ResIpsaLoquitur

Looks nice. One frustration with the N-1 is that the cockpit and the body behind the cockpit are supposed to be symmetrical. The solution would be for Lego to make the cockpit in a solid yellow color (maybe stick a faux engine inside the hollow) to make it film-accurate. Nobody's done it yet.

What CoffeGuy posted is one of those DK/Penguin book collections. There's a few on the market right now which I've seen at Kohl's, including two Star Wars ones. One has the above minifigures and (I think) a micro version of the last Visual Dictionary and Minifigure Encyclopedia. The other comes with the A-Wing polybag and has some sticker books. They're marked at $30 but I think Kohl's is selling them for $21. There's a few other book collections like that, including one for Friends (has the Emma Ice Cream cart), Ninjago (has Jay's mini-mech) and Chima (I don't remember what).

I think I'd also like to know how to get polys in Canada. My wife is from the GTA and we occasionally go up there. Last year, I stopped at at least two TRUs (one in Hamilton, one on the way to Niagara) looking for the Jurassic World poly and I couldn't find it, even though reports were out that it had been released.

How many entrants did we end up with this year? 6 x 24 = 144 winners...with 18 accounted for so far! And thanks for the daily fun, CopMike.

I haven't seen any discussion here, but for you US folk: Target has the First Order TIE Fighter polybag this week. Free with a $25 Star Wars purchase or $3.99 otherwise. My Target was pretty picked over but still had some on the shelf. It's substantially similar to the 8028 Polybag from 2008 (unbelievable that 8028 is that old, since I'm still finding them on shelves). The downside is that the cockpit doesn't have a lot of roundness to it. Even 8028 had a 2x2 bumper piece on the bottom to make at least that part round. Anyway, grab it while you can. It's cute and will make a nice stocking stuffer.

I've got some new-in-box City and Star Wars Advent Calendars for sale, along with two Friends calendars from last year. They're on my eBay page, but ping me directly if you want to skip that.

Somebody tell me if this counts as "recycling." If not, I'll let it stand. Christmas on Jakuu. What if, instead of scavenging Star Destroyers, Rey put them to a more festive use?

I've had some white 1 x 8 bricks from Pick-a-Brick just plain shatter recently--like, a whole side cracked off on several of them. Maybe it was a bad batch?

Looking good, but put some polygon plates on the TIE for the wings, like in this model. Obviously the TIE should be way smaller than the Falcon, but I'll forgive it.

Always build in-store to make sure you get all the parts, even if you have to go over to the baby aisle or something. I did the Emmet's car build and discovered we missed a few parts; had to drive back to get them just as they were taking down the event.

Anybody else get their mini X-Wing today?

How new is "new"? There's a certain polybag set that I want to take and modify into tree form. I'd basically be building on top of an already built set. Should I just post and let you judge?

What's the word on the Finn ploybag? Somebody says one was found in the wild, but I have no idea where.

Did anybody else's TRU have the AT-DP sitting out? I got one back in January at the Lego Store, but I saw them sitting out at TRU for $4.99 and got a few extra. Oh, and don't forget--free mini Poe's X-Wing at TRU next Saturday the 14th.

Well, I got my free 3PO. Buying the Advent Calendar at TRU gets you just over the $40 purchase limit. I should say that I have one of the more incompetent TRUs out there--they rang up my purchase and said I'd get the 3PO at customer service. However, the service desk said that 3PO had to be rung up with the purchase, so they had to refund my order and then re-ring it with the freebie...and they couldn't do that right away because a refund can't be done until 10 minutes after purchase. Grrrr. All that for a 3 piece freebie. I hope getting that Finn figure isn't this hard.

50? That's an insanely small amount. Anyway, I'd recommend an 8x8 baseplate, or at least two 4x8s. 8x8 seems to be the standard dimensions for a small minifigure vignette.

OK, I did the unthinkable and bought some Mega Bloks products recently--specifically, I got a couple of the Minions blind packs for my daughter. (I'd call it a shameless ripoff of CMFs, but more and more companies are selling blind packs of toys lately, so I don't have much room to complain.) I actually think they're not bad, and they strike a decent balance between being "bricky" and resembling their movie counterparts. One complaint--these may have some manufacturing defects. I got the Egyptian Minion today and one of his arm holes was NOT set deep enough to get his arm in. I got my Dremel Tool and made the hole deeper, so it works fine now. But watch out for this problem. Anyway, has anyone done a "feel guide" for these things? They're considerably harder to feel for than Lego's CMFs, because they have a lot of loose parts floating in the package (arms, legs, and a big 2x4 brick which really throws off your manipulation). There's a "rare" Bob figure I'm trying to find and I'm not sure how frequent he is or how you can really tell it's him. Any tips?

Right now, it's in the trunk of my car.

Um. One was free. The other is...as far from free as you can get.

Got my train today! I'm debating whether I should open it or save it for Christmas!

Why not Bricklink a bunch of 16x16 white plates? They're a little hard to come by, but a lot more efficient than the 4x6s.

The store calendar says the train's not available until the 13th. Fortunately, double VIP points have been extended to the 14th, so I plan to go to the store on Wednesday, make a $100 purchase, get my double points and my free train...

Good point. I added "US" to the stuff above. Do different countries do something different for their monthly mini builds, or do it on a different date? If it's universally the first Tuesday of each month and if they all have the same model, there's not much point in doing a country label. I would like to know when Canada has giveaways, though, as my wife is Canadian and we travel there at least once a year to see her family.

I linked to the X-Wing and Kayak. I'm pretty sure the "Bricktober" TRU buildings have been all over the place and shouldn't need a link. The monthly mini builds are always visible on the Lego Store websites.

I wonder if it'd be worth flagging when various stores are giving away Lego sets. These seem to happen a lot during the year and it might be worth collecting them for people looking for news. Here's what I'm aware of as of October 2015 in the US: Oct 4-10: Free micro Train Station at TRU with $75 purchase. (US) Oct 13-Nov 13: Free Holiday Train at Lego Stores with $99 purchase. (US) Oct 14: Free Bakery at TRU with $75 purchase. (US) Oct 17: Free kayak at Toys R Us. (US) Oct 21: Free micro Toys R Us with $75 purchase. (US) Nov 14: Free X-Wing at Toys R Us (US) Nov 3: Free shark at Lego Stores. (US) Nov 27: Free Gingerbread House at Lego Stores with $99 purchase. (US) Dec 1: Free monthly mini-build at Lego Stores. (US) Any others on the horizon?