Ralph_S

The recent discussion we've had about the differences/ similarities between Model Team and Creator have made me wonder where I should put this. The Town forum perhaps? Whatever, I think of it as Model Team, so this is where it goes. I haven't been building much in the last weeks, but I did manage to find the time to build a new car. I'm a member of LUGNuts, a group for LEGO car builders on flickr. We have mothly challenges that involve building a car with a particular theme. This month's theme was 'Big in Japan'. I'm not really a fan of Japanese cars and I'm not really a fan of the car I chose to build, but unlike many Japanese cars you see on the roads of Europe, at least the Toyota Prius is recognisable. Toyota Prius (1) by Mad physicist, on Flickr I chose to build the car in fashionable white. The environment may matter to Prius drivers, but Toyota did themselves a favour by giving the Prius a somewhat odd-ball shape. The shape offers low drag, but also makes the car popular among people who are like to project an image of being environmentally friendly. A Civic hybrid just doesn't have the same snob-factor. Toyota Prius (3) by Mad physicist, on Flickr The car has opening everything, as usual. The doors ended up being rather thick as a consequence of the half-offsets I used in the construction, and in particular the front ones are a complete bastard to close. I should probably rebuild them using one of my sliding/hinging constructions. Toyota Prius (5) by Mad physicist, on Flickr IMO it's not a pretty car, but I am reasonably happy with how my model of it turned out. Cheers, Ralph

That's a sweet little jet. In my mind this is just the sort of things Creator sets are meant for. Cheers, Ralph

Having just spent a half hour at a toy store* sorting through a box to get the ten figures in series 2 I'm interested in (using the bar codes), I don't feel particularly guilty. I don't collect them. There are just some that have fantastic parts that I will be able to use creatively in MOCs. I went about buying series 1 in the same fashion. OK, I did buy four cheerleaders. Interestingly, I know they had two boxes with series 2 last Saturday (but I didn't have the codes with me) and they still had two practically full boxes today. Unless they managed to sell those first two in less than a week, these might not be all that popular among kids. *For those of you in The Netherlands, it was a Blokker store. Cheers, Ralph

I didn't reply to this thread before, because I always have a really hard time trying to come up with useful building tips without having seen some pictures of what it is that a builder is doing. Now that I have seen the pictures, I don't really know why you are worried so much about the structural integrity. You've done a very sensible thing: you've used a few longish technic bricks and regular bricks with plates on top and at the bottom holding them together as the basis for your chassis. That's about as strong as it'll get IMO. The gold treasure chests look a bit out of place to me. Trucks might have a tool box on the side, but a fuel tank is much more likely. I don't think I've ever seen anything like a gold treasure chest on a truck. Lego have released a fair few 8-wide trucks. Sets 7998 and 7900, for instance. Peeron doesn't have the instructions for either, but if you google for them you might find them. The Ferrari truck does have a front that is 8 studs wide too. Cheers, Ralph

Lovely vans MetroiD, as I already told you on flickr. As MetroiD mentions, the door is based on a design by me. I never tried it in a four-wide vehicle though. it's the absolute minimum width for which it can work and I had more than enough trouble with it in my five-wide vans. Cheers, Ralph

Teddy, I've seen Gambort's drawing on flickr, have read many of the arguments before and have even written posts about it in various places, including here on EB. I realise that minifigs are fat buggers and that there is no such thing as perfect minifig scale. Of course the scale each of us chooses is an an individual choice, but I think it is cleat that for MOCs that combine buildings, cars and figures, I definitely prefer the somewhat smaller end of the range. Cheers, Ralph

I think that the car is pretty neat. It has a nice shape and has nice details, but because minifigs are very wide compared to their height, building cars for them inevitably involves compromises. I think that with your desire for it to fit four figs you are pushing the boundaries of minifig scale too far. You don't show pictures of it with a figure standing next to it, but it looks far too big to me. It also looks too big in front of the building. IMO it would have looked more in proportion next to the building if it would have been smaller, even if that would mean it couldn't seat as many figs. The building itself is great. It has all the elements I love about nice CC-MOCs with all its interior detail. It's amazing how much stuff you managed to fit in there without the place looking too cramped. Your cops have quite the arsenal! Cheers, Ralph

