mikey

That would be perfect: Beer, Deli, & Lego in the same shop!

I don't think those mixed lots contain useful bricks for you and your son to use, as they are all very basic pieces. I would say that these are older than 10 years (with a bag of very old wheels and some windows which are now probably collectors items), or that the good pieces have been picked out already. If you are wanting to create MOC which will fit into your city, then these pieces are not the interesting pieces that the recent sets are built with. The 7743 set for 20 Euro is a fair price, and will give you pieces that you will easily incorporate into your city. The colours in the Brick Buckets/ Boxes are the same as in sets, but the problem is that the pieces are just basic bricks. These are useful to you, but you will also need lots of the different and more interesting pieces which you find in sets. So thats why I would say not to buy them unless you are getting a good discount. I don't know if you had Lego as a child, but if you did, you will see that there are many more interesting pieces available now, which you will be wanting to use so that your MOC blend in with the sets you have. Still keep looking for mixed lots, and maybe compare them with the types of pieces you would find in a set you have bought, to see if they will be useful for you. Also search out clearance and discount sales at shops to get recent sets to use. If you are patient and keep a track on your local shops and those online constantly, you are sure to find some bargains.

Only the first two links are working for the mixed Lego (Set 1 & Set 2). I think both of those are very expensive, they are old, basic coloured, and basic bricks, they are far to expensive at 65 Euro. It seems the starting price for the 7743 set is 30 Euro? I would have thought it is priced new similar to the UK, so I think that is to expensive. The new set probably still in the shops will be very similar to 30 Euros? I would not really recommend the basic brick boxes/ buckets from Lego, unless you see them on a good sale. They contain just basic bricks, and not the good bricks you would get in the City sets. Of course if you see them discounted 25%+, then they are well worth buying.

Thanks for all the positive comments, they are all appreciated! I had originally planned to get some of the baguette pieces to use for this, until I found out how much they were on BrickLink! Hopefully they will soon start to be more plentiful as they are now back in two current sets. The knife block was not my idea, I think I saw it in a .pdf of furniture ideas from Classic Castle. I totally agree that it is just a brilliant, simple and effective design. You are sure to have great fun with that, it is truly a wonderful set, the best money you have ever spent on Lego! As for the angry lady, I just love that facial expression!

Welcome, you are all doing great work on the Hispabrick Magazine, its very professionally produced, and always has great articles. I look forward to it continuing! Enjoy Eurobricks.

Inspired by the Winter Village Bakery Set I decided to make my own version, but without any of the winter festivities: The front as an angry lady leaves, and a beggar sits waiting to earn enough to eat for the day... The side and back of the building. You can buy any type of bread here, as long as you ask for croissants. The bakers cat always knows the warmest place!

The Advanced Building Techniques thread here is a good source of ideas, there are also some good tutorials on Classic Castle, and a useful Flickr group called LEGO Techniques. They are all good to learn new ideas. But how to keep track of all the information, and the ideas you see from MOC's? I do a mixture of saving inspirational pictures, writing and drawing ideas down on paper, making LDraw Files, and making small attempts with real bricks.

Thanks again for all the positive comments, they are all appreciated. Not quite sure why I decided I had to build a plough, but once the idea was planted, it had to be finished! I just realised that the torso is from the wandering beggar in the set, so yeah seems like things are looking up for him! Thats a great idea, it would make a nice series of scenes, the same field through the four seasons. Anyway, thanks again from everyone with the nice comments, fun building and fun sharing!

This is great, the tiles with vibrant colours really give a fresh feel to the inside of the palace. The fountain has a perfect shape with the SNOT arches. Excellent subject matter aswell, I love to see ancient themes portrayed .

Thanks for the nice comments, this was a fun build in the end. I was loosing hope of getting it to work how I wanted, but when it came together (eventually!) the constant reiterations made it all the more satisfying! The torso is from the Medieval Market Village, and I think the head is quite common now, probably in the Advent Calendar as it was near the top of the head box! I thought the head had a really great shouting expression, which was perfect for getting that stubborn Ox to move (my oxen have udders!).

