gylman

Interesting..... Rumor is that a few years ago, as they were cleaning out an old warehouse for demolition in central France, in an unmarked crate that had not been opened in 20 years, sealed in an uncommonly hard to open Lego S@H box (they had to use a knife!) they discovered a huge load of ancient keychains that had not seen the light of day for 20+ years. The cleanup crew that originally discovered these keychains has gone missing, and Interpol has been involved. No one knows what happened to these keychains, but it may be more than coincidence that several years later, certain sellers, in France and HongKong, who cannot be named at this time *skull* , have recently released extremely rare keychains onto the market in unusual quanity. The only thing is, that there apparently was a curse associated with these keychains! "Whomesoever as shall owneth these keychains shall be cursed! All their Lego bricks will never henceforth match in color, nor shall they ever fit precisely without undue pressure and danger of popping apart". It was written in the Bionicle alphabet, which was not known to many at the time so the curse was not heeded at the time. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Tombevs/...le_alphabet.jpg It is said that the designer who chose the colour scheme on the purple Knight Bus set had owned one these keychains, as did every member of that fateful committee at TLC that made the decisions about the new colour scheme several years ago. It was in fact these very disasters that led TLC to trace the common element to a cursed batch of keychains made in the early 1980's, given to each of these individuals when they were junior members of The Lego Club. Later on, of course, they became employees of TLC and rose to awesome corporate power. The rest as we know, is history. Internal investigations at TLC re: the origin of the curse have come up with wide-ranging answers from Makuta, to a Megabloks plot, to the disaffected employee to designed the original maxifigs, and was bitter when they were replaced by minifigs (hence the irony of the curse on minifig keychains), but in truth no one knows. Of course, since most keychain collectors are not builders, but simply gatherers of the flotsam and jetsam that makes its way across eBay and Bricklink, and many have often never actually built a single thing, and indeed most have not even unpacked their keychains from their cellophane wrapping, the curse bears little threat to this group. Hence the true power of hte curse is often not realized. But if the keychains inadvertently enter the hands of a real builder, the consequences are hideous beyond imaging. This was the winning entry in this years rtlToronto train contest, AFTER the winner was given one of the cursed keychains as part of the prize! http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/MrDennis...cStuff/pile.jpg This was BFS' greatest creation ever! But then his children got him a cursed keychain as a present! http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Tok8/WIP...eables/pile.jpg I could show more, but the horror is just too great *alien* . So, all I have to say is.... if someone offers you a 20+ year old keychain for a price that seems too good to be true..... just make sure you have no current MOCs in the works or on display. Better yet, send it me - I test it to see if it is safe, and if found to be cursed I will take it upon myself, with no risk to you, to store it securely until such time as this hideous curse can be lifted. Sincerely. Gyl

Yikes! if they released a whole bunch of new ones that would devastate the black market in ancient space keychains!! My life savings! Gone! :-P

So true. We've had a bazillion threads on this at BZP and even here in the past, and I don't want to start another, but there can be no doubt that Bionicle was much more fun in 2001/02 than it is now. Right now my kids are glued to the PC screen playing this game (in 2001 they were ages 1 and 3 - too young to play :-) )

*sweet* LMAO. It's a beautiful keychain no doubt. But, it's about 20 or more years old, and is rather hard to find. It will set you back a buck or two. http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=Palmboy&itemID=5815990 However, if you see it in a store somwhere, pick up 12 or so for me ;-)

Yep, a great snag indeed. *y* Congrats!

My understanding is that this year's new keychains are Vikings, Exo Force, and a couple more Star Wars ones. Here is a picture http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/gylman/k...t_additions.jpg Bottom row, four keychains on left - viking, exo, Imperial guard, Boba Fett. That's all I have from 2006 so far. I sure hope there are others coming... I assume Batman will come eventually, but apparently not in 2006. That will be an awesome set - really looking forward to it. Notice, however, that we never got Knights' Kingdom keychains, which really surprised and disappointedme. We got the magnets, but they are nowhere near as much fun.

