fred67

I'm not just after parts, I love the architecture line - but its more of an upscale line that is just too expensive (and getting worse).

The book might be worth something, but LEGO continues to lose me... $150 for mostly smallish pieces in what might be the most common color... interesting, but I'll probably pass. I even stopped buying any but the smaller architecture sets already.

Nice to see an implementation of this in LEGO; it's really neat, and your nearly all-LEGO solution is cool. I decided not to do a suspended track for various reasons, but I think it worked out well.

The retailer The shipper Hidden taxes (yes, even in the U.S.) Non-hidden (import) taxes packaging (including instructions and box art) The actual plastic (and other) used to manufacture the parts R&D and set design, including focus groups and market analysis Licensing fees, if applicable. TLG Profit ...and I'm sure I missed something along the way. So there's no "majority of the money," but the largest chunk, at this time, out of that pie goes to TLG's profit. I haven't seen the latest company statement, but in the past I estimated their profit margins rose to well over 20%, even 25% or more. It's hard to complain, though - this year's profit is next year's R&D, I suppose. This is also not a complaint; I have no problem with capitalism. The price per part ratio is also a terrible metric, but it's hard to analyze in other ways - I do think you should pull out certain parts, like minifigures, from the equation. If a minifigure is worth $3.00, and a set comes with 3 minifigures (let's say the minifigure Halloween set), then subtract $9 and maybe 12-15 pieces from the piece count, then look at the price per part ratio. Even then it's not a great metric, but I think it's better.

I didn't notice until you pointed it out. I'm really not much of a perfectionist, I suppose, or am just accustomed to it. I'm certainly not implying it's not a valid complaint, though. But now that we're talking about it, I will be forever looking and getting annoyed at poor printing now.

People are $%@#. Too many people not being taught to respect others... it seems to get worse and worse as time goes on, as disrespectful jerks beget more disrespectful jerks. My sincerest admiration for Ryan, the hard work he put into it, for trying to make the community a better place. Vandals are the worst kind of #@# because they don't even get anything out of it... they do it just to be #@#! I wish I could curse, here. I don't very often, but this is one of the times I feel like it.

This is an issue we've discussed before; I will insist that there must be something environmental going on, as some people seem to have it happen a LOT, and some people have it happen few and far between, but there doesn't seem to be many people that have it happen somewhere in the middle. In the last thread on the subject, I mentioned that I have not had any problems with cheese slopes; if you look in my signature, you'll see some modular castle stuff that I did a long time ago; the modules are not connected to each other, but they are assembled in storage - I'm talking about hundreds of cheese slopes, and not a single one has cracked. Most of my sets get assembled and sit on the shelves for years - and no cracks, and yes, while I didn't look today, I have looked. I don't even have the greatest storage conditions - I live near Atlanta, and although I have air conditioning, most of my LEGO is in a bonus room that is not on the central air. I only use the wall unit when I'm there, so the LEGO often languishes in hot (high 80s to low 90s) in the summer, and it gets cold here, too - freezing weather in the winter. They do stay out of direct sun light, but other than that they are under less than perfect conditions - and yet not a single broken cheese. I've had maybe two cracked pieces of LEGO that I can recall, ever, in addition to one cracked bionicle part that came that way from a garage sale.

The last time I can see TLG released a set with the trans-clear with tube was 2003. With such a common piece, bricklink can be hard to look stuff like that up on, but you go to the catalog and see what sets 1x2 has been released in (thousands, of course), then you pick the color and lists all the sets with that color it was released in. It's a long list, but after perusing it, it looks like 2003 was the last year with tube.

Macaroni... I completely understand why they did it, but it does screw up some building techniques.

I really don't notice stuff like that; I guess it's just knowing that colors will be more vibrant in the art work... what got me in that one is the pilot on the box apparently had emblems on the helmet.

That's an actual set? I don't see it at LEGO.com or Brickset... any more information? At over 1200 pieces it sounds expensive, especially since the architecture series seems a little bit "upscale" when it comes to pricing.

Market Street. I did not start buying modulars until Green Grocer; Market Street was (and still is) the worst modular (IMO, of course), but now that I have all the others, a complete set would have been nice. I don't have the inclination to bricklink it, though. If anything, I wish I'd known 9V was being discontinued when it was... I was on sort of a mini dark ages and completely missed out buying possibly hundreds of straight tracks for a fraction of MSRP.

I have to agree that dust shouldn't be listed as something that contributes to part wear. I use compressed air to dust my display items occasionally - have resorted to display cases for some things, but that's not feasible for large models. I do not normally build technic, but I do have motors and remotes and build tanks and cars (strictly to play with), and have had gears and axles wear out. The link that TomLego posted is right on.. only in the case that I have gotten a large amount of used bulk LEGO do I resort to washing with dish detergent, and sometimes an extra soft toothbrush; and then a retrobright formula (hydrogen peroxide and oxi-clean as a catalyst) works wonders on discolored LEGO.

For those of you in the U.S. (and so inclined to use this kind of storage) woot.com is having a sale on this style akro-mills bins and wall mounts. It's one day, one deal, so you have to get it today. There is a selection of different sizes. Prices range from $40 to $55 for packages, depending on the sizes you pick. (picture is link)

I found myself with too many sumo wrestlers that nobody wanted to trade for, so.... DSCF1564 by FredJH, on Flickr

You were all supposed to say "Hi, Hans." Hi, Hans! Welcome to EB. My LEGO likes are varied, and my time limited, but it was trains that dragged me back to LEGO in my adulthood, and I think you're in good company.

