Laura Beinbrech

Adventurers, hands-down: I've always like the 1930's & 1940's pulp adventure stories, like Tom Swift & various stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs & things based on those sort of "Two-Fisted Tales", such as The Rocketeer & Indiana Jones, and it looked like the Adventurers were going to be the closest we'd ever get to an ACTUAL Indiana Jones theme at the time (I mean this series came out at least a year before the first Star Wars sets, which were the first licensed theme LEGO ever released), so I bought as many of those as I could afford: I have the Bi-Wing Baron and the vehicle set (Treasure Raiders) that came with the mummy storage container (which I still have), and have three of my factions' armies based around torsos from the adventurers line. I wish I could have afforded more of the desert sets when they were out, or been able to get the jungle sets (particularly the boat), but the Jungle line came out after I joined the Navy, and I (obviously) wouldn't have had the kind of space required to store a bunch of LEGO sets on board a US Navy ship, which is why I went into my second dark age (but this time I just put all my sets into storage until I got out & could start messing with LEGO stuff again, rather than giving everything away like I did when I was in high school).

Very nicely done! I've seen plenty of pics of the Durango & Silverton rolling stock, and immediately recognized those coaches & the combine car. Yours are spot-on. In regards to your comment about the LEGO narrow-gauge curves being too tight for the cars, I actually came up with 6 stud-length narrow-gauge bogies for standard LEGO train car bases that work with the Narrow-gauge curve radius, but I think your cars might be a bit too long even for those particular bogies to work...

Pharaoh's Quest for sure, but with Monster Fighters & Atlantis close behind. I loved Pharaoh's Quest because it was basically a reboot of the original Adventurer's theme, and I think I own more sets from that theme than any of the other action/adventure themes that have come out since I got back into LEGO around 2010 (I have the Flying Mummy Attack, Cursed Cobra Statue, Guardians of the Golden Staff & like at least 3 of the Scarab Attack sets). A close second is the Monster Fighters in terms of having stuff I liked, but I was unfortunately not able to get even half the sets I wanted from that theme due to being under rather severe financial constraints the year it came out (mostly due to making the biggest mistake of my life, i.e. getting married to She Who Must Not Be Named). One of my biggest regrets since getting back into LEGO stuff is never getting the Ghost Train set....

Nifty design for your turboprop sky-fi plane (I have always loved the interwar & WWII era aesthetics, so I've always been a fan of dieselpunk/sky-fi). It very much puts me in mind of an upgraded more powerful version of the (in)famous Geebee "Flying Engine" racing plane that existed back in the 1930's. I also like the use of that Ninjago(?) printed tile for the roundels on the wings.

I've actually considered using that steep slope for such a project as well (but possibly with two parallel tracks, since most funiculars tend to be broad gauge), if I ever build something that could use a funicular, that is.

This is a really nice & realistic design for a near-future spacecraft. The only change I'd make to it personally would be, instead of having the astronaut piloting it positioned the way you have them, I'd have them face-up, but with their feet towards the nose, similarly to how the astronauts in the early Mercury & Gemini space capsules were positioned, but realize there is probably not enough room in the top part to add such a seating arrangement, even using some tricky SNOT techniques....

