xenologer

It reminds me of a Tie Figther... which... bothers me a little; I guess because the Tie Fighter shape is so... done to death. Repaint it bright Yellow and I'll let you get away with it :-) Anyhow, For the body panels popping loose issue... I'd recommend taking the clips on the first ring, and having them face the other direction -clips on each ring facing towards the other ring group. Then bridging 1*4 plates across from one group of clips to the other. ...thats a bad description... let me try again: take a 1*4 plate, put a clip on each end, put another 1*4 on top to make a sandwich 'beam' with clips sticking out on each side. Repeat to make 8 total of these beams, have them clip onto your rings. This way, rather than each clip being weakly attached to the hull panels with a single 1*1 round, pairs of clips from each ring support one another. So these 8 beams, and the two rings form a solid 'birdcage' skeleton for your hull. It should be able to stand up to more squeezing pressure when you pick it up and swoosh. Kinda understand my suggestion? Sorry its not clear without pics... actually, looking at your pics again, tight spacing might mean you can only do my suggestion on 4 of the 8... but still ought help...

'Eagle Vision' :-D

Darn... if it had 2 medium motors AND a small motor then I'd forgo getting the bulldozer in favor of just MOCing my own using Dino motors. As it is, with only two motors you have enough for steering, but not controlling the bulldozer blade; not unless I want to work out some mechanical control coupling... how about, motors in opposite directions is for turning left/right, motors both in reverse raises/lowers the blade, and both motors forward either moves the dozer forward or reverse depeding on the blade position? This *sorta* makes playability sense, and there *should* be a way to design a gearbox that will allow that kind of control... Hmmh, needs at least one Ratchet, is there such a thing as a Ratchet gear in lego?? What do you think? maybe using Supercar Transmission pieces, or sliding Worm gears... EDIT: ugh the more I think about it the worse the concept sounds... definetly needs multiple clutch gears, and differentials... and likely prone to jams if you work the controls wrong... How much is the Dino set vs the Bulldozer btw? Maybe its worthwhile just buying two Dinos; solves the number of motors issue, as well as the number of controllers issue.

Good points. Yeah, I'll agree that it's probably fake. Especially because of the orange cones at the tail; the two on each side are violating that rulebook that Official Designers are supposed to follow...

*conspiracy theory* What if they did do it Intentionally? Maybe there was a batch of badly colored bricks, and rather than toss them out they decided to use them all in a set where wierd colors wouldnt cause as many complaints? *end conspiracy theory*

Well, I remember once being able to buy an airline promo off S@H directly, I guess thats where they end up if theres ever a surplus of them after the deals over... Looking closer at this picture... I'm not sure the tail flips up anymore. Right behind what looks like a hinge on its back is a flat studless area. I think it must be this: http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/44572 making a flip up hatch... but not the whole tail.

Thanks, how is the diagonal front doorway and steps attached?

By wheeled you mean wheels or tanktreads, right?

Looks better than the previous :-X face we saw. Unless this is just her 'normal' face and the ugly one was her 'battle' face and is hidden on the backside... Hair still sucks, need a new female hairpiece, not recycling "genki's".

Dissapointed that theres only 1 controller in that bulldozer... having to stop moving and flick a switch before changing the blade position sounds like it makes playability a little clunky. Just think of the possibilities that could have been if it came with 2 controllers - alternate model: RC car race! (build two cars, each with their own controllers for 2player fun) Having to buy the dino set for a second controller...bleh, its far too big and expensive to do that casually... 140$ for the Bulldozer, plus another ?50-60? for the Dino 8-| How many motors are in the Dino set btw?

Interesting I remember once reading that the moulding factory has precisely controlled temperature and humidity to maintain consistent color as the plastic is formed. I'll assume that they don't do this now that the manufacturing has been outsourced? :-X I'll occasionally note a brick or two thats off color from the rest... Worst case I've ever seen has been the 1*1 mini slopes found in the red Auto Xpod... those came in 3 different shades of 'red' as well as different surface textures -some smooth and shiny, some rough, some a swirly ugly mix of smooth and rough. yuck.... i really shoud have asked customer service to replace those...

If you look closely, those are actually mini frisbees. He's not shooting at anyone, theres another tank robo that he's playing frisbee with.

