fred67

They claim they learned a lesson from Series 1 about how much in demand they will be; from what I heard, it was too late to correct series 2, but they are supposedly going to do better with series 3. I'm not holding my breath. The problem is I want an army of them. Well... maybe 10 or so. That's why I don't like these. I know they're supposed to be fun collectibles, but LEGO isn't Pokemon Cards, I want to know what I'm getting. You would think that, for example, if something like the Elf sold REALLY well, like far and above any other figures, that would indicate to TLG a demand for sets built around that character. Likewise Zombies and vampires and anything else.... they could have used these as a good way to test the waters. The only problem is that while you might want 20 forestmen or elves, you probably wouldn't want more than 1 or 2 vampires.

So, I go to the movie theater and ask for a small drink. They say "you mean medium." I say, "no, small..." "We don't have small, we have medium, large, and extra large." "So... medium is small, large is medium, and extra large is large?" "No, we don't have small..."

It seems to me that, if you were only going to have two motors, you'd call them small and large. Instead, while reading this, it seems there is "M" (medium) and "XL" (extra large, one would assume). I'm wondering if anyone knows of plans to release any other sizes... a smaller motor would be VERY interesting, I think.

No replies, eh? I'm in the Metro Atlanta area, and even though there's this DixieLUG, which I didn't even know about until I read your post, it doesn't seem very active. The Yahoo group for that club hasn't had a new post for months, and the blog site doesn't have any information about meetings or joining. Last posts are from May. I've been trying to join North Georgia LEGO Train Club, but they don't really seem to maintain their schedule on their website very well, either, and I was told to just go to an event and talk with them. The only thing on their schedule was last March. There's a train show this weekend they might be at, but as usual, the kids are getting in the way... normally I'd have Saturday afternoon open, but oh no, not this weekend! Hopefully I'll get a couple of hours in the afternoon to take a look... but I don't even know if they will be there.

Welcome! Fill in your profile so we know where you are from! 6054... Sweet!

That shape is always an option, but just using weights it can be that shape or any... anything that will fit in the train. I don't understand the complaint about the 9V motor, though... most bogies on any car (and diesel engines, and any steam engine that has an x-x-2 (or even 2-x-x) would have a bogie just that size. That's the problem... it's not readily available. In fact, I can use an old battery box, but then I'd have to modify the cable. Yes... I've already said PF has nice features. That Christmas tree example is just something that I would leave running for hours while I'm playing with other things with the kids... you never have to stop playing. I just can't understand why some people feel that others feel that way... I think I've been very moderate about it, and no one has implied that the end of 9V was the end of the world.

LOL!!! It's such a good idea that I had forgotten I already did it! It's been sitting on the shelf so long, I forgot! She's getting a reprieve for now... until the very last minute that I need one of those cones...

With all do respect, that's a horrible justification as it's perfectly easy to add weight and you can do it in a multitude of ways, whereas a battery pack takes a specific bulk of space. Don't get me wrong, I've come a long way towards PF from 9V, but, for starters, I am NOT spending $75 to get a battery pack and charger when they should have a $5 battery pack that I can use my own rechargeables in. I find it's much nicer to be able to pick up from the rail. Unlike Tony, I don't have a huge layout and can live without track looping back on itself... I'm talking about a typical use at my house, which might be around the Christmas tree, for example, that I want to run for a LONG time without having to stop and recharge. If you can pick up from the rail, you get most of the benefits of RC and none of the drawbacks.... you don't need DCC, you can do a simple conversion cable to make it all work.

Hi, not too big on the sci-fi stuff, but I built a ship a while back and liked it, so I've kept it for quite some time (at least two years). Now it's time to reclaim the parts, so I took a few parting pictures and thought I'd share them.

Ahh... not enough for me. Not enough in the Holy Grail and I'd rather completely forget the Crystal Skull. Don't get me wrong... I don't want them to give up on Indy; I don't even mind Shia Lebeuf (sp?) taking over... it was the movie itself that was disappointing. Lucas simply should keep trying to do things on his own (he wrote the story), he's just not that good. Well, despite the photos, I have higher hopes (not high hopes, higher... than, say, "completely disappointed") for Hogwart's Express. Perhaps, along the lines of the Emerald Night, they should do a functioning UCS Hogwart's Express.

Well, I agree with you on some things... what big train scene was there in Indiana Jones, though? My list of sets to buy include the Toy Story 3 train (just for fun), and the Hogwarts Express, of which a new version is coming out this fall. Now, it doesn't look greatly improved, IMO, from the older sets, but it looks like it comes with proper train wheels, at least. I have an older one, but am looking forward to the new one. An elevated train like the one from Batman Begins would be really awesome, but the scale is probably too large for TLG to make into a set. The way I look at it, if they add trains to other themes, the way they did it with the Toy Story 3 train (a separate train, but ready to roll on LEGO tracks) seems like a good way to do it... also would be nice if they were easily modifiable to power.

Here's a thread I started a while back, rday, perhaps you can get some ideas from it. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=39919 For the record, I simply haven't had enough time to try even any of it out, and don't really see much time in the foreseeable future.

