Prophet of Nixon posted:

Does anyone know if there are any "real" or third-party transparent display stands for Lego? Something like a posing stand for an action figure/transformer, but ending in some kind of brick/plate?

Doctor Spaceman posted:

The bridge uses a 3-4-5 Pythagorean triangle to allow it to be built on-stud while being at an angle. This is the easiest Pythagorean triple to use, although 5-12-13 is also useful. The basic concept is really simple and doesn't rely on any unusual pieces; you could do it with a box of bricks from the 80s if you wanted.

1000 Brown M and Ms posted:

Hell, there were some sets from the 80s that used the 3-4-5 Pythagorean triple, eg the red bars at the bow of this ship:


I remember being fascinated by that as a kid, but obviously since kids generally don't know trigonometry, I was confused and a bit frustrated as to why that one worked but other angles and lengths didn't.

xzzy posted:

Kid oriented sets have a lot more single piece institution steps. At least that's how it feels to me.. I guess I've never done a statistical analysis of lego instructions.

Terry van Feleday posted:

For smaller/lighter models you can use
42445 Bar 12L with 1x2 Plate & 1x1 Round Plate or 30359 Bar 1x8 with Brick 1x2 Curved Top End.
I also just screwed around with some gunpla stands and it turns out that for Bandai's Action Base 2, the square gubbin at the top is natively the right size to be stuffed into any 1xN brick antistud for a pretty tight connection. I can't confirm, but believe that the same is also true for the newer Action Base 5, probably even the larger Action Base 4 (but definitely not 1).

Here's me using a 12L bar for some zippy lil Insectoids craft.

I originally wanted to build these using only "period-appropriate" parts, but then I realized I have no idea how we got anything done back in the day without all the super convenient pieces we have access to nowadays. Annoying that 79491 Plate, Round Corner 2x2 with 1x1 Cutout has for some reason only shown up in the Mario 64 ? Block and nowhere else so far, some of these in blue would've been useful...

Rythe posted:

I know I just missed the March x2 VIP points, is there a April one coming up? I'm going to drop alot of money on lego soon and i would love to get those sweet sweet points

HootTheOwl posted:

Are there translucent axels?

Crazy Joe Wilson posted:

Question about Lego.com's Pick a Brick store. I ordered a bunch of stuff recently, as part of an order. I made sure it was moved into my cart, and my final price reflected that, and was charged that (and my confirmation order listed all those pieces). When I went back to Pick a Brick though, all those bricks I had ordered were still in my pick a brick selection. Should I just empty that "cart", to start a new pick a brick order?

Scipiotik posted:

I think my fav is the Ferrari, I wasn't expecting to love it, but it looks great and was a good build. Countach is just my fav car growing up. But the Valkyrie was the best build.

HootTheOwl posted:

Are there translucent axels?

1000 Brown M and Ms posted:

AFAIK Lego have never made transparent axles or any other colour of translucent axles.

deoju posted:

Did you mean to come back to this Q? or

Flyinglemur posted:

The_Doctor posted:

The foreman came by to inspect your work, I see. Excellent.

Flyinglemur posted:

She swung by during my previous build to let me know where I screwed up



Sorry its blurry, she was quite animated about it

Doctor Spaceman posted:

So the Lantern Festival is pretty cool.


The park is raised up above the baseplate which allows the pond to be below the "ground level". The pond itself is formed by a base layer with transparent tiles over the top, which gives a sense of depth (the large Ninjago sets use this technique too, with additional colour gradations to show a changing depth).

The bridge uses a 3-4-5 Pythagorean triangle to allow it to be built on-stud while being at an angle. This is the easiest Pythagorean triple to use, although 5-12-13 is also useful. The basic concept is really simple and doesn't rely on any unusual pieces; you could do it with a box of bricks from the 80s if you wanted.

The really impressive bit is the hexagonal pavilion on top of the (octagonal) rock outcropping Just look at this:



It's great.

Carbohydrates posted:

Here, have a peek! The instructions for all modern LEGO sets are freely available, so here's the Valkyrie we're discussing. Build spoilers ahead, if that's a thing for you.

https://www.lego.com/cdn/product-assets/product.bi.core.pdf/6409874.pdf

In this build, 1/2 stud offsetting is achieved in a few different ways. Here, early on, it's done with jumper plates as well as Technic connections:



Here, Technic is used again, but also click hinges. The hinge isn't used for any articulation at all, just for the 1/2 stud offset.



The 2 x 6 Technic brick with axle holes (the wheel axle holder, basically) is used as the floor of the chassis because of its slim profile. It's also used this way in this year's Mercedes F1 car.



These headlight bricks are placed sideways on their backs so that the stud connection is oriented to the bottom of the piece, allowing the seat backs to line up properly:



Some cool non-System part usage as this Technic rotor blade forms the rear fin on the cabin.



The rear of the cabin is built with this 1 x 3 arch, the curvature of which perfectly matches the profile of those Technic pieces:



This one is genius. The 2 x 2 hinge brick top is used as a very thin gap filler to maintain the black lower trim band. A bracket piece couldn't be used here because it would collide with the Technic axle joiners, but the hinge connection of this piece just barely clears it. loving superb.



Brackets on top of brackets, studs going in 3 directions, to strengthen this trim / side:



More great part usage: the classic car doors from the 70s used as splitters here.



The way this bit curves around the bodywork and stays in place. The front part is pinned between those tiles and the 1 x 2 rounded plate, while the rear angle is set by a 1/4 plate gap between the hinge plate and the black 45 degree slope on the side of the cockpit rear. I call this "indexing" and LEGO is very good at it.

mastershakeman posted:

thanks for all the posts explaining stuff but these two really help. i can look at instructions and not really get what's interesting, but having it pointed out this way is great. i still dont' 'get' some like step 17 there - why not just use a 1x2 plate? is it just to fill in the gap a bit but not as much as a 1x3 would?

mastershakeman posted:

thanks for all the posts explaining stuff but these two really help. i can look at instructions and not really get what's interesting, but having it pointed out this way is great. i still dont' 'get' some like step 17 there - why not just use a 1x2 plate? is it just to fill in the gap a bit but not as much as a 1x3 would?

Hispanic! At The Disco posted:

I can't see what it clicks in to, but I'm pretty sure it's one of these:

Doctor Spaceman posted:

The bridge uses a 3-4-5 Pythagorean triangle to allow it to be built on-stud while being at an angle. This is the easiest Pythagorean triple to use, although 5-12-13 is also useful. The basic concept is really simple and doesn't rely on any unusual pieces; you could do it with a box of bricks from the 80s if you wanted.

OpenlyEvilJello posted:

If you're using these, remember to count based on the distance between the centers of studs (as that's where the vertex will be). So like a 3-4-5 triple is a 4x5 rectangle with a 6-stud diagonal.

e: Unless you're connecting along a different reference frame, that is. This is assuming a basic studs-on-top bricks-and-plates-only type of construction.

GlenMR posted:

Y'all ever wonder what happens when a beetle hits a falcon at the speed of gravity?

GlenMR posted:

Y'all ever wonder what happens when a beetle hits a falcon at the speed of gravity?