[Tyrian]

I still spend time tinkering with my Legos.  Most of the stuff I design though is built solely for function, not for form.

[CP5670]

I never did get the Model Team Rally Van. I fookin' loved that thing....

I used to spend hours staring at that in the catalogs. I decided to pass it up in favor of the newer Magic Flash later on, which is nearly identical but has a speedboat added in.

Next time I'm home, I might finally indulge the whim of gathering up all of my Lego models in one spot and grabbing a picture of them.  I never really got into the whole "imagine-your-own-vehicle" thing, but I have to have at least a good 75 or so completed Lego System models sitting in my room gathering dust.  I remember I used to love all of the old Blacktron/Space Police/Ice Planet models.  The pride and joy of my collection is a 900-piece pirate ship model sitting over my head.

I have most of the themed Space sets at this point (roughly from Futuron to UFO), except for a few of the smaller ones. I'm still missing most of the classic space stuff though. I occasionally scour ebay for those things and see if I can find any good deals.

Is the ship one of the official models or your own design? I don't think any of the Legoland/System sets had over 900 pieces until the mid-90s.

[Roanoke]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Lego-Model-Team-5581-Magic-Flash_W0QQitemZ260127369362QQihZ016QQcategoryZ19012QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

looks a lot smaller than I remember.....

[CP5670]

The van is around 9" long. It's probably just the angle that picture is taken from. These images are better:

Custom Rally Van
Magic Flash

By the way, check this out. It will probably go over a grand by the time it's over.

[Mongoose]

Is the ship one of the official models or your own design? I don't think any of the Legoland/System sets had over 900 pieces until the mid-90s.

No, it's an official model.  Mid-90s would be about right.  I still remember getting the massive thing one Christmas morning and building it off-and-on over the next two days.

Edit: Here it is.  Came out in 1993, apparently.  892 pieces, according to another reference I found.  I still love this thing.

[NGTM-1R]

I have the counterpart to that for the little redcoat dudes, or did, but it was eventually incorporated into a spaceship and some other stuff.

[CP5670]

Is the ship one of the official models or your own design? I don't think any of the Legoland/System sets had over 900 pieces until the mid-90s.

No, it's an official model.  Mid-90s would be about right.  I still remember getting the massive thing one Christmas morning and building it off-and-on over the next two days.

Edit: Here it is.  Came out in 1993, apparently.  892 pieces, according to another reference I found.  I still love this thing.

Cool, I didn't realize that one had so many pieces. 892 is more than even most of the trains.

My favorite sets in my collection are probably this and this, from 1992 and 1989 respectively. I didn't even know that either one existed until around 2000, as they were never advertised in the US Lego catalogs for some reason, but I got two of each on ebay a few years ago.

[Roanoke]

By the way, check this out. It will probably go over a grand by the time it's over.

Doesn't look that special . Bit rare is it ?


Doesn't Get Anybetter

I'd love to remake it with a technic engine, trick suspension etc Model Team Stylee

[CP5670]

Doesn't look that special . Bit rare is it ?

Extremely so. It's from 1978 and I've never seen a brand new one before. Although you would have to be a bit nuts to pay that much.

The most expensive set I've seen over there is this. A new one went for $1700 a few years ago.

Doesn't Get Anybetter

I'd love to remake it with a technic engine, trick suspension etc Model Team Stylee

You'll notice one of these in the pictures I posted earlier. I think it's a little flawed in its stock form, but that can be fixed with some simple mods.

That is essentially the direction I'm going with my future creations though. Space themed stuff with Technic functionality inside.

[Roanoke]

Jeez, the 87 boats (Police, Fire and Cargo Ship) bring back memories....

[CP5670]

I don't have any boats unfortunately. I do have the excellent Coastal Patrol set, but it's not of the floatable variety that are generally classified in the boats category.

[Shade]

I eventually turned all my boats into warships. Blue and red-hulled warships, sure, but they had guns dammit And the big multi-part hull pirate one I had (This one: http://www.brickset.com/detail.aspx?Set=6285-1) functioned nicely as the base for an aircraft carrier - one with lots of big guns, of course Come to think of it, in retrospect I'm not entirely sure just how the planes were supposed to land or take off with all those guns on the deck...

