Toastie

I fully share your opinion (and particularly your remaining text in that post). With only one exception: The "your sets are not selling anymore" bit as motivation to ask the community. According to just the numbers, let's say sales and profit (the latter +5% = 2.4 bn$ ), they do very, very well upon selling their boring products. That is the "issue": Customer behavior = "us" (excluding me, of course ). Why would they change any of selling that boring stuff when people in the very rich world go nuts getting it? At ever-increasing numbers over the past decade(s)? I would certainly not change course - I'd make even more boring sets. I believe they ask the community to get in fresh ideas - and then maybe (or not, who cares, with these numbers) turn any of them into boring sets as they will heavily downgrade them to cut costs and so on. Or just use bits and pieces. If it plays out as it did in the past (and I don't see any reason on the horizon why that should change - even a pandemic with all the harsh consequences for several delivery chains did not, in contrast), sales will further increase, as will profit. It's about us. Best, Thorsten

Now that was easy, wasn't it? Good to know, I'll keep that in mind. When someone says: "This is insane", I'll then tell them: No way! Insanity is, when you talk about cleaning LEGO boxes. Hmmm - insanity is creepy - you never know! Sometimes it is manifest in trying to clean LEGO boxes, sometimes elsewhere.

It's the nozzle type, and then the PSI . OK no PSI no reason for a nozzle. But with PSI ... the nozzle makes the difference. Best, Thorsten

It should also be mentioned (this is not a "praise TLG thread", this is a "Mindstorms thread", is it? If not, just ignore my post!!!) that TLG decided to remove the power socket from the RCX, along with the rectifier and capacitors. That socket could be connected to a wide-voltage-range AC(!) as well as DC wall warts, or "power supplies". And that was so nice. In my opinion, this is the beginning of TLG solely reverting to usage of one-way = battery waste all over the place. TLG as the "environmentally friendly long-lasting plastic producer" ditched that true environmentally friendly usage of a power outlet. Maybe because of law-suits, who knows. But there is a way, you know. Even they may take the route of fighting for the better. Oh yes, you can use rechargeable batteries. Well, some do, others want 9V rather than 7.2V - not the point: TLG simply ditched it. And I bet that most users simply use alkaline batteries, throw them away when exhausted and put in new alkalines. They are dead cheap. BW, the RCX 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 bricks >all< run >all< available firmwares, be it 1.0, 1.5 or 2.0. Also, >all< RCX varieties run >all< 3rd party firmwares! So from 1.0 to 2.0 it is just - adding a few plastic pieces and instructions, and saving on a rectifier and a couple of capacitors. When you want to take the RCX vintage route, get an RCX1.0. They sell dead cheap on BL. And then just use the latest TLG firmware for the "RCX2.0" - or any third party firmware. I simply don't like to be kidded; 1.0, 1.5, 2.0. Yeah. 2 is more than 1.5. And much more than 1.0. All the best, Thorsten

Are you really surprised? Don't think though LEGO MOCs using nothing but LEGO/3rd party ABS elements translates to non-lubed, full friction ABS on ABS surfaces. And when you spin things much faster than the lame original LEGO components allow you to do, well - meltdown is around the corner, isn't it? I'd go lubed full metal jacket to spin things as fast as possible, to be honest. Best, Thorsten

Depending on the nozzle type of course Yes, I know, that you know that Best, Thorsten

When it is really dust/dry "stuff" only, I would in the first run never use any liquid. I'd use soft but still "sturdy" cloth, and then give the boxes a decent rub. Clean (whip) the cloth frequently. Next go is a softer 2cnd round with even softer cloth - or the swiffer type stuff. After that you should be good. If not (then it was not only dust ...) I'd use a wetted cloth - have a dry one (exchange them regularly!) at hand. Wipe off the non-dust stuff, go immediately over that surface with the dry cloth. I believe there is no reason to proceed to any other liquid than water. However, when molds and the like have found a home, go through all of the above - and then it depends on what you want to rescue or accomplish. Best, Thorsten

Oh my, 2995 is on a shelf here as well ... memories Best Thorsten

This is so unbelievable cool ... man. I love it. There is maybe one >tiny little thing< I'd like to suggest: The PoweredUp hubs have this "SetAcceleration"/"SetDeceleration" profile type thing. I am using that frequently for all sorts of starting/stopping tasks. With a 10s acceleration time (I believe this is close to max, according to the LPF3.0 protocol), the fans would smoothly start up, and slow down as well (deceleration). No idea whether the Mindstorms hubs have this feature as well, but my guess is, they have. Thank you very much for sharing!!! All the best, Thorsten

Oh shhhoot! I missed this - Alien - one of my favorite movies - and then this rendition: This is so nailing "it" - and then the scale ... a masterpiece! Thank you very, very much for showing this! All the best, Thorsten

As you do with every "manufactured" product in the world - even pumped crude oil flushed into barrels or tankers . Not my point: When TLG finds enough people to buy their stuff at whatever price tag they come up with - they'll further take that route. It is the most basic concept of running a business, isn't it (the enough bit and price)? They certainly don't want to save the world. Or make everyone happy. Best, Thorsten

