Section8

I got some basic bricks made a few years ago. When I stacked them up on top of each other (all the same size), I noticed that the sides didn't all match up perfectly. Some bricks stuck out when viewed down the long axis and short axis. It is a very small difference and not immediately noticeable, but something I've never seen in their older bricks. I don't think it is a big problem, but I think it could be attributed to tolerances being lowered. Lego's tolerances were so high back in the day that if they cut them in half today to increase yields and lower costs, they would still be pretty high. Has anyone else noticed this? I am not complaining about it because the bricks I got were old grey 1x8s I got at PAB about a year after the color change. :-) I have also noticed a very slight drop in quality control in terms of colors of parts. While no set I've gotten had missing parts that I can remember, the last two sets I got (10001 Metroliner and 10159 City Airport) had one part each a different color than in the instructions. They were a minifig's hair and a suitcase, not a critical structural element, so no big deal. I also got an extra 2x4 brick in the Airport in addition to the usual extra 1x1 plates. At least I think it's extra; I triple checked the instructions and couldn't find it.

Ironic how the undersea exploration and salvage theme might have ended when the container it's in sinks to the bottom of the sea. Imagine finding that container, the boxes, stickers and instructions would be ruined but the parts should be somewhat in good shape (anyone done any experiments on Lego pieces submerged in seawater?) I don't think that's the real reason divers died. Lego on a whole went downhill in 1998, look at the juniorization that happened to the town years during the years that happened after 1997. Pirates ended too, Castle went from classic factions to Fright Knights (*n*) and other changes were made. It was like a mass extinction for Lego. Some lines died out (pirates), some survived intact (trains from that time were not too altered or terrible in design), some survived in a new form (town became <insert that tiresome argument>) and new lines arose (Star Wars came out in 1999)

The 9V motors are still in production, only now they take power from onboard batteries rather than the track. 9V metal tracks should be the only tracks produced. Since the RCs can run on both, why not only have 1 kind of track to buy? Granted, it is more expensive, but Keeping Everyone Happy + Less Confusion for New Buyers > Slight Price Difference. Running a train off the tracks doesn't make sense. There's no way to steer it, and running it in reverse will just result in a jack-knife. Lego already made a RC car that doesn't need tracks. If this is to be the end of the 9V metal rail line, then I would have TLC send it off with a bang. A 9V Twentieth Century Limited or Orient Express as a S@H exclusive, perhaps? The set would have a steam engine (with old 9V motor), tender, a few cars, and enough metal straights to display it. It wouldn't have curves or a speed reg because, due to the set size and price, the only ones buying it would be 1.) longtime 9V fans who already have a Regulator and plenty of curved track; 2.) Collectors who would build it to display it; 3.) collectors who would not open the box. I think it'd be a good idea, but that's just wishful thinking on my part though. A true measure of how serious TLC is about the train line overall would be whether or not they release accessory cars and buildings. This would still help out the 9V fans since the rolling stock could be used by either system. They could also make non-powered engines (like the BNSF) and let the 9V fans convert them to powered if they want.

I agree, it's hard to play Rescue when all you have are Police and Fire Stations. The police station can catch fire only so often. ;-) We need more everyday buildings: houses, stores, and cool sublines (Race and Divers, etc). I just picked up 6689 Post Office, it's a simple, small model, but it's a model of a building that nearly every town in the industrialized world has at least one of. And it's a model that most kids can identify with. I used to love getting mail as a small child, it was kind of magical how something came to you out of basically nowhere. I must admit, I am somewhat pleased with Lego's 2006 town lineup. They made a hospital for the first time in a very long time. For a long time though, the only non-rescue or construction sets lego made were the Legends or Promotional sets not available in the US (1254/1255/1256 are a few example of sets I wish I had the chance to buy). Now that I think about it, divers might not have stopped selling because they are not popular, but because lego only intended them to last for a year or two. I noticed that while Race sets were produced continuously, the big sets with many similiar designed small sets came out sporadically, chiefly 1988 (#6395 and friends) and 1996 (6335 and 6337). So perhaps Divers was to be a once-every-several-years line that unfortunately got cut when lego town went off the deep end (pun intended) in 1998/1999.

By not making room for 9V in their stores, lego can move more products from different lines, make more money overall, and possibly be able to sustain the small-but-dedicated-following 9V line. Moving to per-order production would make sense here, it's happening in other industries, and I don't see why lego couldn't do it. They don't have to make every piece they ever made able to be ordered, but the 9V trains probably sell well enough to warrant a per-order production of parts, but not well enough to warrant full-time production. I just got my first 9V train (10001) and I would like to get more track for it when I move into a bigger place (at least a year away). I'd like to be able to get them from lego when that happens, and not pay $10 a piece for track on Bricklink. Putting all the 9V parts on LDD and discontinuing the retail line of 9V seems like the solution to make the most people happy (or less mad). A second possibility would be to just make all the tracks 9V. It would cost more, but since RC can run on them, it doesn't matter if they conduct electricity or not. That way at least the 9V fans can still buy more track.

