Freddie

I very recently used LEGO to demonstrate a product idea that I'm working on. This is a part of my economic studies, and that my (extremely simple) demonstration model was going to be used in front of my class mates. Since economy studies usually attract people with lots of responsibilities and seriousness, I was relieved when it turns out that it sparked an enthusiastic conversation about toys. My guess is that some people have a very clear distinction between kids and adults, and that an adult shouldn't play with toys, because it conveys an image of immaturity and irresponsibility. I have the impression that's it's mostly image-conscious people who are like that, and I like to think that they deep down they are miserable and envious of our lack of restraint, and might try to drag us down to their level. And because of that, if I meet one, I will simply ignore any negative remarks made by them.

That just proves you don't need to be cutting edge with techniques, to get something to look awesome. I really like this, and how you captured its shape so well. Fantastic piece of work.

Ooooh. Just think of all the twisted MOC possibilities Spongebob's face gives with that grin. Thanks for the review, Mariko. I was considering getting this set, and probably still will, but I won't be expecting as much as I did originally.

I agree with Front. Unless you specify the currency or specify that a currency be included, the first question is meaningless. Also, are questions 9 and 14 duplicates? Oh yeah, I forgot: Good luck with the survey. Having dealt with these myself, it can be surprisingly difficult to get people to answer these. So by all means, good luck! (And yes, I did answer your survey, out of respect for a fellow student. )

Whooo! Another scandinavian! Welcome, neonovak! It's nice to see the cousins in the west also start to wake from the slumber. Besides, I can't help that we from the north are a little bit underrepresented, with the exception being CopMike and Ras who are by far the most active scandinavians I know of.

Happy Birthday, guys! Hope you both'll have a great day!

Paramount took it down, so you'll have to do with this high-quality version instead. Looks awesome.

If the Tycos are, as natelite said, of a high quality plastic, seperate them to a different box. Then use those bricks to build stabilising frames and other hidden functions that normally won't be seen by the public (altough I'll admit they usually won't see any difference). That way you'll save money towards LEGO bricks you can use for aesthetic purposes instead.

At least the panels serve a critical function here in covering up the switches when the model is on display. I have made one interresting observation, though. No new sets with XL-motors this year either. I'm wondering if TLC figured out it was too strong for its own good? It is afterall, only practical if you figure out a way to handle its power, or, in the case of vehicles, power the wheels directly.

What? No 6539? I reckon that this was a common design in the 90's for trucks. It was so common that there even was body style differences using this design: the Color Line promotion had one with a bonnet, and 6670 had adapted it to a tow-truck. A very nice review of this set. I remember wanting this set badly while the Spaceport sub-theme was still around. I guess it was the set's imposing looks and parade-ish presentation that made it as awesome as I remember it. Still want it after reading this review, though not as badly.

Source This belongs to that category, judging by the logo in the lower-right corner. According to the article, we'll be seeing more of these this year, but I like the fact that LEGO is bringing the building concept to the game itself, and not just its platform. So, any thoughts?

But it's a nice one! And vintage cars are few and far between! I like how you used the house window as a windscreen. I'd probably think of using panels, but that is nicer solution.

Oops!

I was on the internet today, and I found this! It is as he describes: words don't do it justice, so watch the video to see it displaying all of its awesomeness! I am in awe.

Nope, never experienced any of my Power Functions elements smelling. However, since you're dealing with electronics here, phone customer support and tell them of the piece. The smell could very well be caused of faulty electronics, which is a serious issue. (And trust me on this; as a toy-store employee I once had a customer who returned a flashlight that had burned because of faulty electronics, and that was a three-volt toy!)

