fred67

I agree with Superkalle 100%... it's really a legal ploy to get around copyright and patent expirations... claiming the brick shape is a trademark, because trademarks don't expire. I do think the presentation of the classic 2x4 brick in advertising in the manner that TLG has traditionally done it should be protected, but not the brick itself. I don't know much about international law, but there's a reason the founding fathers of the U.S. saw fit to have limited copyrights and patents. Edit: I want to add a few things here, for people who are worried about LEGO cutting costs by reducing quality... the reason they have weathered the world wide recession despite increasing prices is because they offer a quality product that, while more expensive than competitors, is not so much more expensive that they price themselves out of the market. For example, the other day somebody compared Megablocks/LEGO to Yugo/Lexus. But the comparison is invalid... Yugo couldn't even make it in the U.S., I don't know if the company is still around at all, but it's not here, but if it had, the comparison would be more like between a Yugo and a Honda or Totota... not necessarily that much more expensive to get the better quality, something accessible by most people, unlike a Lexus. For several years now, TLG's profits have outpaced increased sales. Let that sink in for a minute, and then decide if TLG needs to cut quality to stay competitive.

Good point... Most places in Europe tend to be more compact, too, with better public transit (note the words "tend to"). I've probably driven 100 miles looking for figures that simply weren't there. No... I didn't hop in my car and just start driving like a crazed LEGO fanatic... I take my son to his martial arts class, then I have an hour, and I'll go look at a Target... nothing, then another one... nothing. Then I go back, pick my son up and go home. The next day I do the same thing, but it's a TRU, nothing. The next day, another TRU (he goes 4 or 5 days a week, depending). Then while going somewhere else, I happen to driving a certain way and divert to try another Target... nothing. They all (the Targets) have shelf space, but no figures. I think LEGO is an expensive hobby, and while I may not buy sets right off, and I wait for sales, I don't complain about the prices because I know we have it pretty good here. In fact, while I may complain occasionally about TLG short stocking the U.S., I also know we get more of a variety of sets than most places. The list of things we don't get is pretty short. But to go back on topic, as most people have pointed out, it depends on what you like about LEGO... I like a lot of different things, and I plan on having a city scape on my train layout where a lot of these figures will be really cool, and even the out of the ordinary ones will make great little vignettes. I really love these things for inspiring me to make little scenes, and they make great gifts, too. Unfortunately, still, I have yet to see a SINGLE collectible minifigure for sale in a B&M store. None. Zero. All the ones I've gotten, I've gotten from BL (and one shipment from S@H).

In the same way that it's cheaper AND generally much better (pay attention to their processing) to have your digital pictures printed by a photography shop, something like these 3D printers will have a LONG way to go to compete professionally with TLG or places like BrickArms or BrickForge. First of all, the technology has been available for quite some time already (more than a decade, probably closer to two) and the prices simply haven't come down that much. Secondly, the products suffer from having a finite resolution, unlike a hand crafted mold. Secondly, the plastics involved are not as high a quality as the plastic TLG and BrickForge and BrickArms use. None of the techniques used can use such plastic. Lastly, like traditional photograph printing, it will NEVER be cheaper to use one of these devices than it is to use injection molding, and it won't be as high a quality... they are great for prototyping... they are great for one off, low use items (so when they do become affordable, creating something unique for your MOC would be awesome, assuming it's not a... let's say, "load bearing" element). These will not replace anything for mass production. You know what it will be great for? I did the Ruby MOD for the Emerald Night. I wish I could do a "Sapphire" MOD for it, but the curves are not available in blue. If I had one of these, I could make my own. But if someone thinks they're going to somehow make a million tan tiles for the MOC and it'll save them money over buying them on BL, they're are mistaken.... it simply won't happen.

This is a good point... my son has done martial arts for 7 years (he's only 11 now), so since I got a random order of 16 from S@H, and had extra Martial Arts guys, I gave him one (he likes some LEGO, but isn't as into it as I am). I also switched with a female head and gave it to my wife (she does martial arts, also). So you can switch them up to make them suitable as gifts (if they aren't already suitable out of the package). Now I will still have one extra, and I think I'll give it to my son to give to his instructor, although I might change the hair to be more like his. So that's another thing... sometimes you can find things that match with people and, even if they are not LEGO fans, will get a kick out of getting one... There's not a LOT of options there, but there's some - surfer guy, lifeguard, nurse, martial arts guy, skier, cops.. I don't know any ringmasters, pop stars, mimes, or mariachi singers, but some of you might. I work in a television production studio and, a few years ago, I gave an impulse studios set to a director, and he thought it was cool and kept it on his desk - a lot of people where I work have shelves filled with stuff like that. I've got a lot of LEGO on display in my office.

