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the "X3 box" is not a box. It's nearly impossible to tell from the terrible instructional picture, but it's a construction consisting of two of the above pictured wheel sets, the wheel cover piece ( http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=2871 ) and a coupler ( http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=4022) attached to a "black train bogie plate" ( http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=4092 ). There may be a couple of other bricks and plates in there, but it's nothing you couldn't build yourself. The instructions are odd because, IIRC, the wheel cover piece was only included with 9V motors.

Right and wrong has very little to do with it. They don't ditch it because the USA is still a profitable market. It's clearly not as profitable as Europe, but as long as they aren't losing money in the USA, they will continue to sell here.

Nice job on the Church and Cinema. As for a church that would exist comofortably in a athiest or agnostic LEGO town, perhaps the "Church of the Flying Spagetti Monster" (google it) or Unitarian.

Well done. Both the alternate color scheme, and the convertible mod are very well executed. I'm a big fan of dark blue, but I think that black and white looks even better.

Wow, that was a great introductory narrative! Your username and humorous thoughts on toys reminded me of this little jem: http://www.brikwars.com/rules/2005/universe.htm It's all pretty funny, but skip to the second to last paragraph on that page, and the first paragraph on this page: http://www.brikwars.com/rules/2005/2.htm for the bits relavent to your p.o.v. Welcome to Eurobricks.

Great Job with your sorting. I know from experience that it's a long process. It's definatley worth it though. If I can offer one bit of advice, as you acquire more brick, sort it as often as possible. I haven't been very diligent in sorting my brick that I've been acquiring for the past while, and now trying to sort it all is very daunting.

I'm actually pleased with this news. I may be reading too much into it, but it seems to indicate that there will indeed be Elves. Mostly though, I'm glad to see that TLG seems to be taking their time in developing this Castle line. It would be nice to see more development of the Orcs and Dwarves before adding another faction. If they add factions slowly, and work for depth within each, they could build Castle back in to the strong sub-genre that it used to be, in the mid-late 80's and early 90's when it was as expansive and popular as Town. The "fantasy" direction that they are taking seems to be working well, and I have high hopes for this particular incarnation of "Castle".

Thanks for that, Blue and White, I had no idea about such deals on BL. I might like to add a paragraph on that to the article. Are their specific searches one can do on BL to find which pieces are listed so low?

Yup, really, Tough, I should have been more clear. I'm not one for building huge armies, but as a quasi-former tabletop gamer, I definatey understand the appeal of massed uniformed uniformed troops. As for my earlier comments, I like variety of heraldry, though I don't worry much about historical accuracy. Thus, if given the choice between 3 different factions of people or Crownies, Orks and Dwarves (I don't like skellies) I'd definatley take the later. Just my opinion, though I confess that I hold this opinion from a position of complacency, having already assembled enough of the old factions to keep me happy.

Interesting to see the three torsos right next to each other. In general, I like uniformity, but it is definatley the LEGO way to change castle torsos often. Even in the classic castle times, it seemed that every couple years there was a new torso, or a new faction, or a new.... I think it's nice that this time around they seem to be sticking with the crownies as the only human "soldier" faction and varying the torsos, rather than varying the number of human factions as they did in the old days.

note: I just edited the cleaning section. upon closer inspection, it looks like the fabreeze is leaving a residue on the stickered bricks. I've revised it back to reflect a recomended process of washing them the same as printed bricks. Darthperson, Good suggestions. I'd never heard of Christmas tree shops before. As I mentioned before, all these discount store, ebay, etc. suggestions I am getting could really form the basis for an article on getting LEGO in the 5 cents per piece range.

