fred67

I agree, and here's the twist - we often do family builds, which works well with separate instruction books and numbered bags. I may take book two and open the bags for that instruction book, and my daughter will take book one and open the bags for that one, and while we can sit next to each other and watch a movie or something while building, we don't get in each other's way. But when I build something big by myself, I can just dump it all out in one big pile. So I think the only complaint there is that some people may be missing out on the fun of just having a giant pile to dig through because they follow the instructions with the numbered bags... but they are still making their own choice to follow those directions. I'm one of those obsessives that can't mix, but that doesn't mean that I can't use it - a few weeks ago there was a Kre-O Star Trek Enterprise for cheap on a daily deal at Woot.com. I enjoy that theme (and have ordered custom uniforms from someone here on EB), but I hadn't made a large enterprise (I made a sort of in-between midi and microscale one to display with my figures). The overall set is terrible... the whole body is one piece and they "cheated" by having the "arms" fixed to the body. They did use a clever technique to lock the saucer and engine sections to the body and arms... but overall too big, specific pieces. But the pieces are good quality, I had no problem with the construction or the ship holding together. I thought that last castle was one of the best ones I'd ever seen; the only reason I didn't get one is because I preferred the fantasy aspects, and so had been buying a lot fewer castle sets. I can't understand why so many people didn't like it (just because of the color?). I got the one before it, and the Fantasy era one... and sadly figured I didn't need another castle. I don't even have room for the ones I have. But liking the Fantasy aspect, I had no problem getting Dragon Mountain! I do agree those big castle sections are not as good as brick built. This is one of those cases I think it's a valid complaint - it's hard to buy a lot of gray in bulk. Here's one I think may be unpopular. While I like this commercial: 1. You'd have to buy like $15k worth of sets to get those pieces in the quantity needed to build that house (and especially annoyed that I'd never ONCE seen the roof tiles pack in the stores... so popular they were perpetually sold out, and TLG apparently figured they couldn't keep giving the people what they wanted). 2. You'd have to spend MORE if you bought it using S@H pick-a-brick. Any LEGO-less (or LEGO-light) kid watching that commercial that told his dad "let's do that!" is in for some major disappointment. The there's this one: Where, with the last family shot, it looks like they got that whole building out of one bucket.

Agree with all of these... Well... I find it annoying, but they're just covering their megablocks... and doesn't Merlin run those centers? I'm not even sure it's a LEGO Group decision. I saved this for last, to go along with this: Because they are part and parcel to the same problem - LEGO spends a ton of it's profits on streamlining and finding ways to do things cheaper... so they can make more profit. The problem is that they pulled themselves out of their "black hole" by realizing they're the premium product, and as such they can charge more for their brand. Competing with Mega Bloks was killing them, the prices they were charging for some sets didn't even cover the cost of the parts in those sets. So they ramped things up a bit, and (and I'm thankful for this), they didn't compromise quality to compete at the low end - instead, they raised prices in order to stay in business. Jump ahead 10 to 12 years or so later, however, some of their later cost cutting measures quite obviously resulted in a loss of quality... so now we're at the point they're charging more AND compromising quality. The only reason they get away with this is their popularity... people will not stop buying LEGO (neither will we), so they have no incentive to do anything that benefits the consumer as long as the consumer puts up with the nonsense.

These themes, though, like Golden Girls and Daft Punk, are more likely to have gotten people outside the LEGO community to register and vote just for those set (like the Winchester, although I wasn't complaining about that). I'd be willing to bet that, at best, GG gets held over to see how well BBT does. Even then, it shouldn't be comparable, but that's often how marketing drones think. Let me ask you this: would you buy GG? Seriously?

Yes, that too... even http://www.altbricks.com/ only does browns/tans in that piece.

Agreed on all these points... it's not that I disagree with the others as much as have no real opinion. I thought the old car matched the style of the set well; I have huge complaints about Ideas and get really annoyed when people suggest that it's a valid venue to just show off your MOCs (no, that's NOT what it's for). What's worse is when there's a baseplate with a figure standing on it (made in LDD, no less), and it's supposed to be some new "theme." And how do they get a single vote, let alone 20 or 30? Who is voting for these? Is that because of a bump in popularity? Me neither.

