BimmerBoy

Looks great!

Thanks for the review. Hmm, with a few exceptions PT sets are not my thing, but my older son likes PT sets. He's very interested in this set. He's seven, but even he pointed out how few droids the thing holds. Glad to hear it is easily mod-able to hold 12. That seems like a reasonable number to me to give the effect that it is a droid carrier. I think we will hold out for a sale, which seems likely. This set already seems to be an afterthought at the local LEGO Store with the new AT-AT, Star Destroyer, snow speeder and Cantina being released at the same time.

Wonderful! I've been working on a MOC based off of the 60053 Octan Racer. I have been unsatisfied with my attempts at the front lip spoiler, but your idea and execution is great. It has me motivated to try new things. BTW, I think the wheels/tires from 60053 would look excellent on your model (even though they tuck in slightly more under the wheel arches than the older wheels.

As far as I can tell, these battery boxes have a somewhat high failure rate (at least relative to other Power Function parts). I was at the local Lego Store awhile ago and saw two sitting behind the cashier counter. I asked what was up and the brick specialist said they were returned because they were faulty right out of the box. I have several Train PF battery boxes, and they all work fine. I only have one Technic PF battery box (for my Grand Prix Racer), so far it works ok, but it seems unlikely the GPR function puts much strain on the batteries/box

I love the simplicity of mostly basic bricks and plates you used, yet I also see some great details. Looks like a super fun play set.

I cannot verify since its new and just showed up around here, but the local Lego store said that the new blue engine cargo train will only be sold at Toys R Us (and Lego.com and Lego Stores). They also seemed to think the new White passenger train and train station would also be Toys R Us exclusives.

That's what my parents said in the 90's. "Kids just play video games." 20 years later and LEGO is doing better than ever. As for Technic, it will be around longer than nine months. Pretty sure Technic sets are planned for release for years to come. And, Technic parts are often used in the bigger and more complex Creator and Star Wars sets.

The new freight and passenger trains are at my local Lego Store. No sign of the station. Interestingly, the old freight train is also there. The new blue freight train is $20 more. It does have a few more pieces. I personally think its $20 better than the yellow freight train (more train base plates, an engine I can relate to, no flex track, animals, etc), but $199 is pushing the limits of getting people into Lego trains.

Personally, with a few color and detail changes, this looks like something that could have been in THE LEGO MOVIE. Part of the police force vehicles perhaps. I like it.

I'm with you! I would like to build some minifig scale vehicles that vaguely look like cars I have owned. I can get the details down, I have trouble with the basic framework/chassis.

I use Rayovac nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries and they work great. About two hours of run time, depending on how many motors (I use two on my longer/heavier trains) I'm powering and/or how heavy the train is. I also acquired the Lego rechargeable box, it lasts even longer (have not tested its limits yet). If you run trains often, this is a good investment even though the price is high. As for wheel spin, no problems with 7938 for me. I do use the plastic track, though.

The visual dictionaries are great books. We have the original Star Wars and Harry Potter ones. My kids love to have me read the information and they love looking at the pictures. Kids won't bypass this book because of yellow head Luke. And if those kids are like my kids, they have LEGO figs from other themes (City, Harry Potter, Ninjago, Chima, Lone Ranger, Mutant Turtles, etc). We have all sorts of colored heads in our collection: yellow, flesh, black, glow in the dark, etc. My kids just get excited that a minifig comes with a book!

I could be wrong, but I have seen light bluish grey, silver, chrome, and black light saber handles (obviously not all handle colors are used for lightsabers). Chrome is the super shiny, metallic one. Silver has a more shiny, silver look to it than light bluish grey, but its certainly not the chrome look.

Wonderful! The roof scoop reminds me of the 2003 Bentley Speed 8 LeMans racer. I love the front bumper on your model.

TIE Interceptor Jango Fett Slave I Tusken Raider Minifigs

The droids and Luke meeting up is un-iconic? R2 getting sucked into the Sandcrawler was classic. As a kid, I loved the interior shots of the Sandcrawler with all the droids, parts, junk, etc. Lots of stuff for the imagination to process. And of course the "bad motivator" sequence was great! And with your reference/link to "big, boxy, brown and iconic," I thought you meant a UPS truck... :) As for the set, it seems like we'll just have to wait and see about specific inclusions in the set and the actual price point.

I don't know, Han has been around long enough for people to acquire one way or another. My kids care about the difference between Hoth Han, Falcon Han and Sarlaac Han. They don't care that much whether Falcon Han has blue or brown pants, etc. And, based on my observations at the local Lego Store, Clone Wars and Prequel Trilogy sets in the A-Wing's price range seem more attractive to children anyways. Also, the inexpensive Micro Fighter Falcon has Han.

