DLuders

@ RoscoPC: I like the new cutaway views of the McLaren MP4-4 WIP on your Flickr photoset:

The Babelfish translation (from Italian to English) is "The ActiveX member is not in a position to creating l' object."

boyboy25boy posted a of a yellow Lego Technic Mountain Bike (MTB). It has lots of realistic functions. "Except [for] minor adjustment below the seat and telescope with hard springs, [the yellow MTB has] the same design and function like my ." Even if you don't have the 75mm 88517 wheels and 88516 tires shown, you could build your own Mountain Bike with the old 81.6mm wheel/tire combination shown below, and with spare parts that you may have on hand.

The 9V Battery Adapter is useful for Lego Technic applications as well as Lego Train applications. From Philo's website, the 8870 Power Functions Light "LEDs consume very little current (about 2mA!)" So, with the 185 milliAmpHour (mAh) rechargeable 9V Battery that I have in my hand, I could power the LED lights for up to (185 mAh)/(2 mA) = 92.5 hours! I don't understand why TLG doesn't offer something like this 9V Adapter above. It can keep the cost and weight of their models down, and it is SIMPLE. You can read about the power requirements of all of the various Lego 9V motors (including the train motor) on Philo's 9V Technic Motors Comparison webpage. Just do the math with your battery and the Amp draw of all of your motors/lights. In regards to that black "9V PP3" battery box (a 5391 ), it's just an EMPTY BOX in which to place a 9V battery. I have one of these myself. The 9V Adapter eliminates the unnecessary bulk and weight of the box, AND the need for a PF cable. Less weight --> faster vehicles --> longer run times.

Italian AFOL Marco Pirola/ caterpillar345 posted this of his Lego Technic Caterpillar 323D L Excavator. It features:"- 5 M Motors - 1 XL Motor - 1 Battery box - 3 IR Receivers - 3 IR Remote controls - Motorized LAs (except the second half arm LA), superstructure rotation and tracks "Still missing right handrails and mirror, and Cat decals. Linear actuators [LAs] were painted in gloss black with airbrush." Additional pictures of this and other creations are on his website http://www.webalice.it/m.pirola/lego.htm and on his Brickshelf gallery.

fatfatfred posted this well-produced of a "A Lego trike with Power Functions. Lights, 2 motors, radio-controlled. No steering at the front wheel; it steers by controlling the rear wheels seperately. It hardly works; the weight is at the back so it takes off with a wheelie. And the infrared signal is blocked by the roof so it reacts very slow sometimes. But who cares, it looks cool!"

From a distance, your modern Building 18 gives the impression that "Spidey" (Spiderman) has moved to Chicago!

Guess you're going to have to buy a $20+ replacement window frame on Bricklink, or spraypaint one of a different color.

I agree that the 9V Battery should be employed more in small Lego Technic applications. I got three of the 9V Adapters mentioned in this Eurobricks post, and mated them up to 9V rechargeable batteries. They work great for at least 1/2 hour; how many AFOLs really "play" with their MOCs for that long anyway? The light weight and small space cannot be beat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhjZoymaYkY

On his Flickr photostream, Gavin Rogers 2.0 posted pictures of his completed LEGO Köf Locomotive. It is to be shown at Brickworld 2011. Here is a shortened description from Railbricks Issue 8 (free PDF download): "On the 12th January 1956 the LEGO® company made it’s initial expansion outside Denmark by opening their first foreign sales wing, LEGO® Spielwaren GmbH. Spielwaren was run by Axel Thomsen, who was already a toy manufacturer. "The new company was based in an old railway hotel in Hohenwestedt, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The company’s aim was to expand the sales of LEGO® in Germany. "From 1956 until 1963 LEGO®’s series of H0 scale cars, trees and signs were produced in a small factory in Hohenwestedt. Over the years the Hohenwestedt site also grew to become a major distribution centre. "The factory and warehouses were situated just east of the railway station on the line between Heide and Neumünster so it was logical that it was rail served and in December 1987 a small shunting (switching) locomotive was purchased to work the factory sidings. "From the 1930s the Deutsche Reichsbahn introduced small locomotives for use at stations and goods depots. They were specifically designed to be driven by shunting staff rather than higher paid fully qualified drivers and were also small enough to be loaded onto a flat truck for movement around the rail network. After some experimentation two diesel designs were standardised upon, with differing power ratings. "The class letter K was used to identify them, followed by a letter indicating the type of engine, ö for diesel (Öl, i.e. oil). The next letter was the type of transmission: f for hydraulic transmission (Flüssigkeitsgetriebe) The four digit numbers signified the power range, those up to 40 HP (29 kW) were numbered in the range 0-3999 and while those in above 40 HP were 4000 and higher."

@ Bojan Pavsik: Have you seen the 30 pictures of Marat Andreev's Lego Toyota Series 8 forklift on his Flickr photostream? It is powerful enough to lift a full can of soda pop:

If you need some motivation, see this Brickshelf gallery of this atrractive mosaic "96 studs wide and 320 plates high making it 32000 pieces total."

