Fugazi

I suppose it all depends on the size of your collection. Mine is small, so I don't feel the need to sort by colour, and I have in all about 15-20 categories/bins of parts. As I buy more parts, I will probably subdivide categories further more to keep part searching easy.

Ok so the US and EU editions have different content? Actually how many versions of the Club Magazine are there in all? I can't remember if back in Canada we had a special edition or if it was a joint publication with the US.

Nicely done! Tintin books were my favourite when I was young. Looking forward to more of your Tintin MOCs! How about the Moon rocket!

Hmm not much content this month, is there? I haven't received mine yet, but since I only became member a few months ago I'm not sure if it's normal or not. So there's no 3D material to be read using the 3D glasses from last issue? Too bad!

The only reason I don't buy everything I would like and get into debt is my wife, who makes sure I feel guilty of buying more LEGO again! Left to my own devices I would probably have a hard time limiting myself to only the sets I really want and need -- and can afford! So I have a short list of sets I really want, with prices and due dates, and I try to limit myself to that. Sometimes when I'm in bad need of a LEGO fix I will buy an impulse or other small set, but only if the parts look like they would be useful for my MOCing. And I only buy from City and Creator (including Exclusives) unless I'm after some specific parts.

Wow thanks Legostein, all very good tips! I will definitely keep this in mind for future use! But now I'll have to work harder to find connections that you can't take apart so easily

Nice scene! I really like your tree -- note to self: get some of those palm leaves from BL!

I doubt this keychain means anything, although it would be nice! A minifig-based Paradisa II would have many fans here! Girl-oriented themes always bring lots of great parts and accessories!

Nicely done! I'm not sure I understand the LEGO Classic branding on this one, it's not a minifig we've seen before is it? Perhaps Classic is just meant as 'not part of any current or past theme'... in other words 'LEGO Misc'!

Here's another one for you: The combination pin/axle stuck in a small gear... sometimes pushing with another axle helps, but the grip is very strong. Once again your teeth may be the best help! And maybe a pair of thick gloves to grip on that nasty gear!

It's expected Star Wars and City would be the most profitable lines, they're the ones with the largest number of sets as well. I wonder on a set-per-set basis which would be the most profitable for LEGO, perhaps some of the Modular Houses would come in the top 10 then. I have yet to read the pdf, I'm curious if there's any word about the adult fan market in there. From the website: More production in Mexico and Eastern Europe = less in China?

Perhaps you are lucky enough that your friction pins are all of more recent make. Mine were incredibly hard to pull out. I don't know the exact production time frame of the aggravating pins. Ahah same here!

I'm sure it happened to you over and over again... taking a MOC apart, or even an official set, and getting stuck on that nasty part assembly that just won't yield to reasonable force, where there's nothing you can grab without hurting your fingers so badly, and where even the Brick Separator won't be of any help. Here are two of them of recent memory, drawn in LDD as I wouldn't want to recreate them on purpose! The left one is pretty nasty only when using the old 1980s friction pins, which won't bother coming off even when pushed from behind with a Technic axle. No wonder they got replaced with a more user-friendly type of friction pin. The right one is quite simple, 1x1 plate on 1x1 round plate, the Brick Separator won't work well on this kind of combination and you will definitely hurt your fingers/nails in the process! Ok so those two are not that bad, I'm sure you've seen much worse! What are some of your dreaded unbreakable assemblies? And do you have any good tips for taking them apart?

I was wondering the same, and I was thinking about storing the glass pieces (inserted in their appropriate frames) stuck upright on a base plate. This would take more space but will definitely keep the parts scratch-free.

Fabulous review! The Modular Buildings series is part of the reason I came back to Lego after all those years, and year after year the new buildings keep delivering the goodies! I'm still not happy with the inflated UK price, but the set itself is really flawless! Long live LEGO!

Actually I'd love to see some objective comparisons between LEGO and clone brands here on this board! I'm sure we can think of many (non-destructive!) tests to decide whether the clones are good enough to replace Lego. But are there any owners here of sufficient amounts of clone bricks to put them to the test?

Thanks for the beautiful review! I never owned this set, but it definitely was on my list back then! It's a very simple build but packs lots of playability with 4 vehicles/ships. And the moon vehicle in the lower right corner of this image is simply hilarious!

Nice looking contraption, and interesting use of the yellow flags! Is there a real-life prototype for this kind of work vehicle?

I don't remember the Daily Mirror promos ever to include minifigures, but I may be wrong. This look more like a TRU type of promo... Do TRU in the UK ever have promotional sets? In Canada they used to. Anyway, both sets look like nice part packs, the promotional sets this year seem all very well done regardless of the theme.

Hey that 3847 Magma Monster game has a few nice house-building parts! Oh well, it's probably cheaper on BrickLink. Hmm... what could I do with an orange base plate? (here we go again!)

Ha! Aquazone is a Space theme! It's so amazing! TLG sure didn't want anyone to know, the sets were even numbered somewhere between Castle and Pirates! But it does make sense, while was no new Space sub-theme launched in 1995 when Aquazone began, there were already two sub-themes underway (Unitron and Spyrius). Perhaps they thought better of creating something different instead of yet another Space faction.

Power Miners falls outside of my current interest sphere, but I can't help admiring the great design and functionality of those sets. Were I some 20 years younger I would totally want all of the PM sets! Thanks for the review!

I quite like the modern look of the new door system, and the sturdiness provided by having a door frame. And it's good to have different models of doors, for the sake of variety. I agree however that the new 4-pane door looks too tall for a minifig, they could have made the window panes start a bit lower on the door. And I wish they would have designed the door knob like on the old doors, to be able to open them with a flick of the nail. Another minor issue I have with the new door is that the doorknob stud is too close to the edge of the door, so that it's impossible to add any kind of doorknob on the inside of the door without it jamming in the door frame.

PM sent

Ok thanks for the heads up, I'll just keep my mouth shut until it all returns to normal!