For those who care (which probably is..... no one, but w/e) I thought that I would share the current status of my keychain obsession. By hook and by crook (but mostly by excessive expenditures) I have significnatly expanded the fabuland portion of the collection. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/gylman/k...l_fabulands.jpg If anyone on EB has fabulands keychains that are not on this display, and which are in reasonable condition..... I would be keen to buy and you may be shocked how much money they can be worth (although not as much as the people on bricklink seem to think they are). http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=legod...&itemID=4117702 NOT! :-X My old display no longer is up to the task and has to be revised. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?G=KCF18 Gyl (keychain collectin' fool)

When life is poo, there is no substitute for buying Lego as a quick pick-me-up. See my PM.

We can call it.... wait for it..... vley! Oy vley! *wacko* Oy bley! *n* Go gray! *y*

I assume you are talking about Cadhok and Gadhok. Maybe the best Bionicle set ever made. More technic than Bionicle as we know it now, though. Biggest piece count before those useless playsets, and at the time an excellent source of relatively hard to get useful parts like white teeth, claws, and most importantly, click rotation hinges - the best joint ever made for supporting heavy mecha limbs - no less than 12 of them! http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/8558-1?showpic=403 Tell me, who would rather not have this than 6 clones of the same Toa. Apparently - they did not sell well enough though to justify similar big sets in followup years after 2001.

Canadian S@H prices are insane compared to US, especially when you also factor in our 15% taxes. I've pretty much abandoned S@H for new sets in Canada. Twice in the last year, when S@H canada in error listed a bunch of new sets with the US dollar amounts, I went insane and bought like crazy, but they realized their mistake and the problem was corrected to the usual 25-40% jacked up Canadian prices (even though the exchange is only 15-20% extra) Other than that I rarely buy anything except sale items at S@H. Unlike in Europe, it's pretty trivial to get them from the US via eBay for an acceptable shipping cost, and I can even avoid tax in most cases. If I was a Canadian Lego retailer, I'd be pretty PO'ed since I can't compete on a level footing with the US just across the border. Gyl

A 6-8 year old sees the older kids playing with it and tends to build little,but most pose the doll and pretend play. Still, it makes him feel grown up. An 8-10 year old will keep interest in bionicle by starting to get engaged in the comics, book, website, and building variations on their favour characterize. Their parents will see Bionicle as a tool to get the little delinquent to read, and will buy some of the bionicle books. A 10-14 year old keeps interest by doing really original stuff, both with the toy, and with the story line and art, and gets involved in the social aspect (online community). After 14, most teens would be reluctant to say that Bionicle is their favourite toy, but I imagine some have formed a sentimental attachment to the characters, some of the favourite toys they had and continue to build with it now and then, check on the sites, and sneak buy a set now and then. .......... the dark ages descend..

Hey sure Suvie - any time. I nee about 15 2x8 green blocks too.

Better? <cough>spam<cough>

To a true Lego fan, it is most definitely worth going! MiniLand was the highlight for me, as well as the excellent Pick-A-Brick. I doubt the rides will appeal to anyone over age 13. They are hard to find because not that many were ever made. NOthing particularly special about them. Right now there are a total of 26 such bricks on Bricklink, by a total of about 18 sellers. One seller has 4, another couple have 2, and the rest have one such brick. I need them because I am trying to reconstruct this Incredibly, it has 142 of these annoying 2x2 green corner bricks. I could get away without the exact brick count, but I always prefer to get as close as possible before having to start to compromise.

Whatever they cost you, I'll pay you double for them, and shipping to me is my cost - if you get them, we can talk about it. Your profit is your reward. Not enough to retire on, exactly, but a good deed for a fellow Eurobricker *sweet* which will be duly remarked upon and stored in the plus column in the John Cleese section of the great big Eurobricks book of goods and bads. But we are talking about green 2x2 corner bricks, not 2x2 corner plates, not 2x2 regular bricks, not sand green corners - just plain classic green 2x2 corner bricks - not anything else. Cheers. Gyl P.s. you can just send them to "Gylman" in Canada. They all know me here. :-) (kidding of course... I'll give ya my address etc if you managed to get a hold of these).

