xenologer

Nope, thats a very old set. Looks like TRU has a mess-up on their website. For some reason they're showing an old 2005 set as a new one coming out this year.

I'm assuming that the teacher is giving everyone a standard balloon that you have to use? are they modified in any way to make an easy attachment point or a nozzle for the air to come out? Don't even think about doing anything 'steam-engine' like. The best use of that air is as a jet, just aim the nozzle of the balloon out the tail of the car and let it go. You're going to want the car to be as Light as possible if you're going to win any races. So I'd definetly go with a technic frame; probably something long and narrow like a dragster shape. With the bare minimum of bricks to attach the balloon and keep it's neck pointed to the rear. Don't go for any wheels that have giant rubber tyres since these will add weight, stick to thin bicycle-ish ones. something like this is good: Make sure the wheels are on long technic rod axels, with good support through the frame(the bricks it passes through should be spaced out); this should keep friction down from any rod flexing/binding.

:-D n/m the suit, I think Ha'ya'to is a bit too colourful for my tastes. How'd they attach the green cones to the engines btw? is that the 3stud technic rod with stopper stud? -always want more of them- or are the cones just stuck onto the end of a normal + rod? Takeshi's suit seems a little too armless. But I'd bet that you could mod his large mecha from this year to hold this mini suit as an 'ejector seat mech'(replaces the cockpit); that might be pretty cool.

Funny how some things stay the same, regardless of the new colors and bricks. I remember 'space scanners' being used as 'death rays', explorien 'telescopes' as 'laser cannons'... :-D There's always an 'official story' but it seems like they always intend for them to be re-interpreted a certain way... Anyhow if we assume that they are prisons... Then this series seems like a reverse-alien-abduction scenario. lols *sweet* We'll need some martian house sets; with aliens sleeping in beds so they can be tractor beamed thru the window and abduted by earthlings...

I was under the impression that the heads are not glued; just held on solidly by the keychain anchor pin. ExoForce keychains still let you twist the heads around to change faces for example. Anyone know the link for that tutorial? I'm kinda curious about how to deal with a glued waistline.

I remember there was a keychain removal tutorial someplace (?where?)... it pretty much amounts to pulling hard with a pair of pliers. I suppose it falls into the forbidden parts modification realm... but seems a nicer fate to be used in a moc than slowly scratched up by keys...

I'm suddenly incredibly envious. That magazine is as far as I know, for Denmark only.... They look like great parts packs, especially Hayato's, with those oldschool jet engines.

Indeed. But it's pretty obvious thats what they are. Notice how every major vehicle has one of those cylinders attached, usually with large 'power conduits' and located near the engines. Plus the cylinders have a 'radioactive' symbol in some pics... which seems like it'd relate to the 'engine core' concept... I'm not surprised at all by this, it follows the trend set by ExoForce, of humans being unquestionably the 'good guys' despite backstory, and that since the aliens are absolute evil 'bad guys' they can do whatever they want to them... I don't care about dumb storylines... I can interpret my own; but when it starts to mess with the parts selection - junk alien figs, nerfguns, .... >:-(

Well, they're supposedly prototypes.... so things might change still... The aliens look ominously 'armless' though, well, unposable arms. I'm starting to think that this may be Intentional, notice how they have the orange 'containment' cylinders that the alien's fit into. If they had movable arms it could potentially get in the way. So I'm guessing that they aren't treating the aliens as actual minifigs; at least not on the level that skeletons or EFdrones are, these guys are meant to be 'bio-fuel' for the human's vehicles.... :-X just big glorified crystals

Yep, found him on classic-space, those are prototypes they were allowed to play with. And they are GLUED

Thanks for the info Glyman Happen to have seen this one in person? I'm kinda curious how the cloth skirt works, whether its a special leg/base piece, or if its more or less like a cloth cape just sandwiched between the normal minifig leg and torso pieces...

Good point. Plus they'd probably be so rare that you wouldn't get a big enough sample size to test the theory. Waste an hour trying to weight 20 boxes... when theres a good chance that None of them had one... So it's just a matter of luck I guess! (or a metal detector, but whos that crazy? :-D )

That cute little alien-slaying scene seems to be a mix of ... SW, Classic, and of course the new Alien figs. Now, I'm no expert on the way TLG reps like to set up their displays... but this would seem to indicate that those new figs are in someone's possession, not of TLG. !someone from that convenction has Mars Mission early? 8-

I'm from the US, but I very rarely buy SW sets; since I am Not a Fan of the License... However; if I do happen to buy a set as a parts pack and miraculously find such a C3PO. I'd probably be willing to trade for something along the lines of... a rare Paradisa female minifig or two... So, I'll keep it in mind... anyone know the basic info on Which sets qualify and when? Related note, lego sets are supposedly precisely weighed to validate the propor parts count when packing(according to customerservice when you complain about missing bricks). With this kind of standardization in the weight of boxes, seems to me that the addition of the Gold C3PO would possibly be detectable with a precision scale (prefferably portable, so you can use it on the shelf at stores) - ?maybe good idea?

(I hope that image link works) found this on ebay Given the rarity of female minifigs, this one stuck out... Anyone recognize her? I'm thinking it might be for the new Castle theme thats coming out soon, but... do you know?

