W3ird_N3rd

This was some poor MOC.. I might have been slightly intoxicated yesterday. Instead of reading over whatever I've written, I'm removing some poor posts that probably don't add much anyway. May I suggest you take a look at the latest entries in http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=97822 ? Some MOCers have saved the best for last. :)

Maybe you could use the container from 8065: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=8065-1 It's not ideal in terms of looks for this, but it's only 1 part. I couldn't find the container part on bricklink though, only the whole set - must be my search skills.

I was thinking the same thing, some resemblance to the Appie truck. But this is a nice little truck, and under 200 parts. Just one remark, isn't the lifter mechanism normally in the back instead of the front? Or is that only in my country? I agree you should really add a container to it, that will make for much more playability.

Making nice photos is actually not that easy. Ideally you would have a good single color background, good lighting, knowledge of photo editing, etc.. If you really want to get it right, it's not that easy. And not everyone knows a friend who even knows photography, and if they do, a friend is not always willing to come over and photograph some Lego. (not everyone understands an AFOL ) Video similarly, if you want to do it really well, it's not that simple. But it's always like that. Some have an advantage over others in that sense, always been like that. When I was poor, I couldn't afford a decent videocard and while I wasn't that bad at games, my computer was just so damn slow I would be losing all the time. When I was able to borrow a videocard from a friend, I started winning. It's like that, sad as it as. As I said before, make your model, explain if some part should preferably be colored otherwise, hope for the best. All the fun is in the building/designing, winning is just a bonus if that happens.

Well, I guess you'll always be, as an LDD picture just doesn't look like a photo. Similarly somebody who has a good camera and ability to photoshop their picture to look nice and have some effects/background also has an advantage over someone who just uses their webcam to snap a picture. In theory only the model would be judged, but in reality there will be other factors. While the model with the wrong colors will probably be judged as if it looks like the LDD model, you'll still have a subconcious disadvantage. In short, enter the competition and hope for the best! By the way, another question.. One is allowed to post as many [MINI] threads as desired, correct? Just that only one of them can be selected for the contest, but you can make any number of [MINI] projects?

I've seen it on more sets I think, but I've always wondered why people older than 99 years shouldn't play with it. Take all parts out of their bags and put them in a large bag, mail the empty boxes and receipts to your home in Brazil. (or trash them) When you just go to customs with a bag of bricks, it'll be clear to them that you're not importing goods for resale. For all they know you just bring your bricks everywhere to kill time. I know I used to.

I would not have called that. They have some really good designers and I would have thought they would have found a way around that, if it's worth it. Just scale the Technic figures as well (I could think of a way to do that, just make them more modular, or simply make large/medium/small versions.), or only include them in larger models and make the larger models roughly to one scale. I don't think that's a real issue though. Technic figures (I have one..somewhere) could also be disassembled (iirc.. if not, mine's broken) and could be shipped in his original parts. I don't think it would be terribly expensive. I estimate the cost for TLG to be less than $2, more likely less than $1. ..just looked it up, I guess mine may be broken. But they could make a version that can be taken apart. http://lego.wikia.co...TECHNIC_Figures and http://lego.wikia.co...GO_TECHNIC_guys show though that cost probably wasn't a really big issue. (three figures for 8-9 dollars in 1988 and 1993). I suspect this ultimately still boils down to what I said in my first post. If it's harder to produce but people are not willing to pay more money for it, what's the point? I find myself as well being not terribly interested in the Technic figures, while I love Technic. Yet I do like minifigs. But it feels like the figures are just not needed in the models. I guess if you like Technic figures, you should bricklink some (they're not expensive) and take good care of them. They will last longer than you.

