mostlytechnic

Have to say, I'm glad this won't be out in the US for a while because I'm sure I'll be buying one the day the local Lego store gets them, and I just don't have time to build it right now. :)

I use that share option - it's simple and a great way to give people links to bigger versions

Got a couple grab bags at my Lego store yesterday... $7.99 each, but when I got home, wow! Great stuff in there... IMG_20120605_173837 by mostlytechnic, on Flickr Bride, Boy, and Secretary from the Town Hall set. IMG_20120605_173831 by mostlytechnic, on Flickr A bunch of parts from the Town Hall. Assorted bricks in dark orange are nice to have. And best... IMG_20120605_173816 by mostlytechnic, on Flickr Superman, circle-chested Iron Man, a couple Star Wars troopers (anyone wanna ID them for me?), I think the black fig is a knight from the Joust set. I know that green-armed fig in the middle is all mixed up. The legs are chainmail from the Joust set, the torso I think is Atlantis. I think the far left fig is the Luke from the UCS Imperial Shuttle (or a watch). I think the tan fig on the right is a Mace Windu body (from 7868 or magnet set), with a yellow head and a dark red fez. Overall though, the figs alone are worth easily $40. Sweet!

Got and built it yesterday - FANTASTIC set! The functions are great (although the range of motion on the elevators is a bit small). A few things... I ended up with a couple spare boat studs and a 1x4 tan plate. I don't think I missed anything, but it's possible. Also, why the shocks in the landing gear? Just seems like overkill. I think they're just holding the struts apart the right spacing, but they could have done that other ways much cheaper (like bushes on the axle maybe).

It does come with 4 large flanged wheels (used in the train) and 2 rimless wheels.

Love the swords as prop blades. Look great for that!

Lots of sets include it now - the larger Super Hero sets do for sure. I think I've got around 20 of these now :)

That looks awesome - can't wait to see it done!

Actually, both are in various marvel sets. I've built the big jet, the truck, and the chopper and know I've seen both.

The battery box for trains is the new, smaller one - uses 6 AAA batteries rather than the 6 AA of the Technic battery box. You want this one: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-Power-Functions-AAA-Battery-Box-88000 Also, you'd need the Train Motor (http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-Power-Functions-Train-Motor-88002) and Speed Remote (http://shop.lego.com/en-US/LEGO-Power-Functions-IR-Speed-Remote-Control-8879) All total, that's about $40 in stuff, plus track. Keep in mind though, if you did buy the passenger train set, you're only getting 1 battery box and 1 motor in there. you can run multiple trains with one speed remote, but you'd want to get another motor and battery box so you can run both trains I suspect.

You can get the modulars online at toysrus.com, but only if you're lucky. I've been watching all week and saw that pet shop came in stock briefly, so I ordered a pair of them.

Best solution yet!

I was able to get the last section of the table built last night, but no photos yet. Gotta pick up more blue baseplates today! I thought I had more than I do.

It's an interesting idea, but you'd need to put the "hooks" that grab the chain on every car I'd think - I doubt the magnets would hold together on such a steep slope. Does seem like a nice way to get some change, especially on a larger layout where you could hide the hill behind a building or in a tunnel.

PM sent!

Tecnhic prices in Germany do not relate to the rest of the world, because it's so much more popular there. There's just more sets available in the used market, so the prices don't increase. In fact, I've done well in the past importing sets from Germany and selling them here in the US for a nice profit. Here in the US, I just did a completed search on ebay. Used sets sell regularly for around $250-300, and sealed sets are $500 and up. Looks like around 15 complete sets sold in Feb/Mar.

