Xyver

Mine arrived yesterday, very much looking forward to building it. The box looks great, I can't wait to see it built. Hopefully I will have time over the weekend to build it at our show and then be able to put it into my city display with the mixer for all the people to enjoy watching it go round and round. I've got a motor, so I won't have to sit there and turn it manually.

Even though the Australian RRP price is high, very few people ever pay full price for Lego here. Most large shopping centres have 5 different retailers selling Lego, and it's pretty much guaranteed that one of them is offering at least 20% off at any given time, some even up to 33 1/3 (Buy 2-get-1-free offers) And considering our smaller population, we might give London a run on the density stakes. Sure, while our exchange rate was high, we were really getting a bad deal, but not that it has fallen again, it's cheaper to buy things here. Our major drawback is that we do not have any Lego retail stores, so new exclusive sets (modulars, UCS etc) can take 6 months or more to hit local shelves, so many people buy from S@H to get them early, but as soon as they do hit, they will be at 20% off. The lack of a Legos store also means that parts are expensive, as we do not have access to the Pick-a-Brick walls. The S@H pick-a-brick prices are excessively high, but at least you can get free postage if you buy enough, and they have more available than any BrickLink store. Still, the US or Germany seem to me to be the best places to live for Lego buying purposes, but since they are the two biggest consumers, that's not really surprising.

Here's my update modular city. There are no people or vehicles out as it's about to go into boxes for a show. IMG_1689 by Adrian, on Flickr

So a couple of photos are doing the rounds for the new Dimensions game which shows a set for Portal 2 and a set for Dr Who. So obviously Lego has a licence for Dr Who for more than just one Ideas set (which is great since I've now actually watched Dr Who and can't wait for the set) and for Portal. So if the makers of Portal have no problem with Lego making a set of their product, why was the Ideas set rejected? (I never played, or even seen the game, so don't really care either way, I just feel sorry for the person who submitted the idea for a Portal project to get it rejected in review and then made by Lego anyway)

Oh man, so many awesome builds and special details. Particularly like the angled walls on the Medicin@ building and the sideways roller door and bottom floor of the one after it. Are these all put together in one layout? It'd be great see that as a complete scene.

I like it, very modern and functional. The stairwells look great and I really like how you have done the roof over the platform.

Looks great, I especially like the your use of the rollcage piece as a railing, very clever.

That's a nice display you have Vincent (though I'm not sure about those red sidewalks) And I agree packing modulars like that is the best way to go. I have used numerous crates in the bast and done similar things, but my display is now over 8 tables and some builds cannot be modular when trying for different shapes. Plus, the set up time is pushing 5-6 hours, which is no longer feasible considering I am one of those organising the shows. We built this on the weekend: 11119092_10152902052478063_1558527022536145189_n by Ade-27, on Flickr This is one of 7 boxes that I will need to transport my layout. All going to plan, I will fill available space inside with bubble wrap and/or boxes of vehicles and people etc. We put the hinged lid on (rather than fixed) so as to make it easier to pack around the buildings and keep everything in place. We will have to do a test run of this by putting it in the back of a van and driving around with it for a week. Our next show is a 16 hour truck ride away, I don't really want to get there and have to rebuild everything, these boxes were meant to save time.

PastVPresent, Here are a couple of photos of my setup from a show I did last year. I do at least four per year, so this is always evolving. I actually made some new platforms on the weekend, but they are constructed the same way, just different sizes. IMG_9886 by Ade-27, on Flickr IMG_9883 by Ade-27, on Flickr The platform has a pine frame with 7mm ply on top which just sits on wooden legs. The modular section of my city is 7x6 baseplates, so too big for a brick built solution like yours (I did draw up plans using technic beams, but I costed each it to about $AU360 as compared to about $40-$60 for the wooden platform. We are also in the process of building a box that sits around the platform so I don't have to assemble my city each time we do a show. I would still like to brick build the sides though, so I can add more detail to my display, but that would be purely cosmetic, not structural. And although you might not be able to tell by the photos, the stairs would actually come up in the middle of the street. As you found, it is not practical to have the stairs in the right place, for me, that would mean my platform is a full baseplate back from the edge of the table, not really suitable for viewing.

This looks great. I especially like the look of all the arches, it works both aesthetically and functionally. Extending the frame one brick wider and using tiles to hold the baseplates in spot is a great idea. I've made plans for a brick built raised platfrom for my city, but due to size it is extremely unaffordable. For now wooden platforms will do. I do like the addition of the stairs, I have the same problem as you though, the platform isn't in the right position for stairs up top. I can't wait to see more of what you do to this layout.

