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Welcome djo Nice to see people from around the world gather around a common passion. How is the market in Singapore, do you see a lot of "copy-brands" ? Front

I think the only way to track down a user could be if you have some issues with the pictures posted. For example if the moc presented is actually stolen from you (the actual bricks stolen). That way the admins of the site could be forced to hand out informations to you (or rather the police) about the user involved. I don't think that has ever happended on brickshelf though, but it could be a scenario. Nice to know you can leave a "contact file" with e.g. your email-adress (in a picture I suppose). I use flickr myself. Front

Great to see some fine rendering. Back a long time ago I used 3DStudio (dos-version) to do rendering of still and animations. These days I'm using Unigraphics CAD software, but haven't really done any rendering projects the last couple of years or more. Last major project was modeling and rendering of a motorcycle. I assume that the tesselation is the actual model being a polygon representation of the geometry. I don't know the LDD file format though. I see it on the tires (as mentioned) and also on parts of the front wing. I wonder if there isn't any setting in your software that enables a smoothing of the different shades of neighbouring polygons, during the rendering proces ? My memory tells me that that might be possible in other softwares, but I'm not 100% certain. But I like your picture a lot. It looks great, although my first thought was that the car was floating above the mirror ground. Not sure why it looked like that to me, I clearly see it's probably firm on the ground. I don't know the lightning technics of the software, but that is what might be worth experimenting with. What has often been said is that a great rendering is very much a result of something the model can reflect, that there is some environt (not actually in the picture). But that might be the trick you achieve with Eucalyptus Grove probe. Front

First of all check this discussion Hydraulics If you want something to lift with hydraulic cylinders, I would guess you would need a pump (electric driven, maybe by a Lego motor) hoses and the actual cylinders. I have no idea how small you could get hydraulic components, but I suspect most hydraulics are way bigger in dimensions than what you need for your 5 feet dozer. There are pheumatic Lego components, but I'm not sure that they can be used for lifting stuff at the dimensions you speak off. Anyway, very interesting MOC you are working on. Keep us updated on your progress Front

A great look to those pillars Lasse, a nice little wooden house. Front

It's a fine description of the proces of making a mosaic from a picture. One important thing I have to ad though, while trying myself to use the method on different pictures of different size (e.g. 30x40 bricks): The match of the pictures colours to the indexed colours can be rather unfortunate, if the pictures colours are way different than the lego-colour index file (act file). Therefore it can be a good idea to try and adjust you pictures brightness and saturation (or even hue), before changing it to indexed colours. In the example shown, a good result is obtained directly, but the input picture is also a bright colourful picture, with colours matching the colours of lego bricks rather well. To obtain good results, it can be a good idea to find a picture with colours that already are not that far away from colours of standard bricks. Front

I have bought some Mosaic sets this last week (both 2007 sets). 6163 and the smaller: 6162 The first come with two tranparent 16x16, the second with a single of these base plates. Add to that a lot of 1x1 bricks, 11 different colours in the first, 9 in the second. Front

I've seen some of the stuff mega-brand does, like their ball-joints a la bionicle. I have rarely seen such low quality, the pieces was in my opinion an example of extremely low engineering quality. The dimensions of Lego bricks may not always be perfect, but are there any other toy company able to mass produce in such quantities with such a high standard ? Not by a mile if you ask me. Front

A brick is not just a brick. These are special sets aimed at different costumers than usual for Lego, and they include a small booklet with history and facts about the building in the sets. Front

I will consider trying to build this in the future. Would be fun trying it out in the snow. I should probably start the build before it starts snowing. Often it tend to melt away quickly in DK. The threads introduced with the bulldozer could be used for more interesting things. E.g. using them as a conveyor belt, like this example I just put together, making it possible to pull water up from one to a higher level. It probably would require a plate under the brown box, to close the two holes in it Front

A very simple and nice solution to the problem (although it is quite fun to use the bulldozer on smooth surfaces, and having it spin and slide around). With the two technic holes in each thread, Lego could actually make a small element of rubber-like material, that would fit into the holes, but still stick out slightly, securing a good grip on any surface. Front

Something very different and at the same time very interesting. Nice "non-knob" design. Cool weapons. Front

Can I say that this thread has turned into something resembling mass hysteria ? I guess I'm not way off with that description I understand the excitement about new sets, but I guess I'm more a "pick up sets on sale" type of guy. The sets look great though, I must say. A style going though the complete line-up. Front

I understand why you like the leg design, I seeing it as an inspiration. The second mech shown in the last picture looks cool too, really a heavy vehicle. Front

It's really a joy to see this. One thing that surprises me is those big blue transparent pieces in your "building". Never seen those elements before. Were they used in some space set ? Front

