Matt Dawson

The worst set I have is 7300 'Double Hover'. The best I have is 7641 City Corner (though I think it would've been betterr if it had a car or van with it as well as a bus)

I don't know if anyone's noticed, but in Thunderbirds Are Go (the 1st Puppet move, not the terrible 2004 movie) the buildings when the Zero X crashes have a lego frame with card on the outside to add detail. Look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49bjVo0CvlY...feature=related at about 2:20 onwards

I personally have no quarell with girls and Lego. Any more would be appreciated. I suppose it's like men playing with lego - it's generally percieved to be wrong. Though my family quite admire what I can do with lego; my 2 older brothers and m,y sister played with lego from the age when they could. Hence my lego collection being from the 70's to the present. And yes, I'm generally percieved to be a "nerd"; I prefer to call it "actually bothered to learn something other than how to beat baddies on the XBox" In my opinion, society is generally sexist (though they insist they aren't). When I was at college [Electronics, before you ask], the only female students I saw were the 2 on my course and another 2 who were studing about telecomms. If your female and tell someone your interested in engineering or manufacturing in anyway and normally you either get stared like your an alien at or tutted. Yet I've met some older working women (like at a power plant) who actually seem to do their jobs better than their male counterparts...

...you think holidays are more about shops that sell LEGO rather than being with family ...when you book a holiday JUST for a legoland ...when you spend more time with Lego rather than doing stuff that needs doing. ...when your in a shop that sells lego and you have bought at leats one of each set that takes up most of the display.

I would be more than happy to invest in Lego Trains, should a decent range appear. If only I'd been born in 1982, eh? All those lovely sets to buy (brand new). Anyone got a time machine?

[quote name='aawsum' date='Aug 19 2009, 01:18 PM' post='563794' True that the powerfunctions are not cheap. Question would be if you can create a set for �100, if you need to buy track, a motor, minifigs and parts. But maybe we are going a bit too much offtopic One of the main reasons to start this topic is that power functions, although very good, in my opinion is overpriced and too bulky compared with what the 9V system cost and the space it took. But anyway, it seems that 9V is dead and buried forever . Gone the way of anything good - everybody liked it but no-one wanted to pay for it. I, for one, would not object to paying a more premium price (e.g. £20 a box of track) as I think the 9V system is much better for smaller layouts and beginners. But Power functions will undoubtedly be the way to go for larger layouts with many trains (just be careful to have at least 1 1/2 times the batteries for what you really need - that way, somethings always moving - [snide comment following] like the bank balance into the red! )

Lego (indirectly) have said that they aren't continuing the 9V train line. Shame really. Trains are becoming more AFOL than KFOL Not that I object, but lego needs to advertise the train line (however small) more. It doesn't help that the 'moving' stuff is overpriced - back in 1991, a train set cost around £75 (Brickset doesn't contain any details on price) and came complete with everything you needed. 2009, you can buy a loco (albeit a big tender one) and 1 coach for £68. Where'd the rest go....? And a full train set (should you go for the more decent fraight one) costs just over £102. A 9V motor cost £23. The total for a power functions is £61.13, without a recharger. I don't object to lego taking a dim view on the train line, but at leats price it so that beginners (like me) can have a go. I can easily create a loco from parts and power it for £23. I might think twice if it costs almost 3 times that.

I'm not suprised Lego looked at 9V like a dead product ...things die if you don't look after them properly... But it doesn't help that lego trains are one of those more exclusive things...more to the point, how many retail shops do you see selling anything lego train related? I haven't - and that's one of the main problems... And what doesn't help is the lego group being biased towards road vehicles...

Yes, but radio (or infra-red) train control is very primitive - alright for lego (with only lights on/off and movement) but for proper model railways, with tens of locos (possibly hundreds), that's a lot of frequencies to use. Plus there's different lighting possibilities, sounds... Besides which, you'd need a pretty big house (not to mention a large bank balance ) to get to that level of complexity. Let's put it another way; to power a 9V train, all you need is a motor. For PF, you need a battery box, reciever, motor... And one more thing; 9V motors actually had the motor sideframe part in with the motor itself . Think of the poor kids adult's face when he realises he needs to bricklink or ebay for the sideframes...

What I don't understand is that the RC tracks are a (sortof) new design (basically the 9V tracks with all the holes filled in ) so why not simply design the mould to have a replaceable 'head' ? It doesn't have to be removable, but it'd make the track easier to be made for 9V. That way, either a platic or metal top-piece can be simply 'glued' on. Unless Lego wanted to make the track like the 12V era...seperate plastic sleepers & metal rail.... P.S. If we were to make a new mould, surely we'd make it a bigger radius as a '2 fingers' to lego... (no insult intended, but lego hardly put the effort into the train line as years passed as they did with the city/town ranges...at least trains don't have to be pushed along...)

