Robianco

The only thing that would get in the way of custom work for me is bad design and bad printing. I own quite a few custom printed figures... I'll always go to pad printed where possible. I've done decals for myself and actually sold a few. For me it's down to whether I could put that custom figure next to an official TLG figure and have it look like it's meant to be there. If it looks good then it's fine with me. As a designer, the aesthetic is really important to me. I shudder at some of the crap I've seen with adhesive stickers and equally badly designed stuff. As much as some people may not like it the influx of replica Lego figures from the east is actually a good thing for me in the custom market. No they're not official Lego pieces but the printing is much MUCH closer... they have their issues with quality control but it's bringing the prices of custom figures right down and making them accessible to people for a fraction of the cost. The issue on this is that they're copying some designs without credit... but I've seen plenty of figures sold that are copied from official TLG designs (or slight derivatives) and now these are available at something closer to pad printing for less than the price of a CMF. I only ever go for these figs where there isn't a TLG official version... it's a good way of filling gaps. Hell... I recently got a version of the computer game Flash (with the full helmet and wings) for only £3.

Just jumped on the Argos bandwagon and picked up some Hobbit!

Excuse my ignorance of Technics releases but are these current sets? Available at retail still? (I see that three of them are) I only ask as another member has taken a pretty rough ride from some people for highlighting a cheap item bought from eBay as brand new. It turns out the item arrived all sealed from a retailer but bought through stolen credit card details and shipped direct to the buyer. The buyer then contacted the relevant people and made eBay aware of the scam. Could this be happening here? Maybe through S@H?

I'm pretty sure the release date coincides with the start of the promo here in the UK so you'd get the promo figure with it. I'll be picking it up from a Lego store though so I can always check that rather than order through S@H with crossed fingers!

Anything sold at Hamleys in London is outrageously marked up. £49.99 normally converts to £63.99... That kind of mark up on EVERY item just for the pleasure of buying from Hamleys!

Fingers crossed it's the same here in the UK. I'm interested to know which sets are reduced also. I'm much more excited about the fact my accountant can clear another batch of a Lego items through my business account this year too! Actually... Checking on the UK side of the site it's listed the release date as the 28th April.

Spoke to a member of staff at my local Lego store today and he said the May 4th promo is a week long thing rather than a weekend promotion this year... There'll be reductions on items but he couldn't guarantee the Sandcrawler would be out in time for the promo. He's going to confirm with me closer to the date. I bloody hope so!

Old Count Dooku torso with flesh arms and black hands, Reddish brown Han hips with belt print, Black legs, Leia head, Dark Red hair and tan cape. Purple light sabre blade. Voila. Mara Jade Custom. Give her a blaster for good measure! I'll be getting the May 4th Promo definitely... I know it has probably been mentioned and I apologise for asking but when will the summer wave be hitting? I take it I'll have to purchase current wave to get the figure or will the new wave be out beginning of May in time for this?

I only ever bid with 5-6 seconds remaining... and bid the maximum I want to go. If I don't get it then that's fine... another one will be along in a day or two... sometimes only hours later. It's amazing how many people I've spoken to say 'I only lost it by £1'... erm... no... You have no idea just how much the other person bid... you just didn't bid enough to beat them. Personally I love bidding on eBay... you win some... you lose some. There's no reason for eBay to display the maximum current bid. Why would they tell a seller (or other bidders) how much someone is prepared to pay? They only need to display what the current winning bid is and what you need to bid to beat the current amount (or at least move the bid on). That's the point of it being an auction. If you went to a live auction house people don't just shout 'I'll pay £1300 and no more'.. you just bid that you need to beat the other current visible bid.

I've purchased customs from several people in the last couple of years. I'd still say Christo is the best customiser out there but those figs sell for quite a bit (although I've always been 100% happy with everything I've ever bought from him) Other sellers that print on official Lego pieces also charge a premium as you say (more than they used to!). The thing I actually like about these is the finish is closer to pad printing than a lot of customisers and most of them use metallic inks. I can't see anyone offering me a better Green Lantern, Comic Con Superman, Odin and Bizarro for this kind of outlay and I'm quite content with my Hall of Armour being almost 20 strong (feels much more like a Hall now!) Rather than post people I've bought from (as I'm not sure if that's OK or not) I'll drop you a PM with them.

OK... So here's some of the customs I've picked up from the Far Eastern sellers on eBay. The Superman is essentially just the torso but with the official head and hair from Supes and the legs from Zod. Green Arrow is at it came... this arrived today actually and isn't too bad. Green Lantern is from a UK guy based out in the Phillipines. He checks for print issues and this one is pretty good. I've had 2 others that were OK but had slight issues. The head is from another custom seller although the one on this was double sided and not too bad... the heads suffer from print issues too. The Robin on the left is the official one and the one on the right is a custom... so not too bad in comparison. Odin arrived today too and thankfully his print is pretty well aligned. There's some of the Iron Man figures I've picked up. I've got several extras of these as I picked them up for the 'non-official' customs as I have the TLG official versions of those. Finally there's the Winter Soldier figure that arrived today too. I think I'll replace his arm with a Light Bley one or maybe even spray this one silver. Head is double sided on this (most of them actually are). So there you go... Quality is actually getting better on these... Misprinting is happening less and less I think and they're working out at around £2 at most... closer to £1.50 actually which makes them nice additions to fill out a collection... and definitely for those Comic Con figs that have eluded those of us that weren't there or have £100s to spend on them. None of them have attacked me so far ;) Batman arrived as part of a batch of 6 today (with Green Arrow, Odin, Winter Soldier, Venom and Cyclops) Cyclops is a pretty iffy design if you ask me. Not sure what variation this is meant to be but all 6 were around £9 so I'm happy for the odd variation that doesn't mean anything is it's around £1.50 and the print is OK. I'll post the Cyclops image next but I warn you it's not pretty. My Bizarro... Not sure why the cape has come out looking so dark on this shot... its actually much lighter and closer to the original. Again... Not something I'd pay a huge amount for but for less than £2 it's a winner for me. Here he is on the custom backing card I created and had printed. My Shazam, Green Lantern and CC Batman are mounted on their cards too. I had a few of these printed and was selling them on eBay before a seller reported me (as they had a Lego logo on them).. It just so happens that he was selling real Comic Con carded figures for around $200 each whereas my cards are £5 each.

