tedbeard

Grak knew the circus would love the act but he thought Gibli should ride the bike.

Having a look at a great site called The Ships of Jack Aubrey shows clearly that the stern on these larger ships are usually taller than the bow. ie: To be fair, the LEGO version is perhaps a little too tall but as the man said, he's not making a scale model of the actual ship.

Awesome! I always look forward to your latest work. *sweet* And if, in a small way, I provide some motivation in the form of "I will prove Tedbeard wrong!" I am happy with that. :'-)

It was honest feedback which is often lacking around here. As for constructive, there is no way to make any changes to the design that could make it look any better so I could not offer any suggestions. Sometimes experiments simply fail. In this case the result looks so little like the prototype that IMO it should be considered a failure. BTW just because an experiment fails does not in any way mean the person doing the experiment is a failure. How does the story go, Edison invented a thousand ways NOT to build a lightbulb before be found a way that worked. I enjoy every creation and the creativity that goes into it. We can all learn something from every experiment whether it succeeds in it's original intent or not and in fact we can often learn more from what did NOT work than from what did. Sadly the scale is such that giant blocks on the head cannot really replicate the smooth lines and beautiful sculptural qualities of an Imperial Gallic Helmet. There is a reason LEGO creates helmet elements. There is a reason people have created custom helmets. There is a reason BrickForge, BrickArms et al sell LEGO-compatible accessories. Some things simply cannot be done in minifig scale with even the smallest bricks. This experiment shows that even a very creative approach does not change that fact.

Sorry to have to be Simon Cowell again but this creation, while technically interesting, bears no resemblance to any Roman helm let alone the specific type referenced. Your creativity and imagination are brilliant but the final helm design looks more like a Cyberman from Doctor Who than an Imperial Roman soldier. Sorry, thumbs down on this one. *n* I must say though the rest of your centurion, using your "big-fig" technique, looks really great with the vine-staff and the torso that suggests the phalerae.

When I resurrected VicLUG a couple of years ago I used Meetup.Com (which was still free at that time) and posted to LUGNET. My best suggestion would be to post a meeting time and place on as many different LEGO forums as you can and pass out business cards with contact details to adults in the LEGO section of your local Toys-R-Us/Target/ and especially independent toy stores. Toy or trains shows might also let you create a display or advertise in some form. Word of mouth is your best form of advertising however so always be talking to people as you pass out cards, flyers or posters. What really gets noticed however is a window display at a local business or library (our first display). You could try a comic shop or any business that has space and seems friendly. Trying to find a way to get a picture in the local paper is usually pretty easy as a LEGO display in a shop window is unusual enough to attract cameras. Above all, don't be discouraged. I sat alone in a booth @ Dennys on a Meetup monthly evening for three months before people started coming. My first "recruit" showed up the fourth month and while growth has been slow we now have 9 members and done a train layout at the Pacific Northwest Regional train show held in our town and two annual hobby shows at a local mall. Anyway, hope that helps.

Huzzah! *sweet* I look forward to a smooth flag template no matter who does it! Thanks.

Is it just me or does the FORUM button on the main page still not work? Every time I click the button I get an error that says the site has moved.

Actually I don't think so. I got the impression from discussions about some of the flags he designed that he is using a bitmap image editor which doesn't do smooth curves. I have been playing with Photoshop to try to smooth out the jagged edges but they keep coming back when I SAVE FOR WEB as a .gif or .jpg file. So, if anyone with CAD skills feels like a small project please jump in...

[i can't find a discussion thread for this library so my apologies if this is the wrong place.] Can anyone please create a blank template for just the large size wavy flag? The jagged edges on the gifs are driving me batty. *wacko* I can play with Photoshop but someone with skill would sure make things a lot easier if they could create it in Illustrator with nice smooth lines. Thanks.

Are you sure it is dye? From the write up on Classic-Castle I understood that true dye is absorbed into the plastic, if it stays on the surface it is paint.

Any idea who is running it? I looked at the Admin pages and was not impressed to find only nicknames and no information about how they are paying for the site (ie: Is it gonna contain ads? Will there be "premium" accounts?)

I had to vote for SlyOwl's entry. Random junk and beating on Hippies, what more could you want in a new theme. I chose "Trash Wars" because of the endless possibilities and it was sorta catchy.

I'm confused. *wacko* I thought the rules said no baseplates? Source of confusion (but a very nice park scene):

It seems to me that using the small island plate makes a great "standard" for pirate-themed vignette/bignette/MOCettes. We need a more appropriate name though. "Buccaneer Bignette" or "Treasure Islands". Something more clever than I can think of the day after the switch to Daylight Savings Time over here. *sweet*

As a site for your own creations it is OK. As a community site I have to be the Simon Cowell here and say, no I don't like it. Why not? Well, because it doesn't really add anything that cannot be found at Brick Town Talk, Trains-n-Town and MOCPages or any of the plethora of image hosting sites. Part of the problem is your "charter". From your ABOUT page: There are lots of places that do that already with more functionality and a larger user base. Perhaps if you re-work the concept to more clearly define what it is that makes BrickCities a unique and useful community it might find a niche that needs filling. You have obviously put a lot of effort into the site and perhaps some money but right now it doesn't really fill a need in the community, sorry. :-/

