Hrw-Amen

I have to say that I have not myself noticed anything wrong in any of sets I bought or even parts. But I would say that pulling out of China is a good move. I don't have anything against the Chinese, but more jobs outsourced to places where labour is cheap are jobs that could go to people in the countries where the Employer is based. Especially with the current economic climate we should be looking to look after our own first. It may add a few pence to sets but it will be worth it in the long run I would hope. I have seen loads of people loosing their job because production or sometimes even whole companies have relocated. It is a bitter pill to swallow when you have been with the same company for thirty years plus to be told you are loosing your job as they can make whatever cheaper in countries where a labour cost is less. So the idea of bringing a few back sounds like a good one to me..

I have never sold any LEGO sets. I have given some away, but these have been reasonably small ones that I have purchased over the last two years specifically to give to people as gifts for whatever occasion. I have also given the odd bit away to other AFOLs but then in turn they have supplied me with a part I want for something so it is a bit of give and take and depends if I have a lot of the parts they need or not. I do however agree that some of my old space stuff does look a bit dated, whilst at the time of buying it looked great. But then I guess you could say that about most things, for example I remember having a ZX81 and Commodore Vic 20 but compared to this laptop I am using now they are rubbish. Still I keep them and occasionally hook them up to play old games on just because it reminds me of my youth. To be honest a lot of my Blacktron 1 & 2, M-tron, Space Police, UFO, Insectoid and Ice Planet sets I bought myself when I was in my mid twenties and when I bought my first house. Maybe that is kind of odd for some, but my dark age only came when I was about 28'ish or so having continued right from childhood through. There was certainly a change though as growing up my parents could not afford big sets even at Christmas or Birthdays, I just got the mid range and cheaper ones. Still my father enjoyed building LEGO as he was into railways and bought me all the blue 4.5V stuff he could afford (Which I think was really so he could play with it as well.) and we spent ages playing with it and building together. He taught me my basic maths skills using LEGO by asking me for a 2X3 plate or 2X4 brick etc, so those old bricks have a certain sentimental value.I can definately say though that even the space stuff I bought myself later on was an awful lot better than the models I got in the late 60's through to 80's, but compared to now even they don't really stand up. That does not in itself make them bad sets though and I would not get rid of them. I recently dug out of the attic some old Blacktron and Space Police sets and was pleased to also find some of the original space sets with the white and red spacemen. I think those were amongst the last sets my parents bought for me before I started work and bought them myself. I can recall going to the toy shop with my father and buying some, I think he was as excited as me to get them. I would have been about 14-15 then. Somewhere in the parents attic I to have the Blacktron base you speak of. Really though all of those bases, the Spyrius, Ice Planet, Blacktron were not that good looking back on them. They were basically a large raised baseplate with a few little men and large trans parts that made up the canopy and maybe a small vehicle. I seem to recall the Blacktron 2 one came with a space ship though that itself was what made me get it rather than the base itself. I actually still have the Ice Planet base that I have never built still in as new condition never taken out of the box. Will I sell it, probably not. One thing I have done a lot of though was to buy extra sets for parts. Sometimes the reason was I wanted extra minifigs and the parts were just an afterthought especially with the pocket money sized sets. But even then I used to do a lot of MOCing as I had quite a stash of ordinary bricks. Things got built taken apart and rebuilt into something else. Towards the end of my initial phase though I think I started to get things together that I wanted to keep as a large number of these turned up with my official sets in the attic. I thought to myself, 'I can remember building this.' So even though it is a MOC it is still of sentimental value. Nowadays I usually only build things I want to keep anyway as my main thing now is LEGO Trains. They do go through a lot of rebuilds until I am happy but once they are done is pretty much it unless (As happens sometimes.) I think I can do better having thought of another part to use, then I will update them, but still keep the overall model. Back in the olden days even when I was working an bought the sets myself there was no internet, so no Bricklink or PAB on LEGO website, it never existed so the only way to get extra parts was by buying extra sets. Now if I need bits I won't rob another MOC I'll just Bricklink it or order a PAB on-line and wait for it in the post as it usually is only a day or two. Then once it is built it is built. I am pretty sure if i tried to sell anything then I would really regret it, although I have thought about copying some of my railway stuff and selling those, but I cannot be bothered really. Maybe i might do that if I was unemployed and needed a way of getting some money, I am not sure I'd have to think about it. But even then I would just buy all the bits for the kit rather than sell the original. But even oridinary 2X4 bricks that are only pence I will not sell as many a time I have come to something and needed just one brick in a certain colour. So my advise would be, even if you do not really want to keep the old stuff made up still do not sell the sets as the bricks will be useful in MOCs at some point in time. (i think this is the longest reply I have ever typed!!)

