Hrw-Amen

Thank you for your answers. I think I have what I need now, so generally the bits are sort of compatible especially the roof bit I mentioned, and the figures some of which have official names are about halfway in size between Duplo and Minifigures and they have a similar level of articulation as the minifigures but sometimes the head can be tilted. I may order a couple as they are quite cheap to get an actual feel for them so as to speak. Once again Thanks.

Legogal Sorry for not being clear. It is the bit that is near the bottom on the left hand side as you look at the set from the front. It is at the height of the first trans blue bits. It looks to me as though it is a 1X3 white tile, with a 1X2 white plate and a 1x1 trans blue plate attached underneath the tile. It is just not clear what it is from any pictures I can find of the original building. I have no doubt that it is some kind of overhanging walkway or off ice space or something. Maybe in real life it attaches to another building near by? I don't know, as I said I can find no low down photos of the original building to enable me to establish exactly what it is supposed to be. But anyway, regardless the point I was trying to make was that it appears to be drooping in the official images which just seems rather sloppy. I agree that the building is really nice from an architectural perspective and I do really like it. It is hard to make it look good to get all the curves in this ssmall mini scale which to me begs the question that if the building could not be done justice in this scale then why do it? Why not produce a larger set that could do a good job of maintaining all those nice curves and leave a smaller set to something that does not have that as an issue?

I mentioned the other day that I had been building some tipper wagons similar to those that were released years and years ago, back in the times of the blue 4.5V era. I remember my father buying me a set with an oval of track, a little engine and a couple of what were simple white tipper wagons. Not that long ago whilst searching through Bricklink I came upon some of those triangle shaped end parts that were so crucial to making the tipper wagons operate. Having bought a few of them now in various colours I decided to try and build something that whilst a little more in keeping with a modern LEGO train design, was without any doubt harking back to those old 4.5V era wagons. Keeping the same tipping action, but just updating the chasis and lining the whole thing with tiles to give it that smooth edge. I have made ten for now in various colours, mainly white, red and yellow, but also a black one for good measure. At the moment they are lined up on my only segment of made up track behind the red Western (Lone Ranger Constitution Express.) locomoctive, although they would probably be better lined up behind one of my BR diesels. I need to devise some sort of platform where they can pull in and then tip there loads up into some sort of hopper to await the arrival of the larger actual hopper wagons, although I have a feeling I may need to build a couple more of them now! There are one or two examples on here I have seen. I will have to do a search to see what can be found.

I have no major problems with Power Functions although like everyone would like some smaller components especially the battery box. I have run some of the old 4.5V stuff using the IR unit and that works fine, so maybe they could bring out some lower voltage stuff that then required a smaller battery box, but could use the same remote and other systems? Alternatively at least for trains, maybe make the battery box (Or a version of it.) that was less high but maybe longer so that it could fit into say a boiler of a steam train, or a long goods / passenger coach to hide it. This would be reasonably easy to do then. I would also like a couple of options on lights, maybe a set with a couple of single lights rather than two in one unit. They are useful for somethings but not for others? Some neat power function point controller, that sort of thing, but that is getting a bit to hopeful really. I could perhaps see it incorporated into some of the CITY sets. Things like the mining / harbour sets, maybe cranes? Or airports, rotating radars, propellers in some planes or helicopters, although like in trains it would take up space and make then bigger probably.

I have been reading some comments on here about Fabuland builds and have looked at some of the pictures of MOCs people have made. I am trying to get an accurate picture of the concept but have a few unanswered questions. I have also been looking through the stores of my favoured Bricklink sellers but it is still unclear to me. So:- 1: The Fabuland figures appear to be dirt cheap on Bricklink, roughly around £1.00 to £1.50 mark. Are they closer in size to Minifigures or to Duplo figures? 2: There are a lot o Fabuland elements that are for sale that look interesting, I am looking at some green roof sections. Are these compatible with standard LEGO elements or Duplo or neither or both? 3: Do the characters in Fabuland have names. In several MOCS the characters are called by name. Is that just because the person made the MOC called them that for the particular build or did they have those names when they were released, as Bricklink tends to say things along the lines of Mouse 1 or Cow 2 and so on? 4: The articulation on the figures, I assume by the looks of them that they have a similar range of movements to the normal mini-figure or are they in some way different? Thank you for your help.

