ummester

Thanks jtlan. 7 isn't quite wide enough, 8 is a little too wide - in LDD anyways. The ball pins look kind of ugly. So here is a new design: I quite like the look of this - the texture suits a diesel model. The only thing I am not sure of is whether the friction less technic pin in the middle wheel will fit into the motor's middle hole? It can't in LDD - there is no provision for it in the motor element (which is the old one, BTW). I think I read a thread that said the hole can fit half of one side of a technic pin - there is less then that poking through. Unfortunately, I don't have a motor to try it, though someone who does might know if it works? No worries LoneBricker. I'm primarily interested in build aesthetics, though functionality is also important to me. If it comes down to it I sacrifice functionality for aesthetics - but I like to try and have both :D

So I take it the left design in the below image would work jtlan? What about the right one? Will the motors hold 2 axles in place or does it have to be a single axle? How far can you push something into that little hole in the middle of the motor?

I like the caboose design. The build does have the look and feel of a TLG set, something that would be good for play.

If that's Target Australia, it's a ripper deal - somehow I don't think it's target Australia though

Ideas needs some new ideas :D Trouble is, voters tend to favour popular culture over new ideas.

I have moved the grills back. I'll put up a new version later. Re the 3 axle bogies, yes, I think it would look a lot better. Not sure how to get that to work motorised - anyone have any ideas, have tried it before?

It spins freely in LDD - but LDDs collision detection may be off for the motorised part. It could also be the angle of the screenshot - I don't think it's exactly side on. After remodelling the cab, I've noticed other bits that require attention and am giving the whole loco a go over. It's annoying that I can't get the cab windows quite high enough with the roof shape - LEGO needs a 2x2 wedge plate :D Good thing is there is extra space in the cab now, so the seat can spin around.

There is a thread on the completed model here VEGA http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=97563&hl= It's also a LEGO Ideas project.

The cab has a hard shape to make out of orange, zephyr Some reference pics are here: http://www.ardp.net/topic190.html This is a commercial photo, so it's copyright or whatever: I've been working on the cab to try and get it right

Yea, I guess those themes represent a safe guard for TLG. It's probably nostalgia, but I don't know why everything has to be licensed and come with a film, book, cartoon series and lunchbox now. I like the idea of LEGO themes that were primarily LEGO themes, like City, Castle and Creator still are - a building toy with some human parts, rather than a pack of action figures that come with a building toy.

I enjoy the aesthetic design process most of all MusicaRibelle and tend to do it all digitally, to save both money and space. I have ordered one of the large black train bases, some friction band wheels, some buffer beams and bogie plates from Bricklink, as I thought they would be parts I need. I am starting to think now that both locos and carts may look batter aesthetically without using the train bases and just using turntables or technic pins for movement. Is there any particular reason bogie plates and train bases are used? M_Slug - track wise I wouldn't get very expansive. Something like ecmo47's setup here - that fits on a single table, which a can build a one way facing detail behind, is as large as I would build towards. Nice display, BTW, emco47.

I think the EN is the nicest looking train TLG has produced, though agree with zephyr's comment. Repaint it in LDD if you really like the design and order the parts on Bricklink. Then design/repaint a number of carriages to go with the colour of your liking. I would say the Maersk is the second best looking of the TLG builds, mainly due to colour scheme. There's a thread in the LDD section which you can grab all the files for the locomotives from davidmull - you can import them all into a single LDD session and compare them all alongside each other, from all angles.

These look really nice. I like when LEGO starts to look less like a toy and more like a model and these cars, with stickers, achieve that effect simply and very well.

Yes, that is what I meant - would the birds set amass 10,000 votes within the yearly deadlines. What projects have made it to 10k in under a year and passed the review? Ecto, I guess. Any others?

I also think it is ugly but is it worth it as a good source of parts if you don't have any train parts? Way I see it, it's a bunch of wheels, a few carriage bases and an RC motor. If the motor is worth it is the biggest deciding factor for me.

Hi all, I try and undertake a large MOC each year. Last year it was a Galleon, this year I'm thinking trains. My initial idea was to design a diesel freight train, as it seemed something I could logically add carriages to when I had the cash to buy more parts. I wanted a locomotive that was fairly unique and that I'd never seen done in LEGO, so I thought back to the big diesel engines I remembered where I grew up and, once I researched them a little, realized they were a specific design to Western Australia and only 6 were made. I didn't think I could find a locomotive much more unique so started modelling. The build is fully power functions compatible. The model as rendered has the power functions components installed. Here are some pics The flickr album is here https://www.flickr.c...57650687174452/ Before I commit to buying parts, I might try my hand at a steam engine design and see which I prefer. Some questions: How many parts can a power functions motor pull? This model is just shy of 2,000 parts, including the shipping containers. I'm not sure how well the idea of adding carriages as I get ideas and cash will play out if I try and run it all on a track. Is there a preferred motor and remote type by the majority of train builders? I was going to just get the passenger train when I saw it on sale and use the parts from that. Seeing as I am pretty heavily into building things entirely my way, it may be better to skip the passenger train and order older motor parts from Bricklink, or order a rechargeable kit from LEGO? What's the verdict? What is generally considered the best option for pulling a MOC with a few parts?