Welcome, rday! While we may disagree with SavaTheAggie about 9V versus PF trains, he sells some amazing instruction sets that you should check out: http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=AggieSava Also look for RailBricks, which offers some instructions online... even if you don't use Sava's plans, or RailBricks, you can get some great ideas from them and elsewhere on the web. As far as women go... I think my wife gets annoyed, but she also realizes there are a lot worse hobbies I could have.

Well... I feel somewhat in the middle of Sava and rday... I do see benefits of RC, and understand that PF can indeed have a lot of pulling power, but I also think that being saddled with battery boxes isn't much of a benefit in any respect. They could have stuck with electric rail (*) and still used PF motors and RC controls. People are hacking that now, and it seems to work - best of both worlds. But the way I see it, by continuously changing, TLG actively discourages AFOLs from making a big investment. Yes, I know people like Sava are the exception, but I'm gun-shy on anything new, learning the lesson that TLG WILL drop it for something else in the future. So the bottom line is they target the kids, and the continuous changing doesn't effect them. Most will be gone by the time TLG decides to go another route. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the two current sets will be the last two before a redesign (possibly incorporating PF instead of the current train motor). I know they don't really seem to be happy with trains at all. I suppose I wouldn't mind going to PF so much if there was a better battery box (non-rechargeable, or at least a rechargeable that wouldn't cost $75 including the adapter). I'll stick to building from things like Sava's plans and rolling my own, generally modified to work with 9V or something of my own choosing... not buying complete sets from TLG anymore, although I'll still buy things like the Emerald Night and parts to build stuff myself. In fact, as far as track goes, I'll probably be doing more of this. (*) - the big disappointment... discontinuing electric rail. Yeah, I've heard stories... it cost too much, the mold broke and would cost too much to fix/replace... but I'm not buying the excuses because the battery operated trains aren't any less expensive in the long run, especially PF with that outrageously priced rechargeable battery. And track might be cheaper... offset by the fact you HAVE to buy an equal number of curves. The new sets have been very disappointing as far as price goes... they kept saying 9V was too expensive, that parents weren't buying it for their kids for that reason... yet the new sets cost just as much if not more than comparable sets.

I just wrote a (too big) post in another thread (2011 ideas) about this. The thing is, they don't just market trains to AFOLs, so the market is bigger than that subset of 20k AFOLs, but they don't market the trains well at all. I can't be the only one that discovered LEGO trains while having a more conventional (N-Scale) train hobby and decided LEGO would be great, only to be very disappointed at TLGs subsequent treatment of the train line. As far as straight track goes, I simply don't understand what the heck is wrong with some of the people at LEGO... from what I understand, they built a mold that makes an equal number of straight and curved tracks... and people bought so much more 9V straight track than curved, they decided to sell them together so that couldn't happen any more. Hey, here's an idea: how about a mold that makes 1 curve for every 2 straight? I mean, they need to replace the mold every once in a while, right? Don't they wear out? And if that explanation is true, what happens to all the straight track from the sets, where you get like 16 curves and only 2 or 4 straights? Where does all that extra straight go? As for what PaB needs, my first reaction is 2x3 curved slope IN GRAY, like they had for Sante Fe Car roofs. I had to use black, which suffices, but I would have preferred gray. The newer buffers are fine by me, but I agree with legoboy3998 that the decorative side pieces would be nice, as I am still using older 9V motors as well as the newer non-pf motors.

There you go... we've had this discussion before, but I think there's a disconnect between LEGO marketing and reality. I mean... look, let's face it, LEGO was on it's way to bankruptcy until they got the Star Wars license, and then that license sold itself... obviously there was something not working well at TLG at that time. The 9V line was a fantastic line that should have been marketed towards model railroaders as well as kids... I never saw a single ad for LEGO (that I recall) in any of the train magazines I bought, yet that's what ended my "dark ages," when I switched to LEGO 9V from N-Scale... but why? Because I stumbled across a set on sale at Sam's Club, not because I knew LEGO sold trains. And after that... nothing. I had no idea they sold other trains online until years later (I even bought two sets on sale because I thought that was all I would ever get), and it was a couple of years after that that we finally got a LEGO store near me... and by the time I went there, they were already phasing it out. I got a few things... but I didn't even know it was being phased out, so buy the time I knew it, no more straight track or engines... no, I wasn't a Eurobricks member, I was just an average model railroader, and that's the problem - LEGO is getting business from us because we are so involved in it now that we know what's happening months (or years) before hand, a typical parent or LEGO buying child doesn't. So talk about self-fulfilling prophecy... had they released cars along with the Emerald Night, they would have probably sold more cars separately than engines (because for every one that sold individually, people like me would have bought two or three cars), but they didn't. Everyone, including LEGO ambassadors were like "it's not going to happen because they don't sell well," so everyone bought two or three Emerald Nights (or more) for the cars, or they came up with their own (or found some of the excellent car designs posted here)... so if LEGO tries to sell cars now, they're a day late and a dollar short, and then they'll be like "see, they didn't sell!" One of the reasons they cite for the change from 9V was that it was too expensive, yet both sets released this year are as much or more than earlier comparable 9V sets, and while I'm aware of inflation, a number of changes were meant to keep the costs down and they haven't... remember the HUGE savings on track? Now, this is not a whine about the loss of 9V, I understand why they switched... but while a lot of AFOLs might grow money on trees, I don't... and LEGO is more expensive than ever despite cost cutting and stagnant inflation (and occasionally deflation) in the U.S... I don't know how some of you guys do it, but I can't buy DBM trains. Moreover, even the new sets... I'm interested in them, but when I look at what you get, for the cost, I'm not really impressed... I would rather buy a modular building for my layout than either of these two new sets, for the money. So... as far as I'm concerned, if parts are still available, then I'll roll my own over time... or use the RailBricks instructions, or Sava's instructions (I bought the first set this past spring). I may just be done buying train sets from LEGO.

