Rufus

That's quite an assumption there. Judging by the different MOs, I would imagine they were different killers, though we can't assume anything about who killed whom at this stage. Not that it should necessarily stop speculation. Cop: Mostly likely a scum kill, but could also be a vigilante kill - he was quieter than usual earlier in the day, but looked quite town to me towards the end despite the best efforts of others to paint him as scum. The MO suggests a scum kill to me. Vanilla: Quite vocal in thread yesterday; therefore perhaps an unusual choice for a scum or SK kill, though perhaps with the absence of trackers and watchers the perpetrator felt safe. She didn't strike me as especially scummy so I think it would be an unusual choice for a vigilante kill. Why? I'll start. Fakevote: Female Lover (Hinckley) Here's why: he's displaying a characteristic tactic of trying to look like a leader whilst not taking any responsibility. This whole fakevote thing plays right into his hands: should any consensus actually be reached, he can tally the votes and call for us all to vote for someone whilst taking absolutely no blame when it all goes wrong. Yesterday, he fake-voted me for accusing his Potato team-mate. But if you look at what he said, he was very careful to say I could be right, just in case the Snakey lynch carried. Notice also his vote for the Cop late in the day, after having taken pains to avoid a 'head-to-head' with def (which we would normally have expected). His vote for the cop came at a stage in the voting when there were only two votes for Serial Kovacs, and one for several other players. This had the effect of spreading the lynch choices even further, whilst avoiding possibly sparking a bandwagon on another player - whoever did break the voting deadlock would be sure to be under scrutiny if the lynchee showed up Town. Then there's this: I guess then we should assume that this is how the God Pill works. The two-lynch rule change is clearly a scum move; scum had the pill yesterday, and Hinckley knew this, because he's scum. At this rate, we'll be in trouble if we don't lynch scum today, and let's try to get two on the bandwagon so that their own rule change can backfire on them. I'd suggest Hinckley and his scum lover.

I make it there are about two and a half hours to go, and the votes are still tied. Maybe the Werewolf is joking, but do you want to take that chance? I'm tired of saying this, but lynching is our best weapon. We should use it. So any decision? And yet you level the votes? I have no particular opinion on the Cultist - he could be scum, he could be pussy-footing townie. Cop is behaving oddly for him, though he explained himself. If it's a ploy, it was very neatly done. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. On balance, I'm inclined to agree with Vanilla on this, and I sense a lot of resistance to lynching Serial Killer. Unvote: Snake Charmer (DarthPotato) Vote: Serial Killer (Walter Kovacs)

I don't think they did the same thing. This is what Cultist said: This is pussy-footing at its worst, but it isn't a defence. It's a weak indicator of scumminess; townies do it too. I have no opinion about Cultist either way, but I'd like him to contribute more. Or were you referring to something else?

Right now it's a 'bandwagon' of one, so don't sweat over it. It 'irks' you? Read what I said: it is the manner of the defence, not the defence itself - like he was expecting his team-mate to return. Role Cop defended SK based on their interactions, and I've commented on that. Talking Animal seems to be agreeing with me, rather than defending me; I don't especially like the way he said it, which frankly reads a little scummy, but I can't draw any conclusions from that since I know I'm town. Interesting choice of words; I know someone who thinks like that. Well done on making me more suspicious of you. To reiterate, your post that I called out looked like an attempt to stall because you knew (or thought) your team-mate would be back later to defend himself. It does rely to an extent on you both being team-mates. I honestly don't know what you would or wouldn't do if you were scum; you could easily have made that post not thinking anyone would pick up on it. What makes me think I might be onto something here is that several people have gone to some lengths to discredit me for making this accusation. There's still only one vote on you; why all the fuss? That alone doesn't make you scum - I imagine the scum would be keen to discredit me anyway - however, if you aren't scum, they'd be better off following the lynch and putting the blame on me later. I have plenty of suspicions, but I actually don't think it would be helpful at this late stage today to add yet more names to the already close bandwagon. At the moment, SK is closest to a lynch, and if we have to test this theory by lynching him rather than you then so be it. I would also support a lynch on the Doctor or the PGO for absence or middle-of-the-road behaviour respectively, but I'm still highly suspicious of you.

