CP5670

Those of you who are saying that the plane is "moving" or "not moving" should clarify what that means. Is that relative to the ground, the bottom/top of the treadmill or the air particles around the plane? In any case, the real issue here is that the behavior of the treadmill makes no sense and cannot occur in real life. As the article I posted earlier says, the problem is essentially asking what happens if you take an immovable plane and move it.

He probably means that they are available on the Lego website.

Well, I don't think he is directly involved in the set design process. He probably does give the designers suggestions though.

This looks similar to the worm gear system used in the 8082 forklift. That set actually had multiple worms connected to the motor and they would lock into the functions in different combinations depending on the motor platform's position. Some other methods for splitting up geartrains include the transmission rings (the most common way, but hard to control with a motor), locking differentials, and the friction-based catch seen in the 8094 crane (only works in one direction, but surprisingly smooth).

The Cherry Picker was actually a pretty decent set and at least uses the motor for more than one function. The lifting arm could have used an additional degree of freedom, but the functionality is still not bad for its size and price. However, the other two models haven't really impressed me at all. This is a common issue in the motorized sets from the last few years, with the exception of the big Bulldozer. There is a lack of integration of the motor into the model and it often feels like the motor could have been used to do more, given the extra cost it's adding to the set. For example, with this Hauler it would have been nice to see a transmission switch to have the motor power the wheels and let the model move around.

Very interesting interview. I just wish they had a text transcript of it, as it's fairly long to listen to. Steve was actually the one who gave me this at Brickfair last year. He said that ship instantly reminded him of the old Galactic Mediator, which was his favorite set as a kid. I noticed the same thing about Moonbase not being so big at that event, in contrast to the huge layout in 2006. It sounds like that was the case with other events as well.

http://blag.xkcd.com/2008/09/09/the-goddam...damn-treadmill/ Basically, the answer depends on how you interpret the question.

I remembered that topic too and was going to link to it, but I wasn't able to find it in the search.

I always liked this car design. This is the scale Lego cars should be at IMO, 4 studs wide but larger and more detailed than the old go-kart like design. They had an interesting numbering scheme for the Town race sets that year. This car was number 4, the 6335 Indy Transport included 2, 3 and 6, and the 6337 Fast Track Finish had 1 and 5, so you could get a complete set of cars by buying all of them.

Well, this particular regulation is a good thing for us. I would much rather have the piece count available than not have it. The box information varies with every market, as Copmike said. None of the boxes I have from Europe or Australia have the information (actually, until a few years ago they didn't even have the set names, only the numbers). I have a couple of early 90s boxes from Japan and South Korea and they show the names and piece counts, although I can't read the languages.

Also, the amount of printing that gets wiped off each time can vary considerably, depending on what year and place the minifig was made in. The heads on some minfigs in my collection fit much more tightly than others. There was especially a lot of variation with this in the 80s. This might be a good idea for more recent minifigs though.

I keep them in a cardboard shipping box, arranged roughly by size, by theme and then by set number. I have a heavy book at one end to prop them up. The large manual sizes fit snugly in them. They fill up most of the box, but don't really cause a problem in terms of space and it's easy to find a manual when I need it. My actual Lego models are the main space hogs.

Yeah, both issues are well known and are caused by UV exposure, typically from sunlight. Your best bet is to keep the room somewhat dim most of the time and cover up any windows. The brittleness and peeling only occurs with stickers printed on white paper (as opposed to clear paper) and only with the white, red and blue components of stickers. I think TLG has changed the sticker material during the last year or two, as my recent sets haven't had these problems even in the previously affected colors. There is also a second, rare type of brick discoloring that is due to a different cause and will actually occur because of not enough exposure to UV light. I have some early 90s sets that contain a few select bricks with this issue, but haven't seen anything more recent with the same problem. As for the multi-layered dust, I have had that happen many years ago but not recently. It seems to happen only with a certain combination of air particles, temperature and humidity. I think the best way to avoid it is to simply dust off the models every few months and not allow the dust to pile up.

1: It's a garage segment and appears in some recent sets like the fire station. 2: The inside of an airplane engine. 4: The old 1682 Space Shuttle had this in red. I think a few train crossings also included one or two. 6: A somewhat obscure bracket. They are pretty rare in red though. I have a few from the Metro Park and Service Tower. 7: This is an older type of rotor connector for helicopters. They were used in the 70s and 80s. I think these actually spin more smoothly than the newer kind. 8: An electric sound brick. Since it's black, it's probably the town variety. You can turn the knob to switch between its sounds. I have never seen 3 and 5 before, but they obviously go together. It might be some old coupling system from the 80s or earlier.

