Eilif

Wow, that is pretty consistent! Still ugly though... Often times they are close, but I've almost never had a Brick/enlighten/shifty brand clone set that had all the pieces exactly as shown on the box. Sometimes it works in your favor, and you end up with things like chrome pirate pistols and sabers and brown bandannas. Other times it's not so nice, like getting a crappy, one-color aquasharks torso instead of a multicolor Western torso!

The only parts it makes sense to paint are the sides of pieces that are not coming into contact with other bricks. Painting a baseplate is silly because the paint is going to get scratched off in places the first time you put on and take off bricks. If you have area to cover, it's much wiser to paint the table you are building on, or to buy the baseplates.

Though initially skeptical of the Power Miners, I've come to be quite charmed by the line. Thats mostly because of the neat vehicles though, so this set still looks pretty unimpressive. I will say though, that I'm glad they went with more brickbuilt features instead of using bionicle parts.

I don't think that 3.89 is at all expensive, but you're right that there aren't alot of options out there. Bricklink is a good place to look for deals on alternative sizes and configuration, and with a razor saw, you can easiliy cut baseplates to the size you need. Here's a good source for a blue baseplate. 30 bucks might seem like alot, but if you buy this pack, you can get a 32x32 blue baseplate for the same "price" as green 32x32. http://www.legoeducation.com/store/detail.aspx?ID=919

As promised, here's my sigfig. He will be my avatar soon also. This is only my second sigfig, and the only one I've ever been happy with. As a bonus, anyone who wants an Eilif on their layout, can buy the parts for $1.36 USD on PAB online!

You guys have got some great "scraps". All very nice, but I think that Nat's crystal staircase of death and BlueBards Hot-Rod ice cream cart are my favorites. I don't have many scraps, mostly just kits waiting to be disassembled for MOCs. Here's a few scraps that I do have. I got the original fig (a plain red/blue/classic smiley/bald minifig) and the two universe billboards as freebies at Brickworld 2008. I added the blowtorch, head and helmet. He looks so happy... Here's some sweets that my wife made. A cupcake and some Willy-Wonka-ish growing candies.

Nice Job. This is one of my favorite sci-fi stories ever. I read the entire future-history a few years ago, and this was one of the stand out parts of that "series". Based on the title, I was hoping to see more road, but I like that your MOC focuses on a more specific part of the mechanics of the rolling road, and a part that is more essential to the story.

I played 40k previously, but I'm just about ready to trade away most of my stuff for more LEGO. As to your topic: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?...mp;hl=warhammer http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?...mp;hl=warhammer

This is great! In particular, your solution for a brick-built roll-up security door is brilliant. It's a very clever way to easily build a very common bit of urban detailing.

Cool. I'd love to see any pictures you have of your transformations. It'd also be neat to see the minifigs, accessories and rockets.

I got out my copy of "The Brick" (Go to LEGO.com and get your copy now!) and brought over some more details about LEGO going greener New box sizes -7% smaller -Designed to pack together better -54 sizes of boxes made instead of the 85 that were made last year. -1352 less truck trips needed in europe and 598 less needed in USA Energy reduction -Set goal of 10% reduction over next 3 years so that energy use in 2010 will be 90% of use in 2007 -possible areas include manufacturing, packing and shipping.

Thanks for clarifying, but remember that people talk about many things that you might not agree with, and if you wouldn't insult someone in public, it's not good form to do so on the internet. Old best-lock had the same width and depth as LEGO, but not the same height, so the "works with" label was pretty much untrue. The Best-lock of the last 2 years now has the same dimensions as LEGO, but the quality is not as good as LEGO. The "Bloks" form is at http://bloks.hyperboards.com/index.php . It's not super busy, and there's not much for LEGO fans, but it's a goldmine of info for alternative brick brands. I've done a number of trades with folks there for the kind of stuff you mention. Wow, that's a bright color scheme. Buyer beware, if you buy a less-reputable clone brand, there is absolutely no guarantee that you will get the colors or pictures pictured on the box.

Thanks for posting these pics! It does a great job of showing how usefull they are. The only thing I would add is that the top compartments will fit a minifig with a low profile headgear like a baseball cap, classic hair, or no hair at all.

There was a review of that set over at the Bloks forum and they pretty much agreed with you. They liked the small ships, but the big ship was somewhat less than sturdy. How did you find the smaller ships to be? Not cool my friend. I'm pretty active over there, and much like Eurobricks, there's some great folks on the "Bloks" forum, many of whom have been collecting LEGO (and clone brands) since before you were born. Dissing other forums is in really poor taste and no one over there is insulting you, so please show a little respect.

Yeah, I agree. Oxford is definitely not a "bootleg". Bootleg implies a sub-par, illegal copy, so I reserve that title for brands like Shifty/Enlighten/Brick, and some of the "daily fail" sets reviewed at Reasonably clever. All reports I've heard have been that Oxford is on par with LEGO for quality, and they definitely have their own set designs. It's usually possible to find a few on Ebay, but the shipping makes them more expensive than LEGO in most cases, so I haven't bought any yet. If you find any good deals that you don't take, let me know.

