Tag Archives: Christmas

Events, Inspiration, Models

Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 Part 1

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Last year I was invited to join a group of friends from the LEGO train community in a Secret Santa Gift Exchange. If you’ve never participated in one, a Secret Santa is a Christmas tradition in which members of a group or community are randomly assigned a person to whom they give a gift. The identity of the gift giver is to remain a secret and should not be revealed until the gifts are opened.

Since all of us in the group are LEGO train builders, for this gift exchange we decided to exchange rail cars. The cars that came out of this exchange were awesome and the whole event was an unbelievably fun experience! It was such a success that we decided to do it again for 2021, and the gift opening date is only a few days away.

But for now we would like to look back on the cars from the 2020 exchange. So for the next few days, we’ll be sharing those builds with you and giving a bit of background on them, Who built them, who received them, and why the designer chose the car they modeled.

Recipients holding up their cars on the video call.
Continue reading Rail Car Secret Santa 2020 Part 1 →

Contests, Inspiration, Model Design, Models

OcTRAINber 2018: The Round-up

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Now that OcTRAINber 2018: The Foreign Challenge is officially over, we first would like to thank all the participants who made this such a great month again. It was amazing to see all the WIP stories showing up on the Flickr feeds, FB timelines, but also on the well-beloved Train Tech forums over at Eurobricks for example. So thank you all for that!

Now, let’s go over the timeline. In the next coming weeks our judges will go over all the entries and score them according to three criteria: WIP Story, Credibility and The Foreign Factor. This might take a while because BMR is a labour of love, meaning we all do this stuff next to our real life lives.

However, for now we would like to make a short round-up of all entries and also to show you some of the key statistics of this years OcTRAINber.

Continue reading OcTRAINber 2018: The Round-up →

Contests

OcTRAINber 2018: The Foreign Challenge – The Prizes Part 3

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As promised in the first part of this three-part article of OcTRAINber 2018 prizes, we would go out with a bang, and what a bang to go out with! Here at BMR we have always been enthusiastic about the PFx Brick, because of the options it gives to customize your engines when it comes to light, sound and power, making sure your models look more and more like the original.

So, our friends over at Fx Bricks have decided to supply us with a very special gift. You know how Lego last year sponsored 10254 Holiday Train? Well, this year Fx Bricks is going to help you add light & sound plus superior controls to the whole thing with their Holiday Train Conversion Kit (link = movie)! As already announced, this will be the second of the two Grand Prizes for our Real Life and Digital Entries!

OcTRAINber Grand Prize, however keep in mind:  Also including a PFx Brick 4MB, but minus the 10254 itself. That one was already last years Grand Prize.

Light, sound, action!

And that’s not all, they have also decided to supply a second prize, a 4MB PFx Brick plus XL Speaker!

 

The second prize from FX Bricks: PFx Brick 4MB…

… Plus a XL Speaker!

Continue reading OcTRAINber 2018: The Foreign Challenge – The Prizes Part 3 →

History

25 Days of Holiday “Trainvertising” #25 (on day 26): What’s in the Box?

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This 1984 U.S. Mail Order Service (Shop-at-Home) brochure isn’t necessarily a holiday brochure, but I do think it sums up the feelings of anticipation and wonder that are characteristic of this time of year.

The rear cover features the classic battery-operated train set # 7720, as well as three sets of rails. As for what’s inside the packages being delivered by the mail carrier? We’d like to think there’s some LEGO train goodness inside them.

We here at BMR hope you and your family had a wonderful and happy holiday. We also hope that great things will be in store for you in the coming year!

History

25 Days of Holiday “Trainvertising” #24: A Window of Wooden Toys

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Since we are one day away from the big day, I wanted to share a very special piece from 1984. This one is from another Christmas card that the UK LEGO Club sent its members. It really captures the spirit of this time of year and is a wonderful scene…There are so many details to soak in.

The main reason I chose this one for day 24 is that the toys in the window display celebrate the early history of LEGO. That’s right; a number of toys in the window display are representations of LEGO’s wooden toys! And yes, one of them is a train. Read on to find out more, and have fun comparing the illustrations of the wooden toys with their brick-built counterparts in the window display!

Wooden Sailing Ship – Image from Miniland.nl

A Red Cadillac-esque Convertible from the 1946 or 1947

Soldier Stacking Toy – From the collection of Richard Bintanja

Wooden Train with “Pop-Up” Figure – Image from Miniland.nl

Images come from my collection, the website miniland.nl and the collection of Richard Bintanja.

History

25 Days of Holiday “Trainvertising” #23: A Greeting Card within an Ad

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Here’s a unique piece of advertising from 1979. This Christmas card appeared in a 5 page LEGO advertistment, printed in the November 1979 issue of the UK magazine, Radio Times. I would have shown the ad in its entirety, but my scanner can’t accommodate it. It features LEGO Christmas cards sitting on a brick-built mantle. This card features 4.5V set 182, which was originally released in 1975. Look at all the cypress trees!

Here is a larger part of the page the image comes from, just for frame of reference.

History

25 Days of Holiday “Trainvertising” #22: Better late than never!

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Day 22 has come a day late, so you will receive two advertising gifts today. It is a good thing I’m not Santa!

This piece is the cover of the Holiday 2004 Shop-at-Home catalog. This cover features the LEGO Legends re-release of Main Street (set # 10041). The cover was nostalgic back then but evokes feelings of nostalgia today, too. It features the wonderful BNSF GP-38 (set # 10133) and the train engine shed (set # 10027).

Unfortunately, I do not have this one in my collection, so I had to cheat a bit. The image comes from BrickLink!

History

25 Days of Holiday “Trainvertising” #21: An action-packed Trainmas!

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Another holiday Shop-at-Home catalog without snow? You better believe it, and there is a lot to love here. Set 4552 (Cargo Crane) is in the middle of building a bridge, while the LEGOLAND California truck ignores the realities of gravity to jump across. It makes like Evil Knieval, hopping across set 3225 (Classic Train). I had every set featured on this cover, with the exception of the construction sets in the background.

Fun fact, the LEGOLAND truck’s trailer wasn’t an actual set, and the stickers for the trailer were available as Shop-at-Home exclusives and, as a result, are quite rare.

History

25 Days of Holiday “Trainvertising” # 20: Santa’s Duplo Train

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Day 20, and we are getting closer to the end! This one comes to us from Germany in 1990 and is just in time for Weinachten. Santa stands by as LEGO figures parade out of his sack of toys. The Duplo train is the focal point in this one, sitting directly in front of Santa’s boots.

History

25 Days of Holiday “Trainvertising” #19: No Snow? No Problem!

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The 1997 Holiday Shop-at-Home catalog doesn’t have any snow, but it more than makes up for this with the emphasis on trains. This one features set 4559, Cargo Railway. This is one that people tend to either love or hate. I have a soft spot for 4559 because it was my first official train set.