Grrr

This is good news. I'd rather our favourite company doesn't become a casualty of this recession. I feel this is particularly impressive given the fact they have taken back the outsourced factories from flextronics. This is positive for us as I expect better quality parts from Lego than from an OEM.

The original model is a Moon Buggy. I think AlienCat's moc captures that feel better than the original - well done. The only thing that would be a cool addition would be to have independent suspension on each wheel. It'd be difficult to implement though.

14 Old Brown 24 Red 1 Dark Blue 2 Red Fabuland Boats ( 4793 )

Yes, I was aware of this. I'd rather have had 4554 or perhaps 6399. Or some other classic set number. Even 376 would have been better :).

Certainly not. That said, I collect Lego Boxes too - which can be a hassle to display. Whilst I have a 250m² house (~2800sq ft), I have only managed to convince my wife to allow me to use on modest bedroom for my Lego collection. As a result, I usually have one set of shelves with built up models, and the rest is sorted and ready to build with (in many hundreds of 1L plastic take-away boxes). I prefer it this way. If I have too many sets built up I start running out of parts. Also, built up sets get covered in dust and I hate cleaning, and I fear the dreaded UV light will get to them more.

The trick is in the printing. Standard inkjet transparent stickers, (which can be a pain to get, I use the FormTec brand, from Korea, which I buy online) are good, however, when printed with an Inkjet or Laser printer do look a little 'flat'. What I have found is that it is best to get them done at a commercial printer, and take in my own transparent stickers - these seem to be hard for them to buy too. This has two advantages: a) they have white ink, so you can create white decals for windows, and avoid having to match the 'body' color of the part to be stickered. b) the inks are more glossy, and as such match nicely with the stickers that Lego produces. It generally costs me around NZ$15 to get an A4 sheet printed, and another $2 per page of sticker paper. Not that expensive when you take into account the amount of stickers you can fit on an A4 page (enough for a medium Army).

I have never found anywhere that offers more than a 20% discount, except some small independants. However, one retailer here in NZ (The Warehouse) habitually does mark sets down when the box is damaged. I have found that often the set is complete even when the box has a 'missing parts' discount sticker on it. Being a department store, it is easy to find out if it is complete by taking the suspect set, and a good set to the kitchen department, and comparing their weight.

Crocks!

This is what you are after :) : http://www.apotome.com/grids.html

Just click browse and then 2007 - this years sets will come up: http://www.brickset.com/search.aspx?year=2007

Around 1998 I came accross a store with a lot of older stock. The main two sets that stood out were 6285 and 6541. My parent's wouldn't let me buy them at the time as they thought I was growing out of lego (they didn't understand that dark ages end). Still regret not buying them.

A couple of MISB's today. 6031 for $10NZ And a 1858, 6004 and 6901 ($5 each). If anyone wants a copy of the later sets give me a yell - there are plenty were they came from.

You will find that glueing will assist with water blasting models from time to time - which helps against the yellowing. Those models are most definately yellowed though - have a look at the boats.

They are juniourised in that they limit creativity - but there is no other way of achieving a nice look without going into massive part counts. Only recently have I actually recieved the new hull pieces, as a child I always brick built (nice bright red ships for the Soldiers), and the results were nice, but blocky. The thing is that I would never have been able to build ships as large with the prefab hulls. The width of the big hull sections is still often to narrow, but more importantly, it is not possible to get to 12+ stud heights with coloured bands easily with the prefabs. Particularly as most prefabs are brown, and there are still very few brown bricks (comparitavely). Ideally I would like to see the middle sections halfed so that they can be as wide or as narrow as necessary, and then low bow and stern pieces (once again halfed, allowing one to brick build the rudder and front), and then have 1 brick high wedge pieces which stack neatly on top of these. Of course - this requires a lot of specialist pieces so is unlikely to be a solution for TLG. In the meantime, I think brick/plate hulls are the tidiest look (though I haven't built one in a while).

I bought a mint in box copy of 375 (yellow castle). Complete with all stickers and all parts still shiny. NZ$200 (approx US$120)

I bought a 6073, 6074 and 6624, $140NZ all up (around $80 US)

Yeah, I've found bricklink to be slow as well, but at many times peeron seems to be just as bad. To be honest however, I really can't bear lugnet's interfaces.

A mint copy of the 6000 idea book, with 80% of the stickers that it came with. - $5.

I don't believe it was ever produced - I haven't seen it amoung the many vault pictures out there, and no-one seems to own it. It is a nice sparse set, with good pieces. I suspect it was axed after the decision to juniorize - but obviously I am not in a position to know. If anyone has been in the vault or goes in, the paperwork or a picture of the set would be great. _____________ Edit: I have never seen any other sets with 7 stud roads to that pattern before. They aren't listed on bricklink or peeron. Making two new roads for this set would have increased production costs too.

Try saving it as a jpg or gif image - that will reduce the filesize. Otherwise email it to me *@orcon.net.nz and I can put it up on my webspace.

4916 - Creator Animals. A great little set for brown and tan parts.

On the topic - does anyone know what materials lego used to build it's scenery with, for instance the mountains in this picture (the same material is prevalent in most early 90's models). I would quite like to get some and use it for my layouts.

This is the first set I can remember getting: The start of many classic space men :).

I have seen store displays like that here in NZ since the early 90's. (the earliest one I can remember is from the islanders in the pirate theme). They seemed to come in two sizes - the small ones were around the size pictured, generally about 45x60cm and about 30cm tall - and would sit on a shelf/table amougst the sets. The other type were around 120x80cm and were freestanding, though the base of the model would be around 50cm off the floor. The surrounds were always yellow and generally had lego and the theme's logo's on them. The models were glued and generally had basic levels of motorization (ie some small parts spun etc). From what I understand they never became the property of the store and went back to TLG once the store had done with them - hence why you don't see/here much about them now. I have seen them come up for sale from time to time (only the small ones mind) - they generally sell for around $50 US - but considering they are glued and often yellowed from sitting under a flourecent light for a long time, I don't think they are worth that. Particularly as they have often drilled through some parts for lighting and motorization cabling.

I will definately be getting all 3 of this years creator construction sets - I'm assuming the other two will be realeased quarter 3 this year? Look at them - awesome little part packs. 4915: 7875: 7876: