Lt. de Martinet

Standard minifigure hands are made of POM, which is why even official figures often have slightly off-color hands. But it wouldn't surprise me if the Mexico factory has been using MABS for at least the transparent figures' hands. The current ones are certainly coming from the Mexico LEGO factory. Previous ones have been from the China LEGO factory, but those were made with PC instead of MABS, and sell for a lot more than the Mexico ones. I've compiled a list of mold numbers here to help identify figures: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KSkUUgAlnofYLicLrlhqMES5K3Kvr5d8/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=111784597823665923619&rtpof=true&sd=true (Note that they are all made by Lego employees using Lego materials in Lego molds at a Lego factory, when they are not supposed to, and selling them under the table — not fake or counterfeit but not really legitimate either.) This isn't just a bad batch of color mixing, it's two separate Lego colors: "155 Transparent Green with Glitter" vs "351 Transparent Bright Green with Glitter". A UV light confirms this — the classic trans-green parts do not glow. We're still missing a complete figure in that color, but I'm happy to have the right one complete at least. That's not quite right either, Lego really did switch from using "111 Transparent Brown" to "375 Transparent Black" this year. That's one of the things that helps confirm these as coming from an actual Lego factory: figures seen in new colors that later show up in official sets.

Copper Metallic was retired in 2020, so it's not current anyway. (All of these colors exist as "nightshift" figures)

Since this is my first time in Billund, I'd personally be very interested in any shop/factory/vault tours we can get, even if it does cost more. But I understand Lego has locked that down more and more lately. Hopefully they're at least responsive to communication on the matter :) Ryan

Slight preference for Lalandia, happy to share a room, would rather not be the one making the reservation though :)

Oh yay! I plan to be there. Will be my first time in Europe :D Ryan

Don't forget the Red original-Vader test helmet from about 15 years ago that showed up in certain Pick-a-Bricks. The color is not what makes it a bootleg, it's the circumstances of its creation/sale. If the Monterrey factory workers were creating and selling black Batman parts under the table, they would be just as illegitimate.

I don't believe that a Satin Trans Yellow exists (at least not yet). The seller just hadn't compared this figure to actual Trans Yellow/TNG at the time, so he called them yellow. I just received my ""satin trans yellow"" figure, and it looks just like the one in samlr's picture above.

y'all give me too much credit, I'm not even a minifigure collector :p The new "satin yellow" is very interesting. A little history: In 2016 Lego put a glitter version of every active transparent color on the palette, with mostly new numbers. (I suspect a similar thing happened briefly around 2008.) Several of those glitters were never used, despite being given an ID; Trans-Dark Blue with Glitter has had at least two different numbers over the years (174 and 340). But it was never used in a set. So, I'd like to know if these new Opal colors (Lego's term for "satin") have actual IDs somewhere, and if the nightshift glitters have new IDs. They might use different IDs for different percentages of the glitter additive, but that's just one theory. Ryan

I would personally prefer Billund, since this will be my first time :) but I'll make sure to visit both Denmark and Gunzburg either way, whenever it happens.

Hi! I'm posting a Lego reverse-engineering puzzle every single day on my Instagram. It's giving people something fun to do while in quarantine. Join in, there's something for every skill level, and you'll be sure to learn a few new techniques! https://www.instagram.com/ryan_howerter

Just realized I hadn't commented here yet. I'm still going! I'd like to stay in a room with people, but not be room responsible. Cheaper is better, so probably the holiday village for me (but lalandia is fine if things work out that way) :)

I'm interested in going :) I still need to work out the logistics, as I've never left North America before... but I want to make this happen!

Correct. It doesn't bend any further than this, for stability's sake ;)

sixlegged?

The Chief Scientist of the Royal Court of Galidor, obviously. 1:1 scale to the original set, with a couple extra accessories from the TV show :) Larger photo here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ltdemartinet/27071992687

Once a fearsome aerial predator, the elder Alcidox has been grounded by a rough molting season. He spends his time eating crossword puzzles and taking credit for rainstorms.

My Colorstream just got a huge upgrade, with all new photos :) https://www.flickr.com/photos/126975831@N07/albums/72157649729890049/page2 This time around, I used an 18% gray card to set the white balance, and kept the lighting very consistent between each photo. I also did very minimal (synchronized!) lighting/contrast adjustments in Photoshop. This results in the baseplate looking very nearly the same hue, saturation, and value in every single photo—which it should, since it's the same baseplate! This identical white balance allows for much easier side-by-side comparisons—like in Linus Bohman's Colorschemer tool! http://swooshable.com/colorschemer#1-14-13-2 Also, I used manual focus instead of auto-focus, with longer exposure times to lengthen the depth-of-field, so the images are nice and crisp. I was more thorough about removing dust and cat hair too, so it's prettier all around :c) ——————————————— My other color resources: A list of all known color info, far more complete and up-to-date than either Peeron's or BrickLink's lists: http://ryanhowerter.net/colors ...and a timeline showing when colors were introduced and discontinued: https://www.flickr.com/photos/126975831@N07/15801189140 ——————————————— Cheers! Ryan

