deraven

While I don't particularly care for the source material of this version, your build is nicely done. Looks good overall and you've kept it to a reasonable scale while still working in plenty of detail. The engine specifically is great! NPU with the revolvers and roller skates there!

Very nice! The 3-in-1 for Aku is well done and each one of the versions looks good.

Love the darker, grittier Fabuland. That truck works really well in the primary colors, especially with those buzzsaws up front.

Wow - given the crazy geometry of that ship, I think you've done a wonderful job capturing it! Good luck with the IRL build - looking forward to seeing it on display in real bricks.

That blue speeder in particular looks great. Nice builds all around, and nice photography, too!

Welcome to EB, Andreas! Glad you found your Lego again, and looking forward to seeing you around the board. Happy building!

Fantastic! Remarkably well done at this small scale!

Love it! Good texture and color on the walls without being too busy, and I like that it's got the classic vibe but is a bit more interesting and not just all right angles.

Wow - it's great! I love suits like that with multiple sets of arms. Nice shaping and overall look, really good articulation, and I like the detailing. Especially the clean but detailed-enough and properly finished back of the mech. The use of the skipole as an antenna there and the wheel hub are nice additions. Also, while they're probably the most basic part of the build, those road barriers work really well!

I think it's good to know how to drive a manual, and if you can drive stick-shift you can drive an automatic no problem. As icm noted, however, here in the US you're not restricted from driving a manual if you don't test in one. If I were you, I'd ask the simple question: "How prevalent are manual transmission cars here, and how likely am I to need to drive one?" In my decades of driving I'm only driven a manual vehicle a few times and while it was good to know how (though I'm not great at it due to lack of real experience) it wouldn't have been a problem if I couldn't - it was just more of a convenience. If you won't need to be able to do that for work and you rarely see manual vehicles in everyday life, then it probably doesn't matter. If, however, they're all over the place where you live, several of your friends or family have manual vehicles that you might reasonably end up driving at some point, etc., then I would press on and get qualified and licensed with the manual. More skills and knowledge aren't a bad thing.

That's a great ship! Plenty of detailing without losing the classic Blacktron feel. I like the usage of the white animal tails at the back of the upper pylon, and the 2x2 trans neon green tile at the bottom of the cockpit to aid in the aesthetics there; that's something the original sets could have used rather than just showing the exposed hinge. Same. I love it!

That's great! Very nostalgic, and I agree that the campfire is nicely done. The fort is simple but effective, and I really like the timber portion of it as well. Nice trees, too - a gently updated version from those classic sets, and they work well here and have a nice size and presence to them.

While the design of the cathedral tower in the source material is ludicrous, this is awesome! Nice flow to it all and the buttresses are nicely integrated between the various spires. The bell tower/balcony bit is especially great, too!

Lovely. The building with the red is my favorite. Simple but attractive and effective woodwork on the bottom, and I really like the designs for the stonework up top.

This is the best resource I've found so far: http://ryanhowerter.net/colors.php You'll need to pay attention to the color space that you're using in Photoshop as well as what print technology your printer actually uses (and calibrate the two as best as possible). Photoshop is probably in RGB by default, so switching to CYMK and then using the CYMK colors from the linked chart would be a good place to start to see if the physical output is then a closer match to the actual real-life Lego colors.

This depends entirely upon the policy. if it's a "replacement value" policy, then them paying a few thousand bucks to get back what you lost is exactly what it'll do. However, the rest is accurate as has been noted above: most policies will not do this and the Lego will just be included in some other lump portion of the policy unless you have a separate rider with higher limits and replacement value coverage that specifically relates to the Lego. So if it's a small collection and fits under whatever sub-category of lump coverage you already have, you probably don't even need inventory or photos, but otherwise you really need to talk to your insurance carrier to figure out what you need.

Very nice classic-style build with a little bit of more modern technique sprinkled in. Nice (and fun) interiors as well.

Welcome to EB, Evan! Plenty of Technic inspiration here for you - happy building!

Inventory, absolutely. As for photos, what you'll likely need for the insurance company is proof of purchase and/or ownership. So if you don't have receipts for every set, you want a photo of them in your home or somehow identifiable as yours. Ideally you'd have all 3 (inventory, proof of purchase, current(ish) photos). Always best to check with your insurance company, and also verify if you'll even have appropriate coverage if you have a large/valuable collection under part of your existing policy or if you need to add some kind of additional coverage to be safe.

Delightful little ship. I quite like the way you've done the mast, yards, and sails.

Very cool! That's an interesting concept to do it this way, and your build is nice. I think the only thing missing would be how the basement connects up into the modular above it or complements a particular building rather than essentially being a glorified stand. That being said, it would be a lot of fun to modify modulars to include things like pneumatic transfer tubes that run through these underground modules, etc.. No, "sewerage" is the correct word referring to the sewer infrastructure whereas sewage is the gunk that flows through a sewer.

This is key. Photo proof of the items in your home may be enough, along with a matching inventory, but it depends on the insurance company. As for value, that's where keeping the catalog someplace like rebrickable may help, unless you're going to keep your own spreadsheet or something. It's particularly important to make sure you actually have coverage for your Lego. Most policies will cover it as general "personal belongings" but that category generally has a limit to the value covered. That is, if "personal belongings" are limited to $10,000 total in your policy which would go towards all sorts of random things, but your Lego collection is worth $20,000 but that's still the category your insurance company will put it in, you're out of luck. Since my Lego collection's value was above any of the applicable included coverage, I had to add separate coverage for "Hobby Items" or something with the Lego specified in that category of its own. I truly hope things turn out OK regardless and that you won't even have to go this route. I'm so sorry for the situation you're in. Be safe, and take care!

That's lovely. Great textures throughout, and a nice balance between visual interest and details without it feeling too busy. The shelf and those elaborate door handles are nice.

Yes! This is pretty much what I was getting at: so much material out there to work with for WV in general, but we end up with "Elf Clubhouse?" I understand that Lego might not want to put out just house after house and instead want sets with some kind of playable theme, but then they could still do a mill, a schoolhouse, a cafe/pub/restaurant, a police station, church/chapel (though they generally stay away from that), a general store, etc.. I will say that, looking at it again now, this set isn't as distinctly fantasy as either Santa's Workshop or the Gingerbread house and could more easily fit in with the rest of the WV... I'm just still stuck on why they're not doing deeper on all the great stuff that they could still do for the proper village part of the theme. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Let me be more specific, then: Why would slapping an "18+" on the box for this specific set make it more appealing to adults? The subject matter just doesn't seem like it fits, and the build is neither elaborate/technical nor is the scale particularly eye-catching, while at the same time having the more "adult" branding making it potentially less appealing to younger audiences. I just don't get it for this particular set. I'd have much rather seen something closer to the scale of a modular building (or perhaps a scaled-down build in the style of the new Diagon Alley) that would fit in with the rest of the Winter Village sets as an 18+ addition to the series vs this one. I'm really disappointed that we have a fantasy set for a 2nd year in a row (in my mind that means we've has no WV sets for 2 years). With this and the year they just re-released the Toy Shop, it seems like they're out of ideas which is just nuts considering how much potential they have here! How about something that works for the Modular line, but includes snow and holiday decorations that you can add to tie the themes together instead of this thing that's so much more of a stand-alone seasonal set? But there's still an 85% chance I'll buy it regardless, so I guess Lego knows what they're doing.