nana

After I looked at your signature, I know what you mean by buying two HE. I guess a modern electric train always has two heads and two motors? What a bummer. Two HE, two motors and tons of rails... this will cost a fortune! I am more into the steam and diesel engine. Can't imagine there could be a better looking train than EN. I will hesitate to spending so much on HE... Thank you for your clear explanation. I may skip this kit then. I could always use rechargeable AAA batteries and their charger is cheap, too. Good to know that HE and EN use different motors. Now I have to decide which one to motorize first. I guess once you motorize one of your trains and have so many rail pieces, there is no reason to leave other trains unmotorized. Thank you for all your guys' tips on buying the rails. Now I have an idea about how much I will need to invest if I'd like to make my trains move. I am more a modulars, houses and friends person. Need to think twice before I jump into trains.

I am going to buy Horizon Express and just saw the Horizon Express Kit at S@H: http://shop.lego.com...ess-Kit-5003540 As stated there, "this kit includes the Horizon Express train and everything you need to add bright LED headlights, rechargeable batteries with charger, an electric motor, infrared remote control and infrared receiver". Do you think it is worth to buy this kit ($253) instead of the train alone ($130)? Currently I only have two trains: 4841 Hogwarts Express and 10194 Emerald Night with two cars. I guess it will be hard to motorize 4841 if it is possible. For 10194 Emerald Night, can the PF accessories in the Horizon Express Kit motorize 10194? One more newbie question, where do you usually buy rails? S@H or bricklink? I just need some general advice to help me to decide motorizing or not. These PF accessories are more expensive than I thought. Maybe I should just collect trains without ever motorizing them... Thank you!!!

Wo. Wo. Wo. A definite buy! The round design for the radio panel is missing?

Thanks! I saw your sand blue grocer somewhere in this thread. I guess Lego just happened to use sand green. We could have official blue grocer instead. Out of the bricks I already have, I only use my extras from all over 100 sets I own, you know, the 1x1 plates, 1x1 bricks, ... To my surprise, I manage to grab tiny pieces worth nearly 30 dollars out of them. I am still at the stage that keeping all the sets intact, but I can see someday I may dissemble all of them to do MOC.

I just paid all my orders for bricklinking these three modulars. The total cost is close to 1100 dolloars including shipping fees. Lego pick a brick has increased their price for some bricks so I didn't buy any bricks from them. For the 56 of Sand Green Brick 1 x 2 with Groove, I paid EUR 0.97 for each. So as you can see, the price for bricklinking these three modulars is increasing. I used a matlab program to find the best combination of stores to buy bricks from. I spent a lot of time to compute and saved in this way. Here are the substitutions I did. I tried my best to keep as original as possible: Green Grocer: The 1x8 sand green bricks were substituted by 1x2, 1x4, 1x6 bricks. Two 1x6 and one 1x4 can be used for two adjent 1x8 bricks to reduce the gaps. Train windows were replaced by normal ones. Cafe Corners: The windows of two floors were modified as the techniques mentioned here, 2x10 reddish brown bricks to 2x4 and 2x6 and the color of the turntable plates. Market Place: For the fence, Tabless used tubes were used. Left 1x4x5 doors were changed to right used doors. I also use the large 32x32 base plate as I have many extras. Other changes were subtle, such as type 1 to type 2, stub types. I just bought a new green grocer for 750 dollars. I am going to sell it as I found bricklinking three was not much more effort than two. I also even bricklinked several small models at the same time. Thanks for this thread. It really encouraged me to bricklink myself!

Anyway to see the prices on bricks and pieces other than calling customer services? I would like to compare prices between BnP and bricklink, so there are lots of bricks to check. I tried to order lots of bricks in order to see prices but only got mails saying some of them are out of stock. Thx.

Just bought a new sealed GG for 750 dollars. I was going to brinklink GG and CC, but as a full-time working mom, 750 dollars to get everything original and save lots of time isn't too bad. I still plan to brinklink CC, so I won't miss the joy of bricklinking a whole big set. CC is way too expensive.

I have all except the newest market set. Toy shop is my favorite as it captures the spirit of Christmas most. As for the market, I won't ever buy it if it weren't part of the winter village theme. I am kinda holding to next year to see what the next will be. If the next set is the same as the market, high price and unattractive, I will have the reason to stop collecting the whole series of winter village.

Thanks for this excellent review! Frankly, I am becoming more and more disappointed with CMF. I like the panda and the mermaid though. I have collected all of CMF. Now I just hope this could be the last wave of CMF...

