fred67

Nicely done on the tunnel.

I have a strained relationship with all the series right now. I started collecting all the SW I could get my hands on before realizing I didn't care about anything but the OT. Even then, I don't need "all" the sets, and I'll take one version of a ship and be happy and don't need to get second or third versions. I admit the new MF is better than 4504, but I can't bring myself to spend that kind of scratch on a new one. Anyway, since I have most of the old ships, I'm not too enthused about the new sets anymore, because it's mostly repeats... lower prices would certainly rekindle my interest. 9V trains brought me out of my dark ages and into LEGO as an adult; I'm not too enthused about the PF trains - not so much because it's PF these days, but the train sets just haven't been all that great, IMO. The stand alone models are still good - Emerald Night and Maersk, but I haven't bought a complete set in around 10 years. I got into the castle theme a few years ago, but when fantasy era ended I realized it was just my love of fantasy (LOTR, of course, but many others, too), and not my love of the castle theme in particular, so while I bought some Kingdoms sets, I'm not really enthused about it. I loved the architecture series until they started making $200 sets. I did manage to get the last one for in the $130s, but those kinds of prices are enough to suck the enthusiasm right out - I used to think I'd buy all the architecture sets, but if I didn't get the deal, I wouldn't have missed it and not really cared. This is an interesting point, and was mentioned about SW - my enthusiasm definitely wanes when they start jacking up the prices. Until I saw that deal for the Robey House, I'd shrugged and given up on being a completest. Prices also keep me from being a completest in SW, even limited to just OT.

Agreed... I don't even like those pieces; they're not "LEGO-ey." I built mine from lift arms and technic bricks. It took me a few tries to get one I was happy with (at first), and I will tear mine apart and rebuild it at some point, but I was testing it with weights and very happy with the results... with just trains on it, there's no sagging.

For creatures, the flying dragons from the Castle "Fantasy Era" are pretty good, but expensive; I also use orcs and trolls from that era (orcs being "trolls" and trolls being "giant trolls"). I was just using the CMF bases for the figures, and on one side we'd put a red brick for bloodied. That's the problem - they make it so complicated and convoluted that you pay for more. I simply refuse... I don't pay monthly for online video games, either. Yes, I'm a crotchety old man; I buy something and then I want to use it, not pay forever. We haven't played in quite some time. The battles went fine, the parts where we don't use figures (just maps for being a village or tavern or something) is OK... it's when exploring and getting ready for battle. As the DM, I try to be prepared for what's going to happen, but the players ultimately decide where they're going to go, so then I often spend a lot of time... well, an example works better: so they tell me they go through a particular door, and if often ends up like this: I clear off some of the table, set up the tiles for the room, dig out my LEGO D&D "kit" that has a ton of minifigure parts, and start putting together the figures that will be in the room (all behind my DM screen, but a lot of good that does). 15 minutes later we're finally ready... and the players are bored out of their minds. Now, we don't HAVE to use LEGO (or figures at all), and I think game play would go a lot faster, but I still also think the original rules made the game play a lot more fun by not concentrating so much on the minutiae and not having the momentum hit a brick wall when the DM has to set up a new location with tiles. The way we used to do it, the DM would outline the room on the map we were making (we always played that we were making maps, even if it technically slowed the movement of the characters down), and sketch in anything interesting, and it would take no more than a minute or so - with everybody watching what the DM did because it was interesting to see what we got in the next room (or farther down the hall, or whatever).

If they are interested, you can buy your kids their own LEGO (that's what I did). My kids are only moderately interested in LEGO. Sometimes they're in the mood, sometimes not. For my LEGO, depending on the set, we sometimes have family builds... but after it's built, it's in my collection of LEGO to display. Some things they obviously get to play with, like when we set up my trains. If one of them wanted a train to play with constantly, I'd get them a set. They can do whatever they want with my parts collections, just not my set collection.

Oooh... an official 9V battery adapter like people are already making would be cool. I still haven't tried it yet, and while I'm sure it's easy enough to make, I'm equally sure that mine will be messy by comparison to an official one.

There are many really worthy projects on the site... I think it's too hard to see all the different projects; the layout of the site is not that good. Remember all the clamoring for a separate passenger car for the Emerald Knight? Probably not if you only spend your time in the Technic forum, but there was a lot - and it's languishing with a whopping total of 33 votes (as I write this). This motor is lucky to have 112 (as I write this). Cuusoo seems like a great idea, but they need to do it better, IMO.

Me neither... but I have a mental problem that wouldn't allow me to mix LEGO and another brand, it'd be like starting over. I don't buy soda at all. When I got married (13 years) my wife was a diet coke head, I weened her off that, too. Cool... no need to figure it out, I spend a lot of time looking at those when I'm wandering the aisles at the store, and there are things that catch my eye like these Mario Kart sets (my kids are still into that - my daughter especially), the Transformers Kre-O, and while I don't think I'll ever "bite," there was a Best Lock set at Target that had a bunch of military vehicles in it... it was like 1500 pieces for $30. I bought a Mega Blocks set once. Once. Actually, it's a pretty decent "mech," but my mental problem won't let me mix brands, so buying other brands makes things complicated. EDIT: want to add, there are generic Mega Block bricks that are like "stone" on surface... I thought these were an EXCELLENT idea. I do wish TLG would rip off Mega, in this case.

