deraven

Welcome out of your dark age and to EB, Severin! Happy building!

Unless there is something actually wrong with the printer, 600x600 is fine, and color laser is absolutely better for printing decals than an inkjet photo printer. I really think color space and raster images are the real problem... plus I don't recall how much control over print settings you have in Paint, but the default file DPI used to be 72 or 96 (PPI). So if you're basically printing a 72 or 96 DPI, raster image, in RGB on a CYMK 600 DPI printer, you're not going to get great results. Before you think about getting a new printer, you need to work out the other pieces. If you have the correct file and output DPI in the correct color space with a vector image and at that point the output from the HP color laser still isn't up to snuff, that's when I'd take the deeper dive at the hardware. I've printed decals with an older 300DPI resolution laser printer that look great. The only place that the lower DPI will really show even with vector images is in gradients, so if you have that in your designs a 6-color/photo printer might be better for that, but inkjet still isn't ideal (unless it's dye sublimation on appropriate media, maybe) if you're going to be handling them much and not just having them set up as a static display. I'm no expert, but in my experience that's what I've found.

Welcome to EB, Dovakkhiin! There's a lot of variables to talk about when it comes to custom printing decals, but that color laser printer should work fine, at least as a starting point. My guess would be that the decals themselves are not using the right color space for matching the colors to Lego colors (RGB vs CYMK), and that the graphics are not vector-based or otherwise high enough resolution to be scaled and printed properly. Take a look at some of the topics here for inspiration and how-tos:

Nice build - you've captured it really well!

Yes, or a Coca Cola commercial, but I like your reference better.

This thread will give you the detail you need and a link to the product: Also, while we're here, if you need a source for pneumatic tubing (and also Lego-link string in one of the comments):

This is wonderful! The bright red really pops amongst all that "snow." Did you rework your Walden cabin and trees for this? I must say, the trees look amazing in this snowy version as well! I like the few bits of brown sticking through the snow here and there, the blobs of snow on the tan shrub, and that owl spying on the activity. Another great build.

There may be some people that are being disingenuous or sarcastic/trolling when they pull that, but I think a lot of it is simply a lack of elegance or oversimplification in what they're trying to express. Personally, I feel like these days LEGO has plenty of people on the inside that do just want to surprise and delight their fans (of all ages), but 95% of the actual output still has to make business sense. So we get plenty of things that are very obviously AFOL-focussed, but I wouldn't say they "bend over backwards" to please AFOLs, and whether the AFOL % of business is 10% or 40%, that still means a sizable majority of their products have to make economic sense with the rest of the market, which is kids and families. So more like, "They accept our input and are happy to please us when it makes reasonable business sense to do so, but the math just doesn't work out for them on some of what we want." I think a good example is something like the Battle Packs. AFOLs (and certainly some younger folks) want to do army building and LEGO initially released some simple blister-packs of minifigs and a few accessories either with no set name or actually labeled as "Accessory" and a couple years later released some (castle, I think) minifigure packs that they actually called Battle Packs. From the accounts I've hear they didn't sell particularly well, and they slowly morphed into the more kid-friendly and play-focussed battle packs we have today that generally include a small vehicle of some type in addition to the minifigs. For the Star Wars stuff in particular there may be some licensing stipulations at plat as well, but I think the bigger picture is that it would be more economical for AFOLs to be able to buy packs of just the minifigs, the compromise is to sell them this way so it's still a reasonable way to build an army but LEGO also sells enough of them to the non-AFOL demographic with this format to keep them a part of their product lineup. If they weren't listening to us at all we probably wouldn't have had those packs in the first place (and Jack Stone + Juniorization across most lines was the opposite extreme in that direction), and if they were bending over backwards we'd be able to easily order in bulk in multiples of 25 minifigs at a great price or something along those lines.

OH, yes, I see. Awesome.

That's a lovely build. I'm not entirely sold on the teacup, but the revolver for the exhaust pipe and the ice skates for the grill I think are great! Is there actually a steering mechanism/swivel, or are the front tires just set in that way for the picture?

Welcome to EB, seejay! You've got some nice builds there; I especially like the charging station that matches the wood! Looking forward to seeing what else you create, and maybe even a GBC module from you too. Happy building!

That's pretty fun! Looks like a very lively and festive winter village to me. I like your use of the white tooth pieces on the molded trees to simulate snow - nice touch!

NPU for the beard, and that face & hat are delightful as well.

Is that Denny on the right? That face is great!

This is a lovely build all-around, but I must say one thing that jumps out at me is how nicely you've integrated the support with those clear panels. I love they way they go straight into the rock with the point inside, and then the clouds beneath. It's great!

Nicely captured - I especially like the hair and earring!

Really great, especially the part usage at that scale. Those modified plate with bar pieces work so well for the brow area, and the little gap and difference in curve radius for the mouth and chin are wonderful. Great build!

Hi a, b, and c designations are there to indicate variations of a part that LDD didn't address but can sometimes be important in a MOC. Here's the differences in part 3245 that you mentioned: So that may not matter to your build, and in that case you can purchase any of the different part variants just based on cost or availability. As for panels being expensive, that's all supply and demand! The market is the market...

Welcome to EB, MAX! Sounds like you've got good taste in space-related Lego. I'm sure you'll enjoy the inspiration that can be found here, and look forward to seeing some of your creations. Happy building!

It looks like "light bluish grey" to me, but you can look at what color you have selected in whatever digital building tool you are using (Lego Digital Designer, etc.) and it will either match up to the Bricklink colors or you can google that to see what the equivalent color is between the different naming conventions and find which one you need.

This is excellent - even better than your midi Y-wing in my opinion! Great job keeping it swooshable and still working in those design elements.

That's a lovely scene. I also like the roof structure, as well as the terrain, the fence using the flex tubes, and the counterweighted well. Nice overall color selections as well.

That's great! Simple but effective, just like the actual set of the show. Now keep going until you've got the whole bridge done!

Welcome to EB, Jon! Looking forward to a more wheelchair friendly world, even if it's only in brick form to start. Happy building!

Someone else may have more info, but I think it just has to do with the timing of when the set was marketed. The Designer theme was around from 2003-2006 and was meant to focus on more challenging, or architecturally interesting models (a little closer to what Creator Expert is today, I guess) whereas the Creator theme was usually sets with more variety of bricks and more basic things you could do with them (thus the 3-in-1 marketing). This 4886 set came out in 2004 but was still available in 2006 when Designer was phased out and the existing sets were dropped into the Creator line, so the difference in boxes just depends on when they were produced and packed. No difference in the contents.