Blakbird

LXF is a Lego Digital Designer file. Go Download Lego Digital Designer from the Lego website and then you can open the file.

You didn't miss it. His photo instructions for this car don't have a parts list which is why I went to the effort of creating an MLCAD file for this model. I posted both the file and a Brickstore parts list on my Bricksafe account.

I'm merging this with the global "Which set should I buy?" topic.

You've made a lot of entirely valid observations here. I think there are good reasons behind some of the changes, but others are more of a mystery. 1. Old packaging was way better. Long ago, the boxes had flaps that opened on top and sturdy styrofoam inside. Very reusable. Some of the newer boxes must be destroyed to be open, so they are mostly garbage once they have been opened. 2. In the old days there were only even length axles (4, 6, 8, 12) and therefore they were easy to tell apart. Later they added 3L and 5L in black and things became more difficult until you were really proficient at identifying length by sight. Making even black and odd gray makes some sense from that standpoint, but it also makes the models uglier. 3. This change is an illusion. Technic was always odd sized. While the number of studs on old beams was even, the number of holes was always odd. Since the studs are gone and the liftarms have only holes, they are actually the same length as the old beams in terms of holes. 4. New instructions are almost insulting, I agree. They work though, so I can't complain too much. 7. There's no question that studless building is much more flexible than studded. This is due to the fact that pins are not a tight fit and only grip in one direction. Studs fit much tighter so a chassis with a combination of both (like 8466) is far superior to pure studless. Some studded chassis (like 8436) are so flexible you can twist the rear axle about 30 degrees compared to the front axle.

I don't know, but I would guess not. The smaller sets sell a lot more volume than the larger sets because more people can afford them. 8880 has a lot of unique parts though.

Great story! Welcome to the forum. We look forward to advising you on how to spend all your money.

I have to say that I'm amazed by this topic. I originally started the topic to present this MOC and see if others were as interested in it as I was. Then I went away on vacation for a couple of weeks and the amount of effort that has been put into the project by the community in the interim is astonishing! I'm looking forward to building the model this weekend. Thanks everyone for all the work. This project should help to show the EB community just how much work producing instructions is and why there are so few people doing it, especially for free. You are welcome to use my render for the cover, if you wish, or I could make another one if someone has something specific in mind.

I think we can be reasonably certain that LEGO would not release a new part unless they are reasonably certain that either: They are going to be able to use it in more sets in the future (the part is versatile) or The one set that contains the part is expected to sell a very large volume (like a Star Wars set). However, predicting the future is never 100% accurate and sometimes they are wrong about demand or future utility. I would guess there are very few instances in which LEGO actually intends a part to be exclusive to only one set, it simply ends up that way due to market forces. You saw a lot more of this in the early 2000's when LEGO was much less careful about the number of parts they produced. It should be pretty rare today.

This topic is not related to Technic, so I'm moving it to "General Discussion". You may get more responses there.

I've certainly never seen anything like this before! I always enjoy something new, and this is very well done.

Looks like you got that from my 8854 page. If you keep browsing to the page for the 1989 sets, you'll find a summary of the new parts for that year including the rack gear you are looking for. http://www.technicopedia.com/1989.html#Parts

Looks amazing at their headquarters. I hope they put glass over it so it does not get dusty.

I had the same resolution issue but note that this is an issue with those particular instructions and not with MOCPlans in general. For example, the JS220 instructions were created at 600dpi. It looks like MOCPlans downsampled them somewhat, but you can still zoom in significantly.

Yes. I'm referring to the turntable assembly which supports the platter. The submodel is named "table".

