CP5670

I got an 8275 bulldozer a few days ago and noticed that it came with no less than three manuals, all for the main model only and each about 60 pages, which is what prompted this thread. As for the color issue, the main problem I notice is that the black pieces can be pretty hard to see in the first place if you don't have the manual directly exposed to light. At one time, black used to be basically what dark blay is now, but the modern black is close to true black, which makes all the stud accents (which are also black) blend in with everything else. Also, I think the "grass" panel is actually referring to building on a carpet, which I do all the time. Maybe they say that since building on baseplates can be difficult without a hard surface. There is one particularly crazy step in 8865 that I linked to in the original post. It uses over 120 pieces in itself. I think that's the single heaviest step I have ever seen with any set. I almost prefer that to what we're seeing these days though, where half the steps add on less than 5 new parts.

Has anyone noticed how the instruction manuals for Lego sets have gotten much larger over the years? The steps are spread out over a lot more pages than they once used to be and there are also more steps, with fewer things to do in each one. Here are some examples of pages from late 80s sets: http://www.hccamsterdam.nl/brickfactory/sc...00/6393/002.jpg http://www.hccamsterdam.nl/brickfactory/sc...00/6987/022.jpg http://www.hccamsterdam.nl/brickfactory/sc...00/8865/016.jpg They started cutting back on this in the mid 90s: http://www.hccamsterdam.nl/brickfactory/sc...00/6597/009.jpg http://www.hccamsterdam.nl/brickfactory/sc...00/8480/056.jpg Recent sets have continued that trend even more. Compare this to the 80s stuff: http://www.hccamsterdam.nl/brickfactory/sc...00/7990/014.jpg http://www.hccamsterdam.nl/brickfactory/sc...00/7990/015.jpg http://www.hccamsterdam.nl/brickfactory/sc...00/8285/007.jpg http://www.hccamsterdam.nl/brickfactory/sc...00/8285/008.jpg The instructions were too dense at one point but I think TLG has gone a little too far in the other direction in the last several years. There is so little happening on each page that the building process can become somewhat hard to follow, as you sometimes don't get a sense of the "big picture" unless you flip through the pages constantly. I often work on a couple of different steps simultaneously and gather the pieces for all of them at once, especially with Technic or UCS sets where they list the parts for each step. Does anyone else think that condensing the instructions a bit, maybe to the mid 90s point, would make them better?

When I see this talk about trolls, I don't think of the green monsters at all. The first thing that comes to my mind is certain annoying people I know on internet forums. (none on here though )

Nice labels. Those drawers look like the Stack-on sets available in many stores. I use the same things, five of the gray ones that you have on the left. Interestingly, the Lego Education site sells these Stack-on drawers too and says that they're their own preferred choice, although their prices are ripoffs compared to what you would find in retail stores.

I figured I would bump this since Hinckley linked to it in the other thread. These are some that come to mind: 8466 4x4 Off-Roader (free in 2001; S@H accidentally sent two packages when I had ordered one, and when my dad called them to make sure his card wasn't charged twice they said we could keep the extra one, still haven't gotten around to opening it) 8854 Power Crane (poor box, missing manual and one bag of pretty common parts, otherwise MISB and had all the rare parts, $25 in 2003 off ebay) 6956 Stellar Recon Voyager (MISB, $15 in 2004 off ebay) 8485 Control Center II (MISB, $105 in 2001 off ebay, although the seller barely spoke english and sent it by seamail so it took almost four months to arrive) two 6483 Coastal Patrol sets (MISB, $30 each in 2004 off ebay) 6884 AERO Module (MISB, $10 in 2003 off ebay) incomplete 6991 Monorail Transport Base (This included the smaller parts tray and all of the bagged pieces which were unopened, but it had no track, monorail parts, baseplates or supports except for the five small track sections in one bag. Still, there was a lot of rare stuff in the packages. $30 last month off ebay) For many of the ebay ones, I took advantage of some quirk with the auctions; some were missing "lego" in the title or had a wrong/nonexistent set number (thus resulting in them not showing up in most searches), some had the description saying nothing about a new item but the pictures showing it was probably unopened, and some had sellers who didn't accept Paypal.

I doubt it would make any difference for that. The ABS plastic doesn't rub off on pieces if they scratch each other, and they're still the same weight and shape otherwise. The only thing really is that it looks nicer.

I basically build everything on my bedroom floor or dining table these days. When I was really young, I built some small sets right after my parents bought them, which was often in the car or in various other stores or restaurants.

Well, the modern paper stickers are much worse. In certain colors, they are pretty much guaranteed to peel and crumble on their own if they're left on a display model for about two years. The transparent stickers can also come off due to edge wear, but they at least don't have this issue. Since you're talking about the 80s, it could be that the paper ones didn't have this problem back then. I mainly started seeing this issue in the late 90s.

I always just dumped everything on the floor when I had to do this (although the last time was many years ago). You can start sorting out the largest pieces first and work your way down to the smaller ones, as the big stuff is easy to spot and also obscures the small things. Yeah, I agree. Sorting by color looks nicer but it's much easier to distinguish between, for example, blue and white colors than 2x2 and 2x3 plates if they're lumped in the same container. There are some exceptions like gray and blay parts, but apart from that I sort by type instead of color for almost everything.

