WesternOutlaw

Excellent rendering bLEGOnder. I'm sure a lot of work goes into creating these digitally. The size works well for the great details. I like the piano. Do you plan on making this into a real MOC?

I'm really having lighting/camera problems getting this MOC captured. That's probably what it is. Here's a WW moc that uses regular orange: I think the dark orange is a great color for Wild West MOCs. It blends nicely with tan, brown, and black.

Nice little wild west family you've made there KD. I esp. like the kids. I also like that shirt you used for the father. I've used that a few times myself. Mom's a real beaut' too. She's rather attractive with her red shirt and all. Nice job .

Thanks WhiteFang. Comments like yours really make me feel like the creation is appreciated. I'm not sure I understand what you mean. The pillars and railing are both Dark Orange. That's the only use of dark orange in the MOC? Good catch. I'm sure I have other colors, but I didn't have any handy. I just added the white one for a little additional detail.

Thanks again everyone for the great feedback HINCKLEY: I do the same thing Hinck, and this was no exception. This was initially intended to be a hotel, but I've built enough hotels for Grave Stone, so I turned it into a Train Depot. Coming from someone who's got a lot of Lego-building talent, I really appreciate your positive comments. Thanks. KLAUS-DIETER: I've been wanting to do one for a long time now KD. I may have to break out the track and pieces and do so soon. While I really love the Train Theme, none of my trains have ever come out well. This is a tough challenge for me. IMPERIALSHADOWS: Thanks IS. I had intended to do some kind of story-book. I put together a small one last year similar to how my web-page reads, with images of each MOC, then the story - used a lot of ink. I think I've spent as much time writing about Grave Stone as I have building the various structures of the town. BATBRICK: Awesome compliment! Thanks for continuing to review my work and your constructive criticism is welcome. I often times blend the new brown with the old brown (perhaps I'm color-blind, or just don't care about mixing the two together). I did the same thing with my Nightmare Stagecoach. I don't have an issue with mixing the colors. I see that Athos commented about it as well. Actually, I was thinking black and brown. I'm still debating on the colors. Black gets a bit boring. Again, thank you all for taking the time to comment on this MOC. More pictures coming soon. EDIT: More Pictures! A long wait: Close-up: Right Side: Front View: I'm not sure why (probably the lighting), but my camera seems to be blurring lately. These at least give you a better idea re. the size and various dimensions.

Thank you all for the excellent feedback. I was trying to take images of this MOC late last night and my lighting was really bad. I'll share some more photos this afternoon and provide a longer response when I have more time. In regard to the clock tower and sign, both are actually custom decals (the clock actually clip art I found on the web). Here's a close-up image: The sign: And good ol' Jebediah waiting on the train: As I was printing the decals, I ran out of a few colors (6-ink cartridge printer) making the sign much darker (it was intended to be brown). But as I said, I'll take some better images this afternoon. I should mention, I like the end product of this MOC, but I really had a lot of difficulty in photographing. I think it looks much better when you see the actual MOC. I hope the lighting does the trick.

Grave Stone Abandoned Station The clock is nearing midnight... An Abandoned Station stands along the rusty tracks of Grave Stone. Jebediah's last words were "I'll be dead before this train comes". Who would have guessed he was right? There's one ticket out of Grave Stone that can be found within the decrepit walls of the Abandoned Station; but this ticket is for a special ride, a ride on the haunted Ghost Train. In order to redeem the ticket, one must wait between 11:00 PM and midnight at the station. The only problem is that there are other less-sightly creatures that are also trying to escape Grave Stone, and they will kill for a ticket aboard the Ghost Train. And what ghastly train stops at an Abandoned Station within Grave Stone? Do you dare wait until midnight to find out... My latest Grave Stone MOC, the Abanondoned Station. Here's a sneek peak. I'll share more images tomorrow.

Wow! I don't remember ever seeing these. I thought the large mini-fig scale vehicles were a present day style (or at least just the past few years). It looks like Lego introduced them a long time ago. I did pick this set up after seeing it at LegoLand with the Air Chase Plane. I thought it was really neat at the time.

