fred67

I didn't. I was annoyed at first that they'd "ruin" the CMF line with a movie tie-in line, but I liked a lot of the figures in their own rights... Lincoln, Taco Tuesday guy, the barista, just not the robots, really. Even a couple Mr. Businesses. In fact, even before I saw the movie, I bought a couple of Unikitties just for the heck of it (because I thought they were funny). I just never really cared, at that point, that I wasn't be a completist (completionist?) because I felt like TLG stepped out of bounds (team GB, too). I got the Simpsons because I like the Simpsons, otherwise I'd have skipped them, too.

I guess if you want to be pedantic about it, you'd need everything, including Mr. Gold. However, Team GB, The Simpsons, and TLM are considered "sub-themes," so if someone wanted to say "I have all the regular series CMFs" (or numbered series), I think that's fine. I don't think you need to have Mr. Gold, the toy soldier, or the zombie skater; those are all "extras," and the soldier and skater aren't even blind packed. I could see the arguments both ways, though, so wouldn't argue with someone about it. EDIT: for the record, I have all numbered series up until 13, both Simpsons, some TLM. By the time TLM series came out, I was getting tired of how expensive these were - I also didn't see TLM until yesterday and didn't care for the "themed" series. So numbered series up to 12 I have in duplicate (some in triplicate), but now I don't care to be a completist anymore. I understand why TLG does things like "Mr. Gold" and exclusives for books, but that doesn't mean I like it or have to play their game. Along these same lines, I'm the last person to post in the CMF trading thread - four months ago (although I updated my last post in May). What gives? Is everybody magically getting exactly what they wanted, and nobody needs any older figures anymore?

Among a couple of other movies I saw today, I finally saw The LEGO Movie. Very funny; my favorite line is "the walls are crying!" I was a bit put off about what I felt was a jab at AFOLs, but all in all it was really quite good.

Before my local LEGO store became a full store (before that they were an outlet) they would pack containers to ship to people. I don't know if they still do it, or would do it internationally. However, when I've seen them do it, they spent zero time optimizing, so you would not get your money's worth.

Digression continued.... I don't mind reboots - Batman Begins was as reboot and it was fantastic; The Amazing Spiderman was a reboot, and it was fantastic. They were different than, but just as good (or better) than the previous versions. At the same time, some reboots are absolutely horrible. I loved Conan the Barbarian, but the reboot was terrible, ruining any chance of getting more of them. Now, while I haven't seen it, the Fantastic Four reboot seems to have been pretty bad, too, so you're not likely to see more FF anytime soon. So I think the complaint is more along the lines of that people are tired of seeing Hollywood not having original ideas, so they steal from the past and, too often, screw it up. It still seems like a lot of production companies want to take the old license and spruce it up with newer and better special effects because they can and, just like "original" stories, think the special effects is what people want. We can make fun of Ed Wood all we want, but I'd rather have a good story with bad special effects than the other way around (of course, Ed Wood had neither, but he insisted the effects didn't matter if the story was compelling). I won't mind an Indiana Jones reboot if they don't screw it up... Digression over, but on the same topic, it would be a chance for LEGO to do some decent IJ sets that they either never did, or didn't do a good job with in the past. If half the sets have to be for the new movie, then the other half would have to be for the old ones - a golden opportunity. Unfortunately, I don't think it will happen with a reboot - they'd only release new sets for the older movies if it was a sequel, because the license holder wouldn't want to remind people of the older ones. Believe me, they don't want the "current" generation of kids watching Raiders and then inevitably comparing it to the reboot, so they don't want to remind people of the older movies. EDIT: I want to add they could do IJ the way they used to do James Bond. It wouldn't really matter who the actors were. Unfortunately, while I like Daniel Craig a LOT as James Bond, the movies he's been in have had a lot more continuity between them. That screws up the formula.