The new Star Wars films could totally suck and Disney could fold. Superhero films have to be at the end of their popularity run, isn't everyone else bored of them yet? It would be nice if TLGs non licensed lines became the better sellers and LEGO moved back away from licensed stuff altogether. Probably not going to happen but I imagine it would be better for the integrity of the product overall.

I did mention, Lego-Freak, that the main advantage Ideas has over the MOC Shop is that, by being tied in with the primary producers, parts that are not available can be included in design. The MOC shop is limited entirely by not only what parts are in production but by what parts are available - this said, If you designed a marketable model/idea, you could effectively stockpile on the parts required for it and set up a Bricklink store purely for selling that model. Also, the MOC shop allows selling of models that are outside TLGs guidelines - military vehicles, film, or TV tie ins that TLG won't touch and so on. I think the Ghostbusters minifigs are cool and Ecto 1 is a nice model (though not as nice as the original design), jonwill. Other than prints and minifigs, I haven't seen that much innovation on Ideas. Red and white are the only true spacemen, the green is a gimmick :D I don't get the Research Institute at all - other than there seems to be way more of a market for PC minifig packs than something you can build. Ideas is very responsive to nostalgia and popular culture, in a way it is more commercial than LEGO has become, which kind of shows why LEGO became so commercial, I guess. People seem to buy what they are advertised, without thinking outside that box. I'm glad the birds got through because that is a nice, non-popular culture, brick and build set - LEGO seems to be charging too much for it for Australian customers though. I also wonder if something like the bird set would get through now that the runs are down to a year.

The MOC shop is intended to sell sets, not parts. Once upon a time LEGO sold (all available) parts - once upon a time you could order all the parts from an LDD design in a single hit. I don't think the things are as dissimilar as what you suggest. LEGO is a toy made of parts that can be combined. Some people prefer to get their parts as part of a set, some people like to design entirely for themselves (be they children or adults). Both LEGO (limited now) and Bricklink offer a parts service. Both LEGO and Bricklink now offer an 'new set' ideas platform. The only real difference is one market place is entirely secondary to the other and one ideas platform is constrained by a large companies marketing profile, whilst the other is constrained by part availability in the secondary marketplace. I think the concept of an honest to goodness commercial set is corrupted by the word commercial, which is what hinders the LEGO ideas platform and why I suggest the MOC shop is more open - the commercial boundaries are entirely different. Say everyone would love a bunch of taxis to add to their cities, or a bunch of tanker cars to add to their trains - LEGO Ideas will likely not publish them as Ideas sets, rather it will incorporate them into next years city or train lines. The MOC shop allows sale of these types of items outside of LEGOs marketing strategy, so if you want a bunch of taxis but don't like designing, you can order them via Bricklink without having to wait for TLG to include them in the line for that year.

LISTEN UP YOU PRIMITIVE SCREW-HEADS! Awesome MOC.

LEGO isn't dying, it's stronger than ever. The question should be has the quality of the LEGO product relative to the cost decreased over time, in an actual sense, beyond any feelings of nostalgia that AFOLs may have.

I think minifigs are just assemblies of specialized LEGO parts. A train wheel with rubber edges and a minifig hand are much the same to me - specialized and therefore more expensive parts. I don't think any LEGO building should be limited by how the parts are arranged - it annoys me that things like minifigs and antennas can't be totally pulled apart in LDD and put together in interesting ways as the actual bricks can.

Bricklink is great and most store owners are genuine LEGO lovers, so do their best to provide good parts and service to buyers. I very much enjoy LDD and my little plastic bricks - but I also feel LEGO is pricing up and providing down lately. I think TLG has reached a turning point where quality has become secondary to profit, I'm not sure what this means for the future of the brand. I brought the Mos Eisely Cantina recently and the instructions and stickers were just squished into the bottom of the box, so that some stickers had come off the sheet and stuck to the instruction manual, ruining them both. I wrote to TLG and they are sending me a new sticker sheet and instruction manual but I have never encountered this before and I have brought heaps of sets for myself and children - it's like the set was pushed into the box too quickly or aggressively or something.

I think BrickLinks MOC shop will eventually gather wider interest than Ideas, as the platform is more open. Part availability is the MOC shops Achilles heal, though - both in being limited to what is currently available and limited by store availability. Theoretically, however, so long as you are willing to invest in the stock of parts, you can effectively package and sell your own LEGO sets (on any Idea, including franchises not already marketed by LEGO), with Bricklink charging a relatively small amount to host it. Of course, if it does take off, Bricklink will no doubt charge more :D

It looks nice - but I've given up on TLG every working out what minifig scale is for Star Wars sets with any degree of consistency or accuracy.