fred67

Here's some of mine. I really like your use of colors, especially the horse barding and the "royalty" watching in the stands... ingenious.

My way, which doesn't seem to have been very popular, although I still think it's better, is to sort by piece first, then by color. Ask yourself if it's easier to find a yellow 2x2 brick in a drawer (or baggie, box, whatever) of 2x2 bricks, or if it's easier to find one in a drawer of yellow. Unless you're color blind, it's a lot easier to pick yellow out of a bunch of different colors than pick a 2x2 out of a mess of all shapes of the same color. If I start getting a significant number of any one color, it gets separated out by itself. As I buy more storage containers, I am more likely to separate out colors and store colors together in groups, but still separate out parts, so it's getting more specific. Hopefully, when I have the room, it will be one akro-mills container per one or two colors (assuming I have enough of a color to justify it). But to answer your question, I like my sets... I don't often MOC with sets.. I buy sets because I like them. If I have to store them, I store them as sets. If I'm buying a set to MOC with (very rare), then I will separate it out into it's pieces and store them along with pieces. I have this mental disorder where I can't buy a set and not build it and keep it as a set. If I want the pieces from it, I need to buy two (or more).

Then you could just put the post number... as I said, not everybody is set to the same number of posts per page.

It's more likely it was pulled, exposing the wires to some extent, then usage caused the exposed wires near each other to arc or heat up enough to cause the plastic to get brittle.

Whether it's on page 3 or not depends on an individual's settings, for me it's on the first page. Just link to it... just click on the number in the upper right corner of the specific post. Mrlegoninja's post: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=52683&view=findpost&p=955759

+1 ZCerberus.

They're based on info available in the LOTR 2012 thread... I was extremely doubtful until recently, at which point I became merely somewhat skeptical.

Over here, my TRU is loaded with Kingdoms, as is Target. I'd agree I dislike the increasing number of licensed themes, I don't mind having a few. I think POTC is over; HP is over (and won't be replaced as it didn't usurp any non-licensed theme). I also think we may get a dearth of Castle sets until next summer, at which point we'll start getting LOTR/Hobbit... assuming the rumor is true. Otherwise I'd prefer Fantasy 2.

I think that is the lance, but with a small dish and 1x1 cone to make it look better. Assuming you meant this: and not the "Duplo" lance which, while really cool, doesn't look like a real lance.

Nice review, great pictures... although I'd be getting this either way. I also have problems with the colors in the instructions. Sometimes it helps to check the complete inventory on the last couple of pages, since they're grouped by color. Specifically, they can't really print black pieces as black, because then you'd just see black - you wouldn't see the detail on the bricks. That's what it looked like when I built the the UCS Batmobile... and all the pieces were black. It was terrible. I honestly am not sure how they could do it any better. I don't know... I have horns, you can get horns on BL... while I like the idea of molded instruments, I think the Sax is a nice change and well done as brick-built. It would be cool to have a molded Sax, but I don't know how much I like LEGO moving from more generic to specific pieces. There's a happy medium, even if I don't know exactly what it is.

Definitely looks fantastic, and definitely looks like a double set in the first picture, which is somewhat depressing. Can't say it's misleading, as this isn't an official ad. Two things I noticed: I love the green dress. The red one is the same-old, same-old, but I don't recall that green one and it's quite nice. Second, did they make the ax wrong, or have I been doing it wrong all these years?

Age: 44 Age you started building: don't recall. Country: USA Occupation: Computer Programmer Married: Yes Children: 2 Does your spouse or child/children build: sometimes Do you have close friends who build: no Do you build together with your friends: no Do you regularly attend Lego conventions: no How much money do you spend on Lego product a year: $3000 - $3500 How much time do you spend building/playing a day: an hour maybe, on average. Favored theme/themes: Trains, Castle, Star Wars Do you primarily collect retail sets, build MOCs, or both? Both. Did you experience a "dark age": two! If yes, what age did you enter your "dark age": Don't recall, and maybe 38. What age did you exit your "dark age": about 35 and 41... (see below) Other hobbies (other toy collecting, sports, drawing etc.): reading, hiking, programming (yes, as a hobby). In your own words what makes Lego bricks so special: It's actually much like how I got into computer programming... I can build whatever I want and I can do it my own way, even if I like collecting "official" sets and seeing what others have done, as well. May I PM you with a request for a personal interview: if you want. About my dark ages: I started buying LEGO trains in the early 2000's, but after buying a few, and only setting them up at Christmas, I went into a second dark ages that I really didn't come out of until about 3 or four years ago, at which point I went nuts and started buying LEGO like crazy.

Except what I was saying is most of us are not capable of making those (especially Sauron and Davey Jones, not sure about the Oliphaunts). Moreover, that Davey Jones... it's really not that great. Sauron, also... Sauron would have to be a lot taller. An official LEGO set with those characters would be much better, without a doubt... but as I mentioned earlier, even if they just did fantasy 2 - we got a lot of great LOTR type things in fantasy, I'd be happy.

