fred67

We did R2D2 in Lawrenceville, GA LEGO Store... must have been a year and half ago, if not more. Fun for the kids... they made it last all weekend.

You just need a picture of the epic fail they posted to Youtube.

I noticed it was a tight fit... but nothing to complain about.

Sometimes I look at things I made, feel a touch of pride, then take a photo... and the photo looks terrible where all the seemingly same-color bricks are a rainbow of variations.

The only think I find compelling about the set is the interior. I'm not too thrilled, overall... but I'm one of those anal retentives with every other architecture set, so now I need to get this one or go crazy.

I think it said May... when I was there, the icon picture was "broken," so it didn't exist yet, but it was there and when you click on it the page says it's coming in May. That's fine...I've got curves enough for now. The only problem was it was one curve; the video said there'd be three different radii.

I would check out brickstructures. They have a Burj-Dubai, and most of the sets (AFAIK) have been models they've done in larger scales (except I don't see the Farnsworth house). So it definitely seems like a possibility. EDIT: just to point out for those who don't know, brickstructures develops the architectural LEGO sets.

You know, now that I've ordered a few doubles (way cool), it's made me rethink what happened when TLG dropped 9V, and it bothers me even more that they claimed to have tried to work something out with a third party to make track and couldn't do it cost effectively... along comes this small company with barely a tiny fraction of TLG's resources and manages to not only pull it off, but do it better (as far as we know, but at least with more options) than TLG, and they did it with reasonable prices. Perhaps I should reserve judgement until I actually have them and try them out, but railbricks seems to think they work wonderfully.

No.. ordered one last night. I live fairly close to a LEGO store, but can't always find the time to get there. If I manage to, I'll rummage through the CMFs and wait for the train. I wouldn't have been able to put it together for some time anyway.

Well done, ME... I was hoping for either a fresh infusion of plastic rails or 9V compatible tracks... and got the best of both. I noticed the video said curves would be three different radii... that's just plain awesome. The hype was annoying, but I'll definitely give you a pass for delivering.

NOW AVAILABLE on U.S. S@H Series 4 Maersk Train

When are the next Hello Kitty products being released? I'd like to discuss the decline in HK products lately.

I liked the beard, but the first thing I said when I saw it was "this is a much better beard for Santa Claus." I suppose the fisherman is interesting... I just traded for a few not because I particularly like it but because the trade was a good deal and I know I'll use the parts down the road. My problem with CMFs, especially series 4, is I like one bagged set to save for posterity, one set to display, and then some extras of figs I'm interested in for making things. I made a Luau scene with several hula dancers and Sumos (with different hair) - I love how the CMFs make ideas for MOCs pop into your head like that. Anyway, while I've ordered a box, my problem with the scientist is this: one for posterity, one for display... and I want one for a MOC I have in mind (and have several other ideas, although I could share that figure between them). I was lucky enough to get two when I ordered 30 from TRU... now both my kids are proud owners of mad scientists and I still have none. , so I'll still be on the lookout - not wanting them because they're rare, but because I could use at least one more, perhaps two or three for things I already have in mind. As far as the fisherman goes, for being so rare, I somehow ended up with a lot of them despite the fact that two would have sufficed.

It was interesting... I have a pretty short attention span, I admit, and didn't think I'd watch all five parts, but I did... back to back. Some of it was very interesting, and answered a lot of questions people on these boards have been guessing about... like how much do molds cost (and even "what will the dog from the new police set look like?"). It was also notable - the largest investment TLG has made into any single product... LEGO Universe. As far as waste goes, the overuse of plastic bothers me, but not so much when it's permanent (or semi permanent). In other words, we bring canvas bags for shopping, and certain packaging really bothers me, but things like computers, electronics, cars, and LEGO seem like a much more worthwhile use for plastic.

It's a nice, modern house with clean lines... but as a LEGO set, it's like they're not even trying anymore.

