Roger_Smith

Same here, got it yesterday, started building, and about what felt like half an hour later I noticed it was actually 3 housr later and time for bed :D So far, I built only half of the upper storey, but I already know, I won't be waiting long to order my next one, most likely Pet Shop. As for what could be done, I agree that there should be more retail/residential buildings. The general tendency Lego has to release lots of police/fire brigade sets is propably because they have the most appeal to kids, which in my opinion is something that doesn't have to be taken into account as much for these modulars, as they are directed at a more mature audience. So I'd definately like to see more residential / business buildings, stuff like butcher/bakery, restaurant, hardware store...so stuff you'd need in everyday life and thar we haven't already seen. There could also be a mix of governmental/residential, for example a building with a post office on the ground floor and flats above. As far as purely governmental buildings go, I'd most like to see a courthouse or a museum.

Was that comment directed at me? If so, so did I. My maximum bis was 120€ or something like that. I chose highly because I fully expected the price to explode in the last few seconds as it so often does, but in the end, I entered my bid, which put the highest bid up to 77€, and that's all that happened

This is the lot I scored on Ebay about a month ago: http://www.ebay.de/itm/150979435107 For just 77€, I got about 11kg of Lego. There's a heap of older space (Futoron, M-Tron, SP 1 & 2, Blacktron I, Spyrius, Ice Planet) sets in there, not all are complete of course, but there's mostly just a few parts missing, if any. So far, I mostly spent time identifying the space sets, as that's what I'm most interested in. There's several town sets in there, aswell, some of them with the old 9V light & sound system (the lot contained no less than 5 different battery boxes!). There's a bunch of other interesting stuff, like one of the Technic remote controls and some very few castle and pirates pieces. The biggest or most notable sets (from those I identified so far) to me are: 6395 - Victory Lap Raceway (built it except for the minifigs which I didn't get around to reassemble from the heap of minifigs I now have. The set itself is almost complete, missing only about 4 or 5 parts) 6781 - Space police 1 - SP Striker (built it, it's complete - saw that set alone go for 25-30€ on Ebay...two more medium-sized SP1 sets are in the lot, both of which built aswell, though on the last one, I ran out of blue 'airplane floor' parts and had to use black ones) 6894 - Blacktron - Invader (built it, complete) 6923 - M-Tron - Particle Ionizer (when I got the lot, it actually had the M-Tron super model fully built, you can see it to the far left in the pics on Ebay - there's four or five M-Tron sets in there) 6939 - Spyrius - Saucer Centurion (built it, misses a few minor parts like one antenna etc) 6941 - Blacktron - Battrax (I'm missing the trans-yellow windshield canopy, as I used the only one that was in the lot to built the Invader) 6949 - Spyrius robot (was still mostly intact when I got that, took it apart for washing with no intentions of rebuilding it) 6973 - Ice Planet 2002 - Deep Freeze Defender (turned into a MOC: http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=79637) 6987 - Blacktron - Message Intercept Base (missing one of the big black panels, and also the windshield panel of the small space craft - which was a bit of a bummer. I had hoped it would be in there, it's the only part I'm still missing from my own message intercept base. This second station will serve as a provider for spare parts and most of it will propably end up in the huge 'Blacktron main station'-MOC I'm dreaming about) 8422 - Technic Motorcycle

I recently bought a huge lot of older Lego. It contained one of the big trans-blue panels (http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/2408) from the 6991 monorail set with the sticker on it. The sticker was already pretty damaged and looked pretty unsightly, and after the obligatory trip through the washing machine, it was a complete loss, i.e. most of the upper layer of the sticker had come off. I'd like to use that panel as a spare for my 6990 monorail, but the sticker apparently was applied with some really strong glue. Neither the trip through the washing machine nor my attempts with water and any mild cleaning fluid I have could get rid of it, in fact there's still most of the paper base on there, just the upper part of the sticker with the actual printing came off. Usually, I resort to alcohol/ethanol-based solvents when removing stickers from even surfaces like glass or metal, but I'm hesistant to do so in this case because I fear that the solvent could damage the plastic. Has anybody ever faced a similar problem, or knows what I could safely use to get the remains of the sticker off without damaging the panel? I don't want to resort to strong scrubbing with a hard brush either, as I guess I would end up scratching the panel. Thanks in advance! (I hope this hasn't been discussed already, but my search returned no matching results.)

That's awesome. I never would've thought of using magnets that way in Lego, brilliant engineering!

Now this looks good! When I saw the first pictures of your MOC-approach, I didn't like it too much, because the building looked very plain and boxy and reminded me a bit of 60ies/70ies architecture - which I find rather boring - but with more glass. At that point,. I liked your old, non-modular approach better. With the new entrance and the changed overall depth, it's a whole different story now. This really looks like a modern fire station, and the whole layout feels very realistic. Really nice work, keep it up!

Now they got me, too. The Fire Brigade is on offer on amazon.de marketplace for 135€ (one left now, so be quick if you want it), so I just placed an order. I'm curious as to what it will be like, and figured, if I didn't like it I can propably sell it for pretty much the same price later on... :) And if I should like it (and I highly suspect so), it's a good place to start since apparently it'll be the first one of those currently available to be discontinued, especially considering I don't like the overall look of Grand Emporium very much.

The oldest sets I can remember getting as a kid are 6503 Sprint racer and 6590Vacation Camper, both from 1988: http://lego.wikia.co...Vacation_Camper http://lego.wikia.co...03_Sprint_Racer Before that; I had one or maybe more basic sets, but it's impossible to identify which ones When I got my big box of Lego from our neighbours at the beginning opf the 90ies, I suddenly had a shitload of older Lego, most of which I never was able to build because I didn't have instructions. After I rediscovered Lego at the beginning of this year, I was able to identify a lot of the sets thar are/were in that big box, and also started putting them together (for my first time ever, in almost all cases) if I could find all the necessray parts. So the oldest of that lot thar I managed to put together so far are: 6890 Cosmic Cruiser: http://lego.wikia.co..._Cosmic_Cruiser (1982) 6950 Mobile Rocket Transport: http://lego.wikia.co...ocket_Transport (also 1982) I also have about 90% of the parts necessary to build 928 Galaxy Ecplorer from 1979, but I'm missing some of the big plates plates, about half of the cones and a couple bricks necessary to build the ground station. This is the oldest set I tried to rebuild so far. But there is even some older stuff in my collection, none of which I tried to rebuild, most of which is most likely incomplete. All of these I was able to identify by the special printed parts that I found among my Lego. Oddly enough, I mostly seem to miss the bigger plates in old gray here aswell, with all the printed parts remaining except for two of the ambulance doors...: 123 Passenger Coach http://lego.wikia.co...Passenger_Coach (1969) 124 Goods Wagon http://lego.wikia.co...124_Goods_Wagon (1969) 338 Ambulance http://lego.wikia.co...i/338_Ambulance (1970 - while all of the printed bricks and the big car plate are still there, the two remaining printed doors are completely ruined :() 217 Service Station http://lego.wikia.co...Service_Station (1977)

Amazing. How many bricks are in there, approximately?