Personally I love it. I'm not hardcore EU but I have an interest in it and Revan is a huge character. Isn't he also related to Satele Shan from the Jedi Striker Class Fighter we got? Bastila Shan was his wife wasn't she? Revan would be one of around 5 EU that I would love to have seen along with Thrawn, Dash Rendar, Xizor and Nihilus. I certainly find it more interesting that the retro Luke from the new book.

I've bought 4 sets marked as incomplete in the last 2 weeks... 8038 Battle of Endor, 9468 Monster Fighters Castle, 7657 At-St and 4876 Hogwarts Castle... I think there was a total of a £10 BrickLink order to make the parts up. Building 4 sets where you KNOW things are missing is kind of fun... especially when you know you can get the parts quite cheap and ultimately get the sets for a lot less that way. it's part of the fun for me. By the way... I think Jodawill was referring to the typo in the header... I think it should read 'Live' in fear...

Wouldn't the helmet from the Valkyrie Opera Singer work with 2 batwing helmet accessories work for now?

I'm not trying to change anybody's mind. It would be a complete waste of energy. Simply highlighting the futility of some people's bloody mindedness.

Points of view don't really count when faced with fact. The buyer had already made the purchase on a legal site with a legal listing. It was the people on this board and the actions of the op that highlighted to eBay that the listing involved fraud. The op didn't steal the credit card details and his actions had no direct or indirect relation to the details being stolen in the first place. The actions of the op might be the only reason the credit card owner knows someone is using their details illegally. I've had my details stolen and I know exactly how it feels. There is no moral high ground here. The op doesn't need to feel he did anything wrong legally or morally as he didn't DO anything wrong legally or morally. If he'd made the purchase after hearing people's concerns on this then he may have had to answer to his conscience... as it is he didn't. That's not open to debate. Feeling some kind of moral outrage at someone who has seemingly benefitted from being an unwilling participant in a crime is pointless. The op reported it. Offered to return it. Effectively put and end to the the fraud committed against the credit card owner and in doing so has hopefully started proceedings in finding the people responsible. If anyone still feels they need to throw some blame at him for some apparent wrongdoing then I think that says more about them than the honesty of the op.

...or this.

- Deleted. Not worth it.

Yeah... There are a few kinds of legs on those I've received. There are the tapered toes, the standard toes (Lego style) which have bars either side rather than the 2 studs on official legs and now there are clones of the official legs but the moulding isn't quite right and don't sit as tight as official ones. The backs of the tapered toe variant have an open back on the foot area. They're getting closer to TLG legs but the quality isn't quite there yet... It all depends on the factory and manufacturer.

I'm in Liverpool too and I found it easy to pick up. Seems the UK has had most sets easy to pick up this year... Except Disney Princess... But my 4 yr old got over that! ;)

That's the internet for you! The whole board seems rather tetchy at the minute... Must be the time of the month... ;)

Then eBay need to step in and check these listings. If the listing is reported them it can be examined and if nothing dodgy is found it can be relisted. Surely TLG would monitor eBay for this kind of activity if it's becoming increasingly common. I don't think anyone wants to be party to credit card fraud and I also doubt anyone on this board would want to be involved in defrauding TLG... But insinuating there'll be a knock on the door from some Dutch heavies does seem a little over the top.

I agree. I can't see me ever buying non Lego sets... And I always track down genuine Lego figures where they're readily available. But I'll take the opportunity to assemble a set of Comic Con exclusives for around £20 or have a hall of armour for Iron Man that's 16 strong for around the same cost if I can and if TLG aren't going to offer me these figs. I'll take well made, inexpensive clones all day for customs if that leaves me with more money to purchase my official sets. It ultimately comes down to quality... If they look crap I won't put them with my good stuff... But at the moment they don't look out of place and I think they may just get better as time goes on. The quality is already inch better on these than they were 6 months ago. *much better

The figures with tapered feet aren't the best although the Black Superman torso and the New York Toy Fair are worth picking up. Iron Man figures are done by a couple of places from what I can see... One of them doesn't use metallic inks although their printing is tidier. Face printing does seem to be a let down at the moment. Some odd choices such as line details being printed in gold etc... The Pepper Potts fave on the Rescue minifig is really iffy but the rest of the dig is fine. Capes are quite poor quality... Very flimsy and soft. Some hair moulds are quite good although colouring is a bit off. I'll get some pics up over the next day or two of the figs... I'll mark up what's modded and what's as it arrived. I'm really hoping the GA and Winter Soldier figs are decent quality when they arrive.., that'll probably be in around a week.