Hrw-Amen

Just returned from a brief New Year holiday to Wales which we do most years, Went to the Cardiff LEGO store for my annual PAB cup refill. Got 4 large cups with just over 2700 bricks/parts in total. A lot of lime green and red tiles, (I was hoping for black or LBG/DBG but there you are.) and a good selection of natural coloured bricks and plant parts that will good for landscaping buildings and train scenes. The wife has got me two more for my birthday that I filled so I can expect another 1000 or so bits come next week!! It took about half an hours to fill each cup whilst she was looking around the clothes and other shops that women frequent. Also got two of the new Horizon Express trains whilst there. An expensive day or two but worth it in the long run!!

I am informed by the store manager at my local toy shop that galaxy squad are due for a release in the UK in February (Although exact date in February was not know and that also there would be a later release for them in July. He was not sure if the July one was for sets not as of yet seen or if they were doing it in a two stage release for what we already have?

Managed to pick up two today. Said they had sold out already when I went in this morning but going back later they had just had a delivery so i got two straight out of the brown delivery boxes. The chap in the store said they were selling like hot cakes. It seems that people do like to buy LEGO trains afterall!

I have found buying LEGO in Indonesia very hard going. It does seem to be available in the retail department stores although seemingly about a year or behind what we get in the West. useful for if you have missed something that is now out of production but not good in that it is almost if not more than double the UK price. I have family in Indonesia and when over there I have gone shopping for LEGO with my nephew and bought a couple of little sets (For the price of quite large sets back home.) It does make me wonder who actually buys the stuff at that price over there? I know how low the wages are looking at what my brother in law brings in and what my wife used to earn compared to her wages in the UK. Basically one weeks wage in the UK at twenty hours weekly is more than she used to earn in a month in Jakarta for a fifty hours a week job. I'd like to know the sort of families over there who can afford to buy it as nobody i know there can possibly do so?

Thanks, that was good. I went there today and they were able to find my account no problems.

Perhaps a generic mascot figure with bits to make or even printed tiles or stickers of the most famous schools or colleagues / Uni's would sell better as it could relate to a wider fan base from numerous outlets?

Thanks for the answers. I did hear that there was a two year expiry date myself hen I set the account up, But I have used some already and the ones there are only from January 2012 onwards so that is not an issue.

I recall that when I joined the VIP Programme initially I did so at a LEGO Brand store. I had a little plastic credit card sized card given to me. I had real problems setting my account up on line and in the end the LEGO Helpline had to get involved and they had problems as well so passed it over to the VIP people. In the end they gave up as there was some error and i had to set up a new account and they transferred my points across. All has been well and i have been accumulating points. Now next week I am going to a LEGO Brand store again for the first time in a couple of years. I have quite a few points built up from online purchases over the last year or so. Will i be able to redeem these in store as I never had a card sent to me for the new account and obviously the card I initially was given at the store is no longer active as they had to ditch that account and set up a new one. What i am asking is there anyway to log onto your account in the LEGO store to redeem these points or if you do not have a card is it just too bad and you can only use them online? This question relates to stores in the UK by the way. So anyone know the answer to this question? Thank you.

I keep meaning to get out the instructions and rebuild some of my very first trains from this era, I must actually do it. The two things though that actually stick in my mind are the red intercity passenger coach. (I seem to recall it had a yellow stripe and grey roof? I had about three of these. the second thing are the white tipper trucks. I am certain I recall my father bringing home a set that just had a circle of blue track with an engine and two white tipper trucks? I am not sure if it was a push along or 4.5v motor, but I think this one I played with a lot as a kid. The action of tipping out loads of bricks onto things was something that really got me excited back then!!

I have tended to use both as at times I have found flickr to be unavailable but Brickshelf is OK, then at other times Brickshelf has been down but flickr is OK. It is a pain waiting for the images to be given the once over for Brickshel but i guess that does ensure that what we get to see is the genuine article rather than any old rubbish which I suppose could end up on flickr. Not only that but multiple redundancies is good for ensuring your images are always safe and available somewhere. (in case you loose them off your own PC.)

