Blondie-Wan

No, although that might also be very interesting. The one I'm thinking of was published several years earlier, when I was still a kid; I turned 21 in 1989 (I was born in '68, the same year the original LEGOLAND opened in Billund). "My" article has to have been sometime from the mid-'70s to the early '80s; Galaxy Explorer's recollection of it being in '78 or '79 sounds about right to me. But thanks for checking! BTW, questforcastle, your blog entries have also been stirring a lot of memories; your LEGOLAND bit in particular induced about as much nostalgia for that NatGeo World article as my own long-awaited initial visits to LEGOLAND (Florida) last year and this year did, if not more so. And tangentially, I've been really enjoying the rest of your blog entries on other aspects of the LEGO experience over the years - what's changed, what's stayed the same, etc.

That would be terrific! Thanks to you both for checking, even if you aren't successful. Galaxy Explorer, I also recall the Miniland airport with all the LEGO planes and such, and Flying Ace, that model of Mount Rushmore is the thing that has stayed with me most strongly all these decades. Your LEGOLAND experience seems pretty close to mine in other ways - like you, I read that article back in the day, when I was a lot younger and smaller, but I didn't ever get to go to LEGOLAND myself until just recently, even though that article permanently planted the idea of the park in my mind along with a desire to go there. I was actually born the same year that first original LEGOLAND opened, discovered LEGO bricks around six or seven years later, saw the World article just a few years after that, grew up playing with LEGO for several years, entered my dark ages, found my way out of them about ten years ago, became a bigger LEGO fan than ever before in the last several years and finally got to go to a LEGOLAND for the first time just last year, when LEGOLAND Florida opened (my first visit was actually two days before the official opening, during a passholder preview day). I'd really love to see that article again (or even just nail down exactly when it was published). I haven't seen it in decades, and yet it's been part of my mental furniture ever since I first saw it; I'm pretty sure it'll stick with me the rest of my life.

Specifically, they haven't come with discrete, separately-molded spares since Series 3; the first two series were the only ones that had them. Series 7 does have some figures with spare parts, since some of them have elements (knives and flowerheads) that come on sprues, and the sprues each have one more part than needed for the complete minifigures. It's just as well, as far as I'm concerned. I still haven't completed my base collection of S7, let alone gotten all the duplicates I want for S5, S6 and S7 (and then there are still the Team GB minifigures to worry about, let alone all the larger regular sets). I need more time to build up funds!

Eons ago, when I was a kid, National Geographic had a spinoff publication for kids called National Geographic World (some years ago it became National Geographic Kids, or something like that). At some point, somewhere from the mid-'70s to early '80s, it ran an article on LEGOLAND - the original one in Denmark. I first learned of the existence of the park through that article, and for some years now I've been interested in seeing the article again, but I don't know exactly which issue had it; I don't even know what year it was. Might anyone here know the one I mean?

What a fantastic prize! It's kind of funny to award to celebrate a milestone in the VIP program, though, since the parks aren't run by LEGO itself and therefore don't actually award or honor VIP points as LEGO's own stores do. Still, no complaints about it here! I'd have a hard time picking the park location to visit, though. The only thing I can say with certainty is that it wouldn't be the Florida one - it'd be wasted on me, as I already live within a 4-5 hour driving distance of that one and have a Premium Pass for the park.

I think you're right about that. The Monster Fighters line is a real shot in the arm, as far as bringing new zombie parts goes. It offers new heads, torsos, etc. for zombies, and with mixing and matching and using "non-zombie" parts to fill in, there's now an opportunity to create a much more varied zombie horde, for those of us inclined to do so. I can still get S6 around here, but in more limited quantities than either S7, S5 or S3 (!), and I've already personally cleaned out most of the remaining Roman soldiers around here. I do hope to be able to find a few more, though.

