MAB

If it doesn't specifically say LEGO in the title and in the auction, then you can safely assume it is fake.

I wouldn't want male versions of every female torso. Ones wearing dresses and so on that are obviously female only are fine. Similarly male torsos that are only male are also fine. But it would be nice to have some official female minifigs that do not have the curves and boobs print. This would make it more acceptable in people's minds that women / girl minifigs do not have to have curves. This would allow lego to use a number of gender neutral torsos (no female curves, but also no male muscles) to represent both sexes. Combine that with a head with a male face on one side and female (i.e. lipstick) on the other and the user can choose the sex of the minifig, and thus whether they can identify them or not. Of course, it could be taken even further in that female minifigs do not need to use lipstick to identify them as female. But that brings us full circle, with the complaints that if it is not recognisably female then it must be male.

There are counter examples, of course. Can I have two Coca-Colas, please? or Can I have two Coca-Cola, please?

The same argument also works for regular minifigs. So someone may say that they prefer to give my money to the original creator, but why pay $20 for a set with one minifig when I can buy a perfectly acceptable fake for $1. If fakes are perfectly acceptable for $500 figures, then with the same logic they should also be perfectly acceptable for $10 ones. The quality is just the same between the fake $500 fig and the fake $10 fig. I'm also glad that the topics have been moved to community rather than in the main themes and interests categories. After all, eurobricks is a lego site, not a fake lego site.

Unless he has been sent the official boxed set, it could be meaningless. He may have a rough pre-production print of the instructions, not the official version with ads in. It may even be that he was send the set just as parts and a pre-print of the instructions before it is finalised. If he doesn't say what he has got, it could be either.

Fine for you, others would disagree. What about the adult who uses their child to convince you the child wants it when it is really the adult. In what capacity would you be there to judge? Why didn't the family purchase it earlier when there were lots available? It is very rare for a set to disappear from a shelf within a day of it being released. Especially the child oriented sets. Parents of children have ample opportunity to buy, just as other adults do. Parents can also clear an aisle of sets if they want to. I don't get why a collector should be called a diddums. This is an AFOL site. We are all here because of toys. Why should a collector not be thrilled that they can buy a MISB edition of a set they really wanted as a kid but were not able to purchase? Why did Child C miss it? If it was just because adult B got there first, then it is his or his families fault. He had plenty of opportunity to buy it when it was on the shelf. Child A on the otherhand did not have the money back then. Why should child A have to reconcile not getting it? Many people buy toys from their childhood for nostalgia. Maybe child A is even child C. He missed it when he was a kid and always regretted it and is grateful of the opportunity to buy it. If Adult B hadn't picked it up, child D might have come along and bought it and the chance would have been lost forever. TLG don't want to re-release sets. If they did, they would. They have enough modern sets to keep them at capacity. Would lego really want to keep molds of old parts for 20 years just in case a set doubled in value, and then make sure they re-release the exact same set, same box, same colours of parts (old greys and browns). The simple answer is no. Lego cares about the secondary market for current sets, not old ones. So what if it is a toy? Adults are allowed to play with toys too. Adults are allowed to collect toys too. They can open and play, or they can keep them MISB. If adults are not allowed to do what they like with toys that they own, then it is the end for eurobricks and all AFOLs.

LEGO or Lego or lego for me. I don't care which. My phone corrects lego to Lego, but leaves LEGO alone. Although LEGO takes longer to write on my phone.

The question is what feature do you like the most - I assumed you were meant to choose one only. I want the stepped design, but the use in sunlight is more important for me, with the longer range second. Although it is possible to select more than one answer for the question, when it should really be limited to one as it is written.

The child or his family had exactly the same opportunity as the reseller to buy them. It is not stealing candy from a baby, it is buying something before someone else does. The AFOL that buys it might well be the child whose parents wouldn't buy him a certain set 10 years before.

Sure - raise the issue, then either buy one, buy a fake, or go without. I'm glad they exist, even if I don't own any. Even then, some lego superheroes fans will still complain as they want them all and not just the cheap widely available ones.

Also if you are using acetone, add it to cold water / dye mix first, then heat.

While that is true about no more risk of backing early, projects that make it always seem to get a rush of money towards the end. I always wonder what were those people waiting for. I found this quite confusing too, as all the images show the stairtop design. But according to the text, that is only coming with the £100K mark.

You can try keeping the water warm ~70 degrees (cover it and stick it in the microwave), or halving the amount of water you use to make up the dye. Another trick if it doesn't work is to use about 10% acetone / nail varnish cleaner. That is not enough to destroy surface of the elements. The print will also remain too. The time could be anywhere between 2 and 30 minutes. It can be a pain if you want consistency of colour.

That has been sealed by the seller. The bag is the type you buy on a long tube, and heat seal them. I've had a few BL orders where parts are sealed like that.

I imagine it is a clone / custom part similar to a double clip / double C ring like this... http://www.minifigca...ome.php?cat=410

You don't normally get VIP points until the items are dispatched. They have been dreadful at sending out confirmation emails recently too.

The fake Deadpool is easy to spot due to the sharp lines one the upper torso / shoulders. But very nice printing job otherwise.

RIT dye (buy the powder) works great. Hands don't dye anywhere near as good as torsos, heads and legs. Neither do soft parts (like handcuffs).

The feet are obvious, especially on Iron Man. harder to tell on batman due to the colour and facing forwards. Do parents and grandparents get duped? It is plainly obvious that these are not lego when these are bought in shops due to the packaging. I imagine they don't care, they pick them up as it is a cheap toy. Buying minifigures without packaging on ebay is a little murkier, but normally still obvious that they are not genuine lego. But for many people that do not care about the branding, I think it is just that they don't care. Why pay $20 for a set for one wanted minifig, when you can buy the minifig for $2.

It's not like lego would use a widely available part in the wrong colour, would they? Plus he should have been wearing gloves in the Mines of Moria ... There goes accuracy!

Yes, I did it by phone. It was worth it to get enough hands for my fleshies. BL prices are crazy for hands. Often it is better value to buy a cheap minifig like the Lone Ranger and pull the hands off rather than buy a pair of hands there!

Yeah, very 1980s. Although it is not on a hill, it is at the same level as the lake. So maybe Lakeside Castle would be a better name.

That has been the way for quite a while now. Licensed sets stopped the company from disappearing completely. Many sets are purchased because of the minifigs, not the bricks. They have stopped selling them direct now, but that was not true last year. Lego were still selling the fleshie hands by themselves (without the torso) through customer services at 6p each in the UK. That is the same price as a cheese slope. I know as I bought 200 of them. The yellow ones were cheaper at 5p each.

I'm from the UK, which is in Europe. Have you ever been refused a tourist VISA to the US? Virtually every European country has visa agreements with the US which makes getting one simple. Not being able to get a visa to visit the US is a fairly bad argument to use against exclusive lego minifigs only being available in one place. I do realise that lego is sold around the world. I realise that some things are exclusive to particular regions too. Year of the Snake, exclusive to the Far East. Marina Bay Sands, similar. These are comic book heroes from films, Hollywood characters. They are exclusive to where the studios choose to hold the conventions.

I agree with everything apart from the last sentence. He is perfectly entitled for a shot at getting them, the same way as everyone else that gets them has that chance. By attending SDCC. I have yet to see a good reason why anyone is stopped from attending SDCC.