Kingboy

Might I suggest, in lieu of possible difficulties portraying a nice cup of hemlock tea in minifig accessory form, a small handheld lantern to light the way?

So this is probably the wrong place to mention that I happened to get a full copy of this set (including extra pieces) by purchasing three Brick Grab Bags at my local LEGO store, for a grand total of 3×$7.99, right? *ducks out of thread before something heavy is lobbed in this general direction*

I highly approve...the world can always use more Tesla coils. :)

But Rick, what would he mindlessly kvetch about if he read (and comprehended) the entire thread?

I did not know that (unsurprising since it was only in two sets in a theme I would have had little interest in)...t'is good info to have. I still want them to make it in black or dark cool grey though. :)

Please Dear GOD LEGO release this new piece in black or dark cool grey. This is just begging to be made into chain link fences...

Actually this goes for all sets, regardless of theme. If I want to buy a City set from 5-6 years ago, I am in the same position as if I wanted to go buy an Exo-Force set (or Batman and Spiderman sets, which my nephews have gotten into their heads to ask for for Christmas in some strange manner). Just because a theme may be evergreen or still in production does not mean an individual set of that theme will likewise be available. Personally, I love having short lived themes. Exo-Force and Aquaraiders are what pulled me back in after a longish Dim Ages. Now they sit on the same shelves as my City and Castle collections, along with the occasional Power Miner or Mars Mission vehicle and my army of Indiana Clones. A big part of the appeal of LEGO to me is the ability to tell stories, even if it's just to myself as I build. Not all stories need to go on forever (something I wish the comic book industry would learn...oi), and they don't all need a cast of thousands and fantastic locations across the globe (to abuse an old movie marketing trope). Far better for a theme to come out, do it's thing, do it well then retreat than for it to linger on ignominiously.

I am also moderately (and pleasantly) surprised by the current results. Not because I dislike use of Technic pieces (I voted for "good balance"), but because I am constantly taken aback at the AFOL capacity to kvetch over the most pointless minutiae.

I do this for my bulk bricks and plates. Bricks and plates are separated into 16 qt. Sterilite boxes by colour, then within each box I sort each type of brick or plate into a labelled zip top bag. Makes it very easy to find a specific number of a particular brick in a needed colour (i.e. 12 1×3 bricks in Light Cool Grey). Some of my brick colours are growing numerous enough that I may have to start separating bricks and plates into their own boxes. When that time comes, having them already sub-divided into bags should make that quite easy.

Mine would be the Forestmen's Hideout, probably my favorite set of all time. It came out in 1988, and to my knowledge has never been disassembled since I first built it—so, 21+ years or so?

Just as a quick aside, is that Trace's hair in black in the airplane promo set? If so I'm gonna have to track at least one of those down for a project (the hair, not neccesarily the set, although the set would be cool too).

Righto...wasn't sure, so went with the most appropriate theme.

It's a little late in the proceedings for this particular contest, but I just happened to find out about it. I haven't yet heard about this one either here on EB (even searched the forums for it) or the other LEGO news sites I frequent, so I thought I'd share it here. STX Europe is running a contest they are calling the Blockdocker Competition as a promo for an upcoming ship they are building, the Oasis of the Seas. It runs until January 9th, and there are two categories in the competition: Oasis Category : design a replica to be used as a corporate gift/promo set of the Oasis of the Seas (think Vestas Windmill) using LDD that retails for 60€ or less. Prize is three copies of the set you design and an iPod. Open to 18+ entrants, or younger contestants with parental representation. Innovative Category : use LDD to design a "cruise ship of the future" to be used as a display model for the Miami Seatrade event. This category is much more open, with merely a length "recommendation" of 150-200 studs. Prize is copy of the model you design and a trip to Miami so that you can build the model for the tradeshow. Open to 18+ entrants only. Note: I am in no way affiliated with STX, I just thought it was an interesting contest, and thought others might find it so as well. I doubt I'll have a chance to do anything for this, but I'm curious to see what some of the EB crowd might do for it.