If you're referring to the modern paper stickers that automatically peel off over time, I haven't found any real way to deal with them. If you try to press them down again, they develop cracks all over the place. The best solution is probably to tape over them immediately when you first put them on and not allow them to peel in the first place. I have actually stopped using paper stickers in the susceptible colors (mainly white, red and blue) altogether because of this problem, since it takes too much time to put the tape on unless the sticker is an especially good one. TLG should stop using these crappy paper stickers and switch to the transparent ones exclusively. The transparent stickers don't have this whole problem of coming off by themselves and last much longer anyway.

I added another vote for the Century Skyway. It does everything pretty well and has a large variety of other vehicles in addition to the plane. I got the original when it came out and picked up the 10159 legend recently as well. (although I don't know why they changed one of the baseplates to that odd looking one, as it's not used in any other set) That being said, I have always found all of the official airports to be somewhat lacking due to their buildings. The buildings have always been too small even by Lego standards, even though all the sets came with excellent planes and other vehicles. The recent 7894 one continues this theme. Even when I was younger, I remember modifying the Century Skyway building to make it bigger numerous times over the years.

This set looks pretty awesome, much better than I thought from the leaked pictures. I always liked the concept and size of this model though. (it's sort of like the oversized trucks in Full Throttle, if anyone here has played that game) It may be a while before I buy this though as there are about 10 other things on my wanted list that have been out for quite some time, so I need to get them soon before they're discontinued.

There are advantages to both of them. Using only studded beams and stud connections can make models heavy and flimsy. On the other hand, using the studless ones exclusively also weakens models and makes them prone to slight flexing (and IMO makes the model less fun to build as well, as it doesn't really feel like Lego anymore). The bulldozer is something of an exception among recent Technic sets though. Most sets from the last few years have been almost completely studless. I think TLG had an optimal mix of both types of beams in the late 90s (the 8446 crane truck is a good example), but they started using the studless ones too much after that, especially within the interiors of models.

The one in my signature uses them. I actually bought those separately off Bricklink since the cannons weren't nearly as common back in 2002 as they are now.

Probably wheels. I have numerous wheels that have been sitting in my parts area for some years now. These range from the usual small System ones to some large and rare Technic ones like 24x43s and the 8448 ones. I'll find something to do with them eventually. The rubber band holders mentioned earlier would be another one, and the rubber bands themselves for that matter (the black ones with square cross sections). Most sets come with several spare ones and they pile up quickly over time. The funny thing is that I never seem to have enough of these, since most of my Technic sets are from before the time when TLG really started to use them widely. I certainly agree that they're overused these days though, both in Technic itself as well as other themes.

The new magnets look okay for trains but would be pretty useless anywhere else unless they can somehow be removed from the buffer piece. I occasionally use the magnets for holding together things in my models that are supposed to detach easily. Although I guess the old magnets will still be available on Bricklink for some years.

You're probably right. The one I have is based on the Mac II line which had color. I mostly grew up with that first wave of color games (Crystal Quest was the first game of any kind that I played; I still have that level 81 high score I got many years ago ), but I remember playing a lot of B&W stuff as well.

It might be fun to make a decal for one of the more famous games back then, something like Crystal Quest, Lemmings or Maelstrom. I have an old Mac from that period that I still keep in service. It has tons of cool games on it. Some work in emulators on modern systems, but not all.

It looks like you're right about the old magnets. I got a few off PAB two months ago but they no longer have them. I guess I should grab some while they're still widely available on Bricklink, as they can be useful in a number of situations. On a side note, one interesting thing about this set is that it seemingly had two US/Canada names, Mega Core Magnetizer and Multi Core Magnetizer. Brickset, Lugnet and all the other sites I've seen call it Mega, but I have some North American catalogs from that time period that call it Multi and the box also says Multi on it. I actually didn't know the Mega name at all until many years after the M:Tron line.

The UCS Batmobile seems to be a prime candidate for this, given the prices it goes for on ebay (new ones can sometimes be as low as $30). I have one built but I'm going to pick up an extra one or two for parts while they're so cheap, especially since black is my most used color in MOCs.

I love the design of the front canopy of this set, but I always felt that they could have done more with the rest of the model. This set is good candidate for customization though. There is quite a bit on unused space inside, especially in the middle section. I want to try putting a Technic-style engine into mine at some point, along with the necessary gearing. I got my MCM brand new off ebay some years ago for a pretty good price, but the box was very worn out and the big trans-neon panel, which floats freely inside the box, was a bit damaged. As for the hose/jetpack things, I always assumed that they were either welding torches or flamethrowers. Take your pick. First time I've heard of that. What are they going to do for the train couplings?

I have a very similar set that was part of the newer Shell line, 2554 I think. It's actually pretty neat that they put in any functionality at all (suspension) on such a small model.

Well, people do that with my name all the time, and I don't really care.

I wouldn't pay the Bricklink prices for them. $10 or $15 would be more reasonable. They are mainly useful for making the piston movements smoother and less jerky. If the setup is running on a compressor, they also allow you to leave the compressor running while playing with the switches. The compressor otherwise pressurizes the tubes quickly and struggles to keep going after that. You can actually adjust the switches first and then use the pump, instead of the other way around. I think that's how the pneumatic system was originally intended to be used before the air tank came out.

They had apparently stopped manufacturing the air tank altogether before this set came out, due to production costs. Those go for very high prices now on Bricklink, like $30-40 per tank. It's probably more economical to get an 8462 Tow Truck set off ebay instead of buying them at those prices.