Eilif

Right there with you. I think that "Social Commentary" is the key phrase. We can argue forever about whether these were intended to be humorous or inflammatory, and whether the results were effective, or not. However, when we look at them as an attempt at social commentary. it can help us to reign in our inclinations towards being offended, and instead cause us to take a closer look at what these students might be attempting to say.

I thinke we are doing a disservice to the artist to assume that the disaster pics are intended in a humorous way. The artist is using a non-humorous statement "rebuild it", and pictures of serious non-staged subject matter. Taken in that context, I don't find anything offensive in those pictures. Rather, I find them to be quite hopeful. There may have been some innapropriate comments, but we are capable of intelligent discourse, and I hope we can continue discussing without calling for closure of an interesting thread.

Great Job Brickster. You seem to be raising the bar with each sucsessive Gravestone MOC, and the historical basis for this one is really interesting. I would echo those who think it needs another accent color. Perhaps some grey could be mixed in to show wear and dirt on the walls. If not that, then tiling the edges of the battlements on the tower in the same brown that you used for the rest of the railings could give it the contrast it needs. Other than that, it's really good. The varying levels and facades make for a very visually interesting building that definitely gives the impression that it could hide secrets.

I think you missed the point. The idea is that LEGO is a better pastime for kids than watching what amounts to soft-core porn on TV. Yup, Definately not TLG sanctioned. Quite the contrary. I'm not sure about the naked chick, but as for the fake adverts, I think they are a brilliant commentary that juxtaposes what young kids should be doing (playing with LEGO) against what they are doing instead (watching thousands of acts of sex and violence on TV). I could be wrong about the artists intent -there may be an additional layer of ironic intent that I'm missing- but it seemed pretty clear to me.

I've been noticing over the past year of Universe that we've been seeing alot of pictures of various themes that may or may not be currently in production. Specifically, ninja, and other classic lines that are not currently available for purchase. Anyway, my question is "Does anyone know if Universe is going to be used by TLG for product marketing research?" It would seem that Universe would be a great tool for finding out what themes kids are interested in. A few things to consider. 1) Will TLG have any way to see what types of character, missions and areas are favored by player? 2) Does the demographic that will be playing Universe actually represent LEGO set buyers? 3) Could TLG use Universe for research in such a way that could suggest what buyers might be interested in without revealing information that would be usefull to TLG's competitors? Personally, I assumed from the beginning that TLG would use Universe a giant commercial for whatever "non-license" products TLG is currently selling (a'la Saturday morning cartoons). However, I'd be interested to hear from those in Marketing or Computer fields to see if using this for market research is possible or plausible.

Very nice job. I'm always impressed by folks who create small plants without resorting to simply arranging standard LEGO pieces.

I can't name names, but I have another confrimation from a trusted source that we are in for a CC style Fire station this year.

Great job! I wasn't totally sold on the black statue when I saw it last time, but it looks great here. I really like your espresso machine and Record player as well. Lots of "everyday" action here that really makes this MOC great!

One trade received, one shipping, and one pending, thanks everyone! I've updated the quantities above, and added 5 brown classic male headpieces.

Thanks for all your responses folks. It seems like folks are generally happy with the selection of piece types, but want to see more pieces in some of the newer colors. Though I didn't sepecifically ask about it, no one seemed to mention any unhappiness with the current color palate. Thus it seems like LEGO probably did the right thing a few years back when they lowered both the number of different part designs and the number of colors of parts. Asside from the great color change incident which ocurred before the event I'm speaking about, no one seems to be missing the obscure deleted colors, rather we are clamoring for the existing parts in existing colors.

When I came out of my dark-grey ages, I was on Lugnet for a year or so when I realized that it was becoming much less active. While googling around I stumbled across EB. I wasn't lurking for long before I realized that this was one of the most active and diverse English language LEGO forums around, so I signed up. I was hoping to find a forum with a reasonably active Town/City MOC'ing community, and EB more than delivered! I still snack on Lugnet and other sites now and then, but a main course of Eurobricks, a side of Bricktown Talk, and some Brothers Brick for desert pretty much keeps me full of LEGO. I love a good extended metaphor.

A dark red firestation eh? Sounds awesome. As long as it's not regular red, I can't think of too many other municipal buildings that would be easier to convert into other uses. Mechanic, restaurant, light industry, etc. Heck I might even use it as a firehouse. Even just as a parts pack for making my own "brick" buildings, I'd definately pick this one up. I wonder if the firehouse or the rumored second modular building will be unveilied at Brickworld or another fan convention. From Death Star to MMVillage, LEGO seems to be continuing it's trend of unveiling AFOL targeted sets at Fan Conventions. One more reason (not that I needed one) to get to Brickworld.

