Why I wanted to invest myself in EB as an Alternative Brick Fan

[aFrInati0n]

Here is my story of how it came that I got Technic-Admin of Eurobricks - even though my part inventory may only contain less than 1% LEGO parts... 

(My introduction post after nearly 5 years...)

My childhood experiences with LEGO

As I was born in '84, I would believe my 1st contact with LEGO was possibly only after Germany united again around the '90s. So for my childhood I remember myself having some of the space sets from then (M:Tron and Blacktron) and later on some studded Technic Models (8862-1, 8849-1) I tinkered around with before other things got interesting in the later youth. For my childhood I would say it was a regular phase and nothing special or big.

So my LEGO Childhood was no big or long one - just a part of my youth..

 

My Renaissance with Bricks since Corona

As for many others, with the Corona restrictions on us staying at home, I remembered some recently discovered Bins from the attic of my grandmother who passed away the year before. Those bins brought back many of the nice childhood memories I had, so as time allowed I started tinkering again with the very little count of parts I had from my childhood.

As I stumbled across some of the old "cabled" (9V) electronic components, I got interested in how that developed further and what is offered with modern technologies & also I realized that LEGO had somehow changed (studless technic mainly), which I found somehow looking cleaner to some amounts than studded builds. To some amount I was shocked by how clonky and big the remote control hubs were looking from LEGO, still using AA batteries, where the world understood LiPO as the better technology for long already.

So my 1st new set got an alternative brand, as I found a cheap offer for a set containing obviously way smaller batt-/receiver-boxes & other electronic components (servo, motor). I was really amazed by the format of the alternative brand solution for having RC capabilities allowed in brick models.

Since then I understand myself more like a parts-scavanger which is looking for functionalites than considering myself having much interest in Sets from vendors.

I would believe since then  I may have some inventory of 20-25k parts -  still my original childhood LEGO may only be below 1% of that.

 

How I learned about Eurobricks

I would believe it was when I got the electronic components to tinker around with, as the thought came up "Ok ok, but RC for bricks feels still boring to me, is there any additional challenge you could try to achieve? I realized quickly that removing 2 wheels may be a good addition to think of a challenge for myself to be set as the goal to be achieved.

At that time some people have posted some videos of their attempts of creating RC motorcycles within the brick-hobby. Two of them I consider my biggest friends in the hobby here, sharing similar interests then the ones I described above: @amorti, @piterx - Kudos for the two nicest guys sharing my niche interest, who always were helpful to get me into the topic and challenge and troubleshoot ideas and concepts together with me.

Since I was in contact with both, I quickly learned that Eurobricks is a very appreciated place by many people and esp. THE PLACE to be if you like to have discussions about Technic and techniques - I quickly appreciated the forum for serveral reasons as a user

• It contained a massive contribution of wisdom into topics for a long time already
• It has an open and always felt encouraging Community
• Even the famous builders are around and seemed to be very approachable by everybody

As the to-me interesting challenge was understood as wanting to build a working RC-motorcycle with / from bricks, the Technic Forum was the most interest forum to me from the beginning.

 

What convinced me apply for the EB Technic-Admin position

At some degree I realized that the forum software was outdated by some amount in difference to the vendors latest released version, which brought me to the conclusion:

"May it be, they currently have no active Admin?!"

It didn't took me long in my head to come up with the thought of "but don't you have the right skills for that, what holds you back?!" - so I remember myself wanting to pay back something to this great community & sent some application letter via Email to @Jim, basically applying out of nowhere for a position which was not vacant.. As it always goes in life, I would phrase.. 

Jim and the staff team were open to my idea, so we started slowly with testing the waters and me allowing to work on the TEST environment 1st, to show I have the right skills for the task - I think I delivered back then and we slowly progressed with handing me bigger work packages.

In the end I was able to achieve the goal I had in mind: Allowing a very appreciated online community to have the most secure and stable running online forum they surely deserve!

