Stereo

~30 stud wheel/tire is enormous, might have some interesting GBC applications depending what it looks like under the tire. I like how it uses 12 spokes so it can just go onto a pair of the classic pulleys turned so their holes are 30° different.

The latest ones I have that it does catch on something are the Koenigsegg and Lamborghini. The Bronco and Jeeps of course nothing is that low (it only sticks up 2 studs) That new Mustang's 17 wide so it might just not fit... lower deck's also exactly 17 wide.

When I add new categories I sort it as I look for pieces for something. Like recently I split up my 1x2 modified tiles into subtypes, because I was looking for white 1x2 curved slope with left+right corner wedges. So now I have 1x2 tile with textured top (grilles, slope grilles, ingots) and 1x2 with curved top. Probably get through 60% of the sorting before even finding the pieces I wanted. In general I keep my pieces in a few places, plates+tiles in one stack of drawers, modified bricks+other in another, Technic in a third, basic bricks in a fourth. So when I'm dealing with unsorted Lego due to buying new stuff or taking a build apart, I split it into those categories and then deal with each over time. The basic bricks don't come up a lot in most builds, so I sometimes go through multiple builds before putting them away, and store them in less accessible bins. If I do need a bunch of them I can grab the whole bin and put it in front of the stacks of drawers.

I guess now's a good time to doublecheck that I understand the part equivalence. A bricklink 5306bc036 is 36 studs long, including the plug ends, so 32 studs of wire = 256mm = Fx 9402, right?

Two new buckets at the same size, right? About 3x3 end size, with 2 pinholes for connection, vs. the old larger 5x5 (3 pinholes) and smaller 2x2 (ratchet joint)

Those curve bricks for the headlights don't look terrible, but I don't think I would have chosen white. They're obviously glass over chrome on the actual car, so if not transparent, maybe LBG would look better? 90 degree corner panel on the Dodge front end is cool. Makes the "toilet paper roll" family of panels even more versatile.

They did add this ~5 stud piece (1mm larger) Wheel 68327 in the time since this thread started, in some situations it could be helpful to transition down to regular 4 stud round parts as they fit in the hole.

Mostly no real difference when used as spur gears, but the thin bevels are probably a bit worse as bevels. Larger also better, I've pretty much only had 8 and 12 teeth gears skipping as long as the engagement's ok. With less ideal loose engagement, spur gears might work better, but it's going to be still quite easy to skip.

I suppose you could probe your layout for good feed locations by running a battery-powered (or push) train with a multimeter connected to power pickup wheels. You'd just short the feeder at the power supply end, instead of connecting it, then measure resistance. A dynamometer car that just passively shows the voltage across the rails could be interesting too. Might take a bit of running to get used to interpreting it.

It depends on what things cost, but I expect my minimum order specific to trains is the power pickup axles and track connection wire, so I can combine it with PF remote control. Most likely IR receiver onboard the train, for DCC-like behaviour, but if that turns out to be unreliable (no idea how much the receiver tolerates gaps in power for maintaining speed settings), wall power into the receiver into the tracks is a backup plan. Aside from being what's available first, it just makes more sense budget-wise to continue to use the working PF motors I have. Though I suppose for this specific task there is one thing - the PF 9V adapters don't connect to the "constant" side of the PF plug, which is what the IR receiver input needs. Obviously the workaround is just wire my own adapters the other way. So I might also order some short FX wires to get spare 9V plugs.

The weird thing is it's right next to a brown 1x1 Technic brick with a stud stuck in it, so they obviously know there are other parts available... why is it a headlight brick? I have heard that Technic brick pinholes don't line up with SNOT, but... surely that's a smaller problem than what they did do.

My optimist outlook is that the cars are easier to leak because people recognize them. The heavy equipment names don't mean as much and the sets look more "the same" (eg. if we get another Volvo, it'll likely be black and yellow).

https://rebrickable.com/parts/6596/tyre-816-x-142-motorcycle-z-racing-tread/ Really looks like the same size as these tires (~10 stud * 2 stud), interesting. I wonder if they'll use them in black for a motorcycle. Windshield is I guess dual molded with bars at the end. Stuck into half-pins.

I used about 1/10 of the stickers on 42125. That's about the main upside of stickers that I see. Mix and match instead of going to fully 0 or everything that Lego decided needs a print.

The boosters also swing out on an arc, they could be counterweighting it in the 'up' position.