Not sure I like this set. I have to say I have not bought any of the range, although some of them look really nice. This one though seems somewhat lacking. Although the actual; building in real life looks great. The thing that spoils it for me, apart from its excessive blue'ness is that little bit (Looks like a 1X3 possibly a 1X4?) tile hanging off the right hand side, (Or left depending on which way you are viewing it of course.) it is not clear exactly what it is supposed to be and all the photos of the realm structure I cannot see this part of the building as it is obscured by other buildings in front of it. That is not to say it is not there and really that is not the point. It seems as though it is just hanging off the side, almost as if it is too heavy or that the person making the model did not bother to press it down firmly enough. Even in the official box art photographs it looks like it is drooping and about to fall off, as though they just did not care to get it right. I suspect it is in part down to the angle of the photo and that the buildings are set in a sort of arc rather than it is actually drooping, but it just looks awful and silly. It is a shame really as the series so far has been of quite a good standard and now it has been let down by this droop!

Lucky, yes, went back today and they were re-pricing them all at £17.99, but they have already sold about half of them at the cheaper price. I managed to grab the police prisoner transport that still had the £12.99 price on it. I think that was the last of that size set I had to get, the other cheaper and more expensive sets were all priced right anyway.

I think it would be wrong for them to make military sets of any kind from an era that people are still alive from and suffering the consequences of, for example WWII. I can understand that they make those red coats and blue coat soldiers that are fairly bland and lacking in icons, however it is still quite easy for people to associate the red coats with the British army of the era, and I assume the blue ones with the French, at least that is how I see it. B ut it does not matter as much as it is mixed up with pirates they can both fight against and no one is around from that era to feel offended. If TLG is still making LEGO in a hundred years time they well may then make some green army men, of grey or brown ones as differing forces. People will make up their own minds who they are supposed to be like we do now with the pirate range soldiers. But everyone alive at the time it took place will be long gone so it is less likely to offend especially if they just call then green and brown soldiers for example. Perhaps with the passage of time and another twenty years or so we maybe on the cusp of then doing something WWi'ish although not specifically named as to who is who. That will be OK as all those who took part and for the most part their children will have past on. But not before that. But right now it is not going to happen and that is the right choice in my opinion. It is a minefield and all too easy to get into and hard to get themselves out of. But it is a building toy, if anyone wants to make there own, then they should feel free to do so, but don't expect anything just yet from TLG themselves.

Looks good so far, always nice to see a big steam engine.

Very nice to see this kind of thing going. Such a shame it cannot be a layout all of the time, but i know how that feels. Nice to see the automation, but I was also wondering what happens to the containers inside the depot, do they get transferred to a lorry, it is hard to see?

I think the engine is fine. I have smoothed mine off with a lot of tiles, I think that looks better, although my own version is still PF. The container wagons are nice, of course they are going to look similar to the Maersk ones because that is what they are, container wagons and ultimately as they are models of pretty much the same thing they will look similar. It is a bit like a passenger coach is going to look like a box on two bogies with windows down both sides. There will be variations on height, colour, width and length, but at the end of the day they will all look similar because of what they represent. I would not worry about it yours look fine really..

Yes, this one is much better than the LEGO one, a lot more fun. I like all of the little designs and the figures most of which build to a lot of fun. If I could say something, but it only small, very small, it would be nice for me to see the calendar develope into a whole room inside the front door or alternativly one that builds to an outdoors in the garden theme, maybe one of each? But good work, I like it a lot. Thank you.

I have picked this one up today (*Along with other similarly priced sets.) which surprisingly for me were on sale at £12.99 in the UK as opposed to last years which were all at £17.99 and continue to be. I even queried the price and the lad in my local toy shop said that when they put them out they also queried the price with the head office as they were considerably cheaper but they were told that £12.99 was the correct price for this years vehicles in that bracket. I find it hard to understand why they are that much cheaper but who am I to argue especially as I have a 10% discount as a loyal customer as well! I'll be building these over the next few days holiday, so thanks for the review, I'll let you know what i think once I have done it. I already like the canoe as a break from all the sea front related stuff like surf boards etc, it is nice to have a more inland river related holiday theme.