I don't know any details, but one of the main issues if no track is to be produced is that it's overall quality will decrease - afterall, we do like to RUN our trains, wouldn't we? Afterall, Lego collectors aren't like other collectors... Maybe Lego should consider a revised track design - afterall, wouldn't it be easier to reinvent the wheel track instead of making old ones? If the design is too costly, (lets face it - the design was the same as from when it was introduced) then surely a simpler design would be better? Or maybe the track should be like the RC track with the top section removed and a metal top piece glued on instead? (it may also give the oppertunity to re-design the power feed - to make it smaller?)

Firstly, some mods to the Pizzeria (or however you spell it) interior: The Chef minifig, drumstick and the dispensor/bin come from set 8398 BBQ Stand. Afterall, you wouldn't expect the chef to be waiter as well? The Bike shop next: The tool rack has been removed to my rail yard baseplate and replaced with a fuller rack, featuring drill, Oil can, Utensil Box and Open End Wrenches. The roof has been fitted with a dish and the flag has been moved to the roof, and it's space filled with a 1x1 blue plate that was left over. And finally, the Bus: The Bus has had several mods; > Bus 'mirrored' to be British right hand drive version > The front has had the yellow plates removed to the top of the window to create a typical 'british' look (i.e. the seats at the rear of the bus are higher than the front) > The interior at the rear has been modified to create a full width back set with small luggage space behind, and a raised floor created. > The middle passenger seats have been lowered one plate to be more minifig friendly. > The roof has been modified to create a more 'even' look. More plates added to create a 'roof raised for equipment' look. Link to Photos

I didn't say my model was a genuine copy Here's a corrected model (Mr. Picky): I know about the funnel being wrong - I couldn't find 2 1x1 rounds in a pair of colours - besides, I think It looks better for a switch base [edit: I know my collection might be large, but I had trouble finding the matching colours to build THIS loco...]

Here's a size comparison for the toy loco:

With everyone complaining about the lack of train parts (mainly 9V motor, old style buffers, and of course: track), might I suggest something? If we could (and it's a massive COULD) raise enough money, perhaps we could, as a group, ask Lego to do a special run of parts; or failing that, how about buying the moulds and/or the rights to produce 9V parts? It would certainly benefit 9V users (let's face it, who doesn't like nice long trains?). But there reamins several stumbling blocks: > It would be best if a special group was formed to specifically tackle the problem > Lego might not want a seperate supply/track system to be available - so may cause problems > while not expensive now (it really is only about 3 years since Lego stopped 9V production) it may become way more expensive in future - if a ex-shop condition box of 9V straight track is over $45 on Bricklink from $13 in just over 3 years, it will become rarer still and some of it will deteriorate in quality - again, pushing prices up. Any thoughts/comments?

I'll be trying to get it - the only place last year selling it around where I live was Woolworths (I'm in the UK) - here's hoping ToysRUs or Woolworths will sell it...

Firstly, I'm not to be confused with the Rugby player Matt Dawson... I can't remember a time where I didn't have lego. Being the youngest (there's a 13 year difference between my and my eldest brother (brother No. 1) I've got lego from the late 70's up to 2009 (and it might continue beyond...) My main interest is in City and trains (I've got a N gauge model railway, so from 1:148 to 1:40 ['minifig'] is a big jump...) and as for the latter, I only have a box of curved track (LEGO are selling these boxes cheap), a complete controller (bought in parts of Bricklink, track feed wire from LEGO reductions bit) and one container wagon (with bogie plate and wheels off Bricklink). My real first MOC is a 4 wheel shunter, ala Ruston or Hunslett etc. . So apart from the track, the only other real trains sets I have are the World City cargo crane and the Hogwarts Express set (first edition) bought for chrictmas by my parents. Regarding my city models, I have a large collection of both official lego models (mostly from 2005 onwards) and custom vehicles (including an old style car with 4086 roof...). I also have a large castle collection, largely due to brother no. 2. I've got a wide variety of parts and pieces (and I am trying to compile a set list...) My main interests are gaming (computer and Wii), Engineering, Lego, model railways, and watching TV. In september, I'm going to study Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Aston, after studing electorincs at Matthew Bouton and at school. I live in Solihull, nr Birmingham in the UK, so I don't have a wide variety of stores to buy things from (Toys R Us and Argos mainly since Woolworths went bust). I'm a member of Peeron, Birckset, Trains-N-Town, and now Eurobricks. So I'm MattDawson, Engineer, Electrical & Computering Whizz, and Lego builder.

I'd love a decent revival of the trains line - could we possibly see second radius track? perhaps we'll see a revival ala 1991 - decent independant sets of rolling stock which were useful. Maybe a few more 9V sets? (we can only hope! )