Toastie

That is my take as well, 100%. I believe that to the targeted audience the looks really matters - and as others said - these hardly look brick-built. They simply look good. I believe that is the point. For true brick heads, a model not looking brick-built is ... not a brick-built model, and thus considered bad The Technic brick-built supercars, with their thousands of machine gun holes - I'll never get it. I would just get a good-looking not-brick-built car, should I like such cars, which I do not. And yes, I know, the functions. Hmmm. Why are there more and more “wall-hanging” cases for these? Certainly not for the functions, rather for collecting dust, I believe. BTW, Pantasy (and Cobi, and others) is going (very modestly) into the same direction: When you e.g. take a look at their retro telephone (for $60 ), the dial long with the number plate a totally just for this model - they have nothing to do with traditional LEGO pieces. Which makes all the difference: I have that phone on my desk (which is stupid, as it does nothing other than standing there and collecting dust); but these two elements are just fantastic and render the thing very close to a retro telephone. We'll see. These alternative companies do not seem to go bankrupt by making new elements whenever they see fit, even for niche products such as a retro telephone. All the best Thorsten

Smart nice Smarts! I like both - yes the 4 wide version is familiar, a black/white and a white/white from LEGO is wondering about my layout. And your 4-wide version is really a nice update! However, I also like the 5-wide version, surely for it "uniqueness" at least it is to me. Thank you very much for sharing! (Is your Smart an electrical version?) All the best Thorsten

And that button/these buttons does/do something else, like throwing a switch point, right? If so, that is totally normal as the invoked "action" needs some current to work, voltage may then temporally drop, once the action is over, voltage is back to normal. It would happen upon operating a motor or such. I initially thought you switch the lamps, but it sounds as if you are having the lamps hooked up directly to the transformer, and something else is turned on/off, correct? Best Thorsten

Thank you for sharing here, Evan! Yes, I believe this is some "true Technic" (4.5V TC ) and truly deserves its own thread. As this is "just" the mechanical part, there is so much more: The electrical control, the program control - all from the 1980s ... I find this truly fascinating. Yes, I am old, nostalgic, old schoolish, etc. pp. but - this is technical and artwork combined. Really looking for updates! No problem, as long as the Department of Education does not remove the converters! Let's see: This should correspond to about 17.5 x 11.6 Prussian Zoll. Easy ;) Best wishes Thorsten The A*S Police caught this one! They never catch French; "merde" is allowed, as well as "cul". But kick-cul vertical pen plotter sounds a bit lame. Kick-butt sounds better, but is less a*s, more bottom or bum ... kick-bum ... no. Lets see, Google's AI says "Arsch" is the best translation of a*s into German - so a Kick-Arsch vertical pen plotter is meant here, right? Oh my - yes, this is an adult forum. Best Thorsten

Tipping hat - with a slight nod - but with a deep bow ... Breathtaking. I wrote that so many times, when you presented your MOCs individually - and always admired the love, passion, and for sure persistence this approach needs. But seeing a) all these fantastic models on the shelves and b) the entire diorama on the sideboards ... Thank you very much for sharing - also for showing what is possible with LEGO. You pushed the limits much further than I could ever imagine! All the best Thorsten

Define bunch ... any chance of assessing the current flowing through the switch/supplied from the power source? Flicker as in going on and off on a regular basis, like blinking, or do they "erratically" flicker? Best Thorsten

Well, Evan, I surely am. I am on your personal preview channel as well - I think it would be really nice to sharing your ever so small progress steps here in repetitive fashion as well! I mean, just watching a "mount" moving at full "2D speed" within a good-sized LEGO frame, controlled by a joystick/Apple 2 (clone?) using 4.5V interface A stuff with your custom software is certainly worth >numerous< posts here! All the best Thorsten

This is so nicely introduced - and well done. I love the text you wrapped around your photographs - so informative!!! Thank you so much for that. And of course: Thank you for sharing all these nice air traffic related devices. Most of us know what earth-bound traffic devices do and mean, but this is one (or many) step(s) farther. Very nice, I love it. All the best Thorsten

Oh Sérgio ... another marvel ... Fantastic. As all your creations are. Particularly the art work. No. Not "particularly" - "including" the artwork, as your creativity in assembling plates and bricks is true artwork! With regard to the Circuit Cubes - the battery box they make is fine, but their rechargeable BL controller having the same footprint is so much more! Congratulations on another home run! All the best Thorsten

I believe the blue tubes are standard LEGO pneumatics tubes. Best Thorsten

1965 - it was Christmas, and Santa got me the LEGO set #323 1998 the RCX came out and "9V" Mindstorms prevailed through the early 2000s. Living in the US back then, I thought I was in heaven. Well, "9V" Mindstoms sets: Robotics Invention 1.0 - 2.0, Robotics Discovery, Droid Developer, Spybotics ... Losing creativity, going cheap See above, no. None at all.

