drdavewatford

Where can I find a description or tutorial outlining the process of creating these 3D images ? D.

UCS = Ultimate Collector Series; I have to say it's a term I've always associated with the Star Wars theme, but clearly others on here also apply it to large sets such as Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower etc. Longest set, UCS or otherwise, must surely be the UCS Imperial Star Destroyer 10030 at around 3 feet long. which I suspect is longer than any train that LEGO has ever produced. It was certainly for me the hardest to display due to its sheer size. I agree that Eiffel Tower must be the tallest. Dr. D.

There's a nice boxed example for sale on eBay UK finishing later today I think, but you'll need to stump up at least £49.99 as that's the starting price........... I won't be bidding ! Dr. D.

I've loved watching this set-up grow and evolve, and I don't want the work to end......... Perhaps Eurobrickers should have a whip-round for Rapseflaps so he can go out and buy more sets to add to the town !! It's a shame that you'll have to return to real life soon and break up the town. I guess many of us have a dream that we could have enough space to leave our set-ups in place indefinitely and gradually add to them over time, but for most of us that will remain a fantasy. Dr. D.

These pics are great, but I'm totally mystified by the process of 'modelling' the parts - how do you actually do this and create the images ? Dr. D.

Correct - Taj Mahal is by far the largest set in terms of the piece count (5922 pieces) that LEGO has produced commercially. The UCS Millenium Falcon is the second largest (5195 pieces), and the most expensive (but worth every penny IMHO !!). If anyone's interested, third place in terms of piece count goes to 10188 Death Star (3803 pieces), fourth place to 10143 Death Star II (3441), and fifth place to 10181 Eiffel Tower (3428). Dr. D.

Disappointing to see that the link was to TRU in the US, but at least when I looked on the UK TRU site they are now taking pre-orders on the Toy Story 3 sets ("to be released 01 June") and offering free delivery (which they don't usually do).

Thanks very much for all the compliments ! The relatively 'unfussy' design was deliberate - I think too many details and unnecessary features can have a detrimental effect. Market Street is a good example - while I love the colour scheme and overall design, it's a little too fussy for my liking, trying to cram too many details into too small a space. I think if I was to change one thing about my MOC it would be to try to raise the height a little. When it's standing on its own the height is fine, but alongside the modulars it could maybe use more height. I could certainly have taken a lesson from Market Street here - I adore its raised front door and 'sub basement' level which raises the structure by 4 bricks. No reason why I couldn't borrow this design, although probably best not to have my MOC next to Market Street if I decided to to this.....! Cheers, Dr. D.

OK – here’s a MOC with a difference……..all will be revealed ! For reasons that will become clear, I needed to design and put together a building. It needed to fit in to a very specific space alongside some of my official LEGO modulars, and it needed to not look too out of place against the creations of the LEGO professionals ! I looked around for inspiration, and eventually found pictures online of a beautiful old building in Scotland, the Edinburgh School of Architecture : Edinburgh School of Architecture My brief was therefore to design something inspired by this lovely old building. I had never used Lego Digital Designer, but thought that this project would be a good way to get some experience with it. After spending far too much time swearing at the screen, trying to get pieces to fit in the right places, trying to figure out the zoom and rotate functions, I eventually managed to produce something which I was happy with. I duly ordered the parts, paid for them, and they arrived a few days later. Instructions for the build were online, and I put it together over a few leisurely hours. And here’s what I built – a College/University building to stand beside my official modulars : I struggled for a while to try and recreate the double and triple arches from my inspiration, using only pieces available from LDD. I wasn’t 100% happy with the results, but couldn’t figure out a way to hide the studs from the top of the arches. I was however happy enough to accept the result. I borrowed a number of techniques I’d learned from building Fire Brigade, Green Grocer etc., for instance the dark bley tiling against the light bley brickwork on the outer edges of the building, the lamp post, the balcony etc.. I admit that the orange stripes aren’t very ‘realistic’, but I wanted to add a splash of colour, and figured I deserved some artistic license ! Here’s the college from an oblique angle : Here's an alternative view of the facade : And here it is from the side : No windows on the sides, but we’ll get to the reasons for that shortly….. Both figures – the tutor and the student - were available to order via LDD. Here’s the tutor standing on the balcony : And here’s a student loitering at the front door : What’s not immediately obvious is that I tried to include a roof garden. It’s more ornamental than useful, but I thought it’d be more interesting than just adding a plain black roof. Here, for completeness, are the boxes that LEGO shipped my parts in. They’re identical to each other : So far, so unremarkable. Now for the twist….the problem I wanted to solve was that next to my row of modulars was a bunch of ugly computer equipment (external hard drive and a wireless hub) plus some receipts and stuff. It’s pretty much fixed due to the location of my Mac and other equipment : What I wanted to do was to construct something that would hide all this kit, and there’s the twist – this College is hollow, and built so as to accommodate and hide all the equipment : I think it does a pretty good job of hiding the mess (although you can just about see the blue light from the external hard drive through the windows if you look closely), and doesn’t look TOO out of place….. Here’s the whole of this modular row, which includes the Grand Emporium, Fire Brigade, Market Street (minus the market !) and then my MOC College. Café Corner and Green Grocer are elsewhere on the desk and out of shot. Now you can see here where all of the equipment crams inside the college. Looks very simple, but it wasn’t as easy as I’d expected – removing the back means no rear support for the roof, so it’s not as stable as I’d like, particularly with the additional weight of the roof garden to be factored in. As it’s a college, sometimes students and tutors from other places of learning come to visit. Here you can see students and tutors from Hogwarts (set 4709) on a day visit ! Happy building, and thanks for reading. Dr. D.

