Breakdown

Unless the book was called: "The rise and fall of lego" I'm not sure why a book that has anything to do with Lego, pride in Lego or anything else like that would really point to a doom & gloom future for lego, or brick/build toys in general. Taking my Lego-coloured glasses off, here's what I see in terms of diversity for lego (approximate dates as I'm not great on the whole history of lego): 1960s-current: Build crap with lego - kids. 1985 - Current: Build actuating, moving and complex things (Technic) - Older kids. 1991-current: Collect & display - all ages Star Wars, etc. 2000s - current: Video games involving lego - Yes, this is no longer Lego and I'm aware that this was a money losing venture when it directly involved the company but exposure in differing medias is always good. 2005 - current: Challenging adult sets 2010 - current: Serious RC people, you can now run around a car/truck that's actually competent with some of the RC ones. 2014 - current: Lego movie - just EXPOSURE!! Even the Simpsons Lego episode.

As much as I am impressed with the functional drop top. I'm even more impressed with the detail and proportions of the car. Sadly a similar coupe met its end directly in front of me on the expressway, and I narrowly avoided doing the same to the driver on the way into work today, I'm more than a little shaken.

Starscream (light grey), Thundercracker (blue), and Skywarp (black) were all identical or near identical twins in the original series . . . . so yes, but that's Thundercracker. I realize that everything's not identical, but that looks like a complete ripoff in my books.

Here's an example of extreme low light picture taking with ghosting effect (other than auto-balancing the colours a little) zero editiing was done to this photo. The overlapping plane tail logos was an unexpected surprise. I like Khaled's suggestion. It's all about what you want in a camera and your budget . . . and if you're willing to go used, or must buy new.

I agree, except this time, they pretty much took the name and colour scheme. Making a Transforming vehicle-robot toy - insignificant. Making a similarly designed & coloured vehicle - insignificant Making a similarly named vehicle - insignificant. Everyone's been doing any number of these for the last half century. All of them together at the same time???

Okay, you got a good laugh out of me on a Monday. I'm constantly telling my dad (who's tried EVERYTHING) read the manual. It's all in the manual. He drives me insane constantly asking about non-sense. I too am guilty of this at times, sometimes I'm a little too visual with how I learn.

As much as Lego is a little under siege, Transformers (Hasbro) is getting attacked from all angles, now Lego's joining in. They already have several third parties attacking them, they even bought the rights to BOT-CON to ban all Non-Hasbro (third party products) http://www.toysrus.ca/product/index.jsp?productId=15432986 This new Lego product is a bit of a kick in the teeth to Transformers. They created a jet that turns into a robot (so what) Then they coloured it blue and called it: "Thunder Wings" (set 31008) basically making it a complete rip-off of Decepticon Jet Thundercracker (Find a pic of Thundercracker from somewhere other than Wikipedia and compare). My thoughts. There's still bad blood in the fact that Lego and Hasbro were not able to work together.

My plan is to litter Youtube with a number of videos of some old school sets. It's a great way to reach a mass market. I would do reviews on some of the older sets here, but would get the impression that they're redundant, outside of 60051 and some basic blocks, my next newest sets were released in 1995, that's 20 years ago. Even if you were interested, there's only E-Bay, BrickLInk and a limited number of other sites to acquire this junk from. I will be posting some specialized old school set reviews in 2015. For the most part people are cordial here, you don't see someone post a crappy MOC that's unoriginal or just plain lame looking, and have them receive insults from all angles. People are pretty mature here . . . for the most part. But it can be discouraging if no one responds to your post. Might be people biting their tongues . . . might not. My best advise is, even if you are shy, even if you don't have much to say. Make a quick blurb. Say something if a review comes up that you enjoy. Thanks - enjoyed it. Anything. 90% of people will complain if they don't like something and yet only 10% will compliment if they do. Bottom line - encourage those whom review if you're benefiting from it.

