meyerc13

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all who put in the time to create something to enter. I've got a ton of great ideas for future MOCs for my LEGO City, the small details were incredible - things like ice coolers, air compressors, gas pumps... all left a lasting impression. I think LEGO (and Shell) should take note..., clearly many of us have fond memories of the Shell sets of years gone by.

I don't know why, but I just can't resist LEGO's Coast Guard sets. Something about that White/Blue/Orange color scheme really draws me in. I have the boat and lighthouse from a few years ago, but I'll probably pick up these too. I missed the helicopter last time, and I like that one better, but I guess I might have to settle for this one. Have there been any pictures of the minifigs without their life jackets? I'd like to get a good look but don't think I've seen any close up pictures.

I just bought Grand Emporium as my first modular. I prefer open-backed City buildings, so I'm not sure if it will stay assembled once I find time to build it, but even as a parts pack it is a great value... so many windows! Since Grand Emporium and Fire Brigade are likely to retire first, my choice was limited to those two. I like the looks of the Fire Brigade more, but my LEGO City already has too many firemen, and didn't have a department store so that decided it for me.

It's interesting to see how the voting is going. One thing that I took into consideration in my voting, and it seems like perhaps others have as well (either conciously or subconciously), is use of the available space. There are a couple of great looking service stations, that have some brilliant aspects, that aren't getting votes and I suspect it is because the front part of their baseplates are completely bare. Even though I didn't enter this contest, I know this is a lesson I've learned from observing this contest and intend to use on future MOCs. I wonder if there are other design tips that the 'masters' know that would benefit those of us who are new to MOC'ing.

3. rriggs - 1 6. EROL - 1 7. Zed_43 - 2 10. stacker9000 - 1 It was hard to decide, because they were all great entries. But I have to give my votes to the ones I would buy if they were sets. Good luck to everyone, I have the feeling this is going to be a close one!

While I'm sure my daughter would like these quite a bit, I wish LEGO would pick a storage vendor and stick with them. I've already invested quite a bit in the various IRIS storage containers (project cases, and the storage bins they used to sell at Wal Mart that were roughly twice the size of a project case). It's nice having similar containers because they'll stack. These look completely different from everything LEGO has had out before, which most likely means they won't be 'stacking' compatible with the old containers. For a company that built its success on a system, they don't seem to be willing to support a consistent storage system in their non-brick product licensing deals.

Wow, that's amazing! Much improved. That new reception area really makes this look real, and I agree that the roof is fabulous. Just out of curiousity, what's the total footprint of this? The width is obvious, but I had trouble on the depth.

My daughter likes the City Hospital which she has, but she *loves* looking at picture of the Playmobil hospital. I think she likes that one because it has more stuff going on inside... the children's ward, nursery, emergency room, etc. That's what has been lacking in City hospitals forever. I've been ordered by her to expand her hospital... I had previously built a hospital for our LEGO City, so I think I'll tear that one down and start again, using the current City Helicopter Rescue set as a starting point.

LEGO employees definitely know some of the upcoming schedule, but I think the first oppotunity the public learns of it is when the next month's store calendar is published. I heard that there are super hero and Lone Ranger meetings coming up, but hadn't heard about a Creator one.

TRU was the first place I spotted this series, but I also saw them about a week ago at a Wal Mart, not in a display of any sort but just tossed in a plain brown box in the LEGO aisle. They had a price tag on the shelf, so it seems like maybe they didn't have these on the Planogram and thus didn't know how to merchandise them. Still no sign at any of the Targets I've checked. Luckily between Wal Mart and TRU I picked up my full set, but still looking for duplicates on a few.

Dang, too bad the price went back up. In a week I should be getting a bonus from work, and I was thinking of picking up my first modular since the $120 price point is about my limit for a LEGO set. I don't know why, but for some reason $120 feels close enough to $100 that I can rationalize it, but $150 feels closer to $200 and I just can't do it.

I'm not sure I agree with this. My 7 year old son is a red belt, and has been learning Karate for over 3 years now. While there are certainly more boys than girls at his Karate school, there are quite a few girls studying Karate, from ages four on up. I know a few of them are also KFOL, so I'm sure there are plenty of girls who know what is in a dojo from personal experience or even from watching brothers learn Karate. LuxorV, great review. I always like to see mutliple perspectives on a set, and I think this is a set that both my kids will like. We'll need to pick up two of them so that two of the LEGO Friends can spar.

What an incredible model! I saw Elvis back in 2009 at Oshkosh AirVenture, and you've done a remarkable job of recreating Elvis in LEGO bricks. I can't believe the size of it... the picture above is great, but the picture on your Flickr with you standing next to it is mind-boggling.

That was my feeling as well. I love the new ladder piece, it also has a hose and compartments to store tools. It comes with the ribbed hose piece to attach it to the hydrant. Plus the best part - it seats two and looks fairly realistic. Easily the best fire truck ever seen in LEGO Town or City.

