MetroiD

Because we need to behave like good kids and start asking all the right questions, otherwise we won't be getting any lollipops. Couldn't agree more on the points you've made there mate.

Then why post at all? To make sure we've seen your resized sig? We're aware of it, don't worry! P.S.: It's like a good meal that's cooking in the kitchen - I know it's going to turn out great and I know I'm going to enjoy it immensely, so I don't really care whether I see/taste it in a minute or in a few hours. Salivating or not, at the end of the day, I'll be going to bed happy and I won't have to worry whether it's going to be good

And partner! MOCcing together still beats building official sets though, at least for the two of us. Especially seeing as we both know precisely who does what best :) Now that I think of it, I guess we'll keep the Modulars and just add furniture instead. Our town will be inspired by those sets anyway, so I don't see why we shouldn't leave them as an homage to how it all started...

MOCs all the way, without a doubt. Building a set is an enjoyable experience and in each set there's something special which makes you happy, just like a little boy. But ever since I've come out of my dark ages, I just don't see the point in building and keeping sets as they are as an adult. Yes, many of them are brilliantly designed and look wonderfully, but I still have much more fun building this on my own than rebuilding LEGO's designs. So whenever we buy a new set, we build it and then we take it apart in a day or two to use the pieces for MOCcing purposes. It's not always been this way for me, actually. When I was a kid, I had a town layout with quite a few official sets in there - in fact, most of the larger sets were left intact (which is probably one of the reasons why my white and grey bricks are now yellowish). I enjoyed "arranging" my town but I never thought of taking all my sets apart and building something different out of them. So my MOCs were rather limited in size with the biggest of those probably a classic-town-style "recreation" of that beautiful Ristorante set (from the early 90s). It's only after so many years that I've finally discovered the joy of MOCcing. Our first town MOCs and especially our few semi-modular MOC (the Flower Shop) were built before we had an official Modular set and that's why they're not half as detailed - however, I still enjoy looking at our Flower Shop much more than the Green Grocer, for example. The feeling that you've actually put your own thoughts and ideas into a project makes it totally different - and while not necessarily bigger or better, it is almost always dearer. At least that's the case for me. So I don't know how much longer we'll keep our modulars intact... As to vehicles - LEGO have been doing a great job in recent years, but that's one of the areas where I wouldn't even think of using/buying a set just for its value as one. For example, I love the cement mixer, the recycle truck and the caravan. None of them will stay in their original look in our collection though. Instead, I've already decided which real-life models I'll base my renditions of those vehicles on, and I only need the sets for a few valuable bricks here and there.

Hushhhh, or else I'm giving both points to Svelte, ye no-good law-unabiding pirate scurvy!

2 points to Erdy! A huuuge favourite for me - and you all know the reasons! 1 point to Siggy - a hilarious entry really, and a very zany concept - which is what I loved about it. And honorable mention to Svelte for yet another incredibly original MOC... really wish I had more points here. @ (parameter)Owl - wasn't this supposed to be a peaceful contest?

The form/structure of a naked bike allows for a relatively easier representation in "bricks" and offers tons of potential in terms of ingenious part usage, as shown in Carbohydrates' bike linked above. Minifig scale is your best solution if you don't really have too much bricks, but it's also probably the toughest in terms of matching the looks of the original. You could have a look at Noddy's awesome bikes for some inspiration. As a direct response to your question - I don't think anyone could really tell you "what" pieces to use. My advice would be for you to study a few MOCs, then have a close look at the original model and start trying things out with the pieces you have at your disposal. Eventually, one part of the bike will look just about right, then another one, until you finally have it all glued together. Best of luck mate!

