questforcastle

My son finally received the replicated 6080 King's Castle this Christmas. We had a great time building it. I had made it as close to a set I could, with a cardboard box, small plastic bags and all for it - even included a replica of an old 1980s LEGO catalog for context. Some closing thoughts in the comments here: http://questforbricks.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/castle-stands-down/comment-page-1/#comment-901 Thank you, once more, for all who followed the project and gave support/advice!

Thank you for the responses, guys. Good to know it is normal.

It has been around twelve and a half months since I started this thread and the project, but my re-creation of the 7740 Inter-City Passenger Train is now finished. Despite my concerns, in the end using brand new bricks for around half of the train - and old collection/used BrickLink for the rest - works really well in my opinion. I wish I had a larger 12V system to run the train on, but for the time being I'll let that thought simmer. One thing that really caught me by surprise is how large and heavy the locomotive is. Of course the large size means lots of bricks, but the side weights and the 12V motor add significant bulk to that. One topic that came up, upwards on this thread, were my plans for stickers. In the end I left the train with only a few stickers that came on BrickLink acquired pieces. It is enough for me, for now at least. But I was also pointed to an online store that sells replacement stickers, so it is good to know help is at hand if need be. Big thank you to all who have encouraged me and given valuable feedback and tips. It has been a fun project and especially fun sharing it with you guys! A few pictures and comments: http://questforbrick...nto-the-sunset/ For the sticker story and a lot more older blog posts on this "quest": http://questforbrick...ter-city-train/

Now, there's an interesting project for some - 7740 in alternate colors. The images of some of these famous sets, your 7725 included, has been etched in my mind so vividly that alternate colors seem almost blasphemous... Never thought of it until you showed your idea. It works! Great inspiration from a door there. Looking forward to seeing pictures when you finish the train.

Great project! As someone who is building the 12V 7740 Inter-City Passenger Train from new and old spare parts, I can sympathize with your thinking a lot. I recently calculated how much of the 7740 set is still available as new (and thus also in more recent used) parts, turns out 51%. (The calculations here: http://questforbrick...an-you-get-new/ ) Sure, the transparent plastic in windows has changed a little and train baseplates have slightly larger holes than they used to, but other than that a pretty sizeable bunch of train parts is still manufactured. By the way, Ambroise did something similar than you with his re-creation of a 12V set: http://www.eurobrick...0

If anyone is interested, I recently took some fresh photographs of the barn that is the old Finnish LEGO factory from 1960s. It is still there: http://questforbrick...ory-in-finland/

As some of you may have noticed, I'm building a 7740 Inter-City Passenger Train from old parts and new spare part acquisitions (http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=73340). I recently, finally, got to the point of trying some electronics and pieces on the locomotive and to my surprise I noticed the 1980 light prism holder/light prisms leaking light quite a bit. My question is, is this normal? I went on to put some tin-foil inside the light prism holder (between the holder and the light prisms) and that mostly fixed the issue. If this is normal behavior, what kind of solutions have you guys come up with? Or just ignored it? Here's a few photos on how the light prism holder looks with various LEGO lights installed, with and without the tin-foil: https://questforbric...ts-vs-tin-foil/

So, I recently started organizing the train pieces I had acquired, collecting around 51% of the 7740 Inter-City Passenger Train in brand new, sorted parts (a pic: http://questforbricks.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/half-the-train-brand-new/) - all from current sets and LEGO Pick a Brick. The rest, the used parts required, are waiting in BrickLink orders for the next steps. I did put the train parts I have together with some Power Functions parts, here's a picture on how that platform turned out: http://questforbricks.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/lights-camera-action-go/ I know many others have done similar mods, so probably nothing new there for you, but it was still nice to figure out on my own how to put all those piece in place "inside" the old locomotive design. I have been quite impressed how compatible the new(ish) Power Functions system still is with the 1980 LEGO train. It simply "plugs in", which is pretty great. Also, the 51% count for brand new parts for this train is more than I expected - LEGO still makes quite a few of the parts used in 7740 Inter-City Passenger Train.

Hi guys! Just popping in to this old thread to let you know I finally, really completed the castle. :) It certainly took me a while, but now it is done. For anyone wanting to see a few pics or read of the last hurdles, I posted them here: http://questforbrick...le-stands-down/ Earlier stories are here: http://questforbrick...knights-castle/ I am now concentrating on finishing my other similar project, the 7740 Inter-City Passenger Train, for which I have another thread here on Eurobricks: http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=73340 One more word of thank you. I think the greatest thing in the whole process has been the warm welcome and inspration received both on here and on Classic-Castle. It has made the trip all the more worthwhile. Thanks, guys.

