Toastie

This is a very nice topic - I did not believe that other people do dream about LEGOs at all ... ... well I am not sure whether I really "dream" about LEGO. But surely I sort of "think" about LEGO when going from being awake to sleep. I built a slightly larger version of Emmet's dream house - with bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, shower - keeping all the powerful engines. It allows me to just leave this crazy world ... for a moment, but this returning moment means a lot to me. All the best, Thorsten

What? And I thought this is all ... well ... sort of ... true (I know, it is. I have true SW hardcore fans in my group. One wrong word and - BOOM - it goes off. Just learned today that light sabers are not LIGHT sabers, photons are lame and many, many more things). Merde. All the best, Thorsten

This is very, very nice. Thanks to all of you(!!!) - including Michael - for doing this. What a wonderful community this is. All the very best, Thorsten

Of course not! I actually am quite far outside the US - and much more so close to Denmark, where they pay about 6999,99 DKK for the UCS MF. (I like the ,99 very much, as it is NOT 7000!). So they have broken the 1k sound barrier waaayyy earlier already. The sonic boom was surely not as loud though. I believe for such an "international" price tag comparison, the exchange rate should be at least looked at. I know that the average income, costs for living etc. etc. have to be regarded as well of course. As of toady the exchange rate Euro <-> NZD is about 1:1.7. And according to this site the cost of living as well as other related numbers in New Zealand as compared to Germany are not >that< far off. So the NZ 1k sonic boom was surely louder than in Denmark. But wait for the one in Kuwait: 1 Kuwait Dinar clocks in at about 2.6 USD or 4.4 NZD!!! When they go above 1 k KWD it will be really loud ... All meant to be a joke though - I like these things ... Have fun, don't really think about it - and all the best, Thorsten

Cool. I love this. Best Thorsten

Honestly? I am not, let people buy what they want for money they have! But I do believe that the UCS series, as everything that goes into that direction - price wise and idea wise - is the contrary of the idea of "imagination" and "creativity" - the original idea of LEGO. It is much more so the idea of being accurate, detailed, as close as possible to the original - using studded bricks. That is ... weird. The ultimate approach would be to build the model that large, that you don't recognize the studs anymore - or use large, very large tiles. And the more it goes into that direction, the more it becomes meaningless for me. Why use studded bricks at all for accomplishing that? What is the idea? Stainless steel or the like would be way more appropriate! Putting things on display - fine with me, really. But wasn't the end of the story in one of the LEGO movies to ... play with the bricks? And be creative? And not glue them together? Whatever. Let's see when they break the 1k sound barrier. I believe, we're close. It will be one kind of a boom! Best Thorsten

And this is not a surprise at all, is it? A company of this size - with this amount of money they make (and toss around). I believe that TLG is mostly concerned with: How do we secure revenues to a) stay in the market, b) pay the payrolls, c) with this product line. In that order. Well and let the big-shots buy what they want. And I sure hope, they will be able to do that for many, many decades to come. And continuously hire people that dream the dream. Best Thorsten

>Another< incarnation of an "Imperial Star Destroyer"? I mean, they're ... sort of >very< simple shape-wise. Big yes. Impressive maybe. But ... cool? Or nifty? Or creative? Or full of surprises? Or ... So the progress here is size, weight, and brick count, right? As in a modular building becomes a powered-up modular building of "the same old" but occupying several base plates, a train of "the same old" becoming 20+ wide train ... is that it? Hmmm. I don't know. OK, its really big. And it takes certainly some clever measures to hold it together. But for me it remains to be - well - big. So in 2021 we will be seeing an even bigger Imperial Star Destroyer? And in 2023 ... No, not for me. I like the micro scale versions much better. They require - imagination - and not so much the brick'n'plates bonanza type thing. Best Thorsten

@MAB oh my - I am getting old But you are very right. I never saw it that way. It may be because I am biased - from experience; one day I bought the VW T1 Camper for a sons friend of mine, as both are into old VW vans. He had almost finished his business BA degree - said "cool" and asked how much they'll be worth in 10 years from now. I did not know any reasonable answer - be he bought 9 extra. None are opened. I simply don't get that, that is all. I had built the van the same night for sure. So yes, when these folks want to go way back, resellers are an attractive option. I was just looking at the "investment" discussion from my very own perspective. Thanks for your comment, I really appreciate that. With very best regards, Thorsten

