fred67

When I tried to retrobrite (the hydrogen peroxide solution) clear LEGO (notably macaroni bricks - which are very expensive), I felt like the solution softened the plastic... the frist time I took one out and wiped it dry with a paper towel (I just wanted to see how it did, I normally put them out on a towel after rinsing and let them air-dry), the effects were horrifying. I tried allowing other ones to air dry, but it just never came out well. At the same time, I haven't tried it with the retrobrite+oxyclean method (that was way back before I heard about adding an oxidizer). If you haven't added an oxidizer, it might also be the case that you just didn't leave them long enough. The peroxide only solution can take all day, especially at only 3% strength (and you certainly shouldn't further dilute it, if that's what you're starting with). I did a fair sized batch yesterday and was disappointed that only around 1/3 of my whites actually were white at the end; I had to redo the rest today - I started as early as I could and only just took them in a little while ago (around 6pm). They were out there at least eight hours, and with oxyclean, and while the vast majority look great, there are still a couple of pieces that are yellowed. This isn't my first rodeo, either, I've had a lot of success in the past, but never had pieces this stubborn. Time to start a filler bin. But the point is that you may need to just give it a bit more time.

Wow. Just.... well... it explains the expressions on their faces, I suppose. I actually think this series is pretty disappointing. I get it's got a lot of neat accessories people will want, but on the whole they've really been going down hill. There's so many people we could still use for our cities that, to go full-tilt zany just seems.... not very useful. The only interesting piece there, for me, is the cactus - and I'd really want to use it as, you know, a cactus. I have to agree. Having one or two costumed figures is enough for laughs. We've had enough. Unless you're making a LEGO Costume Ball, I don't see the point in this series. I liked when it was one or two sci-fi figures, one or two sports figures, one or two "worker" type figures, one or two historical figures, one or two mythological figures, etc., maybe with a couple of costumes or other "creatures" (Zombie, anyone?). Releasing CMFs in themed waves makes it easier to just skip, IMO.

Yes - well, I only bought LEGO from TRU if it was on sale. Some of the sets were MSRP. Some were up-priced. I avoided shopping there.

Not on bricklink. They have 1x2, but not 2x2, as far as I can tell.

Short version: Trains. Longer version: I was just starting an N-Scale train hobby, building my first small layout; I had a 3 year old son who wanted to play with it and who, like most little kids, just wanted it to fast enough to go flying off the tracks. Discovered Railway Express on clearance sale at Sam's Club, and bought two (because I didn't even know LEGO made trains, so I figured I'd have extra tracks, engine, speed regulator) and then I could build stuff with my son that he could break and we would just put it back together. Then we found a LEGO retail outlet (a LEGO Store, but not full size - so it was considered an outlet - they've since moved to a larger store in the mall they were in and are now a full LEGO Store) and found they had tons of other train stuff, a lot of sets you would never know existed otherwise, and a freaking pick-a-brick wall. Over time I got into other themes, but I'm essentially back to just city and trains (including modular). For the record, I was about 35 or so at the time, and am now in my early fifties. My kids don't care for LEGO anymore, but I do.

Well, I know I said $0.50 premium, but looking at it as just $0.50 is not the intention - it's looking at it as a premium relative to what the price should be. $0.50 on $3.00 (last time I cared, that's what they were going for) is 1 sixth, or more than a 15% premium. They did not price every set that way, but they did charge over MSRP for a number of LEGO sets - it was all supply and demand, I suppose, and CMFs were greatly in demand, so they charged a premium.

Yes, TRU often priced the merchandise OVER MSRP. Not always, but often, when it came to LEGO. I remember CMFs having a $0.50 premium at TRU. As far as I think this is quite a reach - I doubt TLG will being playing second fiddle in the construction bricks market, but I wouldn't complain you're heading into dangerous waters, there, Blk69. When TLG was operating in the red, and headed for bankruptcy itself, it was trying to compete with competitors like Best Lock and Megablocks, and they were pricing merchandise competitively with them - but part of their turn-around was the realization that they were a premium product, and what they were producing was far better quality and, more importantly, what they were producing COST MORE TO PRODUCE because of their high quality standards. They started pricing their sets to actually make a profit instead of trying to compete with low-end products (rumor says they were actually selling some products at a loss without even realizing it, just because they priced down to compete - one of the reasons we lost 9V trains, supposedly). Now it IS interesting. I don't condone the knock-offs, but I absolutely do condone competitors like MB, Best Lock, Oxford, especially when their products are improving, which could in fact cause TLG to have to start being more competitive - and that would benefit us all. I don't see why a slight drop in profits should concern anybody here - as long as they're operating in the black, they are doing fine, and the are still doing great.

