Clone OPatra

Sorry but I still own all the sets I've ever owned, and maintain nostalgia for some of them! This was a fun and challenging exercise. Since it's our favourite sets in our collections, not even what we're trying to think is objectively best, nostalgia can play a huge role. I remember my anticipation of some of these sets leading up to their release or my purchase of them, as well as my feeling building some of them for the first time - all of that gets wrapped into what makes certain sets my favourites. However, some that I liked a lot at the time I can also look back and say, eh, not as amazing as I used to think, which is why I bumped some to Honourable Mentions or not on the list at all. That said, it was difficult and almost arbitrary picking this top 10 order. In most cases it's something about the set as a whole package that made it my favourite - the build combined with the minifigures and how special they were/are combined with the overall value of the set for its price at the time. I couldn't help write a sentence or two of my thoughts on each so that I can look back on my list at a later date and remember my thoughts. Overall I'm a big fan of playsets and have never cared much for the very big sets aimed at older demographics. My love of LEGO came from playing with kid-oriented LEGO and that's the interest that I have maintained to this day. 1. 79003 An Unexpected Gathering - Simply a gorgeous display-worthy set from all angles, like a collector set in a kid-friendly package, with a wonderful collection of Minifigures as well. 2. 70751 Temple of Airjitsu - The only D2C set on my list, but quite high up because this was an absolute treat of a set from the fantastic boxart all the way through building it and displaying it for many years. The Temple contrasts perfectly with the surrounding buildings and landscaping and it provides a complete scene perfect for lively displays with all the Minifigures. 3. 8039 The Battle of Endor - My all-time favourite Star Wars set because it too provided quite a full package with all the factions and key characters, heaps of Minifigures including new Ewoks that set the new Ewok standard and detailed Rebels, best AT-ST in my opinion, and did justice to a location that they've never done before or since. 4. 7419 Dragon Fortress - This set blew me away at the time and still looks great today with excellent colour blocking and overall detail. It had the best ever use of that somewhat awkward raised baseplate, actually making full use of every nook and cranny. Great collection of Minifigures included including some exclusive ones, and overall just a fantastic set for both play and display. (The tracked vehicle sucked though but it's easy enough to overlook) 5. 75954 Hogwarts The Great Hall - Harry Potter LEGO came back in an impressive way in 2018, with this Great Hall symbolizing a shift to more movie accuracy than ever before. Packed with new parts for the theme and with quite a generous complement of Minifigures too, this set was something special to me and made me excited for what was to come (which died down with the re-relaunch in 2021) 6. 4840 The Burrow - Now the new version is definitely better than this one, but I don't own it, and this was my favourite Harry Potter set ever until 2018. It too has a great level of detail inside and out, and has a wonderful set of Minifigures (some of which are better than the newer ones), all for quite a good price at the time. There was extra excitement back when it came out because it was the one truly new part of the 2010 wave that LEGO hadn't done before. 7. 7682 Shanghai Chase - I love both of the car builds in this set, especially how they incorporated the old Adventurers car base but really embedded it into the vehicle, which I thought was very cool then and still do now. I'm not a vehicle person (if you couldn't tell), but I love the style of these and once again the set provides a complete experience with heroes and villains - plus every Minifigure has awesome parts that have remained exclusive. 8. 8596 Takanuva - I got every single Toa and Toa Nuva, and this set was both the culmination of those lines to me and and evolution of the Bionicle line. I absolutely love Takanuva himself in all white with gold armor, contrasting with all the two-tone Toa, and his vehicle was the first of its kind for Bionicle, with a cool look and fun landing gear mechanism. The included glittery variant of his mask was also super cool. This set captured the charm of OG Bionicle but presented in an even bolder way. 9. 6755 Sheriff's Lock-Up - It's a simple set but a favourite, exuding Old West charm. The style and everything included is just perfect for tons of fun, and it too still looks good on display. 10. 75094 Imperial Shuttle Tydirium - I thought about bumping this down to Honourable Mentions, but I really had a great time building and swooshing this set. It's a perfect modern Star Wars set showcasing all the structural integrity that LEGO is now known for, with just the right Minifigures too (besides Luke), and hitting a sensible size and price point for the material - duly large and impressive, but not too large and expensive either. Honourable Mentions in no order: 7133 Bounty Hunter Pursuit, 7598 Pizza Planet Truck Rescue, 10937 Batman: Arkham Asylum Breakout, 7573 Battle of Alamut, 5981 Raid VPR

Everyone selling on Bricklink is "legit", but many do it merely as a hobby and let Bricklink sort out the legal side, since that's what Bricklink is there to do (among many other things of course). There are also Bricklink stores that are full time operations that you might find do business more like "a business". Really it boils down to getting what you want for the legal framework you're working with in your country, and that's why I said, contact a seller first if they have parts you want about the type of invoice you'd need from them. Even individual hobby sellers might say "ok sure, I can whip up the kind of invoice you need for you" while others might not want to spend the time or get into it since it's not what they normally do.