Magnificent ! Even my non-AFOL wife was impressed.........

Fantastic review - we're really being spoiled with Ninja sets on EB right now ! Gorgeous set as well - I was outbid on one of these on eBay recently; I wonder if the other bidder was Clone O'Patra ! There's also something about the box art I love. I think it's the background. I will really have to get one..... Dr. D.

Superb review ! Compared with some of the sets in the theme I think this particular set is perhaps a bit plain, but there are some lovely details. Judging by the prices that used sets in this theme are going for on eBay, it's starting to be recognised as a bit of an underrated classic theme I think. I only have the Robber's retreat set so far, but I'd love to get hold of some more of them. Cheers, Dr. D.

Nice set; I like that LEGO went for a totally different design to last year's yellow station, as over time it means we get a variety of structures rather than variations on a theme in consecutive years. Hmmmm - in addition to all the Star Wars, modular buildings, upcoming Harry Potter, PoP, and Toy Story stuff I can see myself buying the station, level crossing and 2 new trains as well when they appear in the UK. Is it physically possible to drown in LEGO ? And has LEGO ever been cited in a divorce case ? :-)

I have to confess that when I buy used sets from eBay I always check that all the parts are present (via Peeron or Bricklink) before I build. Yes it's time consuming, but I really hate discovering that pieces are missing during a build and having to stop and order pieces from Bricklink part way through. I would estimate that less than 50% of the sets I've bought which were sold as complete actually were - either pieces were missing, or there were substitutions with "equivalent" pieces (e.g. two 1 x 2 bricks rather than one 1 x 4 brick), or substitutions with similar pieces of a different colour. Shoddy. But yes, I do love receiving a carefully packaged set, mainly because (1) it's generally more likely to be complete, and (2) the box is less likely to have been damaged in transit. Note to eBay sellers - do NOT just ship LEGO in bubblewrap and packing tape - the set will get squashed. Please PUT IT IN A PROTECTIVE BOX for sending ! End of public information bulletin.... Dr. D.

You need a "depends" category ! Some sets I'm desperate to build, e.g. Emerald Night, Grand Emporium, and crack open as soon as I have some uninterrupted time. Other sets I buy just to keep my collection up to date, e.g. retired MISB Star Wars sets. These are sometimes never opened unless it's a set I genuinely love; certainly there's no hurry with these. When I eventually got the UCS Imperial Star Destroyer I couldn't wait to get building, but I'm not in such a hurry with 7111 Droid Fighter, for instance, which has been unopened on the shelf for more than a year. Dr. D.

I have all of these, and it's really gotta be the UCS. That baby is beautiful. Midi scale in second place because it's genuinely swooshable and actually looks like the MF despite the relatively low piece count. The others are too inaccurate for my liking, particularly 7190. The argument that 4504 and 7190 have a vaguely usable interior is bogus in my opinion - my house has an interior, but I don't see anybody voting for that..... Point being that an inaccurate model with an interior doesn't really cut it ! Dr. D.

Surely you jest ?! The original Tantive IV wipes the floor with the new one, with its weedy engines and multiple design compromises. The only 'plus' about the new version is the minifigs. Same goes for 6211 ISD, which is very poor compared with it's big daddy 10030. The greater piece count in UCS sets usually means a more accurate and detailed model. We've already had 2 smaller and pretty basic imperial shuttles (3 if you include the mini), so it's time for a more accurate UCS version I reckon. Dr. D.

With the World Cup this year, wouldn't it be amazing if LEGO produced a limited edition set with figs wearing the shirts of all the participating teams - superb ! Printed shorts on fleshie legs, with a random selection of hair colours and types.

Safely tucked away in its little polybag, this has the look of a promo giveaway, similar to the chrome Vader and the shiny stormie. Maybe we'll be seeing it in TRU with purchases of Lego Star Wars set sometime soon......... Dr. D.

