Freddie

It actually uses a combination of these: At least, that's what the downloadable model uses. These make up a guardrail that goes around the snout at both ends of the locomotive.

That's until the new series start up though, and I think there's a new movie on its way, too. Should certainly help a bit. I'm not that surprised that CITY is going strong. I'm more surprised about its increase in sales, though. A 101% sales increase from '05 to '07 means that TLC sold twice as many CITY sets in '07 compared to '05. That's impressive - but then again they had twice as much, and much nicer, stuff on offer in '07. It's pretty much agreed that '07 will be difficult for TLC to improve on.

The set must be popular - I ordered two, one for me and one for a friend (we splice on the shipping), on sunday and first had it shipped last night. Costs 1499 SEK a piece. For popularity, it's #10 in the swedish shop.

The new clip-hinge shutters appear to be 2.5 studs wide, which is how wide they would need to be in order to shut properly. On the other hand, these new shutters are more versatile than the old ones, because the clip-hinges allow other uses for them. I can see them being used for mudflaps, train gates, and other uses as well. What I find more interesting is the presence of 2x4x3 windows, which is ancient, in combination with the newer window panes and glass-pieces.

It sure looks like an old Daihatsu Midget. I first thought that someone had made the newer, four-wheeled truck, but hey, this is even better. He does state that it's based on Hitahita's design, though. And I think I prefer Hitahita's all-white design. Edit: And he even made a "fire engine"!

Can the crucifying wait if it means we have to wait longer for the cover to be uploaded? I'm eagerly waiting to see what this catalog, uh reference book, looks like. Nice to see a discussion started on this. I doubt this book will be off as much joy as going through the pages of the old catalogs, but seeing LEGO releasing something like this is appreciated. I'm wondering if LEGO discovering that AFOLS represent 20% of their customers had anything to do with it. X-D

Inertia is referring to Blizzard's Naga, which are amphibious, mutated elves. They're essentially Blizzard's own creation, and TLC should proceed with caution if they choose to use this type of creature in their Castle-theme. Then there are the N

There's never been any Technic sets to use hydraulics. Actuation have always been limited to pneumatic power, and recently with the new linear actuators, also mechanical (plus the less obvious "Flex System"). It's not the Barcode Truck you're thinking off? That was green and black, and came out around the millenium. That was all electronic and mechanical, though.

I think he meant getting CC, MS and GG at the same time. ;-) I've just secured a copy for me and one for a friend of mine. Crossing my fingers that it'll arrive at the post office quickly.

There's a reason why sets like these aren't seen in established toy-chains, and it's not because they are very similar to LEGO. Plus I believe that LEGO sees a military theme as something people won't, and shouldn't, connect to them. As for the sets themselves. Sure, plenty of bricks, but I've never been a fan of military sets (y'know; war, killing, destruction, agony, all that stuff). And I'm not seeing how it relates to town and train...

I can see one thing this song is good for: a toilet break. I've tried to listen to it but simply can't, because the voice alone is repulsive. Skipping forward didn't help much either. Blech! I am eagerly waiting what the "Nordic Counsil" are going to say. But they are probably going to state something similar to what I did, if they can be bothered to.

After having seen it live, yesterday (Nice meeting you, DNL :-), hope you weren't put of after yesterday's norwegian gibberish X-D), I've got to say that this has to be seen live to truly appreciate it. My favourite detail would be the garden, especially the mushrooms - but yet again it's the breath of life that I think makes this MOC stand out from the crowd. *sweet*

Looking good! *y* I would perhaps ditch the tiles used in the middle section for the trains, because trains do afterall use the rails rather than the stuff surrounding it to support itself. That's how it's done in reality, and it would look more realistic. Plus you'll save bucketloads of money by not "asphalting" the rails. A question though - you are using the same building techniques used in the tower crane to build the supports, right? I'm thinking of the technic beams going vertically through the middle, used for strengthening, it looks like you are, but it's hard to tell.

Shouldn't really be a problem. The plates are 32x32 (25.4x25.4 cm or 10"x10"), with have six studs on either side of the road. That means the roadway is 20 studs wide, which is enough for 8-wide vehicles to be side by side.