Yeah, classic-space forums... Sure, there's interesting MOCs being posted all the time. But the atmosphere is very....how do i put this ?elietist?looking-down-on-others?confrontational? Posting there has a tendency more often than not to make my blood pressure go up when some jerk replies. In contrast, you guys here at eurobricks are great fun. So I have to ask myself... maybe I shouldn't even bother. Whats the point in a conversation that only ends badly? Does stating my inputs on a MOC really do anything good for me, or for the person who listens; that outweighs the backlash that so often appears? I'm starting to think, No its not worth it. Maybe the place is worthwhile to observe interesting constructions; but its not a nice place to talk. Maybe to resist the temptation, I should just close my account there... Anyhow, to separate this post from being a totally useless Vent and into something Worthwhile for all of you: Feel free to express, your thoughts on Why the atmosphere here is so much nicer; and how things came to be that way. Maybe we'll learn something insiteful about how communities work, and how to avoid pitfalls...

I know there are 'certified Professional' Lego builders who make giant display models and stuff for store attractions and whatnot. Though I doubt they do small scale creations... I like to think that the building process is the most fun part about Lego; regardless of how the skill compares to everyone else in the end... You sure you want someone else to build it? Oh, and here's an idea; you could start a Contest: "build the best LDD Factory batmobile model" Then instead of commisioning someone to build you a batmobile, you can simply purchase the bricks directly from the Factory website. *sweet* Everyone has fun, and you get to judge yourself which batmobile is best; rather than hire an uncertain commisioned model...

Thanks all. Interesting point about the Gear Grinder's model. They're focusing more on modeling scale than minifig scale, so it lacks doors. Trying to fit two minifigs inside means I must have thin walls; hence the short grey 'door' that doesn't open. I'm thinking that It may be possible to add opening doors, using plates mounted sideways; though this increases the width of the vehicle and I havent figured to do it in a pretty way yet. Aside from that I think the main reason 4883 looks nicer is colors; LDD doesnt have the big hood piece in anything except darkgrey unfortunatly; which means I end up spreading gray onto the roof as well to keep things consistent. Checking brick prices... I could add the cargo rails onto the roof like theirs has. For approximatly .5$USD increase in price. Which might help make it look less plain.

Made a new truck. The body is 6-wide, though the wheels stick out, so might actually be 7-wide depending how you measure. Some might remember a similar vehicle I made a while back in LDD 1.6 This one is improved, notably it can seat 2 minifigs, driver and passenger. I used the half-stud offset plates on the seats so they can fit sidebyside. (whats the point in going 6-wide if you're not going to have the more realistic seating?) There's also more trunk space. Overall construction should be stronger. And I think it looks better overall; used those little 1*1slopes to get nice wheel wells. (same technique as in the Creator Cool Cars main model) Factory Link At 12.67$USD this one's definetly competitive with stuff on shelf.

Thats pretty neat. Though, I think you're posing possibilities would be greatly increased if it had a working ankle joint. This would let the foot pivot and give support in other positions than just standing up straight. And the way the control panels are attached bothers me; not something I do myself because of the controversial 'stressing the elements' problems with using those kinds of connections. Great color and design though. The gun arms are really nice looking.

Ok... Has anyone figured out which color is TrYellow, and which one is TrFlourecent Green in LDD 2.0??? Go look at the 1*1 Round plates. There are two that look identical, except one should be flourescent green and the other should be yellow. In LDD1.6 it was easy to see which was which... 2.0 seems to have an issue...

Yup I've seen that red issue come up in a set... Tiny Turbos Road Hero, with different shades of red on each mudguard; looks, really bad :-X I figure, with quality going the way it is nowadays, they cant guarantee that each batch of bricks will have the same color as the next one. But they could At Least make sure that multiple copies of a brick in a given packaged set come from the same batch! This way you couldn't get wierd mis-matches on models that are supposed to be symmetrical... This relates to the problem of roof slope bricks with different texture....

I like them. The only issue I see with the Orca is a construction durability issue. but this may be a matter of personal preference; depends if you plan on swooshing it or if its purely for display. The engines appear to be held on by a single stud through a round 1*1 brick on a technic pin. Which seems like it would break off easily during play. You might consider replacing that with these two pieces: With the blue pin into the engine, and the long black pin into the hull. Though depending on how the hull is currently set up, it might need slight modification to fil the long pin inside. The tailfins are another possible issue; a clickhinge might be more solid here, since then there'd be a single brick with 2studs connecting to the fin as opposed to two bricks with 1stud each.

Regarding stickers: Lets put it this way, What makes M-Tron or Classic Space a unified theme as opposed to say an ExoForce parts pack? -yeah sure, design, marketing- But! Stickers! The old Printed bricks with the Classic Space Planet Logo on them; really gave the sets character, recognition. ExoForce stickers: -well that sticker is going to get dusty and peel off in a week anyway... I might as well not use it Oh! but the set is all ugly without the decals; I guess I'd better just take it apart and use it as a parts pack. See my point? stickers vs printing is about how much dedication and thought gets put into a theme. How long TLG expects it to last, and how much effort they'll put into design. So maybe its more like stickers are a symptom of a larger problem here....

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=2440908 Yup, looks like some lucky guy out there has gotten ahold of at least one of the little Creator baggie sets. Neat little cement mixer. Would any of You happen to be the owner of that brickshelf folder?? Anyhow, I think he's from the USA, one of his other folders shows a LDD Factory purchase marked for USA as the destination. So maybe that means these little sets arent from Kabaya after all! :-D