Each to their own - perfectly applied here. The question is - why, seeing as we're all (supposed to be) grown-ups here can't we have something along the lines of "well, OK, if that's your way of seeing things, no prob", as opposed to showing just how wrong the other party is and precisely how much better / simpler / more original / you-name-it things can be. Come on boys... give it a break. It's a hobby, not a contest - and you partake in your hobbies to enjoy yourself first and foremost, and only after that comes the notion of comparing and ranking your stuff to others'. So in that sense, why not just try to get along rather than turning this into a pointless debate. As long as, like Teddy mentioned, everything is done to scale and in the appropriate style, I don't see one single reason why MOCs shouldn't be mixed together with official sets. Besides, while constant MOCcing of buildings the size of the Green Grocer might not be a problem for members of bigger LUGs, there are also other LEGO collectors who have a dozen of sets but still love them to bits. What should those guys do - give up displaying them altogether? Doesn't quite make sense to me. Oh, and as to me - I don't have a layout at home, and I'm more into MOCcing myself, so I rarely keep the original sets. My town layout will most definitely include some original sets (the Super Chief comes to mind), but I'd love to build as many original MOCs as I possibly can. On the other hand, we're preparing our first exhibition with my local LUG and we'll definitely be using the Cafe Corner, the Green Grocer and the Market Street - and I think that makes perfect sense, seeing as a) we're pretty limited in space and time for the project; b) not every member of the LUG does actually dispose of the bricks required to build a CC MOC and c) local audience isn't really that aware of the Modulars. Ralph has mentioned this, but I'm not really convinced that the CC has been done to death everywhere - I could very well imagine that's the case in the UK and I'm pretty sure there's a couple of CCs at every LUG exhibition in the US, but don't forget that there are still other countries that require popularization, and that's precisely what such official sets are good for.

Thank you for your responses guys. Once again, excuse the stupid question/assumption, but I'm yet to buy my first PF set, so I have no idea whatsoever as to precisely what/how is required in order to properly run the Emerald Night, let alone a custom-built MOC. In any case, if, as Mark says (thanks for the input mate, you've always been a guiding light as far as LEGO train technologies are concerned), the Emerald Night + Passenger/Cargo Train combo won't quite cut it, then it looks to me that the EN is going to be quite a pricey set for me, considering all the stuff one needs in order to actually run that train. (Is it appropriate if I whine a bit about how much I miss 9V now ) That, however, doesn't make the 2010 Trains any less good. As a matter of fact, the more I look at that Passenger Train, the more I like it... Can't wait to see the official product ;]

Spot on, even though I think at some point it was LEGO designers who came up with this and then ditched it... No way to verify that, of course, but it just doesn't look like the kind of thing that a Chinese rip-off brand could come up with, especially bearing in mind that this particular set was sold alongside Super Chief & Co. rip-offs. Sorry for the stupid question but -- am I the only one who sees the new trains as a wonderful opportunity to "motorize" the Emerald Express at a reduced price AND add train-specific bricks to one's collection? I' ve planned to get my hands on an EN this year, but I just can't dish out all the money that the PF-ized set costs. A separate PF set, on the other hand, is not too cheap either, so... perhaps the combination that is possible with these new PF sets is a nice solution... or am I wrong there?

80+ pages of speculation and gibberish over the last 6 months - this is officially the hardest thread to follow on EB, at least to me... And, contrary to its aim, it is quite a bit misinformative too - but at least I managed to grasp that the TRU exclusive will actually be the Truck Stop. Which I can only be happy about - that means I will save myself 100+ EUR/USD this year since I, like Svelte here, also have more than enough trucks, cars and wheel-based vehicles in my collection. I'll drink to that!

I can totally see your point there, Rick - and it's great you brought that up. I must admit that I too am a townie first and foremost and it's actually the thin thread that connects Town and Pirates which I find most intriguing (hence my eagerness to participate in the Pirates Community Build :) ). I am not a huge Pirate MOCcer, in fact the Community Builds will be my first AFOL Pirate MOCs, which is why I'll try to do a real good job. So I'm not trying to deceive anyone here and I definitely feel you've made a very strong point. But, at least in my case, even though Pirates is not my #1 theme, it does most surely come at #1.5 for me :)And besides, at one point visiting the Pirates forum on a daily basis has imprinted on me this nice community feel which I enjoy being a small part of - even if it is as a townie swashbuckling landlubber

Thanks for your swift response, Boner... eeerm, Tom Count me in!

I'm quite interested in that position, but I have a couple of questions: 1. When is the elected contributor supposed to start posting articles? I mean, I know you're not expecting 3 pages of material per post, but I still think that's important info, seeing as January is a rather busy month for most of us. 2. During training, will there be heads up on valuable sources to check out, especially if one doesn't have a flickr account connected to all the awesome Pirate MOCcers out there? and, least importantly, 3. Can we use a different nickname for blogging purposes? I've used "MetroiD" as my personal alias for as long as I can remember with this forum being the only obvious exclusion. I've considered requesting a change of the current "TheOtters" nickname I use, but I don't think that's necessary one way or the other - people who want to get to know me here learn soon enough that they can simply stick with my name. As far as blogging is concerned though, I guess I'd prefer using my standard nick.

