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Yup, you're right, my bad on the math. I still say that 7.5% is great. However, it would be great if they made the warranty card electronic so that folks could get their "stamps" even when ordering from LEGO online. I still say it's sleezy, I'm sick of being offered a credit card everytime I'm in a department store, or any of the other stores that constantly try to make a bit of extra cash of their customers with a credit card. You're right about becoming financial company. Most retailers outsource their credit cards, and despite some of the flextronics issues TLG is not a company that likes to outsource important functions. You're also right that LEGO is not about to enter a new business when their stated model for recovery from near bankrupcy and ensuring future success is to focus on their "core strengths".

The conclusion of the impeachment trial of Rod Blagoevich, Governor of Illinois. Juicy stuff on NPR now!

Thanks for linking to that, I'll be sure to read it when I have more time. Edited to remove stupid reply to a misread of previous post ... those who have a LEGO store nearby can often score good stuff at the pick-a-brick and make a pretty penny. I know a couple of folks who do this, and one or two whose LEGO hobby actually pays for itself using Bricklink. I also know some folks with good connections at resale shops that make a good deal reselling used brick. I could make a killing putting the brick I get from resale on Bricklink, but I am not good at letting go of my minifigs and bricks, and after the hunt for chap brick, building, and my other hobbies, I jsut don't have the time to invest. Thus, I'll never break even, but overall, my LEGO hobby is remarkably inexpensive. See the topic in my sig for more info on that...

Wow, thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you like the backstories. I find it's a nice way to link the expansions together rather than just presenting a new MOC. You will be pleased to know that a new (albeit small) addition is coming. I can't go into details right now, just that the brown and white boathouse isn't big enough to house a proper ship-building operation. Yet...

My wife and I love good food, anybody in, or coming through Chicago and want some additional recomendations for good eating, just PM me. Fast food Chain: Taqueria Los Comales. There's a bunch of them around, mostly in Mexican neighborhoods. Good food, great price. Not totally authentic, but worlds ahead of Taco Bell, Pepe's, etc... Casual Dining: RasDashen. Amazing Ethiopian Food. Probably my favorite restaurant at any price. Formal (dressy): Vermillion. Great Latin-Indian Fusion. My stepsister thinks she may have gotten food poisoning there last weekend though, so a couple of second choices would be... Carnivale: Great Latin cooking in a really cool room. Gehas: Really good Fondue, in a very dark, romantic "cellar" like venue.

Just saw the new pics, and WOW! I just finished posting on the Space police thread that Starwars had gotten really stale for me, and then these come out! Very glad to see ewoks and tauntauns again. Some folks will be disapointed that it seems like these new sets are smaller and more play oriented, but I'm just glad to see that they seem to be very rich in figure content. I guess I may have to give Starwars a second chance.

Wow! I had just given up on starwars, and thought I was safe from anything "space" related, and then these come out! Great new figs, (and lots of them) Classic space looking good guys with cyberpunk bad guys. I really hope this is a line that sells well, Because I'd love to see more of it!

No corporation is entirely "innocent", but TLG has always tried to whatever they can to avoid being seen as sleezy. I think that a LEGO credit card would tarnish that image. I personally would not use it. I have a credit card that I keep for "emergencies" but I haven't had to use it in about 2 years. I also don't carry cash, that's what a Debit card is for. As for this VSecret card, if it is a payment, and not interest (IMHO, it sounds like someone hasn't read their statement close enough), then it's not as toxic as other credit cards, but you are still accruing a balance and your monthly payment will continue to increase as your balance increases. Better to pay it once and not have a balance that will continue to grow. LEGO already has a much better deal going with the Loyalty card, which over the course a full card gives you aproximately 15% back.

Interesting topic. I have to say though, that "original" is not a great term for everything pre-2003. I have a hard time considering any star wars sets "original". That said, I picked both. Newer sets have tended to be very well designed, and when you take inflation into account, LEGO is actually CHEAPER now than it was at almost any other time in it's history. However, there were some great themes and sets that LEGO produced in the past. In the past there were many more "civilian" type of Town and castle sets, yet LEGO seems to be revisiting these kinds of sets this year, so maybe next year will be the best ever.

No, you're absolutely right, it's a fairly top-heavy model ait used to be even worse before I rememved the deck between the passenger cabin and the Wheelhouse. This was born of necessity. I wanted to make it longer, but as you can see it fills the space from the "shore" to the tables edge completely, so I couldn't make it any longer, but I still wanted to have a full passenger deck and wheelhouse. It's not perfectly realistic, but I think it fits the asthetic of the town which is a stylistic comprimise that falls somewhere between realistic Cafe Corners style "Models" and the more playfull Classic Town "toys". The ships I had in mind when I built it were the ferry's that I rode between the San Juan Islands of Washington state.

Great job! Somehow I missed the last installment, but I'm glad I caught this one. I'll be anxiously awaiting the next chapter. I'll go vote now.

I build most of my sets with my wife. Medium and larger we build together, smaller ones seprately. She almost never MOCs, but we enjoy doing the sets together. For the Cafe Corner series, we would each do a floor, with me building slightly faster and building the extra floor. For Town Plan and Medeval Market Village we each did different buildings. For Death Star II, there were lots of repeated steps for us to work on individually, or we would take turns building or finding the pieces. Death Star II is one kit that would have been FAR les enjoyable to build alone. We usually either take different instruction books, or I'll cut the instruction books down the binding and we'll each take the section we need. As for parts organization, parts either get grouped together like CP5670 or I will use the advent calendar inserts (I have 5 or 6) to sort out the pieces it takes a bit of time at the begining, but makes for a much smoother build, and lets me get a rough mental picture (better than the parts page IMHO) of what pieces I have added to by collection by purchasing the set.

