Brickadier General

What do they do with the displays after they're done with them. Do they get to keep them or do they have to give them back to Lego. If they get to keep them, I'd love working at that TRU. Then I could hawk all those figs on e-bay. ;-)

Thank you all for the compliments. I really appreciate them. Yes, the little guy in the lefthand corner is the car from Back to the Future. And the yellow bike came in set 6420, Mail Carrier. It came out in 1998, I believe. I have a lot of yellowed white bricks lying around too. Sometimes I get lucky and the yellowing is on one side, so I can hide part of it. lol I have heard bleaching bricks can help fix that, but I don't know if I'd do that. Not sure what the long-term effects are. The lego cloth tents are alright, but yeah, they are probably better suited for modern scenes. Making them out of brick is probably cheaper too. I guess you can say it took about two years. A lot of the things I have built were sitting around for almost that long (most of the vehicles, and I had the church together around then). The Shenmue House and my one original modular building, I've had together for about a year. Cafe Corner and Market Street were quick additions since they were sets. And I finished the two split-level homes about 2 weeks ago. I've had other buildings that came and went since then, but at some point or another my things have made their way to a PennLUG train display. This is just the first time I've really displayed what I had as a town. So it is a long and on-going process. But you know what they say...Rome wasn't built in a day. ;-) One thing that is annoying about building a town layout is that there just seem to never be enough trees. I used practically all my foliage pieces, and now I need want more. lol

I figured since I saw a couple town layout topics here I may as well post mine. It is not as big as I would like it to be yet, but those are the only tables I have for layouts right now. So that means no running trains or monorail yet. But I will get there one day. My MOCpages My Brickshelf If you have any questions about anything there feel free to ask. Matt

Those are good too. I like everything they do. *sweet* Right now, I'm listening to some Apocalyptica. Deep Down Ascend.

The Lego brick is 50 years old. What happened to those other decades. :-P The 80s were an especially good time to be a Lego fan.

I for one, don't really have any qualms with Lego's sets and the issue of over sized pieces. I guess one of the reasons is because I don't buy that many sets anymore and use bricklink a lot for parts I want. For example, I know a lot of people didn't like the new planes because of the oversized parts. I bought one myself and really like it, as it is a nice scale and looks like a fantastic plane. And the parts have other uses. As others have mentioned, it works great as a bullet train. I'm probably also not bothered that much because I had to live as a teenage town fan through what I like to think of as the pinnacle of Lego's juniorization (from the late 90's till about 2001. 1997 Recycling Truck 1998 Cargo Center 2000 Police Car Seriously, now there was something to complain about there. lol Town sets were largely hideous looking during those times (Police with trans green windows and visors?). Look at the stuff we get today, and tell me you can't see the improvement? :-P

Good taste in music. I was listening to the new Nightwish album today, Dark Passion Play.

Yeah, those are the ones. But there were many others. They also had 1x3x2, 1x6x3, 1x6x2, 1x2x3, 1x6x2 (with shutter pattern), 1x1x1, and 1x2x1. I'd like to see them bring some of them back or something similar.

I was recently informed by a fellow PennLUG member that Dan Brown would like to hold a "brickfest-like" event at his museum (The Toy Museum) in Ohio. I have been told that he is trying to acquire the Brickfest name, but even if he doesn't it still sounds like an intriguing event. He's looking at dates in 2008, most likely in September, but nothing has been finalized yet and that could very well change. There will probably be a cost to participate, but I have no idea what that will be yet. Here's a quote from the message on the PennLUG board: From Dan's website: Because PennLUG and COLTC helped out with setting up the museum, he said something about them helping to run things. So if you go, maybe I will get to meet you in person! Then again, I go to college and if this does end up being in September, I probably won't be going. I will post more things as I find out. And you read that he is looking for some suggestions on events, so if you think you have a really good idea post it here. I will try to relay ideas back to Dan. I also want to talk to him about concerns with the date. If you are interested in attending this event like me but have concerns about the date, please post them here too. And more importantly explain why. "I can't do it in September" isn't good enough alone. :-P I personally think the event sounds very promising and different. What say you, my American brethren? After all, Dan's museum already showcases all things Lego related, so you'll have something to see in addition to what other builders bring. I have one suggestion for Dan so far: As far as the World's Longest Lego Train goes, I think it would be nice to let attendees build a train car to add to it. From what I read on his website, it sounded like he was going at it alone. He needs 3 engines and 150 cars. 8-

Metal Slug Anthology for PSP. It is a must-have for the system in my opinion...Metal Slug is a must have for any system really. heh

I used to care a lot about boxes. But the problem with boxes, like everything else, is that they take up space. I had over 100, and even with boxes in boxes, it was still too much. So I sold the lot on e-bay, got a hardly reasonable amount for them. I don't really collect sets anymore and mainly buy them for parts. In the long run, I'm keeping the boxes for the "special" sets I get like the modular town buildings, trains, certain licensed stuff, and sets over 30 years old. I would consider paying extra for a boxed set if it was from the 1950s-1970s since I'm very interested in that time period. I would also pay more for a boxed airport shuttle since that was probably my favorite set as a child and has the most nostalgic value.