How do you know it's fun to play with? Have you played with it? I had a "real" one of those when I was a kid, I don't think I ever bothered playing it to completion. I like the piano, too, but if it broke the rules, it broke the rules. I'd definitely like to see the museum more than anything else in this batch. Daft Punk? Really? stupid dead sheep shoes. I can't imagine anyone seriously wanting to buy the Golden Girls in LEGO. I'd rather see this over Daft Punk, at least it's funny:

It's not a risky topic... people wanting new bricks has been on EB forever; including this thread. For the record, I'd be happy with current designs of basic bricks being more widely available and in more (even just basic) colors. I'd like that more than new bricks.

I think TLG screwed up the LOTR sets... mostly pretty badly. I think TLG's profit margins are borderline greedy - several times more than oil companies, yet everyone hates when oil companies make profits. Along those lines, I think LEGO fans are too defensive of the company, and forget they are a profit driven, capitalistic company whose goal is to make as much money as possible. As a capitalist, I'm OK with that, but it seems like most fans are willfully ignorant of it. And continuing that thought, I think LEGO is too expensive, so much so that I only buy a small fraction of what I used to buy. I think TLG lost it's way with architecture, making far too expensive (and big) sets that adults/business types couldn't possibly put on a shelf in their office. I hate ninjago. I hate the classic yellow castle. I'm troubled by turning piracy into something "fun." Pirates were rapists and murderers. I'll stop there.

I'm going to have to go with Helm's Deep, also, because I don't have Tower of Orthanc (and likely will never be able to justify the price in my mind). The real problem is that most of the sets really weren't that great.... too many play features, too lacking in great models... I'd argued for years that LOTR was a viable theme, but really - and I know it's a tired and debatable argument - the theme should have been geared more for adults. The Hobbit movie, compared to LOTR, was much more geared for kids (just like the books were supposed to be), but the LOTR would make spectacular vignettes, but not play sets. I get it - LEGO is for kids, but I don't think it was a realistic expectation from TLG, and it apparently didn't do nearly as well as it should have (from anecdotal evidence). I also like the Pirate Ship Ambush, but that's mainly because I'm into ships, too. I removed the play features from the sets I got. I was sure I'd have to get them all when they were announced... I'm actually relieved they weren't that good (especially the Hobbit sets) and it saved my wallet a lot of cash.

I have a brand new, still sealed, guaranteed 100% accurate Simpsons series 1 set that I'd like to trade for a series 2 set (open/complete is OK). No longer interested.

Which is exactly why that store was charging more. When you go to the catalog, you can look up minimum prices, but they also give a number for quantity minimum... those stores know they can sell for a higher price because of shipping and convenience. I understand the frustration, but it's just how it works... I may have sounded a bit harsh, but I have a problem with the phrase "price gouging." BirdOPrey explained why, in my opinion, the phrase is often misused and the connotations it gives are misplaced.

Hidden charges =/= price gouging. It might be fraud; it might be a deceptive business practice; it might even be illegal. But it's not "price gouging." It might be a crappy thing to do, but it's not price gouging. The way the phrase was used seemed to be more applied to the high prices of the scarce LEGO parts, though.

There's no such thing as "price gouging." Nobody held a gun to anybody's head and forced them to buy LEGO. Prices are what they are through basic free market principles. Yes, I find it frustrating I can't buy the vintage LEGO I want at the prices I want... but it's not "gouging."

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?q=dog

I'm not adverse to modifying LEGO to suit one's needs, but (IMO) it needs to be clear (in cases where it's not obvious) that they are modified parts when you are presenting a MOC. That said, I think this is a great solution to the problem of not having the parts in the color you need.

Maybe if you're talking about passengers. Even then, you need to limit it to CSX and Amtrak, because a lot of light rail is fairly cost effective and difficult to compare to air travel (since you'd never travel those short distances by air... at least not until hovercars). NYC couldn't be NYC without rail.

I need to refer you back to the storage boxes I use... these Stanley organizers. There are 25 compartment (small) and 10 compartment (large) versions. For each version, the bins can be arranged and swapped between them - somewhat modular as the "this dude's" drawers were, if not exactly. On top of that, a much easier do-it-yourself project plays on the fact these containers have "lips" around the top, and therefore can slide into a "cabinet" that's got either supports nailed or glued in, or groove routed into the sides.... something like this: But if you make your own, you can do many things to it - make it more flexible, spacing the "rails" for the shallow bins allows the larger bins to be put in and mixed any way you want (the deeper ones are exactly twice the height of the shallow ones). My Stanley bins are just on regular shelves at the moment - I don't have room to build a large custom cabinet, but it's one of the first things I plan on doing when I get my own LEGO room. I was planning on routing out grooves in the sides instead of attaching rails, though. It's NOT as nice as what that guy did... if you've got that kind of time and equipment, go for it; but it does give you a somewhat modular arrangement of bins and a decent way to store them in a drawer-like rack. The only difference is you'd need to take it completely out and open the lid.

