Lasse D

I think it's great. X-D 12 points to Ireland. It's much better that what Denmark delivers and that contest deserves all the mockery it can get after what we saw last year. Tactical votings FTL. I can't think of any Western country thinking any less of Ireland or its inhabitants because of this.

Futuron good? I see them more like "the company" (Aliens) or the Alliance (Firefly). You never know who are the real good guys, although LEGO might want you to think different X-D Regarding my module, I don't think you should make the connection "slow building = good". It is more like "a lack of Space parts + 6 years of building other themes + don't really know what to build => slow building". I think the secret of making a good combined layout (with many themes) is to keep the same style and try to work together instead of having a "I have to beat his module with even more greeble and SNOT!"-competition going on. Caf

Whoa! That ship looks better each time we get a new picture of it. Say hello to the top of my "need to have" list for 2008! It is not only a nice construction, but also a great set for parts for what I can see. There were times when I could only dream about building such big ships with my bricks, and now it will become a set! *wub*

Well. The point of the Moonbase standard is pretty much to team up as far as I know. I think it would be fun, but with the speed of my building at the moment, you would have to be very, very patient if you want to wait for me to get finished - it took me a whole day just to build a single wheel for one of the vehicles and right now I'm only finished with the bottom of the module :-P To make matters worse, I will have to wait until Easter until I can resume building! :-| It is the plan that I'm going to join a display at an event in late April, so I sure hope to be finished by then. BTW. You mentioned a 9V-motor. What does it do? I think I see a small red one beneath the radar/laser?, but I'm not sure.

Is it just me or does everyone in here agree that two weeks is a long time for an order through BrickLink? If I gave feedback for orders that took this long, I would have to do it almost every second time! I have once bought from a seller who took more than a month to deliver and after giving him positive feedback (I guess I'm way too forgiving?), he conveniently forgot to give me the same courtesy.

What a coincidence! I'm also building a Futuron Moonbase-module right now. I can see you might have taken inspiration from the Dacta set regarding the colors and I really like the classic feel of it all with the small space ships, robots and way you have styled the building. I thought Futuron was restricted to white with black trimming, so my module will be zebra-colored :-P once it is finished. Thanks for the inspiration ;-)

I complained directly to LEGO about this as soon as I saw the flaw in the 2007 City service station. They said it was because of issues in the production, but I still see the problem in the new Town Plan, so I guess it will take some time before the color quality is up to pre-outsourcing standards.

I have finally bought enough bleys to be able to build something useful out of them and I like both. Old gray goes very well with white while Bley looks better with red. The two will rarely be combined in the creations I make and the change has been quite expensive. Bottom line: OK, but please don't do this again! BTW. Try to compare the new (barely trans) whites with some old white bricks. :'-(

I have finally been able to test it and the results are... It works! *y* You have to turn the battery box n to the "right" side and voil

The latter responses in this thread have made me think more about the designs of the mechs, and I think many of the posters are on to something about them being westernized. I actually think I will reserve judgment and wait to see what replaces Exo Force. If it is replaced by a licensed Mecha-theme, then I'll be very happy for it. If some people can dreams about Pirates, then I should be able to dream about this as well :-D I will still be quite baffled if LEGO really doesn't "screen" in America (it's called screening in Danish). I mean. It is the second largest marked (second to Germany, right?), so to release something like the new and very European like Mail sub theme for City seems a bit risky.

It doesn't seem like a good practice to sell products globally for which there have only been made a Danish marked analysis. I have only seen these screenings in Denmark, but it doesn't mean that this is the only place it is done. That said, this was not the point. The point is that Exo Force was not made because of some "Danish kids who don't play with LEGO" suggested it. I read the sentence and figured how an American might have said it, which is why I was so harsh in my remark. I'm sorry if that has offended you. I also sorry for my factual error. Takeshi is a given name and not a surname. I made the mistake because the names are pronounced in opposite order in Japan, but this does of course not change their types. Wow. I'm suddenly not so sad about the demise of Exo Force...

I'm happy that I have not encountered any of these Mega Blocks yet, but I don't think it is wise to throw the blocks away. They are like used syringes. Some child might find them and get AIDS. :'-( You have to use your local Disposal Of Offending Megabloks (DOOM) program which varies from city to city. If I found a copy brick, I must make sure to burn it down, encapsule the remains in led and bury it in a nationally selected toxic waste site. Failure to comply will be handled as an act of treason.

At least it's positive and not "You should not do it like that. Look at my stuff.".

Do you have any source to back that nonsense up, or are you just typing in rage? LEGO has clearly made some mistakes with Exo Force, but don't go tossing the blame around in blindness. The names make good sense. "Sentai" is used in the military to mean something like "regiment" and Takeshi is a common surname in Japan.

As an "otaku" I should have been much more enthusiastic about this line, but I think the sets were poorly designed. The mechs follow the standard recipe with a flat rigid back, ball jointed arms and legs while the pilot is put into the chest like an afterthought. It is fine to keep that design to a couple of mechs, but try to do something original with the others, please! Another big problem with the line is the emptyness of the models. They are all big because of long appendages sticking out in all directions. Even the big green devastator was pretty much a Technic case with some over sized wheels being the main attraction (and I will make some good use of those *sweet* ). This might not seem like a big problem, but take a look at the thumbnails used in S@H and you will see where it breaks down. Most of the sets don't look impressive when shown like that. You can hardly make up that some of them are mechs! I think this line could have been much better had LEGO allied itself with one of the Anime studios. I'm frustrated so don't try to argue with me using logics!

There ya go: Now. No more confusing questions. They make my nose bleed.

I see the space problem, but I'm more interested in using power from outlets instead of batteries. My plan is to introduce user interaction with the PF system to layouts, such as GBC, but also in ordinary train layouts. To let the audience control small (and secured) parts of a GBC-layout might make them even more interesting. I still have to work on the "how to give the audience PF-controllers" and "have all in on the idea"-parts :-)

I have an idea. Instead of short circuiting certain pins in order to avoid this problem, what about adding an empty PF-battery box to the circuit? Old 9V -> PF-cable -> Empty PF battery box (turned on) -> PF IR-receiver. I have forgotten my own PF-cables, so can anyone try this out?

I don't know if you have found the answer yet, but the motors support all speeds simply by switching between "on" and "brake" (not "float"). By changing the frequencies you get the different speeds. This is also how it is done in the NXT. Thank you very much Mark. I'm working in LeJos (Java for NXT), which has a pretty reactive approach to new NXT releases IMO. The work that the people have done in the other languages should help me implement it in LeJos without too much work. Good luck on your future work with the PF electronics.

Ouch. That is one of the design flaws that I feared. It also means that you cannot power an IR-receiver using an old 9V power supply like control center II or the widely used train pult! I hope LEGO will issue a recall or at least change the IR-receiver so that it works as it should. And when they are at it, they might as well make use of that extra bit in the protocol for 8 channels instead of 4.

I think one should be reactive instead of proactive in cases like this. I other words. I do not agree with the lawyers who might think they work in LEGO's best interest.

... and may you get a lot of rattling presents! X-D

I can see I have rushed it a bit too much. I bought the IRLink-sensor from S@H, but HiTechnic has yet to release information about how to interact with the sensor. I don't know if I will have time to reverse engineer it and it appears nobody else has had the time (yet). It would be nice to have a 7 speed remote by the end of this month. (Made using an NXT) And a video camera X-D

Now I don't want to know how hold he is! 8-

Last time I met some of the guys (and gals?) from BelLUG they had an awesome GBC-layout which itself is worth going for! I hope my own modules will be more reliable and less "savage" the next time I meet them. :-D