Same here. I've gotten hundreds of the blasted little wallet-bleeders, and not one of them is intended as an investment in anything besides my resources for MOCs and whatnot. Yow, $20 for a S1 zombie?! I'm kind of amazed. I wouldn't even have thought of that as an army-builder, exactly - I mean, sure, plenty of us want armies of zombies, but not identical ones; I'd want as much variety among them as among regular Cityfolk. Based on my personal experience, I'm not at all surprised to hear Roman soldiers are already commanding those sorts of prices. For some reason, Series 6 seems to have disappeared from the stores a lot more quickly, at least in my local area. There are actually some stores here that either didn't put out all their stock of S6 on the floor, or withdrew it back into their stockrooms, and none of the stores seem to have gotten as much stock to begin with as they had of previous series. One independent store here actually skipped over S6 entirely, when they'd gotten every previous series from 1 through 5, and have since gotten S7. There are also a number of Walmarts that have scads of S5 left, but nary a single S6 in sight. It's frustrating to me; I'd really like to get a bunch more Roman soldiers (around 30, say), but I've been able to snag "only" 17 (which I realize is a lot more than many other people, and I shouldn't complain ). I've found it a lot tougher to get a bunch of them than I ever did of S2 Spartans, say. I keep hearing about the premiums commanded by S3 elves. It's kind of bizarre to me - there's a store near me that actually still has abundant S3 (it's the same store that never got S6, actually). I keep thinking I should go get more elves, though I already have several; when going back to that store to get more S3 figures lately it's actually been mainly to get more aliens (to use as an additional soldier variety with the Alien Conquest stuff). The other figure I most want to army-build isn't actually a military figure at all, but rather the S5 graduate. I'd love to get as many as I can to fill out commencement ceremony MOCs. Fortunately for me, there are still scads of S5 locally. Money is a bigger barrier than availability to getting all the S5 I want, at least for the moment.

No problem! I've actually never had any problem feeling through the packets there. The store has never given me any indication that they mind, if that's what you mean (the packets are in their display boxes on the countertop, right up by the register, and I've often felt through packets right next to store staff, then had them ask "find the one you want?" when I've made my selection and paid for it). My pleasure. Apologies for the digression on finding Minifigures in Tallahassee! Ah, coolness. My girlfriend and I both have the Florida resident seasonal passes, and the discount at DD is certainly appreciated. I, too, am terribly torn on where to spend all my money whenever we go to Orlando - the LEGO Store? Shops in the Disney parks? Shops in LEGOLAND? Other things? When we were there a couple weeks ago it was for a gaming convention, so there were also games and such I could have spent money on if I'd had any. Ah, the pain of insolvency... Anyway, yes, I'd noticed the PAB wall changed within a two day period. It was a bit exasperating - I found white fence elements there one day, and wanted to put a bunch in a cup and then fill the remaining space with other items, but we were pressed for time that day and it can take a while to properly pack a PAB cup, so I left them alone; when we went back two days later, the fences were gone, along with some other special piece I was salivating over then but can't even remember now. I wound up just getting eight S7 minifigures at the store on that whole trip (though I'd also dropped a couple hundred bucks there just a couple months earlier, during the May the Fourth promotion, so...). Regarding "Brickley," there are actually a couple different versions of him - the boxed one, and a smaller polybag one; both should be available for sale like any other set right there at the store. I do know the larger, boxed one was there just a couple weeks ago. They've also had the polybag - I got a couple of them from that very store a while back - though I'm not sure I remember seeing it on this last visit. But of course, when you're there you'll be able to see what they have. Oh, as far as other sales go I seem to recall seeing Alien Conquest sets discounted, along with the Birthday set (the party kit, with ten minifigures and the cards and such), plus some individual items discounted for having damaged packaging.

