MAB

By opening for modulars, I mean "lift off". For me, having a complete tower in which you could lift off the separate layers (or open separate layers like a dolls house) to see the features would have been nicer than having it open backed. In fact, I changed mine to do the former.

None of us really know if it is successful. We don't know how many were / are to be made, how many have sold / will sell, or how frequently they sell. It may be that lego had agreed to make a certain number in total, but only ships small numbers to distribution centres (due to it being large and slow selling). That would mean that it would go out of stock and put on short backorder. It's a nice set. It could have been better (final side in place, with a the possibility of opening like a dolls house or like a modular), although it gets decent reviews as it probably should do for a set that size. But we don't know if lego sees it as a (sales) success.

Invizable is coming in the Agents sets ... The glasses aren't quite the right colour, but combine that with a black suit and hat and you have him.

It is also down to the way it is marketted and sold. It is a standalone set, not part of any wave. It is an exclusive to lego only. I don't know if it is in production still, or if the backordering is just them shifting stocks around. It is a bit like the Haunted House from the MF rage, lasting way beyond the end of the normal retail waves. It sure does. I got eight :-) An alternative view is that it is a great set - a cheap way to get Saruman, one of the key baddies of the trilogy, with play features too. It's quite sad if a teen that cannot afford the entire range had to buy the most expensive set (Orthanc) just to get him. Remember that not everyone will buy every set in a range. Allowing a key good vs evil moment in a cheap set is good in my opinion.

New Elementary is great, although tends not to do all parts (esp minifig). You can also browse the BL catalogue by "what's new" and select parts ... http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?sortBy=D&sortAsc=D&catType=P

The problem there is would all the building sets sell if they were all done on the scale of Helm's Deep or Orthanc? Sure, The Council of Elrond could have been 4-5 times larger, but it would have cost 4-5 times more. It is easy enough to buy multiples of small sets and sell of the minifigs not needed. Especially for MOCing larger builds where the architecture would essentially be repeated multiple times from the small build.

Yes, and in fact many people were doing this ten years or more ago (for LOTR). There are many yellow skinned custom LOTR figures out there, which slowly got better with things like the release of the CMF series 3 elf. The addition of the new official minifigs really gave some extra detail (and probably some inspiration) for the masses. It's a shame we don't have Gondor soldiers with the correct official printed parts or molded helmets, but people will get by after the official Middle Earth sets are done just as they got by before.

If it mentioned price then it did violate the instructions, as they say not to discuss "info that changes, such as price". That is what the value for money rating is for. It wouldn't surprise me if those options start to dry up too. BL sellers will be paying more, games (a good source of baseplates) are no longer being produced. There other other ways (LUG purchases etc) but they may increase prices there too to reflect the increase of the retail costs.

Requesting three licensed minifig torsos from the same set may also have flagged up the request to be dealt with manually. I'd try phoning. I found they didn't respond to two requests about the Ghostbusters instructions falling apart that were done online, but phoned after a month and they agreed to send a new copy of the manual.

Yes, don't use paint-on paint. Acrylic spray gives a much nicer result.

While they are not a direct copy, nanoblocks already make a modulex style brick / sets.

There are two uses - as a paint or as a protector. As a paint is covered above (such as the yellow ears). The other is to use clear nail varnish to protect another deisgn such as a sticker or decal. For this, I prefer a matt spray acrylic varnish. I find nail varnish is too shiny when you compare it to other lego figures.

Me too, I'd give it a B. Started out well, pretty decent sets at a range of price points, the minifigures produced were excellent. But as a range it is a bit like a student running out of time in an exam, or a company running out of money in product development and just releasing what they have done so far. What they did was pretty fine quality, maybe they got a little side tracked and concentrated on a tangent for a while, and then didn't get it finished.

