AndyC

Hehe, truly you are the master. :)

I got a little postcard this morning advertising this offer, it's £50 for UK shoppers though there is no mention of the 10179 UCS MF raffle on it. Hopefully its still open to all, even though I have the UCS MF a first edition one would be sweet.

I believe this is how it's done: LXF - balls left out because I'm too lazy to build the scaffolding needed to position the case around them.

That's one super impressive Clone army you have there. Not to mention all those AT-TE and RGS. Although, strictly speaking, I don't think the Venators were in that scene, they should all be Acclamators.

Watched that this morning. I'm not a religious chap, but you really can't fault the sheer epic scale of that film.

Love it, the winter theme was beginning to look a little out of place. I feel full of the joys of spring already.

By far the easiest digital building tool (in my opinion) is the official Lego Digital Designer, though you'll want to unlock Extended Mode to get a really good selection of parts (instructions can be found in the Eurobricks LDD forum). That said, SR3Dbuilder is pretty awesome for Technic mocs, as it includes a physics engine which allows you to see how gear movements will operate. Like most LDraw based tools though it requires rather more time to learn to use, but does have a bigger selection of parts (particularly older ones).

Seems a rather dishonest way of getting it to me, do you really need it that much? Theoretically they would probably be well within their rights to insist it is returned with anything you sent back, whether they would or not I've no idea. Although given the cost of postage in both directions I reckon it'd be a pretty expensive way of obtaining something that'll undoubtedly surface in another offer or on Bricklink at some point. They would certainly deduct any VIP points you earnt on the items you returned.

I might just be being very dense, but I can't work out how that's supposed to change gears or where the output from the gearbox is supposed to be.

I bought Whitecap Bay in the UK and it has the new pearl gold coins. Shame really because the old chrome coins were so much prettier.

That's great news Kelly, I think that will go a long way to restoring a bit of faith in the competition.

I think that definition is a bit off, to call something a Limited Edition it only needs to be limited in some way. Now that is often by the number produced, but only be available in selected retailers is an equally valid constraint. Generally Lego have two such designations "Limited Edition" and "Special Edition" which are widely applied to sets only available from one toy store. As to why they're still producing 6212, my guess is that it's still selling well enough. The X-Wing is pretty much the iconic Star Wars craft and it's coupled with a great selection of figures, it's a great set for getting started in Lego Star Wars even if it's not the most accurate build there is.

I've got to vote other, I just can't think of anything better than a Zombie army.

I'd guess it's one with a technic pin hole in it, there are some used elsewhere in the set and it's quite common to see only one kind of 2x1 brick in a set if it doesn't actually matter what type they are (presumably to minimize the number of different molds in use for one set)

Wasn't this the one where the buyer refused to pay as a bit fell off during transit and he tried to claim it was damaged artwork and thus worth less? There was some speculation that he had in fact bid a large amount he couldn't afford and thus was looking for any excuse not to pay.

Well for a realistic navy camoflage, you need to go crazy with a bit of dazzle camoflage, unless you're building modern ships of course which are a rather more tedious grey due to the invention of radar technology which makes trying to visually hide ships a shade pointless.

You could replace the technic 6 axles with frictionless technic axle pins (the tan/grey ones) on the unpowered engine, since that will allow the wheels to spin independently if drag in corners is causing an issue. Before doing that though, I'd make sure you haven't pushed the wheels too tightly onto the model, if they're pressing against the frame there'll be a lot of unnecessary friction. They should be a little loose and spin freely by hand. I've pulled trains longer than 6 cars with a single PF motor, so it shouldn't be a requirement to add another unless you're building particularly heavy cargo.

Well it's all a bit speculative till we get prices and clear pictures, but I'm expecting it'll be roughly around the same price point as 10188 or 10212. As to the appeal, I guess it depends on what you like. I'm a complete sucker for the big sets, having most of them from the past few years (not just the Star Wars ones either) and 10030 is my absolute pride and joy. It's often commented on by door to door salesmen, as it's positioned such that it pretty much faces straight towards the front door. This is possibly the only set that could usurp that position, I've always wanted a UCS SSD. Oddly the one 'big set' I haven't got and have no intention of getting is the Death Star playset, which just leaves me cold. Swings and roundabouts I guess.

Well you can complain, but if you openly say you will (and do) buy sets regardless of the overall quality, then there isn't really a lot of incentive for TLG to maintain such a high quality. They are, after all, a business and at the end of the day are supposed to be in this to make as much profit as they can (whether we want to believe that or not). The thing that bugs me most about these "chinese plastic" complaints is that seems it's increasingly becoming the case that some people will automatically assume every faulty part is because it's made in China. With something like the collectible figures that are exclusively made in China, fair enough, but for sets containing parts from a mixture of sources it's just as possible a problem occured elsewhere. Furthermore, there are sets which do have parts made in China such as the recent Maersk ship about which I've not seen a single complaint of "chinese plastic", which surely there should be if the problem is so universal?

Unfortunately this is just one of those things LDD struggles with, because it gets confused about which bits it can and can't move when it forms one big loop. Your best approach is to remove the end piece, rotate the structure into place and then add the deleted piece back in. Hopefully this is one of those things that may be improved in a future version.

It's the ones from 8041, isn't it?

Ask and ye shall receive. LXF File LDD being what it is there are a couple of minor issues. There is a blue pin on the outside of each foot which can't quite be rotated into place, in both cases it should click into the bley 5-long liftarm. There are also a few steering rods which aren't truly connected at both ends, I've left them resting as close as possible to the ball-pin they're supposed to click onto so hopefully you can work that out. The white rubber bands should be hooked between the ball-pins in each hand. Finally, one of the panel pieces seems to have a collision bug so I've left them to one side. They're used in three places, under the ultrasonic sensor and one either side of the NXT PBrick. It should be pretty obvious how they attach. Anything that isn't clear, feel free to ask. Enjoy your Mindstorming!

I dunno, even that looks basically flat right at the front. We've not seen enough of the UCS model to know whether or not it gets angled further in.

Of course the other possibility is that TLG intentionally leaked a preliminary picture with a few figs thrown in to see what the reaction would be to a UCS set with minifigs in even if they aren't in scale. In case that's right, I'll just say that I'd happily buy it even if they left the minifigs out, but I also wouldn't complain about them adding 4-LOM and Zuckuss either.

I think that's the older Alpha Rex from 8257. I could have a stab at building him in Lego Digital Designer if you like, it shouldn't be too hard and then you can work out building instructions from that.