That's precisely what I had in mind... of course there should be a link to the MOC thread :) Tereglith - thanks for being so quick to react mate :) You're probably right, two pics also look just right, especially bearing in mind one's required for the photoediting at the end of the Build. Cheers & happy building, fellow swashbucklers!

Just a suggestion, but I think that the Community Build Entries thread would be much more neatly arranged if participants just posted one photo of their MOC along with a short explanation, leaving the other pics and detailed backstories for the separate MOC: thread...

Great work boss! Classic all the way :) Only thing I'd change is that lass hanging in mid-air - or is she the secret weapon of the "new" Pirates?

I also found that somewhat hard to believe... But well, I guess we all have such moments :P Anyway... the arch entry! The glass roof!!! The coffee-drinking lass who's just tripped!!! THE ARCH ENTRY!!! Erm, I guess you got it. I love that arch. The MOC's full of wonderful details, even if I too must agree that it could do with a few colour tweaks here and there. It must have been a most intriguing build though and it boasts a fascinating facade which looks perfect alongside the Green Grocer. Bravo! P.S.: On a sidenote - you might want to stop smurfing, while you still can. I hear it's bad for you...

Great news. Now all our local LUG needs to do is keep expanding so that hopefully next year we could enroll. I have a few questions though: - how do we "prove" the exact date when the LUG was founded in case it has not officially been registered; and - as far as "websites" are concerned, does an online forum under a www.---.org address in the respective local language count?

Wow, thank you all for the nice comments guys! For a MOC this simple, I'm very happy you've enjoyed this one :) I guess I should thank Tim, his monkey and the Professor for that I've always liked the Time Cruisers, to be perfecly honest! It's almost like that up here as well... The thing is though, we keep having an amplitude of ~25 degrees over 2-3 days which is a bit weird. Heavy snowfall yesterday, it's over 10 degrees outside today. Perhaps I should have bought a bike and learnt to ride it in the winter?! On Christmas, everything is possible - even if it's in the past tense: Me too! Looking forward to a MOC-full 2010 and Santa's 2010 Steam Train should be the icing on the cake :] Thanks mate, I was wondering whether I should go for red or green trim, but I'm very happy with the final colour scheme. Glad you like it :) Santa's 2010 Train -- promise! Thanks a lot mate, that's precisely the kind of feedback I was hoping for. Obviously I didn't spend anywhere near enough time researching this, but that distance you've mentioned is something I'll definitely take into account in future (hopefully, more elaborate) train MOCs!

...apart from all the smurfation.

Wow!!! This is hands down the best Haunted Mansion I've seen... hats off Badsneaker! Every single detail there is brilliant - the person who got this as a present (?) must have enjoyed it tremendously (after the initial scare - after all, this IS a spooky MOC )

Howdy dear Train fans, I've been busy rearranging all the X-mas decorations and putting them back in their respective boxes (while I still have the time for that - otherwise they'd probably still be out by the end of the month!) and in the meantime I decided to take a few pics of our lil Christmas MOC. Admiteddly, the composition or the engine itself is nothing special and both are most definitely inspired by the Holiday Train. However, I still tried to add my own touch to it and seeing as this is my first Train MOC ever, I thought I'd share it with you in hope that you might have some constructive criticism or comments for me . This one was built in a hurry since I only had an hour or two and I just had to finally have a train going underneath the Christmas tree - I knew how much Asya would love that! For obvious reasons, I wasn't too keen on using the Super Chief or the GP-38, so I came up with Santa's White Steam Train without really aiming for any sort of realism... I actually wanted it to look a bit more... how shall I put it -- LEGO-like. Hopefully, in 11 months I'll have some more spare time and I'll be able to pick an actual real-life engine on which I'll base Santa's 2010 Steam Train. Until then, I guess I'll keep studying Tony Sava's Polar Express On with the pics then...

Most definitely. I needed the incentive to get building again and besides, I've always wanted to build a Pirate MOC - I'm sure my significant Otter will also join in and be just as enthusiastic about it. I already feel inspired - and will start with the project as soon as my exams are over (that is, by the end of January)

The Inn (#33) for us please!!! 16x16 with the facade facing the Town Square, right? One more question - should this be a CC-style modular building or a "classic" open-back building (if it's the latter, I presume the "open back" should be the one overlooking the street and the Blacksmith, right?) This should be TONS of fun - thanks for organizing this, guys! P.S.: On second thought, I guess we could also try our hand at coming up with a nice Town Square (#5) as well... Besides, we will be able to build/present both structures that way! So could we also be registered for that please, or is it one entry per user only?