That is pretty spiffy, and instantly recognizable. Too bad Lego doesn't make all of those parts in dark green. It would look really nice in that color.

I eventually plan on making a zoo. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. And everybody knows a zoo wouldn't be complete without bears. The polar bear that came with the Arctic sets was nice, but pretty small and would make for a better young bear rather than an adult. In real life, an adult polar bear is huge. I was looking on bricklink and saw the Scala/Belville bears and they look very nice: They come in brown, dark orange, and white. Before I get any though, I was wondering if anybody had any picture comparisons between one of these bears and a minifig. I couldn't find any on brickshelf. Does anybody here have one?

While the plane does look nice, I don't particularly care for the van. But the van does have some good parts, which is the only reason I would by one: yellow mud guards, the new windshield, and the small door on the rear.

I'd like to see more windows. Either new ones or revivals of the long discontinued ones. Those were great for houses but the most common colors were red and white, with yellow and blue being rarities for some parts. And some of the old windows weren't even done in those colors at all. That, and they've been discontinued for over 30 years.

It'll be interesting to see where your town goes. I think some of those buildings have potential to be modified into modular additions, like that red one in the upper right-hand corner. You sure have a lot of space to work with there to add scenery and what not. You could make a park And your town needs a trolley. :-P

Here's a tan church I found: 1 If you don't have a lot of slope bricks, you could use hinges and plates to make a roof like this person did: 2 Maybe something small like this would be a good start: 3

Excellent truck. It's really a good scale for a minifig sized tractor trailer. And the virtual studlessness of the cab really makes it stand out.

Thanks. I like to add those little touches here and there, but I try not to go overkill. I wanted to put my slimer and the ghostbusters in there, but I decided it would look too busy. And good luck with your church. I would like to see the final product. No, I didn't unfortunately. I have done it before using red and yellow tile for the floor, a pulpit and brown seats lined up for pews. But I'm trying to conserve those things now for other projects. What I do want to do is put lights inside to make the stained glass windows more visible to onlookers. The individual colors are not very easy to see without light shining through. A PennLUG member suggested I use LED candle lights, which are battery operated. I thought it was a great idea because they have a flickering effect, which would look good inside the church...and another burning building, if I ever do one again.

The dark bley tracks have been around for awhile, at least since 2006. I know this because when I was doing the NMRA show and finished I ended up getting a few dark bley curves that i didn't originally have. I'm not all that bothered about it, and I don't think I'm going to go buy up all the 9V track I can get. I have enough track for one decent sized train to run around, which is pretty much all I'd be able to work with in the room where my lego stuff is. I'll just wait for power functions and see how that goes. With AFOLs working with Lego on it, I'm sure it will exceed our expectations. And besides, even when the 9V track is discontinued, it is still easier to come by than monorail track. You want to talk about high prices...long straight monorail track. You'd be hard pressed to find a substantial amount for less than $15 a piece. I'm just glad I got the airport shuttle and extra track kit when I was little. I seriously doubt 9V straight rails are going to hit $15 a piece for a long time. But really, I guess that all depends on when it is revealed what the power functions trains can/cannot do.

Thanks for the review. I really want this set because: 1. It looks fantastic 2. Has harder to find colors 3. Is a 50th anniversary commemorative 4. Some of the models are based on the 50s sets (i love the old stuff) The tanker truck is a perfect recreation of the old HO 1:87 scale Esso Tanker Truck. I have one, and you can look at it for comparison if you would like. Lego HO vehicles I'd like to modify the truck from this new set to look even more like the old Esso truck, getting rid of the green and adding some decals.

Mister, you have a deal! I loved the old Doc Ock sets for the windows. I had gotten 3 on sale a few years ago...but you have 4! I had to have them...lol

Very nice. Have you seen Cale Leiphart's water tower? Yours reminds me a little bit of his. By the way, your layout there is looking pretty spiffy.

Nice review there. This was one of my earliest sets, so for me, it has the nostalgic appeal. I miss the old da....no wait a second, I would go back to the old days for nothing! I like my now-huge collection and the expanded colors. haha

Thanks for the compliments everyone. They are greatly appreciated. haha Then I can't wait to see your future works. What might you be thinking about doing? Yes, the cemetery adds to the overall scene, not to mention that it beefs up the area of the church too. ;-) Unfortunately, there isn't a finished interior, but I did on some of my earlier churches. Because I make these things for display on train layouts I don't usually worry too much about the insides. But I do make exception. What I really want to do is wire some lighting in it to make the windows stand out, that and maybe add some sort of audio device inside to play music. You know? I didn't think about that, but the beard does look a lot like the Colonel's, and I do have a white one. Now I'm going to have to make a KFC sometime... I bought the beards from some guy who goes by the name "arealight," and I think he has a bricklink store by same name. Thanks. I actually borrowed the idea to use palm tree pieces for large pine trees from other builders. It's probably the cheapest and fastest way to make big trees, and very easy to boot. All you need are regular and small sized palm pieces, large circular brown pieces, 2x2 circular brown pieces, 4 1x1 green cylinders, the piece that fits into the palm tree trunks (and the one that the leaves fit on), and 1 1x1 green cone. I should post up a how to some time.