fred67

It doesn't matter what "thing" they are for you... TLG actually called the Toy Story set "Army Men on Patrol," not "Toy Soldiers on Patrol." It is perhaps a difference in cultures (U.S. vs. Italy), but we never called those toys "toy soldiers," they were always referred to as Army Men, just as TLG called them. I was maybe a bit brief in my reply because I entered it on my tablet... the lists that have been given in the past (and again, I'm not suggesting this one is real) have always been subjected to wide interpretation of what they actually are. I don't know if an Army Man is in the future of CMFs, I'm saying they've released Army Men before, and yes, they actually called them that.

I'm not understanding the problem people are having with an army man. Yes, we all know the policies, but the simple description of "army man" is as vague as any other leaked list in the past... I'm not suggesting it's a real list, but it could very well be just like what was released for Toy Story. What I find laughable is that people find the thought of TLG releasing an army man laughable when they've already done it!

I don't know what was wrong with the old ME metal track... It worked just fine for me, but anxiously awaiting my order... Great work, ME, picking up the ball like that.

I know it varies by country ,but it's only 12.07 at Amazon right now, and prime eligible... I like the idea of e-books, but refuse to pay the same (or more!) For an e-book when it costs them so much less to make, and lose your resale rights (and largely your lending rights) at the same time.

I'm leaning back in my chair at a computer graphics station in what's called a graphics control room. I worked with a designer creating virtual elements for a sports studio show. He designs and models the elements, I make sure they will work in real time, make the interface to control them when we are on the air... For example, positioning them in the set, and updating any data they may show, and running animations. They did not have an operator available, so since I built the playback interface, they asked me to actually be the on air operator. Tonight we are doing the pregame and postgame shows on TBS for the Kansas City/LA division series MLB game. We did pregame for the Detroit/Baltimore game this morning. It's really boring right now because we have to be here all day to cover both games. Last night the game went extra innings and we didn't get out until after 2am. Then crew call was at 9:30 this morning, and I probably won't get out until after 1:30am. If you watch the shows (and you'd likely be in a tiny minority if you did :) ), see if you can figure out which parts I did!

Agree with GregoryBrick, as I mentioned earlier - designers can't just arbitrarily make new parts; new molds are very expensive, and they have to make a great case for the need of a new part, in addition to it's future usefulness.

I'm going to go out on a limb, here; among all "official" LEGO trains, I like the The Constitution from The Lone Ranger the best. Yes, even better than the Emerald Night, as far as appearance goes. I did modify it - I took the old (MOT) caboose and replaced the red with the dark green, and made the accent color brown instead of yellow, and used smooth slopes on top instead of the straight ones, so it really matches the rest of the train well. I also removed the "play" feature from the cargo car and fixed that part of the roof to match. IMO, it's the best "classic" style steam engine TLG has ever released. The EN is awesome, of course, in all it's grandeur... but the Constitution just looks like a more classic old-timey steam engine. I haven't motorized it yet (although I did motorize the Toy Story train just for kicks a couple of years ago). My updated list (engines/sets only) 3470: Small Locomotive, x3 4561: Railway Express, x2 10020: Santa Fe Super Chief (not limited) 10133: BNSF 4708: Hogwarts Express (2001) x2 4841: Hogwarts Express (2010) 10157: High Speed Locomotive x2 10194: Emerald Night x3 (one modded to Ruby) 10219: Maersk 10233: Horizon Express 7597: Toy Story Western Train Chase 9711: Lone Ranger Constitution Train Chase Micro: 4837: Mini Trains (not official - I built a couple in various colors with my own bricks). 31015: Emerald Express, x2 40028: Mini Hogwarts Express, x2

Ah... Nightmare Before Christmas is interesting because it's Disney, and TLG's got some hooks in at Disney. It might be quite old, but I think a lot of people (myself included) consider it a must see annual holiday classic. Shrek is interesting too... but at the same time, when I think of licensing, because Disney has a working relationship with TLG, I don't think they'd appreciate TLG doing Shrek.

