fred67

That doesn't make me happy... up until now I only wanted one or two of each of the collectibles... if they do elves, they'll be like the Spartans are now... probably even worse. I wish they just did Fantasy one more year to do elves before moving on to Kingdoms. Just my two cents. Still... I don't get the OP either. Castle/Fantasy has reached end-of-life, a new theme emerges... it's the cycle of li... uh, I mean, the cycle of LEGO themes.

Wow! Very cool... no wonder red chairs are so expensive - what a great use for that part! I love the contrast of red and black... and the array of "thrusters" on the back ads just the right amount of "other" color. It's a very cool ship with a great design. Good job there, Tervlon. I wish I got to go to those conventions...

I don't think it's a religious argument... nobody is writing in support of the ideology or teachings of Scientology. Just because I don't think their completely non-offensive ad shouldn't be censored does not mean I support them. It's a discussion about an organization advertising on EB (even if via Google), and whether EB should proactively monitor ads and filter out... what? What they find offensive? What they think others might find offensive? That's folly. If you value freedom and liberty you must understand people will do and say things you don't like, but until they violate the rights of others, you have to accept it.

Because that they are dangerous is only your opinion. Where are all the dead bodies if they're so dangerous? Edit: Or do you mean the ideas are dangerous? If you want to take that position, you open up a whole can of worms.

How is a banner that says "Scientology Today" intolerant? I don't want to play, I know what you mean... but it boils down to this... YOU don't like Scientology, so YOU feel that EB shouldn't carry their ads. Well... I don't like WalMart, so I will complain when EB shows an ad for WalMart? No... I'll shrug it off and move on.... unless the ad itself was like, you know, how to butcher kittens to make a pie... but then the content of the ad would be offensive.

If you're going to power it with 9V motor (assuming you mean the tender mod), there's no reason to even have the gears at all... just remove them, all they do is create friction.

I know Scientology is pretty well hated, and I'm no "Scientologist," but to think that a site that runs off(*) advertising should censor ads because of their own political or religious ideology doesn't seem particularly "progressive" to me; especially an ad that, in itself, doesn't say anything controversial. (*) EDIT: I don't know if that's true... perhaps just "subsidized" with advertising.

The Witch shouldn't be that difficult... the clue is perfect, you just might find yourself having to read through a few threads to find it... and like me, you may have missed it the first time because there's so much to look through... but the clue is all you need.

Available right now from US Shop@Home!

Available to order RIGHT NOW from US Shop@Home!

As of right now they are available for pre-order from Shop@Home, estimated ship date September 20 for most (except the train and castle, but they are still available for pre-order).

As has been pointed out in the Series 2 minifigure thread, they are now available on U.S. Shop@Home, but what is more interesting are the other things they listed (they aren't "available" yet, though)... The Winter Village Bakery has been there for some time, but they've added both the City and Kingdoms Advent Calendars, and all the new Harry Potter sets. There's probably more there that I'm not interested in, that's just what I found looking around. BTW, it seems too annoying to find the series 2, so here's a link.

I was going to say something... there's a particular search term that the EB search says it can't find... but Google had no problem. I don't know what to say without giving things away.

That's what I was saying... "advanced" meaning he's not using LEGO the way we are, he's probably just gotten a few sets and wouldn't have one. It's only derogatory because you interpreted it in the worst possible way that statement could be interpreted.

I'm curious who didn't already know this! I use two of these to separate plates all the time, and only one is needed to take a plate off a brick. About the only time you can't use it is when a plate is in the middle of a larger plate. Of course, I don't expect a typical five year old to be "advanced" enough to have one, let alone two.

Yes, it would be wrong, according to the rules... none of the "valid" pictures are in this thread.

In my experience, oxyclean acts as a catalyst (something that does not affect the outcome, but makes it happen faster), but it's also a cleaner, so it can remove dirt and oils as well as helping restore color, so if you can find it then try it. Otherwise you will just have to leave your bricks out in the sun longer (in my experience). As you guess, hydrogen peroxide is a liquid available in different concentrations. Two hours is not enough for really discolored bricks. With oxyclean, I put the container out in the sun before I go to work and it's ready when I get home, so 8 or more hours. Without oxyclean, it takes several days. That is my experience, anyway. You don't really have to shake or stir the jar, in my experience, although it would not hurt. Sunlight is always necessary... both for discoloring and fixing the bricks, ironically. Don't know about recycling, but I don't see why not. It's pretty cheap here, so I just dump it.

