deraven

Welcome to EB, Richard! Looking forward to seeing some of your MOCs. Happy building!

Nice detailing and overall design. I like all the different beds & "linens" inside, and it's always great to see a corner building with a different footprint. That center, angled entry is very nice and complements the rounded window area nicely. Great build!

Welcome to EB, Richard! You're in good company here for all those categories. Happy building!

That is excellent! You could always melt Chirrut's face a bit to simulate Pike's scars (), and I think his blinky light was yellow, but let's be real- this is instantly recognizable and very well done! I really like the environment you made as well, including the city/starbase structures out the window. Great build!

What do you mean by "custom" minifigures? Are you indeed referring to non-Lego-produced minifigs that individuals customize themselves, or do you mean the Lego Collectible Minifigure lines or something? Custom minifigs can be expensive simply because they take a lot of time and effort to complete (at least the ones that are done well typically do), and people want to be paid for their time and skill. They are also limited to the number that the creator decides to make, but even if they'll produce one for anyone who asks and don't directly limit the number of a given design, there's still a bottom to the pricing since it's still a custom, individually made product and not something mass-produced on an assembly line in high numbers. As to starting to collect them: if you like them and they're worth the money to you, go for it. That's all there is to it.

Welcome (officially) to EB, Mitch! At least we can all unite around an appreciation for Lego, right? Happy building!

Bravo. Not a difficult concept. Thanks for putting it out there directly and "officially"!

Welcome to EB, Andy! Great to have you here with us. Happy building!

Very nice! Great use of those newer roller coaster track pieces and curved Technic gear rack. Would be great to see it in action. Thanks for sharing!

That's a great build, and the execution in orange is fantastic (both versions)!

I think they haven't outpaced inflation by too much, so as icm noted I think they're inline with pricing from when I was a kid for the most part. For instance, the most expensive set I got as a present when I was a kid was the Black Seas Barracuda in 1989 (and I know that was a big purchase for them). If my parents found it on sale for 10% off it would have cost about $100 then, which adjusted for inflation is a little over $200 now and that's inline with most of the flagship sets, excluding the really big D2Cs. Same with the "pocket-money" sets - $5 then would be $10 now, and $10 would be $20, so not too much has changed there. I think the biggest thing, at least in the US, is that salaries in some segments haven't kept up with general inflation, so for some people those number may indeed "feel" more expensive than they would have 30 years ago. If you look at the whole lineup for that year, I think it's comparable to today with some good values and some things that seem out of whack with the size of the set.

Totally agree with LegoDW - it's a fine set (and I'll probably pick it up), but it doesn't feel like part of the Winter Village (even with the extra icing/snow on it). I have excitement for expanding the Winter Village, and there's no excitement here for me. I also didn't care for Santa's Workshop, but at least it's winter holiday-themed and can kind of fit in with the village as an attraction at the winter market/fair. If this was part of a Fantasy Village or UCS Cloud Cuckoo Land or something along those lines that'd be fine, but this one falls flat for me with the lack of a "proper" Winter Village set this year. But, again, removing that criticism, I think it's a nice design with some clever and fun features.

That's a fun use of that Lego USB stick! Nice build.

That's fantastic. The exterior is a little busy for me (looks better in the wider shots you have), but still very well done. But that interior... wow! Really beautifully done, and a lot of very well considered features. I especially like the dining area for the rats that you worked in, and the "play" feature with a dining area for Ego to be served. The details throughout the kitchen are delightful. Supported!

Just focussing on the floor, I think it looks fine. I like the addition of the tiles with the spiders- that's a fun touch. The technique is OK, but I think it would look a lot better in a larger area and with less of the ramshackle/broken look. That is, in that small 5x6 stud area, it seems strange to have just that small an area inset by that much, and with that much of it being busted-up, it almost starts to look like a pile of debris rather than an old and weathered stone floor. If you did the same thing in a larger area and had a larger percentage of the floor still intact with just some damaged areas, I think it would look good. All that being said, I get that it's a vignette so it's a necessarily small area you're working with, and maybe just removing that extra plate up that the knight is standing on and making that only as high as the border plates around the smaller floor area would make it all feel a little more cohesive. Purely my opinion, of course, but I hope some of that feedback is valuable. Thanks for sharing!

Love the P-38, and this is a nice rendition of an interesting individual example. NPU for the turbo-superchargers - that's a nice touch!

Beautiful build overall. I think the hair and face are particularly well done, and your lighting on the IT logo is great as well (and in the other photos). The combination of slopes and curves and SNOT on the collar is outstanding.

Hi Martin - welcome to EB! Sounds like a great organization, and hopefully you'll find plenty of inspiration and support here so you can do even more good with your efforts. Happy building!

Welcome to EB, Tig! Happy to have you as part of our community, and lots of great Technic and architectural content here to enjoy. Happy building!

Welcome to EB, Alex! Glad you decided to de-lurk. The forum has people from all over the world and a large number from the US, but as long as you appreciate Lego and are a reasonably pleasant person the location doesn't really matter. Happy building!

Nice model at that scale, and the presentation with it on the monolith is fun. Nice build!

Very nice! The suggestion of a coat with tails, the gold accents, and the lapel flower are all great touches! Nice bottles & glass as well. The pose and general articulation look good... but he might not want to pick up that other bottle by the stopper!

No, can't say that's the case for me... but maybe the other way 'round. If I didn't like a movie but I like a set based upon it, it doesn't influence my buying decision. However, if I loved a movie and some related sets are mediocre, I might still purchase them just for minifigs or completeness. Likewise if I haven't seen the movie at all - then it's totally based on the sets' own merit.

Welcome to EB, Arnau! Plenty of Harry Potter Lego goodness here for you to participate in, and nice to have you with us. Happy building!

Welcome to EB, WillieFawcett! Looking forward to seeing some of your custom work here on the board. Happy building!