tedbeard

Bienvenue! Yes, it serious and in most cases chronic, sometimes even life threatening - if your wife finds out how much have spent on LEGO without her knowing.

Fantastic! You've even got the tea-lady.

^ Wow that really looks good! Plain fabric, especially the heavy texture, looks better IMHO than the printed LEGO tents. I would like to see the side walls extended to make the tent more of a cabin-style. I wonder if simply extending the LEGO pattern would work?

I like to keep things modular so I use the sidewalks developed by PSLTC. They allow you to build any road layout and then just drop in buildings. If the buildings are built to Modular Houses Standard they will require a foamboard or baseplate underneath to meet the elevation of the sidewalks. Buildings built to the edge of the baseplate (as below) still fit in. This has made layouts for our local train show super easy. I also used this style in the Operation Bricklord displays at BrickCon the last two years. The picture below shows the basic sidewalk including the sewer openings. I prefer studded sidewalk to allow for placement of figs and accessories anywhere and because it looks more "LEGO-y" to me. Note this picture was taken during set-up so the sidewalks modules have not been joined together. I use lamp posts, garbage bins, trees, whatever to make the joints secure and add to the scene. I think that while the sidewalk area becomes a bit large when using the MHS buildings I find that once you start populating the scene with figs and vehicles and bicycles and benches and food stands etc. the space is quickly filled. I especially like the 7-wide sidewalks because I can use 6x plates for the sidewalk and use a different colour 1x plate for the curbs. In modern towns this allows for different colour markings for bus stops, no parking zones, etc which are common here in N. America.

Wow, I always wanted my LEGO creations to look more like Mega-Crap. I guess there must be a market for something like this but to me it sure looks ugly. Thanks for showing it. It is interesting to see this sort of thing.

No real rush since the Indiana Jones tents are the same tent with the same printing just using tan cloth and black ink. MMCB uses the basic pattern for his custom tents which I reviewed a while ago.

Hello from the City of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

It is amazing. I had to go back a second time to get more bayonets. They are spectacular.

I was there and I have to say this was a very well-deserved winner of the award @ BrickCon. I got to see most of the functions and as a non-technic guy was interested to learn he used four motors to power the functions and one more just to maintain air pressure in the pneumatics. I had no idea pressure was such a problem. Just one FYI, the real plane is indeed once again being built but here in Sidney, a suburb of my hometown of Victoria on Vancouver Island by Viking Air. Sorry to be pedantic but the city that hosted the Olympics is on the mainland. Don't get me started on Royal Navy explorers and geographic naming on this coast.

And no one is objecting to selling the bricks nor are we discussing legal issues with The LEGO Group. The objection/warning is for creating something new (ie: printed instructions) that use trademarks that belong to third parties such as Lucasfilm, or Disney etc. You cannot sell something for which no licensing agreement has been reached with the owner of the trademark. A Toy Story figure has already had the license fee paid by LEGO to Disney. A box created by you with the "Toy Story" artwork on the front has not had any license fee agreed or paid and would thus be a trademark violation and, in some jurisdictions, considered theft.

This has nothing to do with what we are discussing. We are NOT discussing re-selling of previously existing products. We are discussing creating something new (instructions, box art, set names) using someone else's trademark.

I would be interested in where you get your understanding of the law. I know that various brick artists have been prevented from selling one-off works of art because they infringed trademarks. For example, from Eric Harshbarger's site: These exemptions and loopholes are myths. They may sound reasonable and be something we would all prefer were true but the law is not based on wishes and dreams.

Actually no, it is not. It is illegal. If you create anything with someone else's trademarks and sell it without their permission you have broken the law. Re-selling something with a trademark already approved and paid for is fine but we are talking about creating something new and adding a trademark. The whole point of trademark law is to stop exactly this sort of theft. Just because owners of these trademarks cannot prosecute every single infringement does not mean it is OK. It is not a "loophole" you are describing but evasion. If they find such a use they have to prosecute or risk losing their trademark protection. Please stop posting any more on this subject until you have spoken to a trademark lawyer or at least done some actual research on trademark law because at this point you are advocating illegal activity.