I didn't back plastic tracks, I backed metal, and have heard nothing about them. However, earlier this year they began selling the (hopefully extra) plastic track they had online, and I got some of that (delivered). If you read back, these parts would have been ones over what they needed to fulfill the orders for backers, and if you didn't get your backer orders, it was supposedly because they didn't have your full order (there were some parts they'd still be waiting on). I would look at their website, and if it looks like they're selling all the parts you ordered, and you still didn't get your backer order, I'd let them know about it.

These are absolutely awesome... if TLG had released Elves with mifigures like these instead, I'd be on it in a New York minute. Instead, while the builds are great, the minidolls are the most expensive part of the sets... if there were actually some market for them where I could trade them to get money back, I'd buy the sets. But I don't think you can get jack for minidolls, making the sets far too expensive, IMO. Your minifigures here are almost perfect minifigure alternatives to the minidolls... absolutely outstanding work, Dorayaki. The only thing I'd like to see, if there were actually to be made, would be yellow instead of fleshies.

That's fantastic... I'd prefer a Futurama CMF wave over another Simpsons one (not that I don't like the Simpsons). This Bender is PERFECT size and shape for a LEGO Minifigure... very cool, Ragnar.

I don't get it either... out of both sets, the "mechanical" ones (Vader and Grievous) look awesome - the "humans" look terrible - and they all look very non-LEGO-y, but I feel that way about bionicle and hero factory, too. Exactly. Today is the first day I'm seeing either one (been away for a couple of months). If I get any of these, it's as a fan of Star Wars, not LEGO, and I'd only get Vader, Grievous, and presumably Boba Fett. The ones with human heads are just scary looking.

This brought the first smile to my face today... thanks!

The fact is that most parents are not buying for themselves, they are not interested in LEGO, and they want sets that will make the kids happy: i.e., not advanced builds that don't even come with power options. They will keep making their simplified passenger and cargo trains (as I mentioned, these sell out pretty much everywhere every single Christmas) because A) that's what the kids want - they don't want a pretty model that doesn't do anything, and B) in order to make it do something, the parent has to buy a bunch of other things - track and power functions. Adult fans are a niche audience, and TLG knows it. And I have to repeat that they TRIED to make "L-Gauge" a popular train hobbyist gauge by offering all sorts of a-la-carte options - straight and curves that you could actually buy separately, a modular steam engine system that let you build the size and color steam engine you wanted, with or without a tender, as well as separately available rolling stock... plus a couple of the best diesels they've ever made (Sante Fe Super Chief and BNSF) and while I thought it was great at the time, it was a financial failure for TLG. I don't want to be a nay-sayer - I was one of the people defending LOTR as a viable license, as well as defending bringing back Harry Potter after the first time it was "canceled," but in this case I just don't see it happening. When it comes to money, TLG is once-bitten, twice-shy. Let me point out also that while they could make money with trains, if they have the option of doing trains or a theme that could make 50% more (or more) money, goodbye trains, because it's also a matter of how much they can physically produce.

That's actually not bad sizing, IMO. Sure, it looks like you get a lot more with the house, but the Kwik-E-Mart has a lot more of those little references that make it Simpsons. I agree with some of the complaining; a real Jasper behind a trans-blue panel would have been cool. You could always bulk up the roof with more foliage... I think it has a great foundation as a set, but could do with a few mods to make it better. Thanks for the pictures; I greatly appreciate being able to see reviews like this before dropping $200 on a LEGO set.

Wondering why CMF trading has effectively died... I know we can feel the packets and largely get what we want, but it seems like so many of us have a lot of wants and CMFs for trading. Are people trading somewhere else? Anyway, I'll throw this one out there: will trade a new, in bag, complete set of Simpsons 2014 for a new, complete set (possibly opened, but with all accessories) set of Simpsons 2015 when they come out. Anyone interested in pre-arranging that? EDIT (not worth bumping since there seems to be zero interest anymore on EB): So I've been getting Simpsons series 2, only need two more. Broke my Series 4 complete set to do some trades elsewhere, so there's a number of individual series 4 figures that I've added.