MetroiD

I don't think there's such a thing as a "perfect MOC" - at least not in the long term. To me personally, the one we're currently finishing is pretty perfect given our experience & limited pool of "special" bricks. However, I'm 100% certain that once we're done with it, along will come either an addition to it, or something completely new which then in turn would become the new "perfect" project for an awesome MOC. What I mean is that I don't believe it's the MOC really, rather I'd say it's the builder who defines "perfect" according to their own capabilities and requirements. And as long as you keep building, you're sure to develop, just like your MOCs - I've seen that happen with each and every one of you and hope to follow the same route... But to give an exact answer to the question - perfect, as in "my dream", would be a city full of our own custom buildings, cars, statues, monorail & tram layout (!) - you get the idea. Not too modern and none too classical either - the city would be constructed in modular style and should feature a few different neighbours - an "old town" with Renaissance-themed smaller structres, a classical European part of town full of gaudy buildings and perhaps a modern part (albeit without any skyscrapers, I don't think those would fit in too well). The monorail and tram are an absolute must, and I do hope I will be able to get started on that sooner rather than later, since I don't own any sets that run on / include rails.

Doesn't change the fact that this IS a very nice town building . Would have loved to see more though.

Glad to see you're "officially" back :]]] Let me be the first one to congratulate you on this nice MOC, will check beck again once the brickshelf content has been moderated for public viewing ;)

LEGOLAND Discovery Centre, OF COURSE! How could I forget that one :D The PaB selection is great and they also have nice exclusives /in terms of keychain / magnet sets/. Whittleberry, if you're in Berlin and looking to buy sets at a discount price, make sure you visit that Hertie @ Neukoelln... if it still exists, that is. I've also added another recently-opened store in Sofia, Bulgaria, which is worth checking out. Still looking for LEGO shops in Brussels by the way, can anyone help!?

A wonderful building indeed!! Care to share a few pics of the layout you're working on there? You've obviously put your great castle skills to good use here and I'm curious as to how much of the castle building style was incorporated in your other designs... Keep building town MOCs, I say!!! :D

Well, correct me if I'm wrong here, but there hasn't been a post office since 1982, so I very much doubt that this was the reason. Lots of mail delivery sets and vehicles have been produced throughout the years without LEGO feeling the urge to release a post office set. However, since TLG are obviously expanding their City line with more complex sets and buildings, you might as well be right about that! We can only wait and see, but I'd surely love it if they were to release a post office! One thing's for sure: the post minivan was an excellent set and seeing as it's been cancelled I'm happy that I did get it on time ;)

How about using our avatar in one of your MOCs The flag thing is no big deal really and it doesn't spoil the overall coolness of the pizza parlour at all, don't worry :] Could I please steal your stove design? Won't be 1:1 since I'll be turning it into an oven (decorating the florist's apartment right now ;) ), but I totally love your idea about using that sunroof there... P.S.: Ditch that... tried it, but it's too big. Won't work. Lovely design tho.

Very nice MOC! Love the oven design :] It just occurred to me that unless Italy's in a state of war at that current time, the flag should actually be green-white-red...

Lol, is THAT where Ferrari are testing their new cars now that Ross Brawn is all but ready and willing to strip them of the 2010 F1 crown?

Btw, could someone please do a little clean up of this thread and pin it? I do believe it is an extremely good source of information for people who travel a lot.

I'd still need to win the lottery mate. Or graduate. Whichever comes first

I sure know what you're talking about there! We've got a good selection of parts, but we haven't bought any of the modular design sets, so fancy facades are not that easy for us to build. Sometimes it is a huge problem, but more often it is a wonderful way to force one's brain to come up with alternative designs which can still do the trick. And I definitely love how it has all worked out on this occasion! Looking forward to your next modular MOC :]

Seeing a LEGO city "under construction" is quite a rare sight. Thanks for sharing that with us mate, those are some wonderful arrangements and very smart modifications you've done to the buildings there! I'm thinking of doing exactly the same with our town (once we start setting it up), rebuilding the original sets I like and then modifying them accordingly. Looking forward to the next batch of developments!

