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Hey guys, I decided to create this topic and the main idea came from this and this post (so special thanks to @danth and @Digger of Bricks!). I would like to highlight three things before I start to post inspirational MOCs: I’ll post three staff picks everyday! Please feel free to post your favorite MOCs! Have fun admiring and taking inspiration from those great MOCs Top three MOC’s IMO in Baroque architecture: 1. This incredible Baroque Church by @Jellyeater! 2. This amazingly detailed MOC by @pj_bosman! 3. This greatly shaped modular by @cimddwc! Here are the three best Baroque MOC’s IMO! What do you think about them? Would you buy modulars like those if TLG made? Here are the Steampunk ones: 1. This incredible layout made together by @castor-troy and @domino39 (they also made one MOD of the PR and the MS and two MOD’s of the CC included in this layout. But they look so different that they are more MOC then MOD). EB topic here and Flickr albums with more photos here, here, here and here. 2. These great Steampunk modulars by @adde51! 3. These very interesting modulars by @Zilmrud who as well made great MOD’s of the PC and the BB! Here are the three most gorgeous Steampunk MOC’s IMO! What do you think of them? Would you buy modulars like those if TLG ever made?

Well, after a long period of not doing much besides the giant Eleitian Central Command model, I present to you my newest model, The Cliffside Villa! The idea came about last Sunday, I was procrastinating on doing stuff I was supposed to, as one does. I decided to expand on the bridge, which I had been building as a standalone concept but couldn't figure out what to do with. I was going to build a fairytale castle on the cliffs that I eventually made behind the bridge, but then it morphed into an entirely different building altogether! The porches, stained glass window, and other elements of the actual pavilion came about next, after I'd laid the groundwork (literally) in the form of the cliffs. I then decided to make it into a combination of my previous Temple of the Moon Maiden MOC and something more open to interpretation. So it could be used, (it sits on a baseplate totaling 32 x 48) as an addition to a modular city! Perhaps a large city park with a pavilion, or some form of garden! From my official description: It's a fine spring day at the Cliffside Villa! The Moon Priest contemplates the deep questions of life on the porch, while his daughter strolls the elegantly appointed walkways of the garden. Two guards stand sentry by the staircase, protecting the inhabitants of the Villa from harm. Explore all the secret nooks and crannies of this large set, from the bell tower to the fish pond to the stained glass window behind which the statue of the Moon Maiden is placed! Set features: - 2568 Pieces - 7 Minifigures: The Moon Priest, Moon Priest's Daughter, Statue of the Moon Maiden, (2) Garden Statues, (2) Guards - Villa features a large stained glass window, metallic Statue of the Moon Maiden on a raised pedestal, and two spacious porches. Upper story features a movable bell! - Elegant bridge crosses a large frog pond filled with lily pads and other aquatic plants. See if you can spot the frogs hiding down there! - Statuary adorns the garden, which is built onto the cliffs with beautiful brick-built birch and cherry trees in full bloom. - Relax on the small bench set below one of the statues! - Features multiple unique pieces, such as the Ornamental gold fish adorning the roof, the Moon Priest's staff, and much more! - Spacious basement level beneath the Villa is perfect for placing hidden treasure or whatever you need for added suspense! But don't just follow that one story for this model, use your imagination to make it your own! This model, on baseplates totaling 32 x 48, can be placed as a standalone model or a complementary model for your modular city! Use it as a pavilion, a city park, or a historical monument in your LEGO town. This MOC is now on LEGO Ideas! If you want to, please help support it, I'd love for it to be one of the lucky few that makes it! The Cliffside Villa: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/4bfda07a-beb1-440e-bcfe-d9742e9d3746 Feel free to leave any comments below, and keep on building, everyone! :)

Hi Everyone I'd like to share my first MOC design which I've been working on over the past few weeks. I decided to set myself a challenge to see if I could create a Modular building using just the parts taken from 3 of my existing sets. All the parts I used were taken from the 3 Creator sets above, 31036, 31050 and 31065. The only extra thing I added was a green 16 x 32 baseplate but apart from that, everything else is taken from those 3 sets. So here is my very first MOC - The Modular Convenience Store As you can see the model is 16 studs wide and is designed to fit in with the Modular building series. There are 3 levels and although it's essentially one building, I wanted to give the impression from the outside that it consists of 2 narrow buildings side by side with the main shop on the left and the tall blue section to the right. Level 1 - The Convenience Store The first level of the building is the Convenience Store itself. Outside on the front we have a bench, street lamp, flower display and a fire hydrant. The main door at at the base of the blue tower gives access to the inside of the store. Inside the store there is a cash desk, fruit and vegetables and shelves with various items for sale. I also built a small shooping trolley for the minifigs to use with their shopping. A door at the back of the store gives access to the rear of the building. At the back is a staircase leading to the second level. Level 2 - Apartment On the middle level is an apartment / studio flat. On the outside is a large Bay window and a door with a Juliet balcony looking out on to the street below. The inside of the apartment is pretty small but I have managed to squeeze in a kithcen, TV, bed, lamp, shelves, table and stool. Level 3 and Roof Outside again the only way for the minifigs to reach the next level is via a ladder on the back of the building. The top level consists of a small building and a roof top garden. The roof top building is extremely small (6 x 4 studs) but the roof can be removed and inside is a table with binoculars, a lamp and a brick built sweeping brush hanging on the wall. A door from this small building leads out in to the roof top garden. Here we have a BBQ, seat, plants and a glass covered vegetable patch. Displaying the Model Here are a selection of pics showing the model on display alongside Parisian Restaurant and Assembly Square. Thanks for reading and I hope you like the model, feel free to let me know what you think. If you want to see more pics then head over to my Flickr page where I've added loads more. https://www.flickr.com/photos/140122416@N02/albums

Discuss everything pertaining to sets released for the LEGO Creator theme in 2019 here, whether it be for the "Three-In-One" or Expert subthemes. If you wish though, discussion of the annual Expert subthemes for Modular Buildings, the Fairground sets, Landmark builds, Expert-scale cars, and the Winter Village line particularly can take place over at these respectively linked topics instead: Eurobricks - Modular Building Sets - Rumors and Discussion Eurobricks - Fairground Sets - Rumors and Discussion Eurobricks - Creator Expert Landmark Buildings - Rumours and Discussion Eurobricks - Creator Expert Cars - Rumors, Discussion, and Speculation Eurobricks - Winter Village Sets - Rumors and Discussion This post will be updated as further information arrives, including official set numbers, names, and images. Futuristic Flyer (31086) Dune Buggy (31087) Deep Sea Creatures (31088) Sunset Track Racer (31089) Underwater Robot (31090) Shuttle Transporter (31091) Helicopter Adventure (31092) Riverside Houseboat (31093) Race Plane (31094)

MOC#37 Isuzu NPR Light Duty Truck Isuzu NPR is a very popular truck in many countries. The cabin doors, back doors and lift gate can be functioned. My other MOC models: [MOC] ISUZU NPR Light Duty Truck [MOC] Karsan Jest Mini-Bus [MOC] Ford F150 XLT [MOC] London Double Decker Bus Dennis Enviro 400 [MOC] Lada VAZ-2105 [MOC] Subaru WRX [MOC] Classic Cadillac Convertible [MOC] Toyota 6th Gen. HiAce Van [MOC] James Bond Aston Martin DB5 [MOC] Toytoa HiAce van [MOC] Toyota GT86 [MOC] Office Desk [MOC] Ferrari F355 [MOC] Toyota AE86 Coupe (2018 version) in Initial D Animation [MOC] Police Motorcycle #2 [MOC] Sport Bike Stop Motion Speed Build [MOC] New York City Police (NYPD) Car [MOC] Lego Mini Cooper [MOC] Japan Tokyo Taxi vol.1 東京無線タクシー [MOC] Ice Cream Truck [MOC] LEGO California Highway Patrol [MOC] LEGO Police Car [MOC] Police Motorcycle [MOC] New York City Taxi / Cab [MOC] LEGO NYC News Stand [MOC] New York City Transit Bus [MOC] Newspaper Rack [MOC] Coke/Beverage Cooler Initial D AE86 Racer AC Transit Bus AC Transit Bus Short Version Ice Cream Van

Hi everyone I'd like to share with you my second MOC which I have been working on over the past few weeks. For this project I decided to tackle a subject very close to my heart - the Great British Pub! So without further ado... Grab yourself a pint and join me for a guided tour of The Queen Bricktoria! As you can see this is a modular style corner building with 3 floors built on a 32x32 base plate. The design is intended to be reminiscent of British town centre pubs or more specifically the style of pubs we'd see in London. The Minifigures There are 7 minifigs with the model. The 3 characters below are the pub workers. From left to right we have the Owner/Landlord and his daughter the barmaid. The guy with the guitar is a local singer who has been booked to play a gig at the pub. The 4 figures below are the pub regulars. The guy with the beard is the typical sort of old gent we find in many pubs propping up the bar and boring everyone to death with their stories of the good old days. The guy in the green top and the girl are boyfriend and girlfriend. Level 1 - The Bar Outside the building we have a busy street corner. I've included an iconic British red phone box and an outside covered seating area. There is also a sign board advertising events etc at the pub. The main entrance leads us in to the bar/lounge area. Inside we have a well stocked bar and a cozy fireplace. There are also tables and bar stool for the minifigs to sit and enjoy their drinks. Brown carrots make pretty good beer pump handles. At the back of the bar is a staircase leading us up to level 2. Level 2 - Pool and Darts Room On the second level is a games room featuring a Pool table and Dart board. There is also a pool cue rack and a shelf with trophies won by the resident darts team. At the back of the room is another staircase that leads to level 3. Level 3 - Live Music Room Level 3 has a stage for Live Music gigs and Karaoke. On the stage we have a keyboard, guitar, amps and microphone. Also on this level is more seating for the minifigs and a door that leads to a small balcony seating area. Oh dear!!! The singer seems to be a bit of a hit with the ladies. The Finished Model Here is a picture of the Queen Bricktoria next to my first MOC design, The Convenience store, as you can see my new MOC is much much bigger. Another picture below shows the pub next to one of the official modulars, to help give a sense of the size of the model. Thanks very much for reading and I hope you like my newest MOC. There are more pictures of it on my Flickr page so feel free to check them out and let me know what you think.

