brickzone

Here's my experience post-Dark Era: 1: Buy some sets, build them. i: Stack the packaging in a corner. 2: Run out of desk to display them on. Keep favorite sets displayed, dismantle others (kept in bags) 3: Buy some plastic tubs. Sort by very broad type and then within types like brick or plate, sort by colour for the main colour (one "mixed colour" for the remaining plates/bricks/small pieces). ii: Store boxes inside boxes. 4: Buy some organiser bins when they are on offer in the budget supermarket. Better organise small pieces in particular (minifig accessories, modified 1x1 or 1x2 plates/tiles). 5: Buy some drawers. Put the larger quantities in these (e.g. black or grey bricks, plates, slopes each get one). 6: As bins get full, move contents to a not so full tub (contents either reprocessed to bins or other tubs). Ditto for full tubs -> drawers. As drawers get full, split the contents and recategorise to fill less full bins/tubs. 7: This cycle only works so far. Buy some new larger tubs, start filling these. a: Less space for display, start packing Lego shipping boxes with intact sets. iii: Store packaging in parent's attic. 8: Continue with cycle, start filling cardboard boxes with larger parts (BURPS, etc.) b: Running out of space for stacked shipping boxes, start disassembling "intact" sets and keeping them bagged up together. 9: Start modifying "the sorting method" to rely more on colour and size than type. 10: Add about 8 huge tubs (vehicle structures, "bionicle" bits, panels/castle wall, etc.) c: Still run out of space in shipping boxes. Start packing smaller boxes and filling nooks/crannies. iv: Getting tired of lugging boxes up to an attic, start accumulating stack of boxes again. 11: Buy more large tubs. 12: Buy loads of little organiser drawers for e.g. minifig accessories. 13: Buy some huge drawers. 14: Ummmm... running out of space here! v: flat pack major boxes, bin city/Lego theme boxes, box in box for smaller franchise boxes d: Getting sick of managing "sets", whether dismantling, storing, dusting (post or during display), etc. 15: Stop buying so many new sets! THE FUTURE: Buy a house (helped by not buying so much Lego!) with a room for Lego. THE FURTHER FUTURE: Build, buy or rent a space just for Lego (possibly a shed).

And €129.99 for Ireland at Lego's "special" prices (I believe Finland also often suffers from these). So much for the single market!

Great entries by all! I feel like I'm submitting results at the end of the Eurovision song contest now! Anyway, the votes of the brickzone jury/televote are: kost u grlu: 3 points athos: 1 point Dix: 1 point I'd have liked to build a church or railway station myself, but I already had nice MOCs for both! :)

Hi folks! It's been a while since I posted an MOC here (the downside to finishing Uni and starting an awesome job), but I was determined to enter this competition (actually I had also intended to supplement my Winter Village previous to the competition announcement). So without further ado, here is my "Holiday Inn". Some rough edges as it was built just on Tuesday evening and this afternoon. Front: Yes that's a cartwheel. I was stuck for something to hide a technic pin/hole (actually half-pin stuck with stud on other side now) in the middle of the front gable. Rear: Staircase hinges out to access reception. Two bedrooms upstairs. General quaffing/feasting area at the main fireplace downstairs. Another view with stairs re-arranged: Montage of interior: Admittedly only 5 minifigs - should have thrown someone into the empty bedroom. Oh well. In place of pride in the Winter Village: Sorry for poor photo quality, had to quickly photo with camera-phone just before evening meal as Christmas Eve is booked for family time! Hope you all like it. I hope to do more building over the break.

Has anyone else noticed red-brown in new sets being more similar to old brown? Certainly it doesn't fit entirely with other red-brown bricks.

eMHa, I don't know, but as befits commenting on a forum, I'll give an opinion anyway. I would guess that it is *not* that kids are getting dumber, but that Lego is more accurately targetting their market and providing kid-friendly instructions suitable for a wider age group (parents don't always stick to the age limits on the box) and range of abilities.

Wow, that's about $40 per kilo - very expensive. Buying from Europe/UK on ebay, €10 per kilo is usual if bulk buying say in the region of 5-10kg (€50-€100). It is more in the case of higher demand or newer parts and perhaps less for listings that don't get as much attention. So no, I don't think you'll find a reseller buying this either! Also bear in mind, the price per kilo would drop as you increase the amount, because the potential market also decreases.

