blueandwhite

And bley. For me, year's one and two were the best simply for the large quantities of useful castle-related elements. Ihave a ton of the smaller sets (8+ Troll on the Loose) purchased simply for parts. The Prisoner of Azkaban sets are nice but Bley and reddish-brown soured the deal for me.

Try Wikipedia. They've got some great photos of the Eclipse from across North America. The photo sequences from Halton Hills ON and Baltimore MD show the eclipse in its entirity. According to NASA's site, the eclipse was visible throughout most of North and South America with the West coast missing the intial onset of the eclipse. Pretty cool to see.

Realistically, LEGO has every right to charge whatever they feel. If they want to charge Canadians half as much, twice as much or five times as much as Americans, Europeans, or pretty much anybody else that's their perogative. It's my perogative to stop supporting their brand on the primary market when prices get too high. When it's cheaper to get the same product through Ebay, Bricklink or pretty much any other middle man out of the US, then there is no reason for me to support the brand directly. The same is true of the average consumer. If they feel that the price difference between LEGO and Megabloks is no longer justified, then they should by all means switch over to the other brand or stop purchasing bricks alltogether. If LEGO is too expensive for mom and dad, little Johnny will probably be just as content with a video game. I'm actually disappointed Walmart caved in. Either way, it doesn't have much impact on my buying habits as I rely more and more on Bricklink.

Well given the price, what would you expect :-D . That being said; a bargain is a bargain. LEGO bricks don't really go out of date per se, and it's not like I would pay full price for the set to begin with. I got a good assortment of bricks and bits for far less than 10 cents a piece. For me, that's a pretty good deal right there. Most bargains come when stores clear stock. If the Viking ships do the same, I would probably pick up a couple of those as well *yoda* .

Well, almost every product sold in the US is noticeably cheaper than it's non American counterparts. From cars to books and gas; you guys get everything at a good price. I'm simply done with LEGO when I can get the same thing from Bricklink for far less. It's sad when it actually costs less to go through a middle man. I'll only buy LEGO in a store if it's on sale these days.

$17.99 in Canada >:-( ! That's about the worst price out there. With sales tax, these things are about $20.00 a pop. I'm sorry, but when I can get these figs for cheaper on Bricklink that's just sad. For me, this is definitely no sale. LEGO just doesn't like Canada. I don't mind paying prices comparable to Europe or the rest of the world, but why should we have to pay even more?!

Well, the only thing you can derive from this message is that there will be a theme with a storyline ala KKII, Bionicle, or Exo Force coming in the following year. Not really surprising considering the demise of Exo Force this year. I'm a bit curious as to how people jumped to the conclusion that this line would be a historical line like Ninja or Pirates. Heck, looking at the previous story-based themes, I would almost expect this to be futuristic. Space pirates anyone :-D ?

Realistically speaking, I very much doubt Canadian prices are going to come down to match the US. If anything, US prices are going to start to crawl up in the next few years owing to a weak US dollar. Sure, it's frustrating being Canadian when you know that only a few hours away your American friends are enjoying better pricing, but the real question is whether our prices in Canada are artificially high, or whether US prices are artificially low. Right now given the steady slide in the US greenback over the past four years, I would suggest that American pricing is an issue. That being said, I just picked up Gotham Assylum at Toys R Us for $59, so every now and again good bargains do find their way into Canadian stores. I don't like Canadian prices, but then again they aren't really that much different from the pricing paid in other countries.

Of course all customers should be valued. At the same time, shouldn't sellers be shown some amount of consideration as well? Realistically speaking, we're all human. To give a flat-out negative rating for an order that arived slightly behind schedule is pretty harsh. Even a neutral feedback would probably have been a bit better received. Extremist reactions are typically met with extremist responses. As was noted earlier, negative feedback is far more damaging to a seller than it is to a buyer. I'm curious as to when you would give neutral feedback, given that it would seem that a slight delay on a very small order is enough for somebody to earn your ire? I simply don't see that the seller acted that poorly towards you.

One thing. Negative feedback over an exceedingly small order (.06 cents) is probably a bit harsh simply because it took the part two weeks to arrive. The very fact that the seller is willing to pack and ship something that will essentially net him no profit is quite impressive. To be overly critical for something so trivial is probably more damaging to him than it is to you. Your negative feedback negative feedback reflects very badly on his business, despite the fact that your order was insignificant. Reading the thread more carefully, I don't feel that his feedback was all that unreasonable given your reaction to something that for most people would be considered quite trivial. I'm sorry that you've ended up with some negative feedback, but I can also sympathize with the seller. Heck, I see alot of sellers who simply refuse to leave feedback before the buyer does precisely because of this sort of thing. The problem with a feedback system is it really nothing more than an opportunity for people to lash out at each other. If you're going to leave negative feedback for very minor problems, it should come as no surprise that some sellers might get upset and retaliate. I wish you the best of luck getting your negative feedback removed, but I'm not sure that it will happen given the circumstances.

