meyerc13

My wife found the Resistance and First Order Battle Packs at a Barnes and Noble store today. I can't blame a store manager for putting out LEGO stock early. Most of the stores I visited last night had LEGO shelves that were quite bare, except for a few large, unpopular sets (Kylo Ren's Shuttle, I'm looking at you).

First off, I want to say thanks to the Moderators on this site. I always measure the success of moderators based on whether I would like to meet and hang out with them in real life, and I think the answer for this site is resoundingly yes. Also, I want to preface this post with the statement that I was a moderator for many years on a very successful forum for IT professionals, so I have quite a bit of personal experience with this topic. With that said, since I've joined this site I've always felt the need to tread very carefully, not because of any moderator action I've observed, but rather because of what I didn't. For whatever reason, I notice far more 'banned' members on this site than on any other I visit. When I join a new forum, I always try to pay attention to the tone the moderators set. When someone gets banned, I take note of their behavior and try to 'not be like them.' On this site, it's difficult because generally moderator actions happen behind the scenes. For some of the banned users, I can tell right away they are heading for banishment, because they don't use proper grammer, post 50 "me too" posts in a day to drive up their post count, etc. Those I don't question, anyone could see that ban coming. The ones that have worried me are the members with hundreds or thousands of posts who are banned. That worries me because I don't see what they did wrong, I have to assume anyone who was here for years, making hundreds (or thousands) of quality posts, should have gained a good understanding of the rules and tone of the forum. Then they are banned without any obvious transgression. It's enough to make a fellow nervous. If someone with that much time invested in the forum can fall from the moderators' good graces, how can someone new to the forum hope to avoid a similar fate? Like it or not, it makes the moderators seem to be heavy handed (i.e. "If this guy with all of these great posts can get banned, these guys must be really mean!"). Now, as I said, I haven't seen any moderators on this site do anything unfair or mean... but that's the perception that a user can have when they don't see why someone is being punished. I understand the desire to praise publicly, and chastise privately, but the result can be that a site seems to be intolerant when people are banned and other people can't tell why by looking through their posts. To be honest, until this thread I was always afraid to bring the comment up, because I was afraid that questioning why so many people seem to be banned might result in me being banned. I hope based on this thread I'm wrong. Again, you guys seem to be doing a great job, and most people who I've seen banned have obviously deserved it. It's just the edge cases that stick out and I think paint you guys in a much harsher light than you deserve.

Someone created an LDD version of the Kebab stand from the video game, here's the thread: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=92370 If you want to create the roof top kebab sign that might help.

Those look the same as a Plano fishing tackle box, but the fishing boxes are a fraction of that price. For example, a local retailer, Mills Fleet Farm, has a Plano 3700 3-pack on sale for $11. Each box is 14"x9"x2", the same as your link. The regular price at Fleet Farm for three boxes is $14, which is still less than the $5 with coupon price at JoAnn. I'm not sure if the fishing boxes are 'acid-free' but since you aren't storing paper in them I don't think it matters.

I finally got around to building this set last night. Out of all the sets in this theme, this was the last one I acquired because it didn't really look all that great to me. Seeing it in person, I find it okay, but I wouldn't have been sad had I missed it. Personally I found the build tedious... you must turn the set around and around during the build and it seems like they used about four different parts over and over so it was sometimes hard to tell where the new piece was added. Thank goodness they used part call outs to let you know which pieces were used in each step, without those this set would have been nearly impossible to build accurately. I will admit that the multiple colors used for the rock face work well. It creates a sense of weathering, in some spots a piece of rock will break off and will be a lighter shade due to not having been exposed to the weather and air for as long. Thanks for the good review... for those in the US I picked mine up at a Tuesday Morning store for $40 which seems to be a good price. If you want a lot of slopes in earth tones, this is the set to get. If you have the other sets in the theme, the biggest draw here is the minifigure for the Chief. If you can live without him, you can probably skip this set if you aren't looking for the slopes. The parts here would probably be good for western, castle, and Lord of the Rings builders.

I used PaB cups at home to store parts, for example I've been putting the tiny spare parts from sets I've bought into a large cup which is almost full now. My daughter spilled that cup once, and I spilled it once. Let me tell you, it's no fun picking up a large cup full of 1x1 plates and tiles, and those pieces really can bounce far. I've seen a large cup full of small pieces dumped in the store... the pieces can spread even further on those hard smooth floors! The store employee who had to pick those up didn't look too happy. My biggest in-store mistake was trying to fill the stud in the lid of the cup with small pieces and flip it into place quickly... it didn't work and made a small mess on the counter. Lesson learned. I now build a small square and set it on top of the parts in the cup and wiggle it into place... it may not competely fill the stud but it's close enough and isn't nearly as messy.

My point is, that LEGO rarely gives the same number of minidolls in a set that you'd get minifigs in a non-Friends set at the same price point. Heck, I can buy a $13 set and get four minifigs, but I'd need to buy a $100 set to get four minidolls. That same $100 would get me a City set with seven minifigs. Even worse, every Friends set contains at least one of the main Friends, and I think at most only one character who isn't one of the main ones. So the entire unique population of Heartlake City is very small... at least so far. Which brings me back to my point about Disney Princesses... unless the princesses cross from one world to another and visit each other, they all live in very lonely places, at least so far.

