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My thoughts exactly! Who the heck knows exactly what's in there, but it is LEGO. One thing I do know though, the trader showed me a picture of the bin of parts before he broke it down and bagged it up, and even though he has taken out all the minifigs, I saw a cloud car in there!

Beautiful stuff you have there. I especially like the open detailing on the bistro. Great use of roof and courtyard space. Your use of arches and brown textures on the bookstore is quite an original combination. The hardware store has just enough unique angles to keep it from being just another rectangular building, and I don't even know where to begin with the town hall. Fantastic!

I traded gaming stuff for another box of LEGO today. This should be arriving about Tuesday: That's 8 one gallon ziplocks! The box dimensions are: 18"x12.5"x8.5" Yaay, more random LEGO!

I understand. When concience compells, you gotta speak up. You are of course assuming there is such a thing as a Normal Price Right there with you. Most of "the same people" aren't going to get what they deserve, but hopefully our elected officials will find a middle ground that gives them a spank or two and leaves boths sides equally dissatisfied. After all, mutual and opposing dissatisfaction is the hallmark of stable American democracy. Geez, now I'm way off topic too. I blame the Rebel Admin. It's always good policy to blame the Rebels.

All right, we've got a poll up, so get back here and make your vote count. Those of you who point to a downturn in LEGO as your reason for Dark Ages, pick the choice that best describes how you filled the time you formerly spent on LEGO.

I'm sure there has been alot of discussion about this, but I wanted to poll EB'ers and see numerically what their primary reason for their dark ages is. Thus, I'm askig those who have experienced a dark age to pick the prime reason you entered a dark age. TFOL's and those who proudly continued their LEGO habbit despite ridicule, this thread is not for you. I admire your fortitude and commitment, but this thread is for us who shamefully neglected the brick in favor of something else 1) Hormones: Girls, Boys, whatever. Hormones took over, and LEGO fell to the wayside. 2) Other interests: Cars, school, motorcycles, bandminton, Playmobile, video games, etc. Some other activity crowded out the sacred brick. 3) Shame: Family and/or Friends made it clear that LEGO was not an appropriate hobby anymore and, either by pressure or force, compelled you to abandon LEGO. Those who felt "too old" pick this option 4) Other. Many of you will have a mix of the 3 above, but you can only pick one! I'll start. I like to refer to my dark ages, as a grey-ages, since I did occasionally build. Honestly though, that's probably just a kind of excuse, since from 1995-2004 I bought almost no LEGO at all. My reason was hormones. Once I came out of my nerdish shell and discovered girls, most everything else fell by the wayside. Then I met the girl of my dreams, got hitched, and came back to the brick.

Great Job, Finally a good use for Yellow! I would like to put in my vote for the classic version of the wall. Yellow Castle just seems like a subject best addressed with classic designs. I can't wait to see it done. There is something remarkable nostalgic and calming about a bright yellow castle with lots of smiling minifigs on top. It's just so... happy!

I've seen alot of designs on LDD that I would like to purchase, but everytime I check the price, it is prohibitively expensive, and not getting printed instructions makes it seem like an even worse deal. However, I have used the PAB function to acquire pieces that are hard to find in quantity or high in price on BL. Certain minifig parts, architectural details (lions heads, iron gates, etc), owls, specific doors, and dark red 1x2's are some of the things that i've gotten.

That's a good suggestion. I've got one that I'm working on, but I'm trying to get it into Brickjournal. Depending on how that works out, I'm definately hoping to work up something for EB in the future, but I want to make it just right. One last thing, despite my comments on this one, some of your previous articles were great. The Town Building, and Collection Preservation articles being some notable examples.

I'll PM you my suggestions. As you say, this should be focused on the topic at hand. Edited to remove suggestions Whatever you do, please continue to bring these interesting issues out for discussion When it comes to raising stimulating issues for discussion, you are one of Eurobricks' best.

Thanks Brickzone, I wouldn't worry too much about the US market. The US might never have the financial pull they had a decade ago, but the dollar will recover. Also, I think that "subsidize" is a misrepresentation. US prices are lower, and the profit margins and growth are lower. "Subsidize" implies unprofitability on it's own, but there is nothing in the TLG annual report http://cache.lego.com/downloads/aboutus/an...eport2007UK.pdf to suggest that the US markets are unprofitable "loss-leaders" for TLG.

Price (How much is it?) -Not too important in that LEGO is already expensive accross the board. Value (Is the set worth the price/piece or other value ratio?)- Kind of important, especially if I'm buying it for pieces. Playability (Will it give you some play or fun - swoosh value?)- Not important Design (How is the overall quality of the design?) -Very Important. Even if I buy it mainly for parts, I still build it. Integration (Will it fit within my existing Tabletown or collection?)- Not too important, as my MOC'd town only uses TLG designed vehicles. Theme (Is it a theme I value or collect other sets to?) -Important, but not as important as Design Rating (How do other AFOL feel about this set?) AFOL's review of sets are informative, but their "feelings" about sets generally mean little to me. Visual Quality (How "cool" does it look? or does it look like a Classic Town set?) Coolness is a factor, but that's really more of a "design" issue. Only collectors of Classic town really care if it looks like a Classic Town set, so that doesn't matter to me at all. Pieces (Does this set contain special pieces that you need or want?) This is a big factor Minifigs (Does this set have minifigs that you want?) This is more of a factor than I'd like to admit. Cool minifigs are a big selling point to me when I get a set. Build (Do you prefer an easy or more complex build?) Not really a factor, I like easy and complex builds. For me, I generally look for a set that appeals to me visually, and has good sets and figs. This is because while I enjoy the building process and seeing the completed results, if the pieces and figs aren't good, it won't add much to my MOCing. Another great topic for discussion, Brickster. You did a very good job of laying out just about every factor that an AFOL would consider in a set. Once again, I think you may have overreached in trying for "article" status, but by all means, keep starting these stimulating topics.

