Breakdown

Short circuit question - so that you or no others have to ask again. You made a big layout. Determine a direction. Like far left side of track and up. Trace your finger through the track, use all of the switches. Did you ever reverse your direction?? If yes = layout will not work. If no = you are fine. Examples of simple short circuits. 1.) "P loop" You have a straight track, you go up to the top, you turn right sharp and at the bottom merge with the same straight track via track point. (If you have a crossing at the bottom of the P where you simply cross the track you are fine). 2.) "Slurve" inside an oval You can have 'C' with switches on both ends leading back to the oval, no problem. You CANNOT have an 'S' curve inside the same loop, because the train will change directions again. 3.) "Figure 8 with bypass" - You cannot have a figure 8 track and have a bypass on the side (unless it's not powered) a bypass would be two points connecting the same side of the figure 8. All of these limitations are the same with 9V and all of these limitations can be avoided universally by using Power Functions, 4.5V or Powered up.

We've seen this before. But this time I'm back with an airport that won't fit on any reasonable-sized table. Planned for two terminals, perhaps three, and spoiler alert . . . there might be some kind of monorail shuttle system involved. What you're looking at in the initial pics is terminal #2, near completion. Right now, there's pics of Terminal one and it's runways. I simply cannot get over how many of those round white dots that I've gone through lighting the runway. I've altered the rear end of two of the three blue jets to allow the lines to continue through. I've tried to add a red variant, and I'd like some feedback on the tail wing being red, right now it is red because I'm out of light grey tail wings, but would like to know everyone's thoughts - should I just keep it this way when the light grey tail comes in. There's 4 set 6396 jets in all. Two short length and width, two engines on each side of the fusselage and then two that are longer and as commented by one of my friends, probably have an absolutely excessive amount of engines - six total with a pair on each wing in addition to the other two. The longer term plan is to integrate a complete MOC (not MOD) of a very, very significant and unique airport terminal, but as of now the plan is a little more scatterbrained. You can see in the background (below the monorail shuttle) you'll see the area that should soon be occupied by terminal #1. Most of my stuff is pretty predictable, so you can probably guess what you're going to see next, and the themes of the planes that will be residing in the #1 Terminal. The #1 Terminal and runway system will be about 60% of the size of Terminal #2. And yes, while positioning the plane that is about to take off, I can only be reminded of the KLM flight disaster with the tail strike as the passenger jet desperately tried to lift, striking it's tail, and eventually the other plan on the runway.

If you're willing to trust a Power Ranger . . . . here's what the 13V outlet is for (fast-forward to last 3rd of video):

Fortunately my issue right now is strict aesthetic, and not functional - where I'm struggling with space constraints or inability to work with something. I was just kind of hoping that it was a toothed gear that was doing the work. To make my setup a little cleaner.

Before I ruin a Mono-switch, has anyone either broken open, or broken a mono-switch?? I'm thinking of drilling a hole through the circle on mine (exactly where the red dot is on the picture), in order to control the switch from the bottom. Has anyone done this in the past?? I would love to hear from someone prior to potentially destroying a switch. I would be drilling from the bottom since there's a perfect inverted stud to work with to aim the drill. Many thanks in advance.

No apologies required I wasn't sure if it was a sporked gear that moved it or a connecting rod. You probably saved me (and the entire Lego community) a Mono-switch. Many thanks!

Any thought put into using old train tracks as the tops of the fence?? You could have a blue fence or an old school light gray fence top, and then it's up to you to decide what to put underneath.

How did you test the motor to know if it was broken?? When they haven't been used for a while they tend to run like crap. Make a small oval or circle of track. Check and double-check the track for connections. Make sure that you're using the 12V plug on the Transformer. Wipe down the metal rails with a cloth. Still nothing?? Take the motor and hardwire it to the Transformer. Turn the knob slightly (not even half throttle), still nothing?? It will run like crap for a while if you get it going, but speed up. I wouldn't give up on the motor so quickly those things are pretty robust!!

