Hobbes

Uh... it isn't? Cool, why have I always been worried then... bid away! X-D As for the station: I've noticed, too, that this one's reeeeeeally hard to find MISB. Also the red version. They do pop up on ebay.de now and then, but not MIB, let alone MISB. On the other hand, I don't know what's so special about it. It's not my favorite station. It's a nice set with a nice building, no doubt, but I've never liked train stations that are just "a house". While they are pretty nice photography "models" in real life they just lack what makes them a train station: you know, platform roof and the like. 7824 is one I like. I know, it's very "plain", but looks more like a train station to me than 2150 or 4554 (and just look at the number of MF!). Might be the fact that I just like big, modern train stations, like the new "Berlin Hauptbahnhof" (Pic1, Pic2, Pic3, Pic4, Pic5) that just recently opened. The new LEGO City Airport goes in that direction, even more than 4513 which was a good start. I'd like to see a trainstation like the airport for next year. I won't buy the RC train sets but a good looking trainstation I'd buy. Now back to counting my endless money supply...

I just finished 8421 the other day. It really looks good, I think, but as you already mentioned on LUGNET once it does pretty little. I was "prepared" for that - I thought. Cos I didn't expect that little function. Although I must say I like the mechanism in the crane arm where you can switch between the thread up/down and the arm extending. Those were new parts to me. Overall it's a very expensive set for what it does (fortunately I got it on sale). I hope this year's sets make up for that :-)

Didn't sound like it, though... We would have, if your way of civilised expression would have shown more clearly... I doubt that. Inexperienced ebayers in a bidding war tend to overpay a lot, so you end up with lots of auctions you didn't win. Sniping, on the other hand, is a lot cheaper, methinks, cos there's no bidding war and you bid within the last few seconds so no one has the time to rethink their maximum bid.

Ignore him. Trolls can't feed on ignorance...

I guess that happens when you take sports too seriously. I've been a fan of a baseball team that had its last winning season in 1997. Since then they've finished near the bottom of their division every season. I've heard my share of jokes and mockings. I just don't care ;-) I kinda had to start the thread the way I did because I couldn't stand how the Germans think of their foosball* team and how they saw themselves als champions already. There was a certain arrogance I didn't like. So I was happy they got kicked out, just for the sake of it 'cos I don't even care about foosball*. The tournament for me is done now, I saw what I wanted to see ;-) * Spelled like that on purpose

Well, I voted for 381. "It wasn't an easy choice, believe me." It was the time I grew up with LEGO and I started browsing through the catalogs. It was the first police station I really "noticed". And I agree with basically everything Brickster said. I like the color scheme and it has a few special pieces you won't get that easily today. I wouldn't mind getting one and modifying it to a more modern style, but keeping the old color scheme. What I noticed, though, while browsing through the pictures: The older models don't have backdrops in their product pictures. This makes them look kinda plain compared to the newer models. To me this is most noticable with the Metro PD station, which I own. The city in the background, obviously evening or night time and the water next to the station look really cool. But you know what? It looks pretty "normal" in reality without all that. I do like the product picture of 6540, too. I'm a harbor/marina fan and always liked the backdrops of the sets of that time, for example the two cargo harbors (6541, 6542) and the marina. I also own the latest set, 7237, which apart from the hideous baseplate, does look cool, I think. They use less different colors than in the past and emphasize on black and white which gives it kind of a "mean" look. 6636 and 7035 don't appeal to me at all.

The referee was pretty good for a change. Replays showed him right all the time except once, I think. Can't remember what that was, though (that was while I built my crane). As for the game, same answer as (...) Link deleted by Yoda because that thread does not exist anymore (since both topics are merged) ;-) PS: How about merging the two Germany-Italia threads, master yoda? Unless you want to keep 'em seperate...

Actually, I'm quite satisfied >:-) Umm... which match did you watch? I built my 8421 Technic crane and didn't really pay attention, but all I heard was the commentators talking about yet another italian attack. Mrs. Hobbes watched the game and also said that but for a few counterattacks Germany was pretty much contained by the Italians. And... what's this beauty-guy's name.... Ballack?... he had his worst match of this tournament. Extra time I did watch (my crane was finished) and all I can say is: Italy came out with full force and Germany was more or less dead meat. Those two goals were WELL deserved (Italy had two shots at the post, too). No matter what everybody says about defense and so on: you only win when you score more goals than your opponent, not when you argue better (like Lehmann and Ballack did all the time)...

