fred67

It's funny because it's true. Really, though, I do think they "care" about us - we have money, too, after all. But they won't do something that is guaranteed to lose them money - like make 9V train motors again.

I was answering a question. That's what we do in threads like this, we talk about things. And yes, the female Samurai has lipstick... that's the point. Compare how they did each one. They went for the cartoon effect on the cyclops, and the serious effect on the samurai... that was the point I was making.

I think, as I pointed out in the voting thread, the problem with the cyclops is that we can take all the previous mythological creatures "seriously." If you're going to take a B-movie robot and make it pink, that's one thing, but a lot of us like mythology and take it "seriously." The lady cyclops just ruins it... makes no sense, doesn't fit in with the other mythological creatures. Line it up next to the other cyclops, the minotaur, the Medusa... even if you include the non-Greek mythology and add in the mermaid, merman, and genie... put them all together, and the lady cyclops just looks like a bad joke. Put it this way - imagine they made the female samurai the same as the male one, but with pink armor and lipstick - then line up all the historic fighting figures we've gotten and see which one doesn't belong. They managed to do that one right.

From what I understand, while supplies last, you get a free calendar with some minimum purchase - only at the brick and mortar LEGO Stores.

If you actually wanted it to be timeless (and I would), it would be just the basic minifigure... instantly recognizable as LEGO, and no one asking "who is that supposed to be?"

Just placed my order on S@H. As we all knew, they are offering set 2 of the 2014 Winter Village extra sets on orders over $99. I'm trying to double check my order to see if I got double points, but I don't think I did. I'm not going to go through the list, but the number of sets on sale jumped from in the 30s to over 70, yet absolutely nothing I was interested in. Some LEGO Movie sets (none of the popular ones, it seems), 1 Hobbit set (Dol Goldur Ambush), a bunch of Chima sets, TMNT... I didn't notice any new Star Wars (just magnets they already had). I ordered the Parisian Restaurant; not only was it enough to get me the bonus set, but I had $10 in VIP credit and it's not one that you can get cheaper elsewhere. I guess that's why I no longer get invited to the VIP events, because I started figuring that buying a $30 set at Amazon for $25 was markedly better than VIP points. But now that I go back to look, and not surprisingly in the least, S@H is having a meltdown... I guess I got my order in just in time. If you're having problems accessing, but want to see what they have on sale, this website was right on, from what I could tell (although I don't think I noticed Kingdoms Joust).

I knew I would want the Egyptian warrior, and I was right. I like the others, but had to pick him. The hot-dog guy as part of the running "in X costume" doesn't really work - I don't think it was meant to be in the same vein, as the rest are all animals (real or otherwise), and that there were two in the same series really indicates that, IMO, that's not what they were going for. I really think he's more of a city sidewalk salesman figure... but then it's all whatever you want it to be, isn't it? Then there's that damn cyclops... I hate it. I hate the make up, the lipstick... but that's because we often want to take these seriously (in as much as that's possible). The mythological figures are ruined (ok, not really, but kind-of-sort-of) with the inclusion of this one. I suppose if you don't include it in your cyclops MOC now you must be misogynist. But seriously (in a different way), TLG is targeting kids, and they want the figures to be fun, not serious.

I'm one of the people that thinks that TLG has been phoning it in on CMFs (perhaps putting too much effort into the non-regular series ones), and I haven't really been thrilled about a series in a long time, but this one is definitely well above average, IMO, one of the best releases yet. I know it annoys me when it seems like 90% of the people say that about every new release - I haven't been this pleasantly surprised in a LONG time. In this case, it's easier to point out the ones I don't like. The Cyclops, like the female robots, is too cartoony and over-the-top. I think they could represent female versions of things a lot better with a little thought put into it... and, of course, robots shouldn't be male or female, they should just be robots, but I digress... Now there are figures I like, but still have a bit of criticism for. The alien looks a bit too cartoony, too. I can deal with that, though... another figure for my B-movie studio MOC (that is still currently just in my head). The king does indeed like the Burger King, but at the same time is fairly awesome. The paleontologist (I'm guessing) ... her eyes are just weird. I know she's wearing glasses, but it just gives bug eyes and looks crosseyed. I'm not really digging it. Pleasantly surprised at the sheriff, evil wizard, and space marine - all of which I didn't think I'd like at all, but love. About the only one I really called correctly, based on early descriptions, was that I would like the Egyptian warrior, and I really do.