For small items there is a quite easy fix. For example my collectable mini-figs I have made little display cases for. Each series has its own and the cost is minimal. What I have done is bought one of those A4 clip frames that you get to put certificates in. Then bought a bag of small tack and some picture frame hangers. Bought a strip of wood 2m long and about 6cm wide and 1cm thick. At this thickness it is easy to cut just with a craft knife. I have essentially cout the wood to the size of the wooden back plate to the certificate holder. Then bent out the picture frame hangers and nailed then so that they hold the glass on the front. Then you have a nice dust free case to hang on the wall that does not stick out much and you can keep your CSM in them on display. I have made a few wider ones for slightly bigger things like my wife's friends stuff. If I get the chance i'll photograph them. Obviously that does not solve the issue of larger sets, but i have no room to display many of them anyway. I'd like to but unfortunately there is no space so they get carefully put into boxes and stored away for when I want them. As it happens the boxes that LEGO use the ship stuff in are really nice and usually big enough to get several large sets in to store in the attic. I wish I had more room to put some out but I just do not. If i did though I guess I'd keep them out of direct sunlight. As for heat, although it is not that hot, I do have a section of railway track that is ballasted running around the back of our chairs in the living room. (It is the only bit of rail I can keep up.) It is out of the way and a real pain to get to when I want to set the trains up a loop on special occasions. Anyway the point being that this runs right under the radiator in the living room. It has been there for about a year without any detriment to being next to a heater that is on and off all the time. I guess it is within about 15cm to 20cm away from the rdiator? It has not shown any warping or other damage, although admittedly it is only heat as out of the sunlight.

The Lion vehicles are bright yellow, not the normal yellow or the haz-mat yellow orange.

So now that they are out and people are actually talking about them in store rather than just typing on line, how are people pronouncing the theme. I have heard two conflicting views of how to pronounce it at my local toy store. The manager like myself said it was 'Chime' as in the door bell and 'ma' as in a mother, just like you say the country (China.) but with a 'm' instead. But some of the younger staff were saying 'Chi' as in the energy followed by 'ma' as in a mother which gave it a lot softer but somehow alien fell to it. I much prefer the version that sounds like the country name, but what about everyone else?

Myself I have had problems getting longer wheelbase trains up slopes, for example my Emerald Knight would not even negotiate the difference between the flat floor up to track laid on a base plate without the wheels being lifted off and spinning. This does seem to be the main issue rather than having enough power to go up the incline. It has not been an issue with shorter engines using the normal PF Train motor as the wheels are closer together, so i guess it also depends on what you want to send up the slope as well?

Looks good, are you planning on adding proper train wheels to the wagons as well? It would be nice to see the whole train going around the track.

It would actually be great for me if TLG and GW could co-operate and bring out a LEGO themed Warhammer / W40K line. They could realistically do that aimed at a younger age range then the real GW target and a dumbed down version of the game easier for young children to get to grips with. But I guess it is not that likely to ever happen. Still I even as a hobbiest in both sides I hope these Space Marines/Troopers whatever don't get pulled and we do see a set released relating to these.

I would say it depends on how long you want them on for. If it is simply to say 'hey look I have a light in here' but not have it stay on then light bricks are fine. If on the other hand you want to leave it on any time I'd o for the LED option.

OK, I bought another of the Speedorz sets today, the eagle one. Again it is basically fun to build and set up and i have tried the speedorz a few times. The trouble I am finding though, as I said previously that the speedorz hits the ramp and simply pushes it along the floor in front of it rather than going up it and jumping. I have tried on a flat wooden floor as well as a carpeted one with the same result on both the only difference being that on the carpet the speedorz and ramp came to rest a lot quicker than on the wooden floor. Maybe the ramps need to be grounded on some sort of baseplate for them to have enough friction for the speedorz to actually go up and over them rather tham simply push them along like a large snowplough out in front. At least with a big ramp in the front it is pretty hard to not knock anything over. One thing I wanted to ask as well, why is it people are assuming the Crocodiles, Ravens are bad guys and the Lions and Eagles are good guys? I have read all the leaflets and the stuff that comes with the sets and it does not seem to say that anywhere. The only thing I could find in a write up about the crocodile ship is that they are allied to the raven faction. It seems to me that lions and eagles can be just as if not on occasion more than fierce and terrible as crocodiles and certainly a lot more than ravens. I just got the image that thy are simply different factions with no clear good or bad guy, just down to individual preference I could have missed it somewhere but have double checked the booklets and information i have to be on the safe side before asking?

