DLuders

On MOCpages, Fred Ottens shows his Lego model of a 1959 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner convertible hardtop. I've seen the real car at local car shows, and it's a BIG American "land yacht" that folds its hard rooftop into the trunk (boot). A few pictures of the real car (with its hinged roof) comes from the Muscle Car Club. "They don't make 'em like that anymore!" Fred Ottens' MOC has suspension and a detailed engine. He wanted to make the Lego model with an electric roof, but it would be very difficult to replicate the real mechanism (from snypermc2005's ):

On MOCpages, Malte Dorowski just posted 23 big photos (but no description) of a Lego Peugeot 908 HDi FAP Le Mans 2010 racecar. The creation is much like the real racecar. Compare it with the Lincah.com pictures of the real Le Mans 2010 winner.

Norbert Black uses "Broadcloth": http://www.minifigcustoms.com/node/5395

This is correct; there is no "bending moment" on any of the 8043's Linear Actuators because they are free to rotate around a Technic pin. We have "pin connections" with forces directed down the long axis of the LAs. The cross-axle holes are not used. However, it is possible that the "axial" loading will cause the slender metal rod to "buckle" out of plane. From CHOOPS Brickshelf image:

@ JunkstyleGio: How do you like the motorcycle test stand?

Yes, 61927 is the Linear Actuator's part number. In Bricklink.com and on this site, it's Part Number 61027c01.

Yes, you're oorrect:

Full article from the European Space Agency (ESA): http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Operations/SEMN40NO7EG_2.html .

Ruudriessen/ Ruudtechnic created a COMPACT Lego Technic Mercedes-Benz Unimog 2100 truck with a Power Functions drivetrain and pneumatics. His Brickshelf gallery has 6 BIG pictures and a link to the YouTube video below. Functions: * 4-Wheel-Drive (4WD) by 2 ea. Power Functions (PF) XL Motors * Steering * Pneumatic tilted bucket (rear dump bed) * Rear hitch that can be raised and lowered to handle various implements * Front and rear Power Take-Off (PTO) * LED lights * Pendular front suspension http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j45EY-ULAn0

NXThomas posted a fun of his Lego Technic "Choppertrike" motorcycle. It uses:2 ea. PF Medium Motors 1 ea. PF Infrared (IR) Recivers 1 ea. PF Battery Box The front fork's steering mechanism is very compact and well-camouflaged. The trike has full suspension for maximum rider comfort.

On this , ssugawara1955 built a functional Test Stand for a modified Lego Technic 8051 Motorbike made into a "chopper". Even though the wheels are turning backwards , the motorcycle is shown "riding", and the drive motor and battery box are well out of the way. Compare the "chopper" with the standard 8051 set pictured below. What do you think, JunkstyleGio?

Looks good. The video shows the power of pneumatics. Are you going to put this bridge into a larger Lego Train setup soon? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAzwmWuE6yU

Here is that modification: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=44984&st=0&p=787616&hl=battery&fromsearch=1entry787616 .

In the Building Instructions manual, I would not pay much attention to the red color of the bricks. Red is chosen as the default color because it shows good contrast between the studs and the shadows of the brick. Other colors don't show contrast very well. If you select a red brick from the parts pallette that should be another color, you can click on the red 1x1 brick icon at the bottom edge of the LDD program screen. Once you click it, you'll see a group of primary colors. If you click on the blue color (for example), you will get a group of bricks that have various shades of blue-->gray. After you highlight the part that you want to change color, click on the shade of blue that you want and the red piece will change to a bluish-gray piece. Do the same thing with the other part. So, you can change the color of a part from red to bluish-gray BEFORE you pick it off of the Parts Pallette, or AFTER it has been placed onto the center baseplate work area. There is a Lego Digital Designer User Manual that comes with the software. In the menu along the top edge of the LDD screen, click on "Help" and again on the next "Help", and you will see the LDD User Manual. The path to the manual is (typically) C:\Program Files\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\Help\en-manual\en-manual.html .

Here's a GIGANTIC Lego Power Functions/NXT ARAGNA Extreme Spider Walker Robot by Menno Gorter. It measures 32 inches (80 cm) in diameter and weighs 14 pounds (6.5 kilos)! The displays it's awesome capabilities: "This is a video of PF/NXT-Aragna in it's present state. In fact PF/NXT-Aragna became the missing link between Thunderbirds, Moonbase, Star-wars, Mars-mission, Star-trek, Space-police and the Jetsons. :-) In order to fit Spybotics-spider in it's hangar I had to make the PF/NXT-Aragna a bit wider. This weakened the superstructure, so I had to reinforce it. Together with the interior it became 1 Kilo heavier! "The total weight of 6,5 Kilo's is really the edge, for this model. I prefer to call my creations Techa, as a combination of non-agressive Mecha and Lego-Technic. "Maybe you've seen already some of my bigger walkers on my Brickshelf. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Menno-Gorter/Events/LEGOWORLD/2007-Legoworld/barman_p1020510_web.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Menno-Gorter/Events/LEGOWORLD/2005-Legoworld/2005_my_stand_at_legoworld.jpg "This beast is my first big one without pneumatics and is also my first with Mindstorms in combination with Lego Power Functions. After doing nothing for a while with the NXT this is my firtst project since 2007, and my sixth NXT project overall. At this moment I do have enough stuff and ideas to make it 9...." MennoGorter posted a of a smaller, more nimble Omni-directional Spider robot. He has Brickshelf gallery that show pictures of various walking spiders over the years.