My 7745 is 7 cars long and runs with power functions. You can buy the LED lights for $7.99 CAD online at the Lego store, I did some mods to the 7745 and the LED lights poke through (once you remove the prisms on the 7745 easily). It's hard to feed the wire for the Pf through the base for the 7745, I had to tap might a couple of times with a weight brick to force it through. The other thing that I did with the 7745 train is alter the roof from 33 degree slopes to 45 degree ones. The painful thing will be acquiring the ones to form the front end. I've left all of the other cars @ 33 degree roofs. You can barely notice and that's if you're really looking. If you have 2 X 60051 you will only be able to complete one middle car extra before buying extra pieces. The 7745 actually goes with the 60051 pretty well. Unfortunately the pic below is the back of my 7745 which still has the 33 slope roof, and no power functions.

When I did mine, I removed the prisms and the LED lights go right through. They don't allow the 1X1 clear plates to mount, but they do create a lot more light. Your design is good as well!

Going back to your question about what to build next, and this would be 3D printing and not automation technology, but something to incorporate the monorail motor into a car. Instead of just having the plain motor cover, have a modular cover where you can add to extensions to the bottom of it, and attach maybe 6 bricks wide to either side and have essentially a middle car that's nearly as long as the front and back cars (not entirely sure if this would cause clearance issues on the inclines/declines) just something that I thought up.

A time machine to go back in time and buy more 12V stuff when it was being cleared out as the 9V was coming in. Also to buy stockpiles of 9V straights.

Le sigh . . . Too much. Ima have to sell something. There was some random auction that I bought that has most of the parts for 6399 Monorail and includes: 6347 along with Megabloks and some Playmobile. The good news is most of the crap that's not Lego should be segregated, so my head won't explode. Not sure if I get a monorail motor in this lot. I have about 7, but would love to have one more and that stupid part that goes on top.

If I was on the tour I would have wandered away from the group, started tearing up floor, and either I'd find molds to take home with me or they'd have to admit, that it was all some big stupid lie and the mods are in a safe somewhere. I think that Monorail did reasonably well in the Americas because we didn't have the 12V trains and 4.5V was lame (sorry 4.5V fanboys, that's what I had as a kid and it was lame - still far better than no train at all). What amazes me is that despite the shear amount of 12V lego produced how much Monorail there is out there on the open market. Other than the stantions, and motors, it holds up VERY, VERY well. As someone who has a fair share of monorail and who wasn't huge on it as a kid, but wanted it. I love it because of the hills. You can twist and turn a monorail so well. And prior to the advent of flex tracks, monorail had some flexibility. I've seen the helix done with many curves, inclines happen quickly and you DON'T have to have a degree in geometry to make monorails connect. 9V and 12V and even 4.5V have to be precise! Monorail allows some play in your turns, etc. I would liken the Monorail to the DeLorean DMC-12. Yes it looks cool, but if they didn't hold some value and there were plenty out there. Would you shell out $5K on a 35-year-old slow car that handled like a shopping cart if they were everywhere? I wouldn't, part of the prestige is that the cars were and are extremely rare. That's much of the magic of the monorail. The rest is as described further up.

I was just in a store in Detroit and noticed the same, I can't remember the last time I was filling so many Pick-A-Brick cups. It's been a while. These Pick-A-Model things just crushed the selection on the walls, I'm glad they were gone. I gave consistent bad feedback on them, and would have done the same with sets from 1995 to roughly 2002 as well if I was at the stores. Better to be vocal about what you don't like than to watch the whole thing go to hell or stop going to the stores. They are a wonderful thing to have around!! If I had to guess, the Pick-A-Brick walls are 90% of the reason that I go to the stores. From a business standpoint, the pick-a-brick wall actually appeared to be an ingenious idea. No idea how they enforce that you only put one set's worth of bricks in the box, but with the margins they were getting on that vs. regular Pick-A-Brick - who cares!! I'm glad to see that the overall feedback of the Lego community has the Pick-A-Brick wall reverting to its former state. As a builder of mainly city, etc, I found it annoying when a whole third of the wall was green components. White or black I can deal with, I just don't have so much use for green!!

So far (knock on wood) it's been a very, very good year for my car. I've taken it on 5 - 300+ km trips already and amassed close to 7000km total this year. I also went to a big car meet, and displayed my near matching Lego car with my on car there. Should have pics up on my site soon, to show.

