Even though I only recently discovered Brickforge (I saw you guys' stuff at BrickFair 2010), I must say that I'm quite impressed! I didn't realize, howver, that you'd been in business since 2001, which, I suppose, means that you're the oldest injection-molded custom Minifig accessory manufacturers out there! I wish I'd have found out about you guys sooner, otherwise I wouldn't have stayed in my second Dark Age as long as I did (I went into it in 2001, due to being stationed on a ship in Japan and not having any room for LEGOs), but in 2001 I was too busy blowing up terrorists (and was sent back to the Gulf for round II in 2004), and didn't have reliable access to the internet until fairly recently.
The 2009 LEGO Pirates line and, I'm somewhat hesitant to admit, BrickArms are what brought me out of my second Dark Age.... I'd have given my left arm for the ability to just buy weapons and armor and such without having to get sets full of useless items in order to do so when I was a kid (not to mention being able to replace those entirely insufficient LEGO Muskets that tended to get lost at every conceivable opportunity)....
Like I said, I discovered BrickForge at BrickFair 2010 (which I only heard about because of BrickArms, ironically enough), and while I didn't buy anything there (I got there Sunday afternoon and the vendors had been pretty well picked clean by then), some of the items did pique my curiosity...
Fast-forward a few months, and I was looking around to find some kind of backpack for my custom Neo-CSA troopers and Republic of New Jersey Army soldiers... You see, the standard LEGO backpack wouldn't fit due to the fact that the bedroll would get in the way of the BA Stahlhelm and the LEGO Pith Helmet.... Well, I decided to check out BrickForge, and lo and behold, there was the BF Backpack! Then I also found that BrickForge made those nifty Ammo pouches that I'd been seeing everywhere and that you guys had the ORIGINAL Greathelms (which look better than the LEGO ones, BTW)!
I initially was somewhat unimpressed by the Battle Armor (it just seemed to me that it was missing something), but then I actually read the small print and saw that they were designed to be used with the BF custom Pauldons (i.e. the "something" that I thought was missing), and thus would provide the perfect armor for my post-apocalyptic Federal Dragoons.... I've also ordered a bunch of the double-plumes (TLG never included enough feather plumes with their sets, IMO) and decided to order a couple "Military Rifles" (they look like they might work with my post-apoc special forces as an assault carbine) and a BF Cow (with horns and an udder) to check them out...
All in all, I must say that I'm really impressed with the selection, pricing and quality of BrickForge products, and you can bet I'll be ordering more armor and accessories (I'm thinking about including an orange Mowhawk and orange Dwarf Beard in my next order so I can take a stab at making one of the most famous dwarves ever.
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...So, basically, this is my really long-winded way of saying thanks for providing your excellent products and paving the way for other custom vendors!
