ResIpsaLoquitur

Oh, agreed. My only observation is that the Creator houses tend to come in very "traditional" Lego colors of solid reds, blues, yellows, whites, etc. The Friends theme tends to use a lot of lighter, pastel shades of pink, blue, tan, etc. It'd be fun if we could get a Creator house in a style consistent with Heartlake City. Let's consider it a zoning ordinance. :)

Hmmmmm. How would you guys feel if Lego did some Creator-style Friends sets? My daughter loves Friends, but they are--like most Lego sets--very "prepackaged." Thinking about the one-or-two houses that Creator releases every year makes me think it would be neat if they released a few 3-in-1 buildings with a minidoll. I'd like it if my daughter could have a set that encourages creativity. (She's creative enough on her own, but we do always want to build what's on the front of the box.)

Hmmmm, I may just have to settle for the $20 Cloud Cuckoo set. However, it comes with Wyldestyle and Emmett, and my daughter will love the snail and Unikitty.

Well, I could, but then I'll kick myself if the contest is back next year and they don't have a size limit. I like MOCing, but I don't have either the time or the number of bricks (yes, I know there's always Bricklink) needed to plan out and develop an award-winning entry here. Of course, I fully acknolwdge that these are EB's rules and they're giving away prizes out of the goodness of their hearts. No objections there--I wish the entrants the best. And maybe I'll go ahead and put my piece up even if it renders it ineligible for next year. Maybe. I'm still missing a few small parts, plus the stickers that I need to print. It's about 99% finished, but is still lacking a few elusive 1 x 6 plates that I'll probably have to Bricklink. I don't think it's cheating to work on something in advance, though--unless EB makes an "on your honor" rule that you can't start building before the contest opens. (No idea how they'd enforce that.)

Crud, I agree. I've been working on a model for the last year that's in the 32 x 32 range on anticipation that this year's contest would be the same as others. I currently lack the time, creativity, and most of all, the pieces to make something for this year's contest. Now I need to decide whether I want to finish my Winter Village MOC and just go ahead and post it, or else keep saving it for another year in the hopes that next year EB will go back to the usual contest. Maybe if enough EBers raise their voices, they'll modify the rules?

Well, since I can enter this without having to compete for votes, maybe I have a shot... Here's Emma, waiting by the fireplace with gifts in hand! Hopefully a few more Friends entries will appear so Emma isn't alone. :) (Obviously, the hook or string would go through the peg hole at the top to hang it from the tree.)

You know, I'm honestly not sure if she was there when we lined up or not. I was either in the store while my daughter held our place, or else I was outside with her helping her do her homework. I didn't notice her there until 10 minutes before the event, at which point the bickering started. Wonder what their kids learned from the whole thing....

I just need to ventilate for a bit. So I took my daughter to the Lego Store's monthly mini-build--we've done it every month since October of last year, when these three ladies started very vocally arguing in line. My daughter and I were third in line today--that's pretty good since the MMB lines tend to wrap around the outside of the store. Anyway, there were two ladies in front of us, and a third lady who appeared to be a grandmother sitting on the other side of the door. Apparently the grandmother had never been to a MMB before and somehow sat on the wrong side of the door, thinking she was first in line. (Maybe this was true, maybe it wasn't--I do seem to remember seeing her in the store when we got there an hour earlier.) Grandma thought that since she made a mistake but had been there since 3:30, the other people in line should let her go first. The two ladies ahead of me told her that she needed to get to the back of the line since everyone else had been waiting in the proper spot the whole time. Nobody got physical, but they started getting really snippy (somebody mentioned something about pornography, I have no idea why) and the manager eventually had to settle everyone down. He eventually let grandma just go in to do the build with her grandkid. Everyone else went in at 5 p.m. as normal. Sheesh, what a lousy example. It's free Lego, people. LEGO. The happiest toy on the Earth. Lego should be about bringing people together, not fighting about who gets to go in the store first. Maybe under different circumstances, somebody would have been right or wrong, but the line wasn't even that long tonight. (The store only gives out 150 sets--I'm sure there were well under 100 people tonight.) Plus, your kids are watching. Set an example on how to have a proper argument, rather than getting publicly snippy and showing your kids what an megablocks you are. Personally, I think grandma was in the wrong for not realizing where the line was. I also think the two ladies acted like jerks and could have been charitable by saying something like "Hey, just so you know next time, the line forms over here. But go on ahead, there's plenty of Lego to go around." Anyhow, we still got our free build--a minifig-scale lawnmower. We have Chicken Suit Guy driving it right now. I had a good time, even if three people ahead of me didn't. Anybody else have any horror stories from the MMBs?

