MetroiD

Happy Birthday Erd... erm, Birdie!!! Hope you have a great day filled with Swedish chef meatballs... and tons of other niceties. Rowlf & Fozzie Bear should also perform a birthday tune later on! Oh, and just in case I'm mistaken... :grin:

Mah na manah Flitwick? With meatballs? Burt burt burt? Ingweeshkooo mishkeebeeskoon? No? Oh well. Suit yourself. Nice sig, by the way!

I don't understand you, why would we want to put on a show anyway!?

*drool* ! I sincerely hope they re-launch the theme with new nautical sets. Hopefully, they'll still float like the old ones. We're a getting a new floating Police boat anyway, so here's hoping that a new harbour set will soon follow in the summer of 2011! Personally, I'm not so fascinated by the Winter sets anymore. If we consider the Holiday train to be the beginning of that theme - even though it wasn't marketed as one at the time, then I think we can safely say that this year's bakery is the worst of all three Exclusive Christmas sets LEGO have produced this far. I loved the Toy Store, but the Bakery has absolutely failed to impress me. That might however still change when I see it in person...

Those are some beaufitul MOCs and the attention to detail is something definitely worth mentioning here. The addition of an actual MOC train station to the locomotives really helps them come to life - well done! However, would you mind downsizing some of these pics a bit please? The maximum size of images posted on the boards is generally 800x600 - you could, of course, always provide links to your Brickshelf gallery for higher-res picture. Thanks

Heroes, villains - it's all the same to me, when I start mixing torsos, heads and hairpieces in order to create my own minifigs Back to the topic at hand though - I agree with you, Zarkan, but then again you've also got to bear in mind that the Heroes always have cooler gadgets / devices / machinery. So while from an AFOL's point of view villains may be cooler in terms of having more varied appearances or accessories, the heroes always come out on top with their fancy cars, trucks, etc - the Agents' 10-wheeler comes to mind as a very good example of that.

You all just need a hug. I don't see any muppets around here, so you guys must definitely be seeing things. Besides, there's no such animal as a SnuffleupagoiD. We're all serious grown-ups, so please give it a break...

A minifig-scale bike! *drools* Добро пожаловать, Колпак! Welcome to Eurobricks :) And congrats on that MOC - I too must admit that I've always liked the Time Cruisers and this looks just like the kind of thing that could help reinvigorate people's interest in them these days. Keep em coming!

Yes, but only as one of the ~1M crowd gathered at Tiergarten, Berlin for the Live 8 gig. The camera did a fly-be over moi during the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations", if I recall correctly, and I was definitely vibrating pretty well at that time, so I guess it was just the right time Dunno if I've been caught on camera on one of the football matches I've attended, but meh. A friend of mine went to Stamford Bridge to see her first live Chelsea game ever and got a ticket for the lower tier of the Shed End. She ended up live on TV for about half a minute, jumping like crazy after Anelka had scored the first goal of the game literally one metre away from her. If that ain't luck!

Wow, what an awesome review! Seeing those minifigs from up close, well... what can I say. I simply must own this set - and this is coming from someone who actually dislikes HP sets! Great job mate ;]

Very useful info - thanks, Goldenmasamune! I'm planning on purchasing a few of these battery box so obviously I'll put that on hold until the end of 2010 ;) @ Mark: invaluable insight, as usual. I need to do some experimenting with the flex-track on my own, especially since I was considering using it for a tram street layout. I ditched that for 9V though, but I might still end up going back to the flex-track + PF option after your comment.

Well, the basic problem here is, naturally, the 'weird' (to say the least) scale of the standard LEGO minifigs. I guess that with the introduction of modular houses lately, 8-wide trains have finally started to "fit in", but then there's another problem - as Ralph and hoeij already noted, 8-wide trains are: a) expensive; b) tough to get right considering how 'big' they look on standard curves. Thankfully, the latter is alleviated a bit by the introduction of the new PF rails. Truth be old, 8-wide trains are really marvellous and personally, if I start building a steam locomotive as I've planned, it will definitely be in 8-wide. Currently though, I'm still struggling with a tram design which is in 6-wide and is giving me a terrible headache. The tram is very narrow itself, so 6-wide seemed like the natural choice, but that's come back to haunt me now - so in all honesty, choosing 6-wide as the scale to build your MOC in is not always the best option either! Which is why I'm considering switching to 7-wide at the moment with that MOC... Anyway, I don't think there's a straight answer to the question. There've been tons of beautiful train MOCs in all kinds of widths, which obviously means anything is possible - in all scales ;)

I most definitely will, thanks shary ;)

Is it just me or has there really been a huge rise of interest pertaining to the legal side of MOCcing & LEGO in general over the last few weeks? Bagg, for the things you have described this far, you'd best heed tedbeard's advice and be careful about it, especially considering it's Star Wars custom sets we're talking about here which you want to sell separately, without the consent of TLG or Lucasfilm. Omicron is right regarding many of the things he's discussing, but the problem is that they do not really apply to your case here.

