Carbohydrates

I disassembled my Cafe Corner yesterday and noticed that a good number of 1 x 1 round bricks had four equally spaced cracks in the very bottom of the tube - all of them brown. I know LEGO had a bad batch of brown at the time CC was produced (just look at the color irregularity in the 1 x 6 and 1 x 8 brown bricks that make up the walls), so it can probably be chalked up to that, but it was slightly sad to see. I purchased and built Cafe Corner just after Fire Brigade was released, so it took less than a year for these cracks to appear.

Aww, poor robot doomed to a life of assembly line manufacturing. The clock over the conveyor belt really adds to that one. I bet it never moves.

Honestly, I'm not sure the odds are great for a Western comeback. Red Dead Redemption puts the idea on the map, but I'm just not sure the market's there for it. It has one of the smaller followings among Historic themes, sadly.

I agree! That's one of the nice things about LEGO: finding a new use for an existing part, like revolvers for handlebars or palm tree trunk pieces as exhaust pipes. That said, there are some really UNNECESSARY parts in existence. Maybe not useless, but more of a "why does this exist" thing, like some of those Jack Stone parts, or the 1 x 2 x 2 brick.

Very nicely done, and it should cross the threshold into perfection as soon as this piece becomes available in blue! edit: It IS available in blue! Well there's one simple change you can make to push it over the edge!

Just the battle packs. Battle packs, the collectible and vintage minifig series, magnets, and certain specialized parts of other sets (camels in PoP sets, figs in Toy Story sets) are made in China at a lower cost with varying results. If this is your first run-in with the Chinese plastic, consider yourself lucky. It's not unbelievably horrible, but it is noticeably lower quality and it's an ugly direction for LEGO to be going, IMO. Most of us who are into this hobby are resigned to the fact that it isn't a particularly cheap one, and so I think I'm not alone when I say I'd rather pay a little extra for minifigs to ensure they're built to the amazing quality standards we're used to and that they'll stand the test of time. Sorry for the diatribe, and back to your regularly scheduled thread!

I like your MOC, particularly the detail in the rotor shaft, but I'm REALLY enjoying your presentation! You could have just shown the chopper on its own, but putting it on a little landing pad with a passenger and some cargo makes all the difference. The sharp photography doesn't hurt, either!

Neat designs, but he really needs to get himself set up on Bricklink. I can't stand eBay!

Ah yes, all those 1800s children with their miniature robot toys... takes me back, it does. Hmm, there's a little set that's gotten rather expensive, hasn't it? I'd love to own it for completion's sake, but I don't think I can bring myself to spend the $180 that's being asked for it when I can (and did) buy the much more impressive Emerald Night for about half that!

What a nice looking model! Seems a little small for a UCS set but it's a great size for the level of detail there. That said, that price tag is AWFUL. Not a chance I'll buy this unless I can get it on clearance, and even then, ehhh...

Hmm, looks all right, but it feels like a little bit of a letdown coming from the spectacular toy shop. I'll have to wait for more detailed photos, of course, but I don't feel instantly blown away and impressed like I was when I first saw 10199.

Good lord, it's 128 studs long. I wouldn't have room to display it anywhere!

I have very little on display at any given time. I have enough room for about 64 x 96 studs atop my dresser, which currently shows the four modular buildings I have in an L shape, but I'm going to break that down in favor of a Western town layout. I've also got Emerald Night sitting on a guitar amp and that's about it.

If you want to fill that gap between the bumper and the fender that the reviewer mentioned, replace the yellow 1 x 4 snot brick at the front with four 1 x 1 headlight bricks, then add a 1 x 4 plate between them and the bumper assembly. Finally, a yellow 1 x 2 plate on each side to fill the actual gap. Also, the blower on the roof of the car makes absolutely no sense, especially considering the engine is clearly in the front!

It's been done for practically as long as the piece has existed. The second set ever to feature the original iteration of this piece, 6988-1 Alpha Centuari Outpost, had studs from both a 2 x 16 plate and a 1 x 6 plate pressed into the lattice/grille part of the piece. You can observe this here: http://peeron.com/scans/6988-1/13

I would imagine that since they're architecturally uninteresting and focus primarily on the minifigs, most of which aren't much use in a context outside of sports, AFOLs wouldn't be too thrilled about the line. At least, that's my reasoning.

My guesses would be: 3. Lifeguard-- nothing 4. Vampire-- nothing 5. Witch-- nothing 6. Disco Dude-- nothing 7. Pharoah-- nothing 8. Spartan-- extra helmet plume (assuming it's a separate piece) 9. Mime-- extra heads 10. Adventurer-- nothing 11. PopStar-- extra microphone 12. Surfer Dude-- nothing 13. Ringleader-- nothing 14. Weightlifter-- extra barbells 15. Motorcycle Cop-- nothing (handcuffs were never included as extras in sets that came with them, were they?) 16. Skier-- extra ski pole

5 figs in a $16.50 set. Oh, nineties, we sure do miss you sometimes.

Well I love me a fun exclusive, but I'm not driving from WA state to NYC any time soon nor am I paying $125, so I'll just have to live vicariously through your review!

Indeed, no planar fractures here!

We've seen his fantastic buildings, but I believe this is the first time we get to see them come together as a city!

I love figs! LEGO is such a terrific building medium that I love seeing other characters and things I enjoy immortalized in brick form. Half the fun of building something cool is occupying it with the appropriate figs. Some of them I just have for the sake of having, like the Joker, which I got from a set years back. I wouldn't pay the current asking price of $40 to have it, but I'm not gonna sell it now that I do, either! I'm glad I don't care about Star Wars or I would be very broke chasing down chrome plated this and exclusive that. Oh, and I have 5 sets of the series 1 collectible figs. Love 'em.

Woah, looks like you've got one hell of a city there. I LOVE the seeing eye dog! All the tiling looks intense and costly, but what an end result. VERY nice, can't wait to see more!

I've been working on this one for a while, since before I started on my last MOC. I'm very pleased to say that it's finished! Fun facts: - Takes about 560 steps to build in LDD's build mode - Nearly 1,500 pieces, of which there are: - 124 tan 1 x 2 log bricks (all but 2 of them turned sideways), and: - 74 dark brown 1 x 4 tiles. I also wanna credit Legohaulic for inspiring this with his fantastic western town, and the square card table which was directly lifted from his saloon. Thanks for looking!

Very nicely built! The whole thing has a wonderful feel to it. It does look like the balconies on the model stick out a hair farther than on the real one, so if you're shooting for accuracy there, consider replacing the extruding 1 x 4 fence pieces with a few telescope pieces to shorten it up a little. Just a thought!