Interesting topic GenZen. I don't generally share my hobby of Lego or other toy collections with anyone that I know personally. Most of my friends who know me well just think my toy collections are a bit strange. As I get older, I realize, the important thing is that I'm having fun. I used to be a bit embarrased in combing the toy aisles in search of Lego, Star Wars, etc., but as I see so many other adults doing the same, I'm reassured that I'm not the only one. This is one of the great things about EB in that all of us share the same hobby/interest. It's also great to have a child/relative to buy for, as the best excuse. I also appreciate that Lego has pursued AFOLs as another targeted market. All of these things help as we go out and fill our grocery carts with Lego. From the child perspective, I would think that kids who see our collections would think they're pretty cool.

You make some good points 5150L. While I don't agree with you in regard to the size and detail of the Speed Racer sets, I do think Lego did a really nice job with the detail of the Indy sets, even if they are a bit large. In fact, I love the vehicles from Race for the Stolen Treasure. I'm not stuck on 4-stud vehicles as they are sometimes boxy. I just think that Lego could make a detailed vehicle without making them so large. -------- Oh, and Ralph- great MOCs you've got there! Thaks for sharing. I really like the English cab.

Interesting to see the blend of SW and Castle Majek. The SNOT technique looks good as well as the colors black, gold, and dark blue. I like the double ended sword which is pretty clever. Nice job.

Yes. These early inspirations stuck within our memories over the years. As I mentioned above, I remember the picture of the lighted windmill, years later creating my Ghost Town Windmill. Both examples show what a strong impact these early images had on us. I think that's pretty interesting, don't you? - nice MOC BTW.

I've decided to open two sets of figs each week between now and the end of the month. I'll share pictures as I open each. Here are two more sets: Indy and the German Mechanic Sallah, Mummy, & the Snake. I love the Mummy! For those of you interested, enjoy the new figs. I want to open the next two soon so I can redeem the sticksers for the exclusive Indy.

Where did you find them Batbrick? EDIT: never mind Batbrick. I forgot you live in Australia.

I don't know about that. One of the things that I appreciated about Classic City was that one could continue to add additional components, and they were along the same size. For instance, if someone wanted a race track/road for Speed Racer, what would they do? And how about some buildings/garages to house vehicles this large? I'm not saying one would necessarily loose detail/quality with a smaller vehicle, it just wouldn't be the same. Sometimes a very small model can be much more detailed than a larger one. We've seen it done with a number of official sets. Just look at the details of the 4-stud vehicles pictured in some of the images above. They're terrific! Perhaps Lego built the Speed Racer vehicles for a more expensive price point.

This is really an excellent idea that I was thinking about yesterday as well. I've created a few books for my personal use, but the idea of a book from the great EB MOCs would be terrific. I'm not sure about the Brickshelf idea, but to have some sort of virtual edition is a great idea - sort of like Rail Bricks (or whatever the name), but spanning a few different themes. We would need buy-in from the admins and members. I don't know about this. I personally feel that even with an on-line WWW reference, tangible products are still nice to have. They esp. come in handy when sitting down in front of a pile of Lego. Also, whether it's printed in a book or on-line, the quality of a good image is still about the same.

Excellent idea Brick Rat. Your idea to have a theme specific idea book is similar to the old Train Idea Book from Lego. Although I never owned it, I had heard that it was train only. I would love to see an Indiana Jones idea book in the same fashion. One of the important aspects, I think, would be to include some alternate models that one could build from sets, not just concept images; perhaps a mix of images with both and a sticker sheet (as you've mentioned). When I had gone to Legoland a few months ago, I was in the new adventure area looking at the mdse. The items included pyramids, snakes, hats, and other cheap Chinese mds. i was so disappointed in not finding any nice quality mdse. An Indy adventure Idea Book would have been a great item to have on the shelves next to the Lego sets. At the same time, I would not mind seeing a combined book like the City Idea Book pictured above that included City, Space, and Train. It was mostly City but had a little space and castle toward the end. Good points Sne. I could see cost and sales being the top two issues. Perhaps if Lego were to offer Idea Books more as exclusives with a higher price point, Lego would do better with them. I wonder how Jake McKee's "Getting Started with Lego Trains" book sold? I ordered one a few years ago. That's the one I remember! I don't have mine anymore. I built a lot of things from that yellow Idea Book.

