paul_delahaye

For a minute I got really excited, thinking a Lego shop was opening in the town where I work........then to realise this was not Guildford in Surrey......UK :-( Never mind, it was a long time ago Guildford in Surrey UK last had a genuine Lego shop......

ahh, I thought he wanted the motor in the tender anyway, I've found the part I had in mind http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=x334c01&in=S

I have a flex spring drive (about 15cm long) which has a white technic axle at each end, I'd always thought the part came from Technic Znap, but I cannot find it on Bricklink, if this part is real, it could be what you need, I will keep trying to identify it. It would overcome the issue of the universal joint.

It puts my mind at rest that the $100M my company spent on Oracle E business Suite r12 has gone to support your impressive Lego collection

I wonder if you could create the same effect using lego elastic bands stretched to different lengths?

Brickset acknowledges a new store opening in Southampton, UK in 2013

I've never seen this before, but have not looked either, but it appears to work really well, thanks for highlighting this design. Paul

Loving the beech,

Nice to have a different type of rubbish bin in the town

It's fairly basic, the minors hat has to be the highlight of the set, or that it was free with the newspaper!

Wow, that blue bike is certainly popular this year

Brickset says 1368, how accurate this is, I'm not sure?

This problem is not just a Lego issue. In my company we have a very similar issue which drives me mad, we have a part numbering system which allows you to classify the product by corporate brand, size, left/right and colour, the system was great when it was first introduced 15+ years ago, but over time new product managers and product data management employees have joined the company who do not understand the original logic of the system, subsequently new part numbers being created do not follow the originally intended part number scheme, I could easily see the same being the case with Lego. I personally consider a real "Limited" edition set to be one like given away on the Lego inside tour, where the sets are literally hand numbered. Or one given to a Lego employee for Christmas. It might be right to say some of the Corporate branded sets from the 80's are also limited, but maybe just in a different way. The sets with Limited edition printed on the packaging in my eyes are more "Exclusive" sets to a particular retail store, appears to be a marketing ploy required by the store who has the agreement with Lego, The former company Woolworths in the UK always used to have Lego exclusive sets, now TRU seems to have that arrangement with Lego in the UK. Paul

i had visions of an expensive Power Functions write off! Love the Hamster!

I still kick myself for not picking up that Monorail Track expansion pack I saw in an old toy shop in South Wales when on holiday years ago!

When you look back at the limited pallet of parts available to the Lego designers of the 70's and early 80's, the ideas books were very clever indeed.

wow, this kind of wall display is exactly what I had in mind to build! are there any doors or glass to minimise dust? Am I being stupid? I don't see the first ever Lego train set in these pictures?

