naf

All the 2nd wave Hobbit sets, and any LotR sets if they continue the line. Star Wars: 75050 - B-Wing - Maybe, depends on the design of the set as I have the original. If it's a big improvement jump like the latest X-Wing I'll get it. 75052 - Mos Eisley Cantina - A must buy. 75054 - AT-AT - Like the B-Wing, I have the last version of this, so I will probably only purchase if it's a significant improvement. Death Star Troopers, will probably get a couple of these. The use (perhaps over-use) of the spring-loaded missile launchers is turning me off to the latest Star Wars sets. Flick fires were bad, but at least they were generally inconspicuous, or made sense (A-Wing and Millennium Falcon). These new launchers look big and bulky, good for kids I guess but bad for AFOLs. Lego Movie: 70816 Benny's Spaceship - Classic Space! Shut up and take my money! Cuusoo Exo-suit - Depends on the final product, but I like the submitted design a lot.

The marketing strategy that did influence me was Lego's inclusion of product catalogues in most of their sets. I would stare at those things for hours, and circle the sets that I wanted for birthdays or christmas. I still have them all, it's fun to look through them every now and then. I agree. It'll be interesting to see how their play evolves as they get older, if they start to go for the builds, or even MOCs, instead of the sole emphasis on the minifigs. I'm just glad my kids enjoy Lego so I can build them

Lego has been producing minifig-only sets as long as I can remember. They were never marketed as "battle packs" just a pack of figures. If you bought a few of the sets in the theme, you probably had all those figures anyway. I know my parents bought me a couple of these packs as a kid, I built a gigantic Lego town in my basement and my mom wanted to increase the population (my parents were very supportive of my Lego obsession as a kid ). I've noticed this, and I don't necessarily like this trend. I think it opens the door for Lego to put out less creative (and less appealing) builds, but put a couple of hard to find minifigs in to boost sales. I feel like the recent Hobbit sets have gone this route, the builds are less than inspired, but are full of unique minifigs. I was the same way. I thought of the figure as another piece of the build, because my spaceship wouldn't look right without an astronaut to pilot it. When I watch my kids playing with their Ninjago Lego, I see them spending more time acting out scenes from the cartoon with the figures rather than building. I guess it's just a natural side effect of having a TV tie-in with the Ninjago sets. They don't do this with the Galaxy Squad Lego, although those sets have been collecting dust since they got into Ninjago.

I wonder if my own play style would have changed if I had the unique minifigs that Lego offers today. I collected mostly castle and space when I was a kid. With space, you got 4 colors of the exact same spaceman. With the 80's castle, you got a bunch of generic soldiers, and occassionally a peasant or princess type figure. So like one of the posters above, I built different environments for my guys to live in, the figs and the bricks were always together. I think with today's minifigs it's just as appealing to play with them separately as well as with the set. It's true that they don't have much articulation, but a kid doesn't care much about that. The ninjago figures are all loaded with accessories and weapons, which is way more important

I do build with him frequently, I think it might be more of an attention span thing than anything else. We spent the weeks before Christmas building the Winter Village models together (the Cottage and the Toy Shop). He would build for about a half hour, with me helping him find the pieces for each step, but after that he went straight to the minifigs. I don't mind this at all, every kid plays differently and I want him to have a fun an enjoyable experience. He has the skill to be able to build sets over his age range, but perhaps not the attention span. He started doing this the other day when he was building the dragon by himself, he had Lloyd and Wu helping with the build, while Garmadon was hiding the pieces from them. Thought it was pretty funny My Lego dark age started in 1990, and I've only been an AFOL for a year or so. The named minifigure thing is brand new to me