On his Brickshelf gallery, Miron89/ cselloman posted 43 pictures and this of his naked Lego Technic Ural 4320 Trial Truck chassis. Its functions include "6WD, all wheels suspended, live axles, 2-3 gears GearBox, fully remote control.-1 motor for drive -1 motor for steer -working headligths, backlights, winch." It is interesting to see his red LEAF SPRINGS and central, telescoping drive axle assembly.

On his Brickshelf gallery, Ouf showed pictures of Sariel's Jeep Wrangler Rubicon in yellow:

On his website, Nico71 posted his newest creation -- a Trial Jeep which "features 4-wheel drive with fake V6 engine, steering, 5-link suspensions, opened bonnet and trunk and detailed interior. "This jeep was built on a new concept for me. First the axles are not pendular but with a 5-link and shock-absorbers. The layout of the links of the suspensions is mainly inspired by Jovel’s work. Secondly, I completely re-built the axles to include two options of building : with or without differential. I was boring by the Trial Truck which did not turn because of the lack of differentials so I would like to test it. To finish, the design is based on my previous jeep but with the new panels and at a bigger scale. I have seen that jeep body is more appreciated than classic truck body. "The interior is detailed, for instance with a complete dashboard, seats, V6 engine placed under the bonnet and rear benches. I also include a fire extinguisher, tubular protections, antenna… In fact it is the most detailed trial truck I have done. "Concerning the climbing abilities : they are unexpected and very good. I thought that the differential will always slipped. In fact the suspensions are very good, which enable the wheels to be flattened on the ground. The slipping of the differential is consequently limited. The main advantage is the turning radius, as you can see on the video, it is very small, what enables the truck to have good turning abilities. The gear reduction is 12/20 20/28 and 8/24 on portal axles. On the video, the battery box is a little bit tired." There are 15 additional pictures on his website, on his Brickshelf gallery, and a link to this .

@ Bulle: Welcome to Eurobricks! Have you seen Sariel's 2-Speed Heavy Duty Gearbox? ...or his 4-Speed Compact Linear Gearbox?

So, you want to find out how this piece is all connected to the chassis: You want to put either of these two pieces ...in the top and bottom holes of ...so you can mount these? I looked on this Bricklink page to see what sets the techstr02 parts were used in, then looked at the inventories for those three sets. A few of those Technic pins that you want to use are shown. The 8475 RC Race Buggy is a good example. On Brickfactory.info , I looked at the individual pages of the Building Instructions to see how the techstr02 parts are connected to the chassis. On Pages 18-19, one can see that the two parts of the techstr04 assembly click together and are held onto the chassis with a Technic Axle and Technic suspension Links:

My son built a good Lego Battlebot and got 2nd Place at Brickfest 2009 in Portland, Oregon. We just might send the 'bot to Germany for somebody else to drive. It is still assembled, but its design shall remain a closely-guarded secret. The rules of your competition allows for almost anything: "THE ULTIMATE LEGO BATTLE 2011 Date: 05.11.2011 Location: Bavaria - Germany Contest category: Show/design, Race, Parcour, Target shooting, Battle, Mission Contest rules overview: Only standard LEGO parts without glue or manipulation. Exceptions: Strings and ruber for the weapon systems." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dczMjJAVZHE

The yellow 8043 Motorized Excavator uses the 32030 "Technic Digger Bucket 10 x 18" (first closeup below). The red 8294 Excavator uses the 2951 "Technic Digger Bucket 8 x 10" (second closeup below, which is smaller than the 8043's bucket). Jurgen Krooshoop's "Ultimate 8043" uses the 2951 bucket.

Your helicopter looks much more robust than the standard 5542 set!

Wow, Sheepo, this is quite possibly one of the most advanced Lego Technic cars ever built! The attention to detail is exceptional. Every "Porschephile" is going to want one of these!

@ Hammer: Welcome to Eurobricks! Your Supercar looks ready for the Formula One circuit! I like how you used both the old- and new-style Technic Panels.

OtherProto posted this of his "Flexo Lime" Lego Technic 4x4 Trial Truck. To obtain high ground clearance, he uses a interesting series of gears to drive his axles. SPECIFICATIONS: "Scale (wheels used): 94.1mm Transmission: 4x4 Motorization : 2 motors PFS-M Steering: PFS-M motor Onboard Battery Box: PFS small Total Weight ~900 grams" He also posted 16 images on his Picasa Web Album.

Have you tried the PicToBrick mosaic software?

There is a new (May 4, 2011) Lego Technic Designers Blog article on CRANES. So, if this Spring's pattern continues, "Cranes" will probably be the theme for the June 2011 Lego Technic Challenge. For those who believe that 2 weeks is not enough time in which to prepare a Challenge entry, now you can get a head start....