Darth Dino

Hi could please someone bricklink me the tires that have been used on this impressive MOC? In the close future i will start with a 4axis truck and i do not know which to buy. I firstly thought on the Unimog tires o the powerpuller ones, but these are also nice looking. Dino

Hi I have been in this store one week ago. Large cup is for 15.99€, small the half. I did not asked for for kbox prices or if they sell them. I am german but heard the staff speaking english. The bill showed the VAT, i do not know if that helps. I do not think they will give you parts without payig immediately. Anyway, you shold ask the them on the phone. Acually they have good parts for achitcture and Star Wars MOCS (gray black and trans clear). Check Brickbuildr for that, their inventory is up to date. Dino

Hi i am missing the bar in front of the engines. Instead there seems to be a round tile. Do you think this model will later come with a bar-sticker in front of the engines? Dino

Hi as i am a biologist and also a german i have to ask you somthing about the "scorpions". Mideuropean scorpions are pretty rare and there is nearly only one species (Euscorpius) that will live here. This is dark black and the body without the arms is around 4cm long. They are very agressive to other scorpions so i wonder there lived more than one. Are you living close to the alps? Thats the only way i could think they have been real scorpions. There are also pseudoscorpions (german Pseudoskorpione). Those having arms like a scorpion and a comparable body but no tail and no poisined sting! Those are smaller and much! more often to see here. They are smaller and no one have to be afraid of them. Dino

Hi Good to know that they are probable asking for the number on the manual. This one is "eaten by the dog" or "redesigned as paper planes by my son" ;) I think if you obviously doing this for yourself and a single model, no one will hurt you. It will be differnt if you have a bricklink shop and oder 10 of them ;) Dino

Hi I have checked today Legos "lost a part" online service. Surprizingly they offered me all parts of the MF including the Radar dish (25€ at BL). Do they check afterwards some kind of serialnumber or are you only allowed to order this way single parts each partnumber? I will not buy more of one dish, but maybe 16x a bley technic brick that is otherwise hard to get. Can you also give recommendations (maybe a list of parts) which parts better should ordered in a way at Lego directly? Dino

Hi as i am a biologist i like spiders a lot. This one looks close to those jumping spiders except they all having large eyes. With its short legs and condensed body it is also close to many beetles except the eight legs. The construction looks simple but is working well - as biology is too! Dino

Hi @Linko: Your arrangement is great and your colors too (sunset). But your depth of field is pretty small, because of the small sizes of the minifigs and the high magnification. Especially when you shoot at highest aperature (smallest value) e.g. f2.8. You will get a much better look if you close your aperature a close as you can (for consumer cameras) or up to f13 for dedicated macro lenses for DSLR. You will increase this way the depth that is in focus and seems to be sharp. Those images you have postest are looking 100% beeing images of minatures. Some photographers try to do the same with the real world by using tilt and shift lenses with a fully reverse focal plane so that the depth of field inside tha image is as small as in macro shots. Example: http://inkwelldesign.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/tut_ps-tilt-shift-photography1.jpg You see how miniaturized this looks. Try the other way and increase your d o f to look more real. For more infos on depth of field and the caculation of it goto dofmaster.com. Dino

Hi there is a webpage link previous pages before that lists all stores with pab and their inventory. Otherwise yu can call them by phone and ask what theyhave in stock. Dino

Hi how do you order directly at Lego? I guess therefore is bricklink because Lego do not sell single parts? Or do you have to pretent that you have that set but a "few" parts are lost? Dino

Hi thank you, i really have to thank both of you! As i am also an administrator of a very big forum (11.000 members, 1.3m posts) i am still wondering how great and helpful a community can be. It is a real plesure to be here. Lets see how cheap i can get the MF :) I guess knowing which bricks of the MF are visible or not could be found by reading the manual carefully? Dino

Hi how do you start getting all the parts for the MF? Do you put all the parts manually into your Bricklinks Wishlist? Is there an easier way than this? As i wrote before, i would like to get the building feeling, i dot not care on 100% correct colors. Espeially the non visible parts could be black/white or so. My ideas is do build it and to have fun without spending too much money for the correct colors. Dino

Hi again, i would not recommend to shoot with or in macro mode. Those cameras having the ability to go very close to the object and do this way the marco. But you have to shoot this with the lowest zoom factor 1x instead of a high one, 3x or 5x. Shooting in wide angle will cause distortions up to a fisheye look. Good macros are taken from the distance with a higher focal lengths. The best focal length, because the most comparable to our human eye is 50mm on full frame sensors. If your camera having a smaller sensor, e.g. a 1/5 of that, then 10mm displayed on the lens or on the display are ok. Dofmaster will also introduce to you the diference between sensor sizes. It is hard to explain by writing on my tablet.. As i told you i would not recommend superzoom cameras. They have lack of detail especially in macro mode because of the many single lenses such an objective has. Dino

