meyerc13

I was browsing Brickshelf last night and ran across a wonderful zoo, and I was thinking, "Why can't LEGO release something like this?" I would love it if this were true. For those who are excited by this possibility, take a look at the zoo I found (not mine): Here's the folder: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=472924 You can see that this creator used brick built ostriches and penguins, polar bears, elephants... quite a realistic zoo with only what is available today and what can be built, imagine a few new molds (and a zebra print would be awesome!).

The Pet Shop looks nice, but those large sets can be very daunting to a new builder. It might be better to start with one of the Creator Houses. I've seen the new lighthouse at Toys R Us, that might be a good choice, the Hillside House would be another if/when it is available in your area.

I wish they had LEGO in machines like this here in the US. As a dad, I'd gladly drop some coins in a machine like this vs. the machines full of cheap junk that goes straight in the garbage when the kids aren't looking. As for the randomness... at least it gives the kids a fair shot at getting a popular set/minifig since the adults can't snatch up all of the good ones.

Very nice. I really like the third photo.

Very nice MOC. I love the books, haven't seen the show since I don't have HBO. It's good to hear so many people like it, hopefully I'll like it when I finally see it.

Great review with excellent photos. I shudder at the price which seems a bit high, but there are so many interesting pieces here and I know my daughter would just love this set. I love those huge plates, and the gray cabinets would also be very useful... I'm trying to think how I can buy the set but change it enough so that I can steal some of those parts without having to buy two copies of the set.

I'm organizing LEGO sets today, found a 1x4 plate with a crack in the side from a recently purchased 7942 Off Road Fire Rescue, also found a clone trooper whose side is cracked so badly his arm won't stay up. What's going on with the white plastic? I have LEGO from 20+ years ago that is in better shape than sets I bought last month.

Thanks for the detailed pictures of the hinges. That helps a lot. I forgot to mention that I love the brick built stripes! I can't imagine what this costs from Design By Me... the first night I played with LDD I built a fire truck, it was fairly expensive as I recall. I haven't bothered to check the price of any of my builds since.

That looks like a Pierce... made right down the highway from where I live. Very nicely done. I've been trying to design an Engine like this for my son to play with, and it isn't easy. You've got a great combination of features, like the ladder, the clips behind the compartment doors. I'm curious, how do those doors open?

I love the stage... but I think this band is pulling a Milli Vanilli... or at least the drummer is. It looks like he is air drumming more than drumming without any drum sticks.

Hey... wait a minute! I know LT is a prolific poster in LEGO Town, but I think this time I scooped him.

I've come to the conclusion that whether you like printed pieces or not depends on whether you intend to build the set or use the set for pieces. I like printed pieces in the City line, but in a a few licensed themes I wish they were stickers (although fans of those themes would most certainly disagree). These sets have some great pieces, and I contemplated picking up the sets for some of the pieces, but I don't know what I'd do with the 1/2 dozen printed pieces that would be fairly useless for anything other than making the character in the set.

Fuzzylegobricks, did you look at all of the pictures? I think Triborough fixed the wheels in the current revision, which is shown in pictures 4-5. Triborough, a very nice ambulance. I've been playing around in LDD trying to design an ambulance using the off-road fire truck cab as a starter. Like you, I'm struggling with the rear doors. I've seen some great brick-built rear doors, and that is what I'm trying to do, but the hinges are very tricky. I still haven't figured them out to my satisfaction, but last night I came up with an idea that I'll have to try. Overall I like the looks of your ambulance, one thing besides the rear that I would suggest is using some headlight bricks along the top row of bricks to have some red/white lights. Many real world ambulances have lights along the top perimeter (few in front, few on the sides, few in back). Also, I don't know about your rear light bar, most ambulances avoid having any additional height on top of the box in back. Probably helps with clearance. Overall good job, and I may have some questions as I design mine on how you did the frame and what axle piece you used.

I was looking through my son's latest LEGO club magazine, and saw an ad for a new mini-movie. Enjoy! http://city.lego.com/movies

The spinners are a horrible value if you aren't planning to play the game. I'd go with the sets, at least you'd get a good amount of extra pieces in addition to your skeleton.

