fred67

OK, let's try again; the link to my trading post is in my signature. Now that Series 13 is hitting the shelves, I'm offering, again, 2 for 1 (based more or less on average bricklink value) until January 14. In case you missed my post above, I have a couple of the Target exclusive figures for sale/trade, too. Surely if there's something on my extensive list of "haves" that you are interested in, you can find some series 13 to trade!

That looks like a great option for kids, actually. I agree with what everyone said about asking kids to keep their LEGO neat. My kids were, unfortunately, not into LEGO like I am (although we do play occasionally), but the kids I know with big LEGO collections (and one of them, unfortunately, likes Megabloks more because of the licenses, like Halo and COD), have the one giant, not clear, tub - like the big 20+ gallon tubs. I don't know how they do it, because I don't think they dump the whole thing out... or maybe they do. What do I know?

Watched Guardians of the Galaxy with the family on New Years Eve, followed by Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. I'd never heard of GotG before this movie, so wasn't a big fan and didn't know what to expect, but it was really good. I almost cried . I'm glad I ordered a Rocket Raccoon polybag; maybe I'll get a Groot, too. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.... I had just finished playing the 2013 Tomb Raider game, and had to laugh at how much watching the movie was like playing this game... running down the paths in the forest with the skeletal remains, city ruins with vines and stuff growing everywhere, fighting on the corrugated metal rooftops, with the explosions and collapsing and grasping on the ledges at the last moment... The movie was OK. Tomb Raider is fantastic, though.

cmf_display by FredJH, on Flickr As mentioned awhile back, and in other threads, this is the latest picture using the Container Store display boxes. Each box can hold up to 35 figures (7 figures x 5 rows), but if you alternate 6-7-6-7-6, you not only get exactly 32 (two complete sets of 16 CMFs), but the staggering lets you more easily see figures that aren't in the front. Keeps the dust off, gives a very high display density (more figures in less space), and they're stackable. They are $10 each at the container store, but then you need to build the stands. You can use the stands that come with it, but then you only get three levels.... the upside being a lot of space for each figure. The brick part of the display stands uses colors of the series, but internally it's whatever I had the most of (and least use for) at the time. The picture shows up to series 12 (minus the movie series, which I wasn't a big fan of and only got a few figures I wanted), plus the Simpsons and my collection of (real LEGO) Superheroes. EDIT: BTW, the Simpsons are in a different Container Store case - a smaller one that seems more suitable for a single series. When the next Simpsons comes out, I'll likely use the big case and put both series in - at the time I made it, I figured the Simpsons for a one-off. But if you like keeping them dust free and separated into each series on it's own, it's a decent choice - the visual clarity of the box isn't as good as the other display boxes, though.

I had one too many green 1x2 bricks, and one too few gray ones. Yes, I double-checked every step, and nothing is out of place. I didn't care, since I had them on hand, and I think sand green is more valuable than gray.

http://www.therollercoasterfactory.com/products/roller-coaster-factory I bought a set a few months ago, but now it says "sold out."

Well... it must depend on how much your train is pulling. I have an old 9V (which everybody claims is worse than PF at pulling), and my Christmas display spanned two tables... instead of shoring up the table to make them even, I made the tracks grade up and down with one plate per track piece (granted, it only had to go up two plates worth), and have no problem. It's the Holiday Train with two extra My Own Train passenger wagons... and in the direction it's going, it's actually on curves on the uphill, and still no problem. In that perspective, do you think Jeskepigen would really have problems with the cargo train? There's not a whole lot to the LEGO train sets. As far as track options go, there's also this: If you can find one... it's 9V, but compatible with PF (although it might look ugly mixed in), but at least you could do a crossover, figure 8, whatever. Used on Bricklink for like $30 or so, but you wouldn't need a new one - you could even used one that is no longer functional for 9V, since you don't need connectivity. Or, if you're a patient man, perhaps ME Models will start making something after they get their initial products out the door. Or you can make your own... that one looks pretty good, although I think it could have been done a little better, even.

