Legoist

Uhm... is there a YELLOW construction helmet in this set? As I recall, that otherwise super-common piece has been released in yellow colour last time more than 30 years ago.

It would be more reasonable to consider the price paid for a sale that actually happened. If nobody pays to buy it, then the price is meaningless.

I've seen this kind of displays before, in shops and exhibitions. I guess that most train fans don't like them because the track geometry is as simple as can be, and planning a diverse track layout is a lot of fun. But I think they can be quite nice if done properly. But the name "pizza display" is inappropriate, since pizza is flat It should be "wedding cake display" or simply "cake display"

I don't like companies cloning Lego bricks and compete with Lego, but if a small company produces parts that Lego doesn't want to do anymore, I think it would be a good thing for everyone. Someone mentioned monorail tracks and pitchfork: why isn't Lego producing them at the moment? Presumably because they're not profitable, although this is to be taken as a truly generic statement. But if another company could manage to make it profitable, how would this damage TLG? However, I think the best thing would be if such a company would work in full agreement with TLG. That small company could become simply a temporary supplier of a certain set of parts that TLG isn't producing at the moment. The company would be fully entitled to clone the agreed parts without breaking any law, essentially becoming a delegate for TLG until TLG itself decides that they will start again producing those parts. The whole reason of patents, trademarks and copyright is that they should be used. If they are not used to produce something but only to prevent producing something, then they are pointless... And I actually think that TLG would not be against such a scenario with smaller companies, as long as the small companies manages to keep up with the Lego standards of quality, why would they be against it? The battle with cloning brands like MB is another thing, because they are just trying to overlap with Lego sales by achieving lower prices, thanks to not paying for research and development costs since they're cloning. But the hypothetical small company in the scenario above would not be overlapping, it would be more like an extension.

Where did you read that? It sounds really odd to me...

In the Finland 2010 catalog several of the smaller sets now have a lower price than 2009, while the larger sets have generally an identical or slightly higher price compared to 2009. S@H prices for Finland seem the same as before but I don't pay much attention to those on S@H which aren't exclusives so I might have missed some variation.

I am surprised to hear that Power Miners have so many AFOL fans. To me it always seemed quite a childish theme, the strongest features of which were the launch of lime green as a new piece colour, the big drills & claws appendages, and the rock monsters figs. But that's not a problem of course. In my opinion its problem is that it's really a narrow theme, how far they can go in designing new sets? All of them are just big-wheeled mining vehicles with more drills and claws... Even the minifigs all look the same. After some point, when it's not "new!" anymore it will be hard to keep the fans interested. Let's be prepared for Space Police and Atlantis to face the same fate, although at least they can go farther with designing new monsters there.

Well, World Racers is not really kept hidden, but at least I didn't see it mentioned often, and I've seen the first few pictures only today...

Everyone knows that random, collectible, rarity-based stuff is a money-sink for fans. I wasn't expect TLG to make this move, primarily because it doesn't seem to need to, but it will certainly generate A LOT of money to them. Be prepared for extortionate prices. I come from the world of roleplay games, and I've seen this happen before for example in the Dungeons & Dragons miniatures. Everyone will say that it's easy to swap them with friends, but friends are getting the "common" ones too and there will not be enough friends; and everyone will say eventually "well, I can always go to the 2nd hand market", only to find that the rares (most likely the ones with some unique parts) easily go for $20+. Those who really "want them all" will inevitably spend a lot of money. At least in the case of Lego minifigs, you can still use in your MOCs even the many multiples copies you might own, contrary to other collections like Magic: the Gathering where you really end up with a pile of garbage. I am not concerned about AFOLs, we are adult people and we can hurt ourselves and our wallets in any way we want. But I am otherwise concerned about kids. All this culture of "collectible toys" just feeds on greed, envy, and frustration, and make it harder for parents to teach their children some balanced, fair view on the value of property and money. It really is ultimately opposite to educational, a quality which Lego has always be at the top. I know that with these bitters thoughts of mine I'll be hated by many, but it's ok, as I told you I've seen this happen before, in my other hobby And of course I'm not saying that you shouldn't buy these... just be reasonable and don't get addicted. And keep an eye that your kids don't as well! If you feel you're getting addicted, it might help to picture yourself 10 years from now, with a bin* full of thousands (no kidding, some will reach these numbers: unless the whole line is a flop, there will easily be 3-4 runs of minifig per year) of minifigs gathering dust. *you'll display the singles in a shelf, but hide the duplicates in a bin, trust me

Nice MOC. You should add a bathtub in the middle

The better the set, the harder it is to take it apart. The problem is that nowadays there are really a lot of beautiful sets around, compared to the past

This is it for me. Usually the overall design of the set is what attracts me first, but then I always take care of checking the piece content from Peeron and see if I find good re-usability of the pieces. The final deal-breaker is the price. I have only bought a twenty-or-so sets from retail shops in my AFOL years, but not a single one of them was bought at full price.

In that case CONGRATULATIONS! You're possibly the first ever to make a review with more pictures than the pieces in the set! More realistic? Sure... we all see 6ft-tall motorcycles on the streets all the time

So little that it's hard to estimate In January I spent only a couple of evenings, probably 4-5 hours altogether. I am just so busy in higher-priority issues that not much is left for Lego.

