Barnes&Noble: Oh hi!! Welcome back!!! Please, look at our great deals on these wonderful bestelle-
Me: I'm just here to buy textbooks for school, BN. I'm not interested in anything else you're offering.
B&N: :3c Are you sure?
Me: ...Yes... I'm sure...
B&N: :3c That wasn't a very confident-sounding answer.
Me: ...
Me: ;_; I just came here to buy textbooks... I didn't ask to be tested like this...
That is one expensive LEGO set. That's how I feel towards ITunes right now. I reserved a CD that is coming out on the third of February and my brains is like ' let's buy other stuff' and I'm like... no... I don't want to be short for the musical CD album.
That is one expensive LEGO set. That's how I feel towards ITunes right now. I reserved a CD that is coming out on the third of February and my brains is like ' let's buy other stuff' and I'm like... no... I don't want to be short for the musical CD album.
To be honest, the price doesn't really surprise me, but like... still...
Honestly though, I actually did plan on making one, small, non-school-related purchase along with my textbooks, just to treat myself. But uh... this is a bit outside the price range that I had in mind. o_o" I was just thinking of getting a $10 manga or something...
I'll be honest, though -- if that Lego set was about $30 cheaper, I might've caved...
Barnes&Noble: Oh hi!! Welcome back!!! Please, look at our great deals on these wonderful bestelle-
Me: I'm just here to buy textbooks for school, BN. I'm not interested in anything else you're offering.
B&N: :3c Are you sure?
Me: ...Yes... I'm sure...
B&N: :3c That wasn't a very confident-sounding answer.
Me: ...
Me: ;_; I just came here to buy textbooks... I didn't ask to be tested like this...
...I don't think I know enough about Legos to even visualize what 550 pieces would look like.
Yellow Submarine features a removable top, cockpit that fits all four Beatles minifigures, four rotating periscopes, two rotating propellers and an adjustable rudder, plus a removable display stand.
OH but it has a lot more movable parts than I would've expected. And I like that it comes with a display stand!
Accessory elements include John's telescope, Paul's 1x2 'Love' tile, Ringo's round 2x2 'half a hole' tile, George's submarine motor and Jeremy's apple.
1) I tend to be very picky about the price of things you're meant to collect, so *most* things like D&D models and Lego I dismiss as being over priced. The ONLY model or collectable like thing I've ever found worth the price were Army Men from the dollar store. Oh, and this set. Though note I got that set at a clearance for 5 dollars.
1a) You have no idea how much it killed me to have to settle for only one of these growing up, and explain why Jedi could only handle up to 7 battle droids at one time... Instead of the legions that they're supposed to be taking on. :/
2) I was the kid with a giant tub full of lego growing up, where if it were priced like the Beatles set would mean the collection would cost several hundred dollars at least. So the idea of someone having to spend that much money just to use lego creatively, and not be stuck to one or two designs? Is mind blowing.
3) That being said, I WAS a little kid when I used Lego, and as a result was never tracking the money spent. It's possible my parents did just throw a ton of money at it and I never realised.
4) I've been spoiled by video games like Minecraft, where you spend 20$ once and now have infinite building materials and NPCs.
1) I tend to be very picky about the price of things you're meant to collect, so *most* things like D&D models and Lego I dismiss as being over priced. The ONLY model or collectable like thing I've ever found worth the price were Army Men from the dollar store. Oh, and this set.Though note I got that set at a clearance for 5 dollars.
...Yo, I'm sorry, but, collectibles are expensive. I would love if some of them were a bit less expensive, but, I'm not going to demand that those prices go down to single-digits just to call them reasonable. XD
2) I was the kid with a giant tub full of lego growing up, where if it were priced like the Beatles set would mean the collection would cost several hundred dollars at least. So the idea of someone having to spend that much money just to use lego creatively, and not be stuck to one or two designs? Is mind blowing.
...I don't think you understand the point of these collectible sets.