It's always the nice ones you need to look out for! Funny fact of the day: LEGO decided to market Blacktron with all the Blacktron figures' visors up, because a query had revealed that parents found the figures to look evil, dangerous, scary and menacing with the visors down. I am not making this up! Didn't stop the vehicles from looking evil, though. The colors are direct opposite of the good guys' white and trans-blue, and looks great on this vehicle, IMO. And I think it would still work when opposed with the galaxy's newest crime-prevention equipment! Excellent review, RangerBob, BTW! Didn't leave me wondering what other features there'd might be on it!

I think it's just a case of sales representatives not sitting on all the information - if they don't have any the default answer is "no". For some reason, the three most powerful words in any vocabulary somehow doesn't exist in biztalk: "I don't know" i.e. "We don't have any information on that". I'm not dismissing the chances that we'll get SP3 in Europe. And this is further backed up by pig.

They'd be similar to yours, I guess. Because the switch tracks are not designed for automation, most layouts would be manually set, while some others might use Mindstorms and the remote control for it to set the switches. I've even seen pneumatic systems, that uses a small pneumatic cylinder as an actuator. That setup had the valves and compressor built as a seperate control panel, which is possible because it only requires one motor for an entire yard, but I imagine the plumbing would be a nightmare. I myself would probably go manual, but I have an idea for a Mindstorms-controlled layout where trains are selected by the computer by setting the switches to the corresponding track the train is parked on, and then simply start it. Starting the process would be by simply putting your hand on a panel. While not so fun at home, it would make a layout more interactive and fun for the kids at shows.

Flexible tracks!? They're preliminary, sure, but those rails have made me all giddy. The sleepers seem to follow the orientatation of the rails themselves on the hilly bits, instead of the general orientation of everything else, like monorail inclines, which suggests flexible tracks. Flexible tracks also means custom curve diameters. That aside, the set looks like a lot of fun. And in case you're wondering, yes I'm talking about the Indiana Jones Mine Cart set.

Yup. Straight to forum (mostly), so I occasionally miss some news. But I'm not the only one, am I? [/offtopic] I liked what LEGOClubTV had to offer, and subscribed to it after seeing the interviews they did. You know, it's nice to see the faces behind the stuff you see on the net, such as the GoMinimanGo video, and I will be expecting more of it.

Huh!? That was a mysteriously emtpy post. Was it this, you wanted to show us? Or maybe this?

And it's still better than a lot of the music out there today. Oooh schea! I've been listening to this, lately. Never heard of them, but I'm planning on getting that album, I like the other tracks on it as well.

Songsmith is apparently a new program from Microsoft, that has the user sing a song, altough anything will do, and then the program will construct a melody to fit your vocal performance. Someone then figured out that you could filter out the music from a song, so you would end up with just the vocals, and feed it through Songsmith. They did this to hits, though. Classic hits that everybody should have heard. In just about every case the program misjudged the vocals completely, and constructed the song around a completely different genre. Most of it sounds rubbish, none of it comes close to decent, but some of it is just plain hilarious (Unless you love Van Halen, in which case you'll hate it).

Sure, why not? :)

Night of the Werehog is an example of that it can be done with good results. It really boils down to how good the writers are, and how they approach the story (if they use the original story at all). Most games are played from a first-person perspective in one way or another, in order to achieve immersion, i.e. the player "being there" or "being him/her", while tv-shows and movies (and books, usually!) we merely observe what is happening from a second- or third-person perspective: we become the fly on the wall, and are not part of the story. Provided the writers remember that crucial bit, and what actually drives games' stories, they need to adopt the story for new angle. The Half-Life series would be difficult, because the story is about "you" and not them, while WarCraft, which is getting movied as we speak, would work because the story centers around characters that players can't play; the story is about "them" and not "me". And then there's the example I linked to above; here the writers instead ditched the story of the game, and made their own story that happens somewhere in it, but that doesn't occur in the game itself. They simply took the main character and his sidekick, built a new story, and tada! We have a movie. Or a tv-series. Or a short. Quick edit: I did not link just to help the bloke get a million hits! It's because it HD-quality, in case anybody wants a quality picture!