No worries; in fact, if TLG had played it out right with their latest HoE ^^, they would have made a piece/pieces for matching exactly that radius. I am not into HP at all, but this is really a very nice rendition of the HoE. Congratulations on your achievement! Best, Thorsten

4022 will work fine, but what has 2878c01 to do with the PUp motor? Best, Thorsten

Well, it is very nicely propelled - not much friction and thus momentum there - it is a really nice demonstration! Best, Thorsten

I love the law of conservation of angular momentum - along with all Newton's laws of motion ... Very nice video and demonstration! Regards, Thorsten

This is so wonderful ... Just pulled out my original instructions for these sets - Robo Sports, Extreme Creatures, Exploration Mars, Vision Command, Ultimate Accessory Set ... You know, the printed "instructions" alone are a blast. RIS1.5, 2.0 and it does not stop: Robotics Discovery, Droid Developer Kit ... these were the true Golden Days of Mindstorms. Should you need any scans, CD copies - whatever - just let me know! I am so much looking forward to your next posts!!! Thank you very much for demonstrating, what TLG was accomplishing ... in the past. All the best; Thorsten

Nice! My take as well. There was a time (gone since long) that when TLG did not produce the piece I needed - and let us assume these were not super special - I tried and tried and tried and it mostly turned out to be bulky, ugly, flimsy. And then, years later, The Gods of LEGO thought: Hey, let's make ... that piece, because we can then make the set nice and much cheaper. So yes, I know that living with the limits is part of the experience. But not offering 5.5L axles when changing from one system to another, well, is ... Best, Thorsten

It is a bit shaky but may work - 5.5L is a better match. Those come only with a stop that does not work on the PUp motor. As 8L axles sell for 1 ... 5 cent on BL, order 20 or so, practice the cut (maybe using a brick-built LEGO jig) - and make perfect 5.5L Technic axles without stop Best, Thorsten

... when you are not considering cutting a long enough Technic axle to length, right? As I really don't like the axles sticking out and as they don't do anything other than sometimes increasing friction, I did that on a couple of my trains (I am a long time 9V person but have changed to PF and PUp using 9V motors as power pickup and the other stuff for controlling PF/PUp train motors) without any problems. But will force you to walk over into The Forbidden Territory and actually cut into a piece of ABS plastic. BTW, there is no LEGO logo or the like on LEGO Technic axles; maybe that renders that horrible move easier . It is not reversible; once cut it is cut - but if you want to go back, just do it with another axle. All the best, Thorsten

Hey, that's me! - maybe without the "extreme", the "hate", the "no matter what", the "no compromise" and "keep driving" bits. Don't burn oil but natural gas - it tends to get cold here in mid-Germany from time to time. So with what's left over - "environmentalist who burns natural gas for heating" I still appreciate that TLG is going towards paper only. Simple reason: I believe there are way more folks caring zill about the plastic packaging and simply dump the stuff - as there are true believers in the bricks and their boxes. And looking at the data on what type of material finds its way into what type of waste bin ... homo sapiens seems to be strongly challenged by sorting that out. I happen to be one of the believers in the bricks: It truly is very nice to be able to look "into" the boxes - everything neatly arranged - but when you play with LEGOs ss rather than looking into the boxes, then after a few rounds of playing, it is all messed up as usually mocking means throwing things together. I have two Dacta boxes, which are actually pieces of artwork, and even with those it simply does not work: The bricks are all over the place ... and I really tried to keep than sorted - as they do in school. That is my reasoning on the matter - others may see things differently. Best, Thorsten

In the US and maybe to some extent in Europe. No sarcasm here.

Yes, that will sure make it. Once you are done with the water evaporation, aircraft as well as ground based vehicles will be well in range at 2.4 GHz, with far less power requirements though. Best, Thorsten

I just built a LEGO Dacta robot arm from about 1986/7, with the pieces of set 1090 and some extra parts, for which @alexGS graciously provided a great number of tips, pictures, movies, on how to accomplish that. I also used a modified MK stand (for their Flying Dutchman), to make that robot arm mobile (essentially one-dimensional, as space, the final frontier, is challenging me over and over again). All the best, Thorsten

Well, I believe this frequency range will not work well when the receiver is within ("under") water. 2.4 GHz won't make it into/through water, at least not far enough: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-controlled_submarine You have to revert to 27 MHz (as in LEGO world: Cybermaster ) or maybe 40 MHz - but that is it. The military folks use very low frequencies ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_submarines I believe something in the well below 100 MHz range is used in the above video. As 27/40 MHz transmitters are dead cheap and became fully legal decades ago (there was a time though, when you needed a "license" for running such totally dangerous electronic noise equipment - in Germany, that is why a bold eagle is present as silver/black sticker on the Cybermaster tower (and receiver ...). I still have a piece of "paper" officially declaring that I am allowed to use 40 MHz emitters - and then 10 pages follow, telling me that if I screw up, they'll - for sure - put me into prison. For long ... 2.4 GHz is also used in microwave ovens, as water absorbs that frequency quite nicely. In other words: Using the PUp and clone PUp devices running at 2.4 GHz will essentially warm up the upper layers of water. All the best, Thorsten

Best, Thorsten