[Tyrian]

This thread made me go through the Star Wars sets on the Lego site. 

Check out this baby...Specifically the number of pieces...

[CP5670]

Yes, that set easily has the highest piece count ever, far more than ever the UCS Star Destroyer. It doesn't look all that appealing to me though, since it's mostly gray. They changed the gray colors in 2004 and any gray pieces made after that are basically incompatible with anything produced earlier. That would limit it to a display model for me, even if I could afford it.

[Roanoke]

what do you guys make of this ?

http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=8288&cn=57&d=70

Incidentally, currently bidding on a Blacktron Brittax and some old school Technic Construction vehicles. Thanks to this thread 

[BlueFlames]

Incidentally, currently bidding on a Blacktron Brittax....

Mmmm....  Now that brings back some memories.  I actually rebuilt my Battrax a couple years back.  On the one hand, I'm curious as to what the bidding is up to, but on the other hand, my inner child refuses to let me even conceive of selling a single Lego brick.

My last build was the *ahem* "small" 1367-piece Star Destroyer.

The god-honest truth of it all is, though, I'd really like to muster the effort to make a reasonably large Lego Hecate.  The urge hits me once every couple of years, but invariably, I don't have the time to get a start on it.  I suppose as FreeSpace goes, it's the hierarchy is something along the lines of life -> FRED -> Lego.  *Sigh*  One of these days....

[CP5670]

Incidentally, currently bidding on a Blacktron Brittax and some old school Technic Construction vehicles. Thanks to this thread

Looks like you're picking up the Lego bug again. Excellent.

I don't have the crawler crane, but it looks like a pretty nice set. It's quite large for its price and has some unusual pieces like the weights and tread links.

Mmmm....  Now that brings back some memories.  I actually rebuilt my Battrax a couple years back.  On the one hand, I'm curious as to what the bidding is up to, but on the other hand, my inner child refuses to let me even conceive of selling a single Lego brick.

My last build was the *ahem* "small" 1367-piece Star Destroyer.

The god-honest truth of it all is, though, I'd really like to muster the effort to make a reasonably large Lego Hecate.  The urge hits me once every couple of years, but invariably, I don't have the time to get a start on it.  I suppose as FreeSpace goes, it's the hierarchy is something along the lines of life -> FRED -> Lego.  *Sigh*  One of these days....

The prices depend a lot on the set condition. I got mine for $26 in 2004; it was used and had no box, but it had been a display model and was in perfect shape. Brand new ones are rare and will typically go for around $100.

I generally build my space stuff based on the official Lego Space themes. My current project is a Blacktron 2/FG carrier with the same basic shape as the fighters I posted earlier, but much larger. The wingspan should be about 4' when it's done, although it will be wider than its length.

[NGTM-1R]

I wish I still had my RFL-3N. That was probably my masterwork.

However for years I've had a truly large creation floating around in my mind, a heavy transport sort of thing for my makeshift mecha (minifigs with no hands and no head that is; arms are guns and the little black spot a cockpit. Just the legs make a cool little heavily-armed hovercraft/walkinggunbattery.) but it's never materialized as I could not get enough of the pieces.

[Roanoke]

I think I'll forgoe of stuff (save the Brittax) and try for the old school JCB....

[CP5670]

However for years I've had a truly large creation floating around in my mind, a heavy transport sort of thing for my makeshift mecha (minifigs with no hands and no head that is; arms are guns and the little black spot a cockpit. Tongue Just the legs make a cool little heavily-armed hovercraft/walkinggunbattery.) but it's never materialized as I could not get enough of the pieces.

If you need specific pieces in large quantities, Bricklink is a great place to get them cheap. I bought about 1400 parts from there a few weeks ago, for use with that carrier.

I think I'll forgoe of stuff (save the Brittax) and try for the old school JCB....

If you're talking about the Technic one, 8862, I will actually be selling one of those soon, along with several other sets I recently got at a local garage sale. I tend to be extremely picky about the part conditions and most of the sets are a little too playworn for my liking, but most people aren't so concerned about that and I figured I could make a decent profit on them.

That being said, you might want to get the newer one (8455) instead. I have both and this is one of the rare cases where the newer version is easily the superior one, even though the original was already an excellent set.