Captain Zuloo

Thanks BMW! Unfortunately I left the pamphlet with all the details of the loco, cars and railway on the train. So thanks very much for that.

That's great scruffulous, I'm assuming we'll be seeing all these MOCs at Brickvention 2010? What a curious little train though - I never knew it existed, but a tractor on a train body? How bizarre! You did a brilliant job of capturing the details of this odd little locomtive though. Well done. Cool! My train driving experience is when my friend in Broken Hill took me inside an NR Class loco and I drove that around the rail yard. Now that WAS fun! But I've never driven a tram. Although I have flown a Boeing 747 with 450+ people on board.

Fantastic work! I'm really loving the elevated train amongst this city. I'm enjoying watching the development and evolution. Keep it up mate.

Captain Zuloo and pe668's Great Steam Train Journey Canberra - Bungendore October 8, 2009 Ok, so this doesn't involve LEGO bricks in any way, but I thought it could be a good addition to the non-LEGO reference section of Train Tech. Ok, I lied, I just wanted to share some photos of a fantastic train trip I took with pe668, his daughter and his uncle. The Australian Railway Historical Society runs a Canberra - Bungendore steam train and I was lucky enough to be invited by pe668 to go along for a ride. It was a fantastic day of wind in my face, strange conductors and soot (I'm still shaking it out of my hair) and I will be going again the very next opportunity I get! We started off as our train pulled in to Canberra Railway Station. The loco (sorry, I forgot the class), number 3016, was built in 1903 but in recent times has only been rail fit for about 2 and a half years. The train was supposed to be delayed an hour due to another train carrying ballast being too heavy and not being able to get out of our way. But that was done earlier than expected, and we were on out way. We got to Queanbeyan fairly quickly where we sat on a siding waiting for the regular CountryLink Explorer service to fly past before we continued. After passing some interesting landscapes including many farm paddocks full of animals who ran at the sound of the train, we entered a tunnel. We were advised to keep windows shut whilst in the tunnel as the soot would get into the cars. I got enough soot on me from sticking my head out the window outside of the tunnels - inside one would have been a disaster! We passed two more tunnels and the new Defence base (in the middle of the countryside no less ) before arriving after about an hour and a half in Bungendore. When most of the passengers had left the train, I went and asked a conductor if I could go down to the rail level to take a few pictures of the locomotive, and I was lucky enough for him to say yes, so long as I make an effort not to get hit by the train. We went for a walk to a local pie shop (there wasn't much else, Bungendore is a tiny town) and I got myself a mexican pie. Bloody hell, I think there was more steam coming out of me than the train - the chilli flakes were huge! Then we walked back to the railway station where the locomotive had been shunted to the other end of the train. There weren't too many people floating around, so I asked if I could have a look in the cab. The guy inside said "sure!", so I climbed in and took a few photos... ...and so did pe668. When I was in the cab, I noticed a pipe under the train with water pouring - and I mean pouring out of it. I asked the guy in the cab (who turned out to not know a thing about steam engines other than that he had to "train-sit" this one until the driver got back from lunch) if it was supposed to be producing so much water, and he said he had no idea, but it was left like that so it must be right. We then returned to our carriage and sat down waiting for the train to depart promptly at 20 minutes past 2 o'clock. We weren't going anywhere, and what a suprise: we got word that the boiler was too low on water to make the trip back to Canberra. The fire brigade had to be called to put more water in the train. But hey, it gave me some more time to take some photos of the locomotive! And who's this strange fellow attached to the front of the loco? And pe668 decided to jump out and have a look at the train too. About 15 minutes into our wait, I overheard that the fire brigade would be there in 45 minutes. Usually that would be fine, but the CountryLink train was stuck in Canberra and couldn't get past until we got back, and it would have been quite costly to the Historical Society were we to make the Canberra - Sydney service late. So the driver made the decision to use what water we had left to try and get back to Canberra. He said that if we didn't make it, at least we would be closer so the fire brigade wouldn't have to go as far. So we boarded the train for the last time and pulled away from Bungendore railway station. (Note: That red signal never went green, we just went straight through it!) pe668's uncle bought himself a hot coffee, and due to the movements of the old cars, he almost wore it as he was in between cars. We enjoyed some more scenery... Before we slowly pulled into Canberra railway station, 40 minutes late. It was a fantastic day, and I hope to take the trip again sometime soon. You can see these and a few more images in the flickr gallery, I hope you enjoyed my amature photography and maybe you train heads might get something out of the loco. I plan to MOC it as soon as I can find a Bricklink store with cheap 10194 wheels...