I found myself making an observation over Christmas. My wife and I bought our 6 year old boy the Ninjago Epic Dragon Battle set for Christmas, and it's definitely his favorite gift. He's really into the cartoon, and he has some of the other Ninjago sets as well. When he opened it up, he was most excited about the figures that came in the box; he didn't have a Lloyd, Garmadon, or Sensei Wu yet. After all the presents were unwrapped he went to the playroom to start building his new set. He was in there for most of the morning; when I checked on him hours later he hadn't even built through the first bag yet. He was having fun playing with the minifigures. As of right now, he just has the dragon built, the rest of the bags in the set haven't even been opened yet. Every time he goes to the playroom to play with his Lego, he just plays with the figures. Has anyone else experienced this with their kids? Most of the cost of the set is the Lego pieces, yet they aren't getting played with nearly as much as the minifigs. It's basically turned into an expensive action figure set. I know he can do the build, he's only 6 but he's built larger models by himself before. In my childhood, I loved the building aspect the most, the minifigures were simply a part of the build, someone to man the spaceship I just built. I got a sense of accomplishment building a large model, and showing my parents what I had done. I also enjoyed taking the model apart and building other things. I think this might have to do with the way Lego markets their toy now. In my lego heyday (the 80's), the boxes emphasized the build, they included pictures of alternate models, etc. The TV commercials emphasized the building aspect of Lego. Today, it seems very character driven. The Ninjago cartoon doesn't involve any sort of bricks or building, it's all about the minifigure characters. The minifigs are emphasized on the box as a big feature of a set, and there are no alternate model ideas to be found. It could also just be that he and I have different play styles, and he prefers playing with figures where I enjoyed the building aspect more. Just some observations I found interesting, any other parents notice this while watching their kids play with Lego?

"Teeth marks" can be caused by a number of things, not just chewing. I think most of these marks are from trying to get plates separated, and not just for the joy of chewing on plastic. Judging from my old collection, that is the case. The only "chewed" parts are plates, regular bricks look perfect. I used teeth, knives, anything I could wedge between two plates to get them apart. Invest in some brick separators, they will be your best friend. I have the older gray one linked to above, but the newer orange ones are superior as they can also be used to push technic pins out of holes. Don't give any Lego you hold dear to a kid under 10, or else you risk getting chewed parts back. My 6yo stepson has his own lego collection, and I discovered a number of chewed parts in his lego bin while playing with him. Mostly longer parts: antennas, technic rods, swords, etc. He knows to use the brick separator, but I think his chewing is subconscious (oral fixation or some other fruedian thing). It's the main reason why I keep my own collection away from the kid's until they get older.

I've never had a problem with regular bricks scratching in storage. Trans pieces will develop microscratches, however, which will cause them to look cloudy. I store loos windshield, canopy, window type pieces in little ziplock bags when in storage to keep them looking good.

Also, Lego produces 2 types of stickers. Clear stickers that seem to have a plastic backing and are similiar to decals model builders apply. The other kind are on a paper backing, and seem to be of a much lower quality and tend to peel off after a while. I have Lego train sets from 20 years ago that have the clear stickers on that still look like new. A lot of my sets with other type are peeling off. If Lego stuck with the better quality clear stickers I'd be happier with them. What also annoys me is that the same piece that's printed in one set is a sticker in the other. The Lord of the Rings/Hobbit theme does this a lot. I have printed pieces for maps 2x2 tiles and the wood textured 1x4 tile in some sets, but they're stickers in others. If Lego has already gone through the effort of producing a printed tile, it seems like a waste to provide it as a sticker for some sets. Another issue is price point. Tower of Orthanc, for example, has stickers to apply. I think for large, expensive, AFOL-targeted sets Lego should go the extra mile and provide nice printed pieces instead of stickers. 7879 Hoth Echo Base, and the various snowspeeders in the star wars theme have stickers on textured slopes. They started peeling off a month after applying them

Benny's spaceship looks awesome. My jaw just about dropped when I loaded up eurobricks and saw it on the front page. At first I thought it was an announcement regarding the resurrection of the classic space theme... as long as it gets made into a set and makes it into my hands I'll be a happy camper!

