Your Latest Non-TF Toy Acquisitions

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Tue Feb 23, 2016 12:17 pm

Skyquake87 wrote:Old Lego from olden times!

Three favourites there. Always had a big, big love for the Town civvies stuff, especially as City as largely amped up the bias towards emergency services, construction and race cars. I like a lot of the basic City designs but the scale just makes it utterly incompatible with Town even if it's more realistic relative to the Minifigs - plus the space thing is an issue.

Like that little Post Office a lot, though I do prefer the older red one. There's something about vintage Post that just gets to me, though. Love the Minivan too - between that and the cargo plane they did a few years later I built a whole shipping depot at one point because it was so cool.

Loving how Town-orientated the collectors' exclusives like the art deco cinema look, but not loving that they cost about a hundred and fifty quid.

Still, got the Creator Deli corner thing a couple of weeks ago - beautiful construction and build but pleasingly tiny and solid. Currently trying to redesign all my various town buildings around a similar ethos and realising how useless four huge tubs of Lego can be....

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Tue Feb 23, 2016 7:26 pm

I've kind of stumbled into picking up the old Town stuff, I spotted a few small sets that were pretty cheap and that's got me thinking about picking up some more of these. You forget how cute the old Town stuff was, compared to the MASSIVE CiTY stuff, which whilst great, can quickly dwarf ... the living room. It was sadly the reason I sold a lot of my CiTY stuff. It was just a bit unweildly, good as it is (I hadn't realised how big the CiTY stuff was until I put the Rally Car I bought recently next to some of the older stuff...). I kept all the Farm stuff though, as its ACE and doesn't look to be a theme Lego will get around to revisiting anytime soon. Shame they never did a farmhouse, but I've least I've a Creator house to pinch hit for that (which I've now furnished and put a bathroom in. Its like DIY I can do!).

The Modular buildings are fab, but having looked at the stuff, I've been surprised that the interiors are so bare. They really are just designed to look impressive from the outside, which is shame. Since 2014 and the Parisian Restaurant, they have made them slightly smaller and focused on making detailed interiors, which is what made me interested in the Dectective's Office. I'd agree that the price is incredibly off-putting, and its not the sort of money I like spending on toys. There's clearly a large enough consumer base for these though and with a release schedule of one a year, there's at least time to save up for one. Or sell some stuff to pay for one.

The Creator stuff has been nice in this regard in that they've started doing similar versions of the modular sets. I have found they've made some odd choices with some of the Creator shops though. Lego try to put too much into one set, like the toy and grocery shop which looks really thin and rickety. I'd much prefer they just took some cues from the Town stuff and just beefed it up a bit. The corner Deli is a step in the right direction for me, although the flat section seems a bit of a waste.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Wed Feb 24, 2016 9:53 pm

More old Lego!

Fire Truck 6650 (1981)
I didn't know this existed until the other day and oh my God is it adorable. A small fire tender that's roughly 8cm long and 3cm wide, its just so cute and boxy. There's not a lot too it - its got one of those excellent fire hose reels and a radio - but I love it! There's some of those old small garden fence pieces used on the roof and the classic Town 'flame' logo stamped on the doors and a cool looking fire fighter with a black helmet (which I much prefer over the more common white). The only negative is the use of bricks to make up the opposite side of the hose, which is a little bland. Doesn't stop this being a good, fun little set though.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Thu Feb 25, 2016 8:02 pm

Another old Lego set ...