Thank you all for replies. No, nothing has been removed before taking the pictures. Do you mean the 6x6 round pieces I used for both ends of the cabin. I myself picture a reptile like creature, with a strange belly in the form of a cabin, looking a bit like those cabins you are sitting in while transported up to a mountain top, hanging in wires. Front

Thanks for replies. I think this is not the last time I pick up a set and try and see what can be done with it. The yellow sword is quite interesting from a technical perspective, featuring two different materials in the same moulding, seperated by quite a sharp boundary. Not many elements are made that way. Front

Since my last post I've had the chance to build the Tiger, and I was surprised in a good way. A much better set than I actually thougth. Front

Nice to see this review, thank you. It looks like a really detailed set. I just wathed Return of the Jedi and the blue transparent things from the Emperor, is what he tries to kill Luke with, but he's stopped by Wader. Front

Thank you for pointing that out. My eyes must be getting old, I even went and watched all the pictures on flickr. Front

After doing a 4-legged mech Mobile COmmand Center I have now redesigned the idea to a new 6-legged mech. The design of the legs and the number of passengers are the only things shared between the two mechs. The design is a round cabin, carried by a frame through four technic beams. On the frame the cockpit is mounted directly, as is the 6 legs. At he back a Uplink 7708 is mounted, ready for deployment. On top of the frame a radar, an antenna, a 6 barreled gun, and a missile launcher with 8 missiles and 8 spares, are mounted. Wide angle view from front/right. Top view of the mech moving foreward. Looking down in he cabin from above. The two main beams of the main frame are only connected at both ends of the mech, giving good views of the sky from within the cabin. The cabin has a door on each side. The cabin itself is Snot-building indeed, having knobs in five of six possible directions. A view from the back, showing how the Uplink mech is attached. Ryo in his Uplink in front of the Mobile Battle Center. The design of the legs. Left: The wedged orange plates are connected in 180 Snot through 1x2 bricks with knobs on both sides, and two technic bushings. The blue technic bushing (could use normal bushing) and the 3-holed beam, attach the galidor-brick securely to the plate extending out of the wedged plates. Right: Inside the big orange beam, the assembled two galidor-bricks, bricks and plates fit perfectly (and tightly). The asymmetrical design is because the galidor-bricks are not placed the same amount inside the big orange beam. After the assembly is slided into place, the two 2x4 bricks and the 2x12 plate, secure the assembly to the orange beam. Front

It looks great, got a neat profile viewed from the top. I guess this is a no-minifig moc. Front

I just picked up this set yesterday. No building instructions included but they can be found on lego.factory.com (although it surely looks like they tried to hide them). Lots of small elements, tiles, cheese slopes, cones etc. Front

Thank you all for comments. I've taken this apart again, and are pretty close to finishing a 6 legged mech with more or less the same type of legs. Maybe I'll have some pictures ready later today. Will show exactly how elements (plates, bricks) fit inside the orange leg elements. Front

For some time I've wanted to try and use the rather big and odd orange elements in the Sentai Headquarters set 7709. http://brickset.com/detail.aspx?Set=7709-1 First I found a neat way to put two of the long sloped elements together to form a leg, using 180 degree Snot. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=45301 To do that I use some plates (one 2x6 one 2x8), two 2x4 plates with holes, two bushings and some 1x2 bricks with knobs on both sides ( http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=52107 ). The gap between the the orange leg elements are the with of the flange on the technic bushings. But although there is a gap, the construction is very sturdy. Then I made a beam of bricks, plates and rotational click joints, that fits straigth through the odd orange element: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=52041 These two rather sturdy constructions forms the legs of the mech I ended up building, the Exo-Force Mobile Command Center. Here a wide angle view from the front, looking up under the mech. Now I tried different designs that could be used with these legs, with the limited elements of orange I got, using the big orange aeroplane parts from Mobile Defense Tank 7706: http://brickset.com/detail.aspx?Set=7706-1 Here a wide angle view from above the mech, where the pilot is seen sitting in the cockpit, and a 6 barreled turret is seen above the main body of the mech. Here a side view of the mech: Finally a view of the control room, with monitoring gear, hand weapons and the six Exo-Force characters. Now I really like the legs of this mech, and considered using six legs for a mech, as it would resemble an insect much more. Six legs would sort a big problem with this mech, which is that the rotational click joints ( http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=48170 ) are not up to the weight of this mech. The legs can't be spread much more than shown in the pictures, before they collapse, and the body hits the ground. Another solution would be to use double-joints, but that would rather look clumsy on these legs. I think that in the coming weeks I will try and do a complete redesign, with six legs and a much lighter body on the mech, which on this my first attempt, is rather heavy. Front