Well, you may want to get the book "THE LEGO TRAINS BOOK" from Holger Matthes. Go to part 1 and the grey/gray era section. And yes, this is before bley was invented by TLG ;) The book is available in German. I did a review some 6 years ago here on EB: Best, Thorsten

As you are mentioning "soldering" as well in this context, I believe you mean the 9V cables and not the Technic flex cable system, correct? Well, for the 9V cables, this reference should do it: Best Thorsten

Heehee - you'll get 500+ different answers ... So lets see. I'd go for 2x Interfaces A, 12x 4.5V motors, 12x 4.5V lights, 4x 4.5 touch sensors, 4x 4.5V light sensors, and 32x 4.5V cables (66 items so far). Next: 1x Interface B. 8x 9V motors, 8x 9V lights, 8x 9V touch sensors, 4x 9V rotation sensors, 4x 9V light sensors, and 32x 9V cables, each about 70 cm long (98 items so far) 2x RCX 1.0 PBrick, 2x CodePilot PBrick, 2x Scout PBrick, 2x MicroScout PBrick, the IR tower + cable, the VLL "tower" (has cable), 4x "fiber" optics cable, max length (113 items so far) Two large baseplates, 50x 1x16 technic bricks, 50x 1x4 plates, 50 2x2 corner plates (265 items so far) Oh well, the rest goes into gears, axles, and axle pins = 500 items OK, for sure I did not count right. And I am joking. Well, not really: I like programming LEGO devices - these will certainly not qualify as MOCs. I also like things in motion ... I freak out when a light sensor sees some light and a motor begins spinning in response. Can do that for endless hours. I'm curious to see what else comes up here! All the best Thorsten

Hi there, I am sure others do know these numbers. A couple of weeks ago, I built a stand for the dinosaur on my layout - it is mounted under a sloping wall, so I could produce more info on how that affects the space in needs. However, I am traveling for the next 10 days Anyway, since you are recovering from your dark ages (guess how I figured that out) here is another bit related to 8485: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/199840-lego-control-center-ii-remote-control-and-program-download/ All the best, Thorsten

Just leave Germany out and treat this member of EB as a member of EB. Outing oneself as residing in a country does not relate to anything that country may or may not do. There is currently enough chaos in this world. That only holds true - in a global world of capitalism, where the free market is dominating (should "tariffs" not get in its way) - when the community is completely cut out of "information". The thing called Google or any other search thing will tell you, what competitive prices are. Heck, even BL, this very site, depending on your settings (my is "cheapest first") takes 100% care of that. Should members of the "community" pay terrible prices, then - hey - welcome to reality. Best Thorsten

I like confusion - not overboard, but a little here and there makes life much easier! And: As I got confused myself, it is even better All the best Thorsten

@evank Yes we do, but did Daniel charge anything back then? Best Thorsten Hi Evan, well, I did not - as far as I remember you got in touch with Daniel last year - wasn't that about manuals for LEGO C64

But that is the result, the crawler recorded, back in the days, isn't it? Best, Thorsten

This is what you wrote on April 3, 2023, in this thread, @evank - but I don't know whether you paid him anything? As far as I remember, you got copies of manuals from Daniel Schmatz that you put onto the Internet Archive, didn't you? Man, time goes so fast. For those of you interested, here is a link to his "museum's" website: https://kinderkram.eitle.at/?zeige=detailsaus&sprache=englisch All the best, Thorsten @Gunners TekZone - hey, no reason to apologize! Simply too much information at a time, plus all this insider talk ... it is tough to recall all the stuff discussed in a thread. I just do because I created this thread! Link to Daniel Schmatz' museum is above - again, I am too stupid to insert a quote into a post I am editing ... EDIT #2: Ha!!! The auto merged function of the forum software does what I wanted ...

Well, +40 years old 5 1/4" disks are sort of delicate, not necessarily common anymore - and Daniel may have paid some money for getting his hands on some unobtanium. Maybe not - who cares. Plus he is running a >very< nice place oriented at kids/families ... that me be not in the focus of governmental support - times change as you certainly know better than me. Chipping in some money for all what he is doing seems to be - for me - a natural thing to do. I'll certainly volunteer to cover the entire "cost" - knowing it goes into his operation. I wish I had the time to do such things. 4 more years and I am retiring. Maybe then ... Best Thorsten

First, thank you very much for your lead on this!!! Second: I am 100% in. Best Thorsten

Unfortunately no. We are still at this point in time: 2024-12-1 (two pages back in this thread, post from @maehw I am too dumb to quote from a post two pages away ... ) Daniel Schmatz from Austria may have the DOS disks. But I am not sure if he is willing to copy or lend them for copying. I am happy to do so, as certainly others as well. That is all I know. All the best Thorsten

Tricky ... this will take some time, but there is an answer ... Hmm - what I would do is opening a thread entitled "The history of Y ...", "Y - the event that ..." (did not want to use X for obvious reasons) - than telling a story and then fill the thread, maybe on a weekly basis with your MOCs. It depends on "Y" where to launch it. If any trains are involved, it TrainTech (we love everything remotely related to trains, such as ... flowers). If not, then well, it depends on "Y". No idea whether this makes any sense, as I don't know what "Y" is. Good luck + all the best Thorsten

Hi Sven, I thought, die-cast models go into the Community forum ... This is another masterpiece - as per usual. The wheels (along with the dish + round plate) really make the difference - this looks so good! I still do have a couple of these from back in the days + never knew what to do with the Disney minifigs got as a present = now I know! Thank you very much for sharing + all the best Thorsten