DLuders

Kubrick posted these Brickshelf images of using different wheels to "squish" the big 54120 "Tire 94.8 x 44 R Balloon" into a taller, thinner shape. Normally (according to the Bricklink "Tire on Wheel Relationship" Match #280, a single 44772 "Wheel 56mm D. x 34mm Technic Racing Medium" is used for that tire. See the two pictures below: However, sometimes a Lego Technic vehicle looks funny with the fat ballooon tires. There is a way of making a taller, thinner tire profile with the 54120 balloon tire. Kubrick suggests using two 2903 "Wheel 81.6 x 15 Motorcycle": I tried his technique with my spare parts, and the overall height of the tire changes from 94.8 mm to ~97.5 mm (3% greater) when using his technique. The width of the tire can be clamped down, to decrease the size from 42 mm to 35 mmm (17% thinner): The trick is to set the tire on the SECOND rib from the edge (not the outermost rib). Here is the side-by-side comparison by Kubrick: Although the height of the tire doesn't change much, the thinner width may look more attractive (and suitable) for street-going Lego Technic vehicles.

If you get a 8879/ 64227 "Power Functions IR Speed Remote Control" to SMOOTHLY run the Technic Treads, you should consider adding some gears to it to make it easier to use. Here's a nice design by Sariel; there are many others on the web too. The variable speed control allows the vehicle to realistically start up and stop in a controlled manner, and not suddenly jerk around. Two regular 8885 / 58122c01 "Power Functions IR Remote Control" units (shown in the third picture below) will be fine for operating the other functions.

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On his Brickshelf gallery, djtermoz posted 18 pictures and a of his "Small utility vehicle Terex ASV ST-50 Scout with trailer." He also has posted LDRAW files for both portions, so you can built this yourself. Lego Power Functions elements are packed into a small package.

Nice chopper! The Teutels would approve:

As reported by Conchas on TechnicBRICKS, do you think that the upcoming Mindsensors "pneumatic control device for NXT" could be adapted for Lego Hydraulics? It says, "This Servo Operated Pneumatic Valve can be controlled from NXT using NXTServo-v2. The kit will include the valve, servo and necessary hardware and instructions to assemble the valve."

I had the privilege of building two of these five wonderful cars -- the "Little Devil" (by Jurgen Krooshoop) and the Lamborghini Gallardo (by Paul Boratko, a.k.a. "Crowkillers" (the first and third cars in the lineup below). "Little Devil" -- since I LOVE Lego Power Functions, I enjoyed building this car a lot. The Building Instructions were good, and the car really gets a lot of attention when I display it. Thanks, Jurgen, for allowing others to build it! Lamborghini Gallardo -- This car looks more "wicked" than the "Little Devil", and is similar in size. This is a nice, non-motorized Supercar. Thanks to Paul Boratko and Eric Albrecht for making the instructions available! Of the three remaining models, I would like to attempt Jovel's "Black Dragon" (the fourth one in the lineup), because of its damped scissor doors and the geared convertible top.

On his Flickr photostream, BlazerMan posted these two images of the official alternate (B-Model) of the 5571 Giant Truck/ Black Cat set from 1996. He wrote, "There are two sets of instructions printed on opposite sides of a single book. One side instructs you to build a cool big rig truck with a black cat for a hood ornament. I assume that is the "Black Cat". The other side instructs you to build the giant truck pictured here. We think it's a fire truck because it has a water tank and a ladder." I did not know that there even was an official Alternate for this set....

Crowkiller's "New Custom 2011 Lego Technic V8 Supercar Gold Edition" was auctioned for US $600 (~437.416 EUR) yesterday! Maybe it had real, 24k Gold plating....

The moderator of this Eurobricks "Technic, Mindstorms, and Model Team" Forum is Siegfried, not me.

Now you need to complete the scene, like this one:

Yes, Toys "R" Us is selling them for US $39.99. I saw mine at the Huntington, Indiana, USA Walmart (far from where I live), but I could not find it on the Walmart website. From the photo below, you can see that they are BIG and could be made into a Hallowe'en mask: eToys also has it for US $39.999, and describes it thus: "Sort & Store your LEGO bricks. A fast and easy way to Sort & Store your Lego bricks! Tip your Lego Bricks into the Sorter. Shake gently and Lego Bricks will sort into small, medium, and large sections. Lift each section to reveal sorted Lego Bricks inside. Built in carry handle. Can hold over a thousand LEGO pieces. LEGO pieces sold separately."