Maybe they base their decision to pull a review on whether or not the set / item has been bought or likely to have been bought as well as if you discuss pricing in the review. If someone leaves a review saying that the set / item is too expensive without purchasing it, or says they aren't going to purchase it because it is not as good value as something else, then it is not a review of the product. But then they are just as likely to remove negative reviews of Friends sets saying "Stop making pink sets for girls" since it is not a review of the product. They would probably also remove positive reviews saying "I haven't bought this but it is freaking awesome." (Maybe someone should try!) The UK version is quite clear what should be included. Overall rating (1-5) Play experience (1-5) Value for money (1-5) Level of difficulty Build time Would you recommend Then the written review. The review section clearly states that you should use the product before writing about it and to focus on the product. It also says not to include "info that changes, such as price". So although they ask whether something is value for money in the 1-5 rating, it seems that is the only place you should put this information and that writing about the price should not be done in the written review of the product. I imagine that is why they have removed the reviews discussing price changes.

Or just a bit of intra-family squabbling, with a nice pay-off.

Probably not :-( The price inconsistency comes from a nuber of sources. Cost of doing business (aside from taxes) in the US is cheaper, since they only need one toy license / safety approval per set, whereas they often need one per country in the european market (sometimes even in the EU). Volume is also larger in the US compared to individual countries in the EU, which again helps. Another big factor is that US toys in general are cheaper, and many lego toys have to compete side-by-side on the shelf with them. This is where baseplates are more specialised. If you want a baseplate, you are going to buy one. It's not like you might buy a lego set, but decide to buy an action figure instead.

Thanks. For the information that is, not what it contains!

Hobbit fans buying a Hobbit DVD might know who it is. They'd probably prefer Bolg or even an existing minifig such as Bilbo or Thorin or Azog more, but they'd probably know who Bain is. Of course, having an exclusive minifig opens up the DVD market to lego Hobbit collectors too (I've bought DVDs and games for minifigs with no interest in the DVD or game in the past), but having an exclusive character (not already done) would open it up to even wider buyers market. It does seem strange they went for Bain.

On both CMFs and baseplates, the increases in prices also start to bring the product in line with European prices. The RRP for a baseplate in the UK has been £7 for quite a while, that's $10.50 or so. Note our prices are including tax (VAT). The ex-VAT price would be equivalent $8.75, although lego won't sell ex-VAT even to businesses. Why is this important? Lego seems to be at capacity for production. It cannot keep some products on the shelves, they are selling out as soon as they are produced. Other product sells steadily at RRP, with not much need for sales. As they are at capacity, then they would be better not selling baseplates at all in the US for $5, but instead sell them in Europe at $8.75 (excluding tax) equivalent. Even at $8 (excluding tax), they still make a loss compared to selling them in Europe. Your increase in CMF prices are also bring them into line with European prices too. Historically you got them cheap, now lego have pushed up the price so it is similar to Europe. They haven't done it with all sets yet, as some prices in the US are still way cheaper than Europe. But it would surprise me if US prices for specialist parts gradually rise. Not for the more general toy lego sets though, as these need to compete with other toys in the local US market.

I've heard recently that LEGO has bought the Modulex company and taken it back into their overall control. I wonder if that will put a stop to it.

There is currently (and officially) only one Bain. Sure you can tell LEGO that you've seen another version for sale that is possibly stolen from a factory on a Chinese website, but I doubt they'd even acknowledge it.

Yeah, it's about as stupid as a Spider-man glider. :-) The need to include a vehicle really looks bad in some sets.

They are beautiful aren't they? I'm hoping the accidently release the instructions at some stage.

Creativity in part use is just as much for Lego as it is for moccers. I don't get why chima, agents, space,etc are closer to Playmobil than Lego. Is it because you can tell a story with the set? That has always been the case with lego. Making a one piece part such as a long boat is lazy, in the sense that they would be showing no creativity or knowledge of existing parts, and just making a new part every time they need a solution. What if they made a 20 stud boat, then in the next set needed a 24 stud one ... Another new part? That is when things become like playmobil. The manufacture of many single use highly specialised parts was also one of the reasons Lego were in trouble a decade ago.

I don't get the point about using two boats to make a long boat either. The creative option is to design something using what you have. The lazy option is to make a one piece new part with only one use. It also seems a little odd to argue against a one piece Smaug (although he is more than that, although all pretty much one use parts) but want a one piece long boat.