I was away from ca 96/97 up until the end of 2012/beginning of 2013. I already told that story in detail in my introductory post here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=78110&hl= My interest slowly faded out starting in about 94/95 (actually it was replaced with an intensified interest in my H0 gauge Märklin model railroad after I convinced my dad to build a permanently installed layout complete with landscape an whatnot in my room, taking up the place that formerly belonged to my Lego city). I occasionally still played with lego (the last set I got must've 6639 Raven Racer), but they more and more just stayed in their boxes and towards the end of the 90ies they were moved to the basement (and the model railroad to the attic. Both not a cool thing to have in your room as a ttenager ;-)). There they stayed until I dug up my Playmobil to give to my niece, which is when I saw the parts of the Blacktron Message Intercept base, which I had had but never was able to build due to my unfortunate lack of instructions (again, refer to my introductory post for more details on that unusual story). It gripped hold of me, and when, after some googling, I found the instructions online, I just had to get my Legos upstairs and finally build it. . I had lots of fun with that, spent hours reading on brickipedia, rebuilt a lot of other stuff from my youth and then went on to make quite a bargain buying a huge lot of Lego on Ebay (almost as big as the one I got as a kid from our fomer neighbor). Now I'm constantly building this old set or that, or coming up with ideas for MOCs :)

I'd go with version one. The engine hood looks much better with the rounded brick on top. Tough a lot of cars from that age had an engine hood that opened lengthwise both ways and was hinged in the middle, the hoods themselves mostly were round, so the rounded brick makes it look more realistic. And I can't tell any other differences between the two versions, except for whatever can be seen below the windshield on version one.

Can't wait for the rest of the review. I fear I may succumb and get this (or another modular) sometime this year.

This also brings back memories for me, I a number of those sets myself, or rather I still have them, but they're not assembled... I'm planning to rebuild as many original sets as I can after I finished re-building my old space stuff. The only one I already built is the big Octan gas station, which from what I've seen still is the coolest and biggest gas station lego made thus far (correct me if I'm wrong, I've just recently rediscovered Lego)

Absolutely breathtaking moc. Love the open back / hinged section that allows a closer look inside.

Very nice MOC, hasa realistic vibe to it. Gas stations don't look much different around here, too.

Thanks again The Deep Freeze Defender had like a dozen jet engines underneath the main hull, and none at the back. I stuck to that idea, just didn't line them up in a row... makes more sense that way to me, otherwise they'd just burn each other

Thanks you two :) That was the intention At 54 studs (52 not counting parts extending over its edge) length it isn't actually that much longer than the Deep Freeze Defender. It's a lot wider though, at 50 studs.

I recently bought a huge lot of old Lego system stuff from Ebay, consisting mostly of Space and Town Parts from around the time of my childhood. I'm still in the process of identifying what sets are buried in that lot (It contained no instructions or boxes), but one that was easy to identify, as it was still 80% intact when I got the lot, was 6973 Deep Freeze Defender. I bought the lot mostly because it had a lot of Blacktron 1 and M-Tron stuff, and originally thought I'd propably resell the Deep Freeze Defender, since Ice Planet came out when I was just losing interest in lego in my childhood. But it is missing a few parts and when I saw what low price even complete sets go for on ebay.de, I quickly thought otherwise. I didn't care for the sets original design very much. The general idea is cool, but I didn't like the way its wings strut out randomly in all directions, and there are several areas throughout that seem thoughtless and unimaginative to me. So it was clear to me that I would use it as a starting point to create a ship of my own, while refering to the original plan in some parts. I took some inspiration from ships like the Futuron 200, borrowing the concept of a ship with a longer hull in the middle and two smaller cockpits at the wingtips. This is the result: A view from the back: Cockpit detail: I decided that my version of the ship would be a lot less peaceful than the original Ice Planet theme. Thus I added manned lasers on the wings that can be turned to either side to some extent. The original Deep Freeze Defender could be separated and recombined in several parts. Since I based the main hull of the ship on the original instructions, the aft section of my ship can also be separated from the rocket-holding-section. I forgot to take a picture of that, but its not that interesting anyway. I also made the wings and outer cockpits separable from the main hull, which leaves a sleek, streamlined ship: The wings and outer cockpits can be recombined to form a smaller spaceship with one laser... or two lasers in the middle! Some more detail shots: I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome, but I still have some ideas that I might add in the future: - adding a second locking mechanism on the outer side of the wing cockpits. That way, I could recombine them into a smaller ship with one cockpit in the middle and two wings with turning lasers. - creating an interlocking part that could be stored inside the back of the wing cockpits that would allow the two cockpits to be connected directly - adding a locking mechaism between the main cockpit and the rest of the ship's main body so the cockpit cound be combined with the cargo section at the back. This may prove difficult or impossible to do without harming the ships look. Tell me what you think of my creation. This is actually the biggest spaceship I ever built, and also my first big creation since I rediscovered Lego just several weeks ago.