In case anyone is interested, I just got around to posting my photos of the LEGOLAND Billund Chima Miniland from this summer: http://questforbricks.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/chima-miniland/

I agree, I am certainly one of those who went from bored when seeing the new Castle in preliminary pictures, to quite impressed when finally seeing it in person and getting to build some sets. I personally like both of the color schemes, even though I thought especially the blue on gold would be too bland - now it's my absolute favourite. The Dragon Knight's red/black, while obviously very cliche, is also suitably sinister and contrasty, it works very well for me too and especially a lot better than the old Kingdoms Dragon Kingdom colors, which were quite bad. Now, neither of these are Black Falcons, mind you, but that might be asking too much... Our latest builds are the 70400 and the 70403 Dragon Mountain, where certainly the dragon is the highlight of all the (smallish) sets that we have. I also liked the spiral stairs on the Dragon Mountain, although the used part took some getting, well, used to. I popped a few comments and pictures on these online here http://questforbricks.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/70400-forest-ambush/ and here http://questforbricks.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/70403-dragon-mountain-22/ - in case anyone wants to see further.

Thank you, Ambroise, for the encouragement and your experiences. I acquired some Power Functions components last year too for this project (http://questforbrick...ower-functions/). It isn't my primary goal, 12V is, but I think I will explore PF a little too.

Thank you, JopieK. I have updated the article to reflect this and linked to your excellent summary! My misunderstanding stemmed from a Google image search that showed non-American railways logos in a search for American logos.

After a hiatus of some months, I have recently continued with the project to re-create the 7740 Inter-City Passenger Train. I have built and tested the regulator (http://questforbrick...he-transformer/), begun scavenging my old collection for train parts (http://questforbrick...train-stickers/) and currently I'm sorting through what I have and what I still need. My hope is to actually get the train built in the coming weeks, not months... So far it looks like building the 7740 Inter-City Passenger Train out of "spare parts" is significantly harder (and more expensive) than the 6080 King's Castle, which I have almost finished recently in a similar project. While the 7740 has more still-in-production parts and colors, it also has a lot of very specific parts that were available only in a few sets, where as 6080 is fairly generic in its composition.

Thank you for an interesting topic. I have been an active AFOL for around a year and a half now - and an adult LEGO builder for five+ years as a parent. I am not a member of any LUG and I'm not aware of any LUG activities in my area. I'm sure they are some, I just haven't really looked into it. So far I have been mostly interested in pursuing this hobby by myself, with my son and through online communities - probably because that is the easiest way to align the hobby with the demands of everyday life. Time constraints have been the main issue. It is fairly simple to squeeze and hour or two in the evenings at home, as opposed to going to some meeting. Not saying no to meetings, just telling it how it feels at this time. I do wish to contribute to others, though, and have been posting in various LEGO forums such as here. I greatly appreciate and admire forums such as this one and the various LEGO resource sites such as Brickipedia, Brickset, BrickLink, Peeron and so forth. These have made all the difference compared to my KFOL years decades ago - hats off to all you wonderful guys/gals making these services what they are! My main contribution so far has been documenting my AFOL journey through a small amateur blog (http://questforbricks.wordpress.com/), hopefully providing some resources to new AFOLs such as myself in the process.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I visited LEGOLAND Billund for the fourth (and fifth) times this summer, previous visits were in the 1980s and once in 2012. What I like about the park is how they've left the core alone, there is something very unique and Scandinavian about the older parts of the park. It certainly doesn't feel like any amusement park - there has always been non-LEGO things there, even in the 1980s, like the driving school and the western town, but it has a very unique feel to it. The newer sections of course are more amusement park like, but I have enjoyed them as well. I think they've struck a balance quite nicely. I can see the concern/doubts people have for the new managers, but I can't say I have been disappointed yet - so I can't say I share the bad sentiments some have had. I have enjoyed each and every visit to LEGOLAND and so have the people travelling with me, including comments like - quote - "the best vacation ever". I expect to go and visit it again some day. As for Miniland, I can't of course deny what people have posted here, because I don't have any recent experience on its updating frequency. The Miniland certainly has been updated since the 1980s, and this year they had a new Chima Miniland, but I'm sure for someone wanting just a fresh Miniland experience visiting newer LEGOLAND's elsewhere might be a better destination? Although, I don't know if the Miniland ever has changed that frequently. Hasn't it always been fairly static, because that's kind of the point? Personally, I liked the fact that the Miniland has a very classic aura to it - while I'm sure many things have changed there since 1980s, it still felt very true to what the Danish LEGOLAND in my memories should be, miniature Danish countryside, cities and castles and so forth. If they had replaced it with something completely different, I would have been disappointed. Also, I didn't get the feel that things were broken, I think overall Miniland was functioning nicely. Just my thoughts on the matter. I'm sorry some of you left disappointed. In case someone is interested, I have posted some LEGOLAND pics e.g. here: http://questforbrick...rn-to-legoland/ and http://questforbrick...egotop-billund/ and http://questforbrick...y/lego-places/ Slightly on topic, at the Hotel LEGOLAND in Billund, kids get LEGO Minifigure Series polybags with non-alcoholic drinks at the hotel bar - and of course polybag sets waiting in the hotel room too. This has been my experience in 2012 and 2013.

