DLuders

On this Legoism topic, there is a Lego Digital Designer "LDD LDraw world map with altitudes." Click on the image below to see it in LARGE detail: The Legoism webmaster wrote, "One small thingy while collecting ideas and time for the next project: I've created a Lego world map LDD LDraw with altitudes, for a friend who's preparing a small geography fair and considers building one. For the case you might find some usage for it too, it's also available for download here. "It's a quite large map, 250x125 studs (2x1 meters, approx. 80"x40"), and the LDD LDraw file consists of about 130,000 smallest plates stacked where necessary ― it's up to the builder to choose the most convenient reinforcements and substitutions with larger plates, bricks or columns. The altitudes are, of course, drastically out of scale, and there are two colours: white for the land and blue for the seas, as you can see on the rendered picture. It includes the Antarctica and some tiny ocean islands represented by just a single brick, but there should be no problem deleting them in MLCAD or any similar LDD LDraw editing application if necessary." This would make a nice background "baseplate" for Lego spaceships to fly over, or maybe for Alienwar9's HUGE Chicago cityscapes!

@ Palathadric: Brickfactory.info has online Building Instrucions for many older Lego sets, but you have to go PAGE BY PAGE through the various .JPG images. Lego Customer Service has SOME PDF Building Instructions.

Going back to the original topic: I wrote an e-mail to the webmaster of LPEpower, to ask him whether it was OK for darkboy101089 to make a replica of his copyrighted work. I got this reply: "Sure. His engine will never work as good as mine anyway. But if he is able to make it through the video, he can have it, as long a she doesn't claim its his design. -- Alex LPEpower www.LPEpower.com info@lpepower.com"

Have you read the various suggestions on this Windows Seven Forums topic? Steve Putz (a respected Lego Mindstorms AFOL from California USA) has some good ideas there.

I have a signed letter from March 2012 with original signatures from TLG's Jeppe Juul Jensen and Niels Henrik Horsted that says "We are committed to preventing building instruction delays and are taking action to make sure that this does not happen with any future set releases." "This" refers to the 3-week-long, futile effort to obtain the 9397 Logging Truck B-Model instructions (which were not available in printed form anywhere). I guess their words are meaningless, since TLG has not done anything with the 9468 Vampyre Castle PDF instructions. Those who claim that the online instructions are a "privilege and not a right" are missing the point. Nowhere did TLG say that I would not be getting the instructions, or could not get them. Weeks go by, with no action. My correspondence with "S____ R_____" (Susan Raymond, Business Operations Team Leader, Brick Keepers) has similar, hollow words that are not met with action. I'm not talking about low-level Customer Service employees -- I have been getting correspondence from TLG's management. So, to those folks who settle for POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE, I feel sorry for you. Again, I don't like getting lied to and misled. If you're not a Lego Ambassador or an employee from The Lego Group, I don't care what you think. Those who think that TLG is infallible, and accept their product and so-called Customer Service without question, are settling for mediocrity. What a pity.

Interesting! "- RC Power functions - 1 - N - 2 Gearbox - Front indipendent suspensions - Working doors - Rear differential"

To all of my fellow Americans who posted replies: I really don't care what you think. I'm asking for assistance from the Lego Ambassador associated with the Monster Fighters theme. If you get LIED TO and MISLED by the same company, over and over, you'd be miffed too. If you cannot assist, kindly refrain from questioning my words. It's between me and them; you're not involved. P.S. I work for a "large company" too -- it's called the U.S. Air Force. It's far bigger than The Lego Company, and we're not "stovepiped" to be unable to perform the most basic tasks -- posting a file on a computer server. All of the other June 2012 Lego set releases were posted on their server -- why not the 9468? I just don't buy their answer that "Each theme has its own design and implementation teams. This is feedback we are sharing with those teams in order to provide better experiences to our consumers, but it does take time. Please keep in mind that LEGO is a very large company that can’t always make system changes as quickly as we would like, and often we have to complete prior commitments before new initiatives can be started." It may take 5 minutes of time to post the PDF Building Instructions. I've pointed out their SYSTEMIC problem 3 months ago, yet it happened again. It's sad.....

At the bottom of the LPEpower website, it clearly says: "© copyright 2008-2011 LPEpower, nicjasno.com | Design by Vsejasno"