Just a small experiment to see if I could come up with a plough:

The speculative question about an alternate history of the twentieth century raised some interesting points. The beauty of history is that the past happened, and the art of the historian is to both explain, and create, this past in the context of the contemporary. I have little interest in modern history, but a great fascination with the ancient and the prehistoric. So my speculative question would concern itself with potentially a crucial point in the creation of what we might term 'Western Civilization'... The 'Persian Wars' were fundamental to the creation of an 'identity', amongst the Hellenic 'Greek' City States. The alliances created by the 'Persian Threat' could be argued to create a sense of purpose and common ground between the antagonistic city states. Of course the victorious write the histories, and much of what we know comes from the source of Herodotus. Who would tell later historians of the importance of this episode, who would in turn interpret the failed Persian Invasion of 480-479BCE as a fundamental turning point in history. What I ask is how a victory for the 'Persian Great Army' led by Xerxes, could have changed the course of history, potentially on a global scale?

Thanks for all the positive comments from everyone. Yeah, my MMV lasted one evening once completed. I loved building it, then I spent a few hours looking at it, placed the cows in silly positions, then spent the next few evenings sorting the pieces! I get much more enjoyment from trying to build something of my own from those 1601 pieces than keeping them together! cheers, I totally agree with the placement of the torch. I knew it was much too low, but I imposed a limit on alterations at a certain stage just to see it through to completion! I get more enjoyment from starting and planning projects than from seeing them through to the end, but I really wanted to to finish something.

I am sure they are all perfectly trained to rescue that 1x2 brick from the swimming pool floor!

This sounds like an excellent theme, everything I read about this makes me think it will be the best sets for me for next year. Whilst a return of the Adventurers would be most welcome from me, I am more than happy to get something close. It is easy to make your own baddies, but harder to make MiniFig Monsters! So if it turns out this is MiniFig vs. Monster then we might be treated to some insane creatures (Atlantis + SPIII delivered the goods). The colour scheme is exactly the types that I crave, and the Set Names do sound very intriguing. Looking forward to those first grainy pictures!

I have been building different variations of a half-timbered house for a few months, most of the time was spent restarting the project! Eventually I managed to see it through to completion, and was fairly satisfied with the result. I decided to take some pictures, and was initially quite pleased with them when I viewed them on the camera. Little did I know that when I came to edit them a week later, with the house now disassembled, that I had managed to make my camera take 640x480 size pictures! So I did the best I could with the pictures, although in hindsight, I will never disassemble anything until I have seen the pictures on a PC! Anyway on to the images (and no worries about slow connections here, they are quick to load!). Some general views: I wanted to make an interior and have good access, so the house was modular, with removable roof and 2nd storey: The 2nd floor contained a bedroom: With a kitchen area on the ground floor: No house is complete without a shed, where a man can retreat and do important man things. In this case the important things are connected with testing some chairs, and making sure the ale has not gone sour: Lastly the only picture that I was really happy with:

The 'Collectable MiniFigure' are quite obviously manufactured with a different plastic, at no point has anyone described these as 'fake'. Although many have noticed a "difference" when compared to the type found in sets. The difference consists in the colouring and 'feel' of the plastic. The position of a logo, or the lack of a neck mark, is irrelevant to the quality of the element.

For me a few sets have a totally subjective, irrational, and intrinsic value, so I would never take them apart. But for me these are few and far between, and the majority of sets are built once (if at all!), and quickly sorted to be used for the pure enjoyment of potential MOC. This depends upon the degree of accuracy that you sort and store. Obviously you will never get the exact same pieces that came in the box, but if your system is well organized rebuilding a set should be hassle free and quick. I try to test my sorting system on this basis, in that a good system to make a MOC without loosing interest looking for that certain element should provide the pieces to recreate a set very easily. As many photo as are necessary to document the creation, all angles, photo of different layers, and of the intricate bits. It is the beauty of a Digital Camera that photos are essentially free. I do not keep any MOC assembled, as soon as I am happy with it, or more usually lost interest/ got the next 'big idea', I am sorting it back ready for the next possibility. I think I enjoy the 'process' rather than the 'finished object', when it comes to building. I am never entirely satisfied, but always have that glimmer of hope that the next might just be perfect. The excitement of starting afresh is better for me than seeing it to completion. But I always take loads of photos, and also use a Digital CAD to document interesting or difficult bits, in case something might prove useful as inspiration or a solution in the future.

