Robianco

I picked a few of those up on BL then sold them on eBay just enough higher to make the one I kept free! I'm in agreement with pretty much everyone here and I think the one character from either trilogy I really want now is Galadriel. Surely she must appear in a Hobbit or LOTR wave. I do think they'll continue the waves through 2014 and into 2015 as the DVD release and the 6 film set will be released so they'll want something to coincide with that. Plenty more sets to go!

It actually works quite nicely as a third torso for a Soldier of the Dead

Yeah... I hadn't thought about the Force Ghosts being with the Ewok Village before now. That would have been great. I suppose a ROTJ Falcon with Lando and Nien Numb would make sense at some point... they'd probably throw a revised Wedge into that too. Even as I go through things in my head they would all make good sets... Luke in Dagobah vest... but Dagobah needs a remake and an OT Yoda. Maybe that's what the Wolfe is being saved for. Yoda mentions about contacting Qui Gon Jinn through the Force in ROTS I think?.... so maybe a Force Ghost Qui Gonn? Even though it didn't actually appear?

I really like the look of that Azog on the white Warg... mind you his colour has never really bothered me that much.

Isn't the Snowspeeder pilot with the last planet sets basically Dak Ralter? We've had the celebration Leia with the Y-Wing... I'm thinking that out of all the incarnations of the main 'A-Team' characters there's Han in Endor overcoat (although I've just made a custom of that which I'm quite happy with)... Leia Bespin Escape, Leia Bespin, Luke Bespin fatigues and Lando Bespin. I don't think they'd issue new figures from a set like Cloud City with a book though and I'm hoping future Cloud City sets cover those figures as well as a Cloud Car Pilot. Jan Dodonna maybe? or is he too obscure for the DK book buying public? Maybe Nien Numb? A new Biggs? I'd personally love a Garven Dreis figure... all that would need is a new helmet print! How about printing snow on the new Chewie for a Hoth era version like when he and Han checked out the probe droid? ... the more I think about it now the more I'm liking trans-blue figures for the Force Ghosts at the end of ROTJ!

Same here... I really like them. Nice new Imperial Officer, New Rebel Pilot (I've already received 5 of those from eBay!), a new head for Han with double sided print and the Tie Fighter Pilot... although I'm not sure if that's updated from the one on the planets set?

Cheers, gents... Thanks for the comments!

Congrats to all involved... some really nice MOCs there!

I think there was an Elf polybag that was going to be used as a giveaway for booking at a Cinema near(ish) me for the opening night of DoS if you booked before a certain date. You could pick the polybag up on the day rather than just waiting for the actual performance time. I didn't book it though as I'd be going on my own and while I don't mind doing that at one of my larger local cinemas I'd have felt a big of a herbert doing it at this one.

Precicely how I feel about it. My Shazam is pad printed and besides it not having double sided head print it looks great. My Bizarro is also a custom and looks really nice and they both cost me £25 for the pair... I've recreated the cards and had them printed so they look pretty much spot on. The printing on those Chinese things look absolutely terrible on some of the photos though... like it was done with potatoes. I'm still tempted to get a *fingers crossed* half decent Black Supes torso and the Toy Fair Iron Man. For £10 it might be worth a punt.

That's true enough... I've just not seen a customiser go to so much trouble before. It's normally the ink that's the giveaway though, as you said.

I'd say having all those things in one package is pretty hard to fake on the 2013 items. The images of the 2011 and 2012 cards are pretty readily available in quite high resolution and my recreation of the artwork is pretty accurate but the blister bubble actually stops creation of the 2013 card without access to one. The blister itself is a pain to source. it's quite specific but as it's a short run there's a good chance it's an off the shelf item from one supplier or another rather than a custom mould for just this event. I'm not sure why so many people have all four plus Azog although those people that bought it for $1500 are probably feeling quite foolish right now. I've actually found a Chinese eBayer who has some of the 'new' fake Lego figures that includes Bizarro, Black Superman and the Toy Fair Iron Man... They're custom moulded plastic and the moulds don't look that sharp so you'd spot that a mile off but for £10 you pretty much get 20 figures and I'm tempted even if just for the Iron Man and the Superman torso so I can use Zod's legs and the other parts of the new Superman... it might look rubbish but for a small amount it may be worth it for display purposes. Hand on heart I'd say if those figures you have are pad printed with the full range of colours with cards and blister then you're safe... I've priced up pad printing for some custom designs and it'd cost around £1000 for 50 figures with 4 colours front and back of torso. You have a figure with 2 sided head, torso and leg printing in around 4 colours on each place... WITH a printed card... WITH a blister. Nobody is going to that much trouble to fake it.

Christo will soon have a Green Arrow available but it's not been listed on his eBay count yet. If you have a link to it I'd definitely like to see it. There are two Green Arrow that I've seen that are direct copies of the Comic Con version: http://www.ebay.co.u...=item3cd8722df3 http://www.ebay.co.u...=item5400eef072 I have the first one... the facial print is closer to the original in design and has white printing for the teeth etc... the print is sharp but it's not pad printed and the ink is raised slightly. Neither of these uses metallic ink so the buckle will be very different. The photograph has been brightened up a little too much on the shot on there and the colours are a little darker and richer on the actual figure... it's not too bad at all. Adding an extra colour is the same cost whether it's a complete coverage or a small area so having a whole new plate just for a small gold buckle is expensive hence people don't tend to do it.

