fred67

Yeah... I was thinking it must hold candles or something, although most typical homes back then wouldn't have even had that... what caught my eye was the tap for running water... I hate saying bad things, because it's really nice otherwise... the expressions on the couples faces, the bed, the fireplace, the exterior (particularly the front) are all great.

"Air Enforcer" technic helicopter. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=8444-1 One could do worse...

I don't think you need to cause problems just for asking for credit... they know it's some kid who doesn't understand what he did wrong, they'll tell him what he did wrong, you'll get credit, and most likely that will be the end of the story.

Wow... I know where you're coming from. I have three open bricklink orders, so in response to the thread subject: 1450 pieces in 43 lots in 3 orders. As I'm building I'm deciding to use different pieces, or constructing new parts to my modular castle where I discover I want something I don't have... so I've been going order crazy. I've decided to put a moratorium on ordering and just build as much as I can so I can make one cohesive list of what I need to finish and get it all in one shot so I don't get slaughtered on shipping charges with a bunch of small orders... so what I've been doing is ordering the pieces I needed at the moment, and bulking the orders up with pieces I tend to find useful and other pieces that I have long term plans for... but I'd rather just have one decent sized order for what I'm working on now. I may end up ordering PAB online at the local LEGO store... more expensive (*), but all new pieces and no shipping when ordered from the store, plus the rewards card (for which I have a whopping $10 waiting to be splurged!). (*) - I've discovered that in some cases, PAB is better priced, especially when you need a large number of certain pieces that are only cheap on BL in stores with a very small number.

Modular Bridge and Watchtower (205) by gotoAndLego 1 point Phoenix Corp. Fireball (214) by vynsane 1 point Modular Bank (219) by captaintuddle 1 point As usual, every single one of them was creative and inspiring. Thanks to all participants.

Hmmm.... if LEGO released your LDD model brick by brick, or nearly so, then I'd call it plagiarism... but I don't know if being inspired by ideas you've seen from other LEGO "artists" is necessarily plagiarism. I didn't come up with the idea of microscale, but I use it; I didn't come up with the idea of microscale castles, but I make them. I didn't come up with the idea of using clips as battlements on microscale castles, but I intend to use them. I didn't come up with the idea of "tinyfigs" (as they've been called on EB), but they populate my castle. I didn't come up with the idea of modular castle building (although I think I was the first to apply it to microscale castles). We all build on each other's ideas. On the other hand if, like you are saying with the train you are building, someone else decides to do the same train and the result looks remarkably like yours, are you really going to be able to complain they stole from you? You're just building a model of the same thing, after all. Oh, and about LEGO "owning" your upload... certainly, if that's what's in the "contract" before you upload the file, they are allowed to do it. Transfer of ownership of IP happens all the time, sometimes with compensation, sometimes not.

Like I said... I can't say why (although I am an HP fan) I want them, I just do... If it weren't for the people embarrassing TLG with their creative new products (yes, that even includes Mega), I doubt we would be as far along as we are with official LEGO, too... so hats off the brickforge, Big Ben, and all the others.

Why's he so unhappy? At least he's got a job! Excellent work, Ezechielle!

Huh... now that you mention it, what would be REALLY cool is a 12 Grimmauld Place done in the detail of the modular style... it could crossover with city fans, like myself. I disagree about not having a lot to do with it... you could have a nasty painting in the hallway of Sirius' Mom, a kitchen, some bedrooms, the family tree room, and a bunch of minifigures to go with it... INCLUDING KREACHER, which would be AWESOME! You could even have a room with Mrs. Weasily facing the bogart... Although... sadly, I don't think that'll be it.

It's great... I really love minis, and two things in particular about your model (that you addressed): the gate, and the off-angle building. Interesting use of 1x1 tiles for battlements, too, as opposed to the usual "clip" method. Bravo, juergs!

I think it would be a mistake to release the entirety of Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley in one giant set as opposed to separately available buildings, from a selling standpoint. I'm not saying it couldn't happen... TLG does stuff all the time that I don't understand. Again... most train set train stations have not been that big... Azkaban would be interesting, but I don't know how much of a "play" set it could be... you get the breakout, but that's about it. As far as being "too dark," I don't buy that line of reasoning from LEGO anymore; it seems to be something they say to avoid saying "we're not releasing any more sets in that line because it doesn't make enough money." svelte said it was big... very big, apparently, by comparison... didn't he say it was $199? That's HUGE! If it's not another Hogwarts (and I just can't see that happening), the MoM is the only place I think is big enough, and you could have SO MANY characters in little offices and so forth, and all the flues from the flue network... Malfoy manner would be cool, but we haven't seen it in the movie yet, and it would seem odd to make it even bigger than Hogwarts. I don't know what it is, but I'm loving the guessing game... it's a lot more fun than actually knowing what it is. I hope the beans don't get spilled too soon.

