MAB

No, you can't order just an R2-D2 minifig from lego. You can buy unlicensed parts on pick a brick or the replacement parts service. Occasionally single licensed parts show up but rarely enough to put together whole minifigs.

https://www.lego.com/en-gb/themes/vidiyo Vidiyo is still for sale in the UK too, or you can try replacing ae / gb with nz. However, I think they were talking about series 2 of Bandmates earlier being cancelled, not the theme as a whole. I thought the plan was that series 2 would still be released later in the year (suggesting it had all been made and needs selling / getting rid of depending on how the retailers see it).

It is not realistic to do free worldwide shipping on BL items like you want, as prices in any seller's store are fixed for all regions. You cannot charge one price domestically and another price for the same item internationally. There is no such thing as free shipping, free shipping just means that shipping is included in the price. For sets, that means charging the worldwide shipping price on top of the value of the set as its price. That is the only way you get "free shipping" and the seller covers the cost. For parts, it is even more unrealistic. It is also bad if you want to buy two sets from the same seller, as you pay for postage twice. You may think you are getting two lots of free shipping, but really you are paying the inclusive shipping price twice. I'd rather buy a set for £15 and pay £5 postage than buy the same set with free shipping. Even more so if I wanted two of the sets, when the total cost is £35 when paying for postage but £50 with free shipping. Amazon and ebay "free shipping" total prices are nearly always higher, since the seller has factored in shipping costs and is also being charged a higher percentage of the sales price than on BL, which is also factored into the sales price.

No. Most parts and sets have weights in the database already.

I imagine they got good feedback during play testing on early prototype versions of vidiyo. It is quite fun to use, especially for kids. And then released it without play testing the final product. They messed up the app. The app is clunky, annoying to use and missing important features. Plus it only runs on very modern tablets / phones that are not likely to be in the hands of 7 year olds. I guess play testing used a preliminary one. They messed up marketing. No stages released at the start, just weird expensive boxes in unusual packaging and small boxes with a single minifigure in that cost more than CMF. Nobody really knew what the theme was meant to be. They messed up the pricing. Even a decent set / theme can be killed by way overpricing it. They could probably have got away with one error, but not all three. If we had play tested it, I think we (as a family) would have been generally positive, but would we have been asked to comment on pricing and marketing? Probably not. Would we have been given the final app? Probably not. The updated app with stages wasn't even ready until just before the stages were released, after review sets were sent out. So I reckon play testers were positive to it, just that lego really screwed up what happened next.

That wasn't a thing anyway. Named smaller characters have come as accessories in CMFs a number of times before. Loki / Throg was nothing new.

There is definitely a varied selection in there although aside from the pigs there is probably not much I'd use. The selection is a bit random. It will be interesting to see what the cost is in terms of VIP points for these if they go forward with them. If it was 800 points so that pack or a fiver off, I'd probably take the fiver off. If there were no pigs, I'd definitely take the fiver off.

It might also depend on where it is made (which factory). Some of the CMF parts never seem to show up in regular sets.

Running plastic on plastic continuously is going to cause wear. If you want to run it continuously, maybe try spraying the track parts with a silicone spray designed for use on plastic curtain rails and similar.

But then look at the differences. Seinfeld has five minifigures. This one has 7 plus extra parts for almost three more. This one has a smaller number of parts, but presumably they are significantly bigger parts. They could, of course, have made it cheaper. They could have left out the transformation area and mechanism, left out the whole hidden back stage area, left out the 2x minifigures of the woman being made over, left out the extra torsos. None of that is really necessary for an 18+ display set but makes it a bit more than just a display set, putting in a feature not in The Big Bang Theory, or FRIENDS, or Seinfeld.

@danth posted to link to it. Click on it and you will find out.

There is always that sort of thing.

The 2020 bride and groom (as in separate sets) are still available, at least in the UK, and this is probably the best way for them to continue so any combination can be bought as required. Having a set that could be two grooms, one groom and bride or two brides is probably a waste of parts when the individual sets cover all eventualities. So long as there is not a rush on one of them, of course.

And they sorted that by selling individual brides and grooms. So if you want two grooms, you buy two groom sets. If you want a groom with two brides, that is also possible. Everyone is now covered, not just couples. How do they make a set that represents all gay men (or women) if gay men are different to each other. So buy another set that does represent him if you want. For example, if a bin man, then get this one. There is nothing to label the male minifigure as gay, straight, bi, ...

It used to be manual invoice for every order. Some people don't change with the times. Some sellers even still pack orders before invoicing to be able to charge the postage to the penny.

You could do a rough design of the shell first, without worrying about interior detail. Then look at it and decide what interior parts of the build can be seen from the outside and then place things you want where they can be seen. Or include more windows or other viewing ports to open up more of the interior.

Nothing wrong with a build that is BOLOCs (built of lots of colours). I think most younger kids learn that way. I still do it if I don't have the right part in the right colour when trying something out. If you are testing form and function, colour is irrelevant.

It is more likely to break or bits get lost if out of the box. But yeah, some parts may degrade especially rubber wheels/tyres. But does it even matter. If someone wants it as a sealed set, the condition of the contents is not important unless the box has a plastic window. It is more like a fine wine than plastic art. The sealed container is the collectable, sometimes more important than the condition of the stuff inside. That is unlikely to be the case for vintage sets. I imagine many sealed vintage sets that show up are ones that never got sold and were left in a stockroom, or were bought and then never gifted, or didn't sell and sold off in bulk and not sold on at the time. Of course some would have been in the hands of collectors of the time, for what they were - sealed sets - (and would have been enjoyed in their collection even if not built) rather than what they thought they would be worth in 30 or 40 years. The fact that so few sealed sets were saved is what makes them so desirable now. A lot of vintage sets are worth very little in terms of contents (if just basic parts), but still valuable if the set is sealed and the box is good. Having a sealed box with desirable contents inside is a double whammy. It is different these days where people do invest in multiple copies each of many sets primarily for investment.

I disagree here, because this set is not a normal set any more. It has become a collectable. 30 year old sealed sets are a relative rarity and so carry a premium. If someone wants to build the set, there are second hand sets around. Of course those also carry a premium as supply is less than demand. But if someone wants a sealed set to display or the enjoyment of reliving opening a Christmas present from the past, they will have to pay even more. How much should that premium be? That is up to buyers and sellers to decide. A sale only occurs when they agree. LEGO is a bout the building, and there are literally 1000s of sets available at retail stores now or via the secondary marketplace if someone wants to build them.

A well off but not necessarily super rich LEGO collector.

When did that upcoming job advert leak ...?

Yeah, I think the most we can hope to get from a Creator 3 in 1set is a useful torso or maybe 2, and possibly a useful piece of headgear. And that anything like that is available for sale at lego's bricks and pieces.Other than that, 3 in 1 sets tend to be fairly basic bricks that can be rebuilt into completely different things, so no hope for larger specific parts.

They'd still have to compete with toys that children actually want!

Knowledge of parts and experience at building. It's like anything creative, without practice and trying out different techniques, someone's MOCs are not likely to be very interesting.

It was slightly different. The CMF one had blue hands, the Adidas one has yellow. But otherwise the same.