It really depends on what you're looking for in a camera. I know that you've listed some things. My bias, since I've gone through a number of them is bridge cameras. Some of the newer ones have wifi which will enable you to place a camera and shoot remotely controlling the camera with your phone. Some features which may or may not be important to you to think about: -Burst mode: If you have a train or something that's moving you can hold down the shutter button and it will take 10 shots with a second (camera has to have a fast processor to make that happen. -Manual control. If you're shooting low light or purposely low light or LED lit lego at night scenes, reducing shutter speed and shooting a crisp night pic (I can post some examples in this thread when I get home, I have some pretty good night shots). Some cameras don't have this and you either get piles of noise (pixelly-blurr) or the flash goes off and the entire scene looks like daytime anyhow. -Remote Shooting; If you want to do a stop motion video or progress shoot, this is almost necessary. Most cameras use cellphones or other devices, setup camera on tripod & go. -Super Zoom shouldn't really apply unless you have a really long building and want to look through it or something. If you just want a good-looking shot of your stuff a simple point & shoot (P&S camera) will do fine. As an FYI on cameras (not sure where you are coming from so don't be insulted): Point & shoot: cheapest & smallest: Typically come with a 3 - 10X optical zoom, flash. Will have a "macro mode" for up close stuff & be capable of HD video (most) Bridge: Much bulkier, $250 USD-$500 USD: Typically 20X - 65X Optical zoom. Manual flash, capable of many manual functions, you can make see-thru lego (will try and do one for you tonight), capture motion, capture low-light, all sorts of fun stuff. The optical zoom will be more of a you're on vacation and . . . . Camera is bigger, but I use a cellphone for my day-to-day shooting, and then take the camera with me to "destinations." The ones with the swivel screen are great for placing the camera somewhere and shooting "blindly." Especially if you want to hold the camera above your head (look mom - no ladder) DSLR: Most expensive, biggest, most difficult to use ($400++ USD camera body and lenses come seperate): Everything is manual. Lots of people don't know this who don't use them. You cannot use the screen at the back to take pictures, only review them. I'm going to say that this will NOT be your camera. Decide on what you want for options, and then narrow down between brands and what works best for you. And I'm sure others will help you along the way. I use a Canon SX40 (younger brother to the SX60 currently on the market)

I realize that it's actually off-point and because he's my friend I'm not going to post pics of him. But I have this friend. He has jet black hair and when it's short it's spiked and when it's longer (may 2" total length) it just kind of encompasses his head like some sort of helmet. A few weeks' back we're talking and he tells me that one of the guys at his work told him that he had Legoman hair. I couldn't agree more, but it made me laugh my megablocks off hearing him tell me that. Surprisingly I had never made the connection. If I ever go to a Lego show/convention, I'm dragging him along with me . . . . no he doesn't like Lego.

From lego.com: A battery box, IR receiver, some lights, a pack of straight track (I think that's it) Whatever I ordered added up to $75 for the free shipping & that demolition thingy. On bricklink, piles of white stuff. I'm still gradually replacing all of my sun-yellowed white parts. I'm starting a bin a used and abused parts, tooth marks, sun damage, scratches, etc. I want them all gone. A handful of bogie plates, train bases, plane parts, and windows. I've got the glass to go with the PAB windows that I got at the Lego store on Friday. EDIT: Almost forgot . . . I ordered the piece that I need to make "Anatomically correct" lego man.

It's gonna break your heart, but I have way the heck too many of these, they've had them on the pick-a-brick walls around here for far too long. If you were in-country I'd offer to trade 3 for 1 to obtain the 1 X 2 clear transparent windows.

I have a couple of others "hobbies." I collect hockey jerseys. I like my Pontiacs, do some very customization on them (just minor stuff). I do hockey photography for fun and some other junk with photography, two of my pics are decorating the office (public area of the workplace) I collect Transformers I don't really consider myself a Lego collector. I think that's where we have a divide in the forum. I like saying that I have a rare set, but I'm not really looking to complete something or whatever. I just want to play with the stuff and enjoy it. I don't let sun touch my lego anymore, and I wouldn't consider editing bricks or anything, but to me it's a functional toy like my cars, and while it pains me to have stone chips on the cars, and the such I still drive them when I can. What bothers me with the lego is that as an adult lego dude I'm reluctant to mix and match sets, when I was a kid that's it I did!! I want to get over that hurdle.

