desultor

+1 for newwavepop Thanks list updaters!

I think there's definitely still a stigma against our hobby since it's based on toys. But that stigma has gotten pretty thin thanks to the mainstreaming and adultification of other toy hobbies like video games, action figures, comic books, and fantasy novels. This reminds me of this recent Wired article (which I barely understand, actually). To minimize any trauma inflicted by the mainstream on us "LEGO geeks" though, we should foster: hygiene social skills confidence & pride

EDIT: all done. Thanks Archer!

Another 50% off one item in-store coupon for Borders Rewards members. Last time my wife bought me the Calvin and Hobbes complete collection - the savings of $75 made it cheaper than Amazon! One per person (probably linked to your Rewards number). "Valid 1/1/11–1/2/11 at U.S. Borders, Borders Express, and Waldenbooks stores only. Not valid at Borders.com. " EDIT: TRU has all LEGO (except Star Wars and Pharaoh's Quest) on buy 2 get 1 free. In store and online. January 1 only.

Ahhhhh... I thought you meant a total of $8.99 to buy all three sets - but you meant $8.99 each. Thanks for clarifying!

Man, Amazon prices are fickle! I've been using Linus's Swooshable Amazon app plus Brickset (to verify list prices). Now the PoP desert and ostrich are back up (to $9 and $15), but there's a few Atlantis bargains: Gateway of the Squid half price to $20 Wreck Raider down to $6 from $10 list Neptune Carrier down to $40 from $60 list And 32x32 plates (green and blue) are down to under $7 from $10!!! Just kidding - don't buy them for any more than $5. Good grief, Amazon can be deceptive.

Ostrich Race is also half price, down to $9.99 USD, free Super Saver, no tax, quantity limited to 3. Nice! Quest Against Time is down to $25 + 8 shipping. How did you get 3 deserts for $8.99?

I may be biased, as a LEGO fanboy since the 80s, but I'm pretty sure the simple reason that complicated builds are more expensive is because they have more parts. Plus we've gotta remember that <insert that tiresome argument> sets are designed for Junior. Though I know we do, most ten-year-olds don't want to spend an hour brick-building their castle walls before they can role-play with 'em. What's a change that I think would rock the AFOL community? Discontinuing yellow heads. Would TLG dare? I'd guess the basic yellow smiley is so iconic, so much a part of the LEGO brand, that they'll always keep it around. But in my opinion all-fleshy would be alright. I honestly thought long and hard before buying the Imperial Flagship, knowing that Pirates of the Caribbean was coming. To me, lemon-heads look so... sickly, by comparison. I don't mean to hijack this thread (so please don't rant), but what if TLG swapped all yellow heads to a mix of nougats, to correspond better to the world's diversity of skin tone? I think it would change LEGO forever. Would it be for the better?

Thanks KimT - that's it! And not a mention of Pants-less™ technique.

Great idea for a poll, Oky! I picked all the new ones except for the castle - I love me some clocktower! But really, I'm quite happy that I made it out of my dark age for this wave. IIRC I saw some of the older sets in passing, and at the time thought there was something unappealing about their construction (paper, BURPs, lack of detail). But now more than just "sour grapes," I really love the attention to detail in the models, and the consistent design of the new minifigs. Some of those old faces were just plain ugly! The new faces all look amazing to me. (Ah, Hermione! ) Big Brick did the best I've seen in the 2010 discussion thread:

Man, I would love me a Dawn Treader LEGO set! My favorite Narnia book... I've spent hours of childhood poring over this drawing of the ship.

I looked for this in Didier Enjary's excellent compilation "The Unofficial LEGO Advanced Building Techniques Guide," but it's not there. (Though this is a kind of opposite technique to ToPLESs - maybe we call it Pants-less ) This doesn't have nearly the brick stress of ToPLESs, and when the stud is pointing inward and located between two tubes (as with the upper lime green 1x8s in the pic), the join seems very precise. Does anybody have that Powerpoint allegedly used internally at LEGO which describes the illegal techniques? I have an old link to the GoogleDoc but now it's restricted. P.S. No way to use it in a MOC, parteek? For shame! You can see I already used it to make a microscale Tie Fighter!

Hey folks, I was messing around and discovered that plates are quite secure when placed perpendicular to... um... well, just look: Is this a known technique? Seems like there's plenty of potential here. Notice in the middle of the structure - with four plates stacked (2x8, 1x8, 1x8, 2x8) the 2x8s exactly fit into the perpendicular plate.

Holy cuss that would make a great MOC! Somebody that can make polls well should create one that asks us to rate each edition (by year) of each HP set, so we can see the comparison.

Yeah, it's a tricky sale. 30% off is only the sets shown on the front page of the flyer - the rest looks to be only 10% off normal TRU prices. I use this link whenever I want to check TRU prices (if anybody can figure a way to filter out the Out of Stock items, let me know). I was surprised to see the Winter Toy Shop there - and confirmed that S@H has it again too!

