Canticleer blues

He might be mistakenly referring to the color known on Bricklink as "Light Turquoise", which is a similar-but-different color that fell out of use after 2004.

If I remember right, what he called 'service packs' ended up being released under the title of 'bulk bricks' in the catalogs of the era. Bricklink lists these sets under that name, although not every set released in that category in the catalogs is in there- some, like the train bulk brick packs, are listed under the Trains category's own 'supplemental' heading instead. So the releases you're thinking of would be the 'assorted bricks packs' 10145, 10146, and 10147, the 'assorted plates pack' 10148, 10149, 10150, as well as the continued offering of the older individual bulk piece packs such as 10064 and 10046. It's similar to what ended up happening with the cypress tree packs and the sand red packs of the same timeframe, really. As to how long they were available and why they were discontinued- can't say much on the latter, but I definitely remember most of them being gone by late 2005 at the earliest, and by 2006 none of the old bulk brick packs were available for sale, I think.

This is a little late, sorry, but- I'm not sure this holds, because from what I remember the Galaxy Explorer was put on discount almost the day after being released at stores like Walmart, well before any solid sales data could be established. It's likely that these discounts may reflect less on the sales of the item in question and more that regional brick and mortar retailers lacked confidence in the item's ability to sell even before it came out. Keep in mind this is all speculation- perhaps we're all wrong and the sales were part of a 90th anniversary sales technique, or the GE may have been intended as a loss leader or something else along those lines. Ultimately the only people who can truly determine this are the ones who set sales expectations for sets like, Barracuda Bay, and the Castle in the first place, and it's rare we ever get access to information like that.

I really like this model! The little details really make it. From the techniques used for the corrugated metal sides and locking gear on the outside, to the shape of the furniture on the inside- particularly the messy bed sheets and the art piece, very nice. Overall, there's a simple, elegant beauty to this one. Excellent work!

My understanding is that, at present, the Bricklink designer program acts as a sort of catch-all to produce projects that could have gotten through on ideas but didn't, and also as a sort of low-end alternative for fans to get models officially distributed that can't be done on the ideas site. They sort of act in tandem, serving two related areas. Otherwise, it's likely just that Lego wants to drive fan engagement as much as possible, and the designer program can reach a group that ideas doesn't. To try and stay on topic- I agree that the new Monkie Kid multipack bag seems like it has a lot of elements that would be great for decorations. Would be great to see 'em adorning a fancy throne room or treasury for sure.

These are all very impressive! I really enjoy the style of your mechs, and the articulation seems great too. Can't wait to see more of your mechs in the future!

Wow! The details on this are incredible. I really like how the torso area's shaping was achieved, as well as the thrusters on the back. Excellent work!

This is aimed at Sheps as well, but- since you both mentioned the price of the forestman's hat, I decided to look up what the price of that piece has been over the years. I've bought it every time it's been available, and there has been a gradual increase in prices over the years even before the new system was in place. In 2018, the dark green hat was $0.78 USD; in 2020, the light gray hat was $0.87; at the start of this year, the blue one was $0.88; and of course the current price for all forestman hats including the green one is $1.03. Of course, in the early days of PaB prices of the same pieces in different colors were different, so the regular green hat in 2017/18 could have been different from the dark green hat. But it just goes to show that this particular piece has undergone price increases in the past, and there was at least one that's comparable to the current increase, even if the current increase beats the past biggest increase by 6 cents.

Browsed the new pieces that landed yesterday and it seems that a few already had the "sold out" label early on in NA. For instance, the 88489 forestman hat and several other specialty pieces. Does anyone know if they actually were up, then sold out, or if they're just not available yet? Like, was anyone able to get the forestman hat, or the dark red hood, or any of the other pieces that said "sold out" yesterday?

I've read that in the 80s and early 90s, there would often be individual sets that would be released only in certain countries but not in others, usually as promos or parts of value packs. Starting in the mid 90s, there were also supposedly entire themes or subthemes that were exclusive to one region and not available in others- but finding out what was available where is difficult, as documentation on the matter seems to be lacking. From what I've gathered, a partial list of themes/subthemes/waves that were allegedly regionally exclusive includes: Unitron (1994) Dark Forest (1996) RoboForce (1997) Outback (1997) Pirates last wave (1997) Aquaraiders (1997) Football (1998) Adventurers Jungle (1999) What I've read is things like "Unitron was only sold in North America" and "The Outback subtheme was available in Europe and NA, but not Asia/Australia", but no one ever seems to be able to agree on what was sold where. So to clear things up, does anyone remember which 90s themes were or weren't regionally available, and in what countries they were released in?

I called in asking a similar question recently and the representative said the service would be back up towards the end of the month.

While looking through some of the new pieces on PaB, I found some that I couldn't identify. They don't have images on the site, and their numbers don't seem to match any entries on Brickset or Bricklink. Here's the info from the site: "Mini Hair W. Crown" 6359858/75872 (Sand Green) "Mini Wig W/ Hat No. 1" 6407462/86085 (Reddish Brown) Would anyone be able to identify them?

In my copies of the sets, only the Trouble on Tatooine set had the higher visor position. All my sets from the summer wave onwards, even the forge and advent calendar, had the lower position. I ordered two replacement helmets from customer service and both of them had the old, higher visor position instead. I suspect TLG is aware of the helmet error and is fixing it as a running change. So in the meantime, our best bet for getting fixed helmets is getting them directly from Lego for now.

@Flak Maniak and others: if you want the Cyber Drone head (6329386), you might want to check the site again, because it looks like it just became available.

I can confirm that it was available as of a week or two back. I'd been considering an order with it, but decided I'd place it later. Kinda regret that now, as you might imagine