Opproperaar

I'm such a sucker when it comes to sharks The King Kahuka one got my vote too. As did IS' laughing one, the cute one I voted for too. And of course the cannon, that one has great potential indeed.

Phenomenal work Too bad my track was a piece of rusted, corroded %*@# broken when you stayed with us for a couple of days. I especially like the center section with all its details such as the pipelines, valves and what not. Nice use of the podracer cables by the way. The driver's cabin has a nice curve to it as well which only adds to the final result. The only minor nitpick you'll hear from me is the colour pattern. I like chcolate brown with a yellow stripe much more. But that's my personal opinion of course Ruben,

I'm going to have to go with the rest here. * Be more suggestive and try to come over less 'commandingly'. * In the light of the previous tip, drop the Caps Lock, it comes over as if you are shouting. If you want to point something out in particular underlining, italic writing or perhaps an exclamation mark will more than suffice. * Keep it short, the art is to try and say what you want to say in a short text but still hammer the point home. I haven't read your entire text. * Check your spelling and grammer (e.g. the difference between the use of 'then' and 'than' - spaces where appropiate - spelling mistakes) * Lastly, many of your opinions are simply too personal. That doesn't necessarily mean they're no good but unless there's a sizeable share of costumers who share your opinion it is unlikely TLC (or any other company for that matter) will listen. Furthermore, as already mentioned countless times on these boards, TLC goes for kids, not AFOLs or TFOLs. They are first and foremost interested in what they want, not us. And as Captain Greenhair pointed out - screw the sets, order the bricks, or simply buy sets as parts packs. The entire point of lego is being able to build what you want, what you imagine. Don't like the set? Tear it down!

While I'm normally an animal friend and I find it wrong in real life I couldn't help but giggle at the sight of this. Nice going, odd, but I like it

I voted above average for the simple fact that despite all of its greatness it's not pirates . I'm sorry but I'm not a castle man and so this otherwise fantastic set doesn't whet my appetite. That being said if there was ever a pirates chess set I'd be the first to buy one, or at least try. Imagine that - 32 ships as pawns Great review by the way - it must've taken you hours and the result is stunning!

Happy Birthday! Have a good one.

My opinion is rather simple Technically, it's not that hard to design a ship even better. Simply judging by the many MOCs here it is very simple to improve on it just by adding features such as a capstan, davits and what not. Or even designing a whole new ship on a new sort of hull section never before seen or perhaps even a brick built hull. (though the latter seems extremely unlikely except as a collector's set or something) To make it a success though it would sort of have to have the same feeling that the BSB had and thus I believe it would have to more or less follow in the footsteps of the old pirates line look and feel which I don't see happening any time soon. TLC caters for kids, not AFOLs or TFOLs. It is probable that most kids who would buy a hypothetical new pirates line are so young that they have no experience whatsoever with the first pirates line and hence, to them, it would matter little what the -line looks like as long as it looks 'cool'. Throw in the fairly recent success of POTC and we'll probably end up with a product far from what were the 'classic prates'. And that is 'IF' we even see a new pirates line. However I'd love to be proven wrong on this one

I wouldn't count on that. Me and 600 other people signed a petition to get a backwards compatibility update for Operation Flashpoint: Elite on the 360. We sent it an astounding 10 seperate times, all the times politely and friendly giving a bit of background explanation with our request. We didn't even get one response, let alone an update. Not saying that TLC's customer support is the same as Microsoft's but I'd rather not get my hopes up if I were you.

I have no experience with this so please bear with me LUL = something legoish lightsaber thingamagy? Given the context though I'm a bit relieved that we're not talking about the Dutch meaning of the word here...

Happy Birthday pret Phred! May you receive plenty of bricks...

Eating is always a good hobby I feel. That and watching tv But serious now, welcome to EB! I rather dislike the fleshies but then again I'm not really into the licensed themes. Always loved to go to Vancouver once, the West Coast of Canada apparently has some spectacular wildlife to behold. I live in Europe. I hope you have fun here

Hello and welcome to EB! While I'm not a castle man myself I must say that I too lapped up Assassin's Creed! The cool moves, the parkour, the story setting, the gameplay aaaahh... Just wonderful. I hope you enjoy yourself here.

