bricklady

That brings the tears to my eyes...it's beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

By the way, you can actually make your own, like I did. The head, torso and legs are separate piece and the arms can move. The pattern is not mine and I'm not the best knitter, but I'm sure, if you ask someone that can knit ,to make you one, they probably will.

I'm not the most technical minded person, and this was my first technic model, for which I did not have step-by-step instructions. Even building it a second time, I found it difficult.

Is what Lego calls on PAB "medium stone" good enough? 5p each. Holding it against a light grey brick, it sure looks like light grey to me. Purists may disagree.

A lot of technic sets, especially one of those big Technic car chassis (8860, I think). The amount of time I spent fiddling with the engine, to make it work properly. But the worst of the worst was an Idea book (8888) creation. The incredible remote control 4.5V walking dog. The pictures just gave hints. My fingers are still bleeding from pulling out cogs, axles and pins over and over again.

It took me a while to decide, but I give my vote to exotrator for his wonderful Cannon Foundry.

The greatest husband of all built me a setup with desk and computer in the middle. Lego shelves left, right and above, filled with those toolbit storage units, shoe boxes, marge tubs and larger plastic containers. Everything is within arm's reach and all I have to do is roll, swivel and grab. I wonder how do you folks store your built up models? I would like to display them but without them discolouring. For fear of that, I leave them out no longer than 6 months and store them back in their boxes. How long does it take for them to fade? I try to keep them out of direct sunlight as much as possible, but I also don't want to keep them in the dark, if you know what I mean.

Thanks everyone for the nice welcome. I'm sure I'll feel right at home here.

When I was a child (in the 80s) more or less every Christmas and birthday my brother and I received a lovely Lego Town set. Hospital, Police etc until we had a complete city. We also had a lot of trains and I did have a few homemaker sets as well and used to build flats and furniture from Lego for my Playmobil figures. Like with a lot of people my Lego passion was in the doldrums for about 15 years until my husband saw an add for Lego in our local paper. For no reason at all he asked me if I was interested. So we went along and I my old passion was reignited. I didn't know, that Lego did Pirates and Castle sets. All I knew were town, space and trains. My first ever brand new Lego set was the Maersk 10152 2004 Edition. Since then I bought the Market Square, Toy Shop, Green Grocer and Grand Emporium - not a lot really, since I prefer the older Castle, Pirates and Town sets (1980s - 2000). I did have a couple of attempts of building my own buildings - a pub and a church. I tried to use as many common pieces and colours as possible, so they do look a bit rough and nowhere near as polished as some of the MOCs that are around. They still took me long enough to build, though. I still own all my childhood Lego, btw

ToyrRUs online are offering a free box of Lego bricks for any Lego purchase over £50. ToysRUs Lego Deal You can get either a 60 piece Duplo box or a 450 piece Lego brick box, both worth £14.99

Good question, I was wondering that myself. Last year I decided to order the Toy Shop and a couple of days later Lego Website said it was sold out. But another week or so later, it said, that it was on backorder. From that I would deduce, that they run with a set until the sales dwindle to a point where it's no longer worth it for them to produce it. I have ordered a couple of sets on backorder in the past and they always ship a lot sooner than the backorder due date. When I ordered the Grand Emporium last week, the due date was 21/04/. This morning I received a despatch note. I'm not sure if Lego is purposely pessimistic about the ship date, as not to disappoint the buyers or speed up/slow down production depending on demand.

What a great review! I have never owned any boxed Lego (until I bought some of the new sets), so I find it very interesting to see, how much more effort went into designing them then. Nowadays it just seems like they say 'here are the bricks and a box to stick 'em in' and that's it. The Imperial Trading Post is my favourite Pirate Set and the first Pirate set I ever built. It really evokes a sense of great adventure. I just love it! Oh goody, a Jolly Roger!