Indeed ! If I discover that one of my neighbours has a 2005 or 2006 set I guess we can compare blues..... Chances of that are slim to nil, however - most of them think my Lego building and collecting is insane, so I suspect it's unlikely that any of them have a 10152 set !! Cheers, Dr. D.

Superb - great job ! Dr. D.

OK, here goes.... I'm 42, and after a Lego-filled childhood I emerged from my long. long dark ages around Christmas 2008 when my wife (who knew of my past love of Lego and my enduring love of Star Wars and put 2 and 2 together....) bought me the Lego Death Star for Christmas. Building the Death Star brought the joy of Lego flooding back, and since then I've become addicted all over again. The danger is that now I have a good income, and thousands of pounds have been spent buying up current sets, catching up on sets I missed, and buying up sets from my childhood in intact original boxes (although I still have 2 huge crates of well-worn Lego from my past, few sets are complete and only a couple have boxes). eBay has become my friend, although my wife and my bank manager would disagree. My first train was 171, running on a circle of blue track. I installed the black battery motor as a kid and played with it for hours. I still have most of the original pieces (including the train and carriage bases with wheels), but not the motor. I rcently bought a neat boxed 171 with instructions from eBay, and seeing the box art and instructions again brought the memories flooding back. 171 was the only train I owned until I saw the pre-release shots of Emerald Night and fell in love with it. I bought it and built it the day it was launched in the UK, and it's still on display on my desk. I added the PF motor to it, and one day would like to have it running on a good-sized layout rather than just the short stretch of track upon which it sits currently. Next I bought Santa Fe, plus one of the passenger cars and one of the baggage cars. I'd love a whole train, but the prices are crazy. Most recently I've bought a Burlington BNSF - I love the colour scheme. I also have the most recent station (7997) and extra track (straight, curves and some of the flexible track). I'd like to get the retired Cargo Train (7898) and will pick one up if I find one at a reasonable price. I'm also ready to splash the cash on the new 2010 trains, particularly the yellow cargo train which looks superb to me. I keep seeing interesting older trains and wagons on eBay, but they go for pretty high prices so I'm playing a waiting game, just waiting for bargains which come along now and then. Incidentally, I love the little train 'icons' that many of the train techies have on their messages - do you guys just capture the pics of each-others e-mails and add them to your own, or is there a repository of all the icons somewhere ? So that's me, hopelessly addicted to Lego Star Wars, the modular buildings, Lego Indiana Jones, exclusives like the Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower, as well as collecting older sets, and frankly running out of space..... Happy building and collecting, Dr. D.

If you recall, I dropped LEGO customer service an e-mail asking what, if any, differences there are between the 2004, 2005 and 2006 editions of 10152 Maersk Sealand, and also between the 2004 and 2006 instructions. Their replay was "It is as a matter of fact the same product that was produced in 2004-2006, so the building instructions would be the same." So looks like there are no structural differences between the different sets, or indeed between the 2004 and 2006 instructions. I e-mailed back asking whether it was true that there were subtle differences in the Maersk Blue coloured bricks between the 2004, 2005 and 2006 sets, which is what it says on Brickset, and I'm awaiting an answer. I did read on one forum that LEGO ran out of Maersk Blue ABS due to greater than expected demand for the limited edition 10152 sets, and the company Maersk paid Lego to source some more ABS for a second production run, which might explain subtle differences in the blue colour referred to on Brickset. It IS a lovely colour, incidentally, although I'm not sure what else I could realistically use it for..... Apologies to the 99.999% of Eurobrickers to whom this topic must be utterly incomprehensible and extremely boring ! Cheers, Dr. D. <EDITED> OK, just heard back again from LEGO customer service regarding 10152. Their comments as follows : "Actually the residue from a production of light blue LEGO bricks back in 1997 were used for the production of this exclusive cargo liner. The light blue granules had originally been used for the Maersk truck in 1997 and the residue had been stored in a warehouse in Billund. Seeing as the sets from 2004-2006 are the same, the bricks included and the color of bricks are the same as well." They were happy for me to post this info to the Eurobricks forum (I checked with them first).

Thanks for the responses. Not sure I'll have time to compare my 2004 instructions with the 2006 version page by page, but I have fired off an e-mail to LEGO customer service to ask them about this, and perhaps they'll have an answer for me..... I'll post on here if I get any useful info. Cheers, Dr. D.

I fully agree that it would be fantastic to have a reliable indication of when sets are to be retired. Few of us can afford to buy every set we want as soon as they are available; in practice we need to carefully plan out the timing of our purchases according to money, space availability etc. I'm losing count of the number of sets which have been retired without warning and which I've subsequently paid well over the odds for on eBay. Can't LEGO give us some indication of its plans ? Dr. D.