Eilif

Dude, that's not "cheap". You're privileged, to get a $20 toy whenever you go to Toy's R Us. I don't want to pick on you, but you should realize how lucky you are to have folks that will dish out $60 bucks on their kids (assuming you have two sisters) just for visiting TRU.

Brilliant Job! I especially like your work on the front and the side angles of the hood. I've never seen anything like it before.

Just got finished sending LEGO a complaint email. I recomend that everyone else do the same. Even if I just get the same not-answering-my-question form email that we saw here, I thought it was important for them to know that they would be loosing my loose brick business, and that I would no longer be recommending PAB online to the dozens (perhaps hundreds) of parents I speak to each year at LEGO train shows.

Cool, I'd definitely like to be included. I'll put together a suitably awesome sigfig and bring it to Brickworld. My current avatar isn't my sig-fig, just a cool fig I built.

I'm extremely skeptical that we would actually get anything like a monorail, but I'm hoping for the best and voting for option 2! My wife will be out of school then, and we might be able to afford it!! Despite my disdain for PF trains, a PF monorail would definitely be something I would be interested in! Looking at choice 1 and 3, it seems kind of odd since we got a Town Plan last year, and there's already a truck stop type set on the way.

I don't have any hard stats, but I know a few things 1) Individual LEGO brand stores measure their monthly sales in the MILLIONS. 2) Most of the middle-class-and-up families that I meet at NILTC shows who are very into LEGO don't know that bricklink or PAB online exist. 3) LEGO's income for 2006 was $1,406,248,034 USD 3) Right now, Bricklink only has a total of 86,916,792 items (pieces, sets, figs, etc) for sale. Of course new items are being added every day, and sold everyday, and there are some higher ticket items (sets, figs, etc) for sale. However, if we assume that every one of those items sells over the course of the year, and we assume an extremely generous average price of one dollar per item, Bricklink sales would still be only be the equivalent of 6% of LEGO's total sales. In reality, total BL sales are probably much lower. I've never seen LEGO's stats on PAB or Bricklink sales numbers, but the evidence I have seen, leads me to agree with the assertion that PAB and Bricklink are a tiny fraction of total LEGO sales.

Sometimes there is actually a small truely exclusive set released for grand openings. I've heard of at least three, and while they weren't particularly great sets, they were themed for the city they were for. I'm don't know for sure if there will be something like that, but it's a possibility. Also, I know that in the past there has been a commemorative Duplo block for the grand openings of LEGO stores. I did not attend the grand openings, but i I have a block from the opening of the Woodfield and Chicago Illinois stores. It's likely that there may be other grand-opening swag available, but I couldn't say for sure what. Whatever you do, get their early, as LEGO store openings usually have LONG lines on the first day. You can see more about the commemorative duplo bricks here.

Wow, there's a post worth revising. No really, please edit that. It's probably just a mistake, but it's pretty offensive! Back to the topic at hand... As to the topic at hand. I'm not primarily a SW collector, but I have alot of them, and some SW heads have made their way into my Town layout. I freely mix yellow, flesh, brown, and dark flesh heads in my layout regardless of pupils or no pupils. I only have a couple of clone wars heads, and I'm not particularly fond of them, but it probably won't be long before they get mixed into my layout as well. I like variety, so the more colors the better. I wish I had some brown female heads though.

You're in luck. Unless Factory sets undergo a 200% or so increase, they will continue to be radically less expensive than PAB online. Most factory sets have been in the area of $0.10 a piece or less, while the PAB Online averages much higher than that. I'm hoping that the next factory set will be a good one, if only for a parts pack.

Right there with you, I do a tiny bit of trading, but when it comes to LEGO, I definately "Aquire". Definately better to design the batteries to be removed, because I'm afraid you do some damage to the case for PF right here. Based on your original calculains, In USD, you are looking at spending $900 for the battery boxes alone that are only going to last for 3 years. In the club, we have folks who have run whole collections of 9V motors for a decade, and have only ever burned out a couple of $25 motors. Even if a small-timer like me only purchased just 3 battery boxes (one to run, one to charge, one to back up) I'm out 150 bucks for a product that is only going to last 3 years. It just doesn't make sense.