I picked up a couple of these sets from Denmark, the 70401 Gold Getaway and 70403 Dragon Mountain. I was surprised by the quality of at least the smaller sets - I think from the initial pictures and reactions I thought we might be looking at a far more boring theme than actually materialized. I like the new faction colors and there is quite a bit of nice detail in these sets when looking closer. I don't know if I (or the family) plan to acquire further sets, but so far so good. I do concur with those who would love to see civilian sets for the new LEGO Castle though. That was a truly great feature of the original grey Castle. TLG left LEGO Kingdoms a little clinical, I hope there is more "LEGO City" in the future of LEGO Castle... Think of it, a medieval fire station... and of course, LEGO Castle Friends! Well, that last sentence was a joke, otherwise I'm serious. Some pics of mine through this link: https://questforbric...old-getaway-ii/

Thank you for the comments, guys! Always nice to get some feedback. Fair question, I've tried to set out some written ground rules for myself (e.g. here http://questforbricks.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/ground-rules/) to map out the scope and goals of the project. My previous spares project, the 6080 King's Castle, didn't have any stickers to worry about, but on a similar vein there I'm not aiming for 100% minifigures because they are a little harder and more expensive to come by. For the train, I am not insisting on the stickers, but perhaps something springs to mind or crosses my path when the project progresses. Which, to be honest, it hasn't for the past couple of weeks. Sorry about that. But I will get back to it as soon as possible... The fun part of going it piecemeal is not really knowing what comes next. It's all about enjoying LEGO in many different ways. It really isn't so much about the price for me - not to imply an unlimited budget, just saying the price alone isn't the decising factor. Even if using spares is somewhat more expensive, that's okay as long as I'm having more fun than with a ready-bought set. Maybe this will change in the future, but for the moment I'm still in this particular frame of mind. If someone is looking for a quick link to all my train updates (which isn't much yet), this is the way: http://questforbricks.wordpress.com/category/quest-for-inter-city-train/

Good question, something that has certainly become obvious to me during my previous project to build the 6080 King's Castle in a similar manner (still missing a few small pieces). Although I guess in theory I'm still a bit under a full set there... (http://questforbricks.wordpress.com/category/quest-for-lion-knights-castle/) But this is more about the journey at the moment. Sourcing parts and becoming acquainted with all the AFOL resources is rewarding in itself. More so, than just acquiring a set and then building it, which would be over and done rather quickly. I may purchase vintage sets later on, but for now I'm still in the mode of reusing existing pieces and gathering new spares... Sort of a fun way to reconnect with childhood parts and sets, while making and learning new. Doing a project piecemeal like this has certain demands that, at least for me, have forced me to look into various ways of acquiring pieces, cleaning bricks, doing minifigure surgery, researching components/alternatives/variants and whatnot, that I might not otherwise do. Consider these my self-appointed initiation rite to graduate from a former KFOL (two decades ago) to a true AFOL.

Thank you! For now the only castle plan is finishing the 6080 King's Castle. It is still missing a few crucial pieces before it is playable. I keep commiting myself to these things one project at a time and seeing how it goes, but obviously there is plenty in the castle arsenal to think about. Hmm... Slightly related, I do have the Orc Forge still unbuilt in the box - I'll treat myself to that some night when I get the urge. :) Interesting thought on the sun! Shouldn't be too hard to try and replicate if someone is feeling up to it... As for the rest of the setup, I always felt they had a brown cardboard/table horizontal underneath the set and then another cardboard vertical (but slightly bending from side to side) behind the set. The latter cardboard had the hills (and perhaps the sun, if it indeed isn't a light) printed on it. That's the way it looks to me anyway. Another option is that the hills and sun are on the wall behind the table and there may even be a little gap between the table and the wall. If I were to give it a go, I'd probably try to replicate the hills and sunset digitally and print them out on a large-as-possible paper to try how looks behind a set. I think, though, for the purposes of my current building process I'm satisfied with my faux-1980s plain yellow background. :)

I have been a bit lazy in acquiring new pieces for the castle, but I decided to check out how far I'd get with the ones I have if I simply skip missing steps. Turns out, pretty far. See here for a photo: http://questforbricks.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/almost-a-lion-knights-castle/ I'm guessing I'm one parts order short from finishing the castle, but looking from afar many probably couldn't tell there is anything missing at all. For all of you who warned me about haphazard BrickLink orders, though, you were right of course. It has been quite educational to see how many specific basic bricks a particular set might require - and how very few even a relatively sizeable collection might have. Apparently the selection of different LEGO bricks (when considering also the colors) was extremely large already back in the 1980s, it usually doesn't help to have many bricks, if you don't have exactly the right bricks. Consider it a lesson learned. :)

Nice! I'm especially liking the tilted arch on the top right and the transparent waves.

Thank you, I thought as much about the tracks later. As for the roof, if it was completely unintentional I think you managed to create nice little unevenness there by accident. Suits this MOC very well. :)

Ah yes, so M = medium, L = large, XL = extra large kind of. Thank you very much for the summary and the link!

Looks great! And simple. Would you or someone minds informing an AFOL newbie, just very roughly, how the L-motor and other PF motors differ from each other? Do they have some particular uses they were designed for? Thanks.