blueandwhite

That's fine by me. Aftermarket sellers are just capitalizing on a shortage that LEGO created in the first place. The fact that many sellers also consume the majority of the product in their local markets doesn't endear many of them to me either. I'm actually glad that LEGO is giving more people the opportunity to acquire these figures. Even without accessories this is a fantastic opportunity to diversify my collection of minifig heads, headgear and torsos. I'm definitely looking forward to picking up a few more nurse heads and caveman beards. This looks like a great way to get the parts I want at a great price even if there aren't any accessories.

Thanks for the advise. Given the size of the MOC I'm bringing I figure I'd be better off registering sooner rather than later. I look forward to meeting you all in July.

Jeff, I'm glad to see that there will be an event in Toronto this year despite BricksNorth being cancelled. Travelling across the border with my collection has always been a worry for me so hearing about this festival is great news. What I'd like to know is how many attendees can we expect? Obviously this is going to be a smaller festival, but is there a limit on how many people can register? Obviously space is limited so I thought I'd ask as it doesn't seem to be mentioned on the Brickfête website. The reason I'm asking is that large MOCs obviously take up a considerable amount of space and I'm wondering if there might be a space shortage if too many folks register. Anyways, thanks for taking the time to set this up and bring it to our attention on Eurobricks. I'm genuinely looking forward to Brickfête.

The thing about your suggestion is that while it tailors to army builders, it leaves other AFOLs out in the cold. Let's face it; many army builders will buy as many figs as humanly possible so upping the number of Spartans/Elves etc. in a case will only mean that the average army builder will strip more figures out of the box then they usually do. It's already hard enough for many folks to complete a series. I don't think your proposal makes it any easier. While I can certainly see making some of the figures that cater to army building more common (5 per case for example), I don't think upping their availability at the expense of other figures is the way to go. That depends. If those figures are suitable for building armies, chances are that there will be an AFOL who will simply strip the case of its contents leaving fewer figures. Conversely, Resellers may go to cherry pick the more obscure town figures which now have lower distribution than they did before. I'm glad you've managed to score 44 elves but I don't think that LEGO needs to go out of its way to stuff these cases with army builders. It will only mean that figures like the Artist, Geisha or Scientist will see their values rise. Army-building figures will likely still be illusive to most casual buyers as army builders continue to strip the cases of these figures. I don't think your idea is bad per se, but it certainly wont make getting these figures any easier. I think it would have the opposite effect by making other figures more difficult to acquire. I'd love to see 4-5 Musketeers or Hasmat guys in a series 4 case, but I think that 8-12 is far too many. It doesn't really seem to fit within the spirit of this line.

The turkey can currently be purchased in the MMV (Medieval Market Village) which is a bit odd considering turkey wasn't available in Europe in the middle ages. An earlier bellville turkey was available in 1997 and 1998.

Great work. It's always nice to see a new builder in the community. For your first effort in many years, this really is quite impressive. The removable walls are a nice feature and the gatehouse interior is nicely detailed. You've really crammed a lot of detail onto one 32 x 32 baseplate. I really look forward to seeing what you'll accomplish in the next few builds. Welcome to Eurobricks.

Interesting. This could mean that series' 2 through 5 could also eventually make their way into the Build-A-Mini bins. While it's not exactly a cost-effective way of gathering figs, it could be a great opportunity to grab hair pieces and other accessories which are for the most part, quite rare. Here's hoping for some Caveman beards and clubs. Thank goodness that there's a LEGO store opening in Toronto around the same time .

Congratulations to everybody involved. I'm looking forward to seeing photos and a review of the figures really soon.

LEGO's strategy makes a lot of sense when you think about it. In the first year LEGO needs to entice buyers with a lot of new product. In year 2 when the second wave rolls in, many children haven't acquired all of the sets from previous year. Let's not forget that in the 1980s, many of LEGO's best castle sets were available for 3 or more years. For me, the offerings in 2011 are fantastic and complement the larger offerings from 2010 extremely well. We now have a greater assortment of Dragon Knights and a blossoming civilian population; something that is exceedingly rare in the world of LEGO Castle. While the MMV broke new ground, it was a S@H exclusive aimed at older consumers. The Village Raid is the first large civilian set targeted at LEGO's core demographic; children. Last year I didn't purchase multiples of any of the large Kingdoms sets. This year I expect to purchase at least 3 Village Raids so I'm not sure if I'd agree that the second year is as weak as you're suggesting.

Honestly, I wouldn't mention it if I were you. Being a fan of LEGO is isn't going to help you get the job. A reference from your first employer would probably be more useful if you're really interested in landing the position.

I finally managed to pick up The King is Dead by the Decemberists. I'm really liking Calamity Song (track 2) so far. It's taking a bit to get used to the new sound but I like the change in direction here.

You don't actually need to post a second small image in your brickshelf gallery as every gallery comes with a set of thumbnails which you can use. I'm about the least computer savy person on this planet but I can mange this one. When your in your brickshelf folder, right click on the image and copy the URL. You will get a thumbnail of that image that you may wish to use as a link. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/blueandwhite/BrickmoorCastle/thumb/00brickmoor.jpg_thumb.jpg Notice the word thumb at the end of the link. This is a brickshelf thumbnail which is ideal for linking to your gallery. The code looks something like this (I've replaced the square brackets with curved ones so you can see the format). (url=http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=110771)(img)http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/blueandwhite/BrickmoorCastle/thumb/00brickmoor.jpg_thumb.jpg(/img)(/url) basically its: (url=insert url here and close the first bracket)(img)image goes here(/img)(/url). This will allow you to link to your brickshelf gallery using a thumbnail instead of text. Use this to either link to the original image or to link to the gallery you want folks to look at. I hope this helps you out.