I'm sure your mom would want you to enjoy whatever gift she gave you, so if you'd rather have a different set she will probably understand. It's not like you're going to return it to get money for beer or gas, you're still getting a Lego set from her either way. If you do decide to keep Swarm Interceptor, it's a pretty cool set. I built it with my stepson and we love it. The Galaxy Squad sets have grown on me over the last year.

My wife and I gifted ourselves with the Tower of Orthanc set this year. We bought it back in October during double points month, but held off on it until Christmas. She's not a huge Lego fan (she doesn't quite get my fondness of the 'toy' ), but she is a Tolkien fan. She was so impressed by the model at the Lego store that we got one. Still haven't cracked it open, waiting for a nice quiet evening to build it together. Got the kids Ninjago Epic Dragon Battle and the CLS-89 Eradicator Mech. They are really into the Ninjago and Galaxy Squad themes, so they were delighted to have these added to the collection.

That set would be awesome, I wish lego would have used a design like this instead of the wall used in MEA. It would pair well with the barrel escape set as well, and would reduce the complaints that this wave is nothing but a bunch of random walls.

From what I understand, bromine is the chemical they add to the plastic. When bromine reacts with oxygen, it turns the plastic yellow. Using the retr0brite method, the hydrogen peroxide and UV cause a reaction where the bromine releases it's bond to the oxygen, therefore removing the yellow. Over time, it probably is possible for it to turn yellow again, but who knows. Mine were retr0brited around this time last year and they're still bright white. I wish I had taken some photos, but it was a pretty dramatic difference. I don't notice any negative effects, I even soaked printed parts in the solution with no damage.

The yellowing is caused by a chemical reaction to the fire retardants added to the ABS plastic, not necessarily by UV light. People have found old sealed sets that have the bricks yellowed in the package. It seems to be a crapshoot as to if, when, and to what extent your old bricks will yellow. You can use the retr0brite formula to restore the original color of your bricks. I used it for my yellowed classic space and futuron bricks, and it works pretty well. http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/

I too wish that bricklink would automatically remove parts from a wanted list once you purchase them, I don't think there's a way to do this (that I've found at least). I want to expand on what the above poster said. From your wanted list, when you click on the "by shop" tab you'll see all the shops that carry parts in your wanted list. From here, there click the "sort by" drop-down and select "lots (unique). This will show the stores that carry the greatest number of unique parts on your wanted list. This helps reduce the number of different sellers you have to buy from.

I used to have all of my classic space, futuron, and blacktron 1 Lego on display at one point. It was pretty large and took up a couple of tables in the basement. However, it was taking up a large chunk of the kid's play area so I disassembled them all, bagged by sets, and stored them away. I consider these to be collector's items and won't mix them in with the "general population." I always build new sets that I purchase, even if I get them just for the figures or as a parts pack. I'll have the new set displayed in my bookcase for a few weeks, then I disassemble and add the bricks to my sorted bins for moc'ing. I keep a few of my star wars starfighters up on display indefinitely, but I'd rather use most of my new parts to MOC with. I have some of the large exclusive sets like Ewok Village and Orthanc which will pretty much stay permanently assembled if I can find some place to put them.

You are a few weeks too late my friend. The Orc Forge was sold out for a long time at shop.lego.com, but miraculously reappeared about a week before Thanksgiving for a couple of days before it sold out again, then it came back in stock a day or two later, and then sold out again. If you're a gambling man, it wouldn't be unheard of for Lego to put this back in stock after the holidays because of returns and what not. Also, if you're by a Lego store you can check there. My local store stopped carrying it, but every once in a while one or two will be on the shelf due to an online order return. Otherwise, you're stuck with the secondary market right now. It's going for about $60 shipped on ebay or brick link, and it's going to just get more expensive as time goes by. If you really want this set (and it sounds like you do), I'd just bite the bullet and pay that. I paid the aftermarket price for a few sets after I got out of my dark ages, but the sting to my wallet caused me to be extra vigilant about sales and retirement dates so that doesn't happen again.

