CP5670

Ideally, that is how it should work, but the problem is that piece quality is simply not a serious consideration for most buyers. Competition is good in the sense that it forces manufacturers to do what the consumer base wants in order to maintain their sales, but when the vast majority of buyers want lower prices and can't see any quality differences between different brands of bricks, the companies' decisions are going to reflect that. Even among the Lego communities, I think a lot of people are not as discriminating about part quality as they claim to be. Not many people were bothered by or even noticed the pale colored Lego bricks in the last two years. This particular situation seems to have been unintentional, but TLG surely must have taken notice of the fact that few people cared about it even in their core fanbase. Casual buyers and kids are even less likely to be bothered by such things.

In the past, I made MLCad instructions for my major MOCs and put them on Brickshelf (LDD is very restrictive and not really intended for doing this). It's always a credit to the builder when people are interested in how they can make their own copy of the model, and it's good to be able to help out with that. Although it's very time consuming to make the instructions and I probably will not be doing it much in the future, as I hardly have enough time to do the building itself these days.

They already did that two years ago, ever since the change to clear ABS pellets. Lego is still a cut above MB and other clones, but the gap in quality has certainly closed a lot from what it was at one point. I'm a stickler for brick quality and don't like this at all, but I can see why TLG did it to remain a competitive business. This is a trend we've seen with a lot of products, not just Lego. Manufacturers have realized that people generally don't care about quality with most incidental purchases, and would much rather have lower prices.

Wow, those have to be the most overpriced sets I've ever seen on S@H, especially since they seem to use only basic bricks. $20 for 69 pieces is the kind of thing you see with old MISB sets on ebay, but many of those at least have some rare pieces.

Oil is indirectly used for other things too, like making the ABS used in Lego bricks. Great little rendition of that set though.

Those were used in many of the bases in the old space themes. It's a pity they discontinued that piece, as it can be useful in many different ways.

I used to occasionally get into these situations when I was younger. In the first example there, it is still possible to bend back the axle connectors and have them snap out of the axles if you pull hard enough. The worst assemblies I've done though were in an official set, involving this and this in 8448. These are the only pieces I have never managed to separate no matter what I tried, and they have remained stuck together for 9 years now.

There was a 1997 subtheme of Aquazone that was also called Aquaraiders. They only had three sets so it wasn't really a major theme, but I really like the small one.

Is this about the recent Aquaraiders sets or the minor theme of the same name in the late 90s? I have all the sets from the older Aquaraiders theme. The smallest model (2160) is one of my favorite Aquazone sets, although the biggest one is not that impressive. A few sets from the newer Aquaraiders theme look nice but I don't have any of them.

Excellent design. I love the classic Spyrius/Exploriens theme here. What's going on inside the base? It looks like the spiders escaped from the vat in the middle.

They haven't always released sets in two installments like that before. It has only happened in some years. That dump truck is reasonably large and it's possible that it is the flagship set for the year. (although I hope that isn't the case)

These pictures are relatively decent. I have seen a lot of Brickshelf folders where you can tell that the models are spectacular, but the creator's photos do no justice to them at all. The stuff in this thread is a good example.

I think the ones posted here are all we've seen. There may or may not be larger sets later in the year.

I guess I'm a big picture person with both sets and MOCs. I often look a few pages ahead when building sets, especially with Technic models where knowing what a specific gear mechanism is going to be used for lets you make sure that the whole thing will operate smoothly. I don't plan things out with MOCs and think of the details as I go along, but I have a rough idea of the model and its main features in mind before I start. For large MOCs, I sometimes make a very generic MLCad model of the basic frame and shape, just to get the dimensions right before I build.

That looks pretty nice. I like your controller as well. I have noticed the same thing with these tracks. The 8275 bulldozer doesn't grip that well on a hard floor and is best used on a carpet, and lighter models are even worse.

High temperatures will reduce the gripping strength of bricks if they're left attached for a long time, but I haven't heard of anything with colder environments. Although the kind of temperatures you're talking about seem a bit extreme (by my standards anyway ) and it may become an issue.

If it has only recently been discontinued, it should still be pretty common at stores. I got into that situation some months ago with the 8275 Technic bulldozer, but still got one off ebay for close to the MSRP. I never understood the logic behind TLG's policies with set lifetimes though. I ran into quite a few situations as a kid where I wanted some big set, but by the time I had saved up enough to buy it, it was no longer in production. I have long since learned that if you want something from S@H, you better buy it right away, as it may be suddenly removed without notice at any time.

I've seen this builder's models before. The modularity is what really sets this one apart. The functionality is very good but fairly standard for a super car, but the fact that everything can be easily removed like that (especially the body) is a brilliant idea.

That double sided plate could be very useful. I've been hoping for a while now that Lego would release something like it. I am open to using some types of custom or clone pieces if the piece (or anything similar) does not exist in Lego. A few years I might have had second thoughts, but the thing is that Lego no longer has a clear-cut quality advantage over many of the clones, especially in certain colors.

For me, it all depends on how the Technic pieces are used. When combined with stud-based construction, Technic elements can make models exceptionally strong without being heavy. If they are used to add mechanical functionality like actual Technic models, then it's even better. On the other hand, if they lead to empty, hollow models with little stud-based building or possibilities for modification (which is an issue with several of the Mars Mission sets), then that's not a good thing. Also, the fact that studded Technic bricks are common in other themes is itself a good thing, since most Technic sets themselves have hardly any studded bricks at all these days. That would normally have made it difficult to obtain such bricks for Technic MOCs, but since they're easy to come by elsewhere, they have remained common on Bricklink.

I have some pictures from the Brickfair layout here: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=340360 I haven't made any GBC modules myself. If I have time and can think of an interesting concept, I might try making one for next year.

Very cool news. I wonder how heavy it is. Megafig is more like it.

Great idea, but as stated earlier the list is missing a lot of them, especially the more rare ones.

The boxes have been like this for a long time, at least up to the early 80s. I frequently used to buy sets from Europe some years ago and all the boxes lacked the set names or most other information, only including the age limit and the fine print legal trademark text. You could always tell the difference between a US/Canada set and a UK/European one this way. Some other countries also have the full information shown. I have a handful of sets from Japan and South Korea and those boxes show the piece counts and what appear to be set names (although I can't read them).

Thanks for the images. It's certainly not a spectacular lineup but I still like that dump truck better than anything from this year, since I don't have any such vehicle in my collection. With reports that the color saturation problem has been fixed with yellow pieces, I'm more inclined to buy it than I would have been during the last year or two. I can't tell whether or not it has a working engine in the front though. The little bulldozer looks neat too and I like how they put a function into it despite its tiny size. It would display nicely next to the bigger 8275. I looked at that site briefly. Seems like a great idea, but my guess is that a complete set of four big wheels will be quite expensive. They don't list any price estimates.