rollermonkey

What you are describing is why it is so important to reduce your orders so that you purchase from as few stores as possible. Just because store X charges 3 cents less for a piece than store Y, often you will save more money by only paying one shipping price than you will paying more for the bricks. I usually search for stores based on how many unique lots they have that I need, then see if that store is price-gouging. If they are close to, or below the 6-month average on the parts I need in the highest quantities, or if they have something particularly rare, then I buy. For example: I'm building 10179, and there's a store in Portugal that has ALL of the parts I need, but at double the average cost. I could get the whole set, NIB for less than he wants for the parts. I won't buy from him unless absolutely necessary, even though I'd save on shipping, it wouldn't be worth it.

This is way OT, but Pepper Potts has her own suit (Rescue) in the comics. It isn't really a spoiler to put her in an Iron Man suit in a set. So, how about them Star Wars sets?

Yeah, but now Disney is calling the shots instead of Lucasfilm. There might be new guidance / policy concerning spoilers from items released before the premier.

OK. I have it built the same as you do in post #5. While I still think the shape of the dish is perfect, I can't imagine TLHG using the same method to build it in the sequence I did. Someday, I'll get the last 43 lots ordered, and I'll have a place to put this dish. I'm positive that it can be attached to the rest of the ship the exact same was as the original but I'm not sure that I should. I can't tell if it would look right / to scale. The new mount looks pretty svelte.

Gerechtigkeitsliga, any chance we can get a straight-on, rear view of that engine mod? I clicked a ways through your flickr and didn't see one, unless I just didn't go far enough?

Unless the fig is a 'standard' Chrometrooper and people are just assuming it's Phasma. Seriously. Until we get an official, final figure or pic from TLG, kvetching about a single line being 0.5mm (or so) out of place, is just being nitpicky over an uncertain POTENTIAL quality-control issue. The fig looks great, for what it is. Compare this to the relatively crappy figures released in 1999 and for quite a few years after. Or the horribly unfortunate Clone Wars minifigs! This is light years better, especially since the movie isn't even out yet, and we're getting such fantastic detail.

I half wonder if he didn't put an extra zero on that goal by mistake.

I like that a LOT. Simple, and doesn't require $100 parts or a large number of substitutions. How many of that long part are used? Two or four seem most likely... And I'm guessing 16 additional robot arms?

I printed out the parts inventory from BL, and keep track there, and also adjust/delete items from my wanted list as orders arrive. The paper thing is easier for tracking what I have, but updating the wanted list makes it easier to find the stores that have what you want. With the number of parts needed for this thing, taking shortcuts means that you'll (we'll) probably have to stop building and order something you (we) missed or miscounted along the way. :)

Is that the one out on the little island?

This may be a bit premature, but if you ever wanted A-wings in different colors, they are now canonical.

I've got most of the parts in hand now, and although the dis itself is perfect, I think I'm going to see if I can't figure out a way to use the small Technic frames to mount your dish to the ship. It just seems like there might be a way to make it a bit sturdier despite the robot arms.

3D catalogue is an app, not a paper catalogue. :)

The issue with magnets is with the super-powerful neodymium magnets. If swallowed, there can be issues with tissue damage due to the high strength of them. 'normal' magnets are not banned from use in toys, just the neodymium ones. That said, BB-8's base is a sphere and it's head is a dome. That doesn't leave a lot of options for where to have studs. Even if the bottom is round, it wouldn't roll well on a studded surface. If the connection is a stud, and not some sort of magnetic field, the droid will lose a lot of playability, IMO. I think the best compromise would be a single stud on 'top' of the sphere, a single socket on the bottom of the head and a small built-in counterweight in the bottom of the sphere to keep it upright on a smooth surface. How do we know that fig is Phasma, and not part of the same unit? The lack of cape is a pretty glaring omission if it's supposed to be Phasma, don't you think?

I feel you. I have an order from Germany that has been lost since mid-may. I've given up on that arriving, ever, and have started getting in replacements for that order. Based on my inventory, up to what arrived yesterday, I just hit the milestone of 200 lots out of 266. I was looking through the instructions and realized that if I even want to consider starting construction I need to get the 2x3 plates. At 200+, it's one of, if not the biggest lot in the whole thing. With that order, plus the one from BNP, I think I could start building, and get through at least step 38 of 97. Also, some of the wedge and wedge plates are not in even numbers between left and right, Twelvebears, so you might actually have the right numbers!

Picture link of BB-8 seems to have died. Anyone save it? Found it.

Thank god. Maybe I can finally stop marking everything as read and leaving... I just got way too tired of sifting through teasers to find real threads.

Phasma looks pretty good, but I do hope we get a May 4th or other promotional chrome version. ...and if that picture of the fig with the full, in-costume character isn't a spoiler, but the idea that the Empire = New Order (OT-->ST), much like how Republic = Empire (PT-->OT), then we're just making up stuff as we go as to what is and isn't a spoiler.

1x1 dark bley cones are on BNP right now, for 1/10th the cost on Bricklink. Also available at good value are a few more pieces like the light bley taps and a few others. Just ordered them tonight, for my own.

Sweet. With Final Exams this week, it's perfect timing. I played with most, if not all, of the toys as a kid. (My neighbors had more than I did, though.) I did forget just how cheesy the TV show was, though. Ouch.

I'm sorry, the idea that The Empire is involved in a Star Wars movie can't possibly be considered a spoiler. And if you think THAT is a spoiler, you better seal the entrance to your cave real tight, because officially released information about the movie is only going to get deeper and deeper as we move forward, and with SDCC in July and D23 in August, you know that a veritable deluge of official info is coming. As for 2015 sets, the Stormtrooper constraction figure (which looks pretty awesome compared to some of the others) that was revealed this week is all the confirmation that whatever the name of the bad guys organization is, it's either the Empire or an immediate successor to it. I agree, the Infiltrator looks nice and provides and opportunity to get two of the only decent characters from the PT in one set for those not out of the Dark Ages for long. (Maul and Qui-Gon)

I have an idea, but I want to confirm that the model merely has to be comprised primarily of Technic, but not necessarily motorized... transformation OR drive.

Must not have been the Architecture page... Whoever's running that likes to pretend nobody has a clue what's coming.

Any guesses for a Louvre release window? I'm thinking July for a limited release in France, like with Eiffel. Then August 1 for wide Europe and 1 September for the rest of the world...

Since my last separator purge: