timbutnice

Thanks for the pics, I'd missed the new piece... I'm with the brick-built is better faction. Not that I don't use castle wall pieces (I like them!), but I'd rather have their equivalent in actual bricks instead. The new peice is interesting, and for me one of the best things about Lego is the huge variety of different shapes and sizes it comes in, and the way their geometry allows you to fit them together in new and often surpising ways, so any new piece is to be welcomed. I'd still prefer bricks though (ok stop now as going into repeat mode...) cheers, timbutnice

This is utterly fantastic - I love the dancing skeletons. The crypt is very nice too, I like the idea of the skellies breaking out of their coffins to go party! My favourite touch was the use of the mace as the pendulum in your lovely grandfather clock, Does the spiral staircase come out somehow in the fireplace, or is it just a dead end (the crypt seems to be quite a few studs narrower than the ballroom above) cheers, timbutnice

I use an ostrich feather duster from a local market (costs less than £5). The feathers are very long (over a foot) and very soft, yet quite thick. This makes it ideal as it gets most of the dust off without removing any pieces (even if you are quite vigourous). I say most as it won't get off any dust that has been there for years - think of thin layer between the bricks and the 'regular' dust. The only way I (there are probably loads of different ways out there) clean those is to use something a bit stiffer like a camera lens brush (that has an air bladder in it), but that tends to involve taking things to pieces. I did try washing my lego once years ago, but all it gave me was a drying problem! cheers, timbutnice

Thanks guys, I've just signed up for the Academy - appreciate the gentle persuasion! cheers, timbutnice