Auto Repair Shop 6363 (1980)
Another cheap used set of ebay (it is filthy and in need of a good bath, missing the tree and has a replacement sticker that's from a mid-'80s Ideas book, IIRC, rather than the proper ones the set came with for the sign) and it is fantastic. Its built on two of the small grey base plates and is an 'L' Shaped design with a large open garage area and a small office off to the side. The office just has a desk in and some clips to store tools (as does the garage) and there's a cheerful yellow door and window. Sparse, but does the job. The garage has an interesting jack feature - its an upturned Mini-figure chair on a hinge. Hmmm. Good bit of imaginative building there. There's also an open top recovery truck included and I was suprised that this is brick built, rather than using the usual mud-guard pre-mould pieces. The Mini-figure is a cheerful little chap in a red set of overalls with a black cap. Its a simple but effective set and I think its great. And will look even better, once I've cleaned it up.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Feb 27, 2016 11:57 am

DC Comics™ Super Heroes 76034 The Batboat Harbor Pursuit - Very popular set that doesn't stay on shelves for very long.
&
DC Comics™ Super Heroes 76044 Clash of the Heroes - Decided to buy it because it was the last one on the shelf that I could find locally.

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 6:54 pm

Friday I snagged myself an Old Man Captain Rex from Star Wars Rebels. Nifty guy that I have been waiting to find at retail.

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Tue Mar 01, 2016 3:53 am

Skyquake87 wrote: Post Station 6689 (1985)

Wow, something I actually own! In fact, it was probably one of the first Lego sets I got as a wee lad, and speaking of which, when I was staying at my parents' house for a week or so a summer or two ago, I discovered I had instructions for sets I forgot I even had - unfortunately, 6631 Steam Shovel's...well, shovel, was broken, so I couldn't build that

I wanted to shop on bricklink for all the missing pieces, but all the sellers have like a minimum purchase requirement of like 10 dollars worth or something (does that thing have a tool that'd let you see if any individual seller has all the pieces you need?)

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Tue Mar 01, 2016 7:35 pm

Not that I've seen. I've not used Bricklink. Its seems pretty good overall, but I have seen that you might get a complete set which uses bricks from different eras and/ or outright substituted parts. Not much of a problem, depending on how much of a purist you are.

Post by **Denyer** » Tue Mar 01, 2016 8:18 pm

Tetsuro wrote:does that thing have a tool that'd let you see if any individual seller has all the pieces you need?

Seem to remember something like a wish list function that matched to sellers, but never really found sellers that had everything I was after in one go (usually because I wanted more of a piece than most sellers would have).

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Mar 05, 2016 11:08 am

Lego DC Comics Super Heroes 76045 Kryptonite Interception - Second of the two sets from the Batman V Superman movie.

Lego Scooby Doo 75902 The Mystery Machine
Jurassic World 75915 Pteranodon Capture
Jurassic World 75916 Dilophosaurus Ambush
Jurassic World 75917 Raptor Rampage
Nexo Knights 30372 Robin's Mini Fortrex
Nexo Knights 5004389 Nexo Knights Battle Station

An order made from the online Lego Shop mainly to finish the Scooby Doo and Jurassic World themes and a couple of polybags as an added bonus

I also bought a cloth piece from eBay to finish an Indiana Jones Lego set I bought a couple of years ago.

Post by **Denyer** » Sat Mar 05, 2016 1:27 pm

Not sure if http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/stainlesssteelmerch is the same as https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/InoxHammer (the pieces in hand have crisper edges in general, plus the Inquisition skull piece is much larger than the one on the InoxHammer page) so not sure if it's the same person to different standards, shared designs or a rip, but still very good -- the two-headed Aquila is particularly intricately cut. Shame Etsy shipping is such a rip-off or would compare more directly.

Not my photo --

http://i.imgur.com/NB9Xurb.jpg

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Sun Mar 06, 2016 9:57 pm

I has more Lego!

6510 - Mud Runner (1991)

One of those sets they'd never get away with these days, its a few parts slapped on a frame passing itself off as a sort of dragster/off road racer. Objectively, its awful, but I kind of like it.

Reduced from Amazon

Creator 31035 Beach Hut
This is a proper cheery set with some nice design work. I've only done two of the three builds so far, but love it. Its really colourful and lots of fun. The two mini-figures are nice, although I've swapped out the stumpy child legs, as I don't care for them.