I would love to see another steam train of any sort really as long as it could be easily powered. Either that or another diesel. What I do not want is another electric engine with a pantograph, not unless they bring out a box of reasonably priced masts and stuff to make it at least look viable on a LEGO circuit.

I don't understand how those little builds can be hard to build, they are like really simple? I would like to see more variety though, I currently get the CITY one myself and the Friends one for my wife. The CITY one just has the same old firemen, policemen and that sort of thing, although there is a spaceman this year. Why can't we have one based on that years theme, say like coastguard or airfreight? Having said that a Hobbit or LotR one (Or even a combine Tolkien one.) would be really really welcome! If not one covering other themes, they could easily do one incorporating a couple of castle figures, maybe a Galaxy Squad robot or small ship, a couple of Ninjago or Chima bits. It would have something for everyone and maybe introduce people to themes they have not collected before?

These are some of the latest editions to the Cavalry army. The number of actual cavalry seem to be getting outnumbered by other units, such as the steam tanks and artillery ones. I have now added some armoured cars. The bit that got me going with them was the twin seated cockpit (On Bricklink as 30149.) I managed to get a few of these and what i really liked was the ability to sit two mini-figures side by side. It seemed to fit the overall feel of the army as well. You will be able to see from the photographs that these armoured cars are much smaller than the steam tanks, even the largest one. I felt that little cars would be OK with internal combustion engines, but that the much heavier tanks needed the slow plodding but powerful steam engines to drag them across the battle field. The technology of the combustion engine not quite being good enough for larger vehicles. I plan to make a couple more and also to make a large siege gun to be pulled by the biggest six wheeled armoured car. I like the idea that this is the next move in the technological advancement of the army. The cars (Whilst still sporting proper western wheels.) are smaller and the crude engines of the day can easily propel them, especially the smallest one man cars which have a much bigger engine than the medium sized ones. The largest armoured car has a machine gun turret the design for which I copied from the one in the Constitution Express. I have put up a size comparison with the steam tanks so you can see how small they are.http://www.flickr.com/photos/hrw-amen/11456709913/

This is rather novel, I may have to create some myself. Thanks for sharing it.

It even sounds like a LEGO car should sound.

It is hard to judge the size in LDD and similar I find, but how about using technic bricks for the round windows? They maybe a bit small and will not have glass, but could work OK. I agree with the others though it could do with being a tad longer. Working out the wheels set up is part of the fun! You should build it and play about with that until it is right. Then show us pictures please.

I seemed to have missed this one. Wow, that is a lot of power and a lot of motors! Nice to see it running as well and I like the layout.

A cute little Christmas train, very good a true Christmas theme with the elf and rotating tree.

I have done that this year for a friend of mine. His son is really into trains and so I have been gathering bits all year to give them an oval of track, two freight cars (The same.) and a small shunting engine with the PF bits. I made up one of the freight cars and left it made then made the other and took photos as I took it apart to make instructions. I did the same for the engine, it is a small simple shunter, nothing fancy but it was easier to do it backwards. Hopefully they will have fun building it and the freight car having instructions and one built model to work from?

Nice engine, looks so much like the real one.

I like the black Enterprise, that is pretty cool, Blacktrons do Star Trek"!

I guess it depends what you mean by big. If you are talking about enclosed space for pilots to sit, move around and do stuff then probably the Space Police II flagship I'd say. It is fairly chunky and basically a long hollow tube. The Exploriens ships is big, but there is not a lot of room inside if you see what I mean. They are restricted to their particular pods and it would be hard to move around the ship, also it has plenty of holes so unless you think it is surrounded by a force field or something. In fact I remember making alterations to mine to make the central bit more enclosed so they could sit in there and at least be able to take their helmets off for while without loosing the ability to breath. I did not have the Galactic Enforcer as my parents could not afford to get me one and by the time I was earning money to get it myself it had long since gone from the shelves. In fact I only got the Space Police ! &2 flagships from a little toy shop that still had them a few years later and they were tucked away out of site and mind.. So, although some of the LEGO space ships are quite big they are always (In most cases.) very practical and I do not think I would like to be a mini figure space man going on a long duration space flight in any of them. I see them more as planetary shuttles, or maybe for flying from one planet in a system to another but not much more than that.