I have modded a few parts (see the Harry Potter wands, for example, in my signature). I've also clipped bars to make them the length I need. I don't see how that's so bad if people cut the hoses to length, also. I think it was even in the Space Needle Architecture set... wasn't one of the steps to cut the hose to length? Anyway, I've never cut a brick... I simply don't think the occasion arose where I needed to. I don't know if I would, but I think I might. In Eurotrash's place, I simply would have ordered the pieces I needed from BL and waited before cutting... I don't think it would ever occur to me to cut a piece to be line another piece I could buy (but requires patience). At the same time, they're his bricks and I'm cool with that. I do think of LEGO as a constrained medium that requires special thought to get what you want, and part of the creativity is directly a result of the limitations. At the same time, sometimes things just don't work and require a little something extra. The LEGO designers have to make quite a case to get a new piece made. But then it's the same with us... if we can make the case to ourselves (they're our bricks, after all), then I think we can justify it, too.

I got my set of the Fantastic Four (as shown in the first post on this thread). Less than $7 shipped, took less than three weeks for shipping after I finally pulled the trigger. It IS obvious these are not up to LEGO Standards, but they are pretty good. The oddest thing about it is why the Thing has a hammer and Mr. Fantastic has a circular saw. I will not be putting these with my collection of LEGO Superheroes, but I have no problem putting them on their own little display.

I think there may be a few newer parts that TLG still has protection on, but most of the bricks aren't covered by patents anymore, it's true. I think what they are going after is imitation of actual complete sets, for one, and products TLG has the license for (like superheroes). Thirdly, Ebay needs to go after idiot sellers who call their stuff LEGO when it's not. "LEGO compatible" is one thing, but calling it "LEGO" when it's not is entirely different.

And yet, at the same time, you're asking for smaller battery boxes and smaller motors... The problem isn't PF, it's going from something that was very easy to work with (9V) to PF - those old trains, especially, were not designed for PF. That's why I say stocking up on PF is bad, because why stock up on stuff that may have better versions in the future.

The color names are different because BL is often cataloging new colors before TLG "officially" names them. IOW, bricklink has been around longer than S&H PAB, which is where we first started seeing the color names TLG uses. It is annoying, but as pointed out - there are "conversion" charts.

Brickforge used to have a Centaur body... I suppose it didn't sell all that well, since they no longer seem to make it. I luckily bought a few when they came out.

Of course there is minifigure trading right here on EB... it surprises me how few takers there are given the popularity of CMFs and the number of EB users. Of course, Commdr_neyo can offer the figures for sale in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum, too.

@Robert8, if it's not a fantasy related line, I won't be interested, but I'd definitely be interested in Arthurian legend; that sounds like a great idea to me.

As my interest in CMF is waning, I actually am glad for Simpsons 2... I don't know what TLG is thinking, but more obscure figures or versions of the characters would be awesome for me... but I can't imagine they'd be nearly as successful as the first go round. As for series 13, I like the idea of a director, but it would be nice to just get LEGO Studios back for another run. I think I'd be fine with the swimmers... nothing special, but adding a pool to a city layout wouldn't be too bad.

As we've been surmising, I don't think anybody thinks that PF is going end... possibly ever; what it will do is morph into (hopefully) better technology that can be used to easily replace the old technology.... really.... drop in replacement, unlike going from 9V to PF, I expect going from PF to new PF will be quite easy. As hoeij said, there is no need to stock up any more than what you need. I'd hate to buy a bunch of IR receivers and remotes, for example, and then bluetooth comes out next year.

Thanks... I gave your "review" the once over, after reading what I've quoted in your post. When CMFs came out... especially the first few series, I'm not sure if we've had similar complains about later series, there were a lot of complaints about the poor quality of the figures, one of which was they seemed to be more translucent than "normal" figures... IOW, it seemed like they may have been lacking pigment. I'm wondering how close these companies are to the people working for LEGO in China, since even the flaws seem to mimic the made in China LEGO flaws.

