OpusMcN

You could count me in on a third of a box, I'll PM you. Craig.

Molten ABS is still quite a thick liquid, you'll have great trouble pouring it into any mould, and not have it solidify before it gets to the far corners. ABS starts to soften at 105C, but doesn't really melt until 230C or above (depending on the actual plastic) I've done bit of casting of white metal figures (which does melt to a very pourable consistency) and it's still a major pain. You _must_ heat the mould to above the melting point, and leave channels for the air to escape while the metal/plastic goes in. There's a bunch of videos/etc on the interwebs about casting metal. There's been a bit of discussion in the 3D printer community about using 3D printer extruders to push molten plastic into moulds. That might work if you could seal the extruder onto the entry of the mould. You'd still have to heat the mould, and I don't know what material would be best for it. I used plaster for metal casting (which is easy to heat) that that would be a nightmare getting out of the intricacies of a lego brick, and would probably only last a single brick. Melting ABS does give off some nasty fumes, so be well ventilated if you try anything. You could also try PLA plastic, it's not what Lego uses, but it melts at much lower temperatures and is much safer and more pleasant to deal with (I've got a couple of 3D printers, and use PLA whenever possible, it smells like caramel as it melts :) If you try anything, let us know!

I've just finished rebuilding 8868, and the pneumatic hoses in that are crazy. Getting them all to run up the middle of the crane turntable and not jam up when it turns is a challenge. I did 8880 just before that, both of these have a scary number of parts per page. 8880 puts together 1300 pieces in about 35 steps.

UCS Sandcrawler 75059. Been coveting it for ages and saw it 20% off and pulled the trigger. It came with a free A-wing polybag. Those extra 40 bits totally justifies buying the initial 3000 :)

Mighty Ape have a big lego sale today, About 4 pages of sets with reasonably discounts (Check their "Christmas Stock must Die" section)

I've aquired both Megbloks (McLaren F1 car) and Kre-o (transformer), and the Kre-o bricks are far better. Not Lego quality, but not that far off... I also got some Wange architecture sets, and was reasonably impressed.. Lots of spare parts, they fit well, and the block quality was as good as the Kre-o. That being said, I also got an older Wange truck that was a shocker :)

They've got the Cargo Train 7939 at half price at the moment, $200 down from $399. I figure anything at half price is a good deal. (I'd grab one, but just finished Bricklinking my Darth Maul, so feeling very very poor at the moment :( C.

If anyone's in the market for it, Toyworld Dunedin has a 41999 on the shelf for $299 right now. They had 2 half an hour ago but now I'm $300 poorer :)

I spent a few hours recreating this in LDD thinking I might build it myself. It took ages to work out how you did the bases :) I wonder how right I got them? Thanks for sharing that, I'm definitely thinking of building one and I'll post pics here if I do.

Mighty Ape has just put a big toy sale, 231 lego items reduced. I sense a White House architecture set coming my way.... C.

And Mighty Ape just put up a competing special for the same set for $187. I guess they're watching as well :)