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beato
Nov 26, 2004

CHILLL OUT, DICK WAD.
Lego Pneumatic V8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K-e6JA1Ohs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSLUqVnbbY4

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Stregone
Sep 1, 2006

Now I want to make an rc pneumatic lego car.

Ingraman
Jul 6, 2005
Arrogant bastard

Intoxication posted:

Once again felt the need to share. You might remember the LDD castle diorama. I'm currently expanding on it, adding a subterrenean lake under a grate in the treasury/armory cave. It'll have a small opening with a waterfall to the outside into that little lake with the landing:


Click here for the full 1280x859 image.
[/url]

Woah, how much does that price up to? Really like the way you did the mountains and waterfall.

pad thai hi-five
Aug 11, 2003

Oven Wrangler
I'm not sure about cost right now, but it should be frightening.
I seem to remember a program that could somehow create bricklink price lists from .lxf files, I'll give that a shot when it's done.

I've gone mad lately and keep walking into any old toy shop i see, looking for interesting LEGO sets. Some of those little shops have older (as in 2007/08) sets collecting dust in a corner, and let them go for crazy discounts, growing my stockpile of bricks every week.

I also just learned of the existence of "value" or "super" packs of LEGO sets. Got the big building site set plus concrete mixer and front loader for € 39,90 at TRU.
While I was there, I also got the blue version of the LEGO delivery 18-wheeler and big CITY tracked crane.

WhiskeyJuvenile
Feb 15, 2002

by Nyc_Tattoo

Intoxication posted:

I'm not sure about cost right now, but it should be frightening.
I seem to remember a program that could somehow create bricklink price lists from .lxf files, I'll give that a shot when it's done.

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=41993

Sloppy
Apr 25, 2003

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

Can someone explain how companies like Mega Bloks can legally rip off Lego so shamelessly? Even as a kid I could see how blatantly wrong it was.

Juriko
Jan 28, 2006

Sloppy posted:

Can someone explain how companies like Mega Bloks can legally rip off Lego so shamelessly? Even as a kid I could see how blatantly wrong it was.

Lego is old as hell so I would assume their patent has expired.

Dame Cook
Aug 6, 2006

by I Ozma Myself

Juriko posted:

Lego is old as hell so I would assume their patent has expired.

Exactly. The last patentable change they made to the basic brick design was introducing tubes, and that was in the '60s or early '70s. Some of the more recent part designs have their own specific protection, but Mega Bloks (unlike some of the others) have always been very good about designing their own specialised parts, not just copying Lego's.

Sloppy
Apr 25, 2003

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/08/08/pkg.expressive.legos.cnn?hpt=C2

Is that Shupp's train station at 39s in?


Dame Cook posted:

Exactly. The last patentable change they made to the basic brick design was introducing tubes, and that was in the '60s or early '70s. Some of the more recent part designs have their own specific protection, but Mega Bloks (unlike some of the others) have always been very good about designing their own specialised parts, not just copying Lego's.

Maybe they make their own specialized pieces, but they are a parasite on Lego's success. Otherwise they'd succeed making their own system of brick sizes instead of needing to make pieces that fit with Lego so they can sell them to grandmothers who don't know better.

Dame Cook
Aug 6, 2006

by I Ozma Myself

Sloppy posted:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/08/08/pkg.expressive.legos.cnn?hpt=C2

Is that Shupp's train station at 39s in?


Maybe they make their own specialized pieces, but they are a parasite on Lego's success. Otherwise they'd succeed making their own system of brick sizes instead of needing to make pieces that fit with Lego so they can sell them to grandmothers who don't know better.

Tente tried that and were quite successful for a while, so were the original non-compatible Best-Lock designs. But having them all compatible is better for consumers, really, especially now that Lego's quality is slipping. Do you also campaign against interoperability between software? Don't forget that Lego's patent was based on a stolen design in the first place.

Sloppy
Apr 25, 2003

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

Dame Cook posted:

Tente tried that and were quite successful for a while, so were the original non-compatible Best-Lock designs. But having them all compatible is better for consumers, really, especially now that Lego's quality is slipping. Do you also campaign against interoperability between software? Don't forget that Lego's patent was based on a stolen design in the first place.

It's not better for the consumers when I have to spend two hours picking Mega Bloks out of every goddamn Lego pile I buy :argh: And the software comparison is a non sequitur for a variety of reasons. I would like to read more about the stolen design though; do you have a link?

