Svelte

I can sort of understand why they want to move away from 'Castle' since I can see that the name isn't dynamic and exciting as it might be. I'm surprised so many like 'Kingdoms' though, since Knight's Kingdom was so disliked generally. It does seem to me that putting the focus back on Knights would be a step towards the 'action theme!' path again. It was a logical move for 'Town' to go to 'City' in terms of expanding from a sleepier pace of life to a more metropolitan hustle and bustle, but I'm not sure a suitable correlation exists for Castle. Honestly, the line has bigger problems than re-branding can fix if they can't establish a market for something like Fantasy, considering how ubiquitous those themes are in popular culture. Or maybe it's just that if POTC does arrive in 2011, the Fantasy elements (evil skellies and such) will move over to Pirates and away from Castle, so they're making a cut now rather than later.

I've heard whispers of March/ April - so not the Jan wave but before the second half of the year. The movie releases May 28 in the US, so they would have to be around at least a month before then to maximise sales during the pre-release hype.

[warbling off-key] Happy Stash-day to you... happy Stash-day to you... happy Stash-day dear STAAAAAASH.... happy Stash-day to you! [/warbling off-key]

Nice! I like all the teeth at the front - menacing! - and the use of the hubcap piece in a SNOT fashion. Utilising that white slope piece to hold the cockpit in place is clever too!

Does Draggy have school on Saturdays? Poor Draggy!

You misunderstand me; I meant only that it was admirably loquacious. Yes; I'm an Old Testament kinda guy

I agree. My first contribution in this day was to say exactly that - and to call for anyone with new evidence to come forth. But I fear that if we do not come to consensus, another night of horror and murder awaits us all. *clears throat* On that note, anyone who wants to make a private confession of their sins should do so this evening between 5pm-6pm, to aid your passage into heaven, just in case you are burned to death by magical fire in the night or beheaded by mysterious assassins. You may also wish to write a touching note for any loved ones you leave behind, which the King may allow us to pin on a noticeboard in the Castle foyer. See me for confession appointments. And praise be!

Considering the long-winded farewell speech you made a while ago - something intricate about gardening (?) - I don't see how you could possibly complain about being called silver-tongued. Will we have to submit all our contributions to this discussion for censorship approval by the Ambassador in future? Lady Rhodesia's logic seems sounds to me. On the absence of any compelling evidence against anyone else, Ambassador, your habit of wandering the halls at midnight using forbidden magic to kill people - which as Simon points out was nowhere approved by the King - makes you much more dangerous than anyone else at this point. Your aggressive speech manner in calling everyone who disagrees with you by nasty names doesn't engender much sympathy. As Rhodesia says, our strength in these wicked times is the democratic power of our vote. Innocent deaths are regrettable but unavoidable, but preferable to the indecisive extras who stand around saying 'Well, I'm not really sure about anything, so I'll just stand around posting random remarks until the Dragons come and slit my throat and eat my babies.'

This really does not deserve a separate thread. I will merge it with 'What did yiu buy today?'

Captain Geoffrey's words are indeed wise. You can see that while Virulentpants has not even yet been convicted, he has already contrived to cast a snide little charm about my unofficial 'title' So any who think he shall treat any of us with respect in the coming vital days, or that he will forgive & forget anyone who speaks out in disagreement with him, can see they are mistaken.

Poor Otter! Ruffy, cruelly murdered in MOTEE, and then that stint in jail You're not the only one

As I said in the first paragraph I bought 2 full sets and Bricklinked the other 4 middle floors for about the same cost as buying one full set. Not a bad deal! I had some parts (mainly plates and such) but one US seller had obviously just dumped 12x of the set into her inventory, so it was easy to cherry pick the stuff I needed. And the windows etc were much cheaper than I could get via PaB or from an Australian seller.

I tend to agree. But the difference in cost of buying 2 floors vs 4 wasn't that great, so I plumped for the extras I like all the extra window parts, anyway.