Do you have any idea why he didn't mention this publicly himself? I initially read his posts as messing around and having fun; they didn't seem especially suspicious to me. It was only Snakey's defence which caught my attention. If SK is scum, I don't see what he'd have to gain by contacting you so early on day one. You could both be scum, but even without direct quotes the conversation is hard to fake, so I doubt that. No, I'm inclined to agree with your read here, except: Did he ever do this? I didn't see it. I could very well agree with this. That isn't the best way to apply pressure, you know. Where did the Werewolf say that? Judging by this, I'd say they don't change: I never said it was concrete, only that I thought it was the best lead at the time. It would be a lot stronger if they are scum buddies, which is perhaps a little less likely if we take what KielDaRoleCop has said at face value; I still find it suspicious. Agreed. You mean Snakey's defence, or KDM's, or both? Are you going to look at it?

Boo yourself, Telemarketing Lover. I had a ten minute window of opportunity last night, so I placed my vote on the thing I found most suspicious. Was it right to be so decisive? Who knows. What I do know is that the fake voting seems to be causing more confusion than conclusion. We may have only one unvote, but it's still an unvote. At this rate we're going to end up with someone lynched on 2 votes. At this point, no townie has any way of knowing another's affiliation. If Potato Charmer had said, 'I don't agree with the logic of this lynch because ...' then that would be fair enough, but that's not what he said: I read this as, 'I know he's going to be away for a bit but he's told us he'll be back later,' as a scum team would know. Would a scum be so obvious? I have no past experience of Snakey Potato, but this is the kind of mistake an inexperienced scum might make. Out of place how? Day one is about throwing mud around and seeing what sticks, if anything. Potato's comment remains the scummiest thing I've seen. This isn't the first game with a single unvote rule; why are we pussy-footing around? It was an honest mistake. As I said, I only had a limited time in which to post. Vote: Snake Charmer (DarthPotato) There is another thing which caused me a raised eyebrow: RoleCopDaMan was informed by another player about the one-unvote rule. A little early for backstage whisperings? Why didn't this mysterious other mention it publicly themselves? While Serial Killer's original comment does not seem too bad to me, I too find it odd that he hasn't been back to defend himself. That and Snakey's comment leads me to believe we may be on to something. It's the best lead I've seen so far, and that's why I'm doing something about it.

Now this is a day one defence. No-one should be defending another so openly at this stage unless they have knowledge of their alignment. I seem to recall someone else's (Usurper's) soft defence of the Snake Charmer ealier in the day. I believe this is evidence enough for the Snake Charmer being a scum. Either Serial Killer is a fellow scum, or Snakey knows he is town so can say 'I told you so' if he's lynched. I see no need for fake voting here. There's stuff to learn from this lynch. Vote: DarthPotato (Snake Charmer)

What is this, an asylum? Big Red Science Pill please! Only one very minor thing has stood out to me so far: An early defence?

Ummmm, Mr Werewolf? These win conditiony things don't match. Do we have to kill of the SK or not? Not that I care. I'm the Cult Leader.