Regarding the Mini-Shops: Lego could have just made the mini Lego Store. No licensing fees there, and it might even be an impulse buy for a lot of people. ("Hey, I can buy the store that I'm in.") I'm perplexed on that one, particularly since CUUSOO told him that the final product might have to focus on one store.

Interesting question. I've done a few minor MOCs, but I'm finishing up a large on in anticipation of this year's "Expand the Winter Village Contest" (assuming EB does one as it has the past few years). It's two years in the making, as I've been fiddling around with how my building will be shaped. Without giving much away, I will say that it originally had a traditional "sloped" roof which wasn't working well, and I eventually had to go back and change it to a flat one. It looks much better. The project is allllllllllllllllllllllmost done in terms of the large builds, but I'm still going back and adding little details to make it more Christmassy and interesting. We'll see how you all like it when I submit it in January....

This needs a Lego Deadpool chasing after Dorothy. Otherwise, I'm astonished.

I would have bought a mini-Lego shop. I liked *all* the shops, but I can understand the licensing/marketing problem. Still, the mini Lego shop could have been an in-store/Shop @ home exclusive and probably would have done well.

Edit: Nevermind. I thought this said "Lego Store" instead of "Legoland." Do they mean a full park, or just a Discovery Center?

Can I use aliens in an entry? I think people often associate aliens and alien abduction with Halloween, plus the famous "War of the Worlds" broadcast was on Halloween night. Just wanted to clarify.

My entry: Outbreak in the Prison from "The Walking Dead" For fans of "The Walking Dead" (comic or TV show), we all know that Rick's group found the prison overrun with zombies. But what happened before the group got there? Here's two prisoners caught between a rock and a hard place: do they stay in their cell and starve to death, or do they risk being eaten by the growing zombie horde outside?

Is anyone in the U.S. interested in trading for a spare S11 Pretzel Girl? In other words, I HAVE a spare Pretzel Girl--I somehow thought I was getting the mountain climber. (No idea how I got that wrong.) I'm looking for a Grandma or the climber, though I'm open to other figures if you want to suggest something.

Huh, I only noticed your reply just now. Sorry. It appeared to be in-store only, as I don't remember seeing that price on the website. Good luck in finding a K-Mart that's still doing it...(And if the Friends calendar goes on sale, somebody let me know!)

Yeah! They had some Fire Boat from the 2009 City era also that I'm not familiar with (Brickset isn't working right now?) and a Qudditch set. We're not big on the Harry Potter sets here, so I figured one set with Harry and Lucius was enough.... Oh, and the Creator Beach House is clearanced at $32. I don't believe that's a great price, but I'll keep my eye on it and see if Target knocks it down further. They had a bunch of them.

I found a 7641 City Corner at a Target today for $12 and a Harry Potter Hogwarts for $10. No, seriously. It was new in box and this wasn't some weird, out-in-the-middle-of-the-woods Target. I jumped all over that.

Just spotted that somebody reviewed this already. If you're in the US and near a K-Mart, they're selling the calendar for $18.00 in some kind of secret clearance sale. I'd get it now given that it's regular $40. The best I ever saw at a Target after-Christmas sale was 50% off--this is 55%. At that price, grab it! ...personally, I'd put Jango's rocket pack on his back instead of on the sled. Maybe that would make him look a little better? Although I just noticed that he has no rangefinder, which is nuts.

My K-Mart has this year's Advent Calendar--yes, the Jango one--for $18.00, so I grabbed it. I've never seen them go below 50% post-Christmas, so this is a darn good price.

Toys N' Bricks is reporting some interesting clearance sales at K-Mart. I managed to get the 2013 Star Wars Advent Calendar (yes, THIS year's calendar with Jango) for $18.00 US (55% off), and the City Advent Calendar for $13.50 (same). That's better than the after-Christmas sale. They did have the Friends Advent Calendar, but for full price. Boo.

There were a bunch of shorts on the Disney website that made one long episode. http://video.disney.com/shows/lego-friends-of-heartlake-city-4cddb9f64ae23944b2297dd3

Is anybody having trouble finding the Elf? I thought he was supposed to be one of the more common figures. My Lego Store had a display out yesterday, and me and another guy felt through a whole pile of them without finding one. Granted, one of my thumbs is bandaged, so I wasn't as able to feel as well as I'd have liked, but that 2x2 brick should have been a dead giveaway. Nothing. I did get one blind pack for my daughter and we ended up with the female scientist. I knew that's one she'd be wanting, so that saves me the trouble of finding her later.

Throwing out there: I was just in my local Lego Store today, and MANY of the in-store "spend $75" exclusives were on the racks for sale. These included the City Helicopter, Iron Man Drone, the mini Sopwith Camel, and a couple of others. This further adds to my confidence that these items will show up on the racks at some point if you have a Store accessible.