anothergol

Looks really great & spot-on

Looks really great! I've only modded the feet on mine, you should take a look, I see you kept those sharp angles, while they can easily be made round & look better. Thread here, I've kept the rightmost one. Since then, 2x2 slopes now exist in light grey & will probably look better. http://www.eurobrick...howtopic=103399 What's the piece count btw? I wonder if Lego will ever produce one like that. Ironically, in their advertisement it looks all studless & smooth..

Inspired by the cop's car from the Lego movie (IMHO one of the best models Lego ever made), thus indirectly inspired by Blade Runner & The 5th Element, some SF car. It's very solid & lit up by a light brick. (ah, I should mention that it's not a "car" as it has no wheels - well it has a tiny landing one) [edit: typo in the thread's title, it's of course a MOC]

They definitely are, they're very strong joints, however they're ratchetted, and the digital designer doesn't snap like they would in real life, so it's something to take into account. You would have fun building this, however it would turn it into a totally different game: gathering stuff in Bricklink. The first time it would be very boring & painful, you'll find out that many of the stuff in the designer don't exist in real life, or are impossible to find. But after a while, getting stuff from Bricklink becomes a game/addiction too. Judging from the pics, I think the problem wouldn't be the joints but the dressing that looks fragile in places, and the many hero factory parts that may be hard to find in specific colors & cost a fortune. If I were you, I'd build just the head. It's in the realm of doable (possibly you'll have to rethink your color scheme), and you'll see it's something else to hold it in your hand.

That 1x1 brick+clip is indeed pointless, but the one next to it is useful: when you build small, you often need something to act as a clip AND hold/consolidate what's around it. That is not the case for the 1x1 brick+clip, it has no use over the same as an assembly. But many parts that are compounds of others, are useful for consolidation, or simply look better (like 2x2 curved slopes). One could argue that the 1x1+clip makes it easier for kids, though.

I had already posted a glimpse of this one in another thread, I was waiting for a new camera to make better pics (& I now have 14 other MOCs to film), here it is. There's a dual stud shooter behind the claw fingers. Youtube 360:

I do nearly everything in the LDD, and bricklink everything once the design is 100% done. Yet, it still means limitations, as some parts that exist in the LDD simply don't exist, or are overexpensive. But Lego itself is very limiting, lots of parts that you'd expect to exist, don't (yet), so I can't imagine playing with a pile of bricks like I did when I was a kid.

my bad, I thought I had given the part #, it was a set indeed ah, so it's by design, I thought it was a flaw Talking about a flaw, a serious one IMHO, I wonder why Lego hasn't fixed this yet. It (brackets side by side, here on a 2x4 plate) works in the LDD, it works with large brackets, but those small brackets are off by a fraction of mm, but enough to be very annoying. Sure, we can avoid using them this way, but it's easy to see things getting off/wrong when playing with brackets in general, pretty sure this flaw is the source of all problems.

Talking about this year's new 2M axle + pin with friction. I only have 2 of them (still a rare part) and I've noticed a flaw, I wonder if it's a general one: If you place a half-liftarm on the upper or lower-half of a normal friction pin, there's friction. If you place a liftarm on the upper part of this new 31030, there is friction, but there is almost no friction on the lower part, *despite* the visible bumps that should be giving friction. Result: on a full liftarm, that pin has half friction. It's certainly not as loose as a frictionless pin, but it's still rather loose. Seems like a fatal flaw to me, especially considering the price of this still rare enough part.

how well do printed part cling? Can printed bricks really hold well, not too tight & not too loose? Impressive that it worked for a full castle. And weird that you printed the bricks & not the weapons - I'd have expected the opposite.

strange building with the legs - how does it work?

really great

why not bricklink old black axles? There are still plenty out there, for cheap.

but I'm asking the original poster if he can confirm that the part is the right one (I read he was last active in 2012, though.. but maybe someone else here owns the 10159 set) There are only 2 bottom stud holes, vs 4 for the old part. I've never *seen* that part, only a (blurry) hint of it in a video seems to confirm that it exists in that form, plus a Bricklink description that tells that one 6152 is a 6152003 (without saying what it is exactly).

