fred67

It's actually not - I see old threads on EB get bumped all the time: when somebody bumps it with "that was cool!" they flamed, when they bump it with something useful - an update, or their own version of something - something useful and relevant, they don't get flamed. Yes... the signal to noise ratio is decreasing. That's always bad. EB is nicer than other forums for now, I don't think the people that run it want it to become what other forums are. I have to say that this topic, in fact, IMO, actually belongs in the general forum, because it's happening everywhere, not just in Technic.

Those particular containers are from the Container Store; I do not know their availability in Europe. These cases are far superior to the smaller ones I've gotten there (see the Simpsons display case); their visual clarity is quite good. The come with stackable parts to make the display multilevel, but you can fit more figures in the case if you make your own stand out of LEGO. The containers themselves are also stackable... before this I had a stack five cases high - the bottoms fit around the top of the case below, so they don't slide. These are excellent cases for the price, for whatever you want to display.

How do you see at a glance what handed a minifigure is? That's an interesting skill. I have a quite a few figures on display; I hesitate the post the picture again, because it's in at least two other threads related to minifigure displays, but what I've done, at least with CMF is that I get a complete set for display, a complete set for posterity, and then the ones I think may be useful in MOCs (or even as additions to other themes). They are all separate - the ones on display are on display, the ones saved are in boxes, the ones I want to use are in sterilite drawers. On top of CMF I'm building a collection of Superheroes, but generally buying them separately or in sets specifically for a Superhero display, so I don't need to keep the set together. If you follow the link above, you'll see the Superhero display - it's currently lacking; I've been putting 32 figures in each display case (exactly two series); the superheroes, though, have more than that and a bunch of ones sitting on the outside that will not fit... including a Groot, which will make another display a lot more difficult. You can also see in that picture the Simpsons as a separate display - it's only the first Simpsons, I will put them in a larger display with the second series when I get a chance.

NICE! So it's definitely a guy in a skeleton suit, not a skeleton, and that's interesting, I suppose. I do like the Vampire lady, as I never got anything like it during Monster Fighters. HATE Frankenstein rocker, HATE it; if they'd have just given it a normal face, I could use the guitar for something else, but no, they had to give some goofy expression, making it useless.

I agree the large bricks can be useful; it may be true that for a blanket of snow on my Hoth display, I could have used 16 2x4's for every 8x16 I used, but then I'd have to connect them all on the bottom (I only used plates on the bottom to join all the corners of the large bricks). I also have a number of gray ones that will do quite well to make a fairly easy to build and sturdy bridge/elevated train. It's both an economy of parts (when you consider the "glue" pieces to hold all the smaller bricks together) and structural integrity.

It's all the same thing, though, you guys are just mincing words. Cost savings = higher profit, paying employees from cost savings may not equal higher profits, but it equals no loss (or less loss) of profit than you would have otherwise. If it wasn't financially beneficial to produce products in China, companies wouldn't do it - it's really just that simple. It doesn't matter if it's just plain cheaper, or they avoid taxes or tariffs or shipping costs... the bottom line is it saves them money.

Right... so we go back to the answer "to increase profits." I still don't know why it's even a question.

I understand the hesitation to have a waiting period, but I look at it this way: I've been a member for over five years... what's one day more or less? If someone really wanted to be a member, a short waiting period wouldn't deter them.

I'm sure they have had a million suggestions, but have they considered like a 24 hour waiting period after creating an account before being able to post?

Hi, Amy! Surprised at how few people actually said it. I feel your pain... there is a thread on LEGO regrets where I detail how I can't let some sets pass me by (because you know they'll be too expensive later on, and you'll regret missing them), but while I can occasionally make time, I have no place to display the sets once built. I have many sets on shelves, socked away in closets, a pile on my chest of drawers... occasionally I box up a displayed set just so I can build another one. I do get buy making smallish mocs on occasion, but even my microscale castle grew too large. I returned to LEGO (long story short) because of trains, too. It'll take time to build up a collection - I'm not fond of the sets, and the "real" AFOL type sets are few and far between - Emerald Night, Maersk, and Horizon Express - all retired, and nothing new or even announced. Look to non-city themes for some trains, especially if you're interested in steam. The Toy Story 3 train was over-the-top "toyish," but a pretty fun set, anyway, like a classic toy train. But the Lone Ranger train was, IMO, absolutely one of the nicest trains TLG has ever made.... smaller than, but on par with, the Emerald Night, IMO, and you can buy them on BL (at least in the U.S.) for 1/4 the price of Emerald Night (less than $100 US).

It's substantially nicer than the 4504 (what I have); don't know how much they can improve on it, and I guarantee it'll cost a lot more. If you can get a used on on ebay or BL for a decent price, I'd go for it.

I ran across these McFarlane Walking Dead sets in Target today... was tempted to get; after seeing better pictures online, I really think I want it - the floorboards and fishtanks are impressive, if a little TOO detailed for LEGO: Governor's Room and random figures, Amazon has a lot more than what I saw at Target... search for "McFarlane Walking Dead building set." EDIT: Detailed look at floorboards.

I recall when it came to 2x4s, expertly packing the cups had an edge over buying the box. After prices went up, I think the cups became even more economical. But that assumes you have hours of time to stand there expertly packing cups. For $80 I would gladly buy the box. The question I have is (and I'm surprised we haven't seen this yet), what they have at my store - the Sugarloaf Mills location in GA. They're probably the worst kept-up lists on brickbuildr (2.5 years old) and wallofbricks (much more recent... within six months or so, but only showing 5 parts). If I were a store manager, I'd make sure those sites were up to date.