That is a good Score! I see a black vested, red shirt torso in there. That's a classic! Enjoy. I get alot of mixed lots in trade or a resale shops, and it's always fun to see what shows up.

TLG sells sets where they believe they will sell. Even online selling requires that you warehouse sets in or near the country (market) you are selling too, and if you don't expect significant sales, it's not worth it to store the sets in those markets. As for advent calendars specifically, there is very good reason not to sell them in the USA. They didn't sell that well last year. After Christmas I visited two LEGO stores that had numerous copies (stacks in fact) of the the City Advent Calendar at half off. IIRC, it was also in the sale section of the website for a while also at the same price. That's hundreds, perhaps thousands of sets that TLG will not make a profit on, and a very strong incentive to not intruduce more advent calendars into a country where the City Advent Calendar has a hard time selling. Interestingly enough, the Belleville Calendars sold out early! So who knows where that leaves my theory...

I hate to try to spell out innuendo, but I'll do my best. He's quoting a Bob Dylan song. It's meant to be cryptic and mysterious and it is a bit clever since we are dealing with a "wind" related set. I read it as saying that he thinks that because the sets showed up on a layout, that is a strong hint that we may see them released. As I said, it's meant to be cryptic, and I wouldn't try to get too much out of that statement, unless CopMike himself clarifies. I could be wrong, but I believe the ads are for the Vestas company without pictures of the LEGO set.

I suppose it was only a matter of time before the conspiracy theorists got in the game, but returning to the original topic of the thread... From a TLG point of view, we should be glad that this is happening now, and not before LEGO's reorganiziation. If this had happened from '98-'03, a time in which TLG lost money in 4 of 7 years, we could really have been looking at a company that could have folded, shrunk dramatically, or been acquired by another less pricipled company. Thankfully the TLG that is presently weathering these storms is a company that has been on the upswing, and has drastically streamlined their supply chain to make the company as a whole much more efficient. If you want to read more about the company's previous woes, and how they turned it around, check out this article: http://www.strategy-business.com/press/art...7-1876-26315955 It's from fall of 07, but it's still very relevant.

Thanks for clearing all that up, Copmike. What an interesting turn of events. In a way, it shows that it pays for us to let LEGO know what we want. If we hadn't made our desire for this set known, they might not have redirected the mis-shippment our way. Or, being that they are inteligent people, they might still have realized that AFOLs are always interested in "exclusives". Either way, a big thanks to Steve, Tormud and Jan for thinking about AFOL's.

That sounds about right. If nothing else, it's cool have a better idea of how the size of these things compares to a standard LEGO layout. Now that I see it, it almost looks a bit too big for a standard LEGO layout. I'm tempted to build one about 2/3 that size out of bricks that I already have. Right after I finish my train tunnel, mountain, passenger train, car ferry, Challet, church...

My LEGO buying is down. My situation: I recently bought a house in Chicago. I got a good deal. Not counting my downpayment, I had an additional chunk in equity in the house when I moved in. I wasn't buying as an "investment", so even though the value of the home has probably dropped down to it's purchase price, I'm not in a bad place. Not having that equity, means that we couldn't secure a home-equity line of credit when my wife recently returned to school, so we live off my salary and her meager school loans. We're good a cutting costs, an don't carry any other debt so thankfully we're not hurting or really struggling. I knew that my LEGO buying would fall off some when my wife returned to school, but now my LEGO buying is way down, and I am concentrating more on trading for LEGO than buying LEGO.

Brilliant. Looks exactly like what it is, and your solution for representing shoes is the kind of simple and effective solution that anyone can replicate. Time to break out the cheeses and build a shoe store!

Hi folks, I'm just wondering if anyone is selling minifig face decals that are, or are similar to, basic town designs. I ask this because now that I have acquired a number of white fleshie minifigs, I would like to have some black minifigs. I acquired a bunch of "black" (dark brown actually) heads at a LEGO store, but they are all the same face. I need some variety I'd especially like some female faces as well, but even plain classic smiley faces with varied headgear would be worlds better than having to use the same goatee'd face for every dark skinned minifig.

I guess in a trade, an item is "bought" when you mail off your half of a trade. By that criteria, I just baught a Large size US Postal Service Flat Rate Box (12x12x5 inches) filled with LEGO. In exchange, I gave some Gaming stuff: Void 1.1 gamebox contents, 25mm Grendel APC, and Kryomek rulebook. I've done a couple of these exchagnes, where I trade stuff for a specified volume of LEGO. I'm really getting to enjoy the mystery of recieveing a box filled with LEGO, and not knowing what you will be surprised with.

Very Well Done! I see a number of places where you managed to use basic bricks to great effect without having to resort to more extreme techniques. I'd love to see this on a train car with equipment.

Those two items are currently in negotiations over at bartertown, I'll let you know if the deal falls through.

I had to grin at this. Truely a very clever piece of logic!