AFOLguy1970

After seeing armored Thranduil and his elven army, I still do a face palm thinking how Legolas took the slot for the elves in the BOFA set. Sure, he is going to do some ninja/jedi tricks in the battle, but still.........

What an outstanding work!

Went to the Dallas store last night. Despite the rain and election, there was still a large line for the monthly mini-build. The boys really liked the rocket. The PAB wall was significantly improved from last time. I got one large cup and tried to get a variety of things that looked useful and interesting. The azure blue 1x2's were there as were the tan 2x2 tiles. The best part was the presence of windows and doors, which was the first time in two years of visiting the store I have seen those. I got a dozen door frames with doors (white), and another dozen white 3x4 windows with panes. This was mixed in with some white inverted 1x2 slopes, blue 4x6 plates, and some red gem pieces along with the azure blue and tan parts. It was hard to walk away with only one cup, but it was sure better than nothing!

I think TH is gone as well. Also to clarify, Lego will not necessarily assign the "Retiring Soon" label to an item when it is near the end of its run. FB was gone about this time last year. One day it was in stock, and then it was gone. GE and TH appear to have gone the same route. As for PS, how long it will last depends on if there have been any more production runs. If not, then its days are numbered as well. I think it is fair to speculate that PS will now increase in sales since there are now fewer modulars to choose from. There are always people new to the hobby and just now beginning to discover the modulars. They will learn about the ones that once existed like FB and GG, and will seek to get the ones they still can. Presently, there are only three sold directly by Lego: PS, PC, and PR. It was nice having five available at this time last year, but that is probably unusual. Besides, those things take up a lot of shelf space. If someone was new to the hobby and they were trying to decide which modular to buy first, I would probably direct them to the PS first.

I do not let my 6 or 7 year old kids play with Smaug over fear of the area around the joints being too fragile. Honestly, I would prefer not to manipulate the ball joints at all. Likely, Smaug will never be taken apart, at least not where the wings attach to the body. It is impressive how Lego merged the plastic area into the rubber area, but it somehow strikes me as risking a tear if that area is handled too much. I could be wrong, but why take a chance?

Don't know what to do now. I do not even have an upstairs for enjoying that book, and what if it was a book about Lego? Also, I do not drink coffee unless it is really a killer headache that nothing else can numb. The author probably thinks we should not play any of the games at Chuck E Cheese either, because it is for kids. No more skee ball or shooting hoops for tickets. You know who you are

The problem in the last couple of years was that the release time was too close to Christmas. It was almost impossible to find the sets, especially Bag End this side of Christmas when AUJ came out. Walmart and Target did not have the sets, and several of them quickly went out of stock on the online site. Having the sets come out earlier gives an advantage for those who can plan ahead to get the sets and ensure they have them to present as gifts. At least where I live, there is definitely a lag when it comes to the sets appearing in the main stores. Walmart has none of the sets, and I saw literally one Witch King and BOFA at Target. Lonely Mountain is currently Out of Stock on the US site. I would rather see the shortages now than in mid December when everyone is looking for them. The only reason I got Bag End for Christmas a couple of years ago was because it was hidden behind other items at the store and my son just happened to find it.

If you put the double Black Gate together per the instructions, you will end up with two opening gates. One has to figure out how to combine the parts to make it just one gate.

Product not available means that it is not for sale as a set on its own. You have to purchase something over the price threshold ($100 in the US) in order to receive it with your order.

I certainly agree that supporting the frontrunner Minas Tirith in Lego Ideas is the way to go. It would be better to have one project make it to 10000 votes than have several get a lot of combined votes, but have none of them reach the threshold. By all means, one should support the one(s) they like, but keep in mind that it really takes 10,000 to get TLG's attention. It would be interesting to see what happens if the frontrunner does go to review. There would obviously show a lot of fan support for this theme and would send the message that many feel Gondor is essential to the story and was left out. Of course, if Lego did ever decide to produce the White City, and again, I am just making this a hypothetical situation, would they go with the winning Ideas design or would they simply come up with their own? If memory serves correct, you cannot have new molds on Ideas sets, so having the Witch King, Gondor helmets, new Fell Beast molds, etc. would not be an option. Also, it would be hard to design a Minas Tirith set that does not somehow resemble one of many of the Ideas proposals. I would be a bit put off if I submitted a design that never made review or was rejected, and then TLG turned around and made one that looked like mine. Minas Tirith really seems to be entering uncharted territory. It is a large set for a theme which is ending, and there are several variations. This could get interesting.

There are not really any sets out there that can supply the majority of the parts I need for my MOC, therefore Bricklink is the main way to go. Finding time for assembling parts of the MOC is easy, because most of the time is waiting to get paid in order to order some of the parts I need. Then there is the wait to gather all the parts needed for the next step. It takes only a day or two to build the next module before it is time to begin gathering parts for the next. My current MOC is built in 5 modules. One more order on Thursday will hopefully complete module #4. Then, who knows how long it will take to gather the parts for the final piece. Basically, most of the time in the hobby is waiting for a paycheck or the parts. Actual building time is comparatively very small.