I visit my shop a lot... Sometimes it's just £3 or so for 3 minifigs but other times it's Orthanc or Ewok Village so there's a lot of transactions totalling quite a bit. I'm just glad I got invited and I'm looking to pick up quite a few pieces and hopefully a nice big one if there's any kind of reduction.

Yeah... The Iron Man figures are a good example. The gold areas on those are metallic so the ink is shiny. There's only Christo I've seen use metallic inks on his pad customs. The new Chinese fakes use metallic inks but the printing looks very poor and I think you'd notice those... They also don't use actual Lego so you can tell by the plastic. I've also never seen anyone custom those particular Iron Man and Bucky figures so they'd be news to me,

I've actually recreated the artwork for the 2011 and 2012 Comic Con figures which I sell with custom figures although I state clearly that they're custom and repro and definitely NOT the original. The cost is also an indication as to it not being original as it's priced low. I've seen quite a few customs of the Comic Con figures and it's only Christo's Bizarro and Shazam that use the original design with a pad print that I've seen... I'm thinking they would be difficult to check against an original but they don't come with the card. The printing on the customs has been very different and normally digitally printed rather than pad printed. I have a Green Arrow and you can feel the ink on the figure so it's clearly not pad printed like the original... then again I didn't pay original prices for it and it's very nice for display purposes as it even has the double sided head and the hood isn't painted like some customs. I've actually had people request blister packaging for the 2013 figures for some of their customs but I've yet to source the blister and I'm reticent to do this anyway in case people pass them off as original later on. One thing I'd add is people also tend not to use metallic inks on cheaper copies. The cost of short run pad prints means things are prohibitive so if it all looks OK then I think you'd be safe on them.

Looking at that Legolas code and image in the catalogue for the polybag... Is that just the same image that was there listed under the 79001 code last time? Essentially it's just the Legolas figure from Escape from Mirkwood Spiders but they've added a code for an upcoming Polybag release? I have to say also that any worries on Thranduil are long gone... I think he looks great there and the ears don't look odd at all. Beorn is also not an issue for me on the 'one piece head' thing... I don't look to modify things as much as some folks here so if Lego feel that's the best way to get the figure they want (and I actually think it looks really good) then I'm fine with that.

I would think you could use any VIP account you like. It doesn't state that the person you bring has to be a VIP anyway so I would assume that person could simply state the transaction should go onto your account.

Yeah... My invite was sent from Belgium and the store is my closest one which is Liverpool City Centre... I only live 2 miles away so it's ideal for me. Not sure why it's an early morning but my 4 yr old will make sure I'm up anyway!

That all sounds great. I've been lucky that I've been able to order stuff through my business account this year (it actually counts as office decoration) so it's crept up quite well... The invite says there's a £5000 spend limit... I should bloody we'll think so!!! 20-50% reductions would be great! If all goes well I'll pick up as much as I can... Or is reasonable. Shame the Disney Princess line won't be there yet so I can sort some for my daughter! SW/LOTR-Hobbit/SH then... We'll see what's there.

This gives me hope that I'll be able to pick them up next Saturday and hopefully with a discount!

Sorry if this has been covered recently in the thread but are these due on the 1st December? I only ask as there's a VIP event next Saturday that I'm going to and they've stated there'll be some 'free gift' and 'Extraordinary Christmas Offers'... would that include early sale of the sets due on the 1st December a week early?

I'll caveat my below post (which I'll keep in as it's kind of relevant... while also being irrelevant now) that there seems to be a change in the design of the second 'Fish' Spidey that the link redirect to... As such below is in relation to that. I'm assuming his original was a straight rip off of yours so I'll keep my post below and redirect you to the last line about sometimes just holding your head up and being proud of your work! --------------------- As a designer myself I'm all too familiar with plagiarism. It happened when I was an University and it's happened in my career. What I would say in this case is that there is enough differences in the detail of the torso designs that could constitute coincidence. As the spiderman torso is a specific design in itself there are certain decisions made in the design process converting it to a Lego torso that can cause such similarities. Christo has a custom Spidey torso that draws in from the shoulders to a narrower band at the abdominal area... as does the SDCC figure. The curve on the upper torso area is the opposite between your design and the fish design. The textured pattern on yours is similar to the SDCC... the Spider logo on his is closer to the Christo version than yours. Yours, Fish and SDCC all base the design on a red torso with blue printing. Yours, Fish and Christo have gold eyes... Your legs are almost identical to the SDCC figure... how the web design on the read torso area works is different on yours and fish while the Fish version is closer to the SDCC. Each of them has similar aspects and each has different. Without seeing either of your designs and maybe based on subliminal knowledge of other Spidey designs I might have created one that was somewhere between the two with no attempt to copy them at all. As much as it's frustrating seeing a design that's similar I would just be proud of the work you'd put in and know that yours is your own work... whoever else has Spidey designs has to live with their own satisfaction at their work whether it be original or copied.

I quite like the dark red arms anyway so I'm fine with that. I think I might get a longer grey bar to make it more of a spear on the black sabre handle though. I'm hoping (fingers very crossed) that these are somehow made available at the VIP event next Saturday I'm going to. Mind you it'll be a cheap SW round and more to LOTR if those sets are out.

Yeah... I'm not really expecting particularly big queues so I'll head down there and see what's what. The fact that you had to RSVP today means I know a couple of VIP members who haven't bothered so I'm assuming that already takes the possible queue down. That and the fact that it's an 8am start on a Saturday hopefully means that any kind of trek to get there will diminish the numbers even more. I'm only 2 miles from the City Centre store anyway so it's 2 mins in the car to park up. I'll be in the queue behind getting a tea!