I fully agree on that. As far as I am concerned, should people bet or invest (to generate returns) on LEGO sets, I personally regard them as that: People. Doing what people do. And I could not care less about this section of humankind. None what so ever. They are not present in my universe. But they do what they do, and this is how it is. LEGO is about building dreams, ideas, plans, visions, crazy or not, about technical challenges, the future, about today, the past. Invest when you want, but create if you still can dream. Best, Thorsten

This is so beautiful. It feels like that. Not knowing that spot on Earth - simply watching your photograph of your rendition of Oulu makes me feel of "knowing" that particular place. This is an incredible piece of work. Congratulations! Best wishes Thorsten

I totally agree. It is so nice that somebody else is sharing my "feelings". Thank you very much @hagridshut for your comment! All the very best, Thorsten

"2000" that was in and before 1999, right? "Y2k". That was fun. 19 years ago ... holy moly. On another thought: When you say "X" is sounds like "Ex". Depending on the situation of course ... "my ex-girlfriend" would become an XG then ... the possibilities are endless! Well, TLG wise we have: The RCX, the NXT, and EV3. As far as I am concerned the two former sound more powerful than the latter. EVX would have been cooler. Or XEV. Yes, it is the X that makes the difference. As in X-ray. Or X-tra large. Or XXXL ...

Welcome to the club. Other than being old (that's me), feeling old is much worse ... but it is as it is: You are absolutely right. Best Thorsten

What I like so much is his smile ... is if it were - wherever: In space, in a public place, at home. That smile would make my day, regardless of gender. Wonderful. Thank you very much for sharing. Thorsten

@Mister Phes I really appreciate how you (and surely many others on the EB staff!) reach out to the community. Among many, many other things. The EB website provides a room of what I would like to call "true internet culture". There is freedom - with careful moderation. So many discussions here could have gone wild, but instead - they were directed to smooth waters, by moderators or other EB members. And in the end by some sort of force. I myself got a little excited (after a couple of beers that is) in one thread - and the replies were very, very helpful. Now, with regard to the frontpage, what is its purpose? Showing the biggest and most exciting MOCs? Or is it the most inspiring MOCs? As far as I am concerned, a 20-bricks-and-plates MOC may potentially be more "inspiring" than a 1:1 scale super car - to some. For others, it will be the contrary. So in addition to selecting MOCs from forums, there should be a "category" type of organization: For me, 2 MOCs per day is absolutely OK - but not the 10 Million bricks type of thing with chromed special pieces - twice. One of this type and another of that. It does not have to be a super smart miniaturized all-special pieces MOC, just a (in so many diverse regards) "special" MOC. And such an approach needs some sort of rules, schedules, and quick-but-educated votes of people in charge, I guess. Just my 2 cents - and don't take them too seriously. All the best Thorsten

Okay. Nice discussion. All the big shots are in the loop. But there is one thing that I find sort of discouraging: There is an AIOI with all the bells and whistles. MLCad is part of that very package. MLCad is working perfectly well on up-to-date Win10. Plus: It does allow you to do things I find really really hard to do with all the so hyped not-out-of-date software: You can do what you want, not restricted to what a super smart program is allowing you what to do - or not. Snapping here and there and what not. The link you provided was very helpful, @Lasse D! Thank you very much. The discussion though was a bit from the top. Cool, that all the smart guys provide all their input, all their work and efforts! I do really appreciate that. Without, I would not be able to do CAD models at all. For sure. But: Please put one single line in the AIOI that tells people that MLCad is not known anymore to @Philo (funny or not) and that the new color scheme present in LDConfig is per their definition f*ed up in MLCad. It would make life so much easier. Well at least my life that is. Man. This sucked. Thanks, Thorsten

