natelite

it's a great deal but also requires a lot of elbow grease. if those bricks are dirty or smell of smoke, you will need to clean them. then there's the drying, sorting, and repacking. it's really a toss up of effort vs reward. for a teen setting up his/her own BL store? definitely worth it. for an adult with a full time job? not really...

spaceman SB, spaceman patrick and sandy magnet set is now available at S@H. also, the vintage minifig collection v2 has increased to A$25 from A$17. well, it was somewhat expected anyway. i guess that's all the magnet set for this year.

gunner comes in the clone bp. the pilot comes in the v19 torrent which is going for like 50% off almost everywhere in the world. you are going to need clones in the bp to man your AT-OT anyway. seriously...you can get RGS, AT-TE, clone packs, and if you can't get the pilots, then just BL them. still cheaper than AT-OT/LAAT/c because you can sell off those jedis and commanders from RGS and AT-TE to fund your pilot purchase and still be ahead. the only issue i see is the effort to execute this plan. so for those with lots of money, it's probably better to pay TLG $250 for the convenience. for the rest, probably make sense to DYI.

to provisorak, i dont think you need to worry about bricks. he has a BL shop with lots of rare parts, mfs and sets after all. he can easily afford most on his list. except for the solid 14k gold c3po. that is coming out of his paycheck! i still believe it is cheaper to get a goldsmith to custom make one and in higher karat.

that's a huge tub! and include the red coats. i dont see any minifigs in the picture but if they are included (and not selectively removed), then $100 should be a good buy. should have a few complete sets to sell for >$500 making this buy a net profit for those industrious enough to sort and clean and repack.

[/lurk] i did a little bit of googling...i was also wrong. 14k gold means the gold content is lower than 70% and it has been mixed with another metal (typically copper) to form a stronger alloy. pure gold is very soft (not soft as in that you can bend it with your hands but soft enough to dent or scratch easily...like normal lego. ) so i guess it is solid gold. just not solid PURE gold. okay, i guess that little bit of puzzle is cleared up. legoman is the winner.

well, i was going to post in the thread about AT-OT/LAAT/c set but it was closed so i'll post here. i won't be blackmailed by TLG with another s@h exclusive priced so exorbitantly. except for the AT-OT pilot's cockpit i think most parts can be procured from your regular AT-TE/RGS sets. i haven't seen the instruction yet, but plan to make one from duplicate AT-TE/RGS sets that i bought. i'll just BL the rest of the parts (like dark blue wedges, technic beams, etc).

[/lurk] you are both WRONG. TLC made 5 14k gold c3pos, which means gold PLATED. solid gold is 24k gold. so the thread originator won't be able to find a solid gold c3po unless he send a template to a goldsmith and ask for a customized solid gold c3po. with gold at $970/oz, a solid gold c3po is worth in the $5k or so to make alone. good luck! [lurk]

general grevious just came back on S@H for A$65. hurry and order one before it sell out again.

i didn't say 20, i said almost 20. sorry, i didn't google before i wrote that and i kinda remember it was released in the 90s. it's actually 1995, so actually 14 years. 6 years shy of 20.

crap. i went to myer but didn't see any signs. then again the chatswood myer is notorious for not putting any signs up. it didn't even have the special sale sign up during christmas.

you mean throw in a magnet set for the figs. crap. i was hoping for mispricing too. TLG has been too good with pricing this year. darn it. how am i going to get the ps DS and this now?!?!?!

guess you didn't read the announcement that carefully! jan 2010 will be the first wave of TS&TS2 sets. followed by may 2010 with TS3 sets. it's very natural for TLG to want to find another blockbuster license theme. a company cannot solely depends on a single line. it will put the entire firm in jeopardy if something happens to cancel the theme. also it puts TLG in a much weaker negotiating position with the license owner (lucasart in the case of SW). if you haven't notice, TLG has been trying to find a "successor" to SW for years. batman wasn't it. IJ was okay but not at the scale of SW. SBSP okay with krusty krab and the pineapple set but beyond that, the sets start to stink. notice how the retailers are reluctant to carry any SB sets. the plankton bucket, bus, mrs puff sets are all sold at massive d/c. as mentioned in another forum, a license theme has the potential to outsell non-license theme. a SW fan may buy lego SW sets even though he may not normally buy lego. ie. he will buy a han solo lego mf because its a han solo but he wont buy lego pieces to make his own han solo mf. add to that, your normal lego fans and you have twice the customers who will buy your sets. as i mentioned in the previous "dream license theme" thread, i think toystory/tlg is a good combination for three reasons. 1. to be a successful theme, you need massive fanbase. one which keeps lapping up any merchandise that is put for sale. fans have been buying SW merchandise for 30+ years and still buying. similarly TS has been selling well for almost 20 years, and still is. with the release of TS3, you can be sure the success of the franchise will continue. 2. a successful theme also has lots of chars for fans to collect. both protagonists and antagonists. these chars must be distinguished and interesting enough for fans to collect. passing chars will not sell well. take mrs puff or fishy bus driver in the SBSP theme. those aren't interesting enough that all the fans want them. the most notable chars in SBSP are mr krab, sb, patrick, squidward, gary, and maybe sandy. TS has rex, mr potatohead, hammy, RC, bo, shark, jessie, stinky pete, woody, buzz, barbie! once a theme sells well, you can start to make the minor chars. cars as well is a very marketable theme because of the plenty of chars to make. kinda sad there isn't a system version. i was thinking they could have made cars in system version - in racers format. i.e. with pullback motors and the foldable tracks. but it's probably hard to brick build the chars using lego system bricks. duplo is easier since you just use specialized mold...kinda like how MB did it. 3. the chars must look good in lego version. this factor can be controlled by TLG somewhat. what makes a char look good in lego? hard to say, but i would think cartoons are probably easier to "legorize." take a look at the SW clone wars chars. they translate to lego versions easily. same with sbsp. i think TS's popularity mostly centered on the chars. notice how the merchandise never ever show a scene but always the chars. i think this theme will definitely take the form/construct of the KK2 line or bionicle line, ie you have constructed "action figures" consisting of buzz lightyear with "real light up laser gun", and a woody with a sound brick, maybe even a zurg with a gatling shooter, followed by some playsets. i hope they make rubber balls for shooting!