I'd suggest contacting sellers before purchasing from them and explaining what you need in terms of an invoice. If they provide a welcome response and are willing to provide you with that, great, go ahead and order. If they don't want to, move on to another seller.

Not a set reveal but do keep an eye out for ways to win sets. More coming up! (FWIW we do/did used to get some access to press releases like other RLOC and RLFM, but that's the extent of set reveals)

Yeah I doubt LEGO had a true desire to carry on some of those themes mentioned to a second wave/year. Even with the themes that we know had more sets developed like Alien Conquest, it could very well be that they had more sets ready or ready-ish in case the theme overperformed, rather than planning to release the sets and then cancelling them if the theme underperformed. Obviously we don't know for sure and it might have varied. Power Miners was a theme that carries on too long IMO, with the last sets becoming a garbled mess with terrible colour schemes, not to mention a messy release in North America. With several multi year themes it has felt like the first wave has had really strong cohesion and been thought out as a collective whole, while subsequent waves feel like LEGO flying by the seat of their pants. This isn't true for Ninjago but has felt true to me in themes like Power Miners, Chima, Atlantis to some extent, Space Police III to some extent. I don't mean that second or subsequent waves were bad in all cases, just that they were more random.

What's anyone using for a better Tonks head? I don't have the new Burrow but I was thinking of just buying her torso now and finding a different head, since the one LEGO provided doesn't remind me of her at all. As for the Yaxley discussion, I always pictured him with the Will Turner ponytail in tan or bright yellow, even if it's not completely accurate.

IMO the 2010 Molly Weasley is better than the new ones, and the 2010/11 Lucius is good to have for both his regular face and Death Eater mask, though I actually prefer the 2005 version's mask.

Sure I don't agree with all of Aanchir's points either, though she did quite clearly identify them as trends she's recognised, not something she's saying is everyone's feeling on the subject. She said this: "I'm not claiming any of this is universal, of course, or that everybody should be expected to approve of every theme. But it's a trend I've often noticed among a lot of AFOL reactions to both licensed and non-licensed themes." But like I said, sarcasm that reads as blatant hostility is not ok in any circumstance. This topic can be as much for discussion of unpopular opinions as statements of them. If it was just one person after another stating an unpopular opinion, that'd be quite the boring thread. Back and forth doesn't mean anyone is truly trying to dissuade anyone else of their opinion, but that's what discussion is all about. Personally some of LEGO's current, ongoing in-house Minifigure themes don't appeal to me as much as certain discontinued ones, and I think that sometimes comes down to the fact that they don't have as strong cohesion as themes used to. Monkie Kid and Ninjago produce some stellar sets and parts and minifigures, some of which catch my eye, but because of the amount of characters and ever changing villains, as well as focus on wacky vehicles of a type I personally have never cared for, those themes often wash over me and don't stick in my mind like some of the cohesive Castle subthemes of old, let's say. Even Hidden Side, as a very recent example, had a lot going for it and a certain overall aesthetic, but the sets didn't all tie together cohesively. I'd like to see more "one and done" in-house themes with strong theme cohesion and focus across five or six sets, and that's it. Not everything needs to be targetted to be a multi-year theme with a big media push, but perhaps "one and done"s don't sell as well any more. Still, looking back through LEGO's history, I only ever cared for maybe half of what they were offering at any given time. Is this my own unpopular opinion, but I NEVER cared for pretty much any of the fantastical underwater stuff, like all the Aquazone themes. Most Classic Space sets looks cute with a nostalgic lens but not great, and later space stuff was a wonky mess. Newer space themes like Space Police III and Galaxy Squad were worlds better.

@danth the tone of your post is absolutely unacceptable here. Disagreement is fine of course and I get the actual points you're getting at, but couching it in such targetted hostility against another member is not ok. Credit to Aanchir for responding with such maturity.

All of my 2010-11 figures still look perfect with new ones in my opinion. The only annoying discrepancy is the use of the old slope piece for dresses rather than the newer dedicated dress piece.

I don't see the cool January 1 stuff yet, but B&P used to not have things live anywhere in the world until it was the new date for the US as well. It's not quite April 1st anywhere in the US yet. Let's see this weekend.

So, do we have another Pixar line revealing spoilers? The same character appearing in both good guy and bad guy outfits? These sets look very well done. Best whole 4+ set they've done (the Joker car from that Joker car and Batmobile set was also on par, but the Batmobile was obvious 4+ stuff).

