meyerc13

To answer the original question, the polybags at TRU are often given away as promos. So you see them on the shelf the week before the promo, the next week they are free with $25 purchase, and the next time you go back they are all gone. That's the pattern I've seen at my TRU again and again. If you don't buy them the first time you see them, you probably won't get another chance. TRU also seems to have distribution issues. Some polybags people are reporting at their TRUs never seem to make it to mine, so I suspect that there is no guarantee that every TRU will get every polybag. Soon I suspect we'll see an abundance of polybags. I think Wal Mart had 4-6 last year, Target had at least two in the seasonal section along with those at the cash register. TRU rotated a few in and out as well. They make great stocking stuffers, so I'm hopeful we'll see a few that haven't been readily available in the US.

Don't let my daughter see this or I'll be building a copy for her. I've done a smaller scale layout but our LEGO table can only hold the town part or the ranch or the beach, not all at once. It looks so much better with everything on there at once. The only thing that stuck out for me as needing improvement is the location of the showers at the pool. The way it sits now, I'm afraid some of the children in the school could be a bit distracted. Last picture on the bottom right, did you cut a road plate in half?

I don't have anywhere near the number of vintage bricks as Gary, but the ones I do have certainly seem to be quite a bit stronger than today's bricks. I've bought most of my vintage bricks at rummage sales, and while I find plenty of bricks with chewed edges (some looking like they were used as chew toys!), I haven't seen any with cracks just from being connected to another brick. I'm sure there were some parts in the past that were prone to just that, but there are some parts today that seem to be equally bad. Just take a look at two threads here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=78740&st=0 http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=53790&st=0 Cheese slopes are an obvious example, I've had so many of those crack it isn't funny. Even though LEGO always gives you a spare, I have almost no spares left because I have to swap them out so often. At some point I may need to buy more just to keep my sets intact. However, Cheese slopes aren't the only instance. The last City Camper was notorius for cracked parts, I have 1x white bricks that cracked from that set, numerous different types of parts on that model cracked. I can't say I've ever seen that in vintage LEGO I've bought. Sand green parts seem to be another bad color, I've seen lots of cracked Sand Green parts mentioned and I've seen a few myself even though I don't have much of that color. So there are definitely quality issues, and I've heard a lot of speculation as to why (too hot, too cold, too humid, too dry, butter??, chemical exposure...) but as of yet I've never seen a definitive answer that applies to all the cases. I live in Wisconsin, which isn't all that different from Denmark in climate. They're a bit further North and closer to the Ocean so if anything the climate here is a bit more mild. We air condition our house throughout the summer, and heat throughout the winter. In summer the A/C keeps the humidity at a reasonable level, in winter the air gets dry from the constant heating. The temperature is constant in the 65-75 degrees Fahrenheit range, so no extremes. Yet I've had bricks crack just from being connected to another brick. It's disturbing, and I continue to hope that all of the bricks that will eventually crack have already cracked, but it's a constant worry that the tens of thousands of dollars I've accumulated in LEGO won't be able to be passed on to my grandkids someday because they'll all be in the trash.

What do you think the voters' reaction is to an outright denial? More voters would have been happy had at least one of the shops been made than are happy now. Not to mention, ultimately it doesn't matter what the voters think, it matters what LEGO's customers think. And I can tell you that millions of LEGO City fans would have bought any of these shops had they been made. As for those who think that the Ghostbusters sets are a slam dunk, I can tell you why they'll probably never be made - because I voted for them. Every set I've voted for on Cuusoo that made 10K has been rejected (Western modular, Winchester, Firefly, Shops), and that's the problem with Cuusoo. For every 10K happy fans, there are many thousands more whose hopes are being dashed. It's like seeing a leaked retailer catalog picture, only to be told a few months laster that all of those sets have been cancelled. Couple the dashed hopes of hundreds of thousands of fans with the supply issues with Minecraft last year, and I think Cuusoo is getting LEGO more negative press than positive, at least among its core fans.

