snefroe

yes, there are differences in catalgues between countries and yes Lego did increase the number of catalogues throughout the years. the site I usually go to is: http://www.brickfactory.info/

i talked to some one high up in Lego and she clearly indicated Lego completely messed up in communicating and managing the color shift, no discussion there. They were simply not aware of the impact of that decision upon the older Lego fans, who were still involved in Lego, building onto their old collection. trust me, theyll think twice about doing another color shift of that magnitude in the future. as for me, i'm a space fan, so i'm split between both bley and old gray. at first, i didn't like the dark and light bley, but i've become used to them and i have to say, i'd rather build mocs in those colors nowadays, except for real cassic space ships. the combination of old grey, trans-yellow and blue, simply is superior, even though your number of different parts is limited. i cant explain why, really, but classic space just needs to be build in that way. Dark grey is a different matter. Not sure where it came from or why it was created but i loved it from the start. As a space fan, the number of colors you can use are limited anyway and another dark color simply made it easier to make your models more realistic. Besides, "Life on mars" was in dark grey and i felt that was a spectacular line in terms of color combinations. I have truckloads of the four grey colors... i try to mix them, but it's not easy. old and new dont mix very well, however, i found that you can add another color like tan, brown or dark tan that pretty much allows a mixture of greys in your moc. I also find that a moc in different greys can work very well in real life, but, for some reason , the combination of the colors becomes messy on photos... I don't buy old and dark grey anymore. let's face it, they're out of production, so there's not much future in it anymore. especially dark grey, which had a fairly short production run to begin with, is no longer desired by me. the new greys are now dominating my parts collection. I'm fine with that. i think the blueish element in those colors can be just as realistic as the old grey color, for "Space" and for "Castle"

about the monorail, i've heard of the fire story too, another guy said these molds were destroyed and cant be restored or duplicated. the producing company was closed... seriously, if Lego wanted a comeback of the original monorail, they could easily get the right people at the table and get it done. obviously, they're not interested in doing that whatever the popularity of these sets. as far as the "Legends" goes, yes, there's a color issue, yes, there's a "part no longer in production" issue, and i'm pretty sure there's a financial element too. imo, Legends doesn't have a market. Most Lego fans would prefer the popular and modern modular buildings, don't really care all that much about the old box, old parts, or nostalgia... they just want great parts, great sets, nice colors, great building techniques for a fair price... I would loooove reliving the experience of opening a yellow castle box or opening the plastic trays of the Galaxy explorer. That's the only unique element of the Legends line: you get to relive a little bit of history, unfortunately, that is not a high value in the Lego community, nor is it top priority for the Lego company --> no more Legends...

ah.... wish i could go back in time now and buy any of these in the local toy shop! i didn't know about the existence of that unique Crusaders shield during this timeframe though... hm... i guess that's an expensive one. anyway, i had most of these sets when i started my Lego experience, so many years ago. I loooooved yellow castle. Sure, "yellow" was kinda strange for a castle, but i guess it was more attractive and cheaper to produce than grey. My best memories come from building castle sets with these bricks. Just look at the pictures of the box: soooo many different types of castles, soooo many stories to invent. It's hard to describe the feeling of excitement you had as a child, 30 years later, the fact that I still remember the day and the moment that i got this set, says a lot about the impact this set had on me as a child. What I also still remember is that I spilled coffee on the instruction book, when i was building the castle for the very first time. mommy was not happy about that, even though it was my birthday. I got the tournement set a few days later from my grandparents. For some reason, this already feels a bit more sophisticated than yellow castle and I never really felt a link between the two sets...