I think they should bring alternate models back because Lego is all about building, and alternate models are the next step after building from instructions and before designing something entirely original. I don't think alternate models should be particularly beautiful. Those in the 80s sets were very often blunt and rude, but still they were good fun (and exercise!) for kids. TLC has stated that they don't want to do alternate models because they cost a lot of work (and sometimes extra pieces), but in my opinion they had in mind what they do with the Creator theme, where you get at least 3 but sometimes even 6 alternate models, all of which with instructions, and more or less all should be cool... I think for all other themes they could just provide simpler models that can be built with the pieces already included for the main model, and without instructions. I think it would be enough to display the alternate models on the back of the box, this should advertise the "re-building" value of Lego and not only the "playability" value. We have oversized boxes anyway, so there should be plenty of space (just ditch the pictures about the numbered bags, you don't need to see these until you buy the set). I don't care very much for the slogan otherwise. That's true. But in my opinion the current catalogs often have cool screens, the problem is that they are full of custom stuff which is not on sale. I was recently speaking to a friend who used to be a KFOL long ago and now has children, and I was suggesting to introduce Lego to his kids. Since he had the feeling that Lego sets were nowadays much worse than in the 80s (I am sure he had in mind the late 90s - early 00s atrocious sets), I showed him the catalog. He kept saying "cool" at every City page... pointing to some building in the background that is NOT a set on sale! And I think the TLG representative have recently mentioned that they don't show the Cafe Corner anymore alongside the newest modular building because customers hate to see something cool and then being told it's not on sale... Maybe they should do the same for regular catalogs too: one picture of all the sets in each subtheme together, and then one big City picture with everything currently on sale, without additions.

Doesn't "Hard to find" on TLG website actually means it's easier to find than "Exclusive"? Exclusive = can only be bought from S@H or Lego brand stores Hard to Find = as above, plus can be found in special chain shops (e.g. Toys'R'Us) It's got nothing to do with the amount of copies left. Shortage is reflected in the status "Call to check product availability" and "Sold out", which can be temporary and not necessarily a sign of discontinuation of the set.

Thanks for the fantastic review! Well it's been used in the Farm set too. However, I wondered if it's a piece similar to some that was used 25 years ago for train level crossing, does anybody know this? That must be for when the pigs are getting lazy and really don't want to get out of the trailer

Currently I prefer 6-wide trains. I don't care for realism that much, to be honest. I just like 6-wide because it's the tradition of official set and I want to make MOCs that are compatible with it. Beside the gauge-to-width ratio (which I have no desire to take as a target, considering that I find the ratio in Lego aesthetically more pleasant... that the one of real trains!), I don't think that the width of train is as important for realism as the width-to-length ratio is; mere width/size certainly gives you more room for details, but "realism" just takes a different meaning once you set your scale. It might actually be a greater challenge to work on a smaller scale, but I don't want to argue: it's a bit like debating if the painting style of Canaletto (super-detailed to the point of looking almost like a photograph) is more worth artistically than the one of Picasso (blunt and approximated). However, I am intrigued by the option of 7-wide. I think it's a soft departure from the standard and as such perhaps the two might still go together nicely enough, as do 4-wide and 5-wide cars. I might try to build trains in 7-wide in the future and see how it goes! No, this is the first time that I read someone suggesting powering them. It would be pretty cool. As for the aerial electric wire, it's way too difficult to make the motor take power from it, but if done just for the look (perhaps using simple wool treads) it would be a very nice addition.

Just a fairly simple question to all AFOLs and MOCers in particular. It was prompted by the latest comment from my wife as I finished building the Emerald Night, that "it doesn't look like it's made of Lego bricks" Either in official sets you buy or in your own MOCs, do you generally prefer models where studs are largely visible, or do you prefer flat surfaces, with studs hidden under tiles for instance? I'm sure that when I was a KFOL in the 80s, I constantly longed for more slopes and tiles as I wanted to get most surfaces flat. But now I get the feeling that all flat and smooth is a bit too much, and at least some studs should show. But I have noticed clearly that a lot of MOCers hide almost all their studs, and lots of current official sets follow the same idea. So what's your preference?

That's too cheap to be true. If they're on "Buy it now" then go for it, but if it's an auction I doubt it'll stay that cheap for long.

Great news I think multiple-size cheese slopes are going to be useful in many cases to reduce the piece count. The new headlight I though these already existed, but maybe they were only similar pieces (that with a stud on 2 sides for instance). They should have put a better shirt however, this one has become tedious...

That's a pretty complete collection of Lego trains. Is there any train since 1980 that you don't have yet? Just for curiousity: how many of your trains did you buy back in the 70s, 80s and 90s where they were sold in shops, and how many did you buy second-hand in recent years?

Thanks for the cool historical notes here! Being a european I am a complete ignorant on the topic of US railways. But BTW my questions were pure curiosity because I don't actually own a BNSF and cannot afford to buy one for the current prices

I'm not getting it... the H.E. in the two pictures look almost the same except for the train wheels and the missing glass windows. Of course the one in the picture you posted doesn't have the tender! But the design seems almost identical... what am I not seeing?

How do you guys compare this to the previous passenger plane?