brickie

Doomben race course had its final outing recently at Brickvention in Melbourne.We had 2 days to set up the display so I was able to add lots of little details. Now to pull it apart and build something for display at shows this year. Any suggestions?

The manager of Lego Aust spoke about 'Lego stores in Aust' at the recent brickvention. My understanding of what he said to the 100+ audience was that TLG has no plans to introduce 'Lego Stores' into Aust. I believe that Glen Abell said that at some stage in the future there might be some arrangement with a commercial entity; not a franchise arrangement. So my interpretation of these brief comments in his 30 min address was that we could possibly see something in the future but it won't be 'Lego stores' like they have OS. Of course, exhibitors all came up with theories as to what he meant but I guess we will have to wait and see what happens. Please correct me if I misunderstood Glen.

Great thread. A few years ago, I bought some cheap Chinese made slot car sets and turned them into all the vehicles from 'Cars'. This was very popular at Lego shows. Alas, the plastic gears are stripping cogs and they are now useless. I have looked at the scalextric cars but the 'demolition derby' doesn't seem to be available in Australia yet. So, inspired by this thread, I wasted all afternoon trying to make a complete LEGO slotcar. The result; success [ Sort of ] I used a 12V train motor and the conducting rails and modified a track. I placed car tyres over the existing train wheels and placed a 'hook plate' on the front to guide along the ;slot'. Initially, it stopped on the curve and shorted out the 12V controller. This was because the rear pickup contacts changed tracks on the curve. A piece of sticky tape soon had them out of the way. The motor now runs smoothly along the track. The next step in the future will be to make an oval of track and see if it works. Any suggestions would be warmly welcomed.

Thanks, CopMike; Australia Post delivered the chicken box today. My grandson had great fun with putting iron Man and friends together.

The best review of a set to appear on Eurobricks; absolutely brilliant.

I believe that last year, LEGO Aust changed the timing for sending out the LEGO Club magazine. The next issue should be out this month. The surprise of Santa in the mail was a bonus; well appreciated by the kids. Thanks LEGO Aust.

The 'Friends' sets are certainly on clearance in SE Qld; for some strange reason, there are none left at my local Coles.

I believe that "The LEGO Movie" will be released in Australia on April 4th; this will coincide with the start of the Easter school holidays in Qld and Vic.

Hello jonwil and welcome to SE QLD. You will be more than welcome to join up with the good folks of BrisBricks. We meet at the library at the Carindale shopping centre; usually once a month on a Saturday night. Back on topic, the cheapest LEGO around here is what you find on clearance in the big stores. Many of BrisBricks members had a field day back in June when a Kmart manager decided to get rid of a lot of LEGO. As with all Kmarts at the time, there were a number of sets on clearance at about 20% off. On the Saturday, this friendly manager then reduced these sets to half the discount price. The word soon spread amongst BrisBricks members via phone and email. I picked up some collectable minifigs for $1.50 each plus other great bargains. Hope to see you at our January meeting.

A brilliant build; well done. I would love to see it in action.

23:5 9:1 12:1 14:1 22:1 25:1

A Lego streamer around a Lego tree with a bauble on top.

The technic cars were one of the great highlights of Brisbrick 2013. The course was surrounded by people for the whole 3 days. The comments from the crowd were full of superlatives. The great thing was that these wonderful builders had such great fun. The retailers who had technic sets were laughing their heads off. The downside is that my 7 year old grandson had such fun driving a crawler, he now wants one for Christmas. Has anybody got a spare A$250?

"Rule Britannia; Britannia rules the waves" You have had me up marching around the room at such an impressive show of pomp and majesty. A brilliant build. BG, I salute you.

Another very successful event for BrisBricks. The crowds came in the thousands and left with broad smiles. Planning is already underway for BrisBricks 2014 on the 1st weekend in October 2014. We would love to have you exhibit your work at BrisBricks 2014.

Wow! You have certainly capsulated the spirit of the stories in The Railway Series. The use of the imagination to get trains to talk was wonderful for you. The story of Henry out of the rain is from the first book of 4 stories; Thomas came along in the next book. The lack of space for a closed up tunnel and I couldn't find a Duplo Henry meant that this story wasn't there. It does give me thoughts though for next year.

I bought all of the Duplo trains and built them onto 9V motors; thus it is all 9V track. I had to rebuild some carriages to make them 8 stud wide. The troublesome trucks were Duplo sitting on Lego wheels etc. All good fun.

I built Cranky at the start of the year and the lighthouse soon after. The harbour scene was then finished for a farm display at the local agricultural exhibition in May. The rest of the island was built slowly after that reaching a frantic building frenzy last week. I need to redo some of the rocks along the seawall and build a hundred trees to vegetate the island.

Thank you all for the kind comments. It has been a labour of love for 6 months or more but the smiles on the weekend repaid all the cost and effort. The island is only about 80% finished. Hopefully I can show it again next year as the improved MKII version. I did research on the Island of Sodor using the books by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry in The Railway Series. In his fictitious history of the island, Wilbert has a map of the island including all the towns and the train lines. To reproduce this in Lego would be an enormous display taking up a room so I modified things to fit on 14 x 6 base plates. There are 3 train loops running all the time and a branch line from the harbour to under the mountain.

For BrisBricks 2013 last weekend, I managed to almost complete the Island of Sodor. It was well received by the spectators; young and old.

This display is aaamaaazzingg! It is a child's paradise. The little ones just stand there with fingers pointing telling parents what they can see. Two very talented builders.

Not traffic cones; I meant Lego 1x1 cones which are perfect for use with technic models as they act like gravel. They are very useful for technic excavators to lift up a pile of dirt as they do not clump together like 1x1 bricks or 1x1 round bricks.

The track looks great. Maybe a sunken pit filled with 1x1 cones would replicate going through mud.

WOW The small castle set is $12 so one fifth of that is 9 and a half Dollars. This is excellent for 4 minifigs and a dog. Must wake up early

A working circular windmill is keeping me awake at nights. It may end up being a square windmill. The harbour and lighthouse is almost finished; only the fine details on the coastline to go.