CP5670

I made a swashplate using the old helicopter rotor parts in this model, with cyclic and collective controls. The collective part works by sliding the ball over a white axle that has very little friction.

Bumping this old thread after many years. I finally got a chance to try out retro-brite (H2O2 in a gel form), available as a commercial product now. Some 80s/90s sets I had on display for 15+ years are quite yellowed now, like 8880, 6483, 6398, 5563 and some others. Only some specific bricks are affected, and as discussed earlier, the yellowing is uniformly spread out over the whole brick. I used a toothbrush to put this stuff on the bricks and put them in a sealed bag outside in the sun. The results look good and just like a new white brick, although it did take 3-4 days to see a clear improvement. I'll have to see how long the improvement lasts and if it reverses or not. It's a bit tricky to make sure all sides of the bricks are exposed to sunlight, and I had to flip the bag and rearrange the parts inside each day. I might try using one of those UV light boxes for curing plastic instead of this approach.

I find that the BW 2.0 holds its charge very well over time, but I only use it in short bursts and maybe charge it once a month. I have stopped using all the train speed regulators and control centers I used to keep around to get a consistent 9V output, since the BW is much more convenient.

Yeah, it's surprisingly hard to find this set in stock in the US without a marked up price. I've never seen it any of the 4 or 5 Lego stores in my area, and it always shows sold out on the Lego website.

It's like an evil version of Futuron. But I think these guys are supposed to be a similar type of civilian faction.

Thanks everyone! It's supposed to contain some kind of reactor or comm array that needs to be isolated from the crew areas. Although it's really just an excuse to use that trans-red x-pod piece. :D I like the corner tiles for this reason. You can make various patterns out of them. It's based on the Seatron prototype images, which was basically Futuron with trans-red together with Aquanauts. I always liked those colors and have been building several mocs based off them.

I wanted to try doing something with the new tiles they have been releasing, and have been on a prototype classic space kick lately. :)

It's supposed to hold up the wheels up and prevent them from going down all the way, but just creates friction. I just removed these and mounted the suspension one stud higher on the chassis.

I agree with others that there is room for both types of people. I have done both collecting and building at different times in the past, and many moc builders got into the hobby by first building sets. Lego for adults is way more mainstream now than it was 10 years ago, and there are probably 100s of times more people in the hobby now. I'm more interested in mocs than sets these days, partly because I have too many sets and not enough time to build them all or space to put them. I do occasionally sell sets, but more for managing my own collection than to make money. I can make more money doing other things and would rather not turn a hobby into something that feels like work.

This model is huge. I only got a sense of the scale when looking at the trans canopies. I like the pop up guns and the Super Nova IIs it carries. I've always liked reading your Blacktron blog as well, and good to see so many people still building Blacktron stuff.

I tend to stick with Lego (and the places I buy from like big retailers or Bricklink only sell Lego), but am open to clones, especially if they have useful pieces that don't exist in Lego. I think the difference in quality is far lower than it used to be years ago. Not only have the clones gotten much better, but the quality of Lego is pretty hit or miss these days, compared to 20+ years ago. I do use some fan-made custom parts like lighting or motors.

I agree that the whole PU/C+ system sucks. I have enough of an investment in PF and 9V now, but the new system is just very expensive and doesn't add anything to Technic. There have been many cases of old android/ios apps that stop working after the developer stops updating them. I don't have any problem with resellers/investors and often buy/sell vintage sets myself, although I sell stuff to make room for new things, it's not worth the effort for me to buy sets specifically for reselling (much better ways to make money than this). The day-one scalpers are annoying, but I would blame TLG and retailers for not managing their stock more than scalpers. Scalping has become a big problem with many other things these days, like the PS5/XSX/GPUs.

I've had many classic Technic and Model Team sets with worn out or cracked stickers for a long time, and the issue has been discussed here in the past. Many sets from 1990-2010 with stickers on white paper suffer from this eventually. The site http://www.brickstickershop.com sells replica stickers for many old sets and they are pretty good. I ordered replacements for several sets (8457, 8458, 8858, 5581, 8880). They are printed on vinyl and seem quite durable, although one sheet was not cut exactly right. Shipping from the Netherlands to the US takes a few weeks, but this is a good solution to the problem. Not all sets have stickers but they add more to the site frequently.