I might actually not even buy it. A detective agency would be a waste of precious layout space. I get why a lot of you like the idea, but I'm not going to spend $150 to $200 on something I don't want so that I can mod it into something I do want, only to have a police station come out later. I'm still hoping it's NOT a detective agency. Even a bank would be better, it's something most towns actually have. It'll have to be an absolutely AMAZING set for me to buy a detective agency, and as far away from $200 as modulars can go.

It's true that TLG kept switching...12v, 9v, now PF, and I was very disappointed when they switched from 9V to PF, personally, as I think a lot of LEGO train fans were model train enthusiasts who saw 9V as a "serious" step for TLG to take, and actually felt like LEGO was a choice alongside N, O, HO, G, etc.. But they weren't making money. There wasn't enough of "us" to keep it going, and it was expensive for them to produce. Switching to PF accomplished many things - including having a singular power "system" across multiple lines. Since it's seen in trains, technic, and creator, I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon. What I do see is improvements, additions to the system... perhaps gradual fading out of older tech for newer; new battery boxes, better IR (or... GASP! Actual RADIO control? Maybe bluetooth? Either one would be an improvement). We've seen the addition of newer motors, controllers, and (finally) a servo... While things we produce our trains with now may phase out, I'm confident that the newer things phased in will be suitable replacements, perhaps even better (stronger, smaller... maybe both). Hopefully we'll get more that can be more easily fit into MOCs. I'd love to see S and XS motors, too. But I'm thinking, except for some great leap in technology (wireless electricity?) that PF won't "go away." The problem with 9V is it's not easy to adapt a 9V engine to PF because of the battery box and IR Receiver, but I believe new PF will be easy replacements for old.... and if they ever did go back to an electric rail system, converting to it from PF would be easier than going the other way; but I don't see that happening.

I could see The Plastic Brick Museum buying something like this.

No problems, we're just discussing... See, now here's where I (kind of) agree; I do NOT mix megablocks with my LEGO... NO NO NO. I'm as OCD about that as anybody. At the same time, I will include brickarms, brickforge, altbricks, etc, in my collection without a problem. So right now I have two MB sets; one is unassembled in the box: (I only recently got it half price at Target... more because of the Zombie theme than because it was building blocks). It is fairly close to the iconic scene at the end of season 2 of the Walking Dead. The other I bought way back when I was first getting back into LEGO - a mech, years before TLG ever released anything like it. It's assembled, but stored somewhere (I couldn't even tell you which closet it's in); but I've kept all the pieces separate because it would bother me to mix them. Yes, I realize it's a little crazy and OCD, but I am like that. I'm realizing I have a lot of issues when it comes to LEGO, actually... like that I can't buy a single set just for parts; if I like the parts in a set, I have to buy two so that I can build one and use the parts from the other. But back on subject... I'm not a huge fan of "clone" bricks (of course, as said before, TLC was the "original" clone), but I have no problem with them, especially given certain themes people might be fans of, and I hope that some of the competitors (do we still call MB a "clone" when their sets are completely different than TLG?) step up and start rivaling the quality of LEGO. We need some good competition to get TLG to cut their really high profit margins down a little. I don't want them to go bankrupt, but a little decent competition is good for consumers.

I put them in a banker's box: Actually I have two of them. I don't put the instructions in freezer bags or anything like that, and they are just stacked from the bottom up. If you asked for instructions for something I built, it would take me some time to find it, but since I need them so rarely (never, it's easier to look up something online now if I have some minor repair to make) it doesn't seem worthwhile to sort through them all and neaten them up.

It's not a faux pas, in this case, new people join all the time - if the topic was interesting then, there's no reason new posts shouldn't be interesting now.