Simonjedi, Thanks for the link, I'll have to remember that next time I'm looking for something on Ebay. Jones, I totally agree with you about finding things you didn't know existed. I think I have a pretty good idea about what LEGO exists across most ranges over the last 20 years, but I still routinely find pieces that I've never seen before. Some of it is crazy <insert that tiresome argument> 1990's stuff, but alot of it is surprising and usefull. A couple of semi-related observations. Alot of the lots I find seem to balance each other out in very wierd ways. For example, two lots ago, I ended up with a few minifigs with no heads, and then my last lot had way more heads and headgear than minifigs. If you take the time to sort the brick you find, it's a pleasant realization suddenly realize that though you didn't even realize you were acquiring them, you now have enough of a given type of brick to make it useful.

Wow, that's pretty expensive for a helmet, but if you already had extra spears, you could still get a PAB crownie for $.92, a helmet for $.062, and you'd still be at less per figure than buying PAB crownies and impulse sets.

For alot of parts, BL is cheaper, but for most minifig parts, the PAB prices are cheaper. I only use PAB for minifig parts, and for certain parts that are rarer and more expensive on Bricklink. Don't feel stupid. Some things are better to purchase PAB, and some BL. Your caculations are right on. I have about 10 extra helmets at home and plenty of extra spears. For $9.20 USD, invested at PAB, I can get 10 more soldiers!

That's a great suggestion! A complete skelleton only costs $0.61 USD, or $0.78 if you get it with a crossbow. I have no interest in making a skellie army, but maybe I should at least get some to scatter about the battlefield...

Thanks for the replies folks. You've made some good suggestions, and I'm glad you've found the article usefull. Perhaps I should do a followup for good deals in the 5 cents per piece range. eti, Sorry that the markets are so scarce where you are. Where are you? As for trading, look around, you'd be surprised what you have to exhange. The key is to find where the people who like that item congregate. You are right though, that living in a large US city is beneficial. Along with other private shops, we have three large chains of Resale Shops here in Chicago. Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Village Discount Outlet. Both have large locations, cheap prices, multiple stores, and night/evening hours. Dadster, Good suggestion. I never thought to look in music stores. I do find good deals at the "Tuesday Morning" line of outlet stores. There prices are often half of retail, but my best deal there has never approached the one-cent-per piece "Cheapskate" goal. CP5670, Glad that Ebay is working out for you. The LEGO online sales and deals is definatley a good resource. Last year, I picked up Arkham assylum, Viking fortress, Viking army, Hobby Train, Holiday Train, alot of 9v train stuff, and others that I'm probably forgeting for half off. It also doesn't approch the "cheapskate" price-per-piece, but it is definatley a favorite of mine. When I make half-off purchases, it's also a good excuse to order rare pieces from PAB online.

There seems to be an ongoing facination with army building over here. As there has been a Crownie torso ( http://us.factory.lego.com/pab/?warning=fa...id=&shipto= ), breastplates, and a crossbow on PAB online, I was just curious if anyone had been using PAB online to suplement their armies. A PAB crownie without helment or weapons costs $.092. Every "The Knight" impulse pack comes with an extra helment and weapon, thus for about $4.50 you could have two soldiers. Alternatively, someone with extra helmets and weapons could convert their non-castle minifigs by simply adding a breastplate. My Castle figs are all pre-Knight's-Kingdom, but I've acquired extra helms and weapons over the years, and the PAB crownie torso seems like a great opportunity to add some crownies to the mix. How have you utilized PAB online for your castle armies?

Great job. I'm particularly impressed with the removable cell modules. It's a great solution for including viewable interior detail, while preserving a full exterior. I would have thought that the interior would look a bit more gothic, but your interior is definately a good example of a tiered modern prison layout. I'd like to see a picture of the entrance.

Good Heavens Gladiator, That is huge! I thought I had quite a few castle figs, until I saw this thread. Wow!

Just like I say, I have a few local resale shops (these I will unfortunately not be revealing ), and I do some exchanging on Bartertown.com . Beyond that, I leave it up to the reader to discover their own local markets. Of course there's always the bribing of LEGO employees, and the LEGO that "falls of the truck"... ...but that's the subject of another article.

