rriggs

I believe we shall have the pleasure March/April time (depending on whether shops get any better at getting hold of stock by then ) Could be either I reckon. What a great idea about having some kind of actual PTO connection for accessories. Why didn't I think of that!? I think that this is what Lego were aiming for with the twin rear wheel design. It is not uncommon for use on soft and/or wet ground as it give extra traction and distributes the weight better. As you said, you can always just fit single rear wheels if you don't want to run with twins! Cheers Rog

I suspect that this little arm is meant to represent a PTO (power take off) which are common on tractors. These are used to power other machinery like ploughs, threshers, etc. Great review! Cheers Rog

That's exactly the situation. We only have light snow 2-3 times a year in Southern England and heavy snow only happens every 5-10 years. It's just not worth the local authorties spending the cash to be prepared for stuff that doesn't often happen. There's definitely better things for them to spend my taxes on! I live near London but was actually on holiday in Norfolk (about 100 miles north east of London) and although it was extremely windy we saw no snow. We saw the news reports before we went out for the day yesterday but still saw no snow all the time we were out. It wasn't until on the way home today that we finally saw snow after we had been travelling for over an hour! Inspired by the gritters that have been out and about I have designed this truck in LDD. It works out at £12 so I think I'll be getting one for sure! Cheers Rog

I too prefer version 1. The front has gotten too squared off in version 2. Have you thought of trying Technic pegs for the exhausts? I think they would be better... Love the fact a minifg fits in BTW. Ace! Cheers Rog

Can anybody spare a bit of time to help me sort out my garden, wash my car and go to the supermarket. I just don't have time....... Cheers Rog

Argos (well the one in Stevenage and their website anyway!) have good stock and the Lego store in Bluewater has absolutely heaving shelves of stock. The place is litterally packed with stock. I also noticed that my local Tesco Extra has run out of all Lego other than Indiana Jones but that they have changed the signage above a whole section of shelves to the Lego logo. This has happened since they ran out of stock so they must be expecting more in. I think that it is just taking a while for stock to trickle through to other retailers. Cheers Rog

Definitely a whole heap better than your original! However, a couple of shadows creeping into frame during the clip and some of your stills are out of focus. You may be able to remedy these problems to some extent by manipulating the frames in something like Photoshop or by playing about with which frames you use in the final cut. Cheers Rog

An 8-wide creation with the bigger wheels... On your bus you should use the bigger wheels but round off the wheel wells so the increase in size of the well is subtle. Cheers Rog

I haven't bought any of them yet - Can't decide which to get and I'm currently building a 1980s Lego town in LDD. Currently it's at £400 but it's a beauty. Will post pics when done! I just use standard LDD. The tracks were withdrawn by this change but I had already built my station before that. The ladders are in the same section in LDD as the car doors, fences and staircases. To get things at different angles I use another part (a round 1x1 brick or a 2x1 hinge for example) with the hinge tool to get the parts/minifigs/etc at the angles I want and then remove the additional parts. All parts in the finished models are correctly placed. Cheers Rog

I really like this! It gives a nice twist on the regular pirate MOCs we see. The design is believable yet still in keeping with pirate look and feel. The anchor is a particularly nice touch. Only criticisms I have are very small - How are the propellors actually controlled by the pirates? Is there animal or human power there somewhere... A couple of native slaves or alien creatures tucked in below somewhere could be a nice detail! Or a funky powerplant on board would be cool to see either. Only other thought is that the technic universal joint would be nicer tucked away below deck. I don't know if changing any of your axles would allow this to be hidden? Great model overall though! Nice one! Cheers Rog

This is just way too simple a set to interest me. At least larger Fabuland vehicles and buildings do have a bit of construction about them! I can maybe see the appeal to a Fabuland collector for the figure and to ensure the completeness of a collection but as a set I can only rate it low. Cheers Rog

Yes please! Whenever I try and sort things out I always think that there must be a better way... and I'm sure I'm not the only one! All tips and advise is always welcome! Cheers Rog

Conventional (key word!) aircraft need moving air flowing over and under their wings in order to get lift. With the wheels moving on a conveyor of the same speed the air speed at the wings will remain (as near as damn it) 0 knots and will therefore not produce any lift so the plane won't fly. No lift = No flight. Cheers Rog

Exactly what I was thinking! Cheers Rog

I'm loving the size and scale of this - It's just asking to be minifig'd! I've got one of the previous Lego RC cars (8378 Red Beast) and it's just too big and is not really regular Lego compatible unless you're willing to build a massively complex Technic frame to build on (which I'm not!). This looks like a great size and uses lots of regular Lego parts! It is pricey but I think worth it if it's good - You gets what you pay for after all... Nice one! Cheers Rog