Yes... I don't mind limited availability, but I wish there was a way I could get every set LEGO makes. I don't mean that I would buy every set, but I wish I had the opportunity to get anything TLG makes... For example, I can't reasonably go to toy fairs or LEGO or comic conventions (unless they're in my city, and even then it's hard under my circumstances). So if they want to give something away for free for ordering $75 worth of LEGO, but only for one weekend, then at least I have the option to decide whether or not to get it. Yes, there's always bricklink, but in certain cases (Mr. Gold) it's just completely out of the realm of possibility, and in many cases it's just impossible given economic conditions (to pay $25 or $50 for a single minifigure). ... and those give-a-ways, like Mr. Gold or Chrome Vader are very frustrating... there are many collectors out there who are just as big a fan of LEGO as I am, but few that are more... yet 90% of the people who get these things are just your average buyers who don't know what the heck is going on. So a big Star Wars fan, who bought thousands of dollars worth of Star Wars LEGO, misses out on Chrome Vader, while some kid who got a set he didn't even want from Grandma gets one and melts it with his magnifying glass because he doesn't know any better. I wonder how many dust covered, chewed up Chrome Vaders there are out there, languishing in some kid's "junk" pile.

Nicely done, Lazarus... I have a handful of 9v motors, luckily none have died on me. I intend to keep 9V alive - whether it's "hacks" like these, ME models or Big Ben tracks (or something else, like copper covering or modified O gauge), whatever it takes. Knowing I can keep these motors going is nice relief. My only suggestion: get a tripod.

Really? I'm 46 years old. I don't believe anything I see on the box. But I'm not the target audience, am I? The staves are more than just emitting electic arcs, they're lit up, and the yellow lights behind them are brilliantly lit.

To summarize the response to the thread title question: yes, and no. People really do have too much time on their hands if this is the state of "research." I'm wondering if Darth Vader is supposed to be smiling when he's half melted with his legs chopped off. It was the addition of licensed themes that really made a difference, so now you're making realistic expressions instead of smiley ones. A world of only smiles... would be like the Stepford Wives.

Everything looks a lot better in advertising than it does in real life, but I have to scoff at what I see on the boxes and the catalogs they send; they do a LOT more retouching than a lot of people defending the practice are admitting to; all the highlights and glows and reflections, street lights and head lights that are actually lit (or have some kind of star burst on them to make them appear that way). Look at this one, for example: Now, I laugh when I see things like the nice glowing moon in the background, but let's look at the actual LEGO; both the spotlights and the building lights are glowing... I know they don't actually light up, but if you don't think that could be misleading, then I think you're really being blinded by brand loyalty. How about this one: Do I really have to point it out? The glowing eye of Suaron; the "electric" looking magic coming from the staves? The glows on the lights? We look at it and, being adults, we're accustomed to it being misleading, but the target audience generally is not. I don't mind them getting the best shots of their products as possible and then doing a little clean up, that's not the problem - the problem is they DO alter the images in ways that can be highly misleading. I guess I'm accustomed to it and just blow it off, but when someone complains about it, I'm going to have to agree and defend their point. At the same time, I guess the thing I learned as a youngster, is the backgrounds they (all toy marketers) make the experience you see impossible in real life; this set shows them in some dingy, eerie, castle-like room; the palace cinema has that city background with the moon... the RC cars I used to covet were being run on really cool dirt tracks built for the commercial - few kids were able to have anything like that unless you lived out in the country and had land you could mess up for it. It's always been that way, but then the background is not the product - here, TLG alters the product. I accept they do it, but it's really not cool.

That roof is quite cool, GZ.

Great update, Tony!

I have the super-chief, too, and I think legoman666 did a great job. I think I must have missed something somewhere along the way, but I discovered that you can order this piece: In bley and red from LEGO S@H Pick-A-Brick; the original uses old light gray, as do the cars from the sets, but I could not afford the sets and built them from parts. However, that part in light gray on bricklink was very expensive - around $0.75 or more (for those with higher quantities), and years ago (when I built the engine and then the cars from parts), it was not available from S@H in light gray. Considering you need 32 to build a car, and 14 to build the engine, it was prohibitively expensive ordering from BL. I'd built an alternative roof, similar to yours, but it made it a little bit taller. I eventually settled on using black as an alternate color. However, I just wanted to let people know, if they are building the sets from parts (I know yours is original, of course), you can order copious amounts of those in bley from S@H now. In this case, it would prevent the ability to do spinning fans - I'm not suggesting a change to this MOC, just thought it would be a good opportunity to let people know, if they were unaware, that these are available now.

Sometimes I find the questions a bit difficult to answer, probably because I'm over-thinking them. I've seen some great sets come out recently, and I know they are great sets, but just haven't really been wowed by them. When it asks about value, the only "new" LEGO I've bought have been CMFs, and I don't feel like I'm getting the value I want from them because the distribution in the case sucks so badly, but I don't think that's what they mean. I like the surveys that get into more specifics about what we like and what suggestions we have better. It seems like they are asking about value in a way that does not give you the impression they are wondering if you think it's overpriced, and with no way to complain about prices. So the feeling I get is I just spent my time giving TLG free marketing analysis without having the opportunity to really give my two cents about the direction of the products and what I'd really like to see in the future. Usually that's the trade off - they get free information, I get to tell them what I want.