The red double decker bus is one of the iconic London symbol. My model is base on Enviro 400 bus in a minifigure scale. It is 8 stud wide The top and the second level can be easily detached for more playability. The front, rear, and the engine compartment door can be opened. I also designed the London phone booth and the bus stop in this Lego set. This bus does not only fit in London, it can also fit in every kids' Lego city. If you like my design, please vote and suppport my project. Thanks! Lego Ideas link: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/51819e3c-ab50-47aa-b219-724108ac65c4 I have slightly modified the London double decker bus. 1. Raised the base by 1 plate height. 2. The front grill and bumpers have been changed. London Hop-on Hop-off Sightseeing Bus: Stagecoach Bus Company livery: First Group Bus Company livery: Metroline Bus Company livery: Central Bus Company livery: Eight stud wide, in minifigure scale: Engine compartment door can be opened: Detail interior: Bus stop and phone booth: Bus is full!! Vote this project and bring them home :) : My other MOC models: [MOC] London Double Decker Bus Dennis Enviro 400 [MOC] Lada VAZ-2105 [MOC] Subaru WRX [MOC] Classic Cadillac Convertible [MOC] Toyota 6th Gen. HiAce Van [MOC] James Bond Aston Martin DB5 [MOC] Toytoa HiAce van [MOC] Toyota GT86 [MOC] Office Desk [MOC] Ferrari F355 [MOC] Toyota AE86 Coupe (2018 version) in Initial D Animation [MOC] Police Motorcycle #2 [MOC] Sport Bike Stop Motion Speed Build [MOC] New York City Police (NYPD) Car [MOC] Lego Mini Cooper [MOC] Japan Tokyo Taxi vol.1 東京無線タクシー [MOC] Ice Cream Truck [MOC] LEGO California Highway Patrol [MOC] LEGO Police Car [MOC] Police Motorcycle [MOC] New York City Taxi / Cab [MOC] LEGO NYC News Stand [MOC] New York City Transit Bus [MOC] Newspaper Rack [MOC] Coke/Beverage Cooler Initial D AE86 Racer AC Transit Bus AC Transit Bus Short Version Ice Cream Van

31078 Treehouse Treasures Creator 3-in-1 INTRODUCTION Ooooh, a pirate boat? No, a treehouse! Wait, it's a pirate boat again... wha - it's a treasure cove now? Aaaah, it's a 3-in-1! What a lovely set, great parts, lots of play value. It immediately caught my attention when I was trodding along the aisles of my local supermarket. Who doesn't love pirates, anyway? And don't you dare to say "Nay" when I swing my rapier in your general direction... Arrrr! Having built 6289 Red Beard Runner lately, I just can't wait to get this started, so let's set sails and head over to the -> SET SPECS Number: 31078 Title: Treehouse Treasures Theme: Creator 3-in-1 Released: 2018 Part Count: 260 pieces Retail Price: DE - 29,99 € GB - 29,99 GBP US - 29,99 $ DK - 270,00 DKK With 260 pieces, the retail price of 29,99 € equates to a price of 0,12 € a piece. This is in the higher range for 2018 creator sets. In comparison, set number 31072 Extreme Engines comes down to 0,09 € per piece. And the 31074 Rocket Car is even down to 0,08 €. Well, I'm not sure the parts of latter set will be of versatile use with those strange colours... Funny enough, all 3 sets have been designed by the same person: Jeremy Luettgen. He has also been active designing some of the Mixels. Anyway, given the basic and tuned down colours of this set I think it's worth buying it for the retail price. LINKS 31078 @ brickset.com 31078 @ rebrickable.com LEGO PRODUCT SUMMARY Set out on pirating treehouse adventures! Enjoy imaginative pirate adventures with this LEGO® Creator 3in1 31078 Treehouse Treasures set, featuring a 3-level pirate ship treehouse with a ship deck, ship’s wheel, treasure chest hideaway function, bowsprit with flag and teddy bear, crow’s nest, tire swing and an upper-level den. Pirate accessories include a hat, telescope and 2 swords. This 3in1 model rebuilds into a Pirate Ship or a Skull Cave for more pirating fun, and includes 2 minifigures rigged out for pirate adventures, plus a scary spider figure. THE BOX As with all the Creator 3-in-1 sets, the front features the LEGO logo, set number and the main model in all it's glory, claiming three quarters of the available space. To the right we can have a look at the two alternative models. The age range is given as 7 to 12 years. While the lower limit seems quite fitting, the upper limit makes me wonder if I'm really too old to play with it... *makes sad face* The back shows the play features for each of the 3 sets and a link to the LEGO Creator homepage. You can also see the tabs to press in when opening the sets. I have to say that I am impressed by the simple look of the packaging. Nothing too distracting, nothing much to shift your attention away from those wonderful builds. THE PARTS After prying open the side, we have 3 bags with pieces, 1 Green plate 8x16 and 3 instruction booklets in our sweaty hands (or, hand and hook if your name is Captain Red Beard). We will get to the instructions later, so let's take a look at the pieces now. The Arch Bricks 1x5x4 in Dark Brown are nice parts for castle or ship builders. The Wedge Plate, 8x8, Cut Corner in Dark Azure is unique to this set. The Round Corner Tiles, 4x4 (called Maccaronis as I understand) in Medium Dark Flesh are also unique to this set. The wood planks are prints, overall there are NO stickers in this set. The decors are all printed. The short wood plank (1x3) together with the longer ones pictured here (1x4) can also be found in 21310 Old Fishing Store. 2x3 Tiles are quite new to me, while in fact they have first appeared in 2016. There's also a treasure chest in Medium Flesh in this set, which adds to the play possibilities. However, I do have a bit of a problem with it: You can close the lid, but as there is no resistance while closing it opens on it's own if you turn it upside down. Having some old-time sets around here and also a chest in brown (from the 80ies or 90ies?), I was wondering if they had the same problem? Well, nope. They do have a bit of a resistance while closing, maybe related to that pin on the lid, and they definitely do not open themselves without assistance. Seems LEGO employed some mold change, as the older ones are also missing those 2 ridges at the inside front. MINIFIGURES This set features 2 minifigures, a boy and a girl. Both minifigs have a single sided head, yellow arms, short legs (non-posable) and torso prints on front and back. The boy has a lime hoodie, while the girl features a white shirt with green print. It also includes one of these nice little teddybears with a torsoprint. While both minifigs are unique to this set, both torsos have seen use in other sets too - the boy's torso in 10260 Downtown Diner, the girl's one in 10261 Roller Coaster. As accessories, there is a pirate hat with a feather. 2 spare feathers are also included, which is a nice treat as those small parts have an affinity to getting lost. The plume feathers are not on a sprue, as LEGO has done in the past with Pirates or Castle sets in the 90ies, but come loose in the bag. However, there is no "normal" hair piece included for the boy, if you decide to make your place somewhat less pirat-ey. 2 pirate swords are present along with a golden telescope and a printed 2x2 tile with a treasure map pattern to complete the play experience. INSTRUCTIONS Overall, the instructions are nice and clear to follow. No printing errors or other mishaps. Instructions of the main model start with building the minifigures and continue with a somewhat ridiculous Step 1... When you are finished with building model A, the play feature is explained on the left side. On the right we have some more models available from the 3-in-1 series as house advertising (Avast ye bastards, look at that Pirate Coaster set ... ahem... Excuse me for getting a wee bit distracted here....). The parts list is in the back of model B. MAIN MODEL - TREEHOUSE Building goes along without any troubles. As stated in the last paragraph, the instructions are easy to follow. Progress goes bit by bit, sometimes only 1 or 2 bricks per page. Alas, I'm getting older and older, so I won't complain about that. There comes the day when I'll be happy about it :D What amazed me is the stability of the construction. I had the opportunity to build set 31080 Modular Winter Vacation and that thing just disassembled itself after 5 minutes of play time. In stark contrast, the Treehouse is rock solid and will surely be better suited for heavy play. Nice little details here and there, like the little rocks in the water and the spider waiting to catch those nasty little ki... err, let's just say it is waiting for prey. Here are the left-overs after building the main model: PLAY FUNCTIONS Play feature No. 1 definitely is the hidden treasure cache in the tree trunk. There is a little flap with a lock on it, which can be raised manually. The flap itselfs sits on a bar which is held in place by 2 blue technic pins. Behind that flap is space to hide the treasure chest. This chest can be ejected with the help of technic axles and axle connectors at the other side of the trunk. Other play functions are the openable top room (sides and rooftop) with crows nest atop, the tire swing and the ships bow with the steering wheel. Not to forget the slide at the side of the treehouse, which can be raised to be used as a plank. B MODEL - PIRATE SHIP A lot of parts are left unused, which could have been integrated easily. Therefore it's a pretty straightforward build experience and the B model is thus lacking a bit in play value. There is the crows nest and the lower deck with the spider in it. A posable rudder is present at the back and the steering wheel is now in the right place. I wonder why the treasure chest is placed on the deck, it may better be kept below deck. Oh well, as luck would have it our unexperienced seamen have a rather unpleasent encounter at sea. Seems someone else noticed that treasure chest too. Some useful armament wouldn't go amiss on this little bark. Maybe throw that teddybear over to soothe those angry pirates? SUMMARY & RATING PROS: + Adorable A and B models + Lots of play value + Nice, tuned down colours + 3 full grown instructions booklets + All prints, no stickers! CONS: - B model could have been better - C model does nothing to me... - Somewhat higher part price ratio Design: 8 / 10 Build: 8 / 10 Playability: 9 / 10 Minifigures: 7 / 10 Price: 7 / 10 Overall: 7,8 / 10 I couldn't be bothered assembling the C model, it's just too plain and definitely not a cave at all. But the treehouse and ship have been great fun to build and play with. While this set overall may not be outstanding to me, I would definitely put it into the "Above Average" category. It's play features and overall value due to the parts and colours and the fact that there are 3 full blown instruction booklets makes it worth. I can repeat it over and over again: All prints, no stickers! I guess that's also the reason why the price per part ratio seems a bit unfavourable. All in all a very nice set. To err is human, but to arr is pirate!!!

Hello everyone, in the near future I would like to show you a little bit of my Lego City, which is still under construction. To begin with, here is a video about the beach area I made yesterday. What do you think? Beach Area - Bricksonville Edit: latest video added (17.07.)