You don't have to reply to all of the entries, but it will greatly better your chances if you do!

Hey SirGoldenKnight! My main comment here is that you shouldn't post a thread for your MOC until you at least have some WIP shots of it. Threads are a lot more successful when they have an image in the first post. Otherwise they tend to fall to the bottom of the first page, then onto the second, then onto the third etc. When they are revived even with images, people still don't pay much attention because they have already read about it and they know there are no pictures. So my words of wisdom: Don't post a MOC thread until you have images! And your ship sounds cool, I hope you can rectify that image situation I mentioned above in the near future.

Ahoy there matey! Welcome to Eurobricks! Be sure to keep an eye on Classic-Pirates.com which is updated daily with fresh and exciting Pirate MOCs, news announcements and more! Enjoy yer stay.

I love motorcycles! They are much more fun to ride than pushbikes! But in all seriousness, as bad as I am at riding them, once I have my car license I'll be getting my motorcycle one straight after!

All the best matey! Have great day.

Looks great SavaTheAggie! Now where's your website to put this image on? *points to ZulooWeb link in signature*

A MOC expert is someone who has demonstrated that they have a special talent with LEGO. The best way to become one is not to ask to be one, demonstrate that you are one, and wait until the staff pick up on it. And I look foward to your MOC.

Says you, Mister "I talk like a pirate on Skype"... And just for anyone who doesn't know, Mister Phes is an Aussie too.

Wow, I go away for a few days and I miss the official launch of this baby? Well, it looks bloody fantastic! I've been looking foward to decent pictures of this set for ages, and now that I have some, the cravings for this set just got even worse! It's about time we got a decent 3 masted imperial ship, and with white sails too! Brilliant job LEGO.

Haha, great work! I love your clever use of fish as guitars!

Wow, what a random idea! That was fantastic, keep it up General.

