Eilif

I will definately purchase this set if it becomes available. It is clearly one of the best "town" style sets to be created in a long time. Eilif

Sorry about that, the page seemed to auto-shrink them, and they were up for a while, so I didn't realize it was necessary. I'll resize them sometime soon. Thanks for the kudos though. I've got to get back to building though, so in the meantime, anyone who wants to see the pics can access them here http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=309896

No doubt you know what you're talking about. I suspect that may be one of the reasons that TLG took back Flextronic's control of the plant this year. http://www.evertiq.com/news/read.do?news=10255&cat=1 I like leaks as much as the next guy, but theft is another thing entirely. Let's hope that TLG can get it together better than Flextronics did.

Great pics. I hope we are looking at the genesis of a new sub-theme, and not just one (albeit potentially great) new set. Thanks for sharing these.

I appreciate you spreading the word about this new set, but I think you are dead wrong in your assumption that TLG doesn't care about thiefs selling sets before release. They may or may not have caught the thief(s), but the very fact that they requested the pictures be taken down shows that they take this situation very seriously. In other news... I remember hearing something on one of the recent LAML radio podcasts about an environmentaly friendly themed line of LEGO sets. It wasn't presented as an official announcement, but it was mentioned...

I have the old one, but not the new one. They are both nice cars, but neither one looks like what I see as a Police car. Great comparison shots and explaination though. As to the figures, I like the older figs for police, but the newer figs with their slightly nautical emblems seem like they would make great port authority or security officers. At Brickworld I heard some kids exclaim that there was one of the "old" police figures. I turned around, expecting to see the figure you placed above on the left, only to see that it was a fig from the early 2000's. I guess at 26, I must be positively ancient.

Nice to see more market street compatible modules. I like your building style. The streetscape is nice also. Almost makes me wish I hadn't torn down cafe corner and Market street to make MOCs.

WOW! Oh set 4999, How do I love thee, let me count the ways: 1)An attractive cottage 2)A usefull service van 3)Great parts including green BURPS! 4)Responsible energy for my LEGO town! This would be the perfect addition to my seaside village. By the way, what is VESTAS?

Thanks, I'm glad you folks like it. I'm working like mad to finish 6 or so more modular building sections for the new version for our show this weekend at the Barrington Illinois Public Library (anyone in the area is welcome to stop by), so I won't be posting any new buildings this week. Not even the charming little police station that is just about finished... I will, however, post detailed pics of the new module layout, including the new buildings early next week. Suggestions for improvement still welcome, as I'm still very much in the building and modifying stage.

Thanks for the kind words, The layout as a whole is the product of the Northern Illinois LEGO Train Club. We have no real requirements for members' modules asside from the height and location of the "mainline" tracks, so in pics of our layout you will see Modules representing Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Downtown Chicago (visible in the background of some of my pics), suburbia, country, military, seaside, etc. My portion of the layout is the 40"x80"section of water front (4 baseplates deep by 8 baseplates accross) encompasing the 40" of modular "downtown" waterfront, and 40" containing 4 seaside cottages (may or may not be visible depending on what pictures you are viewing. The last 40" of seaside which lies next to the track curve and has a submarine, two pirate ships, and a small factory is not mine. Version two will have 50" of down town, with new buildings and additional floors for some existing buildings. I will unfortunately loose 10" of cottage space, which will result in one fewer cottage. I'm feverishly working on this for our show this weekend at the Barrington, Illinois public library. I should have pics on Sunday or Monday. Long term plans (next year sometime?) for a version 3 include expanding to a full 40"x 120" of waterfront, with more cottages, and a proper marina, but given the price of blue baseplates and my recent financial situation, it may be a while.

Very few sets stay built on my wall for more than a few months, so I don't put stickers on unless I really think they will be usefull later (e.g. certain controls, numerical markings, and license plates), or really look super duper cool. (I'm a sucker for the egyptian and Mayan stickers in the indy sets) I do save my stickers, however in case they may be usefull for a later MOC. Even Town Plan didn't get any stickers except for license plates, the pump logos, the "newspaper" and the "C-I-N-E-M-A" which were first put on 2x2 tiles and then added to the marquee.

In response to some suggestions on an earlier thread, I have created a tourist trap gift shop for my seaside village. To see the rest of the village in it's earlier incarnation, check the first and last posts on this thread http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19228 Here's the shop and it's slighly unsavory owner Left and right side of the shop. Lot's of crap for sale. Who doesn't like frogs in seashells? I built two identical secitons to go above the shop. Here's the front and back For the roof, I designed two of these units front and back: As a structure on my in-progress street rebuild But what happens if you want to have two 8x16 buildings without identical tops? Well, that's ok.. They can be rearranged into two distinct 8x16 roofs Lastly, arranged as an upper floor and roof for a 16x16 module. This meathod does use alot more bricks than 16x16 modules, and far more bricks than 16x32 buildings, but I am loving the flexibility, and will be building at least one more 8x16 structure. I hope you all like them. Suggestions, comments etc, are appreciated.

Eilif, pronounced like "eye-liff" is my middle name. It's a fairly uncommon Danish name, that means "immortal" in old norse. It was my great uncle's first name. I use it on almost every forum I use, and the only place it's ever been taken was on the LEGO official website. Should I have a son someday, it will probably be his first or middle name also.

I just had to ask, what kind of LEGO does your Grocery store carry?

Wow, a good looking design, and a minifig, all for a low price. There's something you don't see often. Great Job! If I didn't have Town Plan already...