That is a bug. I think the only way around that is to insulate multiple loops and run them similtaneously. Not a huge deal (just a piece of electrical tape at a switch) but it would be easier with PF.

I agree with you for the most part, but just for the minifig parts and specialty items, PAB was a great deal. I used to add a PAB order on to every one of my LEGO direct orders. In honesty, I may still add a piece or two now, but it's much less likely now. PAB cups have gone up about a buck IIRC. Still a good deal if you get the right pieces and pack the cup. That's kind of what I thought for a second. It's almost like they are trying to discourage casual buyers. In the US, it's all by volume, but I wonder why it's different in different countries The prices are rediculous, but the inconsistencies from piece to piece may reflect LEGO's actual costs to produce. In a Brickworld presentation Jamie talked about how based on mold and capacity, price per piece for production is not necessarily based on size of the brick, even among basic brick types.

Time to check your math. Legs are double what they were, Torsos are over 3 times what they were. Hair and heads are double or more. A pane of "glass" for a 1x4x6 frame is 4 dollars! I recomend PAB online to dozens and dozens (probably hundreds over the course of a year) of visitors to NILTC shows. If these are the new permanent prices, I will not be doing so anymore. Still it could all be a TLG management Joke.

I confess I thought you were making a April Fools joke, but I went to the website myself. It's rediculous! Everyone check it out for yourself http://shop.lego.com/PAB/ I really wish I'd bought the parts I wanted from the last wave of PAB before this price increase. Here's to hoping that it's just an elaborate April Fools's joke by TLG....

Thanks Mark, There's some really good information in your post. Clearly PF blows RC away. The dual engine capability, and power of the new PF motors does sound like a good thing. Your IR repeater is a great innovation, but I'm of the opinion that we shouldn't have to wire custom devices to get full functionality out of our train sets. However, any new startup clubs or new train fans, will probably find your innovations invaluable. Overall though, I see PF as a good deal for LEGO, but not an upgrade for 9V AFOL's. You mention the cost of transfering from 9v to Power functions at 1500. Does that including selling off your 9V system? I wonder if selling off 9v systems to acquire PF systems would be a loss, break-even, or come-out-ahead proposition. If I was looking at a 1500 upgrade for a system that isn't really an upgrade, I'd definitely stick with 9V.

I'm curious. Besides expense (and now availability), what do you see as the bugs of the 9v system? Besides my moderate layout module, I'm not a huge trainhead (I rarely build actual trains), but as near as I can see 9V is just about perfect. 9V largely created the tools which the emerging AFOL movement used to create an explosion of new LEGO train clubs.

At one of my favorite resale shops they sometimes get in LEGO stuff from Target. Sometimes it's overstock, sometimes damaged, and sometimes it's new stuff that just appears. In the past I got the mars Mission base for 25 bucks, and 95% complete MTT for the same. I also picked up a pair of Anakin's starfighters for 7 bucks each. Today I found Power Miners Thunder Driller for $12.50. The Box was mangled like it had been run over by a forklift, but all the bags were intact so I got it. I'm not Power Miners' biggest fan, but It really is a neat set with some great functionality.

Glad you like it. I laughed out loud when I saw it I didn't see the proposal switch until 20 minutes later. It was like the "punch line" Yeah, not sure how a bunch of orcs with no artillery managed to knock over the control tower, but they are persistent little buggers... Sorry, but at brickworld it will be as quite and pastoral as normal. On the other folks modules in the NILTC layout, there's lots of mayhem and crashes, and fighting, but my module is always nice and quiet. I'm not sure why, but the only danger in Brickington is usually the ganster funeral procession or the backalley "Deal" Thanks. I thing the townspeople are the good guys, but aside from the one chainsaw wielding woodsman, no one seems to be around to fight against the orcs. Or it could just be that there weren't any "good guys" at the show to put in the scene. One very important thing to note. I think that EB'er stash2sixx was the source of all the orcs. I didn't know he had them, but they all just appeared....

Great Review. Thanks for going the extra mile and reviewing all three builds. I have all the Creator houses except this one. While I think this is definatley the second best of the 4 (Model Town House is my favorite) this is definitley the most minifig-compatible, and due to it's size it probably fits in best with the LEGO Town/City asthetic. As I already have all the pieces in this set, I initially wasn't planning on purchasing this one, but seeing your review makes it much more appealing to me. I didn't realize that it had 9 of the small windows and 5 of the segmented picture windows. Hmmm....

