Lord Insanity

Barbarian: Cool. I would have rather had a slightly smaller belt and a double baldric though. (*cough* He-man *cough*) Looks like the first fig that will work good to mix and match parts with the Gladiator to make multiple different Gladiators (with the helmet) and Barbarians (with the hair). Scarecrow: Its the figure I didn't even know I wanted. It just begs to be given a crown and seated on the throne of the Emerald City. Bavarian Woman: I would have prefered an actual printed dress slope but other wise exactly what I was hoping for. Blacktron Mech: Why does he use puke green with the old school (better) logo. If he had yellow accents and a red laser he would have been the army builder. The only thing that interests me on this figure is the Triple Triangle logo. If its yellow I could see getting a few for the armor piece alone. If its puke green... well maybe one for the cadets (blacktron 2 figs) target practice. Tiki Mask Man: Oh, yeah. Will try to get several of these to serve as King Kahuka's soldiers. Gingerbread Man: One or two for the winter layout, kinda meh. Holiday Elf: He look straight out of the classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer special. I will try to get several of theese guys for Santa's workshop. Yeti: One or two for the winter layout, kinda meh. Blue popsicle though. Mountain Man: Wow cool rope. Welder: Woo hoo. Best town worker in the line. I have wanted a welding mask for ages. Scientist: Exactly what a modern day corporate scientist should look like. Sax Man: Wow cool saxaphone. Oh hey look there's a good mobster there too. Diner Waitress: The real picture looks much better. This fig would have been A+ in light pink instead of light yellow. I love light yellow as a building color but yellow never looks right as clothing on a yellow skinned figure. Everything else about the figure is awesome though. I will still have to get a few for my dinner. Cat-loving Granny: Awesome new cat. Cool crazy cat lady figure. That hair looks awesome in gray and the sweater is epic. Constable: Very cool. As for the 1337 "leet" thing. Wow everyone seriously! Write the number 1337 down on a piece of paper and turn it upside down. Female Robot: What the heck?

Wow. This is the forestmen / elven set I have dreamed of. Seriously though, I can only see two minor flaws. Because the 4 huts have no doors and open backs, it makes the upper trees look sort of wrong. This is cleverly hidden on the box picture. A simple removable back to each tree/hut would fix that. The other flaw is the same issue I have had with forestmen sets since I was 8 years old. Where is the generic $10-$20 tree set to buy/build a forest to hide this thing in? At the very least make those color foliage pieces available for sale. Right now the only large foliage piece available from S@H is the bright green one. The price is actually very good when you add it all up. Almost 2000 pieces (among them at least 50 foliage pieces ) and 17 figures (counting R2). That is really good compared to most smaller sets. I will try to get this set (if it sticks around long enough for me to save up) and I probably will convert it into an elven village. (with warrior teddy bears)

The thing that seems really off to me is the colored slopes on the crenulation. Simply removing all those silly blue slopes would make the castle look ten times better. Compare to what I still consider the best actual castle ever made by LEGO, the 6086 Black Knight's Castle. While 6086 has bright red and yellow those are used for tudor style wall sections and actual roofing. It looks good despite still being brightly colored. (thougth the black walls may help with that illusion) In the new 70404 castle (just like the 7946 Kingdom's castle) the color on the crenulation just makes it look well, stupid. Underneath is what looks like an awesome castle though. I am not a big fan of the new heraldry. I seems off somehow and I can't quite tell why yet. (Even the classic dragon heraldry from 6086 looks better.) I kind of wonder why they didn't just reuse the Kingdom's heraldry (which was awesome) if they were just going to do more lions and dragons.

The Maersk train is actually an EMD SD40. The Maersk is one of the few engines spcifically representing a real engine as opposed to merely inspired by one (like the Horizon Express). Here is a good picture of the real engine painted in a Maersk color scheme Norfolk Southern 3329. Due to a minor accident, the engine has subsequently been repaired and repainted back to standard Norfolk Southern color scheme like the 3330 engine in that picture. We now return to extolling the virtues of Lego's 7939 Cargo Train.

