Laura Beinbrech

Not to mention that pretty much all the light rail/tram EMUs made by major manufacturers such as Siemens & Kawasaki are similar looking enough that such a train could fit in literally anywhere in the world, with places as diverse as the US, Germany, & Japan not only using similar light rail EMUs but in some cases the exact same model. Such a universal item should, theoretically sell better than the more typical trains they produce that are either obviously European (like the passenger & cargo trains released last year) or obviously American (such as the blue freight train they came out with several years ago).... And if they constructed the set like the real EMUs using a Jacob's Bogie (i.e. both cars permanently connected via a common wheelset in the middle) that could save even more money, since you'd be eliminating an entire bogie & all the specialized train wheel parts involved with it.

The English language Wikipedia article on the Jolly Roger also has a lot of information about historical pirate flags (including a few you already posted): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolly_Roger Also of interesting note is that the version flown by "Calico Jack" Rackham is flown from US Navy warships during line crossing ceremonies to signify that "King Neptune's" court is in session...

I'm actually planning on doing something along these lines with the bus, but more Mad Max: i.e using random reddish brown pieces for rusty spots, replace half the windows with metal plating & all the glass with the bars, and with a twin .50 BMG mount in place of the ghost zapper.

I actually got Blacktron & Futuron sets when they first came out, the year BEFORE even the first generation of Space Police was even revealed (of course, they didn't have the internet with it's endless leaks & speculation threads back in 1988, so generally the first anyone had any idea of what was coming out was when the December Shop at Home catalog arrived, but I digress). My brother & I still had the Blacktron as our primary antagonists, due to the resemblance of the printing on their torsos to the Imperial TIE fighter pilots or Darth Vader (in fact, my brother & I came up with a custom Darth Vader figure using a Blacktron I torso & the one type of castle helmet with the flared neck guard & nose guard, with a custom made paper insert for his face mask a good 10 years before Lego Star Wars was even a blip on the horizon), as well as the overall villainous color scheme on their ships. This was perfect, since we were also using the Futuron faction, with the vague resemblance of its sort of upgraded Classic Space-type torsos to the Next Generation type Federation uniforms as a stand-in for the United Federation of Planets (yeah, we were both pretty big Trekkies at one point)... Over time they sort of evolved into the elite troops under Dr. Regis Blackgaard, the final villain from the last round of Lego war games/epic adventures my brother & I had when we were both in high school, which was also when we both kinda lost interest in Lego & gave away most of our Lego stuff (which is represented in my universe as the Final War and the final battle that wiped out almost half the earth's population), with Doctor, now Grand Duke, Blackgaard & his elite Blacktron commandos somehow managing to survive the cataclysm at the end of the Final War & take over most of New York state & New England.... Actually, I'm not using the Bounty Hunter's helmets for the Yellow Jacket torsos: I've already created a custom army out of them using various types of printed black legs & black Brickwarriors WWI German helmets with built-in gas masks (they seriously look almost like Helghasts from Jin-Roh). I was just saying that the overall printing of the helmet as well as the rest of the Bounty Hunter figure fits in with the general color scheme I'm using for the Grand Duchy of New York & the Elite Blacktron Commandos in general. I just want to get extra Bounty hunter helmets or Space Villain helmets (with trans yellow visors) for the rest of my existing neo-Blacktron figures. I'm hoping to start posting pics of my various Weird War-inspired factions from my post-apocalyptic Dieselpunk setting soon, and will be posting the entire military lineup of the Grand Duchy at some point, once I get hold of a decent quantity of the Bounty Hunter figs to fill out my Blacktron ranks a bit.

