gylman

I totally agree Hobbes. Technic is where my principal interest lies in Lego, and it is vastly more fun to me to build the old sets than anything new. And not because of nostalgia either. I came out of my dark ages about 5 years ago, and have collected most Technic sets made, new or old, having never built them before. Much of the difference is the technic stud and plate vs liftarm thing.The studless techique feels more like K'Nex. It seems to me you can do more interesting things by combining system + technic, which the studs allow easily. You can use liftarms with system lego, but it's harder and somehow doesn't look right. The other part is simply that the older sets were more clever in their functions and technique. There has been a rennaissance in Technic last 2 years - at least compared to what they were doing 5 years ago, but it comes nowhere near the old days. I have 8421, and built it. In fairness, there are a good number of 1x16 technic beams in there, for structural support of a very big set. It was on ok build, not as good as I had hoped for, but better than anything new (not-rereleased old good sets) for probably 5 years. The use of pneumatics in it was disappointing. My top 5 technic sets include nothing from last 10 years. The space shuttle was 1996, and although it's a great set, it is very expensive for what it does. All the others are better value/fun for the money: 8868 airtech claw rig http://guide.lugnet.com/set/8868. Far and away this set does more than any other technic set ever did. There is no comparison. 8460 pneumatic crane truck http://guide.lugnet.com/set/8460 (re-released 2003) 8094 control centre http://guide.lugnet.com/set/8094. Clever original technic, we need more of this. 8480 space shuttle http://guide.lugnet.com/set/8480 855 the original crane truck http://guide.lugnet.com/set/855 (such an old set, but I built it for the first time last year, and was totally impressed by the thoughtfulness of design in this baby). Honourable mention goes to the Backhoe Grader http://guide.lugnet.com/set/8862. It looks klunky, but the functionality is great. That one needs to be upgraded, but that's easily done with a few system bits. I have some hopes for the big truck of this year's collection, but we shall see. I was very enthused about 8421, but it let me down. It's an awesome parts pack though....

Thanks for the review Yoda. I loved the Scudaria truck last year, and got all hyped up about Ferrari because of it. That set was a very fun build and looks very nice on my shelf. I got this set right away when it came out, but have yet to build it because looking at it the impression is that it is just a collection of little sets, none really outstanding except the podium. There are some cute little touches which you show very well in the review, but the build seems bleh, and the play value seems very little. As you said - this one would only look really good as part of a much bigger MOC. Truly, the podium is excellent. Other than that there is nothing here that we do not have from last year's Ferrari. I've bought it, but don't really have this on my agenda to unbox and build and modify. Cheers. Gyl

oooh, that should keep you happy for a while. How much for the 8439?

Like I said. Lego can't complete with Bricklink. Nor should they try to. However, perhaps there is a case to be made that if some lunatic is willing to pay $1 per 1x2 sand red brick, and buy at least 500 of them, maybe Lego could make enough money off that to make it worthwhile. But there would have to be an awful lot of lunatics to make it worth their while to even set up the capability. Can't see how it would ever be economically feasable. Gyl p.s. God knows right now I would pay a lot of money for 2x2 green corner bricks. *wacko*

Yep! good luck finding that one.

This service exists. It's called Bricklink. And I doubt that there is any way that TLC can do it better for profit than many thousands of AFOLs who mostly do it because it helps finance their Lego adiction and keep their spouses off their backs about all the money they spend. ------------------------- "look honey, I bought 10 copies of that set for 450$, got out the 30 parts I really wanted, and sold the rest on Bricklink for $400. It's not a waste of money!" "well dear, how much could you have earned at a real job, or even delivering newspapers, during the time you spent driving to the store, buying the sets, bringing them home, opening every one, cataloging them, uploading the data, answering emails about the Lego parts, packaging everything you sold, and driving it to the postal station." ..... <dead silence>

Hi people. Anyone want to sell or trade for these bricks: MUST be green (regular green) http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/2456 http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/3007 http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/2357 Many thanks. Gyl