Looks really great! One question though, is there a connection between the two corridors? The way it looks on the photos, the longer one that crosses the monorail ends at the outer wall of the shorter one. Is it really built like that or is that just an optical illusion?

This was one of the sets that was included in the giant box of Lego I got when I was about 7 years old (see http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=78110 if you're curious), and it was the only one my parents managed to get me the instructions for. After I unearthed my Legos from the basement recently and built my Blacktron Message Intercept Base for the first time ever, I didn't hesitate long and also built up this beauty again. I'm missing a few minor parts parts, though, with one of the round grey plates with the arrow being the only one that will be hard to track down. I also have one track expansion set, but so far didn't use up all the tracks. Apparently I thought it a good idea to doodle around on two few of the track pieces with red, water-resistant pen, I'll need to find a way to get that off I agree it's one of the greatest space sets of all time, it has tons of play value, really nice features like the rotating part of the ground station (I love the look of those great transparent domes). I would love to get my hands on one of the switch tracks expansions that were introduced later with the second monorail space set. To my amazement the little motor still works like a charm after all these years, even though I spent a lot of time playing with it when I was a kid (and the very abrupt changes of direction the special track pieces evoke can't be too good for it) and then it spent around one and a half decades in a basement.

It's a real beauty. Back then, they managed to create lots of cool features out of few special bricks (when compared with some of the later space themes, where some sets seemed to consist mostly of special bricks).