Friends buildings would work well in any city, provided people don't mind the different colour scheme. I keep mine separate though as I also have a Friends layout, but the scales are the same. Anything that builds on the same scale as City works, which is most of the licenced range. I have a few super heroes running around, though I don't have any of the larger building sets, I can't justify the extra cost even though the buildings are nice. I also have the TMNT in my subway and can't wait to put the Kwik-e-mart into my suburban section. I wouldn't mind putting up the Avengers Tower, though I think I will just MOC one up as I don't really want the minifigs and as a parts pack it is quite expensive. I have included the Winter Village series into one section and the 2008-9 Agents series into another. There is a T-Rex that often causes havoc, when he's not battling the AT-ST that is. There is also a speeder-bike permanently in my car wash, it obviously doesn't work well, he's been in there for 3 years and is still covered in mud.

The latest addition to my Agents' fleet - the Quinjet. IMG_1668 by Ade-27, on Flickr IMG_1667 by Ade-27, on Flickr This is a MOD of the quinjet from set 6869, built entirely from the parts I had on hand. I had to substitute the windshields, some of the wing pieces and the curved slopes, otherwise it is pretty much to plan, other than the colours.

I modded my PS brown building to an inside corner, though to have any of the front features displayed I offset the baseplates so they aren't lined up any more. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=76794&hl= I don't think TLG will ever do an inside corner, not enough space at the front to do any of the detailing that they like to do. There would be plenty of room at the back to join up alleyways, but not as much care has been taken with the backs as opposed to the fronts to standardise the sets. And as most people just line their modulars up for display, people won't normally see the backs any way.

We held yet another show over the weekend (I do 4-5 a year) and had a slight problem with one of my buildings. This is what it should look like: IMG_0353 by Ade-27, on Flickr And this is how it came out of the box: IMG_1438 by BrickEvents, on Flickr Granted, it is not a very sturdy build, and had recently traveled 500km in the back of a truck. I am considering making custom wooden boxes that fit a section of my display, these would be half a table each (so a footprint of 3x3.5 32x32 baseplates) At the moment, all buildings are packed in boxes, and some have to be dismantled somewhat to fit everything in. This normally stops any breakage, but it takes many hours to set up each time as my display is a city which covers over 8 tables. How do you pack your display for transport? Have you found a way that minimises breakages or decreases set up time?

This looks great, the entire layout is going to be enormous, I can't wait to see the finished product.

My city is called Naiaville, named after my daughter. Though sometimes I use this for the Friends layout rather than my City one. It seems to me that the two most common naming conventions are something based around 'brick' or based on a loved one.

Finally had inspiration as to how to finish this off. IMG_0353 by Ade-27, on Flickr IMG_0349 by Ade-27, on Flickr IMG_0363 by Ade-27, on Flickr IMG_0359 by Ade-27, on Flickr

That is amazing, the roof is just spectacular and the colours work so well. It's a great use of internal space for the seating arrangements. I can only dream of having enough artistic talent to build something like that.

I can't believe they are discontinuing the blue baseplates. As part of a LUG that does 3-4 shows a year, we need blue plates for our water areas. I was planning a large water section of my city layout, but I don't have enough blue baseplates and they are now hard to find. I wanted to do a Heartlake display as well, but I guess I will have to skip the lake section as I don't have enough.

I was planning to, but I will have to work out whereabouts in my city this is going to go first to see whether an alleyway is appropriate. I still need to upgrade my PR as well, so that will require my town to be re-arranged too.

This is great. A subtle and not too detailed building, the colours just work to liven it up and the offset windows give it just enough detailing. Great use of the Friends sets for the ground floor facade and the interiors. This is something that is lacking from the city sets and something I really need to do to my city to make it come to life a bit more.

That looks a lot better Gongoro, the brown works a lot better than the light blue, especially with the increased size. I like expanding my modulars out to 48x48, so now I will have some idea what it looks like. Maybe I need to buy three to add the extra level onto it as well.

They have this listed on the Aus S@H site for $229.95. That's $20 less than the PR, looks like Lego is finally discovering that our stock is overpriced. I was going to pick this up on my first ever trip to a Lego brand store (Glasgow) but due to the exchange rate, it will actually be cheaper to get it via S@H. I guess that's a good thing though, more room in my suitcase for PAB cups. Hopefully that also means I can get two of the Flower Cart bonus sets, and if I order it on Jan 1, it should be waiting for me when I get back home from my holiday.

This is great. I'll actually get the chance to go to a Lego store in January, so I'll get the flower cart and mini-golf set (and lots and lots of Pick-a-Brick cups!!!)

I found a good use for my excess supply of separators: IMG_0289 by Ade-27, on Flickr I still can't find my container of spares (including the green one that came with PC) so I built that without being able to use a separator at all, which was a real pain. I have since found a couple floating around.