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When the color change occurred, I was still growing up playing with my Bionicle sets and making rainbow-colored MOCs, so it didn't matter to me when it happened. In fact, I don't think I even noticed the change in color until I became active in the LEGO community and learned about this. I use the new colors almost exclusively in my creations, because that is what I have cheapest and easiest access to. I have a fair amount of the old colors in my collection too, although they are found in whatever pre-2004 sets that I have intact. I too treat the new and old colors as separate, and thus keep them segregated in my storage. I try to use them creatively to represent slight color variations that you may find in real life.

Eurobricks holds a series of Collectable Minifig building competitions, all of which feature many vignettes on a small base. Here's a link to the most recent one: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=56765 All of the entries are on an 8x8 base as opposed to a 6x6, but it might serve as some inspiration for working with a very limited area. A good tip for building in a small scale is to try and find unorthodox techniques for existing pieces, and use them in a completely unexpected and refreshing fashion. This allows you to show the true potential of a particular piece, and be able to express much more with a limited quantity of elements.

Congratulations on your badge again Rumble Strike, here's hoping to see more reviews from you! Although my preference is the four-stud wide vehicles of yesteryear, the newer vehicles that LEGO produces look very solid as well. It is nice to see civilian sets such as these instead of the countless police and fire vehicles we have constantly seen. It's also a cheap way to get the green recycling bin too!

Thank you for this detailed review, ZO6. I think this is one of the best ten dollar sets we have seen in a long time. Lots of great pieces and two minifigs for the value, and on top of that, we are relieved of those awful flick-fire missiles and instead given a much better play function. I liked the waterwheel a lot in the Medieval Market Village, and it's wonderful to see it return in a cheaper set.

Thank you all for commenting! I've found that the modified 8x8 grille plate actually works pretty well to reinforce that area, I tried applying a fair amount of force with my hand to the area and it didn't seem to budge. On the contrary, on the side where there was no grille plate to reinforce it, the columns did start to cave in. The subway that I plan on running on it is a six-stud wide train, so it should be able to make it. If worse comes to worst, then the grille tiles and plates on the side can always be rearranged to move the fence out further and accommodate the additional clearance needed. 2x16 plates also would work well too for support. Yes, you would be correct in that this is similar to the Chicago 'L'. Thanks for the link, although buying those in bulk at about fifty cents each might be more expensive than 2x2 bricks at one-three cents each. Thanks for sharing, DHCP1121. That's quite an impressive elevated layout. Are the black plates just attached to the ties on the curved tracks? Indeed, frankly I have no idea how long this will take me, but I suppose that's where the fun lies! I hope to update this topic as the project moves on. Thanks again everyone!

Thanks so much for the review, WhiteFang - a wonderful surprise indeed! My three favorites would probably have to be the graduate, grenadier, and the gangster. I especially love the pose you have for the grenadier. Maybe they should come out with a Queen to compliment him. The cavewoman looks really nice, too. I can even imagine that hairstyle being used for a punk rocker girl. It would be nice to see that piece released in other colors. But I didn't know they had lipstick back in prehistoric times... I usually only pick up two or three minifigs per series, but your incredibly well-detailed and thoughtful reviews allows me to get a great perspective of the entire series. Thanks again, WhiteFang!

Hello everyone, I have recently begun work on creating my own Town layout. It's currently empty, for the most part Part of the reason for that is I have been primarily thinking about and designing its layout on the computer. I anticipate on being able to transport this to conventions, so the entire design of the city will be modular. It will be placed on an area that's 30 in. by 60 in., covered with eighteen 32x32 standard green baseplates. Here's the blueprint, created in BlueBrick: The red bars indicate where the roads will go. Around the perimeter of the layout will run an oval track. However, in order to accommodate for more road space, I decided to make the rail layout completely elevated. I used a number of reference pictures of the New York City subway system, in which above ground subway tracks are common outside of Manhattan. http://www.nyctransitforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29905 My goal was to create an elevated track that would be strong enough to support a train going at full speed, but still easy enough to disassemble. I chose to just keep it simple: The track is elevated by 2x2 brick pillars, which I plan on spacing out every segment of track. Two stud width plates connect the pillars across the street, and provide a place for the track to rest on. 4x10 plates were attached to the sides of the track to allow the side railings to be connected, as well as for a little bit of "greebling." I also want to place these on the underside of all the straight track to give more of that "urban" feeling to it. The roads are entirely brick made. I didn't really like how the road baseplates looked, and they also would have made integrating the modularity somewhat more difficult. The roads are just wide enough for standard four-wide vehicles to pass through. To my luck, the road fits perfectly in the 12 stud width space allocated for it. Having the track above the road also allows me to attach things like traffic lights and street signs from the top. I feel though as if the space is still a bit empty - is there more that I should add to it? I really like how the train looks while on the tracks. The side railings might look a little low though - what do you all think? I have yet to think about how this will work on curved track. Comments and constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. I wanted to get some input from some of the people here before I go and make a large Bricklink order, so your posts will be of valuable insight.