I bought the set at the event in Windsor and i have to say there are some really great sections and some weak elements to it. sure, the interior is not al that brilliant. i dont like the fridge, for instance, and the seat lacks some legs. the small cupboard, on the other hand, is sweet... the table tennis is a mistery to me... did they have those in the early 20-30's? hmmm The flag at the front of the house was not a good decision either, but i can live with it... what i do like, however, is the front section of the first floor: the combination between dark red tiles and light bley tiles is great, the large windows give it classic feel to it all. the buiding technique is innovative and attractive. but most of all, it's a fairly large room, you can easily turn this into a gymnasium or class room... The roof section is pretty nice as well. in all, i'd say this set is one of the best, the front is less chaotic and in fairly natural colors, it has a fair interior, contrary to Café Corner, which has no interior at all, and holes instead of windows, and the car is quite nice too happy to have it...

well i think it's a set for real collectors. it's not what the average Lego fan on the internet forums would buy or be interested in. if the set, box and booklet are in good condition, then you may get some collector's interest, but my guess is that 750 euro is too high... it's pretty nice to have i guess, but not my first choice

thanks for the photos even though they're quite small, but it's most defenitely better than nothing! i'm glad to finaly see a VW bus. it's a great addition to the beetle and it simply is an iconic car the post office looks quite nice, but not really what i'm looking for

it looks like a regular Lego train set to me, really. it's not bad, but i don't think Lego is going to convince non-lego-train fans to get into Lego train with this one...

well done!! just send it over to Lego and tell them to mass produce it!! wonder how much it would cost, really, a model like this...

I got myself two copies of 7566, farmer boy with a dog and a pig... my first pigs of the collection

I think it's a pretty nice set with lots of great parts to have... but for a price... which is too high for me...

wait a minute... that is not what he said. he says they envisioned a space race between red and white astronautes. there's no reference to Sovjets or the US. Besides, many sets have a mixed crew of red and white, so at best it was just an idea at some point of its development...

wow! i'm mostly imprsessed by that dude hanging onto the container whilst spinning like crazy!! g... the g-forces that guy handles are amazing...even though he is turning blue...

I think this sums it up pretty well...

a few people built this one in Windsor. I think it's a small treasure, get multiples, if you're into "castle"

i would have to agree. it looks cool, but as such, it's just a massive parts pack with not all that many interesting or even rare parts.

great reviews! i liked the M-tron series when i was young, even though i didn't get these sets before the end of my dark age...

this is a great moc! love the SNOT approach to it all. most defenitely one of the best i've seen in a long time!

i agree with your remarks on the interior. the minifigs actualy have some space inside the ship to move around. as for the rest, i don't see that many improvements, to be honest. i would have like a better cockpit, for instance. The engine isn't much of an engine either. if you already own a MF, then buy something else, would be my advise...

this is a pretty cool house indeed! i like what you did with the large white and trans-blue panels. it really gives the model a modern/futuristic touch. well done!

well, futuron rocked my fairly small space world! these white space ships looked incredibly beautiful and innovative, after so many years of classic grey-blue ships... the space dudes were also veeeery nice, not to mention the monorail and trans-blue canopies. Futuron simply reached a higher level of sophistication and design than everything before.

thanks for this greaaaat review! these small sets were always high popular with me, to be honest. true, the design never made much sensce, but a blue space dude was very rare, and did you take a look at these parts? a printed grey tile, levers, technic arms,... these sets were ideal as parts packs for your own mocs... btw, the condition of the blue dude looks really great! lucky you!

great review! I've always been split on insectoids... the colors were pretty nice and there really cool parts in this theme. i most of all liked the "revival" of the blue color and the combination with dark gray. add to this the different new computers and printed panels, and you kinda had enough to "re-invent" classic space sets. On the other hand, many parts were also useless for anything else, and space dudes always wanna have classic space ships, not these metal beatles and wasps, so they were not all that popular... none of the sets is considered "a classic" the minifigs... hmmm... obviously, Lego was capable of creating highly sophisticated prints on torsos, heads and legs, but these figs just don't "do" it for me... as far as the base goes, i liked it back then. i loved the trans-green canopies, there was loooots of room inside to fill with chairs and computers, it had a high playability-factor, the printed parts were cool, and there was huge potential for the average builder

well i can see your point. however, you can only have a cabin's captain when all people who are in a room will actually show up. what if the captain pays for four, but only three make it to Billund? a captain needs some assurance that every one he/she paid for will come...

hm... i've gone full circle, i'm afraid... sitting at my desk with this great Santa Fé on my table, thinking "i really neeeeed to sort some more bricks soon, whenever i pass the legoroom..." funny to see that so many legofans all over the world go through the same stages of dealing with their growing collection