No, you can't fill it when you get it. You get an empty box, and then come back after Christmas to fill it. I believe last year the boxes were good through the end of March. They aren't huge, but because they are square they are great for standard bricks. I wouldn't waste the space trying to put any oddly sized pieces, just stack bricks and fill it up.

The Grand Emporium was my first modular, in fact I finally put it together yesterday. My five year old daughter took to it right away and has had a lot of fun playing with it. So far I've overheard a wedding party shopping for both wedding atire and dinnerware, a little boy shopping at the Toy Store, construction crews making some rennovations, and a visit from Chima's Cragger. The only complaint is that the modular format doesn't lend itself well to play with the four sides enclosed. From my standpoint, the build was okay, but not my favorite set ever. Since I haven't built any other modulars I can't compare it, but the techniques used didn't wow me like some other sets have. There are also some very repetitive steps used in the build, and aligning the pieces in some steps will leave those who like nice straight edges frustrated. Those were minor gripes though, overall I love the finished model and love the parts in the set. Even if you decide you don't like it, the abundance of tan bricks, large plates, and windows make this set a great value. I'm now contemplating whether I should leave the set as is, or make it more like the haunted house for easier play. For now I'll probably leave it, but at some point I may open it up somehow. I can tell you that now I've caught the modular bug. I want to pick one up this month with Double VIP, but can't decide which one to get next. I really like the look of the Fire Station, and I know it will likely be the next to retire (soon), but the thought of adding another fire station to my LEGO collection feels wrong, and I don't like that it is only a single bay... I have so many fire trucks that I need a multi-bay station. So if I bought it, I know I'd want to mod it. Whereas the Pet Shop would fit nicely as is into my LEGO City. Decisions... decisions...

That looks like a minifig baby from Citizen Brick, unfortunately I don't see those on their website any more. Bummer, I wanted to order some but never got around to it.

I have the Vampyre Castle and the Millennium Falcon, both are great sets. The castle has some interesting portions of the build that separate it from most of the Fantasy castles I've built, I think it is probably closer to a Harry Potter style build if you've built any of those. The Falcon though is in a class of its own. For a while my son was very into LEGO Star Wars, so we built a lot of sets. When building any of the various shuttles (basically anything bigger than a fighter), all too often to achieve the correct form the interior and durability are sacrificed. Not so with the Falcon. It looks great, has a ton of interior space for playability, and is very swooshable, it doesn't fall apart if you look at it wrong. Unfortunately I can't compare it to the sail barge, but on looks alone I think the Falcon wins. Not sure on durability, playability, or build.

I have to agree that the packing 'bonus' really depends on what you are packing. I didn't bother counting, but a couple of months ago I picked up two cups of 1x4 log bricks. First, I filled a cup at the wall, then used the counter area to pack it. I found that using my quick and dirty packing method, I could fit almost 1.5 cups of unpacked into a single cup. Definitely worth it in that case. However, sometimes I just want a jumble of various pieces of various sizes (doors, windows, wheels, plates, bricks, barrels z-plates (no idea what these are really called, but you probably know what I'm talking about), etc.) and I would never even try to pack a cup like that. Instead I layer, small pieces, then large pieces, then small pieces, then large pieces... I have found that I can get to a point where the air gaps are minimal and the parts don't rattle much when I shake the cup, I usually call that good enough.

Finally picked up the train last weekend using a 10% off coupon at the LEGO store. I really enjoyed the build, and there is a nice selection of parts. Note to LEGO - the reason I didn't hesitate to buy this set but that I passed on the Monster Fighters Ghost Train is the track. Being new to LEGO railroading, extra track is always nice. The engine and tender are definitely the highlight of the set, the box car and flatbed are okay, but probably destined to be scrapped for parts. Now I need to motorize it, good thing there are lots of ideas on how to do that readily available. The next favorite part of the set for me was the Cavalry officer... needed one to go with the numerous troopers I've picked up.

I love seeing how this has evolved over time. I was very inspired by your original beach, and I was sad to see it go, but I still love every iteration and eagerly await updates. I particularly like the dock area you've created, and I can now see why people are so excited to find trans blue and trans clear 1x1 round plates... I think I might need to pick up more for the next beach scene I do.

