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I wish you best of luck, but I wouldn't be a customer. I feel pretty confident I could reverse-engineer most MOCs. And besides, I'd rather be building my own stuff than rebuilding somebody else's work. Of course, there should be plenty of people who would be interested, because you build some damn nice stuff.

Nope. I'm no fan of 'sneak previews'. If it's done, show it already. If it isn't, get back to work. Don't waste time with what could have been and what might have been. Of course, your mileage may vary and all that.

The concept is simple. Roll two vehicles off a plank. The one that goes farthest wins. Prizes are also rewarded for originality and the best crash.

I think the second one just broke my brain.

WHOO! That looks awesome! Thanks! Your alternative for the hero factory shields works nicely. Yeah, I substituted the grenade launchers (or whatever they were supposed to be, in-game they're miniguns, I think) for something a little more sturdy. For those who want to install the originals, here's a good view of them:

The power puller was released in the year 2000. That's eleven years ago. They don't keep parts in storage that long.

You can blame Barman, the guy who made . I think that one's also the reason are in short supply. Every AFOL's set of released instructions can have a huge impact on available parts, especially if those are rare already.

If I may quote myself: Which is why I try to keep my models away from real-life military aesthetics; is more a caricature than a real tank, and the has bright orange striping that wouldn't work all that well in a camouflage paintjob.

The two receiver deal -does- give a slight advantage in acceleration and maneuvering. However, it's not enough to justify the purchase of another receiver for people who may be new to Power Functions. Also, after a while there were some problems; the internal safety of the receiver seemed to kick in at random intervals. Never figured out how to get rid of that. Since I don't want to deal with people complaining that the model doesn't work, I changed it back to a single receiver which may lower performance a bit, but is way more reliable. Of course, if you want to go completely nuts, there's room for two battery packs in the vehicle.

The tiny wheels on them allow the wheel to slide sideways. When tank-steered vehicles turn, they have to overcome the sideways fricton on their tracks or wheels. Because the tiny wheels take away much of that friction, it can do powerslides and those 360-degree turns, while still going in the same direction. Oh, and they also do this:

Want to build it? Here are 118 pages of instructions. Sample picture: NOTE: General knowledge of Technic is required. Unless your brick collecton is completely insane, you will have to buy parts to complete this model.

Hey look! Guess what comes up as the first result when you google for 'lego yarn winder'!

Another racer for the ACC: pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28134808@N02/sets/72157626047182631/with/5488457648/

If you want secondhand, look into www.bricklink.com or www.ebay.com If you want to see what the new technic sets can do, get over to www.lego.com . If you want to know what old sets can do, see http://ericalbrecht.com/technic/ .

... Seeing this topic I thought Lego had already started the challenge. False alarm. This is kind of a bummer.

Can someone please fix the thread title?

Well, they had. In 1976. These things expire eventually, though. And Lego had a couple of decades to profit from their invention. A little competition ought to keep them sharp (and prices a little lower)

Two things I'm wondering about; 1: will their technic holes be at the proper heighth? Apparently, a technic hole isn't the same heighth as (for example) the stud on a headlight brick. it's a very small difference, but apparently it's there. 2: what's the point of differently colored technic pins?

Transclear gearbox: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=46220 Similar: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=6588&colorID=12&in=A

You said the tail rotor didn't spin as well as you'd hoped. You might want to replace the blue pin it's on with a grey one.

Isn't that kind of the point? If it's hard to take apart, this means it can stand a bump here or there as well. I know what you mean, though. Pretty much everything I've built has been rebuilt from the ground up more than once. While I agree that a well-built studded frame can propably be used to knock out a burglar (I swear, this has a studded frame and feels like a baseball bat) I don't much care for stud connections anymore. I much prefer the 'click' of a technic pin. (of course, this has mainly to do that during exhibitions many of my models will be driven by kids. You can't really take chances with structural integrity, there.)

When you see the car from below, there's an orange block. I find it very likely that it is http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=x928cx1

Star Wars Geek: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=50904 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=x928cx1 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=58121c01 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=58120c01 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=58122c01 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=58123c01 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=54950c02 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6582 x4 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6581 x4 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=44809'>http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=44809 x2 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6573 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=45705 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32498 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32177 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=87083 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=87082 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=44 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=61073 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=64681 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=64393 -below this line are easier to get parts- http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32250 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6538c http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6553 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32054 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6632 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=42003 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=4265c http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3713 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=41677 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32000 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32184 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6536 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=4274 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=4019 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32269 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32270 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=44294 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32073 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=4519 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32002 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32278 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32017 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6589 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32034 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32056 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32525 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=2825 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=43093 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6558 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=2905 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32526 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3707 http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3706 Good luck! (And no. There will not be instructions. Unless somebody else wants to make them, which is fine by me.)

Gearing: XL motor -> 36z:12z -> 20z:12z -> differential. That makes 5:1 total. It's quite a good balance between acceleration and top speed. Well, one advantage of film is that you can just try a couple of times until you get it right. However, the more I practice the less tries I need. And I'm glad you think it's still innovative; I've built plenty of remote control cars, but there's still improvements to be made. Well, odds for ice here are low 'til next december or so. Also, it's an ice racer in name only, the differential makes it far too susceptible to losing traction. I just liked the colorscheme, I'm afraid :D And yes, Youtube is being a bitch with videos in Germany, and I can't seem to fix it without losing the music, which I'd rather not. If you're wondering, you can see all the video's I've put on flickr by searching my photostream for 'youtubemirror' or using this link. And to everybody else; thanks for the kind words.

I think he's perfectly right. It's an arbitrary distinction anyway. The use of studless parts has simply increased over the years. One might argue that kicked off the studless age. But to me, it was that signaled that something new was coming.