Legoist

Thanks for the review! This set looks pretty good both as a Creator set and as a City compatible set. I really like the "rounded square" geometry chosen instead of the fully round option. Can you tell us more about how the light brick works? I suppose this is not a new part, but I am not aware yet at how do you turn it on/off (do you have to crack open the lighthouse to do that?) and whether you can replace the battery.

It may also be because DesignByMe/Factory is not really supposed to be used by a customer regularly, i.e. to order parts for his own MOCs. I've always seen it intended as a option for a KFOL to design & order ONE SMALL creation just to have it packed (almost) like a retail LEGO set, then bring it over to school and show all your friends how "kewl" you are, you're like a real LEGO designer, whee...! And then never ever order from DesignByMe/Factory again. In such a scenario, who cares if you're overpaying for the actual box content. Regular LEGO MOCers (including KFOLs of course) don't need the box (which they would need to open anyway) and neither the instructions (they designed the model, why the hell would they need instructions for that?), and just go straight to PAB.

Someone should clean up this thread, organize all the useful info in the first post, and make it a sticky. As far as my personal preference, at the moment I'm trying to simply focus on train locos/wagons/structures design avoiding any power system until the day wireless powering is available. Or at least wireless charging... something like the following working for LEGO motors, where you would just put the locomotive on top of one of these chargers and charge it up would be already great (as long as we could also miniaturize the batteries more, although the PF motor+battery system already isn't taking up too much space on the locos). http://www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/video/

Just to clear this up... I thought you were just looking for an opinion, not a customer I thought you wanted to buy these for yourself.

If I could estimate the approximate number of bricks, I would just go for a certain price per brick. I don't know about SW specifically, it seems to me that most SW fans are more interested in collecting whole sets or minifigs rather than heavily MOCing, but if loose SW parts are valuable for you, then you could for example offer 10c/brick (assuming they're in GOOD conditions).

That's a great layout indeed! I think it's quite a huge achievement in just 6 months into the hobby! What's your method of supplying yourself with bricks for trains-related MOCs from Norway?

Great idea! How did you make the Medusa head? Can you post a better picture of it?

Go easy? That station looks just great to me...

Great!

Thank you for the extensive great review! I think this new instance of a Creator house features a very good design and lots of details. My favourite build here has to be the barbecue The only reason which is keeping me away from this set is the colour scheme. It's good-and-classic but I'm probably already a bit overload with white walls and red roofs.

The Category B contest looks a lot of fun but also quite hard to participate, I can't wait to see the candidates!

The layout is simply great... and also good idea for separating different power systems and run many trains simultaneously. I also really like your custom passenger trains, the Irish orange-black and the blue-white carriages. I hope you're going to post them in some thread with lots of detailed pictures!

I was already in my dark ages when these space themes were in production, but I have a similar feeling for Classic Space. You can of course still get these sets second hand or even MISB if you're willing to pay a lot.

Thanks for the review. It's a very good set. Overall it looks more like a 50e set rather than 70e, but the price per piece is fine. I just don't understand how does it include almost 700 pieces tho...

Well said. If you don't get a lot of comments to your MOC, it doesn't mean people don't appreciate it! It's just that sometimes it gets a bit frustrating to keep writing the same "awesome job!" on hundreds of fantastic MOCs, and to realize that I am not nearly at that level of skills On one hand it feels important to reward good MOCers with a positive comment, even if it's just a "thumb up", but also on the other hand sometimes it feels like just boosting my post count. So most of the times I try to keep in mind that I should post a comment only if I have a specific opinion to share, at least if I notice 1-2 specific features of the MOC which I really like. But other times the MOCs are so great that you just have to WOW! even without saying anything useful...