As with any theme there are sets that are useful and there are some that aren't. Which is which depends on what sort of things you build. Tiny turbos do tend to have lots of cheese slopes, but I suspect the price per piece is fairly high. That said, they have few parts that I can't use. I build minifig scale cars, though, which means that I do have use for the wheels. The Racers sets I really like are the various larger Ferrari models (Enzo, FXX, F430 and the F430 race versions) and the Lamborghini Gallardo. Certainly the later ones are very nice parts packs with a lot of hinges, cheese slopes and tiles as well as a nice selection of basic plates. I haven't bought the police version of the Gallardo, but it is definitely on my wish-list. Cheers, Ralph

I'm not sure what sort of answer you are looking for. General ideas on what parts to buy to build a car? Suggestions on what parts to buy to build a particular car? Instructions? You specifcally mention bumpers. What parts are suitable for those very much depends on what sort of car you're building. If you've seen the car on youtube, perhaps posting a link to it would help. Actually, if somebody has posted a car on youtube, why not ask them how they built it/ what parts they used? Cheers, Ralph

If that's the case, you are just going to have to slug it out. It may be a big job now, but it'll be worthwhile in the long run. Earlier you asked a question about Technic elements. I keep all my Technic element separate from regular system elements. I have separate boxes for beams with studless and studded elements separated. I have another box with smaller containers for pins, axles, gears, connectors etc. Whether these parts are useful for MOCs obviously depends on the kind of MOCs you build, so there is no easy answer to that question. My MOCs always consist mostly of system elements, but I often do use small Techic elements as well. I use beams for structural strength in some of the larger ones. Indeed! Cheers, Ralph

One of the ways I manage is by not sorting 12 pounds of random LEGO in one go. My collection has been sorted since I was about 10 years old and when it was a fraction of the size of my collection. As the collection expanded I kept sorting what I added to it, one set, dismantled MOC or bricklink order at a time. Opinions differ on what the ideal way is to have things sorted. I sort some things by colour, and generally separate between large plates, small plates, wedge plates, bricks and slopes within the same colour. I also have separate boxes with Technic parts, hinges, transparent parts, windows, wheels etc. I'm a bit surprised about your question about 'what you do while sorting'. I focus on the sorting. I will have some music playing, but if I try to do something else (like watching TV) during the sorting it takes at least twice as long. I normally try to get it over with as quickly as possible. Cheers, Ralph

I think both of us shouldn't take these things too seriously. It is all in good fun. That MOC vs. Instruction-built models thread is one I won't forget anytime soon. Cheers, Ralph

If you think this is about facts, you are mistaken. It's all just opinion. Ralph Edit: I realised that we are looking at two sides of the same coin. I like Model Team sets more than Creator sets because the Model Team sets were cutting-edge in many respects. You argue that the Creator sets are equal to older Model Team sets, but that a resurrected Model Team line ought to be cutting edge.

I've searched for pictures using google images and I can see a problem with building one of these. I fear that the car has few features that distinguish it from other Japanese cars of a similar vintage to make a LEGO model of it sufficiently recognisable. At least the Passat has a recognisable front end. I have my doubts I could make this work. Right now I'm thinking Toyota Prius. I reckon Sato has a particular desire for the Subaru and I reckon that if there is a decent LEGO Subaru out there, it's probably a rally car, although I can't remember ever seeing one. Thanks. I'm glad you like them both. They are obviously rather different vehicles. Cheers, Ralph

I wouldn't call it a ritual, but I have a more-or-less standard way of going about a build. Sitting around more-or-less randomly fitting together parts until I hit a combination that is somehow interesting and deciding based on that where it'll go really doesn't work for me. I normally only build models of existing things (vehicles, mostly), so I always have an idea of what I will be building and have thought about how I'll do the difficult bits, how big it'll be and have a rough idea of what parts I'll need and whether I have them or will need to buy them first. I've got many of my parts sorted by colour, so I normally take out the drawers with the parts for the major colours of the model at the start of the build and keep them close by. I grab the other parts when I need them. I build things without many revisions. Once a part is done, I rarely go back and change it. Cheers, Ralph