Hi everyone I'd like to present my latest MOC, a new modular building called Bricks & Blooms. I hope you like it. Bricks & Blooms is a modular Garden Centre built over 3 levels on a 32 x 32 base plate. in total it uses 2587 bricks. The facade is supposed to give the impression of being 2 buildings side by side but it is of course just one single building. The front to back measurement of the building is quite narrow, similar to Parisian restaurant. This is because I wanted to maintain plenty of space at the rear of the building for the main outside garden centre / plant sale area. THE MINIFIGURES I've included 6 mini figs and a cat with this MOC. Left to right they are: 2 customers (a father and his daughter), The garden centre shop keeper and gardener, the chef and the Aquatics shop assistant. THE GARDEN CENTRE AND GROUND LEVEL DETAILS The main garden centre area of the store is situated on the ground level. Outside on the street, I've included a tree, bench and lots of plants and flowers for sale. The garden centre also has a fruit and veg stall that sells it's produce directly to passers by on the street. Inside the shop I've included the cashier desk and more plants and gardening tools for sale including a little lawn mower side-build. Here is the interior of the fruit and veg stall that is accessed through a door at the back of the cashier desk. A door at the back of the shop leads out in to the main outdoor gardening area. Here I've included a large glass canopy covering rows of tables holding bedding plants. There are also more flowers, pots and other gardening products including a water feature. The stairs at the back of the building lead up to level 2. LEVEL 2 - CAFE/RESTAURANT No garden centre would be complete without its own cafe/restaurant. The cafe on level 2 has a fully equipped kitchen with serving desk and tables and chairs for the minifigs. There is also a small balcony in the cafe that looks out on to the street below. LEVEL 3 - AQUATICS Many garden centres here in the UK also have departments that specialise in pet fish and Aquatics. Bricks & Blooms is no exception and has it's own dedicated Aquatics section on level 3. The Cat below seems to have its eye on the goldfish. The door behind the desk leads out on to a small roof terrace area. FLOWER CART The model also includes a flower cart. THE FINISHED MODEL The picture below shows Bricks & Blooms combined with my other modulars and vehicle MOC's. Left to right they are. The Queen Bricktoria Convenience Store Brick Square Post Office Bricks & Blooms The Old Workhorse - Traction Engine LEGO IDEAS I have submitted Bricks & Blooms as a LEGO Ideas project. If you like the model I'd be really grateful if you'd be kind enough to head over to LEGO Ideas and give the model your votes. You can find the project at the following link. Many thanks! http://bit.ly/bricksblooms I hope you like my newest MOC and thanks very much for reading. As always, there are many more pics on my Flickr page and feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think.

Hello everybody! It's been a while since my last creative input here, my apologies. Thus I am very happy to share something with you again. Besides mini model building, I am also a great fan of alternate building with the 3in1 Creator sets. These often come with a great parts variety and are a great source of inspiration. I very much like building alternate models with the whole parts of these sets to go beyond the official builing proposals, but not so this time! Today I would like to show you what can be done with the leftover pieces once you built one of the official building proposals. The set 31066 Space Shuttle Explorer was released in the year 2017 and unfortunately already disappeared from the market. However it is still widely available via online shopping. The set contains 274 pieces plus 12 extra parts, and has instructions for 3 main models: Space Shuttle (no leftover pieces) Surface Station (97 leftover pieces) 6-wheeled Rover (127 leftover pieces) Looking at the big number of leftover pieces, a new idea comes to mind: Additional models from the leftover pieces instead of new alternate models! The idea was to create an entire small space theme becasue there was none in the year 2017. Of course this entire project seems meaningless with regards towards the new official city space theme released in the new catalogue 2019. But I will share the general idea with you anyway. Image 1: Primary model - Space shuttle, no leftovers. Image 2: Secondary Model - Surface Station, 97 leftover pices! Image 3: Space Hopper built from the leftover pieces of the official surface station model. Image 4: Space Hopper and Surface Station. Image 5: Secondary Model - 6-wheeled Rover, 127 leftover pices! Image 6: Communications Antenna built from the leftover pieces of the official Rover model. Image 7: Communications Antenna and Rover. Image 8: The complete space theme consisting of 3x set 31066. So when you build a different model besides the primary model, have a look at the leftover pieces, there's lots of potential in them! Have a good time and happy building! ~ Chris

Do you feel that Creator's Three-In-One line is underappreciated to any degree by AFOLs? If so, why? Is it the limited color selection for most of its sets historically? Is it due to its tendency towards usage of more basic, preexisting bricks and/or parts within its sets? Is it the Three-In-One alternate build approach its sets take? Is it due to its historical tendency towards usage of only preexisting minifigure prints and/or parts? Is it due to its historically limited coverage of other playset subject matters, themes, and genres? Is it simply not as exciting as other themes and offerings from Lego? Is it something else altogether entirely?