Dame Cook
Aug 6, 2006

by I Ozma Myself

Sloppy posted:

It's not better for the consumers when I have to spend two hours picking Mega Bloks out of every goddamn Lego pile I buy :argh:
I must admit I've never had that problem. The only time I've got Mega Bloks is when I've bought a job lot of specifically Mega Bloks, or one that was advertised as mixed.

quote:

And the software comparison is a non sequitur for a variety of reasons.
I admit I was being a bit facetious, but it's not a total stretch. I want to get some stuff in a theme Lego will never do (military, for example), but I still want to incorporate my existing Lego parts. In the software world, people are all about allowing that as long as the competitor is large enough to be worth supporting.

quote:

I would like to read more about the stolen design though; do you have a link?
Here's the link: http://www.hilarypagetoys.com/history.php?his_id=5. Note that this is a biased source, but Lego did admit to using the design without originally paying for it. Also, the talk of legal action in this article is seriously out of date; Lego later lost a court case against Mega Bloks which clarified that their basic brick and plate designs were no longer patented: http://boingboing.net/2005/11/17/judge-to-lego-your-p.html. They do, however, quite rightly go after anyone who uses their name or other trademarks, or companies who clone their set designs, although the latter tend to be Chinese and pretty untouchable.

zorch
Nov 28, 2006

Dame Cook posted:

Here's the link: http://www.hilarypagetoys.com/history.php?his_id=5. Note that this is a biased source, but Lego did admit to using the design without originally paying for it.

It seems like every product description says that they're 'better than wood or painted / polished variants', so apparently the idea isn't solely his either. Also I don't think I could ever see "Self-Locking Building Bricks" taking off in the way LEGO did :psyduck:

3
Aug 26, 2006

The Magic Number


College Slice

emoltra posted:

Also I don't think I could ever see "Self-Locking Building Bricks" taking off in the way LEGO did :psyduck:

You'd think that, wouldn't you? But it'd actually be called System if you want to get really pedantic, LEGO is the name of the corporation. Before they came out with the system bricks, they made other toys.

Ted Stevens
Jun 2, 2007

by T. Finn

Sloppy posted:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/08/08/pkg.expressive.legos.cnn?hpt=C2

Is that Shupp's train station at 39s in?


Maybe they make their own specialized pieces, but they are a parasite on Lego's success. Otherwise they'd succeed making their own system of brick sizes instead of needing to make pieces that fit with Lego so they can sell them to grandmothers who don't know better.

Aw man, if only I knew about that going on. I live about 40 minutes away from there. I would have gone there and checked it out. It looked pretty sweet.

ChesterJT
Dec 28, 2003

Mounty Pumper's Flying Circus
The teacups ride is awesome.

ought ten
Feb 6, 2004

^^^^ The teacups ride was indeed awesome.

Ted Stevens posted:

Aw man, if only I knew about that going on. I live about 40 minutes away from there. I would have gone there and checked it out. It looked pretty sweet.

I was there! I got a bunch of pictures that I'll sort through tomorrow and post in here. I saw those trains and thought they looked familiar but I wasn't sure if any of them were our own. I felt a little weird going up to the three guys milling around behind the train table and asking if they had stairs in their houses.

*edited for correct arrow direction

ought ten fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Aug 9, 2010

Diogenes Cynicus
Aug 5, 2009

Ted Stevens posted:

Aw man, if only I knew about that going on. I live about 40 minutes away from there. I would have gone there and checked it out. It looked pretty sweet.

I found out about it the day before, so I was there. A lot of very cool stuff. I also managed to find an unopened Indiana Jones Jungle Cutter set from one of the vendors. It did get fairly crowded, though.

A Kimbasaur
Jul 13, 2010

InfinEight posted:


Anyway, I made a Buzz last night, and once again he's outclassed out of the box:


Although that Buzz may be outclassed, this Lego Buzz and Woody Duo are certainly worth their weight in Legos.


Click here for the full 700x446 image.


They were at the London Toy Fair in January. What do you think they did with them after the fair? Shipped them off to a Lego Store?

InfinEight
Apr 25, 2007

What planet is this again?-- OH SHIT
So I've built the Neptune Carrier and Y-Wing:



They're the same price new, but here's a quick rundown of my thoughts:

Y-Wing pros:
-100 more pieces
-solidly built
-feels like something I would make
-lots of pieces I know I will use later
-smooth domes are awesome

Neptune Carrier pros:
-inspired design, seriously really cool
-lots of play features
-lighter than the Y-Wing = easier to swoosh
-variety of unique pieces not available in any other set
-4 minifigs

The Y-Wing is a better deal in terms of piece count, but if you can get it on sale, the Neptune Carrier is a lot of fun. Either way I think most buyers would be pleased.