The key here is "days". Chinese bootleggers, Mega&&&&&s and other manufacturers can't really manage to launch a similar product within a few days. However, a month, two or even more - as is the case here - may be more than sufficient. As to toys - licences cover a lot these days, so not everyone can come up with a new Barbie, Star Wars toy of sorts or something else and just put it up for sale. That's not the case with LEGO bricks and sets anymore, so the lack of trademark protection means the company just HAS to be extra cautious about its upcoming products, or run the risk of having market competitors place something similar on the market before LEGO does.

I'll make sure to ask them whether they have planned anything for Sofia, Bulgaria By the way - this has just been . Once again - awesome work guys!

Voila, my votes: 2 points to Almirante don Rodrigo and his instantly recognizable witch's hut on chicken legs. 1 point to lisqr for his absolutely gorgeous night sky.

Happy b-day, duckman! Have a great one Congratulations to all other birthday boys and girls as well... Couldn't help but notice we have a certain member who seems to be celebrating their 99th b-day, so - here's to many happy returns, and a peaceful retirement

Voted - (Who says AFOLs are spoilt kids!?) Seriously though - it's not just the nice minifig, it's also great photography that makes his entry stand out. Hope he goes on to win this!

I give 1 point each to: 19) Skater Boy & Spartan Entry (built by Etzel) 12) Diver & Surfer Entry (built by squiz) 10) Robot & Jungle Explorer Entry (built by Darkblane)

In no way, kind or form are TLG overreacting. What they've been doing lately may look a bit harsh, I agree, but it is neither unfounded, nor unreasonable of them, especially after multiple complaints, warnings, etc. The company is merely protecting its own intellectual and industrial property, to which it is 100% entitled to. The fact that we, as LEGO fans, have grown accustomed to their management and lawyers being a bit more lax about these things, is what makes us overreact now that things have suddenly become what they should have been in the first place. At the end of the day - you don't see car manufacturers react too kindly to pictures of their upcoming models leaked on the Internet, do you? Yes, LEGO might be just a toy, but don't forget that toys in general are an extremely competitive market. And one more thing most of you have overlooked - TLG have just lost that court case in Brussels and had their trademark rights on LEGO bricks revoked, so now everyone with the capability to do so is free to produce as many bricks and sets as they like and place them on the market. Of course, under such circumstances, TLG would be extremely interested in ensuring that they are on the safe side - hence they do everything they can in order to ensure that. As a conclusion, I can only say that this whole thing about prelim pics is really being blown out of proportion. So what if we get to see some pics of a new sets a couple of months earlier - we still can't actually buy the set, and it's not like we really have to know what's coming out next in order to plan our household finances, is it? P.S.: As to your poll, K-D - the pics are never actually hosted on EB, so they can't really be "deleted" from Eurobricks... so I don't really get the point.

I don't really have a layout at present, but when I finally get around to building an actual tabletown, I'll make sure it's on a proper table with sufficient space on and around it. Judging by my personal experience, the floor is definitely not the best place for LEGO, regardless whether that be loose parts, sets, MOCs or entire layouts.

One particular reason why I didn't want to do the graphic explanation of this was because, at the end of the day, this was your design in this first place. Glad to see you've decided to share it - I must say I'm now looking forward to a wave of sliding door-fitted cars, vans, etc.

The door doesn't open per se, it slides open, just as is the case with the original T2 van. You pull it out a brick, and then you just slide it - simple as that. As the construction itself, it is really nothing too special - as I said, I tried SNOTting it all in order to facilitate and be able to accomodate a driver with the door actually closed, but it was ineffectual. So the build as depicted here only uses a very simple, regular, studs-up approach with a few tiles to ensure the actual sliding process and plates in proper places to form an inside 'rail' and keep the door from moving where it shouldn't.

Tony, this is absolutely brilliant. Photography + MOCcing skills at their best! Good excuse :P