Welcome to Eurobricks! Your Nissan should do very well in the Truck Trial! It is very capable. I like the pendular front and rear suspension. You should post it on BrickTruckTrial for additional visibility worldwide!

On his Brickshelf gallery, marthart has posted 17 pictures of his refined DAF YP-408 Dutch armored car with a "New and more solid design, with strong differential and steering more like the original. Frame is 2 studs narrower and 1 higher. See earlier post YP-408." His slightly-older version (on this Brickshelf folder) shows 15 pictures of the vehicle being "8 wheel driven, independent suspension, front axle with torsion suspension. Steering with NXT PID software and IR receiver sensor. Tracktion as in the original army vehicle":

Wow, this is excellent! Your shows all of the features well. Looking forward to seeing more pictures on your Brickshelf folder when moderated and made public.

I saw one of the new Lego "Sort & Store" minifig heads for sale, and it is quite large. I did not buy it since I was on a trip and could not fit it into my luggage. Has anybody bought and used one of these? How is it, and do you recommend it?

Here's a nice Lego Technic Halftrack by marthart. He posted 15 pictures on his Brickshelf gallery, and wrote that the "Tracks driven by XL-motor and differential, front wheels steering with linear actuator and with suspension. Opening doors and hood, working headlights and winch in the front bumper". Here it is without its body:

Nice mixer truck! As you indicated, it is a "Lego Technic Concrete Mixer with power functions. Includes remote conveyer belt, working V4 engine, rear suspension and two speed gearbox for mixer unit." I like your use of Lego Pneumatics, and the concrete chute is very cleveer. I always thought it would be tricky to create a tapered cylinder using Lego Technic parts, but your shows a job well done. The two Lego Technic Figures in the cab are a nice addition to this MOC! [NOTE: The Brickshelf folder is not yet public, but it may be viewable in 1-2 days.]

As dr.gazza noted above, it seems that (in the USA at least) the images are not visible. All we see in the USA are red boxes for each picture that say: "mijnalbum.nl -- Deze foto bestaat niet of is reeds verwijderd." [This photograph does not exist or has been already removed]

vonsmallhausenPL posted this of his Lego Power Functions (PF) "M35 truck with leaf spring working rear suspension." He posted 11 pictures on his Brickshelf gallery (under the name "Ciezarowkaz") to show the details of the "leaf spring", which is a combination of these Lego Technic Steering parts: 2791 "Technic, Steering Rack" (which is a rubbery, flexible part): 2790 "Technic, Steering Gear Holder" (which is a metal part): On LUGPol, he goes by the moniker "Trucker" and explained his MOC on this post (translated from Polish to English): "It is a M35 truck, equipped with the PF motors and drive 6x4 Medium. I wanted to focus on as a realistic rear suspension - and it seems to me that is OK. The drive is supplied separate shafts and bridges is to reduce the 1:8: worm gear -> z8 [8-toothed gear]. Leaf springs are played back by flexible racks, I have to admit that it works fairly good, though a pity that this can not be applied to patent the larger cars (one size this type of gear racks.)"

piotrek839 posted this of an Auto 8x8 Mobile Platform. He wrote that "The platform moves in all directions, but its axis remains unchanged. All four wheels are driven." It has eight Power Functions (PF) Medium motors and four PF XL motors, and 8 Lego Technic Turntables for maximum mobility.

On his Flickr photostream, jasongetsdown (Jason Rossitto) posted images of these Lego Digital Designer (LDD) geometric spheres. Lego Icosahedron (a regular polyhedron with 20 identical equilateral triangular faces, 30 edges and 12 vertices) -- "This one uses 600 bricks": Lego Icosidodecahedron (which has 30 identical vertices, with two triangles and two pentagons meeting at each, and 60 identical edges) -- "Twenty triangular faces and twelve pentagonal faces rendered in virtual Legos. 1200 bricks": Lego Dodecahedron (which has 12 pentagonal faces, 20 vertices and 30 edges) -- "Just to round out the trio, a dodecahedron. 600 bricks": He posted LDD .lxf files on the Lego DesignByMe Gallery website; just type in the Username "jasongetsdown" (without the quotation marks) and they will pop up. You can use LDD Manager to create the Parts List from the .lxf file.

