brickzone

Sounds like a great project. I've enjoyed fixing up one or two sets I got off ebay that weren't just quite right, and the best was restoring my old Imperial Trading Post from pre-AFOL days (perhaps a few worn bricks still remaining that could do with being replaced, but it's important to get the right vintage of bricks too I think).

Wow, for some reason I missed this topic earlier. Sandy, that's a really nice Hogwarts creation! I particularly like the attention that's gone into the minifigs, and also the way so much is packed in. Some of the rooms are small and basic, yet they together create the impression of a full Hogwarts with all its rooms.

The Lego Farm sets are now on the online catalogue of Smyth's Toys (UK and Ireland). They show stock as unavailable until March. Still, good to know at least one retailer here *will* have the City Farm sets in March. Tractor: £7.99/€9.99 4WD with Horsebox: £12.99/€16.99 Combine Harvester: £29.99/€39.99 Farm: £49.99/€64.99 Smyth's are probably the main toy retailer in Ireland, and sometimes have prices cheaper than Irish S@H prices, otherwise usually the same. Nevertheless, you can see that I'll probably try to get the Farm from the UK if I go for it (I'll skip altogether on the combine harvester). Irish site: www.toys.ie UK site: www.smythstoys.com

I don't have any power miners myself (too much else on the wishlist) but I really like the premise and execution of the theme. So it's nice to see an MoC that fits in with the theme perfectly and uses the elements of it to full effect. Quite a convincing little scene captured in a moment of time. I like the simple effect acheived by the 1x1 trans bricks in the wall, and the orange lava chamber below is a nice bit of setting. I think the only way to avoid the support at the front would be to make the back wall attached to a support of about two bricks wide (possibly supported by technic rods - e.g. in 2x2 round bricks - you could hide this by attaching another plate to the rear of the supports), and also support the roof platform by constructing an arched roof from the back wall (using slopes perhaps with random bricks connected instead in places) - and possibly have technic plates between the top platform and the curved roof - attaching these techic plates to the interior wall support at the back. All of that would be a complete rebuild just for the sake of removing a pillar. So I would just go with either leaving it as is, or using trans-orange cones.

AlexB: I'm not surprised at the price rises - think about it, Smyth's have been selling the same items for the usual Euro RRP in Ireland and a vastly lower price in UK due to the weak pound. That can only be a short term situation. It's inevitable that the UK price will go up, and the longer the exchange rate continues as it is, the more likely that other retailers in the UK will have to raise prices. If the pound falls lower or crashes, the UK is in deep deep trouble for a host of other more serious reasons than prices going up due to the high import costs.

Very interesting and useful essay. I have thought about the subject from time to time. I suspect it's not as profitable to attempt this outside of the US. Mind you, if only I was closer to the border here in Ireland, I could pick up a rake of UK sets with the weakness of £ compared to € (apparently some retailers in Northern Ireland are offering €1=£1 as an incentive to southern shoppers). Being in the UK itself one obviously wouldn't have the same advantage, as any wages from one's actual job would be in £. There is the disadvantage too of either being paid in dollars on bricklink, or putting customers off with one of those annoying arbitrary exchange rates. I guess what would put me off this is that in essence it's no different to any other business venture, and I think you'd have to be some bit clued up to make a good thing of it. The tips on this essay seem very sensible, but I think you'd have to be rather able to adapt to circumstances and have a keen sense of business in the longer term. One's time and effort is not free either, and there is some work involved in requisitioning sets, parting them, dealing with orders and dispatches, etc.

I noticed it in some places here in Ireland, though most have restocked now. Unsurprisingly, shops will not leave shelf space idle, so I wouldn't worry if the shelves are temporarily taken up with other products. One of the main toy retailers here in Ireland, Smyth's Toys, has quite variable shelf space for Lego depending on time of year. Before Christmas it's an entire side of a warehouse aisle in most outlets. Tesco here in Ireland still seem to have no new Lego stock. They had managed to expand the Lego section to an entire segment of shelves before Christmas, now it's just a shelf or two of leftovers (mostly speed racer).

Monumental effort Nathan. The snow texture is certainly one of the aspects I admire, but I like all the detail inside the caves to make them look craggy and with stalagmites. It's very convincing too in the little details that suggest some man-made levelling of the cave floor in places. The effect acheived by the wedge-tower technique is indeed very aesthetically pleasing. The sheer amount of bricks needed to acheive this, I can't begin to imagine!