I actually don't find this article "interesting" because people have been whining about it for years, and the whole argument gets shot to hell with five minutes of perusing LEGO Ideas or Rebrick.

Saw Mockingjay Part 1 last Friday at a Studio Movie Grill; took the family... It's been hit by critics and movie goers as being too slow; I think a lot of that has to do with the gripe of splitting the last book into two movies to milk that cash cow as long as possible, but honestly, I don't need constant action as long as the story holds, and for me it did. I wasn't disappointed at all. And yes, I read the books a few years ago (when the first movie came out).

Wow... I hadn't thought of that! Great idea. It's too bad they're so big, but at least you can keep fairly distant with longer PF extension cables. It's not a stupid thread, but wondering if it belongs in Technic or Trains, where you might get wildly differing opinions on it. As far as cables go, depending on what you're doing, you can use the shorter one for PF to PF, so under some circumstances there's two choices, but I get what you mean. Both the lights and the battery boxes make it difficult for doing trains. You can hide the battery box, but then you still have all these cables going between cars that are REALLY obvious, plus the need for an IR Receiver sticking out somewhere. Lights... I never really liked lights with the 9V motor (I'm referring specifically to trains). You run into that awkward problem where the faster the train goes, the brighter the lights. I'm much more a fan of LifeLites for lights like that, and of course PF doesn't suffer that problem. I'm not thrilled with any LEGO lighting, especially the new light bricks that generally can't just be turned on and left on. I wish they'd add a micro PF range, where they do lights and such with watch battery sized power. I also can't stand IR. A lot of people claim they never have a problem with it... I always have problems with my remotes getting out of sync with the receivers. RF would have been better; now that everything is going bluetooth, and the technology is quite cheap, they should do that - and make apps for smart phones and tablets instead of controllers, but of course then they'd lose remote sales. That's perhaps why they don't want to go that way.

I'm really jealous of your space and great train layout! The storage space underneath is a double bonus.

Very nice! I really don't know what else to say!

I like it... reminds me of the recent Simpsons/Futurama crossover with the bunnies. Funniest episode in a long time.

It frankly did seem like Fantasy ended rather abruptly. Now people have disputed this, and they may be right, but here's what I think: Fantasy ended abruptly in 2009 with 6 sets. Kingdoms started with a bang in 2010 (11 sets), but then quickly faded, with 4 sets in 2011, and only 1 in 2012 (Joust); the latest castle sets are just "Castle," brinklink doesn't even seem to have put them in a sub-category. LEGO LOTR was announced in 2011. OK, now bear with me for a moment... we'd had TONS of discussion on EB about the viability of The Lord of the Rings in LEGO. For the record, while I never thought it would happen, I was a huge proponent, and a lot of us gave a lot of great reasons why it would work. People said it was too dark, but there are examples of "dark" themes they'd done before - as long as it was fantasy - like certain aspects of Harry Potter, Star Wars, even some Indiana Jones sets. People said you need vehicles... we said there are horses, ships, winged beasts... and, really, you need things you can play with for the kids, not necessarily vehicles. They said there wouldn't be enough variety, we came up with dozens of viable sets (many of which have been made). Now maybe TLG wasn't paying any particular attention to us, but we probably were not the only ones discussing it, and with the Hobbit movies forthcoming (at that time), I think TLG made a calculated move to eliminate competition a fantasy themed castle line would have with LOTR AND cut it off with enough time for the sets to clear off shelves before the movies and sets came out. I think we missed out on fantasy era elves because TLG cut fantasy short for the sake of the LOTR/Hobbit license, even if they didn't have it in hand yet. I mean, the evidence was right there in their own propaganda - a map showing an elven land! They did everything else on that map! I would be really happy to see a Fantasy II castle line that actually started with elves in the first wave. I know a lot of castle fans didn't like fantasy, but a lot of us only liked castle BECAUSE of fantasy... I got into castle because of Fantasy era, the only set I've bought since Joust (which I traded for LOTR stuff) was Dragon mountain because... hey, dragon! CMF elves only get you so far, I'd like some variety. I can manage by mixing up a few characters and getting stuff from Brickforge, but original LEGO elves would be nice.