Publisher No Starch Press just released a new book called "Lego Space: Building the Future" by Peter Reid and Tim Goddard. I was lucky enough to get a copy and wanted to offer my thoughts. I should probably start with a bit about myself to put this review in context. I am a huge (figuratively) AFOL almost exclusively into Technic but with some UCS and Architecture thrown in. However, there was a time when I was a bit of a Spacer. I got the LL-924 Space Cruiser for Christmas in 1978 and quickly learned to build it by heart. Over the next few years I got the 6929 Star Fleet Voyager and 6927 All Terrain Vehicle before sinking into my dark ages. As an adult, I at one point owned all the Space sets from Futuron through Star Wars 2008 (no classic), but sadly had to sell them all due to major life changes at that time. So I like Space but I'm not exactly current. The Book I was surprised to see that this 200+ page book is actually hardcover! I thought these had vanished from the Earth, but here's a rare exception. The cover is matte but the image in the center is glossy which really makes it pop. Every page is in brilliant full color and the photos are extremely sharp and clear. Whoever NSPs new printer is, they do good work. The Content I'm not sure what I was expecting when I cracked open this book, but this wasn't it. Perhaps I thought I'd merely find lots of pictures of Space MOCs or profiles of builders. But this is actually a story book which just happens to use LEGO Space as a theme and MOCs as a medium to illustrate the story. The book is a bit like the opening sequence to Star Trek: Enterprise (in fact the theme song is playing in my head right now). We start with the history of space exploration beginning with Sputnik and moving into the modern age. The major milestones are here such as the Apollo mission to the moon and the first probes sent to Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The book moves seamlessly from history into the future with no distinction, so the reader might almost believe they are continuing to read history as told from some far future date. I won't give away the story as told in the book, but it continues man's exploration of and adventures in space into future discoveries and conflicts. The stories are told with LEGO models and figures. At various points in the book the story stops and a series of related MOCs are highlighted, described, and pictured in detail. From time to time a series of building instructions for smaller space MOCs are presented (~5). Firstly, forget the LEGO, this is a pretty good story! Even without the gorgeous images and models I would have enjoyed this book. In fact, I stayed up until 3 a.m. finishing it because I wanted to see how it ends. I can't say another LEGO book has ever held my attention quite like that before. How about the models? In my opinion, they are nothing short of incredible. While no direct reference to any real LEGO sets or themes is made, it is obvious that the story is an attempt to connect the LEGO space themes through the years. We start with "Classic Space" with its light gray wings, blue structure, and trans yellow canopies, then we move into the blues and whites of Ice Planet 2002, the black and yellow of Blacktron, and the blue and black of Space Police. Even the different colors of the minifigs means something and is part of the story. The models are simply bursting with greeble. I spent loads of time just staring at the images trying to figure out which parts I was seeing and how in the @#$% they connected them. But the pictures are not just ships. Many of the images simply portray the interaction of minifigures as they participate in the story. The models do not end there. Every image has a fully realized backdrop. The inside scenes all have completely immersive and detailed environments from hangars to labs to moonscapes. And no less time was spent building the environments than the MOCs. When MOCs are presented in space where a brick-built environment would not be possible, we see NASA images, and they are all accurate. If something takes place on Jupiter, we see a real picture of Jupiter. Even Europa and Ganymede are real, although I'm not sure how many readers would have known the difference. After reading the book through the first time and marveling at the quality of the MOCs, I went and paged through again and made an interesting discovery: there is nary a stud in sight. Nearly every model is either built sideways with SNOT or completely covered in tiles and greeble so as to be smooth and rough all at the same time, but without that telltale LEGO signature. LEGO studs are terrible aerodynamically, but of course that doesn't matter in space. And, by the way, every interplanetary craft has the crew compartment properly sealed for pressurization. No open sides here. Finally, even the photography is very carefully done. The camera is always fully immersed in the image such that no "real world" ever creeps in. Many scenes are lit from within, and many photos are post-processed by adding engine flares, smoke, or CGI computer displays. The amount of work that went into the end product is hard to fathom. After all this gushing, what about complaints? There aren't many. I, for one, wish there had been a section about the authors and about the making of the book. The book says nothing whatever about them other than their names on the cover. And I wish it had been longer. What about M-Tron and Exploriens and UFO and Insectoids? There are plenty of loose ends in the story that lead me to believe a sequel is already planned, and I hope it is. I can easily recommend this book and will certainly be buying any follow-ups. As a final side note, this book renewed my interest in LEGO Space so I went searching on the Internet and happened upon Neo Classic Space, a site which I had seen some years ago. Many of the models in the book can also be found there. If I have one lament, it is that Ed Dimment's Sapphire Condor and Adrian Drake's Mobile Intergalactic Rocket Command were not included. But since they were not built by the authors, I guess I can forgive them. If you like LEGO Space, it is hard to imagine how you could possibly dislike this book. It has everything a fan could want. Even if you are not really a Spacer (like me), you'll find lots to see and enjoy.

Thanks Freakwave! I looked through your steps and make a couple of minor changes to gears that were installed in an order that would be difficult to access. I think it is all buildable now. I have updated the master file on Bricksafe with all the latest additions. The only submodel yet to be stepped is "Table".

This weekend I built 2LegoOrNot2Lego's US Truck Mk II using the instructions on MOCPlans.com. I thought I would report on my experience using MOCPlans. When I build a model from electronic instructions rather than the typical printed instructions, my usual method is to load the PDF of the instructions into iBooks on my iPad and set it on the table alongside me. I can easily swipe between pages and zoom as necessary. This has worked very well in general. MOCPlans does not provide PDFs but rather employs a viewer which works through your web browser. This looks really good on a big computer monitor but I wondered how it would translate onto the small screen of my iPad. I'm pleased to report that it worked very well. There is a mobile version of the MOCPlans viewer which works somewhat differently than the desktop viewer. It is adapted to touch screens so swiping and zooming still worked very intuitively. There wasn't really anything problematic to report except that of course a continuous network connection is required. I was a bit worried that it would time out and I would have to log back in repeatedly, but even after leaving the model overnight for some sleep, I was able to just continue the next morning where I left off with no further input. So in short, good job MOCPlans! The site is easy to use and presents instructions professionally. I didn't find any software bugs.

Atoms.

I tried to import your platter back into the model, but you seem to have rotated the whole assembly in space so it doesn't fit any more.

A lot of photo instructions are done that way. It works very well.

I'm moving this topic to "General Discussion" since it has nothing to do with Technic or Model Team.

Yes, there is a difference between adding building steps and creating instructions. At this point I'm just looking for the building steps. I'm pretty sure I can already build it using the file as it stands now, but it would involve a lot of thought in certain places to get the order worked out. That's what we're trying to accomplish in advance. Alasdair has taken it one step further and added arrows and other instruction details.

It is true. This came up in a presentation at BrickCon. Apparently any parts that have been unboxed and touched by humans and are therefore "out of their control" cannot be sold. This is presumably for liability reasons since the parts could be contaminated and kids put them in their mouths. This is also true of any pick-a-brick parts that fall on the floor. They are all gathered up and disposed of at the end of the day. I hate liability.

Thanks for the efforts Philo and Alasdair. I have been compiling the updates into a "master" file so we have the most current version. I will keep over-writing my posted file with the latest. Alasdair, you only posted arm3.ldr, but it uses arm1 and arm2 which were not posted. If you can also post the plotter table, I'll add them to the file.

I think you will find that the scales are not compatible. I have some of Designer Han's trailers which are actually even a slightly larger scale than 2LegoOrNot2Lego's trucks and trailers, and they are still much too small for the swingloader. The swingloader is simply too large. You would need a much larger trailer (~40-50%) in order for it to fit accurately.