It's been a while, sorry for that, but I can finally present you with the interview I had last year during the LEGO Fan Media Days 2017 with Micheal (Mike) Psiaki, LEGO Creator and Creator Expert Designer at TLG. (sorry for typo's and spelling mistakes, it's not 100% checked and verified) INTERVIEW You are Creator Expert designer. Are you involved in modular buildings? So far my involvement with modular buildings has been more like doing some of the small details and not the building itself but in the future you can probably expect to see some module built by me...we'll see *laughs* I'm asking because we do have a lot of questions about modular buildings, but we'll just ask and see if you can answer them. One of the questions is; how do you determine the next modular building? You'll probably have a long list of potential buildings. Normally when we're developing a new model we actually kind of go through a lot of different...uhh...not necessarily committees, but a lot of different people at LEGO are involved in choosing what the new product will be. We've been pretty fortunate with the modular buildings. They've been quite successful, so all those different...stakeholders we call them ...are quite trusting of us. And they pretty much let us do what we want. So normally when you're making a new model you're coming up with a lot of different proposals and showing ideas to a lot of different people and they're giving their input and then you're narrowing it down, but with modular buildings we can essentially choose what we want to do, just as a design team. And then you just do it. So for the last, for the last.... forever, Jamie (Jamie Berard, https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/creatorexpert/explore/designer-bios/jamie) has essentially been in charge of that and he will just make the make model that he and maybe one or two other people agree on should be the next one. As to how that will go in the future...uhhh...I'm sure Jamie will still be involved. But yeah we do have a list of buildings that we have kind of made our dream list of...eventually we need these things. We'd like to do these things in City. But then also sometimes we just have a more generic idea, like, hey, let's do a restaurant. Uhmm...trying to think what the first modular building was, that I was involved with...was the Parisian Restaurant. In that one, the idea had just started out that it would be a restaurant and then it kind of took on a Parisian style throughout the development and ended up as it was. So it's usually a very loose idea like that, that the model with start with...like the brick bank was just a bank. That's the only idea and then however that evolves was like, adding things later on, like, let's have this laundromat on this side and all that stuff is just kind of what we just add in as we please. The building style you choose is obviously depending on the model you choose. But like you said you chose a restaurant and then it turned into a Parisian restaurant. How does a process like this go? This all comes down to like, traditionally it's just been Jamie working on these models and what we do a is we just kind of build all year long, we've just seen what new elements are coming in. We're just building kind of little funny things like...uhmm...on the Parisian restaurant, there's this detail with the feathers that go along the top. You know, I think Jamie had that sitting on his desk for like six years or something. One day he got some of those and made this thing into something that could be a funny detail in a building eventually. And then those are just kind of start getting pulled together and you start to see a style emerge. It's almost just letting it happen. So taking some choice details that we want to put in and the style kind of emerges from that and then other things will change to fit that style. So I don't know that we've ever really made a conscious decision of this. You know, when we start from the beginning that this building will be this style and we'll kind of work towards that style. It's more we're going to we're going to make something that we think is cool and nice. And when sthe style kind of come in, then we'll go back and kind of refine things to match the style, if we feel the need to do that. Some generic Questions about the Creator Expert series. When is a set considered expert in the Creator series? What are your goals? So Creator and Creator Expert are two totally separate product lines at this point. So it's not like we start with an idea and then we develop it and then we decide, is this Expert or is this regular Creator? So for Creator Expert we're already thinking; this is the portfolio that we want to make for the next year and in Expert we want to make models that are for higher age fans. Adults, older kids, we are calling everything 16 plus, I think for the most part. The Winter Village ones are a little more down in age, so we start with that idea that we're building a model for more hardcore LEGO fan. What is it we do then that will make it appealing to them? It's a lot about how the model is built. It's kind of different techniques we use, but it's also about what parts we use. So we want to use fun kind of new different building techniques or just really crazy things building techniques in really wild ways. We also want to use parts that are fun or that are either in new colors or new shapes or just not seen before. Like on this one (10257 Carousel) where we're using a dinosaur tail in a City wheel arch to make the shape. It's doing things like that, that really kind of is the DNA of what makes something Creator Expert. Is it Creator Expert because it's hard to build or the use of different parts? I think it's more that it's harder to build because it's Creator Expert. Because we know we're making an Expert model, we say, whatever we have to do to make this look cool, we'll do that. It doesn't necessarily have to be super complicated but we have a way that we want things to look and generally you have to build things in a complicated way in order to get these results. Like on this car, you know, in order to get the wheel arch so smooth you have to do a lot of weird things to get stuff in it. We never do things intentionally just to make it difficult, but we find ways to make the models as appealing as possible. What are the key components in choosing a Creator Expert set for next year? For example, which percentage is driven by data? So, previous sales or simply 'that would be good to do next'? Well that's a tough one to answer. I think we are taking a lot into account of the market research that we do. It's not so much based on previous sales, but it's also that we have a lot of check ins throughout the year with different leaders in LEGO and so they're the ones that are deciding ultimately what will sell or not. We can come with an idea like, all we know about this is that we think it's cool. And then it's up to them to determine, will this sell? Do we believe that we can sell enough of these? We ourselves, we don't have to do a ton of market research, but eventually that gets done by people to determine if the idea will be getting out. For us it's a lot of thinking about what we would like. Me, I love airplanes and I love helicopters, so I'm always trying to say, hey we've got to do this, we've got to do this *laughs* For example; let's say you know there was a carousel not too long ago and there will be a carousel now. Do you come up with the idea to build a new carousel? Because it hasn't been so long before the other one was released. So a carousel sells? Well, that's part of it. But also we knew that we wanted to make this a new fairground, or another ride for the fairground, so we had the mixer and we had the Ferris wheel and we knew we wanted to do another ride. And we actually built four different models, four different concepts. And there was one of them that needed more development (red. Roller Coaster). It was too early. We didn't have the parts we needed to make it into reality and some that were a little more obscure. The carousel was the one that was the most promising to do that year. But the other part of it was that the carousel before this we actually had some stability issues. So after 11 months we pulled it off of the market. So it was a very short run. And so we saw that it was a really sought after set. So because of that we thought, if it had had its run and been on the market for two or three years then that's fine, you know, let it go, give it some time before we do it again. But then it was only around for 11 months and it had stability issues, but we still saw people were asking about it so much that we thought OK why not make one that is stable, that is good and that we can relaunch. The stability issues they had something to do with the animals going up and down? No the issue was actually that the old carousel was built on a 48x48 base plate. so it was fine when it was sitting there. But then if you picked it up from the plate and tried to move it, it would actually break apart. That's the reason you don't use baseplate now?. On this one we didn't use a baseplate. On the original carousel everything except the baseplate essentially is moving. On this one we have a ground level. This level is also stable to create a nice solid base that you can then actually, you know, lift the model up from that base. You shouldn't have any issues. That was the idea. And what was the reason for omitting up and down movement because that was pretty cool. No this has that. Oh, I was misinformed. This one is not going up and down. The other four going up and down (points at the animals on the carousel). The reason that we thought, you usually see it on the carousel where one animal is stable. So maybe that's for the grandmother or child and the other thing is, that there's also a mechanical reason for that. I wanted to have the stairs here. To sort of balance out the load of the function. It made sense to have no load on the other side as well. And actually the frog is a funny one because the frog had only the leg hopping. Are there also test groups for expert adults? We do both, that is, we were testing with adults, but also with kids. Eventhough you know it is for adults, we still want the kids to be able to play with it and have fun with it. Because ultimately when you buy it on the box then it says 16 plus, but as soon as you take it home and you build it in your home and it's there sitting on the counter, it's a LEGO model and to kids a LEGO model is for them. Are certain Creator Expert sets more popular in certain countries? And do you take that into consideration? When we make products, our goal is that we can have appeal everywhere. I don't know the data on which ones perform best in which countries. I don't actually know any of that off the top of my head. How long does it take to bring and initial concept to store shelves? From the initial concept it's about a year and a half and about eight months of that time is spent actually from the initial concept until the time we say the model is finished. And then from there it's eight months for production to get everything ready and actually have the final product ready for the shelves. So it's not like we're just one person sitting working on this for eight months but it's that we start out when we have the idea of a fairground, and then it's, ok, let's build a bunch of different concepts. Select the one that's best and do some development on that. Is that in line with a City set, for example? Yes. Everything has essentially the same development time frame. But when we choose, for example, when you're doing this one, that you're not working on another product as well. But if you're working in City you may be doing three models at the same time. Is that the reason that there's only one Modular released every year? It's not so much about that we don't have the resources to do it. It's more that we just don't know that there's that much demand for modular buildings, that people need to be bind to more than one every year. And we see it as a collection thing, that people want to collect the whole series so that if you start to release multiples every year then that's starting to be a really big.... it's a lot then to buy the whole series. So we feel right now, and it could change in future, that one modular building per year that's a good amount to have a collectible series and to build up anticipation and that is something that people could feasibly collect. So as soon as you start to put out two hundred and sixty dollar models a year all of a sudden everyone just had to double their budget in order to collect the whole series. How many Creator Expert sets are being released per year? In 2016 we had the Brick Bank, we had the Beetle, Big Ben and the Holiday Train. So traditionally we do four models a year. You might see that change. You might see it go up or down. Let's see...laughs. I can't say any numbers