Ralph_S
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Posts posted by Ralph_S
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This is a weird topic indeed.
I'm a finger hinge. Slim, very useful and a bit oldschool
Cheers,
Ralph
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Are you saying you'd add to the price of the model to pay for your time taking pictures and listing things? That's nonsense, might as well charge for the time it took you to go poop and the toilet paper it took to wipe too.
It's not nonsense at all. If you buy a product from a company, you pay for part of the advertising and yes, you also pay for time people at that company spend on the loo and their loo paper too. If you want to look at this thing as a way of making money, of course you have to factor in the time spent on the whole process.
Cheers,
Ralph
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Thanks everyone. Obviously the larger scale helps with the details and the interior. I couldn't have done this in minifig scale.
Cheers,
Ralph
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I agree, the point is to get people to view your work, so technically they are doing you a favor, so I think you should make it as easy for them as possible.
On the other hand, it is a bit presumptuous to assume that people are going to take the time to see all the details, which means you're doing them a favour by just showing a nice overview.
Cheers,
Ralph
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Thanks guys. When I was asked to write something for the magazine, they specifically asked for non-military models. Most of my helicopters are military, however, and I felt that the two non-military models I had didn't really show what's possible. I spent a long time thinking about what I was going to build. When I finally decided to build this, I wasn't at all sure whether I was going to be able to pull it off. Many of my builds go off without a hitch. I start building and pretty much go from start to finish in one go, without having to go back and make changes to the bits that I've already built. This wasn't one of those. The nose cam together quite quickly, but the aft part of the fuselage underwent a few rebuilds.
It's hardly minifig scale. In fact, it's about twice as large as I would consider appropriate for minifigs. I'm not quite sure whether LEGO Town is explicitly for minifig scale stuff though, but I'm pretty sure that the participants in the town forum are most likely to appreciate the model.
Cheers,
Ralph
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I built lots of new stuff, had some of my things blogged on TBB, had models in Brickjournal, and had more than a million views on flickr, but the same is true for 2010
I think the LEGO-related highpoint of my year was attending Brickfair in the DC area. I've been to a lot of events in the UK and a few in the Netherlands in the past, but this was my first event in the USA. I finally met a lot of people whom I'd more-or-less known on-line in real life, got to see great models, met fantastic new people, bought ridiculously discounted LEGO and to top it all off won an award.
Next year I'll be going to AFOLCon (in the UK), the Great Western LEGO show (UK) and back for Brickfair 2012. I'm already looking forward to it.
Cheers,
Ralph
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V-A-2AAs usual, I have no idea where to put this. Model Team? Creator? City? Who knows?
I built this model for an article for LEGO's Master Builder Academy Issue 4. By now it has been out for a while, so I can finally publish my pictures.
For years the Dutch Police used the classic Bo-105, but by the turn of the century those were getting a bit long in the tooth. In 2001, eight MD902 Explorers were ordered as replacements, but MD helicopters had difficulties meeting the requirements on time. With all the stipulated equipment, the helicopters were overweight and had to be recertified, which took longer than intended. The contract was cancelled in 2005 and six EC135s and two AW139s were bought instead and all delivered in 2009. They are based at Schiphol Amsterdam airport and at two other fields (Teuge and Volkel).
Dutch Police EC135 (1) by Mad physicist, on Flickr
The EC135 has been a great success for Eurocopter, with helicopters having been sold for Police and Air Ambulance roles all over the world.
Dutch Police EC135 (3) by Mad physicist, on Flickr
The first version of the helicopter had a fenestron/ fantail similar to the design I used on my HH-65 Dolphin. However, I remembered that I had a few propellers lying in my drawer of 'parts that don't fit in any meaningful other category' and I figured that it would fit. It doesn't turn very well, but looks far better.
Dutch Police EC135 (5) by Mad physicist, on Flickr
The big challenge when building this helicopter was the cockpit section, with the glass nose and doors. The EC135s have an extensive equipment fit for the law-enforcement role, with a cockpit interior that is compatible with night-vision goggles, weather radar, a PA system, cable-cutters, a dedicated workstation for an observer -including a 20 inch computer monitor, an IR turret, night-sun searchlight and a real-time video down-link facility to share images with police on the ground.
Dutch Police EC135 (4) by Mad physicist, on Flickr
I hope the members of Eurobricks like it and would like to wish you all a happy 2012.
