DLuders

@ WetWired: See this Eurobricks topic about "Philo's LEGO 3D Scanner (Used for 3D LDRAW Parts) -- NXT Software Available to Scan Any Shape with Laser." The shows a "Laser scan of a LEGO part using DAVID laser scanner":

@ 88high: Looks good! In the first of your two newest photos, is the flexible hose on top of the engine representing a duct from the air cleaner? In the second photo, where are you thinking about placing the Power Functions Receiver? Your photos are rather small and cannot be directly displayed here in Eurobricks (due to the lack of a .JPG or .PNG file extension). Would you consider creating an account on Flickr? It's really easy to use, you can add descriptions and tags, and they offer a standard 800-pixel picture size to use here in Eurobricks.

@ Caselogic08: The hook lift mechanism is very clever. They don't have trucks like this in the USA!

Yesterday, Fernando Correia posted this TechnicBRICKS topic about a "project aims do address the needs of people that lack enough strength to hold/grip an ordinary drinking glass." Read more about it there; here is an excerpt:

10. Leviathan Omikron -- 1 point 14. Piper Super Cub Float Plane dhc6twinotter -- 1 point 2. The Harbour Tug efferman -- 1 point 3. Water Jeep Rodeown -- 1 point 4. Semi-submersible Zaiocrit -- 1 point 1. Falkirk Wheel jojoguy10 -- 1 point 13. Water Strider Splat -- 1 point.

Well, here are the possible reasons that there is no LEGO.com "Technic Challenge" for 2012 (like there was for 2010 and 2011): 1) If you look at the LEGO.com TECHNIC website, the "Latest Blog Entry" is dated over 2 months ago. That indicates that there is little contribution by the Technic Designers on their own website. 2) The past two annual competitions have been marred by many PLAGIARIZED entries, month after month. People have tried to get credit for other people's work by submitting entries that were not theirs. The plagiarized entries were caught and "weeded out" only through the actions of the members of this forum; the Technic staff seemed somewhat disinterested in conducting a fair competition. I recall about 5 months (out of the two years) where easily-recognizable PLAGIARIZED entries were submitted (sometimes by the SAME GUY, two months in a row). I think this is what "doomed" the competition more than anything. 3) There may be only so many Technic categories (cars, aircraft, cranes, etc.) for which one can conduct a wide competition. Maybe TLG ran out of good ideas. The "Take the TECHNIC Challenge" competitions could come back in future years.

@ Tadej: You can look at the Bricklink 9397 Parts Inventory and see the "Extra Items" pictorially listed after the primary "A-Model" is complete. I'm not sure what the extra parts would be for the alternate "B-Model"; most likely they are minor parts too.

@ Alasdair Ryan: No, that's my son operating the video camera. He's a Lego AFOL and rocketeer too. I'm doing the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown (off camera) and running in a red sweater to see it smash into my garden patch.

As Sama noted, there are now 23 pictures on Nathanael Kuipers (industrialdesigner) Brickshelf folder -- "Medium sized Technic car with similar features as bigger Supercars, like full suspension, V8 piston engine, working steering wheel and 4-speed gearbox. Rear axle is driven with live axle suspension. Has HoG steering as well. WiP." I wonder what kind of body he will place on it?

I rebuilt my Lego Technic Death Star Booster Rocket's body, to make it lighter. You can see how I carved off the top of the cardboard motor casing so that it fit into the 4x4 Technic Brick with Open Center. Instead of 1x15 Technic Liftarms, I used four 2637 1x16 Technic Links. The thinner profile and lighter weight of the link allowed the rocket to climb to ~400 feet (~120 meters) on an Estes C6-3 motor. The 3-second delay is more suited to this rocket, and the Death Star ball was deployed at rocket apogee. You can see how I carved the top of the cardboard Estes rocket motor casing, to enable it to fit inside the 4x4 Technic Brick with Open Center. Here's a short of the launch: The flexible Technic Links absorbed the shock better than the liftarms. Even though I lowered the rocket's "Center of Gravity" by 3 studs (via a lower attachment point on the Box Fins), the booster still came down in a "ballistic" manner. I will fly it again using shorter, 6247 1x11 Technic Links. I want the booster to "tumble" down, so I need to make the rocket "unstable" AFTER it spits its motor at apogee.

