JesseNight

@Classicsmiley The LEGO Ambassadors program is discontinued in favor of a new system (Fan CoLab) with new conditions.

We're not even in the last quarter of 2026 yet, there's still plenty of time. Not sure what the point is in knowing what we can't get yet more than a few weeks in advance

Same. We won't get an unanimous agreement anyway. It's gonna come down to what the team decides, or if there's gonna be a final vote when the most realistic options have been worked out. No clue honestly. The point was only that there are different brick separators after someone said they were all cloned. Only got experience with the LEGO and CaDA ones myself.

It's also why there is a competition on the market. And that's a really good thing for consumers, it warrants fair pricing and keeping quality up.

The funny thing about "imagine" statements is that it can be spinned in many ways. For example: Imagine you're being a good designer looking for work, being rejected by LEGO because they don't need anyone, yet being offered an opportunity by another brand? There's also plenty of MOC builders whose designs have been used by CaDA with a decent arrangement with the creator. So that does happen too. I get you to some extend. But this is how things often work. One invents something new, and after a while there will be competition doing the same or very similar things. For separate parts I still turn to LEGO the most, simply because of how accessible it is through sites like Bricklink. For sets, I judge the set rather than the brand that made it, as long as they're known to offer decent quality.

I meant the separators specifically, since you said they were all the same. As for other parts, there's both similarities and unique pieces (and sometimes unique colors) throughout the brands. Like I said, I can really appreciate the compatibility. Especially as a child, incompatibility between different toy brands was often a major nuisance to me, especially if the scale didn't match either. I'm saying toys in general now bc all the LEGO competitors weren't there yet in the 1980s. Even MK has its own (the 2 part hammer, included in the pic I've showed) Morality will never stop business. Even more, if one business doesn't exploit an immoral business, it'll be an opportunity for another.

Have you even looked at other brick brands lately? Check this out! From left to right it's the Blue Brixx tongs, CaDA technic separator, Mould King hammer (consists of 2 parts), 2x LEGO separators (black XL and orange regular), and the Mega Construx separator. This honestly doesn't look exactly the same design to me. Yes, basic bricks and plates are cloned. Which makes it compatible, and that's honestly a good thing.

@BrickMonkeyMOCs I spoke to someone at CaDA today and they confirmed there are currently no release plans for the static red AMG One.

I think the tags can be even simpler than we may have had in mind first. Since the main concern seems to be whether something is pure LEGO or not, all it would take is an on/off checkmark. Saves further maintenance on maintaining a list of other brands that might grow over time. @HydroWorld Outlook While your structure makes sense, this is sort of what I meant by the index page becoming a clutter with too many categories. I would even prefer it in reverse (theme first as category, then brand as subforum) so at least all builds (especially MOCs) of a theme are still somewhat in the same place.

Totally agree with everything there. But yeah today's youngsters don't appreciate these kinda boards anymore, they all do it on social media from their phones. I can't stand the chaotic nature of how those work at all. Also hate this modern "no more pages but instead auto load more when reaching the bottom" attitude on websites. Always used to making mental or physical notes of what pages I saw something. These days trying to find something back (especially in an active feed) is hard or even impossible and scrolling your mouse wheel til there's no rubber left on it. How is that considered progress? Bc almost every modern site is copying it. [Edit] Whoops, sorry for offtopic rant!

Those things come in handy for a great many things! Used them plenty of times to make a stud-to-bar connection. Non bearing of course.

They probably concluded an "old fashioned message board with a bunch of old farts" isn't the best way anymore to reach a large audience Disclaimer: I'm an old fart too and I love good old forums for their clear structure!

@amorti Thanks for sharing, will definitely check it out! I must admit that I'm not much into motorcycles myself, but this seems like a good challenge!

I should point out that all the previous discussion already pointed out that a lot of #1 voters have no desire to completely reject other brands, as long as they're separate (meaning they're okay with #2 as a compromise). The problems however remain with practical execution, and mostly with MOCs and how to treat all MOC builders fairly. Nothing is perfect, honestly. Mistakes can be made... and can be corrected. Even if I'm not a fan, I could accept that as a solution. But again, I see practical issues here. How will every MOC be properly verified? Where will mixed brand MOCs go? Where will the line be drawn? I do see one other solution to this, but I'm afraid (knowing how forum software works) that this will not be an easy solution. If a mandatory tag system could be used, it is also possible to make a filter by tags. That way LEGO purists can decide to only show LEGO tagged stuff, people into other brands can pick what they wanna see. Of course moderators would have to keep an eye on things being properly tagged but that is doable. Making the needed modifications to the forum software code is another story, and I do not know if the team has people capable and willing to do that. And if this may cause issues when the software needs upgrading. (in the old days of simple phpbb boards, modding was a big thing and even the software itself would release forum updates as "mods" to help those with heavily modified boards)

NASA makes things with holes in it too? @MKJoshA I haven't even heard of the brands you're mentioning, so obviously I still only know a fraction. Quality matters to me too, and besides that I judge a set on what it is and whether or not I like it. If it comes from LEGO, fine. If it comes from CaDA, fine too. If it comes from a brand I've never heard of and no experience with, I do some research about its quality. TLDR - I only stay true to my desire for quality and my taste. Whatever brand meets it is fine with me.

