Phil B

It's real simple for me: If the company focuses solely on Enhancing the LEGO experience, and makes complimentary products, they are fair game. If the company competes with LEGO (even if they make some parts that are useful and not made by LEGO) then they are not OK to be discussed here. And wrt old parts - that is part of the hobby. You either fork over the money to buy those rare parts or you change your design to eliminate the rare parts.

It's the old Christmas train (10173). From what I read online, it should work with a single 9V motor. But before I go ahead and open up the motors (doing god knows what kind of damage :) ) I will try these motors on my new Christmas train as well (10254) - I have disabled the rotating christmas tree on that one so it should pull easily.

So I now have 2 9V train motors, but both of them cut off after 20-40 minutes of running. I believe this might be an issue with the Themristor being old .... can someone confirm that that is the most likely conclusion and that opening the motor and removing the themristor is the right thing to do? @Toastie: I think you know more about this, what would you suggest?

Can we stop with the quiet introduction of all these clone brands into a LEGO forum? Thanks.

Your train builds are great, but the stories are what make your posts fascinating. Keep 'em coming!

My KeyBrickOne just arrived today (haven't opened the box yet) - to the midwest US. Thanks guys!

I think that looks rather nice together, well done. Pro-tip: don’t try to impress your wife with LEGO .....

As someone who has been working on and off on a similar minifig-scale Glenfinnan Viaduct for the last year, I can only say that you’ve totally knocked it out of the park. Well done.

It means that you violated two key rules of Eurobricks: 1) No thread-revival. The above thread was last posted in in 2016 (and that was already a necro-post, since the conversation happened in 2015). 2) No "do you have instructions" posts as your only contribution.

The price I quoted above is for the part, not for the set. Only one seller left in the US for $35+shipping, as I mentioned. Not so much in the US. I keep a close eye on everything train related in the US, and even used powered up passenger trains, incomplete, but with the track and the PUp components go for $120+. As I said, the cheapest deal right now is Target's Black Friday price of $128, but otherwise it is $160. Take a look at BrickLink, only 8 sellers and min price in the US is $150+shipping.

For the last 5+ years I have been running a train under my Christmas tree, powered by a LiIon PF battery box and double motors. I recently answered a question on Bricks.stackexchange.com where someone asked for advice on which power system to buy, and the answer I had to give surprised me so much, that I went ahead and changed my own strategy immediately as well. I am now the proud owner of an oval (16+ curves, 12 straights) with a L+R set of points of 9V track, including transformer, wall wart and power-to-rail connectors. Total cost were around $120, however, this is after deducting the going BL price for other train components that came with my purchase. If I didn't exclude those, my total would have been $190. (All US dollars). This prompted me to do a quick compare on the costs of a fully working train oval for under a Christmas tree. The Oval consists of 16 curves and at least 8 straights. The cost of whatever Christmas train you choose to run is not included: Powered UP: Battery Box: $50 at LEGO S@H, $35+shipping at BrickLink (only 1 US Seller) Motor: $14 at LEGO S@H Wheels & Axles: ~$3+shipping on BrickLink for 2 axles and 4 wheels Decorative sides: ~$2.50+shipping on BrickLink Tracks: 1 Track Pack (8 straights, 4 curves): $20 at LEGO S@H, $16 on sale occasionally at other stores; 12x Curved tracks: $6+shipping at BL or: Buy set 60197 ($160 at LEGO S@H, occasionally on sale for less at other stores (e.g. currently $128 at Target) plus 4x Straight track ($7+Shipping on BL) - used ones run about the same cost as the promo prices. Depending on how you count, this is $100-$160+tax for this setup, and you need to keep a mobile phone around (or pony up another $15 for the remote control), have to keep the connection alive, and will have to replace/recharge batteries every 2-3hrs. Power Functions: Battery Box: $13 on LEGO S@H ($15+shipping on BL), or the LiIon pack which has no US-based sellers currently neither on EBay nor BL, but should go for $100-$150 if available. IR Receiver: $10+shipping for a used one on BrickLink Decorative sides: ~$2.50+shipping on BrickLink Tracks: 1 Track Pack (8 straights, 4 curves): $20 at LEGO S@H, $16 on sale occasionally at other stores; 12x Curved tracks: $6+shipping at BL or: Buy a retired Power Function set (used) such as 60051, which with patience can be bought used, complete on EBay for $125-$150. You'd need extra straight track though (see Powered Up), which runs ~$7+Shipping. Again, depending on how you count, this is a $70-$150 purchase. Likely the cheapest option currently, until prices for Power Functions start skyrocketing once all components have officially retired. You get 2-3hrs run time, and unless you add $100 to your total for a LiIon battery box, you will need to buy rechargeable batteries and a charger (or cycle through alkaline AAA's like a madman). 9V: Get a used but working copy of 4561 ($100-$150 on EBay) Buy some extra straight track: 4*$5+shipping on BL (let's call it $25) Total: $125-$175 Suddenly the convenience of never having to change batteries or recharge with a $150 9V purchase sounds pretty attractive, doesn't it? Quite fascinating, for a product that has been discontinued for almost 15 years.

