DaddyWhale

Hi Robiwan, The firehouse look amazing. Do you have pictures of what's inside? Thanks!

My first was 8129, which I got because my 3 year old son insisted he would settle for nothing else at the LEGO Store in the Mall of America. I guess I've rebuilt it for him about 4 times in the last 6 months...

I agree, it is a very tough choice. Have had the IFS for about a year and am building the Fire Brigade at the moment. If I had to choose, I would go with the IFS. It's big and really stunning to look at (and play with). I've got a bunch of large sets nicely displayed in my study, and most eyes just naturally gravitate to the IFS. And it stands alone very nicely, like a focal piece of art in a domestic library.

It's stunning and really suggests the mythic scale. Wonderful artistry.

Thanks! I can't wait til it arrives. Look forward to teaching chess to my 6 year old son on it. I agree. It's hard to kick the lego habit. There's always something amazing that you want to get your hands on.

Thanks, David, Allan, Tim and Blakbird, for the very helpful comparison. I'll have to practice more with 8110 on controlling the pneumatics.

I'm a newbie. So please be gentle. What's so great about pneumatics compared to LAs? I have 8258 and 8110, so I have some experience with both. From this limited experience it seems to me that LAs are easier to control. However, 8258 cannot lift a whole lot. Is this because of the use of LAs. Do pneumatics provide more power? Just to be clear. I like both implementations and got the 8110 specifically for the pneumatics. But I don't really understand the trade-offs.

Castle Giant Chess Set, 852293, on eBay, used. Viking Catapault versus the Nidhogg Dragon, 7017, from amazon.com, used.

Thanks!

I agree about the power functions and lights for Emerald Night. Makes the model that much more fun. Sorry for being a bit off topic. How does the build process for the Maersk compare with Emerald Night? I get the impression that the Maersk is less complex ad less detailed.

Age: 47 Age you started building: 45 Country: USA Occupation: Finance Married: yes Children: two boys, 6 and 3 Does your spouse or child/children build: children build, wife does not Do you have close friends who build: no Do you build together with your friends: no Do you regularly attend Lego conventions: no, though I would like to How much money do you spend on Lego product a year: about $1000 How much time do you spend building/playing a day: 1 hour Favored theme/themes: technic, city/modular, trains Do you primarily collect retail sets, build MOCs, or both? retail sets, but hope to also build MOCs as my collection of parts grows Did you experience a "dark age": No. Started on LEGO only after our children were old enough to play with them If yes, what age did you enter your "dark age" What age did you exit your "dark age": Other hobbies (other toy collecting, sports, drawing etc.): reading, classical music, hiking In your own words what makes Lego bricks so special: Ability to build complex, aesthetically pleasing, structures using simple elements. Colorfulness of pieces. LEGO product quality - very little frustration with broken or poorly made parts May I PM you with a request for a personal interview:[/b] I've no plans for being in the Tampa area. Live in NYC

I think I'm in the minority here. 8258 and 8110 were my first two technic builds. I preferred the 8110 build experience. It seemed more varied and interesting: gears and pneumatics; suspension; all wheel drive. 8110 also has a greater variety of power functions. It is, however, less complex than the 8258. In terms of playability, I also prefer 8110. You can actually grab things using the power function-actuated claw. In 8258, the last steps - lowering or raising the hook, extending the last arm - are manual. Moreover, 8258 can't actually lift all that much weight (perhaps there are mods to fix this). I could lift fairly substantial objects with 8110. Take my advice, though, with a grain of salt. I'm a newbie to Technic!

Given your comment about getting LEGO trains from the 90s, I would suggest you get the Emerald Night next. It's not in the same style as the passenger train set, but it's a classic!

If you buy from a bricks and mortar store, LEGO or otherwise, you'll have to pay sales tax, which is 6% (I believe) in DC. Could you buy the LEGO set on amazon.com (not .co.uk) and have it shipped to her DC hotel? You might have to ok it with the hotel first, but you could save some money that way...

Looks really neat. What are you using the second motor for?

Thanks for sharing, Blakbird. I'm very glad that things are better for you now. Thank you also for the amazing work on Technicopedia. It's a wonderful and deep resource and one that I want to introduce my kids to when they are a bit older. As you and Blakbird have suggested, I'm going to try to incorporate my wife into more of the boys' and my lego play. She actually got us started on the lego thing. When our oldest was a little over a year old (he's now six), she got him a lego quatro set. Our son loved it, but I was unimpressed. Things got a bit more interesting (for me) when he graduated to duplo. We're now both totally hooked on the standard lego bricks and elements. My wife's interest, on the other hand, has diminished as we've moved to the more advanced sets. I think this is partly because the elements for younger kids are easier to incorporate in simple, universal and immediate imaginative play: it's easy to build simple 'bridges', ponies, cars with duplo and quatro. The elements for older children and adults tend to be technical, even those that are not Technic - you need to be a fan of a theme (star wars, pirates, engineering, castles, etc) to totally get into the planning, building and playing. She's also not into collecting, which boys and grown up men like me seem to find compulsive. Thanks for the suggestion. I've heard about LDD and have bookmarked the download site. It's something I definitely will check into. By the way, does LDD model the dynamics of Technic sets? E.g. the transmission of power from one element to another; effect of switches, etc...