Assuming the actual reason isn't publicly known or at best worded with no more detail than "for marketing reasons TLG discontinued Technic figures", I'll give you my best guess. There's a difference between boys and girls. Yeah, I mean, beyond that one difference. If you give male and female monkeys toys and you give them toy cars and dolls, the male monkey will generally start playing with the car, even if they have no proper understanding of what a car even is. It has moving wheels, it can be pushed down slopes, it speaks to the technical part of the brain. The female monkey will more likely pick up the doll. The "caring" instinct. A monkey isn't conditioned to like one toy more than the other - so unlike what some think, human boys just naturally have a preference for technical toys and girls just the same are more likely to be interested in dolls and other toys that revolve around social interaction. That doesn't mean there are no exceptions, but most of the time this is what we observe. Now back to Lego. Technic is mostly bought by or for boys. Boys are interested in technical things, but when you think about something technical like a car, that usually doesn't involve a human being. A Technic figure is, in it's essence, a doll. It doesn't have a real role - Technic figure is no police officer or fire-fighter that a boy would really want to identify with. At best (but he's lacking the uniform), Technic figure could be imagined to be a crane operator, but this sort of role is harder to imagine because of the lack of a uniform. Technic figure is, due to the lack of a uniform, just part of the technical fantasy/model. But when a boy is thinking of the moving parts in a supercar, motorcycle or crane, that usually wouldn't involve an operator. The boy himself is the operator. Putting a Technic figure in a model means putting someone else in the driver seat. This part isn't about identification, it's who is in charge. So why does City/Friends/etc include minifigs? Because here you're making up a story and the minifigs have a role. That's why there are so many and why they have so many uniforms and clothing. It's like directing your own movie. With City/Friends/etc you're not the operator. No vehicle is remote controlled (apart froms trains, but they are borderline Technic), moving parts only move when you move them directly with your hand. You guide their lives, you help them, but you will not "be" them. In Technic models, you are in control. So Technic figure can't be. So it wouldn't sell as well if there were figures in the models. In short, TLG probably discontinued Technic figures for marketing reasons.

That's a great idea! I'm a little worried about stability, but I'll just extend the base if necessary.

It works better than I thought. At first I was stumped, the pullback motor doesn't work when it's standing upright. It doesn't work in every orientation! After fixing that, main problems are now that winding it up is not that easy (if you want it to go for more than 10 seconds) and at some point the crown gear starts skipping, it just can't take the torque (probably fixable by reinforcing things, but costs parts).It would be nice if there's a solution that allows winding it up without the gondolas going around. A wind-up engine would possibly be a better solution, I have one, but it's studded and I feel for that reason it doesn't fit as nicely in this model. Bricklink yes, but I'll wait until I have a better idea of what other parts I want and how much so I can order all at once.Sign is a fun idea, maybe a sign that wiggles as the gondolas go round. The problem is mostly, what should the sign say or show? Writing any word in bricks just takes so many parts and I'd rather not print stickers.Anyway, time to show the second version. 76 parts! Could come down quite a bit by removing some POOP (Parts I made Out of Other Parts), but that would have to wait for the next BL order.

I might just try that. I'm not sure it'll work as expected, but it's worth trying. I sort of liked the simplicity of just using a rubber band, but a pullback would allow the model to even qualify. Ah! I'm not entirely sure what that would look like, but I could imagine the way it would probably fold.

Thanks everyone! Zblj, by foldable you mean like being able to fold up the entire model, like a transformer?

I see the image when I click it.. I guess you may still have it in your cache (so you see it) and the hoster doesn't allow hotlinking. I know you didn't say it would be unique, it's just that when you read the thread in it's current state, there's not much interesting to be seen yet or even to wonder about what it'll be. The thread in it's current state feels like little more than a question to please provide some original ideas, but that's part of the creative process.

At least host the pictures somewhere so they show directly in the thread, would be my first suggestion. I imagine the steering won't be so "easy access" once you start building something on top of it. And you could consider to think of some unique feature, because a frame with pullback+steering is rather common. I know it's not finished, but still.

The robot.. I remember that. I like your mini version of it, quite cute too.

Being only a recent AFOL, this is my first studless MOC. In fact, I have very little studless parts (just recently bought some) so halfway building this I found "woops, never have enough parts to get this done". So in the end I just decided to make something as big as possible using as little parts as possible (47 not including rubber band, could be reduced to 41 without giving up anything using pole reverser handles instead of the angled connectors+2L axles), very minimalistic. It's a simple stratosphere. Here is the list of functions: Just the one. It's second function is the capability of disqualifying itself because of the use of a household rubber band. [edit] Second version. 76 parts! Could come down quite a bit by removing some POOP (Parts I made Out of Other Parts), but that would have to wait for the next BL order. [/edit] Early version with 47 parts: If you wonder why the center liftarms are 1x13 instead of 1x15 or why the gondolas require a lot of imagination to be seen as such, I pretty much just ran out of suitable parts. It could easily be made much bigger using not too many parts, if one were to make this concept using the maximum of 200 parts this thing would be massive. If you like it, feel free to copy the concept. I'm not sure I'll even make a much better one.

Somebody who has enough green Technic should really make a Perry the Platypus "It does nothing!" Inaction Figure, merely to violate this rule. (so I'm talking about http://phineasandfer...Marketing_4.jpg) I'd do it if I had enough green Technic.