I am seeking Lego Ambassador assistance to possibly resolve a systemic problem that The Lego Group has in posting online Building Instructions. Since May 27th, I have tried (unsuccessfully) to obtain the PDF Building Instructions for the new 9468 Vampyre Castle set (in the Monster Fighters theme). This set has been available from Shop.Lego.com for 3 weeks; it is featured on Page 17 of the latest full-color printed catalog too. Below is the text between Lego Customer Service and me. I telephoned them yesterday morning, but the instructions STILL have not been posted. I have shortened the names of TLG's employees, and have blacked-out their e-mail addresses. My contact information remains. I have used VERY FIRM language, because TLG has apparently learned nothing from the similar, 3-week-long futile episode I had with them concerning 9397 Logging Truck's B-model instructions three months ago. I don't like getting "the run-around". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "> From: lego-reply@cybercrs.net > To: LudersDG@MSN.com > Subject: LEGO Direct:031036604A [EN-US] > Date: Sun, 27 May 2012 12:47:29 -0400 > > Dear David, > > Thank you for contacting us on 05/27/12 and for your interest in LEGO® brand products. > > We're sorry that the building instructions you are looking for are not yet available from our company. David, we understand your frustration, and assure you this was not our intention. In regards to this particular theme, Monsters was released much earlier than anticipated due to being released at other retailers - which is why our web team has yet to place them on the website. You should expect these instructions to be available within the next few weeks. Did you purchase the Castle and are in need of the instructions for building? We're very sorry for any inconvenience this has placed on you. We also may halt in having these available right away in case last minute changes need to be made and changed as quickly as possible. Hopefully in the future we can get these permissions available around the launch dates to be more convenient for our fans. > > Thank you again for contacting us. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reply to this email or call one of our friendly Customer Care Advisors at 1-800-835-4386 (from within the US or Canada) or 1-860-749-0706 (from outside the US or Canada). We are available Monday through Friday from 8AM - 10PM EST and Saturday through Sunday from 10AM to 6PM EST. Please have your reference number handy if you need to get in touch with us: 031036604A > > K______ > LEGO Direct Consumer Services" > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "From: David Luders [mailto:ludersdg@msn.com] Sent: Monday, May 28, 2012 10:11 AM To: lego-reply@cybercrs.net Cc: J___ S____; S___ R_____ Subject: RE: LEGO Direct:031036604A [EN-US] 1. I'm sorry, but the "canned" answer to my Lego Direct 031036604A complaint is not satisfactory. The 9468 Vampyre Castle HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY RELEASED on TLG's OFFICIAL Shop.Lego.com website ( http://search2.lego.com/?q=9468〈=2057&cc=US ). It IS available now -- didn't you CHECK? The excuse that this set was "released much earlier than anticipated due to being released at other retailers" is the same lame excuse used on the 9397 Logging Truck B-Model's Building Instructions (which J___ S____ and S____ R____ were part of in early March 2012). 2. In March 2012, I received a signed letter from TLG executives assured me that TLG "is committed to preventing building instruction delays and are taking action to make sure that this does not happen with future set releases." It seems that TLG has learned nothing from the 9397 B-Model instruction fiasco. I don't appreciate being given some canned "lip service" that YOUR CUSTOMERS must wait for a few weeks. The 9468's Building Instructions should be posted at the Lego Customer Service website now ( http://us.service.lego.com/en-US/BuildingInstructions/default.aspx ). 3. I still maintain that TLG has a SYSTEMIC problem with its websites. Let me know when you get your act together. -- David Luders, 7430 N. Prairie Crest Rd., Spokane, WA 99224-8966 USA" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "From: S____R______ To: ludersdg@msn.com CC: J___S______ Subject: RE: LEGO Direct:031036604A [EN-US] Date: Tue, 29 May 2012 20:44:08 +0000 David, I can clearly see your frustration level with recent events surrounding the release of the new MONSTER FIGHTER line, and availability of their instructions. Back in March we discussed TECHNIC B-side models specifically, and while it may seem that building instructions are building instructions, in fact they can be very different and come from different divisions of LEGO. The signed letter you received from the TECHNIC team was indeed a very nice one, that promised that moving forward TECHNIC sets would have the building instructions available. Each theme has its own design and implementation teams. This is feedback we are sharing with those teams in order to provide better experiences to our consumers, but it does take time. Please keep in mind that LEGO is a very large company that can’t always make system changes as quickly as we would like, and often we have to complete prior commitments before new initiatives can be started. We love to hear feedback from our fans. This is what help us grow to become a better company. We aren’t always able to make changes right away, but are committed to reviewing processes and making changes in order to provide better service to our loyal fans. The Building instructions should be posted automatically on our website soon, and we will do our best to correct issues like this in the future. S____ R________ Business Operations Team Leader Brick Keepers Direct (XXX)XXX-XXXX E-mail S____R_______" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "From: ludersdg@msn.com To: s____.r_________ CC: j____.s_________ Subject: RE: LEGO Direct:031036604A [EN-US] Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:56:01 -0700 Well, it's 2 weeks later and the Building Instructions for the 9468 Vampyre Castle set have STILL not been posted on the Lego Customer Service website http://service.lego.com/en-US/buildinginstructions/ . The set was released weeks ago, is featured in the new full-color Lego catalog I received 1-1/2 weeks ago, etc. So much for saying that "The Building instructions should be posted automatically on our website soon".... Did you REALLY mean it when you wrote "we will do our best to correct issues like this in the future"? -- David Luders, Spokane, WA" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have yet to receive a follow-on reply (or resolution) to this matter. All I'm seeking is for the PDF Building Instructions for the 9468 set to be posted on http://service.lego.com/en-US/buildinginstructions/ . Any assistance by the Lego Ambassador for the "Monster Fighters" theme would be appreciated; thank you.