I believe that lord Vader has the best dreamride in this thread. No contest *y* .

I'm curious as to what the seller's rating was before you made your purchase. Alot of times I find that these things can be avoided by looking at the seller's history. Other than that, you're really defenseless if you actually do come across a bad seller. A bad seller will never admit to making a mistake, much less try and rectify his or her error. Fortunately, I've only had good experiences with bricklink thus far.

Unfortunately the feedback system is as much a revenge system as anything else. Given that many sellers refuse to give feedback before the buyer, it essentially means that you have no recourse. Moreover, as most sellers do far more business than buyers do, you look like the villian in the deal. Honestly, once the package has been shipped, the seller should be required to leave feedback rather than waiting for the buyer's response. Of course, this will never happen. Personally, I only deal with the largest shops; ones with stellar reputations. I simply don't need the trouble of dealing with small businesses that lack integrity. I've never needed to give negative feedback, and fortunately I've never received it either.

What did you pay for those fine specimens 8-

Truth be told, I've always had a soft spot for affordable performance. That is to say cars that are fun to drive at a reasonable price. Everything from VW GTIs to Ford Mustangs. I've never been a big fan of exotic cars as they are built to the exclusion of all but the exceedingly wealthy. I appreciate the technical beauty of a supercar, but the reality is that for most people these vehicles are nothing but fantasy. I would rather fantasize about a car that I could actually own rather than one that I can't even sit in. Needless to say, I'm thrilled with the prospect of the 2009 Chevy Camaro which looks fantastic (IMO). For a North American like me, muscle cars are a thing of beauty simply because they were built for the everyman. To get that sort of performance for $30-50K is something that the ordinary joe can genuinely appreciate.

Well, typically I get most of my minifigs from smaller sets. That being said, I don't have a huge army of castle figs. Alltogether I probably only have 250-300 castle figs (not including the skeles , KKII and any other fantasy figs who simply gather dust in a bin). I don't really want too many of any given faction as I prefer my armies to be varried in appearance. I'm really not big on lining up 500 of the same minifigs. They just look like clones rather that appearing to be a natural army. I also have the benefit of having collected my figs over many years. I have about 60-70 BFs, 30-40 Lions, 50 Black Knights and a variety of others that I received as a lad. This of course makes it easier to expand my army as I already had a pretty solid base to work with. Right now I'd rather see a new faction as I already have amassed alot of Crownies (over 40), so they have become a large enough group. I'd love to see LEGO introduce another human faction in the future. The more the better.

I say we celebrate our newfound purchasing power by demanding even more from the company that apparently depends on us :-D . In all seriousness, this is really cool to hear. At 20%, we must be one of the most influential adult fanbases when it comes to a children's product. Time to abuse our powers *vader* .

I love MOCs like this. A seemingly simple solution that would be missed by all but one very creative builder. The best part is that he uses a brick that most builders would write off for anything short of a steampunk MOC. Brilliant!

Harley is pure love *wub* . The Tumbler actually looks pretty nice in these pics. The preliminary photos made me a bit nervous about this set, but overall it looks quite decent. It will have to be rebuilt of course, but the bricks included are better than I initially expected. The Indy stuff looks nice as well, however that raised baseplate without any printing on it (a few stickers doesn't count) looks quite bland. Surely there was a better way to make that temple.

I have over 30,000 grey bricks. Needless to say, I can neither afford or wait for my collection of bley to catch up. Any castle builder who has been collecting since the early 80s had a very difficult time with the transition. For younger builders this simply isn't a big issue, but when you've already got a small fortune invested in classic grey, the change will always be a sore spot. The size of my castles will always be limited by the colour change, and working a large MOC has become quite frustrating as piece shortages can cause huge delays/problems. Old grey for me. New grey broke my heart :'-( .

The obvious reason of course is that they want you to purchase sets; not just minifigs. Of course, if the castle battle pack is any indicator, perhaps we'll see a few more minifig packs in the future.

Muse - Thoughts of a Dying Atheist "It scares the hell out of me!"

Them's is fightin words *knight* ! In all seriousness, I think any sigfig contest is great. It really opens a contest up to participants, making it readily accessable. I'd love to see a sigfig 'workingman' contest where you place your sigfig in a scene depicting your fig at your place of work (or at your dreamjob if you're still too young for the workforce). Seeing a stormtrooper at a law firm, or Yoda working a dentist's drill would be absolutely brilliant.

The sail barge. I don't mind sets that are out of scale, but the ISD is so absurdly out of scale it just seems ridiculous as a set. Star Destroyers are supposed to be imposing monoliths. I simply don't like sets when they are so out of scale that they lose all meaning. For me, a minifig Death Star would have the same effect. The sail barge is also out of scale, but it isn't so glaring that you scratch your head in confusion. The fact that the bridge of an actual Star Destroyer would be as big or bigger than the set is something I just can't get over.