Omi, I think you missed something - or I did. The original question, as I read it, was about creating multiples of custom sets with printed instructions. Selling modified figs and used elements are both very different than printing instructions and labeling things as being "Star Wars" or "Batman" sets. If the lawyers get wind of such a thing they will shut it down. Advising someone to break the law because others appear to be getting away with it seems to me to be poor advice.

Nothing to stop you except lawyers and the courts. If you sell anything with logos or trademarks that belong to someone else you are subject to legal penalties and civil action. Using LEGO elements to create custom sets is one thing but LEGO pays license fees to use characters and trademarks associated with Harry Potter Star Wars, etc. If Lucasfilm catches you trying to sell anything with "Star Wars" on the box you will be shut down as soon as they find out. If you sell custom sets for "Wizard Adventures", "Night Vigilante" or "Space Battles" then you would probably be OK so long as you do not include any licensed figs or elements in the set.

It's fun to charter an accountant. And sail the wide accountancy! Really nice so far. Do you have firing filing cabinets?

Juts finished the fourth book by David Weber in the Safehold Series: A Mighty Fortress. This is rousing Science Fiction/Action that to me reads like a combination alternate history (late 16th to 17th Century) and the Aubreiad of Patrick O'Brian.

And yet it still has no categorization and lacks articles on the most basic concepts. <sigh> Sometimes quality matters more than quantity and hundreds of articles that are nothing more than the information available via LEGO.Com, Brickset or Peeron does not make for quality. I supported BrickWiki because it was the best place to find out about the hobby and the community as a whole. It is sad that it seems to have died thanks to the neglect of one person.

If possible I would suggest you register and attend BrickCon in Seattle the first weekend in October. A bunch of us from VicLUG go every year. There is usualy lots of used LEGO and some PaB(Pick-a-brick=random bulk new LEGO) at the Brick Bazaar at the convention site. We also do a special attendees night @ the Bellevue LEGO brand store which has a good discount on $US prices which means you pay close to 50% off the retail price in Canada. It is kinda soon and you would need to register by the 15th of this month to get all the goodies but it is well worth it.

Anyone know anything about this person/company or actually ordered from them? The products certainly look interesting but I'd be disappointed if they are not ABS.

There are a couple of different thicknesses but I think you can come very close. You might want to experiment a bit with different thicknesses and stacking multiple layers to get the desired depth. If it is really deep you might be better going with DUPLO or wood as I find the foamboard a bit pricey.

In regards to "maturity", as a 40-something father of three kids I find that no one gives me a hassle abut my LEGO hobby. Having gone to several model railways shows to be part of a LEGO layout and taken my kids last weekend to a model airshow for the fourth year in a row I saw no one hassling 50, 60 even 70+ year old guys for playing with a toy. By the time you are our age this sort of activity is not "immature" it is "youthful" or "staying young" and everyone you meet wishes they were doing it as well. In terms of money, it is a hobby and obviously if it is a choice between buying more LEGO and clothes for the kids for back-to-school the kids needs win. That is what maturity is all about. Putting the needs of your family before your own pleasure is hard for some to grasp but once you do it feels great. It sounds like you are entering your 'Dark Ages". I say, put it aside for now and concentrate on other aspects of your life. Just whatever you do don't get rid of your LEGO - it will still be there when you have a better job, more stability and a spouse who is glad you play with LEGO rather than hanging out at strip clubs with questionable friends.

The last couple of years @ BrickCon we have made use of foamboard to level out Castle, Town(including Modular House Standard) and WWII MOCs (see bottom-right building being set up) that use BpP (Baseplate + Brick). I don't see what the issue is. Are people gonna complain because we use tables under our MOCs? Wood, foam, DUPLO, LEGO, use whatever works underneath.

Your first ship! I think you have done very well and your "teacher" should be commended for the excellent instructions. In particular I would like to compliment the colour scheme and the rounded bow. Both look very nice.

Are there a lot of people shopping in stores in both North America and Europe?