Ahoy there scallywags, Episode #10 of 'Behind The Helm' is here! Filled with more audio goodness, I talk with Izzy 'Cutlass_Iz' Kilmartin. She tells us about the best places to buy LEGO in Australia, a new Pirate themed restaurant and makes a special announcement regarding her future involvement with 'Behind The Helm'. Enjoy ye scumbags! Listen to 'Behind The Helm' Episode #10 - Cutlass_Iz Download 'Behind The Helm' Episode #10 - Cutlass_Iz (Right click link and "Save target As...") Contract mentioned in Episode #10 can be viewed here. And what's more, Cutlass_Iz has written this whole interview out in text format! So if ye have any troubles with the download, here it is in text format: Captain Zuloo: Hello, Welcome to this episode of Classic-Pirate.com ‘s ‘Behind the Helm’ I’m Connor Hicks, otherwise known as Captain Zuloo and joining me today is Izzy Kilmartin, otherwise known as Cutlass_Iz in the pirate forum. So, Hello, how are you doing? Cutlass_Iz: I’m good. Thanks. Captain Zuloo: Can you tell us a little about you and how you got into LEGO, what started the hobby for you? Cutlass_Iz: Well, like all of the lucky kids I had LEGO as a child, my brothers and sisters and I would save up all our little pennies and buy an impulse sets whenever we could. I would always buy pirates, my sister paradisa and my brothers City or Forestmen, so we had it all, and we got quite a good collection up. I never really stopped completely playing with LEGO, but it was always in the back of my mind, life just gets in the way you know. And I think it was in 2006 someone bought me Redbeards Pirate ship, the 4+ ship. I looked at the Minifigs on that and went “Eww! Oh dear!” I remembered all the real pirate Minifigs we had back home so I said, “Mum, I need the LEGO.” So we all sat down that night and went through the LEGO and picked out the Pirate Minifigs and I took them all back to my place and haven’t really looked back since then. Captain Zuloo: Oh okay, what would you say was your first set? Do you remember that far? Cutlass_Iz: I can’t be sure but one I do remember one of the first one’s was Castaway’s Raft, I got that when I was about 7 and it was like the ultimate thing for me getting three Minifigs and a shark all in one go. Captain Zuloo: [laughs] Very nice, very nice. So do you have any favourite themes? I’m assuming Pirates would be one of them. Cutlass_Iz: Yes, yes of course. Harry Potter is also another theme that I enjoy, I mean it’s Harry Potter and it’s LEGO. What’s more could you want you know? [laughs] I also like some of the new Indy sets but I just can’t afford them. …. Although, I did buy Ambush in Cairo today, so I… I’m getting there. Captain Zuloo: That’s the problem with the Licensed Sets; they all carry a slightly higher price tag. Cutlass_Iz: They do don’t they. Captain Zuloo: so if Pirates is one of your favourite themes you must be pretty disappointed about LEGO discontinuing the Pirates theme again. What do you think of LEGO discontinuing Pirates again? Cutlass_Iz: Yes, well the way I see it is it’s not going to happen tomorrow, so just um, enjoy it while it lasts I guess. And we can just hope once they hear how outraged all the fans are that they will rethink in a little while. I like what Captain Green Hair’s got on his signature. It says, “Why do you need TLC to make sets for you, all you really need is parts...be creative!” I really think that… you know, just double up on your sets and MOC people. Captain Zuloo: Yeah, that’s probably true. My favourite Captain Green Hair quote would have to be, “LEGO from Bricklink comes in little plastic bags, and so do drugs!” [both laugh] Captain Zuloo: But um… No, I don’t think they were planning to discontinue it completely, just give it a bit if a break, so hopefully we’ll see some more sets in the next few years, it’s just a shame we won’t be getting any more next year. So do you look up to anybody in the LEGO community in particular? Cutlass_Iz: Well pretty much every AFOL who posts MOCs on Eurobricks and Classic-Pirates.com, there is so much talent out there, it wouldn’t be fair to just name a few…. On pain of death if I had to pick one I know right now I’d have to say Mark Larson - Hinckley. I just think he’s really, really impressive with the things he comes up with and his comics. So I do look up to him in particular. Captain Zuloo: his Fabuland comics are quite entertaining. So er, what sort of music do you listen to? Cutlass_Iz: Ah, pretty much everything, Alternative, a little bit of jazz, punk and rock some folk music. Lots of different things. Captain Zuloo: So, Do you have any favourite artists? Cutlass_Iz: All time favourites? Just to name a few, Camille, she’s French, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kings of Leon, the Subways, Neko Case, there’s some from every genre and country that I know. So varied… my tastes, I’d say. Captain Zuloo: Other than listening to music, what do you do when you aren't building with LEGO? Cutlass_Iz: I have a two year old, and she keeps me pretty busy, so that takes up most of my time, but I also enjoy painting and going to the gym, I wish at this point I could say drinking rum, because that would make me sound very Piratey, but that’s just not true. Captain Zuloo: [laughs] I always tell people the correct word there is Piratical but I get told to shut up and get back in my box, and that Piratey is quite acceptable. So ah, whatever! So, a two year old, I bet you’ll be getting her to start playing with LEGO in the near future? Cutlass_Iz: Well, she does, she does, she plays with mine, unless I’m using it and I’m like “Don’t touch that one!” [laughs] She er, she calls is ‘Click’ because of how it clicks together. So she hasn’t quite mastered saying ‘LEGO’ yet. Captain Zuloo: Er, Click’s good enough, so long as you know what it means. Where do you buy your LEGO? Cutlass_Iz: Usually department stores, here in Australia Kmart and Big W are generally where I get it, but if I’m getting some online I usually get it from eBay or Toy Corner. The biggest haul of LEGO I ever got was 6 Harry Potter sets, I got that through just random way of searching for Harry Potter sets and this weird obscure website but I got six all at once so I was pretty happy with that. Captain Zuloo: Oh yeah, that’s good news. When you go to department stores to buy your LEGO, do you use the whole I’m buying this for my kids’ technique? Cutlass_Iz: No I never have, well I do have a kid now so they don’t really look at me sideways but before then, no, I didn’t. I’m not ashamed of my LEGO. Captain Zuloo: I try to sell LEGO products to the person behind the counter. I tell them all about the new sets and how cool they are. [both laugh] Captain Zuloo: What do you think of LEGO now as opposed to what it was 10 years ago? Cutlass_Iz: Um, I think it is really, they’ve been expanding with their ideas and creating themes for just about everyone now. I really like how they are doing that. And they have been really trying to connect with the current day. For example the Wind Turbine set that came out and some of the construction sets, that kids now days and adults as well can really relate to real life. Captain Zuloo: Yeah okay, well I’m personally on the idea that Lego has actually gone downhill as far as parts, there has been some very interesting parts produced but you know, they are moving a lot towards stickers rather than printed parts. Cutlass_Iz: Yes, that’s always a pain. I’m not too happy about that either. Captain Zuloo: And they’re quite large too, there is only so many things that you can do with an aeroplane nosecone... [both laugh] Cutlass_Iz: That’s when you really have to start to be creative I think. Don’t let that stop you from buying a particular set because it really exercises the creative parts of your brain if you say: “Well, what else CAN I do with this?” Captain Zuloo: Ah yes, certainly. So where would you like to see LEGO go in to the future? Cutlass_Iz: Well, to Australia quite frankly, [both laugh] I think it’s high time that we get a store down under. And a Legoland wouldn’t go astray either. Captain Zuloo: Yes!!! Yes. That is so right! [laughs] Cutlass_Iz: Let’s start a petition. Captain Zuloo: We should, don’t know how far we’d get though. You have, you have a fairly big announcement to make about 'Behind The Helm'. Can you please tell everyone what that’s about? Cutlass_Iz: Yeah I can actually, I am pleased (and honoured) to announce that I have signed my lifeblood over to ‘Behind The Helm’. I am now at the mercy of Captain Zuloo, and I’ll be helping him out with interviews and such in the future. What exactly is my title? I’m not your secretary am I? Captain Zuloo: I’m not sure yet, I was thinking Bilge Rat, or Slave… Cutlass_Iz: What have I got myself into? Captain Zuloo: [laughs] And you have the contract, which I’ll post for all to see in the thread that this interview is on. Cutlass_Iz: Yes, excellent. Captain Zuloo: As is seems to be a tradition… where did your screen name "Cutlass_Iz" come from? Cutlass_Iz: A long time ago I was trying to think of a pirate name for myself as I was dreaming up plans to open the first Pirate restaurant in Australia. This still might happen one day, so don’t laugh, and I came up with Cutlass_Iz so I used it again when I joined up, because I was joining up because of Lego pirates. So I thought it would be fitting. Captain Zuloo: I think it might be New Zealand actually; but there is a very nice Pirate themed restaurant. Cutlass_Iz: Yes, the first for Australia though. It was going to be, well, still might be called Mutiny. Captain Zuloo: So how far into the future do you see that as being? Cutlass_Iz: Very! Very far into the future. Probably once my child has finished school. She can help me. Captain Zuloo: Perhaps it should be Pirate Lego rather than just Pirates. Cutlass_Iz: Yeah, maybe. We’ll see. It can be part of Legoland Australia. Captain Zuloo: [laughs] Very nice. Okay… well thanks very much for joining me and I’ll be talking to you more in the future. And er, Cutlass_Iz didn’t mention it earlier but she has volunteered to write out painstakingly, all of the interviews in text format for those of you who have trouble with downloading files or anything like that. Goodness knows so long it will be before she gets sick of that. There is a reason why I didn’t volunteer to do it. [laughs] So we’ll see how that goes as well. So Thanks very much for joining me and for volunteering to help us out with ‘Behind the Helm’. We’ll see you guys later for episode 11 of Classic-Pirates.com’s ‘Behind the Helm’. Seeya! Aye, be checkin back next week for Episode #11!

