SD100

Either a more rigid rod might help, or you may want to allow some more slippage. On my 3 axle locomotives I only have the center axle solid. The wheels are on 1/2 pin/1/2 axles and held in by the rods and that has alleviated a lot of friction. It also allows slightly more side to side movement in curves and switches. SD

That second picture looks awesome. I love how everything is smoothed out like that. SD

I paired the hubs and just turned the rear motor around. The cord just comes out the rear door of the loco and around the coupler. SD

While I was skeptical in the beginning of michealgale's claims, I am beyond impressed with the amount of products he is now bringing to sale. I appreciate that this is a massive undertaking to produce all of these different components for what is really a niche market. At this point, anything directly compatible to L gauge track is much better than a half baked aftermarket solution, I don't want kids messing with soldered/shrink wrapped wire connections on a layout that's not permanently attached to anything all the time. And if his motors eventually are taking more power, then I want a controller that will also power them at that level, without bastardizing multiple interfaces. Today I just made my first investment in the FX Bricks system, but I'm looking forward to making many more. I'm invested now. SD

I have a son and daughter. My son loves playing with the Friends houses... For detail and the tens of tiny accessories they come with, they blow away CITY sets in playability. I've got a whole Friends neighborhood in one corner now and both of them can play there for hours. My daughter, on the other hand, wants to know why there aren't minidoll firetrucks (I'm working on it). She likes the ambulance and the last hospital, but really wants more action/service related sets. Issues we are finding in our "Integrated" Lego town are that things like restaurants, or trains, need to have minidoll seating available, so they get converted as long as there are parts to do so. Just listening to my kids shows that there are huge areas of overlap that Lego really doesn't seem to cover. In City, you can *zoom* any number of vehicles, but you can rarely cook breakfast, in Friends, you can cook breakfast, but the vehicle to *zoom* might be 12 studs wide and not really fit in anywhere else... I feel play wise that's a little bit of a problem. I would say the reason things like CITY are popular for boys is that it is things they see every day, but the same applies to a lot of the Friends concepts, and the fact is all genders of children see the same things every day, and in splitting THAT up into gendered subjects is where Lego is missing out. SD

Unfortunately this is a problem that seems to be increasing in frequency. My Bad Batch shuttle was missing 7 parts, making it impossible to finish. this being my third set with missing piece problems I now make notes on the part list during the build process if I find anything missing. It helps to also note the 4 character factory number on the tape on the box before you discard the box, so when you call them for the new parts they can know which factory is creating the errors. After a quick phone call they've usually expedited the missing parts to me. SD

How's that video coming? I've got a bunch of the switches and that rubber band is a pain. Even a thicker one like the Lego one might help a bit, or making that pin larger so it can't slip through. I love that trains can fly through these switches, but I have to inspect and fix them all the time. SD100

You can also pry the bottom off and fix it, it's not glued or anything. SD

That's a beautiful ship there. Were your historical aims primarily the sailplan, or was the rest of the ship based on a particular design? I really like the look of the rear covered cabin and roof but I haven't seen any historical designs like that. Also, how does the tensioning system work? The rigging looks great. SD

Trying to add the latest parts pack results in half the parts group icons becoming question marks. It's a fresh install of LDD 4.3. Am I screwing something up here or is there a way to fix this? SD

That would be a cool train to see in real brick. The Obs. car has definitely given me some inspiration. SD

That GT3 running looks pretty impressive, is that running the 1:3? And are you using any type of lubricant? So far my two attempts at just running power through gears have made me simplify everything down to as few gears as possible to prevent friction or stripping, so this just looks crazy to me, but I am working on a 2 motor 4-6-4 so it's also intriguing. Now I gotta hit bricklink and see if I have anything with that differential piece in it, lol. SD

That shark bike is awesome! Great shaping on it. SD

Well if the hull is that screwed up, would it now be feasible to try and detach the hull pieces to see if there is a way to do that? SD

Those are some cool updates, love that boat! SD