Hobbytown USA, on Thomasville Road, in the plaza with Tuesday Morning, Red Elephant, etc. (opposite the old Miracle 5 theater that closed last year - RIP ). They apparently overordered S3, and still have multiple boxes remaining - perhaps around three or four hundred S3, I think. Of course, the fact they price them at $3.99 (a dollar above MSRP) probably hasn't helped them sell out, but given that they're a smaller, independent "mom and pop"-type store it's hard to blame them for marking up a bit, given the reportedly thin margins between TLG's wholesale prices and their MSRPs. Anyway... there they are. They do have other sets as well.

I was there a couple times just over two weeks ago, and unfortunately they didn't have any S6 left. Neither did any of the shops in LEGOLAND Florida, even though they had quite a few S5. This is also the case with many stores in my area (Tallahassee) - S6 is gone from most locations around here, even though S5 remains abundant (and there's even one store near me that still has S3 in greater quantities than all the local sources put together have of S6). For some reason, S6 appears to have left the stores a lot more quickly, though not necessarily by selling out (I've personally verified that at least one store near me actually still had S6 without putting them out on the floor because they no longer had a place in the current planogram for them - they just kept them in the stockroom). ______________ As for the PAB wall, I'd like to help, but I've found that the selection changes too greatly even in just a couple days for my memories of what was there a couple weeks ago to be of much help (I was in Orlando for a few days for a convention, and while there went to the LEGO Store a few times a couple days apart; PAB items that were plentiful on one visit were entirely gone by the next, just two days later). For any kind of part other than basic bricks, I think the only way to be absolutely sure whether it's there at a given moment is to be there in person at that moment. ______________ Oh, there is one thing to note about discounts, though. As the LEGO Store is one of the Downtown Disney shops, if you have a seasonal or annual pass to Walt Disney World (the actual theme parks), you can get a 10% discount there. That's in addition to whatever sales they might have, VIP points, etc.

You associate the *gangster* with the Wild West theme? Really? Isn't it much more of a City-type character? Also, by "Mr. Jones" do you mean Indiana Jones? If so, I assume you're really just talking about the hat and the gun(s), perhaps doing the same with the gangster. That's kind of a tenuous connection...

I'd dearly love to get two full sets, as I've done with each of the "regular" Minifigures series, but it's going to be tough for me given that I'm in the US...

I don't know what you mean by "serious," but this one is probably more realistic, in actually being a cowgirl. The S1 cowboy appears to me to be more of a gunslinger, a la Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name," than a ranch hand or some such, and as such is probably more representative of a mythical conception of a cowboy (with a few historical precedents) than a likeness of actual working cowboys and cowgirls (for that matter, so is even Jessie). And personally, I don't see a thing wrong with a Jessie-like character anyway. Jessie kicks butt. No more so than the idea of a "male alien," though, right? LEGO's aliens are clearly inspired by various classic tropes of pulp and b-movie sci-fi, which have often included alien queens, "races" of alien women, etc.; TLG's S8 alien queen is right in keeping with those.

I don't have enough space to save all my LEGO boxes and such, but I do try to save certain ones, and this includes any sort of small, baggie-like thing like polybags and the Minifigures packets, simply because they're small (and flat) enough to take up very little space. I don't intend to hang onto to all of the ones I currently have forever, but I do want to save at least a representative few from each series (perhaps keeping enough of the S1 and S2 ones to have at least one packet for each unique barcode), just for kicks. I actually do like to keep a bunch of unopened Minifigures around, myself, although I do play to open them all eventually. I try to get at least two of each minifigure from the line, plus additional duplicates of whichever figures I feel I can use more of; after opening and putting together a large set including those, I leave some packets unopened so that from time to time, I can just dip into the assortment and pull out another one or two to open. I of course know which series I'm getting, but not necessarily which figure - I cherry-pick them when I buy them, specifically getting those I want extras of, but I try to let myself forget exactly which ones I have more of and how many, so that when I open a fresh S5 packet, say, I'm not sure if it's a graduate or a palace guard or whatever. I currently have anywhere from 4 to 22 uponened packets apiece from each of the first six series (I'm still working on putting together my intial set of S7, so I don't have a bunch of extra unopened ones yet, but I plan to continue doing this with S7 and beyond).