I guess I'm the only one who likes the actual version better.... Of course it might be the fact that the faction I use my Blacktron figures as an elite special operations force for, has a similar color scheme already, what with me managing to get like 30 or so of the Yellow Jacket's torso that I ended up using as the Marine Corps for that same faction, so these guys will definitely go great for general enlisted versions of the Blacktron Elites. I'm also going to see about getting more of the helmets on BrickLink or via Build A Minifig, whenever they get added to that, so I can retrofit all my existing Blacktron troops with the new helmet (because, while the '80s black crash helmet with black visor is rather iconic and was super cool back in the day, it's definitely looking a bit dated now, especially when the rest of said faction uses BrickArms & Brick Warriors helmets.

That's a rather neat looking locomotive, although I'm not all that familiar with Dutch trains (my only experience with the Netherlands being 7 hours at the airport in Amsterdam waiting on my connecting flight to Bahrain back in 2004), so I'll leave the serious critiques to the experts. I do really like how you used the roller coaster tracks to make a steel girder bridge, though. That is some seriously cool alternative parts usage right there!

Having seen the school bus properly built, I'm going to have to get it now: All it needs is the glass in the window frames in the back replaced with those grill pieces like they have up front (with maybe every other window replaced with those grooved bricks) and the ghost zapping thing replaced with a twin .50 caliber MG turret (using BrickArms M2HBs), and you've got yourself a regular post-apocalyptic/Mad Max-style vehicle. I find it interesting that they made the entire interior of the bus removable as a way to get access to it, rather than just popping the roof off, but I suppose it works. I also find the fact that the haunted crapper attacks by LITERALLY talking crap. XD I'm definitely going to be adding this to my Wastelander vehicle lineup as soon as I can get hold of the bus & make some modifications... I'm thinking maybe a heavy vehicle for the raider gangs or something.

New version is a definite improvement over the old one, which was pretty good to begin with, I must say.

That's kinda my plan... I figure there is probably someone in my LUG at least who would be willing to make a deal for the figs. I just want the train (and the station). I might even see if they still have any of the Winter Village Fire Station sets left at the LEGO store here soon, since I could use one of those as a parts pack for adding on to the station from this set (they look to use almost identical brick palettes) or just BL what I need.

I was actually thinking along those same lines when I first saw the station, and thankfully, it seems to use fairly common pieces in fairly common colors, which means it should be easy enough to buy the parts to transform it into a modular train station. I might actually do that myself & see if I can get it on my LUG's train layout sometime.... My thoughts exactly: Remove all the Disney branding, and you've got yourself a nice, generic 4-4-0 "American" style locomotive that could fit just about any railroad in the US during the mid-late 1800's, which is basically what I plan on using this as. Same, which is why I plan on selling/trading all the minifigs that come with the set. In fact, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy & Co. are my least favorite parts of the entire set, but the actual train & station are still nice enough for it to be worth buying as far as I'm concerned.

I totally did: He even has a shield with the old Fright Knights coat of arms on it, which made me quite happy.... When I returned to LEGO from my first (and only) voluntary dark age, the Fright Knights had just come out, so I ended up with a lot of their sets & figures, and while the overall set designs were rather meh, the figures themselves were pretty sweet, and I'm glad to see that they're making a tribute to that particular theme.

I agree 100% with what Toastie posted about the build, but also wanted to add that I really like the technique you used for ballasting the track & building the trestle: Still recognizable as such, but with that certain futuristic spacey look to it that fits in with pretty much any Neo Classic Space build I've ever seen (including some official ones like Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship, Spaceship!).

That is precisely what I did with my "Wasteland Express" locomotive. The one mistake I made was making one of the pivot points on the double-pivot link for the lead truck a technic pin with friction instead of a smooth technic pin (which I plan on fixing the next time I work on it) and it can handle standard radius LEGO track curves even as a 4-6-0 configuration as opposed to 4-4-0 like this train is. It can still make it around the turns with the aforementioned friction pin, but it's a bit stiff...