That's FANTASTIC, Hinckley! The texture on the cottage walls is brilliant.

FINALLY! Spartan and witch... NEXT! Edit: You know, you're eating into my MOC time... just want y'all to feel guilty.

Start with what super curry max wrote, but keep in mind you don't need oxyclean, it just seems to help go faster (in my experience). I don't know about Italy, but you can't buy 100% Hydrogen Peroxide solution in the U.S., as far as I can tell. Some places you can get higher concentration, but all I have been able to find is 3% hydrogen peroxide (they sell you a container with 97% water and 3% hydrogen peroxide). I could look in other places, but 3% works good enough for me.

There's no "right dose." At only 3%, you don't want to dilute it any more than that. My first time I just used straight 3%, but it took several days to really work (and the plastic ended up being "soft" and needed to "cure" for a few days after that).

WOW! I never had any pieces that yellowed (although they were pretty bad). That's some incredible results, although my experience differed from yours... before I heard about using Oxyclean, I just used hydrogen peroxide and had to leave the bricks out for four or five days. With oxyclean, less than one day's worth of sunlight (maybe 9:00am to 5:00pm) is enough to make them clean. Sorry, I don't know what oxy products are available in Italy... but all you need is hydrogen peroxide (they say 30%, but I just use 3% without diluting it, it's pretty cheap) and a container to put the bricks in to leave out in the sunlight. You don't need Oxyclean, it just makes it work faster (super curry max's experience notwithstanding), but I believe the active ingredients in most "oxy" products is just sodium percarbonate and soda ash. You might also look for products labeled "Oxi" instead of "Oxy."

Are you guys serious? The whole point of blind packaging is to get you to buy more, not less... you buy more because the likelihood of getting a particular minifig that you want is less. They didn't intend for people to be able to know what was in the package, it's supposed to be a blind purchase, like buying gaming cards (like Pokemon or Yu-gi-oh), you end up with stuff you don't want... stuff you paid for, in order to get what you do want. You want five spartans? You'll have to take the baggage of 8 traffic cops, 5 pop singers, etc., etc. The marketing strategy has been around for ages, and it works well. If TLG wanted you to be able to just go buy what you wanted, they wouldn't sell them blindly, and in that case they would make more of what's in demand. I suppose you could argue this is what they should do, and as a consumer I would agree... I would buy a complete set anyway, and then buy more. Again, I don't hold it against them... I'm sad they went the blind packaging route, but it's a proven marketing strategy based on making a higher profit. LEGO is a company, they need to make money, the more the better. They aren't a bad company... they are better than most when it comes to working with the community, they sponsor a lot of stuff, work in education, and because it's a privately held company are not at the behest of stock holders (and can't use "stock holders" as an excuse for bad behavior, like so many public companies do)... I like TLG, I really do... but ultimately their goal is to make money, if they don't make money they can't do the benevolent things they do, either. Believe me, as a parent, it's not a "fun" way to do things... If your son, using his saved up money to buy a whopping 5 minifigs and saying "I hope I get the ____, I hope I get the _____" over and over all the way home... and then dealing with the reaction when he doesn't get it because AFOLs and TFOLs raided the box of all the desirable figures with their barcodes is NOT FUN for the child or the parent. I don't hold it against those of you who did this, I'd do the same thing if I could even find them for sale anywhere (just to get a complete set), I blame LEGO for this kind of marketing and hope your strategies to figure out what's in the packages for series 3 and beyond fail miserably. Maybe they should uses boxes instead. If they're going to blind market, it needs to be blind. If they can't figure out to really make it blind, then they should just sell them as what they are outright. Ultimately these minifigure series are just completely awesome, and I'm glad TLG made them... but I still have not even seen one in a store... not series 1, not series 2. Finally I bought a set from BL, and I just went ahead and ordered a box from another company for series 2. Don't know what I'll do with series 3... I suppose the BL buyers might open the packages and still sell them as new (resealed in baggies or something). What they should have done, if they really wanted you to buy ones you didn't want, was package them four to a box, but you know what you're buying.

Why not? I don't get why you wouldn't... I like LEGO as much as anybody, but they are a profit driven company, not a charity. I don't hold it against them.

That's unbelievable... where in the USA are you? My LEGO store has no series 2 minifigs, no calendars, no winter bakery...