If I think of all the time I spent scouting eBay for bargoons..... that more than makes up for the money I might save. However, mindlessly staring at page after page of ebay listings is actually a good way to relax for a few minutes. I do it several times a day, and it's as much of a hobby for me as Lego is. Truth be told, I got out of my dark ages through ebay. I actually originally started out on eBay with the purpose buying some Duplo sets for my kids. Then I started seeing all the amazing Lego sets out there, and what finally pulled me back from the dark ages was 6090 castle. That was my first eBay lego purchase for myself. The rest is a long, sordid, and very expensive story. :$

Well, to see the answer http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=legojob&itemID=5596619 Rare item. These are the only ones available on bricklink! None currently or recent listed for sale on eBay. Only present in about 9 sets. Greatly improve pneumatic functions by storing some air pressure so that you don't have to keep pumping the air to keep the mechanism under pressure. Oh, and I guess if you just attached them to the side of a truck, the would look like very nice gas tanks too :biggrin: Gyl MeBT (Master of eBay Trolling)

This was a recent purchase of mine on eBay. Oddly, this seller who is quite busy selling Lego on eBay did not know what they were selling. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=6036712475 Do you? Usual cost, about 10-15$ each. I got them both for $1.77 ROTFL

An armature is like a skeleton that you build your mecha around. It's not a part, but something you build You can use a bionicle based armature, or a sytem based armature. Bionicle are more flexible, but don't hold weight well because ball joints are weak. In recent years new joints have come along that greatly improve the options (the KK joints, the AT-AT disc joints, others) The gla gla armature is a classic system design that many have tried to emulate or do better than, but I'm not sure they have. Unfortunately, I can't find the pics of this. They seem to have vanished from Brickshelf and I can't find the pics on my PC. There is lots about this topic. Issue 2 of brickjournal had lots of info about mecha. Suggest you start there. Here are some links, but there is much more out there. http://216.92.149.12/moc.php/2156 http://216.92.149.12/moc.php/2767 http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Legomast...ilder-frame.jpg Gyl

Nice! Until they've tried to make them, people don't know how hard these combiners and transformers can be to make. I can see that your guy is a few years old. Looks like "old school" lego bricks. Not many of them "new fangled" bricks and stuff we use these days. If you like mecha, I presume you know about things like gla-gla armatures..... I find them very useful. My Santa of Doom is based on one of those. http://eurobricks.hosting.ipsyn.com/eurofo...c=3216&hl=santa There's more info about building him in the thread.

Welcome. And.... well... you are not a token Canucker. There may be more Canadians on EB than I believe any other country in the world except the US. There are for sure more from Toronto and region than from any other city in the world. Check out this link http://eurobricks.hosting.ipsyn.com/eurofo...?showtopic=2671 Enjoy your stay. Gyl

These are nice sets, and indicate just how far Technic has bounced back in the last couple of years. Even the small and medium sets are good. I am looking forward to getting these on my desk. Cheers.

DOH!!

For some time now I have not been able to see my "sent messages" in the PMs. I can see my inbox, but once I send a message it does not go into the "sent messages" bin. Is there some setting forgot to toggle, or a bug somewhere? Gyl

A vote for MattZ. We did a deal whereby he sent money to someone in England for me, and he had the money in my sellers hands within 2 days of us agreeing to do it. Thanks man. Gyl

LMFAO (Jonfett, that was worth my spamming :-D )

what do you need? PM me. I am in Toronto

Hmm. I'm not sure if things are the same in Europe as in North Am, and I can't specifically comment about your card. However, if you have a debit card, you have a bank account. And you should be able to connect PayPal to your bank account.

Quite funny actually - I liked the knife through the belly best. It wasn't about model building, it was about funny ideas. Bunch of people get liquored up, and do this with a bucket of Legos. Good times! Should spawn a new TLC theme. I'll talk to Vig about it.