Yes. It wouldn't take much to mount the 9v motor under the tender. You might have to go to a total of 6 axles on the tender instead of 8, but it wouldn't be a hard modification. Just don't expect to find any instructions included with Emerald night on making switch to 9v.

There a couple of things that make RemoteControl complete poop, and 9v super-duper, especially in a club or exposition setting. 1) Running long or heavy trains requires multiple motors, something that is quite unwieldy in the RC trains since you have to power up or down each motor separately on it's own channel. One RC motor won't even pull some of the large ornate 8 or 10 wide engines that many AFOL's make. On a 9v system, you just pop an extra motor module on the train and you are set. 2) The bulky one piece RC engine/platform. Makes it hard to incorporate RC into alot of MOC'd steam engines. 3) The limited number of channels for an RC train makes it especially unworkable for a layout using multiple trains, or an exposition with multiple LEGO train clubs. 4) The line of sight requirement for RC trains means that layouts with buildings, tunnels, and landscaping will have much less control over the trains. 5) It's already been mentioned, but having to recharge or change a battery is a real hassle to those who may run trains for an hour or more at a a time. As to the supposed advantage of RC trains being able to run long tracks. NILTC regularly runs lines that exceed 80 feet long with 9V. Long tracks are not an issue for 9V Regarding Power functions. 1) Very Expensive, priced out of the range of many regular LEGO buying families. 2) The flexible track is remarkably ugly, and doesn't look at all like "real" track 3) The rechargable battery and cross compatabilty with other PF products is really neat, but it still isn't going to be a great replacement for 9v for train clubs. 4) If the high cost PF trains is supposedly being marketed to AFOL's why not just keep the 9V, if it's for regular LEGO kids, why is it so expensive. In the end, PF and RC trains are great for small layouts, kids, and Christmas tree rings, but if you want to pull more than 2 AFOL MOC'd coaches, build a large layout, or participate in public exhibitions, 9v is still the way to go. I'm looking forward to Emerald Night and other upcoming trains, but I'll stick with 9V.

I'm a married adult with a mortage, and no one tells me what to do with my free time. Ever since I returned to the brick at 22 I've never felt the need to hide my hobby. That said, I have been quite surprised at the overall positive reaction that I get when folks find out about my obsession. It does seem to make it a bit more "acceptable" when folks find out that I run a LEGO club for kids here in the "inner city" and that I'm a member of a LEGO train club. I think the fact that we are seeing so many folks playing video games as adults, has helped folks look a bit more favorably on LEGO and other similar activites as adult hobbies. If folks really care about increasing the public's perception of the hobby, then they should take some action. Some suggestions... 1) Start a LEGO train club or LEGO Users Group (LUG) 2) Organize a public display of LEGO 3) Organize a LEGO club for local kids 4) Find some other way to use LEGO for community service. If we want to make LEGO more acceptable, then the burden is on us AFOL's, not on the public at large.

I guess that shoots down my color scheme theory. However, as it's a "limited edition" set, I guess we know why it is not available anymore.

While it's not a set, it certainly is impressive. Thanks for posting this Klaus. I don't have the pieces to make anything quite so huge or operational, but it does make me want to try for something similar...

Ok, a disclaimer: this is by far my most frivolous thread yet. Northern Illinois Train Club (www.niltc.org) shows are usually a Friday night setup and show on Saturday and Sunday. Due to car and family issues, I had to miss the Sunday show. When I showed up on Sunday evening to pack up, I found that the club members had arranged an Orc invasion of the south end of Brickington! I thought you all might get a kick out of what they did. In a vain attempt to flee the Orcs who are invading the clifftop christmas tree farm, a burning logging truck plunges off the cliff. An airplane crash, need I say more? A clifftop overview shot Barbarism in the airport parking lot Orc takeover of the airport terminal Lastly, they made a minor change to my formerly heartwarming proposal scene... I have to say, I wasn't aware that the club members had brought along so many extra Orcs and fire pieces! Perhaps this joke was in the works for a while....