Sandy

556 tan cheese slopes?! That's an insane amount for just one set!

Well I'll be damned! I thought we would've gotten rid of those criminals for good, and the business in this city would start to flourish again. It's hard to do business when you're afraid to even step out of your house.

Confirming my participation now. Time to get the show on the road.

I have to disagree with many of you guys, in that despite the big monsters this theme still offers something quite unique to the LEGO themes. If you prefer historic themes and aren't so much into the action-elements, you can quite easily remove the mummies from the pyramid set, for example, and get a great display for archeologists or explorers. Sure, none of these sets are really 100% authentic or historically accurate, but did someone really expect TLG to produce a theme like that? The target audience - little boys - love monsters and conflict, so without them the sets wouldn't sell. I also really love the color scheme in this theme. The dark blue, dark red, orange and gold really break the monotony of the tan, black and brown bases - just like they did in the old Adventurers and Indiana Jones Egypt-related sets.

These are, again, preliminary pictures. So many things in the pics are not finalized, and the sets and figs can change a great deal before release. I have to say after seeing the pics that this theme certainly didn't turn out to be what I expected. I love the imagination put into the new 2011 themes - TLG is taking some chances, finally!

Apparently I'm either your wife or mother, based on being Mrs. Quest. I guess it's the wife-option, even though playing as an older businesswoman with an adult son would be much more awesome. Do you hear me, Zephy?

The problem here is that there's 42 players, so at first getting a majority would mean that 22 players would vote for the same person - and if there's several factions in this game as the rules hint, it would be nigh impossible to achieve a majority. Zepher, did you leave the rule about items from Hogwarts Mafia into the list by accident? Because it doesn't seem to fit in with the other rules... I'm excited to see how this game will work.

A pro review, Izzy, thanks! This is again one of the sets I've been wanting to own for quite a while now, but I just haven't found it at a reasonable price anywhere yet. This review really made me want it even more. Even though the buildings themselves are lacking, the rare pieces and the overall design make the set very attractive to me. I never realized that Pettigrew's hairprint goes all the way around the top of the head, that's very rare!

Hmm, a nice amalgamation of a few of the collectable minifigs. I personally find it hard to call these purist figs "customized", though, since you don't call MOCs "customized sets" either, if you get what I mean. Education time! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_ancient_Greece

Yay for the return of Adventurers and Egypt! Sorry, the immature side in me can't help but to chuckle at this.

Haha, you can always try! But I only meant it in the sense that they're working without pay, just to make it sure to everyone.

No no no no no. I see that this is your problem here: you liken the staff to royalty, when in fact you should liken them as trainees or even slaves - working their butts off with no pay. The Queen has done nothing to earn her priviledges expect getting born into the right family at the right time, and even presidents and ministers get paid heftily for their work. The staff here dedicate a big part of their lives to this forum for absolutely no other pay than the kudos we give them for that. I know this well, having been a moderator on another forum - it's something I don't really want to experience again. As someone said earlier, getting picked first into Mafia-games is a really low price for what they've done for the good of this community - but at least it's something. Don't let your envy or wrongful feeling of injustice or whatever it is you're feeling take that away from them, please. Unlike slaves, the staff have no obligation to run this site, so if we don't give them the respect they deserve, the consequences will be very dire for this whole community. The internet is full of examples of forums that have had that exact fate, trust me.

Hmm, a valiant effort if your collection of bricks is really that limited, but I would highly suggest that you look at how others build to really learn the ropes. I don't know how old you are, but if you're in this forum, you should be old enough to stop building like a child (throwing bricks together no matter what color or shape they are) and step into the world of AFOLs (actually thinking what you're building). It's obvious you chose practicality over looks, but remember that those two aren't mutually exclusive. You can have both great design and great playability in one creation.

Actually, since you had a solid track record in previous Mafia-games, and I knew you were a Harry Potter fan, I would've allowed you to join in the game despite being absent for a while. Dragonator surely wasn't the only one that got leeway because of his vacation. The only person I ended up replacing because of being absent was sok117, and that was only because he was going away for two weeks with no internet connection whatsoever (he returned just as the game was ending, proving I made the right choice anyway). Saying I was playing favorites with the mods is a bit insulting to me, because I tried my damnest to take everyone into consideration while still hosting a fluid and fun Mafia-game experience. Funny contradiction there. While it's true that the staff have a free pass into the forum games here, you must remember that they have earned their respect among the membership with the amount of time and dedication they have sacrificed for this site. It's not like they're "revered" without any reason at all. Figuratively spitting at their face just because they hold the power here doesn't do them justice, really.