From 7 large cups was in a super rush as I was against the clock so they probably weren't filled the best. Some statistics from Compustat boxing (through sorting but not counting): In this pic: 170 pcs 1 X 2 tinted translucent bricks 19 pcs 1 X 2 white bricks 158 pcs 1 X 2 Brown Modified bricks 12 pcs 1 X 2 Redish brown bricks 13 pcs 4 X 8 black plates 6 pcs 4 X 6 blue plates 43 pcs 1 X 1 orange circle plates 22 pcs 1 X 1 pink circle plates 131 pcs 1 X 1 green circle plates 224 pcs 1 X 1 clear circle plates 75 pcs 1 X 1 yellow translucent circle plates 184 pcs 1 X 1 blue trans. circle plates 60 pcs 2 X 2 Blue trans cylinder bricks 30 pcs 2 X 2 yellow trans cylinder bricks 31 pcs 1 X 1 dark grey brick 9 pcs 4 X 2 white brick 19 pcs Large white fence (farm fence) 7 pcs 2 X 4 X 6 tinted windshield 11 pcs 1 X 3 X 4 tinted windshield 7 pcs 2 X 2 X 4 tinted windshield 61 pcs 2 X 2 white modified plate with single stud in center 9 pcs 4 X 1 black double axel plates 5 pcs 2 X 2 single axel plate 38 pcs big wheel 16 pcs big tire 151 pcs Red 2 X 2 chair 8 pcs Brown horse 20 pcs 1 X 3 X 4 window with glass 5 pcs glass for 1 X 3 X 4 window 6 pcs white window frame 1 X 6 X 4 - no glass 6 pcs brown stairs 131 pcs Small white 1 X 4 fence 83 pcs 1 X 2 tile with gauge print 32 pcs black engines 77 pcs black handle plates 137 pcs White wall plates 765 pcs White grille tiles 30 pcs 1 X 2 drak gray plates 40 pcs antenna black 20 pcs 2 X 2 + 2 X 2 grey racheting plates 1 pc 2 X 2 light grey tile 21 pcs 2 X 2 light tan tile 6 pcs 2 X 1 black brick modified with gripper 221 pcs 1 X 1 black brick modified 19 pcs 1 X 1 grey brick modified 196 pcs 1 X 1 trans-blue cone 65 pcs 1 X 1 trans-red cone 21 pcs 1 X 1 trans-red cylinder 8 pcs 2 X 1 tile with steering wheel 49 pcs light grey switch / lever 1 pc black 2 X 1 plate modified 5 pcs black spork 167 pcs 1 X 1 trans-red plate 164 pcs 1 X 1 trans-red tile 52 pcs 1 X 1 trans-yellow plate 48 pcs 1 X 1 trans-orange inclined tile 64 pcs 2 X 1 purple tile 66 pcs trans-red jewel 12 pcs small tires off-road 8 pcs small regular tires 8 pcs small wheels 8 pcs black 1 X 2 X 4 roof 1 pc black 1 X 3 X 2 roof 15 pcs 2 X 2 plate with double axel 1 pc 1 X 2 baby blue brick 1 pc 1 X 2 baby blue plate 2 pcs left grey wing 4 pcs right grey wing 4105 pcs total. $139.93 $0.034/pc Cdn, plus piles of flowers that I didn't really feel like counting.

I was more looking to start a collection of absolute stupidity of things built using Pick-A-Brick parts.more than show off the haul, and have others contribute. I believe (extremely sorry if I'm wrong) that Yorkdale had the red seats, I grabbed about 150 of 'em, there's still plenty left.

Long story, but back in 2000 when I bought my first car, a White Cutlass Supreme (I had to wait a week for it to be safetied and was out of town). While out of town, I decided to Christen the Breakdown, after a White Lambo from the original Transformers series: Breakdown. But then a funny thing called destiny got in the way. The car came with AJAM plates, and that name stuck. With me running around the internetz using a series of half-baked bad nicknames, I got into the car forums, and Breakdown the person . . . not the car: was born.