Thanks again everybody! Assuming all boxes are packed identically, if you're looking for Spartans, pull mid-to-back left. If Pharoahs: middle right. (As if you hadn't already memorized the bar codes!) So now the mystery is how that cashier at Legoland managed to pull me a Lifeguard, Ringmaster, Cop, Mime, Pop Singer, Disco Stu, Karate, and Surfer....

I've gotta say Legoman, that's an extremely well-reasoned and mature response. 15 years old and you're considering selling your collection for a down-payment on a house? Kudos!

Well I'm coming from a Magic: The Gathering background. They used to pack boxes with a specific pattern from one end of the box to the other (e.g. Pharoah, Cop, Skier, etc.) and on to the next box. Savvy buyers figured that out, and learned that pattern (via the magic of Interweb shared knowledge) to allow them to "cherry-pick" the valuable rare card packs from boxes. They'd have the store open a new box, buy pack 1 and open it to find where in the sequence that box started, and then pull the 7th, 9th, 24th, and 37th packs, say. And this is without convenient bar codes, or even differently-weighted or -shaped packs like we have with LEGO. I think Wizards (the MTG company) somehow mixed up the box distribution to combat this, eventually. LEGO hasn't gotten anywhere close to that sophisticated yet.

Yeah, I'd guess they'd charge a normal day rate. I've done this twice now, just on occasions when I'm in the area for something else and we thought "what the heck, why not?" The main shop is right inside the entrance, so an hour to browse and buy there is plenty. This is no Disneyland! The first time we did this we made a bee-line for the bigger rides, walked through Miniland (my fav part of the park), and still had plenty of time to nab some product. This time we checked out the "factory tour" and Miniland, and spent the rest of the hour deciding what $20-worth we'd buy (a $4 mini SW model and 8 collectable figs). Looking back on it I should've bought a case of 'em.

Thanks guys! That's a relief. I'll put my can of vitriol back on the shelf. Bert, great review. I was surprised that our box distribution is identical. I guess that's how LEGO intended it, setting specific (and different) rarities among the minis. Interesting.

Oh, I forgot the other reason I'm apprehensive: my first and only other experience with minifigs was just a couple weekends ago at Legoland California. I bought 8 then, and (perhaps extremely luckily) got 8 unique minis. I watched as the cashier deliberately pulled them in order from the box. Side note - did you know you can visit Legoland California for free? Pay $12 for parking, visit Customer Service and get a Shoppers Pass for you and whoever is with you (free). You have an hour to do whatever you want in the park. If you buy $20 in a store, bring the receipt back to Customer Service and they refund your $12. Love it!

Hi guys, apologies if there's some place this topic should be in - I searched and didn't find a suitable topic. I just bought a "sealed box" of Series 2 minifigs off ebay from a guy with 99% feedback. When it arrived I noticed that one tab was undone, and both had little fingernail marks where it looks like the seller had opened the box (hopefully the next series will have better box sealing methods). The distribution seems off to me, with too many of the same figure clumped together in the box. But before I lambaste the seller and demand... something... I thought I'd check here for your experiences. Is this typical, or have I been scammed? Distribution Quantity: 1. Pharoah: 3 2. Vampire: 4 3. Spartan: 3 4. Disco Stu: 3 5. Pop Star: 3 6. Ringmaster: 5 7. Lifeguard: 4 8. Adventurer: 3 9. Karate: 5 10. Surfer: 3 11. Witch: 4 12. Mime: 4 13. Cop: 5 14. Maracas: 4 15. Skier: 3 16. Weightlifter: 4 The arrangement of minis in the box was thus: Back to front, left side (when looking at the front): Skier Skier Spartan Spartan Witch Maracas Pop Star Maracas Lifeguard Spartan Karate Maracas Maracas Vampire Vampire Ringmaster Ringmaster Vampire Ringmaster Ringmaster Back to front, center: Mime Mime Weightlifter Weightlifter Cop Lifeguard Adventurer Pop Star Mime Mime Disco Stu Adventurer Adventurer Disco Stu Disco Stu Karate Karate Karate Vampire Ringmaster Back to front, right side: Cop Cop Lifeguard Witch Lifeguard Pop Star Pharoah Cop Cop Weightlifter Witch Pharoah Pharoah Skier Karate Weightlifter Witch Surfer Surfer Surfer

Great job everybody! My votes: 3) Spaceman & Pharaoh Entry (Build by Optimus) 8) Robot & Jungle Explorer Entry (Build by lisqr) 19) Skater Boy & Spartan Entry (Build by Etzel) And nice one squiz - Riding Giants is my favorite documentary.

Well done everybody! I can't wait to make my own vignettes with the collectibles... Here's my votes: 17) Skier Entry (Build by Yatkuu) 22) Vampire Entry (Build by lisqr) 42) Lifeguard Entry (Build by The Soup Nazi)

I just talked with a Walmart customer service rep who asked the store manager - they don't price match BOGO sales, only specific products at specific prices. Good thought though!