Hey Joe

Thanks for sharing, I really like it a lot but I kinda don't get the red trim on the roof?

Love the Santa, he's definitely got a ZZ Top thing going on!

The Zodiak part of the name must refer to Greenpeace's ship, what about Coma?

Lego does six month catalogs here in China too. Does anyone know where to download the current Lego catalog in English? If you go to the website you just get to this kinda weird interactive thing. I'd just like a PDF of the actual print catalog, in English?

It might be a 2-4-2; the rearmost four wheels probably 'belong' to the tender which appears in the photo to be seperated from the engine in the upper-half of the model. It's an odd-looking model and although it's been quite awhile since my HO and railway museum days I'm reasonably certain that there's never been a 2-4-6 in mainstream production in real life. Now of course someone will prove me wrong, ha ha.

Oh, sorry I didn't know. Anyway, I'm fairly certain this is posted in the wrong thread. The gentleman in Taiwan would probably have better luck posting in a different thread.

You can download instructions from Lego's website.

Really beautiful and way beyond my capabilities. I agree that it needs a little color. Also, since the back is set back from the base plate, you could extend the balcony out a little bit? Thanks for sharing!

Pretty cool man, thanks for sharing!

That's a great idea, hope they incorporate that. Personally, I'd prefer to have a more standard-looking theater but I like the model and will buy it if it's reasonably priced. I believe that I understand the logic behind the design; it's not too hard for anyone (including their competitors) to do a 1950s-style theater. Lego's own Town Plan would be an excellent starting point. They've been there and done that, so now they've pushed themselves to do something different and interesting and I respect them for it.

Ok, thanks. I appreciate your postings and dogged determination!

Thanks, it's interesting. I'm curious about how much your friend got for that 'first set', if you'd care to post it.

My solution is to normally avoid buying sets with STAMP. I caved with Maersk train but haven't applied the STAMPs.

Let us (particularly those of us w/o an Emerald Night) know your impressions of it, if it's not too much trouble, would you? I've held a sealed box in my hand but neither seen nor touched the actual model.

'Cars 2' was great I thought as I'm a big Michael Caine fan and the moral of Mater's travails (be happy with and true to yourself) resonated with me. The foreign locales (the Queen as a Rolls?!? Japanese toliets, French street markets, etc.) were just as interesting as the Route 66 nostalgia in the first movie.

Thanks a lot, really fabulous. Here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a non-violent New Year. Joe

Very impressive, thanks for sharing. Who pays for those large models at Times Square? Lego?

There's an interesting Megafactories documentary about Lego, not exactly sure of the release date but it's fairly recent. A Lego employee says in it that the MOST expensive mold in the factory is the one that makes the dice and it cost US$ 250,000. It's expensive because it's basically two molds-in-one (with a fancy process to put the two together) so I think a normal mold would be much less than half that. Let's not forget that molds can be made in China as well.

Beautiful MOC, thanks for sharing. Volkswagen makes trucks?

It's a beautiful train IMO but I didn't get it for several reasons: #1) Price, It was about US$ 150 on Amazon when I was seriously considering it. I'm trying not to spend so much on my hobbies. #2) It looks European to me and as much as I adore Europe and it's trains, the layout I have in mind looks more American. You can mod it (to take those 'blinders' off) but then if you're going to do that, why spend the cash to buy the official model? So, I settled for the Maersk diesel as it very much reminds me of my favorite real-life engine (GP-40 if I remember correctly? It's been awhile since my HO layout was up and running). Perhaps in the future when I get some more experience with building I can make my own Lego steam engine. I've got a little boy so that new Lone Ranger steam train set is looking promising. It will be something that we can both play with hopefully.

Ok, thanks for the reply. It seems odd to me that they are only for aesthetics. Perhaps their inclusion has something to do with the fact that in the opposite castle wall segment a part of the wall is designed to pop out? They wanted to differentiate it, make it clear that you shouldn't start wacking on this wall to get a part to pop out?

Has anyone ever figured out what the purpose of the two technic beams are? Thanks for the great review. Joe

Just noticed that it's Brickset's newest database item, link here. Set # 10250 That would be very cool if they did a Chinese Zodiac animal every year. I'll be close to retirement by the time they finish! There are more and more outlets to buy Lego here all the time. A new Lego shop (a joint venture actually, I think) just opened at a mall down the street from my home. ToysRUs had just opened there a few months before. The shops are practically right next to each other and the ToysRUs has a huge Lego minifig out front. It looks a little odd to me, the two stores being so close to each other. I never buy anything in either shop as the prices are just sky-high. It's nice to browse the shelves though.

I've never heard of it, could you tell us more about it? What's supposed to be inside, all sixteen minifigs from the series? It's hard to judge from the photo how large it is, maybe you could put something else recognizeable in the frame as a point of reference? A coin or a pack of smokes or something? Thanks!

Interesting that it has Chinese on it. I've not seen it here in Beijing but I'll let you know if I do.