David Thomsen

For a long time I held off on city sets because the theme is kind of big and rambling and duplicates a lot of emergency facilities without having many civilian buildings. I didn't want to set up two giant police stations with a small pizza parlor in between. When the farming sets came out I had an epiphany - I didn't have to buy all the city sets, just the ones that fit in with a particular type of city. Ever since then I've been collecting according to the rule of 'a small, old, inland farming village between larger cities'. It made things much simpler. Coastal sets were right out, but all the farming sets were in. Large police stations didn't fit in, but the small outpost from the Police Command Centre worked perfectly. Large planes are out, but the small postal plane and the air ambulance are fine. Their airfield doesn't have a large tower, just the wind sock from the Seaplane set. Lots of trucks are passing through all the time. The yellow bus doesn't have any place there, but the coach from City Public Transport stops off every day to give the passengers some refreshment. The retro look of the Town Plan buildings and the yellow train station fits in with a place that hasn't had much modernisation, and so on. Does anyone else have a particular city type in mind that helps them decide which city sets to buy?

Really? When I was asking the manager about when the Imperial Flagship would arrive, he said 'it will probably be here by June, in time for the mid year sale'. The impression I got from this was that he wanted me to hold off buying it from the Internet (which I did anyway, because I had to get it sooner, even if it meant freight charges) so that I could buy it from him at a discount. Now that I think about it, he never said the Flagship would be included in the sale, just that it would be there in time for the sale... tricksy. Time will tell. Either I get the Brigade and Emporium at a discount, or I save my $600 for other things. I'd like to have them... but I'm not full price keen, if you know what I mean. Kind of like the PoP sets.

Toyworld in Wellington is having another 50% off Soldier's Fort sale. I'm not sure about the rest of the country, of if it's just this one store. They have a mountain left. I think I'll get one this time, double the size of my current fort. I also asked when they would be having their next Big Sale, and they said Queen's Birthday weekend. I really hope the Fire Brigade and Grand Emporium are in by then... I'd easily save over a hundred dollars.

I can't remember which one was precisely first, but when they first came out I had Buried Treasure, Harbour Sentry, Castaway's Raft, Shipwreck Island and Sabre Island. All of the lower to middle size sets. I don't think I got anything after that until 2009, so there was quite a gap.

1440x900. Safari. I like ILikePi.

Yay! I was going to ask this question, but honestly didn't think anyone would have an answer yet. Thanks.

Okay, the tram doesn't fit into my small village at all. The bus if perfect - travelling from one city to another, it stops off in my village to give the travellers a break and something to eat. This is what the yellow bus used to do, but this one is much more appropriate for long distance travel. The yellow car and green bicycle (!) give me more civilian vehicles, and the orange steet cleaner is much better than the previous yellow one. I'm sure I can use at least one of those shelters, but probably not all of them. In conclusion, this set I really like.

#1: Pirates My favourite theme when I was a child, my favourite theme now. Pirate ships, treasure chests, sword fights, cannon battles, sharks, terrifying ninja parrots... what's not to love? #2: Modular Buildings Not sure if this range counts, but these are City buildings for Grown Ups. Best of all, the people have classic smily faces! #3: Western Sadly I missed them the first time round, and Lego don't seem to be in a hurry to revisit them. And yet in spite of not actually owning any Western sets, I still love the idea of them.

I collect a wide range of toys. My problem is that on the one hand I like to keep everything in as good a condition as possible, and on the other hand I like to handle them and construct them and transform them and whatever else it is that the toy requires. I'm noticing more and more wear and tear from the handling, so I've decided that I either have to stop handling them altogether, or I learn a little bit about toy repair - even if the toy isn't actually in good condition, I want it to look that way, as much as this is reasonably possible. Does anyone know any good toy maintenance resources? In particular I want to learn about painting over scratches and poor paint applications - what paint to use, how to colour match, etc. Thanks in advance for any useful guides.

Sadly, I'm not having more fun on this forum than when I'm making up cool stuff I'd like to buy. Gender: Male Occupation/print on torso: Dashing purple pirate. Purple because I think that is the most eye-catching colour for a dashing pirate to wear. Really fine tailoring. Type of headgear: Dashing purple swashbuckler hat. Type of facial expression: Smirk, moustache, goatee. One eyebrow raised. Color on torso/legs: Purple pants. Accessory: Epee. Probably with a knob on the end, like the nurse's syringe. White plume for hat. Maybe a compass and/or a small treasure chest and/or silver coins. Gender: Female Occupation/print on torso: Spy. Black catsuit. Utility belt, perhaps. Type of headgear: Maybe ponytail with bangs, except that this has already been used for anther female agent. Otherwise some other kind of ponytail. Type of facial expression: Lipstick, sunglasses. Confident expression. Color on torso/legs: Black pants. Accessory: Grappling hook on rope, kind of like this piece but with a grappling hook on the end. That would be an awesome piece. Maybe it could have holdable bars on it, like Spiderman's rope. There could also be a gun to fire the rope, something you can slot the hook into. Gender: Female. Occupation/print on torso: Fashion designer. Something sophisticated and urban. Type of headgear: This hat or a flat cap. Type of facial expression: Shrewd and thoughtful. Holding pins in mouth. Color on torso/legs: Something that matches the torso. Accessory: Tailor's dummy/sewing machine. Maybe some bits of cloth that can be put on a minifig to make a shawl or something.