While I tend to agree with the sentiment that the set would have been better with a more vintage style locomotive, I'm definitely getting this: With the addition of some Powered-up/PF motor & battery box/controllers, and a few other modifications, I can use the locomotive for one of my main evil-aligned factions, the Grand Duchy of New York, which is ruled by a mad scientist & tends to reflect the dark side of technology, so having a modern styled locomotive in the current trend of the soulless iCrap design philosophy that seems to have taken over everything these days would be perfect for them. Also, speaking as someone who is in PennLUG, which is a fairly train-heavy LUG, particularly when it comes to public displays, I'm interested to see how the ball & socket method of coupling cars compares to the magnetic couplers. The reason being that when we run shows, even with the old-school open-magnet magnetic couplers, we have to put small rare-earth magnets between the couplers in order to run trains that have more than like about 4-5 cars in them. If the ball socket connectors do a better job of holding together (even if it's not as easy to couple/decouple cars on the fly), I'd gladly switch to those, especially if I can get the parts to make more of them for cheaper than even the brand-new sealed magnet couplers (it would be funny if they use the exact same system I came up with almost 10 years ago for my narrow-gauge trains, which seems to work pretty well). And speaking of public displays, I'm pretty sure that the LUG could use a few of those railing ramps for rapidly setting up the trains for shows (and I'd be more than happy to more or less permanently loan mine to the LUG, since I don't have any kind of permanent display at home and would most likely be running my trains on the LUG's display at various shows anyways.) EDIT: Also, in regards to the train windows/bogie plates thing that also came up earlier in this thread I have the following observations to add: First of all, while it would be nice to see the old type train windows come back, I generally find that the airplane windows/generic 1x4x3/other modern equivalents are generally satisfactory for train use. Secondly, again, based on my experiences as a member of PennLUG & working with the LUG's train layouts, I can say for a fact that the bogie plates are not only not necessary, but actually an inferior option to using 2x2 turntable plates for connecting the bogies to the base of train cars (not to mention way, way, WAY cheaper): After all, that's the method that @Cale & Brick Model Railroader uses for all their rolling stock, and that method seems to work better for keeping the bogies attached to the bottom of the train cars.

I am: I have already acquired about 12 or so sections of flat, straight track as well as at least 6 of the black roller coaster car bodies for use in making a sort of dieselpunk take on the old Decauville system of prefab 2.5' gauge track used in the late 19th & early 20th century for temporary mining, logging & military railways. I.e I use the roller coaster track to represent prefab welded steel 3' gauge track sections used for temporary tracks for minecarts, logging trains, industrial & trench railways that can be easily bolted to a solid substrate (e.g. lag bolt driven into the rock floor of a branch tunnel in a mine shaft or a concrete block sunk into the mud at the bottom of a trench near the frontlines) and just as easily unbolted & moved to a new location... Just need to design a couple locomotives & some rolling stock based on the rollercoaster car bodies... Although I have found that trains designed to run on standard LEGO PF-type narrow gauge tracks, like what came with the Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom or Friends Roller Coaster sets will fit on the roller coaster track, although they might not be able to handle the much tighter curve radius, depending on how one has designed any bogies they use. A good example of this is the "Rhino Showdown at the Mine" Black Panther set that has 2 straight sections of the roller coaster track, but with a minecart that uses the standard LEGO small train wheels on the 2x2 wheelplates, much like the minecarts from the Temple of Doom and the Lone Ranger Silver Mine Showdown sets.

The one that photos exist of was definitely a 2-truck shay, with a large funnel smokestack like the original one that Stephen Pakbaz built.

I just found out something interesting that is related to this topic recently: Remember how I mentioned that the East Broad Top RR had 3' gauge flatcars for hauling timber that were very similar to those designed by RoadmonkeyJ? Well, a recent topic that came up on the semi-official EBT Facebook page mentions that the some of the local timber companies ran Shays on one of the branch lines, even as far as the main EBT yard at Rockhill Furnace (some people even posted pics of said shays in the topic), so it might be an interesting challenge to try building a McKelvey Bros. Logging Co shay for the LEGO narrow-gauge track.

Oi! Deeze iz da 'ardest, shootiest, stompiest boyz I'z ever seen! Waaaaaagh! Er, ahem, that is to say, quite an excellent assortment of orks you have there (even if there is a rather distinct lack of deffkoptas), and all immediately recognizable. I tend to build my orcs/orkz at minifig scale using the heads from the Fantasy Era castle "troll" line, but then again the orcs in my setting are amalgamations of the orcs/orks from LoTR, Warcraft & Warhammer... Still, nice to see da boyz getting some love here. :)

Another really awesome WDLR build, Greg! I'm really loving this series & am getting really inspired by it to start working on my own "Weird War" / Dieselpunk build of a trench railway that used the roller coaster tracks & car bodies. Keep up the good work!

That would be really awesome! I wanted to make a Chaos Doom Train using the Monster Hunters ghost train set that came out several years ago, but due to various circumstances, I wasn't able to afford to buy it when it was still available & I've been kicking myself ever since. If they came up with a basically revamped version of the ghost train, but with Powered-Up motors & track, I'd be happier than a pig in a mud hole.

