xboxtravis7992

Very good work! I guess all Lego products are MOC's of their designer :)

I had long been into trains, Shining Time Station hooked me as a kid and local museums kept my interest. I even snuck out of highschool once just so I wouldn't miss the chance to watch UP 844 roll through my town... Although the first Hogwarts Express was my "first train", what really got me into Lego Trains was the Emerald Night. It came out at the point in my TFOL years that Bionicle had (for the time) lost my interest, and Star Wars was the only thing which had kept me into Lego. The Night and the Cafe Corner were what made my transition from my early Lego years to the brick addiction that would lead to being an AFOL. Once the Maersk Train came out, the hook was well set!

I'm okay with easter eggs and fan "head canon" depicting a G1-G2 connection, but please no official connection. It's funner letting us play it out in our minds and fan forums than getting an official story.

And giant Mata Nui island outline... either a sneaky Easter egg; or all those G1-G2 connection theories are about to come true...

Alright, here are photos from my last set of updates to the design of my 2-8-0:

I just didn't stop... went straight from KFOL to TFOL to AFOL.

An Iron Man fig that isn't red and gold? Darn you Lego, just trying to steal my money again...

Well, men like food so we should know how to cook to darn it! I have been thinking though how these ideas on boy toy/girl toy still affect even AFOL's, I for example don't buy Friends sets since I see them as to girly (but then again I don't buy Ninjago either). However a lot of gender neutral themes are what AFOL's rave about, for example the modular buildings...

Licences theme wise I always would have liked to have seen the Halo license with Lego instead of "MB." But at the same time I admire Lego's "No-FPS" policy since it maintains their integrity. (I am kinda shocked MB did the Call Off Duty licence, although Halo is an FPS its story is more like a Star Wars space fantasy, while CoD's story deals with really realistic and violent themes. So in that sense I am glad Lego doesn't have FPS licenses, other than Portal...) But for original Lego themes: I want the return of an Adventures like theme, a dedicated Train theme, and City sets which don't only depict police stations.

This is what Lego should have done instead of Stars... Well done MOC, it captures the G1 personality rather well.

Already made those changes, if you look on the Mocpages file the last photo shows the curved cab window and a roof done with 1x4 curved bricks. Thanks for the suggestions though, helps me to know I am on the right track. On the LDD file I am working on the tender, so hopefully I'll finish this engine soon!

I am interested in several themes too. Star Wars has always been a draw for me, one of my first sets being the original gray X-Wing. As a kid I collected Harry Potter, a bit of Exo-Force and even Galidor (I was eight years old when I bought those Galidor figs, cut me some slack!). Now as an adult I still get Star Wars sets, the Modulars are a huge draw to me, I buy Bionicle half out of nostalgia and half out of sheer amazment at how improved they are. I have a lot of trains, including all three "exclusive Power Functions" trains. I have a lot of Marvel Superhero sets too. I have a few Lone Ranger sets, and I want to get some Lego Movie sets.

Yeah, although the research institute was skewing traditional gender toys, it was still gender based. The only way Lego could be without gender bias is if themes were 50% split figure wise, but Lego doesn't seem to do that. Even Bionicle with it's strong female characters is a 80% dude to 20% gal ratio.

I recall that the Minecraft submission on Cuusoo was a bunch of bricks and a mini-fig in the middle. But what Minecraft did have was a strong business case and a rabid fan base. And look at how much Lego was willing to milk out of that idea! If Ideas submissions are not great build wise they can progress if they have a real business case at least.

Well in products there can be divisions between boys and girls, and when kids play there can be divisions between boys and girls. But sometimes the two things interact in wonderful charming ways. When I was a kid somehow my Toa Mata became husbands of my sister's Barbie collection. It was a weird synergy, Barbie cooking food and preparing to go see a movie, when suddenly her husband Tahu stomps in the front door tired from a long day of fighting Makuta. It was strange, and yes gender divisions were still present: but it was a heck of a lot of fun. And I guess while my sister and I were still young I played with a lot of "girl" toys just by being with her. Heck, I played "Barbie Horse Adventure" in its entirety just so she could unlock all the levels...

Okay, how many of us have been in this situation: We are shopping at a local supermarket and we sneak to the Lego aisle. While casually gazing the sets we watch some mom and a very excited kid come in and start looking at all the Lego. The kid seems to declare what he wants, while his mom tries to convince him that is not what he wants. While we watch this scene the back of our mind is cluttered with thousands of reviews from Brickset, Eurobricks, BZpower, Brothers Brick and anybody else you can think of! We struggle with all our might from not stating our opinion, and watch in silence as the process between mother and child drags on. Eventually the mom and child come to a conclusion and leave the aisle, or we leave to keep from bursting from the seems with Lego opinions. Am I the only one who feels this way? Or better yet, has anybody actually had the guts to chime in and tell the family what your opinion is on the Lego sets for sale? Can we as AFOL's contribute to their Lego experience or would we just come across as super nerds?

Wow, I first thought that fig looks so wild it can't be purist. Then I looked close and realized it IS purist. Wow, very well done.

I think the Falcon looks best in grey, but the white version looks great too! I imagine it as another ship, perhaps for a professional shipper that cares more about his ship's appearance than its performance.

Thanks for the best wishes on the exam. But now I am getting shivers realizing just how wrong that joke can be taken... Oops. First review on Eurobricks, and I already have learned a leason on what not to repeat again!

