Stereo

I checked a recent set (creator expert Vespa) with the 1x1 round bricks and it still has the visible mold marks on the sides. A lot of the time they put them on studs now but that part hasn't got one.

You can use the tan 4l axle with middle stop facing either direction depending if you want 2 or 3 length of axle sticking out, I suppose for driveshaft slip joints you won't want the second axle to be in the friction part anyway so they shouldn't actually touch inside it.

The axle might go all the way through the 5L axle connector? I've never had one so I don't know if it has an internal stop. Would make it easier to avoid axles getting stuck inside it, if you can push a 12L axle through it.

That's about BDP in particular, which has the same limit (currently 30000 I believe) no matter how large the set is. If it was higher or unlimited then smaller sets could probably perform just as well on earnings...

I'm pretty sure you can read the text on the Bronco tires in some of the promo photos and it is the next stud size up from the 49.5mm tires (55?). I was actually thinking about the same problem on the L120 loader, as 68mm tires to scale should have 34mm wheels, not 43.2mm. So it's close to 4 stud diameter rather than 5.5. The 4x4 dish does exist in yellow but it's long-retired rare part unfortunately. Ditto model team wheels. I tried using the current 30x14mm wheels but they just don't stack well onto the central raised axle hole.

I only replace parts if they're functionally damaged (broken or deep toothmarks so they can't be built normally), yellowing and scratches don't really bother me. I only try to match the era of parts if the set seems worth having 100%, a lot of the time I'm fine with building it 95% correct (eg. using a dark bluish grey BURP instead of dark grey, or 8x16 plate instead of baseplate) cause I just want to try the build, not mark it as a complete set in my collection.

Yeah, I am using 76402 Dumbledore's Office as the main tower in my castle (which it barely resembles... got it for cheap though, can't complain) and that's already 10cm from the ceiling, the new Main Tower is unlikely to fit on my shelf. Maybe I can redesign the elements of 76402 (plus a bunch of hinges and bricks) into a slightly more modest Main Tower.

Actually they have a central clutch pack that's electronically controlled, so more like a transfer case than a differential. The rear is always directly driven by the transmission.

To build something the same height as MILS you can use 2 plates and a brick, so you could have a top layer of 45° diagonal plates, middle layer of 2444/10247 plate with pinhole for connecting to the MILS, and generic plates elsewhere, then bottom layer as snot bricks laying on their side (22885 are exactly 2x2 studs so probably the easiest one). Then I guess along the visible edges you could put bricks under the top plate layer that don't quite touch the table.

I started thinking about which sets these tires suit, and are a direct size swap... 42122 Jeep Wrangler obviously. But also 42111 Dom's Charger and 42127 The Batman Batmobile. (well, really the 1989 Batmobile alt build of it. Much cooler than the set imo) Maybe also good for a lot of those 56mm tractor tire RC trial trucks.

The unicorns in the Creator set also have 2 different hairstyles, I wonder what those pieces look like separate from the body (if it's not prints). Maybe 2 of them have a moulded-in small horn and the other one gets pegged onto the head by the actual horn piece? Or alternately they attach with the mini pegs and then that one has a bar-hole for the horn.

Should be a rust axle-pin-pin piece at the back of the white quarter ellipse (what other axle piece that's either 3 or 7 long and red would there be), so it goes through the white T into another pinhole behind that. The thin black 4 liftarms going to the top leave a half-plate gap between them and the gear in the middle, my guess would be there are 5L thin black beams in that space (with a red bush between the front end of them). And half of a pin on the the rust axle-pin visible cause I can't think of any parts that would fill that space (would need a 2L both pinholes thin liftarm)

I don't think there are pistons? Just the "clutch" part that spins to represent an electric motor. (possibly 3 of them all under the back hood? It kinda looks like they're all geared together, though maybe some represent the hydraulic pump and go to linear actuators)

PAB would be 4x0.45 + 2x0.17 + 4x0.25 + 10x0.28 = $6 of windows, 8x0.16 + 2x0.07 + 10x0.26 = $4 of trans-clear glass. (approximate based on reddish brown for new colours) which is pretty much how I based my $25 estimate.

The wheel hub pins are the only always-DBG part I see on it, I'd lean LBG but it's hard to be sure.

I'd mostly look to the windows to justify getting it, the 1x2x3 regular window is new in light bluish gray, 1x2x2 airplane window hasn't been seen in LBG since the 4855, the 1x4x3 regular and 1x2x3 train window are just convenient to pick up a bunch at once. Between that, the 6x28 train base, 4 train wheels, and bogie plates, it's probably at least $25 in parts. And then you get some LBG/DBG bricks/tiles which is hard to go wrong with. So at half off it'd be a nice deal.

So 4 functions are the 3 arm sections (base, elbow, wrist) and a tool swap? Reasonable way to use 1 motor I guess. The 3x3 triangle panel (yellow/black on the sides) looks useful in general for style stuff.

I wonder if the front suspension uses those new towball parts from the F1 cars. Seems pretty narrow for independent (17 overall, 11 between the tires probably) cause that'd only have room for 4 long control arms.

Interesting that this got a completely flat fender piece shared with the Bronco, I don't think of it as a particularly flat car. Maybe the original fender piece (last seen in red in 2020) wasn't worth bringing back.

It shouldn't be an axle hole in the black part, the red connector is the control for the second section of the arm, so it has to be able to rotate (it goes through to the other end of that yellow axle-pin-axle, so it's a 4L black axle in line with the blue axle-pin). Having two remote functions is pretty good for a tiny set. All that to say the 2x3 quarter ellipse makes most sense to me. I don't know what the tan pin on the far rear corner attaches to, though.

That's 30602, it's about 20 years more modern than the old rail system (only Dark Gray in 2003, 2 sets, the tie was ended in 1986).

The newest I've personally encountered is Medium Blue 1x2 brick with solid studs, which has to be 2002 or newer. Plates seem to have been done by 2000, yeah.

As far as I know in the 1990s Lego mixed the solid/hollow tube plates in sets, and has never distinguished them in part numbers, whatever made them change the mold wasn't urgent enough to immediately remove all the old molds from service. I'd tend to look more at the underside printing to figure out part eras. Very early parts often have nothing at all, or "Pat Pend" for larger parts, then they added mold numbers, then in the 80s they put part numbers in, then additional (C) LEGO mark, and then in the early 2000s they went to a more consistent (and smaller) font. The underside of plates also got updates on the bottom flat surface; early pieces are actually flat, late 90s/early 00s ones have a slight step where the inside is recessed, and modern ones have trapezoid marks in them, usually about 1 every 2 studs. If you really want to get into it, a lot of parts also had the injection point moved from the side of the piece to the middle of a stud (1x1 round plates did it fairly late, maybe 1995-2000, other plates earlier, like 1x2 jumpers have it in the stud since maybe 1985)

How broadly can the Wicked license be interpreted? Would the 'future' Wicked Witch (flying monkeys, castle in the west) be ok? The rest of that movie? Lego Movie 2 CMF had other Oz figures in it but I can't tell whether they needed a license, since it's largely public domain. I'm kinda drawing a blank for a second theme right now, I suppose Lego's original themes like Ninjago and Dreamzzz aren't an option. I haven't looked through every Ideas set yet though.

I got mine on Bricklink, so they probably are from 4 parted out Volvo Haulers... it is funny having more of a piece than the total ever released in sets, I've done it for a few other Technic parts as well (like black/titanium axle pins)