I let my older nephew (3 and a half) play with some of my Lego while supervised - he loves playing with the RC trains. He also helped build some of Hogwarts Castle great hall (mostly placing ordinary bricks) which was a real treat for him! The younger guy is a bit more crazy (and I mean more than the other nephew was when he was younger), but when he's a bit older I'm sure he can be supervised playing with some Lego. I won't be letting them loose on some things. Plus all Lego is stored out of reach though and anything lying around safely stowed away before a visit. Also for them to free-build (unsupervised and breaking/building rather than just play), I'll buy a nice big box of basic (they have Duplo for that when they visit at the moment, and they like to use all the bricks!) The new basic sets are fantastic value, bright colours and the added extras kids want like wheels, minifigs, etc. Perfect for early Lego building. I look forward to sharing my Lego with kids of my own, but I'd hope to buy them their own Lego and mostly keep mine separate, having it for supervised play. Probably parting with extra bricks/minifigs too though. Ultimately though it's just stuff and people are more important.

Well, I've now bought a lot more of series 2 compared to series 1 thanks to Argos's 3 for 2 on all toys. About €2 rather than €2.85 each. And they still had full boxes in all three local branches. Still loads at smyths toys too but they are mixing half-full boxes to keep the boxes topped up. (they are the store that fanatically ensure there are never gaps on the Lego shelves).

It's really a question where one can only give one's own opinion - mine is that they are worth the hype. But then I probably am influenced by them having been pretty easy to get here in Ireland (Series 1 were around until about 2/3 weeks ago just before series 2 came out!) I consider €2.50 in some ways yes pricy in absolute terms for a Lego minifig, but relative to prices for "cool" existing minifigs (especially new desirable ones), probably quite ordinary. As regards Lego purchasing, it certainly seems better value to buy the whole collection than to buy say the Hoth Wampa Cave (€40 in Argos. Tesco for some reason have it at a frightening €58 - maybe a fake price for them to do a price cut later?). I guess I might be a bit cheesed off about them if I couldn't afford to buy them all and get some extras too, and I suppose for a lot of people, they maybe can't do that. The same goes for availability. The American price seems amazing value.

I don't know where the link is (it was posted here), but I used a more helpful barcode sheet than those available elsewhere. It's in German with both series on it, there's a mini version and regular size, and the barcodes are grouped by the similarity on the right-hand side. So to get all 16, I just had to find 3 different packets with only thin lines on the RHS, 3 with one thick line, 3 with two thick lines, 3 with three thick lines on the very right and 4 others (four thick lines or three thick lines spaced out). Of course that's for the European codes. If someone knows which barcode cheat sheet this is, maybe they could repost the link? (I have the documents saved but others might make use of it).

Thanks for this! Argos in Ireland do have this listed now on the website in their Clearance Toys and Games section and I picked up one for €41 using that code. Strangely if you use the normal catalogue code, it is full price, and more shows up in stock (I picked up the only one in my area stocked under the clearance code). Even more odd was the fact that they are displayed instore - I guess if I had picked that up I would have been charged full price! No sign of Minifig series 2 here in Ireland - my local Smyth's Toys still have the last few Series 1 (they had hung the last few packets up separately, one or two deep across a shelf - looks odd but I guess they want to clear them out).

Although you can get some genuine deals at times, another good rule of thumb if you are being cautious is "if it looks too good to be true, it probably is!" A lot of con-artists really are relying on people's greed or rather the person who is suckered, has gone for the deal because they expected to sucker the seller/con-artist (i.e. get something for less than its worth). It sucks that some really cool sets cost a fortune secondhand, some even not in MISB, but you can't really get around it! Even looking for a deal, really it's about giving up time to crawl listings over months just to save probably 10% max of the usual price (and the occasional steal on failed auctions). All that said, I don't think the forgery thing would ever be an issue - but just as much a concern would be people passing off non-mint as MISB, or other sets as complete when incomplete, and so the advice above stands. Of course, especially with sets going cheap that later turn out to be incomplete, sometimes there is no maliciousness - just the seller is clueless about Lego (and indeed often about selling on ebay). Again though, you can tell by listings/lack of feedback. Sometimes I'm happy to go for those lots as they are still good value even if not quite as good as made out to be.