You might want to cruise on over to BrickWiki which has articles on MOCs, AFOLs, SNOT and a whole lot more. *sweet*

My apologies, I thought the CBC story contained what the DOW JONES report said: So now we are clear. No change in pricing to reflect the reality of the relative values of the dollar and the growing anger amongst Canadian consumers who are feeling screwed over by opportunistic corporations. So what? There are just as many sales and special editions at American stores and sales there would be discounts on prices that are already 30% cheaper than here in Canada. To make it more clear: when a BOGO sale happens and you get 25% off each of two sets you are STILL paying more than REGULAR price across the border in the United States and it that would apply to ALL sets, not just a limited number of sets available during the sale! And I suppose it is nice that you buy off BrickLink but this issue affects the entire LEGO community in Canada including moms and dads who just want to buy little Johnny a set for his birthday but will now buy MB because the price difference is insulting and they don't like feeling screwed.

OK, I will. :-) Actually yes, if anyone asked I would have made similar comments about the other "filler" vehicles in the other battle packs. My point is not that they should not produce models of vehicles not included in canon but rather that since it was neither particularly interesting as a stand-alone nor is it reproducing something people would have seen/wanted it was simply a way to add some parts. I would love some innovative small vehicles to be included with the battle packs but these are not innovative. I know there are limitations on the designers but if my 10-year old kid could have designed it I feel a little bit ripped-off in the aesthetic sense. Designers should be able to do better. If I knew how the LEGO design parameters were set I would suggest we run a challenge to see who could design a better small vehicle/diorama for these sets. Since we don't know the "value" of each element in the LEGO design system we might specify rules like: must use the same or fewer number of parts; all the parts must fit into the box when disassembled. Sorry to wander a bit off topic there.

I guess you did not read the article that was posted at the top of this thread. It clearly states that LEGO made no concessions on price whatsoever. Good price on Arkham Asylum but there is only one problem. It is a two-year old set and I have been watching them sitting on the shelves of my local TRU for over a year waiting for a serious price reduction. It's not really a bargain finding it's way into a store when they are clearing out outdated stock that has been sitting on their shelves for years. *sweet* No Canadian retailer has more than 20-40% of the complete LEGO line available to retail chains at any given time. "Almost monthly" means they seem to have one every 6 weeks or so for much of the year but they manage the inventory so well that mainly what you could get last year on the BOGO specials was Bionicles, Exo-force and some Creator Sets (if you were lucky). Licensed sets were almost never on the shelves when a BOGO sale happened (I sometimes wonder if they remove them from the shelves for the duration of the sale.) If you want a specific set for a reasonable price when you want to buy it you have to cross the border. Wal-Mart caving has done nothing to improve that situation.

Sorry but I agree with Lord Sylp. I found the speeder incredibly lame and clearly only included to get around the "no army packs" rule that some people have speculated exists in the SW license deal. No such vehicle appeared in the movies and no particular design skill was applied to this simple model. I built it and the only "swoosh" I could imagine was as the Rebel Alliance Bobsled Team headed down the track. :-D But in the end that's OK because we are all just buying it for the four troopers anyway and the bobsled speeder parts are OK - so long as you don't use the stickers.

Johnny, I see from your profile that you are from Texas so perhaps that explains the totally inappropriate editorializing in the thread title. You wrote "Good news for canadians" which is both inaccurate and incorrectly written as Canada is usually spelled with a capital "c". :-/ But that is just being nit-picky. My real argument is that the return to Canadian Wal-Marts is nothing less than a punch in the head to Canadian consumers and of no benefit whatsoever. There was no shortage of LEGO outlets in Canada with national chain Zellers usually offering better deals on LEGO products through nearly monthly BOGO specials. And now we are further behind in our hopes to have some sort of adjustment in pricing similar to the automobile, books and comic industries which have had to bring prices more in line with American $$ pricing. LEGO is already seen as an over-priced luxury item by most moms and dads in Canada. With awareness of the dollar's value against the $U.S. more people will drive across the border and shop where prices are 30% less simply because they drove across the border. Adults ask me for for buying advice all the time and I cannot in good conscience recommend buying LEGO in Canada at MSRP.

Now that sounds like a good idea. The control would be improved but without the risk of scratches. Thanks for the tip. :-| [pun intended]

I "shaved" this "Spielberg" face to achieve the goatee: I used a fine exacto knife and scraped the printing off holding the blade almost perpendicular to the surface like an old fashioned barber. It seems to work OK on the yellow heads without too many scratches if you are gentle. The tip of the knife used carefully is more accurate than rubbing I find. I tried it on a torso and it looks like crap. It may be because the yellow colour shows scratch less and/or the curve of the head allow for contact with only a very small area where the printing is. Of course it was my first attempt and you can see there is a slight nick in the beard on one side of the mouth. I would suggest practice on some less important head(s) first to get the hang of it. :-$

Now that's what I call garrison duty! I hear that! My family keeps insisting that they should be allowed to use the kitchen table AND my two-year old thinks that he should be able to play with daddy's toys if they are sitting on said table! Good luck! *sweet*