At the LEGO stores, they have cups you can fill in two sizes. The small is about $8US, the large is $15US. Then they have a wall with bins full of parts. You pick parts from the bins and fill up your cup. The parts that are in the bins change frequently, and they are different from one store to the next. Every time I visit the LEGO store 5 hours from my home I fill a cup because there is always some interesting piece that I want and don't have enough of. They also have bricks in colors that aren't as common, such as the two colors in the post above, or orange, gray, black, brown. I generally stay away from thew red/yellow/green/blue/white bricks since I can get those in brick boxes at a good price, but they almost always have a selection of those colors on the wall. Some of my best finds are various sizes/types of wheels and tires, red cabinets with white doors, 6 wide windshields, and staircases. I've found lots of other great parts over the last few years, but those are the ones that I really needed and hence are the most memorable. Lately I've been hoping to find clip and hinge pieces, but I never see them, although apparently others have. One more thing... several times when I've filled a pick a brick cup, I've gone to the shop.lego.com online pick-a-brick to check what it would have cost me to order the same parts from LEGO. Generally I can get $60-$80 of parts in a $15 cup, so it is an incredible value. Granted, Bricklink prices may be less, but it takes more work and you have all of the various shipping charges to figure in.

Zyniker, I'd probably go with the Sonic Boom because it has been around longer and is likely soon to be discontinued. The new Space sets will be around for at least a year, so you don't need to rush on those.

I don't usually visit the Action Themes area of the forum, so I apologize for not commenting sooner. As a fan of the show "Tales of the Gold Monkey" as a kid, I absolutely love your creation! Whenever I see the Pharaoh's Quest team or the Lego Adventurers line, I always think of Indiana Jones and Tales of the Gold Monkey. If you are familiar with the show, you'll know that it features a Grumman Goose. If you don't win this contest, you should sell plans for that sea plane... I'd gladly pay a few bucks to get a copy. That's not all I love about your MOC... I also love the overall design, the giant Anubis statues... all of the many traps. This is a really great MOC... one of only a few from this contest that I would most definitely buy if I saw it - first because I like the set, and second because I love that plane! (and I'm still kicking myself for not buying the Indiana Jones set with the DC3!)

34 Temple of Anubis 3 points 3 Ignacia Village 2 points 38 Colosseum of Atlantis 2 points

Wow, that's a great haul! With the exception of the brown and blue bricks and the plants, I've never seen any of those parts on the wall at the store closest to me (although I only get there 5-6 times a year since it's 5+ hours away). Those are such useful parts, and parts that I have in such low quantities, that if I ever saw them I'd probably buy a cup of each (especially the lamp holders, the hinges, and the clips!).

I don't know, I think it is a valid complaint. When they tell you that it could take 11 days, and it takes twice that, that seems excessive. So 22 days to pack, and another 10-14 days to ship, that's almost 5 weeks. Maybe they should change their site to say that pick-a-brick and design-by-me orders take 3-6 weeks processing and delivery?

If you use the link I sent you, they say it will be 50.8 studs by 63.5 studs. Since we can't really do anything with a fractional stud, we'll need to round down unless the tolerance on your shadow box allows you to round up slightly. With those measurements, you can use any combination of plates that will add up to those combinations. Remember that baseplates and plates aren't very compatible because the baseplates are thinner. The largest plates I've seen are in two of the new Creator sets - the 5766 Log Cabin and the new 5771 Hillside House. They have 16x16 plates (not baseplates). With those it would be about 3x4 (but again, you may want prototype with some lego bricks in your box to make sure that you can fit 64 studs across) with four 2x16 plates across the top. If you have smaller plates, they should work as well... I don't know if you are looking for a solid color, or a LEGO assortment of many colors.

A 32x32 stud base plate is about 10" by 10". So you may have problems covering those dimensions without cutting a plate. You may want to use regular plates instead. You'd have better luck getting close to the dimensions you want. You might try this for help: http://www.suave.net/~dave/cgi/scale.cgi

I'd highly recommend MMV. It likely won't be long before it disappears, and if you are pondering getting it you probably should or you will regret it. It is a great set and a great value.

I've seen similar regional threads on other forums I've been on. It's a nice way to meet people from your area. I think with an international forum like this it would be tricky but could be done. You'd almost want a category for 'regional threads' with further subdivision by continent, with threads by state/country. Edit: One additional tip, search lego sites using Google to see if you can find your city/state/country listed in someone's post. I've found a few people in my area on Brickset because they've posted about specific stores in my area using City names. Example Google search: site:eurobricks.com appleton This would search for posts on this site with my City in the post.