KD - did you see last Christmas my conversion of that Town hall just by putting some white base and plates/slopes on top? Worked very well in my winter village. But yes, something more rustic released as a winter set would be nice. As regards the Holiday Train, I'm very glad to have it as I not only snagged it just as it was leaving Lego S@H, but it was at half-price! However, I have to admit that Emerald Night was a beauty in the winter setting and I preferred to use that in my village. I'm looking forward to this little bakery, but I will admit that I think it isn't up to the same standard as the Winter Toy Shop and is a bit more plain somehow. I guess the problem is that some of the number of parts allocated for the whole set had to go to the frozen pond scenery. I've kept my railway station intact - so even if it won't be the same winter village this coming Christmas, I will have it alongside the toy shop and this new building. I may winter-ify my own additions to Medieval Marketplace (also still carefully stored intact).

Sadly Space Police III never made it to the shops here in Ireland (or UK apart from Lego stores). So apart from the inconvenience for us AFOLs, any kids into Space but not Star Wars (or wouldn't want to pay Star Wars prices) were denied an option if their parents wouldn't order from Shop @ Home (shipping of up to €15 here in Ireland). I did think Lego would maybe release Space Police in shops here after the initial year, but I guess not. I thought I had heard that this was the plan with UK and Ireland when Space Police was initially released, maybe it was and they changed their mind? Incidentally Kingdoms isn't in two of the major chains here, Smyth's Toys and Argos (although it is in Art & Hobby) - kind of hoping that it is just short-term as it kind of limits options for Castle fans.

Checked in-store at Tesco just to see if there are any deals here in Ireland. Nothing it would seem (before it was sold out, there was the midi-millenium Falcon back down to sub-€30 after Tesco did a fake price increase to €54 for two weeks). Also Tesco seem to have increased the price on the snowtrooper sets to over €14.50, up from €12.99. Argos still have some clearance Lego stock - wondering if it is likely they'll reduce these further?

A comprehensive and fun review - thanks! The assortment of bits and bobs in this game does look attractive. I'd certainly love to have all those plates! It sounds like a fun enough little game too, especially for kids or family. As usual though my problem with Lego Games is that there are always Lego sets I would rather buy first. I guess more the intended market is people who would be buying a board game anyway - that they would buy a Lego one instead. Hope that's actually working out for Lego. As usual I find you can't really tell with Smyths whether something is selling well or not as they always seem to keep current Lego items fully stocked. Put it this way - if something runs out, you know it's been insanely popular or is pretty much leaving the current Lego line-up! Anyway - it's good to see Smyths stocking these in amidst the other board games - they take up a nice section of shelf now.

My understanding of recent colour "changes", i.e. the small changes in shade in the last 5 years or so (not the grey/bley changeover) was that they were due to a change in the plastic/process, *not* a deliberate colour change. If you look at some sets with a "mix" of shades for some colours, you can see that frequently used parts are the new shade and less commonly used parts (i.e. any inventory is presumably used up more slowly) are the old shade. The two shades also correlate for example with textured or textureless slopes. So with Café Corner as an example, for the dark red slopes on the top, there are some that are subtly lighter/darker, correlating with smooth vs. textured. I'm a big fan of recent white bricks as well as primary colours, the slight translucency in the new plastic/process means really bright whites/colours. I'm actually coming close to the stage of considering separating my older white parts and using them only when necessary/useful. Lego seem to have made very recent bricks (late 2009-present) subtly different again, with slightly less soft/translucent plastic and more regular brick dimensions again - but the colour is almost identical for this latest change - hopefully a final stablisation. I do have nostalgia for old brown/grey, but I will admit that mostly I prefer working in redbrown/bley. The latter is actually better IMO for castle scenes where the castle is supposed to be from cut stone - as we are not depicting a castle 100s of years old, but rather one recently built (in the context of the knights etc. in the scenes). Tan is one colour where I find the variations in shade a bit more annoying. Often with what I am building in red-brown, I am depicting wood and the variation doesn't matter as much even if the shades vary more. But tan, it often makes individual bricks stand out where you would prefer to pretend a wall is smooth for example.