Somehow I knew this thread would turn out to be about this specific question even before I read the initial post; I remember having that same "huh?" moment when I built 7191 myself. Sadly, I no longer have the set, having been forced to sell it some years ago during a moment of financial desperation.

I will note that the football player will probably be the first team sportsman from this line that I don't try to army-build a whole team of, thanks partly to my personal disinterest in American football, but mainly to it having a specific player number on the jersey. That said, I'll still go for a minimum 2, as usual. My personal "army-builder" picks here would probably be the robot, the Bavarian, the trader / businessman gentleman, the diver, the cheerleader, the cowgirl, the man-bat and the conquistador, though I don't think I'll go for dozens of most of those - probably more like five or six apiece, save for the robot. I think I'd like scads of that one.

Blasphemy! _____________ I've thought of doing this myself, not only with the new UCS set but with the various other Artoos (Technic, Mindstorms, etc.), though what I really want to do eventually is come up with my own, totally original design for a LEGO astromech and use that for as many of the little droids as I can. But I still want the new set (though it'll have to wait until I have funds!).

It's from Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, released in 2005. It's quite entertaining.

I'm personally quite happy to see another robot so similar to the first (which was in Series 1, remember - not only the least-recent series, but also the one with the most limited distribution in the US, at least until the Team GB series, if we include that). Speaking as someone who wanted to army-build the S1 Robot but wasn't able to get nearly enough of them, I'm chomping at the bit for a second crack at a similar one; now I can have my small handful of S1s serving as the "leaders" or "elite" units over the masses of S2s (as many as I'm able to afford, anyway). The only thing I'd change (apart from my inability to afford as many of any as I'd like ) would be to make the new one the elite unit I'd get in more limited quantities, and the original the one I get in massive numbers, but no biggie. And as for the new cheerleader, I plan to get five or six of it, as I did the first one, and I don't even like sports or cheerleading in real life.

OMG!!! Squeeeeeeee!!! With each of these series, I fall in love with LEGO a little more...

Wow, coolness! I'm inclined to agree. The "actual" rancor pit is just a big, dank, dark room with a couple ways in and out, and rocks, sand/dirt and bones strewn about. The set's color scheme is faithful to the essence of the place without mirroring it exactly, and is more visually interesting for it. Honestly, I don't think sets that use the original actual Star Wars color schemes are as desirable as ones that play with the colors just a bit; I think the color selections here were a wise move, and if anything I'd have encouraged the designer to get just a wee bit more adventurous with the palette, rather than less so. As far as the construction goes... a more "complete" set would be a bunch of bricks to build basically a big box, adding a bunch of cost to the set without adding features. This design strikes a good balance between economy, accuracy and features, and anyone who wants more of the pit can easily just fill in the walls or expand the set or both using bricks from one's general inventory. I love the inclusion of the pitchfork. Nice little detail!

I can't speak for Hawkman, but I'd also prefer unopened ones myself, and I do plan on opening them. I just would rather get to open a LEGO set myself, even a tiny one such as a Minifigure; to me, it's simply part of the initial experience.

Yes, from one team. There are people who'd like another player from a different team, for the S4 player to play against. There was also a whole LEGO soccer/football theme several years ago, but that was long enough ago that many people now collecting the Minifigures probably weren't even into LEGO at the time. Also, soccer is vastly more popular around the world than American-style football. Soccer even has some followers here in the US, whereas hardly anybody outside the US has any interest in US football.

Wow, I must have this set, if just for the parts! Does anyone know anything about its US availability? You think that's crazy? You should take a look at this Pirates of the Caribbean promo set - it has five countries of origin listed as well, and it has only four pieces!

I desperately wanted to go, but it just wasn't feasible.