0 - 2 :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

Polls seem to attract people, so I'll start a series of polls about Town/City subthemes to try to revive this forum a bit ;-) Since the existence of LEGO Town/City there's one set we've always had over the years: a police station. That fact has led to many controversies, too. Here's a list of all the police stations I could find. Which one is your favorite? If you vote share a few thoughts as to why you like that particular set, if you don't mind ;-) Here are the candidates (Click thumbs for bigger pictures) 1. 370/585 Police Headquarters One of the first (if not the first) police stations (with minifigs) was released in 1976 and came with two set numbers, 370 and 585 (why, I don't know). It belonged to the so called "Enviro Model" line. These models featured the pre-minifig version without movable arms and legs. The design already set a sort-of standard for all the "Stations" to come. 2. 588 Police Headquarters/381 Police Station The second one, also, came with two set numbers: 588 in 1977, and 381 in 1979. Note the difference in the name. This set included the now famous minifig with movable arms and legs. 3. 6384 Police Station The next set came in 1983. This was the era of the now classic "Town Station Design", as I like to call it. Fire stations and police stations of that time almost only varied in color and minifigs. 4. 6386 Police Command Base Next up is a set from 1986, which featured a slightly more modern design (at the time) and an interesting name change. 5. 6540 Pier Police Then came a rather long break, and in 1991 we didn't really get a new police station in the classic sense. Nevertheless, I included this set since it is a police set, afterall. 6. 6398 Central Precinct HQ Shortly after, in 1993, followed the next station. This set was released in the "Rescue" subtheme. The design still is reminiscent of the classic "Station", just bigger and a bit advanced. And because it features police vehicles and minifigs I included it in this poll. 7. 6598 Metro PD Station In 1996 LEGO released yet another police set. If I didn't have this set I probably would have missed it since it doesn't have "Police" in its name which was my search term. This set was listed in the "Rescue" subtheme, too. The design is still somewhat classic, but the station's mainbuilding was a bit smaller than its predecessor's. Instead it featured a nifty "island prison" and a boat. After that came a long period of no new town sets whatsoever IIRC. It felt like LEGO itself was in some sort of dark ages. 8. 6636 Police Headquarters In 2002 they then released a police station in the "Town Junior" (sub)theme. The station again got bigger and came in a new color design, which gave it a Matrix kind of look. Vehicles all of a sudden featured stickers for their lights again - Juniorization was the key at that time. Still, you got a lot of accessories with this set. 9. 7035 Police HQ Maybe due to the success of movie blockbusters that featured big cities, the "World City" theme arrived. This theme only consisted of Police and criminals, though (OK, a rescue department also existed). Hence, in 2003, we got another, more modern and big-city-like police station. 10. 7237 Police Station "World City" didn't survive long, though. LEGO tried (and still tries) to go back to its roots and in 2005 resurrected "Town" and called it "City". Among the first sets was --- a police station, of course. This one's the latest and one of the biggest station sets (thanks to its baseplate). As a "cool accessory" it featured a light-up minifig. This minifig became increasingly popular and many got stolen straight out of the box in many stores. Store owners complaind and LEGO reacted by releasing a set without light-up minifigs. Well, that was it. Feel free to vote and post your comments about the sets. I will jump in later when I have more time. As Master Yoda would say: Vote on! X-D

Here's a brickshelf gallery by Ben, a 1000steine member, showing just a few quality issues with LEGO lately. Some of them I've come across, too. Especially the "transparent-ish color" issue:

Amazon.de lists the trains as EUR 99.99 for the passenger train, EUR 149.99 for the cargo train and EUR 14.99 for both points and track. They usually list the SRP if it's not a sale. You can assume that prices will vary around those numbers from country to country.

Look here X-O ... and here X-O ... and while we're at it, here, too X-O ;-)

You're right, it was incredibly boring. 10 minutes of power football, 110 minutes of pushing the ball around in midfield, very exciting... Me neither, I slept through the entire first half... Unfortunately you're right... Sorry, I had to, nothing personal. I'll go to the "Alternatives" thread now ;-)

A 4506 Deep Sea Predators and a 8421 Mobile Crane, both on sale :-)

That's a good question... who does, really? :-P

Well, no surprise to me...

We have to discuss this at the next City Council meeting... :-P

Not wasted, this is great! Love it :'-)

OOOOH AHHHHHH eeeeeewwwww...

I like that one :'-) (I'm a clickable picture)

I know, there's lots of new sets out and we're all hyper, but I thought I'd share this interesting way of creating track ballast I just found on brickshelf: :-)

Yep, they are ;-)

I know what he mentioned, the instructions show a different piece than what's included. It's not a packaging mistake, either, cos I've read/heard the same thing from others who bought that set. Here's a picture: (click me) It's not really a quality issue but rather "quality control". I can confirm the yellow parts, too. I noticed it with the 7344 Dump Truck: some pieces showed a hint of transparency (that's an issue I've noticed with a lot of new pieces) and thus looked "lighter" than those that didn't. In that case it was the fence around the cabin that looked darker. I do have a pic but you can't really see much of a difference, it's hard to photograph. You do see it "with your own eyes", though. Although I can't confirm the other complaints made, in general I can understand Alex' disappointment...

Just noticed that all the pictures are uploaded now. The new RC Trains are available already, too (US): Trains Track And this one sounds interesting (emphasis on sounds): From the LEGO-Vaults CD-ROM I'd especially like to see the "25 never-before-seen building instructions"...