tedbeard

I'm not surprised at all. People want there to be continuity/connections to the older Pirate lines. It is nostalgia. I have no problem if you want to tweak the cannons/crown design but we were basically presented with minor variations and this is the nicest looking version. I voted for that design because it says to me "LEGO pirates" and "soldiers" while the change in colours is good enough to distinguish the factions. These flags both use crossed cannons and crown designs and yet there is no difficulty seeing these as different factions:

Where's the plow?

Yeah, my town layout is going to need a modular-style FARTY TOWELS some day.

It was pretty cool, and very cramped inside. I always picture "bomb bays" as huge but when they let us stand underneath with our heads inside it looked about the size of two large refrigerators stacked on their sides. Now, if only I had had a spare $600 for a 45 minute cockpit ride... I was very jealous watching that takeoff.

Looking forward to this. I got to climb aboard a real one the other weekend and then watched it take off from the tarmac.

It died many years ago because it never caught on. The juggernaut that is EB swallowed it up whole and spit it out (metaphorically speaking).

Just a brief correction. You cannot change the meaning of words to suit your political ideology. It was a "civil war" because it was fought between factions within an existing nation state.

No it cannot. There is no case. And by "most users" you mean "most Americans and very few others". The pluralised usage is almost entirely an American phenomenon.

Best movie ever! Great adaptation. I especially like the simple thatched roof design.

Hi David! Welcome to EB from the Left Coast!

Wow, this is a great leap forward in military accessories. Very well done!

Love the crane, these have fascinated me for years. I totally get building a giant MOC around this item! I will look forward to the book as well. I think of them as the Baron Stackton's Men

<pedant> Title should be "Chinese Clones are taking over?" - they are not LEGO brand products. LEGO not "LEGO'S". Even if it was, the correct word would be "LEGOs" as the apostrophe usageis incorrect. </pedant>

I partly agree with you, feminism IS a crusade. What we disagree on is the purpose, the ideology behind the crusade which shows in your "unreasonable, exaggerated" comment. Feminism is about equality - nothing more and nothing less. Radicals on both sides take it to extremes I will grant but the fact is that gender balance (a form of equality) has been absent from LEGO sets for decades. This set was proposed on LEGO Ideas and supported to try and make up some of that imbalance. That is not making , "a problem out of nothing." That is directly addressing a problem that exists independent of ideology. What is making, "a problem out of nothing" is to suggest that somehow three minifigures in a small set being female is a threat to males everywhere and getting all worked up about it.

I am not an employee and I have no particular interest in protecting TLG trademarks but as a known pedant I simply object because it is wrong. The plural of moose is moose not mooses. If you can deal with that I see no reason why people have a problem with the plural of LEGO being LEGO.

Really great, love the moose head.

Which is what I have always done and what is reasonable. That however is NOT the message being explicitly promulgated by the movie. The movie very clearly makes the case that there can be no restrictions on anyone playing with any of the LEGO because that would be evil. You can make all the arguments above for subtle interpretations based on pop psychology you like but the over-simplistic, Hollywood-required, easily-communicated message is: I must let anyone play with any of my LEGO or I am an evil person. The dad is only redeemed when he agrees to let Finn build whatever he likes AND allows the younger sister to do the same. The humour and counter-message is contained in the very short reaction shot where Finn is clearly horrified that his sister will be given the same access. This, to me, shows the film makers have a sense of humour and in some ways offsets the black & white dichotomy presented as the message of the film. Anyway, loads of fun and lots of discussion fodder. Thanks for sharing Bennemans, you are not alone in your thoughts.

I have three kids. They have their LEGO, I have mine and they are welcome to "borrow" bits and pieces and even completed MOCs on a regular basis but not all of it should be played with. I see no reason to let my kid dismantle my MOCs any time they feel like it. They have to learn to respect other people's property even if they really want it.

LOL, well you and I disagree on the definition of words like "stereotyping" and "representation". As for "intention" well, to be fair that may not have been the intention (or it may have been) but clearly all fans are tarnished by the same brush. Even if some people tell you that they don't think he represents you I would bet any amount of money that somewhere, deep down, they are wondering if you do some of those things anyway. In any case the movie oversimplifies the concept of "Do Not Touch" and any AFOL who has ever used those words. Oh wait, I would bet that is 99% of us or to put it a different way, it is an AFOL steroetype. Wow, you were not paying attention were you. The adherance to instructions is the representation of the boys intepretation of his father's mania for not changing things. "Emmet" and the other "in game" characters talk about following instructions but one quick glance at the worlds he has created both "in game" and out show many MOCs. LEGO has never made sets from those skyscrapers in Bricksburg. I don't recall the saloon from "The Old West" being sold as a set. Now you are over-simplifying and equating a desire to maintain integrity of completed MOCs with rigid adherence to provided instructions. I think the movie people can get away with it but as an AFOL you don't get the same latitude. edit: for awful spelling.

You are joking right? "The Man Upstairs" can only be seen as a representative of AFOLs, and more particularly a sub-set of obsessive, minfig-scale builders. He builds in standard AFOL themes on tables clearly modelled on the standard train tables. His disdain for Bionicle and other themes that are generally looked down on amongst the AFOL community has been communicated to his son who has Vitruvious dismiss them as unworthy early in the film. His basement looks like the standard lair of AFOLS who have that kind of space and to which most of us aspire. Suggesting that The Man Upstairs is somehow NOT an AFOL is delusional. Maybe not every single AFOL everywhere - although the distinction to non-AFOLs is probably invisible. Many people I know who know I am an AFOL have asked if I have a space like him and most have asked if I use glue. I emphatically deny what I consider to be an offense and make it clear that gluing is generally disapproved of in the community. As a stereotype I would bet that nearly 100% of parents watching this film would consider him a representative of "AFOLs everywhere". Even if you make the distinctions between AFOLs he is still an insult to a large number of AFOLs who like to build in a certain style and do not wish to demolish their creations on a regular basis. There are many of us, myself included, who build models to a theme and grand design and wish them to remain intact for months or years. The message of this movie is that I am not allowed to do this as sharing with anyone who wants to build with my LEGO (including destroying existing MOCs) trumps my selfish desire to keep MOCs together. In the end I don't agree with the premise but I'm not mad about it nor will I call for silly ideas like boycotts or petitions. The character is clearly over-the top, as is the response which is usual in movies. It is something to laugh about with LEGO employees at conventions not something to make a big fuss over.

So the answer to my first question is yes, there is a problem getting BrickJournal in the UK. A problem of distribution. As I mentioned RailBricks and Hispabrick are digital magazines so of course they would not be "on shelves". I am still surprised how many people still want to buy printed copies of magazines.

Mildly amusing but good animation. Was this your first try at stop-motion?

Here's a radical thought, buy from both. ;)

Touche and match. There is no need for anything deeper as this topic is nothing but entitled moaning no matter how it is justified or how many schemes are proposed to somehow make it a "win-win". Whinge all you like but by continuing to do so it shows nothing but more variations of, "waaaaaaaaa, it's not FAIR!"