Lego Otaku

Meijer store in Lapeer, maybe at other Meijer too has Ewar Aceo-Fighter polys, easily over 25 on shelf for clearance sale at $1.99. They were on the shelf near holiday stuff that were being cleared out as well so check the small toys and candies shelves, not in LEGO isle.

I'd like to implement suggestion for future revision. How about ending after finding xx solutions rather than keep going? I've been stuck on one that is up to 3840 combinations checked and not 1/4 way done for 4 stores solution. So if it is set to stop at 5 store solutions, it'd stop wasting so much time trying to find other combination that may only be $1 cheaper. This only need to apply to 4 and 5 stores, smaller stores are easier and quicker most of the time.

+1 AMD CPU instead of Intel. AMD CPU is much cheaper, often more than 75% cheaper than similar Intel CPU. The savings can be used toward bigger SSD for booting and OS or more RAM for better overall performance. LDD is pretty much CPU dependent with little benefit from high end video card. A standard 4 core is enough if you're not going to do any heavy work like photoshopping or video rendering. My computer is an overpowered rig: dual XEON X5650 (about $3,000 for CPU and dual socket motherboard) and if I could do it again, I would have settled for cheaper solution. Dual XEON with hyperthreading is equivalent to a single 24-core CPU. It rips through models in POV-Ray tracing in minutes what comparable computer would need in hours but 24-process doesn't help LDD itself. It still goes slow over 10k piece counts and becomes unstable at over 100k piece counts. Plus most games are good up to 2 or 3 cores so my computer's wasting on average about 90% of total power :/

Everyone can sort LEGO in any ways that best suits them, there was never a rule on how it should be sorted. Some sort only byu color which can work fine for small lots. I usually sort them by Bricklink because I frequently buy and sell on BL and it's often easier for me to find what I want if I sorted the same.

Glad I am not one of the 21 unlucky people who may not win at all!

LDD File Once it is put together, it can't be taken apart without destroying a piece or 2.

Some of your stuff is much older than what I got. I have a few waffle pieces and few 1x1 window bricks from early 70's as well as a near complete life guard set with the stiff minifig (how it got in USA no idea, it appeared at a yard sale many years ago for a few dollars) The rarest piece would have to be a deformed LEGO piece. LEGO has a rather tight quality control so few defective piece gets out. Offiicial non-damaged piece aside, it would be the 2x2x1/3 brick with wire from 6990 Monorail set. Only the very early sets came with plate that is one standard plate thick. Later issues all were 2 plates thick (or 2/3 brick) due to how easily the thin one broke,

I'm cool with mostly ships and other recognizable models. But less weapon racks as well, I don't see em much in SW universe.

Anything? I would love to have Legend of Zelda figures with accurate looking head piece for Link. I'd also like some from various anime shows, many that would require custom torso and face piece.

Best that I can do with the given pictures: LDD file: unofficial 4000013 Box shows 435 pieces total and I have 407 so I am likely missing some pieces. I tried Brickset which has a partial part list that had a few pieces I missed but it didn't have any white 1x1 round plate so they aren't complete either. The mini base plate with the snowman was the hardest to do because it was furthest of the 4 pictured mini base plates, that is likely where most of the missed pieces are. The wall behind elves' workshop is also in question as I couldn't see clearly how it was done and when I checked the part list, it had a little too many grey plates under the masonry bricks, and too many 1x2 log bricks. Also it listed 2 trans-clear round brick but I couldn't figure those at all. I did add the "extra" parts Brickset listed to the side for future reference should a better picture or instruction turn up. Without official instruction or more pictures, this is all I can do. The color is probably 99% accurate. One of the elf's head has wrong print, LDD didn't have the right one.

Bricklink forum has a few of those posts already. Just post em at 419 site and delete it. If you want to try and bait them, be sure to reward them with a few http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3069bpx7 and mark them in custom form accordingly. If (for example) you send 10 of the "$100 bill" tiles, mark it as $1,000 worth of LEGO. Let them eat customs taxes. Personally I'd let the 419 regulars do the baiting and trolling.