I won't be on-line much in the next few days, so this is the last thing I'll add. Perhaps plagiarism is the wrong word, indeed, although if Firas name wasn't mentioned on Ebay, it might still apply. If Firas' name was there, he could potentially object to somebody else using his name for commercial purposes without his permission. Anyway, copyright infringement is probably the better term. You are very adamant that Firas couldn't make a legal claim, but I have my doubts. We're obviously not talking about huge amounts of money here and actually taking legal steps would not be worth the hassle, but that's not the issue. I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding (of US copyright law) is that whether what Skyliner did was legal doesn't depend on him mentioning Firas' model as the inspiration; it depends on whether or not 'reverse engineering' a design (from copyrighted pictures BTW) could be seen as an unauthorized copy/ derivative work / original work and that depends on whether it is sufficiently different from the original. If it is anything other than original work, there is a problem. Looking at both cars (and the presentation) and by Skyliner's own admission, I'd say it's a derivative, however. Posting that on-line is fine, certainly if attributed. That would probably be covered by 'fair use', but I'm pretty sure that selling the model is a no-no. In principle, Ford might also have something to say about this. Legalistic stuff aside, the least skyliner could have done is drop Firas a line. I'd be pissed off too if somebody were to do this with one of my models. Cheers, Ralph

Ah! I wondered where that came from. Anyway, I don't think it's just my account either. I could have posted as bricksonwheels yesterday. The reason why I didn't was that I saw the name bricksonwheels and his avatar in the top right-hand corner of my screen. EB, there's a problem Cheers, Ralph

There's a big grey area when it comes to plagiarising somebody else's work. When does it stop being a copy and start being an original. I don't think there's an easy line you can draw. Legally, Firas might not have a leg to stand on. However, there can be a difference between what is legal and what is actually the right thing to do. I think skyliner did the right thing by withdrawing it. Ralph

It was mainly confusing. All of a sudden I had this massive urge to fondle chrome Cheers, Ralph

It was mainly confusing. All of a sudden I had this massive urge to fondle chrome Cheers, Ralph

I am posting from the Netherlands. I'll tell you more about what happened. This topic came up in a discussion there on the LUGNuts group. http://www.flickr.com/groups/lugnuts/discuss/72157624732260793/ In that discussion Bricksonwheels linked to this thread. When I clicked the link, I was all of a sudden logged in as bricksonwheels. I logged out and logged in as myself. It's possible that Firas clicked on the link after I did and was all of a sudden logged in as me, without realising it. Let's hope that this remains an incident. I'm not at all happy about somebody being able to write stuff in my name. Cheers, Ralph

It kind of depends on what it is. I'm not in the habit of building things to order, but if it's a car that I think is doable and that appeals to me, I'd consider it. You can send me a personal message through EB if you don't want the discussion to be public. Cheers, Ralph

That chip on your shoulder doesn't suit you. Of course it's my opinion. Have you only read the final sentence of my post? I've written several times in this thread that Creator sets are very close to what Model Team was like. I don't know whether you bought your 5580 recently or whether you too bought it when you were a child. I bought 5580 when I was 11, saving money for it for months. It was by far the best set I'd ever seen. the most detailed, the most realistic and with fantastic parts that you didn't get in other sets (grey 1x1 round plates and the windscreen, for instance). No matter how good Creator sets are, they simply cannot compare to the feeling I got when I finally got my hands on that set. Creator sets will never blow me away like that first Model Team set did. This discussion is similar to discussing the width of minifig scale cars with lovers of classic four-wides. I was never a huge fan of town as a child, and while I had four-wide cars, I don't really have nostalgic feelings about them. I think slightly wider cars and considerably wider trucks look better, and that's why I build them. They look more like real cars. However, plenty of people stick to four-wides nonetheless, because they are what they learned to love. You can't beat nostalgia. Ralph

I don't know what's going on, but yesterday I was all of a sudden logged in as a different user when clicking on a link leading to EB. Apparently Firas has had the same thing happen to him and has inadvertently written a few posts under my name. I haven't posted anything in this thread, but since I've been dragged into this I'll say this. Firas' model is awesome and you've done a decent job reverse engineering it. Kudos for that. However, I don't think it's right to sell a model that is this closely based on a model built by somebody else without at least contacting the original builder first, irrespective of whether or not it technically legal. Ralph

I'm not Ralph. I'm the "original" designer of this model. I don't know why it appears like its Ralph who posted this comment.