Check the index - you'll see that Kanal-K1 has posted a review of it.

I second this - this deserves a seperate topic to avoid unwanted spoilers. Am I the only one seeing the irony of including a barbeque in the calendar? The gifts look really nice, though. I'm looking forward to this. *sweet*

Those are some excellent looking buildings! Love the bank corner - it's got an interesting approach for it's roof which I will probably borrow if I get around to build again. Other than that, I can't single out a single building I like the most, they all look great. *y*

Cities are as diverse as their creators, so there really isn't an answer to how one would build a city - other than it'll need buildings. Personally I think regular baseplates, be it green 32x32's or grey 48x48's, are important to get some structure and the essential "LEGO'ness" of a city. Street-plates less so, as you can create your own streets by simply leaving a portion of the baseplates unused. Consider getting Town Plan - it costs a fair amount of money, but is essentially a half town in a single box. And it'll give the police and firefighters something to do. ;-) And then there's the modular buildings, such as Caf

They're both new - the one on the left (along with its equally new, trans-clear cousin) is for the 1x4x6 door frame, while the one on the right is for the new 1x4x3 window frame, basically an adaption of the old container doors. This year's vacation house has the new doors along with other new parts, while the mail van has the new container doors, plus the return of the old 4x10x2/3 car base used back in TLC's peak. The CITY freight truck has plenty of the new 1x2 double clips, plus new-to-me 1x4x1 slope bricks. Anakin's starfighter has new 1x12 plates. The police station has new jail doors, plus that new curved 2x4x2/3 slope. That's what I can think of, at the moment.

Provided you have the space, you could do something like this. That's the most solid approach I can think off, maybe even the cheapest. I also suspect it's the one that needs the most space. But you probably agree with me that it looks good.

Hmm, I can't help but think that your buildings look a little plain. I think the hospital's the best looker here (it's design works and looks purposeful), but those two corner buildings you've built, they just look like plain variations on the CC-theme. I suggest you flesh them out more - experiment with bricks for the decorations, and use other shapes for the walls - and maybe try out a new corner design instead of the "diagonal wall with tower"-design, maybe a suspended tower at the corner bit instead. For that bank/post building, I would suggest you use less grey and black. Green and white instead of a black and grey canvas would be great start. I would also suggest you tone down on the contrasting colors for the post office. And final piece of advice - get out and look at and/or take pcitures of buildings and see how their facades are designed. Try to replicate, integrate and improvise those designs into your buildings - it'll quickly look better.

Found on brickshelf: 20002 Brickmaster, Firechief's Car (?) Looks decent, to be honest - I've heard previous sets were rubbish.

The 1x4, yes. It's supposed to go under the 1x4x3 panel with the map - it grips the bricks better. I have no clue to all those 1x2 singles. I've got some weird piece combinations in mine, such as a white 1x12 plate that goes nowhere, and a good amount of spare tiles, plates, flowers and such.

I just built mine this evening, and then I find this review here. :-D I agree with most you said, altough I like the service station most - It doesn't have any counterpart (architecturally) anywhere in LEGO's sortiment since the brick was invented, and it just stands out. The cinema does come a very close second though. One thing I noticed is that despite the relatively small size of these buildings, these are heavy! Anyone who says that these buildings are <insert that tiresome argument> will be lying. It took me three hours to build this set because of all those small 1x1 and 1x2 that are used most of the time. Also; Now take a look here: See what's in that pile that's missing in the picture above? No? Then carefully study the very last step for the Town Hall. It's easy to miss - I did the same mistake at first. ;-)

Those bullet-holes are remnants from before LEGO produced the "pane-less" windows. The same glass-pieces are used on 1 x 4 x 6 windows since ten years plus ago. The reason we first notice them now (and start complaining) is that now there are door frames where the glass fits, and it's being used officialy by the company itself. So when I build, I place the glass in the frame in such a manner that it will be harder to notice. But I still wish TLC would eventually replace the molds that shape the glass, to have another entry point for the plastic.