You've done a remarkable job of fitting a lot of interior detail into a very small space. Also, I like that you've put just enough variation in the gray that the walls look realistic but not overdone. I really like the windows and my favorite is the top of the tower. On the interior I love the display cases and the wooden stairs... I want to go visit this tower/museum! Well done.

Something like this? http://www.wallofbri....php?id=4211413

You've had my vote for quite a while. I was just thinking of this MOC the other day when I was watching The Great Food Truck Race. I really hope you hit 10K, I'd buy several of this model!

Have you tried http://www.wallofbricks.com yet? It's much easier to update than Brickbuildr so many people are switching to it. The Chicago store at least was updated this week, I didn't check the others.

These were given out at the LEGO Club Meeting in July. I was hoping for the Cavalry Builder set since we already have more than enough 'Lone' Rangers. If I had known someone would pay $20 for it, I'd have put it on eBay too. Too late, the kids opened theirs and we have two more rangers roaming our western town.

Someone posted the Friends jewelry box instructions on Brickset in this thread: http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/211032/#Comment_211032 My wife took my daughter to the Jewelry box event at the Wauwatosa, WI store and that new polybag was given out as well.

If these really start hitting clearance on a widespread basis already, I suspect that most of these will end up in TJ Maxx, Big Lots, Tuesday Morning, etc. for the holidays. Most of these probably haven't even made it out of the warehouses yet. Any Western fans should pick these up whether they are at clearance prices or not. Colby City is not only a great set, it's also a great parts pack. Likewise the Stagecoach is great and includes three of the new horses for the price. The Cavalry set is the ultimate army builder, I'm up to 3 already and hope to pick up two more tomorrow at the LEGO Club meeting (both my kids are going). I haven't picked up the train yet, but it's the set I'm most looking forward to. All around this is a great bunch of sets and has inspired me to start building Western MOCs (working on a fort now since I found a bunch of 1x4 log bricks on PaB).

They're generally out in late August or early September. I know for a fact that I saw the Friends and Star Wars calendars in LEGO stores over Labor Day weekend last year. You don't need to buy them quite that early, but I'd definitely pick them up by Thanksgiving just to be safe. Lately they've been readily available, even after the Holidays, but I remember a couple of years ago we missed out on the Castle calendar because I waited too long.

Except that grab bags were discontinued globally almost 1 year ago: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=74668 Too bad too, one of my favorite things about visiting LEGO stores.

One additional comment, if you don't see something you need, ask. I've heard of others doing this, and even saw a manager do it for a little girl at one store. So last week when I was at the Milwaukee store I needed brown plates that weren't on the wall. I asked and they brought out a box for me to pick through. Awesome customer service.

This policy was discussed some time back in this forum: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=75760

With the new Lone Ranger licensed theme, my interest in Western has been ignited. I found it really difficult to find the sporadic western topics in the Historical forum. I'm wondering if it would be possible to create a sub forum for Western under Historical. Historically, there isn't much connection between castle and western... and from an MOC perspective, I don't think they have a lot in common either. I also think more Western discussion would be ignited if the western topics, MOCs, and reviews were easier to find. It's even worse now with MOCs showing up in historical while The Lone Ranger is in licensed, there have been some great MOCs in historical that seem to have been overlooked by TLR fans.

It's great to see your department expanding. I just started building a western fort and town for my kids to play with, your update reminds me that I need to add a fire department to the town. Thanks for posting!

The biggest issue I've seen with sets stored in extreme conditions is accelerated failure of the stickers (hard to describe, the closest phrase that comes to mind is that they've 'crackled.') I've had bricks crack stored indoors at a steady 70 degrees Fahrenheit year round, yet others that spent a couple of years in extreme weather (from below 0 degrees Fahrenheit to over 100 degrees) do just fine. So I think the bricks are fairly resistant to temperature extremes, unless they had an underlying defect. If so, they probably would have failed regardless, the failure might just happen more quickly in the extreme temperatures.