For me, if I were to buy a Lego set with the intention of keeping it sealed and selling it later, my main motivation would be to allow access to this set to someone who finds out about the set in five years time and wants to still be able to buy it in a sealed box. It would be out of love for the toy itself more than anything else. If I were simply trying to make a profit, I'd invest in something with greater returns and which isn't going to take up a heck of a lot of space. Having said that, of course I'd sell the set at a profit... partly because of inflation, and partly because I'm not going to babysit large Lego sets for any period of time without compensation.

Prince of Persia seen at Toyworld today. Everything seems to be one price point higher than it should be... Apparently the 'minifigures' collectibles are going to available from August. Why are they taking so long to get here?

I'm not so interested in the Toy Story range itself, but I like the look of the car compared with more traditional Lego cars... it looks like an actual car. I think the garbage truck is also in that scale. Sort of makes me want to MOC other vehicles in that scale...

Ooh, I got a credit. Although the jewel looks kind of small now, and I should have drawn the base as well... never mind. I'm happy people like it.

Teh rules: Also I liked the little comic too.

Collectible minifigures seem to be popping up around the world now... any word when they'll be in NZ, and where they'll be? I assume Toyworld will have them if anywhere, but I'm not so sure about other retailers. Maybe Whitcoulls, though my source there (who may or may not be me) informs me (myself?) that they're not listed on the system yet. Neither are the PoP sets for some reason, which is annoying because he (I?) really wanted a staff discount on them.

I've been looking at Dastan's hair from Prince of Persia and thinking it might be useful in my Pirate crew, and it just occured to me that the perfect head for it might be the double-sided eyepatch-beard guy from Atlantis. What better way to hide the other side of the head than with Dastan's tousled mane? None of the pirate hats work, and most other long hair pieces look too girly for a guy... (no offense Luke Skywalker) I'd be grateful if someone could supply a picture of Dastan's hair with the eyepatch-beard guy on a Pirate torso...

I never understood the whole bluecoat/redcoat thing that goes on in this forum. Where would I sign up to be a 'browncoat', someone who is just a civilian and really just wants to remain neutral? Or maybe a 'blackcoat', a mercenary who has no particular allegiance except to the highest bidder.

Wait, which campervan is this? Is it 7639? Because I got mine from Farmers, and I'm sure I've seen it elsewhere. I can't think of any campervan but that one. Maybe it's exclusive to K-Mart elsewhere in the country, or they're the only ones who still have it in stock...

I love the classic look, but really, why did they need to be so obviously divided into Good versus Evil? I already knew they would be, but didn't realise how Bondage Evil the bad guys were going to be with all those chains and dark leather and stuff. Why can't they be Northern Nights versus Southern Nights, where neither side is any more good or bad than the other? It's not like the Pirates line, where you could have either the Pirates or the Soldiers as the good guys.

Ah... so you haven't heard about 'Untitled Indiana Jones Film Due in 2012'...

The new torso is also in the pig farm set. Yet another design of overalls for the Lego population, it seems like half the city is wearing overalls sometimes. I haven't seen the head anywhere else though. I really like the little Lego sets. Nice touch.

Whether or not there are more PoP sets is a large contributing factor to whether or not I will buy them. I like ranges that grow over time, unfortunately the only two that have really lasted have been City and Star Wars, and I'm not interested in Star Wars. I was hoping that Indiana Jones and Pirates would go on for longer, but they seem to have died, at least for now. If they make more than five PoP sets for this movie, and the movie itself is good, and they plan to make sequels, then I will be greatly interested in collecting the range.

There are far too many good choices, but I had to go with Dastan hair because it's so nice to have a long hair mould for men. At least one that isn't insanely long, like Dumbledore/Castaway hair. I'm also fond of Tamina hair (can you tell I like to have a wide variety of hair pieces for my figs?) and the double katana holder (which I'll probably never use, but it's still cool).

Grabby Claws of Doom, such as what you see at the back of this set: I miss the Grabby Claws of Doom.