deraven

I think it'll be 55-75 of each color in a given hue, so the blue box would be ~65 regular blue, ~65 medium blue, ~65 sand blue, ~65 medium azure, ~65 dark azure, etc. for a box totaling 4-500 pieces. At least I hope it's something like that, as that would be a bit different from what we're seeing now and probably pretty useful if the part selection is reasonable.

Looks pretty good! I see Bart van Dijk's style is catching on:

The freezing effect was really well done! Lovely... but perhaps the freeze gun needs to have a safety installed.

Wow - you really fit a lot in a small area! Fairly interesting building from the outside, too, especially given the small size. Very nice.

Welcome to EB frikandeloorlog! And welcome back to Lego!

Looks like you can get the set (with box) in good condition for under $50USD on Bricklink, and there's a couple listings for just the box in the $10-20USD range, so I'd agree that it's a good way to go since I'm also not seeing a lot of sources for a scan of the box that'd be high enough resolution for you to do a recreation. Sounds like a nice gift - good luck!

GIS gives you a lot to work with pretty quickly, but perhaps this straight-on shot of the modulars from the recent Designer video in particular will give you the comparison that you need:

Here's my short take on the topic: I liked all of the sets just fine, with the exception of the pirate ship... which should be the crown jewel of the line! It really felt like it needed about 100 more pieces to make it feel complete. Decent "play value" I suppose, but just a little more work and it could have been great. Now, I said I liked all of the other sets which is true, but all of the other sets in the line (excluding the chess set) had fewer pieces combined than the ship... and the Brick Bounty only had 745 pieces! Where was the decent bluecoat fort? Or an imperial clipper to counter the pirate ship? Or really anything else beyond a glorified mini-build? I also liked how those sets could be combined and actually kind of appreciate the idea of having a few smaller sets that are easier for folks to purchase that can be put together as if they were intended as 1 larger set, but even with doing that we end up with only 2 decent-sized sets and the ship. The whole thing just felt like they only put in half the effort that an "evergreen" theme deserved. Sorry- we were trying to keep it positive... so, uh... look at my positive points above. And I do agree that the parts usage with some of the newer pieces worked really well!

That's great! I really like the pallets and shelves specifically - captured the look so well! Nice clean look to the warehouse itself as well. I like the handtruck design, too, but a criticism is that it doesn't fit under the pallet so the minifig can move it around... but 6x6 pallets would feel too big here. Hmm... anyway, I still love it!

Depends on which Disney Main Street you're talking about, but the original Mainstreet USA was modeled after the "Old Town" section of Fort Collins, CO where I used to live (and was the childhood home of one of the Disneyland designers/architects). I wouldn't call the newer modulars "cartoonish" exactly, but I see what you mean. To me it's like most of what Lego does; they can't realistically build representations of the real life buildings at proper minifig-to-human scale, so they capture the essence in a smaller proportional size. I do agree that the earlier modulars felt like a better representation externally since they spent their piece count on the buildings themselves (as display pieces) and left the interiors mostly bare. Then they shifted to smaller buildings but more interior details which I know some people appreciate (and I find fun to build), but unless you're often taking the floors apart to show people or playing with them, I do think I'd prefer more of a middle ground with some nice detailing in the visible areas but a bit less on the interior to keep the buildings larger overall. Palace Cinema I thought was a pretty good balance, but that had the virtue of there being one large open space in the middle rather than multiple floors that should be filled with "stuff." :) I'm mixed on my feelings about Assembly Square (though I like the pun!) in that it feels too cramped to really pull off the plaza/square thing - at least from what I'm used to in older American towns like Fort Collins - while at the same time having the buildings seem a bit small to really fit well with the rest of the modulars. I sorta wish they had gone with 32x64 instead of 32x48 and used the extra space to just make the plaza area a bit more open without adding much to the overall piece count. Back to my original comment, just for fun- I think the Poudre Valley Bank building in Fort Collins bears more than a passing resemblance to the Grand Emporium, including the distinctive corner entrance and the detailing at the roof line:

Superb! The updated cars from 10173 are just great! I was feeling a little bad about replacing the old Holiday Train with this one, but this really is the best of both… and the hot cocoa tanker is inspired!

Those are lovely. I really like the red one, and the green one is fantastic with that deco vibe.

Um... I think... you put too many awesome trains in one topic. I don't know what to say, besides: Those are excellent! I especially love those Da locos. Really great job all-around, and I can't wait to see your 9v Extreme Display!

I think you're still missing the question slightly. Are you asking about how to print a decal that you then apply to the head, or printing directly on the head piece (no decal involved)? Very different recommendations if you're looking to do a waterslide or other decal vs finding a custom direct-printing solution.

Welcome to EB, Archie! Nice research subject you've picked, if you ask me!

Nice build, nice lighting, nice story. Nicely done.

Looks like a space tourism bus, all about being "good enough" and with big windows. The shallow angle on those is nice, and definitely a much nicer look than the alternative.

Happy to have you here at EB, Roboflincoln!

Welcome to EB, Dax!

Personal opinion, I guess, but I do agree that it looks just "OK" if you're only looking at it for the interior play features... but for a set that would end up priced pretty high like this, the exterior look has to sell it as well. Yes, but 2 factors come into play there: 1, it's still nowhere near the size and thus market price that this would require. We're talking about going from maybe $55 to $59 on the Doctor Who set, and this one would have to start nearer to the $200 range to even begin to capture it properly. 2, with Doctor Who, that's a property that's been around for half a century, and the TARDIS is iconic throughout the entire run of the show (regardless of the interior decoration or the Doctor or Companions that're present), so even with the interior and minifigs they chose, there's still huge appeal even if it's just for the TARDIS exterior model. I have to agree with the others when they say Agents of SHIELD just doesn't have the same fan base. I mean, I like it fine and I'm a big geek, but I wouldn't drop a couple hundred bucks on this set. Not trying to be snarky here, but: All the designers and most potential buyers would care about that. If it's supposed to be a play set, it needs to be easy to move and play with. If you're aiming at collectors who want to display it, then the exterior look isn't good enough. This particular design, while a great effort and looking like a lot of fun, just hits a middle ground that doesn't work for an official set. Look at the Ghostbusters Firehouse. That's huge and has a ton of detail and is in the same general range for pieces/price that this would need to be to be done reasonably well, and the folks that were willing to spend $350 on that set complain that it's still not big enough to properly and easily fit the Ecto 1 (sold separately, as you suggested with Lola) well. So, again, it would need be on a massive scale, would still have to make compromises, and has a smaller potential audience. I think what would work is something more the size and concept of the Ultra Agent's boat HQ or Ultracopter: focussed on play with lots of nice features and great minifigs, capturing the spirit of The Bus but not really accurate to what we see on the screen as far as scope and size.

Spectacular. The whole setup is just great, but for whatever reason I really like your GR-75s. Relatively simple, but the shaping and detail you've added works really well. Now you need to get working on a Death Star to the same scale!

Wow, for the scale that's really impressive! Would be nice if you could smooth out the bonnet somewhat, either with tiles or curves on the studs of those wedge plates, but it's just great overall. Nicely done!

Welcome to EB, coronaking! Nice to have you here! If you want to make that childhood dream come true, you can still find copies of that set for a pretty reasonable price on Bricklink: http://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?id=4955#T=S&O={}

Welcome to EB, Onesho & Phil B - nice to have you de-lurked!

That is all kinds of cool. Creative design, and pretty functional, too!