Cheers,
Ralph
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There are so many MOCs out there that I give most only a cursory glance. Waiting for more than a dozen or so pictures to load in a discussion board is tedious, certainly if the model in question isn't all that interesting. If the first few pictures aren't interesting, I often can't be bothered to wait and scroll down. I click away and am unlikely to ever look at the rest or leave a comment. If there are only a few, however, I will probably see all of them and may write something, even if the MOC isn't everything I think it could be.
So, I prefer a few pictures in the thread and a link to the rest. If I'm interested, I will go to flickr or MOCpages or wherever the rest are hosted. That's how I do it too. I chose a few nice pictures that give a general view and they link to flickr.
Cheers,
Ralph
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I will very likely be coming over to the UK for AFOLCON. I couldn't make it last time, but things look better this year. The guy who built St. Pancras (Warren Elsmore, the organiser of the show) has a van.
I've attended numerous shows in the UK whilst living in the Netherlands traveling by plane. This summer I also took models to the US. The models go into my suitcase as check-in luggage on the aircraft. The way I keep them more-or-less in one piece is by packing them into a cardboard box lined with bubble wrap and with lots of plastic bags packed between them to keep them from moving about. The box gets tucked inside my hard-shelled suitcase and wedged in there such that it doesn't move about either. That's key: you ought to keep the models from moving around and banging into each other. They usually sustain some damage, but nothing I couldn't repair on the spot.
I will probably be socialising in the evenings. I've been a member of Brickish for years, so I know a fair few people in the British AFOL scene, and expect to see quite a few friends at the show.
Cheers,
Ralph
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I would rather see other Star Wars spaceships instead of 7 Millenium Falcons. There's a ton of ships they could do instead of the same one in so many versions. The different versions of City vehicles don't have anything to do with the Star Wars sets. We get City sets since 40 years, and the main themes are still the same, it's normal. Redundancy could be avoided for licensed themes, as they offer a huge background material.
I think you have to keep in mind that LEGO is selling most of these sets to kids. Lots of little boys will want a fire engine, so LEGO constantly brings out fire engines. The same goes for the Star Wars sets. Kids might be interested in Clone Wars or whatever, but if they've seen the original trilogy, they'll definitely want a Millenium Falcon, so LEGO constantly brings out fire engines. It's not rocket science.
Cheers,
Ralph
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You should build the most Aussie of police vehicles ; A divvy van We even have a chant which comes out in public places when the cops cart someone off 'Your going home in the back of a divvy van' :-)
Thanks for that. I don't think I've ever seen one of those before.
The ones based on the Ute are atrociously ugly. I'm not sure I'd go there. The ones based on the Holden Crewman are a bit less ugly, but still an acquired taste. This is definitely going on my list as a possibility.
Cheers,
Ralph
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Can't help but look at the UK Ford Focus and think of Top Gear. Good job none the less. Especially on the figures to.
As a big Top Gear fan myself, I can understand that. I had thoughts of Jeremy Clarkson shouting 'Power Power Power' and calling the Ford Focus ST the 'Ford ABSO' in my mind whilst building it, not to mention the episode in which the three of them had to buy 2nd hand cars and turn them into Police cars.
Hi
Wow the dutch police setup is great. There are alldetails in that i have seen during the many times they stoped me during my many trips within the Netherlands. ;)
For those that are familiar with the Passat: The doubble whitish backlights are different, one is larger and has a differnt "interior". You made that small detail very well by using the 1x1 round plates in two differnt ways. Cool! But sedans are very rare, 85% of allPassats here are "Variants".
Dino
On behalf of all Dutch tax-payers: thank you for your contribution
I know that most Passats that are sold are estate cars/ wagons and I understand why (lots more space for not all that much more money), but I chose a sedan for two reasons. I like the looks of it more, but more importantly, I knew that recreating the car's look was going to be very difficult. Many modern cars are a bit nondescript. In real life there are plenty of differences to help distinguish a Passat from the other cars in its price range, but rendered in LEGO making these differences visible is difficult. I figured that it would be more recognisable as a sedan than as an estate car.
dutch vw looks good, brick on!
Thank you. Much appreciated.