Well, CP5670 is spot on with his analysis. To be specific (pedantic if you prefer ), the exact details are as follows: 1. 4219 Roller Door Normal in TrLtBlue. Found in recent City sets like 7744 Police HQ, 7945 Fire Station and the 10159 Airport amongst others. Found in many other sets way back to the early 1980s in other colours. 2. 4869 Plane Jet Engine Centre in Grey. Used in engines in countless sets from the mid-eighties onwards. The first sets I know of that include them are the 6392 International Airport and 6368 Commuter Jet both c1985. 3. 4748 Brick 2 x 4 with Coupling (Female) in Red. This is a coupling part as suggested by the name and would normally be used with 4747 below. It can be found in sets such as the Basic buckets and Basic building sets from the mid 1980s onwards. It is also found in some Fabuland sets. It's clunky design precludes it from most minifig and Technic sets. 4. 2580c01 Support 2 x 2 x 5 Lattice Pillar. This piece was used in the 1682 Space Shuttle, 4555 Loading Station and 4539 Level Crossing from the 1980s and 1990s. In other colours it can be found in a handful of other sets. 5. 4747 Brick 2 x 4 with Coupling (Male) in Red. Like the female version this is a coupling part from Basic and Fabuland sets. 6. 2422 Bracket 2 x 2 in Red. This was used in many sets as a bracket. My favourite use is in the 6394 Metro Park from 1988 where it supports the vertical rail for the car lift. It was also used in various colours in many sets including Pirates and trains during the 1980s and 1990s. 7. 3642 Plate 2 x 3 with Helicopter Rotor Holder in Black. This is not Technic as Posades suggested but was used as the standard helicopter rotor mount during the 1980s usually with the large square 4 blade propellor (3461). In black it can be seen in the 6384 Police Station from 1983. 8. 4774c01 Electric Light & Sound Brick 2 x 2 x 1.33 & Town Siren. As said above, as this is the black version it is the Town version of the siren (the space version was only available in white) and was used in conjunction with the 9v Light & Sound system that was used in several Town and Space sets during the 1980s and 1990s. In order for it to work you would also need the battery box (4760c01). You can also get lights that work with it (4771) and plates with 9v contacts in to route the light and sound to where you want. Light and Sound was first seen in 6450 Police Truck and 6480 Hook and Ladder Truck (Fire Engine) both of which were released in 1985. Cheers Rog

379 Bus Station: 6394 Car Park: Train Station: 6358 Hot Rod: 6374 Trucks: 6348 Surveillance Truck Various 1980s Police Vehicles: I've tried to keep them as true to the originals as possible with a few tasteful updates. They're expensive (but not as expensive as if I had completely tiled the roadways!) but very tempting. Now I just need to decide what to do next! Cheers Rog PS - If anybody is interested in the LXF files for these, PM or email me and I will forward them to you...

Can you post or email the LXF file for it? Cheers Rog

My gamer tag is RojaRiggs. I'm mostly on PGR4 and GTA4. Time zone is GMT 0. Cheers Rog

Love it! You gotta do a BTTF version too now!! Cheers Rog

Been playing about a bit more with LDD and trucks. The 7998/Volvo based original is on the left. The truck in the middle is heavily based on the Lego Ferrari Iveco team truck c2006. The final truck is built from the ground up to my own design to look like a DAF. I wanted to experiment with the grille design particularly on this one as having the DAF-style grille doesn't gel very well with having curved front corners on the truck. A lot of fiddling made it happen though! All about £20 each Cheers Rog

Hi I have been looking at LDD individual parts prices to see if there is variation between colours and whether it is cheaper to use single larger pieces rather than multiple small pieces. So far, I have only looked at bricks, round bricks, non-standard bricks and tiles. I thought I should share my findings so far. In general, there is no real difference between colours although it is quite common to see a penny difference between colours. For example, most 1x1 bricks are £0.04 but several colours are £0.05 and pink and dark blue are £0.06. Not a big difference but would add up if you used a shed load of them. Add an eye print to a white 1x1 brick and the price almost trebles from £0.04 to £0.11. Trans bricks are the most expensive with the orange trans brick a whopping £0.12. There are some weird anomolies too. I looked at the 2x3 roof bricks which come in left handed and right handed versions and in red and black. In both red and black, the right-handed roof brick is £0.12 but the left-handed version is £0.11 in black and £0.18 in red. Looking at the 1x2 tiles, let's take the white and grey as examples; in their plain form they are £0.05 each. Add a dashboard/dials to the grey one and the price goes up to £0.18. Expensive but I didn't think ridiculous as you generally would only ever want one or two to finish off detailing a model. Add some buttons and a skull to the white tile (you know the one I mean!) and you are talking a whopping £1.25 - or the same as 25 blank tiles! Other prices are as I expected; it is cheaper to use one 1x8 brick instead of two 1x4 bricks - but only just - and it does depend on the colour as to how much cheaper it is. I have started paying more attention to which parts I use when designing with LDD and managed to save an average of about 10% on every model I have designed and subsequently rechosen which pieces I have used. In each case, I have made no detrimental structural or visual changes to the designs in order to make the savings. Cheers Rog

V-LC-04E I have just designed and uploaded this truck using LDD. I used techniques for the chassis design from 7998 Heavy Hauler and tried to get it to look a bit like a Volvo F16. Cost currently just over £50. I shall carry on tweaking but I have got this so far: As always, comments and criticisms welcomed! This is what I had in mind when I was working on it: Cheers Rog

The in-laws came good with 7668 Rebel Scout Speeder. So many minifgs in such a small set! My first fleshies too!!! Cheers Rog

People who don't indicate or use the wrong lanes at roundabouts. It's not rocket science but appears impossible for some people to grasp (taxi drivers, stand up, we know it's you!) Cheers Rog