The most cost effective way is to dismantle those four sets and use the parts for your MOCs. This is coming from someone who never keeps her sets intact for very long, but breaks them for parts.

Haha, cool! You learn something new everyday, eh? I tried googling the word, but I didn't encounter this term. Thanks for explaining this to me, and apologies to Legolas73 for thinking you were just a poor speller.

I don't personally think it would be fair that someone saying "meh, I guess I'll sign in" gets chosen over someone who's like "I've followed three of these games and can't wait to play in one as well!", just because of a randomized selection. The role selection is also far from being simple as you say, flitwick. The host of course needs to be fair towards all players, but they also need to take into consideration the level of dedication the players have - with the veterans, you can more or less trust they will see the game through, whereas with newcomers you just never know. A game filled with only new players wouldn't work, and having only experienced players would not be fair towards all those eager to play as well, so the only option is to find a balance between new and old players. Nevertheless, I'd like to see the day when a host tries to deny Shadows entrance to their Mafia-game. Wouldn't that be a sight to behold, eh?

I agree, this is an amazingly detailed MOC that feels very life-like. I love the mix of old and modern architecture, and the bursting colors look beautiful together, they do not clash. However, you must mean this is a "mediterranean neighborhood", as in located somewhere around the Mediterranean Sea, not "meridional", since that means it's related to the meridian, which is an imaginary line connecting the south and the north poles.

Despite the fact that the Collectable Minifigures series do not belong to any specific existing theme, they contain subthemes of their own. The subthemes I've deduced so far are (the unconfirmed third series figs are put in quotations marks): Beach (Diver, Lifeguard, Surfer, "Hawaiian Girl") Circus (Clown, Magician, Ringmaster,"Gorilla") Fantasy ("Elf") Fighting (Super Wrestler, Karate Master, "Sumo Wrestler") History (Caveman, Forestman, Explorer, Pharaoh, Spartan) Horror (Zombie, Vampire, Witch, "Mummy") Hospital (Nurse, "Surgeon") Japan (Ninja, "Samurai") Music (Disco Dude, Pop Star, "Dancer", "Male Singer") Space (Spaceman, Robot, "Alien") Sports (Cheerleader, Weightlifter, Skier, "Ferrari Driver", "Snowboarder", "Baseball Player") Town (Skater, Mime, "Fisher") Traffic (Demolition Dummy, Traffic Cop) Western (Tribal Hunter, Cowboy, Mariachi, "Native American Chief") Feel free to disagree with me on these, or make up your own subthemes.

Thanks for the detailed pictures, Ras! This is certainly one of the must-have sets for me this year. But all the Hogwarts Castles (at least the three in the fleshie age) have portrayed different parts of the school so far, so putting them together would form a cohesive entity. I'm still missing the 2007 Hogwarts too, though, but I hope to eventually get it as well. Then I can post pictures of the three Hogwarts put together, if someone else doesn't get to it before that.

Unless you're a MOCer or a "gotta catch 'em all"-type of collector, then I agree there's not much insentive to get all the collectable minifigs, but for someone like me who creates her own stuff instead of just collecting sets, these figs are a treasure trove. I'm now building one of the biggest MOCs I've ever created, and as I made the minifigs for it, I couldn't help but to utilize the wonderfully unique parts that the collectable series offers. So yeah, it's all about the perspective you have on your LEGO hobby.

If it's true what you say about the sales, it's a darn shame, because the Orient Expedition theme offered the most unique historical buildings and other sets in any theme. But if next year brings us a new historical theme aside Kingdoms, I for one will certainly welcome it with open arms.

In my country grocery store workers don't even use aprons (unless they're working behind the meat or the bread desks), but just uniforms of each store's own colors. But if you want aprons, then I agree that the small plastic capes look the best. The red ones were quite common, I for one have a bunch of those as well as some black ones. I rarely use them anymore, though, since I have so many cloth capes now.

Of course I want to play! The premises of this game sound very interesting, and it's great you've come up with something new and different. As for my own experience, I've played in six Mafia-games here (plus a few Mystery-games) and hosted one. Adding to that, I frequently host real life Mafia-games to my circle of friends.

Whoa, it looks awesome - and this coming from someone who's not even a fan of trains. It's obvious you put a lot of time, energy and money into this, but it paid off since the outcome is flawless. The minifigs bring a suitable contrast to the little modernities in the MOC. It's really great you decided to bring the world of Harry Potter into the current century. Very well done!