Mylenium

Eurobricks Knights
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Everything posted by Mylenium

  1. Mylenium

    Timeline of Lego Molds

    Well, if you mean moldings, then I'm sure this can be figured out, but otherwise new molds are used all the time. Not meaning to be a grammar nazi, but this distinction matters. Mylenium
  2. Mylenium

    Injection marks on weird places

    Not really. Your statement wouldn't even make much sense considering that lately e.g. several tile elements had just the opposite and had their injection points moved from the edges to the underside so they're smooth all the way round. One could sound all smart and make up a million reasons like optimized flow of the material, less internal warping/ tension and so on, but perhaps the simple truth is that a "flat" placement may increase yield. You can place and design the injection sprue/ tree differently, you may need less reservoirs to even out the internal pressure and flow, placement of clippers and auto-clipping may work better. If they can squeeze a handful more elements into a mold block and produce less waste, it makes a huge difference for a company as big as LEGO. That could easily accumulate to thousands of dollars saved in a production run. The cost of a mold itself doesn't change much, though. There's always a baseline amount you can't get rid of. After all, you need a block of metal that has all sorts of connections for cooling/ pre-heating, vacuum, ejector pins and whatnot. Mylenium
  3. Mylenium

    Landscape MOC-ing: Creating Chalk Art

    It might help if you actually showed what you have. My first instinct would definitely be turning a regular stack of bricks and plates on its side with SNOT techniques sprinkled in to add the "grass" on top (the actual flank), but without any visuals it will be hard to judge what could work and what doesn't. Mylenium
  4. One can complain about LEGO's insane pricing and at the end of the day we all do, regardless from which angle we see things, but the other points don't make much sense to me. There have always been a lot of LEGO sets that clearly were intended to be built once and then displayed or played with without ever being disassembled and combined into something new. You just need to look at some Technic stuff from the 1990s and early 2000s. That and the number of people who actually build custom stuff (in a meaningful way where it's presentable, not just random kit-bashing) has ever only been a fraction of the whole demographic. I guess it really has a lot to do with in which sub-bubble of the LEGO community you move and that informs your perception. Yeah, sure, it's annoying, but just let them. Being poor as a mouse I choose to not get worked up over it too much, though of course there's a certain jealousy when someone who perhaps may not appreciate what treasure he has in his hands and he just stashes it away or brainlessly builds it why I'm sitting here drooling and regretting that I can't afford the same... What is the point of any such scheme then? Is buying some clothes or new shoes then just as bad? I tend to disagree on that point. Most humans' minds are just not set up in a way that would allow them to resist the temptation. That's just basic psychology and this has been thoroughly researched to the point of how such things become genuine addictions and vices. Can't blame people for their monkey brain being susceptible to all those marketing tricks, which LEGO all too well knows how to play at... Mylenium
  5. Mylenium

    Why do only certain sets stickers peel?

    Contrary to what LEGO will have you believe, they're changing materials all the time. Trivial stuff like the foil thickness of the sticker sheet can have a huge impact and there are technical differences from the outset on transparent vs. opaque vs. silver coated sheets. Similarly, the ink/ paint from the prints can exude solvents, it can contract and expand, multiple inks and coatings can have weird interactions. Same for the glue on the underside. And then of course there's that whole thing of how the material adapts to the different surfaces There's a million factors to consider here. Suffice it to say that you just have to accept it and most of the time you can do very little or nothing about it even under ideal conditions. There are just limitations on how strong and sticky you can make those decals without dissolving the bricks they are supposed to be applied to... Mylenium
  6. It's perfectly normal. As much as I love them, but the birds come off easily of the Old Fishing Store. They use the "old" soft material and a somewhat loose mold. These days LEGO would likely just dual- or triple-mold them with a regular hard material. Mylenium Different times back then... Mylenium
  7. Whatever images you tried to post/ link to don't show up and based on such a generic question it will be impossible to make much sense of your description. That said, it seems to me that the weapon is just a full replacement of the hand and is attached via a short axle or axle pin, so I'm not sure what you are realyl asking. Anyway, clearly some screenshots with the problem itrems marked out with arrows or such are needed before anyone can tell you what you may need to change/ fix to make it work. Mylenium
  8. Mylenium

    Lego colors - coming and going

    The new skin tone/ brown-ish color can also be clearly seen in the Elvis Presley LEGO ART mosaic, so it's definitely coming. Mylenium
  9. Mylenium

    Reselling vs Scalping?