Had a bit of a stop-over in Leeds on my way to my parents today, so whiled away half an hour in the Lego shop where I built 3 of my own mini-figures. Really like the range of accessories available these days - some of which like the little labelled bottles of wine you only see in expensive collector sets - and that they've cut down on construction worker body parts quite significantly. Rather boringly, I came away with a sort of be-goggled forensic police officer with bottle of wine, a postman with newspaper and a squire with sword and shield. Last time I did this, I just made some bonkers looking figures. I did the pick-a-brick wall too, and did the large cup for £12 , as the small Creator brick box looked a bit rubbish. The selection is ...odd. Loads of the standard 2x2 and 2X4 bricks in a variety of colours, but not so much of the narrower bricks outside of 1x2 bricks. In the Leeds one they did have some windows and doors, so I snapped those up, and some wheels. I picked up loads of fairly small pieces, so I more than got my money's worth. Fun watching children picking what they want from the wall and then their parents getting involved and spoiling it all "what are you picking those for? You've loads of those bricks at home" "you don't want those bricks!" "why have you picked that colour?" "what are you going to do with that?" and (my favourite) "I don't think you understand this!"

I also like looking at the promotional stuff Lego do in their shops as that's usually worth a look, if only for parts (the £10 pencil pot house is particularly worth a look, as it basically gives you a small Creator house for half the usual RRP of those things). Not much going on at the moment, but they did have some small polybag sets for £2.99, best of which was 30291, which is a small piloted mech that's pretty cool.

All of which got me a free Mini-figure - its the Easter promotional Chicken Suit Guy from the collectable Mini-figure range. He comes in a rather large cardboard chicken coop with plastic insert tray. Seemed a bit of a waste of packaging materials to me, but a nice little freebie (younger children got a Duplo Duck).

Do find the Lego-mandated staff banter utterly false and I wish they'd knock it off. I'm sure they really couldn't care less whether I'm buying for myself or someone else. I'm all for service, but just be natural about it. I hate this idea of service where everyone has pretend to be your best mate. Poor girl served me was clearly having a tough day, and visibly sighed before putting on the game face and slightly forced and uncomfortable banter around my really quite random purchases.

Dead Man Wade · Post by **Dead Man Wade** » Mon Mar 07, 2016 12:06 pm

Picked up the new Fugitoid from TMNT and the LEGO TARDIS.

Post by **Warcry** » Wed Mar 09, 2016 8:50 pm

I got a 6-inch BvS Batman figure as a birthday gift from my wife. The sculpting on the figure is quite impressive, capturing both the new movie costume and (what little you can see of) Affleck's likeness quite well. Unfortunately it's still a Mattel toy, so the articulation scheme is about a decade out of date and poseability really suffers for it.

Compared to the handful of Star Wars and Marvel figures I've picked up over the last year...well, frankly there's no comparing them. For all the flak we give them in the TF fan community, Hasbro's engineering on their 6-inch stuff seems to get incrementally better and better every time I dip into it, while Mattel seem to have been satisfied with how things were in 2005 and it's really starting to show. In particular the "DCUC hips" really look like ass compared to a properly modern toy, and the lack of ankle tilts are really unforgivable.

In spite of all that this is probably the nicest-looking Batman figure I own, and it's going to make for a nice display piece on the shelf even if I'm never, ever going to take it down to play with it.

Skyquake87 wrote:Do find the Lego-mandated staff banter utterly false and I wish they'd knock it off. I'm sure they really couldn't care less whether I'm buying for myself or someone else. I'm all for service, but just be natural about it. I hate this idea of service where everyone has pretend to be your best mate. Poor girl served me was clearly having a tough day, and visibly sighed before putting on the game face and slightly forced and uncomfortable banter around my really quite random purchases.