Cheers,
Ralph
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I realise that this thread has become quite long and that probably not all of you will have read everything, but the business week article I linked to in my first post made it pretty clear that LEGO are aware that the colour scheme and some of sets are stereotypical.
However, irrespective of whether many girls' preference for pink colours and for dogs and ponies over cars is due to nature and/or nurture, one thing is clear: if LEGO don't opt for a somewhat 'girlie' theme, a lot of girls out there will probably either never play with LEGO or turn away from it once they reach the age (around five) where their preference apparently kicks in. That would be a terrible shame and LEGO would be stupid to do it differently.
Cheers,
Ralph
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Businessweek have an interesting article on the Friends line. It deals exactly with the issues that some of the people in the comments in the page linked to in the original post were about
The Lego Friends team is aware of the paradox at the heart of its work: To break down old stereotypes about how girls play, it risks reinforcing others. “If it takes color-coding or ponies and hairdressers to get girls playing with Lego, I’ll put up with it, at least for now, because it’s just so good for little girls’ brains,” says Lise Eliot. A neuroscientist at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago, Eliot is the author of Pink Brain Blue Brain, a 2009 survey of hundreds of scientific papers on gender differences in children. “Especially on television, the advertising explicitly shows who should be playing with a toy, and kids pick up on those cues,” Eliot says. “There is no reason to think Lego is more intrinsically appealing to boys.”
from: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/lego-is-for-girls-12142011.html
Cheers,
Ralph
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Wow, this discussion has turned hot!
To those of you who don't like them:
-Nobody is putting a gun to your heads to buy them.
-There are lots of other sets that aren't in licensed themes -not just City and Dinos, but also the utterly brilliant creator sets, so there's plenty of other stuff to buy. Some stores may mainly stock the licensed sets at the expense of the non-licensed ones (because they're cash cows), but with online resources such as brickset, eurobricks, flickr and whatnot, you actually get a better look at the sets than you can from looking at the box in a store. I buy almost all of my LEGO on-line.
-While it's true that LEGO could introduce new parts in other themes, the licensed sets are some of the biggest sellers. Their sales help fund the development of useful parts that eventually will find their way into non-licensed sets -such as light-sabre blades and handles- and into our collections. They simply wouldn't be able to introduce as many new parts as they do if it weren't for the money they rake in with the licenses.
Finally, a personal note, some of you seem very hung up on the design of the sets -something that I think applies to a lot of people active on Eurobricks. Everybody is free to enjoy their hobby the way they see fit, of course, but for me LEGO is about building my own stuff and I appreciate what licensed sets have to offer for that.
Ralph
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They all look lovely. I think the Beamer is the most recognizable, while I think you did a fantastic job in creating the Dutch police colour scheme.
Another idea: a Porsche in the Rijkspolitie-version. Especially in the old colour scheme, with the orange doors. Maybe the 80s version, since you already built a classic 911. You could even complete it with a Bolkow helicopter!
It's funny that you should mention that. I have thought about rebuilding my Porsche into a Rijkspolitie car. It would require very few changes and is definitely something that I may have a go at in the future. A few months ago I also looked at building a Dutch Police helicopter. I didn't go for a Bo 105, though, but for its modern replacement: the EC 135.
Dutch Police by Mad physicist, on Flickr
Hi
wow - thank you for the back image of the BMW. There is no reason to hide that, it is nice and easy to recognise as the front is. It is really a 320d with just one exhaust ;)
Where do i found your Passat? I have one and it would be great to build one ;)
Dino
Thank you. It is a 320D indeed. The reason I didn't show all of them from all angles was because I didn't want to flood the discussion with a large number of photographs. The pictures I posted are all links to flickr and more pictures of all of them can be found there.
However, here are two pictures of the Passat -albeit a regular civilian one.
Volkswagen Passat (2) by Mad physicist, on Flickr
Volkswagen Passat (5) by Mad physicist, on Flickr
Cheers,
Ralph
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Thanks guys. There's obviously plenty of scope for adding more cars from different countries.
Have you considered a Lego version of the Carbon Motors E7?
I haven't. Right now they're still just prototypes. Once they start showing up in an interesting livery of a real police department, I might.
Cheers,
Ralph
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(snip)
Sometimes with themed sets you feel constrained by what is in the world of the theme. For example in Star Wars you can only build things that have been in the films or one of the spin offs. Now i know that actually you could build whatever you liked, but I get the impresion most people do not think that way.
