JesseNight

That's some smooth M-Tron models! Love to see old themes revived with new building techniques.

Can't help but feeling it's a double edged sword... I mean how much is TLG making on those winning sets, while saving costs on having them designed? I bet the prize money to the designer (rather than a fee per sold item) isn't all that much in comparison. (sorry for straying along here...) But yeah, different people make MOCs for different reasons. And some take it very seriously. If you do it for fun, make sure it stays fun!

A "fad" is a short lived hype. Point being to build for yourself and your own desires, not just to follow the latest trends.

Can't you just contact TLG customer support, show them a picture of your purchase ticket, and let them solve it? Even if TLG claims they're not official stores or they're excluded from the VIP program (which wouldn't be nice), at least that clears things up.

Oh wow, I gotta get my hands on some of those! Hope they won't get too valuable (as in appearing in more sets and not just this gwp).

It's as simple as making an account on a website like Flickr for example. Or if you do not wish to make an account and manage your albums, Imgur works great for a quick upload without looking back.

If you don't have a huge amount of bricks to start experimenting with, Stud.io (or a similar program) is probably a good place to start. It's fairly easy to use, just gotta get familiar with LEGO's naming of parts to find the ones you need and you can experiment and build your heart out digitally before having to order a single brick. As for the actual buiilding process, it does help to get familiar with different building techniques (from TLG and other MOCs) so you get a clue how to approach certain problems you come across. And as with everything, don't overwhelm yourself with a complex big project... start small, learn, and grow.

That goes for BL as well, and I agree on it being a money drain, it's what I mentioned the other day on my first fairly big order. (to summarize briefly, I paid 6 to 12 cents a piece average on official LEGO sets I've bought in the past months, while on BL orders it's been more towards 60-70 cents a piece and that doesn't include rare pieces) I've considered PaB for sure, but too many parts weren't on there and after a few days messing with what I find a rather annoying system (no wanted lists, carts not saved or lost), I gave up on it. I don't make a deal over spending a bit of time, but this was running in the days... time I'd rather spend doing something creative. What do you mean "usability nightmare"? Sure I had to learn how to work it, but I can't imagine handling big orders without these wanted lists... unless willing to spend days doing all that manually in your own lists, that is.

Yeah I just meant there was a minor difference in the old ones, even if it weren't much at all Totally agree on the last statement, the lower the rank, the higher the numbers should be. Hiërarchy is like a pyramid.

A lot has changed over the decennia. Remember how the founder of LEGO was very much against any weapons or violence in his toy line? But when he was gone, the late 1970s brought swords with the Castle theme, and the late 1980s brought guns with the Pirates. And now we pretty much have every violent movie IP based thing in there. Probably good that he isn't around to see this... But yeah, times change and so do company principles, even more in a capitalist society.

I think they do now too. Recently made a pretty big order from BL sellers. Some parts would in fact have been cheaper on PAB. So why didn't I use that? Because it would have been too time consuming to manually check every piece from my wanted lists. Not to mention the horror if something goes wrong and you just lose a big shopping cart. There's always 2 sides to it... But with the features BL offers, why would anyone still use PAB?

I understand both sides. I think it was hard to make variations of Blacktron (being all black, after all) but they didn't do it in following themes either. However don't forget the even older Futuron and Classic Space did in fact feature all different colors, even if the design was still the same (still gotta get a black classic space one some time...). I think the modern approach is more realistic but at the same time, that just begs to not only have 1 of each figure, but also more of the non-leading ranks. So I totally understand why people feel the commander shouldn't be in a cheaper ship that many people end up getting more of. Even though multiple officers in the same department can be a thing, not every pilot should be one.

Yeah that's pretty much what I was referring to. I see this as the modern Idea Books, just now with everybody being able to do their part on sharing models on a much larger scale.

I can't speak for everybody, but as a kid I definitely had an interest in other people's models if they managed to build something I couldn't myself. I doubt they'll be buying instructions indeed, there's still plenty of free ones available too though. That aside, I do miss the alt build instructions and alt build suggestions on boxes, those were a nice little extra.

I suppose that makes sense, I wasn't around when the acquisition happened. And from a buyer's perspective, I figured it could have been nice, bc I find PAB quite a hassle to use.