I can say for certain that GW have been aware of this project from the outset. I seem to recall saying about a year ago, or at least several months back that Space Marines were a trademarked GW thing and they are very hot on IP. Being a collector of GW/Citadel models (As well as LEGO.) I know for a fact that it was also talked about several months back on forums dedicated to GW models and games.

OK, first of all I have to say that I really did not like these sets, they are all different shapes and sizes and come with a silly game attached to a ridiculous background. Annoyingly after buying the raven glider and finding that I still did not like them I found myself buying the smallest crocodile tank set, followed by the lion 4x4 vehicle and the Speedorz started set!! It is ridiculous, why am I having to buy these even though I told myself I do not like them? They don't even store neatly together being all odd shapes and sizes! A couple of questions before I finally get sucked right into buying loads at the expense of my CITY and Train purchases. 1:- All these mini-figs have nice printed heads and then they have animal heads on top. Is the opinion that the mini-figs head is the actual head and they wear the animal mask as some kind of ritual helmet when in battle, or is the animal head actually the mini-figs proper head which if so begs the question why have they got detailed printed heads inside and not just animal mask heads in the same way that we get heads for aliens etc. 2:- What is all this about Gorillas? I can find no mention of them in the UK literature and no Gorilla related sets either on TLG shop t home website or in actual real toy shops.. 3:- Has anyone worked out how to play the game yet and specifically how do you get them to jump the ramps rather then just push them across the floor in front of the speedorz? OK, I really must look away from these pages. But thanks if anyone has the answers.

Interesting project. Myself I do not have any of this pneumatic equipment in LEGO. Is the set up that you used in your final model for the pistons and that the same as in the video you posted? Does the engine run smoothly now it is all built up? Sorry for asking so many questions but as I said I do not have these bits. How have you managed to power it, is there a tender with some kind of compressor to run the pistons? Whatever you have it does seem a rather unique way of powering your loco and I would like to see the finished model running around a track pulling a couple of wagons.

Yes i use them all the time in manners similar as others have said. Also in my modular buildings I like them fairly sturdy whilst maintaining details in the front and rear, therefore I tend to make my side walls 1 brick thick (Which when with another modular then become two bricks thick, one from each building.) bricks thick but the front and rear walls I tend to make two bricks thick so the 2X2 is very useful for filling up gaps. Not quite as useful as a 1X2 but still I use quite a lot of them.

Would it not be a simpler solution just to not use the standard train bases and to build them from normal plates and put tiles on top of your bogie, that is what I have done as I found the official train bases were nowhere near long enough? I can see what you mean if you are using those bases, and your idea may work, but it is simpler to just not use them in the first place.

If I were doing this I would not worry about working out any proportions and all that, I would get a baseplate one of the figures you want to make it for and then just start building and see what actually looks right. I find myself that it is much better to build to get a feel for the size of things, also you can make sure the figure sits / lays / stands more or less

I'm with Duq, I cannot see the issue, sorry I don't mean to be unhelpful, but I have carriages that are reasonably realistic in LEGO Terms and they are 46 studs long each. There is plenty of turn on the bogies to get them through the LEGO curves and switches. Yes it does look a little ridiculous due to the sharp bends and overhang, but they do run very well. The only modification that I made over what I would normally use as a bogie on such long wagons was to move the connector buffer/magnet set up out half a stud using a jumper plate. This was to allow for the addition of a modelled corridor connection at the ends of the coaches.