mania3

Cool build, but shouldn't this be in the Space & Mecha forum? Also, I second the deeplinked image suggestion.

For its size, that holocron is remarkably convincing. Great job!

I couldn't have said it better. I said it once, and I'll say it again, they feel and look the same to me.

Very, very cool. Good luck in the contest, this is a great build.

Yeah, I'd seen these before. I've yet to take the plunge and purchase any trains or tracks, but it's something I really would like to do. These new tracks seem extremely practical to me, but then again I've never used any tracks old or new.

I love this. Really well built, but most importantly I got a great laugh out of it. Poor Captain's Daughter, alone with all that riffraff at sea.

This is unbelievable. I can't even fathom the amount of time it took to make this video. Absolutely incredible. Hilarious, too.

Welcome to Eurobricks.

I've always wondered this. But I do know that they are a good measure for telling the condition of a minifigure, as a new torso will naturally have unscathed paint.

Welcome to Eurobricks! Glad to have you here.

What's the point in having 200 different minifigures, or 200 of the same? There really isn't any, it's just what you wish to spend your money on when you're collecting.

Awesome. This is exactly how I imagine it when I think of how it should be fleshed out.

Thank you very much! No cake, but I did get 10193 - Medieval Market Village and 7637 - Farm! Lots and lots of cows for me today!

Sometimes. But the shipping is just a pain sometimes. I just usually go to Legoland where I get a 10% discount on all products. Combined with a lack of shipping costs, it makes the sets affordable. Sales tax is about 7.5%, so the discount pretty much just takes care of sales tax. Making a $99.99 set go for $96.74 exactly. Also, Legoland can be occasionally cheaper on their price points. For example, they sell the big Farm set for $79.99, whereas LEGO.com sells it for $89.99. With my discount I got it for $77.40. Whereas with my sales tax, LEGO.com would have cost me about $97, before shipping.

This is pretty cool. Simple, but efficient.

Wow! This is so cool! I never thought of doing something like this. But had they packaged this, I would have certainly bought it. Great job!

Congrats Mariann. Great Q&A! I'm excited for you.

Michael's craft stores. But here is the product if you want to look for them elsewhere. http://www.amazon.com/Bagettes-Recloseable.../ref=pd_sim_k_2 They're just a simple 2x3 in. craft bag that can be found at nearly any craft store or department store's craft section. Also, Eilif, I've seen pictures of your collection floating around and always thought it was very impressive.

Yeah, I thought so too. I notice no difference.

No problem, it was fun sharing. I'm pretty proud of the work I put into it. It makes things extremely accessible for me.

Well said. I don't think you're ripping anyone off if you're offering something and they are buying it. That's just supply and demand. Ripping off would imply some sort of deceit. I always admired people that took the risk to make sales like that. As far as the magnets go, they are awesome. It really helped a late coming Star Wars collector like myself get some figures I might otherwise not get. And they are so cool. But I'll still probably buy the Clone Wars sets as well, as I'm a bit compulsive about my need to possess an entire line.

Welcome to Eurobricks!

The cars are all pretty great. I think what I like most about them is that they correct some things about the new City vehicles that I find annoying, and replace them with a lot of the parts and techniques that made the original System sets so great. All in all, I really like these. Great job and thanks for posting them for all of us to see.

We have three Wal-Mart stores in our area, and two of the three carry them. The other one carries a similar container, but I don't like it as much. I also went to a few Wal-Mart stores recently in the Chicago area, and a few in Kentucky, and they had them as well. So, they are in various areas as well. You might just have to see. Otherwise, a suggestion would be to ask customer service. Wal-Mart tends to carry products when people ask for them, even if only one person asks. They tend to be pretty good about that.

No. They are cheapest at Wal-Mart and Sears. I found that when I was deciding how to organize my collection, I spent a lot of time looking at how other people did it. When I first started collecting, I knew that I was going to be buying a lot rather quickly, so I had to develop a system of organization early on. Given that, even as meticulous as I am now, I find that it gets away from me rather quickly when I buy 4-5 sets at once. Even as we speak, I still have Roughly 15 unopened sets in my closet I haven't gotten to yet, 5 of which are over 1,000 pieces. I even have some sitting in the floor that I've decided to remove from display but have yet to dismantle. It really is an endless job, but luckily a fun one. Here are some other examples of how I organize my things out. I use these a lot to store similar parts that would otherwise take up too many of my drawer slots. They are your typical craft container, sold at Michael's craft stores for $0.99 each. In this one I've stored some various minifigure accessories. It saves on my drawer space and helps to know that were I to need a weapon or accessory in this style I know exactly where to go. I have four other containers with various accessories, divided mostly by theme, as well as a few others with loose minifigure parts (torso, heads, legs.) The drawer sets come with dividers that can be inserted optionally. I don't use them in all of the drawers, naturally, but sometimes, as in this case, it is extremely helpful to have. I have to be careful what I put in the back though, as it may make things confusing later. But as with this picture, it's a pretty logical connection. I've yet to label the drawers as I haven't found it extremely necessary, but I've not ruled that out just yet. When undivided, you can see the slight bend in the drawer due the malleability of the plastic they are made from. It's pretty inconsequential as the divider bends it back in shape, or the contents of the drawer will. I use a LOT of these bins which I purchased at Wal-Mart. I've seen them in Wal-Mart stores across the nation, and everywhere I go they sell for the same price, $1. Such a cheap price makes purchasing them in bulk a lot more reasonable, same with my divided containers. Really, the only "pricey" investment in my LEGO room were the drawer sets and the shelving units I built to house everything. That, and of course the LEGO sets themselves. As far as minifigures go, I bag and label each individually, sans accessories, as they are cataloged on Bricklink. Unfortunately, I've yet to decide exactly how I'm going to separate them beyond this point, probably by theme, and I'm not sure what I will store them in. As of now, I've got about 3 of those shoe box sized bins with the white lids full, totaling about 800 figures, which I think really speaks to the capacity of these boxes. So, it's getting to be about time I decide what I'm going to do, lest I be overwhelmed. Naturally, storing the figures does not mean I don't keep any on display. Usually I'll keep several army or collections of figures on display. Right now I've got my Rock Monsters and a growing Clone army on display. Generally when I dismantle a set I'll take time to bag the figures as well. But when I rotate things in and out of display, the figures are displayed with the set as well, as one would expect. That's really the rundown of how I do things. It's perpetually changing in there as my collection grows every week. I've stored roughly 180 sets (50,000+ parts, 800 figures) in there, as well as countless PAB cups and parts by the pound from LEGOLAND, between displays and tucked away in the boxes. Like I said, it's a never-ending job as I'm constantly purchasing new sets and loose parts. But really, without this organizational system I'd not have access to the things I want on demand, which is really what it is all about for me in the end. - Wes