The Bible: Prologue

Chapter Three: 918 One Man Space Ship / Space Transport 3.1 Before This little set is the smallest of the matching 'LL' family, all released in 1979 (in the UK, at least). You see it here exactly as I pulled if out of the shoe box it had spent the last 15 years in ... ... with the exception of the spaceman. The figure that was sat in this ship was in near-perfect condition, so I 'stole' him for 928. This is a different figure; while relatively clean, his torso logo has faded to white (an all-too-common problem), and his helmet chin is a little chewed, so it doesn't sit properly on his head. He's not good enough, sadly. The ship is horribly dirty , but looks complete, at least from the outside. 'USS DEFIANT'? I think I must have been really into Star Trek at the time. I like to think I've got better at decals since then. More dirt! As you can see, the CS logo slope has lost its detail, and even the yellow is a little faded; at least it isn't scratched. The trans-yellow slope looks to be in reasonable order, but we'll have to see how it cleans up. This side's LL918 brick looks to be in good order. The plain blue bricks behind don't look quite so good, unfortunately. On the other side, both the printed brick and the hinges look good: There's another custom decal. I'll say this for little Rufus, he's consistent. The worst of the filth is found on the back end: The blue 1x2 plates under the manoeuvring jets should be grey. Some of those blue plates are very discoloured. The underside is clean, at least. Some of the grey parts are a little yellowed. All three stands are in good nick. Another decal can be seen here. I've no idea of the significance of '505' - I suspect I was just using up spare Letraset transfers. Some alternative views: Click the thumbnails for a larger image. I should point out that I had modified this set to include a couple of computers in the cockpit - you can see them here. Taking the set apart, here are the parts I found: The five parts at the front don't belong in the set. The 'down arrow' brick is in good condition; it was being used as a plain 1x2 brick. Closer inspection of the inventory reveals that neither the 1x6 brick nor the 1x4 grey plate should be there, and the two 2x3 blue plates should be one 2x6 plate. There also ought to be another plain 1x2 brick and two 1x1 blue bricks. Some of the parts are discoloured; some a little chewed. Because the set is so dirty, it's a little difficult to tell how good the parts are, so in a change to my usual practice, I'm going to clean up all the bricks and see how they turn out. Back soon with the results!

Nah, it's just the thing to do when Hinckley is to blame. Which he always is. *shakes fist*

Probably not in large quantities. The part only came in light grey in one set after 1984, and that was a reissue in 2003; there's no way to tell on Bricklink which variety came in that set. The earliest set I have with the newer part is 2004's 4500 Snowspeeder, so I would imagine the 2003 set has the newer part; even so, I doubt there are many of these newer parts around in light grey. Bricklink! I've been looking for ages, and was a little lucky here.

*shakes fist*

Interlude: D00000000000dzzzzzz!!!! Some replacement dudes arrived! Most have perfect logos; some of the torsos have plastic that is a bit damaged; some have newer-style helmets; some have chewed faces ... but it's the quality logos that are hard to get hold of. Just for fun, a bit of photoshopping:

Here is the newer mold in DBG from the 2006 A-Wing, with the older stand in light grey from 924. The newer one has a hole running the length the part which will accept a pole such as a 6L bar. Other varieties may exist - Bricklink doesn't distinguish the two parts which can make ordering replacements a little tricky. Does this answer your question? Yes, there's more to come! I didn't replace the stickered dude because he doesn't belong with the set, at least as far as I know. I think the stickered one only came with the little radar car. I could be wrong.

Here you are: By bag, left to right from the top.

I didn't take one, but I'll see what I can do... I wish!

Darth Vader came along and chopped up some figures to allow me to demonstrate: Left - a blue figure from 1984 or so. Centre - a red fig from 1979 or 80. Right - reissue figure from the 850423 minifigure display stand set. I don't know if the earlier reissue figures are the same - I don't have any.

Yes. All the reissues have the newer reinforced helmet. The torsos are harder to tell, except for white ones, which have the logo in a different place: For the other colours, you have to look inside the torso part: the reissues have internal reinforcement. I'll try to get a photo. Thanks Rick! I'd do some Town restoration, but none of my CT sets are anywhere near complete. Though one day I will do this one.

This is fantastic! I love seeing all the variants, and the way you've used the various Classic Town logos is hilarious. Thanks so much!