A Kimbasaur posted:

Although that Buzz may be outclassed, this Lego Buzz and Woody Duo are certainly worth their weight in Legos.


Click here for the full 700x446 image.


They were at the London Toy Fair in January. What do you think they did with them after the fair? Shipped them off to a Lego Store?

Those are pretty cool, and I imagine they're on a tour to various stores to help advertise/sell product.

Robot Hobo
May 18, 2002

robothobo.com

Flavor Bear posted:

If you were a kid you would be too busy crying.
When I was a kid, I had a big bag of Loc Blocs.
My parents wouldn't let me get any Legos, because they wouldn't be compatible with what I already had.

How I hated you, Loc Blocs.

john ashpool
Jun 29, 2010
Post

john ashpool fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Mar 19, 2016

Captain Invictus
Apr 5, 2005

Try reading some manga!


Clever Betty

Robot Hobo posted:

When I was a kid, I had a big bag of Loc Blocs.
My parents wouldn't let me get any Legos, because they wouldn't be compatible with what I already had.

How I hated you, Loc Blocs.

Don't blame the lovely Lego ripoffs. Blame your lovely parents.

Actually, you can blame the lovely Lego ripoffs too I guess.

Karma Tornado
Dec 21, 2007

The worst kind of tornado.

Went to Brick Fair for the first time. The best part, easily, was the fact that people put their ages next to their names on the little ID tags that go with their LEGO stuff. Which is adorable when it's a 12-year-old who built the Bismarck but kind of hilarious when it's a 32-year-old's Interstellar Shipping Yard or whatever.

Awesome to see all the stuff people do with LEGO and it totally drove me to disassemble the tiny amount of sets I had floating around the house so as to make a mechanical man, but, Jesus, they've got to lay the place out in such a way that it isn't utter chaos.

Diogenes Cynicus
Aug 5, 2009

RKOMG! posted:

Jesus, they've got to lay the place out in such a way that it isn't utter chaos.

Agreed. It was a complete mess about 15 minutes after the doors opened. Even more so if you went over into the vendor's corner after the first 45 minutes or so.

Shuppiluliumas
Nov 9, 2006
Got in from BrickFair really late yesterday. It was a great time and, as an added bonus, the press was all over it. My subway made it on CNN.com.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/08/08/pkg.expressive.legos.cnn?hpt=C2

It was also where I was able to debut my container port. Here's a few shots. Full set on flickr as always. I can't take credit for the water, yard trucks or the rail cars: other members of my club designed those. Otherwise it's basically all me.













RKOMG! posted:

they've got to lay the place out in such a way that it isn't utter chaos.

It was much better than last year, though. We've been in a hotel in the past and we've more than outgrown it. We also had 19,000 public visitors this year which was just insane.

Hobnob
Feb 23, 2006

Ursa Adorandum

john ashpool posted:

I remember some posters used a 'buy 1, get the next half off' coupon to buy two excavators from target for only $300. I think I'll eventually be getting the excavator, what are the chances of me getting a similar deal on them?

I've noticed that Toys R Us usually have the better general discount deals like that (e.g. some BOGOHO deal on all lego or a number of lego themes); Target normally just has a few sets on sale though you sometimes get some good deals on clearance. Of course for most of the time TRU's base prices are higher.

Though interestingly my local Target has a big selection of Lego at the moment, including the new technic sets which they don't usually carry. I'm sooo tempted by the excavator or the mobile crane.

ought ten
Feb 6, 2004

Shuppiluliumas posted:

Got in from BrickFair really late yesterday. It was a great time and, as an added bonus, the press was all over it. My subway made it on CNN.com.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/08/08/pkg.expressive.legos.cnn?hpt=C2

It was also where I was able to debut my container port. Here's a few shots. Full set on flickr as always. I can't take credit for the water, yard trucks or the rail cars: other members of my club designed those. Otherwise it's basically all me.














It was much better than last year, though. We've been in a hotel in the past and we've more than outgrown it. We also had 19,000 public visitors this year which was just insane.

That was fantastic, one of my favorites from the whole thing. Did you have any other models at that table?

Karma Tornado
Dec 21, 2007

The worst kind of tornado.

This is the robot mansuit I made last night. Haven't built anything without instructions since I was like eleven.

Stregone
Sep 1, 2006
This was my favorite little scene thing (what are they called again?) from brickfair. I wish I went both days and took more pictures. I was surprised how much more enjoyment I got out of the various scenes people made, rather than the technical spaceships and robots stuff.