It looks like the cow catcher, pistons, and small front wheels are all part of the front truck of the locomotive. That might explain why they didn't even try to add the drive rods. Looks like it would be fairly simple to add the wheel rods but adding the piston rods would require a fair amount of redesign. Well that is half the fun after all. Overall I am very happy with the set. As I own most of the original Western sets, I have been waiting for a good western train for a while. The Toy Story train did nothing for me but the Constitution is a beauty. The Constitution is pretty much spot on to what I think of era and design wise when I think "Steam Engine." Looks like it will go great with my two 10015 Passenger Wagons. The only downside I see to the set is it probably should have had a passenger coach come with it. That's not an issue in my case but the secondary market price of 10015 is already out of reach for most casual fans. (cheapest on bricklink as of posting is $45, the cheapest blue variant of the same set is $89. That is how much the whole set the blue variant came in cost originally.)

All pictures link to hi-res versions. Full Flickr Gallery is here. This is a simple layout I made for my grandfather to display over Christmas. I built it at home in 15 modular sections that can fit into cardboard apple boxes. I then took it over and set it up at my grandfather's house. It was intentionally left sparse to allow for future expansion as new winter village sets come out. The first thing that should be obvious is that the winter village cottage is not in this layout. As I have been getting the winter village sets for Christmas, my layout will always be missing the current year's set. There is also only one MOC building, a small train station based on a real one (no longer in use) near my house. Most of the actual sets have had minor MODs done. The holiday train had the newer cow catcher piece added for example. Building a large landscape like this was a real learning experience. I learned several things to not do in the future. For example each foundation base was made by a double layer of plates. This caused significant bowing in ceartain areas. I should have made a plate-brick-plate sandwich for the foundation bases. I don't know if I will have time to do that for next year (Christmas 2013) or not. Here is a close up of the MOC train station. I used up my supply of light yellow, dark brown, and dark tan in an attempt to match the real building it is based on a closely as I could. Here is a close up of "Grinch" mountain. I wasn't sure exactly where the lamp on the wall would wind up being so I intentionally left this rather small. Here is a close up of my heavilly modded pond. I used two layers of clear plates with a layer of old dark gray underneath to acheive the "ice" effect I wanted. Here is a close up of the Collectible Minifigure Santa sitting is a slightly modded Fire Brigade truck. Both worked perfectly for a layout like this. Here are two sharp angle overview shots from either side getting as much as I could. Here is a link to a fairly low quality video showing the train running. It starts close up the pull back to an overview shot. In hindsight I realize besides the two Santa's (one for the "grinch") I used 8 more various Collectible Figures in the layout. The two skiers, the two snowboarders, the eskimo, the fisherman, the lumberjack, and the bowler hat buisnessman. Disclaimer: I do not currently have regular access to the internet so I might be several days till I can respond to questions or comments. I appologize in advance for that. Thanks for looking.

There seems to be some confusion with this set and the shooting cannons' availability in the U.S. The first (and possibly second) batch of sets sold in the U.S. did have the shooting cannons. It was afterward that they were switched to the transitional cannons. I got the Barracuda for christmas right after it was released and my set had the shooting cannons. The Eldorado fortress I got for my birhday in the summer had the transitional non-firing cannons. Keep in mind back in 1989 Lego put those yearly full line up product booklets in sets. Early January and all the sets had the new books showing the new pirates sets listed as coming September 1st. We had knowledge of those sets for nine months before they were released. That was quite a lot of christmas hype lead time to my 10 year old self. It is kind of wacky that it took 20 years to get another ship worthy of going against the Barracuda.

The teaser lion figure really didn't do anything for me but those bird people are awesome. The way the wings are attached is perfect. By using seperate clip pieces the armor becomes far more useful. The single best thing is the heads. Molded helmets over printed heads is the best way to do any "alien" head. That alone makes these figues 10 times more useful to me. The ability take off the molded helmet and use the printed heads with say castle helmets or space helmets is awesome and should be the default for all non-standard shaped heads. The flying bird vehicles and figures are by far and away my favorite. I am really glad the smallest (army building) set is a raven flyer. I used to play with my Black Falcon figures in a very similar way, minus the technoloy of course. A couple of bird wizards that flew by magic. The Croc Ship is awesome only for is massive supply of olive green parts. If it was lime green I doubt it would be getting nearly as much attention. Olive green on the other hand is a military builder's holy grail color.