My impression in Legoland California was that a) prices were higher than what I would pay in almost any department store b) selection was good, but did not include "unreleased" items. Also, whatever you buy has to survive the trip home, and may end up quite battered in the end. Better to buy locally or from S@H c) the only real merit in buying Lego at Legoland is that the Pick-a-brick has a much better selection than at regular lego stores (at least the ones I have seen). Other than lego "gear" (like keychains :-D , of which there is an outstanding selection) don't waste a cent on anything other than Pick-A-Brick. My impression... anyway. And... if you find 2x2 green corner bricks ( http://peeron.com/inv/parts/2357) at the Pick-A-Brick, get about 120 for me, and I'll reward you handsomely :-) Enjoy it. Gyl

Aww.... Looks like someone already snagged them up. That sucks,causeiwould have bought them for $11.50. Sigh... Guess briclink it is. Aaargh. Sorry about that. I guess someone else read the post and snatched 'em.

<moves his pneumatic air tanks to the safety deposit box> I'd suggest buying the bricklink one. But why not from this store. He has two for 11.50 each http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=Jungl...&itemID=5654215 Price is reasonable, shipping reasonable, he takes paypal.... Buy 'em before they are gone forever!

Functionally, 8464 would be very bleh without the air tank - you would have to pump more or less constantly to make it do what little it does. However, it seems to me that the airtank would clearly be more useful in 8455. Frankly, I can't think of any pneumatic set that woudl not be vastly better off with an air tank. Even 8868 would likely work a lot more smoothly,even though it has a motorized compressor. I just had a look on eBay, and these tanks are getting nearly impossible to obtain! Wow. I can't believe TLC has decided to stop making this part.

It is a very fun build. I have this model, and have built it and taken it apart several times. But, at the end of the day, it's just a car. So, it sits there.... The alternate model is bleh. However, 8880 is an incredible black parts pack. So, I would recommend it over any other technic car ever made. I actually like it better than the 8448 Mark II super car, but that's probably because I am biased against new technic.

Here's my 0.02c Keep in mind I don't much care for cars that just sit there and look pretty 8428: bleh. It just sits there and looks pretty. Built it, sold it. 8466: never built this one. It's supposed to be really cool for the suspension, but I find that boring. What else is there to this one? Not much. 8485: I have this one. Its very good, and an awesome source of useful parts. Highly recommended. 8862: highly recommended. Not too expensive, compared to 8485 for example, and lots of functions. Looks "blocky". But as you can see from my first post in this topic, I regard this as one of the classics. 8446: don't have it. Don't see the appeal. One of my all time ebay Snags. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=6036712475 "large blue pods". LMFAO Re: your other question I built 8464 out of spare parts a few weeks ago (I had to get the big bucket on bricklink, but the rest was pretty easy to fish out of my vast technic collection). The build is fun - no doubt. It looks good on the shelf. It feels solid in your hands. However... the turning mechanism is a bit odd ( The front part of the cab turns, while the back does not. More importantly..... it just don't do much. Raise bucket, empty bucket. Lower bucket. Fill bucket. repeat ad infinitum. It's no 8868, that's for sure. I also don't like the wheels. It looks much better with classic technic wheels like on 8862. Overall, I would put in in the top 11-20 technic sets ever made, but not in the top 10, especially considering cost.

Awesome. *sweet* Only things missing (maybe) is some Z'nap bits, and an Xpod container. I think I spot a kitchen sink in there somewhere.... maybe behind the Zamor spheres.

I've done that a few times. Probably I am not very good at it, but I didn't like the results. Just adding a piece here or there doesn't really change much. You have to add a whole bunch, which changes the proportions of hte model and tends to make it look wierd, or make it flimsy. Never photographed any of my feeble efforts, or I'd show you what I mean. Probably somewhere on Brickshelf there's someione who has done a good job with this, but mostly what I see in that regard is racing cars, which is the one aspect of Technic that never interested me. Probably you have to redesign from the ground up. The closets I have seen to agood combination is 8464/8439 http://guide.lugnet.com/set/8439, which might make it into my top 10 list. It looks very good to my eyes. The problem there is that it doesn't too much :-( Can somone make 8862 look sexier? Probably, but I haven't seen a good example. HObbes, if you are buying 8868, try not to get one that's too beaten up. The pneumatic functionality in this set is awesome, but pushes the tubes and pumps to their limit. If your pneumatic elements don't work right because of age it would be disappointing. Also, before you build it make sure the large turntable works well, otherwise same problem.

I can't recommend 8868 enough. You won't believe how much they pack into this set.