I guess what I meant was that PAB is OK, but they could do more to rotate inventory, and it would be nice to be able to buy "k boxes" (I think that's what they're called) of the parts they have for sale online. I've bought them in boxes at the LEGO Store, but the PAB walls in the stores are way more limited. Finally, while they may make more money selling sets, I've never seen a company go out of business selling customers what they want... but I'm a capitalist, and LEGO is a profit driven business, so it's their prerogative.

It works out OK if you have a lot of patience... I usually will go get pieces I really need and I'll bulk up the order with anything on my wishlist. So, let's say I'm recreating an out of print set... I put all the pieces on a wishlist (removing what I have)... then it might take a while, but over time while I'm making other orders I slowly get all the pieces I want. Of course I'm not always patient, either. But yeah... BL is great, they fill a need in the LEGO community, but it's a shame you can't buy more from TLG at decent prices... these BL sellers mostly get sets like everyone else and they only get 1 of those, 2 of those...

Except you could make the same changes to the engine in gray and red and maintain consistency. In the thread I linked to there are LDD models of both the engine and cars using the same technique. It's simply not worth the price people are asking for the gray bricks. I'm hoping one day TLG will make more, but honestly, if you put the effort into getting a consistent look you can do it for a reasonable price.

I was at the PAB wall in my local store and, of course, stacking bricks to make more fit in the box (the holiday boxes from Christmas) and showed the manager, who was pretty shocked... reddish brown tiles all stacked up with really obvious visual differences in hue... and I'm guessing these were NOT Chinese made because they weren't specialty (CMF or other odd parts), they were just standard bricks.

Yes, you could use the 6081... This is what I did... I didn't use the 6081, I used 6091... because I got like a whole large cup full at the LEGO Store. That might have too many "gaps," but you might use the same concept with the 6081. There's some alternatives in this thread, including mine. While I was OK with the look (one plate too thick, but otherwise it was fine), I eventually just went for the readily available and inexpensive black 2x3 curved instead of gray.

I am a LEGO Train Fan, and I agree with you. I haven't liked any "regular" sets in years. I did get the Toy Story train and Hogwarts Express, though.

See this thread... you have to scan down; there's a lot of potential solutions.

I hear people complaining about Chinese parts breaking more easily, but it's always possible that that's simply a matter of perception (like people ignoring it when it's a non-Chinese part because, hey, it's just plastic after all... but when it's Chinese part they say "damn cheap Chinese plastic!"). As I've said elsewhere, I don't think the print or quality has ever really bothered me except that I do notice the hands don't seem to move as freely as they do in other minifigures. That could certainly lead to stress and make the parts easier to break, but since I generally just pose them in MOCs and don't "play," it hasn't been an issue for me. I was also under the impression that Chinese law requires some minimum amount of raw materials be produced in China; I thought I recalled reading that the plastic was made there (even if supposedly to TLG specifications).

I don't think they're "ignoring" quality issues, but they will continue to experiment to get the best value for their money. TLG has a fairly high profit margin these days, and that's OK as long as we're paying premium prices for premium quality. That being the case, even the sporadic appearance of quality problems is annoying when you're paying premium prices. If I buy a luxury car and it keeps stalling, I'm not going to be happy, even if you insist my car is an anomaly.

I haven't experienced them all... I got an order of 30 from TRU, and am missing 5, so have no experience with those. My thoughts on the "feel" method are slightly different. I agree about the Kimono and surfer; I didn't get a hazmat guy. I think the Frankenstein's Monster is actually one of the easier ones... the top of the hair is flat, and if you're good you can actually feel the texture. The sailer's hat is not that close to the artists... you can feel the ridge around it... plus the artist has the brush and palette, which is a pretty unique shape in itself. The punk rocker gave me the most problems; for some reason, after feeling the neck of the guitar, I had problems feeling the ends. I don't know why... I can feel the texture of the monster's hair but not the obvious V of the guitar... perhaps I was rushing. The rubber parts should help in identifying because they don't slide around in the package very easily, so when something feels like it stubbornly won't move, it's a pretty good indicator.