Yeah... it's the variety and the ideas they spark, the little vignettes to suit each one... I love them (so far). I might start getting tired of them after a few more releases, but right now the injection of variety into the LEGO world was a great thing, IMO.

I'll probably get it for the very reasons you state, it's just that I never liked quidditch. Don't get me wrong... I was annoyed they left it out of OOTP because it's part of the story, but I just never really thought it was so great.

That's the thing... they can't sell you something incomplete and then just say "sorry," they have to do something!

Given that series 1 and 2 have barcodes, they should just send you a freaking replacement, then (even if they require proof of purchase).

My first cape. I just used the regular LEGO cape for a template. The lady at Joannes did not know what fabric it was, and couldn't think of anything quite like it, so I just walked around looking at the fabrics. I was specifically looking at the cut edges to see which fabrics didn't fray so much, although I think the technique of using wet glue around the cut lines to keep it from fraying would work on regular fabric. Anyhow, I noticed this fabric was obviously cut, but still had a very neat edge - I wasn't even looking at colors, but this turned out to be perfect. It's microfiber suede, and looks like a leather cape on my minifigure. I just cut it out with scissors and got a leather hole punch (the package just calls it a "Revolving Punch"). One hole for the neck, a smaller hole for the other cutout where it folds over... Now I just need a hood. I have the LEGO ones, and I think it would go well with this, but I want my character to have red hair...

Hi Pet-Lego, welcome to Train Tech... I also prefer last year's train station to this years. I don't like the new train sets though. We call the time we stopped "playing" with LEGO "dark ages," and I had a mini dark ages between about 2005 and 2009, and missed the transition of trains from 9V to PF. While I grudgingly accept PF, none of the train sets have really done it for me. The Emerald Night is fantastic, and I wish they'd make more high quality trains available separately, but the sets just aren't so good, IMO. The train tech forum really is inspiring, isn't it?

Storage and Sorting LEGO I don't think that really answers you're question... which seems to be how to do it quickly, which I can't answer.

You never know what some people want. I wouldn't want broken; damaged is OK sometimes for filler, but that would exclude things like the window in your picture. Discolored... I would retrobright them and see what you get. It's a pretty cheap experiment to see if you could salvage what's in that container. I've never tried it on blue, though.

Brick, Modified 2 x 4 with Wheels Holder Old, Clear Bottom Follow the link and see what sets it was used in.

I agree... more than good enough to form an opinion, IMO. At only $20US, it's a pretty decent value for 5 classic minifigures, even though I don't like quidditch. I figure if I'm going to buy $300 worth of Harry Potter, might as well get this one, too. That would be cool; one of my biggest disappointments with the whole new wave of Harry Potter sets is that Luna has the freaky glasses on. Maybe like all the other sets her head is two sided, but otherwise it looks terrible for anything except the train. Don't get me wrong... I'm thrilled having new HP sets, having missed most of them the first time around.

Out of the six new sets, this was one on my "don't care about" list, but when you consider how cheap it is and how many "classic" figures you get, including Dobby and the death eater Lucious heads, I don't see how a Harry Potter fan couldn't get this set. Still not sold on quidditch, which I never liked anyway.

I have VMPlayer on my Ubuntu Linux, and even with 3GB of memory (1.5 given to VMPlayer) it's as slow as sin. Moreover, I'm thinking this new version might use some directx for nicer effects... which might not work on my VMPlayer. I hate dual booting.

Yeah... so... I neither have room for a table nor a setup on the floor (if I had room on the floor, there'd be room for a table, after all). Maybe I can talk my wife out of having a guest bedroom. BUT, when I do set up my trains, I prefer a table: Less dust and dirt. Animals don't mess it up (two dogs). More easily movable. Bad back. Well... not that bad, but I don't want to make it worse. A "real" train or city layout will have lighting in buildings and remotely controlled switches, which are easier to wire on a table. Yes, you get the very important drawback of not having nearly as much space as AFOL12v's attic... but I don't have that much space anyway, and if I did I would combine several tables, which might even make it possible to get to the far side (by going underneath) to work on stuff... IOW, keeping the tables away from the walls and more towards the middle, and you can reach every side - that's what I would do given that much space. Now, if I had that attic, I might take the floor approach because the higher you go, the less room there is... doesn't look like much room for a table. But if we're talking preferences as opposed to pragmatism, I definitely prefer a table. As for problems with warped/misaligned train tables... I would expect to make them myself. I made a workbench for my workshop, and it's thick, heavy, and very solid, and after years the surface is still completely flat. There are designs for train tables (LEGO and otherwise) to make them so they are easy to align and be leveled with each other, and I expect that, instead of buying a couple of those tables with the folding legs that I'll take the approach of making them myself.