Hope this is the appropriate thread, but as I was oohing and aahing over the minifigs in this set as I opened the bags and started building, a spectator remarked it seemed a bit of a pity that the two female heads were identical. Personally, I think the amount crammed into this set is remarkable, so I wouldn't really ask for more. But playing around, I did arrive at the conclusion that the lady in green perhaps looks rather more fitting with the Clawdette/Witch head. What do folks think? Slightly more sinister-looking! "Hand over that turkey!"

Thanks for the positive comments. I'm going to leave it as it is for display here for the time being, just in case the modifications don't turn out well. I will post photos when I decide to modify it. Certainly some detail above the front door would be good. Not sure if I would put a cross there, I might attempt a statue or freize or something in a recessed alcove. The belltower I would put a cross on though, and I might put a little one on the edge of the two roof peaks at the rear. There are two crosses in the apse (the area that the altar is in) on the two side walls - it's just not evident from the angle of the photo. They incorporate short windows as the crossbeams of the crosses. EDIT: Photo of the side of the apse: Detail of pews: Just four headlamp bricks holding a 1x4 tile sideways, and a 1x4 flat attached to the rear. The back is just flats - either 1x4 and 2x4 held together by 1x3 verticals, or else 1x3 and 2x3 vertically on their own. I had only two red-brown 2x3 flats to hand or I might have just used two of those for each pew back.

Does anyone think that TV show "Space Precinct" may have had any influence? Maybe it's just me, and plus I can't remember it that well.

Well, I'm even more convinced as to the quality of these new sets. Even from the prelims the Troll Fortress looked suitably imposing. It looks like a serious quantity of parts! It's nice to be able to see the detail of Drawbridge Defense better. I liked it before, but now that I can see it better, it looks very nicely designed. Very convincing Castle-style. The golden knight, I wasn't sure about, but it looks quite neat now! I'll absolutely have to get these sets... even if it means leaving much of the awesome Space Patrol line-up on the "might buy some day" list. Just as well the chariot is missing, I might be accused of "whining" again if I explained the particulars of why it didn't interest me! Actually I hope it's released even if I wasn't buying it. I wouldn't like to see an absence of any smaller sets.

Pretty awesome. This looks like a fun theme. The design of the sets looks pretty decent too, some intricacies there but it doesn't look like they'll have too much technic either. I just love the enemy ship disguised as a freighter. The big giant gun is just a laugh - like the Agents Volcano base. It certainly looks like a lot of play value, and for us AFOLs, it provides a nice springboard for ideas for some of us. It can be all too easy to just do boring functional MoCs, but I think the end result is more satisfying if you create something lively like this! I'm sure these sets will be a big hit. I'm guessing the large mothership, pretty impressive, has a detaching front section? Also the hinged roof of the medium sized ship is pretty cool, the way it folds back entirely (took a moment to figure out what on earth way the set was arranged). The aliens are suitably diverse and interesting looking. I particularly like the one that has an extra torso with droid arms plus alien head attached instead of a head. As for comments of Juniorisation (aren't there always) - OK they have some large parts like recent sets - but unlike the bad era, nowadays these are used *as well* as all the normal pieces in order to make the models larger. And this is *good* - they allow people to do big MoCs too! The set designs have never been more intricate - and as per my comments, the usual danger is in fact to have too much technic involved (although I wholly approve of using it in normal sets - I think the appeal of pure technic is limited to a certain market, but a far larger market can be introduced to using it to augment ordinary models). How can people talk about juniorisation with all the fine details on recent sets, the realism (perhaps too much even at times) and the more liberal use of sideways construction, brick geometry and cunning uses of special parts? If you haven't experienced this, go buy some of the great sets from about 2005 through to this year. Lego continues in it's glorious new golden age! I speak as someone who really appreciated Lego as a kid from mid 1980s through to mid 1990s, and look fondly on the days of M-Tron, Blacktron (2), Space Police (2), Ice Planet.

