Eilif

Western is pretty well defined in the realm LEGO products as a semi-historical setting loosely based on the USA sometime in the late 1800's. So no, I think the recent modern farm sets is definitely not a western sub-theme. I think it would be geographically correct if it were a subset of "Town", but as we don't have town, it's best placed as a sub-theme of City.

Nice Job Klaus, You really managed to fit alot of detail into a fairly small space, and still keep a very low piece count. Really a great example of the kind of buildings LEGO should be doing.

Good Job. A nice MOC that is very much in the style of the creator houses, but you definitely made it your own and added some great detail. For some reason it reminds me of a school or a Senior Citizens Home. The barred basement windows are a nice touch, and the one plate high stairs was a great choice to create the look of a walkup without raising the height of the building much.

Except for a few that I use to store LEGO or sort LEGO, they all go into the trash. I do save my instructions though. When I was a kid, I managed to hold onto the lid of Carribean Clipper for quite a few years before it got tossed. I kind of wish I still had that to hang on my wall.

Nice job. When I saw it I immidiately thought of a toy car that my dad had when he was a kid. A 60's oil truck that now resides at my grandma's house. Great use of curves, for effect without making it look too streamlined.

Glad to be of help to your LEGO acquisitions! That's a good suggestion. I've found a few really good deals on sets at TJMaxx and similar stores. However, I've never found anything in regular stores that approaches the 1-cent-per-piece goal. Is there anywhere in Poland that people sell used things?

I don't buy sets just for the minifigs, but they are a huge part of the equation. There are a number of sets that I wasn't sure about, but the minifigs tipped the balance. I don't sell off the parts though, as you never know when you will need them. Also, I like to use original and mix and match figs in my displays. Thus quite often, I will buy a set that I already have if I see it on-sale and the minifig parts are useful ones. I'm also with Jipay, in that I think that minifig accessories are essential to a realistic display, and can definitely be a large factor in set selection.

Glad you liked it. I think you're right about the online comparison. A properly packed PAB cup without too many large basic bricks is far cheaper than PAB online, or even Bricklink. Bricklink is still a cheaper source for most large brick, but for specialty and small stuff in-store PAB rules. I'm pretty sure the large cup (the one I packed) is 15 dollars. I think the small size cups are 8 dollars. That stinks. I suppose that means that they require that the lid has to snap on completely. At the stores around here, I walk up with the cup lid held on. They tape it down and no one has ever bothered me for the lid not being able to snap completely on. It's only a few piece difference though. At the stores around here (Chicago, IL and surrounding area), the highest holes are for display only. If you have a good relationship with store staff, they may be willing to look in back for something specific. I was in Portland Oregon, however, and they would only go in back for other pieces if you were buying a whole shipping box of PAB. I've heard about this. I'm puzzled as to why they do it differently in different countries. I was told that at by-weight PAB walls, it can be a good deal if you pick pieces that are lighter, or too bulky to pack well in a PAB cup. If anyone is curious, the cup in the first post was packed yesterday at the Downtown Chicago LEGO store. If you are interested in those pieces, I would move fast. Sometimes the selection stays for along time, but often the good stuff disappears quickly.

Great job! Some of us LEGO maniacs may find critiques, but no doubt everyone who see's it knows immediately that it's a LEGO minifig. The modularity is awesome! I don't think the Head is too round, so much as it has no neck, and instead curves directly into the body. Regardless, I think it's brilliant. Have you considered making him a hat?

Mine is prounounced "eye-liff" The first syllable is pronounced "Eye" as in what you see with or if you may prefer to think of it as "I" as in how you refer to yourself. The second syllable is pronounced "liff" as in "cliff" without the C. It's my Danish middle name, and is supposedly related to the Norse word for immortal.

It all depends on the size of trains you are running, if you are running 6 wide trains, you generally need to 8 studs of clearance for your track. 8 wide will require 10 studs, etc, etc. The real doozie comes on curves where you need significantly more clearance. Here's the Standards that we use for NILTC. They probably allow for a bit more clearance than you need, but it may give you a starting point to work from. All the best with the project. It should be quite impressive.

I just got back from the LEGO store, and I put together a pictorial essay about the importance of packing a PAB cup here.