Obviously the pieces in the collectible sets are going to cost you a shitton more than a regular, build-whatever-you-want set. Because if you're buying a collectible set, you're not doing it so that you can have infinite creative possibilities. ...You're buying it so that you can have a Lego Yellow Submarine, complete with figurines of all four Beatles plus Jeremy. :P
You wouldn't ever have a "giant tub of Legos" that's priced the same way as a collectible set -- nor would anyone buy a whole bunch of pricey collectible sets and then throw them all together into one giant tub. You would never have a scenario where someone would ever have to spend that much money just to "use lego creatively", because if someone wants to use them creatively and just build whatever -- then they're just going to buy a standard set. The issue that you're talking about is completely non-existent. o_o
3) That being said, I WAS a little kid when I used Lego, and as a result was never tracking the money spent. It's possible my parents did just throw a ton of money at it and I never realised.
I'm still going to assume that a standard set isn't going to cost as much as a collectible one. Especially one that's based off of a movie, or anything else that they'd have to pay extra to get the license for. :P
Ok... but... the point isn't to just buy building materials. Again, if you just want to buy building materials, you can buy a standard lego set, which I'm sure is much cheaper.
The collectible sets are pricey because, well, they're aimed at collectors. And collectors will buy them. And when collectors buy them, the goal generally isn't to let them get mixed in with all the other miscellaneous building materials -- it's to have each set exist as its own item. And, I'll be honest, if I did buy the Yellow Submarine set, then I'd probably build it, and then set it on a shelf, and then leave all of those pieces the way they are for pretty much forever. So, the lack of creative options really isn't an issue for me. Because, if I wanted to build anything, I would buy a standard lego set. ...Which is much cheaper, and designed to give you infinite building possibilities, so... yeah...
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Alt History, Anything really. It honestly depends on how I'm feeling. I am always up for a good, solid Cyberpunk RP. I'm also up for Crossover RPs.
I got a Lego City set for Christmas (that my family calls "The Donald Trump playset" because it's a private jet and stretch limo) that's 364 pieces and $30.00.
So, yes, there is some inflation. But you also have to remember that some unique pieces and molds had to be made for the Yellow Submarine set. And it was part of that program where if it got 10,000 votes it would go to a review board.
Sort of salty that they passed over the Sherlock and Gondor sets for that. But, c'est la vie.
You know what? I honestly did wonder what the hell Sherlock and Mycroft's parents were thinking when they named their kids -- because, really, what even are those names? -- and now we're finally starting to find the answers. This is good. We're finally asking this important questions and I like it.
...
ON A MUCH MORE INTERESTING NOTE
OK, SO, WAS JOHN HAVING AN AFFAIR OR NOT?? Because that whole "it was just texting" thing seemed to end on a rather ambiguous note. And if he did actually have an affair... does that mean he slept with Sherlock's sister?? DID JOHN AND SHERLOCK'S SISTER HAVE SEX? I NEED THIS INFORMATION.
Speaking of Sherlock's sister -- I did not fucking catch what her name was (nor did I really catch the explanation of where her and her brothers' names came from -- "city names"?? idk), so expect me to just call her "Sherlock's sister" for the rest of this rant cuz that's really the best I got.
ANYWAY can we please talk about the fact that SHERLOCK DIDN'T EVEN RECOGNIZE HIS OWN FUCKING SISTER WHEN SHE SHOWED UP AT HIS FLAT? OR WHEN HE SAW HER AGAIN AS JOHN'S THERAPIST?? Like, yes, ok, I guess she was wearing a disguise but it didn't seem like much of one?? By the end of the episode all she did was take her glasses off and remove a single contact lens and GUESS WHAT SHE STILL LOOKED THE SAME.
And I guess she was wearing make-up to make herself look older but like... she still showed up at Sherlock's place and I'm assuming she didn't do anything to disguise her age at that point??
And, yeah, ok, Sherlock was high af, I get that, but IT'S HIS SISTER.
LIKE WOW OK YOU WERE ABLE TO FIGURE OUT WHICH SIDE OF THE CAR SHE RODE IN ON AND THEN LATER WEIGHED HER BAG TO FIGURE OUT THAT SHE HAD A GUN AND YET YOU WERE NEVER ABLE TO DEDUCE THAT IT WAS YOUR SISTER????