That’s his face. His body is black, consisting of 2 1x1 plates with clip vertical with a regular 1x1 plate in between. And a 1x1 bracket to hold his face.

That is quite the shocker .... I didn't know @GianCann personally but I saw his frequent replies here on this forum. My thoughts go out all who knew him and of course his family and friends.....

They rotate through a clever Technic hinge setup developed by Brxstr.

In the fifth picture featuring a slightly out-of-focus digger, the bear is visible in the top left, climbing a tree. Do you spot him now?

Hello everyone, A few months ago I stumbled upon some digital renderings made by Reddit user u/brxstr of a Back-to-the-Future DMC DeLorean, which looked fantastic. He/she had (has?) the Stud.io file available on Rebrickable.com, so I downloaded it and planned to build it. In doing my due diligence I found out that the model was originally designed by user Troelskf on Brickshelf, so I want to make sure (s)he gets credit as well. I ended up redoing large parts of the design for several reasons: Part availability and cost. Several parts were very expensive (the F40 windscreen for example) so I came up with alternative solutions for those. Stability and Buildability. As the design has never been built IRL, certain parts of the design looked great in Stud.io, but did not work in the brick. For example, the click hinges for the shaping on the back were originally positioned right in between two clicks, which meant there was an ugly gap. The doors were so flimsy in their original design, they would fall apart when touched lightly. Operability. The doors were not opening in the original design, as there was no tolerance for the swing movement (they looked great opened and closed, but would have to be removed and reassembled to change them from opened to closed. The lid for Mr Fusion could not be opened for similar reasons. Improved looks. I completely redesigned the dashboard, adding more and more detailed instrumentation. I changed the gear lever and created a different flux capacitor design. I modified the hose work around the engine, and redesigned the back section to make it look more like the BttF version, including custom license plate. Generating instructions. The original file was a purely digital design, with no consideration for building the set with real bricks. I spent many hours redesigning the build sequence and creating detailed, step by step instructions. They are almost complete (Isn't it wonderful that if you move a part from one step to another in Stud.io, it decides to undo all the call-outs in the instructions which in turn leads to page layouts resetting?). I still have one change to make but then the 300+ page instructions are ready. Here is the final product. Hope you like it. More pictures in my Flickr album (click on any one of the images to get there). Total cost was ~$200 (US), but I had most of the common parts on hand. Would likely be closer to $300 if all 1600+ parts had to be purchased.

In for one! Hopefully the price can come down on this as your start picking up steam. I think $50/EUR 40 would be a good target price point. And as I proposed earlier, an add-on that gives a 10-15cm USB extension with the connector built into a 1x2 brick would be very helpful. That could retail for EUR10/$10.

My submission for OcTRAINber 2020: This was originally intended to be a 3x3 baseplate sized full microscale diorama of the Hogwarts Express crossing the Glenfinnan Viaduct, with the Weasley's flying car chasing it. Alas, time and other duties were not fair, and last weekend I had to reimagine the project into a much smaller size. But I am glad I did, as I think it came out really well - hopefully my woeful photography skills still allow some of its glory to shine. Couple of "Where is Waldo's?" - Did you spot the bear? - The construction crew at work? - The fallen tree?

Awesome!

As a fellow HE modifier and Mk.I coach builder, I think you did an excellent job. Love the coaches!

Congrats on the front page and very interesting prototype and story!

Stud.io's Part Designer will happily accept .dat files. You might need to re-model the attachment points, but that takes all but a minute.

All I can say is: Don’t trust Stud.io’s cost estimates (at least not the ones in the Model Info screen). Load your .io file straight into Bricklink, then export as XML, open it up in Notepad, change all occurrences of MINQTY to QTY and load the resulting file into Brickstock. You will see a 50% decrease in cost. At least that is what I have observed.

If it helps, here is a crude illustration of how my proposal would look like. Imagine a port in the 1x2 brick ...

What about the idea of having a (relatively short) cable extension of the current port? Perhaps you can put it in a 1x2 brick? That way a builder can embed the box anywhere in the train and either charge directly on the box (if the port is accessible from outside or if the box can be lifted out of the model) or plug in the extension, put the 1x2 brick somewhere in the outside wall of the train and use that to plug in the charger. Of course, then there will be the request to get that brick into as many colors as possible, but perhaps just printing it as black or LBG would be sufficient.