Hey Joe

I hope and pray I never pay that much for one! I've been guilty in the past of getting carried away with my hobbies, trying to control myself now, it's not easy! You could always buy the whole set and sell it - minus the Scarecrow - on eBay or something? Maybe that's too much trouble, who's to say? Joe

Ok thanks. I used to devour SciFi and Fantasy in my teens but I never could get into 'The Hobbit' (and LOTR by extension) for some strange reason. The extended DVDs I scored (quite cheaply here in China ) were a little TOO extended, maybe I slept through that part. Great movies though, I definitely didn't sleep at all in the cinema. Joe

Stupid question time; was there a pirate ship in LOTR? I don't remember one at all.

That's a really sweet-looking layout and I love the tower. It looks like Santa has really upgraded from his old sleigh and reindeer! I guess with the population being what it is these days it was tough for him to get around! I'm also really digging that little red tractor thing, well done.

Maybe you should have fabricated some story to twist his noodle a little? Maybe not though, I wonder what his next step would have been if your story hadn't been perfectly plausible and legitimate? Joe

Scored 7066 Alien Conquest HQ and a couple PoP sets; Fight for the Dagger and Ostrich Race. Alien Conquest is a cool theme IMO as it's earth-based and retro (totally smacks of Mars Attacks). I don't really care for licensed sets but PoP Battle of Alamut is an awesome castle so I scored a couple of the smaller sets to augment it. The Ostrich Race was on discount on Amazon (where I also scored the Alien Conquest HQ). Got the 7571 Fight for the Dagger via Barnes and Noble online. It was full-price ($30) but the postage was free and the tax was minimal, less than US $1.50. It was the first time I'd bought Lego from them, I will purchase there again. Wish I could afford EVERY Lego set! Great fun, Joe

A Samsonite suitcase chock-full of Lego, it's great!

Ok thanks, I thought it was something like that but it's kinda hard to pick out the features. Your English is ok, you should've used gerunds (i.e. grinding).

I live in China, Chinese refer to themselves as having yellow skin, I meant no offense. Joe

'Marmite' set? What's that?!? Joe

Yes, very nice. Maybe I'm a little dense but why is it called Triple Windmill'? Joe

It could be different in the UK but I think in the US they direct you to a distributor for your area if you're interested in buying. Many people educate at home so yes, you (as a private individual) can purchase the material to the best of my knowledge. It's not cheap and most (if not all) of the material is cheaper if you just purchase normal Lego. There may be items that are unavailable through normal channels, I'm really not that familiar with it. The bonus of buying it thru Education may be that you get material about how to use it educationally. There's a lot of info on the Lego Education website and there are also newsletters (read; sales pitches) that they email occasionally (including one for those who educate at home). They have free videos there about how to use some of the material and there is also some actual material that you can download. Hope that helps, Joe

One problem with that is different countries have different demographics so for example, if you try to skew the mix towards the US (which has something towards a 20% black population) it will be off for other places which are too numerous to mention. Imagine your average African; "Hey, what's up with all these white faces?" How to portray people of Middle-Eastern heritage, or mixed races? It's a huge can of worms and it just seems to me that an intelligent, global, PC company should just stick to what's working now. Yellow is also in alignment with the demographics of what will probably someday be the largest market in the world. Personally, I like the yellow minifigs, they look 'normal' to me but maybe I'm just old-fashioned.

Lego sells (or at least used to sell) a birthday party pack on their US web site. It was 50% off last time I saw it. Take a look, might be what you need? It is/was a minifig for each child I believe. Joe

Really nice and thanks for sharing. Me and my big fingers like those slide out floors. The little truck is great but maybe needs some headlights? How about a horse-drawn beer wagon?

Interesting, thanks. Were the boxes made in-house (the company was originally a carpenters shop after all) or are they one of the things that were farmed out?

It's a great theme IMO. A Lego retailer here in Beijing has a nice display of some of the models. I'd buy some of them but my son is only three so they're pretty low on the priority list. Maybe it's the same with other people, too many other cool sets on the market right now? If the theme isn't doing well (I have no idea) it might SADLY be because it's not licensed, there's no movie to build hype and get people's attention? Maybe that's why I don't particularly care for licensed sets, I don't like being manipulated in that way.

I don't read Chinese but it looks like the Taiwanese poster on that Pockyland site got free replacement arches shipped from Lego in the U S. www.pockyland.net/viewthread.php?tid=46609&extra=&page=1

I was right, whaddyaknow? That doesn't happen too often, the wife will be surprised. Excellent MOC, thanks!

The price surely depends on supply and demand and a bunch of algorithms. Their stock is probably fairly depleted, it being right after Xmas and all. Next time a truckload comes in and the stock isn't moving as fast as it should they'll do a sale.

This is all well and good, however, what I'd really like to know is what's the logic about what goes into which bag at the factory in the first place? There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it as far as I can see.

Really cool! It kinda reminds me of those WWII Japanese mini-subs for some reason? Maybe I've been reading Wikipedia too much!

That's a beautiful piece of work. Wish that were a set I could buy.

Sometimes Amazon has sales on the Modulars. I scored the Town Hall before Xmas for US$ 180 (and it went lower than that afterwards I believe, maybe to US$ 160?). I got my Pet Shop from Lego S@H during Double VIP points which is basically 10% off.

Interesting, thanks. Perhaps it's impossible and/or difficult to answer or even speculate but I wonder what Lego considered 'performing' to be? $5 million seems like a respectable amount of early '70's dollars.