924/487 Space Cruiser/Space Transporter 928/487 Space Cruiser (known as 'Space Transporter' in the UK, where 'Space Cruiser' was reserved for the flagship 928) was released in 1979 with the inception of the Legoland Space range, and together with 928 and 918 formed part of a beautiful triad of matching spaceships. Sadly, this set didn't last as long as some of its contemporaries: it was replaced in 1981 by the popular 6929, also called 'Space Transporter' in the UK. I think that's a shame - I really appreciated the matching liveries, even when I was six. As I mentioned in the 'before' section, the ship was featured prominently in 1980's 6000 Ideas Book, and may account for some of its popularity today. The Box This box is in fairly good condition, although the lid is a little crumpled, and my attempts at flattening it weren't particularly successful. I'm not sure this cover shot portrays the ship from its best angle, and I wonder if this might have been a factor in the set's relatively short lifespan. In common with many of the larger sets of the time, the box features a lifting lid allowing you to take a peak at the parts inside before purchase. The previous owner of this set had cut the clear plastic sheet presumably to allow parts to be stored in the box without removing the internal tray; this has unfortunately weakened the box leading to tears in the cardboard in the two front corners. I've replaced the plastic sheet using overhead-projector acetate; it's a little too thick but does the job nicely, while keeping the box shape. Inside the box is a plain cardboard tray which remains in pristine condition. Some alternative builds feature on the back, all with a similar theme; it's great that two identical ships can be made from the set (top left); even if they aren't so much to look at. The damage to the box tab on the right is testament to the difficulty encountered in opening the box, and may account for the decision to cut the plastic. I was delighted to find that the printing is duplicated on the side tabs! Instructions Apart from a tear at the top, the instructions are in pretty good condition. The same 'tall' format as 928's instructions is used, but they are folded neatly in the middle. The staples have long since rusted, and torn through the paper so the pages aren't attached ... but there are only two sheets, or eight pages total. Unlike 928, there are no part call-outs, though they aren't really needed. LEGO crammed a lot of steps into a small space in those days. At the back, there's a gorgeous diorama of all the 1979 sets ... ... except, for some reason, this one. The paper's a little crumpled, but it looks worse in the picture than in real life. The Finished Set Here's the finished revamp! I didn't have to do much cleaning here; I simply replaced a few parts with spares I had acquired when restoring 928. I love this little ship! As a kid, I wasn't so keen on the stumpy front, but now I think it really works, and allows for a slimmer width. Nowadays, I'm sure they would have used 6x3 wedges to give it a pointy front, but I think it would make it look a little odd. The family resemblance to 928 is cemented by the opening rear doors, the big rear thrusters, and the side appendages, on this set carrying manoeuvring thrusters rather than the big outrigger engines of 928. I've replaced a number of chewed and ill-fitting blue parts at the rear; the colours match nicely. She has a sleek an purposeful side profile: I like the way the outriggers don't block the little yellow window behind the CS brick. The underside is beautiful in its simplicity: Interestingly, the design means that 924 sits a plate lower in its undercarriage than both 928 and little sister 918. Figures & Vehicle Whitey is the figure that came with the set: I've given him a little wipe, and he's cleaned up nicely. The red dude is a replacement that I had ordered. Neither's logo is perfect; as I've said before, it's really tricky to get these dudes in perfect condition. The set comes with a little vehicle - simple fork lift (yes, I know, its lift isn't actually forked). All I've done here is given the parts a little wipe and replaced the 2x4 plate between the wheels. The spring is in perfect working order - no rust! The little white box was quite discloured; I've soaked the parts in dilute bleach and they look much better. The set's precious cargo appears to be a trans-green round brick. As you can see, the wheel axles are rather rusty. I haven't even attempted to clean them up; it would require removing a wheel hub and sanding the chrome axle like I did for 928. Actually I'm worried about making the problem worse by scratching the metal, and weakening the wheel attachments by removing the hubs. And I'm lazy. Details Now let's see how she stands up to closer scrutiny. The front badge is pristine. The trans-yellow windows are clean and almost scratch-free; better than the two replacements I found for 928. Not much has changed on the port side. The CS brick is already very nice, and the blue 1x8 plate at the top just needed a little clean. I've replaced the bumblebee stripes with better plates, and the trans-clear parts with new pieces - the old ones don't clean up too well, and are prone to cracking. They are the only non-period parts in the finished set. The starboard side needed a little more work: The dirty and chipped wedge plate nearest the camera has been replaced, as has the 1x8 plate Red is leaning on. The 1x6 blue plate with the antenna was dirty and needed a good soak, but is in great condition. Round the back, I've soaked off the sticker residue from the blue tile, and cleaned them all; none needed replacing. Several blue plates in the doors, on the other hand, were too chewed to use, so I've switched them for better examples. I'm really pleased with how the doors have turned out! Here you can see how the precious cargo is loaded ... ... and sits neatly in its little recess. For a transporter, the ship's cargo hold isn't huge, and the white box has a tendency to slide forward and interfere with the opening cockpit, but that's a minor flaw. Loading and unloading the cargo is rather fun, and, like 928, the opening rear and lifting cockpit makes the set great as part of a display, with bustling activity around the landed ship. Conclusion I'm so pleased with this. I always wanted this set, and thanks to a little luck and perseverance on ebay, I've scored a great example that didn't need a huge amount of work to get back to top-notch quality. I'm looking forward to adding her to the Space layout ... but there's a lot of work left to do before we get there! In the meantime, let's admire the family resemblance: One thing that surprises me today is how light these sets are. When you compare them to modern-day LEGO spaceships - particularly the Star Wars range - these are really easy to handle. Partly this is due to the much simpler techniques used, but I hope you agree that even without a huge amount of greebling these ships still look cool. 924 doesn't have quite the svelte appeal of her big sister, but she's still pretty sexy. I'm just delighted finally to have one after thirty years! Hope you enjoyed the latest installment! Next up, 918 completes the family.

