blueandwhite

It always seems like LEGO picks one country and decides to mess around with the pricing. Sorry to hear that it's Australia this time. It really hurts when your country ends up being the odd-man out. Still; I haven't heard what Canadian prices are yet so maybe we'll be throwing in our $4 right along with you Australians .

No worries; it's an actual LEGO store. The store was just announced at LEGO.com. Apparently it's located at the Chinook Centre in Calgary and is opening this summer. I'm a bit disappointed that it's opening in Calgary as opposed to Toronto but it is nice to hear that Canada is finally getting a LEGO store.

Unfortunately, in an overtly litigeous society (and that isn't something that is exclusive to the United States), companies like LEGO have absolutely no incentive to make parts out of harder, brittle plastic. It's fascinating how as a society we campaign against legislation which restricts our choice as consumers yet when we make poor choices, or by our own incompetence we manage to injure ourselves we are always looking for somebody else to take responsibility. Still, while many of these decisions are based on safety legislation, others certainly are not. The substandard Chinese minifigs we've encountered last year certainly had little to do with child safety laws and everything to do with poor quality control. Changes to certain molds (the 1x4x5 half-arch for example) which have made the piece less versatile than their predecessors also have little to do with these laws. In recent years there has been a shift in quality. It may not be major at this point for most people, but it is a slippery slope. LEGO is still head-and-shoulders above the competition but I want to see them stay that way for the foreseeable future. Let's not forget that "Only the best is good enough"! I won't condemn LEGO for changes that have occured owing to safety standards. Changes in colour and quality are another story entirely.

I suspect there is a large divide between fans who feel a strong attachment to the castle sets from the 80s and 90s and fans who have come to prefer the more recent fantasy line. Personally I prefer the classic sets over the more recent fantasy theme. While I enjoyed the Crown faction, I had no interest in the skeletons, dwarves or orcs. The sets themselves look to be comprable to the first year of fantasy sets and are certainly a step above the second and third year sets IMO. I've heard a number of people criticize the Kingdoms theme stating the sets are boring, however looking at the previous fantasy era sets I don't really see anything that stands out in the set design. If anything, I actually find that the Kingdoms sets look to be an improvement on the fantasy line. While the fantasy line had a wide variety of new figures and creatures, the sets themselves were actually pretty dull. I do agree with Nagyzee that LEGO could explore some different areas of medieval architecture. Spanish or Italian architecture would certainly be nice, as would an Eastern European theme. Still, I suspect LEGO will always go the safe route and stick to what looks to be medieval England. As for tudor buildings; we've only had one set since Dan Siskind's Blacksmith Shop so I'm not sure I agree that such structures have been done to death. Moreover, if you stripped the Fantasy sets of their figures and simply dropped in KKI or KKII figs I can't really say that the sets themselves would truly stand the test of time. While the Crownie castle was a step up on the KKI and KKII stuff, I can't really say that it ever reached the likes of classic sets like 6085 or 6074. I'm really looking forward to the Kingdoms line, and even if it only lasts a year I can't say that I'm disappointed by the shift away from the fantasy line; a line which to me lived and breathed on the appeal of its minifigs.

Gender: Male Occupation/print on torso: Santa Claus Type of headgear: A proper 'santa hat'. No more bandanas please. New beard Type of facial expression: Jolly? Color on torso/legs: Red w. black boots. Accessory: a battle axe to smite evil children (or a bag of presents). Gender: Female Occupation: Nun Type of headgear: veil Type of facial expression: stern Colour on torso/legs: black Accessory: a battle axe to smite evil children (or a book of prayers) Gender: Male Occupation: Viking Type of headgear: helmet (with eye gaurd and no horns), new beard mold Expression: berserk Colour on torso/legs: scale mail print Accessory: a teddy bear battle axe to smite evil children. Honestly, I'm just as happy leaving this up to LEGO themselves.