On his Flickr photostream, Rolic (Rolands Kirpis) posted 37 images of his Lego Chrysler PT Cruiser. He wrote that it is a "Large scale... very large scale car, approximatelly 1:13. At the very beginning I was trying to build this scale cars, but in digital version. Later, when I started again to play with real bricks, I was quite limited, so I tried different, more classic scale. But now it's time to see what I really can build out of my wild white brick collection. Thanks to Mad Physicist, the first car to prove this was this Chrysler PT Cruiser. It was current LUGNuts challenge, 38th - By random appointment, however, I planned to build this car for a long time, as its curves are quite ... hmm... how to say... tricky for LEGO. Another reason why I happily started to build this is because I haven't seen any PT Cruiser made out of LEGO before (most likely because of its curves) and that is another thing for me, as I like to present something radical, unusual, unique! "I must confess, at first I tried to build this in that smaller scale too, but that trial suffered fiasco. So I jumped few scales higher, added as much detail and working features, as possible, and had as much fun as anyone can imagine. "For quick sum-up - it has working steering from steering wheel, suspensions, openable everything you can think of (doors, hood, truck, glove box, spare wheel compartment, box between front seats), fully functional rear seats which easily can be turned down or removed at all. As in a real car, the seats consist of two parts, part A - left side rear seat, part B - right side and middle rear seat. At the luggage compartment there is that removable shelf, which can be placed in two possitions."

On MOCpages, Firas Abu-Jaber ("peterabujaber" on YouTube) posted his LEGO Nissan Navara Dakar Rally 4x4. He wrote an extensive description and provided 33 pictures and a . Since it has Lego "Octan" colors, he entered it into this month's Flickr LUGnuts challenge ("Octan Racing!"). Here is a quick synopsis: "Here's my new model, the Nissan Navara rally Dakar edition. This model includes a working suspension and working steering, it's my first MOC with working suspension, also there's a Youtube video at the end showing the details, the chassis, the working suspension and steering, and the rolling crash test to show how tough this model is, hope you enjoy it, thank you."" "Dakar Rally -- The Dakar Rally (or simply "The Dakar"; formerly known as "The Paris-Dakar" or "Paris to Dakar Rally") is an annual rally raid type of off-road automobile race....Most events since the inception in 1978 were from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal, but due to security threats in Mauritania which led to the cancellation of the 2008 rally, the 2009 Dakar Rally was run in South America (Argentina and Chile), the first time the race took place outside of Europe and Africa. It has stayed in South America from 2009 to the present (2011). The race is open to amateur and professional entries. Amateurs typically make up about eighty percent of the participants. "Despite its name it is an off-road endurance race, called a rally-raid rather than a conventional rally — the terrain the competitors traverse is much tougher and the vehicles used are true off-road vehicles rather than the modified on-road vehicles used in rallies. Most of the competitive special sections are off-road, crossing dunes, mud, camel grass, rocks and erg among others. The distances of each stage covered vary from short distances up to 800–900 kilometres (500–560 mi) per day." "Nissan Navara (Frontier) -- Nissan Frontier is the name for the D22 and D40 generations of Nissan pickup trucks in North, Central and South America and the Philippines. The line was started in 1998, and its immediate predecessor is the D21 Nissan Hardbody truck....Nissan was the pioneer of the Hardbody or Nissan Navara since 1986. The first was the D21, considered to be a small pick up. After more than 10 years with the D21, the second generation Navara was manufactured from 1998 and went until 2005 which was classed as a compact sized pick up. It was replaced with the bigger, taller, longer D40, which Nissan now considers to be a mid-size pick up truck."

Nice Rubik's Cube! Yes, Bricklink is the best place to get 8 x 8 PLATES; there are no 8 x 8 "tiles" made by Lego.