Smaug is actually much smaller than he would be when compared to the size of the minifigures. Lego has however, made him large enough to still be impressive. Having a minifig scale of Smaug would produce a creature larger than most of us could afford or even display. If they used the parts from Smaug to make the Fell Beast, it would actually be closer to the minifig scale. Sure, Smaug and the Fell Beast are not the same size, but a Fell Beast made from that mold would in theory be most welcome.

This is very nice and captures the scene perfectly. I also like the border details.

I too am OK with the Council of Elrond set. At that point, it was the only way to get Elrond without having to try and find the Gamestop version. There were some nice pieces in it as well. Many people raved about the gothic arches which were introduced in that set. Gimli and the Gimli launcher were indeed unnecessary, but Lego unfortunately added those and the eye sticker to try to make the set appeal to the younger kids. Black Gate actually is a significant scene, however they chose the least significant part of that scene to produce. Not only did they have to appeal to a relatively narrow audience, they had to appeal to one that just happened to have the extended version to even realize there was a film version of Mouth of Sauron. They should have gone with Aragorn vs troll, Gandalf the White, Mordor orcs, and Gondor soldiers. As for Pirate Ship, no more to say than has already been said.

Very nice displays. It will be interesting to see how it plays out in the third movie. Perhaps your scenes could reflect all three movies? The Witch King behind the statue recalls AUJ very well. Gandalf facing Azog is a good one from DOS. We know Elrond and Galadriel will factor into BOFA, but it remains to be seen exactly how it will go against the Necromancer and his forces. I like the colors and organic appearance around your Dol Guldur.

I live in Fort Worth, TX. It is not overly humid, nor is it really arid. Yet, after an inspection of parts after disassembling some sets, I did note several cracked cheese slopes. They were basically attached to other parts within the model and were not handled by the kids. The ears on Unikitty from Benny's SSS were among those that cracked. Honestly, I think there is something about the design of this part that encounters too much stress when it is attached to another piece. Has anyone ever contacted TLG and brought this issue forward?

If Azog shows up at the battle with that sword arm of his in the movie, that would now make the minifig significantly different from the scene. Lego went through the trouble to give him a new face printing in an attempt to make the BOFA seem like it was not so much of a rehash of old characters, even though it is. Not as bad as the Yazneg debacle, but still it appears TLG did not have access to certain information. BOFA (the set) was really executed poorly. 6 out of 7 of the characters have already been produced in some form. Even the eagle was already done. Other than the two generic orcs, you have no army builder potential, and the movie is supposed to be about a big battle. I can see they tried to pull the leader of each faction, but how then would you explain Legolas? Did Thranduil decide to take the day off? The ruin is not really inspiring. The best thing that could be said is it has some nice parts that could be used to make something else. As for the ballista, it seems like a decent design. It will be interesting to see how significant battle equipment such as this factors into the movie. Yeah, I know I have really harped on this set lately, but that poster makes it seem more disappointing than ever.

No, I work at a school. They block the site, because it has games on it. Of course, every student in the school has an electronic device with games already on it. Thankfully was able to order Lonely Mountain after the online shenanigans were over. Witch King will be next, followed by Laketown. Still dont know about getting the Battle of Five Armies.

They picked a strange time to update the site with the combination of double VIP points, the promotional set, and the introduction of Hobbit wave 3, which coincided with the time period that the site went down. Thankfully, I finally managed to make the purchase later in the day. Usually, planned maintanence happens in the off hours, and not when people would most likely want to place an order.

Last year, they had a triple VIP points offer in addition to the holiday set on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Who knows if this will repeat, however if you still need a set by then, it would be a great benefit to check the site late Friday night/early Saturday morning when it comes. I bought my PS and GE on that day last year. Still do not have the TH, but I do not have the feeling like I cannot live without it. Yet, if there was $200 to spare and TH was available, I would probably buy it.

PR was released on Jan 1, and if I remember correctly the announcement came out well ahead of the holidays. In fact, it seems like we already had the designer video by October of last year, if not sooner. I would highly doubt Detective Agency would be available this side of Christmas. There is limited space on the shelves, and stores are probably trying to move a lot of product before then in order to prepare for new sets after the new year. Besides, a lot of people will receive gift certificates and money for Christmas. They could then use that to purchase something that becomes available in a week after Christmas.

Tried to log in this morning before work and buy the Lonely Mountain. It will not go to the shopping site. The way is shut. Since my work blocks the Lego site, it will be a long wait before trying again today.

I can get on the main site with my laptop, but cannot get to the shopping area. Of course this would happen after saving up and waiting 45 days for the Lonely Mountain to become available, and my work blocks the Lego site because it has games on it Guess I am going to have to wait a bit longer.

We shall double our efforts!

After getting home from work today, I will begin to repair a partially completed MOC made up of several thousand pieces that my 6 year old decided to plow through last night like an army tank. He accidentally fell into it when he should not been jumping on and off the bed. I heard the loud crash in the other room and knew immediately what it was. The worst part is it happened at the very end of the day, so I had last night and will have most of today to stew about it before the cleanup and repairs can begin. Oddly enough, I was already in the process of dismantling some sets and trying to move as much stuff as possible to high shelves so they would be out of harms way. Needless to say, I completely understand where Lord Business/The Man Upstairs is coming from. Although, I am not at the point of gluing everything together.