It's really nice - the module size is fine, as most train LUGs use some standard size that is greater than a single baseplate (usually based on a fairly portable table size). The technique to make the road diagonally cross the tracks is extremely impressive! I don't mind not seeing ballast on the track - it seems to add a lot of detail that can overwhelm the rest of the MOC; the ballasting I've seen done is usually too noisy. If I were to make any constructive criticism, it's that, while the field is really neat (and it's always cool getting an "easter egg" in there), the rest of the natural surroundings seem really tame in comparison to how nicely detailed the road and field are. In other words, I'd bulk it up with a lot more foliage, maybe adding some more (smaller) brick built trees.

Maybe the timing was wrong for Avatar. It might have been revisited if the movie wasn't terrible (it actually wasn't all that bad, IMO, but apparently it didn't do all that well, either). I didn't get the sets, but I wish I had.

Yeah... it is pretty crowded. I've literally run out of space. The display case is from the container store, the relevant thread is here.

The profile bricks look great - I wish TLG would finally do this with more sets, and make 1x1, and 1x3 versions. Not sure how they'd do it, since the pattern is 2 bricks wide, but you could probably make it so you'd be able to rotate the brick to get it to match.

I thought I read a comment on previous pages (but this thread is too long) that said that all the figures were figures available in sets (or were available in sets) already. Maybe I misunderstood. But, not being a big fan of the BTTF Delorean, am interested in StayPuft and Slimer... they were not available in sets. It'll cost $30 to get them both, though. EDIT: I misunderstood what was written. Either way... $30 for a couple of figures. Perhaps they will be available in sets some day. Maybe they are toying with a Ghostbusters Firehouse....

It really looks great - I have no problem with those colors.

I'd been waiting to post in this thread; I recently cleaned up my collection and dusted everything off, and bricklinked a heavily modified MS. As of right now, this is how it's displayed: Modular by Fred Haab, on Flickr In my bedroom ("my" corner, so my wife doesn't complain). I have no room for any more - I have the TH and FB still in their boxes, as I have nowhere to put them. I still have not bought the Detective's Office yet. The furniture you guys are buying look really great for displaying LEGO, but I literally have no space left in my house that I could put another cabinet or bureau, or book case, and very little space for shelves. Those shelves on the bottom there can go down ONE more notch in adjustments, but I don't think it's enough to fit either TH or FB, although I could probably shift things around a bit.

Yeah... TLG calls it yellow. Is sand green really that expensive? With my filters (north america) on bricklink, it's cheaper to get the sand green in bulk pieces directly from LEGO S@H bricks and pieces.... 1x4 is $0.30 ($0.31 for 41 from a single shop on BL), 1x3 is $0.27 ($0.39 for 54 from a single shop on BL).

I think I'm done.... From the front: as stated before, I replaced white railings with black to make it more like wrought iron (and updated the first floor railing there, too); replaced the doorknobs on the gate with black, removed the upper flag pole because: 1) it didn't even match the color of the other flag pole, 2) I like the symmetry better without it, and 3) it had nothing on it - are they surrendering? The upper floor uses medium blue arches for the windows, which I'm guessing didn't exist when the set was made. The stepping on the roof is now symmetrical in colors, too. DSCF2381 by Fred Haab, on Flickr From the left: I mirror imaged the top floor so that the balcony wouldn't be right up against the wall of the modular it was next to. the set was designed square so that you could easily rotate the floors to your liking, but the front is obviously the front, IMO, so my only option was to mirror it. You see from this angle I also changed the floor in-betweens to make them all DBG instead of different colors on each level. You can also see the modified railing here, on the balcony, and I replaced the pieces in the "garage" with black fence pieces because I didn't like the way the original looked, and figured all the railings should be black. You can also see from this angle I replaced the tan headlight bricks that hold the pseudo-awning on that second story with medium blue. I'm guessing the didn't exist in medium blue back then. I was debating replacing the other tan ones with medium blue, too, but I think the tan accent there is not so bad. DSCF2382 by Fred Haab, on Flickr From the back - I got two more windows, but need two more. The tan "blocks" are just... really... uh... awful. You can also see I severely reduced the number of gray "grill" bricks (which I thought they used way too many to show weathering) with profile bricks and, while I was at it, did the chimney, too. DSCF2384 by Fred Haab, on Flickr Except for two more windows, I think I'm done making changes. I think it looks really good... it's hard to tell, but that's a darker yellow? More like a tan? I think it looks good, it's just not the "green" grocer anymore.