for this year. There will be others this year. I won't say any more than that. Do you also interact with other themes, because we also went to the Friends theme. There's a roller coaster in Friends. Is something like that possible in the Creator Theme? We all were in one big building, all the designers. I like to wander around and see what other people are working on. I don't know how well this fits with the Friends roller coaster but it is a similar theme. That one was actually being developed almost a year before this (Carousel) so it's very much different wavelengths. Our team, the Creator Expert team, we actually sit right with the regular Creator theme in one team so we interact with them quite a bit. The Friends Theme has roller coaster now yeah it's been pretty cool for the Expert team. Maybe one day we could do something like that. The release of the Caterham set, does that influence a potential release over another car in Expert series? While we won't do a Caterham, I'll tell you that, it doesn't make any changes to our plans. What we're trying to work out that we don't do cars that are too similar, so we kind of try to work together with them (LEGO Ideas) to make sure that we're not overlapping too much on the cars that we do. But it is a bit of a delicate relationship between us and ideas, what products can we do and what products are getting suggested on their site. There's quite some overlap in potential sets? Yes. Actually, the Saturn 5 rocket I've been proposing that as a Lego set five years and no one is listening to me. And then when I saw it on on Ideas I was like oh please, let it go through. I was actually really frustrated when I saw it go through because I thought that means they've already chosen the designer and they've started development on it. So what I did, is we have a digital system where we have all our models. And so I thought, okay, well let's see if they did anything good and when I looked in there to see if I could find it and there was nothing. So I immediately called up the project and I said; who's doing that model? I want to be part of it. We don't have anyone yet. So that was really cool to get to be involved in it. What was your role in the development of the Saturn? Myself and Carl (Merriam) were the two designers working on that model together. We started with the fan design and then we just turning that into something of an official LEGO set. Actually the first thing that we did was we build it that size to show how look at how cool this is so big. We actually changed the diameter of the original submission. They started to base their model on a section that covers the lunar lander and the diameter of the rocket was actually way too big for that. So we actually scaled down the main diameter, but we also found a way to build it so it's really round. So we didn't stay very true to the original model, which we don't talk a lot about. Essentially we just said we're going to make the model we want and we'll do your idea of a one meter tall Saturn V. But still I think the lunar lander and the little details are quite similar. The way that I see LEGO Ideas is that it's it's just an idea, it's just to say, to me the idea is a 1 meter tall Saturn 5 rocket built of LEGO. The specific details of how they built the engine it's not important. We do that however we find it's best to do. That's my view of it. Some people see it differently. And what do you think the reason was for not listening to you when you proposed the Saturn V? I didn't have any data to back it up. So it's just my opinion of saying this thing is cool. So in that sense I actually really appreciate LEGO Ideas that someone could say, hey this is cool and a lot of other people agree with you. And do you think it would have made a difference if you would have built a sample rocket to show them, like here's what we can do. I don't think so. I wish you could come in and see our office it's just full of so many cool models. We can go there now *laughs* Another question which may be hard to answer but it's been asked like it's been a while since there's been a Creator Expert Train, not counting the Holiday Train. Can you shed a light? You won't say yes or no but I mean; people seem to like the Expert Trains. The problem we the trains is that people don't like them that much. When we make our product line for the year we can only do four, maybe sometimes five, products in that year and then we look at what are going to be the most popular things. That's what we want to do. And every time we've done a train we always hear that people are really excited. But then every train that we've made will never perform as well as the other models that we make. And so it seems like there are two explanations. Either trains aren't as popular as people say they are or we just haven't been able to figure out how to make the right train. I think that it's more the second one that we haven't figured it out. I think the challenge with trains is that they're very kind of regional. There's very few world famous trains. Whereas with cars, everyone knows the Volkswagen Beetle and probably everyone has even driven one. But when you talk about trains; if you're from France you want a TGV. If you're from Denmark you want the Danish train. If you're from the US you want probably the Santa Fe. It's hard to pick what is the one that will have that universal appeal. We can definitely make a train. We can make a train that will be popular in France. We can make a train that will be popular in the US. We struggled to find what is an icon of a train that has universal appeal. And surprisingly the Winter Village train, that one has been quite a hit. So I think we can learn from that to figure out how could we do a train in the future. Do you think it could be option 3 that people won't buy a train because they think; well I don't have a train set. I don't have the tracks, so it's useless to me? That could be an option yeah. Generally when someone's buying an Expert model they've already bought a lot of other LEGO. So if they're buying an Expert train they probably already have tracks from other City trains that they bought. But it's a fair comment to say. I mean to your point, our holiday train, it does include track. And I think from my personal opinion the Winter Holiday Train is something you will buy because you collect the Winter Village sets. We will buy it. Not because we like trains that much or we want the tracks. So the thing is figuring out how can you get people, other than train fans, to get excited about this and that's what works at the Winter Holiday Train. You get everyone that's into the Winter Holiday sets and into trains, so maybe some train people will buy it. And everyone that's buying the Winter Holiday sets they will also be interested in that. So maybe we need a Modular Building with a train. Train Station maybe? *laughs* Some questions about miscellaneous themes that aren't released anymore or aren't released at all. I'm referring to, for example, Classic Space or Western themes, castles stuff like that. There are loads of things that aren't in current themes which could be released in Creator Expert. Do you consider making a castle or some Classic Space set in Expert? We definitely considered it. And it's similar to trains. For example, the Modular Buildings are actually part of the idea that they appeal to castle fans even though it's not a castle. It's a great way to get a lot of the parts that you would need to build a castle. Maybe more so with the older ones than with the newer ones where it got a little bit more wild with the colors, but I definitely wouldn't rule out Classic LEGO Themes. One of the questions that we have though with those is like with Classic Space is, was it so popular because there was no Star Wars? I mean when that was released there was no LEGO Star Wars. So that was the best LEGO spaceship that you could have. But now you could have the UCS Snow Speeder. So then how can we sell a classic spaceship. Will it live on nostalgia alone?Actually we begun some research to try to figure out just how powerful LEGO nostalgia is. There's some hesitation to just put a lot of faith in that, but it's not out of the question. So basically the Star Wars theme is one of the reasons that we don't have another space theme? Probably, we don't know exactly. It's not it's not 100 percent the reason that we don't do it in Creator Expert. There's other reasons as well, but having Star Wars is a reason that we don't necessarily do a second full space line line like that. And again that may change. There haven't been much Western's themes...at all. We used to have some sets, but aren't Western themes popular? I don't know about any of the market research on Western themes uhmm we'll see, I don't know...laughs. I love the old western theme actually. You know the LEGO Ideas projects made by Marshall Banana? Yeah the LEGO Western modular. I was looking at that and thinking, yes please do that. Like with the Saturn V. Please do that. I think it's the difficulty with something like that, of course they're really amazing models and they would definitely be really cool. But how do those fit in when we have the regular Modular Building line. If we introduce something like that, are we taking people away from the regular Modular Buildings. We can't just assume that when we introduce a product then people don't replace something else you know like, okay, now there's a new space theme. Now I don't need Star Wars anymore, so now all of a sudden Star Wars is nonexistent because I want to buy this new space theme. It's about striking the right balance of, we can only produce so many LEGO sets. And people only have room in their houses for so much LEGO. So when we think about making stuff for the AFOLs then it's just as much about are we giving them the elements, the bricks, in order to do what they want to do, instead of just give you exactly every model what you want just because we can only produce so many models. But we can we can make a dinosaur tale in blue. And I don't know what people are going to do with that but that's easy. You know we could make a whole car out of the weird Azure Blue color and then people can take that and they can build something really amazing with it. So for me I'm much more interested in trying to get fun and exciting elements into people's hands than just to make every single cool idea because there's an infinite number of cool ideas. you can see that on LEGO Ideas. there are so many cool projects but we will never be able to make all of them. Makes sense. Good explanation and I think you maybe right that classic feeling or that nostalgia is more of a feeling. Do you have any idea, like Bennys spaceship, did it sell well? Well I don't know the sales performance of this set. I'm really excited about the Saturn V combined with Benny's spaceship we're starting to see some real nostalgia for kind of this thing. I guess it's like the space race of the 1960s kind of nostalgia for that first journey into space. And I think that could mean a lot for LEGO in terms of what we make for products. Nowadays you hear more and more news about going to Mars in 10 or 20 years or so. Is that something that LEGO is looking into as well? Like maybe we can do Mars exploration? I shouldn't say anything about that. We're paying attention to a lot of things. How long have you been working for LEGO? In August I have been here for five years and I started on the Creator line in 2009. For the 2015 year I made the Ferrari F40 for Creator Expert and so from then until now I've been kind working half time on each and now I'm a full time only working on Creator Expert. Of course I did the Saturn V for Ideas and stuff like that. Interesting you bring up the Ferrari F40. One thing I noticed was it has different type of instruction booklet, outlining the parts you need to put on the model. I haven't seen that in the UCS Snow Speeder. Is that something that will be standard in newer instructions? I may be wrong on this but I believe we've implemented that for all Creator Expert products. Maybe not the Winter Village sets but I think all the others we now do, we outline the bricks in the right colors and that was an idea that the building construction team had when we were doing the Ferrari, because there was so much of the same color, they wanted to think of a way to highlight the parts. So did it work? Yeah because as you start building and then you don't notice it. And after a couple of pages you think; something's different. I didn't know what, so I was looking and thinking, they are outlining the parts! It's great! So I think you should do that for other sets as well. Some personal questions. How many sets have you designed? Somewhere around 20. What's your favorite? I'm really proud of the Saturn V rocket. But there's also a jet that I made for Creator. I think that's still my favorite because I love airplanes so much. Ok, thanks for your time.

