Lego Amaryl

I can help you by getting the Maersk ship and the airport... ;-)

I agree... Every time Lego changes its trains, it makes them simpler than before... When I was a kid, I was really disappointed when Lego discontinued 12V trains and introduced the 9V ones. Unifying the electric system was a good thing, but why didn't 9V trains have automated switching tracks, illumination, and so on, like 12V? Did Lego think that kids were becoming less smart (or patient) to build such complex things?

@hinckley39: 12V trains are the best, not the 9V ones! ;-) If I remember well, old 12V transformers offer a gradual voltage regulations. Maybe, you can use one of them, provided that you manage to "stop" the output at 9V (there was a way to stop it at 4.5V). Building a connecting cable between the two systems should not be difficult. Moreover, in this way you could also use the 12V fixed output to provide your city with illumination...

It's

70 euro for the house... It's so much! But I think it's worth for the pieces... The ferris wheel is very interesting too... but it would be 140 euro in total!!

48x48 roadplates?? 8-wide trucks?? A kid has not all this space available in his room!!! Big sets are funny to build and to play, but if you want to keep a little city, now you must have a very big table!! This is a problem for both kids and afols... where can you put the bridge transport truck, or the new big airplanes? I think City should come back to smaller size: 4-wide cars and 6-wide trucks (6-wide vehicles were already introduced in the old town theme). 8-wide trucks are realistic but ridiculous if compared to buildings (as phoinix has noticed, they can't enter the gas station...)! If TLG had to sell a trainstation scaled to these trucks, it should be huge and very very expensive!! So, this is a toy... maybe kids find bigger things more interesting, but I think there are other ways to attract their attention. For example giving them the possibility to build a little city layout, as I used to do when I was a kid. But how can they do this if: 1) the airport doesn't have roadplates and the current ones are too small for the airplane 2) the 8-wide trucks are too big for the roadplates and are greater than the buildings 3) the firestation doesn't connect to roadplates 4) miniturbos and tuner garage are too small to put them in the layout ...and so on All these sets are "stand-alone", "build and play toys", where's the old spirit of Legoland where all the sets were part of the same system??

In fact, I can't understand why TLG is making Racers in a different size. Those sets could perfectly be integrated into City if only they were made a little larger! Mini turbos are too small for minifigs, while many City sets are too wide!! The last step in the "return to origins" of Lego should be making the different themes Creator, Racers and City "cross-compatible", like in the past. Abandoning the horrible Jack Stone minifig was an excellent step in this direction. Now they're including figs also in Creator tubs, that are now similar to FreeStyle sets... Breaking the rules "no minifigs" also for some (not all) Creator and Racers sets would be very good!

Marc... you should turn on the "Macro" mode when taking photos of near objects! Those images are too blurry!

Good! Buckets are now getting similar to old Basic/Freestyle sets! Not only basic bricks, but also minifigs, wheels, and so on...

RECENT??? It's since 80s that Lego buildings have no back! After the introduction of minifigs, the buildings have been made without back to show interior details and to play with minifigs inside. So, this is part of Lego world. Cars with only one seat are part of Lego world too... for this reason I don't like 8-wide trucks. They are more detailed but too big, compared not only to other cars but also to trains, stations, buildings,... (the scale is a complex problem, because the minifig itself isn't well-scaled...) Moreover, I build only buildings without back because they require less bricks... I think also TLG thinks the same way!

There are different things I don't like in the new City theme (e.g. the 8-wide trucks and the use of big pieces), but I'm glad that Lego is coming back to its origins and City is becoming the dominant theme again. According to me, the main difference between City and other themes is this: if you collect enough City (and Creator) sets, you can use the pieces to build a great variety of City MOCs. You can even try to build the 2007 City sets using the pieces you already own... this is almost impossible with other themes like SW, Bionicle, KK, Vikings, etc... With Creator and City Lego is finally becoming a construction toy again.

The house is fantastic! All those tan pieces and black roofs (both 30

BUON NATALE !!!

Very good! :-) I've noticed that in 2007 there are not oversized sets, useless in a layout, such as the bridge transport or the mobile crane. They are all sets that fit into a standard layout (except for the containers... but that's not a big problem). 6 studs for the trucks and 4 for normal cars, that's a good scale... (although I prefer small wheels for normal cars) Some more steps for 2008 would be: 1) more civilian sets, e.g. a house with interior details and a car, like in 80s!! 2) integrate Racers into City, i.e. race cars with minifigs!!

Are we back in 90s? ;-)

My roadsigns were all broken. My parents fixed them many years ago and they are still intact. I think they used "Pattex". It's not completely transparent but it's very resistant. They used it also to fix a 2x16 plate broken. I have many broken palm leaves: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?P=2518 and I haven't managed to fix them >:-(

I live in Messina, a city of 250,000 inhabitants in Sicily. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messina I think this city has wonderful natural and historical resources. Unfortunately they are not well exploited. The city centre is a little chaotic, public transport is very unrealiable so most people use their own car. Since there are not enough parking places, they leave the car in "double line"... contributing to the traffic! Luckily, I live near the city centre so I can go on foot. My university is not in the centre and is easy to reach by car in less than 30 minutes. I must say I like my city, because it's neither a "small" or a "large" city... For example, when I go out on Saturday evening I always meet people I know... this is unlikely in a large city like Rome or Milan! But at the same time it's not a little city: it has lots of schools, an university, shops, cinemas, and so on! And, in summer, I can reach the beach in about 20 minutes!

It can fit 'cos the two center studs are lower than the side ones.

Yesterday I received my first purchase on eBay! http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=220966

I'm waiting to receive from eBay these items: http://guide.lugnet.com/set/146 http://guide.lugnet.com/set/369 http://guide.lugnet.com/set/6538 http://guide.lugnet.com/set/5918_1 http://guide.lugnet.com/set/802_1

Yes, not all white bricks yellow. I have seen hospitals with some bricks that have become tannish, and other bricks still white. In the same set, exposed to the same light during the years...

Some days ago I bought 4896 Roaring Roadsters and 5904 ( http://guide.lugnet.com/set/5904 ), for 47

Probably this Basic set: http://guide.lugnet.com/set/350_2 But I think my parents had already bought me this System set, which I was too young to build: http://guide.lugnet.com/set/6659 and my mom already owned this set, found in an Easter Egg: http://guide.lugnet.com/set/621_1 When young, my mom had a little box of Lego pieces (bricks, plates, roofs, windows from 60s-70s), but my grandma gave it to her cousins!! >:-(

Some civilian set: - A house, like 4886, but with minifigs and interior details! - One or more cars for normal people, maybe a small car and a bigger car with trailer or roulotte - Shops, post office, buildings of everyday life... My dream? A "City Creator set", i.e. an old style Basic set with pieces to build an house and a car and two minifigs (male and female).

I agree. But it's not more expensive than everything else nowadays. And I wanted to show that its price isn't increased so much as other things (for example, cinema and restaurants!). Lego is VERY expensive especially for a MOCer, who wants to have large quantities of particular bricks (and the wide variety of bricks and colours in sets makes it very difficult). When I was a kid, I liked Lego so much that it was the only toy I used to receive as a present. Now there are many other things that attract kids, like videogames. So there are less money to spend on Lego.