Today on his Flickr photoset, Jeroen Ottens added 8 more pictures of his BIG Lego Hindenburg model:

@ Porty: dhc6twinotter's Lego Technic Case Steiger 335 (a Power Functions articulating tractor with pneumatics and attachments) is described and pictured on this Eurobricks topic.

It may have "Average Supercar Features" for a Crowkillers creation, but it's better than many Lego Technic sets offered so far!

Sariel's seats look like "Fine Corinthian Leather", as hawked by Ricardo Montalban:

@ RohanBeckett: That's a good solution -- a piston plunger that pops off the top of the Death Star! The 9676 "TIE Interceptor & Death Star" set comes with this useful 2376 "Black Tile, Round 2 x 2 - Lifting Ring" part: Now, the challenge is to make a LIGHTWEIGHT piston plunger assembly that extends up into the 11x11 ball. There is plenty of room for a non-Lego parachute inside the ball....

Daniel captured some nice details on his Lego Technic Piper Cub Float Plane:

Technicmad (Nathan Thom) has updated his Rebrickable.com MOCs webpage with a new look. His blog has this news: "New User Settings and Notifications" "I have made some changes with the per-user settings. I removed the three checkboxes for email notifications as I no longer plan on sending those kinds of emails. Plus I added two new options described below: 1. Default color matching scheme 2. A % threshold for emailing new MOCs "Default Color Matching" "There are several places where the Build % for a set or MOC is automatically calculated for you other than the main build set search results. Previously these calculations assumed a color matching level of “Close”. Now you can also change it to “Exact” or “Ignore” as your default, which is used as: - Default option when finding new sets to build - Displaying your Build % on sets or MOCs - Method used by API get_set_match function "New MOC Threshold" "Now when new MOCs are added to the database it will automatically calculate what % of parts you have in your collection, based on the default color matching scheme mentioned above. If that % is greater than the threshold you use for this option, you will receive an automatic email with details of the new MOC. "For example, if you enter 0% you will receive an email for every MOC. If you enter 100% you will only receive emails for new MOCs that you are able to build completely with the parts you have. Leaving this field blank will prevent any emails from being sent, and is the default until you enter something."

infrapinklizard posted the above Flickr picture of a "possibility for MinuteBot base -- This is a mock-up of a possible improvement to the MinuteBot base. The MinuteBot base is a 3rd-party 21x30 Technic Liftarm to be used as a rigid base for technic creations: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37801615/minutebot-base . This uses the dead space between the pin-connections to have bar connections." The MinuteBot base needs backers on Kickstarter to become reality. There is this video which explains it well. Here are excerpts from the Kickstarter webpage: "What is MinuteBot Base?" "The MinuteBot Base is a thick, robust base plate that can be used for construction of robotics based on LEGO Mindstorms. It extends a LEGO beam into a rectangular plate with 21 x 30 holes [ = 630 Technic Pin holes]. The dimensions and holes are a perfect fit with LEGO products: "The physical dimensions (L x W x H) of a MinuteBot Base are: 240 x 168 x 8 mm. The weight is estimated to be around 135g. The material is ABS (maybe with some glass fiber added to increase stiffness). The component is claret-colored. This makes the component stand out as a unique MinuteBot creation (we have checked with the people at LEGO and they are completely cool with the project). "What can the MinuteBot Base be used for?" "We hope that a lot of dedicated LEGO builders will appreciate the new possibilities that MinuteBot Base provides and use it for whatever project they are tinkering with! "Personally, we would use MinuteBot Base for semi-professional robotics. As an example, we recently needed a robot for a biotech research project. It would have been easier if we had a robust base plate with holes - see images: "We know we're not the only ones using LEGO Mindstorms in a research lab setting. Check out this cool by courtesy of Dr. Oyen, OyenLab, Cambridge University, UK:[media] "Do I need more than one MinuteBot Base?" "No, not at all. You can do a lot of awesome stuff with just one MinuteBot Base. But, as they say: Two's company, three's a crowd - and four is a party! Look at what you can do by linking four MinuteBot Base plates together:"