    Scalping can ever only happen on sets that are still being produced/ currently sold. You need to keep your terminology straight on that one and distinguish the act of proactively draining the market vs. supplies simply depleting over time. Of course there can be any kind of overlap a "scalper" can sit on a stockpile of sets for years after his devious act, but that is merely a side effect. The rest is not worth having a discussion over from POV. I loathe both types of people and it's stupid. Why can't they just enjoy LEGO and build their stuff? I yearn the day when all their sets have fallen to dust from natural degradation of the plastic... Mylenium
  10. C'mon, don't be so lame! Of course everyone around here understands that we're talking about a commercial product and the company behind it trying to make money. However, why should that stop people from discussing whether they could achieve the same based on a different business approach? It's all in good fun. Pulling tired platitudes therefore isn't really that interesting... Mylenium
  11. Can you, though? There's enough research to suggest the contrary. Some people's brains just aren't set up with a suitable wiring in the first place and learning stuff is intrinsically linked to the development of that big blob of fat with neuro fibers embedded into it. So even if you can "learn" creativity, it is limited by hard physiological factors. And blaming the educational system on shortcomings in fostering creativity strikes me as the lamest excuse I can think of... Yupp... There's a million quotes from great artists that always state that you can never be 100 percent satisfied with your work. You declare a piece of art finished, but it's never really finished in your mind or else painters wouldn't revisit and touch up images years after they first produced them... Mylenium
  12. It's pretty much a mix of everything with the real point of buying sets being, for me at least, that some parts never become available separately, anyway, or at least not in significant numbers and only late after release. Pretty much depends, though. I may buy some discounted sets once or twice, but typically we don't have real clearance sales here in Germany, so buying a set you really didn't want just for parts is not much of an option if you're on a budget. Whenever I see photos and reports from the US or UK with 70% off it really makes me jealous... Mylenium
  13. One side of the problem, sure, but the other is simply that LEGO has become so popular that it's easy to ride the wave and try to make a buck off it. Also, as skilled as some people may be in their hobby, they are often terrible presenters and that's also part of the game... Mylenium
  14. The mechanics work both ways, though. How many of those terrible "view box" sets are on LEGO Ideas alone and then there's another slew of even more. Everybody & their mum apparently want to have their favorite TV series or movie turned into a LEGO set. Same for people demanding Amazon's upcoming "Lord of the Rings" series to be used as an excuse to bring back older sets from that theme (will never happen, BTW). And at least part of that is driven by AFOLs and MOC builders as well. So in a way, LEGO are sometimes giving fans only what they have been vying for, even if it's just over-commercialized garbage... Mylenium
  15. Was he, though? Funny that you mention him, as I pretty much feel like him on some days - I rarely get things finished because I distract myself with too much other stuff and am constantly unsatisfied with my own work. I would probably take 25 years to finish the M.L. just as well and then technically it wasn't even finished. He just died. :-) Yeah, sure, I fully agree on that with you, but that doesn't mean that everyone will reach a certain level of skill no matter how hard they practice. And that is kind of the point. You have to recognize your limitations just as well or else you just end up being a hack. That's like those many "aspiring VFX artists" I regularly encounter in my other life. They may be able to create a certain effect on the technical merits, but many of them never evolve to a point where they could be truly great simply because they just don't put in the work to learn stuff like image composition, camera techniques, lighting or how to generally produce stuff plus the quirks of their favorite graphics programs. That's basically what I mean: You can't forever oparate at a certain level without making progress and I feel the same about MOCs. Mylenium
  16. Dunno... Not meaning to be a party pooper, but to me that sounds a bit like the claim that anyone who can hold a brush is painter. Bob Ross may have said so, but it is far from the truth. Some MOCs just aren't good or at least interesting, so them not getting much attention strikes me as perfectly normal. Call me a snob, but I expect a certain level of sophistication and excellence in any medium, be that just on the technical merits or the artistic expression and I just can't help but sit here and feel "Yeah, a bunch of stacked bricks. So what?" on some MOCs. I don't mean to discourage anyone, but to me this is a matter of "If you're not committed and lean into it, why even bother?". I can totally get behind a MOC if I just "feel" that someone had fun doing it, even a random thing bashed together by a kid, but I just don't like many lazy jobs that simply feel uninspired or all too obviously play on that "Look what I have here!" kind of attention grabbing. It's what keeps me from supporting many LEGO Ideas projects, BTW... Mylenium
  17. Mylenium