My Tabeltown use to have this friendly fuel delivery truck on its roads - and it didn't take as long to fill 'er up : Do you think that it would be impossible to create a Speed Racer vehicle with a car that's 4-6 studs wide? Sure, it might not have the same level of detail as the big boys, but I think it would be interesting to see one. I think we've just come to expect larger vehicles if they're detailed. Why couldn't they be designed to fit a standard town?

Me too. Perhaps it's our age group or the classic Lego in us. And even though they were only 4-studs wide, the detail was excellent. I don't own either of the sets pictured below, but just check out the quality of the simple design: There are many other great 4-stud vehicles from the Classic City era.

Excellent thoughts on the subject svelte_corps and WhiteFang. It's great to hear that others enjoyed Idea Books. I just went out in the garage to dig mine out and although the cover is rather worn and torn, the book itself isn't in too bad of shape. For those of you unfamiliar with Idea Books, here's an example of the one pictured above. It still has the price which was just $1.99 (USD). For example, this windmill inspired by Grave Stone Whispering Windmill (although I did not break this out when I was building it). I was surprised to find this many stickers still unused in the book: And check out these castle inspirations: What I like about any book as opposed to on-line reference material is that you can take it with you when you go to build on the floor or on a table, as opposed to building next to your computer (I don't think I ever did that). I aslo had an old yellow Idea Book which I probably tossed over the years. It had some great basic building techniques. I remember one model of a blue/black Model T that I build a few times. I really enjoyed building with images and instructions from books like the one pictured above. Lego should really consider bringing back one of these. They could possibly include instructions that they post in their Brickmaster magazines. It would make for a great modern Idea Book.

Perhaps Lego wants to sell more of their gas station sets . I'm glad someone checked out the link. I have seen the other two. I like the one where the German lady says, "You got an 'F'". - too funny

One of the things that I remember growing up with Lego was the fantastic Idea Books that provided me with a lot of inspiration over the years. As an example, the City Idea Book (pictured above) from the 80s included themes from City, Classic Space, and even Castle. In addition, within the centerfold was a great sheet of stickers that were pretty useful. What ever happened to Idea Books? As we've seen boxart no longer provide alternate models , even Idea Books have gone away. I understand that there is a German Lego catalogue that will contain a history of sets, but how about some new models? Does Lego just want kids to buy and build official sets, rather than try to build creative alternate models? Or has the large number of specialized pieces created diificulty for designers to create inspiration books? Discus your thoughts in regard to Idea Books and if it would be worthwhile for Lego to offer them again.

Great contest with a lot of outstanding entries. This one was really hard to choose, but I went with Graynar. Excellent job to all the entries!

Interesting thoughts. I thought this subject would generate some differing opinions on the subject. I'm really a Classic Lego fan at heart. I liked the 4-stud wide cars. They fit in one lane and garages. Details included working doors, sometimes a back seat, even an open fuel latch. When Lego introduced the Batmobil, I really did like it but it's so large, buildings have to be larger to look good next to it. I tried building a garage section for it in my custom Bat Cave: The result was this: The garage took up half a large grey baseplate! In any case, even 6-stud vehicles are a little large, but they at least can be used with existing cities. As for Speed Racer, the new Agent vehicles, and all the other "big boys", TOO BIG! I think lego could benefit from a more classic concept when it comes to their autos and " ".

WhiteFang. This looks fantastic! Would you believe I actually thought the HP Castle backdrop was actually part of your MOC, until re-reading your description. It actually looks pretty good. Your forest scene has some nice customization like the round brown pieces as steps up to the tree (very clever use for them); as well as the placement of the red gem. I also like your skeleton knights a lot. The use of the black helmets and breast plates look really good (and frightening which I always enjoy). My only suggestion would be to mix your trees a little bit more (trees and bushes that is) - unless placing all the bushes on the right side was intentionally done to create some sort of swamp/area for the undead legions. If this is the case, then I understand what you were trying to depict. Overall, this has come out very nicely and your photos tell a lot of action. In response to your comment about my Jungle Adventure, I'd say you've really created a great scene here that's equally nice. It makes me want to dig out my Crownies and Undead and set something up myself. I started to last year after buying the Skeleton Ship but did not complete it. Here's a shot: I suppose I'll wait until the new 2008 sets are out. Great job though!