Erik Leppen

if you consider prints as "cheating", wouldn't a sticker be even worse "cheating"? -> Sure. I don't apply stickers, of course. But at least with stickers I have the choice. Are you mostly a MOCer? -> Yes. Sets, for me, are build experiences + parts packs. What about prints in a set like this? [image] The pattern on the back of the crocodile is unnecessary. Using the same parts unprinted would work just as well. You have to leave some things to the imagination. That's what Lego design is about, for me. Also, there are those 'rocky slopes' for texture now. The eye could (and for me, should) have been a bright light orange 1x1 round plate with open stud with a black bar in it, or something else but at least it should be pieces, not prints. I don't see any other decals in the model that it couldn't go without. If someone gifted you this set, would you prefer the printed eyes were stickers instead, so you could leave the creature eyeless? Or would you not care because you'd replace the printed piece with some small tile or something to create your own eye? Or would you not bother with the set at all out of disinterest? --> I would build it as instructed (but without stickers), leave it assembled for a while, and then it goes to the parts collections, and the eyes end up in a 'not usable' bin. What do you think of minifigures? Do they fit into the "system of bricks"? Should they have unprinted faces and torsos? -> I have no interest in minifigures; I don't build 'minifig-scale things'. But yeah, I udnerstand that figures need some kind of printing. I'm not really into all the different faces or torso/leg prints. I loved the Everyone is awesome set because of the unprinted minifigs. They have a particular abstractness that I like in Lego. Using a piece is not a goal. The goal is building a particular thing, and I want to have as many different pieces in my collection to achieve that particular thing. A piece having a print decreases these options for me. I think this nails it.

This is unpopular opinions, not illogical opinions. I fully agree with @Parrot on this one. I see Lego as a system of bricks, and I just find that decals (of any kind) don't fit in this system. Using decals feels like cheating (by the designers).

0.414..., not 0.44. sqrt(2) - 1 = 0.41421... But yes, it's a neat trick.

Nice, a new contest! Seems to be broad enough to allow many entries. Curious what people will come up with this time :) I do wonder what a tracked airplane would look like :D Anyways, I assume a tank counts as a vehicle, even though its main use is not really to transport stuff :P (well, it "transports" bullets really fast, I guess) Also, I assume fantasy vehicles are OK as well. Things don't have to be realistic, right? Not sure I'll have the time to join, but who knows. I never build tracked things, so maybe I should put some dormant parts to use...

I'm going to limit myself to sets I built (I have skipped quite a few sets that could be considered great, such as 42009...) and to studless sets (we all know the best sets from the studded era... 8880 supercar, 8480 space shuttle, 8868 air tech claw rig and my persional favorite set ever, 8460 mobile crane) and in no particular order: 8110 Unimog - was a super fun set to build, cool functions, interesting suspension system, one of the better studless models, cool parts (orange was rare back then), pneumatics. 8421 Mobile crane - I love cranes in general, nice array of functions, driven by motor that was part of the set (not optional), some interesting solutions, nice double-acting boom extension. 42054 Claas Xerion tractor - great looks and great functions. A raelly interesting steering mode selector, interesting to build. 8043 Excavator - LOTS of functions in a relatively small space, dense build, interesting to build, interesting switching setup, lots of gears, showed the use of linear actuators perfectly, and a decent size (not overly large) 8258 Crane Truck - Lots of gear-driven functions, large impressive truck, complex folding crane, super fun to build, and the set that best utilized the 5x7 and 5x11 frames which were then new. Especially the Unimog and the crane were sets I was thrilled about when I finally bought them.

Seeing them side by side like this, I'd say the new one is the best of the bunch. Large enough to have alls the necessary functions, but small enough to be interesting.

Or the Concorde (10318).

As if adults don't like toys. We all know we like toys here on Eurobricks. At least I do

It might be just me, but it looks like there are #7 angle connectors in the front in black and red, around the headlights.

This summer wave looks quite nice. The Valkyrie and FXX look splendid. I recognized the FXX and I'm not even really into cars that much. At least it's MUCH better than that yellow car from first-half of the year. The Lambo looks really nice but I'm not interested in RC so that's an easy pass. Also I would have chosen another color. Medium azure would have been cool, or even dark purple. The Ford Bronco looks like a nice set with decent functionality. I also think it looks quite good. I really like that loader. Looks to be full of functions and a true Technic model. The excavator looks very interesting mechanically and I'm curious what's 'under the hood', but there's no way in a thousand years that I'm going to spend 400 euros on this. The mars rover looks... weird. It reminds me of the Space subtheme from last year. But it does seem like a nice little set. I don't really care for the muscle car (that's apparently from a movie). It's modelled nicely I think, it seems to have decent functionality, and a really cool drift function, but it doesn't interest me enough to spend the money on this. I think I might get that Valkyrie for the dark turquoise parts, and order a bunch of the Bronco's tyres separately. I want those tyres :D

What's so terrible about it?

As long as it's functional. Remember: this is the theme formally known as Technic, where it used to be about functions. Yes, I know it's wishful thinking, but since a few days, there's an April Fools joke that Lego should prove false.

Time... what is time...

I don't use a formula, but I did start weighing sets I buy, and then I mean the assembled model (because the packaging and instructions are of no value to me.). Seeing if I got good value. Currently the Mona Lisa has by far the best weight-per-price of the 6 sets I did this for so far. Also, of course, I find it a real treat that the number of pieces is now on the boxes of sets. That makes comparing price-per-piece much easier. Of course, the 10 cents per part (€) is not a hard limit, but with a photo of the model you can make a decent estimate of what kind of pieces there are and if they are of decent size. I mean, weight-per-part is not entirely correct either, because 2 small pieces give more MOCing options than 1 large piece that is essentially those two combined. With MOCing you usually need both small and large parts, so the best estimate is somewhere in the middle of price-per-piece and price-per-gram. A second thing I do now is check the distribution of the colors of the parts in a set. I recently bought the large Milano spaceship set, because I liked the ship and it seemed interesting to build and reviews were good, but in the end I buy for parts. I was a bit disappointed because the actual number of blue and orange parts is actually very limited. It's almost entirely gray and dark-gray. I could have known that beforehand, had I just checked the inventory better. So since then, when I see interesting sets, I wait until the inventory is available and I count the numbers per color. That gives me an indication of whether the set contains a good chunk of parts in colors I am interested in. Because, well, I don't really have a shortage of gray and black. How different, for example, is the large Simba sculpture, which is a great source of bright light orange, and has a few tan bits I want too. Generally, for me personally and at this moment: the fewer gray and black bits, the better.

I have all my stuff on brickshelf, but my main concern is not the files. I have my files locally. My main concern is the broken links everywhere. I don't know if anything could be done about that though. If the URL goes down, all links to it will become dead links, I guess? (I'm not really into web-development so I don't know.)