JesseNight

A good starting point to get an idea of value is probably https://www.bricklink.com/ There's a big market place for full sets (complete or incomplete, boxed or not) as well as individual bricks.

I just remember from childhood LEGO experiences (late 80s and early 90s) that catalogs had an age range set for all ages. There was Duplo for the youngest, Fabuland a bit up, then the biggest range of LEGO containing various themes (Town, Space, Castles, Pirates, and new ones following), then Technic beginners sets, then Technic advanced sets. I do not know what exactly is referred to, but I think with even larger sets aiming at AFOL nowadays they even expanded on that age range. As for licensed themes and dumbing down... I think those may just be commercial interesting choices to make more money and cut costs. Something that every business would do. Although I'm not happy with the "unicorn" vomit over some beautiful AFOL aimed scale sets, but that's something that's been discussed many times over. Some say it's necessary because of the complexity of larger models. I tend to disagree and be fine with complex model MOCs with that remove the crazy colors all over and often have more limited instructions on top of it. Again, business decision would be to go with what sells more.

It's a really nice set and I'm glad you finally got to enjoy it, it was worth the wait! (seeing the western theme now, I can't believe how it wasn't appealing to me back in those days)

I feel what you mean @SpacePolice89. I liked the City Space theme from last year, I think it was really well done... but it wasn't having that pull on me that the old deep space factions each with a specific role and theme had on me. Then again, maybe I'm just getting old

Not to mention I've seen Youtubers make mistakes revealing too much on videos making it easy to find out their locations (street names, noticeable buildings, things like that). And even without that, a criminal from their own area might recognize a location very easily. I think if you possess valuables and show it off to the world, you're at risk no matter what (unless it's all in a vault and well insured).

Sad truth. Businesses rule the world nowadays... At the same time they're not the only ones to blame though. There's so many rules and regulations and costs they're dealing with when running a manufacturing process in the west (compared to certain cheaper production lands in Asia), it's honestly no wonder so many move it to different places.

Seems fine for me at this moment on Chrome. Seen no "insecure" messages either.

Had to look a few times too before noticing the height difference going upstream past the bridge. Very well made!

@SpacePolice89 I don't know if this shows as much in reality, but I love on that last picture how the background reflects on the top shelf! Makes me wonder if some reflective foil could make an interesting water surface.

Do spreadsheets and photos really help without proof of purchase? Anyone can make a spreadsheet including some sets they always wanted but never had... or make pictures of sets they don't own. I seriously doubt an insurance would pay out that easily, they always need hard evidence.

I think any creative hobbies that keep us busy and challenged can help against depression and anxieties. It helped me too when I was in a lesser period of my life, even though at the time physical LEGO was not an option and getting creative in Stud.io had to do. But being new that at the time (not even knowing it existed before then), that sure was a lot of fun.

If it's ABS, it shouldn't be warping under 100 degrees Celcius. ABS is a lot more heat resistant than many other plastics. Just keep them out of direct sunlight. That includes the boxes too bc a closed box can get hotter inside while in direct sunlight.

Will it keep the clear and well structured forum layout? I'm not a fan of those modern social media news feed like layouts, always insanely hard to find older content back on such platforms. That's why I was happy to still find this.

Maybe the email domain you've used has been frequently used by spammers before. I've been in a similar situation with my primary email address (from my isp). Not every country's isps are worldwide known and if too many spammers and botters arise from a certain domain, that sometimes leads to an entire domain ending up on a ban list. It made me create a gmail account on the side and that usually works about everywhere. You could even set it up to forward everything to your primary address. FTR I am no admin, this was just a possibility that I've experienced before.

One of the most iconic space sets of its time, if you ask me. And I'm saying that without ever having seen it for real. It's one of two most wanted sets to still get on my personal list, but hard to find nowadays without discoloration.

Oh wow, great find! Considering how small that picture is and not even showing the far left and right ends, I wonder if this was ever a real thing or just an attempt from someone to recreate it. It looks like it still needs a lot more gears of all 3 types to get it in working order, and a lot of guessing to what the rear end looks like to get it all connected (and the white 4x4 turntable seems to be on the wrong gear). If it helps, I tried to amplify that pic Mr Ogel refers to from the best online instructions I could find. It's not a lot but maybe it helps.

