paul_delahaye

Sorry to dig up an old topic, I remember seeing this topic about converting a Lithium Battery pack to have a red cover instead of the dark grey cover, but after loads of searching, I cannot find the posts? Anyone able to point me in the right direction? Paul

You would not want to be the lego operator if the glider did not get airborne :-)

I know it says on the Lego website, coming soon 1st Jan, but do you think it's likely it will be available to pre-order before 1st Jan? Do they usually offer the change to pre-order on exclusive sets? Maybe for VIP card holders? Paul

Interesting, I'd always thought that the 2 x 4 cutout was for load n haul 4563 and the 3 x 4 cutout was only used on 4551 crocodile engine. I've got 2 of the 4563 and they were both 2 x 4's. It's strange as both sets were released in 1991, there must be a good reason why they choose to make 2 molds? rather than just add a 1 x 4 brick? Paul

We can only hope this will be included in a real set, with the average price on Bricklink being £45 - £48, they will hopefully be available to the mass market very soon http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?colorID=7&itemID=952

It's not rocket science, If they priced them at a £1, 100 people would buy them. they price them at £2 and 90 of those people think, that's too expensive and don't buy them. So do they make £100 from selling 100 or do they make £20 from selling 10. The same can be said for the hot dog stand at Legoland Windsor, How many do they actually sell at £4.50 a hot dog. How many would they sell at £2. They would still make a killer Gross Margin.Paul

Any reason why you think the set should contain 8 pieces of track? Is this because this is what Lego has always offered in the past? It's not like 8 pieces are exactly 1 meter in length so this is the optimum number? So we know the cost to Lego of manufacture of track now is much less than ten years ago as they don't have to add the metal conductive parts to the moulding. We all want to make bigger track layouts, so why are we not asking for a pack of 20 straights? We actually would not even have to ask Lego to make track packs at all if they bought the price of a length of straight track on their Pick a Brick wall down to a reasonable price. Nearly £2 a length, £16 for a meter of track seems steep, if they halved the price, they would sell more, and it would please the train fans as we could have a route to more track. No packaging or Instruction manuals would be required so it would keep the cost down for Lego. Seems to be the way to go in my opinion. Paul

So I posted a couple of weeks ago after I saw the images in the retail catalogue, and actually Lego have made the box art look much better than they did in the retailers catalogue which is odd? You would think they would be more appealing images in the retailers catalouge to encourage them to stock the sets? Paul

yes, about 2 weeks ago, to be honest, I'm absolutely stunned it has not leaked online,

Are you sure, I thought there was 5 in 2012? Ambulance, Tipper Truck, Car and Caravan, 4WD and Motorbike trailer, Dustcart I've only seen the pictures for the first half of 2013, an orange flatbed recovery truck, a yellow and grey cement mixer and an octan tanker Maybe the other 1 or 2 might come later in the year?

Love it, the running coffee machine joke appears in this set great interior as well. I'm wondering if we might see this set on display at the Steam UK exhibition next week? Someone had the Castle jousting set which came out 1st Jan 2012 on display there last year so there is some hope. Paul

Well collectable mini-figs certainly continue into 2013, Series 9 and 10 were in the retailer catalogue, but currently they were just generic figure shapes, blanked out, no list of what is to come. Paul

I saw the pictures today, but I did not take much in, the house was very small and square with a red roof if I remember correction, nothing special that jumped out. Definately smaller than the log cabin or the beach hut of previous years I'm sure there was a yellow truck with a excavator on the trailer, but again this was a small set, maybe 4 or 6 studs wide.

These sets are definitely Lego bricks, not Duplo, more like basic creator if I had to explain it, one of these sets definitely included the Friends light blue Bicycle from this year. And it was a small set.