I think this was the 1x1 round plate with a hole in it, part 85861. I believe it originated from someone mishearing "hollow stud".

I''ll summarize briefly what I've said about this a few times. Sets can be separated easily. I feel like a Star Wars MOC (just an example) belongs in the Star Wars forum, not the "Community/Other brands" corner. No matter what parts are used. I also feel there shouldn't be more than a single forum per theme just to split brands, it's completely irrelevant here. And lastly, tags solve a lot for MOCs. And they can be made mandatory, even if it may require slightly modding the forum software.

While I love trains, these are the exact reasons I never got into LEGO trains. And I suppose the scale was a factor too, when desiring to make more realistic trains. My dad always was into model trains in N scale (1:160). Seems very small but I started appreciating it more and more bc it allows for realistically long trains, or a big train station with a lot of tracks and platforms side by side. (sorry for straying offtopic a bit...)

Not at all! Just the desire to shove every other brand in a corner and exclude them from the theme sections does. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea if admins start deliberating, creating a few detailed scenarios that are realistic to execute and practical for the team to maintain in the long run. Also I'd be happy to volunteer Photoshopping a forum index page for each option to illustrate the changes and get possible misunderstandings due to language barriers out of the way. Maybe then do a final voting?

It's the same system, just different brands. It's all compatible. (and no, I don't mix them either with very few minor exceptions... but I don't mind if I ever see someone else doing that)

I'm afraid he is right about that one. As someone who's been forum admin and community leader from 2003 to somewhere far into the 2010s, I can say with confidence that only few have the best intentions at mind, or fully understand and respect what is expected. There's still rules being broken. There's still people trying to upload images bc the option is there (which makes me wonder why that still never was disabled if it's not meant to be used). I'm not saying they're all bad people, just that misinterpretation or simply not reading or remembering the rules happen plenty of times. As admins, it is pretty necessary to guide people into doing what is expected. The bigger the community, the more necessary guidance will be.

I'm not finding information directly from CaDA, but a lot of independent sources say the production was stopped due to no final license agreement with Mercedes. Prototypes had already been built and shown on events but that's where it ended. [Edit] I'm honestly not sure anymore, there's a lot of speculation going on about it but CaDA never made an official statement themselves. The designer @brunojj1 might know more but unfortunately he's no longer on this board.

Can you explain why this scenario is so bad for you? You can be a purist, nobody will hold it against you. You can choose not to look at other brand forums. And with MOCs you most likely can never tell if a designer used some pins or plates from a different brand. Once again as I've said before, as long as there's no exclusive parts involved. Also LEGO MOCs are sorted by themes. Why would a Star Wars builder who uses some bricks from another brand (that exist from LEGO) not be welcome in a Star Wars forum? To me it's about giving MOC builders an equal place in the theme sections they're building for, rather than excluding them just because they use a different part here and there. Even now this is happening and I'm betting you probably wouldn't even know. Some MOC builders go as far as cutting pieces or printing new ones, something I'd never do but to me it's no reason to ban them to another corner of the board to talk about it. Like I said before, MOCs are about creativity (each in their own way) rather than brand promotion. And what I don't wanna read, I'll ignore. Worried about leaving unread posts? Then read what you wanna read and mark all as read after.

Thank you for sharing your story with us! As a relatively recent addition to EB, I've never actually seen attempts to make RC motorcycles! Are topics about that still out there somewhere? This is one thing I still refuse to embrace. Sure, I'm aware that newer Lithium based batteries have more capacity and a longer life, but there are downsides. Most batteries are custom made and often proprietary, and therefore when it's empty, you have downtime. AA's have been a universal standard for decades, so all we needed was an extra set of good quality rechargeables (which wasn't expensive) and you never had any downtime. I'm honestly surprised how few people are (willing to) seeing this, despite having encountered them swearing during downtime or having to buy complete new devices because custom batteries were no longer available. In the end I'm just sad they didn't apply LiPO into a universal casing, rather than every device making its proprietary battery model that's already discontinued on the next release. For example my first digital camera from around 2000 still works perfectly, all it needs is a new set of AA batteries. Back in the days when I started event photography with that, all I needed was 2 sets of batteries and a 12V charger for my car. Worst case scenario, I could buy an extra set non-rechargeables everywhere. My professional camera that I bought 10 years later needed a second very expensive proprietary battery to go for an entire weekend. No car charger. If both were empty, I was done. And today it is unusable, due to its proprietary battery no longer being available. So you see, I have nothing against LiPO technology. Only to how it's being applied in practice.

Very true! Majority of the parts are the same ones LEGO has anyway, aside from a few exceptions. And sometimes one brand covers certain colors that another does not. I totally recognize what you say about quality. Not all of AE is great but there's definitely good ones out there. I'm not so sure about that. Brand loyalty is a real thing for a lot of people. So is trust in a brand after good experiences. And this often goes further than it should, at the cost of rational thinking. For example: Sony used to make great CRT TVs in the old times. So a lot of people stuck with the brand when buying LCD TVs, while in reality other brands were better there. Or they buy everything electronic from a single brand that only specializes in 1 type of device. I see it all the time. And people say I am crazy for doing research on every single thing I buy