I don't take hallucinogens anymore, I just wait for the lovely trips that are Dr. X's creations. Once again, great job! I love the soap dispenser.

Interesting to see this topic revived again after we've had a little more time to let it sink in. The color change came just before my darker ages ended, so when I got my old bricks and started adding new sets the difference was immidately apparent. I have to say that I still prefer the old grey and old dark grey, but that I recently reached a point where my collection of new grey has surpassed my colleciton of old grey, and there are quite a nubmer of newer pieces, like lions heads, that are only or mostly avialable in new grey. Also, the proilferation of more LEGO stores and pick-a-bricks have enabled me to amass larger collections of the new browns and greys than I ever could with the old colors. Thus, while I may prefer the old colors, I tend to build more with the new ones. Over the last few years I've come almost enjoy having the different colors. I've accepted that I will largely have to segregate the old and new greys and browns to different MOCs, or combine them carefully for specific effects. And I'm ok with the fact that asside from resale acquisitions, my collection of old colors will remain stagnant while my collection of new colors will continue to grow. I'm playing with toys and loving it. I'm not going to let some colors, or lack thereof, change that.

Lots of interesting points here. I like these kind of open ended discussions. I'm a bit suprised at Dragonator's historically misinformed (and terribly so) equating of Pirates and Nazi's, but he does make the valid point that people don't tend to be terribly consistent in their rationale for to allowing some atrocities in our MOCs and popular culture while considering others taboo. Most of us shun torture, and violence, but we just had two contests at EB glorifying those topics. I think that there are lines to be drawn, but for the most part they are personal lines. It's good to have one's own standards regarding MOCs, and to know what those are. The trouble comes when we try to make our personal standards someone elses. That said, when moving out of personal building and display and into the realm of displaying your MOCs in public or in a collective setting, a whole new set of issues arises. Questions like.... 1) What is the responsibility of the club or individual to the venue that is hosting thier display? 2) Should those displaying respect generaly accepted comunity mores? (assuming those mores can be defined...) 3) How should public complaints about a MOC or MOC topic be handled? 4) What is the responsibility of the individual to the reputation of the group when displaying collectively? 5) What is the responsibility of the group to support each member's unique direcition, or freedom of expression? These are tough quesitons that do not have black and white answers. In the LEGO group I belong to, we have had to work through some of these issues because of objections from venues and individuals. I can't go into details, but it was a very sensitive issue for the club to have to decide that the collective group might, at some point, have to decide to disallow another member's MOC in a public display.

Great MOC, I wonder if you realize just what an excellent idea you've come up with of separate floors with a solid facade. On many buildings that I and others have built, the the seams between floors are a bit too obvious. Often times I don't have the right pieces or the correct plates to hide joints, or the necessity for separation keeps me from running windows through multiple floors. Thus many of us either settle for inaccessible interiors, leaving rear walls off, or just live with the restrictions of modularity. Your idea solves all those issues. Well done!

NICE! I agree with Logawan. I am suddenly seeing the need for Brickington Island to have a smoothie stand. Luckily I just happen to have two of them, and thanks to my new-found organization, I know exactly where they are!

Glad to see this topic brought back up. I missed it previously. I'm very impressed with the balance you have achieved between the Classic town style, which I feel is too small for significant architectural detailing, and CC style, which is a bit larger than I have space or funds to build a whole town out of. I have been trying for a similar balance in "Brickington" but you're buildings are much nicer, and quite inspirational. I'll be curious to see the next installment.

Welcome to Eurobricks. I would second the suggestion of Town Plan. It may seem a bit expensive, but it's definitely a good bang-for-buck set, and the fastest way to acquire 3 civilian (not fire or police related) buildings and 2 vehicles. As you can see, I think the charm of Town is in civilian type sets. I would recommend also the "mail Van" and "air mail" sets, but get them quick, as they may not be around much longer. Also, the Train Station is a neat building that can be easily coverted into a bus depot if you don't have a train. Finally, the Recycle truck is a great set that I plan to purchase soon.

Thanks Marko, With some modifications, the Indy vehicles can definitely be a nice addition to a LEGO town. I'm not very good at building cars, so they make a great starting point for me. I actually just purchased as second of the Race for Treasure set that I'll be modding into a delivery truck and civilian type car. If you'd like to see the more recent additions to the town. Airport, marina, and boathouse: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?...;hl=brickington Mountain, Christmas Tree Farm and Ferry: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?...;hl=Brickington Enjoy!

I'd love to see that. I remember seeing pictures when I was a kid of workers in Chicago pusing blocks of ice into refrigerator cars with those long forked poles. Great MOC by the way!

Thanks for that article. I remember when I was a kid, and billionaires were much less common, I read somewhere that at that time, the owner of LEGO was the only billionaire in Denmark.

Thanks, glad to help inspire you. Be sure to keep updating this topic. I found that feedback from EB was one of the best things for keeping me motivated and on task I don't sort for sets, but I completely agree about digging through unsorted bricks. Whenever I get some from the resale shop I go through and take out the minifigs and all the "special" stuff that goes in my drawer organizers. It's like christmas meets a treasure hunt where you're never sure what you're going to get. Sorting the rest of the bricks is not quite as fun for me, but it is great to be sorting your regular bricks and realize that you suddenly have enough of a brick type for it to actually be usefull in MOCs.

Wow, there's some great sets and great memories so far. 6659 and 6345 Arial Acrobats, really took me back. Keep them coming.

Great job! A detailed, humorous, and eminiently readable review. This really seems to be one of the better Town/City impulse sets that LEGO has come up with in recent years. A usefull minifig that most folks probably don't have yet, and some very usefull parts and accessories. Well done LEGO.