I wish they would open even one in Ireland, North or South (I'd be content even with one in Belfast nevermind Dublin).

Thanks for the heads up! In Ireland the offer is €10 on every €50 spent and €20 on every €100, so a little easier to get the vouchers here.

Argos have their new catalogue out, including summer Star Wars and City sets. Some prices here in Ireland are better than Smyths Toys or Lego S@H, e.g. Cargo Train for €149.99. No sign of Minifig Series 2, and Series 1 only show up on the website under the category Clearance Toys and Games now.

Great photos guys! Nice to see these all close-up! I'll certainly want multiple Spartans, though I'd feel guilty taking more than two from a box at one time. Hopefully I'll have a half-dozen or so from visits to various stores at various times - maybe more if they are as well stocked as series 1 is here. I think really I want one each of all the others, and probably an extra egyptian, pop star (face, hair) and surf dude (face, hair, shorts). I just hope they don't decide to stock less of these Series 2 minifigs here in Ireland just because there are a lot of Series 1 still available everywhere. I'm actually worried now that they aren't selling well enough. Either that or Argos have some mysterious portal in their back stockroom that the boxes keep getting replenished from. Actually Argos is a bit like that anyway, but nevertheless...! Smyths Toys have crazy amounts of them too, though their supply (not at checkouts but on a counter of trading cards, little toys, etc) does always seem to be fairly ransacked, so I am guessing they are restocking and it isn't just the same ones out each time I visit.

Peppermint M - I would still suggest there are some "less useful" parts that even if you can use them imaginatively, they are not particularly versatile. Some imaginative uses I've seen for such parts are almost a case of deliberately working around the part that is the oddity, which one should not have to do (I don't think Lego should be producing "one off" large parts that are more difficult to use for anything but the original purpose). I saw a train built using the cockpit of the second-last passenger plane - that was an impressive bit of building, but even so I don't think it worked that well (looked a bit like a plane on rails minus wings), and I would consider this cockpit an example of a "less useful" part. I do intend to try using my own one for a space-ship, but even then it is dependant on my wanting to use white and a cockpit with a nose. Again, the single piece giant wing is unnecessarily lacking in versatility also - even if it can perhaps be used as a platform on some structure, or a wing on a spacecraft. I am not myself one of the more rabid anti-Bionicle people, but I will admit that thus far, I haven't had much use for the various pseudo-technic parts I've accumulated. Again, maybe if I get doing some Space building or decide to build a robot-dragon after the fashion of the original one that I got with the Vikings. I do consider many "special purpose" pieces to be very versatile, that would include most modified bricks, plates and brackets for example, and even in ordinary building - quite a lot of ordinary technic bricks/beams/connectors (I never seem to have the right technic connector to hand though, but yet I wouldn't want to order a lot of them from bricklink or buy Technic sets).

Thanks Bendy Badger, although some of those are sold by resellers, so no "Super Saver" free delivery! I did buy Battle of Alamut from Amazon as it was reduced to £54.99 (from £69.99). Even with Amazon charging extra for Irish VAT (listed price is base price + 17% VAT, Irish customers get charged base price + 21% VAT) with the improvement in Sterling/Euro rate, it worked out to about €67.50, which is pretty good compared to S@H's €89.99 or Smyths Toys €84.99. Argos did have a sale price of €72.99 on Battle of Alamut just yesterday (checked in store), but with the new catalog out on Saturday they seem to have dropped prices again! Now only €64.99 - so I could have saved even another €2.50 and got it straight away today. Oh well. So for folks in the UK, probably worth checking Argos too, although I suspect Argos here in Ireland have more of the clearance stock in-store still (less fanatical Lego purchasers combined with probably more acute retail situation than the UK in terms of lack of shoppers due to recession). A notable bargain was the further reduction of the Pig Farm to €20.99 (originally €34.99, then €26.99). By the way - would UK posters mind if the thread title was changed to UK and Ireland sales, given that many Lego outlets are the same chains in UK and Ireland and even often the same sales? Tesco, Argos, Smyths Toys are all common to both states - and with Northern Ireland, Irish buyers can potentially get to TRU and other UK outlets - not to mention buying from Amazon and other UK online retailers who ship to Ireland.

The obvious winner of the title is whoever posts last to this topic before it goes quiet for a while :)