So for my 500th post and acknowledgement of Knight status and the ability to start polls, I thought I’d better introduce myself and say Hi as I've never done this, As the more observant of you will notice, I’ve been around for a while, actually quite a while only having a 3 digit membership number, I’m probably one of only a handful who registered that long ago who is not a Grand Duke or Admin by now! Having registered in March 2006, it’s taken seven years to say hi, apologies for that! I’m based in Hampshire, UK, I’ve been into Lego since as long as I can remember, having a dark period around the age of 14/15, up until then Birthday’s and Christmas usually equated to a Medium to Large sized Lego set. I then stopped collecting for about 8 or 9 years. I now use Lego building as a way to relax from the day to day challenges of work. There is something incredible about the feeling of joining small ABS bricks together. Today’s most annoying thing is dust on Lego bricks, I’m currently undergoing a massive cleaning operation for my 80’s sets. I make the odd MOC, but my true enjoyment is collecting older sets, now earning a wage, it means I’m no longer restricted to pocket money purchasing like when I was younger. I have a few sets in storage, but I generally believe sets should be built and not kept for future profiteering. Although having some old Castle, Pirates and Classic Space sets from the 80’s, I have 4 main areas, which interest me today: Collectable Minifig Series: I’ve collected all figures since series 1, I find the lucky dip an enjoyable challenge. Town/City, much as I love the old Town System sets and most of my early Childhood collection comes from this 80’s era, I’m still a fan of the new sets coming out each year (less helicopters next year please Lego). I also have all the modular’s which are a great build. I really need to line them up next to each other for full effect. Trains are one of my favourite parts of my collection, I now have most of the 12v, 9v and modern sets having just acquired a 7760 Blue Shunter engine to complete my 12v Grey collection this year. I will get around to posting pictures of my collection in the appropriate topic in the future. I’ve occasionally been around the Trains forum over the years with my most relevant post being the one where I bought to the attention of Eurobricks the Maesrk Train set a couple of years ago. Technic is my personal favourite right now, I nearly have a full collection, I’m currently only missing the 8094 Control Centre, I’m also missing 4 or 5 of the Universal sets and a large number of the early basic beam and component accessory sets from the 80’s. I love the technical side of how things work, so I’m sure this is why this appeals so much. Again, pictures will be added in the future. I’ve travelled to some of the Lego shops around the World, (mostly in the UK) I’ve been to the Lego shops in Kingston (before it was shut), Milton Keynes, Brighton, Bluewater, Stratford and most recently for the grand opening of the Watford store. I’ve also been to the Lego shop in Copenhagen Airport. Living only 30 minutes from Legoland Windsor means it’s my local store when my annual pass is valid, I’ve also been to the Discovery Centre in Manchester and the Car Park of Legoland California! Unfortunately I had to fly home before it opened. But I got to see the main entrance at 6am! For anyone what has managed to read this far, a quick word around Lego exhibitions in the UK, I’ve attended as a visitor the Merrist Wood Lego exhibition three years in a row and the Petersfield exhibition twice (I think these two have now ended). Most recently I’ve attended Steam in Swindon for the past two years and I’ll certainly be dropping into the Aldershot Lego show on Saturday May 4th to support that one as well. All the best and I hope to continue adding valuable input over the coming years and maybe I’ll see a few of you around at the forthcoming shows. Paul

Questions seemed vague, except the one that reminds me how much I've spent this year.......ahhhhh

Now that's a proper Man Cave I was not allowed the ceiling mounted projector!

I guess the question is how limited is limited, 20,000 pieces does not sound very limited in the Technic market place, is this was a Gold C3PO in the Star Wars forum or the limited 5000 gold minifigs from series 10 of the collectable minifigures it would be a different story. With a price tag of circa £140 or 170 Euros, it's not going to be an ad-hoc purchase for most families. For me it's a little disappointing they are not selling just the body and a new set of wheels, a parts pack so to speak, but you can imagine the confusion that would cause if a child purchased it and found it did not come with the motors, etc. I still would have liked it to be this way the competition was to build a "new body" for the crawler without changing the subframe. But hey ho, it's only money another cunning trick by TLG to extract my hard earned cash

OCD seems to be getting worse, I keep aligning the pins when making the models, so the building time is becoming a longer process for me! I generally note when I rush a build, I have pieces left over at the end, I then have to go back through the steps, looking for the pieces I have failed to add, in general hoping it's only a cosmetic part and not buried within the gearbox! :-)

Searching the news, this is another one of those amazing Lego Technic/Mindstorms creatitions worthy of a mention, it ranks up there with the Pin ball machine made with 13 RCX units and 3D Milling Machine :-) http://mashable.com/2013/03/16/lego-robot-paper-planes/ This appears to be the creators You Tube video Simply Amazing stuff

Technic, Trains, & Town for me, There is only so much space in the house.

so if this pattern continues 2007 - corner, business - Cafe Corner 2008 - retail, residential - Green Grocer 2009 - government building - Fire Brigade 2010 - corner, business - Grand Emporium 2011 - retail, residential - Pet Shop 2012 - government building - Town Hall 2013 - corner, business - Palace Cinema 2014 - ??? retail, residential ??? 2015 - ??? government building ??? 2016 - ??? corner, business ??? 2017 - ??? retail, residential ??? 2018 - ??? government building ??? 2019 - ahhhhhhhhhh, Full square of buildings, no more modulars! We need an inverse corner to continue the theme :-)