It's 1964. Vietnam is starting. Martin Luther King receives the Nobel Peace Prize the year Nelson Mandela is jailed. Sony introduces the Video Cassette Recorder, and the computer mouse is invented. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor marry for the first time. The Beatles are riding high in international charts, but I want you to put I Get Around by the Beach Boys on your internal gramophone, grab your shorts and the keys to your Bug, and head on over to Californ-eye-ay coz' we are going surfin'! Apparently. The VW Beetle, or Volkswagen Type I, was already over 25 years old in 1964. It was conceived in Germany in 1938, but let's gloss over that part of its history; production didn't pick up until 1945. Over the car's 65 year production span, an astonishing 21 million were built; it is unsurprising therefore that the Beetle was named in 1999's Car of the Century competition as the fourth most influential car of the 20th century (after the Citroen DS? Really?) and that may explain its inclusion as the logical LEGO follow-up to 2014's 10242 Mini Cooper, which came second in that competition. Review: 10252 Volkswagen Beetle This is not The LEGO Co.'s first VW Beetle set. Believe it or not, it's not even the second - many of you will remember the largely studded 10187 from 2008. To find the first, we have to go all the way back to the first year of LEGO mass-produced toys - 1958 - when an ambiguously numbered die-cast metal 260 VW Beetle was available; several iterations of the Beetle featured in the early days of LEGO metal cars, including one from 1964, but I believe 10187 was the first to be built in LEGO bricks. This latest offering joins the Mini in the recently introduced LEGO Creator Expert range. It's a very different bucket of worms to the last Beetle, making use of curves and angles rather than its predecessor's studs-up sculpture, and ascends to the mainstream another peripheral colour: Dark Azure. Set Information Name: Volkswagen Beetle Number: 10252 Theme: CREATOR Expert Release: 2016 Parts: 1167 Figures: N/A Price: EUR €89.99 - 104.99 | GB £69.99 | US $99.99 | AU $149.99 | CA $129.99 | DKK 799.00 Links ... LEGO Shop ... Brickset ... Bricklink The Box Click for a larger full-frontal image The minimalist Creator Expert packaging shares more in common with the Exclusives sets than the main CREATOR range, but it's smart and allows the set picture to dominate. Here a surf-equipped Beetle drives itself (hilarity ensues) down a sandy track. The set manages to stand out even against the similarly-coloured sea; the choice of surf theme for the set really dictates the box art. I wonder whether the set's colour scheme was decided by the reference image, or whether the artist hunted around for a suitable image. If the latter, they found one, and it's displayed on the right hand side: Click for a larger image Judging by the roof rack, I think the set designer must have used this image for inspiration. It also affects the set's historical accuracy: the real-life Beetle here is a pre-1965 model, given the smaller window apertures. On the back of the box, the sentient car parks itself among the dunes, and leans its surfboard against a conveniently-placed inset of the set features: Click for a larger image I love that. The board even casts a shadow on the inset! The insets show off the set's salient features well, though the main image is rather similar to the box front and I would have shown the car's rear off here. The box measures H 279 x W 478 x D 72 mm (11" x 19" x 3" approx) and weighs 1352 g (3 lb). It is tape-sealed . On the underside is the Volkswagen licensing information, interestingly in the official VW typeface. As is customary for CREATOR sets, the set inventory is displayed on the box top. The Instructions Now, I was under the impression that The LEGO Company had listened to the whinges of its die-hard fan-base, and endeavoured to wrap the instructions and sticker sheets of the more expensive sets to prevent bad things happening. Not so here. My instructions were loose and crumpled in the box. I hope that is just because I have an early promotional copy of the set, and that this doesn't represent a policy change. The single, perfect-bound volume has a cover similar to the box front. There are no technical or historical tidbits, unlike the LEGO Ideas or Architecture sets; I'd like to have seen a bit of information about the Beetle, but not if it would inflate the price of the set. The instruction steps are clear, with part call-outs, and a handy yellow line to show you where new bits are added. This doesn't help when you miss an entire step, as I did! The only other problem I encountered was trying to identify the colour of a 1x1 round stud which looked either white or grey (but probably meant to be flat silver). Sticker Sheet Mercifully, my sticker sheet was only crumpled but not damaged by its journey loose in the box. There stickers are handily numbered, though not unfortunately in the order you apply them. There's a lot of redundancy here, so you can get away with applying as few as 12 of the 24 decals: stickers 13 - 16 are duplicated, and the instructions suggest only applying one of each. You can choose which country's registration to use, though I was delighted to find that there are tiles enough to allow you apply all of them, and change the registration plate to enable a James Bond escape or something. The countries represented are USA, Australia (I think, assuming 'QLD' is Queensland), the UK, and (West) Germany. The Parts The parts are divided into three modules, of 3, 2, and 3 polybags each, as shown here, and the tyres were loose in the box. My first task was to confirm the colour - having not read the official LEGO blurb, I did what I always do when confronted with an unfamiliar colour, which is compare it to a part in a known set. Most of our LEGO is packed away, but fortunately the kids came to the rescue. So Duplo confirms this blue is Dark Azure. The three modules' parts are laid out below. Click each frame for a close-up It's great to see such a large choice of parts in a relatively rare colour, previously found mostly on minifigs and Duplo, or, more recently, in Basic Bricks sets. Prior to this Beetle there were no plates available in Dark Azure. Whether this means there'll be an abundance of regular sets in this colour remains to be seen; I had high hopes for Bright Green after the CITY recycling sets a few years ago but nothing came of that. Unlike, say, Dark Green or Dark Red, I can't see that there'll be much demand for Dark Azure amongst MOCers, though it might make a nice base colour for a re-imagined Classic Space. Otherwise, there are a load of handy SNOT bricks and plates of various kinds, and a few parts of interest: The dark azure corner brick is a new part, ID 24599, and I think would be described as Brick, Round Corner 5x5. Its curvature matches that of the Brick, Modified 1 x 2 x 1 1/3 but it is only three plates high. The 24246 heel-print tile is new this year in a few Mixels sets, and only in white; 23443 bar holder with handle is new, and listed on Bricklink but not yet appearing in any sets. New to me are the 1 x 1 x 3 brick, though it's been around since 2014 and quite common, the Technic axle 3 yellow, and the Ring pull tile, which I can see being very useful. The Round 1x1 tile with gauge featured of course in the Mini and several other sets. The clippy plate is shown only because of the mold difference: both types occur in this set (or my copy, at least) - they are I believe Bricklink types b and d. Then of course there's the new VW print tile. The tile is light bluish grey with a slightly reflective 'negative' print; I would rather have seen a shiny VW 'positive' print on a darker tile, buy hey. There are two spares in this set and I can see these being useful for CITY cars. Finally, there's the vaunted 'updated windshield design': I didn't even notice this until I read the blurb when writing the review: hence the stickers are already on! The mold is a stud less deep, but still quite sturdy; this design would have been quite handy for the Mini whose older design windscreen is also shown here. The Build The build starts with the chassis and is largely pedestrian until towards the end of module one, where SNOT begins to be applied in more detail and things quite suddenly get exciting. In the interest of brevity, I will not describe the build process in detail here, but it is shown in detail on my flickr; I will instead show a few interesting techniques. This is the back end of the car, late in module 1: A large chunk of tan and bley plates and bricks has been inserted, studs facing to the rear, with male and female clips pointing upwards. It's not until module 3 that you find out what the clips are for - they attach the rear window and engine cover. Behind that, a light bley 2x2 SNOT plate tessellates perfectly with a dark bley 1x1 SNOT brick with two 1x1 bley plates: these hold the tail lights; this technique is used in a few places in the set. Interesting SNOT abounds (*thinks of children* ). Here the rear (centre) and front (right) seat uprights are made; the rear one makes use of a stack of headlight bricks alternating studs right/studs up to make a stud reverser that is exactly 3 plates wide; when combined with the left and right halves, this makes 20 plate-heights or exactly 8 brick widths - so the seat rear fits neatly in the gap. I'll remember that technique! The front seats use 1x1 bricks with studs on two sides; these seats are slightly wider than 4 bricks each as they don't need to fit into a confined space - see here (you can also see where I missed a step - the bley plates either side of the rear seat should be a brick higher ). The entire front end of the car is initially attached only via the front axle, and at a half-stud offset: This is then corrected with the judicious application of jumper plates. You'll be able to see more when we look at the underside later. More delightful SNOT-work builds the front wings, including a repeat of the tessellation I pointed out earlier: The small construction I have removed here contains a SNOT plate that is used to correct the sideways-facing studs shown in the picture. I love that sort of thing! You can also see how the headlights are attached, with a technique similar to the Mini's. You'll be able to see more when we come to the features, or check my flickr. The Finished Car I've chosen the German plates for my car, partly because it's a German car, and partly because I put the British number plate stickers on badly. Plus I built it left-hand drive before thinking about it (you can very easily convert it). It does also mean that I can point out The Significance Of The WOB. The bonnet boot luggage compartment cover (from now on, it's 'luggage cover' and 'engine cover', mkay?) has popped open in the above picture, which happens all too easily. Here it is from the reverse angle with the cover closed: The designer has gone to extraordinary lengths to recreate the challenging curves of this iconic vehicle. Look at the nearside headlight: below it is a SNOT-mounted 1x2 cheese wedge; above it a regularly-placed 1x1 cheese next to a 1x3 bow; the contour these form almost perfectly matches the curve of the new 5x5 cover piece forming the wing. The entire wing then marries reasonably neatly to the luggage cover, itself a two-part design attempting to recreate the curves of the real thing. Conscious as I am that the stuff on the roof distracts from the car itself, I removed it: You can see a bit more clearly how the wing curves of the 5x5 corner bricks matches the 1x1 modified bricks at medial ends of both front and rear wings. Strangely, without the roof stuff, the wheels and wings themselves start to look a little too chunky to my eye, but we'll do a formal comparison shortly. Note the use of the new bar with handle parts to mount the door mirrors. From this view, the problem with the car's windscreen is becoming increasingly apparent. There's something I just don't like about it, but it's hard to put my finger on what. Here's a comparison shot of a '64 Beetle: Image from photogallery.classiccars.com It's not a perfect comparator. The wings are indeed a little too chunky on the LEGO version, but that's not the problem with the screen; '64 Beetles had flat screens with an arch shape, which the dark bley tile above the screen fails to recreate convincingly. Let's look at it in more detail from the side: Image from lehnan.hol.es The rake of the windscreen is too steep. It's a small difference, and it ought to be subtle, but combined with the relative loss of curvature of the front end of the roof, it has a dramatic effect making the windscreen look more like a Citroen 2CV than a Beetle. However, aside from the chunky wings and steep windscreen, the overall shape is otherwise remarkably good. Let's move rearward, where things start to get better again. The wonderful curves continue towards the engine compartment: You can see how the tapered door pillar gives gradient to the side of the car, and the 4x4 corner slope helps to smooth the lines from the wider sides to the narrower rear. This part sits, incidentally, on one of these, which defines the slope of the rear window. The engine cover uses a SNOTty construction to achieve a half-plate step, giving the (faint) illusion of a lateral curve. The curves of the rear wings are a little fussier than the front ones, but they still create nice effect even if they are not quite as flared as the real thing: Image from foundonthestreet.net The LEGO version uses grille tiles to depict the iconic air-cooled engine intakes; the effect is not entirely successful, and I wonder if they might have been better off using these (or even these, if they were still available). I do like the rear lights; I'm tempted to replace the deeper of the two bley 1x1 plates under the amber light with a body-coloured one (there are spares in the set!). Front-on, the gap between the luggage cover and bodywork starts to show, but this is the only angle from which it's noticeable. The windscreen, again, looks odd, but the wing curves look great. The tyres are possibly a little too wide. This view isn't quite so forgiving of the rear, which looks better from oblique angles, but I still think the rear is the car's best side. Note the bumpers, made with modern curved pieces, with a hinge to help at the rear; they are nice (but they're crying out for some chrome). I'm conscious at this point that I'm being quite critical. Take a look at this shot from above: Look at the apex of the luggage cover at the front, and follow the ovoid line of the bodywork backwards, round to the side, and in again at the rear, and then back again; then look again at the curves of the wings, especially at the front; then compare to the schematic: It is a remarkable feat to get anything near to the shape of this delightfully contoured car in LEGO. And back down to earth, quite literally: The underside is remarkable for one point, which I alluded to earlier: the axles are not threaded through the chassis as you might expect, but attached almost independently until the structure is built around it. You can also see how the front end of the chassis sits at a half-stud offset, I think in order to accommodate the spare wheel. Features Now let's have a look in a bit more detail. We saw this earlier, but here's another look at the elaborate work going in to get the wings looking as smooth as possible. It's not the most elegant solution, perhaps, and not perfect, but reasonable. Behind the wheel you can see some studs facing outwards - these are from two inverted brackets that form the walls of the luggage compartment; the studs don't connect to anything. Talking of which ... ... here it is, and looking roomier than in real life. The black bit with the VW badge is the fuel tank. The spare wheel just sits there; it rattles around a bit. Being the same size as the Mini spare wheel, it's also too small when compared to the main tyres! Some fiddly jumper plates go to make the door attachment, but the result is smooth and surprisingly sturdy, if a little unsightly. The seat construction is gorgeous, and I like the telephone door handles. The gauge behind the steering wheel is the sole instrument on the dashboard. No radio? I've removed part of the roof to give a better view of the interior. Again, the seat construction is highly effective; it's not obvious here but they are mounted on jumpers to give a brick-wide gap between in which sits the handbrake. Towards the front is a gearstick, made simply from a classic space aerial, but which sits on a semicircular curved brick representing the transmission tunnel ... ... and which continues to the rear: Both front and rear seats flip forward; behind the rear seat is a luggage shelf - true to life - in which the Picnic Rug is stowed. Note further clever SNOT supporting the door pillars. I alluded to this earlier, but here is how the rear window and engine cover are fixed: The upward-pointing male clips hold the window; the two flat silver (these are the ones that caused me trouble in the build) 1x1 studs prevent the window collapsing in. It looks fiddly, but it comes together easily and is remarkably durable. And here's what's in the rear: This is a simple but reasonable facsimile of the VW aircooled engine of the original Beetle. It looks like it might be a rotary engine but it's actually a flat 4; the larger wheel looks like it might be the fan, but it's actually the fan pulley - the fan being in the round black thing behind. In case you wanted to know! I think the LEGO version works really well. Finally, there's the window-dressing: A cool-box containing two green bottles and a green can with a ring-pull top, nicely made with simple but clever SNOT, and a surfboard that looks a little thrown together - I think it would be possible to make it without the white protrusions at the tip and the tail, but it's a minor thing. You might also just be able to make out the lip of a white 1x1 tile in the exact centre of the board - why they didn't use a plate here, I don't know. It all fits snugly on the roof rack, the box via one stud, the board by being wedged between the edges and those black rubber cheating-pieces: Comparison to 10242 Mini Cooper I don't have the 2008 Beetle, and anyway this set's immediate ancestor (and main competitor) is 2014's Mini Cooper. How do they compare? Next to the clean Mini, the Beetle's lines do look a little fussy. The Mini also highlights another minor complaint about the Beetle - the lack of chrome (or metallic silver, at least); though I understand that the Beetle would require a lot of silver parts or it would appear mismatched. The front end of the Mini is so good that meaningful comparison is lost; the Beetle is, after all, a much more difficult shape to render in LEGO. This really isn't a fair comparison! Everything about that Mini is spot on - probably the only thing about it I would change is the tinted windows. So how do they sit together on the shelf? Pretty well, actually, though the scale is off, and the Mini is noticeably larger than it ought it be compared to the Beetle (I estimate it would need to be 3 studs narrower to be at the correct scale). But who cares about that when they look so good! If you had to choose, which would you buy? The Mini, despite slightly fewer pieces, is more expensive, though only just - this may be a licensing issue. The Beetle is a more interesting build, even if the end result isn't quite so good. Here is how I would sum up this comparison: people might say of the Beetle, 'Wow, that blue LEGO car looks like a Beetle!' But they would say of the Mini, 'you know, that Mini model is actually made of LEGO!' But is that a good thing? Maybe it's all down to the Battle of the Picnics: Conclusion This has been a really difficult set to review. Inspired in no small way by the joy that is the Mini, I was eagerly anticipating this set, and really wanted to love it. I like it, but do I love it? I'm not so sure. The parts selection is interesting and useful, and largely in an unusual colour. The build is fun and instructive. The way those curves are achieved is delightful ... but it's just not quite accurate enough. I've been spoiled by the Mini's near-perfection, and this is a much more difficult and less forgiving original, so it's understandable - but disappointing all the same. Design 7 It's just not quite a Beetle, though it's close. Parts 8 A useful selection and unusual colour. More chrome or silver would be welcome. And what's with the crumpled instructions, TLG? Build 9 Fun, engaging, and instructive. Features 7 Opening compartments, doors, folding seats, picnic stuff, but this is a display set, really, and the cool box and surfboard are actually a bit of a distraction. Give me chrome instead! Value 9 At under £70 this is really good value - in the UK, at least. Overall 80% My Score 7/10 Do I like it? Yes. Do I love it? No. Would I buy it (if I didn't already have it)? Oh yes. Do I want to see more classic vehicles? Absolutely. I just wish they'd tilted that windscreen ... Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the review. Comments welcome. Rufus Resources 1. VW Beetle on Wikipedia 2. VW air-cooled engine My flickr album

