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CP5670

Eurobricks Dukes
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Everything posted by CP5670

  1. CP5670
    The store staff I know are great people, but not always treated well by the company. After all they are just employees, not the owners or senior management. As for the "social responsibility," it's like that for all for-profit companies. The reality is that they do some combination of good and bad things, and publicize the good things while hiding the bad things. Interesting, thanks for clarifying. The regulator does work nicely (except for the current limit which makes it hard to use with PF), but it's definitely not a $50 part.
  2. CP5670
    Mixed thoughts for me. I love their products, but they are a huge for-profit corporation with plenty of skeletons in the closet, like all corporations. We get all these sets today because they are a highly profitable global business. It's also a very different company now than it was 20 years ago, in both good and bad ways. They are much more corporatized, but also treat AFOLs as a serious market now. I've heard very mixed things from employees who worked there in various retail and corporate roles. I agree about the costs of electronic parts, they have always been wildly overpriced, going back to the 9V/12V days. They are generally good quality and reliable though. One of the worst examples was the 9V train speed regulator, which I recall was $50 ($70-80 in today's dollars) for a 5 cent potentiometer encased in plastic.
  3. CP5670
    If I needed a significant quantity of motors, I would consider the clone brand motors. I'm not a fan of the new system and don't want to invest in it, especially since I already have lots of PF and 9V. I looked into the clone RC motors but the Buwizz motor seems better all round, and I got some of those instead.
  4. CP5670
    I started off building modded and upgraded versions of official space sets. There was often something about the original set I wasn't happy with, so I would use the pieces to build something bigger and better. New trans colored parts are often a source of inspiration too, since we don't get them very often. Any single part in large quantities (like what you get from PAB walls) also leads to new ideas and new ways of looking at a piece. Over time you develop a set of patterns and techniques you are comfortable with, and reuse them across several models.
  5. CP5670
    I use Flickr and Brickshelf at this point, and keep local copies of everything. Many file and image hosting sites from the pre-social media era were shut down, and it's a difficult business model. Even Flickr has struggled to make enough revenue in the past with free accounts, but is backed by a larger company. It's interesting Brickshelf is still running. I talked to Kevin about it once and he said it was losing money and he would have shut it down, but found some other way to keep it going after learning that some users there had died and their moc gallery was like a monument to their life.
  6. CP5670
    I keep all my boxes before 2000 (which had the flaps, trays, etc.), and a few of the later ones that are more fancy like Ideas sets. You can put small boxes inside larger ones. They do fill up the shelves in a closet, but don't take up any floor space for me.
  7. CP5670
    This is beautiful, just like a supersized monorail train. I like how it accepts both a passenger and cargo configuration. The tiles on the sides give it a tough, armored look.
  8. CP5670
    I think this would be impossible to verify for sure. I just assume I have some knockoff bricks in my collection at this point, in addition to fan-made custom parts. As 1974 said, for parts without studs like Technic beams or gears, it's basically impossible to tell. There is enough variation among genuine Lego parts that they probably differ more from each other than from clone parts. When they first changed the coloring process in the mid-2000s, I thought I was getting fake Lego on Bricklink and contacted sellers about it, until I realized all the parts were like that now. The change they made to the trans plastic recently would also look like a knockoff if you weren't aware of it.
  9. CP5670
    I agree, the airtanks are not really useful for models with manual pumps. The key is to first open the valves and then pump it, not the other way around. They work much better with motorized compressors. I don't buy many sets these days, but might just pick up this one. It has all the right functionality with no real flaws, although I would have liked extra pneumatics instead of LAs for some functions. I like the color scheme too, and those new beams will be very useful.
  10. CP5670
    I have a bunch of trans green canopies from SP2 and Hydronauts/Insectoids, but those parts are becoming hard to get now and as you said, the color largely disappeared after 2000. It's a dark color like trans-blue but goes well with primary colors that contrast with it, like gray or white. I like trans orange and bright green, but they look quite different from the other colors and are not really a substitute.
