fred67

BL can be hard to use... I've publicly stated on their forum it looks like a site from 1996, but the real problem is it ACTS like a site from 1996, too. However, when I shop, I DO see the weights. Perhaps it's a setting I've triggered somewhere and now forget how, perhaps some stores have enabled it... I don't know, but as others have stated, most sellers seem to be upfront about shipping costs and will give a table by weight on their terms page. When I check the shopping cart, it tells useful information at the bottom of the page... how many lots and what the total is, how far away I am from any store minimum there might be, and the estimated total weight in both grams and ounces.

Agree with Off the wall, I could point out a lot of problems with the politics of this video, and we could argue about it all day, and it ultimately has nothing to do with LEGO. I appreciate the link and the desire to show how people are using LEGO; maybe it should be in the LEGO in Media thread.

I like it a lot... I'm not sure I would do the fence like that, but it looks great. One thing that I really love about MOCs like this is the amount of work you do to make the chimney like that. Not only don't I think I have enough bricks to do it, but it seems like it would take forever. I guess that's why I'm not an expert MOCer. Roof technique is great. I wonder if you couldn't put the hinge plates one brick in to that they're not so obvious.

I was going to say something, but... I think a lot of bricklinkers are in school or have kids in school, and associate the new school year with autumn, actual dates be damned! And let's not forget our brethren below the equator, for whom it's actually winter.

Without starting a new war about exclusives in this thread, I do think the way to satisfy MOST people who are interested in the figures is to release variants in sets. I do collect super hero figs, but I don't need every single one... and I certainly don't need 10 different batman figures or spiderman figures. Green Lantern would be nice, though... and from what I understand, we get him next year in a set. So as long as that keeps happening, I personally am OK with it.

Oh, the police here will give you tickets for the more "heinous" violations like running a red light, but most things (at least here in GA, USA) are add-ons. They won't pull you over for not wearing a seatbelt, but they'll add it on to your speeding ticket if they pull you over for that. Then they might add on malfunctioning lights and other stuff. You only get a ticket for following too close AFTER you cause an accident because of it (I think the reason is it can be subjective until the accident proves you were objectively following too close).

I have actually had terrible luck with IR... in my simple loop in my Christmas layout, which sits on a table with the winter sets TLG has been releasing, I lose signal all the time when it's behind the buildings. I also am not confident turning the dial quickly, which is guaranteed to get it out of sync. I know it makes it a lot more complicated and expensive, but they should have gone with radio control; am looking forwards to getting bluetooth control at some point. Until then, I still say most people would have been happier with 9V to drive the train.

So, dgherko, I am certainly willing to make a three way trade if it will help get things moving along. The link to my post is in my signature. For the record, this thread is for posting that you've updated your one and only post in this thread. So one thread is your list of haves and wants (and you get one post in it), and this thread is for "bumping" to let people know you've got updates.

That's a hard call; I guess most times people set a price by weight, but frankly it seems like everybody's got some bins of Bionicle they'd like to get rid of. I tried giving away some for FREE in the pay-it-forward thread, even offering to pay shipping, and still didn't have any takers except for the masks.

More OCD Fred here... people all over the world are just terrible drivers, you have to wonder why... in the U.S., I attribute it to the fact that police are busy giving out speeding tickets and not tickets for failures to give right of way, failure to signal, tailgating... all things that, IMO, are a lot more dangerous than speeding (or worse when combined with speeding). I've sat there blocked by gridlock on some streets in Atlanta, with a police car RIGHT NEXT TO ME who did NOTHING to the people who caused it. People go when they shouldn't, and I don't which is worse, but they DON'T go when they should! It's here, too... I generally count less than half the people here using their signals (indicators, whatever you call it wherever you are), probably more like 35 to 40%... yes, I guess I am OCD about things, I do count. One problem I've seen is that my son's driving teacher (and I'd assume he's not alone, but it's only anecdotal evidence), actually says signalling isn't always necessary... like if you're in a turn lane. I was shocked... your signal is in front, as well as in back - someone coming from the other way may not know you have a turn lane!!! I have seen some spots where it may not be necessary, but I told my son "look... it may not always be necessary, but it's a good habit, and it's never detrimental... so if you ALWAYS use your turn signal, you don't have to stop and think about whether it's actually needed or not." Oh... if I was a traffic cop... I probably wouldn't be able to afford so much LEGO. But I'd give a LOT of non-speeding traffic tickets around here. But when people feel like they won't get a ticket for it, they don't bother to drive well... it's always all about how fast can I go without getting a ticket. I actually don't have a problem with that - I drive fast, too, but I always signal. Yes... it's a sore spot. Like I said, I guess I really am OCD.