TLG had this problem a long time ago; they were spending a LOT of resources branching out to games, TV shows, and even the theme parks. This is when they were operating in the red, 15+ years ago. You know part of the reason they were able to turn around an impending bankruptcy is by licensing off all that stuff? That means that, instead of trying to do it themselves, they let people pay them to do it for them. Merlin Entertainment, for example, bought the theme parks (all but the one in Billund) and pays LEGO licensing fees to operate the parks. The video games and TV/Movie production is not done by TLG, other companies bid for it. TLG turned these revenue streams from losses to can't lose by doing it this way. I personally think the year over year price increases are causing people to balk. Never have they ever had so many $150+ sets for sale, including their most expensive set ever (which obviously isn't the problem, but only because they so limited the production of it). The value of the sets my still be there (the price per part, or per weight, or whichever way you want to try to quantify value in LEGO sets), but the cost of the sets has risen dramatically while real wages in the U.S. (at least) have stagnated or even gone down. My personal experience, as an example; I knew they weren't the greatest value, for example, but I didn't balk at spending $20 for the first architecture sets - now they are too expensive for me to try to keep up with, so I just stopped buying them. When CMF started, after the first couple of series, I would just buy a case so that I knew I'd get some complete sets. When CMF started, they were $2 (US) each. The price went up 100% in less than 5 years. Yes, it's stagnated, but now I only get the figures I absolutely want - much less than half of what I was buying before. The sets have also largely been really disappointing. The LOTR sets should have been one of the biggest themes (after Star Wars) LEGO has ever had, but they did a terrible job on the sets, overall, and I believe it's not the designers, but the management that really restricted what the designers were able to do, and they probably blew the budget on new pieces over substantial sets. As far as Star Wars goes, as an OT fan, I've pretty much completely stopped buying anything at all - I don't need another MF, I don't need another X-Wing, or TIE Fighter. The new sets compete with old sets I already have, so you're only getting collectors and new fans since the last wave, which was only a year or two ago, so how many could that possibly be? Lastly, no company can expect the kind of growth TLG has had to last forever - there is always going to be a limit. It was inevitable that they finally hit a period where things roll back a little. Let's remember one thing - they are still the largest toy company in the world, they still have enormous profits and profit margins that are the envy of just about every other company on the face of the planet, toy companies or not. They are still hugely profitable - they didn't take a "loss," they just didn't earn as much as they had been.

I don't make it a link, I just use both number and name, like "4504 Millennium Falcon." But yes, it bugs me when, without qualifiers, people mention a tirade of numbers as if we all know every LEGO set ever made by number. It's been mentioned here to make a tag that would automatically link to the BL page, like [set]4504[/set] (I think this was actually before they moved to this board software). The LEGO subredits will find set numbers in posts and automatically add a reply with a link to them and photos... that's cool. I don't let people saying "Legos" bother me, for the most part, unless they are fans and should know better. I always just use the correct form... "LEGO Sets," "LEGO Bricks," "LEGO Parts." I don't bother correcting people because most of the people who use the wrong terminology don't care and just find it pedantic. Here, though... I do recall responding to someone here with "What are 'legos'?" I was being a jerk, but I do think people here should know better. EDIT: and one last thing.... TLC ("The LEGO Company") doesn't exist anymore, it's TLG ("The LEGO Group").

Agree with @Littleworlds; I am really over-organized, but if you've got a small number of hinge plates, clips, etc., then they could all just go into their one bin. You still need to search, but through a whole lot less. You can narrow down without getting obsessive about it.

I got a bad batch of dark read in my palace cinema. And before anyone who has never experienced says "oh my god! What did you do? Try to smash them into place with a hammer?!?" I grabbed the same dark red 1x1 tiles from my own collection and had no problem. Every single one that came with the set broke, none of the replacements from my own collection broke. They were obviously too small - bad mold? Cooled to fast? Too slow? I don't know, but something went wrong. And TLG never made good on it - I complained, they said they'd send parts, I never got them, I sent email with the picture and called back; the operator I talked to was flabbergasted and promised me they were on the way.... and I never got them.

I'm at the "look for a house with a bigger basement" step in my LEGO life cycle.

I agree - I would support this on Ideas. Even though it seems like trains stand no chance of making it, it's good to let TLG get schooled by fans on how to make things.

I like those small shops, also - the current crop of little houses are just plain terrible. I guess they are going after the market looking for "play features," which ruins most sets for me (curmudgeonly old man). I often just build out the play features of sets.