I'm in the same situation. I have always wanted to have the sort of wall-to-wall glass shelves that you describe but wouldn't be able to construct them myself. I have been using a bunch of these shelves (mine are white) for the last several years. Last I checked, they had 24" deep ones available too. I am not really happy with this arrangement though, as they provide enough space but do nothing to block dust, which is a constant issue in my apartment.

Fanboys of any company. That includes manufacturers of computer hardware (particularly video cards), consoles, games and brands of bricks, for that matter. I prefer certain individual products, not certain companies.

Yes, this situation was common for a while. They still had stocks of the pre-2007 bricks left and bundled them alongside the newer bricks inside the same set. TLG claimed to have fixed yellow a few months ago in their manufacturing process, but I don't know what the new yellow looks like or whether it has actually started to appear in sets. I have not bought any recent sets with significant amounts of yellow. There hasn't been any update on the other affected colors, so I'm guessing those are still messed up. They say they hope to have everything fixed some time this year, so we'll wait and see.

8421 Mobile Crane off ebay, although that was not actually released in 2008.

I meant the engines on opposite sides of the ship, so they would be pointing in the same direction. By the way, this catalog shows the name I was referring to. It's Major Kartofski. This page also has the English version of the theme text you posted.

At least I can't think of anything before it, and I know all the space sets by heart. Dark gray was in the same category as green back then. It existed but was hardly ever used. The only places I can think of before the late 90s were some BURP/LURP pieces, a few electric Technic components, and the dock buffers in the town seaports. I think you're right about the Spyrius box descriptions. Unitron was 1995 though (1994 for the monorail). That theme for one was certainly connected to Spyrius, as is apparent from the dioramas and the S@H catalogs from that time. They seem to have been the main "good" faction fighting Spyrius. It's true that Exploriens and the later themes sort of existed in their own universe, although that doesn't make them bad themes. It might make sense as a holonomic ship. Maybe only two of the engines are active at one time, but it can move in any direction due to the way they're located. I think the worst sets in this respect are anything from Space Police 1. They had no engines at all, unless the jail stands somehow doubled up as thrusters.

Yes, that looks like the one.

Good, sensible post. The only Megabloks I have are from some old set in the 90s, and a scammed Lego set I got off ebay (supposedly MISB but had its contents switched with a random bag of Megabloks). I got a refund on it, but there were some useful slope pieces in that bag that don't exist in Lego, so it seemed worth holding on to. As far as I can tell, the relative quality improvement has more to do with the change in Lego than anything else. MB seems to be the same as it was 10-15 years ago, but Lego has regressed noticeably.

A magnificent creation. It doesn't quite match your Coca-Cola truck in overall functionality, but the detail level is outstanding and it closely resembles the real vehicle it's based on. I think the water system is the highlight of this model though. Your pump is quite impressive and shoots the water a long way. I have heard of using water in the Lego pneumatic setup but never tried it myself before. Are they still usable with air after that?

One thing worth noting is the two somewhat different color schemes used here. Both are black and red, but the transparent colors are different. The robots use red with neon green accents while the saucers and base use almost all blue, with some neon green accents but used very sparingly. We saw this sort of color division again with Roboforce a few years later. The Robo Guardian also inexplicably had some dark gray, which was the first time that color was seen in a space set. Almost everything after these sets had trans-neon green as a prominent accent color. That color had probably become overused by the time space died out. I don't agree with you that Spyrius was the last good theme, although it was one of the few to have uniformly good sets across the line (among both earlier and later themes). The Saucer Centurion is definitely one of my top five or so space sets among any theme. These guys always hated Unitron, although TLG hadn't actually created Unitron as a theme yet. I don't think Spyrius had any connection to the earlier themes like Ice Planet, as they are always in a different diorama in the catalogs. The Lunar Launch Site has some strange box art that shows the commander opening the trap on the robot. The Unitron monorail also has the robot seemingly helping out the other guys. I think TLG themselves had not decided at that point what side the robots belonged to. Actually, I believe the UK catalogs had a Russian name for the commander. I don't remember it now though. The two computer slopes in the Robo Guardian's head were also first introduced with this theme.

This was one of my first sets. It's nice enough for what it is supposed to be. It was the smallest MTron set to include the magnets and a storage crate. I don't know how it's supposed to detect vectors though. You have a point about the price if your price is actually correct, but I'm not sure about that (note that Lugnet's prices are not always accurate, if you got it from there). The piece count is about right for the size.