To be honest, I find the Creator 3:1 sets from the past couple of years to be among the best there have been in the theme. Even the smallest sets, such as this one from 2018, seems to check most marks: Good parts for the price, innovative models and the main model even looks good on a shelf! Release year: 2018 Theme: Creator 3:1 Price: 4 USD or 4 Euro range. Number of parts: 68 Build time: Roughly 5 minutes per model. This review is a stark contrast to the one of 'Helicopter Adventure' from yesterday. LEGO makes great sets in this theme, and I want to point out both the good and the bad. Here are a couple of closeups of the Turkey. Interactive building instructions here: https://brickhub.org/i/116 And the Koala With building instructions here: https://brickhub.org/i/115 'Greetings Feline' has building instruction s right here: https://brickhub.org/i/118 In fact. There are even more alternates - you can find them by searching for the set number: https://brickhub.org/i/search.php?q=30542

Hi everybody This is my latest creation, a special Christmas edition of my MOC modular building, "Brick Square Post Office". Hope you like it. Twas the night before Christmas... ... and all the kids at Brick Square were getting excited, building snowmen and putting up the Christmas tree. The children had been busy writing their lists for Santa. They handed their letters to the postman, who was loading up his van ready for the last mail run of the day. He set off in to the snowy night with his precious cargo, but by now the snow was falling thickly. Then there was trouble! The post van hit a snow drift much bigger than usual. Stranded in the snow, the quick thinking Postman grabbed his phone and telephoned ahead. Meanwhile back at Brick Square everything was silent and the children were feeling anxious. It was getting late and the Postman should have returned by now. Just then a friendly whistle sounded in the distance and the air was suddenly filled with the sweet smell of steam It was Santa. He had ditched his reindeer and sleigh and instead opted for good old fashioned steam power, courtesy of The Old Workhorse Traction Engine. Don’t forget The Old Workhorse is on LEGO Ideas. https://lego.build/2vRfVGL Please spare a couple of minutes to give it your support if you’d like to see it made as a real LEGO set. Anyway, shameless self-promotion out of the way, lets continue the story ... The Old Workhorse arrived at Brick Square carrying Santa himself and all the presents for the children. And just in case you wondered what happened to the Postman. Don’t worry, he made it back home in time for Christmas Day! THE END! I hope that you've enjoyed reading this and looking at the pictures. I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone on Eurobricks a very happy Christmas, and all the best for 2019.

Custom design alternate MOC model made using pieces from official LEGO sets. Let's start off with the 31074 Rocket Rally set. More to come!

Hi everyone You may have seen my MOC modular buildings on here recently, The Queen Bricktoria and Brick Square Post Office. For my new project I've decided to build something completely different. This is also my first ever entry as a Lego Ideas project. "A roaring fire and a full head of steam, the old traction engine is ready for work!" I have created a scene set some time during the early 20th century. Farmers are working in the fields with their steam traction engine, affectionately known as "The Old Workhorse". The model includes a detailed mini fig scale traction engine, a wagon and various other accessories and mini builds. THE TRACTION ENGINE The main feature of the model is the traction engine itself. I've used a classic green and red livery with polished brass lining and details. There are several interesting parts used to create this engine including paint roller handles and mini fig syringes used to create the piping around the boiler and inside the cab. A system of cogs ensures that the flywheel spins around as the traction engine is pushed forward. A detailed cab interior includes steering wheel, controls and a firebox door that can be opened and closed to reveal the burning fire inside. The front wheel axle can be pivoted left and right. THE WAGON I've also included a wagon/trailer that can be coupled to the back of the traction engine and used to carry the various accessories included with the model. The sides of the wagon can be dropped down to provide loading access for the mini figs. There is space at the front of the wagon to hold tools and mini fig accessories. MINIFIGURES & OTHER ACCESSORIES Included with the model are 2 mini figs, a dog, a rat and several mini builds including tree stumps, logs and rocks. These are all designed to be carried and towed in the wagon. THE FINISHED MODEL The overall model contains 480 pieces. Here is a shot of The Old Workhorse, steaming past the buildings in my MOC modular street. LEGO IDEAS As mentioned earlier this is my first entry as a Lego Ideas project. If you like what you see then I really would be so grateful if you could please support my project on Lego Ideas, and help The Old Workhorse to gather steam. https://ideas.lego.com/projects/2a2ec583-9836-4868-8dc7-6b3bb0a2fe80 Thank you very much for taking the time to read this and I hope you like the model. Feel free to let me know what you think. If you'd like to see more pictures, there are many more on my Flickr page. Edit: I've added a new brick built version of the model on page 2 of this topic.

This was one of my first large-scale MOCs, that came before the Orient Express Thriller or Winterfield Academy were even conceived! (back in 2014) I had watched the miniseries for "The Shining", and I've always been enamored with National Park lodges. So, the product was The Glacier Falls Lodge, the official lodge for Brickler Mountain National Park! A perfect getaway destination/luxury hotel catering to any minifig's vacation needs! This MOC went through at least six different iterations, before finally being pared down to a (very) downsized version fit for LEGO Ideas. At its prime, though, the Lodge contained an enormous lobby, full dining room and kitchen, and several guest rooms upstairs, with two bathrooms per floor (kind of in the style of Chico Hot Springs in Montana). The first iteration was built in 2014, during that summer we had a major fire that caused us to evacuate. This hotel was thrown in a box and taken with us in a car at night fleeing to Seattle. Later, when the fire season was over and we returned, the hotel sat on the desk for several months without being worked on. The Second Iteration had a change to the tower, it was more octagonal and separated from the roof. And I used the Town Hall Skylights for the Lobby. The Third Iteration sadly has no pictures, as my computer had crashed and we lost them. But it was pretty ugly. I had the idea to try and make octagonal towers on either side of the main doors, with the idea not turning out very well. That iteration was fragile, and fell apart easily. The Fourth Iteration was a HUGE model, with an upgraded, fancier porch and a sign out front! This was also when I made it into more of a Victorian style hotel, with a large wrap around porch, and the two towers on either side. These were half-octagonal towers, which made it a lot easier to stay together. (I had actually figured out how to build them, and gotten the pieces for it). The roof was a major challenge, but we made it work! This iteration also had an enormous, well thought out and beautifully built dining room, as well as a large kitchen with three to four walk in freezers! The Fifth Iteration was downsized in terms of length to make it fit through the door, lol! The basic hotel structure remained the same, however, with the exception of a large rearranging of the rooms inside. This was the first project that I submitted to LEGO Ideas, before having to downsize it again for it to be accepted. This was by far the best iteration of the six, and the only one we have interior pictures of. 5th Iteration furniture and Grand Fireplace 5th Iteration First Floor Porch Detail Lobby Facing the Dining Room Lobby picture 2 Piano Music Room Lobby Picture 3 The cool part was that the interior walls of the 5th Iteration were removable! 1st/2nd floors This was also the first iteration to have major interior decorating and fancy chandeliers! The 6th and Final Iteration of this MOC kept most of the basic structure, subtracting much of the width, in order to make the 3000 piece LEGO Ideas limit. This unfortunately was at the cost of sacrificing the entirety of the interior minus several pieces of furniture. This iteration currently, sadly does not exist anymore. It was torn down and the pieces used for Winterfield Academy (pictured below) However the 6th Iteration is still up on LEGO Ideas right now, and currently has 2036 Supporters! If you would like to give your support as well, I'll include the link here. We would really appreciate any support given! :) https://ideas.lego.com/projects/66655f37-9622-4836-a2cb-797e916f4e2b Anyways, that's the whole story on the MOC! This was by far (not counting my disastrous attempt at a county courthouse when I was 15) my first successful MOC that I thought looked relatively decent! Please tell me what you think, anything you like about it, etc., in your replies! I'll finish with a couple shots from last December and our promotional Winter Photoshoot! :) Thanks for reading! :)

It seems that Creator is stepping their game a lot, not only Expert range but "normal" range seems to be every year better and better(Hello year 2017, I look at you ) .When city fails and their only budget is police, fire department or research teams, creator is going to save the day for minifigs(And buyers). What I like to see is police cruiser in 8-10 stud wide range and also in 1:16 scale or bigger to chase down these great creator cars!Also I like to see sedan, combi, muscle type of vehicle in normal creator range. Thanks for read

Every Christmas I build extra building in my Winter Village. For this time it is church. Enjoy and Merry Christmas.