Probably not. You make an interesting point, though; while I've long argued vehicles aren't necessary for a successful series, TLG does tend to like vehicles for sets... and that's about ALL you'd get with BSG. SW and the NASA Discovery series are the only licensed space themes they've done. As long as SW is successful, don't look for another licensed space theme. BSG's time has come and gone, so there's not much reason for anyone to reach out for marketing on this. The only reason people have been clamoring for Lord of the Rings is because there's two new tightly related movies coming out. Lastly, there is an existing thread for "dream licenses," this should be there, and you'll likely find a lot of BSG discussion there, although there's a lot to look through. This was your first post, you should look around a little before starting new discussions.

I don't really care what people buy, ultimately, but I'd like to mention a few points. First of all, we're living in a world where the majority simply want cheap. Flying sucks because people demanded cheap over quality; quality stores close for places like WalMart to pop up... people want cheap, and especially when they don't know any better, will almost always defer to cheap. However, a lot of you pointed out the interesting fact that, not only do many (most, I would say) choose LEGO over clone brands (ostensibly because there's more choice, not necessarily because they know it's better), the LEGO Group has accepted the position that it's a "premium" brand and charges premium prices... you think all the price increases since the near-crash of LEGO is coincidence? They've added 50% to the price of some items practically overnight; others have simply steadily been increasing... last year they took the unprecedented step of raising prices on existing sets (SW Battle Packs). The point is not that we're getting ripped off because LEGO is increasing it's profit margins (they are and we're not getting "ripped off"), it's that competition from clone brands no longer bothers them, and won't until the quality of those bricks increases substantially. On top of that, even if a new, very high quality product were released, LEGO will always have name brand recognition. Think "Coke," despite being beat by Pepsi in taste tests. It's worked wonders for them, their profits have skyrocketed.

FBTB.net has some information on it here. They MUST be including online purchases. I'm simply too cheap... but I suppose I'm a pretty consistent buyer. Luckily those damaged boxed discounted sets still count. The ironic thing is I've been spending so much over the past few years that, right now, there's not a lot I really really want. I do want set 2, and I think it'll be cool to have it on Thanksgiving instead of after, as I will likely spend the day with my kids setting up our Christmas LEGO display, whereas on Friday and the weekend I'll have other things I need to do. In any event, thank you TLG for this... I often feel excluded, not being near any major LEGO events (although happy to live near a LEGO Store) and not ever being able to get any of the special give-aways they have at those events, never getting a "Chrome" Vader, despite all the eligible sets I bought (not whining... you never saw me whine about it, but I was disappointed). Even if I don't get anything beyond what people the following week will be able to get, it's still pretty neat. So... very cool of you, TLG, very much appreciated.

I have three on one shelf... it's annoying because I'd be wasting space if I only put one, but of course the ones in the front block the ones in the back, so you really have to go look and move them around a bit. On another shelf I have a double wide bridge I made with a couple of engines and cars on it for display (I never used it in a layout). On the shelf in front of that is the Toy Story train... better than the first shelf because things are easier to see. My other trains are boxed... the Christmas train comes out for the holidays, and sometimes I dig out some other ones to play with since it's the only time of year that I have a display up and ready to play with for over a month.

So, as I mentioned on the Christmas Vignette Thread, it seems like some of us will be able to get set 2 early. I received the invitation and a "ticket" for being able to get it on November 19. side1 by FredJH, on Flickr side2 by FredJH, on Flickr ticket by FredJH, on Flickr Pretty cool... I find it dubious that I was invited (9 of 25?), don't know what the criteria is, but it seems cool, so my son and I are going. I don't know if you get the scratch off discounts or anything else... but it does say "special offers and free gifts."

Received in the mail today: You're Invited! As one of our most valued LEGO VIP Members, you are cordially invited... blah blah blah. It's a pre-opening sale on 11/19 (an hour before normal hours); it's an invite for me and one guest to come shop early and take advantage of all the "brick" Friday offers "before they're available to the public." The invite included two business card size "coupons" that say I can get set 2 with purchase. The invite is numbered 9 of 25 for my local store. Don't know how many of you guys got one... if you want I can scan it in. Neat.

