Lego Otaku

That again? LEGO did it before, putting parts up without matching the rest. Like window pane without any matching window frame. I just did a quick MOC and found out it's missing the PF polarity switch part 8869 which has been around for a few years. Also a couple PF motors (L and Servo, both only a year old and they do have excuse) and the oft mentioned PF train motor. Since LEGO discontinued the My Creation feature, LDD doesn't make them any money and they didn't have to continue LDD for free. They are keeping it alive and for free, so not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

LEGO's track has a much tighter curve radius than a regular train track so building a really big engine can be extra challenging. Often time both leading and trailing trucks have to be articulated, even if they originally didn't move as much side way on the real thing. I was looking at a few monster steam engines like 2-8-8-8-4 and 4-14-4. Both of them never got out of prototype stage because they were simply too big: 2-8-8-8-4 couldn't get past 5 mph (8 kph) because the cylinder used more steam than the boiler can generate and the 4-14-4 couldn't handle the track at all. I don't have the knack like some people have for making good looking engine that is very close to actual real engine. But it'd be interesting challenge to make either of the above engine work on LEGO track. LEGO did release a crocodile style engine with 2 sets of drive wheels but one of the steam engine above has 3 sets and weren't articulated like crocodile Anyone brave enough to test and see if the monster engines could handle LEGO tracks?.

Technic brick, 4x4 with open center, a connector, and 2x 3L pins (can use 2L pins) Good luck fitting the pins from inside and the connector thought of another: linked bricks.

I spit on VeRO, it was a very bad idea if the owner isn't verified accurately. One of my auction for a rare NES (Nintendo game) was getting pulled by VeRO Direct TV ???? I checked, there was no mention, not even just a word dish. I called, they couldn't figure out why and cancelled the suspension on me. I relisted, it was pulled again. I reworded the title and description, and made sure the picture didn't show anything beside the NES game and the generic holiday themed table cloth. eBay still couldn't figure out why my auction was reported as violating a dish company's rule and it was still pulled. By then I had spent over 3 hours on phone with no less than 20 different people. I'd probably would have had more useful answer if I walked to McDonald's and ordered Loco Taco and Bud Light while wearing nothing but pink tutu. I eventually sold it on a gaming forum for $200. That's about $20 in listing and FVF that eBay NEVER got because of idiot VeRO reporting incorrectly or possibly a competitor abusing VeRO to kill competition. I know I am not the only one who had problem like this, I bet hundred other sellers were also affected and quite likely a few thousand dollars a month worth of potential FVF was never collected. I believe it's that time the CEO stopped ordering $10 cigars and started using cheaper $9 cigars. That was 5 years ago and I haven't had any pulled auction at all since I sold that NES game.

The only device I have that does blue tooth is my android tablet. I think I'll stick to IR controller from LEGO for now as it's smaller and more portable and doesn't need weird looking connector to recharge battery

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p101/uzumaki_arashi_album/messy_ui_zps7e4cb698.jpg UI looks messed up to me? Windows 7 64-bits, I think the problem is in Windows display setting. It is set to 125% of default size.

Zombie Minion-Android hybrid? The green part do look like Android OS mascot the green robot.

I don't know what happened to Peeron. I tried to submit a complete scan of a Dacta instruction, nothing has happened to it at all. I would think they'd be happy to get hold of 25-year old instruction from any of Dacta line since it's seems as rare as hen's teeth.

Hmmm so it can be done but it looks like the wire from 9v battery is hacked to PF style connector? Wouldn't using a second PF converter cable to get power from battery box to the IR unit work for less hassle? Forgot there was official IR tower from Mindstorm set. I hadn't seen mine since I retired the RCX bricks because finding USB version wasn't easy, didn't have a reason to keep legacy serial port on modern computer, and last I heard, USB driver was limited to only 32-bits and won't work on 64 bits OS. I use the newer NCX anyway and Arduino for more I/O and other advanced use.

9 feet long you'd need to work on weight distribution. Early UCS Star Destroyer (10030) had problem with front end sagging down and bending 1x16 technic bricks and that one is tiny compared to 9 feet monster you want to make. Worse case, you might need a metal rod through the middle and build LEGO around it as scaffold to assemble the ship while the rod holds the shape and weight.

Anything special that I might need to do to put the PF IR tower and battery box to older 9v motor and light systems from 1990's? Remote controlled monorail would be nice. The old 9v battery box would be a problem since IR tower has different type of connector on bottom, and the battery box (both 6x AAA or rechargeable) is a bit taller and only comes in newer grey which won't quite fit with old grey or red/white of the old monorail sets.

I've used my teeth on those old black pins. They were a pain to get out even compared to modern black friction pin. Don't worry, the really old sets with my teeth marks are not going for sale as long as I still breathe. They have been kept separate from late 1990's/early 2000 when I resumed buying LEGO after I left college and had money, and also separate from late 2000 when I came back from the real dark age. Those pieces have different "feel"

I wanted to recreate a few early 80's Technic sets in LDD for another thread but too many parts are not in LDD and some can't be duplicated well with modern solution like the plate above.

Profile brick didn't come out until long after classic space series was retired. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3004p06 shows brick with printed grill that looked like profile with vertical groves. 1x4 bricks also came with this decoration.

Nice. Does the Norwegian alphabet not have Q or X? I didn't see it in the picture.

Free funereal for your wallet right here.

An example of legal but off the grid connection. Cool look but a real pain in the butt if you want to secure it onto the baseplate. The tower using 1x2 can be made smaller than 1x3, and if you used log brick, even smaller without being illegal.

:wub: dat box :wub: LEGO hasn't used that style for years

Looks good. BL's wanted list by store has some drawback: you can't see the price unless you checked each store, then it'd take a while to juggle multiple stores to get the best price. One recent example, I was putting together a moc with about 300 pieces. The only store that had all of the pieces I wanted checks out at almost $80 (YIKES) but when I checked the next 3 stores and juggled, 30 minutes later I got grand total of only $30. Still it took me a while and that was only 300 pieces. I have a few more want list that I need to go through eventually, over 3,000 pieces total. If you could expand on that and make it work, and release it to public I could take advantage to shop around.

All those little windows glued in place. 96 of em... Enough to fill out 16x yellow castle.

LDD is also a bit easier to use at the start. LDraw has steeper learning curve but gets better as you figure out more of the program.

Save them during double VIP month. Any points you use up to lower the final price also reduces the new VIP so you'd lose out the double points. For normal time, there's no real benefit to saving so I usually use it up when it's available.

FWIW the train motor for PF still do not exists. Neither do the small battery box (4x8x4, both regular 'AA' and rechargeable) so it puts a bit of damper on any MOC. You can still use the older 9v motor, physically it's the same size but do mind where the wire comes in as it's permanently wired. For the battery box, use a bunch of 2x4 bricks to make a 4x8x4 block and use group feature to group them together as one piece for easier moving. When when making a part list, take care to use the correct part for the motor and battery box.

Any reason 4862 pane element "fits" 4181 and 4182 doors? IRL it would never stay in yet LDD seems to think it's correct??? Brickshelf has an excellent listing of windows and doors with window, and which pane fits which windows opening. LEGO should probably check those and compare with what LDD supports. It's the same illegal design as making a large tire fitting on a small hub, LDD already rejects non-fitting tire connections. Why not apply that to glass?

One thing missing: Gomez with a dynamite detonator waiting for the train to collide. for those who are too young to remember black and white comedy-horror shows.