Ok then, you will have to take a compact camera for that budget. I am not sure if you will get a camera for this with RAW shooting ability. I would start at dpreview.com looking for canons and or panasonics with LOW zoom factor, e.g. 3x. The camera should shoot in programme modes A and or M, T isi not needed for macros. As you are a german like me, you will understand if i would recommnd you a "Baustrahler" as light instead of any build in flash. Again in this pricerange the cameras are very compareable. Many users will probably recommend you a specific one, but i do not. Go to the lectronic markets take a minifig with you and try to do marcos with zoomed out!! lens and see with camera is better for you. Both brands i mentioned are a good start. Think of this: Amateurs worry about equipment, professionals about money and masters worry about LIGHT, that is making the picture! So you do not have to worry about which camera to buy... ;) Dino

Hi that is the very first time for me in this forum i can help instead of asking you. I am a macro photographer since 10 years. First, a compact camera have smaller sensors so they have an increased depth of field, more sharper images in the depth. But those small sensors also having more noise than large sensor cameras, e.g. canons dslrs. You really need a large dept of field that a figure is in that close distance in full focus. dofmaster.com explains what it is exacly meaning. For more advisory what camera to buy i need to know your budget. In general the camera should take images in RAW instead of just jpegs. RAW images are very easy to whitebalance. LIGHT, more important than you probably imagine. Pros are using a kind of white tent where they are putting their objects. All the light will be strailight through the semi transparent tent. That causes absolutely even and non reflective images. You will see te object instead of light refexes. More to come if i know your budget. Dino

Hi Ouch! The 8448 has something i really dislike: Those flexible design fibers - i do not know how they are officially called. They do not remind me in any case to be Lego, no stud nor holes for technic pins. Dino

Hi what is your aim, teaching them that following rules or instructions might be helpful or beeing creative? If it is more the last one, start a game like this: one group should build for the other one things you told them. The other group has to name the thing as fast as they could relize it. I guess thats more fun than following a step by step introduction. If you are focussing more on the instruction thing you could show them simple Lego images of items - maybe a bird - and they hav to build that for the other group. It migt be more "instrctive" than having a picture of a real bird. Dino

Hi actually i do not know which i will prefer - i see both having their advantages, one have smoother and more even design, the other one can put typical and decorative bricks on it for more detail. Dino

Hi as i am a beginner i am a bit confused. One wrote he had to spend around 500 to get all parts, another one wrote to get the right parts in the specific grey (bley?) you had to spend 400 more. Would that make a 100-200 €$£ MF in not the original colors? In another way: What would cost one of those close to otiginal (differents just by color) Falcon? Is there a list of parts for a "Milenium Falcon for the poor people" instead the original "Bird of Bley" :) (yes i also do like Star Trek). I am hoing not to ask about a deadly sin.... Dino

Hi yes, it is over, my dark ages are gone. Today i have been at the LEGO store in Berlin, going out with four FOUR large pab cups. I so happy at all. When i think back, the only limitations i had as child (i felt so) have been the limited amound of specifc bricks (and not my fantasy). That is why i still be impressed of a moc first about the parts - and not at first about the design, that should be first (if it is good). But today everything have changed and could get as many bricks as i could carry (and pay for). I have now a large amount of black, bley, white and trans clear parts for SW stuff and or architecture. I also had been fun too when i have been asked by te LEGO guys to put te parts together that more fits into the cup. Would you suggest to put all my parts into my personal brickset database to them them all? It should be easier to do that right from the beginning... Dino

Hi actually i have an eye on the 8421 crane. It is available in Germany around 100 Euros via ebay. For the parts amount should this be a valuable purchase? Dino

Hi yes, you are right, that is a Holztransporter (i am german). But this would mean it will be a set very similar to a 8258 plus a "trailer". The trailer itself would not be meaningfull without some trees, because only the trees will connect the truck with the trailer! If the focus is on the word transporter we will probable get this one, but i will hope the focus is on the word Holz, then we hopefilly get something that looks more like a trail version of that - similar to the images posted in the middle of the topic. Dino

Hi reading the forum makes me sure to start again with LEGO with the 8043 excavator and later (i hope not too late) the 8258 crane truck. Surprizingly i had to realize none of them having a mentionable amount (or even a single one) old school technic BRICK with studs. I guess i will be a complete new experience to build with those "new" studless technic beams that al actual set having in a mass. I do not want to start a studless vs studs discussion. I just would like to know if building with the new ones, that i never had, is so different from the one i still have in my mind (1980-1989). I think that i probably will feel limited, because o can not put something ON the beams except combining them with another one. Can you probably recommend me a set that still have a lot of technic bricks? Maybe the older crane 8421 that is highly available via bricklink - and compared to other ones cheap. thanks Dino

Hi did you tried bricklink? Dino

Hi i am just that small brick (holding the fingers close together) far away been off my dark ages. So i am spending lot of time thinking of what to do when my "first"LEGO will arrive. I am wondering how adults get off small bricks e.g. two well clutched 2x1 plates. I former times i used my teeth in a professional way (without losing them)... But what about now? Are there tools or tricks to do so? thanks Dino