If you wanted it to be built out of LEGO, instead of using BURPS/LURPS, get some Duplo. Duplo bricks are pretty easy to get a hold of as parents offload the things when their kids "outgrow" them. Build the framework of your hill/elevation out of Duplo, then top it off with regular LEGO plates and whotnot to interface it with your display peices. If you hide it all under the sets you are diplsying, no one will even know it's Duplo under there...

I believe the point that Freddie is trying to make is that very few other people refer to 1x1 plates, whether round or square, as "studs". Most people here and elsewhere on the web refer to the little knob on top of the bricks as the stud, talking about the connection point that grabs onto the inner walls and tubes of other bricks. What you call "studs", most people refer to as 1x1 plates, in both round and square varieties. Henceforth, when you use personal jargon that doesn't mesh well with other's expectations, there will be confusion. Back to the topic at hand...to be honest, I really don't see this as a problem in my own collection. I have roughly as many 1x1 sqare bricks as I do 1x1 round bricks. Heck, not too long ago there were two sets that were basically nothing but 1x1 square bricks (the two mosaic sets). As far as round vs. square plates go, I don't mind that I have more round than sqaure. I find the round ones more useful for decorative bits, and rarely have I found myself lacking a 1x1 square when I really needed it (which isn't terribly often).

I'm actually more interested in this raffle than the Star Wars one...sign me up.

I think a lot of people were planning that Doc. I know I was even before I got this set. You're approach is a bit different then what I had been planning Sava, but I think it's a good bit easier than what I was contemplating, and looks really good to boot. The whole thing reminds me of a local single screen theatre nearby, which has always had a certain charm to it vs the megaplexes (not the least of which being they server beer there ).

To be honest, that's one of the reasons I like the light flesh heads, and every once in a while wish that LEGO would switch completely over to flesh heads (of whatever shade)

The new Star Wars figures are all from the Clone Wars series, specifically the recently released CGI animated movie. They are based on this: not this: I would argue that in this case, LEGO is not getting more realistic, rather they are getting less relistic in order to match the (overly) stylized art direction from the newest movie that the licensed sets directly link to. Admittedly, the new heads still look creepy to me, and I think they might have done better to have produced something along the lines of this fan created look, based apparently off of the non-CGI version of the Clone Wars characters. Then again, as far as I'm concerned, the only good thing to have come out of the Clone Wars is some of the hairpieces created by arealight that are inspired by the look of the movie: Prepare to be disappointed then. As with any licencee, I'm sure LEGO recieves information from Lucasfilms Ltd. as to what sort of things they'd like to see, what they don't want to see made, all that sort of thing. I doubt there's anyone from Lucas' camp coming in and telling LEGO designers which bricks to stick to which, but there's going to be some input coming from the licence holding company. That's just business...

Uh...not paying attention to Speed Racer are we? Taejo Togokahn minifig from Speed Racer license

It's not like this set is some sort of socio-political comment by the LEGO company or anything. One of the guys who's a big honcho at Vestas (another Danish company, like LEGO) used to work at LEGO for quite a few years. I'm sure he just called up some of the brass he still knows at LEGO, and asked them to work out a special set that they could use for promo/prizes/employee gifts etc. Not everything has an political agenda behind it people...

I like it...the cockpit is quite smexy if I do say so, and the red bands on the weapon pods are a great touch.

Er, any further information on that? Neither Bricklink nor Peeron show any sets with that piece, Belleville or otherwise. After looking around a little bit: You're not confusing the LURP— with the BURP— are you perchance? The former did indeed appear in green in a Belleville set back in 1997, set #5854-1 Pony Trekking. Sadly, the Vestas set uses the latter piece, which is larger and differently shaped, especially as far as the free space underneath it goes..

And of course figuring out substitutes for the (very) few pieces that aren't in any other set. So far I've only found one piece other than the green BURPs that doesn't exist elsewhere yet, but there are alternatives luckily.

I've been meaning to overhaul my Bridge Walker with those joints you used from the Striking Venom...I need to get off my butt and do so now that I know they can support that kind of weight. Looks a bit more like a Robot design than a Human design with the majority of black pieces and the angled (as opposed to rounded) armor plating, but it looks good overall.