I think there may be a discontinuity in the code between changing head view and scrolling that is causing the bug? Just annoying but it doesn't break LDD. Just close it, retry, and eventually the desired head will be found. PS I wish there is a way to set the heads in default position, straight on face and not bird's eye view. We all know what the top of the head looks like, it makes looking at the face a bit harder.

Bug with 4.3.8 that just got released a few days ago. If you used LDD Extended mode, a minifig head (any blank will do), and use decoration tool you get a pop up window with scroll bar. Default viewing angle of the heads: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Lego-0taku/ldd/scroll_1.jpg scroll bar works properly. However the scroll does not work if you changed the view of the heads (right-click to change viewing angle of the heads). I can move the bar but the decorated head image will not scroll at all. I have to close it, open again, scroll then change head view to see better. head viewing angle changed: http://www.brickshel...dd/scroll_2.jpg scroll bar moves but the head does not scroll.

1300 is quite large. Do knock out some of the rarer pieces first. You can make a separate want list just for the top few rarest parts, try to find one store that has em all cheap as possible, and buy it.

Source: http://www.hothbricks.com it shows other side of the box. The set seems to be made of 4 sub-sets. Going to try and work on this in LDD. A bit over 1 hour later I got 3 of the 4 mostly done. Note I said mostly done. With only 2 pictures to work with, and no alternate view of the base plates except for the fireplace I couldn't tell if I am missing a few 1x1 round white plates and 1x2 white plates on other side of Santa's sleigh. Also I couldn't place the 1x1 red tile and 1x2 yellow tile in little kid's hands as it's not snap-on in LDD and it's extra tricky to float them in while the figs are rotated. I had to float a lot of other tiles and plates in plus I had to cheat on Santa's head and beard as it originally wouldn't fit on red blank head. Lastly I am not sure of the elf's workshop. The picture hinted at something below masonry profile bricks but I couldn't tell what. I am assuming dark bley plate for the moment. 323 pieces total. Still to do the snowman plate.

Yes it is normal. With 3.7 it can use all cores. I have a dual XEON system with 12 cores and hyperthreading. When I run POV-Ray I can see 24 processes running at 100%

There's a thread in buy and sell section of the forum for trading minifigs you won in this contest.

Make it clear that it is one set and has enough parts to make only 1 of the 3 models.

I think the single most complex is the dice. 6 sided studs in a hollow frame, then having rubber injected to fill the void and making edges so it won't make a racket when it's thrown. I think it was mentioned on a documentary about LEGO factory that the dice is a 2 step process in a single mold. Makes the plastic frame, then roll it down to the rubber mold.

Using old part that is official LEGO but which they no longer have mold would be a gray area. Monorail still fits the current guideline the way it's worded since it's official LEGO part. I wonder what other old part beside monorail LEGO used to make and can no longer make due to lost or destroyed mold. Not counting design variation like old 2x4 brick without tube support.

Hmmm... I won't be eligible for the badge until 2023

How it works: Brickficiency checks all the store (within select countries or all) and when they start checking for combinations, they start with rarest piece first. But yeah large list can take a while to finish, especially if you selected up to 5 stores.

Try this one: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=82975 Not 100% but it helps narrow down to a few stores with cheapest possible lots.

I remember looking over the bulk bricks in the 80's era catalogs. Seeing a lot of what I wanted to get without having to buy 20 sets just to get enough of the parts in color.

So no new parts, only existing parts permitted. Hmmm Time to dig out my monorail set and make something (ie Disney monorail) with very high wow and cool factor, make it 6 or 7 cars long using towball plates, list it, and promote it heavily so it'd reach 10k. Supposedly LEGO lost the mold for some of the parts. Yet monorail parts already exists as official LEGO parts so it's not new mold and fits the rule.