i think 'plagiarism' is a very strong word when used in the context of this issue. i would define plagiarism as the attribution of another person's work as you own. in this context, not only was the original author referenced, but potentially a degree of original design was used to 'reverse engineer' the internal structure and sculpture of the model. so in essence i would argue that a referenced 'inspiration' was used to create an 'independent' piece. this is interesting to me purely for the ethical arguments which have been raised right from the start, as it is quite clear that Firas has no legal standpoint. for sure 'ethic' is very much a 'grey area'. which would lead me to ask why this MOC has raised these questions. is it the fact that Skyliner 'reverse engineered' freely available images and attempted to take artistic credit for the creation? or is it the fact that potentially he had the opportunity to make a profit from this type of project?

i've followed this little saga with quite a bit of interest, and i would agree that whilst the MOC is a blatant copy, it is unreasonable that Skyliner has felt that he had to withdraw his auction due to pressure from members here (or anywhere else within the Lego On-line Community). firstly as i understand this situation, Skyliner 'reverse engineered' this MOC from pictures posted on a picture sharing site. as such this issue should be viewed in a completely different light from say, buying instructions from the original creator to produce the piece, or attempting to resell freely available instructions or any other information (collectable MiniFig Bar Codes being a good example). i would say that this 'reverse engineering' which occurred from analyzing a set of pictures, gives Skyliner the right to do anything he wants with his MOC. why? because the internal structure needed to be worked out by Skyliner. maybe the internal structure might be similar to the MOC he copied, if so then does Firas 'own the rights' to that hidden structure (even though Skyliner came to the same solution independently)? or maybe the internal structure that Skyliner came up with is different to the original model?, so that just the exterior can be classified as a copy? given that an attempt is being made to reproduce a real world artifact with a finite number of Lego elements, maybe the exterior could be expected to show strong similarities to the MOC posted by Firas? not withstanding, a reference to the work of Firas was stated from the beginning, and also in the Auction Description. so therefor any interested purchaser could attempt to 'reverse engineer' the model themselves if they choose and had the correct analytical skills to do so. Firas could have tried his luck selling his MOC on an auction site at any time, but he chose not to. why should someone who has put the work in (i.e.: not bought instructions), feel pressured to withdraw their auction?

Maybe you could give this Adventurers one a try as a tough sharp shootin gal: Alexis Sanister Torso

i remember signing for a parcel one morning, and as the postman handed it over it rattles and he says "i hope this isn't broken?", i replied "should be able to put it back together again with no problems!". a BrickLink splurge is the worst though, when you are getting two or three Jiffy Envelopes every few days, you feel like saying "its not porn or drugs, its just Lego pieces!"

Just wondering if you followed the instructions on all your furniture? or did you throw caution to the wind, and do a MOC with all those pieces? seriously congratulations, going to be a Duplo xmas this year then!

It does seem daunting at first to start to build up a usable palette of bricks, and quite expensive initially. It probably helps if you are happy to build, then destroy your creations, as each purchase then increases your collection for the next project. Your strategy will depend upon what styles you want to MOC in, so by looking at MOC you can identify certain pieces and colours which are essential for you. Then you can assemble your vast 'Wanted List' in Bricklink, and start to look at choosing shops (the 'Wanted List' is essential for making sure you do not forget certain elements). Bricklink ate my money for about 12 months, but you will be left with a useful collection which is tailored to your needs. By examining Set Inventories you will identify particularly good sets to buy for parts (if you want to start to build civilian medieval buildings you must buy the Market Village, or for modern buildings one of the Modular Buildings). And keep alert for good sales offers, through every avenue: Bricklink has a forum and shops will announce sales, Amazon will have good offers occasionally, and of course the range of Toy shops/ supermarkets which you have access to. Some sets might be subjectively 'to precious' to part out into your collection, so you might want to keep them 'alive', but also as your sorted collection increases in both size and accuracy, you might prefer to have those parts sorted in a precise fashion. I tend to buy sets mainly for parts, very few even get built, although every so often I find a 'special' one which I need to build and then can't bring myself to part out. If you do not like used Lego (i only buy new, which is often not that much more expensive than used on Bricklink), I would recommend that you sell of your childhood collection. If you view it as a way of acquiring the collection you want, because if you do not use it then you might as well not have it, and you can offset the cost of getting something which you want and will use. Expensive and frustrating at the start, but soon you will start to get the collection that you need. Also you will need to work out how you sort it, it is no good having everything you need, if you can not find what you want! So sort and categorise into some system that makes sense for you as you go along. Have fun!