Duq

Wow. Never noticed that. I never considered light bricks part of the PF family. Just checked the rest of the winter series and none of the other ones are branded Power Functions. I guess it was a mistake in the early days of PF...

Hmm... I wonder who maintains that. On the Power Functions page it says: Then in the opening paragraph it says: It also lists the Winter Village Toy shop as a Power Functions set when all it has is a light brick.

That's the problem when you're trying to find Power Functions accessories on Shop at Home; sometimes they're under Creator, sometimes Technic, sometimes City (trains)...

I have no sympathy for all the people complaining here. The whole point of 'Exclusive' or 'Limited edition' is that it's something not everyone else has. "Dear Lego, I'm a real fan. How dare you give something I want to someone who isn't a real fan?" Give me a break. Being completionist is a decision. It's self-inflicted. The Rolling Stones said it decades ago: You can't always get what you want. Live with it.

Can you give the full link to the actual page on Brickipedia where you found that?

As much as I'd like to see a German steam engine (just check my Flickr stream ;- ) there's another pattern that has been overlooked in this thread sofar: European (EN) - American (Maersk) - European (HE) - American? Having said that though, we have had American steam in the form of Toy Story and Lone Ranger and the current City freight train is an American diesel. Bottom line: it's hard to predict what it's going to be....

That's my biggest problem with this project. The IR receiver costs €15. I'm prepared to pay a little more for Bluetooth but not 2.5x-3x more. Any plans for a smaller, cheaper version?

The station is too short if you ask me. The platform isn't long enough for the high speed train. Are these the new connecting pieces you mean? They're not new; they've been around since the Silver Champion in 2000... ;-) I'm not blown away by those pilons myself but they're not that bad. It's mean to look like a modern small station with steel supports. To an engineer it'll probably look all wrong but for the target audience I think it achieves the look quite well with just a few parts.

Your problem seems to be that you just have open sets lying around so a part can be in a number of different boxes. When I put stuff in my shop I part out the set. My storage system is pretty basic: ziplock bags in big Ikea tubs. If I'm looking for a part it can only be in one place.

It's a nice design sofar but it looks like you'll be doing a lot of 3D printing... For wheels, have you looked at Big Ben Bricks? They do drivers in a number of sizes. For the coupling rods you could have a look at the other Ben (Zephyr in the post above, see the link in his sig). Lego curves are tight but ME Models have completed their Kickstarter project and are now starting up production for wider curves. A common trick to get trains around tight curves is using blind drivers in the middle. Have a look at models in Flickr groups Lego Trains and Lego Train Ideas. The only person I know to run his trains on O-gauge every now and then is Bricktrix.

The 1080 full HD is about video, the megapixels tell you more about the photographs you can take. Having said that, pretty much everything you buy these days is 10Mp or more and that's more than enough for screen. Don't get wowed by megazoom. You won't need it for Lego and those megazoom lenses on budget cameras often give less crispy images, especially in low light. A camera I would recommend is the Canon Powershot S110. I've got the S95 myself, S110 is a newer version. It's a handy size, has lots of controls and takes pretty good pictures. Have a look in my Flickr stream; most of my pictures are taken with this camera. The others are taken with a Canon SX20 (big bulky and with a big zoom) and older pictures were taken with a Canon SX110IS. Nice camera but it broke a few times. Another essential accessory for taking crisp pictures of Lego is a tripod. Use a 2 second timer on the camera and put it on a tripod. You'll be amazed what a difference that makes form hand-held shots. My tripod is the small version of the Gorillapod: This bendy little devil is ideal for placing in and around Lego models.

Taking the kids to Legoland Windsor in August. Looking at tickets and pricing I came across the Q-bot and now I wonder if they're worth the money. It just sounds insane to double the ticket price just to shorten the queues a bit, nevermind pay a whopping 70 pounds on top of the 30 pound ticket to skip the queues...

Saw it on the frontpage, noticed the flag and I knew it had to be good!

Yes. Children play with different toys. Regular trainsets are now much cheaper than they were 30 years ago. So are RC cars and slot racing tracks like Scalextric. Yes. TLG works completely differently these days. Have a look for topics about releasing single train cars and different track pieces. Never say never but I think it's highly unlikely. I wouldn't rule out a level crossing, they've done one only a few years ago, but anything else....

Did you notice page 6 & 7 in instruction book 2? They kinda explain the remote control. There's also this handy page in the Power Functions section on Lego.com: http://powerfunctions.lego.com/en-us/ElementSpecs/Default.aspx#8879

Give me a break... Some people are just looking for something to moan about. It's not as if these torso's are a new thing. This pirate torso with a corset is from the Black Seas Barracuda. That was 1989...

The New in October is obviously a mistake. At the bottom it also says "Nur solange der Vorrat reicht" or "While stocks last".

It doesn't have to as big as that but some of his pictures show you how he builds his hulls (sideways).

Have a look here: FAIRPLAY-33 by Konajra, on Flickr That's the best ship builder I know and he does post the odd WIP picture to show you how it's done.

Someone had to say it: I'd like to see 9V trains rebooted ;-) Seriously though, I'd like to see the large-scale racers (Ferrari and Lamborghini) rebooted/continued with Porsche and other brands. I'd also like to see more Vikings but I guess there's a problem. These days every minifig theme must have good guys and bad guys. They tried with Vikings vs Dragons and apparently that didn't work too well. Viking longboats with a battery of SCUD missiles didn't do it either. Vikings have an (undeserved) reputation for being brute pillagers but I can't see Lego doing a set with Vikings vs Monks... In reality Viking life was more about trade but that doesn't make for great conflict playsets.

As Ambassador I have to tell you one thing: call customer service. Every missing piece, every substandard piece, any issue with any set: report it to customer service. We can report issues through the Ambassador forum but reporting through customer service is better because they run all sorts of reporting and statistics on what comes in through CS. To improve the quality of those reports, if you can, look for the production code on the box; every box has a code stamped in it that will tell Lego where and when it was produced. When you're reporting a piece look for the mold-code. You may need a magnifying glass to find it. This code again will help Lego find and resolve issues. This page explains the various numbers you can find on your Lego pieces. In my personal opinion I think that given the profits they've made in recent years they can put a bit more money into quality, in particular 3 areas: cracking elements, inconsistent colours and wrinkled instructions and stickers. The odd missing piece is a little annoying but no more than that and easily fixed. I think I may have had one or two missing pieces in hundreds of sets.

Wow, that station is an exact copy of 7937:

I would say there's a few more; the guys in Billund who designed them ;-)

Railbricks issue 15 is available for download from railbricks.com. The Power Functions and Arduino article continues, there are reviews of the new train sets and an interview with the designers.

Thanks for the tips guys, I'll happily drive past Milton Keynes and aim for Westfield instead. Forgot to ask: what's shopping like in LL Windsor?