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Don't forget to show me your solution :)

------------------------------------------------------------- Week 1: https://www.flickr.c...et/16904831285/ Here we go! Sandro's box kicks off our challenge. Part restrictions: • Color is irrelevant • No Travis bricks! • Sides may be substituted with 1x4 plates or tiles. • Top and bottom may be substituted with 2x4 plates. If you figure out how it's built, then privately show it to me, and you can start solving the follow-up challenge for this week. Each challenge this week will earn you one point! Scores are kept on the scoreboard. GO GO GO

Simon told me to post it here, so here it is :) I'm hosting a competition over on Flickr. Each week, I will post a tablescrap, and anyone who wants to participate has to try to figure out how it's built! Here are the rules: Weekly challenge Each week I will post a challenge on Monday to my flickr page (and also this thread, I think!). This picture will be of a tablescrap-esque item with hidden innards. Your challenge each week you choose to participate will be to figure out how it's built, and privately show or explain to me your solution. The catches: • There may be -- and often will be -- more than one correct solution. As long as you achieve the same result, it's acceptable. "The same result" will be defined by me, together with the challenge's submitter. • I may put part limitations for the solution (e.g., "no headlight bricks"). • Digital builds ARE allowed, but they must be images (e.g. jpeg), not LDD or LDRAW files. Participants Anyone may join in at any time, regardless of whether you have played in previous rounds. No need to register or anything, just start building :) The easiest way to share your solution with me is by uploading it to Flickr (marked private) and adding me to the photo, but you can also message it to me, or send me a link to a site that no one is likely to find your solution (photobucket? majhost?). Follow-up If you got the right solution for the weekly challenge, I will send you a follow-up. Solving this will earn you another point. Points For the right solution, you'll get 1 point. I will keep track of these on the scoreboard. Everyone who submitted a build before the challenge started will get two points (regardless of how many were submitted/accepted), plus of course the standard points for "solving" their own challenge the week it runs. Amount of time I will post each new challenge on Monday morning (hopefully early MT). You will have from then until the next Sunday is over. Time zone is MT (Mountain Time), which is 6 hours behind GMT. The follow-up challenge ends (at least for full points) at the same time (Sunday at midnight), so the faster you solve the weekly build the more time you will have to solve the follow-up. NEW RULE Follow-up challenges will be posted publicly along with the next week's first challenge. This gives people who were stuck on the first challenge a chance to try the follow-up. Solving the previous week's follow-up will only earn you 1/2 point, though, so try to solve them in their own week! After two weeks, no points are awarded for the follow-up. Posting the solutions As long as the weekly challenge is ongoing, every solution must be kept private. You can post your solution to the group once the next challenge has started. Due to the new rule, please wait another week before revealing your solution to the follow-up! Anyone who posts their solution early will lose 2 points! Prizes First Place: Set 21301 Birds, thanks to Beyond The Brick! PLUS a nice assortment of useful/rare/interesting parts from me Second Place: A new set in the $15 range (TBD), PLUS a small assortment of parts! Third Place: A small surprise polybag set :)

A beautiful part! It's ~kind of~ non-production. It only comes in sets in White and Chrome Blue -- but guess what color Lego used underneath the Chrome coating? (Which is not to say that the chrome on your part has been removed -- just that it escaped chroming in the first place! This happens quite often with printed parts, there are usually a few unprinted/coated versions floating around...)

The pants are NOT glued. At least, mine weren't. Pull harder. www.flickr.com/photos/ltdemartinet/11229330324/

That purple looks like BL's "Purple" (104 Bright Violet) to me. I'm very intrigued by that odd technic brick and the inverted slope... it's very rare to see prototype parts that never made it into sets in any form or color! This is a cool thread. I thought I'd post some of my rare parts here. I'm not naming sources either... just that they came very indirectly from Billund (probably) :) None of these have ever appeared on Bricklink: ...and I just now noticed that the hard Blue spear is listed by a couple sellers now. Ah well :) (and yes, that is a 50x50 Black baseplate :) And here's my Bayer/BASF test bricks: Bayers etc. by eldeeem, on Flickr

Are you a member of a LUG? Yes, CoWLUG (Colorado/Wyoming LUG) Are you actively participating in your LUG? Yes If yes, what do you do (e.g. helping out during events, making displays, etc.)? Contribute MOCs to displays, help coordinate displays every now and then, help during sorting/building events Would you consider supporting more actively the online AFOL community (e.g. Eurobricks) as moderator, regulator (indexing, ...), making set reviews, etc.? No If the answer is no, what's the reason (e.g. lack of time, ...)? Lack of time, mostly