Thanks for that! I think I'll use some ideas from this for my own Agents base MoC. It's not gone so well so far - I ended up scrapping my first attempt. Despite liking some aspects of it (used the flip-up truck body as a hanger bay for vehicles on the front of the Police 3D baseplate) it just ended up looking too boring, despite being a bit brick-heavy. Also it was too horizontal rather than vertical. I have actually quite a bit of navy to add to the mobile command centre parts, but even so I need to plan it better this time around. I'm hoping to incorporate an operational elevator into the building (you know, one of the exterior "glass" elevators - with girders either side of it).

I think the new buildings are absolutely wonderful. They really fit in well with the existing ones, and I like the specific detail on one of them of those big doors. I think they really work well, and indeed I like them as they are on the exterior. Possibly a gap between the top of the doors and the first floor would be better. The building with the stable is nicely done - being thicker than the existing buildings but allowing the roof/floors to be removed. I like the interior detail, nice and packed with detail but not too cluttered either. I like the use of 1x6 flat tiles for diagonals on the timber-frame of the buildings.

Yesterday I felt like creating something to go alongside my Medieval Marketplace which finally arrived late last week. I ended up choosing to make a church (other possibility was a bakers, but I didn't feel like looking up the particulars). The church is pretty much made up on the fly, and it undoubtedly shows. I kind of went for just a little chapel-style building, such as the ones dotted around the Irish countryside, but of course I couldn't resist adding stained glass windows. I should probably upgrade it a bit with a bell-tower. Anyway, it doesn't have to be that proper. Side view with windows lit up. Front view Rear view (yup, the stained glass style is a bit "modern" but it's rather tricky to arrange anything else than a cubist form with Lego in this fashion!) Inside the church. I made some pews and a simple altar with candlesticks. Due to lack of space and the simple adornment in the main hall of the church, I made a small room to the side to store whatever is needed for church services. The idea is that there is a cupboard under the books.

The Troll fortress looks pretty awesome even just from the prelims. I like the form of the structure and the menacing gates. Bit of a LOTR feel to it with the tower on the right - looks like it's set up perfectly for the Eye of Sauron. The drawbridge defense seems pretty neat - I hope there's a bit of an interior to the room above the drawbridge that the Queen will be in, but I guess it's not that likely. Can't say I like the idea of the golden knight even if it will be a minifig in pearl-gold colour rather than yellow. The chariot seems a reasonable set idea, but not something I'll need to get - not interesting enough and I've two kings already (chess set and castle siege).

Ah - I had noticed the changes to bricks of other colours, but I assumed it was just the new plastic rather than colour change per se. The recent bricks (and even recent sets can have some "old" bricks still) look "shinier" and glossy. They are also more flexible. When you compare to a brand new "old" brick, I do not think the colour is perceptably different - just the glossiness and feel of the pieces (plus some other indicators, such as the Lego branding being a bit lighter on the studs). I haven't found it too hard to distinguish but it is a lot of bother, e.g. if I get an incomplete set off ebay that needs a piece or two from my collection - I have to grab a handful of the relevant pieces and pick out a similar vintage of brick (hollow pillars or not, new plastic or not, clip type on 1x1 clips, grey vs. bley). I like the way the primary colours are brighter with the new plastic, and black is shinier.

I like it. Nice busy lively feel inside the tavern, great minifigs, and wonderful furnishings! The baseplates as roof is a reasonable option I think. If you had more logs, obviously they could be mounted sideways and hinged in much the same manner.

I think you could have *both* the modular building pavement *and* the pavement of the road plate combined. Many European cities have broad pavements, and quite progressively favour pedestrians rather than cars. Indeed even here in Ireland, some main streets that have not been pedestrianised, have nevertheless been made "pedestrian-friendly" - i.e. the vehicular traffic constrained to one or two lanes (usually one-way) and the extra road space taken up by new footpath paving. So I think using the recent road plates, just placed in front of the modular buildings, you could acheive this effect if you extended the tiled pavement across the edges of the road plates. Of course it will look bare unless you add realistic street furniture - trees, bins, seats, light standards. And of course fill them with people.

I have had extra sticker sheets in one or two sets - e.g. the transparent sheet from the Agents Mobile command centre. I got an entire extra bag of dark bley and dark red jumpers with Town Plan. In the 2005 Fire Engine set I received an extra instruction booklet.