924/487 Space Cruiser/Space Transporter Ok, first of all, a slight confession: I never actually owned this set as a kid. However, thanks in no small part to the amazing 6000 Ideas Book, I always wanted it, so I decided to track one down during my restoration, fully aware that unless I was very lucky I'd have to do some work on whatever arrived. A note on buying secondhand sets: Like with some of the rarer parts, it can be tricky to get quality sets on the secondhand market. If you want to take a punt on ebay, be prepared to receive anything from worthless overpriced junk (with some MegaBloks thrown in) to an amazing bargain - but you have no idea what you're going to get until it arrives. Be especially careful of 'recurring' sales or sellers offering more than one copy: typically you won't get the one in the photo. Bricklink is a little better, as sellers depend on feedback for their reputation far more than the fickle ebay market, but even there you can find that sets aren't 'complete' as advertised, or aren't in nearly the 'mint' condition stated; expect to pay a premium either way. I got this set from ebay for a reasonable £60, and was really rather lucky - particularly as it came with a box. It fell apart quite quickly, but the box printing is in good condition for its age. It'll need a little ingenuity to restore it, though. I was delighted to find that this set was in fantastic condition: The printed Classic Space slope and bricks look near-new, and the trans-yellow slopes are virtually scratch-free! The rest of the set is rather variable: Note the nicked and chewed 1x8 blue plate at the top, and the dirty and battered wedge plate in the centre. I suspect the set was reassembled for sale from several sources. Further variability is found at the rear: Someone has stuck a sticker on one of the 2x2 tiles; the blue plates vary form mint condition to chewed wrecks. Fortunately, the rare parts (large cones, tails, 2x2-2x2 brackets) are perfectly serviceable. The blue hinges and the 'down arrow' bricks are good as new ... ... but they are surrounded by some less good quality parts. The 1x6 blue plate with the aerial attached is fine, but needs a good clean. The simple little fork lift truck that comes with the set is complete, and the lift works! I'll need to replace the 2x4 plate between the wheels, though. The set arrived with two dudes, as expected. Whitey is in reasonable condition ... ... but the red one has a stickered torso. Rather than an attempt to 'complete' the set by reconfiguring a Town minifig, this is a real, original Classic Space figure ... but it doesn't belong in this set. Stickered Red Dude came with 889 Radar Truck, which I can only assume was an early-release promotional set before the printed figures were finalised, but I'm sure someone with more knowledge can enlighten us. It's a shame the sticker is worn; this fellow might be worth something. I checked: he isn't. I'll replace him with a printed fig. There isn't much needed to restore this set: I acquired a number of spares in doing 928, so just a little cleaning needed. Back soon with the results!

It's been a little while, and it seems it's my turn to play. Nine, and hosted one. Unless I'm playing Cameron Crocodile: Scum seem a little over-powered to me. I'd ditch the inventors, and give Town separate investigator and protector roles. The scum inventor is way more powerful than the town one, just because the scum one knows who to give inventions to.