I'm not sure I would call the traditional bow rustic. England certainly used the long bow for centuries with great success. It could be fired at a faster rate and generally carried a greater maximum range than the crossbow. On the other hand, training soldiers to use crossbows was far easier making them far easier to replace. The only thing I don't like about the LEGO bow is that it is always drawn making it look a bit silly at times. I would love to see a mold of an undrawn bow.

Except nothing is blind in this series. Having the second barcode is the same as having different packaging. These aren't packaged like trading cards. There is ZERO risk here unless the seller intentionally sends the wrong bag. I appreciate that you look forward to opening your figs (part of the excitement I suppose), but don't you think that some buyers are also looking for that experience? An opened figure is used, whereas a sealed in bag figure is new. For many collectors this distinction is pretty significant. Buying a bagged figure isn't taking a change. It's insurance that the figure hasn't been used or mishandled.

You could make the same argument for any set. I'm not a MISB collector so such things don't really concern me but I know that there are many fans who buy sets simply to keep them 'vaulted' in their collections. With the bar codes giving away what figure is contained in each bag, I suspect there will still be collectors who are looking for these figs sealed.

Actually, with the barcodes being readily available a box doesn't seem like a terrible investment. Sellers can now sell their extras without having to open the bags devaluing the figs. You're also bound to get the figures you want by doing this while possibly turning a profit on the secondary market.

Civilian or not; the queen and prince are a nice bonus. In a theme that is dominated by Knights and footsoldiers it is nice to see a few figures who fill other rolls. Between the Jester, the new Green Wizard and the princess from the main sets and the blue wizard, queen, prince, blacksmith and female peasant included with the calender this line has a nice assortment of non-military types. If the line lasts another year who's to say what else we'll get.

I would have liked to see a few more changes to these figures though. A different hairpiece or even a different-coloured torso would have been appreciated. Still, it's hard to complain considering that we are getting three currently-exclusive figs (the prince, the wizard and the queen) along with these two figures which were previously exclusive to the MMV. The newer head is also nice as the current female head used in the MMV has become a tad too common these days.

It's the same old hat. Nicholai posted photos of the Advent Calendar wizard on page 62. In fact, you made comments about him on the next page. His hat even has the same printing as the Good Wizard from the current Castle line.

I agree with those who said "it depends" (because for me it really does). In my case the major issue is whether I actually need any of the bricks from an existing MOC in large quantities for something new. Large MOCs are interesting in the sense that they offer a major source of raw materials. If I have a new idea, the old MOC will eventually give way but I've had some MOCs stay together for several years. Large MOCs tend to stay together a long time in my household. There's no sense in dismantling something that took so much time and effort if you aren't going to utilize the majority of the resources.

That's good news. Perhaps we can get photos of the different barcodes up on Eurobricks at some point. They would be really helpful for folks shopping for certain figs. Moreover, completists won't be stuck with 10x skaterboy in as they desperately search for the robot to complete their collections.

I don't think this will happen. Customizers often make parts that are more detailed than the LEGO equivilant (compare the new LEGO great helm the earlier Brickforge example) or parts that LEGO simply will not produce. We will likely never see swords like those produced at Brickarms from LEGO themselves. I don't think that LEGO introducing a few new elements will have any serious impact on the majoer customizers. There are AFOLs who will continue to purchase these elements, and there are others who will never incorporate clone elements into their building. That isn't going to change anytime soon.

Smaller bricks are often preferable for MOCing though, so getting 3 2x1 bricks instead of a single 6x1 may actually be better for some builders. As for the cheese slopes; ugh ! I don't mind cheese slopes, but with the castle line it almost seems like LEGO is simply adding them because they couldn't think of a better way to infuse a bit of colour into a theme that is otherwise grey, brown and black. On the castle I would have actually preferred the red cheese slopes to be either bley or dark bley. I'll certainly try and find a use for these, but the colour isn't exactly winning any points with me. The cheese slopes on the smaller sets seem even more random.