that's quite interesting. i guess i was also on the ball several threads later on CARS and TOYSTORY & TOYSTORY 2. it's like you and i have sixth sense! sorry, i am not aware of POP, so wouldn't have guessed it in a million years. anyway, i think it's quite possible that the toystory line will have the protagonists in action figure size aka KK2/bionicle action figure size. that means they can make a buzz lightyear that actually has a light up laser beam (via light brick). or a woody with a sound brick. or mechanized buzz (via new power function bricks). also it will allow them to build an accurate lego BARBIE despite the unrealistic proportion. i would however love to have MF playsets but not sure how doable it will be. they did manage to get SBSP in mf size though...so it's quite possible. my guess would be that duplo cars and toystory should be instant hits. poor MB, losing one of its key theme!

+1 hewman. fast payment and excellent communication.

unfortunately i will need to correct you on that. americans are those in the USA. you would call those in central, south and north america - mexicans, hondurans, colombians, venezuelians, argentinians, brazilians, cubans, peruvians, uruguayans, paraguayans, canadians, etc. seriously, you dont call them unitedians or statesians. you plain ol'e call them americans.

ah, thanks vulture droid!! too bad the midi scale MF doesn't come with any figure. depending on price point, i'll probably pass. 356 pieces for $60? no thanks. can anyone identify the two pirates in the pirate tank?

yup, i agree with your analysis. also, the "original" elf came with the IJ man pouch. if they had wanted to release elves it would have been with the IJ theme in 08/09. i think the problem lies with creating a distinctive feature to represent the elves. see the "original" depiction of elves. high cheek bones and slanty eyes. tlg will certainly get sued by certain asian groups - recall the miley cyrus incident. dwarves on the other hand are not culturally sensitive and easier to distinguish between humans given their size. forestmen would be most likely in 2010 instead of elves.

of course we do! we dont want them to get offended and come here and start disintegrating us like in that movie "mars attack!" now do we ?

yeah, if you don't look at the shipping cost! i think europe's got a better deal. 10 eur and much lower shipping cost. plus if you check BL, you will see the competition is very fierce now. i can't even sell mine. :( oh well, slow and steady then. i dont know yet. i might still be here next year. in this current job market (especially in my industry) it's hard to figure out what your next step is because every rule is being rewritten. let's just take one day at a time.

the problem is that those are aviator caps not helmets. so it doesn't fully encase the head. though those 1980s space helmets have "invisible" visors it's still fully enclosed. but i agree that's very trivial issue. in fact, i love those aviator caps over your standard helmets because aviator caps are harder to come by. i have tons of standard helmets. having seen more high res pics, some of the sets are quite good now. most of the SP vehicles are quite nice. look at the two small speeder bikes! though i would also have to agree this theme would be more aptly named futuristic police rather than space police. how does speeder bike work in space? the villains vehicles however are mostly jokes. the gold heist vehicle?!?! looks more like a futuristic motorized wheelchair. and wtf is that space speeder impulse set? instead of that, they should have given the cyclops a big brickbuilt raygun or something. if tlg wanted conflict based theme, they should just flat out give them weapons. right now the sets just look so incomplete. especially when you have super villains on grandma's wheelchair doing a "gold heist"! what do they use to hold up a bank?

i dont know why ppl are so hung up on civilians. find any random torso, mix in random heads and random hairpiece and voila! civilians.

yeah, i'm trying to sell out asap before it "flatline" as you call it. good point. i was assuming they would ship my family and belongings as in the past... but the world is very different now. well, expect lots of sale from my shop if no one is paying for my shipment! cheap couch and furniture for sale! i doubt that's the case. if i'm wrong however, can you tell your friend to tell lego to sell more mfs from the sail barge set? those are ridiculously expensive. i like to see a lando (skiff guard), gamorrean guard, and a third figure. would buy lots and lots of that set. the skiff guard helmet is excellent as a samurai helmet and the gamorrean guard doubles up as an elite troll!

yup, darthsion saw it earlier.

i'll sell you one for A$100! it seems cheap but you gotta factor in the shipping! i'm getting the magnet sets to help fund my shipping cost! storm lasher? nah...mediocre, just like the rest of the ef sets. i only got it for the troll swords. EF went downhill after the first season just like heroes.