Cwetqo's wonderfully informative post brings back the topic of this set offering a wonderful engine and GREAT colours for the passenger wagons... which however are also quite rare, especially in combination with the special parts that. For example, I don't think there's any other set which offers these tan train windows/doors (correct me if I'm wrong), so building a second passenger wagon should in any case be a pretty big issue, as long as you want it to resemble the original one. At least that's how things should look during the first few months, before enough of these become freely available on Bricklink - at which point though they should still command a pretty high price...

Guys, rriggs was just joking.. (I hope). There's no need to take it so seriously. Besides, it is actually a wonderful thing that LEGO's original models are starting to look more and more complicated and resemblant to the look and feel of an AFOL's MOC.

I too believe that it is highly probable we'll be in for the first realistic LEGO fire station with this new modular design. What really does bother me though is how the likes of my neighbor Zorbas here and I are going to get hold of this one... I for one would need to win the lottery first, after which we could combine our efforts in arranging a special tour of Europe just so that we can get a hold of the Emerald Night & the modular sets... what do you say mate? :D

Whoever gave me/us my/our title must surely have taken notice that I love building motorcycles... hence the title, I guess. I must say I really appreciate it - I don't think Asya is too thrilled about it seeing as she doesn't exactly share my passion for motorcycles (note the 1st person singular in the first sentence), but then again... noone has asked her (or me, for that matter ).

Ah, two beautiful boxes sitting right here next to me: 7733 Truck & Forklift & 7993 Service Station I'm absolutely thrilled! I can still remember how badly I wanted the Service Station from the early 90s, but it was never sold here in Bulgaria... Hand on heart, I can now say - this one's so much better! The black bike puts the icing on the cake, especially considering my growing bikers' gang ;) As to the truck - I was wondering whether to get this or the Garbage Truck, but the forklift is just too good to miss out on. Besides, any gas station needs a truck (AND a trucker!) as a regular customer...