Well... this thread can open a whole can of worms that's been gone over a dozen times before, but I'll restate my opinion that 9V was the way to go... 9V is what made LEGO Trains a comparable hobby to other model trains, and allowed me to abandon N-Gauge to completely go over to LEGO trains. You get some advantages with PF, no doubt, like layouts that would be "invalid" in 9V, and you can run multiple trains... doing that on 9V would require something like digitrax, an expensive proposition. Personally, I require neither of those. The advantages to 9V are continuous running with absolute control and no battery box on the trains. I also hate when my PF controller gets out of sync... three clicks forward, then one click back that didn't work... so another click back, and now my added handle on the dial is out of sync. Yes, I'm OCD about some things. There are other perceived advantages with PF - like independently controlling other things on your train - you might have doors open and close, or a crane arm or something, and continuous lighting that doesn't depend on train speed... but since you can add PF to a 9V train, you can do all those things, too, and because you'd be driving the train by power from the track, the battery for your extra functions will last a lot longer. Just my two cents... as a LEGO fan, I get why they changed; as a train fan, I'm disappointed they did. I'm glad so many others are happy with PF, but equally (or more, actually) glad that companies like ME are stepping up to give the option to continue 9V.

Two Ideas projects that I'm currently supporting are interesting... This one is "Fossil Museum," which fits the palaeontologist into it, although it's not a building unto itself. Better is: This one is an entire building that could probably squeeze all of the research institute vignettes into it. Since I want to eventually build a city display, opening up modulars and playing inside is not my primary concern, but I'd like a decent way to display all three, too.

I wouldn't mind them so much if everyone else understood how to use them. That's the only problem in the U.S..

Thanks for the detailed explanation Jdurg, it also helps explain why Oxyclean is such a good catalyst.

I wasn't going for bitter, more like annoyed. I am not a completist, but I am a Star Wars OT fan, and getting an interesting OT figure like Chrome Vader would have been awesome. It's disappointing to me that I could spend hundreds or thousands on Star Wars OT sets and not get one, while some grandparent buys a Star Wars set for their grandchild who neither likes LEGO nor Star Wars, gets this "rare" figure, and slaps it together (putting the cape on wrong!) and then tossing it aside for the dog to chew on. But then I wondered what a representative from TLG would say when "confronted" with my "dilemma," and it went something like "I'm sorry you're disappointed, but why should you get one just because you have more disposable income? We made the distribution fair, everybody had an equal chance to get one... and honestly, it was a marketing strategy to sell more LEGO sets, and it worked." And I couldn't think of a valid counter. Turn around to the Comic Con figures, and it's completely different... the people that get them are either advantaged geographically or economically. Not everybody has a fair chance at getting one. And I highly doubt they help sell a single set... the people that want the Superhero sets will buy the Superhero sets; only a tiny fraction of fans get the exclusives - many of them solely to resell. It's actually completely the opposite of distributing them randomly in sets. I don't know why they even bother unless they are obligated to in order to participate in a Comic Con, at which point us complaining about it is pretty meaningless, as their hands are tied. I honestly don't understand the purpose otherwise. So few people (relatively speaking) get to go to the convention; TLG announces and displays new and upcoming sets... the fans are already waiting for the announcements, they don't need a "gimme" to go see, and they will get press coverage with or without exclusives. What TLG might actually accomplish is actually dissuading some people from wanting to buy every set to get every figure since they've already destroyed the chance of making that possible. Some might have wanted some esoteric figure just to have a complete set, and now that they know they cannot, they don't bother getting it at all. I imagine this is some tiny fringe group that is not TLG's target audience... so they don't care.

I received a ship notification today...It's too bad so many people were too impatient to wait and bought overpriced sets.