 

Why am I writing all this?

I will always respect the LEGO traditionalist with their opinion & invest all my efforts for serving you in the best ways, whatever your believe is.

I hope my own background may allow others to understand that even Fans of Alternative Brick Braneds may understand Eurobricks as a Community having most history with the brand LEGO. I have strong feelings for most of other Alternative Brands fans would fully respect the history of Eurobricks of being closed for the Brand LEGO for a very long time.

I have the strong believe that most fears of the people may be bigger than any reality tested later...

 

A big personal thank you to Eurobricks being the place for Builders and Creators!

[JesseNight]

Thank you for sharing your story with us!

As a relatively recent addition to EB, I've never actually seen attempts to make RC motorcycles! Are topics about that still out there somewhere?
 

8 hours ago, aFrInati0n said:

As I stumbled across some of the old "cabled" (9V) electronic components, I got interested in how that developed further and what is offered with modern technologies & also I realized that LEGO had somehow changed (studless technic mainly), which I found somehow looking cleaner to some amounts than studded builds. To some amount I was shocked by how clonky and big the remote control hubs were looking from LEGO, still using AA batteries, where the world understood LiPO as the better technology for long already.

This is one thing I still refuse to embrace. Sure, I'm aware that newer Lithium based batteries have more capacity and a longer life, but there are downsides. Most batteries are custom made and often proprietary, and therefore when it's empty, you have downtime. AA's have been a universal standard for decades, so all we needed was an extra set of good quality rechargeables (which wasn't expensive) and you never had any downtime.

I'm honestly surprised how few people are (willing to) seeing this, despite having encountered them swearing during downtime or having to buy complete new devices because custom batteries were no longer available.
In the end I'm just sad they didn't apply LiPO into a universal casing, rather than every device making its proprietary battery model that's already discontinued on the next release.
For example my first digital camera from around 2000 still works perfectly, all it needs is a new set of AA batteries. Back in the days when I started event photography with that, all I needed was 2 sets of batteries and a 12V charger for my car. Worst case scenario, I could buy an extra set non-rechargeables everywhere.
My professional camera that I bought 10 years later needed a second very expensive proprietary battery to go for an entire weekend. No car charger. If both were empty, I was done. And today it is unusable, due to its proprietary battery no longer being available.

So you see, I have nothing against LiPO technology. Only to how it's being applied in practice.

[amorti]

@aFrInati0n appreciate you, brother!

@JesseNight there are threads on mine and aFrI's profiles, you can also find more at my rebrickable, including some videos from aFrI which are just ridiculously cool.

https://rebrickable.com/users/A_morti/mocs/

[JesseNight]

@amorti Thanks for sharing, will definitely check it out! I must admit that I'm not much into motorcycles myself, but this seems like a good challenge!

[aFrInati0n]

I moved my topic to the "Hello my name is..." as it feels better fitting there than in the "General LEGO Discussion".

[Yperio_Bricks]

On 8/6/2026 at 9:21 AM, aFrInati0n said:

I moved my topic to the "Hello my name is..." as it feels better fitting there than in the "General LEGO Discussion".

See, almost nobody scrolls down that far to community forums  That's why the other brands should not get burried here.

Anyway, we are very happy to have you! You do a great job   

[jimmynick]

I have to say I'm always grateful for dedicated staff members who keep this forum going, and that's no less true for you. In particular, I appreciate that you've been so communicative in recent years about server issues and so forth whenever I see a little problem with the site.

[piterx]

hey man! cheers for becoming an admin! and thanks for the mentioning <3
Im still alive, and still building every now and then, but haven't done anything worth sharing in a while, but i still hop on every now and then and just saw your post! :)

Hope you and all the other fellow builders are doing great!

[aFrInati0n]

Hey @piterx, thanks and all fine - looking forward for you cranking out new bike ideas, if time allows.

Cheerio