Robianco

That's the understatement of the year. That came out when I was contemplating my return from the dark ages so I just missed it. I'd get it on day of release now. My biggest regret in Lego was missing out on that beast!

I think they could have put the speeder that rolls past as they enter Mos Eisley... That would have done fine with the band member.

It looks great... There's a Youtube video of a similar MOC with crashed Snowspeeders, AT-ATs etc and opening and closing blast doors. Have a look for that and it may give you a few ideas for yours. I wish I had the space to attempt something like this!

Is there anything in the SW films that hasn't been covered in some way or another? Yavin is maybe the only thing I can think of... or the Lars settlement. ROTJ has been well looked after recently so I can only see Tattooine, Yavin, Bespin or Dagobah that really need sorting. I'm really hoping Bespin get's the A+ treatment over the next couple of waves. Cloud Car with pilot and Leia in Bespin Robes... Cloud City with Leia Escape, Luke Bespin, New Lando... we could split the sets into the duel, general cloud city with board room for the meeting with Vader & Fett. It's just crying out to be looked after in the same way that ROTJ and Hoth have been over the last couple of years. Give me a decent Dagobah and a Cantina with Ponda Baba, Dr Evazan and maybe a Figrin D'an band member and I'll be a happy man. Give me a £130 cantina set with 7 or more locals and I'll be ecstatic! Gives them a good opportunity to put the new Chewie in an OT set too.

If you go for the one on the left and want them machine printed there's someone on eBay who does double sided print for $5 per torso. You have to order 5 at a time though. I actually prefer the shirt and jacket style of the figure on the right for my twopenneth.

I need to build that building. To add a little more :)... I wasn't aware of the old Olde Forge... but just looking up some pics I prefer your stonework to the 'shall' effect of the round tiles used on the original.... It really makes the render and the wood stand out on that fascia. Really quite lovely!

Even just a longer Silver or Light Bley bar on the black sabre handle would work as a spear for them to hold. Maybe actually a 4599 Tap piece in black with a silver antenna would allow the figure to hold the staff with the arm straight down closer to the images of them from the film.

I think the confusion actually lies with Lucasfilm and the merchandisers. The Death Star Trooper is also the Death Star Guard and Death Squad Commander and Star Destroyer Commander. Slight worry over Nazi related issues made them change it on the original Kenner Toys to Star Destroyer Commander and gave him a grey uniform instead of a black one. Essentially they're all the same thing.

There are some perfect pad printed custom figures on eBay at the moment and you can get whole gangs of them!

True... but neither of them got much screen time yet they're not the worst figures I could have asked for. You can tell from my Avatar that I'm a fan of the Gunner's design anyway. Funnily enough the actual Death Star Trooper spent longer on Endor than on the DS in ROTJ!

I'm pretty sure you'll know the chinese fake! The plastic looks rubbish. You'll just be able to tell from the molding and the overall feel. Did you order them from Hong Kong or China at all? If not then I wouldn't worry too much. Although they have moved on from having the 'toe' part of the leg slightly pointed so they 'look' right. I'm not putting this link up for people to buy but just to be aware http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271332631930 See for yourself!

The Gunners were also on the Death Star in ROTJ. They were the ones firing the big gun. :)

You could always get in touch with those lovely Chinese people selling the fakes on eBay and see if they'll sell you a bucketload for $20. The clone looks about the only relatively close figure there! The Han printing looks terrible!

It looks like it would be fast but I agree regarding the comment about the pilot looking awkward while lying down... I wouldn't want any tweak to take away from the overall styling of the ship.

With those mid December dates, early January dates and March dates for some other themes it makes the whole thing a continual spending spree! I think the Royal Guard looks great. I don't seem to be bothered by some of the detailing issues raised by some. I also quite like the dark red arms... just the spear needs a little bit of tweaking so it doesn't look quite so sabre-ish!

If there's a group of people making you uncomfortable about being an AFOL you would always rip out the heart of the one standing closest and offer the still beating organ to the others while asking '... or would you rather build a Grand Emporium?' I think you'll find nobody would mock the brick-love anymore.

Can you leave some of those 2x2 flat plates on BL for the rest of us?! Looks great though!... The detailing on the front fascia tells it's own story as to how much work in going in to this!

Just 'admit' to it.... that's what I did. I've always been a big kid anyway... I've got a lot of friends who are very 'laddish'... Lego would be far far removed from their interests... especially when in a group but they all know that I like the things I like and I couldn't really care less about people's opinion of that. I have miniature replicas of the first 4 Star Wars posters framed on the wall of my office room at home... people who came round actually said it looked cool. It's just who I am. Now I have UCS Red Five, Ewok Village, Slave 1, Millennium Falcon and Tie Fighters on display... and now a Haunted House. In a group situation I'd probably get a ribbing from a couple of them for having 'kids' toys but nothing in a bad or derogatory way... lads just like to take the piss out of each other. The important thing is they know I don't care if they don't like it. Same as my taste in music isn't dictated by anyone else... and they like me for who I am and not for who I may try and be. Besides... I work my behind off all year and it's my one vice... I don't smoke... I'm not out every weekend drinking... so I earn my 'joy', and if that just happens to be danish and brick based then so be it. You'll find that pretty soon nobody gives a toss and you can just enjoy building. I get more earache from my other half as there's now NO room in my office for more but I still want to buy some Modular sets and new SW, LOTR and SH sets. If anything I actually miss knowing any 'real' AFOLs near me... so my brickgeek doesn't have anywhere to roam free outside of these four cyber walls. Tragic Banjo just summed up everything I wanted to say in much less words.... sometimes I just like to talk. :) That made me laugh!

I think it's down to the script that checks who is 'using' the site logs the username of everyone and also the search engines (and similar) that are scanning the site at that time. I'm sure someone can explain that better but I would assume that search bots from Google etc were accessing the site at the time of you being there... hence them being listed as active users.

Those figs look really nice. I think TLG are making some superb figures across the board this year... Star Wars, Super Heroes, LOTR and Hobbit... so many really well done figures. I'm actually more concerned about the builds themselves though...

I picked up a couple of the Marvel Super Heroes packs that they did a few years ago and I really didn't like the figures. The articulation makes them look very odd when displayed. The difference in the Whiplash figure I got and my Christo Custom is beyond compare. Host not in the same league. I thought they looked OK from the official images but in reality they don't match up. For the customisers out there though the Whiplash 'lashes' and the Captain America shield from Megabloks can be quite useful as different parts. Generally the bricks are really iffy quality-wise.

The grand opening of the Liverpool store gave away a 4 pack of mini figures that were meant to be The Beatles. No new prints or anything... just grey suits with standard yellow faces and hair. I think there's normally something given away though

I'm not entirely convinced by the quality of the molds or the plastics used on Meg@blocks... or other Lego clones to be honest... Besides that it's range of pieces, colours... a million things really...

Hello and welcome from the other side of the pond!

5 1/2 years from joining to saying hello must be a record! I'm a much more recent emergee from the dark ages but it was also a Star Wars item that tempted me! Welcome