arch_8ngel

Yeah, it's actually a really competitive price-per-part. Non-licensed sets, the benchmark for "fair pricing" is usually $0.10/brick (though a lot of the sets nowadays bloat the part count with tiny accent pieces). This one is back-ordered on the LEGO site, but it's a site-exclusive, and they claim they're fulfilling back-orders within 60 days. Treat yourself and then build it with him! The practical worst case is he pleads with you to just let him play with it once it's all built and you don't risk him feeling like he blew his "big gift" on something he didn't ask for (and true worst case is once they are discontinued a complete open-box version will still get your money back with no problem)

Sure. And over the last 10 or 15 years, Zaxby's has massively improved their order-flow around meal times. Way back, everything was fully to-order. Now they at least have some kind of model/prediction for staying closer to the curve of what they need.

My little brother had a bunch of the Ice Planet guys, and I remember wishing I'd had cool bits like the red transparent chainsaws

https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/pirates-of-barracuda-bay-21322 Not cheap, though on a per-part basis it is a way bigger set than any of the classics. Personally, I got back into it when they did the Back to the Future Delorean, and also picked up the Exo Suit that same year. Only other "for me" sets I've bought are the Saturn V and Voltron. But I try to keep an eye on stuff like Barracuda Bay, since they have some really neat "brick-built" features that used to be simpler monolithic parts (and frankly, they all hold their value well enough that they are easy to flip if you decide you don't want to keep it :P) And I'd be lying if I didn't say that part of my renewed interest has come with picking up a bunch of the Elves sets for my daughter on deep clearance price a couple years ago when they discontinued the series.

Is Chik Fil A bad up in Ohio? Admittedly, I've never had it that far north, but it seems like it should be hard to fuck up a pressure-cooked-in-peanut-oil pre-breaded chicken breast filet. And while Zaxby's has better lunch/supper, I haven't encountered a fast-food breakfast that comes anywhere close to the spicy chicken biscuits at Chik Fil A. The ONE THING that makes early morning flights through Atlanta tolerable

Must get worse up north and out west. Near their point of origin, they are legitimately good. And @captmorgandrinker, yes, obviously Zaxby's is superior, but they are slower service and at a somewhat different price point. Granted they're a lot quicker than they used to be in the 90's ALMOST to the point of being in the "quick service" segment proper. But Chick Fil A can clear 100 cars through their drive thru in the time it takes Zaxby's to serve 10 :P, and sometimes you just want to eat NOW.

Can they give you a chicken sandwich meal in the Atlanta airport in 5 minutes or less?

That is a couple bridges farther than simply saying something you disagree with, though. They have it covered on two fronts, with healthcare plan policies that are problematic being compounded by the fact that the company was smuggling ancient artifacts... They have some serious bad action to go along with the disagreeable words.

Whatever you have to tell yourself to not feel like you're missing out on great chicken sandwiches (and probably the best quick/easy airport food)

Have you been tempted by the fancy pirate ship/island re-release? It is on back order right now, but I'm feeling like it might be on the list of sets I'll regret passing up...

That was one I definitely wanted and never had (along with the couple other sets with Tudored wall panels). I only had two sets that came with Black Falcon shields (a sort of hedge knight set that complements the jousting set, and one of the little boats). My set that came with the black falcon tunics was the catapult where the guys have trashcan shields.

Yeah, I had King's Castle as my first big LEGO set. But I had the original iteration of Black Knight's castle. (i.e. same build-style as King's Castle, but SLIGHTLY bigger/fancier in the detail work due to more elaborate pieces starting to be available). Never had any of the vacuum formed base plates. Spent a full week this summer at my mom's house rebuilding all of my old castle sets with the kids and successfully getting the bricks sorted out from the buckets and buckets of LEGO bricks that had been under my younger brother's bed for the last 15 years after he had stopped actively playing with them. EDIT: Not great pics, but here is what we worked on:

Yeah, my little brother had tons of Kahuna, Aquanauts, Royal King, and the Adventurer sets. (also had something about rock monsters?) The last serious run of sets I had, after Black Knights, was pretty much the full run of Forest Men (missing one of their sets, I think, but have the river fort AND the larger lake fort). I had a few one-offs like a Wolfpack treasure wagon, but none of their forts. I originally got into the castle sets when you still got the little trashcan lid shields, and it was a big deal to have a screen printed black falcon or crusader shield come in the smaller sets and not just with the big castles

That was the only saving grace of the password system on that game...repeat rentals. (same with Faxanadu) Versus Final Fantasy, where I don't think my friend and I could ever get further than Astos during a sleep-over rental.

Looks like you got into castle about a generation of sets behind my hey-day. I wanted that mountain castle set SO BAD, but since I already had the Black Knight's Castle and the original big grey crusader's castle, I got a firm "no". My little brother must have picked up that dragon knight cave set (in the middle of your pic) late in its life cycle since he was 9 years younger than me.

I have no interest in the micro-figure version of Hogwarts, but I am sorely tempted to get all of the minifigure sized sets that plug together like the old castle sets used to... and I don't particular care for Harry Potter. I just think it's an awesome set expansion technique and my kids would probably enjoy getting them for Christmas and Birthdays for the next 5 years as they make their way out of the closet and into wrapping paper

Played through them both (and did the full pokedex thing) the summer they came out, and that is my only practical experience with Pokemon

The Saturn V was a really compelling build. Lots of really neat ways for bricks to connect for what, in the 90's, probably would have been the most boring set imaginable to construct. The LEGO set designers have come a long way in their brick-connection creativity. Really looking forward to Voltron as a family build, since we watched the entire remake series together.

Their database is awesome. Tons of fun to browse by era and see sets that only vaguely remember from the wishlist books.

Genuinely, the only flaw with that game is the choice of font for the password system and the last boss battle requiring perfect execution (i.e. no missed attacks, or you can't kill her)

Ours was a little more free-form than that. But one time my sister decided to "buy" all of the weapons by spending her building time finding all of the "gems" (i.e. transparent headlight bricks) and gold coins, so then I wasn't able to arm my mercenary company to attack her village

I had the Imperial Flagship as the only "big" pirate set I owned (otherwise I had probably a half-dozen of the smaller pirate sets... my primary interest being in the spring-loaded cannons and the LEGO gold coins to supplement the LEGO RPG that my sister and I made up for the castle sets)

Better?

That would be quite the follow up to Stripes!

I found the old wishlist catalogs from that time, going through old stuff, and the pricing on that one was CRAZY for the time. $300 back when the BIG castle sets (Black Knight's Castle) were "only" $68. In Today's dollars that is like buying the Death Star or the top-end Millennium Falcon.