Hi, can I join up please, thanks, Timbutnice

Hope you will all forgive another Town Plan review, given that there is one here, but I wanted to review the set in comparison to Café Green Street – feel free to skip down to the end if you don’t want to sit through the review… Name:Town Plan Number:10184 Pieces:1981 Price:£90 (extra penny at Brighton Lego Store) Year:2008 Brickset I’ve been taking pictures of the various Lego sets stashed around my house (Brickset) and came upon a bunch of MISBs that I’ve had hanging around over the last few months The town plan has been under my bed for months, mainly to annoy my wife who is getting increasingly frustrated that I would buy it and not build it! She has now tempted me by promising to buy me Lego if I do build it (this cool way of getting new Lego may not work on your wife / husband / girlfriend etc, and it may nor work again for me, but I may try ). So, on to the review, here’s the front of the box: And the back The document up the top right isn’t actually a certificate like the one in the UCS MF, its just a page in the instruction booklet – very nice to have none the less. Here’s all the pieces in their baggies - the box was not a stuffed full as the Taj Mahal, but still plenty of lovely pieces. Closing in on the baggie, you can see that they are all numbered - this made the build quite quick (relatively speaking), but I prefer the unnumbered bag approach for really big sets – feels more of a challenge, and there’s more of a “where will that end up” factor. The DSS was perhaps unfortunately inevitable, but it’s still a real shame that Lego couldn’t have stretched to more printing (there are some printed tiles) for the anniversary set. I will not stick stickers on Lego, so they get to go in my unused sticker stash. Moving on to the instruction leaflets (x2) we have the part list, spread across 4 pages. The variety of parts is fantastic, as are the colours. The instructions themselves are nice and clear, with colour distinction being pretty good As I said above, the letter from Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen is in here too (in multiple languages): Some nice minifigs in this set, especially the bride and groom – my wife vetoed my idea for sticking these on our wedding cake back in June. Pity. I started with the garage first – all its 2x2 bricks have the slit in their side that takes the roller door construction, despite not all of them being needed for this purpose – result=lots of these bricks to use elsewhere that we wouldn’t otherwise have, which =nice. The main feature of the garage is the lovely lovely curving window, which is just demaning to be made into an Edwward Hopper bar scene like this – anyone spotted this in MOC form? Hope you can see the cooler in the middle of the floor, complete with croissant, banana and apple, mmmm. The carwash is fun, and the bristles feel surprisingly nice if you roll them on your skin, but I digress… Here’s the finished article: There are some great details like this gas cylinder contraption And some more questionable ones, like this tree, with its glowing alien branch core… The garage is hinged which allows it to work on different corners on your streets it also gives a different shape to the interior, either you can have three rooms (car port, office and car wash, see the pic above), or just an office and an integrated vehicle bay and carwash: The second set of baggies include the all important gold bricks (and some silver dishes too). They aren’t chrome gold or silver (think of the chrome in Roaring Roadsters or the gold crown in the smaller recent Castle chess set), but have a duller appearance – I assume this is much cheaper given what I’ve read on these boards before. Anyway, the bricks form part of the fountain Which is very nice, especially the 8x8 trans light blue (I think that’s the colour) plate at its base. The discs are part of the petrol (or gas if you are so inclined) pumps The two vehicles are very nice, and have a suitable retro feel to them, first the car And secondly the petrol (gas) truck: Have a close look at the truck – there are no less than 4 old style doors on there – if Lego can do it here and make it work, why oh why can’t they do it on the otherwise fantastic vehicles they’ve brought out in the last two years (yes Mr. recycle truck and Ms. concrete mixer, I’m talking about you). The truck also has a neat hose at the back, which I think is worth a quick look Don’t spend too long gazing at it though, because we are on to the cinema! I love the tiley goodness on the floor – as others have said, does this make it part of Café Green Street? Well you’ll get my opinion in a bit. The Cinema has two rooms, an open plan foyer and a screen room through a door – the popcorn looks tasty! Here’s one of those printed tiles, although how a poor minifig can get up there to change the movie is anyone’s guess. Here’s a close up of the screen room – due to my hatred of stickers, its currently showing The Polar Express – Extreme Blizzard Edition. The advertising boards and lights are great, shame about the stickers (again). One nice touch was the use of chunky light grey bricks in the roof, which gives it that “built out of huge amounts of concrete and painted brightly feel” that is so true of many modern cinemas (which I think this is despite the art deco bits on the roof – clearly its trying hard, but this ain’t no art house picture palace, baby). Speaking of art deco, here’s the decoration above the roof on the finished building – it is nice Next stop, town hall, and my flash became a bit temperamental about now, so watch out for the changing light balance… Foundations: First floor (from the back): Second floor…. …but there isn’t one – a little office behind the clock tower wouldn’t have hurt too much? All done: Extra pieces in the mandatory fruit bowl. As with my Taj Mahal review there are loads of extra pieces – I think I’m getting careless in my old age, but I can’t work out where I missed them off (especially that plate …). And the town plan all together: My main reason for posting this was to compare it to Café Green Street in all its glory, so here we go with Lego’s most desirable street Across the road we have the result of some retro looking town planning, which while very nice, looks a bit pathetic compared to the rather more substantial addresses just a stone throw’s away. Have a look from above and down the street – the two sets of buildings don’t go at all – they are on a completely different scale. How many cinemas are smaller than a café, or town houses smaller than an apartment block above a green grocer’s shop? The garage is perhaps the exception – I expect it to be only one storey, and it does sort of work. Its by far my favourite of the three town plan buildings. To complete the comparison, here’s the front and back of town plan And the front and back of Café Green Street I know which side of the road I want to live on, although it looks like some unsavoury characters have recently arrived There is of course the small matter of price… The town plan is a little more than 1/3rd of the cost of Café Green Street when all three buildings are together, but are they 3 times better than the town plan? YES! Town plan scores: Pieces 5/5 – an incredibly varied selection Build 4/5 – fun but perhaps a little too easy, some lovely touches in the cinema and garage construction. Playability 4.5/5 – perhaps a little harsh, but my minifigs want to go upstairs occasionally Price 4/5 – I always think of this in conjunction with the parts, and its as good as any set for variety, but loses a little on the quantity side Swooshability 1/5 – it gets one point as its actually fairly easy (I assume) to swoosh its individual buildings, whereas the Taj Mahal isn’t easy to swoosh at all. I haven't swooshed the town plan. Neither is the MF or the ISD, when you come to think of it… Overall – 4.5 /5 would have been 5/5 but for the stickers and the fact that this was the anniversary set – it needed more WOW factor Hope you like the review, Bye timbutnice