@Younge, that reminds me of the lights I bought last year; I recommended lifelites in my reply, above, but last year I also got some lights like these: (not my picture). Google "copper led lights." I got both white and red-blue-green-yellow Christmas-y colors. You can get them with a battery pack that could easily be put in a train (mine has 3 AAA batteries, the second picture shows one using large watch batteries). I'd put up my own picture, but they were last minute buys and I didn't have a chance to really incorporate them into my Christmas scene; if I do better this year I'll post more pictures. I found them both at WalMart and JoAnns, I'm sure you can get them at Michaels, or any number of crafts stores like those.

I tried keeping boxes once, but gave up. It doesn't seem worth it. Sure, it may add some value to sets to resell, but a complete set is a complete set, and I think a majority of people buying expensive old sets for actual use would prefer to pay less, anyway... I know I would, on the few used sets I've bought or traded for on EB. Not only that, but the larger boxes make it a PITA to ship. Still... there are a couple of boxes I kept - mostly the rigid, smaller boxes for "special" sets, like the smaller original series of architecture and Ideas. In fact, I have so much LEGO that I haven't even had a chance to build, and so little space left, that I unboxed a bunch of them into smaller containers until such time as I have a place to display them, and threw away the boxes.

Mmmm... yes, OK. "Generally." A lot of people don't, but I would say most do. Thing is, picking a specific date doesn't work for most people. Most working people (myself included) need a weekend... a relatively free from activities weekend. Our kids do too many things, and often have activities on the weekends... or at least Saturdays, in which case we need to do our week's food shopping on Sunday which, for some idiotic reason, takes several hours instead of the 90 minutes (tops) it should take because we start at a warehouse club and then finish off at a regular supermarket. Given hanging lights outside and decorating inside, and trying to keep it fun, it can take all day. I actually have a pretty decent sized house... or at least a lot of roofline (split level... note to self, never buy a split level house) to cover. Of course, you can split it over several days. So I make it a point to take off M-T-W on the week of Thanksgiving (I get T and F). That week then includes a lot of things - like raking leaves and a final cut of the lawn and trimming bushes before I get to decorate. It also gives me flexibility if it's raining. The weekend after Thanksgiving is also bad... my daughter is in a ballet company and they perform several times on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and one performance the Monday after (yes, she misses school... it's the charity performance for schools from lower income districts). Anyway, the result is that my decorations are generally up by Thanksgiving. That doesn't mean we have to turn on the lights right away, but there's still wreathes and other decorations, both inside and outside (and you can see the tree from outside). At the same time, we feel like "well, that was a lot of work... might as well get the most out of it," and generally do start turning on the lights right away. When the kids were little and we had more free time, we might wait a week or two after Thanksgiving, but that just doesn't work anymore. If I don't do it when I know I have time, it might not get done at all. Even when the kids were little it was still a problem when we had a lot of rain... one year it was just days before Christmas.

