sergiuparaschiv

Eurobricks Vassals
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  1. People are going to rationalize this based on perceived value. Different people take different things into account when deciding what the value of a thing is. One of them is price, which is not a linear factor. Just to make things clear, we're talking about people that can afford this. There's a certain low price bellow which a person considers the price is irrelevant to the decision making. And there is a certain high price above which a person considers it to be more important than any other factor. The other _very_ important factor is the fact that to most people this is a toy. A favorite pastime at most. For these people that upper limit is going to be related to what other toys in their lives cost. Are you a gamer too? DOOM 4 is $60 and will give you at least 8 hours of fun, just like this set will. How much fun was the AROCS? Depending on personal preference some might say this set is going to be less fun than that. Why would they then consider this price fair? And yes, then there are the edge cases like collectors. For these people the higher the price the better. Now imagine LEGO has a small army debating, investigating and gathering real data to be sure every single one of their products is correctly priced for their targeted audience. With different price points and target audiences in different countries.
  2. For me it's simple. 1) I don't like panels. I have two boxes full of them that I never use. 2) Except for the panels I already have more than enough parts to build this when the instructions come out. 3) I'm not a collector. Price is just an afterthought. The only reason I still buy new sets is to get the new parts that I can't MOC myself. I'd preorder it at my local dealer right now if it had better rims or some sort of redesigned steering system with smaller turning radius.
  3. I don' know...I'd say cats and Lego are a perfect match.
  4. Sorry, I wasn't really clear on that. What I was thinking is that controlling the four leveling actuators directly with the levers of one remote must be pretty hard. Then I thought that maybe you are using some kind of joystick.
  5. Great work! Can you show us a photo of the remote control setup?
  6. A lot of people have been aware of these faults, including TLG. Most of us are OK with this and understand the reasoning behind why this is happening. It's also OK _not_ to be happy with this situation and to my knowledge TLG has a helpful attitude towards people with reasonable complaints. I know "reasonable" is a pretty harsh word :) I'd say asking for a replacement helmet for a Benny that's 20 years old is not reasonable but I bet if it were a common demand TLG would satisfy everyone and win at PR.
  7. There are companies that do "Accelerated Life Testing". TLG must be doing it too and I'd say they have been doing it for a long time. As with any other polymer whatever TLG uses is subject to degradation caused by light, heat, humidity and oxygen exposure and obviously mechanical failure. They probably also test for chemical degradation caused by detergents. And resistance of a certain polymer to all of these is influenced by every substance used to produce it. Color included. K'Nex parts are made out of a softer, more "bendable" polymer that's less prone to mechanical failure. That's good, but a trade-off TLG cannot make in Technic sets where you need more stiffness to keep the precision required for complex mechanisms like differentials linked via solid axles to piston engines for example. My point is that it's pretty hard to make a polymer that's ideal from every perspective and trade-offs have to be made.
  8. The message is "The people that wrote this story get you. They actually played with these toys in the 80s." For me it brings back memories I am fond of. That's the whole point of this movie. As for "our stuff breaks", "sets fall apart on the shelf" and the general "this is unacceptable" point of view, I honestly cannot agree. First of all, in 20+ years of playing with Lego bricks I've had four pieces break to the point they were unusable: - a blade on one of these: http://brickset.com/parts/4289255 (I stepped on it - this actually had a very large impact on me as a kid, I started being a lot more careful with everything) - one end pin on one of these: http://brickset.com/parts/615726 - one end pin on two of these: http://brickset.com/parts/292626 The bearing plates broke after 10+ years during which I'd say they were used (wheels spinning on them) continuously for at least 10 minutes / day on average, leading to 25 days of continuous play time. I'd say for a piece of plastic produced in the 90s this is exceptional. Second, the Technic parts are not "unusable" or broken. I don't build LPEs so I've never put them under that kind of stress but I'm pretty confident they won't crumble. Do you own _anything_ that's lasted for 21 years and is still usable? Honestly, it's hard accept that 21 years have passed since I got that set for Christmas and it's still in a box somewhere, ready to be played with.
  9. Right, forgot to specify: the older ones are red and black (from a 1996 8443). I've got a coupe of yellow ones too from the 2003 8455 I think. I'm not bummed or anything, you cannot realistically expect them to stay in perfect condition after at least 10 years of not-stop play :) Let's not forget about Benny's helmet. I think I shed a couple of tears seeing him the first time in the movie.
  10. Besides those I also have a lot of old (+10 years) "thin" beams that cracked at the ends: Happens to these: http://rebrickable.com/parts/6632 http://rebrickable.com/parts/32449 http://rebrickable.com/parts/2825
  11. sergiuparaschiv

    REVIEW: 70811 The Flying Flusher

    Maybe it's a pipe bending machine?
  12. So it's a matter of minimizing friction/heat loss and drag. Would be nice though if free energy were invented using LEGO.
  13. Two issues: 1. Friction. If the magnets don't provide sufficient acceleration to overcome the friction generated by the wheels turning on the rails then it will eventually stop. 2. Magnet decay. In time (very long time - tens of years probably) regular magnets loose their magnetic properties. In more technical terms, Second law of thermodynamics. ("Equivalently, perpetual motion machines of the second kind are impossible.") So unfortunately your perpetuum mobile won't work :)
  14. Isn't that inertia going to kill those poor XLs? Great build!
  15. sergiuparaschiv

    42009 - Left Over Parts

    I got the spare 32L also. No extra cord though.