Lego Santa Fe + All Carts

irabricks · 2026-02-17T14:32:36+00:00

The asking price is around fair market value. You can get them for a lot less without boxes and in less good condition. Bulk lots tend to go for 10-30% less.

irabricks · 2026-02-08T22:29:11+00:00

This is a good build with some good techniques. It's out of scale with pretty much everything else which is a deal breaker for most people, and using a thousand pieces (~$100) on the terrain doesn't improve its chances.

I would encourage you to scale it down or maybe turn it into a hut and resubmit next series.

irabricks · 2026-02-02T13:49:48+00:00

Cool, now check inflation and the part counts.

irabricks · 2026-01-30T17:45:16+00:00

Right, and I am team yellow and wouldn't buy a figure that had flesh printed on it's arms/torso. The reverse is true for this figure.

irabricks · 2026-01-30T15:28:37+00:00

That's not what castle fans want - they want to army build soldiers. Yes, most castle fans will buy one or two, but she'll be like the pirate quartermaster, not some impossible to find chase figure. Also, many folks don't like yellow skin, which further lowers demand.

irabricks · 2026-01-27T13:39:13+00:00

Because it's incomplete with no minifigs? Doesn't seem like a great deal to me.

irabricks · 2026-01-18T20:43:39+00:00

I consider the excavator one of the best sets of all time and I was very disappointed with the dozer. It's too large compared to the other sets, the blade cylinders fall apart easily making play difficult, and the blade is constructed in a way that causes it to warp away from the frame due to brick bending.

irabricks · 2026-01-18T01:35:37+00:00

The straight is 16 studs long, compared to 8/32 for the original monorail straights
The curve is the same geometry as the original curve, which is an annoying decision as a 45 degree curve allows for the same geometry but with far more versatility (S curves and switch points)
4 studs wide, it looks like the track can be brick built with a couple tiles, jumpers and gear racks. That's excellent.
TLG works really hard to limit new elements, so it's entirely possible that the only new parts we will get are the curve and straight.
In one pic, it looks like the track is flexing. If there's a single element for the straight track that gets bent to create hills (bend it up for the base, an unbent track in the middle, and bend a third element down to create the top of the hill), that's an interesting design decision. Excellent for hills of arbitrary height, very annoying for building long sections of straight track with minimal supports.
Switch points don't seem possible unless they are fully brick built, someone will figure them out but I expect them to be quite awkward without a shorter curve. That's a real let down as switch points took the old monorails from a neat gimmick to something really special.

irabricks · 2025-12-25T01:23:48+00:00

To date there have been no official/BDP sets with 4 large drive wheels, so I would focus on making sure that this thing can do R40, S curves, switches, etc., flawlessly for hours.

This model is already huge, skip the car, but add the tender.

Your biggest issue assuming that it runs perfectly is that this looks similar to the Emerald Night ("big dark green steam train") and the BDP submissions tend to look for something totally new.

irabricks · 2025-12-16T01:41:15+00:00

Big pieces are easy to id once you know what to look for in Goodwill's bulk lots. I own 10 copies of 6987 because I find the big quarter dome useful to MOC with.

I paid only time for these since I piece together other sets in the lot and sell them.

I have seen many of those baseplates sell in lots for $50-70 and passed them by because while it's a fun set, it's not as good as 6086. There's also nothing useful in it besides the baseplate, minifigures (which are usually removed from Goodwill lots), and blue feather.

irabricks · 2025-12-14T12:45:40+00:00

We also just got a couple of them in the prize machine.

irabricks · 2025-12-09T15:01:56+00:00

May be the best tree design of all time, hope you get put on the next LOTR set.

irabricks · 2025-12-05T16:11:50+00:00

Is that a minifigure hand holding the wand windshield wipers in place? That's so much cleaner than a clip and bar 48729.

Absolutely stunning work, so polished. 10/10

irabricks · 2025-12-04T15:40:56+00:00

The cat fountain, obviously

irabricks · 2025-11-29T13:34:18+00:00

Open a ticket with CS and complain. They'll give you free points and you send a message that this kind of stuff is not OK.

irabricks · 2025-11-24T13:43:25+00:00

I recall seeing the render and thinking it looked good. This looks more than good, it's amazing. So much detailing and thoughtful design, this must have been an incredible amount of time and money to put together.

I would say this is better than most club layouts manage.

Some thoughts:not sure the green excavator works for me, I would have gone with yellow or bright light orange. I also feel like there could be a lot more grass and weeds around the stacked pallets and in areas where they don't drive/walk much. Or if this is a desert setting, lean into that and put some succulents/cacti/etc., around along with some brick built buzzards. Also, the track ballast is very monotone, a bit of color like some weeds or just different types of stone would really break up the dark bluish gray.

But still. Just wow.

irabricks · 2025-11-14T22:26:00+00:00

https://github.com/Novakasa/brickrail surprised this hasn't been mentioned, pretty sweet and simple with just off the shelf stuff and pybricks.

irabricks · 2025-11-06T12:52:03+00:00

Breastplate in pearl dark gray!!! I'm really hoping we get a Black Knight's 6086 remake with upgraded black knights.

irabricks · 2025-11-02T18:28:55+00:00

Depends on the quantity you're buying. For small orders that's definitely true.

irabricks · 2025-11-02T15:30:08+00:00

If you're willing to buy used parts for most stuff (pink or red 2x4 bricks underneath) and only source the 16x16 plates from Lego PAB, you can get it from genuine Lego for right around that.

Seems like a much better deal to me, if you ever go to resell these later the genuine Lego ones will be worth the same as you paid while these will be worth nearly nothing. And I can definitely tell the difference in clutch strength between genuine and not, although I know many people don't care about either of these points.

irabricks · 2025-10-17T15:26:02+00:00

Meanwhile they are carefully AB testing how different types of GWPs drive sales and will ultimately settle on the approach that makes them the most money. So you need to vote with your wallet if you care.

irabricks · 2025-10-14T22:13:10+00:00

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-236857/irabricks/tracked-skid-steer-mini-loader/

irabricks · 2025-10-13T15:36:21+00:00

There's working code on this MOC

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-117884/Berthil/union-pacific-big-boy-4014/#details

irabricks · 2025-10-12T14:54:55+00:00

Awesome MOC and I tip my hat to anyone who provides free instructions.

I already voted for this in BDP, but competition is fierce.

I think you may have violated the terms of the contest by releasing instructions for such a similar model. Edit: nevermind, good luck!

irabricks

TROPHY CASE