A big congratulations to the winners for a well-earned prize! Thanks everyone for another great round of fun creations!

Hi peterab, The connectors that ME Models provides are the dark bluish grey variant, as well as the sleepers that they provide in the boxed kits. Would it be possible for you to provide a rough timetable as to when these additional products will be released?

It's hard to believe that it's been two years already since his tragic passing. Nice minifigs, now you just need them all chasing down the girlfriend.

Released only a few months ago on April Fools' Day, these metal rails produced by Mike Fetsko and Eric Olson over at ME Models have been a breakthrough in LEGO trains. Years ago when LEGO announced that 9V trains would be no more, we were left with a finite amount of resources on the market, such as electrified tracks. The metal rails produced by ME Models have offered us an excellent alternative to the otherwise dwindling supply of official LEGO 9V tracks. Lots of people in the train community have expressed their satisfaction with the product, but today I'll offer my own perspective. Name: Metal Rails - Gray (PolyBag) [ME900G-BAG] Price: USD 4.99 Further References: flickr, ME Models, Eurobricks Discussion/Information Topic ME Models sells a wide variety of rails. You can see them all here: Click me The (USPS) Box The United States Postal Service is gracious enough to lend a box for the box picture of this review. Now let's open this up to see the goodies inside. The Contents I ordered five of the polybagged rails in gray. Each polybag contains four rails and four dark bluish gray connectors, which allows two sixteen stud tracks to be created. What ME Models has done, and LEGO hasn't, is offer rails that come in different lengths, ranging from 8 studs long (half length) to a whopping 64 studs long (quad length). Furthermore, they even offer these in brown. In July, ME Models will be releasing curved tracks too, which will be real exciting to see. They even throw in this neat little postcard/advertisement slip, with a montage of some of the other models they have for sale. The Polybag The packaging is pretty much akin to products that you may find in a hobby store, and easy to open without mangling up anything. Through the transparent bag you can see all the contents inside. The backside has the general disclaimers stating that this is not a product released by LEGO. It's also says it's American-made. The Instructions Not really instructions, but basically a paper slip with tips on ensuring conductivity when the layout is operating. It's a tip from ME to YOU... The Pieces Inside are four aluminum alloy rails, four ABS connectors, as well as a packet of aluminum tape. Obviously the rails and connectors are used to make the tracks. What the aluminum tape does is that it provides an additional connection between the rails of connected tracks to ensure that the electricity is conducted. It is optional; more than likely the tracks will work correctly even without the tape. Note that the ties (or sleepers) are not included with the polybagged tracks. They only come with the boxed rails. The ties are just 2x8 plates which are fairly common. The Tracks They look beautiful when complete. Assembling them is fairly straightforward. Attaching some of the connectors and the ties to the metal rail required a lot of muscle, and I found that I had to press down with my hand and all of my body weight on the rail to get them to snap together. With others, it was much easier to snap together. Some of the plastic on the connectors and the ties shaved off a little bit as I was trying to attach them to the rail, but personally this doesn't matter much to me as they'll remain attached to it anyway. But regardless, this is only an assurance that these rails are strong and stable, and will not come apart unless you disassemble them. The tracks connect with each other perfectly, and aren't loose or anything. For some reason, in one of my polybags I found an extra connector, and it was just in that one too. Odd, but I'm not complaining. Always good to have an extra lying around! Of course, they are made to be compatible with official LEGO 9V tracks, and consequently the newer plastic tracks too. As of now, they are not compatible with the flex tracks, but according to the website there will be an adapter for them released soon. Here are the tracks installed in my small party table layout. I've only attached ties to some of the tracks, but they are not needed for the train to actually run. At first when I turned on the electricity, the train didn't go. This is where the aluminum tape I mentioned before came in, and it was only one connection that was perhaps a little faulty. After that, everything worked out fine. Sometimes you don't even need to apply the tape, and for some reason just rearranging the tracks will create a better connection than before. But most of the time, the connection seems to be fine without any alterations. This is also an incentive to get the longer pieces of track. If you have a display where there are long stretches of just straight track, it's best to get the double or quad length rails, as then you'll have fewer points of connection and the electricity is more likely to be conducted throughout the layout. As you can see, my Railway Express runs just fine with the ME tracks. When I decided that I needed more straight tracks, I was torn between buying official LEGO ones on Bricklink, or using a relatively new product by a third party. After reading some nice reviews on Railbricks and discussions on Train Tech, I eventually chose to buy the tracks from ME Models as that was cheaper and less of a hassle than going to many different sellers on Bricklink. Thank goodness for these, as the train community now has a source to buy 9V tracks, a source that will be continuously replenishing their supply too. I highly recommend them if you're looking for cost-effective and high quality tracks. Thanks for reading!