Enjoy your holiday! Just a small note: IP bans are sadly not the most reliable way to ban people. Not only do those with bad intentions have easy ways around it anyway (proxies, VPNs, IP spoofers), but people with good intentions can sometimes end up with that banned IP. In some countries, home consumers don't get a fixed IP, meaning it cycles to any available IP from the ISP upon a modem reset or an ISP side update. For example here in Belgium this is normal on DSL connections, except for the business packs.

@MAB You are right about the fine line between licensed and unlicensed, if we take it literally. I think in most cases when the term is used here, people refer to the licensed intellectual properties based on movies or books. I mean if a train in the 80s had a Shell logo on it, there was no doubt a license involved too, But it wouldn't limit the creative freedom on the general train looks as much as a Star Wars set would on the looks of their models, for example. I think that's where many people draw the line.

Very cool! But not very realistic to happen... I remember the old one already being large as a kid, and I had (have) the expansion set with it too. And my parents just wouldn't let me take down some walls in the house Yeah the Blacktron Cruiser and Forestman's Hideout were rather disappointing to me too. I liked the Cruiser's cockpit and new canopy, but I think I'll take the middle and rear sections of the original over those of the remake.

Gonna be hard to bring back the Monorail without a completely new Monorail system... therefore probably making it less interesting as a business, unless they can use a new rail system that's already being used in modern sets. I think it would be a bit pointless to make a Monorail train not be a playset... and don't forget, the Galaxy Explorer was in fact both a playset and a display piece, extending further on what the original had to offer.

@MAB You make some very valid points there. The amount of detail and limited building materials and colors definitely was a thing back then. My biggest issue always was not having enough parts... or at least not enough in the same color. I loved making large cars, or large space ships, but the colors of my childhood Lego collection were all over the place. Probably because my interest was also all over the place so I had more smaller sets of all the different themes rather than focussing on one. I'm shocked when I'm looking back at how few parts some of my larger childhood sets really had. As a kid, everything just appears bigger! True that Police as a theme wouldn't evolve much and sticks to the stereotypical cop vs robber setting. It's probably a simple way to get young children acquainted with good vs bad in life, and how they can't get away with evil deeds. I was more referring to the modern building methods giving the vehicles a more modern look, just like how the look of police cars (or any cars) would evolve. As for modern Policing... Just add a minifigure to this and you're done with the sub theme

Oh that's understandable, this remains a very subjective matter. And I agree that they probably reach a larger audience this way. Yeah I made a mention of it on the previous page. Unlicensed design freedom appeals more to me. I'd like a set to be unpredictable, and surprise me with nice features.

I remember in the 1980s, a major starting (and advertising) point in my country was that Lego was all about making anything we wanted. And that's what it was to many kids. I feel the simplified instructions nowadays aren't helping promoting that (and yes more complex builds still had some additional help like parts lists per instruction). But on more basic builds that allowed for easier correcting of mistakes, it motivated to pay attention and be aware of building techniques being used. It motivated to think and learn rather than follow a book to the letter. Not to mention the pictures of suggested alternative builds on the box (without actual instructions for them), the alternative build instructions with bigger sets, the Ideas Books... Can't help feeling a bit sad to see that go lost, and to see people sometimes get mad about instructions still not being clear enough. When it comes to themes, every kid knew what a knight was. Or a spaceman. Or a pirate. Sure we could play King Arthur's story, or Robin Hood's, but we'd also make our own stories. And if you knew what a knight was, that was definitely possible. As for recurring things like police and firefighters in a Town/City theme, that's just inevitable. Town/City is not a recorded moment in history, it is a theme that's about "now". And "now" changes every moment (remember the discussion in Spaceballs LOL). So its sub themes can evolve with the time, much like it does in real life.

Maybe not... But it's rather obvious that a Space lover expects something different from a $100 set than a small basic ship and a lot of extras that aren't space related. I'm not saying that makes it a bad set. Time will tell how it ends up selling and how people who bought it and built it feel about it.

That pretty much sums it up for me too. As for IP's... It's not that I'm not into them, but they just appeal a lot less to me in Lego. Because when I love an IP enough to wish for models of it on my shelf, I am looking for high accuracy and crazy high detail... which is very hard in Lego. Excepions I made were some Icons like ECTO-1 and the BTTF Time Machine DeLorean, which I modded and equipped with lights before I was happy. They're not perfect, but they sure ain't lacking on detail. And especially ECTO-1 looks amazing with a good light kit.