    Looking for ideas - brick build chain

    You could probably borrow an idea from the Super Mario Sets: https://www.brickmerge.de/71381-1_lego-super-mario-begegnung-mit-dem-kettenhund-erweiterungsset This could be modified/ enhanced with this part: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=41677#T=C Otherwise, if it just needs to be a static illusion consider things like bucket handles, Minifigure helmet visors/ protective glasses, scissors, or tools or even something like the claw bar: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=48729#T=C You will need some clips and otehr stuff to secure things in place, but when arranged meticulously this can look like chains. Mylenium
  18. Mylenium

    Assembly Help.

    This will never work in this simplified fashion. You're simply not operating within the grid of the LEGO system. It most definitely would work with some brackets, you just would have to insert additional plates to get the correct spacing and that's probably where the wheels fall off your plane, in a manner of speaking... Mylenium
  19. There's certainly a ton of MOCs, but even within this sub-set there seems to be a divide between those doing it just for fun and those trying to get rich & famous off it. Other than that there's certainly a trend of commercializing hobbies or your skill set everywhere. I definitely notice it in the graphics industry with everyone selling stock art and many neophyte's primary motivation to even learn programs being to make a buck or two. As for LEGO specifically i think it simply has become very mainstream-y with the company actively pushing in a certain direction and the mere flood of commercial sets also simply taking a lot of attention away from MOCs. Point in case: If you just want to build stuff, you'll always find something without even digging into MOCs and outside specific interests and communities this simply has been gnawing away at the merits and popularity of custom building. That and let's not forget that competing products have also become more widely available, further dividing the user base. There could be a nice MOC out there that you're never going to be interested in because the creator licensed it to some Chinese company that you have no interest in... Mylenium
  20. Entirely depends on the complexity of the project and its respective requirements. This is the old gag I've seen so many times doing my animations as 3D artist or working with engineers and tech-doc people. Everything is nice and easy if you're working on a simple static view, but god forbid people need to rotate a view in Acrobat 3D or navigate around their model... I guess ultimately that's one of the reasons why a lot of such stuff is still done "on paper" with fixed perspectives and all sorts of text explanations and auxiliary callouts. Your example pretty much only works because there's nothing obstructing the view, but things could be infinitely more complicated e.g. on a complex Technic model. It's one of the reasons why I can't get behind LEGO's interactive instruction apps, perhaps simply because I know the limitations all too well... Mylenium
  21. Mylenium

    Do you only buy lego?

    There's a few of them in the Chinese New Year sets for 2022 and I vaguely remember having seen them in some other instruction PDFs. They'll be commonplace soon enough. Mylenium Yeah, that ultimately is the point. You can buy some cheap re-branded Chinese OEM set at Lidl and the quality is just as good as LEGO was a few years ago already. It's really about those five percent extra that makes a difference, but most original manufacturer sets from COBI, Xingbao and so on have pretty eliminated that small gap, also. The only real difference is the building techniques and that's what usually puts me off with some sets such as the ones from Bluebrixx @Toastie mentioned - if I pay money for it, I don't want things to feel like a hacky MOC with single stud connections and similarly atrocious stuff. Mylenium
  22. Mylenium

    Lego colors - coming and going

    Probably irrelevant, anyway. Unless you verifiably know the actual manufacturers production numbers or can correlate that to an existing color reference system like Pantone, FS or RAL it really doesn't mean much to most people. Mylenium Probably even more complicated than that, as printing certain color combinations might require to compensate for degradation when fine details get overwhelmed by other colors or the occasional semi-transparent printing... Mylenium
  23. Mylenium

    Angle elements losing clutch?

    What exact elements? What color? What else? A photo certainly might help. Perhaps it's just a bad production batch, perhaps something else... Mylenium
  24. Mylenium

    Lego colors - coming and going

    *lol* Too true, unfortunately... Mylenium
  25. Mylenium

    Do you only buy lego?

    Not at all. I try to keep my LEGO collection clean & pure for MOC building and such, but I've had my share of Mega Construx models and one or two COBI. I'm also constantly tempted by some other stuff, but since I neither have the money nor the space to e.g. keep around a ton of modular buildings, that usually goes nowhere. Mylenium