Tonight I went out Pick-A-Bricking, closest Pick-A-Brick isn't exactly close, but the blessing was that I got to hit up 3 Pick-A-Brick locations, and was blessed with traffic that would allow this, all happened within 2 hours too. So . . . while cruising in the dark on the 100km ride home. I got to thinking . . . Why not start a crazy thread. Here goes. You go to the Pick-A-Brick wall, you bring your haul home. You can use a 32 X 32 baseplate and nothing else and then build genuis, or complete chaos, and you may spend no longer than 60 minutes on this abomination and then upload. Obviously I had to cheat a little (too many pieces) and they overflow the baseplate pretty bad. Might help out if you DO NOT buy 7 large containers' worth of lego too!!! Buy here's what I got, I call it "Something . . . Something . . . . Horsey." I'm kinda stoked, I've never had a horse!! What did I learn from this??? 1.) Visiting four lego stores in succession is probably way too much temptation and stimulation for me. 2.) I have some will-power. I ran into a dude looking for a IR receiver, who bought an entire train to get one from it. I was that close to making a cash offer on the train with no motor, battery box or receiver. 3.) I actually like the flower shelf. It was supposed to be a joke with stadium seating all of the way up to watch the horses frolick in the legoey mess, and the flowers are the people. It actually looks good or amazing in my opinion. The 6-wide stud windscreen makes a very nice top for this. it's original intention was to store as many tiny translucent bits as possible up top (which I did) but I like the look. Thoughts??? Or better yet, lets see your Pick-A-Brick Haul!!

Pretty much. More or less stealing from the old pics where they'd have a silhouette in the background on the box or front of the instructions, taking that a step further ahead. With the Transformers, I love the fan art. The original robots were unable to capture some of the cool poses of the actual cartoon and comics, where the fan art enhances them. Lego . . . not so much. I want lego to look like lego. If I did a real streetscape, inspired by something real, I'd love to have the real thing in the background. Since I don't and there isn't. I'm thinking creative shots of the lego. The whole deal with fantastic lego creations is the art (lego) imitating life. And then you look to the horizon, life doesn't just end, there's a field, forest, hill or even urban sprawl that continues as far as the eye can see.

Sherway Gardens?? Just curious how close you might be to my neck of the woods, I'm from Kitchener.

I too noticed the pricing increase. I'm in Canada. I usually have much of my lego shipped to a friend in the US. But everything PAB was the same in CAD and USD. Now there's a disparity. I don't believe that the US price went up, but problem with that theory is that the Canadian dollar is falling against the US dollar, the Euro and British Pound seem to be rallying against the US dollar.

I messed around with mine. I haven't had any of those issues. Looking back at this thread, I'm really glad it's not someone's custom build thread. Otherwise . . . between the two of us, we would have totally ruined it!!

I'm also looking into a Horizon Express set or two. They are expensive here and I'm getting into this game far, far too late. Do I even want to ask how much it costs on Pick-a-brick to make your railway sleepers "wooden." I love the idea, it's not one that I'll be "borrowing" as it doesn't really fit any themes that I'm running with.

Instantly reminded me of the Wanda III - in terms of style and colours. Obviously not the narrow double-decker. On this side of the pond we don't have much in the way of steamships or Steam powered Yachts left - how about over there?? Here the Noronic disaster acted to swiftly and brutally destroy any steamships still lingering on our interior lakes in the 1950's.

More key than colour, composition & size is the orientation of LEGO on the studs. Notice how the lego name is parallel on the BL parts, if someone sources old that has the same its good, if not . . . . ? Font, and orientation are primary ways that I've discovered fakes within the electronics industry. Someone (sorry, usually out of the Asia market) will take a cheap BGA part and sand off the markings and replace them with those from a much more valuable or desirable part.

I didn't see this comment earlier buried under the picture of your plane (which BTW is entirely welcome to land at one of the Breakdown airports along with bjorkan's unique plane. 6396 is a little full unless we get clearance for some flights today (it's cold) may have to land in-town at 6392. The gears in my head have been turning on ideas for a 6 stud jumbo jet for a while now, I'd love to try a double-decker, but it would look like a train-wreck without at least 8 or 10 studs wide. Gonna take a lot of planning though. To the absolute best of my knowledge 6544 Transcon2 (shown at the top in blue) is the biggest plane/jet ever created with a "brick nose" it's long but still 4 studs wide.