At the front left corner of the set (the mill) there is a dark bley cheese slope blended together with a 1x2 plate. I can certainly see this piece being useful if produced in larger quantities.

Right now the only clue most folks have about BricksNorth is their website which is really nothing more than a short announcement that there will be an event in Toronto in August. While I'm going to try and remain optimistic about the prospect of a LEGO fan convention in Canada at some point in the future, it seems like things are quite late for BricksNorth considering there has been no real news or updates about the event in over six months. On the other hand, Ricecracker still believes that there is a real possibility that BricksNorth may still happen so I haven't completely lost hope yet. Hopefully we'll hear something soon. If you look at the date of Jeff's post, you might notice that BricksNorth was actually announced last June. There was a contest over on Flickr but I don't think they ever selected a winner (at least publicly). Honestly, with no news in almost a year things look pretty grim IMO.

In fairness, 6059 was a more expensive set and that was 21 years ago too! 6062 is older still. All things considered, the Dragon Prison seems like a pretty decent set considering that they still managed to give us 185 bricks for $20. As a parts pack, the Dragon's prison looks pretty solid to me. It may not be the same value as the aforementioned sets, but then again it isn't the late 80s/early 90s either. I don't think it's realistic to expect those sets to be priced the same if they were released today.

I look at def's collection and I feel like somebody is compensating for something .

Four Fools:

Honestly, I really don't care either way. I don't purchase Mega Bloks either. I have no real issue with MB, BF or BA products but I recognize that all three manufacturers depend on LEGO far more than LEGO depends on them. The crux of the matter is that all of the aforementioned brands decided to produce a line of building toys and accessories that are directly compatible with LEGO in order to feed off the success of the LEGO brand. Mega Bloks and any other clone brand could have just as easily produced bricks that have a different set of dimensions; ones that do not match up with the LEGO standard. Heck, LEGO's own Modulex bricks have a unique set of dimensions that aren't directly compatible with LEGO bricks. If Mega Bloks had what it takes to make it on its own it would have introduced its own standard. As it stands, it's simply a clone brand that has used its similarities with LEGO to obtain a share of the marketplace. Of course, all of this would seem far more devious if you ignore the fact that LEGO did the same thing in the late 1940s to Kiddicraft when they modified the original Automatic Binding Brick. Stealing is an inherent part of the toy industry, which would probably explain why manufacturers go to such lengths to hide their products during development. Clone brands have benefited from LEGO's success. They don't offer an original product, rather they compliment the marketplace by offering greater variety at a range of prices.

In fairness, a hoplite's helmet or a Great Helm can only be made in so many ways. As somebody who will not use 3rd party accessories, I'm pleased to see LEGO produce these items. The fact that Brick Forge and Brick Arms produced similar items at an earlier date is a moot point to me.

I miss the days when castles were built on flat baseplates like 6080 and 6085. The baseplates themselves where incredibly useful and allowed you to build a diverse set of structures. I don't miss the raised baseplates that became popular in the early 90s. They were cumbersome and generally did very little to enhance the structures built on top of them. As far as I see things, raised baseplates were simply introduced to make castles and other structures appear larger than they actually are. I haven't seen many MOCs that make good use of these baseplates either. They simply don't lend themselves well to MOCing. Hopefully we never see another castle built on another raised baseplate.

I'm not convinced. I don't think we'll see a new fantasy faction for the Kingdoms theme in the near future. If LEGO decides to go the fantasy route I fully expect them to reboot the castle theme again before they reintroduce orcs and other fantasy creatures into the mix..

My first Hula Girl was missing her torso, so mix-ups are certainly still possible.

My interest for the Dragon Prison set has peeked now that it looks like the helmet and not just the visor will be pearl grey. Last week's photos had a black helmet with a pearl grey visor, but the photos from the NY Toy Fair appear to have both a pearl visor and a pearl helmet. That really ups the value of this set IMO. Coupled with the blank pearl grey breastplate that comes with the Blacksmith, I'll be able to equip any faction I choose with dark pearl grey armour and a proper 15th/16th century helm.

Actually, the first preliminary images had the same minifig with longer legs. The new box has the figure in the wagon so you can't see his legs and the spieletest photos from last week's toy fair have the figure partially concealed by a dragon knight's shield. In any case, certainly haven't come across a photo of this figure with short legs before. I suppose it's possible that there have been other toy fair photos from last week that I missed though.

It's a shame that Sponge Bob continues while Batman fades into history. Unfortunately, licences don't always work out the way we want. I'd like to see Batman return in the future but with both Nickelodeon and Disney on board right now I don't think it's likely. LEGO's already producing an awfully large number of product lines this year. We already have Harry Potter, Cars, Star Wars, POTC, and now Sponge Bob rounding out the licensed sets for this year. That's a lot of product to move. Hopefully Batman will be able to make a return in a not-so-distant future.