I would say I have a moderately sized collection. According to brickset I have roughly 53,000 pieces. However, that includes my vintage 80's Lego that I keep separated by set in plastic bags, I don't use those pieces for moc'ing generally. I used these 3-drawer sterilite units, one drawer for each color - any brick or plate 2x2 or greater goes in. For colors I have fewer pieces of, like blue and red, I merge them into one drawer since the contrasting colors make it easy to find pieces even when mixed. http://www.neatlysmart.com/catalog/item.aspx?sku=12483&gclid=COeBvJmsprsCFSISMwodbBoAWQ I also have few of these smaller 3 drawer units: http://www.neatlysmart.com/catalog/item.aspx?sku=12702&gclid=CJr9r-SqprsCFYUWMgodFVUAzg In these, I have a drawer of trans pieces, a drawer of round 1x1 studs, a drawer for all tiles, a drawer each for 1x1 and 1x2 plates, etc. I keep minifig accessories in a drawer as well. While not the most organized, it's organized enough where I don't have too much trouble finding what I need. As my collection grows I can buy more units to further sort the pieces. As space is an issue right now, this system is great. I don't have a dedicated Lego room, so I can keep these in the closet and just pull them out whenever I want to build.

That's a good point, I'd like to add that I would like back and perhaps side printing of the dress pieces. It's a shame that the dress minifig torsos have beautiful back printing, but the back of the dress slope piece is bare. Just doesn't look right.

If you've ever been to any kind of 'con (comic con, etc), you will find that there is no shortage of adults collecting toys. Adults collect match box cars, model trains, comic books, etc. My uncle has a big display cabinet of antique die cast toys from his childhood (that are worth a lot of money, I might add). Is Lego really any different from those things in terms of collecting? I went to a local comic con with my wife this past summer and there a lot of adults buying toys. There was even a Lego booth filled with adults. Geek culture is mainstream now. Be proud of your Lego addiction, I know I am

When I came out of my dark age, and went digging through my parents basement to claim my childhood Lego, they did look at me a little oddly. They said that they kept them hoping I'd give them to my future children, not play with them myself as an adult. I guess they were wrong People always have an opinion of what's "appropriate" for an adult, but what matters most is how you feel about it. I'm to the point in my life where I don't care what people think about me. I am who I am. My "play area" is filled with collectibles most people would consider toys, along with my built Lego creations, etc. What I find funny is that people will give me strange looks when I tell them I build Lego as an adult, but then I have to drag them away from them because they can't stop playing with the models. At one point I had all of my classic space sets built and put into a big scene on a table (pictures in the brickshelf gallery in my sig). My adult friends would come over just to play with it, and they were all sad when I had to take it down due to my limited space. I think people feel "funny" about playing with Lego because they feel like it's something they shouldn't be interested in, it's a kiddie thing. In reality, Lego can and should be enjoyed for a lifetime. Be proud of your Lego obsession, own it, and ignore the naysayers! They probably just wish they had your collection

How did you score that deal? I've barely seen them go on sale at all.

And I'm ok with this . I'd much rather my kids get hooked on Lego than Budweiser!

Be careful with Lego as an investment, once it starts becoming a job it might diminish the fun that the brick brings you. I thought about investing a bit in order to offset the costs of my collection, but ultimately decided against it. First, it takes a long time for sets to appreciate to make this a worthwhile endeavor. As in a few years after the set retires. That's a lot of money to tie up for that amount of time, and lots of space needed to store all your Lego. Plus, it seems like everyone is jumping in the Lego bandwagon, hoarding sets they think will net them money. Lots of inventory in the aftermarket = more competition = lower aftermarket prices. I might rethink investing in a few of the most exclusive sets like Ewok Village or Orthanc when it looks like they'll retire, as they seem to climb in price quite a bit compared to other sets. But other than that, I just budget my money and hunt for the best deals instead of investing.