Perusing BFADS.net (for Black Friday deals), I'm not seeing much for Black Friday, but they've got the ad scans for a few places that have ongoing sales: The Meijer toy catalog, prices through 11/19 Queen Anne's Revenge at $99.99 (vs 119.99 MSRP) Hogwarts at $39.99 (vs $49.99 MSRP). Hogwarts Board Game $24.87 (vs $34.99 MSRP) Blain's Farm and Fleet (I don't even know what that is), prices through 12/24: Lego Bricks & More, Creator Transport Truck or Duplo Big Tractor Building Set $14.89 Lego Bricks & More, Creator Transport Truck or Duplo Big Tractor Building Set $22.89 Lego City Power Boat Transporter Building Toy $28.89 ($39.99 MSRP) Lego Heroica Waldurk Forest Buildable Game $14.89 ($19.99 MSRP) Lego Ninjago Masters of Spinjitzu - Mountain Shrine or Blacksmith Shop Building Toy $13.89 (both $19.99 MSRP) Lego Ramses Return Buildable Game $11.89 (another WTF at $7.49 at S@H) Lego Star Wars Ewok Attack or Sith Nightspeeder Building Toy $19.89 (both $24.99 MSRP) Walmart's got some decent prices (through 12/16): LEGO Disney Pirates of the Caribbean Black Pearl BUY NOW: $89.98 ($10 off) LEGO Games Ninjago BUY NOW: $24.97 ($5 off) LEGO Ninjago Blacksmith Shop BUY NOW: $15.00 ($5 off) LEGO Ninjago, Ice Dragon Attack Play Set BUY NOW: $15.00 ($5 off) LEGO Ninjago, Nuckal's ATV Play Set BUY NOW: $24.97 (MSRP) LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean Isla De Muerta BUY NOW: $15.00 ($5 off) Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: Fountain of Youth $15.00 ($5 off) LEGO Star Wars Luke's Landspeeder $24.97 (MSRP)

I imagine something more like Hogwarts. It's not UCS, you can buy a couple and put it together, you can expand it with the other Hogwarts set... not sure how I'd see that happening exactly with Orthanc, but the idea that they can't do a reasonably small set to represent a large building is short sighted (not to sound insulting, I don't mean to be) - they've already done it with other themes, after all (not just Hogwarts, but any of the sailing ships... minifig illusion scale). Why not? First of all, I reject the notion that a theme requires vehicles at all. How successful is the castle theme already, and what vehicles do they have? No more than LOTR... perhaps less. Harry Potter was light on vehicles, POTC is essentially light on non-ship vehicles - and they did a carriage that, essentially, plays a fairly minor role in the movie. Vehicles in terms of LOTR are horses, winged beasts, Oliphaunts, seige towers and Grond... but if you needed more, then Gandalf's cart would be a cool set (IMO, but then I'm an adult). Even the giant eagles would count as a vehicle. Out of all those, you nit-pick Gandalf's cart? That's just one idea. The winged beasts and Oliphaunts would what the kids want to play with.

I supported... like this design much better than the one that inspired it; smaller would be nice, too.

Wash it, batch by batch. Can't think of anything else. Some people use the dishwasher; I've never tried that (but then I never had a 20 gallon container of LEGO to wash). You can buy bags for washing small things. I wouldn't give up on them. BTW, Georgia's no picnic.

I thought there was already another thread on that subject of what we'd like to see... maybe in the dream licenses thread (I'm too lazy to look). I know elander has posted set ideas in threads other than this one.

Another +1 for melrows.

That's why we can't take anything seriously until we get something concrete, despite what correct information someone may have had in the past.

In that case, your prices can't just be "competitive," they have to beat everyone else's, otherwise those people would have already bought what was available elsewhere. So by competitive, unless you mean "I beat everyone else's price," then it's really not good enough.... UNLESS you have a lot of other things at good prices that someone might want, it's rarely worth it unless you BEAT other prices.

Interesting because, as I posted in another thread, I recently attended a presentation by the president of TLG's North American Marketing division. He discussed that part of TLG's downfall in the early 2000's was that they were actually trying to compete on price with lower quality clone brands. What they discovered was that they were, in fact, a premium brand (as far as building bricks was concerned) and started raising their prices. Now I don't know if this (in itself) led to higher sales, but even at reduced sales, higher prices means higher profit (if sales don't drop that dramatically). In this case, sales didn't drop at all - they increased. Ever since, LEGO has steadily been increasing it's profit margins - in the grand scheme, Mega is competition to LEGO, it's true, but the same can be said of Hasbro and Mattel... as far as plastic building bricks are concerned, they essentially run on the principle that they have a monopoly on "premium" building bricks (even if he didn't say it that way). It's actually worked wonders for the company... not only have sales and profits increased over the past ten years, profits have literally spiked over the last couple. This is the same phenomena that allows a company like Cadilac, for example, to take a Chevy Tahoe, rebrand it as a Cadilac Escalade, and charge tens of thousands more for it. If they charged the same as the Tahoe, people would think it wasn't up to snuff.

Like Silent Mode said, plus there's the fact that I don't see many highly sought after items in your store. They are classic items, valuable items, but I don't know that the demand is all that high... they are niche items. Sometimes people are also wary of such small stores. I would not likely order from your store because shipping to the U.S. can be brutal and play a much more important role than just the base price of the items.

How? I'm not seeing it... duplos can attach on top of regular size LEGO, but I don't see how it could work the other way around. What am I missing?