Toastie

https://www.songtexte.com/songtext/madonna/material-girl-3d6953f.html (Boy or girl or in between doesn't matter) Please tell me that you did see this coming. What else? A very big company buys a comparably negligible company. Value-wise that is. Competition-wise it sucked a little - as the little one was doing nasty things. What on earth would be an alternative? Telling people that up to now, making stuff not approved by Big Brother was bad, but now, as Big Brother has acquired the place selling that bad stuff, selling it is not bad anymore? Really??? This is the most logical thing to unfold. And it will continue for sure - in the end everything will be as Big Brother wants it to be. He paid for it! Best Thorsten

I don't get the Li battery issue. There are LiPos everywhere in the house. They can all potentially blow up. Plus: Wouldn't a disclaimer like: "It is always your fault, when you buy stuff from this site" be enough? How on earth do the cell phone producers get away with this? Today, even babies to 6 years old get cell phones (only for safety or when they pee in their pants you get instant messaging), so it can't be for the "it's a toy and thus everything is getting crazy" stuff. Something is odd here. Honestly? I believe they do it to simply have their way. And that's all there is to it. SBricks gone from the site, you name it, so we buy LEGO stuff like PoweredUp - from that site. That I can readily understand. It is what companies do out there. It's normal. LEGO is not Santa, nor charity. They are a full blown corporate company acting world wide and high up with a very smart and top notch marketing department telling us again and again how much they do care. And they do - but in the end of the day, when the going gets tough, these folks need to take care of things. As Apple does. Or Aramco. Or Shell. Or Danaher. It is normal - in this world of me or you. They don't make wooden toys with almost zero profit anymore. They ride the big waves. I believe. But what do I know. I am just now making a shelf for my Black Pearl. She came from China and got a - I'd say serious - overhaul from Denmark. It works for me. And to be honest, after feeling very bad about what I did ... it is getting better and better. They close down this and that, I buy this and that form somewhere else. After all, we are living in a free world. Sort of. At least from where I live it looks like. When you don't look too close. Or even a little closer. Better look away. All the best, Thorsten

Hee hee ... two hours and counting ... Best Thorsten

Hmmmm ... they used all the EV3 high-tec to do the test. Which gives a taste of scientific sound and fair approach. You know, VW dynamometer chassis tests with their smart diesels recognizing to be on the roll and then turning on all exhaust cleaning equipment into full gear (with the mpg going through the roof) were also sort of fair - from the prospective of selling more diesels and more models in the future. Honestly: They should not present it that way. Either they did not know about this issue - which makes them look stupid... not well informed - or they did this on purpose, which means they can't envision that there are people out there knowing about this issue, which makes them look stupid. It's a lose lose situation. Best Thorsten

Impossible - Santa bought all of them to give it on Christmas eve to the Technic Gurus ... Best Thorsten

@Cumulonimbus My sincere wishes and hopes that this - rupture - in your family's life will not tear you apart. We were going through a (only) remotely comparable nightmare, when moving back from the US to Germany. Our daughter left this world on day before she was expected to see it. There was nothing - really nothing - even remotely pointing to that possibility. My wife had to give birth to a wonderful little girl - who was no breathing. Decades later, this remains to be the reason for many, many beliefs and not beliefs. However, one thing that makes a very big - unaccountable - difference from what you have to go through - and will continue to do so for ever - was that we had already two daughters - 4 and 6 years old at that time. And it was the most important thing in my life, to be able to carefully kiss Liane on her - cold - forehead. Time heals. True. But it does not make you forget - which is in turn so very important. It puts things into perspective: What really is important in life and what is not. Time ... allows you to turn such a disruptive experience into - life. Because you live. And you can make a difference. We only have that one lifetime to do that: Make a difference. In my world that is - there are others. But a workshop, your creativity, the both of you, your home, your life will provide you with opportunities. And I am certain that you will grab them - one after the other. By chance, one of these will be composed of little plastic pieces. Put together in a magical way: Making sense. Who knows. And it is really not important. Maybe years ahead, maybe not. All what counts is: The life of both of you. There is only one. Use it. Warmly, Thorsten

Input = questions: Have they been all in the same "bin"? All with the same exposure to heat/light? Do they come from the same set/box? Do they have a comparable life-time? How old are they? Output: Yes, it is absolutely possible. Axles are just that: Pieces of plastic, well ABS "compositions", well adapting to chemical change induced by environmental changes as well as initial composition. LEGO (pieces) does not last forever. Even not when untouched. It keeps on rolling. And it's been such a good time ... By the way: I personally find it - "matching" or "appropriate" or "timely", when things age. So different shades of gray mostly resemble - e.g. my hair "color" as function of time. It is a very natural thing to happen. For hair as well as for colored ABS. On a different time-scale for ABS per se as well. And that is good. All the best Thorsten

