icm

Looks to me like the 1M Technic pin connectors are attached to a 1x2 SNOT brick, maybe with some empty space underneath to prevent collisions.

I prefer to build from paper instructions, but I don't insist on getting paper instructions for every used set I buy. I do always download the digital instructions as backups in case I lose the paper versions and for those used sets that didn't come with the instructions. I also use digital instructions on my phone when I'm too lazy to pull the paper versions out of the filing cabinet where I keep them.

That contest sounds like it has a lot of potential to produce a really nice car. Then again, the last Ideas GWP contest had ... unexpected results. Maybe we'll end up with a horse and buggy!

Nah, those two builds are different enough that I have no trouble believing there's no connection. I bet the Creator Expert team had no idea that Ideas project existed.

I built the new Y-wing tonight. I like the design of the Resistance Y-wing because it fits so well with the Rebellion model, so I can think of it as one of the Y-wing variants that were mentioned in the Dorling Kindersley cross-section book but never seen onscreen. The fronts of the engines are nice impressions of the sensor antennae that normally remain beneath white domes. Since these would fit under the domes, they're a pretty great design. The new method of attaching the engine extensions is clever, but I'm not quite sure it's legal, that is that it doesn't stress the parts with imprecise geometry. The body of the ship is solid and rigid, with surface texture that is satisfactorily detailed and different than three detailing on the Rebel model. I really like the fact that the ion cannons can elevate. Built as instructed, they can't point forward at zero elevation, but it's trivial to fix that. The landing gear is tall and unobtrusive, and the spring shooters are placed where they're easy to use and not too conspicuous. The new cockpit captures the sleek shape of the Y-wing nose cone better than any previous model, but I miss the brick-built stripes of the previous model. The Walmart price of $56 is a bit higher than it could be, but not bad. The RRP of $70 is way too high. Unfortunately, a minifig that's not wearing a helmet with a huge bump in the back (like Zori Bliss) can't sit in the cockpit without rattling around because the seating square is entirely tiled. It's possible to replace the tiles at the back of the seating square with plates, but the tiles at the front can't be replaced with plates because they're half of part 33909, and that part is placed inside part 43713 in such a way that it can't be removed with the brick separator. That's a design flaw that shouldn't have made it out of product testing. Don't they take sets apart and put them back together in the testing phase? That's where 90% of the fun is for me, ever since I got my first Lego spaceship.

Cloth sails are much better. I generally prefer brick-built solutions to prefab solutions for nearly everything, but sails should be able to flap about, billow in the wind, and swell up if you hold a little fan behind them. Brick-built sails are heavy and inflexible. They add a large amount of weight, cost, and complexity without improving accuracy or play; in fact, they hinder play because you can't roll them up. If brick-built sails were generally desirable I think we'd see them widely adopted by the shipbuilding community in the Pirates forum, but 99% of MOCs there - even/especially the most complex and detailed ones - opt for cloth sails. Edit - The only reasons nearly every ship on Ideas has brick built sails are because there aren't usable sails in most digital building programs and because sails would probably count as new elements, which are against the rules. But if a sailing ship from Ideas was selected for production, I'm sure the Ideas team would finagle a way to get cloth sails, much as they gave the Flintstones car a cloth roof. Besides, the Sea Cow is the only large playscale ship with brick built sails, so it sets a precedent but not a pattern.

Ok, so if all you object to in "system scale" is the word "scale", can you please stop insisting everybody stop using that word? The purpose of language is to describe things such that everyone knows what is being described. Regardless of pedantic disputes over how to parse the word "scale" here, everyone knows what "system scale" means: built for play with minifigs. Can we move on? To summarize everything that has been said in this thread: 1) Minifigs have weird proportions. 2) Building to a mathematical scale means picking one aspect of a minifig as a reference and pegging that to some real world size. 3) Some specialized parts designed for minifigs suggest a height-based scale of about 1:43, if a minifig is six feet tall. 4) Some set designers have spoken of using scales closer to 1:50. 5) Some fan builders use different height, width, and length scales. 6) Other fan builders use scales that "average" the minifig proportions in some sense. For example, my 1 stud = 1 foot scale is about 1:39. 7) There is no single scale in sets, but a range of scales and sizes depending on the subject and goals for the play experience and building experience. Sets designed for minifig interaction use a variety of scales. 8) Sets and builds designed for minifig interaction without being built to a scale factor in the range of numbers reasonably derived from a minifig are "system scale" or "play scale." 9) That may not be a correct use of the word scale from some perspectives, but language is a flexible thing. If enough people use "scale" this way, then it's a perfectly valid sense of the word.