Yes, I know -- those BIG TIRES would look better on the upcoming 9398 4x4 Crawler set than the undersized ones that will be supplied by The Lego Group. Your big German 3rd-party tires are more suitable for Rock Crawlers than the ones used for the 8297 Off Roader set:

Think of how much better those German tires would look on the 44772 wheels which were used in 8110 Unimog U400, the 8297 Offroader, and to be supplied with the upcoming 9398 4x4 Crawler set:

@ Kazz: Have you been reading the daily Bricklink Discussion Forum posts by the Bricklink Admin? There have been a number of problems with Bricklink lately, but they are getting fixed one by one (including the wantedSettings): "The current triage list is here....wantedSettingsAdd.asp As always, if you have a specific error, please e-mail it to admin instead of posting here so I am sure to get them all. If your error is on this list, please do not send it in again. Thanks for your patience and your continued business. Eric Smith Bricklink Administrator" The basic problem was explained on this Bricklink Admin post: "As a few people noticed, a number of major accounts were merged fraudulently around 12:15 pm EDT today" [June 7, 2012]. "As a merge is almost impossible to undo, the solution was to do a database rollback to 12:00 PM EDT today. This breach was due to the Admin user ID being stolen. We have done a number of things to mitigate this threat, but the main one that will be visible is the fact that marking the "save my password" box will no longer work. I understand that this is an inconvenience for you, as it is for me. We are working on high priority fixes now but will be continuing to work on securing every page and every database object in the site over the next weeks. There's a lot of code to cover and every page/stored proc has to be touched. I will continue to provide updates via Twitter and will provide a new list of pages on the triage list....Thank you for your patience while we tighten the system down to prevent further breaches."

I like the use of the big green Lego wheels and tires. Since I live very close to a huge dryland wheat growing region, I see large farm tractors with huge tires like these. For example, here's a John Deere tractor with yellow-green wheels: The large tires help displace the weight of the tractor over a larger area, so that there is less soil pressure and ruts. The Unimog tires are too small and TOO SMOOTH to act as farm tractor tires. TRACTION is key on loose farm soil.

Raus has made this fourth of his Lego Technic Scania 112 H Truck in action:

[bUMP] Han's "Truck 8x4 with Detachable Lowloader" has been added to Rebrickable.com: Truck & Trailer Truck by itself Gooseneck Trailer by itself

I'm old enough to know -- those grey tires were part of these late 1960s-early 1970s (pre-Technic) sets. They were mounted on red wheels with fixed, METAL axles that fit into 2x4 Bricks with little tubes in them:

It looks much better now:

You're going to need more shelf space! How many years did it take you to get all of these?

robbiemccarthy posted this of his Lego Technic Water Pump. He wrote, "Using a basic principle of concentration gradients, I built this water pump out of nothing but Legos and a plastic water bottle. "More information here: http://web.me.com/robbiemccarthy/Compositions/pump.html [with pictures of Full Assembly , Electronics and Pump , and Motor and Pump] "How it works: "One Lego motor, drawing power from a Lego battery box, activates a Lego pneumatic pump which pumps air through one tube into the sealed water bottle. The water is forced out by the increasing pressure into the other tube protruding from the cap; into a plant, cup, or any other vessel in need of a soaking. "One variation of this which i have been wanting to try, is connecting it to an RCX or NXT brick. By doing this, I could make it light sensor activated, so it waters my plant ever morning. (As long as the RCX/NXT has an external power source, which you can find online.) "Send me feedback and other project ideas!"

@ Crtlego: If you are going to have a LARGE supply of water, have you seen Isogawa Yoshihito's red water fountain idea? The two pistons force water up into a fountain:

That Scottish lad Alasdair Ryan sent me a birthday present to cheer me up -- his PDF instructions for a Lego Technic wheel chair "Scooter". Here it is trying to keep up with that Lego "Friends" hottie, Stephanie!

@ GazK: Here are YouTube videos of the "Forbidden Lego" book's Candy-Coated Catapult and Ping-Pong Cannon (by windlepoons101). The part you asked about is colored green in the first video and white in the second:

On his laixEngineering website, laix recently posted a "THW-Version of my Mini Unimog Fire Brigade...."THW (Technisches Hilfswerk) is the Federal Agency for Technical Relief of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its statutory tasks include the provision of technical assistance at home and humanitarian aid abroad...." "Its main features are as follows: - 9V power supply with "generator" and light towers [using Power Functions LEDs] - Trailer with lifting mechanism - Boat with raiseable propeller and hatch And this is what I came out with:" Read more about it here; more detailed pictures are on his Brickshelf gallery. Download the Lego Digital Designer (LDD) .lxf Building Instructions file to build one yourself!

@ S.I: Have you looked at Blokbricks.com's selection of pneumatic tubing/hose? They come in various colors (besides the usual blue and black):

@ Gilby: You're on the right track! Do you live on a farm? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhAK2Fl6vRY