I do... lucky to have the crappiest LEGO Store instead of none - believe me, I do feel lucky. I mean, I came out of my dark ages... and lo-and-behold, there's a LEGO store 20 minutes away. Not bad.

TLG can do things in a much more cost effective way with (possibly) new pieces and parts that would be very difficult to come by; in 1977 when I was 10 years old I was making Star Wars ships out of LEGO, so the idea certainly isn't lost on me... but LEGO X-Wings and Tie Fighters are much better and more detailed than I could ever make with generic parts. Brickarms? Brickforge? That's great if you can afford $2 or more for a single part when a LEGO set would have a whole minifigure that essentially came out to be that much, complete with all accessories. But it's not that bad... I'm up to 8 dwarves, and have about 16 elves, I have the "winged steeds" from the fantasy theme, I've made brown elf hair and am working on female elf hair - my first try at that, and many of my elves and dwarves can be seen in the last picture I posted on EB with my CMF display, in the lower right: DSCF0851 by FredJH, on Flickr But that doesn't mean TLG couldn't make much better parts, and even if you don't like building sets, they can often be considered "inexpensive" collections of parts that get you a long way in a theme, whereas bricklink and PAB cost a lot more per piece. It's like wanting to build your own ship, so you buy one of LEGO's and get the majority of the pieces you need for a lot less than ordering them on BL. Lastly, while I have no problem doing "forbidden" LEGO (modifying pieces), I can't find a good female hair to start with except one: A variety, even if only one or two more, would be great. I like modding, but I can't make hair. So... it's not that I disagree, and I do spend extra cash on Brickforge and Brickarms occasionally, but for most people, with the kind of detail we care about these days (unlike when I was 11), it's a lot more cost effective and easier and faster with official sets... plus you are likely to get something you simply couldn't reasonably do on your own... Sauron? Oliphaunt? Who knows. Look at POTC, who's going to reasonably make a Davey Jones head on their own?

Like I said, I've certainly been wrong before (I bought that they'd "never" bring back HP, for example), but LOTR is a bit more major than Dino, not the least reason of which is that, as a licensed theme, it involves parties OUTSIDE of LEGO to keep it under wraps, too. Don't get me wrong... as I've said all along, it's awesome if it happens, and I think it will be successful if they do it, I've just been better off being a skeptic.

I was going to group them that way, but some figures just seemed to go so naturally with others that I decided to group them by type. Also, feeling as if we're going to see a lot more of these, I want to condense how much space they take up. I already have too many things in the closet because I have no room to display.

LEGO Store, Discover Mills mall in Lawrencville, GA. Apparently, my store is crap compared to everyone else's. IMG_20110917_101207 by FredJH, on Flickr IMG_20110917_101229 by FredJH, on Flickr IMG_20110917_101248 by FredJH, on Flickr IMG_20110917_101310 by FredJH, on Flickr IMG_20110917_101324 by FredJH, on Flickr

My complete set of the first five series, 80 figures in four cases: DSCF0851 by FredJH, on Flickr

AFOL - ay-eff-oh-ell because the shortened "awful" sounds terrible. MOC - "mock," because... it doesn't sound terrible. vignette - "vin-yet." LEGO - leh-go. Me too, but I always thought "Ninja GOOOOOOO!" was great.

My apologies if I'm wrong, but I have to call BS. I simply do not believe it. Of course, I've been wrong before, but still, I'm not buying it.

I'd like to see more cloth products. Capes are easy for hobbyists if you have the right material; but dresses, sails, hooded capes, robes, etc., would be pretty cool.

The problem is they didn't capitalize on the first three movies when they came out. Obviously it was a matter of timing, other licenses, and a number of other things, but POTC movies are, like most "series," less and less popular with each one (multiple movies that tell a single story notwithstanding... like SW and LOTR and HP). The next movie (if there even is one) is almost (almost) guaranteed to be even less popular. I think they passed the window of opportunity on POTC. I would love to see a Flying Dutchman, though. Finally got QAR and am quite happy with it.

As much as I respect your opinions (and all the facts you've provided, obviously being very knowledgeable about LEGO), the fact is that you obviously wouldn't be the target audience anyway.I understand your opinion, but it's more a general rant against licenses. That's fine - after all this long discussion, I've been swayed to the opinion that I'd rather have fantasy 2 than LOTR (that is, given enough LOTR-like sets, even if they aren't quite LOTR - much like the original fantasy minus the stupid skeletons). But I think LOTR would probably win more buyers as a new castle theme than it would lose.

Depends on my mood and how much time I have free. Just spent today building Queen Anne's Revenge with my daughter, followed by Hoth Echo Base with my son... but today was a very unusual day. It's true we did a "family" build a few weeks ago (Cafe Corner), but I haven't done any large sets besides those for some time. My MOC time is very limited. If I have all day and I'm in the mood, I'll spend all day. I honestly can't remember the last time that happened.