Paperballpark

Oh yes, three days would be easy. For Day 1, I'm thinking this (on a Thursday, to take advantage of Glasgow being open until 8pm): Start at 9:30am 22 mins at Liverpool store and walking to the station. Catch the 09:52 from Liverpool Lime Street to Manchester Piccadilly, arrive at 10:41 39 mins at Manchester store and walking to/from station Catch the 11:20 from Manchester Piccadilly to Meadowhall, arrive at 12:15 41 mins at Sheffield store and walking to/from the station Catch the 12:56 from Meadowhall to Leeds, arrive at 13:49 18 mins at Leeds store and walking running to/from the station Catch the 14:08 from Leeds to Metrocentre, arrive at 15:54 35 mins at Newcastle store and walking to/from the station Catch the 16:31 from Metrocentre to Glasgow Queen Street, arrive at 19:36 24 minutes at Glasgow store, and walking from the station. Finish at 8pm

It's just that our centres of population are closer together. Comes from living on a small island I guess. On the upside for you, you have houses that are getting on for half the price of comparable ones here, with loads more land. You therefore have more space to store the Lego you do buy (which is almost always cheaper than it is here!) ;)

I reckon, by starting in the right place, it'd be possible to do all of them in 2 days. 1. Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow. 2. Milton Keynes, Watford, Shepherds Bush, Stratford, Bluewater, Brighton. Or is that unrealistic, given you'd have to get to the actual store and spend at least 15mins filling a tub and paying for it? Edit: blast, missed Cardiff out. Hmm that might throw a spanner in the works.

Yeah, "What's the fastest you can get around all UK LEGO Stores (including buying at least one tub of PAB elements at each store)?" There's also the Newcastle store to take into account now, which complicates things somewhat, as it's not near any of the others. Someone really should organise a 'PAB crawl' for a group of AFoLs...

Thanks! :) The quality of the entries seems to be really high!

Group by part rather than colour if you don't want to spend ages digging through a huge bin of black bricks looking for a specific piece. At the point you're at, I'd group similar elements together (windscreens, foliage, wheels, etc), then as you get more, sort them further into different elements. A lot of people use storage drawers, certainly for the small elements. You can also get 1-2 litre stackable tubs fairly cheaply, for larger quantities or larger bricks. I have a mix of the two, which serves me fine. Personally I sort by element rather than colour. So I have all my 1x2 bricks together, all my 1x1 plates together, etc. It's a lot easier to find a black 1x2 plate in a drawer of 1x2 plates than it is to find in a tub of random black elements. If I have a lot of one colour of an element (e.g. transparent red 1x1 plate), then that colour will get it's own drawer/tub, Start small, and scale up as and when needed.

Yes, by all means use the idea in your city layout

I assumed it was one stud overhang on one side, so that it could technically fit in 16x17, as long as the base itself was no larger than 16x16.

I think this could be called 'living the dream'!

I've now updated this quite a lot, and uploaded brand new photos, which you can see in the original post. I definitely think it looks a lot better now, and I hope the changes meet with approval!

^ Yes I think that's clear from the name of it on the box: 'Winter Toy Shop'. Note that everything after that was 'Winter Village...'

Here's the link to how I did mine: http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/239899/#Comment_239899

There's been big discounts on Amazon for it in the UK, and LEGO had it at 20% off in the lead up to Brick Friday, which strongly suggests that it was a one-year only set (and probably theme too). I'm just glad I picked one up about a month ago! :)

No, but you can just use the normal PF stuff - battery box, motor and IR Receiver. You'll need to modify the train to take them though, it's not been made to take PF

I don't think we'll get back to the sizes of the first three, but I do think they'll keep it around the size and price of the market, which is fine for me.

Or maybe not, as the 'file is not yet public'.

I bought a roll of bubble wrap for just this purpose.

Tbh I looked in detail at photos of the Holiday Train, and as a model, it's actually completely rubbish. Yes, as a Christmas set it's nice and festive, but the locomotive is just terrible, so I definitely wouldn't want a re-release. I might MOC a more up-to-date train in festive colours (Red, green and white), but I certainly don't want them to waste a production slot by re-releasing the same set.

I love the tree design! Well done!

I have to say I love the Chapparal! Does it have the two fans on the back? Edit: Ah yes it does! Brilliant!

In terms of building, the Passenger Train is (IMHO) far simpler than the Cargo Train, so may be more suitable if your son would be helping to build it. In terms of play value, yes the Cargo Train is better (far better), but at that age will he want complicated things like an overhead crane?

No. From what I heard they've moved a few sets forward so that they don't clash with the Lego Movie sets coming out in Feb/March.

The 10-wide folder is 'not yet public'.

Very good! I can confirm that we have Go-karts here in the UK. Karting in the rain is brilliant fun

Ahh I see, so they're more like stand-alone buildings in a modular style :) Nothing wrong with that though; they look amazing!