In case you missed it, the below shows "An awesome Lego pop up style book that consists of 4,500 bricks and weighing almost nine pounds, the Lego Buddhist pop-up temple is truly a marvel of Lego engineering." The Japanese calls this "Kinkaku" art.

Peeron has some Catalog scans (sorted by year): http://peeron.com/catalogs/ . Click on the 5-year group along the bottom edge of that webpage. The German 1990 Lego Catalog (for example) has pages of Technic sets.

The website Holonomicwheels.com offers Lego-compatible "Holonomic" omniwheels for your robot: "Holonomic wheels are wheels with 2 degrees of freedom. They are also known as omni-directional drive wheels or omni-wheels for short, sometimes written as omniwheel. We had invented a new holonomic wheel and it is LEGO Mindstorm RCX and NXT compatible. These wheels were used in major competitions like NJRC National Junior Robotic Competition and WRO World Robot Olympiad and won championship and runner-up prizes respectively. Many other users around the world had used these omnidirectional wheels in Robocup and in all sorts of robotics competitions. Our product is made from ABS plastic that is similar to the ABS plastic used by LEGO." Availability: http://holonomicwheel.com/template.jsp?p=my/Purchase.html . Here are two videos from the collection on their Video Clips Page:

@ Doug72 & Chrizzle: OK, could you "VOTE" on the poll so that your "36X0" production codes are recorded? Thanks.

This shows a very capable Lego Technic forklift that is highly maneuverable. It has Power Functions (PF) tilt-back capability, ladder-style lift mechanism, and LED lights for operation during the "midnight shift" in your local warehouse: Weight: 3 kg Length: 0.5 m 1 ea. PF Medium motor to twist 1 ea. PF Medium motor to bend 1 ea. PF XL motor to drive (1:1 gear ratio) 1 ea. XL motor and 2 Linear Actuators to raise 4x4 drive with differentials PF Controller with Speed Control

Directly under the "Lego Universe" words at the top-left corner of your Lego Digital Designer screen, there is a symbol with three tiny bricks in it (blue, yellow, and red). Click on that symbol, and you will see various color choices. When you click a choice like YELLOW, the parts category will all turn yellow. Recommend looking at the LDD Index Thread for more user tips.

Thanks for sharing your Praying Mantis video! In your YouTube description, you wrote that it is "A 35cm long model of praying mantis with moving head, front legs and wings. The mantis was displayed in Roztoky where the exhibitions of the Czech LEGO forum www.kostky.org took place." Did you allow children to operate the front legs and wings? It's a shame that you have to take it apart, but it is documented in your Brickshelf folder (soon to be made public when moderated).

I checked three old Linear Actuators that I had as extra parts. One of them has "12X8" stamped on it, and the other two have "25X8" stamped on them. Look at the base of the LAs near the orange axle receptacle, at the right side of the image below:

In this YouTube video, esrtiece showed a HUGE Lego Technic Car Transporter that can carry the "classic" Lego Technic cars. It uses lots of pneumatics to raise and lower the ramps, and many motors (controlled by a yellow RCX intelligent brick). Maybe it can deliver those cars to your neighborhood! He also posted a short of it rolling along a sidewalk. It's got to be one of the largest self-propelled Lego Technic vehicles in France The Netherlands! Est-ce qu'AFOLs français ont vu ce transporteur de voiture ? Have any French Dutch AFOLs seen this Car Transporter?

Here is a well-produced video of the Lego Technic 8297 Off Roader 2 set in 3-Dimensional animations. "Sauciflare" posted this made by 4 Frenchmen (whose names appear at the end of the video). They expertly used Autodesk 3DS MAX software. They wrote (via Babelfish translation of the French into English) -- "First Project of multi-media year Computer graphics 2008/2009 Animation 3D lego technic 1200 parts modelled starting from the note of assembly + animation = 3DS max": "Raph83470" posted the same video on , and named the four Frenchmen (via translation), "Project 3D for Aries: 4x4 lego 8297. Fact by: Pischedda Pauline, Garcin Romain, Mickael Marks, Moussol Raphael. Software used: 3dsMax 2008 and after effect." Do any of the SeTechnic AFOLs know these folks?