Perfect placement of everything, really natural looking landforms and foliage. The multiple train levels in the town makes this so lively! I love how this isn't just a layout with buildings and a train running around the perimeter, but a display that integrates all that built around a lovely landscape.

What a masterpiece! It may be plastic LEGO pieces, but everything looks so natural and organic. It must have been so exciting for everyone there to see such an amazing display in person. What sort of lights did you guys use?

Great review, love the crisp photography. Personally, I love the way the cockpit and the wings look. The dome bricks do a really great job of rounding out the cockpit, and gives it a nice, solid look. On the contrary, I don't like the front of the ship at all. It just seems flimsy and looks plain ugly from the side. Normally I don't mind Technic in System sets, but here I think it really detracts from the ship's appearance. As you mentioned, the storage compartment opens up when the ship is held upside down, which makes it that less swooshable. All of the minifigures look excellent, save for maybe Darth Maul. I think his old head looks more intimidating and fitting for someone like him. Also great to see Padme again after all these years, and a Captain Panaka to go along with her. Qui-Gon's minifig manages to capture that wise old man look, but perhaps a bit too much facial hair? Overall, I mainly like this set for the minifigs, and don't care too much for the ship.

Back to December - Taylor Swift on repeat for the past hour or so. Now onto: You Belong With Me - Taylor Swift

5) Cryostasis (Eurobricks Collectable Minifigures Series 1 Entry) - 2 pts 7) The Laboratory Of Time (Eurobricks Collectable Minifigures Series 1 Entry) - 1 pt Best of luck to everyone!

4) The Monster Entry (Build by Titolian) - 1 pt 24) Musketeer Entry (Build by mookage) - 1 pt 26) Punk Rocker Entry (Build by SjoMiLu) - 1 pt Another great round of entries...good luck to all!

I always used to pronounce MOC as "em-oh-cee," but then I got into the habit of saying it like "mock." For AFOL, I seem to remember some place saying that it was pronounced "like a dirty word." Maybe it was the Brothers Brick?

I really like these. You've managed to pull off both detail and flexibility in a rather small MOC, which is just fantastic. I'd love to see other characters made in this style.

Podracers seem to be the best Star Wars design to innovate on. The design on the engine with all those curved connected arch pieces is insane. Everything just flows so well together - I love it.

This looks even more fun in video! This is fantastic considering that you said that you were new to NXT. Wall-E runs well, and his 'emotions' are conveyed in a smooth and charming manner.

I think the minifigures are great to have in the set. Yes, they aren't really well integrated into the set as some kind of play function, but they are at least iconic of a classic scene in the movie that the SSD stars in. I'm really impressed by the way the engines look, that first shot is spectacular. That being said, the rest of the underside is unimpressive. I wonder how possible it would be to build and integrate an underside for the model using the magnet system that the ISD used, or if even a simple gradient created with layers of plates would suffice. The top part of the model looks splendid from afar, and the removable module is a neat little feature. The press release doesn't say whether it has it or not, but I think additional modularity like in the Eiffel Tower set would have been nice to have for easier transportation. But despite its massive length, it shouldn't be nearly as hard to move, like with the Death Star II. Not a fan of the mini Star Destroyer. I wouldn't have minded if the one from the Death Star II was reused. Of course the price is a big turn-off, but these days I think most of us are accustomed to high prices on all of LEGO's sets, even though none of us are happy about it. Seeing as I don't typically buy new sets anymore unless it's mind-blowingly fantastic, I will probably pass on this one. However, I do look forward to reading the reviews on this set when it comes out.

I frankly don't think that mere words can capture the true essence and beauty of this creation. This goes above and beyond whatever has been done before, and truly brings LEGO to life in such an organic and natural presentation. I regret that I cannot see this in person, but just from the video and pictures alone it must be breathtaking. Both you and Tyler must have a brilliant imagination and mind to conceive and create something of this magnificent caliber. Outstanding

So adorable! This guy just looks perfect in LEGO. Really fantastic integration of the mechanisms without interfering with the overall appearance.

You can check out the Bricklink link I have in the beginning of the review. You'll only be able to get it used, but as of now the price ranges from USD 24.95 to 50.00. http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemID=46714