I actually only got into the castle theme at all because of Fantasy. At the time, there was no LOTR, and none of us ever thought they'd actually do LOTR (although I always argued it was do-able and not contrary to LEGO non-violent themes policy). I kept right on buying after fantasy ended and then I had to catch myself and ask why... it didn't even occur to me that the only reason I liked castle was the fantasy aspect. Since then, I've only bought dragon mountain. I was always disappointed that TLG never got around to elves in their fantasy line. I attributed the abrupt end (and no elves) to the notion they were seeking the LOTR license and didn't want any overlap or hard feelings about releasing a series that was obviously meant to placate us LOTR fans, but I could also see that executives thought that Skeletons, Humans, Dwarves, Orcs ("Trolls") and Trolls ("Giant Trolls") were already far too many variants in a theme. Anyway, the only way TLG will get me to continue buying castle is with another fantasy oriented theme... and I can do without the skeletons. I realize most of the castle fans didn't like fantasy all that much, and were happy when it ended, and no hard feelings if fantasy never comes back... it's just what got me interested in castle LEGO at all.

Yeah... when I was first getting into LEGO as an adult (coming out of my "dark ages"), I bought a whole bunch of Prequel sets, and also some Clone Wars sets... then I asked myself what the heck I was doing. I like Clone Wars, but I don't watch it and am not interested in the sets, and I hated the PT, with few exceptions (I like General Grevous... and the Naboo Fighter for some reason). I was once trying to sell my Falcon (4505) only because I had the midi scale one. I know there's no comparison, but I had room to display the midi scale one, and the 4505 was still in the box because I had no where to put it once built... but I've decided I don't want to sell it, either. So I only buy OT SW now... I would sell my non-OT stuff, but not the OT stuff.

I'm actually getting rather tired of this argument, and I see too many new users somehow managing to get every other post in these new threads, and it makes me wonder. I would not sign a petition to LEGO either way. You all need to face facts - something I learned a long time ago - TLG does not care about you. They don't care if you don't get to collect every figure ever made (even limiting to a theme). They simply don't. If they cared about you, then the people that bought the most Star Wars LEGO would get Chrome Darth Vaders instead of random people... they didn't care about collectors then, they don't care now - they just wanted to sell more sets. So at the same time they don't care that you didn't get a figure, they also don't care if you have a figure you think is rare and the release it to the general public, decimating the "value" of your $0.20 of plastic. You could have bought $1 Million worth of Star Wars LEGO, and not gotten a gold C3PO; and nobody but George Lucas got George Lucas. Both sides of this argument are WRONG if they think TLG gives a flying leap about your minifigure collection... they are in the business of making money selling sets, the more the better. If they think they can help that business by giving away exclusives, that's what they're going to do. Their market of 7 to 12 year olds doesn't even know they're missing anything at some convention.

I guess that's what I have, then... OCD. If I want a set for parts, I generally need to buy two so that I can build one the "right" way (not really - I often mod and expand sets), and then I might be able to bring myself to use the second one for parts. There's only been very few sets that I bought for pieces... it's VERY rare. I got the Toy Story "army men" set so that I could make a LEGO army men (replaced the head and hands with yellow), and I got some Prince of Persia sets on clearance because I like the Ostriches. At the same time, I probably have a collection of around 100k bricks NOT gotten in sets that I use for building things. I buy tons of stuff from bricklink and at the PAB wall (even that might be OCD, as I may not even have a MOC in mind, but if they have something my brain tells me are "good" bricks, I'll get a cup or two). I have a huge amount of bricks to just build with any time I want. So yes... I actually have over 100 sets that I have not built, but could not pass up. I got bit long enough ago to know what I would have to pay in the future to have these sets... A lot of big ones, like the 10210 Imperial Flagship... such a beautiful ship, but so big... I simply don't have the space right now to display it. If I'd missed it, I'd be paying over $500 on BL for one. I think the oldest is my 4505 Millennium Falcon, still in the box. I couldn't pass it up as a Black Friday sale. There are themes I like... I have at least 15 Star Wars sets, new and old; several architecture sets (I stopped trying to be a completest with architecture when they started releasing $100+ sets); a lot of castle, trains, city and creator sets that will go in my some-day city layout. Occasionally my daughter wants to build something with me... usually a larger set to do a "Family Build," and I'll pack up something that I had on display to make room for it... one time she picked Cafe Corner. Just out of curiosity, I looked it up and it was selling for over $900 (at the time... more now) for new-in-box sets. I shrugged, opened it up, and we built it (I believe that's how I got my title... because I intend to build them all, I didn't buy it to sell it).