Visited our LEGO store in Georgia today, and despite having a very limited display, they had only the MMV... no other castle or kingdoms stuff.

You were very inspiring to me. Although I'd seen a blog on these tiny guys before, and there's a PDF guide on micro castle building at class-castle.com, yours were the best I'd seen. I also decided to try my hand, and while I posted a link to this picture in my thread on modular mini castles, it seems appropriate here, too, especially since you wanted to see some scale with "official" microfigures. Oh... in case it's not clear, that's supposed to be a wizard... I was in a silly mood.

It's been quite some time since I've done any work on the micro castle (yes, let's just call it micro). The first thing I did was, after looking at many modules together, I thought it looked kind of small, so I raised the basic wall height by two bricks. The entry also looked kind of awkward, hanging out in front by two studs, so I redid it and also made bigger doors after my complaint on another thread about LEGO scale being out of whack because the King's Chariot couldn't fit in the castle. I made a couple of square towers to go with the rounded ones; I would like to make some more rounded ones, but only have new macaroni style, which can't be offset... it's driving me crazy! What the heck good are they? AAARRRRGGGG!!!! Got some old style ones on order from BL. I was also inspired by this thread: Tinyfigs. The microfigures included in Minotaurus won't be enough (and cost too much), and it would be nice for some soldiers to hold weapons, so I decided to try a few. My only problem is I don't have any minifigure knives, so they're just hold plain poles right now, although knives are in my wishlist. I also tried to come up with a suitable horse, as I'd like to make a carriage at some point, and while I was in a silly mood, I made a wizard. So... just a quick snapshot of where I am so far. Just an overview... including the little four towered castle thing I made with my daughter when she was home sick from school: The entry way from the inside, just because that's where I had some new "tinyfig" style guys: "Tinyfig" wizard to compare with some Minotaurus guys (and closer view of the horses):

Right... that's why I didn't say "Hobbit," I said "halfling," and didn't include any other original Tolkien words (as I did a search, I found they were not allowed to use Balrog or Trent, either... and I think that's fair, but I found nothing about Orcs). Still... they could have used anything similar... even goblin.

I actually ordered a start set of these boxes, which is supposed to have one of all the different sizes, but when I look online at the measurements, they are way too small, it seems.

That's all anyone says here; why people get bent out of shape all the time is beyond me. I agree... seems like one of the shortest lived lines ever (except for the completely failed ones). They could have come a lot closer to LOTR, IMO, and they could have done it without stepping on any copyrights or licenses... Neither the Tolkin estate nor NewLine Cinemas have a monopoly on dwarves, elves, orcs, trolls, or even "halflings," (a phrase other companies have used with impunity), if they weren't trying so hard to do fantasy without being LOTR, they might have done a better job... if they'd gone that last step and did elves, with some sort of grand tree-house instead of a castle, that would have completed the picture and I think a lot more people would have liked the line. I think the worst part was all the skeletons (and they pass them off as "minifigures" which, while maybe true, but I never really thought of them as such). But the bottom line is that you can't make everybody happy... some people wanted more "realistic" themes. I think they could have given fantasy a bit more time, and I think the variety of sets you could come up with for fantasy could be a lot more interesting than the sets some people are now calling "stale..." it's just another castle, another cart, another drawbridge... it's not that they aren't better - they are! But it's the same stuff. That's not to say I don't like Kingdoms, but I liked Fantasy, too.

I peek in every once in a while, but I've never seen any Castle themed parts... no swords, helmets, and so I've even looked for more esoteric stuff, like the woman in the first picture that looks like she's from MMV, and I've not seen that stuff.

For the smaller sets... what about a Troll Warship or 4504 Millennium Falcon?

Agreed... while MMV was essentially a "castle" theme, it didn't really fit with the other sets, it's more advanced. As an aside, when I lift up the King's Castle so that it fits with the drawbridge defense set, I'm imagining they all look good together... even though the MMV buildings are taller, the castle will be raised significantly and give the appearance of some grandeur. I think I have enough pieces, I just need the time.