Finally got some wood cut over the weekend. Here's the current status: Just the shelving by mostlytechnic, on Flickr Yes, the basement is a disaster. Wife has a photo studio down there and it hasn't been cleaned in a while, so there's props piled everywhere. The shelving units I'm using are perfect - 3 feet high, 2x4 feet in size. Lots of space for storing Lego. The first table section by mostlytechnic, on Flickr The first section of the table is done. It's 4x8, and yes, it's built way overkill. That's 2x8 boards for the sides, and there's a crossbeam down the center to support the plywood too. You can walk on this thing. But it's the height I wanted and I don't have to worry about anything sagging, that's for sure! Grass! by mostlytechnic, on Flickr I added the other 4x4 unit in the corner and planted grass. I'm loving the cheap fake grass - a 4x12 piece was like $20 at the hardware store. Can't beat that! There's supposed to be another section coming forward (on the shelf toward the camera, where the car wash and space center are currently sitting). However, I was a moron and cut the boards wrong. And since I was assembling this at 10pm, I doubt the kids or neighbors want the power tools coming back out. So hopefully tonight I can correct that and get the table done. Track laid by mostlytechnic, on Flickr I HAD to go ahead and lay out the track, right? I modified it a bit since the "water" section isn't there, but otherwise, it's close to done. Seems pretty good. Now just gotta deal with a few points that are sticking. And didn't someone make a mod to the crossover track so that you can set it to run in parallel? I need that! The track layout (for now) by mostlytechnic, on Flickr A better view of the track. Still some more to lay, but I needed to get to bed. Same Video on Flickr of trains Of course, the mandatory video. Due to the late hour, I forgot to turn more lights on so it's pretty crappy quality. I'll shoot something better later. But current trains are: 1. Emerald night, that's running really bad. Very jerky. That's fresh batteries, so not sure why. It has sat on a shelf for a few months though. I'll mess with it when I have time. But it's pulling an assortment of cars - the standard EN passenger car, a moc based on the Toy Story train, then a couple official TS train cars, then a couple more mocs using up spare parts from the TS train set (doesn't every passenger train need a car full of dynamite?), and finally the TS caboose and a moc double-size TS caboose. 2. Now the freight flies by. Maersk loco in the front, followed by the 7939 yellow loco with double motors. These are pulling the two stock Maersk cars, a bunch of stock 7939 cars, a larger Octan car based on the 3180 tanker truck, a crappy version of the TTX container cars holding the yellow containers from 7939 (seriously, don't even look at these cars. They're made of random part, just trying some things out, and I tossed them on the tracks to see how they'd run), and at the end, another 7939 yellow loco. Without that, the train kept separating various places. With it, it only tried to separate after one of the Maersk cars, which I think has a bad magnet in the coupler, since I've ALWAYS had things separate there. A 1x2 tile fixes that though. So there you have it, how I spent my Sunday evening :) Now I need to fix the boards so I can add the water section and start building the bridge over the water. I suspect it might be a while before that's fully operational.

Thanks, hadn't thought about that. Nothing's going to be stuck down for quite a while, so if there is any problem, I'll just redesign that area a bit (add some flex sections as needed to space the points out probably...)

basement by mostlytechnic, on Flickr So, here's the current plans for our basement layout. I've got the shelves set up that are being the "legs" of the table. This weekend I hope to build the surface and start laying track... The buildings and road on the left probably won't be at all like that. I think the road plates are just too big for the space available, so I'll probably go with a tiled or brick built road much smaller. Actually, at first it'll be construction paper till we settle on a layout :) The blue area will be several inches lower than the rest of the table. I plan to make stone/concrete looking bridge supports for the track over the water to keep it level. The height change itself will have a brick-built cliff face and possibly a dock or something. I originally was going to have the water area be 4x4', but that made the back corner too hard to reach. With this smaller water, I can just about reach the back corner without needing a stool or anything. I'll definitely put end of line buffers on those two sidings around the chemical plant to help reduce the need to reach back to the corner :) Here's what I envision going in as far as buildings and scenery... The back right corner will be a MOC Chemical plant. With a disaster going on of course... I've started gathering some trans neon green parts to have a terrible leak of some sort, and I've got several security guards (from the Super Heroes Two-Face Escape) and Haz-Mat guys to go in that scene. Eventually in the back left I want to make a tunnel through a hill, and put windmills on top of the hill. I've already got one windmill motorized, and it has outputs to drive two more off the one motor. That'll look sweet :) I've got FB and GE to go in here somewhere, plus tons of parts to moc up some other buildings. We'll just see how it grows... Trains: I have EN, Maersk, a couple of the yellow cargo train, assorted cars (both original and MOC), and have a bunch of the 3180 Octan tanker truck that I'll turn into a string of tanker cars to have at the chemical plant. Any thoughts / ideas / suggestions? Any way you'd lay it out differently?

the main issue would be assembled sets or parts? Parts are easy - just put them in containers (even ziplog bags) and put that inside cardboard boxes and ship away. Sets, well, that'd be tricky to have it arrive nicely. I'd suggest taking them apart at least partially and then put them carefully into boxes, but expect them to be even more apart when they arrive :) Shippers are NOT gentle to packages.

Wow, I'm out of the loop on cartoons these days. Let's see what I can identify: South Park? Simpsons Smurfs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Donald Duck and nephews ???? Bert and Ernie

Not really a CUP, but I did buy a lot of PAB yesterday. Asked about buying bamboo leaves in bulk (we're building a train layout in our basement) and they had a full box I could buy! $70 for what I'm guessing is around 2000 bamboo leaves :) It's nice when the local employees all recognize you when you walk in cause you've spent so much money there...

Note that the 6-drawer one is different.There's no dividers and no small plates on the front of the drawers. Each "drawer" is actually a box that closes. We got my son this for Christmas and he loves it, but there's no organizational ability beyond the 6 drawers. So what he's doing is putting each set into a baggie and then storing the bags in the drawers.

We got a couple of those (kids wanted to use them as gifts for their teachers). I see the "brick apple" set on BL, but that looks a bit bigger than what we have, and I'm 99% sure the ones we got didn't call themselves "Brick apple" or be in that blue bag. Think it was a yellow bag. However, I can't find them on Bricklink.

It'll come up at S@H US too, but just as "coming soon" : http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Town-Hall-10224