Good review, good set. I like the ship a lot, much better than the 6207 I sold to help buy this one. It looks better and is sturdier; great for my kids to fly around and chase the latest version of the TIE Fighter. Arvel is great. I did not have Ackbar, so its nice to see him pop up in another, cheaper set than Home One. The inclusion of Han has me scratching my head, though, since he's in the Ewok Village (really wish they would have given the EV Han the camo trenchcoat!). I would've preferred a more generic ROTJ Rebel figure (doubt LEGO would give us Ackbar and another specific ROTJ figure like Mon Mothma, etc) or even a basic droid (R5 head) or basic mechanic fig. But, I sold Han to a fellow local AFOL to recoup a few dollars to put towards the summer Star Wars wave that will really put the hurt on my wallet!

I only have one Horizon Express set. One PF motor pulls it just fine, and those cars/loco are heavier than just about anything else in my fleet. I could see one PF motor struggling with two HE sets, though. I have a Harry Potter Hogwarts Express 4841, and my son and I added several cars to it (extra passenger, old-style observation car, fish belly cargo car (to carry Weasley family Ford Cortina), and baggage/passenger combo car. That's six cars total, including the original passenger car and locomotive/tender. Also, there is extra weight from the Ford Cortina, about a dozen minifigs, a small crane on the fish belly car (to lift/lower the Cortina. Yes, I know, its a flying car!). The PF equipment is housed in the baggage/passenger combo car. That train struggled with one PF motor, so I added another PF motor with a reverse polarity switch. Runs great, and I tested it with some extra cars from other sets. Pulled 10 cars without problem on level track, did not test more than that. Edit: I should note the extra cars I ran were relatively light in weight. Those K4's are beautiful! I also love how you did your road bed and rail ties for the display track.

Went to Toys R Us to browse. While the BOGO 50% off sale is not all that great sometimes (particularly if the sets have the extra-inflated TRU price), there is the advantage that recent, but older sets that are no longer sold in LEGO Store or on LEGO.com might still be on the shelves at TRU. I grabbed two Space Shuttles for the kids (only $1 more each than LEGO.com's price).

We generally only keep boxes to sets we are really fond of and build and display (then take apart to make room for a different display). UCS R2-D2, Modulars, 41999 Technic Crawler, our four Harry Potter sets. I love Star Wars, and wanted to keep most boxes, but there were just too many. My older son insists on keeping the 7965 Millennium Falcon box, though. Boxes for City sets are easy to get rid of; we like the theme, but there is no emotional attachment unlike Harry Potter or Star Wars. Boxes for small and most medium sets are easy to toss these days; we kept them for awhile but it became a lot of work just to organize and store those. We do debate on whether to keep some of the boxes for big sets. I have not done a lot of research, but it seems like that only rare and/or really old used sets see significant increases in value on the secondary market when the box is included. I know Train stuff does well on the secondary market, but it appears the addition of the box has little impact on the value. The Train fans want the train set. On the other hand, sets like the 10179 Millennium Falcon can see a nice increase in value if the box is included.

Yep, I've noticed that brown, black, dark grey can get very confusing in some of the online instructions. That said, I'm still thrilled LEGO has these available! They have been very helpful when I try to rebuild old sets I have but no longer have instructions, building a different color version of a set (train locomotives and cars for me), or inspiring design and technique ideas for MOC's.

Cool, nice to see off-road suspension articulation in a small model.

This. I almost always put the cover back on, but never screw it in place. Thinking about it, the batteries sit in the box very tight; the cover is probably not all that necessary, period. Perhaps the cover would be important in a very humid climate and/or if using alkaline batteries? For my purposes, the Rayovac NiMh rechargeables work fine (especially when Wal-Mart had them on clearance). I have a spare set on the chargers, so if whatever train we are running here dies, a quick swap gets the train back up and running. The Rayovacs are better than the Energizer NiMh, based on my experiences. Most of our PF trains are operated by a powered car (baggage, box car, combo, etc) with two PF motors. The Rayovacs pull many hours before a recharge is needed. Probably not nearly as long as the Eneloops (which sound very interesting!), but fine for the guy who runs trains for an hour so a day with his kids.

I wish I could comment on the layout design, but I think it looks good for running trains. I'm fairly new to LEGO trains. I'm interested to see how you work buildings and scenery into some of the spaces. Although slightly large (compared to the set), I adore your PF tender for the Toy Story train.