The Bargain Hunters Guide to LEGO: A true cheapskate reveals his "penny-per-piece" secrets. Everyone wants cheap LEGO right? Especially in these trying economic times, the search is on for LEGO bargains. Ebay, Craiglist, Shop-at-Home sales, everyone is trying to find LEGO that fits their budget, and unfortunately in most cases, it's not that cheap anymore. The purpose of this article is simple: To show you new venues and methods for acquiring LEGO brick for less than the price of one cent a piece! The article is divided up into 6 parts. 1) Do you have what it takes? 2) Resale Shops 3) Garage Sales. 4) Trading. 5) Quick cleaning of Dirty and Smokey bricks 6) Addenda: A brief mention of Craiglist, and Ebay. 1. Do you have what it takes? Getting cheap LEGO doesn't take much. It requires very little money (that's the point after all), few social skills, and only the most rudimentary intelligence. In short, anyone can do it, as long as you have two things: Time and Patience. Getting cheap LEGO is a process. Whether it's making the rounds of thrift stores, waiting for someone to come through on a trade, or sorting and cleaning used brick, the cheap LEGO game is all about patience. If you are one who is used to stopping by Bricklink or Ebay: -getting exactly what you need, and getting it quickly- you may find it tedious. However, if you are already a bargain hunter, or you like the hunt almost as much as the find, you're going to love it. I'll expound upon time and patience throughout this article, but I mention it here so that those for whom this sounds tedious, can stop reading now and go off to Toys 'R' Us to pick up the latest Clone Wars Set. One last thing, you have to like loose brick. The LEGO bargain hunter does find sets from time to time, but most of what is out there in the locales that this article explores is loose brick. 2) Resale Shops Resale Shops are the best place to find loose cheap LEGO. I visit Resale Shops often, and have found deals on LEGO that boggle the mind. As an added bonus, since you are visiting in person, there's no shipping costs involved. In fact, many times the items you purchase at a resale shop will cost less than the cost of shipping a similar item in an Ebay transaction. The key with resale shops is to look hard, look often, and keep your expectations reasonable. Looking hard means digging through that bin of random junky toys and feeling around for a bin of LEGO, or a box that rattles like LEGO. Don't look just for LEGO buckets/bins, or boxes. Most of the best deals I've gotten have been from unmarked boxes or storage tubs that simply had a price written on them. Charity shops and donors often put LEGO in whatever container they have handy. Sometimes the shop will dump whatever loose LEGO they receive in a box and put it out for sale when it is full. That pink hatbox in the toy section, might just be filled with LEGO. Take a look. Looking often. Unless you have a friend at the shop who will call you when they get LEGO (I know someone who does this, and she scores tons of LEGO that way), you will not find LEGO every time you visit a shop. At my favorite resale shop, I still find LEGO only about 1/3 of the time. I stop by that shop as often as I can, sometimes more than once a week. Making a stop at your favorite resale shops part of your routine is a solid strategy that will reap lots of LEGO rewards over the long haul. Keep your expectations reasonable. As was mentioned, you will not find LEGO every time. Sometimes I will go for weeks without finding any LEGO. Also, do not expect to find the latest sets or pieces. Alternatively, don't expect to necessarily find classic Castle minifigs every 4th time you visit the shop. Enjoy the hunt, expect some dry times, and expect to be pleasantly surprised at what you will find. 3) Garage Sales (Boot Sales, Yard Sales, Estate Sales, Junk Sales, Flea Markets) Venues where individuals sell their own possessions are great ways to find LEGO. The same suggestions as resale shops apply, with a few others. First, don't be afraid to bargain. Most (but not all) resale shops have firm prices, but Garage Sales are wide open for bargaining. Try it, the worst they can say is No. Secondly, because the people are selling their own stuff, you can usually determine if they have LEGO much quicker, simply by asking. Asking is a great tool also, because it gives them a chance to think if they have any LEGO in the house that they may have forgotten to bring out. A shrewd LEGO hunter can quickly make the rounds of a neighborhood group garage sale or Flea Market, just by passing each seller and asking if they have any LEGO. Third, when you arrive at a Garage sale is also key. For the large sales put on by churches and charities, arriving early is a necessity. For these large sales, it is worthwhile to arrive as much as an hour before it starts. I acquired a nearly complete 6991 Unitron Monorail Transport Base for 10 dollars this way. Conversely, arriving at the end of a sale, usually finds the sellers in a mood to bargain, and some great deals can be had this way, though much more rarely. Finally, if a garage sale has an advertisement up that mentions LEGO, you may be able to call and arrive early in the week and purchase the LEGO before the sale even occurs. 