Hrw-Amen

It seems from many replies that it is a bit like real life. Most people keep the min-figs safe from the sets whereas the raw materials are recycled.

I have been waiting until after the New Year in order to have enough fre cash to buy an Earth Defence HQ. I see it still listed as on the Themes bit of the TGL site but not in the shop. I have e-mailed them to see when it would be back in stock and have just got a reply saying it is no longer available. I will have to hunt around the local stores I guess.

I like to keep my sets made up, or at least in bags / boxes so they can be made up. I use Bricklink for bricks to use for my own projects including extra minifigs, which is good as I can choose the parts I want for custom figures rather than what comes in the sets.

I have to say that I have been struggling with this. I got the little bitmaps from the thread just after i joined, saved them to y PC, combined them; but could then not find anything about how to add them to my signature? I have tried goin through the tutorials but could not find anything about how to do it. Or at least that I could get to work? It must be something simple as loads of us have managed it, but it has eluded me and so in the end I gave up. Having said that obviously I am not alone.

Nice to see a success in the world at large.

Isn't that a bit like buying collectable minifigs and not opening them? It does seem strange when they are full of LEGO. However, sad as it maybe I am also guilty of this. I cannot even really say why? It is not so much the buying of sets in shops but when we get free ones in the newspaper. I always try and get 3, one for me to open and have, one for my nephew and one to keep in its bag. I never really thought about what I was doing until I read this. Should I go and open them all right now? Probably should, but I don't expect I will.

Nice to see some Alien Conquest ADU on offer. I like the overall idea of the tank especially the treads. I would have liked the driver to be a little more upright in his seating position, but that is a small thing. Good overall effort. Have you now included the IR control?

Of course the ADU could always have a new alien threat to go up against, just because the current aliens have pretty much what they need, (Although this is I think open to question.) there is nothing to say another faction could not want to invade Earth, or where ever the ADU live. (I assume Earth!) I mean in the olden days my Blacktron guys went up against M-Tron, then Space Police, then Ice Planet and Explorions before teaming up with Spirus to take on several at once. On a personal note I would love to see a return of Blacktron even against the ADU. It would be pretty good as well I think if they were to become at least inpart an alien force. I already have one alien Blacktron trooper as I suspect many do? So I can still see plenty of scope at least for the ADU, but I guess the question is can TLG? I note that the Earth Defence HQ has disappeared from their website in the last few days, which is sad as I wanted to get one.

Great idea and glad she liked it.

Very interesting methods for building here. I like the different styles of balcony and the use of various shapes and curves. Nice tower.

I like to have a good idea of what I am going to build and may make some design decisions before I start, but I always build and finish one thing at a time even if in my own mind I know what is coming next.

Oftem my wife and I build big models together. She likes to do the building so I sort and pass her the bits. I get really annoyed when every so often she drops a bit, (Always a small bit.) into the bin at the side of her chair. I then have to empty the cotents and go through the garbage to find a small 1X1 plate or whatever. Sometimes I think she does it on purpose?

All of my LEGO Train motors give out this noise as soon as there is power to them. It is a little headache inducing, however once the train starts rolling I find it is drowned out by the actual running sound so I don't have to put up with it for too long. However I do not get the same noise, (Or any noise.) from my PF XL motors that I am using for the Emerald Night and other steam trains, so it seems it is just that particular one. Not sure why? Maybe if we have a tech-priest on the forum they could enlighten us, as I have wondered myself?

Very nice train, is there a video of it running yet?

Those coaches look like some I had back in the seventies on a push train. Very colourful though. Does it have PF or some other type of motion?

That is a very bright and Christmassy train!

Really nice train. I had a couple of them on my old N Gauge layout when I was a kid. Would like to have have in the LEGO scale, so I second if you could share the instructions? Thanks for showing us.

Yes I thought about larger wheels but just went with what I had in that colour and they were the ones that came with the army men. Maybe I will change them when I do my next Bricklink order?

I built a little MOC of an army truck and towed gun for my soldiers to drive around my town in. It is not based on any particular type of truck, the only things I really considered being that I wanted to fit the whole gun crew into the back of it and that it should be green to match the soldiers themselves. As you can see I have used the Army Men from the Toy Story range to make the soldiers but have given them proper yellow hands and heads and so on. (Just so they look more real at least in a LEGO kind of way.)

Nice little shunter. I am confused, what is all this about salad?

Nice train, a good match to the original.

Gosh! I did not realise it was that complicated. I thought it was just a couple of wires to an on/off switch. It is a good job I've never had to take one apart!

Having said that I do not really like them, I now find myself becoming excited at the prospect of LOTR and Hobbit so I have to eat my words I guess. I do hope though that the sets do not have fleshy coloured mini-figs and have proper yellow ones, at least for the human characters. Although I doubt that they will. Could be a good source of things like Orcs and trolls though!

Anyone know about the Level Crossing? I see it has been out of stock for a while now on the LEGO website and I have tried a few local retailers who I know have had them in but they have all sold out. I spoke to one today who said that they have not had any in on the last couple of orders although they have been trying to get them.

I don't remember seeing a caboose like that on British passenger trains. When I was younger they used to have brake vans, that were the same length and general design as a normal carriage, but only half of its length was seated. The other half had a little room for the guard, sort of lie a small office. Then the rest of the carriage was for putting things like pushbikes and bulky stuff in. I remember once having to take my motorcycle to a dealer in another town to get it fixed and having to manhandle it up a foot or so from a low platform into one of these carriages, it was a very tight fit to go in the door. Then it was a real hassle at the other end and guard was complaining that it was all taking too long and making them behind schedule. I have not even seen one of those type of carriages for donkeys years now? We did used to have cabooses (Guards vans.) on freight trains that seemed to come in either long and grey or stumpy and brown if I remember correctly. Most of the ones around where I lived seemed to be the long grey variety with only the occasional stumpy brown one. These stumpy brown ones were similar to the one you have made, but they did not have windows in the sides. As for the EN colours, on the Southern railways we had green engines and rolling stock, although I think, (And memory maybe playing tricks on me.) if I recall correctly they were more of the normal green colour than dark green. I am pretty sure the GWS engines were darker though but then a lot just got painted black when BR took them over, but some just went rusty! Anyway, the one you have made matches well with the coach for the EN, so if the chidren will be happy with it that is good enough. I hope they enjoy your efforts anyway and it should look good. Is it going to run around a Christmas tree in the window?