I'm not sure I agree with you. Personally I have no interest in a UCS set that is in scale with the mainline sets. The very point of these exclusives is to present AFOLs and other enthusiasts with a more elaborate product that wouldn't otherwise be possible in the mainline. Any AFOL-oriented castle exlcusive should really be considerably larger than the mainline. The MMV is a perfect example of this. I wouldn't want to see an exclusive built on a smaller scale than this even if the set is as cliche as you are suggesting. As for the trend towards tudor buildings in the early 2000s; I still think that it was probably inspired predominantly by Siskind's book-style shops. I can't really think of many AFOL examples that predate Siskind's work. Tudor-style buildings made a lot of sense at the time as many AFOLs lacked the necessary elements to build large-scale MOCs. Larger castles were a lot less refined back then, and fewer fans had the resources to build them. Tudor shops allowed us Castle freaks to build in our respective theme without necessarily dropping $2000-4000 on grey bricks. With many fans having amassed large collections of bricks these days, a UCS set really should be something special. Building it to match the mainline really defeats that purpose considering how out of scale the Castle line is.

Nice work. The dark tan actually works wonderfully as flooring. As a last MOC before setting out on your tour, this is nicely done. It certainly would look quite good in the great hall of castle. You'll definietly be missed here at Eurobricks. Take care and good luck!

Actually, this has been answered before. In the petition for the 2009 Pirate Calender CopMike and Bonaparte (two of Eurobrick's fine Ambassadors) both mention that we should see the 2010 calender in North America. In that thread Bonaparte had this to say on the subject: If I've read things correctly we only missed out on the Pirate Advent Calender because the line was already too far in development for things to be changed. LEGO knows that North American fans were upset after missing out on the 2008 Castle Calender (and more recently the 2009 Pirate Calender). It doesn't sound like an oversight they plan on making in the future. So far every indication we've had suggests that we should expect the Castle Calender for 2010.

The best thing about April Fool's day is that more often than not we start to fool ourselves. Honestly, if these were forgeries they would easily be the best forgeries ever done by an AFOL. Looking beyond the perfect decals, we also have several knights wearing the new helmets. I must say, the new prince fig looks excellent. This is going to be an amazing line and it looks like the Advent Calender is a must-have item this year. It's nice to see a few calender exclusive figs.

It's obvious that the real surprise is that there are two ninjas and a samurai floating around a small boat in Shanghai China. Why they are there is anybody's guess.

I think that the opposite is true. A small, well-crafted MOC can look incredible. Army building is all about bragging rights. It's about flexing your financial muscle and amassing a larger collection of similar minifigs than anybody else. This takes both money and shelf space. The majority of army builders I've seen on Brickshelf and other places have amassed hundreds or even thousands of figures which they display on multiple 32x32 or 48x48 baseplates. This is by no means space efficient. How about a shelf of small vignettes showcasing a variety of figures in interesting scenes/activities? With this you probably could get the best of both worlds.

That's a nice looking gate you've got there! More than anything, I quite like the fact that the Dwarf relief is proportioned like a minifig. It really gives this MOC a certain charm. It's nice to see minifigs in a minifig-proportioned world. The snowy path is also quite lovely. Winter MOCs are fairly rare, so it's a nice change of pace when you see one executed this well. Good stuff.

I agree; Teddy's castle is amazing, but perhaps if you're going to dig up an older topic like this in the future you might want to share a bit more than simply saying "it's AWESOME!". What do you like about Teddy's castle? What features really stand out to you? Don't let an old fool like me scare you off, but when I see an old topic like this being revived I'm sort of hoping that there is some new discussion to go with it.

I'm certainly not an expert on this subject so anything I say would simply be speculation. Personally I feel that the global warming argument is used too much. Still, there's nothing wrong with being socially responsible and recycling or trying to limit the use of fossil fuels. Even if global warming is nothing but hot air, trying to reduce polution doesn't seem like a terrible idea IMO. It's unfortunate that even the most civil discussion on topics like this quickly become heated debates.