No, that's a terrible price. First, it would help to know where you're from (I don't know why more people don't put this in their profile, it's sometimes very relevant to the discussion), but the most expensive thing in that lot of four animals is probably the pig (especially if you're looking for family and farm animals). The pig can be had for less than $2 on Bricklink, the dog for less than a dollar. If you know how to use Bricklink at all, go through the catalog of "Animal, Land" and build a wish list of the animals you'd like, then go search your wishlist "by shop." You can get exactly what you want. Most of the Ebay auctions like that one are terrible for the price.... not just animals, but they'll sell like 5 minifigure swords or something for $7 when you can get them for like 20 cents each at Bricklink.

Hey Phoxtane, I have some of the Akro-Mills ones, and if I stuck with Akro-Mills it's just so they all match; getting them on Amazon is fairly inexpensive and with free shipping. I bought four of them before deciding against buying more. First, I have no wall space to mount more than one of them... I suppose I could do two stacked, but then one would be high enough that I couldn't easily use the top drawers. I can reach, but wouldn't be able to easily see what's in them. Second, for me, the problem with those types of bins is the sacrifice of space on the horizontal plane. I need a much higher density of storage. I switched to the Stanley storage boxes - which I've mentioned previously, but here's a picture: That's the deep 10 bin storage. Shallow 25 bin storage for smaller parts. What I like about them is they are customizable (I have many, and you can switch around the order of the bins, even swapping between units - like one can have more larger bins, and one can have smaller). And because you can take the bins out separately, there's no big problem trying to get a part out like you might have with units that don't have removable bins). So the reason I like the density of storage I can get with these is because I put them on shelving, standing up, almost like books, with a label on the side for the colors. So I have generally have a large 10 bin, and small 25 bin one for each color, then I can separate out by part type within the bin. I still need more sub-sorting, I use a lot of various size baggies because I still have a lot more part types than I have bins, but it's fairly easy for me to find what I need these days. Also, at some point, I'd like to build a storage unit for these. Something like this: You see the rails on the sides? The tops of the storage boxes have a flange on the top, allowing them to slide in and out on those "rails," they are not stacked (I used to have them stacked on my shelves, but getting the bottom unit was a pain, now I have them vertically with labels on the sides). I plan to double up the rails to make it very generically easy to use for the short or deep bins (the short is like exactly half the size of the deep - two units together take the same space). You can imagine the storage density of these are very high compared to the Stack-On or Akro-Mills units. In addition, with labels to classify what's in it, when you slide it out they have clear tops, so you can still see what's in it. It's definitely a trade off; if I had a huge LEGO room I might have more Akro-Mills, Stack-On, or whatevers, but even if I did I think I'd rather use the wall space for display. I still use the Akro-Mills (and I do have an older Stack-On) for odd, hard to classify, or parts that I didn't want to group by color. For example, I have one of those units dedicated to plants - leaves, stalks, flowers, etc. I also have a lot of other bins for overflow... like I have far too many white 2x4s to put in the Stanley case, it would take the whole case and wouldn't make sense, so I fill one bin them in the case, but overflow to Sterilite "shoe" boxes (4 qt), and larger 6qt boxes, that I can store out of the way. I also use those to store sets I've taken off display to make room for newer ones, and all my not-on-display minifigures. Again, I sub-sort with various sized baggies. I simply don't have enough room to completely sort all my parts.