I'm not sure how much sigifig positioning and photographing you want to do, but the assembled sigfigs are welcome to visit Brickington Island upon their visit to Brickworld.

Just added, 20 Translucent Purple Flames! To keep this thread orderly and limit the number of threads I have in this forum, I'll try to post only only when I add new items. That way when you see that I have posted/bumped here, you'll know there are new items available. I'll answer all questions by PM.

+1 for Natman8000. You can trade with him with confidence.

I've been signed up for a while, but I just paid my admission. Add me to the list.

Great Job. Completely functional, yet you mangaged to make it look like a "regular" LEGO MOC, rather than the more typical skeletal appearance of most Tecnic MOCs. Have you tried sitting a tecnic figure or an action figure in the driver's seat?

Great Job Teddy. This definatley deserves an Index. You're detailing is exremely well balanced. Lots of greebling, but you've preserved just enough "plain" space to bring balance to the structure. The turning of the lions inward works well, and your extensive use of round plates is tastefull and effective.

Great job on the Willys Jeep, especially in such a small MOC. I'm pretty familiar with military hardware, but when I saw your post, "Jeep Willis" I thought I was going to see Gary Coleman driving a Wrangler. Thanks for the laugh and the great MOC.

Nice job sprucing up the area under the awning, and very interesting work on the roof. It does have a sci-fi look to it, but I like it. For some reason it also reminds me a bit of the compound curves and gargoyle-ish corners of the Harold Washington Library in Chicago. (See here and here) However the enhanced roof does make the front walls look even more plain. It really needs some greebling there. It's definitely starting to come together. Keep up the good work.

This is one of those threads that brings a smile to my face. Well done within a very limited number of pieces. I particularly like the brick built imperial. Well done.

Great post, I just wanted to post up a condensed version of your "greatest hits" for those who might be tempted to skip reading the entire thing. In our adoration for our "sacred cow" brands (LEGO, Disney, etc) we often forget that in free market societies, copyright and trademark laws have effective means for protecting "intelectual property" but the main reason for their existence is protection of the customer and it's a point that bears repeating. This is the one point I would disagree with. I don't think it's at all confusing. We have had compatible brick products for nearly (perhaps longer than) 30 years. LEGO is a company with alot of integrity, but it's still not a stretch to suggest that competition is one of the main reasons that they have continued to have such a high-quality product for so many years. Alot of folks seem to think that competition is bad because it takes dollars out of TLG's pockets. On the contrary (and I think we agree here) competition keeps LEGO on it's toes, keeps prices down (in the US anyway) and provides us a LEGO product that is innovative and high quality. Not just because "only the best is good enough" but because it has to be the best to survive.

A simple question. If you had to pick one of the other, would you rather... Have a wider selection of LEGO elements? or... Have the existing line of elements available in a wider selection of current LEGO colors? 2 things to note: 1) I'm not talking about new colors, just having more of the current elements in each of the existing colors, especially dark red, dark blue, sand green, dark tan, etc... 2) Leave minifig accessories and parts out of your consideration. There will be new ones every year regardless, and most of us probably have a really long list of minifig stuff we want to see. I'll start. I'd rather see more colors for existing LEGO pieces. Sand green and Dark Tan would be excellent colors to MOC with, but the number of pieces available is still fairly small compared to other colors.

I have alot of minifigs, but I'm not an army builder. I think alot of it is just folks enjoying collecting and watching their collection grow. However, alot of folks build large displays for thier home, club, or a convention, and it takes ALOT of figs to populate one of those. As an example: My town themed module (120"x40") probably has well over 150 mini figures, and it's not "densely" populated. A LEGO castle battle diorama of the same size would probably requre considerably more than 300, and even if you incorporated many factions you would have to have alot of the same types of figures (army building) to achieve the look of warring armies. Interestingly, it was LEGO that brought me away from 40k. I loved assembling, customizing and converting figures, and terrain, but painting the figures felt like a chore. Now I can build and modify to my heart's content, but I don't have to worry about painting anything. I confess that it's also nice to have a hobby now that my wife will sometimes participate in, is more socially acceptable, less expensive (YMMV) and allows for greater interaction with the public at large.

I buy alot of used lego and PAB, but when I buy sets, it's mostly buy Town and Indy. My main LEGO involvement right now is a LEGO train club (www.niltc) and Town and Indy have the most usefull minifig, parts and vehicles (when modified) for my Train Module, the town of "Brickington". I also buy some creator for the same reasons. I dabble in castle and pirates and Star Wars, but that's more because of nostalgia. Anything else is probably because it's on sale, or because of the uncontrolable impluse to buy cool looking LEGO. The new Space Police will probably fall into this catagory.