Siegfried

I tend to think as a separate set however. Using LEDs would nice as well.

No exciting reason. Early in Recruit School for the Royal Australia Navy I stuffed up and saluted the OIC (Officer In Charge, i.e. The Boss) with my left hand. (For non military types this is wrong.) He shouted at me, "You Sinner!" before going off on some silly tirade about the history of saluting. This would have all been annoying as it was, but to make it worse the whole of Recruit School was there in formation. (About 500 people.) Thus I was/am called Sinner and I tend to use it more often than not as a screen name. Thanks for looking at my 7075 rebuild. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't float anymore...

Hi all! I am a long time unregistered lurker, short term registered lurker and shorter term un-introduced non-lurker. I was introduced to Lego in 1980 with the set 722 when I was 5 and the interest grew from there. My next set was 733, 740, 744... My only major city set at that time was the 6392 Airport (yes the number was from memory) so most of my constructions were large (multicoloured) aircraft. I wish that digital cameras were around then as I have no photos of my work as a child. (I recall that they were impressive and accurate, but there is a very good chance they were horrid.) I didn't add to my Lego much for years although I kept using it occasionally until I joined the Royal Australian Navy. At that point madness struck me and I gave it all away to my nephew. In 1998 my regret got to me and I wanted it back. I offered a new Playstation as a trade and he accepted. While most of it was still there, to my horror many of the larger pieces, especially the baseplates, were deliberately broken to form smaller parts. I still harbor grumpy thoughts over this! Due to potential embarrassment of telling my wife I wanted to play with Lego it was largely ignored for a few years, and the only addition for a while was a few discounted Bionicles. My only construction during this time was.... a Lego breast pump for my wife! It worked but it was noisy so it was never used. Since it was just a lame excuse to play with Lego I didn't really care. During this time I saw but didn't buy several excellent Lego deals; including a half price Cloud City. I still regret that one. The first sets that I bought new and undiscounted were the large Knights Kingdom figures. I can't really explain why, but at the time I thought they were incredible. However, the set that brought me out of the Dark Ages was the 7249 crane. I love cranes and to see a mini-fig crane that was scaled more accurately was too much. My wife found it a bit odd, but she got over it probably as she saw it as an end, not a start. I modified it a bit, made a truck for it, and even gave it a page on my website. http://www.sinnercomputing.com/7249.htm The next time the urge hit me was, believe it or not, when I saw a discount 7075. Yes, I am aware that this set is generally hated, but much of it I liked, especially the monkey. At this point I announced my interest in buying Lego more regularly and I have not look back since. (Gee my wife is tolerant!) I modified it... http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=233522 ...to be mini-fig based (and gave the pirates to my kids). I have modified it much since and I think it is starting to look. (I still haven't decided on sails yet; I have given up on the ones I used in the photos though.) History aside, my interest in Lego is quite broad. I like city, castle, vikings, technic, Star Wars, trains etc... Due to time reasons I do more modding than MOCing, but I love making spaceships. My only decent size one is a ship I called Impartial... http://www.sinnercomputing.com/impartial.htm I am however one of those annoying people who prefers ships to be more realistic, hence the thrusters, retro engines and the airlock. It has changed since that picture. Currently I am sorting my bricks while working on a ship that looks like a dragon. Well that's enough from me! Brickshelf http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=Sinner

Six wide cars would be an improvement; one person per car, while cute, is silly. Trucks should be six wide for light commercials, and 8 for larger trucks. (Even so, I am considering 6-wideing my 7900 as it is the odd-truck-out, but I could solve that by buying 7998...) I think trains should also be 8 wide, but that does introduce the problem of having enough room around corners. On the other hand, I have the 7893 passenger plane and I really don't know what to do with it; making an airport scene based around it took too much room so it is now shelved. Turning it into my first 8-wide train is an option... Lego does need to make some decisions on scale. They still are selling 4-wide cars (like the one in the service station) and compared to the current motor bike it does look odd. New road plates will help. Perhaps the next road plates should have only half a road?

I didn't know that they were exclusive to TRU. In Australia (where I am from) they were exclusive to K-Mart and I ended up buying all of the first batch. (I didn't buy any of the second as they were too similar to the first.) Were they exclusive to one shop in every country? Perhaps the whole point was to test the idea of an exclusive line.... I will give it some thought. I always thought that they needed some villages to pilliage, but I don't think Lego would go for that!

7018 Viking Ship. While I modified mine to have four extra rowers (the big catapult had to go!) I stilll think that even un-modified it is great. It is one of my favourite boxes in recent time (I would love a poster of the serpent lying in wait on the back), and the serpent (aside from the red-horns that don't stay in) is a great addition. Even so, I tend to see it as a pirate ship anyway, just from a different time. Afterall, all the space sets are seen as space even though they vary in the details.

Thanks for the review, especially the box shot that shows the female Exo-Force figure. In regard to Aero Booster, that red piece at the end of the gun wouldn't happen to be a technic driving ring would it? http://www.bricklink.com/store.asp?p=1001b...=7893030&rID=-2 ...or... http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/6539 I hope so; it could mean a geared car is coming! (Or it could just be leftover from the crane, but I have high hopes!) (Bad first post I know.)