Laura Beinbrech

I'd like to second this notion. Seriously, though, I am planning on buying the Hidden Side train in the next month & will try to see if I can get a standard sized train car built with bogies using these new wheel sets & then have my LUG run it on one of our train displays during an upcoming event to stress test them, and post the results here.

I do it all the time (e.g. to make fleshy torsos that could otherwise work for yellow heads do so by replacing the fleshy hands with yellow or vice versa). I even swap arms on torsos on a regular basis. That being said, it's something I try to do as a more or less one-time deal for a particular custom figure because, as Clone OPatra said, it is possible to damage the sockets if you do it too many times or aren't careful.

Well, I can definitely see why some people were rather disappointed with this series now that I've seen the official pics: There are literally only 5 figs I actually want from this one, namely the Intergalactic Bounty Hunter, Jungle Explorer, Mummy, Monkey King & Knight (Undead Fright Knight!). As for the rest, while there are some interesting head prints (particularly the female heads) and hair pieces, I'll just BrickLink those particular parts or grab them when they hit the Build a Minifig stand at the closest LEGO store. Still, this series is far from the worst that LEGO has come out with for one of their non-licensed series, IMO. That particular "award" still goes to series 18 (a.k.a. the crappy mascot series) as far as I'm concerned (18 was also the only series I skipped completely).

While I'm waiting until official pics come out to give my final thoughts on this series, there are a few figs mentioned that are either extremely likely or are on my must-have list just from their description: Definitley want to get at least one of the Monkey King/Sun Wukong figs just because I'm interested in Eastern lore. Also the Blacktron & "Johnny Thunder" figs would be perfect for my custom armies, and the female firefighter might potentially be a fit for them. Also want multiples of the Ghost Knight & Female Mummy for my undead faction.

Nicely done! I gotta admit that I have a bit of a soft spot for the 600mm Decauville railroad system ever since I first found out about it while reading up on WWI trench railways a few years back. I especially have to give you props for not only designing a powered 4-stud LEGO narrow gauge train, but one of the smaller Plymouth/Köf type narrow gauge locomotives (as opposed to say, one of the larger types of narrow gauge locomotives such as one of the East Broad Top RR 2-8-2 Mikado steam locomotives or one of the fairly common narrow-gauge variants on 45-65 ton GE center-cab diesels). This thing is truly a marvel of compact engineering & miniaturization!

Well, I mean they did have that Mini LEGO Store set with a LEGO Store employee figure in it, so a LEGO Set Designer isn't too far-fetched.

Very slick looking spaceship with an equally slick looking crew! Only question I have is how many, if any, minifigures the ship can seat?

Definitely getting the boat & train. Need more tramp freighters for my naval vessels to escort, and the train's color scheme would work great for the main villainous faction, with a few adjustments (i.e. replace the dark red with yellow to make it a BLACKTRON train). Probably will also get the road chase set too for the motorcycles & truck. I also think that the box art for these sets is really cool and makes them stand out from the rest of LEGO's product lineup. EDIT: Also meant to add that in addition to being useful for City & Horror type builders, these are also really useful for post-apocalyptic builders, since most of the buildings & vehicles in the sets are already pretty run-down looking, all they need is some (additional) spikes, chains & guns & stuff to look like they came straight out of Mad Max.

I gotta echo what icm said: While I like the original Blacktron waaaaaaay more than Blacktron II, you definitely did an excellent job of making a large ship for the faction that not only holds to most of the original design elements of Blacktron II sets, such as the detachable cockpit modules, but also updated it so that it fits in with the more sleek, sophisticated design styles of modern space sets. I also really like the stasis pod for the medevac sub-ship, and I might have to see if I can adapt that design to fit a minifigure inside it....

Excellent work as usual, Glenn! Hopefully I can see this thing in person sometime (will you be taking to any PennLUG mettings?)

Excellent mini sub as usual, Sebeus, and nice to see you building them again. :D I'm still trying to figure out how the 4x4 transparent dish with printing is attached to the rest of the sub though. Does it just sort of sit there or what?

Excellent work! It's rare enough to see mocs based around the first generation of the Space Police as it is, let alone one of this quality. My only extremely minor beef is the apparent lack of slots for the SP-1 jail modules for hauling criminals, but like I said, it's extremely minor. Everything else about this build it top-notch!

It also very much reminds me of some of the older, less well-maintained structures outside of VA beach/Norfolk or on the Delmarva peninsula... But then again, due to being stationed at the former for about 6 months when I was in the Navy & going down to the latter (Chincoteague mainly) at least once a year for the past 8 years, I guess those areas (which are also marshy environments with that southern coastal architecture) would be the first thing that pops in my mind. I do have to say that they definitely nailed the look of the shrimp shack: There are some seafood shanties in the Chesapeake Bay area & Delmarva peninsula that look almost exactly like that, and though they might look like some place you DON'T want to eat, I can verify that they usually have some of the best seafood. ;)

I love how you managed to make a MOC that is essentially "The Jetsons meets Grand Theft Auto" I mean the red hover car looks like it could easily exist in the world of The Jetsons as it is.

