CP5670

All of those factors apply equally to the clone brand companies though. Despite that, even the better ones like Oxford are still able to undercut Lego prices by a huge amount, and the difference in color quality is no longer what it used to be. The replacement service is intended for one-off glitches. It's no good for widespread problems like the color variances. I doubt they would replace hundreds of parts in a set, and even if they did the replacements would likely have the same issues. I don't actually blame TLG or expect any changes with this, as the market has certainly validated their decision with the clear ABS pellets. However, let's not pretend that TLG was "forced" into doing anything or has any intention of making the colors more consistent in the future. A bad batch of parts does not explain what we've been seeing for the last 3 years. I think they have simply revised what they consider to be acceptable profit margins over the years. They have seen by now that most people (including AFOLs) aren't that concerned about color differences, so as a business decision it makes sense for them to remain lax about it and continue making increased profits.

Yes, I know about the 2006 change in ABS pellets. However, my point is that it's irrelevant whether a "color change" is intentional or not, or whether the company refers to it as such. I care about the actual bricks I buy, not what TLG internally considers to be color differences. As for being involuntary, the entire change was a result of intentional cost-cutting practices, so I don't see how you can call it that. I don't quite buy the argument that it was necessary to remain in business. Lego has still maintained its huge price disparity over many clone brands, and they no longer have the clear-cut advantage in color consistency and saturation that they did in the past.

There are some colors on that list that have had more variation within the color than the old and new light grays. As Svelte said, this talk of "universal colors" is simply political speak. All it means is that they can change or vary a color all they want, but they simply won't officially name it a new color anymore.

Reddish brown did change some time in 2007. You can still see a mix of older and newer parts of that color in more recent sets, like the asteroid bank in 5982. There have been quite a few "color changes" since the original 2004 ones, even though TLG doesn't officially consider them as such. For some colors, the variability in different parts of that color is at least as large as the difference between old and new gray.

There are times when the PF XL and M motors are too slow and need to be geared up. You probably won't need 1900 RPM but the point is that it's more efficient to get, say, 1900 RPM down to 700 RPM rather than 275 RPM up to 700 RPM. I'm thinking of cases where the final speed of whatever you want to operate is low, but a high speed is needed at some intermediate point in the geartrain. For example, the 8043 excavator has an issue where moving the turntable a lot also causes the treads to move slightly. If the model had faster motors along with more gear reduction in the base, it would minimize this effect. A smoothie machine would be interesting though.

This is sometimes a good thing actually. There are situations where a high RPM is useful, and it's more efficient to gear down a fast but weak motor than to gear up a slow but powerful one. Although the shape of this motor is indeed clunky for Technic models.

This set is rather overpriced by US standards, even though it's otherwise the best set we've gotten in a long time. It will probably be available at the Brickfair event with the 20% discount, given that it's showing up at retail stores now, but I'm not sure if I would buy it at the regular $200 price. The piece-to-price ratio is very poor by Technic standards and there is no reason why it should be a full $50 more than 8275, which had parts of comparable value. On the other hand, it's possible that this price is just a TRU markup, which we have seen in the past.

I rarely buy used sets these days, unless they are specifically advertised as being display models, good pictures are shown and the seller has some kind of return policy. I make occasional exceptions if a set is particularly rare or expensive in MISB condition, but I will still want to see the pictures. Completeness is not so much of an issue IMO, as you can objectively say whether a set is complete or not. The part quality is the real problem, and it's very difficult to find out much about this if the pictures aren't big and sharp. One person's "excellent condition" can be another person's "poor condition," as I've found out in the past on both ebay and BL. Yes, this is one advantage of ebay over BL. I would certainly never buy a used set if there are no pictures shown.

I put up my MOCs on the Brickfair site last night. If anyone else happens to have set up a space-themed monorail layout there, I can add them to it, but otherwise they should look fine as standalone models. I figured it's better than bringing nothing. At the Bulls event, does anyone know if TLG sells normal (non-damaged box) sets at the same time? Otherwise, I'll need to go there again the next day. There are several sets I want to buy and I probably won't get them all in the Bulls event, but in the past TLG has given a 20% discount to Brickfair attendees at all normal store hours too. If you buy a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff there like I do, it easily makes up for the Brickfair registration price.