The canopy is just a couple of 3x6x1 trans yellow slopes cleverly put together. There's a detail picture of the cockpit module of the prior version on his Flickr, it might be possible to reverse engineer it from that.

Granted, it's not a change that's been applied across the board to every car in City. There are still plenty of four-wide cars in City, and there were one or two six-wide City cars before Speed Champions. I don't think it's a stretch, though, to speculate that the several six-wide police cars and sports cars in City since 2015 have been intended to go with Speed Champions cars better than their four-wide counterparts do.

When Speed Champions started out in 2015, its six-stud wide standard was much larger and more detailed than the four-stud wide standard single-seat cars in City. Once it was clear that Speed Champions was a big hit, single-seat cars in City started to use the six-stud wide standard in order to mix better with the Speed Champions cars for play. (A four-stud wide police car doesn't have a change of outrunning a six-stud wide Ferrari, so the City cops got bigger cars to catch the speeders.) I wonder if City will upgrade to the eight-wide standard in a few years?

I'm glad that they're working hard and bringing new ideas to Speed Champions each year, but as of now I don't like the 8-wide look. That will make Speed Champions vehicles even less compatible with City, and it'll probably bump the base price from fifteen USD to twenty. In my view, the only time you need an eight wide vehicle is if you're going to fit two people side by side, but I doubt that seating arrangement will come standard. Still, that big ugly new chassis piece has studs on the side and has five studs inside the center section, so it's possible it may be designed for side by side seating. Edit - that six wide windshield is nice though, should really improve six wide car MOCs. Edit, just saw the Brothers Brick article. It says that one of the reasons for the eight wide design language is to allow side by side seating and that the Jaguar has two seats in front AND two more in back! That's a seating arrangement I've wanted in a Lego car since I was about ten ... TAKE MY MONEY!

@Viper Knight, this isn't the right thread to wishlist about Halo licenses. There are dedicated wishlist threads for that in the Licensed forum. Nor is it the right thread to wishlist about themes like space mercenaries and the parts for them. This thread is about Ideas projects and products. I don't understand what the second and third lines of your last post mean, but they're clearly irrelevant to this thread. Back on topic - That train station is big, but like many Ideas projects implemented as digital builds it relies too heavily on long-obsolete parts in colors that were never produced. All the big glass pieces and the big tan arches fit that description. As a rule, I don't support projects like that, because it shows the designer isn't thinking realistically about production and any retail version would necessarily be drastically redesigned.

Hi, @Aanchir! It's nice to have you back. I appreciate every effort you make to articulate your thoughts in a rational, well-supported manner and to keep discussions positive and respectful. Everything you say about the amount of representation of various themes and careers in Town and City is accurate, but I also agree with @pooda's assessment that the large annual presence of various police and exploration subthemes can overshadow the variety of other occupations in Lego City, such that it can seem like there aren't as many general, everyday kinds of jobs. @pooda: Some people do have time to read and write long-form posts; that's why the post entry box has such rich capabilities for text formatting, picture display, and other functions. Personally, I don't usually put in the effort to write a long response to most threads, but I always appreciate people who do. Long posts help me learn things about Lego I didn't know before, and also help me appreciate attitudes, perceptions, and cultures I wouldn't otherwise be aware of. That's what makes Eurobricks a forum. It's not just about agreeing or disagreeing with what people say. That can be accomplished with Like and Dislike buttons, as on Facebook. It's also about contributing to a discussion and showing why you think what you think. Mods - I hope this isn't mini-modding? If it is, please let me know. Thanks.

OK, just checking. For a moment there I thought you were asking for the classic themes to repeat themselves every 3 years in the same way Star Wars does, in such a way as to get a refreshed Galaxy Explorer every few years, etc. That sounded out of character for you.

Thanks a lot for making this list. There are all sorts of great things to build here if I can ever find the time!