What a wonderful thread guys, great idea posting such invaluable information! I've started a similar/related thread regarding official LEGO distributors: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=27128 , I'd be very grateful if you could share your info / experience regarding those as well. Now then, to start off, even though I doubt that any of you will head to Sofia, Bulgaria for their holidays, here's some info about where you can find LEGO here: Comsed (www.comsed.net) is the official distributor of LEGO for Bulgaria and they add a handsome 20-40% to the original EU prices of LEGO sets. That's the reason why there's absolutely NO retailer that sells LEGO at normal prices - and price reduction on LEGO sets is but a mere dream around here. However, if you find yourself stranded in Sofia and wanting to check out what the local shops have in store for you despite their ridiculous pricing policy, here's a list of shops selling LEGO and their addresses. You can check out how to get to them using this site, just make sure you click on the English banner on the upper right if you want to understand anything. Comsed Office / Warehouse - 76 "Todor Kableshkov" Street Nice selection, sometimes you can find really old impulse sets (from 4-5 years back) at a normal price. After all, this is supposed to be the distributor's "lair", so you would expect a fair amount of rare sets being sold there as well... not the case. Comsed LEGO Store @ Central Sofia Market Hall - 25 "Knyagina Maria Luiza" Blvd., Central Sofia Market Hall Floor -1 (that's one floor below ground level) A smallish shop, only worth a visit if you're in the area. Bonjour Store - Slaveykov Square (at the corner of "Graf Ignatiev" and "Solunska" streets) Very limited selection of new sets, LEGO is shelved right next to M$#@blocks... disgrace. Comsed LEGO Store - Located at the corner of "Graf Ignatiev" and "Solunska" streets, just across the aforementioned Bonjour Store Carries a nice range of sets - of course, at the usual ridiculous prices. Comsed Store @ Mall of Sofia - 101 "Stamboliyski" Blvd., Mall of Sofia, 3. Floor They set their prices even higher than elsewhere... I wouldn't recommend them. Li'l LEGO Store @ Pozitano Street - 24 "Pozitano" Street Very nice personnel, it's what you'd call a family store and they're definitely LEGO enthusiasts. So they do their best at trying to set affordable prices. What's more important, they sell bricks separately, which is the closest thing to PaB there is in Bulgaria. Definitely worth a visit. LEGO BG Shop @ Market Centre Reya - 11 "Andrey Saharov" Street, Residential area "Mladost - 1" Great prices, they've even got some sets from a few years back, apart from the current range. The best thing: they offer a pick-a-brick-like service for new AND used pieces at nice prices, sorta like Bricklink... They also have an online store where you can buy sets and bricks. The Hippoland chain of stores was also rumoured to carry a limited selection of LEGO, however I believe that was some years ago and even if they still do, they would only have the most basic range of sets. Besides, the location of their stores is most inconvenient, which is why I've never been to one myself. If you are in another town in Bulgaria and are planning on hitting the shops for LEGO, bear in mind the following piece of advice: LEGO is not a common sight in local stores, especially outside Sofia. You'd stand a much better chance of finding anything if you'd visit the local mall (provided, of course, there IS one where you are). Now then, since I've also lived in Berlin, Germany for a few years, I can supply you with some information on where to find LEGO there. Unfortunately, there is no specialized LEGO shop in Berlin, ergo no PaB. At least, there was none back in 2007 while I still lived there. However, you can find a very good selection at almost any Kaufhof or Karstadt store/mall you visit. The other malls (frequently called "Arkaden" in Berlin) won't be too useful though. The famous KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens), located at Tauentzienstrasse 21-24, also carries a good selection, but you can rarely find any bargains there. The place you really must pay a visit if you're in Berlin is the Hertie store in Neukoelln @ Karl-Marx-Str. 92. The area is definitely not Berlin's finest and the store is hardly attractive, but it offers great sales. That's where most unsold products from Karstadt stores end up so, logically, you could expect a fair share of those unpleasant people running around, eager to buy as much as they can. LEGO is also sold there and every now and then they have nice sets reduced to 50% or more, so it's really worth checking out what they currently sell - especially if you happen to be in Berlin near the holidays. That pretty much sums it up regarding my experience with direct LEGO shopping. I would however be extremely grateful if anyone could give me information on where to buy LEGO in Brussels, Belgium (apart from the airport)... I can't seem to find any info on the Internet and I just can't believe that there are hardly any LEGO shops there!

Whoa, that's huge! A very cool project - but are you planning on buying this directly from S@H? It should cost a fortune...

OK, it's already been what - a couple of hours? The new banner/skin is OK, but it's getting old. You need to start thinking about replacing it. ASAP!!! (Good job, Hinck :] Thanks for bringing a bit of summer so early on!)

I've seen the wizard's hat used like that on a number of occasions before, but I'd never seen that "momentum in times of flood" effect you've achieved. Wonderful vig (?) mate!!! Absolutely brilliant ;)

Cheers mate. Very nice model, may this one be the first of many commissioned MOCs to come :)

Since LEGO does not sell its products directly in most countries, I was wondering whether we could draw up a list consisting of the official LEGO distributors in our respective countries - website, contact, etc. I would specifically be very grateful if someone could tell me which one the official LEGO distributor for Belgium is, since I have travelled to Brussels but was unable to find a LEGO store. Let me start off this list by supplying information regarding LEGO's exclusive partner for Bulgaria: Comsed (www.comsed.net , comsed@comsed.net)

Another soul saved!!! Welcome out of your dark ages mate, nice to see there's also other LEGO fans such as myself who have sort of missed out on the last 10+ years in terms of LEGO comings and goings but are not giving up just yet :P Have fun (re)building your city, hopefully we'll be seeing a few pics of your first fresh MOCs soon!