Lipko

Dat roof

I think we are not talking about the same thing, that's the problem. I understand your point, because it's clear, and I agree with it. But I'm only looking at the model and I only care about the "product" and don't care about the story behind it. That being said, I don't think MOCs in general (even the highly praised MOCs) are on the same level regarding quality as TLG models. MOCs are only better (again, in my opinion in general) regarding looks. Even the best MOCs have tons of solutions I would never ever accept in my models. And many of them are merely a shelf model, which IMHO ruins one half of what Lego is about (you know: "construction TOY"*). Another thing: compare Creator Expert set quality to Technic set quality. As if they were not produced by the same company. So there would be plenty of room for improvement from Technic. *I know there are shelf models by definition (microscale models, statues, etc.), we are talking about Technic models, which main feature is "function".

I'm not a popular one, and I can't really say what my motivations were when I was into this hobby. One thing is sure, I set up many constrains for myself, many of them were similar to TLG's constrains. For example playability, sturdiness, parts availibility, buldiability and building experience, etc. Designing with constrains was always motivating for me. Apart from that, pretty much any designing process is motivating by itself but one can't remove oneself from the world, so yep, popularity and comparing my models to others were also strong motivation. For the comparison thing: why wouldn't be MOCing and professional design comparable? The end result is a model of something. To me it's pretty exact thing to compare. The problem is the double standard by AFOLs that many have already mentioned.

On the other hand…. MOCers are also produce their models for a market, only a much smaller market (people who are into Lego enough to go through all the hassle of acquiring parts). Blame that market for their shallowness (yes, because pretty much looks is all that matters to the vast majority of AFOLs). A little bit more sophisticated public would put some constrains on MOCers too, and don't think that many MOCers wouldn't be able to comply with higher demands. It seems to be a common belief that the best designers in the world work for Lego. But Lego is still a quite a conservative company: the designers are working in an office in Danmark. That's not a big sample of designers.

I'm also stuck in but that doesn't mean I have more time to hobby. I envy you guys who can afford to join contests and I'm sorry that I can't join the most prolific Eurobricks contest ever. And not this B model contest either...

I gues it's my mistake. The model looks a lot like it was based on my Backhoe, but this mod has definitely better bucket proportions than mine. My model has a seat, but it has less pneumatic functions, so that might be the reason for ommitting the seat. http://lipkovicsdesign.blogspot.com/p/pneumatic-backhoe.html

Home office for uncertain time...

I guess when they will buy Rebrickable, that will be the end of professional hobby MOC-ing. Luckily I'm getting out of Lego, so I'm not really affected.

How?

I'm tidy in a way: I always clear my workspace and put the boxes into their place after each building session, even if it means doing this more times a day. I have to do that since I have only a small living space and a family.

I only "save" parts for later use when I stumble upon an interesting part. I don't sort. I have 4 groups: 1."important, rare parts" 1/b. "very important/ rare parts" in plastic bags 2."big wheels" 3."motors, pneumatics, 'nshit" 4."the rest" Seldomly I dispose some less interesting parts from group 1 to group 4 if parts don't fit into the box any more.

The scale is about 1:10

It's not about age. I built 8880 at the age of 9. Then I built it 10 times again. At the 11th time, I screwed up the differentials and had to take the whole thing apart. So it's not about being retarted, stupid or anything. It's not that hard to screw it up, especially if you want to build for fun and don't want to stress on it. What chaned in 27 years? Pretty much everything. The whole phylosophy behind the Technic, as if it was a totally separate brand from Lego System. And man, this old vs new instruction discussion is getting sooooo old...

At first I didn't notice it's the B model of the Porsche. This makes this model even more awesome (not only because the fact it's a B model, but also the chosen model)

Looks very promising. This was one of my favourite Matchbox models, I still have it.

This post is not really thought through as i have to go to work but: Engineering is hard. Inventing something is orders of magnitude harder. I am a mechanical engineer (MSC Degree), I am passionate about my profession, I did pretty well in school without much effort. One thing I learnt: engineering is very hard. 99% of engineers are doing easy stuff, like me. We rarely design anything important, and we rarely see the whole picture, where our work fits. Many or must of us won't even be able to comprehend it... Maybe it's just me, and I simply don't put enough work into it, but there are other factors in life. I have a family, I have to relax, etc. As technology develops, it inevitably becomes harder to invent new things. Material science becomes much more important, and also computing. Invention is not really about mechanisms now. So all I can say, don't expect much invention with a plastic toy. All we can do is to impress kids with interesting machines (and good old mechanical machines are much more interesting).

For defining the main lines: in my opinion the angles of the lines are more important than exact lengths.

2*arctg0.5 = 53.13° for each side I believe.

It it allowed for the liftarm to be 2 studs think towards the inside of the boom? You could utilize studded parts that fit technic. 2L beams with 2 holes+normal studded beams, or something with this part:

Interesting that many people find it as a good parts pack. I can only see the rims as (very) interesting, other than that, hardly anything. 1 pc of blue clutch gear, 2 black frames, 2 pc of biscuit things.

They are thinking about the future already when Greenland becomes a new world power.

According to LEPIN, the capital city of Europe is London

That's pretty much agains all other sources (includin oficial ones), so I wouldn't rely on it...

I don't see the comments if I'm logged into google, but I do if I'm not. Interesting admin feature.....