17th century David. The Batavia is from 1628. The 7 Provinces is a 17th century ship as well In any case, David is off to the UK and will not have internet access these two weeks. A lot of his pics however are on our shared photobucket account so if anybody likes to see more inspirational pics of the replica I'll be happy to post them here in his place. As for the weekend, I already told Greenhair and Errorist what I thought - a shame I couldn't be there - I have however already visited the Batavia myself seperately with my dad a month earlier so I don't mind too much about the entire ship replica thing

Chech right here Nice vessel, it must have taken you a long time. She lives up to her sister image of the la Mort Royale. Good job! As mentioned though, try to take better pictures

Yeah the only I believe was ever made mention of in the film. The one in the old man's walking stick. If there were more I must have fallen asleep when they said so Ah well, it still is a great film in terms of spectacle and dinosaurs I think.

I just stumbled upon this interview. I've been so careless as of late that I've been missing out on a lot of things apparently =P I just love the username, being somewhat of a dino fan myself (not a die hard one - just casual ) I was a tad irritated when I found out it should have been deinonychus and not velociraptor in the movies. (I felt cheated ) I also wondered how all the blood of all those dinosaurs came out of one mosquito, given that T-Rex was a cretacious fellow and Brachiosaurus jurassic, meaning that musquito would had to have lived a very long time indeed. (Or so I was led to believe by my books ) Awesome interview by the way. I am kind of surprised you like the agents sets - the arctic ones I never really got my hands on. They seemed to look cool but I never really knew what the hell those dudes were doing in the arctic to begin with.

I was 'adjusting' my hair! =P

If you'd like a pic, here's an image of the train station. It has a big dome and a half circular glass metal dome spanning for a hundred or two or so metres. During recent renovations underground and high speed lines were laid out as well. It really is a beauty. Greenhair claimed he could build the thing in ten minutes. He ended building it in one minute, however four red bricks and two tan plates don't make a station. He replied: 'I still have nine munites to mod and tweak the thing.' I believe he got bored cause he never got 'round to the "modding" part To give something an 'opproperbeurt' would translate literally as an 'upcleaningturn'. However, Errorist uses the word in many different contexts. Apparently you can also use it when referring to 'pimping' (something, not someone, mind you) Yes it is Also, I never quite imagined Bonaparte (top) to bear such an uncanny resemblance to our prime minister, Yves Leterme (bottom) Ah, boner's party (he actually helped organise it) We had such a blast ...

Thanks for the edit Hinckley! It's my first poll (and review) and I wasn't quite sure if I got it right Yeah, I also wondered why the included timetable includes not only real life cities, instead of brick ones. Even more so since the train track just goes round. =D