I did see them in the retailer catalouge, there was a double page spread indicating something top secret coming in 2013, I think that page scan is already on Flickr, the next double page spread had some sets on them, I barely have any information, I'm not into this theme, I just thought the turtles themselves were well done. I think I saw 3 or so sets, there was a good selection of characters, certainly all the turtles, they were just regular green minifigs, legs and torso. The torso was printed on the front, and he had a backpack which was a new mold to make their shells, these were like dark tan. The head of the figure was a new custom mold. There was also shreader as a character. At least one of the sets involved some form of chase with what seemed like a van, or a police van, can't remember. Paul

It also had the little basket from red riding hood minifig on the back of the bike

wow, certainly crushes any rumours that the Train theme is dead in Lego's eyes! And 6 minifigs with a lego set costing £80, this must is a rarity now days! Nice Orange train bases, great parts Paul

Neither, it appears to be a new 4+ range of sets, quite basic, for kids between Duplo and Lego I guess I did skim the catalogue though It looks like they are using trans red attenas and then somehow directing light through them, not 100% clear from the picture. Paul

Don't get me wrong, the pricing is my best guess, I'd say looking at the picture, the backhoe should be around £20 - 25 euros The picture made it look like it had about as many functions as this years tractor. The F1 racer, I thought was one of the small pull back motor sets, if we are expecting a bigger flagship 1st half set, it was not in the retailers catalogue, maybe it will be a TRU or Argos exclusive? Paul

Saw the 1st half technic lineup this morning in a retailers catalogue, in full glory to be honest, except the material handler it's a tad disappointing 42000 Grand Prix Racer 42001 Hovercraft - Colour Scheme poor, but it's a £5 set 42002 Mini Backhoe - This looks poor, all functions seemed to be controlled by knobs on the function, knob on the buckets, Looks like a very empty set, just beams to create a rough backhoe shape and thats it, yellow and black in colour as expected. 42003 Action Racecar - basic pull back car, can't remember the colours, small set though, £10 at a guess 42004 Action Race Buggy - basic pull back car, can't remember the colours, small set though, £10 at a guess 42005 Motocross Bike - Something about the length of this model looks wrong, it's orange and black in colour, it might just have been the picture that made it look odd, definately a £20 set 42006 Material Handler - Really good, to be honest, the only set that actually looks like any effort has been put into the design, nice to see the 5 claw grabber is opened and closed from the base of the machine via cogs and axles rather than the usual copout of knob on the grabber or bucket as we have seen so often recently, The claw is actually really well designed and looks tough. Hopefully a £50 set, although no signs of power functions, it had at least 1 large linear actuator. Roll on 2nd Half! Paul

Got a good look through a retailers catalogue this morning at the first half 2013 sets. The 3 new vehicles, Octan Tanker, Recovery Truck and Cement Mixer are really cool, Octan tanker is very similar to what we saw previously just it's a 6 wheeler rather than an articulated version. The recovery truck in Orange is good, with a working winch, I'd say the bed maybe tips up. The cement mixer is almost the same design as the blue and white one from years ago, except it's yellow and dark grey. The shoot for the cement on the back looks like a new piece, although it could be an old snow plough part? The fire sets are ok, the main fire station looks similar to Blaze brigade from 15 years ago, I'm liking the ladders on the fire trucks, they now have handrails, and look much more realistic. The museum set is nice, although it's not massive, very similar scale to the bank set, looks like it comes with a light brick which makes a laser security pattern for the criminals to avoid. There is also a small set which includes the new light blue friends bicycle coming next year, should be a cheaper way to get this set. Also the creator house is small but nice, about the size of the beach hut Paul Not to mention the cool Teenage Turtles sets coming next year, but thats for another section of the forum!

mmmmm, that slightly devalues their original collect-ability. How annoying

I really hope we get more of those great vehicles sets, the price point was spot on, and the part selection was great. That theme sold really well in the local toy shops, (they kept telling us this when I was buying them) Hopefully Lego also noted this

Couple of things, My set I picked up from Legoland Windsor this week, In poly bag 2 (the truck's trailer) I was missing the 1 x 6 green plate to build the rear light panel, but instead I had an additional 1 x 4 green tile? It's really rare to get a mispick now days. The second observation, when you grabber a big rock from the mine train, and lift it into the crusher hopper, the rock can't get through the gap onto the conveyor belt, the hopper could have been larger. I do like the crane, I only wish the track it slides in was longer The set is nice, just it should be a £50 set in a smaller box rather than a £70 set. Probably great set when it comes to sale time. In a funny way, the set contains features from the old public works set of the 80's

Here is an impressive large scale lego model, in the news this week. Linky Here is the article Linky