And then it makes absolutely sense to use Stud.io. I am mostly documenting what I build in real bricks - and then may play around with what I ended up assembling in the computer. With larger models I also appreciate very much the Stud.io way of telling me what is "not really" in the right place in MLCad - provided I did not want it to be not in the right place. And for the rest: Never change a running system, I believe. As log as it goes smoothly ... All the best Thorsten

A Vauxhall (called Opel over here) Zafira Tourer, 2017 model, Euro 6/AdBlue. This thing never smells - nothing. Cold or super hot motor. We have had Zafiras since 2001 ... converts in 1 minute into a 7 person mini van. Or in the same time into a 2 person ... truck like thing (volume-wise). Too bad they totally fu*ked it up DIesel-wise in Germany. Man. What a disaster. So they are (almost) gone here as well. This one was hard to find. And a bargain. Best wishes, Thorsten

Oh yes. That is so true. You can do what you want in MLCad. I use it for the same reason - then import to Stud.io, render and that's it. Best Thorsten

Honestly? I believe it remains in the dust for many years. And when your reference for the TLG in-house usage is solid - then I honestly think, this is the worst kind of behavior. I sure hope it is not like that. And if not - then it is just as it is with many software products: Folks use it until - it dies. As in: It does not make any sense anymore to use it. So many software products have come and gone - in the public domain, as well as in the money making market. The latter maybe more susceptible to ... making money. There is nothing better than an actively striving open source community. LDraw is such a community. Studio or not - I use MLCad. It works. As long as Michael is willing to tweak it for new things to come up. Plus there are a number of other publicly available, powerful programs as well. The core thing is LDraw though. They can do, endorse, support, decline, whatever - do what they want over at TLG: There will be alternatives to their very own product. It always works like that. In the past, today, tomorrow, in fiction: The public domain makes the difference. LDD is a very shiny example: Another one bites the dust. All the best, Thorsten

Hi Emanuele, frontpaged your Goliath - no just kidding. I certainly would have if I could have ... very nice and very clean and with so much detail! On mostly 6-wide - which I find even harder to do. Congratulations - on your Goliath as well as seeing it on the front page. All the best, Thorsten

Basically yes. There is a little more to it. Here is a link discussing some aspects: In principle, I am using rechargeable battery "boxes" (8878 directly, started a thread on this as well on EB, modified 88000's, modified RC train base etc. etc.): The power from the track goes first into a voltage regulator (15 V -> 9V, to be on the side safe) and from there via 2 ... 3 diodes into the NiMH rechargeables - "to trickle charge" them, when not powering any further devices. The latter are also coupled in parallel to the rechargeables. 8878/NXT/RCX1.0 are fed directly with 15V. So any stretch of unpowered track is not a problem at all. Best Thorsten

No. The whole track system is powered with 15VDC. When there are loops leading to polarity issues, a non-conducting PF track piece is inserted. Regardless of what is getting power from the track (trains, lights etc.) is doing that via a bridge rectifier, so polarity issues become obsolete on the device connected. Any automation (I don't do that as of now) needs to be software driven. The train automation project here on EB serves as example. As trains pick-up power from the track and are then controlled by on-board electronics (RF -> PF, PuP, RF -> PBricks ...) control is pretty much software based (= my laptop) All the best, Thorsten

That was a monster of an SMD part wasn't it? Try those resistors ... getting them out is ... "easy" ... putting them back in is - hot. As in very hot. On second attempt used superglue to fix them and then solder. Used too much superglue and almost died from the fumes when the soldering iron heated up everything - that was a very cool experience. When you believe that super glue - well - smells when applying it, make it hot. After a few tries, it worked well. Is that a VW van? Seems to be, according to your prints. Diesel? Then you need to fix the electronics taking care of all that "being on a chassis dynamo meter and telling folks I am a clean thing" ... Don't worry. Just bought a Euro 6 Diesel in Germany. With updated cheating software. So it doesn't cheat anymore. I guess. So they told me. Well. Yes. Thing is: We have a CO2 problem and not a NOx problem - but that is another story. I just don't care about that NOx mania. Whatever. Nice car. Would do they same as you did for the wheels - if I had the skills to do it. Best wishes, Thorsten

Yeah - that whole shoo-bang is also on the Lepin website. Just don't touch it. Best Thorsten

@Ludo I'll for sure do the same! Power everywhere (where track is that is, but here is track everywhere) as I do the pickup thing from the track, which is 15 V DC - 15 V simply because nobody else is doing it - it sounds cool to claim that). All the best! Thorsten.