I don't get to play much, but was inspired by the CS:GO Major a few weeks back to play a couple hours. Anyone here follow E-League? I saw some mentions of Injustice 2; they also covered Rocket League last fall.

Fantastic use of power functions in a really beautiful looking train! It was just painful to watch going around those tiny radius curves.

I bought a lot of sets that shot up in value, but I think it had more to do with the fact I was buying sets I REALLY wanted and so, apparently, did other people. I wasn't trying to guess what other people wanted, I bought what I wanted. I became a reluctant investor only because I finally realized I just don't have room to build all these sets, and I never will. So I started narrowing down the themes I was interested in and concentrating more on building up my city, and trying to sell off the sets I knew I wouldn't use, and it just happened to turn out the vast majority had become quite valuable. Over the past couple of years I've managed to make some great mutually beneficial trades to get some of the newer city sets. But as a business opportunity? Not only is it hit and miss, but it's not all that lucrative, as ShaydDeGrai points out. Not only is it better financially to invest where it can keep growing, but you don't have to go to the store to do it, you don't have to waste a lot of time and gas, you don't have to take up valuable storage space in your home, which severely limits the amount of sets you can "invest" in. I think, when you've been buying LEGO for enough time, you get lucky from time to time, and then it's like facebook envy - everybody posts when they get a new TV or Car, or are on vacation.... they don't post about going into debt to buy that new TV. So you usually only hear the stories about what a killing someone made with a LEGO set, you don't hear all the stories, and you often don't hear the whole story. And then, think of it this way - a leaky roof can annihilate your "investment," the same doesn't happen in a nice diverse portfolio on the stock market.

Well, I'm not sure what track we're on here. If it were a modular with set instructions to build a specific building, and enough parts for just that build, then you might see something half (or slightly more) price, but if you're shooting for something generic, then it's got to have enough pieces to cover a variety of different builds with different styles and a lot of leftover parts, and in order to make it like that, then that half width building will cost just as much as a 32x32 one, or more. Maybe there should be something like a "core" building with various color options, and then detail packs or something. I don't, but I don't see something generic like that working. I also don't think they have to go out of their way to reach more audience - I don't see that happening, either.

I know we're just speculating and blah-blah-blahing about possibilities, but guys... if you don't want steam, I get it; but if you just don't want Harry Potter, then just think of it as a red 4-6-0 Hall Class steam engine. Don't put the branding on (if a couple pieces are printed then get the non-printed versions on Bricklink/owl). My first train love is steam, but I do feel like I have quite enough in LEGO (and my forever-tomorrow layout is a modern city), so I wouldn't mind something else - but I do also like HP, and think a good Hogwarts Express would be "brilliant." "Good" being on par with EN or better. As far as price goes, a really good engine/tender for $100 would make me not hesitate to get one, but there'd have to be options to get passenger cars and, I'll repeat, 3-in-1 would be spectacular and I don't want to hear about Sante Fe car failure because that was TLGs marketing department's fault. I was back into LEGO at the time (for a couple of years) and didn't even know they made "traditional" model trains at all (metal rail with speed regulator) until I saw Railway Express on clearance at Sam's Club.

Is there that much negativity for DD? I hadn't really noticed - maybe I've been reading the wrong threads. People are suggesting it feels out of place, and I guess that's a fair point, but I do think it can easily fit in a modular "city" without too much work. I think, on it's own, it hasn't gotten more negativity than some of the other sets. It is impossible to determine how well it's selling; koalayummies said it exactly right - it's an expensive set. If it didn't come out near my birthday, I wouldn't have it yet, but I would get it eventually, probably by years end. There's no dire need to get these right away - I have a lot of stuff to build (I still have BB in the box) and not a lot of time - I don't like to force things in, I have to be in the mood to A) build something, and B) not have my own ideas for my own projects rattling around my apparently ancient head. It also came out AFTER Christmas, so it's like the slowest time of year for LEGO sales anyway (it's not, but it's not the 3 months leading up to Christmas, either) and, hey, maybe that's intentional. I imagine most people in January are allowing their wallets to recover. I get a lot of younger people might have MORE money after getting some for Christmas, but most of us older-than-dirt folks don't (I'm still waiting for my older-than-dirt tag, BTW). Oh, I'm making a big deal about my age - don't take it personally Blk69; I'm in my fifties, I rediscovered LEGO in my mid 30s, and I'm not anywhere close to being the oldest AFOL on Eurobricks. And yes, there actually IS an "older than dirt" tag.