A very tough decision, and one that made me think hard. Some that deserve special mention would have to be ISC, peterab and Nexus7, but in the end I decided to give my vote to Kris Kelvin. For "just a train station", it's bloody incredible. Well done mate! But everyone did a supurb job, keep it up.

Ahoy there matey, and welcome to Eurobricks! What part of Australia are ye from? Have ye heard of Classic-Pirates.com, the biggest Pirate fansource and database online? Enjoy yer stay matey!

Ahoy there Yreodred! Welcome to Eurobricks! Are ye familiar with Classic-Pirates.com?

Wow, that is outstanding, where do I start to compliment it? There isn't really anything wrong with this train, it's just so perfect. The entire scene is just amazing! My only criticism is that there aren't enough photos. But every time I look at the ones that are in the Flickr set, I keep noticing something new, another little detail. Brilliant job with this, I'm in awe and I imagine I will be until tomorrow morning... Great work!

Great job Admiral Green Buns! I've frontpaged a lot of brick flicks recently, but I loved this one so much I just had to put it on the frontpage! Check it out.

I tried that when the Classic-Pirates.com server time was set up, but those lousy Europeans...

Well if you keep building awesome MOCs, and maybe the occasional intended Pirates MOC... You're the one with the boat and the camera...

Ugh! He's even uglier than I expected!

Copying a rock technique is fine, but I would suggest you don't copy anything else. A city MOC won't get you very far in this contest.