Not to forget that a lot of people probably wouldn't bother, with great MOC instructions widely being available online nowadays. That wasn't a thing back in the 80s-90s yet. Thinking back to being a 80s kid with LEGO, I loved making my own design... yet always had mixed feelings about taking apart a great original model. Not to mention I hated mixing brand new bricks with years old ones, of which some already started mildly discoloring or evolved through stages of improvement to the mold. As for storytelling... While I loved that with many toys I owned, I didn't like it so much with LEGO. I was always put off by details that I felt weren't right, like a car fitting only a single person while it should be able to fit 4, and so much more issues that were mostly scale and proportions related.

Somehow I always find myself back on Bricklink when needing stuff. With PaB it's either too new and not available, too old and discontinued (I think), or insane delivery times. Not to mention ordering on PaB just cannot compete with Bricklink's Wanted List and availability search features. Kinda surprising if TLG owns BL now, that they don't make use of it for their own parts. I bet they would sell so much more. As for the warehouse overhaul... Delivery of Standard parts has been long for quite some time so I only hope the changes will result in a more streamlined order handling in the future, making it worth the wait.

Pictures are usually hosted externally, so that means either the owner has removed the source material or if it was a limited time host, they may have expired. Only way to still see them is to ask the owner/poster, but after 6 years it will depend whether they still have them... if they're even still active on the forums, that is.

Not just the city, space had it too. From the last few Classic Space sets, to the Monorail Transport System, the Space Police Striker, and I think there may have been 1 or 2 more. Loved the light, hated the sound (even as a kid)

The look of visible studs that made you never forget it's LEGO

I agree with the nostalgia being a big factor for most people who experienced that period of time while being a kid themselves. I admire the 80s the most of all for that exact reason. Another thing I can think of is that colors and bricks were far more limited at the time, and it was up to us to make the best of it with what we had. Nowadays I see so many new brick releases over the years to solve issues with new models. But it's not a bad thing if I see how much more detailed models have gone. I just admire the builders who had to deal with more limited resources a lot. I'm also not a big fan of the excessive amounts of IP series we got nowadays, but I won't blame TLG bc that seems to be the big thing for business nowadays. Back in those days we had unique themes from LEGO itself. Sure town and knights and pirates wasn't unique on its own, but the way it was done surely was. Not to mention all the various space factions from Classic up to Ice Planet (after that I stopped following and found it getting less interesting). That's just my personal opinion of course.

They are indeed pricy. To me it was worth it. Used it on my ECTO-1, where they really made the roof lights look like old fashioned rotating lights by use of 4 LEDs. I have yet to see any other kit take it to this level. Of course it's personal and might differ per kit whether you benefit from it or not. There are certainly more good quality brands out there.

I haven't actually built it yet, awaiting the last Bricklink orders to come in. I could make some pics of it in Studio. First the nose. The 2 studs wide tiles that just stop 1 stud from the front, I extended with a 66956 pointed wedge. Did a small alteration on the underside too to make it match. Second is the top part on the rear, between the rear canopy and the big blue rear wing on top. I rounded the edges and put some tiles and grilles on top to make it appear more smoothly. Last changes I did were replace a few off-color parts that kept bugging me. Like the 2 yellow 1x6 plates that I can still see sticking out next to the beds inside (replaced by blue), and some of the red technic parts underneath around the landing gear that would be very visible on a stand. Also closed the visible open hole between and just behind the 2 front seats in the cockpit. These mods were heavily inspired by someone else's mods I saw on a blog... I need to find it again so I can credit them properly.

I suppose it depends a lot on the model. If it has notorious flaws or weaknesses or just things that bug me, I do tend to fix them. But I rarely alter the design itself. Made an exception with the 10497 Galaxy Explorer, smoothening the top with all the exposed studs and the nose a bit (inspired by someone else's design actually).

I don't have the model myself so I cannot say much, other than carefully and patiently going through all the technic elements that make it work. From what I hear it is a rather complex model, and the official boarding ramp is connected to this mechanic too. It's still very new so it might be too soon for common building issues or mistakes to have come to light. Good luck with the troubleshooting! It does look like an awesome model!