Hrw-Amen

Looks good, will have to get the wife one, also one of the bunnies.

That is nice and christmassy.

Yes, I have three or four of them, it never hurts to have a spare.

For me I like to build MOCS a lot. Most of mine are CITY buildings I have designed as a back drop to railway stuff that I make a lot of. Most of these take months to build as I like to add lots of internal details and several floors. They take a long time to build and have cost a lot of money. One day I hope to have a house big enough to have a railway set up all the time. Then I can use them. For now they are either put away carefully wrapped or on display along the top of the cupboards in my house. (Like a whole street of buildings.) I do think very carefully with these how I want to put them together. As such once they are built they are built. Smaller models can take a long time. I have just been building some Western themed calvary stuff which I got from the Lone Ranger sets. No interest in the Lone Ranger but I like the army theme. I have created all sorts of things, steam tanks, steam punk style small cars etc. When they are done I will also probably keep them made up as they are a theme. Some things are transient but only stuff like the Christmas snow display etc. Those bits will get recycled but most other stuff that I have spent ages on I tend to keep built. I may make the occasional adjustment or alteration if I think of something that works better, but mostly that is it, made, displayed, boxed, and put away for later play.

I also recall buying boxes of just one color. They were great. Personally I wish they would do a set like the wheels / doors-windows / roof, ones but with train wheels and buffers/magnets. That would be a really good choice for train enthusiasts without them having to release different carriages etc that everyone on the train forum would like but know are virtually never going to get. It would just fill that gap. I did send it to them a while ago as a suggestion when there was a link for some feedback at one point. Anyway, it would be a good idea I think.

Yes it is worth posting. It is always nice to see what people do with their old favourites and what they have in the attic. I have found a lot of my old stuff but still most of it is packed somewhere in mother's attic. One day I will find it. So keep everyone up to date. I am also interested in your idea of controlling from a PC, I have to say I am not very electrically minded but I would really like to see how other people do it and maybe learn a bit if it is quite easy.

That is actually a very nice train and not at all what I was expecting when I clicked on here. Nice to e surprised by that.

I don't know about Millennium Falcon boat rigging but I was looking at these sets the other day as my employer was on about team building exercises. However it seems the budget does not stretch to anything like these prices so no LEGO for us at work.

That is a good idea there of putting the battery box upside down. The number of times I have tried to find a way to fit wires around places to get the terminals. I never thought of turning the box upside down though from now on it is likely I will. So thank you for that thought and nice tram by the way as well.

I do not know much about trains from your area of the world, but these (Especially the 7 wide one.) look like they are good sets. I'd like to see a video of it running if possible?

They are easy enough to modify, it all depends on how much detail you want. You can simply fit a normal train motor, battery box and IR Unit into a slightly simplified tender if you like. If you want rods, pistons and stuff it becomes a bit more fiddly but a few of us have done it and there are a few ways each as valid as the next, so just choose the one you like most.

It is a very nice looking tunnel and I am glad that you have managed to run a train through it at last. The ruin is a good idea to put on top, often large hills have some defining feature on top of them. One point I would make and I hope that you do not mind as it is only a suggestion. I think I would have made it a bit higher. It appears that the hillside is simply the right height for the tunnel and not much else, almost like they made an artificial tunnel and put rocks on top of it. It the tunnel was a little higher over and above the level of the tunnel entrances then it would be much more convincing as being tunneled under rather than covered over if you see what I mean? Still it is very nice landscaping, the little details like the climber all add to the scene and make for an interesting part of a layout that will draw the eye.

I see some cows have escaped onto the tracks! This is nice, I like to see all the details that people put into these displays. It makes me very jealous of the space some people have for these set ups even if they are for display at shows and so on. I often wonder though how much of it any one person owns them selves? Does one person own the display boards, another the passenger train, another the goods trains and so on or is it much more fluid than that? And I do like to see a nice long slow moving goods train, they somehow look a lot more powerful than the passenger train rushing past, not sure why, they just seem to have more purpose about them.

Who gets the big white present? I remember having lots of those large green block like base plates as a kid, grey ones as well as I recall. It is interesting what you can do with such a few bricks really if you just think about it.