Sorry you're having such problems. BL is not reliable for things you need in a timely manner - some sellers will ship very quickly, others not so much, and even ones that send quickly sometimes have off weeks or months. We're spoiled by Amazon Prime. Unfortunately your only recourse is to file an NRS (non-responding seller alert); the details can be found here. You need to wait a week from order submission, if you still haven't heard from the seller you can submit the NRS. Two weeks (yes, two weeks) after submitting the NRS, if the seller still has not responded, you can cancel the order. Sorry... that's how it works. I know it doesn't help you right now. You can try ordering from someone else - in fact, you can ask on the bricklink forums for what you want, and I'm sure you'll get some sellers that will guarantee to send you what you need right away, but you'll still have this old order hanging over your head until it's completed, and if the seller decides to wake up and send you an invoice, then you're obligated to pay it (or get hit yourself with an NPB - non-paying buyer). The sellers there will likely disagree, but they often have the upper hand once you've submitted your order.

Cool - I live doing little 8x8's, and you did a whole lot with that space - really nice.

That's definitely a great start. The red arches are disconcerting - they really don't fit, but I'm not sure the you need dark blue, either. Tan ones would probably fit just as well.. I'm putting a few finishing touches on mine (had to order more pieces). I made all the changes I said I would except I need two more windows. The headlight brick is now available in medium blue (it wasn't when this set was made). They are not cheap (relatively speaking), but I got four to replace the bricks holding the small awning-like sections over the windows on the second section. I'm wondering if I should get four more to replace the tan ones to the sides (holding the T pneumatic pieces and the flag). I also think now that it's kind of busy in front - two flags with nothing on them (and why two different color poles? This set really makes no sense in a lot of ways), and a croissant, for some reason. Is it supposed to be a bakery? It looks kind of silly. I could either put more pastries in the windows, or just remove that croissant altogether. Not sure. I have bread and cookie and cupcake pieces, but I don't think they will be easy to see through the windows. If it's really a bakery, though, I don't think I'd have those kinds of windows anyway. I may replace them with clear, use two of them for the remaining two windows on the back, and fill it in with a proper bakery that you can actually see when looking at the set. I can do all of that... or just remove the croissant. I will take updated pictures today, anyway.... I think it's coming along nicely.

Yes, and we've seen them done in LEGO before, and they are a lot more "fun" than an Angel Fish, which leads me to believe it's not a typo or anything.