Dear All, I have a quick question about the handling of LDConfig.ldr in MLCad3.5. After major issue with my laptop (someone stole it in a hot summer night, no kidding) and installing the All-in-one LDraw package on my new machine, MLCad does not know much about colors anymore. When renaming LDConfig to something else (so MLCad won't find it), exactly the same limited colors showed up in the color box dialog. Loading explicitly a fresh version of LDConfig into MLCad results in an error message pointing to line 333 in LDConfig: 0 !COLOUR Rubber_Green CODE 10002 VALUE #257A3E EDGE #333333 RUBBER It appears as if this is a line with a CODE exceeding some limits for MLCad (???), as all other CODE numbers with only three digits don't result in an error. I found an LDConfig file dated 2017-12-15, which doers not contain any 5 digit CODEs. Using that file works fine with MLCad. Am I doing something wrong? It may very well be that I missed some of the discussions regarding LDConfig. (I am running all that on rather recent build of WIN10/64 bit with the latest LDraw AIOI) Thanks a lot! Thorsten

Brilliant. Lovely. True. Real. As in it was like that ... Even the lighting is absolutely right. Been there, loved it. Still do. This is fanastic. You captured everything - the look (and feel) of the machines, the look (and feel) of the room - and the moment, when you sit in that chair, program is running after a million tries - and you think: This is all crazy - but it works. Turn off the lights (it is 2:30 am) and take the bike in front of the building and head home. Cool. The good'ol days. I don't miss them >that< much (but I do) - what I really miss is the moment sitting in that chair before leaving. All the best, Thorsten

It really is both: Space (superb) and Train (superb as well). Space and this train go along very, very well. You captured both: The demands in space (as: on a planet that is demanding), as well as the "train idea": Running cargo and transporting people through rough terrain. Very well done. All the best, Thorsten

... because they are from the past - or in another word - adults. Never knowing - but guessing, interpreting, projecting, hoping, trying, imagine, "measuring" - what kids want. Very nicely phrased @Henchmen4Hire! All the best, Thorsten

Oh my. Who ever came up with that kind of wheel set (it is not a "set" it is one wheel - and two of these is not a set. It remains two), must be into cars. I cannot imagine anything else. Discarding the axle on a >not< plain surface is insane. A car with individual suspension and this and that (visit the Technic Forum ... they do magic in this regard) is perfectly matching this kind of wheel attachment. But a train running on clearly defined track geometries: Go away. Regardless of how many ball bearings you use: Their >mounting< will define performance. And surely increase friction. As they do in the video. It is not the bearing, it is the angle. It is always instructive to look at what the world does. Do the use axles on trains? Yes. Is there a train that does not run on axle connected wheels? I believe not, but it may be. I'd call that crazy due to the clearly defined track width not allowing much tolerance, if at all. So - TLG is either above friction rules - or they have no clue - or they don't care. Nifty pick ups or not. As far as I am concerned, this is crazy. Best Thorsten

Hi David, I am not sure, but I believe @Cosmik42's software communicates with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices only, whereas the NXT uses some sort of Serial over Blueltooth protocol, which seems to be entirely different. At least this is what I learned, when starting to program with the BLE hub device types. Best Thorsten

I have no idea, none-what-so-ever how you guys do what you do, particularly in the Technic forum. And this MOC is beyond belief. I guess I said that here before, but it just goes on and on and on ... @DugaldIC: I am really not into cars, but this model has blown me away. Your building skills and techniques that is. I simply don't get it ... wonderful. There is something else though, which I personally find equally stunning, as @nerdsforprez has so nicely voiced: And may I add: .. and share the building instructions as if it was the most natural thing to do. Thank you very much for sharing and all the very best! (Tipping hat, slight nod, and a little bow) Thorsten

That is so true. @knotian: A "desktop computer" is such a device as well. And as long as there was some sort of "smart" electronics submerged in LEGO bricks (take the RCX as example) there was an external device necessary, to get it unfolding. Without computer, an RCX is dead dumb. The thing is, they shifted from "computer" (laptop, dektop) to "mobile device". Maby naturally - I sometimes ask myself: Who knows what a "desktop" is? Just forgetting that a 2018 Dell mobile workstation I am running is more or less the same - it is just mobile. What I find irritating though is that the wonderful aps run on smart devices only, and there are two store varieties to get them from; either this or that, but not the other. But this is as it is ... time runs fast. Things come and go. And: Get a BLE stack, install that on Win10, read the LEGO BLE documents and off you go. No firmware updates though ... it is all crazy. But then: This is also emerging technology as well. Who knows what is coming ... Best Thorsten