CP5670

Unfortunately, I have the same opinion of this letter. I agree with some of your points but they lack any justification at all. "Fun" and "good" can mean just about anything. In any case, even if it was well written, it won't do any good. TLG has repeatedly shown in the past that they don't directly pay attention to the opinions of the AFOL communities, and far more widespread and coordinated efforts to get them to change a decision have failed. (just look at the gray colors or 9V trains, for example)

Res-Q is one of my favorite town subthemes, right up there with Launch Command. I always liked the slightly futuristic look of their vehicles. Their sets were all the more impressive since they came during the town junior era, at a time when most of the standard town line sucked. I have this Emergency Evac set too and it comes with a very impressive array of tools, more than any other vehicle of its size. I might get another one for the unique parts like the black canopy extender. You can make the minifig slide down the string using one of the tools, which is fun to play around with.

I'm not sure why any buyers of wind power plants, which would basically be big companies, would be interested in a toy like this anyway. Are Vestas' own employees eligible as well? And yeah, it will always be around on ebay, but we'll have to pay through the nose to get it over there. I would not buy it at those prices.

Wow, you're right. I never noticed it before since it doesn't appear in the main picture on the S@H site, alongside all the other parts. You have to scroll through them to see it. That still leaves the green BURPs though. As far as I know, those don't exist in any other set. I suppose you could substitute them with piles of standard bricks though.

The same applies to the PF light piece and the green BURPs. The former has only appeared in the $120 Off Roader set so far. This set is especially appealing to me because the concept is something new and unique. The usual range of police and fire sets that are common in the city theme are good and all, but I already have many similar sets. This, on the other hand, might be the first power plant they have ever come out with, and certainly the first city themed, minifig scale one.

This looks like an awesome set, one of the few recent ones that I would have bought immediately upon release. The lighting system is a brilliant idea. If the limited distribution rumor is true, it makes no sense from either their own point of view or the fans', but at the same time I have seen TLG make so many questionable decisions lately that I'm not really surprised. It's yet another reason why I like Lego the product, but not the company so much. But if you're a Vestas customer, you can buy this thing? Anyone up for buying some (real) wind generators?

I'm not normally that big into trains but this set has a real coolness factor that sets it apart from most of the others. The color scheme is the same one that Amtrak and many local subway systems use. I picked it up along with the club car expansion when they were re-released in 2001. I have made various modifications to mine, rearranging the car layouts and adding a second train motor into the rearmost car along with another set of lights, so that both ends light up. As you said, it would be great to have an 8-stud version of this, so you could fit in two rows of seats side by side. That might make a nice mod project at some point.

Another great article. I like how thoroughly you examine the internal details of these LAs. Modifying the 8421 crane with them would make a good project, especially if you can connect them to the big RC buggy motor that's already on the crane.

Looks very impressive. $300 would be quite reasonable if it has almost 6000 pieces. I think it will cost much more than that though, given that the 5000-piece Millennium Falcon is $500.

The main thing I like better about the 9V components is their flexibility and how well they integrate with the rest of the Lego system. The earlier 9V motors had convenient brick-like shapes and actually looked like Lego, which can't be said about the PF motors, and the lights were basically small bricks that could easily fit just about anywhere. On the flip side though, the PF motors are much more powerful. The 9V wires and conducting plates are also just like Lego bricks and can fit into any standard model, and the AC-powered sources like the control center or original RCX are much more convenient to use than battery boxes. I liked the 9V motorization instructions in all the old sets too. We might see a return of that soon, with the new PF motor pack they have released. There was a wide range of 9V components from over the years, all of which were compatible with the rest of the system, although the PF range will probably grow just as big over time. Making the PF extension cable compatible with any 9V component was a great idea, but I hope we get a genuine PF wall powered source at some point. I hate batteries. By the way, one interesting thing about these polarity switches is that sticking an axle into the top creates more friction in the rotating center piece than putting it through the side. This was intentional, as it allows the switch to "lock" into the three possible positions. I used this feature in the rocket launcher in my signature; I wanted to control the switches from the sides but also have them lock into place, so i stuck 2-length axles into the tops of the switches just for that.

Pretty nice set, but the newer minifig packs had greater variety in both the figures and equipment. My favorite one among all of them is 6704, which is also the only instance of both Blacktrons appearing in one set. I think the blue and black guys hadn't yet been released at the time of this set.

These are simple to use. Just attach one end to the battery box and the other end to the motor. Turn on the battery box and then stick an axle into the top of the switch to use it. You can also put the axle through the side and rotate it, which is actually how it's done in the space shuttle.

I don't really do anything distinctive. My models tend to be of a similar style as various official sets from the 90s, although with some modern techniques thrown in. At the most, I could say that I'm trying to combine the 80s/90s space factions with Technic functionality. This is something I have in mind for future models though, not any of my currently finished ones. My next model will be a step in that direction, a Blacktron carrier with several pneumatic-powered bay doors and some geared functions like a main turret with two degrees of freedom, but I have other things planned for the future that will combine space and Technic in a much more essential way.

Speaking of groups, I never understood the difference between "Banned" and "Bad kids." [edit] never mind, I just read the other thread about it.