I missed that comment until fallenangel309 quoted it. If your objection were valid, you could also raise it against the City theme and certainly Trains! However, people thinking that they can only build things that are close to Star Wars with parts from Star Wars sets in my opinion shows their lack of imagination rather than something inherently wrong with a Star Wars set.
I own dozens of Star Wars sets, but only ever built one Star Wars themed MOC. I buy them because they give me parts I can use for other models. The Sand Crawler, for instance, had a lot of brown elements that came in handy in building buildings and I used the tracks for a tank. Similarly, I own a few copies of the UCS AT-ST and used the fantastic light bley wedge plates in that for my military aircraft.
Cheers,
Ralph
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Thanks for the comments everyone.
First Ralph, let me say that these are amazing, all of them!
2ndly, the 3-series and Crown Vic were instantly reconizeable! You got that impossible kidney grill on the 3-series perfect, and the Golf ws also recognized after a second. As always, you MOCs do not cease to amaze and inspire me.
Brick On!
Dakar
The Golf was tricky and I think that the resemblance only works well from some angles. It looks better from behind.
Dude, totally AWESOME...pity you have done an Aussie V8 cop car !
As always the 'Ralph' comes back every time with his genius shining though - Brick On 'Ralph_S' !
I'm definitely thinking about building more, with an Aussie cop car high on the list. I'm not sure though whether I'll go for a sedan like Holden Commodore, for instance, or something a bit more rural, such as a Land Cruiser.
Amazing detail on these cars, fantastic job!
Hi
what a couple of great cars in a rare scale.
I would like to comment your BMW 3er:
There are a way more BMW 3er and 5er as police cars than Golfs. The german police has typical no cars that are only good for two persons ;) They use Passats instead, but younare right bavaria is full of BMW. The front looks very good, especially the BMW "kidney" - as germans call that. Do you have pictures from the back?
Dino
The ones I've seen most often are Passats, indeed, but I already had a Passat in my collection and somehow a BMW seemed more interesting.
Polizei BMW (4) by Mad physicist, on Flickr
I love that the first one with the highway patrol guy, he looks awsome with his broud brim hat.
Thank you. The cars are fun to build, but I certainly also enjoy adding the figures. The Highway Patrol guy is my favourite too, closely followed by the British Cop with his 'bobby hat' and day glo jacket.
Fantastic collection of police cars 'Ralph_S'! Very detailed build, I love the Bimmer and Crown Vic
Thank you. I have a soft spot for the Crown Vic to. Because it is such a large car in real life, the model is 11 studs wide, vs ten studs for the other three. It's HUGE.
I've seen them all before, but that doesn't make them any less lovely. The Crown Vic is my favourite, with the Focus a close second - both of them are instantly recognisable. I like the "police cars from around the world" idea - how about an Aussie one, like Lightningtiger suggests, and maybe a Norwegian (or Swedish) Volvo station wagon - maybe an 850 from a few years back? Shouldn't be too hard, with its Lego-friendly angles :)
I considered a V70 for the British Police. Their motorway police seems to use them. I probably won't do a Swedish one, though, because their markings are too similar to the British ones. One car that is high on my wish list is an Italian 'Polizia' Alfa Romeo and a Japanese police car, a Nissan Skyline for instance.
Cheers,
Ralph
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For a while now I've been building a collection of LEGO police cars from all over the world. So, here they are.
Police cars (1) by Mad physicist, on Flickr
This first one, that I built little more than two years ago is a Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. It has now gone out of production, but is still the most common cop car in the US. It is big, has a conservative cab on frame construction and a big V8 engine, and American cops love them.
CHP Ford Crown Victoria (1) by Mad physicist, on Flickr
The particular car has the classic markings of the California Highway Patrol.
Dutch Police tend to drive smaller cars, with VWs being particularly popular. Amsterdam Police, for instance, use a lot of VW Golf hatchbacks like the one I built about a year ago. These cars typically have four-cylinder turbo-Diesel engines. They're economical and agile. Most emergency vehicles in the Netherlands are painted with a pattern of diagonal stripes -orange and blue on a white background on police cars. Replicating this on a car this small and still having opening doors and half stud offsets was tricky, but fun.