After reading the Pick A Brick strategy topic, and seeing that there is some interest in this topic I thought this would be an interesting study, and one deserving it's own thread. This will be old hat for many of you, but for those of you who are just dumping pieces in a PAB cup, give a listen... I just got back from the LEGO Store. Here's the cup I packed It's not packed as well as usual, you can see alot of spaces that could be filled with 1x1 plates, but I was in a bit of a hurry. Let's open it up so you can see the tops of the various stacks, and how it all fits together. And here's the top. I always put something in the lid stud. Now we dump out the cup. The brick stack in my hand is the middle that I filled this cup around. This cup was a bit more challenging to pack since it wasn't comprised mostly of bricks. Taking this brick apart, we see just how much you can cram in a small space. Yep, this is just from the stack that was in my hand in the previous picture! Here's the other stacks that were in the cup. I had tiles crammed in between the branches and in every nook. And everything else that was in the cup and not shown in the previous two pictures. Here's the total of everything that was in the cup 32 2x2 trans windows 60 1x4 grey bricks 2 1x4 black angled plates 1 12x4 black plate 30 2x2 round grey bricks 12 classic yellow flowers 15 flower stems 7 pink flower sprues 18 1x4x6 door frams 12 1x4x6 barred door insets 11 black latice fences 38 1x1 trans cones in various colors 49 1x1 trans light blue round plates 31 Large tree branches 42 small tree branches 146 1x4 reddish brown tiles 506 pieces in total Not my best performance by a long shot, but not to shabby. Now for the point of this narrative. Now to try and fill the cup as though we were just dropping pieces in at a store. Separating the pieces, putting them in, periodically shaking the cup down hard to make them settle in, I filled the cup just to overflowing and the results are below. It all fits except: 25 big tree branches 42 small tree branches 1 4x10 black plate 11 1x4x6 door frames 32 2x2 trans clear windows 111 pieces that don't fit. Over 20% less. I'm sure I could lower that figure a bit by substituting some pieces for others, but I think the result would be close to the same. You can get around 20% more pieces per cup by packing. It probably takes an average of 20 minutes for me to pack a cup. Is it worth it? I've come to enjoy the challenge of packing a cup, but even if I didn't, I'd be willing to spend the time to get what is essentially free LEGO.

I had forgotten about the train car. Maybe we'll see more in the future. Slightly off topic, who made the sweet orange SUV?

Brickster, Has EB ever had seasonal building contests? It might be something cool to see in the future.

Very good point, Creator houses deserve a mention as well. As minifig-scaled houses, they have a place in many LEGO towns. I find that for the most part, they are more in scale with the Modular size buildings, but some of the alternate models for the other sets do lean a bit toward the classic town side.

Maybe the same folks who would be crazy enough to try a "tommy" helmet...

I'm really dissapointed to hear that. I'd love to get Oxford sets here in the US, but if Will can't even get helmets, then there really isn't much chance for the rest of us to get whole Oxford sets. We can get a slew of cheap copies from China, but we can't get the quality stuff from Korea without spending more on shipping than the set costs!

Brickington was always meant to represent an idylic island vacation town. As such, it's pretty well permanently spring or summer there regardless of the season in the real world. At different times I've considered taking on the challenge of a fall or winter scene, but the LEGO palete of foliage parts just doesn't lend it'self as well to those seasons, and I'm not interested enough in the challenge to try. Spring and summer are also great seasons for having lots of minifigs out on the streets doing things and adding visual interest to my layout. As to my recent flower shop, I don't want to psychoanalyze myself too much, but it could well have been a yearning for spring that finally brought it about. We had a few warmish days and weekends here and there, but the weekend I built it we had a surprise snow and ice storm here in Chicago!

Do you have confirmation of this? I always wondered about this, as it looks similar to the ones that oxford, and bestlok use. Of course bestlock copies alot of oxford's designs. So that wouldn't be surprising. Which other accessories have been discontinued? Care to elaborate on the "issues" beyond Will's control?

yup, this is a truely cruel thread, I had completely forgotten about thai food an sushi, and now I've got to find somewhere that sells those stuffed balkan pepper things. They look amazing! Soo Hungry!

Wow. I thought the boat was rediculous enough, but when fan-man made his entrance, It really got wierd.

Who knew rock monsters had a taste for precious metals? TLG should have warned us! Great Vig. The rock monster looks extra michevious. I like it!

Wow, I am speechless. Almost. You use of lighting is impecable, your "characters" are very well chosen, and the patterns you chose for the industrial style walls very much evoke the Geiger-ish feeling of Alien and other classic dark space movies. Amazing.

Nice Job, Very evocative, and bloody! I wouldn't worry too much about that. In African-American and most other American communities, Dr. King is usually referred to with the title Dr. or Reverend or Reverend Dr. or simply "King". I've never heard him referred to as "the" King. Among Americans, "The King" is much more likely to conjure up visions of Elvis Presley.