Any time a well established business posts a one time turnaround like this, it is a HUGE!! comeback. I am not clear on how much of their 7Billion revenue was from selling the parks, and how much of their 0.1B decline in operating expenses was from not having to operate the parks (probably not much since they did not sell early in the year). However, in their annual report they say 9% sales increase. This is very impressive in the current toy market. How to sustain? The threats to lego are genetic bricks (Megablk, Asian ripoffs), Lego's own bricks that never die, and electronic toys. Licenses defeat the first two, and as long as Lego picks successful licenses, they have a good chance to do well. As much as people moan about the licenses, the last year or two have made it obvious that licenses are the future. I would be very curious to know how much Bionicle contributed, how much Starwars contributed, and how much of the profit came from boxes of bricks. They talk about the success of Vikings, but really compared to unit sales of Starwars or Bionicle , Vikings could not be a major factor in the profits. I would have thought that in absolute dollars, the single biggest contributor to Lego profits would be Bionicle, followed by Star Wars, and everything else distant. Also, would love to know what fraction of TLC sales go through S@H, which although it is not perfect, is easily the best online shopping service I have ever used. Anyway, this is great news. Go LEGO!

Town Everyday buildings on mini fig scale, e.g railway stations, businesses to fit train displays OMG yes. People have been clamouring for this for years. Not just police stations, gas stations, fire stations and hospitals. How about grocery stores? Movie theatre? How about a school? How about a modular mall - this has been done by fans - standard footprint of 16 x 16 or 32 x 32, and we can build whatever shops for the mall we like, over and above a few shops which come as sets. We can put a fountain in the middle, a kids' play area.... etc etc. Bridges MEH.... World Buildings MEH. Too hard to do well at an affordable price. I don't think the Lego Factory premade sets did very well because of the perceived high cost relative to what was being obtained (maybe I'm wrong), and I suspect there would be the same issue here. No point making a joonyerized Taj Mahal Taj Mahal Sydney opera house Empire state building Vehicles My personal opinion. Lego does enough cars. No more please. Muscle cars, hot rods Ferrari e.g F40, F50, specific historical race represented Classic cars Aircraft Same as for cars above Civil transport planes Classic planes from the early days of aviation Other Structures Oil rig with functions OK, I guess Amusement park with functioning mechanical rides YES!!!!!! OTHER: 1) UCS-Castle. 3000 pieces, internals nicely made, several floors that lift out, old style castle, NOT KK style. Sort of like King's Castle (6080) on steroids. No crazy colours, decent army, more than just a wall and a gate. No raised baseplate. I would buy this set at any price 2) Steal some ideas from lugnet. How about a medieval marketplace. Again - modular stalls, 16 x 16, which we can put together to make a medieval fair. 3) More microscale from Lego. Good quality stuff, like we see on Lugnet, or like the Lego Factory sets, but better value for the money please. 4) along the lines of stealing from AFOLs, there are many city vehicles that can be done a lot better than anything ever released by TLC. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=256 I'm sure more will come to mind and I wil try to edit. ***** AND BRING BACK ADVENTURERS PLEASE ("Old West" theme would address the high demand for Western elements too. See discussion at Legofan) **********

Some here may know that I am obsessed with Lego keychains. I have a collection (see here http://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=137846 It's not the biggest in the world (I know of at least two others clearly superior to my own), but I have recently been adding (including this one! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=6033966097 If any of the older fans around here have any keychains they are willling to part with, for a price of course, or a trade, please contact me. I am particularly looking for stuff from the 1980's, including classic town keychains, classic space keychains, and fabuland keychains. They don't have to be mint, but reasonably OK condition would be nice. I doubt there are any keychains from the last few years I am missing, but if you look at my display and think there is something not there.... feel free to contact me. Cheers. Gyl

With compromises you could get it at 35$ if you are a bit patient (wait 2-4 weeks), with no box and minor parts missing. Hopefully the seller won't gouge you on shipping though. My feeling is this. If you desperately want something..... spend the 10 extra bucks and feel good now. That 10 bucks is 2 cups of coffee (bad for you), a few subway tokens (walk, its healthier), or half a pack of cigs (very bad for you) or a couple of beers (bad for you). You drink em/smoke em, and you got nothing to show for it but pee or a few cells closer to cancer. A beautiful lego set makes you feel good for a long time. Life is short. Enjoy it. EDIT: or, if you are not yet of an age when these things apply.... 10$ is a shoveled driveway, or mowed lawn, or two less booster packs of some useless TCG where all you get is a bunch of commons, and... frankly.... barely missed when absent from your mom's wallet :-D