Looks just like I imagine a real one would look!

I like the wall, it actually reminds me of the old fire station where I used to live. It was brick built and had a similar pattern. Unfortunately no longer and has been developed into flats. The trouble I find with the masonry bricks is that to get a good pattern they have to just be stacked directly on top of each other which is a pretty rubbish building technique for strength especially if it is a big wall. I have tried overlapping them but then they just do not line up right. I think I prefer the plate option if you want to make it more brick like as they will not then be so big and as people have said you could incorporate more brick colours.

Good to see you included the overhead electric supply that so many LEGO trains lack. Nice micro train.

Great, my friends son has some of that wooden track and is really into Thomas and co right now. Maybe an option to into LEGO Trains. He was especially pleased to see my full size LEGO trains running around, but seemed to want to push it..

How about an article exploring the different angles people have taken on the Octan tanker wagon. I know that I have made some and I know that lots of people on here have also made them. Whilst they all follow a general theme they can be quite interesting to see what others have come up with as a solution to a common idea? An article on the benefits of building 6 studs wide, 7 studs wide, 8 studs wide and so on up to ten wide. Any issues, the way they look and perform? One thing that bugs me no end is all these trains with pantographs and let no overhead power lines. I know there was an article a while back, but something to bring it up to date explaining the basics so we can build them easily. That would be good especially with the Horizon Express coming out soon,

I don't mind having named squad members at all in fact I welcome that some heroes are named. It is just that I feel they should not be the whole thing in themselves. They can be an elite unit, or the commanders or some other type of special unit but I just would like to see it made clear that they are part of a much larger organisation. Like I said it lacks depth somehow. Yes i can and probably will buy multiples of some and change the heads I am OK with that. I'd just feel happier if the whole of humanity was not dependant on half a dozen named people no matter hoe fantastic they are on their own. Even special ops teams need logistic support and the like. How about having a character named something like Thomas Thunder Quartermaster, or Simon Spaceheart Storeman! Just to make it clear no matter how fabulous and famous you are, you still reply on the back room people. That in itself would be a good lesson for children to learn and I don't think it is too hard a concept for them to grasp. Afterall how many of these children's parents are superheroes? It is much more likely they are checkout operators and warehouse operatives and office staff. It just grounds the theme in reality. An important lesson indeed. As for the purple thing, yes it looks to me like an upside down version of the green face hugger from Alien Conquest. Sort of like a foot hugger.

I have plenty of ideas, and did look at the Railbricks submissions thingy on the website, but it did seem a little over complicated and so I have not submitted anything as I am sure I could just not come up to that standard of writing and my photography skills are pretty rubbish. But if anyone in the Railbricks team want to use any of my stuff (Poor as the photos are.) feel free to borrow them from my flickr pages. Here is the link. (I hope?) http://www.flickr.com/photos/hrw-amen/ I do enjoy reading railbricks though.I only wish that it was possible to get it in a printed format at a reasonable price (Sort of like the Brick journal sold on the LEGO website.) as it is always preferable to have a nice printed copy to refer to. I know online is cheaper and I know that you can get a printed version but it is so expensive. But myself I just like having a hard copy to sit up in bed and read or to take reference from when I am building. It is just having something substantial in your hand seams more real somehow. Perhaps that is why I don't use the L-Draw or other building software?

Perhaps they could have a special LEGO promotion in the SUN and distribute that mini-fig, but only to people who can provide evidence of being over 18 obviously. The only reason the get the SUN is for the LEGO, even then I usually leave the paper behind in the store as I don't really want to have to read that sort of paper.

I don't mind having named characters but if the whole of the Galaxy Squad is going to just revolve around a few figures that does not feel very epic to me. I imagined the Green one being the leader of the green Regiment and the Orange one being the leader of the Orange Regiment and so on, not just that these are the only figures. It seems a bit lacking in overall scope! Back in the days of Pace Police, Blacktron & M-Tron etc you could have as many as you liked on the force. This seems a little bit like Ninjago but in space. I hope I am wrong about that.

I cannot see your photos. Any updates now it is powered, it is always good to see a great train running especially if it looks like the real one. For myself I do not have an American train (Apart from the Maresk one.) and would like to have the chance to get one if TLG ever do one again. If not I may have to just build my own.