Not a fan of Minecraft myself, but I was looking forwards to the small sets as bits packs, but turns out they were way to expensive for that. Mini-figure scale may be a better option though, depending on what we get. I like the look of the jungle set, but it needs more jungle tree bits. The trees in the original clip at the start of the thread looked good to me, depending on how expensive it is I may end up getting it.

This is coming on well. When you just built the lake bit and the bridge I thought it looked bit boring, but now i see how it fits into the whole it is so exciting. There is so much good detail in here and it will look fabulous when finished. We need a video then of the trains going around!!! Especially over that bridge now in context! A really nice build, I am jealous of your space.

If it is to match it would be good to make sure the colors on the engine match up with those on the wagons and at the same height so the theme is continuous.

The idea of having some special tile or print on a brick somewhere is OK and I think we have examples of this already. I do like the idea of a page in the instruction book, preferably at the back where all the advert stuff is anyway. It does not have to be huge, I am sure a single page or spread would do.

My father bought a lot of LEGO for me as a kid that was really for him, i know he enjoyed it as much if not more than me as he always had time to build with me no matter what. He especially liked the trains, even the un-powered ones. Ther is something good about swoshing a train along the tracks, not sure what when you can remote control it, but there is. Anyway, he always justified it as he used it to teach me maths and the basics of engineering etc. He would say "pass me a red 2X2 brick" or what ever. I would try to find it. So you could start with that. Would it also help to maybe buy a creator or just one of those boxes of bricks? If you did that you could use it to spark imagination for your daughter and yourself rather than being tied to a particular model. It could then be used over and over so whilst expensive to start with but then the expense would lessen once you had a good understanding of what you could and could not build.

I have a few. The CITY airport, and the large set from the current Mining theme. The large Alien Conquest ADU command vehicle, Helms Deep, Goblin Kings Battle and a couple of other LORT/HOBBIT ones. Ice Planet 2002 base set. Basically if I like a theme I try and get all the sets. The smaller ones I make up and then can store in storage boxes, but usually the largest ones are too big. I want them to complete the series but they normally do not get built. It is a case of waiting for a time when I can affords or inherit a bigger house, then I will build them. I do want them as I said I like to have a whole theme if I collecting it, but storage is at a premium right now.

I have also noticed that the CMF ones all have their hands upside down when opened. They used to be like that in sets, but it does seem the sets have been sorted out of late and are now the correct way up.

3 feet under does not sound that far? I am sure it is deeper over here? I guess stopping the hobby really revolves around can I afford it and do I have enough room or time for it? I have another hobby that I have neglected for a couple of years in preference to this one but I am beginning to feel it calling me back. Not that i would stop one or the other all together, just which takes preference at any one time.

I also do not like the short legs not being articulated. I understand the comments about them being pointless and looking silly, but really, a mini-figure is not supposed to look like an exact human replica so I do not see it as an issue. They look silly, but no more silly. I don't know, maybe they could produce a slightly smaller torso for children as well/instead as articulated legs., maybe the torso could be shorter so the legs could be slightly longer, but not as long as regular figures? The lack of articulation in the arms I can see being an issue for those who like battle scenes and stuff. If they were done well I would be happy, but it is not such an issue for me and I would rather have what we have got now than rubbish looking articulated ones. edit:- One thing that I would really like and it is not so much of a change to the mini-figure but rather the way they are sold. I am not a big fan of fleshies, although I know they have their place and why and all that, personally I would prefer them to all be yellow. It would be great though as many people prefer it the other way if they included both yellow and flesh heads/hands with each mini-figure. It may add to the cost, but I would so much prefer it.

Does anyone know anywhere in the UK that one can get back issues of the Brick Journal from? The reason I ask is that I normally pick up the latest one when I place an order direct with LEGO shop at home. I was really looking forwards to the train one which i think was no 24. I really did want that train one. When I ordered earlier in the year a couple of months back they said it was coming soon. The next time I ordered it was out of stock and now it has disappeared from the web store altogether with a new one being released no25. Now I know I can get an electronic copy, but I like a real one that I can actually hold in my hands. I know it is available in the USA, but I am in the UK so before i order from abroad I would like to know if anyone knows of a retailer in the UK from where I could get it. I post here rather than in general as it is the train specific one I want/need! Thanks.

It would be good with a PF motor driving a set of propellers that are actually angled. There was a thread awhile ago where someone did that and it actually did push the wagon along. This would be really cool for a build like this, although as has been said you may need to look at the wheels agin.