mostlytechnic

Nope, target doesn't match clearance prices. The only way you MIGHT be able to get the lower price is to return it and come back the next day and find it on the shelf again. But that's obviously hugely risky.

Agree, the vertical tiles on there make it look fantastic.

Sure, when I get a chance I'll show you what I've got. If I don't post in a day or two remind me :) edit: Here's the spec document from Lego explaining the whole PF IR system: http://ebookbrowse.c...0-pdf-d21954919 There's a section in there on extended mode. Basically, there's a toggle command that tells any PF receivers that see it to switch to the extended channels. Sending the command again switches them back. So to have trains run in both modes (so you have 16 total channels of control), you'd have to turn on the receivers that you want to be in extended mode, send the command, and then turn on the rest of the receivers. In my train remote, I'm using a saitek throttle quadrant. That has 3 levers that I use as throttles, and then I replaced the buttons with toggle switches which I have controlling forward/reverse. I wrote my program so that if the toggles were in a specific configuration when the remote turns on, it sends that toggle command and then operates itself in extended channels. Otherwise, the remote does not send the toggle command and operates in the normal channels. My remote is mostly working - I never got the actual IR transmitters to be powerful enough (not sure whether my Ir LEDs were the wrong wavelentgh, or I fried something in my amplifier circuit, or what) but I was able to hack another IR device to be my IR source. Just haven't had time to quite finish the project. Once I do I'll be posting it in detail here for sure! In the meantime, let me know if you have any other questions.

Using the extra channels does not require a new receiver - I've played around with an arduino-based IR transmitter system and was able to control trains using both the standard and extended addresses. I don't remember off hand exactly how it worked, but I think it was something like when you activated the extended addresses in the transmitter, it sent out a signal that told any receivers in range to switch to the extended addresses. So I'd turn on some trains, then turn on the homemade remote that used the extended addresses, and then turn on any trains that did NOT use them. Could use the homemade remote to control the first set of trains and the standard remotes to control the second set. All were using stock Lego receivers.

gotcha. Not a big deal, just seems like it'd be better general practice to host here so there's no issues of other servers going down, etc.

The current header image (http://brickzone.net/images/eurobricks/banner_sci_fi_02.jpg) won't load for me. Turns out my work internet blocks brickzone.net as a "gaming" site. Go figure. But the issue is, why does EB load images from another site? Wouldn't it be simpler and more reliable to have images on your own server?

Because Amazon themselves isn't selling it (or is out of stock). The higher price is other sellers who had to buy it from Lego and are trying to still make a profit (and since Amazon takes a 15% commission on all toy sales, you really have to mark stuff up or buy it cheap to sell profitably on Amazon). If you wait, I bet Amazon will get it back in stock. Use something like camelcamelcamel to monitor it and let you know when it's cheaper again.

Just added stuff, removed stuff, updated wanted section. Take a look!

If you're not in a rush to sell, bricklink is absolutely the way to go. Only reason to use ebay is if you HAVE to sell it quickly. Even then, I'd post it in the selling forum here at a good price for a couple days first.

Wow, thanks for sharing there Jeroen! I can't say too much about the steering, since the unit I had was old enough that the cables were permanently curved. However, the concept of the flexcable steering is nice, it just seems sloppy in this exact design. Perhaps changes in the flex cables between what you designed and what got produced? I have to agree with Hopey above - this is a fantastically crazy and unique set that would never get produced today. It may not have the variety of functions that a set today has (like the Unimog, Excavator, etc) but I am glad to have built it!

PM sent

Love it! Looks 100% to me like it could be an official set.

1. Keep in mind that what someone asks on ebay does not mean they'll sell it for that price. 2. However, in this case.... bricklink prices for that fig new range from $250 to over $450, and that IS actual sales. So yes, it sells for that much!

Yes, there's a PF adapter cable. See the discussion earlier in this thread about it - it doesn't fit right on the train motor, so the 88002 motor is a better choice if you're using PF power.

Love the floor - two greys with the orange safety strip to mark the aisle. Nice!

For those wondering, I ran it with the single motor in the front and pulled the two stock cars, two Emerald Night cars, and 2 Maersk cars with no problems, even through curves and switches and over Flex-Track. I could spin the wheels when the loco was on flex track and the cars going around a curve, but once in motion, it worked fine over anything. It did struggle a big, so double motors wouldn't hurt at all. If I was making a double set, I'd probably just put dual motors in the front and have the back unpowered for simplicity.

MAke a new one, and the mods can close this one

The online deal (for the US, not sure about details in other countries) today is: Free ship on $49, Free holiday set with $99, and 10% off $149 or more. And they stack. I went to my store VIP event this morning. Spent about $800, got the holiday set. We also got one of the holiday PAB boxes to fill free today, a holiday PAB to fill later (since I purchased), a reusable lego bag (too small, frankly - won't hold larger lego sets!), and a poster about Lego stores. It was cool - the manager noticed people trying to carry stacks around and said "It's just us here, just make a pile somewhere" so there were random piles of boxes all over the store while people shopped. Then when you were ready to check out, just scoot the pile over to the registers.

Thanks for all the pics - I'll probably grab a few of these, but (unlike everyone else in here) I just want the tree. Need some more foliage for my train layout, so I'll get a couple of these, sell the wargs and figs, and have big trees for cheap :)

I like the silver roof, except for the swirls in the plastic. With better quality flat silver parts it'd be awesome. I don't like that the bogeys don't match, but I suspect that's due to the 9v motors being added and they come from the factory matching. Overall designs are ok but a bit plain. Granted, I'm coming from Emerald night, Maersk, and Horizon express. They compare well to the Lego kid sets like the cargo trains and the 7938 passenger train.

Aw, thanks. Now I have a matching set of tags. I don't remember what I got the red one for though - my Airport Shuttle review maybe?

I'm not sure how much room there is for a switch, but perhaps you could wire like this: IR receiver has 2 stacked connections, one motor and the switch. On the switch, stack 2 connections - the other motor and the lights, since the lights don't care about direction. That'd keep the IR stack at 2 but let you run all 3 things.

You are correct - I knew that when I was writing, but I didn't make it very clear what parts are truly new and what are just really rare or otherwise special.

The real train has two bogeys in the engine. That way it can be swapped out for maintenance and so forth. The cars are pretty much one permanent unit that doesn't get separated. I checked on the clearance around the IR receiver - with two connections stacked like I have, you can't put the front pantograph all the way down. It gets close, but not quite. With a third stacked. the pantograph would have to be almost straight up (at least the lower section, where the 1x3 thin liftarms are). There doesn't appear to be an easy way to fill in under the pantograph - the unit that the snot arrows are connected to is right there and the pantographs take up way more space when folded down than the real things would. I also checked on the Jacobs bogey. There's the light grey section in the center. You can see that between the cars if you look. My first though was just stick a 2x2 black tile over it. That mostly works, but the cars do hit it in curves. They still make it around, but it's too tight. A better solution would be rebuilding the bogey with black instead of light grey parts. Shouldn't be too hard, though I haven't checked on availability of all the parts (there's some snot brackets involved).

Considering there's only 64 Lego retail stores in the whole US, and plenty of other places that carry it (Target, Walmart, Amazon, ToysRUs, etc) I don't think it has anything to do with military base locations.