Stereo

Maybe a spring-loaded addition to the door slider? Then the rack can withdraw an extra stud (or however far necessary) to engage the skate without the door being able to move, once it moves out of that space it can slide the door.

I have a lot of small castle/pirate sets out right now, so I'm only going to count Technic. 24 A-models, 2 C-models, 3 MOCs, and 1 in between (80% parts from one set). There's only 1 model from 2025 though. 8 are from the 90s or older.

The blue-violet's somewhere between sand blue and sand purple, interesting. I hope it gets enough part usage to be able to have it as an accent on general builds rather than needing to use the specific 20 pieces.

https://rebrickable.com/sets/31218-1/japanese-cherry-blossom-landscape/#comments This set is a good point of reference, cause the sky uses Coral, Bright Pink, (unnamed shade of coral), probably Light Nougat, so you can compare it to those options.

They're adding a new colour, that I'd speculate could be called "Light Coral" I think the minidoll in front is Magenta and most of the set is Dark Pink but those two are pretty close so photos don't always distinguish.

Technic's always had a different marker for Price per Piece because of all the small connecting pieces though. The Bronco has 400+ pins of various descriptions in its 900 parts. (using a pretty broad category that includes 22961 pinhole with axle, for example - around 380 if you only include different lengths of part with pin/axle in a line) The 42093 has under 600 parts, but only 240 are pins. (216 with the narrower category) They are necessary for the sets, but they don't get recolored to match, so I have hundreds-thousands of each kind already, buying a set doesn't get me something new.

It's because it alternates which side fires. So the 1st and 6th piston are 60 degrees apart on the crank, meaning it rotates 120 between 1 being top (left) and 6 being top (right). I guess with 90 degrees you can space them out that way, they'd just be on 6 separate cam pieces so that 1+4 are at TDC at the same time, then 90 degrees later 3+6, then 90 degrees later 2+5, then 90 degrees later nothing. Though that does have one optimization, 1+4+2+5 would be able to put 2 of them onto the same cam and cut it down to 5, if you don't mind it being 1 stud between 1+2, 2 studs between 2+3 on the same side of the engine (or it's not just using the little new piston piece directly so it can offset them again). Building it with classic crank parts this is the most compact I can find, the 5L thin beam shows where the 90 degree rotation happens. Rotating clockwise seen from the bottom/facing part of the image. Using a 3L axle as 2.5, and 2L thin beams as crank parts, are really not things I see Lego doing in a real build, but they do clear. A dedicated 90 degree change part could reduce the total length 1.5 studs so there'd be a 1 stud gap to the top pair of pistons instead of 2.5.

That's fair, but you can't do that without 6 different angles either - the firing order is at 6 different points in a revolution, having it every 90 would make pairs of cylinders fire together. I guess you could do 45 instead of 60 which might be easier in some way. And it is more viable to build a 2-part crankshaft that's driven from both ends to get the extra angles. Like add a "camshaft" with 2:1 gearing on both sides and offset it by some teeth. Official order seems to be based on the left bank numbered 1 2 3 from the back of the engine ("front" but it's a rear-engine car), 1 6 2 4 3 5, 120 degrees apart.

What I'd design it as is the half-offset piece, but with its axles turned (I guess it's 30 degrees each, one CW one CCW) and shortened to 1L of axle. (just using the 120 degree axle pieces to visualize the angles) It would also need a conrod piece that's not designed to run in pairs, to keep the 2 studs/piston spacing. And 1.5 length axles, or a 2L thin beam with one axle hole and one 1L axle. Might be easier to skip that and bump it up to 2.5 studs per piston.

Boxer 6 cylinder is 180, 60, 180, 60, 180 offsets. So it needs something different. Either 60/120 degree rotation axle connector, or a different version of the 'cam' piece with the axle lined up differently. I'm guessing the press writing is just wrong about the model though and it's either the regular 3 180 degree offset pairs of pistons, or maybe 0 90 180 with the new parts.

I usually go by category in small trays, with one tray being "rare parts" so that if a set had 500 plates in various colours, but only 1 blue 1x2, the blue one is in the rare parts tray. For system builds it's usually plain plates (1x1 to 1x12), modified 1x anything plates, larger plates, bricks, and 'everything else'. Though if it was very plate-heavy it'd split further into 1x1 to 1x3 and 1x4 to 1x12, and so on. Sometimes I don't follow a MOC's colours exactly, and in that case I'll also sort by colour, so that it's easy to find the right substitutes. Eg. if a set needed 100 1x4 yellow plates and I was using some brown ones, then I could see them in the yellow bin.

Because the model represents a real fuel tank, which is really that colour, that's my opinion.

Yeah, 86652 wheel is compatible with the large hubs and would look good with large size offroad tires (doesn't have to be tractor style). I don't know why it's only had one type of tire for it for 30 years.

The Creel House from Stranger Things has a very neat "splitting open" function using a bunch of technic links. See e.g.

Ears Magenta or Dark Pink? I do lean towards Magenta but the way LBG shows up much darker in their photos sometimes, I'm not sure.

I'm curious what the 2 rows of gears do. They look like they're the same size. Maybe it auto-reverses or something?

Also not really a new thing... 8810 in 1991 is a small motorcycle, 8210 in 1995 is a same size small motorcycle. Just white and red. I haven't checked how identical the builds are, but they are not far.

Could be, but rubber ducks are also a Jeep thing, popular with offroaders at least in America.

It would be 4.5, there's 1.5 studs past the wheel, 1 in the wheel, 1 in the beam behind it, and 1 to go into an axle connector. Or it could be 8.5 and go all the way into the differential. Or it's just a 5.5 that's brown for some reason.

Ah, that makes sense, I thought about that piece but didn't see the one side has 5x3 L and the other doesn't. Got up to 148 with the chain tensioner (and realising the part count I was looking at is wrong...), could probably hide 1-2 more pieces by filling every hole in the chassis with pins. Maybe replace a 2L liftarm with 2 thin ones or similar. It's kinda interesting how using yellow as the accent means this set really doesn't have much colour barf. There's the red bushes, 2l axles, and the blue pins. 5L axles and pistons being yellow just looks fine.

The middle layer of the rear axle seems to be a piece I don't recognize. Maybe a 3x5 frame? At least, it looks like it fits inside the wheel, rather than being spaced out from it a 1/2 stud. If it was a 5x7 then it should have 3 pinholes along the back edge and it doesn't. The other layers could be 2x3 frames or the same 3x5 rotated the other way. I guess a 3x5 L is possible but I'm not sure how you would build it into something secure that way.

I had a go reverse engineering it, but with 29 chain links (I'd guess 28 to 30, would need to build irl to know, and maybe it has a chain tensioner like the red bike), it is quite short on parts at 138 for everything visible: The grey pin at the bottom of the black L-beam is somewhat a mystery to me, I guessed a pin-pin-axle, but it doesn't seem like it has any purpose a blue 3l pin wouldn't serve. So it might have something else there. Friction pin with stud for example.

Black 32123b on the wheels is one new part I spot (did exist in 32123a... in one set). I don't see the new links in blue though, the front bumper is using the 2x4 one.

50th for Technic is also 2027 so I expect they'd do something for that.

Yeah, I stopped working on it, to think about how to fit that in. The main concern is keeping the tie bar's pin underneath the switch plate, so things can't get caught on the edges. And it multiplies the number of states the switch can be in, from only left or right, to tie left switch right, tie left switch left, etc. with slightly different measurements.