If you're a big fan of tall structures and buildings, then this set is for you. Measuring 1 meter tall, this towering wind turbine used to be a limited-release set only available for Vestas employee. In November 2018, LEGO will re-issue set # 4999 to make it widely available to more collectors and LEGO enthusiasts. Thank you for the LEGO Group (TLG), LEGO CEE and our very own Eurobricks Ambassador, Jim, in making this review possible. Without further delay, here is my 17th RA review, LEGO Creator - Vestas Wind Turbine, set # 10268. Overview Name: 10268 - Vestas Wind Turbine Theme: Creator Year: 2018 (2H) Pieces: 826 pcs Minifigures: 3 (+1 dog) Price: USD 199.99 / EUR 179.99 / GBP 159.99 The set will be available in LEGO store and shop.lego.com starting 23 November 2018. Introduction First thing first, I am traditionally taking pictures of smaller builds so taking a full-size photo of a 1-metre model is quite a challenge. Nevertheless, I am sticking to my traditional white-on-white background. You'll notice that even if most of the parts are white, they look "off white" due to shadows. That's just the nature of plastic white balance. Now that it's out of the way, enjoy the walkthrough of the building process and my thoughts about this set. Frankly, I have no interest in the original set 4999 because its price in the secondary market is very cost prohibitive. Now that it is available to a larger audience for the suggested retail price, or even cheaper, is this set worth all the hype and buzz generated around it? I'll answer that towards the end but first, let's start with the box art. Front Panel This set is branded under the Creator Expert line. Also included in the box art is the "seal" of plant-based plastic elements. These elements made from plants together with the renewable energy such as wind turbines are perfect fit for TLG's green agenda. It is not a secret that TLG has investments in wind power. Therefore, if there is any set worth releasing again to make that widely known, is the Vestas Wind Turbine. Power Functions are already included in the box as prominently shown at the right side of the front panel. Back Panel The back panel shows the power function features including the rotating turbines and porch lights of the house. Again, you will see the "This Element is Made from Plants" seal to remind us that TLG is really concerned about the planet. Not being sarcastic here -- but how many companies are pushing green and sustainable energy? I can't recall much. Perhaps the seal will help embed the idea to younger minds so TLG will be known as a company who cares about the environment. Side Panels Here are the side panels. You can spot the seal once more on one of the side panels. Top Panel Since this is a creator set, of course it will be criminal not to print the parts on the box. You can check out the parts here in bigger resolution. Speaking of parts, let's unbox the set already. Inside, we get a very high-quality manual. Several pages are dedicated for Wind Energy and plant-based plastic. A version of LEGO Planet Promise is also included in the booklet but the version in the booklet is far more interesting. Without giving away too much, one of the trivia included in the booklet is that 90% of the LEGO packaging sets is recyclable and 1 million plastic trays were already saved from replacing the plastic Advent Calendar trays with recyclable paper-pulp version since 2017. There are more snippets of information included in some pages. For example, in page 35, it says "A Vestas wind power plant can be up and running in less than 12 months, defying the longer lead times involved with conventional fuels." Other pages that include snippets of information are pages 69, 75, 114, 135, 136, and 142. Now, let's go straight to the parts! Parts "Ok. What is this? There are no numbered bags?" Hard mode activated! --- this is my initial reaction. For sure, this set is not the biggest set without numbered bags but it's probably in the top 10 -- Tower Bridge is one of the biggest as far as I know. Also, based on this review of the Medieval Market Village, and as confirmed by my dear friend WhiteFang, that set does not have numbered bags as well. I have also confirmed that the older set 4999 has the same plastic bags without numbers. So, who am I to complain? You can check bigger photos of the bags below if you wish -- they look quite randomly packed together, just like the old version of the set. Although, if you look closer, you'll see that most of the parts are related to the elements needed to complete a certain section of the build. Nevertheless, they look like a mess to the untrained eye. As suggested by the instruction booklet, the only solution is to prepare all of them in a manner that will not make you insane: Note: the clear plastic containers are not included in the set. Here are the notable parts included in the set. All the printed parts are notable specially the smaller panels: Did I not mention that there are no stickers in this set? Hurrraaay! There are 4 green BURPs included in the set. Some of the advanced builders don't like this part much. However, in this set I can tell you that using this part makes a lot of sense because the hollow part of the BURP helps conceal the wiring underneath. More about that soon. Speaking of wiring, there are 2 sets of wires included. And then, here's the motor. Don't ask me why TLG did not put the most recent version of Power Functions. To me, as long as this baby runs fine, I'm okay whatever motor function version comes with it. Build The first small build is the Vestas van. If my sources are correct, it is supposed to be modelled after Mercedes-Benz® Sprinter Van. The build is a decent representation of the actual vehicle. I like its simplicity. Moving on, the main build starts with the construction of the small cottage house using the 32x32 green base plate. Nothing fancy so far. Move along, move along... Once you start working at the back of the house, where you use the BURPs, you will realise that the fixture holding the turbine tower is only 4 technic pins held by 4 brackets on the base plate! At this stage, you cannot judge how strong the build is, but you'll be surprised later. The set 4999 has something similar but this improved build reduces the wobbles in my experiment. It does not make the build indestructible though. The build becomes more interesting once you build the actual tower. Even if the process here is repetitive, you make a very substantial progress because the parts are quite big. Now, with the tower erected and with the power source ready, it only takes a few more steps to complete the build. Power test. The lights are on! Constructing the nacelle (house of the turbine) is like building a technic set that you'll forget for a moment you're building a Creator set. Obviously, this section is the most mechanical part of the build so it's not surprising to see mostly technic parts. The housing is also using technic bricks to form a SNOT technique where you use the large 6 x 12 modified tile with studs on the edge, printed with big "Vestas" logo to complete the enclosure of the motor. To avoid the nacelle from spinning out of control and twisting the wire running inside the tower, there is a tan (sand) coloured technic pin that prevents the housing from turning 360 degrees. Probably the most satisfying part of the build for me is when I plugged the motor function connectors to the small motor -- this marks the completion of the actual turbine motor and we're getting closure to spinning the turbine! Building the rotor hub is quite straight forward. Using a 3-rotor blade technic plate in light bluish grey colour, 3 sections are created for each turbine blade. As for the turbine blades, all of them are exactly built the same. Here's a view of the turbine blades in different angles: You'll notice that there are 2 technic pin holes available in one of the technic bricks at the end. This make it possible to attach the blades in two configuration: flat or angular position. I think the blades look best in angular position because they resembles real-life turbine blades more when attached that way. To give you an idea how really big the turbine is, here's a picture with the minifigures next to it. It's huge! Once the rotor hub and 3 blades are connected, it's a matter of pushing the protruding black technic pin inside the housing to complete the top. All wire cleanly tuck inside and ready to be covered. Alas, we're done! There are so many anti-studs at the back of the tower but that one is fine. Oh wait, what about the exposed back? Zooming in, perhaps, the only ugly part of the set is the back of the hill where all the colourful bricks and pieces are exposed. It's quite easy to cover and I don't understand why this re-released version did not put those extra bricks to make the model more presentable when viewed at the back. The good news is that it's fairly straight forward to replace the colourful bricks at the back to cover the exposed area if you wish to make the set more pleasing to the eye when viewed at this angle. This is not an issue to me but someone has to mention it. Here is the complete set in its full glory! Minifigures There is nothing much to write about the minifigures included. In the original set 4999, there are also 3 minifigures. However, there is one notable aspect in the minifigures that makes this re-release special. Front view with head gears / hair piece Unlike the original minifigures that came with set 4999, the Vestas employee minifigures in set 10269 comes with printed "V" torso, not stickers! This is a very big improvement over the older version of the minifigures. Back view No dual face print or back printing for the guys. There's only 1 back printing, which is the torso for the girl minifigure -- Halter Top with Green Apples and Lime Spots Pattern, found in 3 other sets at the time of this review. Green energy is the best! Right, doggy? I'll be back! Conclusion So, is it worth the re-issue? I think it is. Set # 4999 is madly expensive in eBay or Bricklink so this makes set # 10268 fairly "cheap". I know that is a very subjective statement depending on how financially gifted you are, but you get the point. Could this set be any cheaper? Probably yes. The original set 4999 has motor function included so it is not a proper re-issue if the motor functions are removed just to cut cost, but it could been one of the option. For the volume of the build and overall size of the structure, the big parts compensate for the poor price per piece ratio so I think the price is fair. If you look at the price per piece ratio alone then you're going to miss out on a lot of good sets. I mentioned about the fixture of the base and how fairly strong it is. I think it is sturdier than the older version but as I mentioned earlier, it is not indestructible. I was able to lift the wind turbine by holding the tower several times without any issue. It holds firm and it can lift the weight of the whole build just fine. The problem is when it oscillates and wobbles several times -- no matter how much stronger it is than the original set, the tower can still collapse on its own weight. Based on my first-hand experience, using my car, I transported this set simply by removing the turbine blades. I thought that the tower can hold firmly because the top is already much lighter without the blades. To my dismay, a few humps and gentle turn broke the tower from the base because the structure simply cannot handle the shakes and wobbles in its original configuration. So, if you're crazy like me and you wish to transport this set-- kindly ask someone to hold it so that the tower won't wobble or just transport the tower and the base separately. Frankly, this is not a problem if you will only display the wind turbine. I think the structure is strong enough that it won't collapse on its own weight in a very long period of time as long as you put it in a very stable cabinet. If you put it on display inside a shaky cabinet, overtime, the connection might loosen up at the base, increasing the risk of the set from breaking apart. You've been warned, so get a sturdy cabinet for your LEGO set displays. Having said that, it is a marvellous set. It is big and tall. It's even taller than my desk fan and dinning table. Besides, who doesn't like green energy inspired building set? I also think it is a very educational set and could inspire young builders about sustainability and renewable energy. This set, along with the campaign of using sugarcane based plastic that is sourced sustainably, gives TLG a very strong statement about their support for sustainability and renewable energy. I mean, how can you not like it? Review summary Playability: 7.5/10 - it's not as playable set as much as it is a great display set but it is clearly aimed at older kids and collectors. Design / Building Experience: 8/10 - The original design 10 years ago is still great, with some colour swaps and small alteration here and there. However, I think the base could be more reinforced. Minifigures: 7/10 - No more stickers, yey! Other than the unique torso, everything else looks generic hence the score. Price / Value for money: 10/10 - Goodbye scalpers, welcome true collectors! Overall: 8/10 - Wait no further. Get this set and forget about the older one that you cannot afford. There is always a case for making a set available once again. If it is truly in demand and there are willing buyers for the product, then it is always possible to produce the set once more. TLG keeps the BOM (bill of materials) and moulds so they can produce the sets if all the right parts are available. Reissuing is a common practice in other toy lines so I don't understand the hate TLG is receiving for "running out of ideas". I am one of the firm believer that LEGO sets, as toys, should be made available to everyone in any way, shape or form. Therefore, the re-release of this set is a big slap to hoarders and investors, who are capitalising on "limited release" sets. I truly commend TLG for re-issuing this set to a wider customer base, with or without the green agenda. Once again, thank you for reading. If you wish to view all the images used in this review and some extras, you can view my Flickr album for set 10268. Always enjoy building. Until next time! I wish you were here... P.S. Here's a video of the wind turbine spinning --

Old Fishing Store – Modular creator Building The Story My story for this modular building was that the Old Fishing Store is based upon a Sea Front village Theme. I liked the old Fishing villages so I built this one on Lego Digital Designer (LDD). I really believe that this model could have a lot of genuine interest to fans of Modular an creator sets. This is the first of a series of modular creator buildings that I will be making. Summary The building consists of roughly 2160 parts and three floors: the main store, office, and lookout. I used the colors brown and sand green that gives it a realistic feeling. Four Mini-figures could be added such as a two fisherman, the store keeper, one captain. And a lot of details. It includes: Mini fish, crab, flicking hook, starfish, snow owl, sea gulls Barrels, I subited this MOC also by Lego Ideas. https://ideas.lego.com/projects/124448

I encountered this issue when building my 31079 Sunshine Surfer Van. I can't slide out the hinged function without taking off the roof, seen by the 1x4 tile with studs that prevents this. Swap the two indicated pieces. This will allow you to have an extra play function.