naf

For the clear stickers, I fill a bowl with water and put a few drops of dish soap in it. I remove the sticker with a craft knife, and dunk both the sticker and the part into the water, and apply to the part. While wet, you can move the sticker around to position it perfectly. As an added bonus, this method will make stickers applied to trans clear parts crystal clear. For opaque stickers, I clean the part with some rubbing alcohol, and then apply the sticker dry with a craft knife. Just takes a steady hand and some practice. I usually line up one edge, and then lay it down on the part to see how it's positioned. If it's to my liking, I press it down. I'm not sure if the water method will work with opaque stickers, it seems like it may damage the paper they're printed on?

Budget? lol, you're funny

I think AFOLs over-estimate their contribution to Lego's bottom line. AFOLs buying $200+ sets directly from Lego are a drop in the bucket compared to how much they sell out of Target, TRU, etc throughout the year, and especially at Christmas. The big failure with this particular set is the fact that it appeases no one. It's very underwhelming for adults, as it's essentially an repack of old sets. Nothing to get excited about. I know people who went down to the Lego Store on day when when Ewok Village and the Sandcrawler were released. I doubt this set will get that kind of response. It's a great playset for kids, but no one but the wealthiest parents will be able to afford it. Even if they could, kids still might gravitate towards the Airjitsu Temple or some of the larger sets from Star Wars Rebels since they watch it on TV. It's not a rip-off from a pure price-per-piece standpoint, but Lego is asking quite a premium for a sets that we've already seen in the very recent past. Add to that the fact that they slapped the UCS label on it, and feels like Lego is trying to get AFOLs to buy into it without having to spend much money and effort in the design. If we as a group don't buy it, and it sits on shelves collecting dust, then it might go the way of the B-Wing and drop down to 50% for May 4. Exactly. I completely understand that they couldn't fit an AT-AT in with this set, but they could have scapped the Wampa Cave and added an AT-ST and a probe droid. If this was meant to be a one stop Hoth shop, I don't understand why the probe droid, chewie (make him a snowy Hoth variant), and Leia were not included.

I flatten them and store them in big garbage bags in the loft of my garage. Not sure why I'm keeping them all, I just can't bring myself to toss them yet. I still have all of my boxes from every Lego set I had as a kid, so I guess I'm just a hoarder lol.

My kids are a bit older now, but they still have their own Lego, and I have mine in a separate place. I will build my big sets like my modulars with the kids helping, and they can play with them with me, but they aren't allowed to play with them unsupervised. They still have a tendency to chew parts, especially things like minifig accessories, antennas, etc. The kids have a ton of Lego to build with because of birthdays and Christmas gifts. No need to get into dad's stash

I never broke an old hinge, but they definitely lost clutch power over time. I've grown to like the new clicky hinges, even though they have less range of motion at least they stay in place.

My first set is one of these two, I don't remember which one came before the other. Started my Lego obsession off right with classic space

Managed to cram about 40 horses into 2 large PAB cubs at the Troy, MI store last week. Filled the gaps with a variety of studs, trans clear cheese slopes, and trans yellow 1x1 plates. Excited to get those horses for my LotR Rohan army.

When buying sets, I usually ask the seller for a total including shipping before placing my order. For smaller bricks and pieces, it's usually sent first class mail and is around $3-5.

Oxyclean acts as a catalyst, so if you have badly yellowed bricks it will speed up the process significantly. I think airbrushing or brush painting is the way to go with regards to the OP's question. Any other method will just make the sails look dirty and damaged, not the weathered look he/she is going for.

Leave them out in the sun perhaps? I don't know if modern bricks are prone to yellowing though.

Also, why can't females have short hairstyles? If you take a minifig with no gender cues, and put a short hairstyle on them, it's going to look male 99% of the time. However, add one of the "curvy" torsos with that short hair, instant female. Another reason why these torsos add customizability, and does not take away from it.

It can go both ways, what if I wanted my female minifig to be wearing a Fabuland babydoll tee? Many females wear form fitting clothing. Hell, many males wear form fitting clothing now. Why shouldn't this be represented? Why should all tees and sweaters in Legoland be loose and boxy? Also, they're not supposed to look skinny, fat, or whatever. Lego minifigs have one skin color: yellow (non-licensed anyway), and one body type: average. It's a stylised toy, not an exact representation of the human form.

In the very same set that female officer came from,there is a nearly identical non-curvy torso available: I'm sure there are other examples as well. I don't understand the argument where having torsos and faces with female specific features limits customization, seems like it creates more choices. What if I want my female character to have curves? Despite what the author of the article says, you can see the curve of hips and breasts when wearing coats and other such clothing. Female nurses in hospitals now wear tighter more form fitting scrubs, and female doctors are wearing more form fitting coats. As do the military as seen here: As I stated in my previous post, I'm not the biggest fan of the printed negative space for hips, but I don't know of a better solution off the top of my head. I like that we have some female-specific torsos, and some female specific heads. I even like the ripped surfer dude, they all adds variety to your minfigs.

Two things I really dislike about Castle 2013: -The blue highlights on the castle and guard tower, I don't think they add to the aesthetic of the set. To be fair, I didn't like the red highlights of the Kingdom's version either. Easily remedied though. -The Lion crest looks too cartoonish, wish they'd use something more like the Kingdom's Lion crest. The dragon crest looks cool though. That being said, I went from owning none of these to getting a bunch on 50% clearance to use for parts. Those tiny forest ambush sets are great for filling out medieval MOCs with soldiers, and I got them for $6.00 each.

This is also nothing new, Lego has been printing some of the female torsos this way since the late 80's. And as was said above, some minifig heads are printed with makeup, some without. Just like how some days a girl might wear makeup, and not other days. It's all about variety. Women have hips and breasts, not sure why it's exactly offensive to portray these features? It's not like the minifig is being sexualized.

I don't know what Lego's "official" stance is, whether it is against violence in general, or just modern realistic depictions of war. But no one can say that Lego is a non-violent toy. It doesn't matter if you're depicting World War 2 or some imaginary war against bugs in outer space, you're still glorifying war and violence. If Lego has moved more towards conflict because that's what people buy, well that's just a sad commentary on today's society. I also think it's slightly lazy on Lego's part. If they really got creative they could create a fantastic space theme with zero violence, and it would sell.

Classic Castle: Bring back the crusaders, black falcons, black knights, forestmen, etc. These were neat factions with heraldry that looked historical. Would be neat to see this as opposed to the 2 faction thing that Castle has going for it lately. Space: Bring back the peaceful explorers and traders. I know conflict sells, but it would be cool to get some type of "civilian" space set again.

Great review for a great model! Everything looks great. I agree that the angles are a bit off compared with the real model, but that's always the case with Lego. Given the scale, I think the designer did an excellent job. My only real gripe is the stickers, I find it very strange that some parts like the stripes are printed while others are stickers. I can understand the license plates, gives you a bit of customizability, but the green stickers don't match the dark green brick color at all, and it's really apparent in the pictures. Wish they would have at least gone with clear stickers for these. Will definitely pick one of these up. As LegoDr said, i wasn't into the VW camper but it really grew on me so I suspect I'll enjoy this one too. I hope Lego continues releasing classic vehicles like this in this scale, they're really fun builds.

I wonder if this has something to do with the environment you guys are in, perhaps humidity or lack thereof is causing this. Any extreme temperature shifts? My new sets are from 2011 to present, and I haven't experienced a single broken or cracked piece anywhere. Like I said, the only broken pieces I have are from 30 years ago.

Never thought about it like that, but quite possible. Was hoping for at least a big exclusive Gondor-themed set at least, if we couldn't get a full 3rd wave. If this is indeed the end, they made some pretty odd set choices, namely that pirate ship. Would have much rather had a brick built fell beast or something Minas Tirith related.

Called my Lego store, they said they were sold out of horses within an hour. Sheesh. Said they were getting restocked later this month, hoping I can at least get one small cup of them.

Awesome. I still like the minimalistic box art from that era.

I wonder if this is bad batch of plastic or something? As you found out, Lego has very good customer service and will replace the parts. I remember when I was little, my mom would call up Lego to replace parts I chewed (for some reason I like gnawing on the the hose pieces and the classic space helmets), and they replaced those for free even though I was the one who destroyed them.

If these are brand new sets with broken pieces Lego will send you free replacements, just call customer service or send a message through the website.