Phoxtane

#1: Automatic gear meshing function. Perhaps it would be akin to the Hinge-Align tool, but it would rotate the gear whose parent axle has the least amount of parts attached to it.* #2: Improvement of the Hinge-Align tool. It's... okay at best, but I have seen it nearly lock up the program when attempting to hinge-align a small grouping of under 15 parts.* *There needs to be some sort of change in how LDD defines what parts to rotate with hinge align. As stated in #2, I think it was stalling because instead of rotating the selection around the shared pivot with the model, it was rotating the entire model around the selection's common pivot point! I think this could easily be fixed with a check to see which has less parts - the model or the selection - and rotate the object with less parts. #3: The ability to export a full inventory of elements used in the design. #4: A better way to build treads and conveyors using the plastic links. I just leave them off nowadays, or put the amount of links needed off to the side rather than spend four hours attempting to get it right... #5: Orbit tool. It's more or less standard in most CAD programs, so I'd like to see some sort of camera function where you can fly around the model in a constant path. I'll add more if I think of any

I need to catch up, I only have 651 2L friction pins according to Rebrickable.

I don't buy Lego often enough to justify saving up for a free large set; most of my orders are mid-to-large sized complex sets, so I generally take whatever savings I've got and apply it to my purchase. However, I did get a Quad Bike from the Technic line for only 10 USD at the store when they applied the savings I had on my card with the one I had made from a much larger item in the same purchase. You can't do that at the S@H website, oddly enough.

My mom is a freelance professional photographer, so she has some photo lights and some backdrops I can use if I need something a bit more formal for pictures.

Many times the spare parts are of the size that you could easily fit one on your pinky finger nail. It's not hard for me to imagine some KFOL accidentally losing those parts in the couch cushions on Christmas day.

Wonderful! Once I get back home to my collection, I'll see about pulling the wheels off my Extreme Cruiser and building this! Looks like it's a lot of fun EDIT: Are those custom stickers as well?

Are those tires the same ones as used in the 8081 Extreme Cruiser?

"Aw, they're so cute at that age, aren't they?" I re-combined all my Technic pieces into one bin from the two desktop drawer units I had them in. Though I could easily pick out the piece I wanted because they each had their own drawer, the drawers themselves were too small to hold any reasonable amount of those pieces. So, I now keep all light bley, dark bley, and black pieces in one bin, including the blue 3L friction pins and the 2L blue pin/axle combo pieces. The light tan pieces stay in a small drawer, so I can find the frictionless 3L pins and the 12t bevel gears easily. All colored beams stay in their own drawer, since there wouldn't be enough of them for me to easily find them in the bin.

What, no love for the new Technic Rock Crawler set? It's got two new motors, a wealth of new parts, white Technic parts, and it performs beautifully on top of that! Big kudos to those who spent well over the standard price to import them early into the USA and review them

Well, I was going to make a "Oh look, TLG is replacing some part molds or something, amirite?!" thread about this, but evidently TechnicBRICKS beat me to the punch by quite a while ago: http://technicbricks.blogspot.com/2011/12/thin-triangle-liftarm-redesigned.html So, share what sets you've put together recently where the parts that were supplied are new versions of the element shown in the instructions! For me; the Extreme Cruiser I got about two and half weeks ago had replaced the 16t gears with a newer, more-heavily reinforced version of said gears. The Quad Bike I put together today made the same change and also replaced the older Technic thing triangles with the new, smaller ones, like the ones shown in the picture above. I expect my 8070 Supercar to have much of the same changes.

I will say it was quite a shocker to open up my brand-new 9392 Quad Bike today and see the remarkable lack of "perfect" Technic parts! Is there any chance we could get an official TLG statement on the change in the Technic instructions? EDIT: Come to think of it, there was another issue I just remembered... the B-model instructions for the Quad Bike seem to want you to make a connection that looks all right on paper, but it turns out I couldn't make it happen in the brick. I was able to shift down an L-beam one unit to get the job done, but before I figured that out I sat there for a good five minutes puzzling over whether or not I needed to actually BEND pieces! TL;DR, there appears to be a mistake in the B-model instructions for 9392 Quad Bike.

