David Thomsen

Since that's the case, I'm just wondering... did anyone else like my 2x2 minifig chest from here? I think it's a good idea, but no one commented on it, so I'm afraid of it being excluded because of that... if people don't like it I don't mind if they say so, but I'd like at least one other person's opinion or reaction...

I'm a bit confused as to why the Pirate calendar is only 60% of the size of the City one, even though they're the same price. There are a couple of large pieces like the swordfish and the treasure chest and the barrel that take up a lot of space, but that doesn't really account for the piece count difference. I wouldn't have cared if there was at least one unique minifig, but almost everything has been seen before. I think I was more excited by the idea of the advent calendar than I am by the execution. No new moulds? No unique minifigs? It's like an expensive parts set.

This is probably a dumb question, but why aren't any of the minifigs from any of the short-term themes like Atlantis and World Racers and Power Miners and Agents? It just occured to me when I was looking at the new World Racer sets. They could have used the figs to promote things like Atlantis, so if you get a unique Atlantis diver, you'll be tempted to get more from that range. Is it because they want these figs to be from 'timeless' themes? And not something that's going to be replaced in two years time? Or is it because the department that makes these figs isn't related to the other departments? Like, even the spaceman doesn't look like he belongs in the current space range, the Space Police. I think it might be the latter... the board game depatment also seems to be completely separate, in that the Pirate Plank game features some made-up pirates in the cover. And the farm game features some made-up farmers. I think this has good and bad implications... good, in that it's sometimes going to throw up something completely random and awesome, like the Robin Hood for the castle theme... but bad, in that something like the Caveman might be the only one in his theme... I love the caveman, and I like to think that some day they'll give him a cavewoman or even a rival caveman, but if these figs are made by an independent department, they might not consider 'prehistoric' to be an actual theme, so they'll never revisit it or consider how to supplement that theme to make it more playable.

I like this theme... I like that every vehicle has an equivalent in the opposite team. However, I don't tend to buy 2/3 year themes, like this and Agents and Power Miners and Atlantis... But if that's a fish cannon, I'm definitely getting one for my pirates.

Aw man, I might have to start properly collecting Castle now. There goes my money. I love that new helmet. I wish they hadn't separated them into 'good' (light) and 'bad' (dark) factions though. Why can't they just be... east (orange/blue) and west (purple/yellow) or something. But I guess these lines are aimed at kids, who kind of live by the good/evil rule. I'll wait to see if the line goes beyond one year, though... I've learned from the 2009 Pirates. Maybe a Forestmen faction in 2011?

I think this thread needs another name... there's a lot of good ideas in it, but you wouldn't necessarily know that from the title. I don't really bother with anything big. I know that I'll never have anywhere near all the pieces I need, and everything will turn into some kind of towering junkheap in the end. What I like to do is take a set with a broad range of bricks from a particular theme, for example the Pirates Brickmaster book, and make something small but functional that fits in with the rest of the sets from that range. So I'll have Brickbeards Bounty here and the Soldiers Fort over there, and in between will be a kind of haunted old tower made up of Brickmaster pieces. Sometimes, fewer bricks are better, because you're looking at your limited bricks and trying to imagine what they could be turned into, rather than imagining something first and then discovering you just don't have the bricks. That's one reason I prefer the pirate range... you can take any selection of random pieces from a Pirate set and turn them into some kind of makeshift Pirate hideout. With things like City... it's not so easy to construct something appropriate for a modern environment.

The endless ingenuity of the Lego community astound me. I was thinking how technic ball joints were almost right, but couldn't think of a way to hold it and have a flame sticking out of it. No... I was thinking something more like this: Excuse me if my graphics aren't as good as Woody64's. Also, a seagull would be fantastic. You're much more likely to find a seagull on a ship or at a port than a parrot or a monkey.

I thought they had always intended to make five Indiana Jones movies. I expect the fifth to be atrocious, unless the pull in genuine writing talent. But hey, when has George Lucas ever done that in the last twenty years? But surely more Indiana Jones sets will result from this. Let's hope they keep the skin tones etc. consistent, for the sake of compatability. If I were Lego, I'd continue making Indy sets to bridge the gap between movies... just saying.

Alright guys, I'm coming forward with the truth. I have a bunch of Lego avatars as well, but for some reason I couldn't find them so I settled on this picture of Skywarp instead.

I think this particular thread is for Pirate themed parts, not generic parts, although I do think inverted cheese slopes would be a great idea. I also think the Lego company wasn't soliciting ideas, this is Bonapare's initiative, so there's only a very remote possibility that any of these ideas will ever be implemented. Because I enjoy thinking about this thing, here is my latest idea. A bomb! A round, black bomb, unlike the anachronistic dynamite featured in the soldier's fort. It will look a bit like this: Except that it will be spherical instead of cylindrical. And if you put a flame in a hole in the stud on the top: It will look like a fuse burning down! Also, a round piece like that could have many other uses.

