Cara

I recently bought a second hand 4535 LEGO Express Deluxe (my first foray into trains)which works like a charm as of the time I handed it over to my kids an hour ago, however I have a second motor and some tracks that I picked up previously, and now know for sure do not work. How do I troubleshoot a 9V motor that doesn't run? Right now all I can tell you is that the wheels turn fine if I push them with my finger. When I put it on the track that the 4535 is running successfully on it is entirely stationary. Is it possible to get inside the box to see what's going on?

I bought a minifigure utensil magic wand (6124) in chrome silver. I don't see it listed on bricklink. Can anyone tell me what set it comes from? thank you!

I keep toying with the idea of attending Bricks by the Bay, but I like cons specifically so I can meet up with people rather than see models. I would go if there were more people on this board that were also attending.

Has anyone seen the 1x1 round tiles on a wall in the US?

Since you HAD to bricklink the flags anyway right make that postage cost effective.

I'm going to take the other view but with a few caveats! I like the black arch. I think it gives just enough sense of darkness/mood to the scene. It picks up the black weaons really well. BUT it looks too blocky as is. The problem with black is that it doesnt photograph well for a MOC and looks miles better in real life. If you stuck with the black and broke up the square lines I think it works. So for example, change the outside traingles of the mosaic to black so the mosaic shows a grey diamond, or change the pattern so its a grey star. Not a square - nothing square. Similarly across the top change the current grey to black and keep just those diamonds and whatever is inside them grey. My only other thought is how it would look if the walls in the arched space behind those axes were light grey instead of dark grey but that might be too much pop.

That sounds exceedingly uncomfortable I had to go check and yes! that 6 for 38 price is whatever they do online. I generally get them for about $3-$4 each, the same sized tub also sells at Target with a different coloured handle. And for Joann's check their coupon page: http://www.joann.com/coupon/ every two weeks ish its a 40% off one so the box comes down to about $6+tax If I had a work space where I could access all of the drawers, I can see the appeal. I'm trying to remember who it is here that has this gorgeous basement with a wall of drawers. If I see the picture again I'll link to it.

I really like that bridge Soccerkid! I think its because you chose to rotate the walls so they smoothly wave like the river carved them out. It gives it a great sense of motion.

I use these guys: http://www.walmart.c...indingMethod=rr in the US they are buyable at most Target/Walmart/home goods stores. I love that they fit a 32 square baseplate and that they stack nicely. There are ones double the depth for colours I have a lot of and there are ones half the size such that two of these half sized ones sit on the lid of the full sized box and they don't slide. I prefer bins to drawers so that I can fetch out just the colours or type of parts I'm using and have their bins on my desk top. I stack them under my desk. Then for smaller pieces I use: http://www.joann.com...ents/prd791137/ because you can move the dividers to make whatever length compartments you like within the tray, very versatile. Plus even though they are $10 normally, this store forever has 40% off coupons =) Displaying I can't help with. I rarely display anything after its built. So dry and living by the scorched hills, gets very dusty, very quickly.

Around here (California gold trail) they also have false facades that extend higher than the top story of the building, they can be crenellated or make it appear that the building has an apex roof whereas really they have flat rooves. The other thing I would suggest is the wooden decking that extends on the ground floor of the building over the muddy road.

lol!!!!

The stores around here don't let you do it if they also have a limited time building area, like a friends one or a TMNT one up in the store. Because kids move bricks back and forth between the two building areas. However once the limited time one has been cleared away, the normal building area seems to be ok to pick from. You can also find bricks there that were on the brick wall but that might have sold out. I really wish that when Lego did a limited time building area that they would send those same bricks for the brick wall too. That way kids could buy the bricks to recreate things they had built in the store and the rest of us could have a chance to get bricks we otherwise wouldn't see on the wall.

Yes I have no idea what I'm going to do with almost a full pot of them. But I know when I go back they'll never be seen again!

There were new bricks in this week at the Santa Clara store. There are four small cups here. 1x2 purple tiles 1x4 dark pink brick and 1x1 dark green bricks were on the brick wall There are also 1x2 light pink bricks but they didn't have any in at the moment. The cup on the right was from old kids building stations, I was really lucky to find what I did, I bought the last of it that I could see. Sometimes these things are in the kids building bins, sometimes they make it onto the wall if the store is low on stock.

I love all the little details!

I love this! The shape of that toadstool is wonderful. I especially love the use of red and green on the white area and green and white on the red.

As with anything, its more ideas than time!

I love that this looks like it could have been a MOC from someone here, rather than a lego set!

It will likely be just the one battle scene build, now I'm in no rush to finish it, it will be whenever. So it's collecting dust on my desk, but at least I'm not subjecting the family to walking around lego boxes all over the floor for weeks on end! I'll just have to build my elven-style sanctuary another time =) In the meantime I'll hang out here, look at all of your builds and chat!

That was a neat little puzzle!

Mine is definitely going to be a free build and not an entry. Life caught up with me! Where has this year gone???

I love this, the colours and texture remind me of Derfels work. Its the angle of the tree and the sense of almost spookiness invoked. Very, very nice.

I always use small cups because my store lets your stack until the lid barely touches the top of the cup then they tape it up because it's threatening to cascade off any second. If there are large pieces that don't fit in the small cup generally my store lets you put them on the side and estimate their depth in the cup, honestly the employees are so nice you can have 2 to 4 16byX plates that dont fit in the cup on the side, not that they have those regularly however. And for the person asking about height. I can't reach into the top most bin that has pickable bricks in it. I always ask a store employee to grab a cup of whatever I'm after for me. I only wish that lego would send boxes of the special bricks they use for the kids play areas (think the chima/friends/starwars bricks) to put on the brick wall too. Its lovely to play with them in the shop but I've always wondered why they dont supply the shops with ones to sell too.

Interesting! thank you

I swung by my local b&m lego store today and found they have some kingdom knights at their build a minifigure station! Since my store lets you put any 15 items in your minifigure box, I now have 25 Kingdom Lion Head torsos. (Red is nice but I would have loved for them to have the dark green dragon knights too, which they didn't boo.) The other five slots I used for one chrome gold kings crown and four princess skirts (medium blue on white with gold belt from brickbeard's bounty/grand emproium etc). Then they also had dark red capes! I've never seen capes in the bin before. Picked up a few but didnt feel I should take many since I was buying pieces rather than complete figures. I got my moneys worth vs bricklink, just, which isn't always the case with the build a minifigure station. But more to the point I picked up an infantry units worth of troops, hehe.