Hi there, my name is Tobi, I'm 28 years old and live in southern Germany. (this kind of went out of hand, but I hope some will enjoy reading this. My not so common Lego-story) Growing up I was a major fan of Lego and spent most of my time playing at home building and demolishing stuff. I used to have a giant Lego City in my room, way over 2m² big. My interest in Lego grew exponentially when, I think it was sometime in 1991, my parents helped out a neighbour of ours, who at that time was hgoing through marital difficulties or something. This subsequently led to that Lady gifting me with her son's (who had 'outgrown' Lego, as she said) entire box of Lego as a way of showing her thanks to my parents (they were kinda rich, so I assume this was nothing to her and she was propably getting rid of some stuff that was only taking up space). This box was about 60 x 40cm and 40 cm high and more than half-filled with all sorts of bricks. And, on top of that, there where pieces of a white & blue monorail with lots of track parts and a - mostly intact - giant black and yellow space station. As you propably can imagine, I basically freaked out with joy when I saw that box standing in my room. Unfortunately for me, that box must've sat untouched for a few years, as it was all covered with grime and dust. Additionally, as I soon discovered, its previous owner had thrown all kinds of stuff in there, among them a lot of old batteries, some of which leaked battery fluid all over the place. When my mother saw this, she decided that I wasn't going to get to play with my prize until after she gave all the bricks a good and thorough scrubbing. Perfectly understandable looking back, but back then I was horrified and begged her to be extra careful with that space station. But, when I got home from school some days after, she told me she had tried to clean the space station and it broke apart, so she went ahead and disassembeld it completely in order to better be able to clean its parts. She was certain I'd be able to rebuild it. Right... I was heartbroken, because one thing that wasn't in the box was the instructions. Our neighbour claimed she used to throw those away along with the packaging as soon as the set was built... (7-year old me did an inner facepalm when he heard that) I managed to identify the space station (as you may have guessed, it was the magnificient Blacktron 6987 Message Intercept Base) and the monorail (Futuron 6990) from an older Lego catalogue (both already were no longer produced by that time), and also guessed at some other sets that the neighbours kid may have had (as I found out soon, most of those guesses were wrong), and my parents actually wrote to Lego with my story and asked if they had spare instructions for these sets they could send us. Incredibly, Lego responded and sent us several instruction sheets, along with a 260 idea book, and a letter in which they explained that they didn't have inctruction sheets for all the sets we asked for. So I at least got the instructions for the monorail, but not for the Message Intercept base. I had heaps of fun with my legos, built my city, and oftentimes would put together the monorail (it was the entire thing plus the monorail expansion pack) and some mock space stations with all the space parts I had (apart from the monorail and the parts of the base; I also found a lot of other special space bricks, some of them with print, and I guessed from their overall design (correctly, as it turned out) that they were even older than the few sets I was able to identify. But I never forgot about the Message Intercept Base and started several attempts to build it from the picture in the old catalogue (I treasured that). I never got even close to the original, though. As I grew older, other things came into my life and at some point towards the end of the 90ies, I packed up all my Lego stuff and moved it to the basement. Fast forward to 2012 My lego stuff still had its home in the basement by the end of 2012. A different basement in a different house now, but a basement nonetheless. For christmas, I decided to give some of my old playmobil stuff to my young niece. I dug it up to give it a thorough cleaning, and while on that task, stumbled over my lego boxes. With the big transparent blue and yellow panels from the base and the monorail lying on top. Somehow; i couldn't stop thinking of it, and soon found myself on the internet, doing research. It didn't take me long to find the instructions for the Message Intercept Base on worldbricks. When I clicked through the pdf for the first time, I virtually got goosebumps all over and was filled with joy, because I knew that now I would finally be able to built it! Whenever I thought of Lego over the past two decades, that station never was far from my mind, haunting me being so damn close with virtually all the parts being there, but so far because I had no instructions. The fact that Lego never made a station that looked this awesome (in my opinion) for the later space themes didn't exactly help. I remember doing some internet research on it several years back, after a lively discussion about lego with a buddy, but back then all I found was pictures. So, after the Christmas holidays; I decided to get my lego stuff up from the basement, clean it and put finally together that station! During the cleaning process I came across all the other space bricks, and with help of Brickipedia, peeron and also this forum (I had quite some fun reading Rufus Classic Space restoration project: http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=74458) managed to identify some other space sets that I apparently had from unique or special bricks that only came with those sets (e.g. 6950, 6932, 6890, 6783 and the grandmother of all spaceships, 928). In the first week of January, I went ahead and built it. I was amazed to find that I still had almost all of the relevant pieces. I'm only missing the transparent panel for the small space glider - which I don't remember ever having - one of the sloped bricks needed at the back top of the station, 4 small black/yellow antenna/lever thingies (I used all black ones for now) and one yellow 4-high antenna (I used a white one which stands out like a warts :D). I will try to get all these online somewhere, also an intact 5th Blacktron astronaut - I only have four complete ones left. So here it is, in all its current glory. My Blacktron Message Intercept Base: It has to be the most awesome Lego-thing I ever saw. I absolutely love the design, the perfect color scheme, the way it opens up and manages to put whole stories in my head even at age 28. I can't even begin to imagine how much fun I could have had with it as a kid... But it gives me great feeling seeing it, because something that I longed for for so long and so hard as a child, and which intrigued me even years later is, finally there. Even a week after finishing it, I have to smile everytime I see it. I need to get better pictures of it, though :) I may do a series of posts about this and all the other sets I managed to rebuild (for my first time ever in almost all cases) in the Space-forum if people are interested. So far, I built 6950, 6932, 6890 and of course 6990. 6783 and 928 are left as of now, but I'm missing a few vital parts for both of them (the others are all complete, or only miss a few minor parts). So, yeah. Hi from Germany ;-)