Bricktrain

Thanks, I am trying to find someone to do me a bulk deal, below retail if possible. May try Toyworld Richmond again after New Year, they didnt have any a couple of weeks ago, Toyworld can be hard to get discounts from, the one in Shirley is usually okay so may be worth calling I guess, the one in Greymouth is always overpriced. 195 items at S@H on sale and only 92 available, why do they bother advertising them on sale if they dont have them anyway. Anyone collect instruction manuals? I have just parted 40 sets for my Bricklink store and decided not to keep the instructions, creator, city, technic mostly but a couple of Taj Mahal and MMV if anyone wants for the cost of post.

I was very tempted to keep my two Taj Mahal as MISB but in the end I gave in and parted them out to my bricklink store.

Has anyone seen any 8263 snowplows in any stores at all, it was meant to have been an october release but I havent seen any here or in Nelson anywhere, had a store ask at Lego but they said it was exclusive, but didnt say who to?

This set is great, it is the one which brought me back to Lego also. I have several versions of it built and displayed, mostly the alternate model. I have modified mine slightly, filled in a few of the gaps, like in the front guards and bonnet and changed its colour to mostly black. I parted about 8 of these sets and was dissapointed that the last one had only bley wheels, fortunately most of them were totally metallic silver, some got a mixture of both. I wish the silver were still produced, hopefully someone will start chroming some of the yellow ones. While it is nice to have fully motorized models, I feel it is wasted on most as they are mostly displayed rather than played with, and being able to show the working functions is more important than being able to drive it in my opinion. I have been building less models lately with motorised drive and concentrating on the other functions. (Though my crane is fully motorised, soon to be rebuilt again with a new chassis) I think in some ways it is good that factory models are not perfect, it gives builders a chance to improve them themselves, otherwise we would all have the same identical sets.

Hows Allantown progressing, your website didnt seem to be updated? I have to not think too much about trains, in case I may want to start collecting them again.

I wonder if any of those will have the 5x11 and 5x7 liftarms in black?

Also if you use the tab "By Shop" it shows which stores have the most of the items on your list. This is also accessed by using the "query stores" in the wanted list

I am pretty sure Kmart import all their LEGO from Australia themselves, that is why the pricing is different to other NZ stores, the 8285 towtruck was about $40 cheaper before any sales offers, unfortunately I am not near any Kmarts now, nearest is Chch, none in the top or west of the south island.

I saw this mentioned on Bricklink forum a while ago, but I think the poster was more interested in the girl in the background in a bikini. Awsome looking model.

Mostly the Robots series, Robots of Dawn was the last one I bought, most of them I have read, many back in high school. Thanks for the welcomes, have also added my Brickshelf link if anyone is interested in looking at my model collection.

Very Nice. The Mars Mission colour scheme is one of my favorites. The only worry would be the missile bay doors being blown off by the thrust of the engines, is that going to be a problem?

Hi to all, I see a few names from other places but since most of you dont know me I'll tell a little bit about me... I love landrovers and 4wding. I build houses in real life, not in lego. Technic rules, 8285 brought me back from the dark ages and so I am trying to build every variation of it that I can think of, its a great design to modify. I am making a start in Sci-fi, I have always liked Asimov's books and robotics, but am hoping to do a larger scale idea, lots of scope in that theme, I had thoughts of castle but seems that everyone has to be too acurate and I hate history. The future is where it is... I have a dog, a Saint Bernard, takes a lot of looking after but he is a big (85kg as he has slimmed down) sook. Cheers

Hi Ben. Not sure what you mean as in now some Bricklink sellers in NZ as there have been BL stores in NZ from 2000. Anyway, hope you enjoy building up your collection. At least you live in the city so can get all those bargain sets on sale. Its good to see a few kiwis on here, when do we begin the fullscale invasion?

I find a lack of Technic in many stores here also. While it is nice to get a big set with many features the smaller sets are often much better value. I am looking forward to the new log loader with its pneumatics, I just hope it isnt too heavily priced. I admit I dont buy the very small sets to build but do buy bulk of some sets as parts. There are some of the older sets I think could be remade, but also would like to see another PF remote controlled model, also a model combining PF with pneumatics would be excellent but unfortunately would be too expensive.

Seems no-one wants to confirm or deny

Is it the gearbox design you want, I have used the design from 8466 in a couple of models, easy enough to copy and not hard to remove the diff if you dont need it, the scans are I think on Peeron and Brickfactory when its up again.

some of the truck and mods here http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=408860 once moderated, http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bricktra...truck/diffs.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/bricktra...ck/diff_mod.jpg havent taken any of the pickup yet, waiting on parts to complete it.

I finally found this set at a reasonable price and purchased it, and have now completed building. The biggest flaw to me was the rear wheels, so I modified it with two differentials and dual wheels on the rear. I also replaced the pins with stop bushes at the base of the crane and moved the clutch gear. I find it tries to turn the crane when operating the crane booms, but havent yet checked any further as to wether something is binding. Currently working on the alternate model pickup, but with 4wd and powered with PF remote control.

I sold all my train and technic about 6 years ago, but got hooked again with the 8285 towtruck and I still have that built, and everything I have built since. I dont dismantle models unless they dont work or look right and then they get rebuilt until I am happy with them. It can be a little frustrating though if I run out of a part and have to wait for an order to arrive. At present I am short of the new differentials again so wont be able to complete my 8258 until they arrive. I guess its about 4 years since I got my first 8285 built. I just hope they dont make the new 5x7 and 5x11 liftarms in black, as I would have to rebuild my crane chassis again. At this rate it will never be finished, there is always something to improve, especially with all the new Technic pieces lately.

I think you need to shorten the lifting arm and pivot it in front of the axle rather than behind it.

I like it, I mostly buy the sets with more technic pieces, but I agree it would be nice to have the pins and axles in the full colour range to blend in with the models.

There will be more copies available on Bricklink, I know 3 have been sold already. But as there are only 2 main parts different there is not a lot of value in parting out the sets, they will come eventually though.