I think the new grey was one of the factors that put me off Knights Kingdom. However, I didn't realise that was a factor until my AFOL days, starting about 2 years ago. I think it only became an issue for me when I bought old Castle sets off ebay, and had stray bley parts in them. I meticulously ensured these were expurged from the models. I now have significant quantities of bley, dark bley, new brown, etc. and I'm perfectly happy to build with them. I'm not in fact entirely happy with old grey, old dark grey, etc. but I would have preferred if the new colours were maybe half-way between their current look and the old look. I think they over-compensated for the "dullness" of the old colours. Old grey and dark grey are far superior for many castle MoCs of course, but I think bley isn't too bad if you assume the castle is newly built with freshly cut stone. Old brown similarly looks more like worn wood, rather than freshly treated wood. I *love* some new colours like navy, dark red, dark green, tan, sand green, dark tan, etc. Can't get enough of them!

Thanks. I tried to minimise the modifications - because for one thing, the sails are a fixed size. I quickly dropped the idea of using the wide bow pieces from the Dr. Inferno boat from Agents. However, the 6/8 wide of the original was just too cramped and not like a modern Lego design. So this version is 8 wide, although keeping the 6-wide bow (hence some SNOT curve bricks used). The sides are 2/3s of a brick higher. Also the stern is a brick taller, and slightly longer. The prow is much the same, but a brick higher of a bow and with "figurehead" added to it (best I could do was a crab!). It was fun to do, and I'm happy enough with how it turned out, although the sides of the stern are a bit too flat. I did try a wider and bigger stern, but that looked wrong and disproportionate.

Yes, it's interesting to look at the differences with some pieces designed long ago (even now some are still used) and recent additions. I do prefer the recent wings (and wedges) with cut-outs, but it is added functionality at the expense of aesthetics. The thing about those old wheels, the larger ones, is that they were the first wheels I had in Lego, and the tires are still used (e.g. on the jeep in the Indy chase set). They were rather tricky to pull in/out of the holder, and the versatility of the modern equivalent is evident - the use of the technic pin allows mounting just about anywhere, and indeed technic axles.

Military 13a Well, I had some fun building the new Pirates sets. When building the Soldiers' Fort (last set I built), I mused about the differences compared to the old Imperial building style. I then took it into my head to build the Imperial Trading Post, with as little amendment as possible but focussing on using tan, brown, updated parts in places and one or two colour changes to mix with Soldiers' Fort (e.g. bley for the supports instead of black). Here are the results: I didn't actually use my existing Imperial Trading Post to do this, just used a damaged duplicate baseplate and my existing parts (thanks to Harry Potter for the tan bricks, Agents and Skeleton Ship Attack for the dark blue, I think the main crane line is from the Viking ship). It isn't shown in the photo, but I had to use white flaps for the doors in the roof of the little hut - and I only had one modern click one, and could only find a yellowed old one, so that's a bit of a pity, but it looks reasonable. Also I did not have white 45 degree bricks or I would have used them - had to make do with the black ones from Merlin's workshop. I'm pleased with the extension of the gangway in front of the 3D baseplate to four wide. I built onto the exposed rear faces of the inverted slopes holding it up to create simple supports. EDIT: I've now created an updated version of the trading post merchant ship: The merchant enters the port, just checking the horizon for pursuers. His crewman is more interested in his chicken. The precious cargo is unloaded. While engaging the governer in conversation, the merchantsomewhat foolishly remarks about how wonderful his telescope is. This elicits a violent reaction from the governer, who cannot countenance the idea of someone having a better telescope than he has. Mr. Merchant retreats to the relative safety of his ship, taking a cutlass down from the mast to arm himself in case that slightly unhinged governer comes after him! His crewman meanwhile settles down to his chicken... little does he know someone else covets it! Ooops, the crane operator isn't watching what he's doing. The box is being lowered right on top of the governer! The cargo of gems safely lands on the dock, but poor governer gets to go for a swim. Meanwhile one of the soldiers has taken the crewman's chicken - time for muskets... Time to go... a parting shot to the chicken robber. Mr. Merchant ponders the fact that his telescope is perhaps not so great after all, it doesn't compare well to the size of the fish they are carrying. And yes, I'll have to get a better camera than that of my phone sometime. Just to note that the reddish colour on the ship is dark red (although the "figurehead" and top flag are red).