  11. CP5670
    Trans-green is maybe the hardest color to find new windscreens in. Even trans-neon green stuff is somewhat available since the color was very common at one point, but trans-green has never been common. Trans-yellow and trans-red used to be rare for many years but have become a little more common in the last 5 years.
  12. CP5670
    I got a BuWizz 2.0 last year and love it. I've wanted something like it for decades, and it's the first thing that finally replaced my old 9V train controllers and control centers because of the consistent 9V output with no drops (and the 11V setting is even better). I want to get a few of the BuWizz RC motors too and maybe additional BuWizz 2.0s in the future. I don't have any of the PUp/C+ stuff and don't plan to buy much of it. I have a significant investment in PF and 9V now and the new system just seems very expensive for no reason.
  13. CP5670
    There was a discussion here a long time ago. Some people managed it but I ended up not bothering with mine.
  14. CP5670
    I like this one a lot. I converted the space in the middle into a bridge with computers along the walls. And yea, UFO sets look great under UV. Here is a picture I took at one point.
  15. CP5670
    The old colors are a bit different, richer and more saturated. They used a different plastic coloring process before 2006 or so. You can tell if there is a light source behind them. A rear print for Benny would have been perfect if they had done that.
  16. CP5670
    Sometimes it feels like TLG themselves had no idea what these sets were supposed to be. I added the windows to my 6952 and make it more airtight. I wish we had a modern version of these windows and the corner panels. There is this window but it looks really ugly and there are hardly any trans colored windows for it. The white/black/trans-red and white/black/trans-green from the prototype images go together very well. I've been building mocs off those colors with some red/trans-orange and green/trans-neon green accents added on. The second, yellow/black/trans-blue color scheme from Seatron basically became Aquanauts.
  17. CP5670
    I get that it's supposed to be Benny, but they must have known that the main customers for this set would be people wanting to build classic space armies. I didn't know there was a regular blue helmet, I'll have to get some of those. I find the faded torso more noticeable than the helmet though, it looks out of place with the other guys.
  18. CP5670
    The final wave of classic space like 6972 and the light and sound sets was basically Futuron, just with different minifigs. If you're referring to 6953, it does feel like a cut down 6987, but I like it anyway as an addon to the monorail. As for the Alien Moon Stalker, 6952 and 6891 are good companions to the set and feel like they are part of the same faction. I think classic space had 4 or 5 distinct subthemes with their own colors. I have been building mocs lately based on other classic-like color schemes that would have fit into the lineup, like the Seatron colors.
  19. CP5670
    Guilty as charged. I still have a bunch of sets I got in the early-mid 2000s on ebay that I never had time to open and build. That idea book is great, especially the aliens. This was another, later idea book that has some nice alternate models for this set as well as the Solar Power Transporter:
  20. CP5670
    I just opened one of these for the first time. I got it misb many years ago and never got around to building it before. It's like an AT-AT before they had the SW license. The front and rear sections can be joined using the top attachment of the rear section.
  21. CP5670
    Thanks, I always liked the Seatron color scheme too. The stickers are from www.brickstickershop.nl .
  22. CP5670
    More pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/141514326@N04/albums/72157718560037213/with/51013563892/
  23. CP5670
    I always liked the UFO theme, especially the minifigs, but this set is not as good as the Alien Avenger or Warp Wing Fighter IMO. The lighting and fiber optics are great though. I got an MISB copy at one point too and keep the boxes for everything from this era. The micromotors are unfortunately very prone to breaking down. I have 3 or 4 dead ones, and they tend to break even if just left alone on a model for several years. The one I have on this set works, at least so far.
  24. CP5670
    You could make the ultimate classic space army. It would be hard to sell that many sets at any price though. I don't think there is that much demand for the set. I got several copies of the set for future projects. I wish it had a regular blue space guy though and not the Benny version with a faded logo.
  25. CP5670
    I've been getting back into it this year due to the pandemic, Lego is one of the best activities for these times. Thanks! I would be happy if we just got those old color schemes again somewhere, like the black/white with trans-neon green. It's what made these themes so memorable to me. Good point! The tri-wing shape has appeared in quite a few Star Wars ships, the TIE defender and droid fighter are a bit like it too.
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