In the olden days, before and around the time I got married, my favorite games were Tomb Raider, Sim City / Sim City 2000... as time moved on Total Annihilation, Warcraft 2. Have kids, we got into consoles and I enjoyed games like Guitar Hero, but by that time was hardly playing games at all. My son and I got Steam Accounts, and over a couple of Christmas breaks where we didn't travel, I had time to play Half Life (and HL2) and play Counter Strike with my son. These days it's mostly apps on my phone - the kind of games you can kill ten or 15 minutes with here or there, not the kind you need to concentrate on. This year we spent Christmas at home and I have two weeks (which are almost over, sadly); I started off by taking care of everything I had to (paying bills and getting ready for Christmas), but then that left me a lot of time for myself - and I logged onto Steam and found the entire Tomb Raider Collection (with DLC) as a bundle for like $19 (it's a lot more now), and I've been playing since last Friday... I finished early yesterday, but then spent the better part of the afternoon finding all the hidden things I'd missed. So they rebranded the old Tomb Raider to be Tomb Raider 1, and this new Tomb Raider came out in 2013, and as an old fogey, I always hated when they made games more complicated. This Tomb Raider added a bunch of modern game play mechanics, like Quick Time Events, earning skills points to buy skills with, finding salvage to upgrade your weapons with, and each area in the game had extra challenges of the sort you wouldn't find in the old Tomb Raiders games (where you'd just learn that you missed some secrets at the end of the level, normally with no way to go back). I have to say, I had a blast playing it - the graphics were incredible, the gameplay was every bit as fun and more as the old games, and the new game play mechanics really added to the game and weren't just there because that's what people expect in modern games... they weren't shoe-horned in, they worked really well. I thought it was great. There was a very annoying QTE part near the beginning, but nothing nearly as bad later on. If it's any indication, my son - a consummate gamer (I hate how much he plays - but he still does sports and gets As in school, so can't complain), who doesn't normally like 3rd person games, saw me playing, saw it was on sale and asked for it (I got him just this game + DLC for $8), and he had a blast playing it, too.

Congratulations, Daniel! I think I'd like living in Washington (the state).

So, only commenting now because I just finished building the restaurant. I was very impressed with the details; the roof is a work of art in itself. As a side note, I often build these with my family, the numbered bags and multiple instruction books make it easy, as does the modular make up of the floors; I did books 2 and 3, and my wife and daughter did book 1 (which was twice as much, so it works out). I just wanted to point out for those who like building that way that this is a great set to do it.

What I have left... we'll start fresh, so if you've already asked me for something, go ahead and ask for another one (please PM me - in case of conflict, the first PM by timestamp gets the code): Wizard Video Gamer Space Miner Jester Dino Hunter Pizza Guy Rock Star Swashbuckler Pig Genie Spooky Girl LAST POST: I Have one video gamer left: 5SJ-K37-PNV-89X

You need to PM me your list of wants in order (most to least wanted). I'll give you your highest prioritized ONE that I have left. I'm suspecting that you wouldn't prioritized the princess over the other two, from the way you wrote your request. I want to make it clear that anyone who wants a code needs to PM me so that it's easy for me to see who requested stuff first. I'll answer the PMs in the order I get them.

Instead of keeping a bunch of figures stored in their original bags, I went ahead and opened them - and this time kept track of which ones were which. Sorry, Lexia, until you have 10 posts I can't PM you any codes, the only way to get them is through the forum, at which point someone else might "steal" it. So here's the deal: I have one of EVERY figure except the hun. I have two of a few of the figures. So anyone still looking for codes, tell me your first, second, and third choices in PM. When I check back, I will give you the top one of your choices that I still have (so if I already gave the first choice, I'll give the second choice, ditto for third). I will do it in the chronological order I got in PMs (according to the EB timestamp on the PM). Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or whatever floats your boat. -Fred

I haphazardly opened my minifigures without regard for the codes (because I didn't care, but apparently you guys do!). I sent out a few random ones (I had the sheets, but did not know who they went with). The two people I sent codes to graciously let me know which codes they got. I'm just going to post the rest here; they are random, but I can narrow down who they might be. Please don't be piggy. There might be a different one in there, but I generally only opened one of each, so the possibilities are most likely: Princess, prospector, jester, pizza guy, swashbuckler, piggy, genie. There could be more. If you have all or most of these figures unlocked, please don't ruin them for anyone else. I may have given out a couple of these codes without crossing them off; if so I apologize. If you try one and it's been used, then it's most likely someone copying from here and not letting us know. RRJ-MGJ-RPX-RW6 PHN-A96-AJQ-9F4 BWC-AA4-HG8-6FB UH4-TWN-T8W-9NS SU5-SXK-EG3-AGS MJH-EDK-QUG-3UX BPU-B8A-75E-AMA PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHICH CODES ARE USED AND I CAN CROSS THEM OFF.