I don't think this is really the case. Collectors who didn't get some specific figure of Series 1 are not going to want a "repeat", they'll always want exactly what they've missed. Maybe some people see the collectable series in a different way that I do, because I agree with you. I don't care the least for "repeats" because for me these series are only an opportunity to get cheap minifigures with NEW parts. So for me the 2 surfers are great because... they have 2 different surfs, simply. If I wanted to build a surf-beach MOC, I'd like much more to have lots of differently coloured surfs rather than 30 identical ones, so in many cases (with the exceptions of army-oriented or team sports minifigs) "repeats" of previous minifigs are actually better than multiple copies of the same identical minifig. For instance, I hope future series will feature "repeats" of the hockey, baseball and soccer players with different colours. How cool would be after the Argentina-like footballer of Series 4 to get dark-flesh Brazil-like footballers in a future series? Edit: My only real wish for future series would be a more clever AND customer-friendly decision for which minifigs should be more or less common in the box. Some minifigs are just more useful in larger amounts, namely those sports figures (if you want to MOC a sport match, you're going to need at least a bunch) and anything that can reasonably make an army. Other figures, basically all the civilians, are probably most of the times wanted in one copy to complete a series (unless the FOL has a specific wish for multiple accessories), or anyway a smaller number. For instance... the Artist is my favourite figure in Series 4, but if I get more than one is only because I'm afraid the accessories will get lost early or late. The Mad Scientist... how many do you really need? But you can instead easily think of having tens of Musketeers. I wish TLG would plan the numbers of each minifig based on this kind of ideas.

Those aren't really supposed to be gold bars, but FUDGE bars.

Yes that's crazy. That's what happens when people get too much into collecting something. If they have a lot of money then fine, but if they don't, they seriously need a shrink. On the other hand... when you see something strange on eBay, check the buyer's and seller's records. It might be a case of fake transaction i.e. 2-3 friends pretending to sell stuff to each other to boost their feedback - I've seen people selling a single, totally common Lego brick for 1$ (still something you wouldn't pay for a single 1x1 tile for instance), then repeat with one hundred more bricks, then buying them back from the buyer... If the price is outrageously high instead, it might even be a case of moneylaundering. Either way, someone spending such a ridiculous sum will probably feel quite stupid afterwards. He will then proceed with the usual denial techniques to bury his guilt. It's quite similar to shopping-compulsive disorders. On a global scale, they will reach some limit, probably asymptotically, or anyway the price increase gets smaller and smaller. One thing to keep in mind is that the "real price" is what is paid in an actual deal, not a price tag chosen by the seller. If someone remains with the last copy on earth of set XXX, it doesn't matter if he asks a million $ or a billion $ until someone pays that sum for it. So if you take a look at BrickLink prices for example, you'll agree that MISB sets are outrageously expensive, but only a tiny % of those on sale on BL actually gets sold, the rest remains there for years with their ridiculous price tags (or alternatively they are exchanged between 2 sellers so that they look sold for lots of $ but no money actually exchanged hands). The risk is that the more time passes, the more valuable your old stashed set seems to become, but at the same time the more LEGO sets are produced, and they are actually newer and better. At some point, customers who spend a lot on an 80s MISB set will be past their nostalgia age, and the youngers may not have any interest in something too old to light memories. At that point, the sellers probably won't accept decreasing their prices out of pride, and overpriced older sets will simply remain unsold.

I think the idea is brilliant. If I were a 8-12 yo I'd certainly love this. As an AFOL, I would be interested only if there was a much better piece/colour selection, because what I see in the pictures is not good for me for 10c/piece.

Modular buildings are definitely too expensive for kids, and even Creator house sets have usually be minimum 30e (only Beach House and Log Cabin, the others are more expensive), I think it would only be a good thing if TLG was able to introduce some tiny/small house sets in the 20e range, but I'm not sure if this is possible today. There is certainly room for private houses and other civilian buildings in the City theme. IMHO a City house set is expected to have some more accessories compared to a Creator set, which usually has mostly generic bricks. All in all, I think smaller-size buildings would be a good thing for KFOLs and some AFOLs too, because they would allow to create a much larger diorama compared to a modular buildings-based diorama with the same amount of bricks (therefore with the same cost). EDIT: Also, I'm a fan of buildings without the back wall. Not so much for playability since I'm an AFOL, but perhaps because of "displayability", i.e. the idea that someone looking at my creations is able to enjoy the interior design without the need of touching anything

One of the best train yard scenes I've ever seen!

Thanks for the great review! I think this set is so standard, that if it wasn't for the colours and a couple of pieces it could have been made in the late 80s Nevertheless, I always like this kind of airplane design. It's neat, and doesn't use any oversized brick, so building is fun enough and parts are reusable. It's also nice that they used a rare colour like dark blue, even tho it's just a little bit of it.

Thanks for the review! This set is just a little more than an impulse. It looks fine as-is, but with so few pieces there is very little building value and not much reusability. It's certainly a good purchase for a small kid, but for me this time it's a 1.

Thanks for the review! For me it's a 2. The overall look is great, but building value and parts selection is not that good, so IMHO it's a solid set to have as-is in a town diorama but not much else.