MAB

I've broken a good few black axles in my time. Although that is probably more down to me abusing them with large torques, rather than their colour!

If there wasn't a business case for bringing back a kids pirates theme before (that is, a theme with a range of set sizes), I doubt there is much of a case after seeing as this is a one-off large, expensive set. The market for the Ideas set is likely to be different to that for a whole theme of much smaller sets.

They would be good as Castle type figures. But then, if LEGO wanted to make a Castle CMF series, there is nothing stopping them. The downside of a How to Train Your Dragon CMF series is the lack of dragons.

Plus those studs are taller than normal, and the centre piece pushes the legs outwards slightly to help grip the legs.

None of my weaker ones are cracked. 1x1 cheese slopes, on the other hand, all my weak ones are cracked.

I'm not a fan of the printed cape as that's what the cloth cape is for. Putting a cape over a cape is a bit weird.

I haven't experienced them cracking, but they can lose clutch over time. I imagine this is partly down to them only having one point of attachment.

These look great. For accurate realism, now you just need to add the rubbish, graffiti and buddleja bushes!

It is interesting how they have laid theirs out, by subject matter. It is SUITS SPACE HISTORY SPORTS

The "Classic" sets are ideal for new builders. Even though there are lots of pieces, the builds in the instructions are really straightforward. Plus bucket sets like this get them "free building" (not following instructions) which is a good thing too.

This is not deterioration issue though, this is a quality / design aspect of new figures. The CMF fairytale princess hat was notoriously bad for staying on her head, for example.

I'm not really into Ninjago, and probably won't be into the replacement. So for me, it doesn't matter if they keep on repeating similar sets year on year. If they do this and they keep selling to current kids, then there is no need to end it only to have to start a new theme hoping it takes off. They tried Chima and NK and they didn't last, so why kill off a winner in Ninjago if it continues to be a winner.

I've never had a problem with this, aside from if the minifigure is standing on transparent parts (cracking legs).

I would class colours that are very similar to others as unimportant. I have nothing against individual colours but when you put them side by side and there are many similar colours in one region of the colour table, then to me some of those are unimportant.

Also some blogs end up coming across as "buy this product HERE as it is really great" and HERE is an affiliate link and the recommendation is possibly only there to get referrals rather than an honest opinion. Another good thing about EB is it is pretty much referral free (obviously ads for support though).

The crown shape is around each spike, so this is not a bad representation. Bigger flower heads instead of radar dishes would have been better, but for purist parts, this is decent.

Looks more like the Airport shuttle logo to me. Although LEGO suggesting that drone fliers should be doing it near airports is likely to be controversial. That keytar is awful, they got the keyboard part upside down. What a stupid error.

I'm not a fan of the viking helmet. It makes the head look so big. I know this is often a problem with LEGO helmets but this one really makes the head look massive. Maybe if they had not used the full-on sides it would have looked more natural, like the brickforge versions.

We could do with one or two shades of red. We have multiple pinks, oranges, greens, blues, etc so red variations would be welcome. However, I wouldn't care if they were old or new. New is fine, as they likely wouldn't match the old anyway. Plus I wouldn't mind them cutting back on the number of aqua / turquoise / blue shades, pinks, yellows / oranges to make some room in the pallette. I prefer to see wider range of bricks in important colours rather than sporadic bricks in many shades.

Why can't forums keep up with news flow? EB keeps up with news flow perfectly well, at the speed the users post and discuss "legal" news. I cannot see that 20 people jumped on him. Those helmets are not MOC quality. But then very few sets are MOC quality. And that is theme independent. Huge MOC quality sets are unlikely to sell in enough numbers to be worthwhile. I think it is highly unlikely that LEGO would release 1:1 helmets mainly because of cost but partly because people would try to wear them and injure themselves.

Of course you can have enough of it, and give up. It is not really any different to other hobbies. Plus used LEGO is easy to sell as sets if kept as the complete set.

I do both - sometimes parts suggest a MOC, other times MOCs are planned and parts from collection used and BL order supplement where needed. However, I find buying sets a great source for parts for MOCs. If they are licensed sets, you can often offset most of the cost of the set by selling the minifigures. I use a lot of natural colours - greys, browns, tans, etc, and LOTR, The Hobbit and Star Wars sets have been great ones to part out over the recent years. I still have a load of LOTR/Hobbit sealed boxes from when they were sold off reasonably cheap. I bought 40 of this set when they were £6. Even at the time the minifigures alone were worth that. And the remains make great castle building supplies, especially if you buy lots of the same set. Non-licensed sets are not so good though, as there is little value in the minifigures unless they are something really unique.

It is probably very risky to try to do business like that. LEGO has large stocks of most parts and trying to clear them out probably doesn't work. However, buying lots might flag to LEGO that it is an in-demand part and they stop selling it to reserve stocks for the "missing parts" section instead.

If they wanted to appeal to kids that saw the movies at the original release dates, then they could make them 45+ instead. The point was more that creator expert sets such as modulars are 16+ not 18+.

The bulk order form is available on the B+P section. It is specifically for ordering more than you can online.