Got a bunch more neat ones, still need to sort through them all.

I also thought that some things I saw there looked really familiar :p

Veeb0rg
Jul 24, 2001

THIS CONVERSATION IS NONPRODUCTIVE!
I didn't know brickfair was local to me.. drat I would have loved to have gone.

Bloody Hedgehog
Dec 12, 2003

💥💥🤯💥💥
Gotta nuke something

Stregone posted:

This was my favorite little scene thing (what are they called again?)...

A vignette?

Revol
Aug 1, 2003

EHCIARF EMERC...
EHCIARF EMERC...

Shuppiluliumas posted:



Oh my God, that water is loving brilliant!

WhiskeyJuvenile
Feb 15, 2002

by Nyc_Tattoo
gently caress, I live in Alexandria! I coulda gone! Better luck next year.

ought ten
Feb 6, 2004

As promised a few posts up, some of my pictures from Brickfair. Huge image dump, ahoy. I'll break this up into a few posts to avoid overwhelming the page. Also I have a pretty crap camera so keep that in mind.

Let me preface this by saying that I only went because of my girlfriend. A few weeks ago she told me she was taking me on a surprise date. Last time this happened it was a motorcycle show. I guessed everything I could think of but all she would tell me was it would be less cool than an airshow but cooler than everything else I guessed. She was (as usual) right. If not for her I never would have known this was going on, much less have gone. So even though she'll never read this, my thanks to her.

And here they are in no order whatsoever:


Ghostbusters town scene.


Detail of the battle with the Stay Puft Man.


A very nice yard with tire swing. I really liked how this was done.


Small but well done Japanese thing. Some of my favorites, like the vignette posted before me, were the small, simple, but very neat models.


Huge diorama with cool dragon fire. The rooms in the top left stacked up into a nice castle.


Microscale castle with a well done cliff face.


Working drag strip. For some reason I only got a detail picture of the junk yard at near right, but next to that were zombies rising from a grave yard and next to them were some stormtroopers hanging out next to their RVs.


Arc de Triomphe with great details. Unfortunately the statues just came out as black blobs.


I can't remember what this was supposed to be but it's nice.


Angkor Wat.

snortpocket
Apr 27, 2004

Oh... my podcast... it's so good... ungh.... it's the best.... podcast ever.... oh god.... UNNNGGGGGHHHH

ought ten posted:


I can't remember what this was supposed to be but it's nice.

I can see the "Mont" in the label and assume it's Mont Saint-Michel.

EDIT:

snortpocket fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Aug 10, 2010

Stregone
Sep 1, 2006

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

A vignette?

Thats it!

Here's more pics.











Shuppiluliumas
Nov 9, 2006
I'm really glad to see some people got out to BrickFair. The fan events are great fun and a rare chance to be surrounded by ~700 other AFOLs. I rarely find anything more inspiring than seeing what everyone else comes up with.

It's even more fun if you comne as a registered attendee. You get to hang out from Thursday through Sunday at most events, and we were allowed on the Expo Center floor at BrickFair until 2 AM. Most conventions also have a Lego Store event where we're turned loose on damaged merchandise at a 50% discount. I netted myself a Green Grocer, Emerald Night and the New Space Shuttle this year.

ought ten posted:



Microscale castle with a well done cliff face.



That's my friend and fellow PennLUG member Chris Edwards. He and I collaborated on the water for my port, so you can see where the design comes from.

ought ten
Feb 6, 2004

Shuppiluliumas posted:

That's my friend and fellow PennLUG member Chris Edwards. He and I collaborated on the water for my port, so you can see where the design comes from.

That's fantastic. I hadn't made the connection but I see it now. I really like the look he achieves. Were you hanging out by the trains at the PennLUG table on Sunday around 1?

More pictures!


The caption reads "BP: Bad Planning or Blind Providence." Is the exploding man too much?



This post-apocalyptic table (maybe DC area LUG?) was getting a lot of attention and rightly so. The centerpiece was the Washington Monument with some dwellings built into its sides.


A crumbling building. Snow covers the ground.


Another building.


What's that in the background?


Well-done Sherman tank.



Jimi Hendrix portrait and detail.


Dalek-Stormtrooper battle...in a skate park? :iiam: It's a little blurry, sorry.

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EvilRic
May 18, 2007

come have a nice cup of tea!

snortpocket posted:

I can see the "Mont" in the label and assume it's Mont Saint-Michel.

EDIT:


I flew over this place on the way back from france and couldn't work out where it was or find it on maps. Thanks for mentioning it as i finally know now and can visit it at some point!

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