Eilif

At Brickworld. Every registered attendee recieved a Brickforge/Arealight scooter engraved with the Brickworld logo in a randomly selected color. Also White, pink, yellow, black, blue and red scooters were available for sale at the convention. I probably wouldn't have ordered them all, but when you're at the convention, all restraint goes right out the window, so I somehow wound up buying every color except for blue, which I got in the "Brickworld" edition. I did also pick up a few berets. they look cool, but don't fit as tightly as the dwarven helmets that I bought at the same time.

Here's an interesting issue. When creating a storage system, how much credence to you give to organizing based on which pieces you will be using most often. My building desk is lined with drawer organizers for "special" pieces. As my collection is growing, and my drawers are nearly full, I have begun to see the value of prioritizing "special" pieces based on how much I use them. Since I build mostly structures, there are alot of pieces that currently are in my"special" drawers that I really don't need to have close at hand. Thus I am going to move them into the food organizers that I use for most pieces, or the bulk storage of elements that I have more than one food organizer of. Has anyone else found it necessary to prioritize your sorting based on usefullness?

Great observations. I like the size and curve of the the "new" cap. Hopefully it is a new mold, but I have a feeling it might me a mistake. Howver, I have to say that your observation about 50 cent is way off. These days, no gangster worth his salt is going to bend the bill on his new lid.

One or two Brickington buildings are in the index, but there are alot that are missing, some old, and some recent. Is it worthwhile to request that every building to have it's own index, or should I just start a topic about the entire town (all buildings are modular), include links to all the buildings in the topic, and then get that indexed as one index.

Hey Chris, Glad you finally came over to EB! I have to echo what Dave said. The lighting and sound on your concert arena at Brickworld was "rediculous"... rediculously cool! Oh yeah, if anyone here has any car questions, (especially VW's) Chris is the man to ask!

Nice review. Not an amazing set in retrospect, but I remember that when I got it, the trans pieces, and the white hair (I was a white-blond haired kid when young), seemed quite amazing to me. It was also my first set with the ski's and white space wheels.

Well done. you got all the major elements of the playmobile building, especially the tudor front wall on the second floor that really captures the look of the classic playmobile modular panel. You captured all this in a building that has been significantly downsized from the original and that's quite a feat. However, I think you missed an opportunity here to include the dormer window on the red roof, and the side window on the brick facade. Those are two notable features of the original. Perhaps a larger version with (scaled) dimensions like the original would lend it'self to those additions. All in all, great job!

Teddy, this is brilliant! I don't know where to start. You're well chosen color palate is bold, but not overwhelming, with just enough red variation to give it an urban look. Your slope built arch is very effective and the accents along the edges are really well done. I like the way you got all the essential details in the foyer/entryway, but kept it small enough that it wouldn't intrude on the space needed for the platform. Also, the setback of the entrance from the front of the building adds a nice layer of visual interest to your street, anytime you can vary the depth of the streetline, it's a good thing. I can't think of any way to improve this one, except possibly to make it longer so more of the train could fit, but that would take a TON of brick.

I just realized I had this pic. In case you are wondering how well the scooters fit in a "real world" LEGO environment... One regular black, and one Blue "Brickworld" edition.

Allong with a bunch of other accessories, I picked up the full set of scooters. A few thoughts. 1) Nice style/quality. Clearly a vespa, but with enough detail stripped away to fit well into the LEGO universe. The quality is good, mold lines are apparent, but not overwhelmingly so, and it really looks like something LEGO might have made in the past. 2) The handlebars are removable. They come apart fairly easily, so it's sometimes better to put them in the minifigs hands first and then put them on the bike. 3) Fairly stable. The original custom arealights had a LEGO car tire in back and airplane plane tire in front. This version has generic versions of both, and it balances all right on a flat surface, but tips easily on anything else. 4) Color quality is good. I haven't done a direct comparison with LEGO for each color, but the pink, black, white, blue and yellow look very LEGO'ish. The color of the red is good, but it is not as opaque as the others and this makes it appear a bit "cheap" compared to the rest. I realized this before I bought it, but purchased it anyway and have no regrets. The black, pink and white are probably the most striking colors. 5) At $6 each, they may seem a touch expensive, but I felt they were a good deal considering the quality of the design, and when you realize that it has 6 parts ( 2 wheels, 2 tires, body and handlebars) it's not out of line with the price of other Brickforge accessories. 6) Lastly, it looks really nice in my layout. I have a couple on the road, a couple boarding a ferry, and they are simply charming. It has replaced the classic lego bike as my favorite two-wheeled LEGO vehicle. Get yours now!

Thanks! I should mention that all the red is all the same dark red color, but the different angles of the tanks made it appear different in the pictures. I have an industrial building and watertower that I'll try and post sometime this month along with some new shots of the renovated downtown area.