I have had two or three incidents like this over the years. I got a supposedly MISB 6933 at one point and found out six months later that it was missing 80-odd pieces (the seller ignored my emails), and a 6986 that was missing one of the jail cells (the seller sent me some other random parts to make up for it). This is out of 200+ purchases on ebay and BL though, so overall my experience has been very good. I think BL sellers are overall more reliable than ebay ones, as they tend to be AFOLs themselves. I've certainly had cases where a few parts in an order were missing or were marked as new but were obviously used, but the sellers have always replaced or refunded them. If it's just one or two minor parts on a large parts order, I don't bother complaining about it. You have to be more careful when it comes to sets though, especially with ebay. If you're buying a used set on ebay, make sure the auction has a good quality picture of the model built up. You can't necessarily trust any "100% complete" or "excellent condition" descriptions. I've gotten a 6954 set like this, but it was otherwise in ideal condition and the smell went away after a few weeks, so I didn't complain about it.

The catalogs were indeed the main source of any story associated with themes. This includes the mini-catalogs in sets (which sometimes had different information in different countries), the larger S@H catalogs and the club magazines. The larger boxes with flaps also contained short blurbs on the themes. As you said, Alpha Team is the first theme I remember with distinct and well-developed characters (by Lego standards, anyway). Actually, there wasn't much of a story with those. You can pick up bits and pieces of it from the above sources, but TLG mostly left it to your imagination. SP3's universe is a lot more developed than any of the old Space themes.

This model is huge. I didn't realize how big it was in the pictures until I saw what wheels you were using on it.

I built it here (without the cutout clock face). It has some very clever ideas, but doesn't really work that well.

This T-Rex is one of the most unique Technic models TLG has released, and is arguably the only model that really took advantage of the capabilities of the flex system. Blakbird has written an extensive overview of the set here. The CC2 unit is similar to the original CC from 8094. The programming functions were actually pretty basic, but it works well for manual control. It's also far more useful than the earlier 1990 version in practice since it has an AC power jack. I use it to run a lot of PF models too. It would be good if we get a wall-powered native PF source like this at some point.

This is the kind of supercar I like. It's packed with great functions.

I think these are the worst kinds of parts, as they add nothing to the Lego system as a whole. The chassis and trailer parts we were seeing around 2000 were a good example of this. The 1x2x2 brick is actually useful to have though, for exactly the reason mentioned earlier. The same applies to the 2x4 and 1x3 tiles. Yes, there are tons of things you can do with those. There is a good reason why the Bricklink prices on them are so high today.

The two dumping modes are cleverly designed, and anything blue is always good. However, like 8264 from last year, I think the motor needlessly drives up the price of this set, and the model is not that large or functional considering it costs $70. 8265 is a much bigger and more complex model for only $10 more.

I'm not sure if it was already posted here, but the Lego SP site now has the dossiers for the new aliens. The Jawson one is hilarious.

There is nothing necessarily wrong with play features or other functionality. If they're done right, they can add a lot to a model, and I would much rather have a model with such features than something that is only good for displaying. The flick-fire missiles and spring launchers are often tacked on and not well thought out (although even those are occasionally used well, as in the Hyperspeed Pursuit set), but we have seen much better examples of such features. Things like modular components, steering mechanisms on vehicles, opening bay doors (6987 and 6953) or transforming functions (5983) are some that come to mind.

I keep them in a cardboard shipping box, arranged like in a file cabinet according to the theme and set number. The box is nearly full now and must weigh around 50 pounds, so I'll probably have to get a second one soon. Modern sets tend to have very big instructions, much bigger than they did in the 80s and 90s, so the box has filled up quickly in recent years.

I wouldn't sell anything I made either. Any profit I make on them would be tiny given the time I spent on them. I also regularly use pieces that are no longer in production, so it would be hard to reacquire all them too.

Blue or orange would be good. I would like pretty much any color that is not often used for Technic. I don't know if TLG makes the metallic colored panels anymore, but those would look even better. The metallic gold and blue colors are especially nice.

Very interesting. I actually had no idea those Power Miners wheels contained ring gears inside. The shape is a little clunky due to the depth of the wheels, but they're still a big step forward and would allow for a lot of new possibilities with Technic. I'll need to get some of those wheels off Bricklink.

Dude, this thread is four years old. Although I like using "new and old" together too.

Some great ideas here. This looks more robust than most of the limited-slip differentials I've seen before, which typically used rubber bands. Another solution to the issue of slipping wheels is a torsen differential like this one. If one wheel goes off the ground, this setup allows the idle wheel to transfer power to the grounded one. I like your planetary gearing setup too. Although I do wish TLG would give us a larger ring gear for doing this. The ring in the turntables is too small to do a lot with.