Having just bought myself a copy of the wonderful metroliner (4558) I felt like doing a review. Before we start I'd like to thank Greenhair for selling me one of his metroliners for a mere 80 euros. Granted, the motor, "trainstation" and tracks weren't included but I did get an extra railcar instead. - * (please note that I have included the fourth wagon in the final pic but that the official set includes just three wagons.) The metroliner was released in 1992 and was extremely popular amongst lego fans. The set A picture of the box showing the set completely. (pic taken from peeron) and one of the minifigs and the accessories.: As you may notice, TLC was extremely generous, supplying us with a grand total of 11 minifgs amongst which no less than 4 female minifigs. Ah, the population crisis is finally over We also have three suitcases, three cups and a small freight parcel and freight handling thingy. Normally this would include two bicycles; a red and a black one. A general side view of the three carriages. (thanks to Greenhair and the Brickster) And here's one of the extra carriage. (thanks to Greenhair and the Brickster) Moving onto the front and back carriage, which are externally identical. Please note that Greenhair changed my back carriage's headlights. These would be yellow in the normal set. All the doors in the entire set are printed pieces. (sorry for the bad picture quality in this one) The interior of the two however is laid out a bit differently. The space in the front carriage is occupied by a cockpit (or whatever it is called in trains) and some space to store your cable connecting the front lights with the engine. I can imagine it must get quite cramped and dangerous for the minifig driver with all the cabling. Further back we have a quite random, weird looking engine. One part reminded me rather of a jet engine on a commercial airplane. The engine is accessible by means of the two side cargo doors. At the end of our first carriage we hit what looks like the train's restaurant, two tables and no chairs. The two middle carriages are identical, both have a small sink nicely hidden from the intervening and impolite looks of fellow passengers. The carriage further contains two tables and four seats. Two cargo spaces are nicely tucked away from view below the tables. Our final carriage has a back cockpit as well but differs from the front carriage in the central cargo area - where our train employee is hard at work earning his lego nickels - and the rear sleeping area. The bed is a double one, the upper one able to be flipped up for somewhat difficult access to the lower one. The train station I could not take photos off since it was not included in the purchase. Judging from the building plans however I feel it was thrown in at the end just to add 'something' to the set. Its construction is very simple, consisting of a few grey plates on top of a few pillars. Access is provided by a plate which is connected to the platform with a few hinges. There are however two lamp posts, a timetable and a few chairs so if you don't like the platform you can still use these parts in a variety of other constructios. To end off I took a pic of the complete set (with extra wagon) and a friendly surprised train driver opening the door and greeting the camera man. Conclusion Being a '90s set, the train basically builds itself. The entire build cost me two hours and a half (I lost quite some time simply admiring the set) and was extremely straightforward with no suprises at all, but I need to admit it has its charm. The exterior is simply amazing. The sleekness of the design, the colours, it matches perfectly! I believe however that a width of 8 studs would be more to scale but 6 wide still looks amazing. The interior is somewhat simplistic but is easily moddeable with a few extra pieces. I basically bought the train as a parts pack. The standard set (three wagons) includes no less than 8 train doors with windows, 14 train windows, 4 smaller longer ones and 4 freight doors. The front and back of course count as unique pieces as well. One feature I am displeased with are the printed doors. I like printed pieces and while the blue-white-red stripe looks beautiful on the side the printed doors kind of limit MOCing capabilities to carriages with a stripe on the side. I considered simply removing the stripe but I found out I could just get normal grey ones from bricklink for a fair price. I am very pleased with the train but since you already know my opinion, feel free to tell us yours of this fabulous set!

And so we meet Captain Green Hair in his second life

You made it awfully fast from vassal to higher spheres ... Just kidding Congratulations!

@ Joey The market scale I think isn't the real issue here. Canada has a population of 30 million and the US has 300 million inhabitants. The European Union has 500 million inhabitants. The Schengen accords also see to it that international shipping within the union is a lot more cost effective than it in any case used to be. I believe this has rather something to do with the 'all out laisez-faire market' in the United States. Especially given the homemarket's advantage of Megabloks in North America. To be clear that last scentence is speculation on my part, which I think is the real cause of the price difference. Nipper after all stated that: "The US market is by far the most price competitive in the entire world." My thoughts, ...

Funny, I never would have imagined the sub looking like that when I read the book. Must be part of a book's general appeal, you can all read the same book yet form many different images in your mind of how the environment, vehicles etc. actually look like. I wish you the best of success in this noble undertaking - Jules Verne definitely ought to be honored through a lego work based on one of his tales.

1) Lol, yeah that would have to be one of mine as well. I never saw it coming, the few clues that were presented I felt were a bit odd at the time - like Carth speaking about how the Force can wipe away your memory, I was like WTH? where's the relevance to the storyline? - but I never paid more attention to them. Has to be the biggest story twist I've so far encountered in a game. 2) Ninja Gaiden, the impossibly hard game: When I finally got to the eighth level, all my health potions were gone after the many encounters with APCs, soldiers and two tanks. The helicopter boss fight was so incredibly irritating that I - after trying for three hours or so - bit my controller in a blind rage and then threw it against the wall. After which I didn't play the game anymore for six months. Most surprisingly the controller does not only have bite marks left from that near fatal incident but it survived too! Made in Malaysia ... 3) Operation Flashpoint: Elite: God that game was amazing! Everything about it, from single player to multiplayer. I just can't wait for OFP2 to come out for the 360. Seriously, if you're looking for a decent military simulator (not like COD4 - actual realism) set in five 100 square km maps where you can arrange vehicles, buildings, men at your leisure, you may want to consider this game.