I have a mental problem that doesn't allow me to buy a set I don't like, and if I like it I must build it and not use the parts for other things (although I often modify and build up sets). If I really needed a part from a set, I'd have to buy two, so that I could at least keep one to build. So... my methods are to collect interesting parts from PAB wall at the local LEGO Store... the selections don't seem to be as good anymore, but they often have a lot of the basic building blocks, and it's the cheapest option for new bricks if they have something you want. Over time you can build up quite a collection of basic bricks and a typically a few more interesting ones that can help later on - I've gotten hundreds of flowers, stalks, and tree leaves that way... always nice when building an outdoor scene, even if I don't have a specific idea in mind when I buy them. Otherwise I buy what I want/need from Bricklink, and rarely from S@H PAB (but it is actually sometimes the best option). I don't plan MOCs down to the brick. If I end up with extra, I consider it a good thing... I have a huge collection of loose LEGO for building that I've built up over the last ten years or so, which often enables me to just build what I want without having to order something. Time is hard to come buy, so if I have time and I have an idea, it's hard for me to stop what I'm doing to order parts. If that's a problem for you, then yes, I suggest getting good at estimating what you'll need, or just do it in something LDD to know exactly what you'll need. And yes, like others, I'll often just substitute different colors or similar pieces, and create a new bricklink wanted list for what I didn't have, then I can use those pieces as add-ons to other orders to bulk up orders and save on shipping. I've had MOCs that were built, but with the wrong pieces, that weren't complete with the right pieces for several years.

Even if you missed the link on checkout, you can get it back again. It's another BL oddity that they don't make this easier; the new owners of BL have made some really nice new pages (like the MOC pages), but the old site still looks like from 1995, and it's not just cosmetic changes that it could use. Anyway, on your "Orders Placed" page (so click the "Orders" tab, then "My Orders Placed"), there's a link there called "Customize Display." On that page, make sure the "Items in Order on My Wanted List Icon" is checked. Back on the orders placed page, where your orders are shown line by line, there should be a little unrolled scroll like looking icon (you can hover over each icon to get a description - on my page it's the last icon before the seller name) that will take you to the items in your order that are on your wanted list.

The Simpson's blue is Simpson's Sky Blue... it seemed a perfect match for the Simpons. I used medium blue to build the display stand for them, and think it worked quite well. Series 11 was green, and they've also used lime green, they've used two blues. The series could be yellow again, but there's at least three variations of yellow, I think (I'm looking at my incomplete 2x4 color "palette" I've been putting together)... Light Yellow, Bright Light Yellow, and Yellow (based on Bricklink color names). While on the subject, I don't think packet color really influences anyone... I mean, I'm sure it does, in some way, but I think anybody buying is likely to know what figures are available (usually pictured right there on the display box) and know they want some figure(s). It might affect impulse buys, especially when someone is considering it for a gift (because they don't know better). I think I will stop the "serious" collecting after this series, and the only reason I want all of these is so I can build one last complete 2 set display (all the numbered series, I did not collect all the Movie ones, and the Simpsons got their own display). I am hoping it's a color that will not cost a fortune. Already I've had to live with just gray for Series 9 and 10 (silver and gold).

Yeah... I hope I didn't come off as rude, just the simplest MOD ever... I wouldn't be surprised if there's an extra 1x1 round red plate left over just by "coincidence," in fact. What I'm actually liking about this set is it's modability and expandability, and that it comes in at a good price because of it. Looking forward to Thanksgiving week; I normally take the whole week off from work and put up my LEGO Christmas display... this year expanding to two tables instead of the one I'd been using - there's just no room left! EDIT: in fact, I may just be inclined to fine-point Sharpie some eyes on brown bricks... interesting because then I can make a little variety in their "expressions."

Wow... over 100 orders and I still don't know (never really cared, I guess) what the difference between * and !* were... I'd ask on the BL forum if you don't get an answer here. As for parting out a set to a wanted list, the way to do it is find the set in the catalog and, without going to inventory, right on the page for the set (this page for Green Grocer), where it says "On Wanted Lists" (bottom center section), you click "Part Out." Then you get another form, in which the checkbox for "Set My Minimum Desired Qty for each Item to Qty of Items in Inventory" is not set by default (don't know why), so check it and proceed from there. On that same page it's a good idea to part it out to a new wanted list (i.e. "Green Grocer") so that it doesn't get all mixed in with your other wanted items. I can't answer the last question... I'm waiting on two orders right now, and for some reason I feel a bit better (happier) when I know more LEGO is on the way.