Ratshot, thanks for sharing, but please don't post enormous images directly into the forums - that first pic was 3000 pixels wide! The site guidelines specify a maximum of 800. I will leave the other 1000+ wide images as there's only about 5 but add a warning to your thread title. Thanks!

One of my first (useful!) contributions to EB was to show the various modular combinations which could be produced using 4x 10185 Green Grocers. This year, although I liked the 10197 Fire Brigade set less than its predecessors, I decided to repeat the experiment. I bought 2x the full set of 10197 and then using Bricklink & the instructions ordered the parts to build 4 more middle floors. At the moment the Australian dollar is strong so it ended up costing about the same as it would for 1 ordinary 10197 set, which I don't think is too bad at all. Thanks Bricklink! I ended up building the 2 regular Fire Stations with varying asymmetry. I didn't want to make them completely symmetrical, as identical trees would look silly growing right next to each other, as would the water tanks. I did want to have the door/ window of the ground floor on different sides for aesthetic reasons. Internally, I kept the position of the stairs which connects the ground floor to the upper levels for simplicity. On the extra floors I also 'built over' the fire pole space on the left hand side as no building needs a fire pole which runs 6 storeys high This isn't a review - more of an overview of the potential of the modular system. Although I have reservations about the scale of 10197 - having a supersized ground floor and one upper floor doesn't quite fit with the triple-tiered 10182 or 10185 with their smaller but more highly ornate decoration - I do think that for the Fire Brigade, adding extra floors vastly improves the aesthetics of the overall product. The red brick facade lends itself to visual repetition more than the middle floors of the Cafe Corner or Green Grocer, which can look 'fussy' over a certain height. I would have taken the pics earlier, but sadly natural lighting conditions were less than ideal in Sydney this week Here's a view from downstairs outside my apartment building from Wednesday (no digital adjustments were made to this image at all! ): (For more images, see my flickr.) 1) 2x 10197s, Side by Side: Rear view: I quite like this asymmetric combination: Even 1 base is greatly improved with 2 middle floors: Three-quarter view: (Rear view pic here.) 2) Three floors. Stacked: At this height, the building still looks impressive: Another asymmetric configuration: 3) 4x Middle Floors At four storeys, you're probably pushing the limit of the single-tower approach in terms of attractiveness: This is a nice, medium sized building: Just for something different, a pavement view: The rear view of this configuration resembles an old industrial factory, with its large doors and muddy landscaping. All that dark red is starting to add up! 4) 5x Middle Floors I wouldn't display the set like this, but it's interesting just to see how it looks: At this height, vertigo begins to set in! 5) 6x Middle Floors Imagine having to climb all the stairs to the penthouse! Whereas the Green Grocer had the very detailed and clever interlocking system of fire escapes on its rear elevation, you can see that the 10197 is all about the window parts: Three quarter view: Again, these 6 floors can be arranged asymmetrically in a side-by-side layout: And the piece de resistance! This is how I'm keeping my layout setup. Hey! My 2010 figs all need somewhere to live! Closer view of the middle facades: The rear looks more like a factory than ever: Dutch tilt shows the symmetric water tanks/ roof access: And a bonus rendering of what the streetscape would have looked like if the pics had been taken during the great dust storm: (Non yellow version of this pic) Thanks for reading! Feel free to ask any questions or make any comments!

Yes, unlike some who vote and unvote on a whim, and then revote again , I actually took time to ask logical questions and think about the implications before casting my vote. It seems a chill wind blows through this draughty castle, in these days where those who speak their mind truthfully can be so easily turned on by the thoughtless lackeys of a self-confessed sinner and magician. And yet, in fairness to the silent crowd, I shall refrain from further comment and invite the others to speak their minds. Praise be!

