Freddie

It was just a matter of time before different variations of this car would surface. Hippiemobiles, mexican taxis etc. The cabriolet looks fantastic though, altough they say that LEGO's windshield-design was mastered by VW's own engineers. Excellent review, too. I've been planning on buying it, altough by the looks of it there's a chance I might get it for "free" in exchange for some voulentary work.

Guss, the way you expressed yourself, at least I got the impression that you thought this was Matijas first MOC. That theatre is an earlier MOC of his, and then there's IFI, which is also at his MOCPages.

Model Building Secrets has a picture of the new pirates girl at their blog. To say the least; she looks tough!

Guss; You haven't seen Matija's theatre, have you. Anyway, me having seen the locomotive in motion, can tell that it's a sight to behold. Pistons and cranks moving and turning as it crawls forward. You see those two lights down at the buffers? Those light up. Really, they do. There's a couple of LEDs there that are very well "hidden", with wiring skillfully hidden away, so it really looks fantastic. The cars will look equally fantastic, judging by the one twelveth I've seen of them.

I've been crowd controlling people all day long at the Norwegian Technical Museum in Oslo, to prevent overcrowding of the LEGO-tables for the "Children's Dream-City" event. Good god, I'm tired! Who knew handing out tickets and telling people to meet at certain times could be so exhausting. But it's worth it. VW Beetle and Medieval Market, here I come! :D

That is a just such a set. Wow! I'd say it's right up there with Town Plan, Café Corner and any other sets of equal caliber. I'm not much of a castle fan, but that's not stopping me from getting this. Prices seem to indicate that it'll be possible for me to get this through the "Barnas Drømmeby"-event, of which I'm voulenteering both weekends. I could use a "old-town" district in my town-to-be, not to mention that it would fit in with my planned architectural style for it.

No one has, because most of us have plenty of 9V to begin with. ;) Nonetheless, here's how I'd do it. Use the R/C-baseplate (a combined baseplate, battery box and receiver) for a tender car. And then you simply connect the motor to the base' output. The motor can either be in the tender or in the locomotive itself - for handling reasons the motor should be in the front of the train, so a motor at the front of the locomotive is preferable. Also, the R/C-base is capable of powering the old 9V-motor (provided you don't run it on 9V-rails!), but I don't know how that will affect battery life. Don't expect 9V-performance either, the base is limited in its output, as proven when an R/C motor leeches power from the old motor. The best advice right now, however, is to wait for the new system due for release next year. It'll apparently use the same motors and rails, but with a new control system and a new, independent, and rechargable battery-box.

I chose "other", because well, it was a mix of things, really. It started '97-'98, with Town Jr. really, which really put the brakes on at first. Then there was high-school, of which I had some depression, not really wanting to do anything, and school taking up all my time. Any spare-time I would potentially have was used for travelling between school and home. So to speak, I was pretty much down all the time, until November '05, when I got a job at a toy store. I noticed that the sets weren't as bad as they used to be, and with the employee-rebate, prices where what I considered decent. So I bought one 7236, which led me to buy the police bike, and that got the ball rolling again.

These are just fantastic! I'm crossing my fingers that you'll get the necessary bits and pieces needed so you can have them built all at once. I love the hardware store, because of the odd-angled walls, and that it isn't a "classic" corner building. Great work!

Well, it's certainly huge. Five loops, right? Judging by the dominating amount of 12V track, I'd say you're into those trains. Actually, judging by the pictures of the earlier layout, I'd say you're into the nostalgic sets in general. I'd advise you to at least try to get rid of the power lines, if possible. The new layout suggests that it's possible to keep it down to two "hubs" where most of the cables are concentrated, keep it free from clutter. And if you do use power lines, use panels to sort them, again avoid clutter. And if you can't, bundle them together more agressively.

Sounds like the ones you've checked were hatcheries for industrial chickens. You'll want to avoid those, because they have some mental issues and aren't really "pets", so to speak. But try to find a type of breed you'd like to have (Sussex, for example), as different breeds have different behaviour, and hens have a personality to go with that. Try to find a farm that is willing to sell some chickens to you, that way you'll get the better kind. And keep in mind that chickens (hens especially so) are loud and noisy. I myself don't have any chickens, don't want any either. My father, though, has several kinds of birds. He's had some italian ones (forget what name, they look like the brown one pictured above), and lately Sussex chickens, and a few industrials he got cheap. He also has ducks, geese and peafowls (yeah, the kind with the huge, colourful tails).