COOL BEANS
I know I probably sound really angry right now -- but honestly I haven't been able to stop smiling since the episode ended. This is great.
I'm sure that later on Tumblr I'll see a lot of people digging up gifs of that bit from the very first episode where Sherlock thought that John had a brother and then later realized that John had a sister because wow that line takes on a whole new meaning now doesn't it.
SPEAKING OF GIFS I really want to find a gif of [spoili]Sherlock being stuffed in the trunk of Mrs. Hudson's car[/spoili] because then I'll be able to have it side-by-side with that one gif of the same thing happening to Ringo in the movie Help!. Except there'd be a rather stark difference in tone between the two of them since Ringo seemed to be completely chill about the whole thing.
WHICH IS FUNNY BECAUSE THE REAL RINGO WAS ACTUALLY HIGH WHEN THEY FILMED THAT SCENE.
...
Ok I think I'm done rambling now. Maybe. Probably not.
It's like -- buying just about any other collectible. Like a figure or something. Except, this is one that you have to build.
But, the point remains, it's being sold mainly as a collectible so that people can have that specific thing just as its own item.
So, arguing that the price should be about the same just because there are standard legos that are much cheaper is like holding any sort of small but fancy collectible figure next to any large but cheap plastic item and saying that the collectible figure is massively overblown in price because "if the plastic in this cheap thing cost the same as the plastic in that collectible, then the cheap thing would be worth [ridiculous amount of money]".
But the fact that they're both made of plastic doesn't matter -- because those two pieces of plastic were sold to have completely different purposes.
And I think that "artificially inflated" is a bit of a strong term, given the fact that damn near any piece of merchandise is "artificially inflated" in cost if you're only going to think of it in terms of the raw materials that go into it and not the value that we, the humans that enjoy those objects, place on them. Really, even standard legos are sold at an "inflated" price compared to the raw plastic that they're made out of, going by that argument.
And, yes, when you get right down to it, the fact that any piece of plastic costs ten times more than another item made out of the same plastic just because one was made into a fancy collectible and the other was made into a cheap comb or something is kind of weird and irrational -- especially since the comb has an actual purpose and a collectible really doesn't serve a purpose other than sitting on your shelf and looking pretty. And, yes, really merchandising and collecting in general is kind of weird and irrational when you think about it. And sometimes we're even irrational enough that we prefer to keep things in the box and never open them, thus seemingly denying them of any purpose that they ever could've had, because for some reason we think it's even more valuable if it's never been taken out of the box.
But that's ok because we're human -- and humans are weird and irrational creatures. And if we humans want to say that plastic molded into a specific shape is so much more valuable than countless other pieces of plastic just because that one shape and form makes us happy -- I don't really see a problem with that.
Because, really, that's the entire point of art, isn't it? Deeming certain arrangements of raw materials to be more valuable (sometimes immensely more valuable) than just the materials and the cost of labor involved in constructing a piece -- just because we like the way that it looks, or the way that it makes us feel?
...Also, on the topic of "the worth of certain plastic things compared to others", I'd like to also point out that some plastic gets made into credit cards, and that's when things get really interesting -- not just in the value of the item itself, but also because even trying to define the exact value of such an item will inevitably lead us into a discussion about how money isn't even real and we kind of made the whole thing up, and how people can use credit cards to buy things with money that they don't even own, but even that doesn't mean much because, honestly, what is the money that you own? A bunch of paper and metal and plastic and computer code -- all of it worth so much more than the material it's made out of (or, well, sometimes it's actually worth less than the material it's made out of -- because pennies are a thing), but the point remains, we value these items because we agree that they all represent something -- but, what is that something? Just... value, in and of itself? And these items are supposed to be a way of measuring it?
And what if we stopped agreeing that these specific items have any meaning at all? If we were no longer able to measure the value of money (or, really, uncover the truth that "money" means nothing in the first place aside from just the concept of it), then what would we do?
Well, then we'd just be left with... materials. Like plastic. And we'd decide that some of that plastic is more valuable than other pieces of plastic, because some of them are shaped like the Beatles and some aren't. ...But we wouldn't have any way of really measuring that value, aside from just listening to each person's opinion about it. And if you think that Beatle-shaped plastic shouldn't be so much more valuable than non-Beatle-shaped plastic, then, well, that's your chance to make that opinion known.