I think that tank looks fantastic! The build looks perfectly good to me with creative use of the cockpit piece, and the overall package of what's included in the set is awesome: four exclusive figures including amazing Mace Windu. Sure PPP is bad but the tank will not be small. It's worlds better than the lumpy AAT which came with that measly one Ahsoka trooper, which yeah, I bought. I don't understand why LEGO makes the most random, untimely sets with Mace Windu. First that terribly priced, way oversized and generally boring General Grevious speeder that appeared unremarkably in like one episode of Clone Wars, and now and expertly done version of Mace with a fighter tank and clones that don't even exist in Canon right now. So random but I like this one a lot.

The discussion had veered into LEGO's business practices in general, and their website / tech development at large, nothing to do with the Bricks & Pieces service specifically. That's what made it off topic. Discussion of LEGO's quality control also isn't about B&P anymore but LEGO at large, and there are other topics for that in General. Anything about B&P itself and the tech of the new B&P site specifically is totally cool and on topic here.

I'm not just talking about minifigures with dual moulding. Heaps of amazing pieces wouldn't be possible or wouldn't be as good without dual or triple moulding, things like the Ninjago snake baddies, sheep, the foal, the toucan, complex hat-hair combos, and the list goes on and on and on. They'd started to dabble in some of those things with paint applications before they progressed dual moulding, but dual moulding is way more reliable and the detail possible much more crisp. We're in an amazing era for LEGO parts.

Improvements to what? Their website, or in general? Because if in general, we can talk about double and triple moulding technology, extra detail to Minifigures like side arm and leg printing (yes they've been able to do side arm for a long time, but the detail is better than ever), new useful parts, and the list goes on.

Thing is, while any designers that participate in interviews have undergone TLG's internal media training, it isn't like the whole team has had a huddle to ensure they give monolithic responses to things. Their thinking and methodology changes all the time, and lots of different people get to have input. Maybe they had a general feeling not to lock exclusive Minifigures in UCS sets, but then a set's designer or the team lead or whoever goes "hey we didn't need as many recolours for this set as we thought, let's add to the minifigure instead!" and bam, here we are. Plus there's plenty of precedent to include a more highly detailed variant with UCS sets. Imperials with dual moulded legs and/or arm printing, extra printing on the TIE Fighter helmet, OT Boba with arm printing, etc. I'm not trying to stick up for LEGO in saying this, but rather pointing out that their communication about such things is wildly inconsistent and no one designer's word in an interview should be taken as gospel.

It's a reasonable enough policy if it holds true. The only annoying thing about it is for those who like to wait to do single larger orders from multiple waves of releases, who will now have to wait much longer and potentially risk some things being out of stock. For example, whereas previously if you wanted new parts from January sets and March sets, you only had to wait the two months between Jan 1 and March 1 to then do your order. Now to do that you'd have to wait three months from Jan, and another three months from March, meaning you'd have to wait nearly six months from the time the January sets released. Again, not the end of the world at all, and it should be fine because historically most parts stuck around on the system for at least a year as I recall, but still an extra layer of annoyance.

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I said not many, compared to some people. Around 10-15 sets a year I'd say, and I haven't experienced any issues.

MBS Ewok Village after no previous Ewok Villages. Patterns we like to construct don't actually exist. How the Trash Compactor could be so expensive is simple: big black base, raised dais, heaps of tiny parts and 18+ display set tax. Doesn't anyone look to how expensive the Meditation Chamber is for such an inconsequential build?

I guess I don't buy or build that many new LEGO sets per year, but I've still never had so much as a single missing or incorrect piece for the last 20 years. It seems like a smart business decision to withhold new parts from the service for a certain amount of time. As a fan and consumer it's incredibly annoying, but for me I don't feel like I absolutely need all the new stuff immediately as long as I have the option to get it eventually. It would be great if LEGO was transparent to the point of offering a timeline and sticking to it, like new parts will become available two months after a set's release or something like that.

This is an extremely rude response to a lighthearted comment.

Ah ok thanks. I thought there might be. I haven't fully poked around everything yet.

I don't know about you, but when I see someone with a nice beard I say "nice machine arm mate". Not having the 2022 parts, or presumably new parts upon release, is a major loss that will take some getting used to. If the parts show up eventually, I don't terribly mind the wait, but it certainly kills the anticipation and fun of trawling through B&P when new sets have just come out. It's especially odd because they already had those parts available on B&P, but maybe they just want slightly less to deal with while their systems adjust? Seems strange anyway. Other thoughts: -It's very nice to browse by category now but frustrating that it doesn't always group all of the colours of the same part together. -Is there a way to see just a particular colour of parts when bringing up a set's inventory, like they'd added to B&P? Haven't seen that in the new system yet. -So lacking in images that had already existed in B&P. Hopefully they rectify that. Overall, keeping an open mind. If ultimately all the parts that would've been added to B&P do get added for purchase, I'll live with learning a new system.