KateB

Phew, thank you so much! That bit on Brickset totally confused me and I started to panic! I have two big sets at the top of my wish list already so I'm glad I can push this to number 3 now and not panic that I'll run out of time :-)

Just spotted on Brickset that it states the castle's availability on Lego.com in the UK as '23 Sep 16 - 24 Apr 17'. As this set will take some saving up for I'm now worried this means it has already or will be soon discontinued. On Lego.com it says 'Back orders accepted, will ship by 16 May'. Can anyone tell me what this means please? Does it just say what it says on Brickset because it's currently out of stock or is this set actually being discontinued? It's only been available since September which doesn't seem long at all for what seems to be a very popular set. Confused! Thanks :-)

I went to my local(ish) Lego Store today with my kids and got to look at the Castle made up, compared to the Ghostbusters HQ (which is next on my wish list). I have to say for a whopping great £290 I found it quite disappointing. The aesthetics of the exterior look better in pictures and on the box and whilst the little details inside are cute, there's not enough of them and not impressive enough. Of course this is just my opinion and there will be many, many people who love it. To me it just feels like a bigger version of the Disney Cinderella Castle, and size is definitely not everything. I would have much preferred this to be an open out/close set like the Ghostbusters HQ/Simpsons House/Haunted Mansion. It just doesn't seem like much fun or have a lot of playability (though I'm a bit old for a lot of playing!) I also can't help but feel we've been seriously short changed on the Minifigures - only 5?! The Ghostbusters HQ has 12! I'm actually quite glad I don't like this set much as I seriously can't afford to add this one to my wish list as well ;-)

I loved building Lego houses as a kid in the 80s. I had a tub of my older brother's discarded Lego bricks which were just a collection of the 6 pin and 4 pin bricks with two small base plates (one which was incredibly thick for some reason!) I basically just built the same house over and over and made rudimentary furniture for it. No idea where my obsession with houses started but I just love the architecture of them. Having left Lego behind in my childhood, fast forward to 2004 where I was visiting my brother in Birmingham and happened to pay a visit to the Lego Store in the Bull Ring shopping centre (my first trip to a Lego store). There I came across one of the most amazing things I had ever seen...the Building Bonanza 4886 set. It was love at first site, my eyes lit up and I was as excited as a kid at Christmas. It was amazing. I had to be teared away from it and convinced myself that as I was now an adult I wasn't allowed to buy Lego anymore (I had no idea about AFOLs at this point). I dreamed about it for days and eventually decided to convince my brother to get it for me, which he did and said it was a present. So he is partly to blame for the end of my dark age of Lego! These days I'm quite picky about my Lego sets and generally go for houses, aesthetically pleasing sets or ones that have a feel good factor like The Simpsons or Ghostbusters. My 6 year old daughter has a collection of Disney Princess and Friends sets and my son who is 3 is obsessed with Lego minfigures, especially burglars, police and pirates. He plays with his Swamp Police set none stop :-)

Rakuten.co.uk has 15% off some Lego sets with code TOYS15. They have Simpsons House and Kwik-e-Mart too. Damn, just when I have no money! :-(

Great idea, just taking down my haunted house at the mo to make room for Simpsons house but the Ecto-1 (currently winging it's way to me from Lego) will make a lovely humorous addition to the Monster Fighters sets i'll have up at Halloween. Perfect combination!

Off to the Leeds Trinity store tomorrow as my daughter has a prize to collect for entering the draw they had in store on their first birthday weekend 2 weeks ago. Well, I may as well check out the Ghostbusters set while I'm there if it's in (fingers crossed)...

That's why I asked what it actually said on the advert, as if they said the Minifigures came individually bagged then they are not as advertised and you are within your rights to claim a refund. I do agree that if I received them all thrown in together I'd be very annoyed, if I thought they were going to be separate. I once purchased a second hand Creator Town House from ebay and though the pieces were in good nick, the seller had bagged the lot together in once massive carrier bag. I was not impressed. Pieces could scratch or dent each other whilst all bunched together and thrown about in the post.

Yep, definitely not something anyone needs

I guess it all depends on what the advert said about the items you were purchasing. Did it say they would be unopened or bagged individually etc? When buying specific Minifigures like this, they have often been opened to check that the character is indeed correct and then they are sealed back in the original bag or put in a plastic bag. They are classed as 'New' as they have had minimal handling and have not been 'Used', just checked. Sometimes you buy them completely sealed as the seller has used the 'feel' method so did not need to open the packet.

Yep, my husband does this on purpose just because he knows it drives me crazy. I often go off on a rant when someone refers to Flego (Fake Lego in my vocab) as Lego. My mum once bought my daughter some Flego and I helped her build it. It was awful stuff and a soul destroying experience! It didn't fit together properly and actually made my hands really hurt trying to build it, it was nasty. Needless to say that particular item is hidden somewhere in the dark recesses of her bedroom and if I come across it again I'm throwing it in the bin (she has loads of proper Lego and she won't notice it's absence). Get it right people!! (must remain calm). Ha! I just experienced this exact conversation on our hols at Center Parcs in Nottingham, and also previously at my local Toby Carvery. I personally prefer Coke but Pepsi will do!

You took the words right out of my mouth ;-) (and now I'm mentally singing that darn Meatloaf song!)

I'm confused now, which is not difficult for me! I meant that the center isn't really raised on real flowers, the petals should be the raised part otherwise it looks kinda weird. But good point about the green stem :-) I can't believe I'm having this conversation! I fear I am procrastinating as I'm supposed to be typing up my minutes at work right now and I HATE minutes!! Sounds like Lego anarchy to me

Definitely studs down for me. When you look at a real flower which is higher, the middle of the flower or the petals? Case closed ;-)

That confirmed my suspicions, thank you