Slegengr

1993 with basic bricks (at age 2), 1994 with my first memorable sets: 6086 Black Knight's Castle and 6009 Black Knight LEGO was my absolute favorite toy without question. It incorporated so many aspects I prefer into one: design/build, interesting themes, marvelous play value, endless imaginative adventures, compatibility across entire collection, timeless value. As a child, if I was not roleplaying outside or playing board games, I was playing with my LEGO collection. So often, my outside roleplaying and board game versions or alterations were based on LEGO themes and dreams. Castle, Space, Pirates, Adventurers, Rock Raiders, Aquazone, Arctic, Western, Ninja, Vikings, Time Cruisers/Twisters, Res-Q, Extreme Team, Alpha Team, Dinosaurs, Racers Many licensed rather than original themes, higher part counts in sets due to new smaller parts that allow for more detail in models, less innovation/imagination in general, cheapening the product with lame excuses for more profit. Yes and no. More detailed models are interesting and the MOC-building potential is immense, but there is less of the original charm of the blocky/angular aesthetic of the 90's (I know, some think this is just due to nostalgia...). It is probably personal opinion and I understand why it generates more sales for TLG, but I despise the shift to almost entirely licensed themes. I want more from the original themes of the 80's/90's or similar to what was still produced in 2000's/2010's such as Power Miners, Atlantis, World Racers, Agents, etc. Maybe it is just me, but I liked Castle, Space, Pirates, etc. as a child because of LEGO sets, not the other way around. So many of my childhood interests were sparked because of LEGO, which built a strong brand image that the company does not seem to value today due to the quicker profit-margin market of today driven by pop-culture/media/technology/etc. As a child, LEGO was my pop-culture, and they only maintained this while they had original/imaginative themes rooted in the early company values around play, in my opinion. "Only the best is good enough" seems to be quite often forgotten today.

@zinnn Yeah, since my previous post, I have read about the newer style "squared" holes inside technic pins that do not allow for bar connections. I guessed that may be the case with the newer tail/trunk/branch piece and is probably why it does not work. Your solution looks pretty good.

@zeronthegreat You could check if there is a 3rd party LEGO store near where you live. Bricks & Minifigs is one of the bigger stores with multiple locations (at least in the USA). They typically buy used or 2nd-hand LEGO outright for cash or trade-in and will most likely give the best price for the quickest turn-around and lowest effort on your part. If you take the time to sell online through your own store/eBay/BrickLink/social media, you will likely make more money, but it will take much more time and effort.

@zinnn I have not tried this with physical pieces and it would be a single stud connection on the base rather than a technic pin connection, but it should theoretically work to use the following pieces to cover the technic pin on the tail piece and use the round tile with bar to push into the technic pin to convert to a stud connection. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=18654#T=C&C=88 & https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=20482#T=C&C=88 All three pieces are available in reddish brown. 1x1 round bricks could be added underneath the round tile with bar to increase the height of the trunk for a little variation. Bars covered in 1x1 round bricks and 1x1 round plates with hole through center could connect in the technic pin to increase the strength of the connection.

If I am understanding your question correctly, the solution is simple: Temporarily replace a tile that is under the 2x8 plate with a plate so there is a stud for connecting the 2x8 plate, then swap the temporary plate back to the requited tile after the 2x8 is in place. As far as I know, Stud.io does not have mechanical connections that would allow for the rack gear assembly to actually slide in the software. Temporary pieces to position final pieces are a common technique in Stud.io for atypical connections (lack of stud to anti-stud, bar, or Technic pin/axle in final assembly).

I hope they don't go only digital. The function/purpose of digital instructions is evident to me and I do use them, but nothing beats building with physical booklets with my nephews, in my opinion. Maybe I am just old-school and nostalgic to my childhood experience in the 90's, but I love to collect the instruction booklets with the sets of my childhood and still prefer printed instructions to digital whenever possible. Along with this, I still value physical informational books over only digital media. In this modern day, I like to keep my real-world experiences rather than replace them all with digital experiences, but I may be in the minority.

I imagined the furnace exactly as you mentioned. Keeping the furnace away from the market stall as to no overheat the customers (keeping it off-scene) makes sense. Now the hat makes sense; that reformer's hat reference works well enough for me! My mind could not come up with a relevant reference and could not get past the newsboy reference and my plans for the same hat in dark green for some updated Adventurers minifigures.

