Swan Dutchman

I agree with you MAB. In my previous post I was only stating the advantage (for me) of maintaining a bubble (which is the greater part variety) versus the drawback of the bubble (higher prices of sets in general). Luckily we don't have much influence on whether the bubble ought to burst or not . And obviously I don't want the bubble burst too much when the time comes... I still want LEGO to be a healthy company making bricks for us.

Do I want the bubble to burst? Yes and no to be honost. I don't really care about sets... I only build MOCs. Thus, the major thing for me is the availability and variety of parts. The greater the variety in colour and shapes the more advanced MOCs can become. If the bubble keeps going the LEGO group simply makes more money and will continue to invest in new moulds and thus new parts. This is a big plus as an MOC-builder. On the other hand. At the moment LEGO costs loads of money, especially the license themes. Since parts are my main focus I buy considerably less sets (with a license) unless I desperately want a certain minifig. If the bubble would burst, I assume prices would drop a bit because there is less demand. And I could buy more sets with the same amount of money. It was common that when the summer or winter wave arrived older sets would get discounted (sometimes a lot) to make shelf space for the new sets in the stores. For the last 2 years this barely seems to happen anymore. If the bubble would burst this would be back to normal. And there is the second hand LEGO. I love to get my hands on a big quantity of second hand lego so I can coninue MOCing (I began MOCing as an adult and had no lego left from my childhood, so getting older sets back is fun). I am not the only one though, on marktplaats (local ebay) there is a lot of interest in second hand lego and thus prices are generally high. I monitor the market and there seem to be quite a few people that buy second hand lego and sell it again some time later with greater profit. They are just traders... I don't blame them for making money, but hey, they don't have as much fun with lego as we AFOLS do. If the bubble would burst LEGO simply wouldn't be very interesting anymore for traders that don't love LEGO... I would applaud that.

This is looking very cool! On the photo I don't see the wings drooping though. Do you mean that the wing itself curves slightly due to gravity? If that's the case you can fortify the structure by replacing stacks of 1x2 blue bricks by 1x2x5 bricks (http://alpha.bricklink.com/pages/clone/catalogitem.page?P=2454#T=C) and try to attach the angled sections on the other ends as well. If that still isn't strong enough you could rebuild part of the wing by incorporating a long blue brick (1x10 or something) that is twisted 90 degrees (no drooping guaranteed if you do that).

I get my LEGO from: - new sets: I rarely pay the recommended selling price for a set and know a couple online shops that are trustworthy and are cheaper (mostly 20% discount on big sets and sometimes 30% cheaper on smaller sets). With new sets I look at the price, the parts in the set I think I can use and are special and the minifigures. - used sets: Sometimes I buy used sets in bulk on Marktplaats (local ebay)... it's a bit of gamble though, but many times I have hit the 'jackpot'. A drawback is that sometimes the parts are a bit damaged, dirty (I wash it anyway) and that sets are not 100% complete. However, you can derive a lot from the text and pictures included in the advert: if the pictures are hastily taken and the text is hastily written you can assume it's a hasty person... and mostly those sets are not 100% complete. A seller that has photographed everything (so you can take a good look at it) and has a very neat description (from what time the lego is, what sets are in it, has taken an overview photo of all instruction books) sells mostly 99,9% complete sets that are in good shape. If the instruction books look very crisp and clean you know it's a caring person and you just know this person treated his lego very well. - pab wall: sometimes I get lucky finding usefull parts in the wall - pick a brick: expensive, but sometimes cheaper than bricklink (tree leaves!) - bricklink: I buy a lot on bricklink for my MOC's. Mostly I miss the special parts. My policy is when I buy at a bricklink store not only to buy the parts I need, but also to buy the (special) parts I think I might need. In the end this saves me shipping costs... and this policy actually works for me . The number of bricklink orders steadily goes down the past 2 years and I expect it to go down more. - lugbulk: I haven't participated in the programm yet, but hope to enroll the coming year.

