Poisso3

At the St Louis Science Center, there is a Lego Gateway Arch on display right as you start to cross over to the road towards the planetarium. It was created by a Lego Designer and looks really awesome. I have often wondered why the Arch has not been made when buildings like the Space Needle have, but maybe one will come out eventually.

I have had a little of both worlds when I have ordered sets of eBay. I would rather the set come in pieces and not a completed build for the fun of doing the build on my own, but when the set has arrived and the seller left some pieces put together, I didn't mind.

Brilliant! I mean, that was absolutely fantastic!

Love it! I just wish I had the pieces to make this for my wife who loves that car.

Nice LDD! I have had this on my list of MOC projects since getting the Simpson's house when it came out. The hardest part to doing this is getting the orange 1x2x3 doors since they have not been made in over 10yrs apparently. Only found in the Island Stunt sets or something like that.

I absolutely love that tree! How did you make it?

Wow! I am loving the techniques you are using for this build!

My wife thought she was buying this set off eBay a few months back, only for the box to arrive and it was about a 80% complete set. After trying to buy a full set, and seeing how freaking expensive this set is now, I used what we had and made my daughter a MOD'd verson of the set as a part of the Heartlake City street she and I have been putting together.

Anything that gets "retired" be it a Lego set, American Girl doll, or a Hallmark Christmas ornament is going to have someone try and resell it for a higher than retail price all because of the perception of rarity. As stated above, the only way to combat this would be the company to re-release the retired item. When there is a flood of brand new releases of the formerly hard to find item, the secondary market price goes down. Case in point was the eBay prices for the original Transformers toys. Before Hasbro started releasing limited edition reproductions, finding a mint/complete toy was pricy. If you were smart, you would just piece one together from not perfect auctions. The release of the LE sets generated a lot of seemingly mint/complete sets listed, but the process started to drop. Recently, my wife found out that American Girl was going to bring back some of the most requested retired dolls. Will that make the older dolls drop in price? I am willing to bet yes. Now, I have only been out of the dark ages for a few months now, and buying Lego sets off eBay has not been fun. I see several people talking about piecing together sets, and I have tried doing the same, but only on a smaller scale than the large modulars. I have also started buying the sets new (only the PR and Simpsons’ House) because I can, but the secondary market price for the older, retired sets is keeping me from buying anything that is not currently on the self. A friend of mine bought two Simpsons’ House sets so he could build one and keep the other in the box till it was at least double the resale price when it is retired. That is the mindset that I believe “collectors” have when they buy anything and just leave it in the box and not use/play with it. I am guilty of it too. I have several unopened toys in my basement, but where I once saw $$$ I now see the enjoyment value they bring my children with they play with them. Just last year there was a news story of a wealthy man who was stealing Lego sets to sell online for a profit just so he could buy the more expensive sets. Dude had the money to buy them already, but figured there were people out there who would pay almost double for the hard to come by sets…and he was right. There is no end to the cycle till the distribution makes the sets widely available, and the older, sought after sets are brought back, even if for just a limited time, but there will be those who always see gold where others see a toy. Why else do places like TRU, Target, etc have policies on how many Hot Wheel cars you can buy at one time, or a stor banning if they catch you bending the cards on the action figures?

I feel like this is the early days of the Butter Battle Book.... To start, I hate those flowers...well, mostly the stem they are placed on. Something about the ones in the newer sets that just don't stay on a stud. With that said, I put the flowers stud side up. Stud side down just looks odd...

Very nice!

Wow! That is awesome. I'm getting a Main Street Disneyland feel from that MOD/MOC.

The #10197 Fire Brigade firetruck and the #71006-1 Simpson's car are both 6-wide vehicles that fit 2 figures across. The firetruck has open sides, but the Simpson's car has doors. Maybe use them for referances?

Very nice!

Oh, that is good! I keep thinking I need to expand my mini modular set and seeing stuff like this really makes me want to. Love the use of the pizza tile as the sign.

As the son of a Radiologist, I applaud you! That is a great MOC of a Radiology Department. My only suggestion would have been to give the nurse some protection too.

Very nice build! I am picturing a beer hall interior fitting very nicely in that building.

Wowsers! That is crazy large!

I did this with my own PR set last night. Never thought to just have the roof and 1st floor till I posted that question yesterday. It actually could make for a cool little shop/house.

I had the same thought for this set (just need to buy another one ). What did you do with the other bottom and roof?

I pulled 6 bags from the display at a local Target and ended up with two Mr. Burns bags. Even felt them up before tossign them into my cart, but mistook the 2nd Burns for an Apu. Found out a co-worker blind grabbed 3 Millhouses and 2 Lisas...had to tell him about feeling the bags out first.

^ I generally leave the stickers off the sets unless my daughter wants them applied, or they actually are needed. Case in point are the wood patern stickers for the #60009: Helicopter Arrest set. Applied correctly, they look awesome and can be used elsewhere in other builds.

On those rare times I have placed the sticker perfectly, it looks like it was printed on the brick, but most of the time the sticker is almost aways off somehow. The one saving grace is the stickers that are able to be peeled off and replaced (i.e.: the one printed on the white material). Those printed on the shiney material, or the clear....yeah, once you stick it, you can basically forget it...

Just found this topic, and I think it is funny all the sets with a coffee maker. My daughter and I built the #60044-1 Moble Police Unit truck a few weeks back, and the funniest part was the sliding wall that had a coffee maker built into it. As I pointed out to my wife, it is a police truck, and a cop needs his cup of joe!

Here is another keychain removal method: http://www.instructables.com/id/LEGO-minifig-key-chain-removal/