Really cool start to your Classic Space fleet, Toastergrl. I, for better or worse, am actually old enough to have experienced Classic Space in its Heyday (and it sort of extension in the form of Futuron), in fact, the first LEGO set I ever had was the 6824 Space Dart-I that my parents got for me when I was in first grade. Unfortunately, though, due to giving away most of my LEGO stuff when I was in high school, I no longer have any of my original CS or Futuron stuff anymore (something I'm still kicking myself over to this day), so I've actually been going down a similar route as you with incorporating Classic Space stuff in my collection, although it's sort of bolstered by the fact that I've decided to merge it with the ADU from Alien Conquest (I mean the color scheme is almost identical). Of note is that it looks like you've had a similar idea for modifying the Spaceship! Spaceship! Spaceship! that I've been contemplating, namely removing Unikitty's spot & adding one of those 3x6x1 sloped windscreens to it & making it into another crew station... Although my idea was to have it enclosed as a Combat Information Center that is connected to the bridge via vacuum-rated bulkhead. I also agree with you on some of your comments about the excessive amount of space taken up by the mechanism for deploying the two technic rubber dart launchers... I mean you could easily fit a proper Engineering section in the space it takes up (which is precisely what I plan on doing, once I figure out how to make an alternative way of deploying the launchers or just eliminating them altogether). I'm also planning on converting/replacing the wing-mounted parasite fighters with detachable gun-pods that can function as autonomous attack drones, similar to the "Options" in Gradius (the game that not only featured the ORIGINAL Vic Viper, but also was the first one to use the classic Konami Cheat Code). I'm also 150% with you on applying stickers (or rather not applying them): 9 times out of 10 I can't seem to get them to look right when I do try to do it, and I'd rather just not bother with them at all, lol.

Oh wow. It looked like that 1x2 plate with a bar was the linchpin for the whole thing, but dang! Speaking of Studio, I'm actually in the process of downloading it right now (finally broke down because of all the parts that LDD just doesn't have at this point). How is it for ease of use compared to LDD?

That's a really cute hover-Vespa you made there, Peppermint. Good use of the LEGO scooter body, and the bucket for the primary thrusters, but I was wondering how all that attached to the body?

So, after they'd been sold out at all the local stores for over 2 weeks, the local Voldemart finally got some more Ultrakitty sets in. Needless to say, I got one & am planning on modding it into a Spined Beast of Chaos & having some orcs/chaos warriors riding it. :)

Sadly, I missed out on pretty much all the LEGO themes from 2000-2009 due to being in the military, then trying to get readjusted to civilian life after getting out, so I never was able to get any of the sets from any of these themes. That being said, though, from the perspective of being an inveterate army builder, I'd have to say that the Alpha Team is my favorite out of all these, due to the fact that both the Alpha Team agents & OGEL minion torsos (particularly the red/black buttoned/clasped ones) make for great military uniforms (and ironically enough, I'm currently using the blue & black Alpha team torsos as well as the OGEL minion torsos for different branches of the same faction in my setting).

If they go with the same method that they used for the Roller Coaster Wheel bases, i.e. where the wheels + axles is one part & the holder is another part that the wheel assembly goes into, it could arguably make coming up with custom wheel sets/bogie even easier, since you'd be able to use the wheel & axle assembly without having to monkey around with the metal axles.... Again, if either part is damaged out of the box, all you'd have to do is replace whichever part is bad rather than the whole thing...

I think that is the most likely approach that they'll take, since they use that exact method with the roller coaster car base wheels.

I have some 30 year old Athern HO-scale rolling stock with all plastic wheels & axles and have never had any issues with running them. I mean granted LEGO train cars tend to be a bit heavier than even O-scale equivalents, but if done right, I don't foresee any issues with going all plastic.

Very nicely done sunken temple scene! I love all the details, especially the entirely period-accurate diving bell & air-delivery hoses that were actually used on those old-school deep-sea diving suits.

They could give him a multipass. Oh well, this pretty much kills any chance I might have had to make a semi-official Corben Dallas minifig.... Still not too surprising, since as others have pointed out, most kids in the target age range probably have no clue who Bruce Willis even is (much like how most people my generation probably never even heard of W. C. Fields or Katherine Hepburn).

I'm with Aanchir 100% on this part: if the all-plastic design functions as well as the type with metal axles (and there's no reason they shouldn't, since, as @dr_spock mentioned, plastic axles have been used for decades in rolling stock for HO & O scale model trains), I'm all for the change, particularly if it reduces overall costs of the wheelbases for trains (and doubly so if they include everything you need on PaB instead of just the wheels & holders without the axles like they do now).