I'd really like to see this as a Legend as well. Although I think the Trading Post is more feature-rich, this was the first Imperial fort. I am also partial to the blue Soldiers, since most of my pirate sets were acquired when the Soldiers were around. I don't have too many sets after the Imperial Guards came out. The Soldiers' sets also seem to mesh well, I could put Eldorado fortress right next to my Lagoon Lockup and the docks would match somewhat. This would be an ideal candidate for a legend. It would be cheaper than ITP, since it is a smaller set, and probably sell well. Also, the lack of grey in the set means those still angry about the grey color change (like me) won't have much to complain about. The set originally came out in 1989; some of the people who never got the set or had it and got rid of it have kids of their own now, the perfect excuse to get a classic set for themselves.

I disagree. The name divers for the line is a bit misleading, as there were submersibles and an underwater lab. That's what I was interested in as a kid, deep sea exploration and shipwrecks. I read alot of books on famous shipwrecks and I wanted to be a marine geologist so I could explore the ocean. The submersibles were the best part of the line (as was the underwater lab...ingenious!) and I never got any of the divers sets because the ones with the large submersibles were too much for my small budget.

Well, it is an American-designed plane... ;-)

A good collection of useful links. The random generator coughs up a few odd combinations. It also seems like it's suitable only for pirate or merchant ships; military-esque names don't come up much. A lot of British ships back then had Greek or Roman gods as names (check the National Geographic article on the Battle of Trafalgar for the exact names).

That's a great way of thinking of it. I don't think I'd be as interested in colonial history if it wasn't for the Pirates line. I was never a fan of American colonial history until I realized that the golden age of piracy happened at roughly the same time. The same could be said of the Adventurers line sparking interest in different ancient cultures.

I didn't realize you had one Phes. The pirate forum must be much bigger than I thought!

I solved this problem years before divers came out: I just put everything above ground on a table and everything below ground or underwater on the floor. I likedl having things, like ROVs on strings reaching down below the table. I even replaced the string on some of my winches so they'd reach to the floor. Granted not every kid gets a permanent table for their Legos, but anyone could have found one for just an afternoon. As for the colors, they didn't bug me. I don't think they were bad, but they don't strike me as particularily good either.

I designed it in MLCad and and then set the quality high in LDview and took a snapshot. POV-Ray is not the greatest for just minifigs I've found. When I made it (and probably still today) they didn't have the bicorne hat that is white along the spine. So I made mine with a tricorner with a feather (probably hard to see) and a sword. I'd be happy to make a CGI avatar for you or let you have my previous one (it's in my brickshelf gallery). I changed mine to a figure I made and have sitting on my desk. Shouldn't be too hard to guess what character it is!

Message Intercept Base needs to be made as a legend post-haste. Probably the best post-classic space base made. Blacktron 2 was a fairly good continuation of the line, but it was not as good as the original. I have a couple meteor monitors, wish they were the MIB and Renegade instead. ;-)

If you're the commodore then how come your avatar is a rank-and-file soldier? Welcome to the site, the huge pirates section is why I joined too. Ever since Piratebricks dissappeared this has been the only pirates resource on the web worth visiting. Are you into any other lines except pirates?

I've seen the rules for Steve Jackson's Pirate game and like them alot, I just don't have anybody or enough ships to play with. My friend has at least 3 ships, maybe I'll print out the rules and we'll play next time I visit him.

I'm a huge fan of Boeing and I will get this set when it comes out on S@H. Likely they designed this for Boeing's employees and will release it on S@H for the public to buy, just like the Maersk Sealand. That very well may explain why they aren't offering the Sealand anymore, because the new sculpture model is about to be released.

As a whole, this was one of the most well designed sub-themes Lego ever made. I don't have any of the sets, but I wish I had them all. The undersea lab iin 6441 is very realistic and detailed. The undersea portions of the sets were the best part. I love the whale skeleton in 6559 and the various marine creatures they made for these sets.

I don't know if you mean playing a miniatures-style game with lego pieces or playing the Lego video games. In either case, it's no for me. I am looking forward to LSW 2, though.

My wish list: Hospital Jabba's Sail Barge Tower Crane The hospital isn't at any stores by me, oddly enough so it's S@H for me. And the tower crane isn't even available in the US.

I came across this on Brickshelf and I like it for the most part. I don't like the swords used because they are not medieval looking at all. If you could find them, the silvered large swords would probably be good (there's a gold sword too but I think it was only in a very few sets). The standard sword would also look good. I like the way you used those robot hands to cross the swords.

I'm a big pirate fan, the sets aged 1989 to 1995 were the best sets and I own a few of them. The Spanish weren't a bad faction but the set designs on a whole were sub-par. If lego did a new pirates line now, and at the quality of their newer town, SW, viking sets, they would be a big success.

I voted for 6398. It's a classic urban police station and I think it is still the tallest building Lego has ever made. The harbor cranes aren't buildings, and the new hospital sits on a tall baseplate. My friend has this set and I built it for him once and it was a great build. He also has 6598 but I like 6398 more.

I just wanted to say hi to everyone on this forum. My name is Andy and I've been reading Eurobricks for a few months and decided to join because of the dedicated town and pirates forums. I've just recently gotten back into town, although I have buying new and used castle, pirates, and star wars sets for a few years. I post under (or at least own) the user name Section8 on fbtb.net, classic-castle.com, and classic-space.com. You may have seen me post there, I chime in from time to time on topics. I'm SectionEight on brickshelf and one or the other name on Peeron. I'm not on lugnet since I dislike their forum layout. I almost exclusively build in the minifig System style (classic town buildings with no stairs and no backs to the buldings). I will probably post a few MOCs in the town section when they are done, since they will be appreciated more here than on the general Lego board of another site.