Great set and great review! Love the extra pieces - is it just me or are we gettign more and more extra pieces this year? I can't wait to get this one - anyone got the pirate ship out there yet? bye timbutnice

Fantastic job - beautifully proportioned for the base plate size. Love the trees! Any chance of more pics (had a look at your BS and Flickr already) - especially the rock work near the top? cheers, timbutnice

Well I ordered the Republic Tank online, and popped round to my local Tesco's to pick it up yesterday... When I got there they said that there had been a mix up and I would have to come back tomorrow. They did have some on the shelf (at full price), but I talked them into giving me one of those (eventually). Got a call from Tesco today saying that my order had been delayed - this was my first time with Tesco Direct, not sure I'll use them again ...but I am now the proud owner of a lovely tank bye timbutnice

Just checked online and it doesn't look like its repeated there. They do have a splash ad on the Direct front page that says 25% off Clone Wars, but it either doesn't include Lego or they haven't updated the website yet. Which Tesco's did you see the deal at Thanks, timbutnice

I'm in the 'liked the orginal flying wing colour scheme and fuel truck design' camp. Love the mechanic torso though and Indy's tux bye timbutnice

I've been waiting for the Autumn Argos discounts for a while - it seems to have become an annual thing (I hope). I've reserved my Republic Gunship to pick up this evening, and from the website it looks like you get an extra £5 off voucher as the order is over £50, which is nice. bye timbutnice

Fantastic building, I especially love the roof on the shed - brickshelf link looks simple at first glance but its very effective did you choose the off-colour (or are they just and old / new brown mix) brown tiles on purpose, or did it just end up like that? Makes it look even better! I like the large bottle / jar thing next to the guy with the ramrod too bye timbutnice

Guys, thanks for all your kind words - hope the review is useful to you. Front page too! didn't see that coming after my 5th EB post! Thanks again Timbutnice

Here's how the scale compares to a minifig or three: and a bit closer in - the little stack of bricks on the left is my guess of how big a minifig would be in scale to this Taj Mahal thanks for the responses guys

