Classic-Castle.com

Hey everyone!

A few people have expressed interest in an online parts draft of a small set. (If you are unsure of what a "draft" is, read more here)

Everyone would send me money for the sets, I'd purchase all of them, sort all of the parts, and photograph all of the piles, assigning each a number. A draft order would be generated and then either we'd take turns commenting on what our picks were, or to run it faster, everyone would submit a priority list and then parts would be drawn in order based on what you had ranked highest that was still remaining (this might be easiest, though not as interactive).
I'd then mail everyone their "loot"

We'd do a small set for the first trial run, maybe one in the $10-$15 range.

I'm going to probably limit this first run to 6 people, since we will be doing a small set and the individual element count most likely won't be very high (ie, limited number of piles to choose from). Costs involved will be the price of the set, applicable sales tax, and probably $2-$3 for shipping. If you are not in the USA and want to play, keep in mind that minimum shipping is $6.55 for up to 2 oz.
I'm also going to limit this to people who are well-established CC members (at least 100 posts).
Payment will need to be made up-front via PayPal. People who are late to pay will be replaced by an alternate.

If you're interested, please sign up here, and include a suggestion for what set to draft. Once we have a full roster, we can make a final decision on what set to draft and the various particulars (draft order, how to split up minifigs, etc).


Participants:
1. AK_Brickster - Paid
2. Soccerkid6 - Paid
3. Eklund - Paid
4. Forestboy - Paid
5. SSchmidt - Paid
6. RichardAM - Paid
7. StrongBad - Paid
8. Bronx - Paid

Suggested Rules:
1 - Snake style draft (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-1-2-3....until the last lot has been picked)
2 - Fig parts are split up (all of "Fig A"s torsos in one pile, all of "Fig B"'s hair in another pile, etc)
3 - After everything is split out into lots, if there are any piles that seem unfairly large, we will vote on splitting them up. Not a big deal if there are 100 technic pins, but for example last draft I did split this part: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6106 into two lots because there were 64 of them. When I drafted "Weathertop" with 13 people, we split the black horses into 3 lots. However, just because a part is large, it doesn't always need to be split. The main thing is that everyone is happy with the distribution and that people are open to compromise until the group is happy.
4 - Keep in mind that this is supposed to be fun! Don't bicker or be overly obstinate if the group votes differently than you'd like. We have a good group here so I'm not too worried about it though

The new Forest Ambush set seems the most obvious choice. Other options are Riddles for the Ring and Gandalf Arrives, but those have fewer interesting pieces/figs in my opinion.
If we went into the 30$ price range there are lots of great sets: The Gatehouse Raid, Uruk-hai Army, Escape from Mirkwood Spiders, The Council of Elrond, etc., but obviously the cost is doubled Would it be possible for people to trade some of their pieces before you sent everyone their loot? I've heard you talk about doing that at your LUG drafts and it seems like a handy option

Yeah I could wait for everyone to "approve" that they were ready to have their lots shipped to them and then wait for everyone to confirm that no trades were desired prior to shipping.

If everyone wants to do a bigger set, I'm fine with that too. #70401 is the "gold getaway" which is $20 and 200 parts.

Uruk Hai army is one of my favorite parts packs ever, so if people wanted to do that one, I'd definitely be down to do it. Council of Elrond was a good one too. (almost no black parts)

If we keep a small price range, I would definitely be down for Forest Ambush.

If we go up to $30, then I would most like to do the Council of Elrond, followed by Uruk-Hai Army, followed by Gatehouse Raid.

I would be happy with any of the sets though, so I will be fine with whatever is decided.

Thanks for setting this up, Jordan.

Count me in!

While I understand wanting to keep it small, I feel all the great parts/best price are in the $30 price range. Granted, more expensive, but forest ambush has nothing particular in the range of interesting elements other than the figs (which to me, are still uninteresting). My top 3:

1. Escape from Mirkwood™ Spiders

(photo by mitchw890)
Reasons: Red leaves, slopes and arches, figs, mushrooms, and best price per piece.

2. The Council of Elrond

(photo by Bricknave)
Reasons: Leaves, arches, figs, some tans and browns

3. Stagecoach Escape (a lot of escapes these days, aren't there?)

(photo by Allen Tran)
Granted, is not Castle themed, but
Reasons: Wheels, horses, figs, interesting mix of elements.

I'm still open to a smaller set.
What do you guys think?
~FB~

I think you should start small. $30 sets are nice and lots of figs, but may be out of the price range for others. And it also means you may or may not recoup your $30 if you don't get a hold of some of the figs. I've drafted a Friends set before and there were no dud parts in it at all. Keep your mind open to other possibilities. Creator sets can be a total win for a draft.

Think about Chima sets as well. Some of them have some really interesting parts, and several of the sets are in the $15-20 range.

Also, I have 6 copies of Gandalf Arrives that I can sell you guys for $8 each if you want a cheap option for a pretty decent trail-run set.

Sign me up!

I like the idea of the new castle or Lotr sets!

Count me in.

Because im international what i could do is pay for the set then pay you for the additional shipping costs. Interested either way though!

I think all the nominations are good so far. I think The Council of Elrond would be a great choice.

OK, the list of 6 is full, but I'll still take 2 more people as alternates. If we decide to go with a $30 set, then we can expand the participation to all 8 people, if there are no objections at that point.

In that case, sign me up as an alternate. I'm interested in doing a larger ($30) set but I feel like by the time I pay for shipping and my part of a little one, I may as well just use Bricklink or buy the whole set. Honestly, the more we did at a time, assuming enough interested people, the more worthwhile it would seem. If you end up doing more than one AK, would you mind holding mine and then sending a couple together assuming I'm even a part of it?

As far as $30 sets go, The council of Elrond is hard to beat. The figures and set are both made of wonderful, exclusive pieces; even the stickers are nice. Uruk_Hai Army is great too but I think its more likely people wil already have multiples of it. Blue's suggestion of Friend's sets is a good one too. There are some great pieces in them (I still need a turtle!) as long as you're careful to avoid pink like the plague.

OK Strongbad, sounds good.

You don't have the requisite 100 posts, but as long as nobody has an objection we can include you. You've been active enough on the forum and have a good score in the BST thread, so I'm not worried about it.

Thanks AK. I'm sorry, I somehow totally missed that in the OP.

After Blue and AK pointed out Friends and Chima I found these:
This chima set has some pretty neat parts for 20$:

And these Friends sets are cheap enough we could do two different ones (there are some other options, I picked the ones I thought had the best castle pieces) for only 10$:


The downside of those is that there are no castle figs. I'm open to doing a 30$ set out of which my first choice would be Uruk-hai Army, then Council of Elrond, then Gatehouse Raid.
If we stay within the 15$ range my first choice would be Forest Ambush, there just aren't many small sets that come with decent parts and castle figs; however, the Friends sets have some nice pieces (small dark red leaves!)

Actually, those friends sets aren't that bad. Especially the ones that have been listed. I have the hedgehog one and its pretty good.

The downside is, I think there would be quite a bit more trading in those and it could get more confusing for AK. And then again, the lack of minifigs makes it... how do I say, not as fun.

Ultimately, I think the more we have, the better the draft will be. And doing 8 people at 30 dollars seems more likely to produce an even amount of parts (people will get a lot closer to getting their money back if they don't get the good pieces).

Having said, I personally think for this group (no one is against the 30 dollar range) that we start with a 30 dollar set with very unique and awesome pieces (Elrond? ) and do the 7 or 8 member group. It seems to be the best investment for everyone in order to get those nice new pieces!