Yeah, in retrospect that line was more not the humor I was going for, and now that I think about it seems too easy to read into wrong. Pulled it from the review so as not to cause problems.

REVIEW: 70786 Gali Master of Water So the last few days have been crazy for me. I had to go to a clinic due to a sudden increase in heart speed and drop of blood pressure, my computer glitched out, and then my car was booted. On top of this I have to prepare for a Spanish 3040 exam tomorrow dealing with "Subjunctive Verbs." *Shivers* So yeah, it hasn't been that fun the last few days. As an escape I have been logging onto BZpower and Eurobricks frequently, as such a certain siren came and caught my ABS loving heart. Gali, the Master of Water. So with my nostalgia running overdrive, and a desire to escape for a moment from the drudgery of irregular Spanish verbs, I hunted down Gali in a local Smiths. So there she is, that siren which robbed me of 15 dollars... Her ABS glory coupled to a high sense of nostalgia for my simple childhood in 2001, made it easy for Gali to take my heart. But first before I built her I had to procure some food... My plan for chips and salsa was killed by a super tough salsa can lid... Was this can of salsa going to stand between me and my Gali? Fortunately no, since Kivoda the Protector of Water offered an alternative dinner: the fruit of Ga-Okoto. Fresh StarKist Tuna, raised in Okoto, packaged in Ecuador! Kivoda was more than excited for me to save Gali from her box enclosed status, and did all in his power to release her from the carboard prison! I told you I was going to be studying Spanish tonight... Maestro oddly enough translates as both Master and Teacher. So maybe Gali is now the Teacher of Water! With a mighty relic from the stash of President Buisness, the mighty sword of "Kni-Fe de Booter!" I saved Gali from her boxed state. And there it is, Gali's pieces... As per Eurobricks tradition we must all stare at this photo of "New and Interesting Pieces." Please don't drool while admiring this. This is probably the craziest piece ever: Yeah, so anyway Gali's build starts of simple enough. This part should take Bionicle fans all of 5 seconds of intesne labor. You know, all of Gali was a simple build. I was hoping she could compare to the build of a modular building, but for some reason Lego expects us to have simple builds in 15 dollar sets (obvious sarcasm)... At least it didn't take me 4 hours like a modular does! I love that Lego has included gearboxes in Bionicle again, it is such a wonderful throwback to the classic 2001 sets. Here is Gali near completion, torso pieceless and headless... Her torso plate is a Hero Factory Breakout torso, so if anybody wants to remove her lovely printed chest piece to shove a small circle with an H into her heart... be my guest. And the moment we have all been wating for... Gali in the flesh! That mask really finishes it off, as soon as the mask is placed her character really comes out. She has a very sleek, feminine, war like appearance. As other reviewers have noted, Gali's fins can link so she can become a Bio-Mermaid and recreate scenes of Disney's hit classic "The Little Mermaid." Gali: "Up where they talk, up where they walk, up where they stay all day in the sun!!!" Gali's staff can become a battle axe, and as you may have noticed I put the fins on upside down... Oops. Kivoda is happy to have a fellow water tribe friend now... The Toa and Protector pairings look great together, very reminisent of the Toa and Turaga pairings in classic Bionicle. Of course with pieces from the Protector of water Gali can get some new equipment to battle for Okoto! Although not as complex as Bionicle G1's combiner models, this is a lot more visually pleasing than slapping Gali together with a green and white Toa to build a wide hipped three torso Kaita... Here is Gali with my entire 2015 Bionicle collection. Sorry the photo is a bit blurry. Gali stands out wonderfully, I like how her blue is contrasting with Tahu's red. So my thoughts on Gali are is that she is a wonderfull addition to the Bionicle range. The last time I bought a Gali set was back in 2001 itself, and I can see very plainly how Lego has improved on Bionicle in the past 14 years. Gali is a great figure, and stands out in a collection. She is a must have for anybody interseted in Bionicle 2015. What is that Kivoda? I have to return to reality now? Sigh... time to study those irregular verbs and subjunctive for that exam tomorrow. Hasta luego mis amigos!

Very strange theme. The figs look nice though. If kids and parents like it then TLG will have a hit on its hands at least; and then we can focus our spare change on the modulars instead of this!

Funny to think that Lego was planning on using Chima to replace Ninjago, and now Ninjago lives while Chima dies... The irony of it all! I don't know how I would have reacted to this set as a kid, I probably would not have cared much for it since it lacks the iconic styles of Star Wars, Harry Potter, or even Bionicle. However, as a kid I did get that giant Exo-Force robot spider-thingy which seems to be equal with this set on terms of unganliness and strangeness...

Oh I had many ideas of Mata Nui as a kid. I imagined him as a Toa who was a demi-god that God(yes, that God) had given control over the Bionicles (I also thought that the player character in MNOG was a human, so as a 7 year old kid I drew a goofy comic of a 7 year old saving Ga-Koro while God kept trying to prod Mata Nui awake...). Once I realized Bionicle had no connection to reality, I soon accepted Mata Nui was either a Titan or a god/spirit. So yeah the whole Big Robot/Michael Dorn/Exiled Toa in a Mask was very far from what I had imagined.

That's no moon, its a train station! Absolutely enormous and beautiful.