This sort of thing annoys me so much! It's not really all that common among shop staff here, but restaurant staff are terrible for it. Pretending to care about how my day is going while affecting a "cheerful" voice two octaves higher than your normal speaking voice is not going to earn my loyalty as a customer or get you a big tip. Acting like a normal human being while providing good service just might, though.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Wed Mar 09, 2016 9:03 pm

Oh, I hate it. We have some sentences at our place that you HAVE to say or you're penalised for it - even if its not relevant to the call/ scenario and trying to reason with your coach (what is this? a sports team? no, its a f***ing call centre) is like trying to reason with a wall. I'm glad I've stepped away from all that, as I used have proper arguments and almost have an anuerisym about this stuff. Mentioning a few pat sentences and offering irrelevant products does not make good service. Listening to what you're customer is saying and resolving a problem and offering any appropriate extra bits and bobs does. Sadly, there's no room for a sensible, moderated approach and some common sense.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Mar 12, 2016 11:41 am

LEGO Dimensions Fun Pack - Wizard of Oz Witch - Picked up last Sunday from Big W.

Mega Bloks Call of Duty Legends: Battle Tank &
Mega Bloks Call of Duty Wraith Attack - Picked these two up from Target.

Lego DC Super Heroes Cosmic Boy - Packaged in a poly bag that is included with the Lego DC Cosmic Clash DVD.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Mon Mar 14, 2016 1:21 pm

Bunch more Lego....

Ice Cream Cart 6601 (1984)
Great little set from back in the day where small, charming things like this were perfectly viable as a legitimate set. Lovely little set and its not hard to see why this is a much sought after set on the aftermarket.

Rally Car (1986)
Nice Shell deco'd 4x8 stud saloon car. I really loved this as a kid and it still holds its boxy charm 30 years on.

Star Wars 75099 Rey's Speeder (2015)
Rey was the best thing about SW:TFA for me (I enjoyed the rest of the film also) and have been keeping an eye out for a more reasonable price for this set (£19.99 seemed a bit much!). Got a 'warehouse deal' from amazon (box is a bit crushed) which was just over half the RRP and I am very happy with this set. Really clever construction, plenty of tools, some fun play features (stud shooters, main storage compartment opens with a turn of one of t rear thrusters), plus two cool mini-figures. Its just a shame there's nowhere to store Rey's alternative head gear.

Post by **Warcry** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 6:38 pm

So for the first time in about six months I actually saw a new Star Wars 6-inch figure! Just one, mind: a single First Order Flametrooper at a Walmart, in amongst a handful of unwanted JacketFinns (ironically, the Flametrooper ships in a case with TrooperFinn, who was nowhere to be seen...maybe they should have shipped the interesting version of the character first?) And, hey, I'm a sucker for stormies and had a gift card to spend, so why not?

He's a very nice-looking figure, and stands out nicely in a group with the others I own. But the articulation isn't great due to the cut of the armour blocking off some of the range of motion. Balance is off a bit too, because he's got gigantic fuel tanks on his back. So he's definitely not as dynamic as the Biker Scout. Both of those were pretty obviously going to be issues before I opened the box though, so it's not all that disappointing. The Flametrooper's got unique look and a nice weapon, so I'm pretty happy with it overall.

I love to buy a few of the other figures that shipped in the case with him, but if patterns hold I won't see another new figure again until three waves later, so likely no TrooperFinn or Jango Fett for me.

Tetsuro · Post by **Tetsuro** » Fri Mar 18, 2016 8:17 pm

Movie Monster EX Godzilla, MechaGodzilla and Mothra!

Really basic, simple and cheap PVC figures with minimal articulation - the paint and sculpting is pretty nice though, considering the pricetag, and I've been dying for a Showa-styled Godzilla toy for some time, to say nothing of the classic MG. It's like these are scratching an itch in a way SH Monsterarts failed. They're pretty decent size too, about 7-8 inches tall.

HeavyArms · Post by **HeavyArms** » Sat Mar 19, 2016 12:50 pm

Mega Bloks Call of Duty Legends: Sidecar Pursuit

75133 Rebel Alliance Battle Pack

Lego Electro-suit Batman - Actually found him locally in the book he was packaged 4 years after release, seems like they got more stock in recently which is odd for a Lego book.