While it is rather sad we're not getting any actual ghost figures, the heads & wing bits for "possessing" regular figures (if included in sufficient quantities) would be great for making custom wraith/barrow wight/ghoul figures that could be used to, for the lack of a better term, flesh out the ranks of my undead faction's army. I do really like most of the set designs, and I'm definitely getting the lab, and the boat & train sound really interesting as well.

I wanted to add that I also really like your flatcars, Roadmonkey: The East Broad Top Railroad & Coal Co. has several flatcars with removable poles much like those ones, but in 3' gauge that were mostly used for hauling the occasional load of timber down from the mountain along with their usual coal runs from the Broad Top mountain coal mines in Robertsdale & Alvan. Most of the flatcars have since been converted into open or semi-open passenger cars, but they still have a few in their original state & you can see the loops where the poles were inserted when the flatcar was used for hauling timber.

Very nice logging train, Roadmonkey! It was, indeed, Murdoch who came up with the design for a Shay locomotive with working drivetrain & steam pistons (I remember seeing it a while back & being really impressed that he pulled that off).

One thing that I should probably note (although anyone who has bought the "Rhino Face-Off by the Mine set would already know this) is that a lot of trains made for standard LEGO narrow-gauge track that uses the small train wheels will run on the rollercoaster track, although depending on the length of the wheelbase or bogie configuration, it might not make it around the tighter curve radius of the roller coaster track. The rollercoaster car bodies/wheel bases won't work on standard LEGO narrow-gauge track (despite the actual wheels having the same width) due to the clips on the side of said wheel-bases. As can be seen in this BrickLink Reference catalog image here.

I bought some straight, flat roller coaster track & wheel bases a while back for use in making a retro-futuristic trench railway (the tracks are supposed to be welded pre-fab sections that bolt to concrete blocks sunk into the mud) for supplying some of the more static front-lines in my personal setting. Unfortunately, I have so many other projects I want to finish first, I have no idea when I'll get around to actually making any of these critters. I will post them here when I do, though.

Managed to pick up Apocalypseburg Abe this past Friday when I went down to the LEGO store at Arundel Mills to get the Welcome to Apocalypseburg set (which is HUGE!). Really love that figure, I must say.

Wow! That nearly finished version looks absolutely amazing, and I can't wait to see the completely finished product!

Really lovely narrow-gauge railway you built there, and the method you came up with for "motorizing" such small locomotives is quite clever, too! I gotta say, that 3-stud rail placement seems to be just about perfect for simulating 2-foot gauge in LEGO, and your tilt skips look almost exactly like pictures of such wagons on the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway that I've seen on the internet.

I was already planning on taking a trip down to the Arundel Mills LEGO store this Friday afternoon to buy this set, but this review has me even more hyped about getting it. One of the things about the build though that will pose a bit of a problem is the way they use the hinged, angled builds for the base, which will prove to be an interesting challenge for my plans to put it on 4x of the blue 32x32 baseplates, so I can potentially add my modded version to one of the PennLUG train displays or other larger displays... Still, this set is totally worth having to deal with that minor headache.

That would be AWESOME! Especially since I plan on buying BrickMania's book of Sci-Fi instructions & building their "Elemental Taxi" (a.k.a. Corben Dallas' Flying Taxi from the 5th Element), and having an official Bruce Willis Minifig would be the best way to complete the build. :D

These are really awesome, especially considering that they're made entirely using parts from 2 sets (even if it's multiple copies of said sets). I'm actually going to be getting Benny & Emmet's Build & Repair set to use for this heavy modification of the Spaceship Spaceship Spaceship! set from the first LEGO movie that I've had in mind for quite some time now.

Yes, but Unique =/= good or useful. The pop band minifigures while being fairly common, are still, IMO 1000X more useful because of their hair & head prints, all of which are usable in far more themes & settings than some animal mascot figure, which might be useful in a town setting if you have a sports team with that particular animal as a mascot. The only one of these costumed characters I have ever found a use for outside of some sort of sports arena or theme park is the lizard suit guy, who makes a decent Lizardman warrior if you replace the minifig head that came with it with one of the transparent red minifig heads with the shark teeth printed on it (the ones that came in some of the Atlantis sets). ...But that's just my opinion, which might be tainted by still being rather bitter about series 18 being nothing but useless, gimmicky costume mascot characters (aside from the lone exception of the classic police officer)...