That's a tough one. Both are good sets. With the Mirkwood Spiders, you get four named characters, a couple of spooky trees, and some not so great spiders. With Uruk-Hai Army, you get a nice army building pack, a horse, and a wall. I like Uruk-Hai Army more, but if you are collecting the Hobbit characters eventually you'll have to get the Mirkwood Spiders set. So I guess it comes down to how much you want to collect the dwarves... if that is a high priority then go with Mirkwood. Otherwise I'd go with Uruk-Hai Army because it is a better set and was released first so also likely to disappear first.

That's an awesome looking truck, very well proportioned, tons of play features... I suspect many will be using your creation for inspiration!

Thanks for the great review! I love seeing these new sets more thoroughly. While I like the burning oil refinery, the helicopter isn't doing much for me for the same reason I didn't buy the last one or last year's giant forest police helicopter- these things are just too big for LEGO City where the buildings are only 16 studs wide. Oh well, there are plenty of other great sets coming out this year that I will be buying. But thanks for the review, sometimes these reviews make me change my mind, but in this case it just helped me to make up my mind that this one isn't for me.

I haven't bought a modular yet, but when I heard this was going to be a movie theater I had high hopes this might be my first since I missed out on Town Plan. However, I'm really disappointed with what I'm seeing. First off, there aren't enough seats. Since this is LEGO's flagship building line, I had hoped they would greatly surpass Town Plan, but Town Plan had 5 seats and this only appears to have six. I've seen home theaters with more seats than that. Windows in the theater room? Even Town Plan knew that wouldn't work. I've seen theater buildings with windows on the outside, but they are typically bricked over since you can't have outside light leaking into the theater. I'm sure die-hard modular fans will snap this up, as will folks looking for a great parts pack, which I'm sure this will be if the price isn't too high. However, I doubt this will attract many LEGO City fans like me who have been on the fence regarding the modular line. The only way I'd even consider this is if it uses printed pieces rather than stickers. That might convince me to buy it for the parts, but this isn't the theater that my town has been lacking.

i really like the back half, you've packed an incredible amount of detail in it. I normally stay away from 8 wide vehicles in my LEGO City, but I've been planning an ambulance build and I'm starting to think I might have to go from 6 wide to 8 wide just to add more play features. If I do, I'll probably make it more of a medium duty truck chasis, but that's just me. I agree with LegoBobby that the front part looks a bit too agressive for a typical ambulance/van. I think it is the height of the windshield. What piece(s) did you use for that? It almost looks like two 4-wide windscreens, but I can't tell in the pictures. Unfortunately, in 8 wide I can't think of a better option than this. Other than that, it looks really good. I really like the front bumper as well, it's really just the low windshield height that is throwing me off.

Thank you Ace for getting the site back up! I too work in IT and know what it's like to be under pressure with a system down, and also know how messed up a system can get when the database has issues. Glad to see someone with experience devoting the time to get things right.

Earth Defense HQ is a great set. I hesitated on the set when it was at MSRP. Then I was lucky enough to get it for 50% off after the holidays last year. I must say that now that I have it, I think it was worth the original price. It's a ton of fun and very playable. Obviously if you can find it on sale that's a better deal, but if not it's worth the $90. If that's the regular price, maybe you can stack it with one of the TRU 20% off a regular priced item coupons? They've also had some sales for $25 off $100 of LEGO, so that might be a way to get it down a bit as well. However, it's definitely a great set and lots of fun. I've thought about buying a second, not for the parts but because I wish I had two copies of it. I can't think of any other LEGO set that falls into that category.. I've bought multiples, but only for the parts. But this set is awesome enough that I want two.

Are you talking about this part?: Yes, that piece keeps falling off. I thought it was just me so didn't bother contacting LEGO. I guess it's time to contact customer service on that one.

I think it looks great, and I think you could call it an MOC. But looking at the photos is making me a bit dizzy for some reason. Were any special effects used on the camera settings? One thing I really like is that the edges of the snow around the road/path are uneven. Clearly you live in an area that gets snow, quite realistic! One thing I'm having a hard time figuring out is the change in elevation. Are there steps in the bricks that I'm having a hard time seeing, or did you use plates on an angle with some type of hinge underneath?

Today was pretty disappointing. Steps? Really? Maybe I was spoiled in the past, but looking back at great calendars like 7907, almost every single build from that found its way into my LEGO City. This is just fodder for the parts bin. Hopefully the rest gets better. I don't know what has happened to LEGO Advent calendar designs recently, but if the quality doesn't start improving, I'm afraid this is one LEGO tradition we'll have to give up. I think what I spent on Advent calendars this year, and the other sets that money could be spent on... so far I'm disappointed.

Just the other day I was looking at an ice cream truck MOC and thinking how odd it is that LEGO has had the ice cream piece for so long, but no cone piece. Awesome news! It makes me wonder something though. Remember how LEGO has been preaching about how they saved the company by cutting down on the number of elements produced? I wonder with all of the new pieces popping up recently if the number of elements is starting to swing back the other direction?