I believe this is not good at all. The pricing is absolutely weird - $50 for a Pf battery box worth $10 and $50 for the Apollo 11 set ... makes no sense. Plus: https://fakeinet.com/en/macyson-com-multi-product-online-fake-shop/ this website declares it as scam. Didn't look any further as really everything is odd here. Would not touch it. Best Thorsten

I do absolutely agree on what you wrote, however, there is one thing that can potentially be very dangerous in the real world: Closing your eyes and believing that when you can't see it, it is not there. And because you can't see it won't affect you. I have seen that too many times happening - just recently within my professional activity. For almost 3 years I kept telling a rather powerful German company that their product may appear superior, but only when you close your eyes; but when you compare to what is available in world - with open eyes - you may want to change your mind and do something about it. Either make your own product better, change your own belief in being superior, etc. etc. But do something. Douglas Adams has phrased it differently but along that lines, I believe. Best Thorsten

Plus, I just read their "about us", "mission" and "legal stuff". Clicked on the individual sources etc. To me it appears as if they have some sort of official reinforcement. May be totally wrong, but it feels like that. Or they are just boldly going forward. I also believe they have "diversified". There are now a multitude of companies delivering the stuff, which is then handled by the Lepin internet shop. Maybe wrong but this would surely render lawsuits a nightmare. Man. Best Thorsten

Holy Sh*t. The entire line-up of clone brands. This has become truly >viral<. Plus: Believe me, it was truly planned as an investigation: I badly wanted the "Black Pearl" for a number of reasons. Very, very personal reasons. It has nothing to do with the actors, just the story. I had already many of the parts assembled - but it was tough to get hold of all. So one dark night, about 2 months ago, I pressed "buy" on eBay. The seller was apparently located in the Netherlands. With a name close to X-Ping-Tong or whatever. €39,99 with free shipping. This set sells well above €400 new and over €250 used (close to complete) on eBay and BL. This will NEVER be cleared in my family as being reasonable. So - I did the forbidden thing. Tracking was possible as well: The box was wrapped up in some close destination to Shanghai. Then hauled to the airport of Shanghai. Then flown overnight to Frankfurt. Then transported to airport customs. Then cleared - as 39,99 and no drugs, guns, gold, whatever inside was OK. Then delivered to my house. Everything very nicely trackable. Within 2 weeks. I will never ever do this again, as this is totally insane. Completely, utterly insane. I feel very bad about that craziness and my decision. Nevertheless: Put that ship together (after that idiotic carbon footprint) - what should I say: I never expected that. They are >very< close to the original. This is all very disturbing to me. The world is becoming increasingly crazy. And totally out of control. Best Thorsten

I'd go with @Pdaitabird Whenever I looked into the MILS way of living, I thought: How on earth do they get the funding for that. Nice idea, concept, even working mechanics ... but: How to pay for it? You can look for as many bargain/bulk/whatever deals. At the end of the day you will have to pay - a lot - for the MILS way. But then: Other hobbies are very expensive as well. And: Many, many people here on EB seem to spend a lot of money for their hobby. Which is nice to see and read - but not in my reach. Best Thorsten

Ha! Finally someone admires my superior sorting skills! No. I am a total amateur - never bought tons of bricks - just have my piles ... and then I simply do not care about subtle differences in parts - I am just using them. So when Piqabrick can achieve that for the above average part collectors/sellers/re-sellers/people who care about that: Go for it! I sure hope that this will be a success. Particularly when there is a need. Since it makes sense. That is the most important thing to me. Cross my fingers and all the very best! Thorsten

@Collector245 I believe @ToyInTheAttic said in the first post, that the set is mainly glued together, see below. Best Thorsten

Hee hee. Be careful: I said that once in a lecture at UC Irvine - phew. There were African American folks as well as - well - what are they called (politically correct)? Non-African American folks? Caucasian? Asian? Etc. pp. As if that matters, but when they told me I was Caucasian, I thought sh*t - that is bad ... So much for the political correctness. Now on with the little plastic guns: It >is< business. If it were not: Why don't they call it quits? The more, the better. The thing is: When you point a minifig gun at - lets say - our cat: She'll get you. There will be at least three - maybe four - seizures, seriously bleeding. Not the point though. What I would like to hear from TLG is: Yes, we do sell miniature plastic guns. They will never hurt anyone on this planet, provided you don't eat them in bulk. There are real world mock-ups, and they are part of the real world. Have been in the history of man in the past, today, in the future. That is all there is. I want them to just quit the nonsense talk and get real. Heck, they boldly capitalize on this! And just to make that absolutely sure: I love LEGO. I truly admire the success and creativity of TLG. I believe in the brick. But I don't like to be sh*tted around. That is really all there is! Best Thorsten