AndyC

Although it would be kind of cool, I suspect Hasbro would disapprove. And parents probably wouldn't shell out for 100 identical minifigures either.

It's not in any way associated with '90s TV show 'Friends', because that would indeed be a bit rubbish. It just happens to have the same name.

Excellent news, makes it hard to believe that not all that long ago it was just a little sub-forum of Town. Merry Xmas everyone!

If Castle continues (and the statement from Lego pretty much confirms it will) then it doesn't really make sense to move away from the Kingdoms branding. The only real reason to do so would be if they were moving away from traditional castle roles back to a fantasy like setting, but that's clearly not going to happen with LotR running. In any case if they did brand the theme differently again, it's still going to follow the essential aspects of Kingdoms, so there's little to worry about.

The key difference there is that Star Wars was always an inherently visual medium, so anyone who was a fan will know what a landspeeder or a x-wing looks like. Old timer Lord of the Rings fans grew up with the books, so the attachment isn't quite so strong.

Shouldn't it be Monster Fighters and not Monster Hunters? They're certainly some cool looking prelims, bit iffy in places but I'm sure that'll improve with better pictures of finalised sets. I can't imagine all the CMF figures will remain exactly as-is, TLG are far too aware of the appeal of figs so they're not going to want to dissuade purchasers just because they previously bought a $2 CMF.

Is it not possible that your own bias is in play there? Why is a space girl's job any less boring than say a hairdresser, nurse or teacher? Can't those be exciting and cool for some people too, whilst space might be considered boring? Growing up as a kid, my brother and sisters all shared the family Lego and all played with it to roughly the same level. We didn't get that many sets, but when we did I remember my elder sister pretty much exclusively getting Castle sets, wheras I dipped in and out of several themes, including Paradisa (having new pastel colours was ). Nobody ever told me that they were for girls, nor did they say my sisters choices were boyish. Perhaps more telling was how the Lego was used more widely amongst us (which I was reminded of when watching the repeat of 100 Greatest Toys the other day), which was to augment the worlds of our other toys. My toy cars parked in Lego garages, my soldiers fought on Lego battlefields whilst my sisters' My Little Ponies had Lego stables and Barbie sat on Lego furniture. And these things were often intermingled into whatever play we were imagining at the time. As an AFOL, I'm a little disappointed in the sets because they'd have been more useful to me if the figures had looked interchangable with minifigs. Doesn't mean I wouldn't consider them, but it counts against them for me. However if it gets young girls who would otherwise ignore Lego to play more creatively, then I'm all for it. And I doubt for one single second that when they do, all their other dolls and toys and minifigs will end up playing along with them too. And that's why Lego is awesome.

Not according to StatCounter Not that it matters much as HTML5 isn't defined by what the most popular browser does and Chrome's implementation is by far the buggiest. A brief look at the lego.com website doesn't have anything jumping out as wrong in the HTML, so I'm suspecting it's a browser bug.

Luke warm is probably the best way to go, as Lego isn't really supposed to be exposed to above about 40C. I've cleaned plenty of dirty or smoky Lego from bulk purchases (and the occasional Bricklink where I forgot to check) and the smell soon disappears. Definitely not worth avoiding a bargain if you prepared to put in the effort to do a bit of cleaning.

Wouldn't it make more sense to report it to Google, so they can fix Chrome? Instructions on how to do so are here: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=2a2135b6f50fd524&hl=en

Things slowed down a bit in the thread, so I wasn't rushing to send Calabar the updates. Naturally it suddenly kicked off again and I've had a million and one other things to do that probably count as "more important" (Quite why everyone else assumes "real life" should be more important the Lego I'll never know, but I digress...). I'll try and pass on updates stats to Calabar over the weekend so the index is a bit more up-to-date. In the mean time, keep on building!

i think the obvious choice for colours is White/Light Bluish Grey/Dark Bluish Grey/Black and I suspect they'll work out the cheapest. Having had a quick glimpse on BL, there's not much difference between the price of 1x1 Bricks and 1x1 Plates in those colours, so the choice there would be pretty much up to what you felt looked nicer. 1x1 round plates are a little cheaper and could work, but I think in that case you'll need to consider more carefully what colour backing plates you're building on, as that colour will naturally 'leak' through the corners of each tile and the wrong shade could well spoil the overall impression. You could always try a small test to see how it looks.

It's pretty self-defeating though. There are so many MISB ENs out there that right now the resale value is probably substantially less than what it was actually on sale for at the end (because the people who really wanted one bought at least one in the sales too). It's probably going to take a lot longer for the value to appreciate to a level that actually makes more profit than just putting money in a good savings account. I think to really make money on EOL'd Lego it really needs to be either very old, very obscure or have some particular collectors commodity about it (such as the individually numbered trains). Throwing money at the sets everyone is expecting to become collectors items is probably not the best way to get a big return, because too many others will just do the same thing.

Of course it's equally probable that store employees who may not actually know anything, but are big Lego fans, will have read all the same rumours on t'internet and come to the conclusion that it's definitely happening. So even confirmation isn't really confirmation unless it comes from someone with some pretty irrefutable connection to Lego product design or some hard proof. Personally I'd rather see some classic castle sets, even with a bit of fantasy thrown in, than LotR. I think there's a little bit too much emphasis on licensed lines at the moment and TLG shouldn't really need one to sell good castle sets.

Yup, did that one as a quick favour to somebody in the Technic forum and I think DLuders added it to the official list. I'll try and sit down and do the other official models at some point soon.

Given that the Midi scale Star Wars sets seemed to be something of a flop (based on the fact you could pick them up for next to nothing from the bargain bins full of them), I can't see it being a popular idea with Lego. And the current ships are already pretty scaled down versions, I think if they were smaller you'd either not include minifigs at all or stick to one particularly relevant character like the forthcoming Star Wars planets sets.

True, but then Pirates in general has been a strong theme for Lego, so they might feel they can sell more sets under the PotC banner knowing they will appeal to both fans of the movies and kids just wanting to play pirates with Lego. That's probably not something that applies quite so generally across other toy lines (anybody ever see generic pirate action figures?)

Not so sure on that, traditionally the way retailers seem to get the UK price is not a currency conversion, it's just a blatant replacement of the $ with a £, so I'd not be surprised if it came out at $149.99 US.

If you can fit them in a pair of 'knob gears' can transfer the power through 90 degrees with little loss and practically no chance of slippage.

We have a "food waste" bin round here that gets collected by the recycling truck, so the fish and bananas aren't entirely impossible. As for the brown piles, I guess that depends on what you think it is....

I had the little system scale shuttle, but it just doesn't compare with the UCS version which is just absolutely beautiful, not to mention a much more satisfying building experience. One of my favourite Star Wars ships and easily one of my most favourite sets ever.

Tied to the tracks by the evil Dr Porkchops, where else would he be?

Great little display and I absolutely love that giant christmas tree, I think I might pinch that idea for this years decorations! Nice idea with the polybag gifts too (I have to admit it took me a while to find them both, but I couldn't resist looking)

Well, I've only got as far in as the end of the City article, but I can already say it's yet another fantastic issue. Just seems to get better and better each time. Well worth a read for anyone who hasn't done so yet. :-)

The price never bothered me (I've got plenty of the big sets), I just find the whole thing a bit 'meh'. I guess it's because I've never been entirely enamoured with playsets, if I buy one it's usually going to become a parts pack pretty sharpish. I much prefer Death Star II as a model, even if it's a little flawed in places.