How many Power Function motors are people planning on getting into these, what I mean is if we buy two to make a whole train, which I imagine most of us will, are you planning to put a motor in both engines? I have been getting the PF bits together already for it adding a bit to each order and have enough bits for the front train. Do we think that will be good enough to pull it or are most people going with two motors, IR units and Batteries? I am guessing if most of us go with two motors we will have to have one of those switch thing so that they both run the same direction as well?

A great pity there are no tracks as it is a nice looking building. Just curious though, which side would the tracks be on as there is no obvious platform in your photos? I am therefore guessing that it would be around the other side opposite the clock tower and that the platforms would extend out from where those three large (Look like garage or warehouse doors?) doors are located?

Would also like to see those battery box done in other colours. It would be good when ordering one if you could specify the colour you wanted, or at least have a couple of choices in the bag with it. I guess that would make it more expensive though. They could sell the innards as one lot and a coloured box as a separate lot under the PF tab on shop at home.

That set with the Mirkwood spiders looks good. although I am not too sure about what appears to be flick fire spiders unless I am seeing wrong? A female Elf as well, that should be good for army builders and another version of Legolas. The spiders look good with glow in the dark bits, although not as good as the Shelob one, then I guess they are supposed to be smaller which limits the details that can be added. Can't wait to we get some of these sets out in the UK!

I managed to get twelve Uruks from the polybags. Not sure what to do with the twelve Suns, my recycling bag is full. Usually I don't bother to take the papers but yesterday for some reason they insisted I did. Normally I only get three, but it was just too much temptation with yesterdays not to get as many as I could!

There are a lot of these little shunters at the moment including my own. They seem to be very under represented in official sets over the last few years. Here we have another nice example of the kind of thing I would like TLG to give us. Coupled with a couple of little goods wagons it would make a nice small entrance into LEGO trains.

OK, tried that. You are right it has not made much difference but thanks for trying. The one thing it has changed though is that the 'post' button now seems to be working. Would it be possible to e-mail the image I always use on forums to one of the admin team and have them attach it to my profile? If so what sort of dimensions would you want as I just have it as a standard image size at the moment, but obviously can resize it if needed?

That is a really good interpretation of that little engine. Forgive me for asking but where is it from? I am guessing from your writing / spelling that it is not from Europe or at least not western Europe, maybe Russia or one of the Middle East countries? It kind of looks like a little shunter that some of our larger corporations would have on their own sidings.

When I click the top link http://www.eurobrick...?showuser=17080 it lets me in. Then when i click on 'Edit my profile' it comes up with 'Page cannot be displayed.' I have tried the link at the bottom http://www.eurobrick...e&module=usercp and it just says the same 'Page cannot be displayed.' Also I tried using the 'Quote' and 'MultiQuote' buttons to reply but they are just clicking nothing happening either.

Nice little engine. I actually saw a class 8 yesterday in operation whilst held up at some signals on the apporoach to Southampton Station. I have built one myself but It is a little bigger than your shunter. What I really like in your train is the open coal wagon. I need to build a few of these to be pulled by my 0-8-0 black steam engine.

I have a picture ready and have had since I joined the forum, the trouble is when I click on the box in the top right hand corner of the screen 'Your Profile' nothing happens. I cannot open any of it. I have tried in MS Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Firefox and it is the same in all of them, the button just clicks and nothing happens. There fore I cannot get into it to change any settings, no idea why as I have tried several times, it just will not do anything? It is the same for the 'Post' button when answering a thread. In all three web browsers it will not work. Every time I want to answer a thread I have to go through the 'More Reply Options' button and post that way. If anyone had a suggestion as to why these buttons are not working I would be more than happy to add a picture and would probably contribute to more threads as it would not be such a faff to have to do all that clicking. I have tried it on several computers as well, so I know it is nothing specific to the computer I am using, it must be something on the account?

I don't like to use the word as it is overused to much, but that is awesome! The details in the walls are just fantastic and look so real in cannot be true.

Maybe some instructions at least for the simple sets would be nice, or the more rare ones that not many of us will have been able to get hold of, then we can get the bits and build our own if we want to. Perhaps some of the ideas discussed in Railbricks, for one I would like to see in a book some designs for overhead power lines for the pantographs. It always bugs me when i see trains running around with the things sticking up in the sir and no masts for them to get power. I mean I could understand that actually putting string or wire between would be pretty impractical, but I do like to at least see the masts modelled in layouts. It is I think my biggest gripe about LEGO's official trains, quite a few have them but in the real world they would never go anywhere without any electricity.