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1) I got a VIP pass from my first visit to a LEGO store and use it everytime I buy there or online. 2) To be very honost with you: it's all about the price. I consider VIP points as a 5% discount on the purchase price. If I can get the same product elsewhere cheaper I buy it over there. The major advantage of the VIP program for me are special offerings like exclusive give-aways (like the gingerbread house from last year). 3) It doesn't, sorry. 4) More LEGO stores! We've got only 1 store in the Benelux in Belgium and I know for a fact that a store would be very welcome in the Netherlands. The PAB wall is my main attraction when visiting a LEGO store: it would be fantastic if I could view online what is in stock in the wall, before I go out for long drive. I assume the parts arrive in boxes in the lego stores and surely they have codes on those boxes... it would be great to link them to the internet. A third wish: it would be great if there would come a PAB event just for VIPS with more exclusive parts. 5) Just like any other customer! The service is great as it is and the employees are friendly and helpfull.

This is maddeningly hard! I spend about an hour in LDD, but I am unable to find a solution without altering the outline. Using 1x1 technic bricks with a hole solves some issues. If you want to keep the same outline I think you can use brackets, but that would make it 2 studs thick. I believe the issue is caused by the fact that this section goed 3 studs vertically down. If it was 2 studs of 4 studs it would have been easy. Changing the outline slightly (the 2x1 curved slope and 2x1 slope on the left, and the 3x1 curved slope on the right) may be the easiest solution.

The LEGO store I visit only allows 16 bags per customer (for the standard series). They are very strict with this policy. Some webshops do offer boxes and for some series (I am sure for the series with the scarecrow) you can also purchase 1/2 a box.

I am not an expert on applying stickers... in fact I try not to use stickers at all unless the piece it's applied to is still very useable in MOCs. I do have some advice on storing stickered parts however: do not store them between all your non-stickered parts! If you do that, you are sure to get them damaged over time while rummaging through your lego. Instead, keep the stickered parts in sealed bags or something to prevent damage. If you have parts that are curled up (caused by dirt) you can mostly restore them by doing this: carefully peel of the sticker from the part and clean the part it was applied to. Scrape of the dirt from the sticker using a knife, this is pretty easy to do. Carefully apply the sticker again to the cleaned part (make sure the part is dry). Usually the sticker has still got a lot of sticking power so you won't need glue or anything. This is how I restore stickered parts I find in second-hand lego.

Interesting discussion! For minifigure-scaled landscapes or big vehicles I only consider the hight of the minifigure. I assume the height that of an adult: about 1.80 meters. Of course, the minifigures are too wide compared to the real thing, but that makes it actually look cute (including their yellow skin). For smaller vehicles I just build whatever feels right. I find LEGO's Reys speeder a good example of that. The speeder is far too big, but somehow it fits.

This is looking great! And such a fantastic idea to make it in the scale of the big figure. I don't know if this is of any help, but maybe you could use dark orange minifigure legs for the front? http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?colorID=68&itemID=940

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Splendid! I was happily surprised to find interior shots of the star destroyer... it's something I didn't expect to find in a big build like this, but it is extraordinary to look at.

I don't know about the bamboo leaves, but I do have the answer for the 2x2 tiles: around 700. This video on youtube shows it as well:

All those parts look jummy to me Have you considered buying at LEGO's pick a brick shop? http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Pick-A-Brick-ByTheme?_requestid=10567830 Prices per part at Pick a Brick are mostly a bit higher compared to what you pay at BrickLink. However, there are some parts that are considerably cheaper, because LEGO doesn't consider one color to be more valuable than the other. Besides, if you need large quantities they can supply them in one go and you get free insured shipment as well. That saves a lot on shipping costs compared to Bricklink orders. I understand you already ordered all the parts you need, but maybe something for a future build?

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Congratulations to the winners! They are well deserved Thank you for organizing this competition. It was fun to participate and to watch all the entries.

16) Series 8 - Cheerleader Entry (Build by Leopold) – 1 point 46) Series 12 - Video Game Guy Entry (Build by Graham Gidman) – 1 point 59) Series 7 - Ocean King Entry (Build by Ninja Bomb) -1 point

What a big surprise to open the post box yesterday... thank you so much CopMike! Shipping was extremely fast... it just took 1 day from Sweden to the Netherlands, impressive indeed