Lego Amaryl

This is a very general consideration. Nowadays Lego is not at the top of children's desires. Videogames, school-bags with cartoon heroes, etc..., they are not less expensive than Lego!

In S@H 4511 is 109.99

I partially disagree. Lego is very expensive, but not so much, especially if compared to other toys that give less playing possibilities. Nowadays prices are generally high for everything, and I think Lego is making an effort to keep them down. To achieve this, Lego has also reduced the quality a little bit. |-/ For example, in '80-'90s you could buy little sets for 2-3 euros, with few pieces and 1 or 2 minifigs. Now you can still buy a Tiny Turbo, or a little City or Aqua Raiders sets, for 3-6 euros. And these little sets have a number of pieces and a complexity higher than little sets of the past. In 1989 I received a 12 V passenger train. The price was about 70

I'm a fan of 12 V train too. In 2005 I built a layout with all my old sets and some MOC. The link is http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=167227 @Hobbes: I have a 7823 too ;-)

I think the prototype of the crane is better than the final version. The final version is too big and doesn't fit in a city layout!

Lego sets are getting better nowadays... but there are still several problems, for example: 1) the color change, that is the worst decision ever made by TLC (and I can't understand the motivation) 2) too many "short-life" themes 3) difficulty to collect useful pieces (minifigs, roofs, windows, big plates, technic beams, ...) without using S@H or BL, especially in unique colors. Though Designer Sets are a great step in this direction, I miss the old "Basic" sets. Designer sets are too specialized, wheareas in a Basic set you could find all you need to build a house and a vehicle or a lot of other things. A "City designer set" would be great... however, the release of more civilian city sets can compensate.

The remote box of the stopsignal has two "outputs": one is a switch, it lets the current flow or interrupts it; the other controls the traffic light; you can also connect a normal light to it: depending on how you connect the wires, the light is on when you select red or green. I had a problem with the switch, but the traffic light worked. So, without opening the box, I "replaced" the switch with an external relais.

In 4886 I've found that about half of the 2x4 red slopes were smooth! In new sets it's usual to find some wrong pieces, or some piece that is not perfect in some detail. For example, in ambulance, the handle of the left door is "full", instead of having the empty space to pull it with the fingernail (I don't know if it is clear...).

I've just bought the set 8286, which I found in a shop for only 35

But differentiating for me is not the original "spirit" of Lego! I.e. that with the SAME pieces you can build DIFFERENT things... instead now they teach kids that to build different things you need different pieces, maybe to sell more sets? However, this is not the main problem of Technic. New Technic pieces are useful, also in combination with System pieces, but as you said in your post, there's a problem of availability. In 80s and early 90s Technic pieces were few and many came in only one color. For example there were no "angle connectors", but two gray connectors that could be joint with a pin to make different angles. So, with few sets, you were able to build other models. Now, it's impossible to collect enough pieces of each colour. To build MOCs, I think the best solution is to combine both "old" and "new" pieces... but now there's also the question of the new colour scheme!

I don't like the "new" Technic, it seems too different from System sets. In the past, Technic and System pieces were completely interchangeable, now they look like two different collections of pieces. Combination with System pieces used to make you able to build a Technic MOC using your existing collection of pieces. Viceversa, many pieces found in Technic sets were also useful in System (plates, hinges, wedges...). Instead, if you want to build a MOC in the "new" way, you need a lot of different connectors, liftarms, and so on. Since there are not universal sets any more, you have to buy many different sets to have enough pieces of different size and colours. I think I'll try to expand my collection of "old" Technic pieces rather than buying new sets. In a shop I've found these sets (new): 8456 Fiber Optic Multi set 60€ 8286 3-in-1 Car 35€ Prices are reduced because boxes aren't perfect... and maybe because they haven't managed to sell them in the last 9 years! ;) Do you think these prices are good?

Here there is still Land Busters in some shops, but I'll wait for this because it seems to have better details, like steering wheels! And it comes in new colours (I have very few dark gray pieces, so I prefer to collect new dark bley).

Hi! I live in Italy in a medium city (250000 inhabitants), the situation is not too bad compared to others described above. There are different little shops and, there is not the complete catalogue and there are less things than 10 years ago... but it's possible to find many themes: SW, Racers, Bionicle, Knight, Vikings, Exo-Force, Designer Set, buckets, some Technic and City (I've found only Firemen and no Construction!). It depends on the shop, for ex. there is a shop that has a lot of discontinued sets and so it doesn't buy new ones! But it does no reductions, if a set is 39.99 it makes you pay 39.99! In this way it will never get rid of old sets and make new sets available! But I know that in this shop it's possible to order any set in the catalogue (I don't know the times of arrival, but you don't pay any extra in this way). There is another shop that has few sets, but has often new sets. So it's important that you go when sets are just arrived. And here I've always found almost all Designer Sets in the last years, plus buckets, some City and other themes. And it always does a reduction of 10%. So I think that if you can find a good set, it's more convenient to buy it in a shop, no extra payments and no time to wait... The problem is that nowadays sets don't have a good selection of pieces like 10 years ago, so you must use BrickLink and eBay...