It was the molds... but mainly the process of adding the metal to the rails that made it much more costly than other parts. It was essentially the whole process which, from my understanding, was trouble-prone and expensive.

"Remove the gearing," not "remote the gearing." Sorry for the typo. Yes, the motor itself makes it look bad (compared to the base model without the motor); not just the motor but the wiring, too, although you'd need extra wiring in the 9V method in order to have the front light. But what I meant is that It just didn't run that well compared to 9V. It may be true that it can pull more, but who is pulling 15 cars with the EN? Someone in a train club with a giant layout maybe, but not the typical user, I think. Besides, you can always add 9V motors to other cars. Doing something like that with PF just becomes silly unless you have one IR receiver and run wires from car to car to car. I'm not bashing PF - I completely understand what happened and why, and it's hard to argue about it.

It actually runs pretty good when you remove the gearing in the engine and use this 9V mod snowvictem demonstrated. I actually started with the 9V mod, but then reverted it to PF. I only get the opportunity to leave a layout up for any amount of time around Christmas, and tried the EN on the 9V track using the PF motor (XL), and didn't think it was a very pretty sight. I was surprised how slow it ran. But again, if you ignore the attempt to make it run from the XL motor, and use 9V or come up with a better scheme for it... and no matter which way, make sure your driving rods are offset, then it doesn't run terribly.

I like the friends sets. I just don't like the minidolls. But TLG is a capitalist company operating in mostly capitalist countries, and they are not FORCING their product on anyone, they are SELLING people what they want. Now the complainers can go feel free to berate all the young girls who like Friends for following a stereotype. Can you picture someone in the LEGO Store chastising a girl there for wanting a Friends set and insisting she get Technic? No? Neither can I, so the point is moot... Take a girl to the LEGO Store and let her pick. There's NOTHING wrong with that.

I haven't tried it, but isn't that what I've been hearing about the L motor?

I don't think I've ever taken more than a week or so. Off hand, it's usually within a couple of days.

I bought a zombie set because... well... zombies. I do not like to "cross contaminate" pieces, but I don't mind using MB. One of the first sets out of my dark ages was a mech before TLG made one (someone correct me if I'm wrong about Exoforce being the first LEGO Group mechs). Nanoblocks look neat; I am tempted when I see them at Target, but if I think LEGO is expensive (and, on the whole, I do) then Nanoblocks are just right out.

Any day now, any day... if I hadn't had previous dealings with ME, I might be tempted to dispute the credit card charge. Getting only metal rail means I apparently have a LONG wait. But let's everybody be patient. Hoping ME takes up the slack with 9V and uses this experience to be better able to make other 9V parts, like switches and, oh my! A motor?

Yeah... well... TLG has "borrowed" ideas from third parties before; in the train world, Big Ben Bricks had large wheels years before Emerald Night. Even now BBB has many more options than available with TLG. Would be cool to see ME be wildly successful in their 9V/Metal Rail offerings. It's unfortunate how long it's taking, but if they can keep up production, on the backer page I voted for a new motor. You can conceivably already hook up a different speed regulator (something I've thought of many times, as I don't like the "stepped" operation of LEGO speed regulator... something that's even worse with PF, IMO). If I were going to build a "real" full train layout (as it is now I only set up for Christmas), if ME doesn't come through, I'll go with the LEGO/O-Gauge modification.