Great build, @Kai NRG! Interesting techniques to make this colorful and immersive scene! The green glass bottle is just perfect for a variation on the actual bottle piece! Blowing the glass in front of the customers is an interesting presentation. How far is the glass blower from the furnace for heating the glass? I don't see it in the picture. The only thing I'm not sure about is the use of the newsboy hat in dark green; it seems too anachronistic to me to be included in a 'Medieval' build, even in a fantasy setting. The hunters hat in dark green would work better for that figure, in my opinion. Funny that the mouse seems more interested in the glass-blower's tongs than in the cheesemongers' stand... maybe it was on its way to the cheese when it got scared into hiding by the kitten?

This is quite interesting! Great work, @Davidz90! Clocks have been a long-time fascination for me, and I have wanted a grandfather clock for my living room as long as I can remember. Until now, I never considered making one from LEGO pieces. This is an excellent merger between 2 of my interests along with a love for engineered mechanics! I would be very interested in a printed copy of the book if you find a good way to publish! After I have some time to read through the book, I might have more feedback or questions on the contents.

I've used the same method for exporting BOM's from Stud.io models with graphics as @Berthil mentioned. What is BrickStore? How does it work for exporting graphic BOM's from Stud.io? Are there any links you can share for me to read up on this instead of expecting direct and complete answers to just be given to me? I'm quite interested if you can offer help to get me started. Edit: I just looked it up, assuming you are referring to https://www.brickstore.dev/? This looks quite interesting for some of my needs! I'd still be glad for any tips you can offer to help me get started using it.

Excellent! A stock of coal yet to be burned would really complete this steamer. ...Now if there were just a simple way to use a light brick to give real glow inside the furnace of the boiler...

Very nice, @The Reader! I also noticed that white hull piece in the new Animal Crossing sets and planned to make a similar small steamer like yours. Your African Queen is reminiscent of one of my favorite sets, the Adventurers set 7410 Jungle River. The boiler and stack are well designed and a nice upgrade from the 7410 set. The top of the stack looks great with the inverted cone over the 1x1 round tile with bar/pin holder. I like the inclusion of the gauge and handwheel, both as a reference to a real boiler and a reference to original Adventurers steamer sets. The fully supported awning covering the stern of the boat is more ideal than just the windshield on the 7410 set. Adding a bench at the stern is also an excellent upgrade. I also really like your choices for the minifigure in all aspects. This guy would make a great companion to or updated version of Gabarro, though he would need a blue bandana to really be a Gabarro update, in my opinion (at least a bandana of any color). All-in-all, I think you did a great job with such relatively small space and number of pieces! The only thing missing is a few 1x1 tiles or plates for coal in the barrel.

There it is! Thanks for pointing this out. Of course, I should have realized that Max was likely the UK/European name. Being from the USA, of course I learned the character's names from USA versions of LEGO Mania and Shop-at-Home magazines.

Yep, that is how I understand the characters. Rudo Villano was also called Max Villano (which seems to be the more common name used online, though the original name was Rudo, at least from what I saw in the Mania magazine and set information in the Shop at Home catalogs of the time), but Gabarro was switched to "Gabarros" online by mistake and has permeated erroneously throughout online references. Hopefully my corrections do not come across as too critical... the Adventurers theme just happens to be one of my favorites that came out during my peak LEGO age (6-12 years old), so I know quite a lot of details about the theme! The reference is obvious and your "set" would fit right in somewhere on Dino Island as a connection point between the 2 subthemes you mentioned. Though this build is fairly simplistic and might be improved with the addition of more plant pieces, I think you did a nice job of accomplishing your goal to create what could have been an original set.

For sure, trees and the broadleaf plant piece would really help this build fit the Jungle subtheme better. I have all of the Adventurers sets including those from Dino Island, but I also liked it much better when the adventures went back to locations based (at least loosely) on real cultures and geography. The Orient Expedition subtheme is one of my top favorites of all time. Those are great ideas for more adventures! I've got lots of my own ideas as well as plans/designs underway currently for more adventures for the team. Though some argue the theme is troublesome to bring back due to exploitation of cultural history and references to colonialism, I still think a wonderful return to the Adventurers theme could be had through more focus on learning about real-world cultures, architecture, geography, botany, and animals across the world (rather than focusing on stealing artifacts). As time allows, I'd like to make my own sets for the Adventurers theme that essentially mimic National Geographic magazine articles about exploration, scientific studies, etc. Some ideas could be similar to those covered in the adventures of the fictional reporter, Tintin. That comic series has many similarities to the Adventurers theme.