I'm not adverse to other companies... I mostly stick with LEGO, but have some MB sets; got a Kreo USS Enterprise, got some "knockoff" superheroes (the Fantastic Four), but after watching the video I would say these don't look good at all... the shininess and complexion on the face is bad, it looked difficult for an adult to put it together, and the hips/legs part just didn't look good at all.

I'm glad people keep bumping this thread to remind me to send in my email....

Well, it's actually not a proper skeleton, is it? We have skeletons - they are not full figures with painted on ribs, they are "actual" LEGO skeletons. That should lead us to believe that it's a skeleton costume, not a skeleton... so it may not look right for a skeleton head, but I think it looks OK for a skeleton mask (or white face makeup). Which, of course, is why I don't like it. I want the ones I can actually use as monsters.

Honestly, mine are all filler bricks with the interesting colors on the outside - each of the ones I've done is different using whatever seemed easiest with what I had on hand. The only things besides basic bricks are some 1x3 curved slopes, some 1x1 plates for under the slope: I also used either some tiles to fill in the sides of the short rows (where there would be no minifigure display plate). Honestly - all six I've done (so far) are actually all different... there's no "plan." Latest picture (from January): cmf_display on Flickr

On the whole I hate these "constraction" figures - but this Stormtrooper is absolutely amazing.

To answer your second question first (and to be a wise guy), "to be a completionist." I understand the mentality all too well... I didn't buy Market Street, for example; I thought it was just ugly. But then I got into the modular buildings, and it's the only one I don't have. As far as CMFs go, I LOVE my fairly-complete display. My interest in them is waning, and I wasn't interested in, for example, the LEGO Movie series - so I only got the ones I want, but so far I've got all the regular series and both Simpson's series, either on display or waiting for me to build more display, and all the displays together is something to behold, with 13 regular series + 2 Simpsons series, that's 240 figures so far. cmf_display on Flickr This is the last picture I took of my CMFs, back in January. It's missing Series 13 and Simpsons 2; I also did not care for the LEGO Movie figures. I also didn't get TGB. But I can sometimes just walk up to those shelves and stare at and scan through all the figures - sometimes I do that just to get ideas for MOCs to build around them. So except for TGB and the LEGO Movie, I've got them all on display, and I have complete sealed sets of them all for posterity (except Simpsons 2)... maybe I'll donate them some day, maybe give to grand kids (my kids are teens now, not very interested in LEGO). Maybe make a fortune. Who knows. But I also have collected a TON of the figures to use in building my own stuff - so when I do that, I just get the ones I want, but I do want complete series.... however... I have decided that what I have is enough - I probably should have stopped at series 10; that's a nice round number to have all complete series, but as I said, my interest is waning, so for the first time since series 3 (except the LEGO movie), I didn't order a case for Simpsons 2 - I just felt packs and traded for what I couldn't find, and have enough to display and a few extras I can use for fun. I think with series 14, I'll just be getting a few of the ones I want; I'm not sure, though, because 14 would make an even number for displays (each display case has two series), but I may just fill it in with the figures from the LEGO Movie I did get, plus some of the series 14 ones - I don't know. But yeah, my CMF completionist days are over.

I have a pretty substantial collection of loose parts to use, and always feel like it's the wrong things. I have a whole shoe-box size bin of brackets, but still had to order a different kind to do the last thing I built... it always seems that way for some reason.

Of course - there's a recipe for ABS; the plastic isn't the problem, it's mixing the dyes correctly (they definitely had a problem with this at one point), and having good molds. There might be some other quality control problems (like pits and sprue marks), but I honestly have not seen any problems since maybe the first year of CMFs where some pieces were more translucent than they should have been.

I understand that - as I said, I don't come here to complain about it because I know what's going on and I'd rather they just continue working on through it, but I wanted to respond to someone regretting not being a supporter... they simply aren't missing out on anything, and I'm sure that when they straighten out the metal problem (pun intended, if you've been reading about their problems), that they will have enough in their store that people will be readily able to buy it at the same time, or shortly after, the backers get theirs.

My updated regrets, since this topic seems to have gained some steam. A.K.A. confessions of a LEGO addict. My biggest regret right now is all the sets sitting on shelves in my home "office,"... and in my office closet, my bedroom closet, and stashed all around the place because I have no room to display the things that I desperately would love to build. I have no room for a train layout aside from my yearly train layout at Christmas. Sometimes I box up a set that is sitting on display so that I can build a new set. I got into far too many themes. I was 7 years old when Star Wars first came out, leaving an indelible mark in my soul... but in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have added Star Wars to the list of themes I collected. Architecture was fun when it was three or four small $20 sets, but I shouldn't have kept at it as long as I did. Fantasy Castle was great because I was a LOTR fan, but for some reason I kept buying after Fantasy ended. I also swooped up all the last round Harry Potter and most of the Pirates of the Caribbean sets just for fear of missing them. I'm a lot better at picking and choosing now. I didn't even buy all the LOTR/Hobbit sets because, frankly, they just weren't that great. I've cut WAY back, from several thousand dollars a year on LEGO to well under $1000 now, and dropping... but there are still sets that I can't "miss," because I still like the theme (like modulars).

I'm sorry - I didn't think you were trying to complain, I just wanted to point out that, in retrospect, I'd rather have waited until I could order it from the website (like I did with plastic - because I already got those - shortly after ordering, in fact), because I have no doubt that when the parts are available they will be able to ship to backers and, shortly after, to new customers. That way my money wouldn't be in limbo for a year or more.

Ok, that's really quite cool... I may have to make this to put in my office. I don't think I've ever seen those ball pieces you used for Gary's eyes; are they legit? I will have to look on BL for them. (EDIT: found them) My only criticism... Spongebob's nose... using that piece for the tip of the nose makes it look like... well... something else.