4) Trading Trading is a less common way of acquiring LEGO, but it has recently become my favorite. I am not speaking of trading LEGO with other AFOL's, though this can be a great way to acquire LEGO. Rather, I am speaking of trading something you already have for someone else's LEGO. . The keys to getting cheap LEGO's this way are: Venue, and Exchange rate. Venue: The most successful Venue I have found is to go through other niche hobbies and acquire LEGO from folks who are not AFOL's. The most successful niche hobby I've found is the online community of tabletop gamers, though any online community “especially one where you already have a presence- offers the opportunity for this kind of trading. For me, putting up ads in such places as Bartertown (a gaming trading site) has allowed me to trade gaming materiel to an audience that greatly values such items, in exchange for LEGO, which that particular group of people tends not to value. The gaming community is not the only venue where this works. Any group of people where you can offer something they are interested in, in exchange for their old LEGOs (which they are usually not interested in), can be a prime point of cheap LEGO acquisition. Though I use the online communities as an example, such trades can also be in person, with friends, family, clubs or acquaintances. Exchange Rate: When you are trading LEGO, it is in your best interest, NOT to put a direct monetary Value on the LEGO. It is far better simply to offer a specific item or lot of items in trade for a specific Volume of LEGO. A highly effective method that I've used here in the states is to put together a defined Lot of items in exchange for a Post Office Flat Rate Box of LEGO. Everyone has access to these type of boxes, the shipping is reasonable, and it ends up being quite a lot of LEGO. This type of Volume trading usually leads you to acquire an amount of LEGO that greatly exceeds the value of the items you are trading, and as a plus, you usually end up with a very happy trader on the other end who views the transaction as him/her receiving something they want in exchange for some old toys out of their basement. The picture below represents the contents of one standard sized post office flat rate box. You can fit a lot of brick in one of those. 5) Cleaning that used LEGO. Let's be honest. Sometimes there's a reason that that cheap LEGO is so cheap. Often, it's dirty or smells of smoke. The LEGO pictured in the below example was purchased for only $6.00. However, it smelled very heavily of smoke. Cleaning away smoke and dirt sounds daunting, but is actually quite easy, and can be done in an afternoon while doing other household chores, or relaxing at home. The lot shown was sorted, cleaned and dried in one afternoon. -Sort Dump out the LEGO and sort out stickered LEGO, printed LEGO, Translucent LEGO, other toys, and junk that often creep into these lots. Mini-sidetrack: I suggest bagging up the random toys and clone brick in a ziplock even if they are small- and donating them back to the resale shop. That bag of crap, can fetch a buck or two for a charity. In this world every cent counts, and every bit that goes back to the shop is a bit that doesn't end in a landfill. -Wash Anyway, put the non-translucent, unstickered, and unprinted LEGO in pillowcases, or mesh delicates bag, tie securely, and drop in the washing machine. Warm water, a generous amount of soap, the "delicate" setting and a higher water level than normal are the best for this process. -Dry Lay out a large, lint-free, towel, mat or sheet, and dump the LEGO out. Direct a fan or two over the LEGO. Every half hour or so run your hands through the LEGO to turn the pieces over. The LEGO will be completely clean and dry in a couple of hours. Printed and translucent pieces can be dumped into a basin or bowl of warm soapy water, and stirred about (sometimes I actually use a big spoon and agitate the water like soup), Unless the bricks are extremely filthy, I don't bother scrubbing them individually. After the wash, rinse them and dry as above, with a fan. Stickered pieces are another story. A little soap and water usually won't hurt them, but I usally choose not to wash them unless they are particularly dirty, or smelly.. Usually printed, trans, and stickered LEGO will only be a small portion of the LEGO you acquire, and cleaning them only takes a short time. 6) Addendum: a Brief Mention of Craigslist and Ebay. -Craigslist. I have found some good deals on Craislist, but it has become a known market, with lots of folks advertising that they will buy used LEGO, and likely for more than I want to pay. However, deals are there to be had, if one searches often, replies promptly, and is available to pick up the LEGO A.S.A.P. -Ebay. Honestly, I have little use for Ebay. However, searching often, using obscure search terms, and being patient has worked out well for some folks I know. Conclusion: Well, that's it, thanks for reading this long winded article, I hope you have found useful information, and I wish you all the best in your search for cheap LEGO. Remember, if you are patient and persistent, ANYONE can find cheap LEGO. This is my first article, and is not a fixed document, and I welcome suggestions for improvement of both the content and the form.

