realize that still is not fully compliant wi their request, since I am using LEGO as a plural noun. Hmmm.... I guess it would have been helpful if TLG had come up with a separate name for their interlocking bricks, but I guess they didn't know it was an iconic toy. For example I call all the plastic dolls on my girls bedroom floor "Barbies" but never mattels, and never fashion dolls, even though there are some generic ones. Since there are 2 levels of trademark names it offered Mattel better legal protection, and makes it easier to discuss. Legos still occasionally slips out, though I have pretty much converted to LEGO, and have attempted to educate others in a fun fact sort of way, not by correcting them directly so much. Unfortunately TLG can't go back and make a separate non-combursome name for their plastic construction toy. Although if it is any reassurance to TLG I don't know of anyone who calls non LEGO plastic interlocking blocks Legos, unless it is in a mixed collection w/ LEGO bricks being the majority.

Prior to coming to EB, I had never heard of the its LEGO not Legos controversy. LEGO was a brand name. And Legos was the title for multiple toys in that brand. Although I think most use it like a contraction LEGO's instead of lego (set)s or (brick)s. for example while most I know would call the pile of bricks on the floor Legos, most would call the aisle at the store the LEGO aisle. So yes when you are speaking to people of your vernacular it is appropriate to say Legos if you want. I also find myself using it while speaking. However EB is not a regional place with your vernacular. It has a special relationship w/ TLG. Therefore it is appropriate to kindly encourage the proper terminology. TLG is very kind to this place. Be nice. I do agree that's its a bit annoying when people get all wound up when some random blogger or new poster uses the term Legos, but it is perfectly acceptable to expect regular EB users to use the term according to the official usage. (And since LEGO created the name they get to decide that) So, It is equally annoying when people get all wound up about a simple expectation. And before anyone points out again that it is inconsistent because of terms like bley, there is no rule that a private board has to be consistent, it is like when you visit someone's home, you follow their rules.

This is so funny, the ckicken ships are cool. But the fried "chickens" cracked me up. =)

Very nice! But I hope that is wheat your harvesting, because that combine doesnt have a corn head on it :). A lot of large farm operations have a pond. Also is there a farm house?

This is great! Makes me all nostalgic. The Wookie Storybook was one of my favorite books as a child

Saw a uk toy fair report on friends here: http://brickfanatics.co.uk/toy-fair-report/ No pics, but it says the dolphin cruiser does have a male minidoll!! =) and dolphins It also has prices listed in pounds.

Excellent article. Nice to see a mathematical analysis. I have never perceived lego as increasing in price, because I remember how little we had of it as children since it was expensive. I am glad I can afford it for my kids ( and myself) because I still believe it is of excellent quality.