It tells me that despite wanting a cheap crossing set, most people will not buy a rail maintence vehicle they don't want to get the crossing. This gets worse if you actually wanted multiple crossings. Add that to the fact that the crossing was never available in any store around me (even the local Lego Store), and you have a self fufilling prophecy. (I am 10 times more likely to buy a set in the store then I am to use Shop @ Home.) This was the same problem with the My Own Train line. Target had the passenger coach, log car, and caboose. Toys R Us had the starter set with the locomotive, exclusive blue coach, and a loop of track. No one had the hopper car (the best car in the line in my opinion and I am including the Santa Fe and TTX cars here) or any seperate track. The local Lego Store didn't even exist back then. How would anyone not intentionally looking for these things even find them? You couldn't even buy the starter set and seperate cars in the same store. Surprising to no one the stuff all went on clearance because the causual buyers (the majority of Lego's market) didn't even know of them. But using that fiasco of marketing and distrubition failure as an example of "seperate train cars don't sell" is supposed to be totally serious. To be kind of back on topic, I think the new Horizon Express has finally gotten it right with the AFOL geared trains in one regard. Due to the nature of the train being portrayed, two sets makes a complete train. Sure some might want more cars but it looks good with just two sets. Both the Emerald Night and Maersk sets really required more coaches/cars with no real need for another engine. Lets just hope if they make another steam or diesel train it has a better ratio of actual cars/coaches.

First off, as always, an excellent review. Thanks WhiteFang. As an AFOL that likes getting some of every mini-fig theme the Collectible Figure line is my favorite theme ever. I love the new diver, finally an old school "steam punk" diver. The Thespian (Actor) is also one of the best figures in the entire line. I also love the Alien Queen. That is easily the best of the Alien Conquest alien heads. The Cow Girl is awesome its about time we got Annie Oakley. Finally a real Santa Claus. The Conquistador is an epic fail. Why gold helmet and armor, Why? In silver this would have been the army builder of Series 8. Failing that it could have had an awesome shirt print that would have been great to mix and match with the Thespian. The best part of the Series 3 Samurai was the shirt print for using him as a civilian or a soldier. No such luck with the Conquistador. Well I'll still get one or two for a captain/general fig in the hope of getting a more generic solider in a future series. I like all the other figures too, even the "repeats". I am not sure why people are against "repeats". I hope they keep producing variants both male and female of the various "boarders". Those aren't awesome army builders but I would like lots of different individual "boarders". Maybe its just because I view the Collectible Figures line as parts for MOCs rather than being strictly display pieces. Over all another excellent batch that I will be getting at least one of each. (yes even the "pointless" pirate captain. I want one of the shirt prints.)

Overall I think this set is an awesome addition too the Winter Village line. I am kind of bummed by the higher price point but at least the set has the substance to justify it. I would have preferred dropping the shed and a couple figs for a lower price point though. The biggest let down to me is the roof. I don't like the all white roof idea simply because the undersides of overhangs should not be white. Snow doesn't magically stick to the underside of a roof after all. (nor should the roof be "made" out of snow) The Post Office roof was perfect. If you want thicker snow just add more white plates and/or tiles but the base roof itself should not be white. As I posted here I modded my Toy Shop and Bakery to have only some snow cover like the Post Office. I will definitely be doing the same to the new cottage. I might have to make a full coating of snow on top of the roof to see how that looks.

Some really cool looking long trains here. This is my modest contribution originally posted here. It is an Americanized Emerald Night with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class cars, 2 mail cars, and a caboose. A short video of the train running is here

I have actually done this with my Cafe Corner. (I bought the set back when it came out.) It actually looks better with the 1x2x3 windows with "glass" swapped in place of the panels. The open hole windows were the only minor complaint I had with the set. Once those 1x2x3 windows showed up on Shop at Home pick-a-brick I ordered some to swap the Cafe Corner windows out. That frees up the panels and several 1x2 light blue tiles as well. Those parts are much more useful to me for use in non-window related MOCs.

Due to circumstances beyond my control I no longer have internet access at home. It's been almost 2 weeks since I was able to check this thread. There have been some really neat things posted. Unfortunately I will likely not be able to participate for a while. I just figured I would let everyone know rather that merely disappearing for a while. At this point I have no idea how long it will be before I can rejoin the fun.

The new lava fall and bone "foliage" makes it look much more evil and fitting in Nocturnus.