From this webpage on TechnicBRICKS, it looks like the Lego Technic Shock Absorbers are the same as the 8110 Unimog U400 set's -- the 95292c01 "Technic, Shock Absorber 9.5L, Complete Assembly (Extra Hard Spring)":

The bottom 11x11 hemisphere of the Death Star was only slightly melted; the bottom end of the lightweight panels were covered with a light coating of soot (from the Black Powder ejection charge in the Estes rocket motor). The 2x4 Technic Plate did not melt. The ejection charge lasts only a fraction of a second, and the melting point of the ABS plastic is around 375 degrees F. (190 degrees C.), per this Eurobricks topic. Everything cleans up with White Vinegar (which has a mild cleaning action). I packed a single sheet of Estes flame-resistant wadding into the end of the C6-5 motor (where the ejection charge is) to reduce the scorching. The Death Star hemispheres clip together with "tabs" that form an interlocking, scalloped shape around the edge. There is no "halfway point" where the two halves are lightly connected, so that a parachute inside can deploy when the motor's ejection charge goes off. Here are the 98114 and 98115 parts; the connecting tabs are faintly visible. The top and bottom holes (in between the 2x2 studs) are only the size of a Technic Pinhole. I MAY be able to rig up and internal strut (made from a Technic Axle) to hold the hemisphere halves barely apart upon takoff, but easily separable at apogee: On the next flight, I was going to SHORTEN the long Technic Liftarms (from 1x15 to 1x13), so the "Center of Gravity" is a bit lower. That way, after the rocket deploys the Death Star at apogee, the rocket body will be less stable upon descent and will "tumble" instead of coming down ballistically. Here is a pic of the rocket on the ground, before I did my "bucket" recovery. The 11x11 ball remained intact, but the black rocket body popped apart via the Technic Pins. Everything just snapped back together -- no broken or bent parts: Besides the Death Star, one could also launch two other kinds of "planets" -- Tatooine and Naboo (all currently available on Shop.Lego.com):

Daniel's solution is great, but here is Sariel's Pneumatic Autovalve design:

I like the way that Jurgen Krooshoop did the seats on his Lego Technic "Little Devil" RC Sportscar -- the Round Pin Joiners look like plush leather seats: Nathanael Kuipers (industrialdesigner) has interesting seat cushions and headrests on his Lego Convertible Supercar: For those who like "studded" building, the 8880 Supercar had some uncomfortable-looking seats:

... but Philo does! See this Eurobricks topic about "Philo's LEGO 3D Scanner (Used for 3D LDRAW Parts) -- NXT Software Available to Scan Any Shape with Laser." The shows a "Laser scan of a LEGO part using DAVID laser scanner":

Another design consideration is the rocket's RECOVERY method: a) Most model rockets have either a PARACHUTE or STREAMER to slow the rocket's descent. Alas, TLG does not make a parachute. Even the Lego Sails are not large enough to handle a weighty Lego rocket. I could use a yellow LEGO shopping bag (from an official Lego Store), but I would have to cut the plastic and some "Lego purist" would object. b) A "tumble recovery" is what I intended, but the rocket "came in ballistic" and smashed into the ground at high speed. So, I had a "bucket recovery" instead (where the pieces are collected in a bucket for reassembly). Yes, I intend to build more MOCs, but I have yet to find a Lego AFOL who builds REAL FLYING LEGO ROCKETS like me. I know Blakbird can do it.... (hint, hint!)

Paul Boratko (a.k.a. Crowkillers) had this Lego Technic seat design, as discussed on this TechnicBRICKS topic: Of course, there's the old standby 2717 "Technic Seat 3 x 2 Base" (which works well in smaller Technic creations: