AndyC

The problem with PaB is that orders have to be fulfilled by hand and paying the staff to do that forces the price for pieces up significantly. If TLG could find a way to automate that the prices would probably be a lot more acceptable. Still at least it gives another option for buying track, which is better than nothing I suppose.

After a bit of scaffolding, I bring you a handy replacement for the oft used 4x5 panel. LXF File

New or uncommon parts can also be cheaper through PaB. The 1x1 printed milk carton isn't available for less than about 0.70$US on Bricklink, for example, which is over double the PaB price. Common parts usually are cheaper on BL, although on large orders the shipping can all add up, not to mention that it can just be down to pure convenience. The fact that you can order from PaB and be absolutely sure about the quality of pieces can also be a bit of a benefit if they're important parts.

Yeah, I'm taking zinfinion's advice and moving all my stuff to Dropbox. Gives me a good excuse to tidy it up a bit too.

If you made an X-wing that was to scale with the system falcon, it'd be too small for Luke Skywalker to actually sit in the cockpit. From a child's perspective, it's far more important that an individual ship can fit the figures in than it is that they are necessarily in-scale with each other. This is why ridiculously out-of-proportion ships like the 6211 Imperial Star Destroyer are still popular, they're recognisable whilst still being playable.

I'll second that, it's a great read. And seeing all the different variations of the HQ set, as it's price point bounced around, was fascinating. It's easy to forget all the work that goes into creating such a theme.

Prateek made the set in Lego Digital Designer here, if you open that up and delete the bits you don't want, you should be able to get a parts list by generating an HTML version of the instructions or use Superkalle's LDDManager software to auto-generate a Bricklink Wanted list.

You can get a parts list by creating HTML versions of the instructions, it'll put a parts list at the end. Alternatively you can use Superkalle's LDD Manager software which has the added benefit that it can create a Bricklink wanted list to help with purchasing the parts from there.

Without any such statistics (which are unlikely to be public if they exist at all), the next best indicator was how TLG followed up. And that was to go in a completely different direction through things like Clickits, Scala and Belville, all aiming to draw in the girls market. It's difficult to see any logic in that strategy had the campaign been judged successful by any metric. Which is nto to say that girls can't enjoy 'ordinary' Lego sets or that a similar campaign might not have worked. It could well be that the 'tomboy' image of the girl in the ad had completely the wrong effect, reinforcing a far worse stereotype that only boyish girls would want to play with Lego. It's difficult to ascertain why it didn't really succeed without considerable research, but all the surrounding evidence strongly indicates that it didn't.

If it had worked, Lego wouldn't have been considered a "boys" toys, that should be reasonably self-evident.

There are lots of ways the site could be improved upon and there are still things that few other sites are generally suitable for (hosting LXF and other CAD files, for example). The problem is whether that can be provided with appropriate moderation whilst scaling better than Brickshelf is currently handling. Ideally such improvements would be made to Brickshelf itself, rather than a new site, because reuploading everything and relinking things would be a right pain - although that might be a price worth paying for more reliable hosting. I notice that, after a brief up period earlier, it's gone down again.

It still amazes me how often that 80s advert is brought up, when it should be clear to anyone that had that been a succesful advertisement we wouldn't even be having this discussion today.

Which one would you rather keep if the value doesn't go up? There's every chance that either could gain value, but it's always wiser if you invest only in sets you would be happy to keep, unless you can afford to lose out should you have to sell at a loss.

If you were a parent, looking for a set for a kid's birthday, what set would look more appealling: A fire engine, a helicopter or a big stone pillar? That's the problem with an idea like this, bits of scenery just don't have mass appeal.

I think my favourite bit from that first NPR interview is this one: "I mean, they've looked at what is going to sell to girls, so when you market pink princesses and beauty to girls from the time they're infants, by the time they're in Lego's target market for this line, which is about five and up, they're going to associate pink, pretty, you know, this very specific gender role with what they think they're supposed to be playing with." Yes, she's actually arguing that by the time girls are old enough to play with Lego, they're already indoctrinated into her 'pink ghetto'. And yet this is still the fault of Lego and their marketing. If you're going to put forward an argument against something, at least try to make it logical and consistent because otherwise you just come across as a bit crazy. I'll have to have a listen to that follow up interview now.

You can make that argument about every set Lego ever produced though and expecting re-releases for the small number of people who both (a) missed out originally and (b) can afford to buy one is rather wishful thinking, there will always be a set somebody missed out on that now costs a fortune. You'd actually be better off hoping that TLG reintroduce some of the rarer parts in another set, which would make them a lot easier to obtain on the second hand market and is probably a lot more likely.

I reckon they'll include a skateboarder. We could do with more of those.

10230 Mini-Modulars - Theme: Modular Buildings LXF File String missing from GE. #48729 on Green Grocer fire escape won't fit the way around it is in the instructions, so I've put it in the other way around. Each building individually grouped so it's easier to recreate you preferred layout.

A D2C set might not fall into the same category though, the Imperial Flagship was available long after the Pirates theme had officially 'exited'. I guess because they aren't usually available to general retailers their continued presence doesn't really count for the themes available for retailers to choose from.

They mostly, but not always match the LEGO Design ID but certainly not when it comes to printed pieces. That's not much help anyway because when getting direct from LEGO you need an Element ID (i.e. indentifying a piece in a specific colour) and not a Design ID. You can find that in the part list in the manual.

I like that idea and it kind of has a Pirates vibe about it, with the 'bad' guys being the ones you are actually siding with.

I suspect you're right on this one, but by contrast wheras "real" model train displays often have enormous amounts of attention in the off-the-rail bits, they are quite often displaying off the shelf engines and rolling stock, wheras good Lego layouts are much more focused on custom built trains. Ultimately, unless you are fortunate to have endless amounts of time and money there are probably going to be compromises somewhere along the way. The compromises are just falling in different places, especially since large scale scenery construction in pure Lego is considerably more expensive.

Yeah, it's a bit disappointing as I'd hoped the lack of new space sets might have meant AC would just hang around on the shelves longer, but the HQ set has already vanished off the UK SaH site so I guess the rest will slowly follow.

I suspect sound bricks are one of those things that AFOLs think are dumb and kids absolutely love. I think I'd have thought they were brilliant if we'd had them 'back in the day'.

Not sure about this. I mean if all you can do is articulate the rear legs then the only 'posing' you can do is either stand them normally or have them rearing up. I'm not sure how beneficial that really is, especially if the articulation point weakens a bit over time (as these thing tend to do) and your rearing horse start falling back into a standing position.