Yup... I think a Sapphire (blue) Night would be awesome... On BrickLink: Black (106) Light Bluish Gray (27) Lime (48) Red (55) Reddish Brown (24) White (113) Yellow (38) Brown might be OK... maybe yellow... but none of the colors really float my boat. All black might be interesting.

The problem is, as I've stated, you are vastly overestimating the community that will buy their products. You also treat it like they are some big company with hundreds of employees when it's not, and it won't be as a "hanger on" to LEGO in the same way that a company that makes parts for a particular model of Ford cars will never be as big as Ford. They sell products for what they feel is a reasonable price to give them a return on their investments... it's essentially just a couple of guys who, disappointed with what's available for LEGO, started making their own. I'm just suggesting you are making a bigger deal out of their operation than it is. There's just not a large enough market for them to lower prices and make it back in volume. Exactly... since TLG has resurrected Harry Potter, though, it would be interesting to see some Centaurs in there, and I wonder if TLG has something up their sleeve (perhaps the big deal Svelte was insinuating last month). Regardless, I could see buying a few of these to supplement the Harry Potter sets, but for right now, I would include them in my own LOTR MOCs or alongside any castle themes as statues, which is why I want gray, personally, although I'm slowly being convinced that other colors might be OK... if I get the Hogwarts, I think I'll go ahead and order at least one (there's a few other things I want, too, but I just got an order so I think I'll wait and see what else I might want to save on shipping). There's some inconsistency in what people have said about the Harry Potter sets... that they were supposed to resurrect the line up to first four movies/books, which is what's in the video game... yet we have Luna Lovegood and other characters in those sets, and the burning of the Burrow was Half Blood Prince; Firenze was back for OOTP, so I think he's appropriate in such a Hogwart's set.

Because you want an accurate gun... one that represents what you're actually trying to show in your MOC; otherwise stick with the LEGO one. Same reason I just bought a bunch of weapons and shields that look like the ones the Orcs had in the Lord of the Rings, and a staff and sword like Gandalf's, and Elven helmets... I could just use a plain bar for a wizard's staff, I could use the same sword everyone else has, I could use the shields TLG made for the Orcs... but I didn't, I bought a bunch of stuff because I want my MOCs to actually LOOK like the LOTR. If I didn't care, I wouldn't have bought them. And I bought mushrooms, too. Because TLG doesn't make them. I don't even have a use for them, I just thought they were cool. And I bought a few guitars because I thought they were cool. Ultimately, while a lot of us are oohing and aaahhhing these figures, I think you VASTLY overestimate the market for BrickForge products. Look... don't get me wrong... I wish they were cheaper, too, and you're free to voice your opinion, but we're just saying we don't think you appreciate the work they put into it along with the probably much lower sales volume than you apparently think they have.

Yeah... I have mixed feelings about it, too. I'd like to see EB implement a weighted rating system so that, based on all votes in all reviews, average is actually average, otherwise the ratings are skewed up, as most people vote "average" or higher. I have the last train station, and I like it for it's simplicity and suburban/country styling. While this set might be applicable to a really busy city, it looks like it would be out of place on most LEGO sets. The MODs people have done to add tracks look more like the subways I'm used to seeing. And I don't really like the Taxi, either. I also don't get why Andy thinks the trains are "designed" to be 8 studs apart. There's no reason they couldn't be four or any arbitrary number, and if there is some valid reason, I don't see why it's only applied to 9V/PF.

They have to charge a price that makes it worthwhile for them... I doubt they are planning on retiring to Tahiti any time soon. The price also bothers me, it is expensive... but when you consider the work and volume involved, they have to charge what they have to charge.

It's hard not to with that look on the Cheerleader's face. It's not the expression of someone getting a shot of penicillin.

Most of the red bricks are pretty common... 1x6 plates, a few 1x1, 1x2, and 1x4 bricks, those curves, red cheeses, a couple of 4x8 plates. I went to BL and looked at the pieces in the set, it tells you exactly how many of each you need, so I went through piece by piece and put what I had in a container, and made a wanted list out of the rest. It didn't cost that much, although I had to order from multiple stores. I only wish the curves came in blue so we could make a Sapphire Night. It would be illegal for someone to make a mold of that piece to make and sell blue ones... but it wouldn't be illegal to make them for your own use.

I need gray for statues. In fact, that's all I want... I just received an order from BrickForge... sans Centaurs because, as of right now, I just want them for statues.