Not to dig up an old thread, but I've been searching about a part for some time now, and it appears that set 10159 (if the original poster can confirm) is not only the last set in which part 6152 appears, it's also the ONLY set in which it appears in its 6152003 form, which is the one that it has in the Digital Designer: I was even looking for buying a new or near-new 10159 just to get that piece in good state, and weirdly, 10159 is harder to find & more expensive than its version from '94. I'm sure there are quite a lot of those on Bricklink, but Bricklink not making the 6152003 differenciation, and sellers generally not commenting the state, doesn't make it easy to find one :(

Wait, what? It's totally the opposite, and I hate it! To start with, I hate how Lego now color-codes everything. Yes, today it's impossible to find a pin/axle connector without friction that not in BLUE (blue is fine.. only if your design uses blue..) or frictionless ones that are not in TAN. I had to buy overexpensive frictionless pin/axle connectors in BLACK, because those were rare, and it's very unlikely that they will pop up again, now that Lego color-codes everything (even plates now, which is silly IMHO) to make it easier for kids. So it's totally the opposite, in the "good old days", there was less color-coding, and I'm hanging to the few old-grey frictionless pins that I still have from old sets, because old grey is still better than an ugly blue pin sticking out of your design. Today, -black pin=friction -grey pin=frictionless -blue pin/axle=friction -tan pin/axle=frictionless (& most of the complex pins have friction anyway, so don't need color-coding) simple for kids, but ugly They even coded axles now.. black for even lengths, grey for odd ones. Again, easier for kids, but ugly in the results. (where it's bad, though, is that not all friction pins have the SAME friction)

true, but it's more because 11477's have a very strong stud grip (for some reason), but that's cool because those slopes allow for nice sturdy constructions. But yeah, when it's sturdy it's less easy to remove.. Still, I wouldn't change those 11477's, to me it's one of the best/major pieces there are.

really? yeah, but the problem is when it's not a roof that you're building ..and even there, IMHO a roof built of such bricks looks pretty cheesy & uncreative, these days. yeah but.. what's responsible for this is the huge number of different colors these days. But you named sand green, which is kinda a color that shouldn't even exist, in order to reduce the color count & have more chances to find parts of the right color. Personally, my last little project needed lime parts, and I was really not expecting to find much in lime - yet the amount of parts available in lime really surprised me, considering I had never met any in the sets that I bought. But yeah, some colors don't have much available.

Coming back to Lego after 20 years, I found it interesting to see what changed in the parts, for the good (lots of new useful parts, the old ones that got reworked, new brackets that are MORE than welcome & apparently changed the general design of Lego sets) and the bad (more visible molding holes, some low-quality hero factory parts, the disappearance of some key Technic parts, some joints too ratchetted for my taste). But something that I don't understand: the grainy texture of slope parts. I can't imagine a use for that texture, surely it was just to give old (& I mean old even for me) roofs a texture. But with the appearance of new smooth slopes & curves, why is it that those old parts still have the grainy texture? Worse, it looks like Lego can't do it properly anymore - they now generally have those fingerprint-like (?) marks on them (old Lego wouldn't have let this pass). I don't know, I've always avoided those parts because I don't like the texture. Worse, the 92946 version, which is more useful & didn't exist when I was a kid, has that texture too.. I also don't understand why Lego produces so many new parts for temporary appearance (minifig items mainly), while the Lego "system" could still use a massive lot of useful parts. Ok, I assume that temporary items don't need as many molds now renewing them, but still.. When I was a kid, 1x1 slopes didn't exist, and now they're in pretty much everything - lots of similar parts are still "needed" IMHO. Even a basic stud invertor plate, I find it really weird that it still doesn't exist, 20 years later, while we still see those silly "compound" parts that don't seem to have any use (you know, like 60475, I can't imagine it having spared that much money, and it's not like it really makes it easier for kids either). I like today's Lego, though. The minifig's look hasn't aged and is now a strong icon. As Playmobil was part of my youth as well, I checked what it became as well, really surprised that it was still "big" (well, in Europe), even bigger than Lego in shops. But IMHO, Playmobil still has a strong "old german" feel to it, it doesn't have that international feel that Lego has. I thought that videogames would have killed both Playmobil & Lego, well, looks like Lego embraced videogames, and that Playmobil survived for some reason. Talking about videogames, while I hate the look (& not just the look) of Lego games & TV shows, I quite liked the movie, which was totally made for my generation (spot on, I must say, I grew up with Benny when he didn't have a name yet). Why can't Lego's TV shows look like, well, Lego?