While I'm still not sure about the overall performance of the new wheel sets, if it means that they are cost effective enough to mold in different colors already, then I'm willing to, pun intended, roll with them for now, especially since the only previously available standard train wheels in red were the ones that had the technic axle fittings & were meant to be used with the PF/PuP train motor (or otherwise motorized), and I can guarantee that, regardless of how much more friction the new all-plastic wheels have over the old metal ones, making a leading truck using the technic axle ones has friction that is at least several orders of magnitude greater than anything the new all-plastic train wheels have...

Ooooh! I really like this train, and it's definitely going to be my "once a year" super expensive set purchase for next year (like the similarly priced Apocalypseburg set was this year), and I'll probably try to get it January sometime. My only two (minor) beefs with it are the price (but understandable since it's actually powered) and the fact that unlike the actual WDW railways, it's standard gauge instead of narrow-gauge, but considering that I'm the resident narrow-gauge nut case, I'm probably also the only one here who even noticed or cares about that part, lol.

What bugs me about the whole design of the new train wheels is this: Why use this clunky, high-drag design when they could have made a bigger version of the Roller Coaster car body wheels (BL part #24869): in other words, a single molded piece consisting of both wheels & the axle that clips into the housing with the outer points being the bearing surface... You know, just like every model train maker for the past at least 40 years does? You'd think it would not only perform better, but be cheaper to mold as well...

Having looked at that video, I gotta say that I didn't think it was possible for me to like the rainbow bear mascot any less than I did from the initial promo pic, but YIKES! In the actual bricks, that thing looks like something straight outta "Five Nights At Freddie's" which is a definitive NOPE! for me. Even more excited about the explorer, especially since he comes with the new bedroll backpack in reddish brown (I mean granted, I have been using the green ones for my Austro-Hungarian troops, but it's nice to see one in a more universal coloration). I'm also happy to see that this series has a fairly even figure distribution without any of that "only 1 in a box" BS some of the other series had, and doubly happy that the Bounty Hunter is one of the 5 per box ones. :)

Really cool mecha tank, I like how you used an upside-down build to make the lower half of the tank's main body as well as the smooth integration of the Bionicle/Buildable Action Figure parts into the build. I'm also guessing that the torsos for your British troops are BrickArms/Brickmania custom prints? It's nice to see someone else around here who does Weird War type builds. :D

I've recently been finding moderate quantities of the CMF Series 10 Sea Captain's unique officer's cap as well as the Chinese style bowls in the Build A Minifig area at Arundel Mills. @Kalais What set did those shields originally come from? I might have to see about bricklinking those later on this week, after I get paid....

Nice build and cute animation. Also, are Jammie Dodgers basically the same thing as Knott's Berry Farm shortbread cookies with the fruit jam centers?

I am assuming that you can look up said codes via BrickLink's reference catalog, right? Anyways, back on topic: I generally agree 100% with Digger of Bricks' rating of the minifigs in this series, but with the #5 + #6 spots swapped. Those top 5 picks of mine are also the only ones I'm going to try getting from this series as well. I definitely need a lot of the Adventurer dudes for filling out the ranks of my custom Weird War take on the British Army.

I thought that B & P was only to be used for replacing missing parts, not just ordering stuff, like Pick a Brick is....

I am aware of the Winter Village fire station, and I even considered getting it partially because of those exact figures, but ultimately, other budget priorities prevented me from doing so. Unfortunately, due to only coming in a $100 set, those torsos are rather uncommon & rather expensive on Bricklink (like average pricing of around $2 each for just the torso and only 25 people selling them). Hence why I was hoping the CMF would use a similar torso: It would have been nice to get it or something similar outside a $100 extremely limited availability set.

If the fire fighter's uniform looked like that, I'd be buying them by the dozen, because I need some torsos and/or helmets like that, but as it is, I already have quite a few standard City fire fighter torsos that just sit in my spare minifig parts bin because I have no use for them...

Nicely done! Reminds me a lot of some of the early tanks & self-propelled artillery pieces developed during WWI, the Canon de 194 mle GPF that was fielded by the French near the end of the war.