I am blown away. I'm haven't built castle in a while, but I was just sorting through my figs and thinking about how I should do something with all my castle figs. This may be the impetus I need. I have to say that I'm surprised that there are so many minifigs and specialty pieces, and yet it only costs USD6.5 cents a piece! Bravo TLG! Cash is tight, but you've found a way to make me give up buying the necessities in favor of your addictive plastic Brick.

As other folks have shown with the pictures, it shouldn't be hard to use the RC/IR system to run trains designed during the 9v era. However, you should know that heavier designs like the Santa Fe or BNSF will severely limit the number of train cars you can pull. The IR system has a fairly weak motor so with a Santa Fe engine you may only be able to pull a car or two. You could try using two IR engines together (perhaps one in a loco and one in a tender?), but you would probably want them on different channels so that you could be sure that you could make the proper speed adjustments for each motor. I don't mean to throw up too many obstacles. Just wanted to let you know what you are getting into. Good luck.

My parents are responsible for my involvement in LEGO we didn't have TV until I was 7, so I didn't see commercials for it. Also, money was very tight then, but my folks must have made the decision that LEGO was something worth investing in because I received LEGO a couple times a year even when we were making financial sacrifices in other areas. My folks skipped Duplo and started me on system LEGO when I was 3 or 4 years old.

Thanks for your replies folks. Very interesting stuff. Alot of what has been mentioned here mirrors what TLG themselves have stated as taking folks from LEGO, especially computers and video games. Zorro 3999, I here you with the miniatures. For a number of years, 40k took whatever LEGO cash that girls didn't take. Now that I'm married to a lady who hates 40k and thinks LEGO is positively charming, it makes it really easy to spend time/money on LEGO. Enigma..., "whatever" means whatever you want it to. As for "beta-testing", designing, building, whatever you call it, it's still playing. Embrace the play! Commander Andrew, Another one bites the dust ;-) Tacitus, GI Joe, I'd forgotten about that. GI Joe was perhaps the longest running competition for LEGO as a kid. They are still up in my dad's attic somewhere... Guss, Sorry to hear about that. I was lucky enough to have all my childhood LEGO waiting for me when I came back to the fold. Quarryman, I think alot of folks were pleasantly surprised to find that LEGO and Computers are "compatible". Glad to hear you've found some balance. Now to all you non-Dark-Agers. OUT OUT OUT! This is not the thread for you. I love you all dearly, but this is co-miseration thread. Your presence only makes us feel more guilty for our shamefull abandoning of the brick.