This is actually really awesome - I wish something like these were available for sale. Since I'm American, though, kill the bus lanes and those damn nuisance bike riders, they're not welcome here. Ok, sarcasm off, I was feeling a bit salty - I take offense that Americans don't want those things, or the belief that we don't already have them (it varies city to city, but a lot of places DO have them). But since we're on the topic, it seems like adding those, and the turn lanes, and the parking spots, are starting to get too specific. Of course, it's all yours, Bricked19080 - I'm thinking in terms of if these were actually available to buy. If I were a more enterprising lad...

I'm a long time train (and HP) fan, and maybe I'm just cheap (or sick of how much LEGO costs), but I wouldn't spend over $200 for a Creator Expert Hogwart's Express, and I wouldn't even spend up to that much unless it came with several cars. Emerald Night was what? $99 when it came out with one car? Adjust up for inflation and add a couple of cars, and you're in the "normal" modular price range (something "creator expert" buyers are accustomed with). In lieu of that, a Hogwart's Express expert creator set with one car (or no cars at all) and 3-in-1 cars as separate sets. I realize that didn't pan out well with the Super Chief, but that was then and this is now.

I like those 3-in-1 buildings. Of course the modulars are a lot nicer - but then it's exactly what you're proposing, a nicer (and larger) version. While I kind of like the idea, I don't think it's possible to make something like that and keep a wide audience happy with it. There are so many specific greebly parts (especially in the later modulars) that you couldn't possibly put enough for people to come up with the kind of details they want in addition to enough basic bricks to build a large, modular style building. Architecture Studio was a start in that direction - the problem is it cost way too much for a white parts pack. I do wish we could get creator boxes with limited colors. They are doing that now (with largely useless colors for buildings, in sets too small to be worthwhile). While he may have some special access to bulk bricks now, I remember reading about Nathan Sawaya buying a huge number of tubs of bricks and separating out the colors he needed - he would end up with huge amounts of bricks he didn't need for the build he was doing, which is probably why his iconic earlier sets (like "Yellow") are monochromatic in colors you wouldn't normally choose to build people. I'm a fan of castle, and have long wanted a "grays" box, since TLG doesn't really care about classic castle anymore. A brown box for wooden medieval structures would be nice. Something with a mix of grays and some other subtle color - olive green, dark red, etc., would be really nice. The last time they released roof parts as a set, I could never get my hands on it - it was always sold out (while, at the same time their wheels and axles languished on the shelves - so much for LEGO fans wanting more vehicles). Maybe slopes packs in colors, too. But I think they do not want us to have a huge number of bricks at reasonable prices. It suits them, financially, much better if we buy a lot of stuff we don't need in order to get the parts we want.

But you believe demand is there for an MS 2.0? Unfortunately, the original fan designer passed away right around the time the set was released (as a set - people could order it through their "Design By Me" program before that). I believe the only people that really want it are the ones who missed it (including me). I ended up brick-building it - thankfully I mostly had the parts and did not have to pay hundreds of dollars to brick-link it. I also made substitutions because some of the parts were very expensive and were, ironically, some of the parts people (me, at least), thought were bad choices. If anyone has missed out on a modular that they really want, and can't afford to pay $1000 for a Cafe Corner, they should hit the bricklinking modular buildings thread. Unless you're obsessive about it, you can get a really good replica of any of the modulars and make whatever tweaks and changes you want. In a way, it's more liberating than buying the set. It's also more expensive... but at least for MS, you can get bricks in that medium blue color that weren't available in 2007, so it's definitely better. See my signature, if you're interested.

That really only matters if you require people own ALL the sets in order to make a valid comparison - you can't just own the set you vote for, you'd have to own them all in order to make a valid comparison. I don't think that's going to happen. If there was some way to make a split poll and include some demographic information - so set A might win, but amongst people that own them all, set B could win. For the record, I still prefer GG as my number one choice. It's the one that started it for me, and I still think it's classic design fits in many city scenarios, from Europe to N.A. without much difficulty. I also prefer the older, larger sets that didn't have interiors to ones that sacrifice overall size and presence for interior details. I'd also like to clear up something about MS... yes, it's the worst of the modular buildings, but it was a fan creation and, if I'm not mistaken, was done at a time when people were using one of the initial releases of LDD, you had the possibility of posting your "set" online (and other people could order it), and they were limited to part and color choices available from TLG pick-a-brick, at the time. So while I have a lot of problems with it, and it doesn't excuse it from last place, I want to say I actually appreciate the build given the limitations. For this reason, I don't really think it belongs in the "modular" line as such, but TLG insists it is, so whatever. I finally brick-built one to be a completionist, but it really doesn't stack up.