Well done. As has already been stated, you really managed to capture the classic town feel, yet incorporate alot of details that give it a more complete feel. This really is an example of what alot of us wish LEGO would be making. LEGO Town would get alot more of my patronage if they started making sets like your designs.

Oh my goodness, you're absolutely right! I just tried it and it works like a charm! I guess I assumed it wouldn't work with no studs. But we all know what happens when you assume... I'm not sure which meathod I will be using, as I think the pick is a bit faster for me, but I loose things alot, and a Brick Separator is alot easier to keep track of on a table full of bricks than a guitar pick. Thanks!

Armothe, Thanks for giving out the freebie space marines at brickworld. Most excelent. I got some helmets and hero hair at BW, and they are great. One comment on the usabiliby of the new store site. Having thumbnails some of the topical pages ( like this one https://www.brickforge.com/store/home.php?cat=258 )would be a good idea. Folks who do not already know the BForge product line would especially benefit, as would people like myslef who don't know what the meaning of kopesh, falcata or gladius. Without thumbnails, finding some items is a bit more difficult than it should be. All the best with your new line and site.

Thanks folks, Matn, Brickremovers work great for plates, but I haven't been able to find a way to use them for tiles. Ben, that looks like a good solution. I assume you use the thiner edge to pry under the tiles?

Cool building. I'm a sucker for all the permutations of "modular" buildings. What kind of building is it? The statue seems to suggest police or somesuch.

Interesting thread. Like many of you, 40k was one of the big activities that took up time durring my "almost" Dark Ages. I rarely played 40k, but spent a ton of time assembling a decent Blood Angels army, building alot of scenery, and then starting an IG force. It's recently taken a back seat to LEGO for a few reasons. 1-LEGO is cheaper, though most of my recent 40k acquisitions came through bartertown or other used venues. 2-I joined a LEGO club 3-My wife likes LEGO alot more than 40k (in actual fact she despises 40k) and is willing to build LEGO with me. She has no interest at all in painting 40k miniatures with me. 4-I have a bit of (diagnsoed) Adult ADD, and the quick results that building LEGO can give is very satistfying. 5-LEGO has alot more opportunities for interaction with "normal" people. Most of the folks I interacted with 40k over were fine regular folks, but there wasn't much of a venue for sharing the hobby with folks who weren't already into it. I'm not going to get rid of all my 40k stuff, but I'm seriously considering putting many of the miniatures I have collected, but will never get a chance to paint (orks, space marines, Daemonhuneters, Witch hunters, Adeptus arbites, space dwarfs, etc) up on bartertown in trade for LEGO.

OK, ever since the introduction of cafe corner, I've gone a bit mad with tiling the floors of some of my MOC's. This brings up the question of un-tiling my mocs when I am done with them. Some of the less than ideal meathods I've used. -Fingernail. Works, but gets painfull after a while, and flexing basplates to make them easier to remove is just a bad idea. -Butter knife and pocket knife. By far the quickest, but metal is harder than plastic, and can easily wear at the tiles and the basepleat -LEGO minifig accessories. Swords and oars are good, but this tends to wear at the swords and create stress marks on the oar where the paddle meets the handle. -Plastic flatware. Works ok, but can still scratch the LEGO plastic. After all these, I think I have found the Ideal Solution!! GUITAR PICKS!! (aka Plectrums)They: -Are really cheap. $0.25-$0.70 USD each or ask a guitarrist friend for his worn out picks, they work nearly as well. -are small, yet easy to grasp -slide right under the edge of the tile -Are available in hard, yet slighttly rubbery materiels that are easy to grip and pop the tiles out without damaging the tiles or the baseplates. Dunlop brand "tortex" materiel pics in a medium size are a great example of this -Are available in ergonomic versions that are even easier to grip. I just tried this this morning. I had a building in need of a re-tile, and for some reason I reached into my bag of "found" pics. I'm a bass player and don't use picks, but I pick them up at shows all the time. The tiles popped out so easily that I am keeping a few picks in my LEGO area for future use.

I hadn't checked this thread in a while. I like the complexity of your track plan, but I must say that I am more impressed with the new less-train-dominated layout. However, I'm not sure you really took into account the kind of jealousy that would be stirred up by showing your impressive collection of road plates. Definately looking forward to seeing the final result.

I've consistently found a better selection at Northbrook, but living in Chicago, I get to the Chicago and Woodfield stores much more often. However, the Chicago store seems to have more, and better, grab bags than either of the other stores. As to the box. Being that it was a one-time offering at a special event, I didn't feel it warranted an official complaint. However, I will be going back to Brickworld next summer so maybe, as you suggest, I should officially voice my preference for a box that is not both smaller and 50% more expensive than the original green bulk tubs. Truth is that even with the less than amazing selection, if they had had 100 dollar green tubs, I would probably have purchased one.

We have another show coming up in a couple of weeks, so I am going to be updating my seaside village. I got it out last night and took pics of the individual modules, and the basic layout. When I finish the updates, I'll start a new thread. In the meantime, here are the components that comprise the downtown seciton of the seaside village Here's the layout under the buildings. Everything you see here is fixed. all the modules sharkbar interior sharkbar rooftop closeup office interior (rear right building) surfshop interiors surfshop exterior showing awning attachment points italian restaurant with alternate facade on the side an historic greystone with art deco roof. my favorite so far Chineese restaurant. my 2nd favorite building. I finally found a good use for those odd dark red pieces as roof tiles. More pictures here http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=329059 after moderation. Suggestions for improvement welcome. I'm already vorking on version 2.0, and alot of the recomendations you all made are being incorporated.