Mine's Menasor. A combiner from the original Transformer series. Decepticon, Breakdown forms the right leg of Menasor, and is also seen on the bottom right of the photo in car mode.

It always shows up in your shopping cart, if it's not there, you're not getting one. I'm always ensuring that it's in the shopping cart when I place orders online.

My general opinion of Bionicle is that when there's an ad that states, "bin of Legos some city, mainly Bionicle" it's like saying there's a tonne of Mega Blocs in there. Bionicle (again in my opinion) isn't a strong sub-brand and also doesn't play nice with other themes. Like Nexo Knights would work reasonably well with Star Wars, etc. I'm not looking to create a thing here where we debate the validity of Bionicle within the Lego brand. I get it, it had a decent following and isn't anything remotely similar to the infamous Galidor or Jack Stone, it just has a limited appeal, similar to Monorail, which 25 years later has yet to be replaced.

In the 70's and early 80's being transgender and made of Lego was as easy as switching hair. Now, you have to switch heads as well and potentially clothing.

For me I visualize what I want to build. "I want a red building that's like an office to the fire station or extra big plane" Then conceptualize it "I want to use the . . . door, is there a matching L R door set? Does the door fit?? I was thinking of angular corners?? Look at how the unique bricks work. I did my own 7755 train and while doing so changed the design so that I had tinted windows and wedges on the sides, rather than going from 6 wide to 4 wide. The thing that I wasn't ready for is exposed studs, and shutters that cover the engine, being restricted by the wedges slightly. The exposed studs were actually a blessing in disguise it gives the train a more detailed look as they almost look intended, industrial. They would be most unwelcome on a plane. Then, sometimes, the next trip is to Bricklink. What kind of prices do these pieces command. What sacrifices can I make to incorporate a part for a look. What's most important. Style or function. Free-play with an idea in mind. While doing free-play, you might discover something for another build.

I run a forum and it's amazing the things that happened. In my case a police investigation. Time has run it's course, so I'll provide a couple of details. Basically someone complaining about an extremely annoying person who was situated close to them in a Sports arena. What do I do?? - Ask to be relocated? -Take up the issue with the offending family myself? -Make a formal complaint about the person(s) to the organization? -Hire a hitman? Someone found this, knew the person in question (I find it hilarious that someone's hears a description of someone, "extremely annoying person with no manners and potty mouth" and then immediately goes, that's my best friend, I digress), they contacted the person and told them that someone online was threatening to kill them, then that person called the police. I guess Lego doesn't want this. Lego doesn't want the one adult who's MOC is worse than a 12-year-old kids' to kill themselves because of the Lego forum. It makes complete sense. It sucks, but it makes sense.

I bought a used set and it came with the box flattened and I keep mine and this has to be the best idea for minimizing space, not sure how flat Friends' boxes get! I've also received a few bricklink orders in Lego boxes. Put me down for one who keeps 'em. I have trouble with throwing things away. I think that I threw out some of my train track boxes that's about it.

Actually, I had a set come from Germania to me in error (I bought one thing and got two). The item was intended for Australia and went out for quotes everywhere, minimum quote was 2-3 months no track/no insurance $60, and pretty much anything with tracking and even 4 week delivery was well, well over $100. One quote from DHL was $310!!!

The single most negative experience that I had was that I was buying plane windows from someone and they sold me all single hole top and bottom while listing them as double (the older more expensive ones). I asked for a partial refund basically pricing his parts as delivered in the 90th percentile. I got back a message, telling me to send back everything for a full refund, which unfortunately was not possible since I had it shipped to a different country and picked it up from a friend's house when visiting. I thought that my offer was beyond fair. What annoys me wasn't the lack of flexibility it was the fact that I'm convinced that the person if I had sent the parts back would have just ripped off the next guy with his misleading products, or perhaps he didn't care. Small seemingly insignificant things DO make a difference. BTW - those 50 cent orders probably helped you boost your feedback so that people will be confident in placing the $50 and $100 orders from you. Most of my orders are usually pretty big. I find a bunch of things in your store that I want and then go nuts buying. Most cases have been good experiences. New means new, used can mean anything it really depends on the vendor.