Or it could be Robo-Santa from Futurama. I have the Constitution, too... I removed the "play" elements and added a caboose, based roughly on the old MOT caboose, but with different colors (stuck with dark green) and curved roof pieces to match the studless, smooth roof on the other cars. I think the engine is a good choice for a Christmas train - it's actually my favorite engine from TLG, even more than the Emerald Night, as it has a more classic styling, but I would try to find a way to add wreaths and other Christmasy things to it to brighten it up. Except for the wheels, I'd pretty much throw away the other cars and build new ones. I will say this, having missed out on the 10173 that dr_spock mentions above, I bricklinked my own. I had tons of train pieces already, being big into trains, and had to compromise on a few parts, but it's definitely worth taking a look at for ideas on cars and how to decorate them. Definitely don't skimp on the things on the trains - presents, bikes are good additions as gifts, if you can get a hold of a number of the molded pine trees (or make your own small ones somehow). I think you'd want at least one open car showing off all the goodies, at least one passenger car, and a train like that is not complete without a caboose... a very decorated one, of course. I'd even go so far as to maybe try some lifelites. Have fun! Now that I'm an adult, my LEGO Christmas setup is one of the major things I look forward to every year (because I don't have a permanent layout)... set it up with my other Christmas decorations Thanksgiving week (which I always take off from work).

Updated my Post. I have added my Series 12 extras, including a Dino Tracker. Looking for some spooky girls and a pig suit guy. I have so many extras, I am willing to make favorable trades for any decent offers.

I agree. I think some nerds who haven't really given the show a chance might look at it as being a joke on them - it's really not. Proud nerd for over 30 years (I started playing with computers around 1979, and never looked back)... there's never going to be a show everybody likes, though. The number one show on TV right now is hated by a lot of people (no, not referring to TBBT). Fair enough... I agree with both parts... it's simply not true they're just making fun of the characters... if anything, they make a lot of points about how bad non-nerds are to nerds, like Penny's ex-boyfriends, they even had the episode with the old school bully... who looks like the real #@$@# by the end of the episode? Still, as a middling fan of the show (I used to like it a lot more... it may have run it's course, IMO), I don't get why this was so popular. It's just a living room. There's nothing exciting or interesting about it except you get the characters from the show. That might be enough for some, but it's not really enough for me. I don't need a Sheldon or Leonard figure... I have no idea what I'd do with them. Might be a decent display set for work... but even with my geeky/nerdy co-workers, the Ghost Busters seems like a much bigger hit.

No harm, no foul... I suspected other countries might not have the same sort of thing, and surely not everybody paid attention to, or cared about, the Toy Story sets. I was just surprised at the rash of responses that claimed the list was impossible because of "army man." I didn't know they actually made a toy soldier, so I googled it... is the one from the character encyclopedia? That's pretty neat! Especially since my daughter does Nutcracker Ballet every year... I hadn't seen it before. Making something like that one (changed somewhat, of course) more widely available certainly doesn't seem out of the question. Also, your view of "hobo" is exactly what I'd pictured.... I'm sure TLG would take some flack for it, but I think it would be misplaced, and I certainly wouldn't complain; I hardly find it insensitive or anything, a lot of movies and shows actually romanticized that lifestyle. After some more googling, it looks like younger kids associate homeless with the term "hobo." While I suppose most hobos are homeless, they are not really interchangeable words.

Why would these only be good for female friends? Anyone in any of those fields would be a good target.

I agree with you, WhiteFang, I just don't get why people point out the army man as the reason why when TLG has already released sets with Army Men. But, at the same time, as has happened before, what people have stated as being the figures are widely open to interpretation... the "Hobo" could be any kind of vagabond, not simply some homeless drunk... would actually work well with people into trains. The Confederate officer might not be confederate at all, and someone just got it confused... same with bartender, which could simply be a soda jerk or something. I don't believe any of these lists until we get more proof, just saying - again, as has happened before - that what someone posts after a glimpse of some figures can be widely open to interpretation. It's happened before... before we saw series 12, someone says Wizard and we come up with a dozen different ideas of what the wizard will be...

I have a whole pile of them, but I didn't keep track which ones they were from and don't really care.... so anyone that wants random codes can feel free to ask.