Thanks for that link! I didn't realize that RC was still doing the weekly fails. The brand of sets he get's are such terribly bad copies that they make Brick/Shifty/Enlighten look good. Still, I'd like to get one just for the yellow top-hat! If you want to learn more about LEGO competitors, knock-offs, and pirated clones, the best place to visit is here: http://bloks.hyperboards.com/index.php There's alot of info on the pirated clones in the Reviews and General Construction Toy sections. That said, EB has had some great reviews about alternative brick brands in the past. Here's two great "Oxford" reviews with lots of pictures that appeared on EB earlier. The second one does a great job of rating the compatibility of Oxford and LEGO minifigs and accessories. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?...=19675&st=0 http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?...1&hl=oxford I want this set so bad! If you do a search in the pirates forum, you'll find several reviews of Shifty/Enlighten/Brick (three names, same "brand") pirated pirate sets.

You're doing a commendable amount of effort for this project. I was just going to bring a figure, but since you want to have your own copy, I'll invent one this weekend and send you a pic.

This will be the second year that I will save up a wad of cash for the Brickworld convention. Being able to get some Brickforge and Brickarms sets, a ME models car and some other random stuff is great, but the big fiancial purcahse is the late night Brickworld-only sale at the LEGO store. Last year I put asside 400 bucks specifically for this from side jobs, and this year it will be a bit less. I'm going a couple months buying almost no LEGO for myself to prepare. Here's what I got at last year's half off sale. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?...st&p=318577

+1 to Posades Please!

I understand that as an AFOL collector, your point of view is different, but in as much as LEGO is a set for children, I think LEGO is a definitely a tool for teaching our children to interact responsibly with their environment. Toys can definitely help teach kids how to live. Action figures may or may not be beneficial in this regard, but LEGO on the other hand is all about building worlds of imagination, and I think it's a good thing if the worlds our children create at a young age set the stage for the worlds they create when they are grown. As to the "small-town" living quality of Classic Town, it's a charming way of life that has much to teach us over-paced and often socialy-disconnected urbanites, but the world has changed from the world of the 70's. We live in an actively urbanizing world. For the first time in history over 50% of the world's population now lives in an "urban center", and the earlier our children learn to responsibly manage that world the better. Personally, I'd love to see more town-ish sets, but I'd be equally thrilled to see sets that actively teach environmental responsibility.

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. Hmm, i hadn't noticed that, but now that you mention it, it does look positively delicious... Thanks, I was hoping that it would be a fair balance between getting all the essential details in, without crowding the space. And we have a winner. That is indeed where I got the idea for the window!

Thanks for sharing these. These are some charming little buildings. I've no idea why the taxi sign is higher than the hotel buildings rather than over the driveway. As for the white house, I've seen alot of older buildings raised over the parking areas, but those are almost always apartment buildings. Looks like the LEGO designers were just having some fun.

Hmm, I've never had a problem with the few PAB orders I've made. However, I've got a PAB order on the way, I'll let you all know if it comes complete.

Packing already? Brickington lives in boxes, since I don't keep a layout up at home. So in a way, I'm already packed. However I've got a bunch of sections of it set aside for improvement, and they probably won't be finished until the week of Brickworld.

Here's the next in my series of major Brickington redux's in the run up to Brickworld. This was originally a police station as seen here. A fair enough building, but it needed some work. I removed the black floors along with almost all dark grey on the building, evened out the pillars on the ground floor, re-greebled the front facade, redid the 2nd floor interior, and built a whole new third floor and roof. By the time I had finished, it was no longer a police station, and had transformed into a courthouse. As always, the story... As the island's economy grows, the Brickington city council has decided to use the windfall in tax revenues for several major municipal projects. The first of these is the renovation of the old courthouse. Built in the 1930's, it was criticized at the time by many as a tacky pastiche of art deco, gothic, and classical styles, but newly renovated, it's active facade is an island icon. The original structure had a weather vane on it's pinnacle, but the newly renovated courthouse now features a bold statue of Lady Justice. Here's the view from the front. The first two floors are drastically different, but you can see the new textures and the more uniform color scheme. Side. The building can be turned sideways and used as an office building. In the windows you can see a security guard and receptionist. Rear. Aside from there only being one cell now, not too much as changed on the first two floors. Now for a closer look. Here's the front entrance. I like the way the checker pattern stands out behind the brown of the facade. Stepping inside, a better view of the foyer, and the receptionist police officer. now on the second floor, we see the judge in his courtroom and the holding cell next door From the other side, we can see the prisoner in the cell, the lawyer facing the defendant, another attorney and the stenographer. Here's the facade of the clocktower. Do you know where I got the idea for the radar-dish-as-window? The rear of the clocktower. Someday I'll get around to building an interior with gears and such. Finally, here's Lady Justice. Of course her base is an 8x8 modular section. Thanks for looking, comments and critiques are welcome.