But have they gone DIY?
I'm a real pickle. Or I was. Finally gave it up.
I discovered 4DBrix a few months before it went down. I have a compressed display area for a Monorail train. It could not be built with the native tracks, so I went hunting. I found 4DBrix and thought it might work, so I ordered a bunch of sample tracks to test it.
Sadly for me, it took a few months before I had time to work on the project properly enough to decide which additional tracks I needed for the build. I went to order additional tracks and discovered the shutdown. I'd developed a relationship with Tom, so I emailed him to see if there was any solution. He offered to mfg a few critical pieces, the rest of which could be done with native tracks (while more expensive, that's okay since it was at least still possible to complete the build). I graciously accepted, widdled down my order to the minimum and even offered to pay double. Never heard from him again.
The European site claimed to have the parts I need in stock. I tried to order a couple of times, but they refused due to import costs. I offered to pay those import costs. I didn't care about the costs. But I never heard from them again.
I opted to go to the expense of hunting down and paying the exorbitant pricing on the natively available tracks I also needed, with the understanding that the DIY would theoretically be on its feet soon. Tom stated that other mfgs were expected to come online with his designs. And if that didn't happen in a timely fashion, I could still buy from this TrixBrix copycat.
Well, I still see no DIY mfgs offering anything. This implies that Tom did not release his designs. And TrixBrix has no custom monorail (which I thought was the actual issue). I suppose they were copying his nonMonoRail designs (didn't look that far into it).
Months later, my halfbuilt Monorail still sits unattended, though I've finally taken it down and will place something else (nonLego) in its stead. I spent a good deal of money and time on this project. If Tom had mentioned that he was considering a shutdown, I could have scrapped the project or overpurchased when I had the chance. And then there's the matter of the disappointment. I was very excited about this :(
I've kept an eye on eBay to see if anyone might be willing to sell diagonals (the critical part I need), but no luck. My only other option is to rebuild my 6' wide 6' tall glassed-in display case with a 24" depth (vs the current 18"), which would support native tracks, but now we're talking too much materials waste to justify. Yes, I could put the monorail out in the open, but I built the display case to prevent dust collection (specifically).
But yeah in short. No 4DBrix. No DIYs. No TrixBrix... Project Failure.
I honestly did not realize how disappointed I was until I took it down today.
And all because of two missing track pieces, but what are you going to do? I just had very unfortunate timing.
I'm grateful to Tom for the great works he's done, but vaporizing without warning (if you'll forgive the phrase) derailed me.
If it's impossible to get Tom's products without Tom, why the shutdown?
Edit (moments later): Oddly, Page 2 of this thread was not visible until I submitted this post. The June response shows some progress regarding 4DBrix designs availability, not of monorail as of yet, but still some progress. I will check back periodically.