Auuuuuu..... I called my local Lego Shop, the Tuesday stock shipment came it, but there was no Cafe Corner in it. They're not sure when they're getting it now....

Neat! I'm not sure I'd be willing to sacrifice minifig space for the gear mechanism tho... I'd probably end up doing everything 'manual'.

I think the bicycle wheels are too tall to begin with, taller than the tank's body itself. the giant space wheels look... approximatly half to 2/3 the size to me.. hard to tell with the funny picture angles. So they'd end up lower than the tank's main hull, making room for some kind of wheel well covers on top... most tanks like to hide their wheels or tracks so this probably works out ok anyhows... they probly aren't going to change it no matter how hard I wish... I wonder if its worth my time to buy and mod the thing... the green bicycle wheels could *almost* work in a flying saucer deal for Mars Mission or maybe as some esoteric architecture in a space base... (stak them to make a cylindrical building maybe?)

Does it have alternate model instructions? (or was the stuff in that other guy's gallery purely MOCs?)

I was going to guess that it makes 'vroom vroom' noises when you press a button. :-|

Actually, those space wheels came in 4 sizes, all of them look similar. tiny, small, large and GIGANTIC. Obviously we need the Gigantic ones. Youre probably thinking of the ones on the Clone Turbo Tank, those were the large size. Gigantic is even bigger! X-O But they only showed up in one set ever: http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/6989-1 Correction: 2 sets, the UCS Star Destroyer used them as giant engine nozzles.

Nice mouse case. How about a full computer case next?

Just takes one trip to a Lego Shop, for some reason PaB Always has seats in black white, and sometimes blue.

I suppose it depends on what your goal is. I use LDD because it allows me to sort out brick quantities for purchase. I'm not using it to build some amazing technic design or anything that Requires cad assistance. (I'm sure MLCAD is great for planning big stuff like this) For example, sometimes I'll build a set of spaceship thruster sub-assemblies for use on a MOC. Using LDD allows me to limit the parts to those purchasable, and it lets me figure out how many of each I need. Then conviniently order all at once. I probably wouldn't be using MLCAD myself, because I like to ultimately build(in real bricks) the things that I design. LDD avoids this issue by letting me purchase. Now, if someone makes a plugin for MLCAD, that allows it to communicate with the LDD server so it can download the right brick pallets and place orders thru S@H, then we can talk... Yeah I know theres bricklink, but the Convenience of a single order is just great... Ya know what I'd like to seein LDD2.0? (aside from the bugs I mentioend above) How about a display of brick cost as you build? Then when I have a design quandry I can let piece cost decide which way to go...('shall I use this 12*2plate, or two 6*2s?...')

I'm liking the fact that the name Kami Sentai translates to english as 'God Squad'

Just been running into a 'builder's block' :-D on my current spacefighter project. And was wondering if anyone knows of some nice places that might show off a few of the 'tried and true' construction methods for various spacecraft parts. For example I know classic-space has a small article on thruster design. How about Retractable landing gear? I'm sure thats a topic thats usefull to all, and near as I know isnt well explored. At the moment though, the main thing thats bothering me is the body and wings, more or less the middle of the ship. I know the cockpit will go on one end, and the engines on the other. But so far my sketches are pretty fuzzy as to how the middle goes, just a blocky area... but im sure theres plenty of room here for possibilities... i just cant think of any. (a solid mass of 'dead bricks' doesnt seem the best use of space) As for wings... i see two main ways to go, lots of stacked angle plates (see Fast Flyers set) or lots of slope bricks sideways. Neither one seems that great tho, leading to flat wings that seem tacked onto the aforementiond blocky body... what makes wings interesting?

See, thats not a compliment, because the wheels on the HailFire droid where terrible. (not really TLG's fault, because the design of the HailFire was Lucas's not theirs... but it was still bad) Useless giant bicycle wheels. As for any other way they could have done it, they could have used this: part 2573 Techinc bricks doesnt bother me, nor does the boxy shape -that makes it look heavy and armoured like a tank, which is good. It's just that bicycle wheels really do not fit the overall 'tank' theme and mess it up for me...

I figure the green showing on the backside corner is a little courtyard area, maybe its a carpet on the inside... Ya know, I actually like the spaceship alt model that guy made. Questionable colors, but the cockpit design is neat.