IMHO, the large light grey baseplates that you can pick up at any Lego shop are already the best solution. They allow the most flexibility in what you can build on top of them, since they're a fairly neutral concrete color already. I may be thinking in large-scale terms however, since I realize not everybody can sink $500 into earth tones for that one scene.

I can probably guarantee that every Technic builder, including me, would snap up a set that re-released the Power Puller rims and tires!

I don't think it would be all that hard to build a tri-cylinder radial engine with one of those triangle-like joiner pieces. Finding a way to attach all the pistons to the crankshaft would be a problem, though... perhaps a four-cylinder would be best. The big issue with the Lego cylinders for this project is the fact that you can really only have two cylinders hooked up to the same portion of the crankshaft, unless there's a special part I'm unaware of.

I'm back from our mall visit! Though they didn't have the Supercar in stock at the store, I was able to order one and have it shipped home for free from the shop. I also picked up the 9392 Quad Bike set, to have a little something to swoosh around on the floor and review. That'll be in its own thread.

That being said, there's nothing stopping you from calling up Shapeways and making your own clear versions of Lego elements!

That it would. I don't think it will happen anytime soon, since I imagine that the plastics used would break down quite fast if left in the sun and wouldn't be strong enough to hold up to TLG's standards for part strength. I've only ever seen it used in novelty items like rubbery wristbands and pens, presumably for those issues.

Well, they have pens and coffee mugs that change color when they change in temperature. I could see plastics like that used in some sort of "Expert Builder Prototyping Kit" to show where pieces are rubbing against each other the most.

Well, it's a very simple matter to test! You'll just have to build another version with the non-rechargeable battery boxes as close to this one as you can, and tell us what the results are!

It wouldn't be all that hard to get the parts, either - strip down a couple of old printers and scanners and you should have most of the motors necessary.

Here's a video that I came across a while back that I feel is worth sharing: It's a brick sorter that uses object recognition to classify and sort elements into various cups built by akiyuky, the same mastermind behind some rather ingenious GBC modules. His blog post at http://legokarakuri.blog91.fc2.com/blog-entry-4.html is the first of two, describing in some more detail how the machine decides where to send the part in question. The machine appears to work by waiting until the user dumps a load of Lego elements into a bin, setting off the sorting device. A small slab lifts up a smallish selection of elements and dumps them onto the first of two conveyors, which spreads out the elements slightly. The same occurs at the next conveyor, spreading them out even further. The elements are then dropped onto a platform, where a cheap camera detects the presence of a part and stops the conveyor assembly. At the viewing platform, the part is enclosed in a black box illuminated by a set of LEDs. A scale accurate up to one hundredth of a gram (.01) weighs the element. The camera then sends an image of the part to the control computer, running it through a database made in a program called OpenCV [Open Computer Vision - object recognition software]. After the piece has been identified, a wheel holding one cup for each sorting category rotates the proper receptacle into position and a slide arm dumps it into place. It's a remarkable piece of machinery, but I myself would probably build it out of wood with sturdy vinyl for the conveyors, and use an Arduino for the control mechanisms. By the time I would have built it myself, I won't have any Lego left to sort!

First time I've heard of this challenge. Then again, I've never actively looked for them either! I look forward to competing against you people.

For those who want to see a video of it driving, Technicbricks.blogspot.com made a livestream of one of their authors building this new set. Towards the end of the fourth video, there's footage of him driving it on the desk. It appears to be quite playable and looks nice to boot!

So it may be worth hunting around on the back of the rack or just asking... that's good to know!

Well... -Squirrels nesting in the air filter -Two blowouts within five seconds of each other -A transmission dropping out on the highway -The scent of bacon wafting from the air vents -Attempts to electrify the car body to keep goats off of it -Bullet holes in the sheet metal And much, much more. Car Talk is one of my favorite radio shows, you see...