I brought up this issue in the questions/concerns Embassy thread. Certain colors are affected much more than others. Unfortunately, I think it's something we're going to have to get used to. I haven't seen any problems with black though. (which is a good thing, as I use black much more than any other color in most of my MOCs) Slopes used to have a rough surface for as long as I can remember, but they recently changed all the slopes to be smooth and semi-glossy. Sets at the moment typically come with a mix of the rough and smooth ones, but I think the rough ones are from earlier stock and no longer in production.

That four pane window design looks very cool from the inside. Sorry to hear about your Bricklink experience though. Try to contact the seller using both his email as well as the Bricklink contact form. I dealt with a guy a few weeks ago whose email was seemingly not working but who responded over the Bricklink system. (this transaction is actually still not resolved after over a month of exchanges, although it looks like he finally shipped it yesterday)

Wow, it's quite impressive that you built that in MLCad in just two days. I built a MLCad version of my rocket launcher MOC a few years ago and it took me over a week. It can sometimes take a lot of effort to get all the axles and pins aligned correctly in it. I have this set (one of the first sets I got off ebay and still one of my best deals on there) and it's pretty nice. I think the models as a whole are not as good as the ones in the older 8094 set, but the T-Rex is still very impressive and a great example of what can be done with the flex cables. It's also an excellent source of parts for MOCs, especially the control center which has an AC adapter port (unlike the older 8094 one) and runs motors at a higher voltage than battery boxes do. One MOC project I have in mind is to make an upgraded version of this helicopter with a third degree of freedom using a turntable, but still using only the three outputs on the control center. The challenging part is to have all three motors control the rotors without affecting each other. I tried this out once a few years ago but gave up since the gearing I was using became too complicated, but more powerful motors have been released since then, so I would like to give it another shot at some point.

Cool, post your thoughts about them after you build it. The lights look pretty nice, although I wish they had stud connections in addition to the axle holes. And yeah, the PF motors are quite powerful. Even the smaller one provides considerably more torque than the old Technic/RIS motors, while the XL one is comparable to the big RC buggy motors but has a more convenient shape. It makes no sense to me either. I have several 9V battery boxes that I hardly ever use since the batteries are so cumbersome to deal with. I especially hate how they slowly drop in voltage over time, long before they actually die out. The Lego AC powered sources also seem to put out 11V or 12V instead of 9V on their highest settings, which gives motors an extra bit of power over what even a fresh set of batteries can provide. The train speed regulator and the control center are both like this. I have to wonder if it's some obscure safety law that they're trying to follow. I remember hearing somewhere that the 12V train line wasn't available in the US or Canada due to some restriction on how high the voltage on wall-powered toys could be. In which case, it would be good if one of the Mindstorms modders like HiTechnic offers an adapter-powered box at some point. As for the cables, there is at least an extension wire available for them (the 9V adapter, which doubles up as one).

I think the highlight of the PF sets so far was easily the bulldozer from last year. It's not on the S@H site anymore but is still easy to find on ebay for close to the retail price. To me, it's the best Technic set since the Backhoe. The PF system in general seems to be very good, especially since it can interface with most of the older 9V components using that adapter cable. The IR system is quite well designed and can support 8 functions if you use all the channels. The only issues I have with it are that most of the components have built-in wires that are permanently attached on that end, so you're limited by the fixed sizes of those wires, and the battery box is no improvement over the old one and still lacks an AC adapter jack. I wish they had included that. One nice touch is that the battery box and IR remote and receivers have LEDs that turn on whenever they're active. The new light pieces and polarity switch also look good, but I don't have any of those yet.

This was mine, which I got when I was 1: Unfortunately, I lost most of the printed parts many years ago. (either that or the printing wore off over time)

I keep most of my sets built and on display, although almost all of them are modified to some degree or another. I occasionally scavenge rare parts from them, but if I need standard parts for an MOC, I will usually just buy them off Bricklink instead of breaking down a model. This changes somewhat if I have a multiple copies of a set though. In that case, I will often break down one completely for parts.

Those were excellent articles and really examined the new pieces in a lot of detail. The new excavator seems to be inferior to the old 8851 though, since its reliance on the linear actuators limits the bucket arm to two degrees of freedom instead of three. I like the idea of the linear actuators but I think this particular model was not a good place to use them instead of pneumatics. In general, this year's set lineup doesn't particularly interest me, but many of those parts look very useful. I might get an excavator anyway just for the linear actuators and treads, and definitely want to pick up the new lights and polarity switch off Bricklink as well. Most of the Technic threads here actually seem to attract a pretty good amount of interest. They just aren't very common. I think there are a decent number of Technic fans here; we just need to start posting more often.

I'm not sure if they are passing on any cost savings from it to us. It's hard to compare the Cafe Corner with previous sets, but in general, the prices on similar sets in other themes haven't changed much in the last two years, although it could be that any price reductions were offset by inflation. Note that up until early last year, they were still using the good bricks everywhere (in terms of the color quality). In any case, the brick quality was one of the main things distinguishing Lego from various clone brands, especially given that Lego is fairly expensive compared to them. If this change was intentional (which it actually may not have been), then I can see why they are doing it to stay competitive, but I certainly can't say I am happy about it. I'm picky about quality, but that's why I buy Lego instead of the clones.

Are you going to be giving out the free two-weapon packs again to attendees? That was a pleasant surprise last time around.

That sounds interesting. I wonder if it's possible to buy basic bricks and plates in those colors in bulk quantities. With the recent quality cuts in Lego, I'm more open to the idea of using third party bricks in my MOCs than I used to be, especially if they match well with the discontinued colors.