Thanks Paul, nielsvdv and 3nslav3, for sharing your own significant-other stories. Unfortunately I did not get hooked on lego until after we got married and our children were old enough to get into the regular lego sets (we had gotten them duplo stuff before that). The first real lego set we got them was a three in one fire engine/helicopter/jeep. I knew I was hooked when I became very protective of the models around my 4 and 2 year old boys. As they invariably trashed the fire engine model, I collected all the strewn pieces (behind bookcases, in sofas, hidden among their other toys), and started building the model b and model c. I decided to get something for myself next, more complicated and substantial - 10196, the grand carousel. You should have seen the boys jaws drop when they say that in action! Immediately after which they started pulling horses (to them unicorns) off and dissecting them and having fights over which belonged to whom. Managed to again find all the pieces and now my collection is tucked away in the closet of my study. One of my wife's gripes is that the children get obsessed with lego (they've since gotten a bunch of Toy Story, Cars and Star Wars sets) to the exclusion of their other toys. But fundamentally she does not get into engineering and model building (history PhD). Funnily her sister (engineering PhD) loves lego, Star Wars (not my wife's cup of tea), science fiction (she's even written a book) and so on. Her son who is 7 years old has the UCS death star, the largest Harry Potter sets, etc - well over 10,000 pieces is my guess. Such is life...

Hi Blakbird, Thanks for the great suggestions. As usual you are a font of knowledge (and I'm not being sarcastic)! I've indeed been to technicopedia.com and plan to spend more time there as I slowly build 8110. You've done a great job with the site. I hope this is not getting too personal but...are you married...to the same spouse through your 300,000+ parts odyssey? If so, I could surely use your advice on juggling lego and wife! Hi allanp, Thanks for the pointer to lugnet! I'll check it out.

Of course the best way is to build/design sets. But that gets expensive and I've run out of places to hide my new creations from my wife, who just does not understand the whole lego thing... Forums can be fun, but there seems to be relatively few active ones in English. The only ones I go to are here on eurobricks and (less frequently) the brickset forums. Are there any other English language ones that you might recommend?

If you keep an eye on what's on offer on ebay you sometimes find good deals on the "legendary sets". Right now there's a 8880 for less than $200 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/LEGO-Technic-8880-Super-Car-RARE-/170696349911?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27be4b98d7) for example. Last week I saw a 8466 for less than $200 as well. You need to be patient and you need to be willing to consider sets without boxes, a few parts missing, etc. The MOC supercars are wonderful. But my experience is that it costs you much more to collect the needed parts on bricklink. By the way, you can sometimes safe on shipping costs by requesting that the seller ship you the set without the box. This might be particularly significant for you, living in Chile. (Of course, you may really be into collecting the box as well...)

Thanks once more, Blakbird. Everything you write make sense! BTW I visited your Technicopedia website. It's very informative and helpful.

Thanks, Blakbird, for the helpful response. I'm new to Lego, having bought my first sets for my kids about a year ago, and don't know anything about engineering. Why is it then that 10194, the Emerald Night, can incorporate a PF XL motor for locomotion. I know that this set is not Technic. But shouldn't the same mechanical principles apply? It's also a large set, though not quite as large as 8258. Is it because 10194 runs on rails - would this reduce the required torque (or something)?

Thank you everyone on your help with choosing my first Technic set. I ended up getting 8258 and have thoroughly enjoyed the building experience. It satisfied most of the criteria I set out for a Technic build. 1. Large set. Clearly it's one of the largest Technic sets. I liked the fact that the bags the contents came in were not numbered! 2. Power functions. It's a neat use of one motor to power a number of functions. A bit disappointed that PF was not used for locomotion (which I knew would be the case). I guess to implement this would have taken adding an IR remote, which would have added to the set's cost. 3. Technical build. The set obviously has plenty of gears. I really liked figuring out what some of the Technic parts - like part 4278957, the driving ring - were used for. I wish though that there were an easy way to see the gears in action after completing the build. It seems like the only real way to understand the interrelationships well is by taking the set apart and rebuilding it. 4. Realistic detail. There were some, like the differential and the mechanics of how power is transferred from one point to another via the gears. But the hook on the crane was a bit lame. The doors don't open... All in all, I think 8258 was a great introduction to the studless Technic line. I've placed an order for 8110, which will add the pneumatics and other elements. I may also want to look at some of the sets with studs, like 8880. Thanks again for all the help!

I certainly don't want to buy stolen goods. But I don't want to pass up a good deal. There are signs to look out for as others have pointed out. But is there a simple price-based rule-of-thumb to screen out possibly illegitimate deals on eBay? For example, the Cars set 8487 lists for $59.99 at the Lego shop. But I was able to get one two months ago on eBay for $44 including shipping. Do you think this could have been a fraudulent deal?

Thanks from me too! I got this remote for my Emerald Night. As far as I can remember, the EN did not come with instructions on how to operate the remote. Though most of the functionality is easy enough to figure out, your tutorial helped a lot!