Dutch Police VW Golf (2) by Mad physicist, on Flickr
I'm sure the German police use VW Golfs on occassion, but when I decided to build a German policecar a few months ago, I wanted something a bit more, well, teutonic and chose a BMW 3-series. Many German police cars are blue and silver (or blue and white) nowadays, but in Bavaria they're still painted in the more traditional green. Classy.
Polizei BMW (1) by Mad physicist, on Flickr
Finally, a few weeks ago I built a Police car from Britain. Most British police cars are painted in so-called battenburg markings: a high-visibility checkered pattern in blue and yellow. The car is a Ford Focus, Britain's best-selling car for many years.
UK Police Ford Focus (3) by Mad physicist, on Flickr
I know that most of the models in the city theme are (more-or-less) minifig scale and my models aren't. However, I'm pretty sure that many LEGO city lovers won't have seen these when I posted them in the Technic/ Model Team forum, but hope that you may enjoy seeing them and that they might give you ideas for your own (perhaps) smaller city vehicles.
Cheers,
Ralph
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This is a topic that has come up at various times, as HuntleyFX mentioned (and in different forums).
LEGO obviously struggles with this. On one hand conflict and violence sells, in particular to boys, but on the other hand it goes against the company ethos and they want to avoid any kind of bad publicity. I've got a model of a He-219, a German WW-II night fighter. At the show at which I displayed it, which has permission to use LEGO in its name, I had to remove the Swastikas on the tailfins. LEGO does not want to be associated with anything nasty from the recent future and I completely understand this.
Having the good guys look like US soldiers will not go down well in many parts of the world. There are definitely regional difference in what is considered acceptable. I mentioned the humans vs mutated lizards in my previous post. The US (and probably a few other countries) got Dino Attack, which is probably the closest thing to contemporary military LEGO has done, bristling with guns. The adversaries, however, weren't human. It was deemed too violent by focus groups in Europe and instead of Dino Attack, Europe got Dino 2010 with the guns replaced by grappling hooks, nets and cages.
Cheers,
Ralph
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Okay. I did buy some CARS sets, good movie after all. but they are kinda lack of playability, maybe because they were based on the movie so really limited the imagination? and printed pieces have very limited usage for me. so is Toy Story, although very cute characters.
same for PoP sets (many people agree PoP didn't sell well), I did buy some PoP sets when they were in clearance for the pieces.
I know Starwars and Harry Potter are very successful. but I am really a little tired of them . oh well.
My boys love play more NinjaGo now, and I like castle thing better. These really generic themes give more space for imagination.. what do you think?
(I am sure I will buy some Batman next year though. even just for the Minifigure ;)
With LEGO releasing a few hundred new sets every year, including many that aren't in any of the licensed themes, I don't really see what you're complaining about. There are plenty of other sets to choose from.
Ralph
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I had the pleasure of having dinner with two LEGO designers a few months ago. They attended a show at which I displayed a collection of military models.
My display at GWLS 2011 (3) by Mad physicist, on Flickr
Military models were obviously a topic of conversation and they both were pretty clear about LEGO never going to produce a real-world military theme. It's not going to happen. It's simply against the company founder's principles. Full stop.
LEGO acknowledge that an element of conflict often plays a role in particularly boys' play, and that element is included in many of their themes, but it is fantasy violence such as humans against mutated lizards.
I agree with Blondie-Wan, by the way, that many military models lack charm. I think military hardware is fascinating and I enjoy the challenge of building them. I also think that there are people out there who build absolutely stunning MOCs with a military theme, but ultimately they are war machines and charm is not a requirement. I personally don't think that makes them less interesting, but many LEGO sets do have a certain charm that would most likely be lacking from a theme of military sets.
Finally, I don't think it's particularly important whether LEGO make a military theme or not. In the sets that they do produce there are plenty of parts that are very useful for building your own military stuff and plenty of accessories for military minifigs too. It's the ultimate custom toy!
Cheers,
Ralph
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Today I completed the next conversion. My S-3B Viking.
S-3B Viking of VS-24 Scouts (1) by Mad physicist, on Flickr
Cheers,
Ralph
Double Decker Coach
in LEGO Town
Posted
Nice to see you build MOCs Rog. It's where the action is
I like the look of it. The wheels look a bit small compared to the bulk of the vehicle, but this way it does stay very close to the aesthetic of LEGO's own city range.
Cheers,
Ralph