meyerc13

Believe it or not, I spotted these at a store yesterday where I've never seen them before - Shopko. It's a regional Department Store in the US, mostly in the midwest and northwest. The only problem, the price on the shelf was $6. Shopko occasionally runs sales such as buy one get one 50% off, which would put these at a slightly more reasonable price (but still more than double MSRP). However, I suspect that a $6 Spartan would be cheaper than what you'd pay on ebay. The store I was at had two of the display boxes out, which I think is one case. If you are still looking for these and live near a Shopko, it might be worth a look.

Prices this week at the Mall of America store: Large cup: $14.99 Small cup: $7.99 If you bring a cup back, they deduct $0.50 from those prices. Source: My receipt from Monday.

Made it to the Mall of America store this week. The Pick a Brick wall is much improved, but had a lot of repeated parts on the night I visited. Here's a helpful tip for anyone who has one of the free boxes they gave out prior to Christmas - the box is 11x11 studs, 9 high. I spent way too much time filling mine... the easy way is to stack your 1x2, 1x4, 2x4, etc 9 high, and tilt the box on its side and start making rows of those brick stacks. You can probably squeeze some tiles on top too. To give you an idea of what those boxes are worth, I believe they gave them out with a $75 purchase. I was able to get $63 worth of bricks (using pick-a-brick online prices) in my box. While at the store, I also filled a small cup and a large cup (I don't get here often). I got slightly more value out of the free box than I did out of the large cup (to be fair, the large cup was filled with odd shape pieces like roof tiles and tires). So next year if you are shopping at a LEGO store before Christmas, definitely spend the $75 it will take to get one of the free boxes, and don't let the small size of the box fool you. You can fit a lot of standard bricks inside, and you can use the wall like I did to pick up gray, orange, brown, and black bricks that aren't as common in other sets.

I was just admiring this on mocpages last night. Wonderful creation. Nothing runs like a Deere!

I'm not sure if this layout makes it south of the border, but I've seen it a few times now at Train Fest and it's very impressive: http://pewaukeeroad.com/Events.htm I haven't been to a LEGO show, but if there are more displays like that I might have to make the effort to visit one soon.

Understood, but still if you use the typical conversion rate he supplied, a $100 Duplo set? Wow. Oh well... maybe next year. Glad I built a hospital of my own.

She's a beauty. I love planes from that era, their lines are graceful, but they have a lot of power as well. On your model, I find the working flaps especially appealing, and the use of color helps to accentuate them.

Interesting. Those prices seem too high to be Duplo. As mentioned the Hillside House and Lighthouse are known to be upcoming Creator sets. Not sure where the Car Wash would fit in though. At first I thought that price would be too low for a Helicopter in the size of the Limo/Helicopter, Fire Helicopter, or Police Helicopter sets. However, if you consider that all of those sets included another significant vehicle, if this was just a helicopter it could be about right. I find it interesting that we would go so long without a hospital, and then get a hospital and clinic at the same time. I can't wait to see if these are what they seem to be. I'm certainly going to be interested if they are.

Nice little shop, I like how you even incorporated a barber's pole.

The title of this thread tricked me, it really needs a '?' at the end.

Very nice. I know one of the ideas LEGO asks about quite frequently is whether they should re-release old sets. If you ask me, this is the kind of thing they should do, instead of a re-release, re-imagine the set. Star Wars has UCS, City/Town has the modular buildings, why not something like this for other themes like Castle and Space? Your creation is inspiring, to say the least.

I have to agree with Lightning, there is definitely a classic town style about it. I know there was another airport MOC recently and what the two have in common is a significant level of detail showing the things you'd expect to find in an airport, the difference is that the color palette and design of yours are clearly influenced by older sets, whereas the other airport was clearly influenced by newer sets. Very well done!

This is a beautiful recreation of one of the most unique planes of WWII. It is interesting to see the development on this MOC on the link you've provided.

I'm bumping this old thread because I purchased the Toy Story 3 Garbage Truck Getaway set today on sale at Toys R Us, and my kids love the functionality but it's obviously too large for a LEGO City layout. Anyone successfully convert one of these to 6 wide or 8 wide? I thought I had seen a picture of one in someone's LEGO City layout, but I'm not finding it when I search. I think converting the cab and the back shouldn't be too tricky, but the Technic bits intimidate me.

Thanks for the review, excellent pictures! This will be a set that I'll have to pick up, in addition to the great astronaut finally some different tires and wheels than the typical ones we see in LEGO City. I really like the robotic arm as well, I'm always amazed when such unusual parts can be brought together to build something so amazing.

Very nice looking truck. The small photos here don't do it justice, I highly recommend clicking through to the larger images. You've fit an amazing amount of equipment on board, excellent job.

This thread is extremely valuable to me. I browse Bricklink frequently, and there are certain parts I'd like to have handy because they are useful, but couldn't figure out how to best go about getting those parts. These tips will probably push me over the edge from browsing to buying. Thanks!

It is quite an eclectic mixture of themes, isn't it? Personally, for quite a long time when I first visited EB I didn't look in this forum. However, I really like Creator sets so now I visit it quite often. It would be nice if reviews and alternate designs for Creator sets weren't mixed in with all of the other threads, but I would guess that the number of threads that are Creator related wouldn't justify a forum of its own. I wish I could come up with an idea on how to better organize this forum, but I'm really at a loss. Perhaps Current themes split off from MOCs, misc, and retired themes?

I love it! As Sirens has pointed out, the man missing his hand is great. The man with the dagger in his back is also well done. I think you've done an incredible job posing the figures and picking great minifig faces.

Very nicely done! Growing up in Southeast Wisconsin I remember seeing these colors once or twice.

I think his point was that this is an inter-city bus, not an intra-city bus. Here in the US we would call it a coach, it has storage for luggage. Personally I agree with this sentiment, it's one of the things holding me back from buying this set. Had they just included another City bus like in the City Corner, I probably would have purchased this already to have a transfer station in my City. As it is, this is just another couple of large vehicles which I have too many of already. The street sweeper should have been its own set, and a Taxi is sorely missing. I know there is a Taxi in another set, but why couldn't they have made a Taxi of a different design, maybe a Taxi Van? Oh well... I may end up picking this up yet, but right not I'd rather get a Medieval Market Village for the same price. Had this included a decent building, it would have been an easier sell for me as well.

I noticed your pictures the other day when I was looking at your police station. You really should have posted your own thread to show off your MOD. What I found most amazing is that your design is almost the exact layout of the Amoco station where my dad always brought his cars for service when I was a kid. You aren't somewhere in Wisconsin, are you? I'm very jealous that you found this set for $35. I was watching a local store that had a few of these for $79, had they dropped just a bit more I would have picked one up, but I'm not a huge fan of the tow truck and what I wanted most out of this set was the garage door, but I could get two in some other sets for less money (like the fire station), so I've held off on picking this one up. If I find it for $60, much less $35, it would be mine.

Good job! This is something that everyone should try once. I built one of the sets from my son's City advent calendar this way. I must be getting old because it was very hard on the joints. Needless to say once was enough for me.

Thanks for this insightful interview! Some of it I had previously guessed, but it's interesting to get confirmation. I feel bad if I drop a tiny 1x1 plate or stud, maybe I shouldn't feel so bad if people are dropping whole cups on a daily basis!

Wonderful police station. I've worked in a police station as a civilian, and you've really done an excellent job of capturing some of the details that you'd find in a real station. I love the fact that you've kept the back open in a LEGO City style. Very nicely done.