Finishing its alternate crab-like version (will need to replace the windshield by a light blue one, which apparently exists without the bottom flange), and working on a mosquito alternate of the tricopter. While the one on wheels holds one of the new six-shooters, this one has 2 of the new shooter plates in his claw.

Interesting, makes sense, even though the balls seem to be made in hard ABS that may not compress thanks to 3 small holes. I've collected a couple of those old "thinner" ball cups btw, because they, well, look better for arms. I've also noticed that some of the balls had a more gritty, not shiny texture to them, and thought that it was made to help getting more friction with less clamp? I don't know.. I understand that they wouldn't do this because of the costs, but if balls had a rubber coating, they would compress well and keep friction over time (but maybe also dry out over years?). Ah wait, I know where I've seen coated ball-joints - in some crappy kre-o set. Funny, I just checked them, and the cups have printed their shape on the balls. This said, they work quite well!

To me, those rules are important because that's where all the fun is, the limitations. Let's face it, if you use illegal techniques, you may as well paint your lego, glue them, cut them, use non-lego bricks, etc. That's nice if you're only interested in the end result and not following the rules, but THEN there are much better & interesting methods to get there. You could assemble pieces from various model kits, use 3D printing or good old sculpting, etc - you would get much much better results than by using legos. Don't get me wrong, I've seen amazing "illegal" or painted lego MOCs. The fact that they used illegal techniques only made them a bit less amazing to me. I see it as "categories". If you fight in a specific category, you've got to do as good as the best in that category. You don't expect as amazing in the "legal techniques" category. Now the problem is that those techniques aren't properly defined. Sure, Lego has a bible, and it's known what stresses parts & should be avoided. But I haven't read rules about separating parts that come pre-assembled. Like small turntables or joints - afterall it's easy to break those. Also something we see A LOT in MOCs is the use of minifig hands, I'm not sure if Lego would do that in official sets. It's often cleverly used, though, and using minifig hands is a bit like the Wilhem scream of Lego.

If I take a part like 32174, the longest axle hole is blocked, and I can well understand that it's to make it easier for kids, yet it's bloody annoying in practice, considering there is no 1.5 axle. Still, that same piece has 3 different designs, would have been nice to have a non-blocked one. In the LDD, it's even working as hollow, actually! ..but what's the reason for a 30367 to be blocked? Can't think of any use. There is no blocked 3062 and no one would see a use for that. Worse, I often see 30367 sold as "blocked or hollow" at BL. I'm not sure what that means exactly, maybe hollow means the X cross instead of the plain filling, because I've never seen a true hollow 30367. Talking about this "hollow, but x-crossed blocked", this one had a purpose btw and it was anti-choking, not to save plastic.

I came back to Lego after 20 years. I had kept my old bricks for that long, thinking that one day I'll get back to it, and I did - and realized that my old bricks were so chewed up and dirty, that they were worthless :) I think it works that way: when you're a kid you wanna be an adult, at some point you stop with classic lego, maybe moving to Technics. As a programmer, I thought I'd go for using Lego for robotic stuff - but it was boring, felt like work, never made anything out of my Mindstorms set. Now I'm back to Lego and it's not at all for technic stuff, only design & the fun of it. Only (big) difference, instead of playing with a limited pile of bricks, I'm not doing it all in the LDD and then building it. I've checked what I missed during those 20 years, and IMHO - not much! I quite like the sets that came out after 2008, but frankly, what came out between 1990 and 2008 isn't very thrilling. I'm also glad I wasn't there for the "light grey change".

I think there are many bricks that would benefit from plastic-saving then, like every hollow part that's filled in places, preventing bars or axles to fully pass through them