You're kidding, right? The motor spins, which when connected to other stuff makes that go round as well, while the LEDs light up. The pole-reverser's sole function is to change the direction of current, making the motor spin the opposite direction. IMO, I'm glad they didn't include the XL-motor, because that beast isn't as straightforward as the M-motor. Other than half the rpms, it's got more than twice the torque of the "M"- and is known to break axles and gears if you don't use it correctly.

The Train Depot has a page dedicated towards inclines and bridges. These are aimed at 9V trains, but I suspect it will work nicely with 12V trains as well, seeing how one of the layouts in the idea book had trains climbing a sharper incline. What the link will not tell you, is that it is a good idea to use hinges of this type when connecting the rails to the pillars, as done in the idea book. But keep in mind to even out the transitions, or you might get derailments. For bridges, use technic for anything that will be carrying the trains' weight.

It's a gift set, that is given away at Rambøll's stand at oil-industry expositions. It was created by LEGO for Rambøll, to celebrate the two companies' cooperation with development of new software for concepting new oil-rigs. The software in question is a modified version of LDD, which retains most of LDD's graphical interface. Andy16806 has been to a recent expo and visited their stand, and by surprise, he got hold of one for himself. Rebelego is another one of our members, and is the admin on our forums, and apparently he got hold of one, too.

Ditto. That's an interesting collection of toys, on the wall. I can imagine what some of it is used for, but some of the other stuff looks a bit more painful than comfortable. Excellent use of building techniques for the figures, as well. Interesting choice of parts for the one on the right.

Is it just me, or does the packaging look like some sort of helmet? And why does it remind me of TRON and/or Transformers? And I can't justify putting one of these in the kitchen nor on my desk. It's kinda huge. And it's got a cold stare that I can't break loose from. Plus it'd be like eating someone's brain everytime I'd open it and reach in for a cookie. Dude. I think you lost.

I'm guessing that most of the switches will be permanently set, so the course won't be altered much. Not that it makes it useless, oh no! It'd be very useful in automated layouts, where switches at train stations need to be set whenever a train stops and a new train is due to enter the loop. I probably would have used a wormgear for the reduction needed, plus it would compact the entire design. I do like the fact that this one has a display to show how the switch is set. Two questions though; is the clutch strong enough to overcome the torque needed to set the switch? And how, exactly, does it operate the switch?

In Norway they're sold in all normal outlets that sell LEGO. Top Toys, i.e. Fetter BR and Toys R Us usually have them unsorted in baskets and canisters, while others, or Brio to be more specific, have display stands where they are nicely sorted and displayed.

Some parts need to be downloaded separatly from the program; this is also done at LDraw's website, via the Parts tracker. Pay attention to where you put the files, as not all of them, especially the sub-parts, go into the parts-folder. This is indicated at each part's download page (and in the list as well, I think).

I think it's one of the better looking gas-stations LEGO has released. A particular design I like with this one is the design for pillars and roof, and how they continue through the roof and support it from above, and then come down one the other side a shape the facade of the shop. IMO, it's not as good as Town Plan's gas and service station, which I find stylistically more pleasing, but then again that's an unfair comparison. Compared to the other modern gas station, this is the one wearing the crown.

MLCad, which is available here, is a good one. It's anything but fast, but is relatively easy and gives the user pretty much total control. Plus it has most bricks that have probably existed. Edit: Oops. My bad!

Have you tried FreeLUG, or does that require to be a LUG-member as well?

If there is a topic on this, it's long gone - I guess that justifies starting a new topic. I bet there are many people out there, including me, interested in your design, more spesifically the safety aspect of it. It's particularily interesting in use of semi-automatic train-layouts, where switching must be done by motors rather than hand, while wanting the device to function without breaking anything. So do tell us, we're all ears eyes!

Scrap what I said earlier, my schedule is open that weekend and I have money to spare. I'll be there!

Welcome Aliencat! I just stumbled across your Brickshelf account in its entirety, and my god do you do great fantastic MOCs. Not just the terraced town with the centre-piece castle, but the modular buildings (Harry's Hardware Store, which caught my attention at first) not to mention the techniques you use to achieve styles and effects. I second what Cardinal Brick said. Great you could join us, so we could praise you.