Isn't that head double-sided, though? All of the pirate hats still show the back of the head. I guess the Spanish helmet kind of works, but I don't have one, so I can't test this.

So you can't swap the heads around to create new pirates? That's lame. What I mean is, there have been a lot of MOCs that feature miniature ships... these MMFs would be great for that scale. I think there will be a few Pillage The Village entries next year that feature them. When they come out, I've got dibs on a Gullivers Travels MOC... with Gulliver being tied to the ground by lilliputian pirates.

Okay, so they don't want to continue the Pirate theme for more than a year... but of the two waves of Lego games, it's the only theme that features in both??? I'm curious about the little miniminifigs there... what are they made up of? Judging by how big the pirate hat looks on the captain, they heads aren't normal minifig sized heads, which is a shame because they could have introduced more pirate heads that way. I think I will get this game, just so that my Pirate collection can have a faction of lilliputian pirates. I wonder the MOC potential is for these MMFs...

Woo! Do you know where they'll be? Toyworld, most likely... but if they were at Whitcoulls I'd be able to get a staff discount...

So the guy is a 'skateboarder' and not a 'rockstar'. I guess that still makes sense, alphabetically speaking. Two of this figs have the bow and arrow... does that mean you're twice as likely to get one? That cowboy is going to get a needle in the bum if he keeps standing on the nurse's foot. I'm quite sure they're not going to be that expensive. There are going to be a lot of people who buy hundreds of the bags, match up the pieces and sell the figs at a profit. And since so many people are going to be doing this (even I was tempted), the competition is going to drive down prices. It'll still be more expensive than a single random fig in a bag... but it's not going to be $15. I'm thinking no more than twice the price of a single bag, which is still better than the 'buy and hope' method of collecting them, if you want a specific fig.

I learned the word 'dirndl' last night. I was already familiar with the costume, just not the name. I'd love to see a minifig in a dirndl. A lot of people of people have suggested religious minifigs... the Town Plan set had two people getting married at a town hall rather than a church, I think that's an indication of how unlikely Lego are to proceed down a religious pathway. If they ever had an bishop, they'd alienate everyone of a religion that isn't Catholic... not good for sales.

I know no one else is really participating in this thread, but there's a couple of things I've been wanting to comment on... The grey hair for the castaways is brilliant. I much prefer it to the cloth cap he used to have. And the hair piece fits in so well with the beard! Looking back, I see that the hair piece was first used with Dumbledore, so it's not a coincidence they match. I wonder if the caveman has a separate beard and hair and if they can be mixed and matched with these pieces. That could introduce some interesting possibilities. Not quite sure how the Mermaid fits in... I can't really have her as a character in my Pirate world since she's already the figurehead of a ship. But I guess she's nice to have. Today's one has another red mug, and this time it can't be explained as a parrot feeder. Also I'm not sure why they've given us a slight variation on a previous table... are there really that few ideas in the pirate world?

What a bizarre concept for a topic... I'm some kind of yellow jeep. I guess that's cool

All those pictures have been seen before... let us know if you find any more.

Can anyone help me locate a particular Lego commercial that I remember seeing a very, very long time ago and has been kind of on the edge of my memory ever since... All I remember is that at the end, a train crashed through a brick wall. Does that ring any bells?

I found an old table-top at a building recycling store. I found that when I turned it upside-down, there was a kind of barrier around the edge. It's amazingly useful for preventing round lego part from rolling onto the floor, something that almost always used to happen when I poured out the plastic bags. All I had to do was fill in the screw holes and paint it white and viola! My perfect lego table. Unfortunately my clever idea was to put the table top on top of my lego boxes to save space, so when there's a lot of things constructed on the table, I can't actually get at the rest of the collection... which usually means I have to plan very carefully beforehand.

Yeah, I realised that after I posted... It doesn't look as appropriate as I had hoped. Which makes me think of another thing... what does the beige helmet look like with standard round goggles on it instead of the big white goggles?

What does the helmet look like with the visor down? I'm curious because I think it would look good on some of my Indiana Jones Nazis, in particular the guy on the motorbike.

Sorry, I try to avoid creating new topics where possible, and 'the future of Lego pirates' seemed the most appropriate...

For me it's listed as the 29th of January. I was totally going to order it on the 1st, but I guess I'll have to wait a whole month... which means I won't have to starve myself now, but I was really hoping to have it about a month from now... damn it.