Wo! Definitely love it. The design is very cute and special from other modular buildings. I didn't know it could be revealed so early! The only thing I would like to complain is the color. This kind of yellow is a bit dull. I hope there will be one of deep purple.

Totally agree with Rapseflaps! I have all the winter village sets except the most recent two, the cottage and the market. I was planning to collect them all but this new market set is really disappointing. I wouldn't pay 100 dollars for a set like this. Anybody else in the same situation with me? I don't know how many more sets there will be of the winter village theme and whether if it is worth collecting them all.

Yes, it should be something related to evolutionary algorithms. I am thinking a program that can build a Lego building automatically. The user only needs to specify the footprint, the height and maybe the style of the windows, doors, etc. A Lego town could be built in no time with this program. What do you think about this idea?

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Oh yes, it's there!

This is amazing. Let alone the nice inside, I think the shop facades are neat. It appears with a modern feeling to me. There is a "luxurious" handbag in friends calendar. It would be awsome to put it in the window instead. Here is its link: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=3316-20

Very cute creation! I remember well when I spent hours of time placing little items by the path and designing roller coasters. TLG should have a new theme named Lego Fantasy Park .

It'll be very difficult for me to let a big set sealed for long. I will certainly let you know my impression. It may take me several weeks to build it since I only have a little spare time every evening. Nearly all of the sets I have now are buildings or houses, so I guess it could be a fantastic building experience. :) update: The shipping fee for EN was very high. I decided to buy Hogwarts Castle instead before it doubled its price like EN did. It was a very hard decision. As a student, Lego is a such expensive hobby. Happy holiday!

Just clicked the purchase button on bricklink, 175 plus shipping. Christmas is a good excuse to buy something expensive. Now I am on my way to motorize it or at least buy some tracks first. Happy Christmas everyone!

I am still debating with myself about whether to buy EN or not, hoping there will be a super deal somewhere after Christmas. :) If not, I will make my mind by then. Thank you guys for letting me know what you think and I learnt a lot, especially about the engine. I am completely new to Lego trains and honestly, was not very interested in trains at all. Trains are always for boys/men. But the Emerald Night is so beautiful. It reminds me some romantic plots lost in my memory. I also agree it looks somewhat unfinished. It will look much more balanced with at least one more coach.

The reviews make Emerald Night more tempting. Yeah, I know, but thank you for answering my futile question. :) Do you have a Hogwarts Express? It looks quite classical, too. Thank you very much! Don't know why I missed the second review, which is more comprehensive. The train in 79111 is cool but looks a little strange to me.

I have never bought any Lego train before. Now since I am building a winter village, I am considering to make it surrounded by a train. The emerald night is an old fashioned one and it looks fabulous. However, it's sold about 200 usd at ebay. I am not much attracted to the other modern models. Is the emerald night worth the money or maybe there will be another old fashioned train coming soon after Horizon Express?

As my collection growing, I find it more and more harder to find places to display my Lego sets. According to brickset, I have 26330 pieces in total now. I know it could be much fewer than many of you have. But these are already way too many for my humble apartment. 10 of my sets are bigger ones with over 1000 pieces, such as Modular Buildings. I put three of them on the top of my bookshelf. Also I bought a shelf like this to put on top of the dresser. This shelf can also hold three other big sets. However, there is no place left for the others. Wall shelves would be great, but it isn't allowed to drill into walls in my apartment. I may wind up dissembling them in the end. However, building one big set takes up my spare time of two weeks. I really would like to display them instead. I dissemble most of the other smaller sets. Two 6-case storage units and other boxes can hold many pieces. I hide all of them in my walk-in closet, as it could be a disaster if my 2-years-old daughter finds them. Her Duplo pieces are already everywhere. Now my closet is full with Lego boxes, instructions, flattened boxes and of course, clothes. I guess instead of buying new sets, I have to focus more on MOC in the future. Does anyone here have their own Lego workroom in the house? If I had my own house in the future, I could have one room like that!

I have a question, too. Do we always have to press the Lego lighting bricks to light it?

Thank you for your reply. Lego costumer service replied me that they would send me the flower with the open stud. However, they didn't realize any mistake in their system, saying the part I requested didn't come with Grand Emporium and it was "one time goodwill gesture" to send me the part for free. I am a bit offended by this. If they really looked into my case and took a look at the instruction, they will easily find it's impossible to place a solid stud flower to the roof. I must not be the only one who encounter this problem.

I love the color very much. Its design is very delicate. Most of the other modular buildings I saw are 32x32. This one will look magnificent among them.