These look very true to the in-game pictures. This game inspired quite a few Lego builds for me as a kid. I always liked the look of that rocket launcher in particular.

I love this theme, didn't have them as a kid but collected them in the early 2000s. The magnets were advertised as a key feature and most sets had those magnetic crates. I always imagined them as some kind of space mining company. My favorite is the Particle Ionizer, I like the space helicopter concept and the droid it comes with.

These look really nice, I'll have to try out some of them. How do they compare to Lifelites? I have used those in several mocs in the past, and they generally work well but the wires/connections can degrade over time. These wires look even thinner and more fragile, so I would be worried about them holding up.

I'm looking to slim down my Lego collection a bit to make room for newer sets. I can ship within the US (shipping costs calculated by USPS; international is possible but expensive) or do local pickup in the NJ/NY area, with or without the boxes, and can do discounts if you buy multiple sets. PM me if you are interested. For reference, my ebay feedback is here. 8275 Motorized Bulldozer: built once and used as a display model, includes box, instructions and all PF parts ($200) 8421 Mobile Crane: built once and used as a display model, includes box, instructions, unused stickers and 9V RC motor ($200) 8446 Crane Truck: built once and used as a display model, includes box and instructions ($60) 8857 Street Chopper: built once and used as a display model, includes box and instructions ($40) I have some more sets as well, will put them up later.

I like the direction they are going on with Technic, with more complex and realistic models. The licensed sets are a mixed bag and often overpriced, but some sets like the Chiron and Sian are excellent, and have great looks and functionality. However, it does feel like there is less innovation in Technic now compared to 20+ years ago. Maybe it's just hard to do models or mechanisms that they haven't already done at this point. I'm not against color coding, but bright colors like blue or red look really bad. They should use neutral colors like the grays or tans. As for B models, a handful of past sets (usually large ones) had outstanding B models, but most were just lamer versions of the A model. I actually really like 42009 despite the weak outriggers because the mechanisms were interesting, at least for its time. Much more so than something like 42100, which works well enough but is expensive and boring. In terms of pure "performance" (like RC cars), Lego is never going to compete with anything with metal parts anyway. I generally prefer manual functions or pneumatics over lots of motors, especially the overpriced Powered Up motors. Among the current sets, my favorite is the tow truck 42128. One thing I miss are the old universal sets. They often had unique models that would not have sold well as a regular set (8094 or 8485 for example), but were more interesting than most traditional B models and had some great ideas that inspired modifications. It's always been like this. I remember back in the day, they only had 7L, 11L and 15L Technic bricks for a long time, and introduced 9L and 13L bricks many years later.

I love the new shocks and huge wheels, but like others said the mechanisms are nothing special for a $230 set. As someone else, working brakes (maybe using the old flex system) would have been a great addition. I'll pass on it given how many other great sets they have these days.

Looks great, as another big fan of those games. I actually like the colors of the V2 version even more.

I don't like this piece for the same reason. You can't connect it anywhere while it's open, and it feels like some clone brand piece.

All the licensed sets have definitely driven up profits across all themes, including Technic and Creator. They are bringing in a lot of new people into the hobby who were not into Lego before. I've met AFOLs at shows who said they only got into Lego recently after buying some of these sets, and did not play with Lego growing up.

I have quite a few MISB sets that I got on ebay in the early 2000s and have been opening up them over the years. Just opened up an 8862. Back then they were much cheaper. I could sell them but prefer to enjoy them myself, and can make much more money doing something else. I only sell them if I want to free up space in my collection. I don't necessarily have a problem with the buyers, and to be honest they are cheap compared to a lot of other stuff people buy, like exotic cars. However, buyers who speculate on them (instead of building it themselves) and expect to sell in the future will often get shafted. The market can shift over time and not all old sets are desirable anymore. Also, the bricks definitely can degrade over time. I've opened MISB sets from the 80s that were apparently stored in smoky environments, where the bricks had become brittle with excessive clutch power and would crack easily.

They used to have some great deals years ago, including rare parts packs and sets you couldn't easily get elsewhere. Today it's not all that different from what you can find on Bricklink or Bricks and Pieces.

They weren't even the first to come up with the original stud/receptacle design. It was taken from another company (I forget the name now) whose IP they bought up in the 1950s. Nothing wrong with it necessarily, most successful companies are not the original innovators but take an existing idea and refine and scale it. They definitely do have a history of anti-competitive behavior though.