I hate to say it, but I agree. While the jelly donut would be nice, I don't need an army of Homers which I would need if I were going to get enough of them to be interesting for MOC purposes. All of the accessories that are interesting to me as a City builder are duplicates from past series. I don't see myself buying a single one, and my kids won't be asking me to since I won't let them watch the Simpsons (or Spongebob, or South Park, or any of the other shows that are less than appropriate for kids their ages). Add to that the rumored price increase, and I just can't rationalize buying these. I'm sure there are quite a few other LEGO fans who feel the way I do. As LT said, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I really hope that this series does well enough that it doesn't end up killing off the line. One big disadvantage is the blind packaging... for those new to LEGO, they might give up after their 4th or 5th Bart. As for the house selling well, that may have nothing to do with the success of this series... I've thought about buying the house and tossing the minifigures; just for the pieces it is a great deal.

You must be new to Friends, that seems to be the norm to me. To get two minifigs I think it has to be at the $70 price point (I'm kidding, but not by much). This isn't much of an issue for my daughter any longer since she has almost every Friends set they've made... however the same problem plagues the Disney Princess sets and she has really complained that the princesses have nobody to interact with.

Why would eBay have you return the set? They aren't out anything. In fact, they probably made their fees on this transaction. Wal Mart is the company that will lose $150 for accepting a stolen credit card. The person whose card was stolen will experience stress, perhaps be inconvenienced ("I'm sorry, your card has been declined, will you be paying cash for that tank of gasoline you just put into your car?"), but will eventually get the credit back. You still might have the police show up at your door... the woman or her bank will call Wal Mart and find out the item was shipped to you. Don't be surprised if that happens, it has happened to others even after they've contact eBay and the company who shipped the item (LEGO, Wal Mart, etc.). As for the question of why eBay doesn't do something before the auction completes, how could they? They have no way to know if this is fraud until one of the buyers contacts them. One last point, I often hear buyers on these deals say, "maybe they have a wholesale arrangement with LEGO." I can tell you categorically that this does not happen. First off, on the exclusives, LEGO no longer lets any reseller sell these for below MSRP (although you may be able to get 5% back from a Target Redcard or something like that). Second, to purchase from LEGO directly, you need a bricks and mortar store. If you suspect a deal is too good to be true, ask them where their store is located and look it up. If they don't have one, they didn't get a wholesale deal from LEGO. I'm just going to put this out there, if it is a current high dollar set ($100 range or more), new in box, advertised for less than MSRP, and the seller has more than one (either in the same auction, or in their auction history), it is a drop ship scam.

I wonder how much of this is related to the belief that Grand Emporium will be retiring next. I would bet that many people are now stocking up on GE and sticking it in a closet as "an investment." LEGO could really disrupt their plans if Town Hall suddenly retires first and GE doesn't. Town Hall prices are likely to shoot up because nobody has been stockpiling it, and their GE inventory might not give them any return for quite some time. I know that GE was the first modular I purchased because I liked it more than Fire Brigade and knew it wouldn't be around long. Luckily I purchased Fire Brigade next, before it was retired. I was planning to buy Pet Shop next, because I like that one more than the Town Hall, but now I'm wondering if that is the right decision.

I know this fact was thrown around quite a bit a few years ago, but I wonder if it is still the case. We've seen a lot of new parts that span many lines, and also quite a few parts that were clearly designed for one specific thing, although some of those make cameos later in other lines (examples are some of the Cars pieces). With all of the new elements we've seen over the past few years, I think LEGO is no longer as averse to creating new elements as they were after their near disasterous years.

I think that's the reason. While every other store near me was out, Barnes and Noble has been sitting on a virtually untouched box since before the movie came out, probably because the price is $4.99. I picked up a Mermaid there to complete my set, but even with the 10% member discount $4.50 was a hard price to swallow. This may be another option for those who only need 1 or 2.

I noticed that you filled the box sideways, I'm curious why? It looks like for the most part you were getting standard bricks. It would seem that by turning them sideways you would lose space to the studs. The boxes are squares, 11 studs on a side and 9 bricks high. I have found the most efficient and quickest way is to make stacks of bricks 9 high. I usually go for 1 stud wide bricks (1x2 or 1x4), and then simply add 11 rows of stacks (so 11 rows each with 5 stacks of nine 1x2 bricks for example). That leaves you with 1 empty row, you can do another 5 stacks of 1x2, leaving you with a 1x1 space open to be filled with 1x1 bricks. Or maybe instead of a stack of 1x2 you do a stack of 1x3 if they have them, etc. You could also add tiles or small 1x1 pieces from the wall as filler for that final column. You should be able to fit at least 540 1x2 bricks plus 9 1x1 bricks (not counting anything you can squeeze above the edge of the box but under the flaps. You can do this with any normal bricks, just stack them nine high and arrange them in whatever combination of rows will end up being 11 by 11 studs. You should be able to fit the equivalent of 1089 1x1 bricks. I've used the same method for plates (offsetting each layer by 1 stud, and then using tiles, grill plates, or 1x1 rounds as filler for the offset, which will make them easier to separate without damage. I think the first time I had one of these I started out overthinking it and building some complicated giant square brick, until it occured to me that I could just build stacks nine high and line up the stacks.

I built this set about a week ago. I love the parts, but was disappointed in the final product. The ramp on the back is too steep, the car can't drive up it. Plus, if you have the driver in the car, the car can't fit through the back door. Granted, in real life they probably push these things onto the trucks rather than drive them, but I doubt many young kids know that so I'm surprised the car can't be driven into the trailer. Overall this set isn't bad, but I think the use of the train base resulted in too many compromises in the final build.