It's not that they're releasing them to fast, it's that we've been "begging for something like this for years" (we have? Yes, I wanted a variety of minifigures, but this isn't really what I had in mind), and TLG completely, by some HUGE margin that seems to make no sense to any FOL (adult or otherwise), underestimated the demand.... I personally have not seen a SINGLE pack for sale ANYWHERE, and it's not like I haven't been to a variety of places (multiple times). Granted, I was in the Amazon Rainforest when they were released, and didn't have an opportunity to look until several weeks later, but by the end of June they were nowhere to be found around here. Unfortunately series 2 had already been planned, from what I understand, so suffers from the same problem... not even remotely close to enough to meet demand. But from what I've read, series 3 will have a much larger run, so here's hoping. Agreed... unfortunately, like you, I was hoping for Fantasy era themes where we could buy a large number of them, like you could get with troll and dwarf battle packs... but such is life.

I can't wait to make a rock band vignette! I don't know why the centaurs are so popular... I mean, sure, I want one... or more, but the only reason I could think of for them being so popular is for Harry Potter fans. If people are creating fantasy era castle themes, why didn't fantasy era do better and last longer?

Someone posted a link to this article at the NYT. The comments are particularly entertaining.

It's really hard to objectively come up with a good value indicator of a good set. People often look for that "magic" $0.10/piece ratio, but that's only a wild ballpark figure that needs a lot of modification. If minifigs are worth $3/each - that's what they cost in the battlepacks, which I think is a fair deal considering that "build your own" minifigs are $3.33 each and come with only one head gear and one other accessory, whereas knights often have two accessories (like a sword AND shield) and often two headgear, if you count plumes and such - then the values of the sets including minifigures needs to be adjusted. If you separate out the 8 minifigs from the set (and value them at $24, total), you get $75 for around 933 minus about 48 pieces (for minifigs and accessories), which is 885, I think, it shoots well below that $0.10/piece mark. I've been wanting horses too, lately, and think we need a lot more... but most soldiers were foot soldiers, so I don't know what a good ratio is... but I just read a review of the prison carriage in another thread, and it's $10 for three minifigs AND a horse AND a crappy carriage... for $40 you could build a large carriage pulled by four horses and have 12 minifigs! So I think a $100 castle set is easily filled out with figures and horses for a pretty decent value, IMO.

1 point each to: Designer: Jan EntryID: 131 Name: Apartment Building Designer: SolidBrick EntryID: 105 Name: Farm House Designer: Captain Blockbeard EntryID: 108 Name: Golden Gander SteamPunk Airship Like everyone else, this was really difficult and hard to choose only three. I have a bias towards castle and city themes, though, and I think the SteamPunk models are are just incredibly creative. The ships were fantastic. The apartment building seems very Howard Roarke-ish; simple and practical and for a city scene there simply needs to be a place for people to live... not everybody can have a nice house or even townhouse, so I really like the idea. I like how SolidBrick did the roof on the farm house, and I like the airship "balloons."

I don't know how Eurobricks feels about second reviews, but thanks for posting as I missed the first (I go through... let's say, "mini" dark ages for months at a time sometimes). I didn't realize it was only $10.00; for that price, I'll buy a bunch... definitely worth it. The set itself is a bit disappointing, as I've heard others complain, because of the unrealistic "cage" that the guy could just climb out of, but the figures are great and your "MOC" at the bottom is a good way to deal with the drawbacks. The way I look at sets like this - build your own minifig costs $10 for 3 guys, and here you get three guys with more accessories than you'd get at build your own, plus a horse and carriage for the same price... a good way to stock up. The battle packs might be slightly better for just the minifigs, but when you add that you get a horse I think it makes it much more worth it to get sets like this.

Please! Don't be so touchy! If you don't consider it a "scam" because there's nothing illegal about it and you know the conditions before you buy, then call it a "scheme." It's a marketing scheme... hand over your money, and you might get what you want! If not, hand over some more money! What fun! Yes, I know your opinion: so then don't buy it! But we're here on a public forum discussing this product and people are giving their opinions... don't take it personally.

I would use it more if it worked better with Linux. It works OK using a Windows virtual computer, but it's not quite as nice (gets slow really fast with large models). I think it's a great way to plan certain kinds of MOCs; although the current MOC I'm doing (a microfig scale castle) I'm doing freehand, when I get back into doing some trains I'll definitely be using it. I will probably use it before then to practice doing rocky walls.

True enough, but it's still a marketing scam... a successful one as demonstrated both by the series 1 fiasco and many other lines of "blind" purchased items (like the aforementioned pokemon cards), but I don't think it's a particularly good way for someone to bulk up on minifigs... there's a bunch of minifigs you can buy in sets (castle battle-packs, for example, but also magnet sets, the classic series, and now they even have the build-your-own at the stores, and you know what you're getting!).