...*cough* ALSO, there's still the fact that licenses for movies and things are expensive, and that the cost of those licenses will undoubtedly fall at least partially on the consumer (but that's ok, because because molding plastic in the shape of a thing from a movie will already make people want to buy it more than non-movie-shaped-plastic, so, the license is still worth it), and this is why the Yellow Submarine set in particular would cost even more money than another fancy collectible lego set that wasn't based off of any specific license -- especially since the Beatles are a bit of a pricey name, because, when something's popular, that means you can charge more, because there'll be plenty of people out there who'll want to buy it. And if you can raise the price and still find plenty of buyers, then, why wouldn't you?
Because even though money isn't real, we still act like it's real, which is why supply-and-demand is still a thing that exists, despite money in-and-of-itself not existing.
So, yes, there is some inflation. But you also have to remember that some unique pieces and molds had to be made for the Yellow Submarine set. And it was part of that program where if it got 10,000 votes it would go to a review board.
In other news, I'm really amused by the fact that I only thought I was making a dumb post about me being tempted to buy expensive things because B&N was advertising things that I like on their homepage -- but not only did that dumb post actually get responses and turn into an actual discussion, but it also somehow inspired me to go on a long rant that eventually ended with "money isn't real" and "non-movie-shaped-plastic".
... I'm not sure where that rant even came from, by the way. I only originally planned on giving, like, a three-line reply to Gwazi's post. Max.
I dunno. Blame Moffat and Gatiss for making me sit through an hour and a half of mindfuck. (I still ain't even mad, tho)
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Alt History, Anything really. It honestly depends on how I'm feeling. I am always up for a good, solid Cyberpunk RP. I'm also up for Crossover RPs.
@Rithas On the subject of Sherlock -- someone brought up a very interesting point on Tumblr.
Ok, so, we saw the thing about John imagining/possibly hallucinating Mary around him after she died -- so, do you think he spent a good chunk of time seeing Sherlock everywhere in between seasons 2 and 3? :3c
When reblogging Sherlock-related posts: *diligently ensures that all posts -- especially posts about season 4 -- are all tagged accordingly, so that people who are behind can blacklist the tag to avoid spoilers, and so that non-fans don't have to listen to a notoriously obnoxious fandom scream about how gay John and Sherlock are for each other, or scroll past twelve gifsets of the same emotional scene*
When reblogging Beatles-related posts: NO TAGS. NO APOLOGIES. NEVER.
Speaking of Sherlock posts on Tumblr, there are a few things I want to address,
apparently the ship name for Sherlock and Irene Adler is "adlock" and it drives me crazy because my brain keeps reading it as "adblock", and any time someone references it I'm like "wait wtf does adblock have to do with anythiOH WAIT NO I GET IT I'M WITH YOU NOW'
The way that everyone abbreviates the episode titles makes me feel like I have to decipher some kind of code. Like, when people are talking about episodes from this season, then yeah it's not too hard to read "TLD" and realize that it means "The Lying Detective" and so forth -- but when you go back to older episodes it's like, I really have no idea what they're referring to sometimes. All these abbreviated titles look too similar and there just isn't enough there to spark my memory.
I just saw a post that started out like "so I was just re-watching TBF (The Reichenbach Fall)" and I was like ??? OK I GUESS 'REICHENBACH' DOES TECHNICALLY HAVE A 'B' IN IT BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT'S OK TO ABBREVIATE IT LIKE THAT.
SPEAKING OF GIFS I really want to find a gif of [spoili]Sherlock being stuffed in the trunk of Mrs. Hudson's car[/spoili] because then I'll be able to have it side-by-side with that one gif of the same thing happening to Ringo in the movie Help!.
Also it is thanks to Tumblr that I now know [spoili]Sherlock and Mycroft's sister[/spoili]'s name AND I know how to spell it.
Which is leagues ahead of where I was at the end of the most recent episode where I was just like "woah-kay friend that was a real interesting twist you just pulled there and I know you told me your first name at least twice but my brain did not process it at all"