Well here goes with my first review, hope you like it... I know some of the pictures are a little fuzzy, but I didn't manage to ship my tripod to my new house yet. The light balance is all over the place as the pictures were taken over the course of the day it took (on and off) to build it. I have had a quick search and couldn't find another review yet (although there are loads of pics on EB already), so hope this is useful. I got this set as part of my engagement present (the other bit being the UCS Millennium Falcon) - amazing what a few years of brainwashing can do to your girlfriend (and now wife) The box is quite a bit smaller than the MF, and very densely packed inside... Front: Back: Size compared to the transport ferry which has about 1/4 of the pieces: The box has three sub-boxes inside, which makes life a little easier when it comes to building: ...and here's all the polybags with my lovely loot nicely sealed up - but not for long! This is where I find the sub-boxes come in really handy - I don't like to sort all the pieces out on a part-type basis, as it takes forever. I generally empty the smaller pieces into a few plastic containers / wife's prized fruit bowl: ...and as huge sets like this have multiples of the same polybag, like this: I simply stack them next to each other in the sub-boxes: This gives me a fairly decent classification of similar parts, and I tend to find my hands figure out where to dart for the next piece all by themselves. Sorry for the boring part sorting digression, back to the review... The instructions come in three parts, with multiple pieces added on each page - the instructions in this case are very clear, the difference between different colours is fine: The base of the Taj is split into 6 sections, basically made up of a box structure with arches along the front (here's the first one with some nicer offsett-jumper steps, and the start of the second one): ...and some simple pillars at the back: The corners where the minarets will stand are made using plate-hinges - a little fiddly, but Lego's wonderful geometry is used to great effect: Moving on to the minarets, they are quite simple with a few connected axles up the middle to keep them together: There is a lot of repetition in this set, as you can see I like to build them all at the same time, rather than going back over again. Does mean that you end up sticking the same ##*~#^# 1*1 clear tiles together a couple of hundred times, but there you go. The main building in the middle is made up of 4 door sections and four corners. The door sections don't actually have doors in them, but you get the idea: And look - official Lego SNOT! I know loads of people do this all the time (must get round to uploading my medieval village with all the barding that works like this), but is this the first time that Lego has made use of this particular horizontal to vertical ratio trick? Here's a completed door section, in official shaky-cam mode The corner sections are fun to build, apart from the 36 1*1 clear tiles (did I mention them) that you need to stick together on each of the two floors of each of the four corners: Sticking it all together, you have a box, albeit a pretty one: The roof is a collection of technic beams, that wouldn't be out of place on the MF (got bored of taking photos by now, so engage imagination please). The central dome is made up from a tower and some snottiness, but it isn't a patch on the one in this MOC Taj Mahal at Brickworld The tower is made up from a central skeleton and some click hinge wrap-aroundness: With the dome bit constructed in 4 bits and stuck together: Not bad, but its doesn't look as good as maybe it could have done? Pretty much done now, here's all the sections: ...and all finished not sure where I went wrong (and I don't think I did), but look at the left-overs.... think all those 1*6 plates came from just one separate poly-bag that didn't contain any other parts - weird as all the other white 1*6s where mixed up in other bags. Did a stray bag make it into my box? think I'd better send them back to Lego... Or not. Took about a day to complete, with several large breaks for breakfast, lovely night out for curry, and a dash into Kingston upon Thames to get the 4991 police helicopter from the Mirror offer, not bad for 65p. My thumb is quite sore from all the pressing, but it is worth the pain. thanks for sticking with me, sorry its all been a bit dry (I've got a Fabuland crow somewhere that I could insert in amusing positions, but I lack the skill and imagination, for now) here's m'scores: price: 5. £200 in Lego shop in Brighton, really good value (although cost to me = 0 due to wife, brainwashing etc) parts: 5. absolutely brilliant - I love all the white arches build: 3. repetitive at times, but it is famous as one of the most symmetrical buildings in the world, so what do you expect? looks: 5. absolutely fabulous. swooshability: don't go there. Or try with yours and post pics - mine is staying on the ground. overall 5 - would be a 4 because of all those little 1*1s and the pain they caused my poor little fingers, but in this case it is forgiven as it is just amazing. Not as good as the MF though. Now have to press the Big Scary Button that will post all the pictures of Cornwall where I thought I had Taj Mahal's... ...oh, there's a preview... ...that doesn't preview the pics... ...pressing now... bye ...curse those damned dynamic links to hell... ...engage gender transformation mode and try to read some instructions for once in your life... ...be with you shortly... all done

Thanks for the welcome guys. I didn't actually buy the Taj Mahal - my wife did as a late engagement present (she bought the Millenium Falcon for my first bit of engagement present)! I thought, fancy watch or lots of Lego? I'm away this weekend but have booked the weekend after to build the Taj Mahal - I had a quick search and couldn't find a review here (I'm sure someone will put me right if there is one and I missed it), so if there still isn't a review by the week after next I'll get on to it.

Hello, I've been lurking here for years, finally got round to registering. I love Space and Castle, haven't really had a dark age, and thanks to an understanding wife my lego habit is getting stronger - recent highlights were the happy arrival in our home of the Taj Mahal, and finding the last Hogwarts Castle at discount in Legoland Windsor.