Very interesting observations. I don't intend to invest in a new train system, but I have to say that I am quite impressed that LEGO really seems to have done a great job of making new and more powerful trains. Even though anything RC is considered a step down in many railroaders eyes it is to TLG's credit that they have improved the system in other areas.

Just got off the phone with him. I'll let him explain how it all went down. Here's the picture of him and his winning model, built over a couple hours in full view of LEGO, the public, and the media. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lights/3661598739/ Congratulations!

When the NILTC layout was assembled for Brickworld 2009, it had the tracks turning off my layout 2 baseplates sooner than usual. Not wanting empty space on my layout, I was forced to build the following to fill space usually occupied by a train station. Front Rear They are not particularly stunning MOC's, but I think they turned out well, and definitely add a bit of variation to my layout. I wanted to share with others a bit of what I found can be done with relatively few pieces to effectively fill space on a layout. As always, they are built on modular baseplates, and are completely compatible with all my other town modules. One small note: What you can't see is the small service truck from which are coming two repairmen. Comments, suggestions welcome. Thanks for looking.

My cat can moderate a site, but she has a heck of a time typing, and a real attitude problem. I guess I leave EB moderation to the current team...

Classic Hinkley. Agreed. When I go to Brickworld, most of the pictures I take are of architectural detailing, and reviewing my pics, these buildings really stand out. Much as I hate to give him a reason to brag, it must be said that Hinkley's buildings had some of the most extensive and most-consistently-tastefull ornamentation of the show. Reminds me very much of an idealized, slightly-exagerated (in a good way) take on classic Chicago architecture. Burnam would be proud.

Great Job! I like the way it looks with the rest of your street. It's clearly a newer style building, but it fits with the scale and look of the street. Also, the helipad adds some variety to the street's roofline. As to the MOC on it's own, the staricase is well done, and the 3-4 distinct portions of the facade make it look even bigger than it is, as does the setback on the second floor. My only suggestion would be to make the sidewalk light grey, and continue it on the other side of the driveway. This will make for a more realistic sidewalk (concrete instead of pavement) and will make a nice contrast between it and the dark grey driveways.

I saw the picture, but I'm not sure what bearing it has on the topic at hand. That's a forestman, this is a topic about elves. It's a cool pic, but it doesn't have a place in the elves equation. I recognize the fact that alot of folks want elves. I agree with them in that elves would be a great addition to the castle line. However, the straws some people are grasping at to try and convince themselves that elves are coming just over the horizon is getting pretty rediculous. As to the comments about Steve Witt's statement. I'm sure we've been mislead before, (anyone remember "LEGO does not produce war toys", a few years before INDY) but I don't think that we've been lied to in the way that folks are suggesting.

Yeah, as has been said, Build-a-fig has been around for a while. Some stores have it, some don't, and those that do often don't have it year round. Some are 3 bucks a fig, and some are 10 bucks for 3. It's rarely worth it for entire minifigs, unless they are very rare, as it works out to 60 cents a part. Even Pick-a-Brick online averages only about $1.60-1.85 a fig! In the past, it seemed to be a great way to find stuff as old as the 90's, I've found Adventureres series, Slave leia and other star wars bits, NBA series, various Spiderman series charachters, harry potter stuff, etc, etc. Recently it seems to be mostly more recent stuff, though it's obviously more based on what LEGO has leftover than a specific targeted mix. Sometimes you can get a store employee to let you fill a small cup, but in my experience, only after the Build-a-fig setup has been taken off the sales floor will they let you go through the leftovers.

Thanks for the confirmation. I heard you say it , but I didn't know who you were. There's got to be some way to let everyone meet everyone else from EB at the next Brickworld.

Seeing this in person at Brickworld really sealed the deal for me. I really want this set. In person, it still does not look quite as impressive as GG, but it's more than impressive enough to be my must-have set for 2009. I'll definitely be getting it and then rebuilding it into a 16x16 modular structure, with lots of leftover parts...

There were some interesting classes and conversations about this at Brickworld this weekend. Before her presentation, I had the chance to talk to the 13 year old girl who gave a presentation about this very topic. I heard most of the stuff that Paradosis' wife stated. Some of the things I heard from her and other FFOL's. 1) Belville people are kind of scary looking 2) Include us, don't pander to us. 3) Girl specific sets are a niche for some girls, but are not the total answer.

I just spoke to a LEGO Retail employee about this. He said they do have alot of LEGO at low prices. He didn't mention how discounted, or if they have regular priced stuff as well, but it sounds like a great chance to get some good cheap LEGO. The store site mentions pick-a-brick, and "Outlet pricing on select items". Your best bet is probably to call them for other questions.

He did say it was just an artist filling in space, but I have to ask, what would be "related to elves, but which doesn't necessarily include elves." ?

I already posted this on the "how much do you want elves...." thread, but I should probably put it here also. At Brickworld 09 opening session, Steve Witt said that there are no plans for elves, and that it was just an artist trying to fill some space. Sorry.