How exactly is this so called king going to execute one that is already dead. That is almost as funny as the guy that wants to give us food as trade goods for magic items. What do the dead want with food? Foolish mortals. Okay, so some of our guild members are living and thus more vulnerable. I will defer to Lord Ssilyrrlith on this for now... ...back to tinkering on a guard tower. (I probably won't get to dig out the bulk of my collection and thus finish it till after Thanksgiving, good thing we have 24 more days left of the "about a month" )

Well now that is just wasteful. Every enemy that falls before Nocturnus rises again on our side. After all that is what necromancy is for. This is my army from 2003, (long before Lego was gracious enough to make the Fantasy era skeleton faction.)

Well if its not too late... I pledge my armies to the Nocturnus Guild. Across many ages and lands has Insanity traveled. All that dared to stand before him have joined his army... one way or another. (Flickr page) This is but a small sample. (There is a small joke hidden in my squad above, I wonder if anyone will spot it.)

Three The original Black Seas Barracuda I got for Christmas in '89. (The following year I got Eldorado Fortress.) Then I got the re-release of the Armada Flagship on clearance. (I kept waiting for a soldier ship worth going against the BSB. By the time of the AF re-release it looked like such a ship would never be made and I figured any ship to battle with was better than none.) Finally a soldier ship worthy of fighting the BSB, I got the new Imperial Flagship. (I must admit the sails on the Queen Ann's Revenge are strongly tempting me to get that set as a parts pack, but I won't do that unless I find a really good price on it. It is kind of wacky that LEGO has never actually beat their very first pirate ship. You would think that the modern parts and color pallet would have allowed them to surpass the BSB by now. Even the Imperial Flagship has the minor issues of the tacked on silly figurehead and missing half its cannons. )

The Armada Flagship. Okay, sure it only has one cannon but that cannon has a rather large firing arc on either side. Small, fast, agile, and an actual so obviously superior firing arc sounds like a winner to me. Of course in retaliation the Imperial Flagship would only need one lucky broadside to land...

That is awesome. The animated cars really make this. I could picture this running down the line as part of a Christmas parade.

I have been working on this here and there for the past several months. I love steam engines but until the Emerald Night set came out there really wasn't a good LEGO set of one. Being from the U.S. the set was a little too European for my tastes. So I basically made a cross between the official set and the 4-6-2 Southern Crescent. Higher-res pictures and a short video of the train running can be found on my Flickr Account. Here you can see I motorized the tender. I never really liked the original roof on the dinning car or the fact that its ends had no doors so I changed all of my cars to fix that. Car 1 is the first-class dinning car. The inside is stock with seating for 4. I made the front truck motorized giving the entire train two 9v motors. Car 2 is the second-class passenger car. The inside has face to face seating for 6. Car 3 is the third-class passenger car. The inside has row seating for 7. Cars 4 and 5 are the mail cars. I designed them after the classic 7819 Mail Car set. Originally I tried to make the cargo doors actually open but the only solution I came up with that fit the height restrictions was too wide to actually use the inside anyway. I forgot to replace the place holder 1x4 plates on the cargo doors of car 5 with the correct 1x6 for the picture. For the caboose I wanted to match the engine and tender livery so as to signify the LRTS livery in my town. I used the rare centered cupola design as that fit with my roof design better. Yes there is a full minifig standing up looking out the cupola. And here is my bad attempt at a full train shot. As my camera has no flash, I had to get too far away for these to come out very good. And here is a short video of the train running with its two 9v motors. I kept all the internal gearing (just took the one gear of the drive axle so it turns freely) in the main engine as eventually I plan to convert it to use an XL PF motor. I need those two 9v motors for my eventual Maresk train.

Well after google image searching dog sled, apparently so. I guess I was thinking of a cartoon version I saw somewhere or was getting mixed up/blended with a toboggan.

After getting a Series 5 Eskimo I just had to build a Dog Sled for him. More pictures can be found in my Flickr Gallery.

Upon seeing the pictures for this years Winter Village Post Office I had that "ah ha" moment when I realized modding the Winter Village Toy Shop and Bakery would make them look so much better. I finally got around to performing the MOD and the results are great. I doubt I will ever rebuild these sets with their stock all white roofs. More pictures in my Flickr Gallery. Sorry no shots with the Post Office as I will get that (hopefully) for Christmas.