That's a matter of opinion... there's the occasional "adult" humor, but most of it is just stupid; I agree with you about Family Guy (I mean, really... one needs only think of Lois in her dominatrix outfit... giggity giggity). Moreover, there's a LOT of cool vehicles they could do with the Simpsons, which is something people seem to think TLG wants to make because that's what boys like, from rocket soap-box derby cars to the car Homer designed for Herb, as well as structures like the house, treehouse, the school, Mr. Burn's mansion, the power plant... I see a lot of possibilities there. Conversely, even if Family Guy were appropriate enough, I can't think of many sets you could build for it. But as far as "kid friendly" goes, I need to point out that Indiana Jones has some pretty gruesome stuff in it... from having a heart pulled out of a mans chest to the big mechanic getting chopped up by the blades of the flying wing... which they actually made a set for, for crying out loud! On top of that, they even had Darth Vader's transformation as a set... limbs chopped off, burned beyond recognition... As I pointed out in another thread, don't lose all hope - they said the same thing about Harry Potter (and for the reasons you mentioned... ooh, getting too dark and scary for the little children), yet here we are, with a whole slew of sets being released in October). Of course, the movies were planned ahead of time, and this will be the first part of the last one, but still... it was enough to make LEGO rethink their decision. I wonder if they go on Bricklink and say "Hey, those sets we stopped making are selling for four times more than list!" I don't, but then that's just me. And I have two kids who like the show... but when we were in the Disney Store the other day, they were completely uninterested in actually getting Phineas and Ferb merchandise. I wouldn't love it, but that's just me - I know a lot of you guys are really into the superheros, so here's hoping for you. I just don't see a lot of possibilities with Tron. Yes, the lightcycles... a couple of robot looking things... but then what? Of course, I'm thinking of the original, but I don't think the new movie will have that much more, but we'll have to wait and see. Yup... I hope that if they stopped pirates, that that's why. Not sure... while I like Batman, I'm not really into superheros... but who wouldn't want LEGO Wolverine or Iron Man? Yeah... like Tron, even if it's popular, what is there to build? A Tardis, and what else? When I'm thinking of "Dream Licenses," it's not enough for me to like the license... there needs to be realistically enough to make a few different sets every year for years. With Pirates of the Carribean, not only is a new movie coming out, but they've got an established set of three movies that they could make a number of sets from... and not just boats... I mean a LOT of non-boat sets, I can think of five or six big locations off the top of my head in just a few seconds.... and then there's the boats! And Pirates was so popular, even if the next movie isn't that bad, it will do well and people will want sets from it. So... I'd say the Simpson's, for me, would be great, and POTC, because both would have numerous sets. While I'd love to see LOTR, because I think there is nearly endless possibilities there, too, I'd be happy if they released some generic "halflings" and "elves" to go with the castle theme... unfortunately they're already off fantasy, but I think they could have done some great sets with those... they already had orcs (trolls) and trolls (giant trolls) for the bad guys. So big deal, they couldn't use the word "orc." In that vein, they should release a "heroes" set of minifigs for Kingdoms/Castle/Whatever. So, I'm trying to think what else I would like, but they're all unrealistic adult themes... LOST, 24, The Matrix... While we're discussing Disney Licenses, there's a new Narnia movie coming out, so that could be interesting... again. already established with two successful movies with more on the way. Ok, so... before I write a novel, in short, what I would definitely buy, and what I think TLG could get a lot of cool sets from, are Simpson's sets, and LOTR sets (or, as I mentioned, unlicensed sort-of LOTR sets).

YES.

Well... you're probably right about Batman... I don't know how well TDK sets sold (there was a couple, no? Alas, I didn't get any), but how well they sold is the crux of the matter... so yeah, if interest were drummed up by release of a new movie, there's a definite possibility... I say this as someone who had a sort of mini-dark ages (it's complicated) when Harry Potter sets were available... a couple of years ago, I was lamenting the fact that I hadn't gotten any and was pretty sad about it, and everyone kept say "it's over, they didn't sell well," or "kids like vehicles, they didn't like sets like Hogwarts or Hagrid's Hut!" And... well... now I'm eagerly awaiting October to get Hogwarts and Hagrid's Hut, among other sets!

Well... if we're guessing about the "big new, bigger than Hogwarts, super-duper exciting set," I doubt Hogwarts can be bigger than Hogwarts, and you're right... they've made enough. Unless they do a UCS Hogwart's Express, they've done enough butchering of that particular train that they should let it rest. The only thing I can think of that could possibly be bigger (and I'll assume they mean number of pieces), is MoM... the interior scene where they fought at the end of Order of the Phoenix, with the fountain and everything, and the flues would be pretty cool, but I don't know how interesting it would be to kids to play. I mean, yeah... epic battle, but it's a bit much for something that so little screen time.

Hey, welcome to the forums... you have great taste in those modular buildings, it would be great to see some NO style modular buildings from you!