It is clear that the theological discussion we have been having, as instigated by your King himself, who stated the principle that all magic is anathema, is above your head. Why you would think I, who did not vote for the Ambassador in the first instance but reasonably asked for further evidence from some other person before making up my mind, is some kind of Dragon I do not know. I certainly haven't freely admitted to wandering around bedding other men's wives or casting magic in the dark midnight hours like the Ambassador has! I pray for your confused soul.

He has - check the previous page I would implore you to make up your minds! It is clear that if we come to no consensus buy nightfall, the Ambassador will probably go after me in the dark and lonely hours, since he has singled me out And I am but a simple friar with no means of earthly protection

Legoliner Pilot, you need to be more precise with your thread titles. They're either vague or misleading. If you want to discuss the Macdonald's promotional sets, for example, then you should say so specifically in your thread title. Thanks.

Have you ever heard of things changing colour under different lighting conditions? You probably just made Draggy's list as chief bootscraper in MC3.

You will note that I refrained from voting at the start of the day, and several times have asked if anyone has come forward with new evidence that would put anyone in a position more suspicious than the Ambassador. My position against magic has been entirely consistent throughout the days. I have certainly not cast any last-minute aspersions which are frankly more than a little desparate. I have to ask, is this a serious hunt to eliminate Dragons from our midst or a peer critique of medieval cloak fashions?

Using 'good' magic to repel 'dark' magic is like a whore deliberately contracting syphilis to try and ward off the clap It just doesn't work! The Ambassador has had ample chance to repent, and will not. Vote: Vipont/ Shadows.

Lady Rohesia raises a very valid point, and I am not afraid to tell you that the pernicious influence of these magic-makers weighs heavily on my mind. Let us ask ourselves some questions: - What kind of baleful fire mysteriously tore through the Castle, destroying several innocent lives? Answer: MAGICAL fire - What forces sealed the doors to the west wing so we could not investigate the events that had transpired there? Answer: MAGICAL forces! - Who was it that first scurried around like rats in the dark on Night 1, while decent folk were in bed asleep, probably praying to the Lord or dreaming of fluffy bunnies? Answer: the rat scurriers were mainly MAGIC users - Last night, the battle that ended the life of the convicted escapee Harcourt and which further added scorch marks to the beautiful marble floor was carried out, against all procedures of common and Biblical law, by.... and the lady wins a prize... MAGICIANS. Call them Wizards if it wets your whistle. Call them Sorcerers if it sends a shiver up your spine. At the end of the day, they are both varieties of magic users, who feel compelled to hide and lie, and lurk and lair in the wee hours! A snake by any other name would slither as treacherously as any MAGIC USER. It's obvious that the staff of this Castle enjoy a rich fantasty life in which they consider themselves to be movers and shakers in a realm of Lords with mop handles and Kings with plain chain armour. Can we afford to ignore the clear and present danger while indulging the soap operatic delusions of these commoners? Let's focus on the real and proper threat at hand, as our good King has advised us, and exorcise ALL insinuating magic-practicing serpents from our midst, regardless of which way they squirm.

I am satisfied she is free from demons - at the moment. However let us not forget the words of Jeremiah 2:32: Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. My advice: less flirting, more Bible study. I too would like to know if any revelations were had during the night.

I always assumed most kids got 1 airport, 1 Fire HQ, 1 Police Station, and so on, which is why Lego releases a new version every three years. Three years is a long time when you're a kid! I actually like the 06 Airport better. The beautiful large curved panels are much more interesting than these ubiquitous (and cheap) 1x5x6 panels that are seemingly everywhere. I also liked the luggage carousel and boarding passage, and though the balance between features and size wasn't bad at all. The new one really seems to have a vending machine, coffee maker and security scanning area. Sure, it has an extra floor in the middle but you can see from how far back the facade starts back on the 16x32 baseplate that it is fairly skinny. Really you could stick some police signage on it and make one room a cell and it would feel just like a Police HQ. There's nothing distinctly 'airporty' about it.