Agreed - many are upset with a lack of Eowyn. Agree with this, also - I have the house, but I'm really cash poor right now. I'm not exactly in any dire financial trouble, but I can't go spending another $200, and there's a lot of other stuff I'd like to get. But a $50 set? Maybe Homer's car? Bart's Treehouse? I think the problem with Simpsons is they consider it, for all intents and purposes, an AFOL theme and expect AFOLs to pay accordingly. Yes - they missed a lot with HP, as seems to be a consensus on this thread, and you have to shake your head at: 3 Hogwart's Expresses, and they were all TERRIBLE. Do the "Ruby" MOD on the Emerald Night, then you're talking. Given the EN price and that it came with a car, a Hogwart's Express in the same fashion with two cars wouldn't have been all that expensive - $125 or so. 4? Hogwart's Castles, none of them nearly expansive enough... Meanwhile, you get a UCS Diagon Alley (maybe not officially named as such, but with a 5 digit set number which, at the time, usually indicated UCS), which is quite nice and was very well received, but NOT a UCS Hogwart's? 3 failed trains with so many other sets they could have done? Don't get me wrong - I have a lot of HP sets that I really like! But I have to agree they really missed the boat. As far as updates with new HP "universe" movies coming out, I don't see the problem releasing sets based on the old movies - that's what they did with LOTR, after all, and that's what they've done with other movies (like Toy Story and Indiana Jones). Just adding more fuel to the fire, but yes and yes. Yes, as I just said above... I also agree they missed out a lot on Indiana Jones, as seems to be a common complaint in this thread, also. I get that some of these themes may not sell like Star Wars, and they can't continue forever - my opinion is that when they paused HP it was because sales weren't as high as what they wanted (I'm sure they were making a lot of money on HP, but if they can make more by redirecting resources to other themes, that's what they're going to do). I don't buy the "it was getting too dark" smokescreen, as evidenced by the fact that it never got any lighter and yet they released a whole new wave after that. I missed out on Indiana Jones - it was at the start of my coming out of my dark ages and I wasn't really interested in anything but trains at the time. That's on me. I'm just glad I was able to get the Temple Escape on clearance at the end; I definitely would like to see more.

There are fewer and fewer that I'm interested in, but I still like building - I think I've bought more from bricklink this year than I spent on new sets. Still, I don't think that answers the question... Yes... actually ANY dire financial need would keep from buying, and would probably prompt me to sell as much of my collection as possible. However, I also don't think this answers the question... Would you stop coming to eurobricks? Would you give up on LEGO entirely, even if you could still build for free with LDD or something? Would you actually abandon all possibility of buying LEGO in the future? Delete all your pictures and give up on all your LEGO friends? If I had such a dire financial problem, and I stopped buying entirely (and decided I'd just never get back into it), and sold every single piece of my LEGO collection, I would probably stop coming to Eurobricks (what's the point? To be disappointed at all the new stuff coming out that I'll never buy?); I would probably then start losing touch with my LEGO friends, because dwelling on LEGO that I will never have would make me a little sad. Over time I'd probably even go and free up flickr space for other pictures, asking myself why I'd bother keeping it all. So... yes, it could conceivably happen. Just very doubtful. I can picture where I just put a moratorium on any new LEGO purchases; I can even see selling a lot of what I have, but probably not all of it, I'd probably keep a few knick-knacks at least - a couple of minifigures, some of the customized things I've done.

I actually think the angler fish would be more likely in LEGO. I also hope the train is the big set, and the gingerbread house some small bonus set. I'll be pretty disappointed if the Christmas train is like the Emerald Express.

Well, I've been completely in the dark about Dimensions because, knowing it was a video game, I knew it was something I wouldn't be getting. But now I've seen those expansion packs on Brickset and was like "wow!" I would really love some extra Ghostbusters and LOTR stuff. Then I saw the prices, and now I'm really sad about it - I can't afford those just for the figures. It's very disappointing to me, although not a surprising move on TLG's part. I can't believe it'll cost me $15 for a Slimer.

Ironically, only the guy singing about it didn't care.

Yeah... castle with some fantasy "slightly steam-punkish" sounds interesting.... now it sounds awful. I wouldn't hold my breath for elves.

The bottom line is they should offer bulk (even small bulk) purchases online. Unless you have some special arrangement (like LUG bulk purchases), you can't buy 100 white 2x4's for anything less than 100 times the 2x4 price. Part of the reason PAB online is so expensive is because after you submit your order, someone has to go fulfill it. But if they automated it and sold 100 packs of various basic pieces in a specific color, they should be able to do it a lot more cheaply than online PAB, and make more profit than in-store PAB (for savvy buyers, anyway). The best they've done in the past is offer certain limited packs of colors of limited (but not exclusive) types, like "black plates," and "red roofs."