Is this an error in the updated Harry Potter Diagon Alley build/instructions? In the book 1 directions for the 2020 Diagon Alley set (see pp. 43ff), I've run into the following issue:
In building the back of Ollivander's shop, we seem to be building some type of shelving unit:

Notice that the pieces just added stick out from the back a bit.
But later, the directions state to place the back of this shelving unit flush with an already-built wall:

This isn't confusion regarding perspective; later we see that we are to connect this shelving unit with the wall:

But how are we supposed to make this shelving unit flush with the wall if there are parts that stick out of the back of the shelving unit? Note that the wall is a single solid piece with no holes for these parts to stick into.
I've considered moving Ollivander's desk so that I can move this shelving unit forward (to the left), but this then prevents connecting the structural beam from the staircase to the wall (see step 108 in the directions; my image is too large to share). Moving his desk also prevents the staircase from rotating into the shop.
Am I missing something, or is this indeed an error? If it is an error, how have others solved this issue?
Note that we can't just move those pieces in the shelving unit so that they don't stick out; doing so prevents us from building the shelving unit, because the nubs on top of those "sticking-out" bricks gets in the way of the shelves snapping into place. Neither can be omit these pieces and slide them in later, because the nub from the pieces beneath them get in the way.

The wall behind the shelving unit is not a standard wall built with regular LEGO bricks, but a panel, which is hollow on one side.
The parts that are sticking out at the back of the bookshelf are accommodated by the hollow of the panel.
My guess is that you attached the panel backwards with the flat side facing in, instead of out. Look at Page 37/Step 48 where the panel is attached. The hollow part should be facing in.


Help me identify this set? Rocky terrain with castle walls? My brother has handed down some of his old LEGO to my kids . He had sets including Star Wars, Harry Potter, generic Lego, Batman, and Lord of Rings collected between the years 2006 and 2013.

These pretty unique pieces were in the box, and I feel like they are Lord of the Rings. However, I can’t find any sets that have pieces like these.

Any LEGO fans know what set this may be? I have tried using few sites to look up individual parts in hopes of finding the set, but no luck thus far.

From the Megablok wiki:

9650 Raiders Keep


Colored balls detectable by EV3 color sensor I'm looking for large balls in standard Lego colors that are detectable by the EV3 color scanner.

So black, white, green, brown, yellow and blue and between 5 and 10 cm.

I'm aware of the Duplo balls:

But they do not seem to exist for all the 7 colors.

Are there any other larger balls from Lego in the standard colors?

Is there any third party offering them?

How much can the colors differ from the Lego colors so that they are still detectable by the EV3 color scanner?

There is an interesting discussion on this on the lejos.sourceforge.io forum.

  the calibration values for the NXT sensor are set in the factory and seem to be different for each sensor (which implies that there must be a reasonable amount of variation between different sensors). On the NXT the RGB values are true raw values and the calibration adjustments used to identify Lego colors are made in the leJOS driver.

But on the EV3 there is no calibration, and the sensor RGB mode

  is not well documented and was not exposed at all in the first version of the Lego software...So the bottom line is I doubt if anyone outside of Lego (and maybe NI) knows if the RGB values are raw sensor readings or if any sort of calibration data has been applied

So it doesn't sound like you will have a consistent set of data anyway - I'd suggest just seeing what coloured balls you can get cheaply and just trying them.


Is there a way to buy just the robotic parts? I apologize if this is a silly question.  My kids recently went to a LEGO robotics workshop at our local science museum and LOVED it.

Is there a way to buy just the robotic parts (motor, sensors, software, etc)?  We don't need anymore lego bricks, as we have them coming out our ears, lol.

I did see parts on ebay, but got overwhelmed since I really don't know about the different types and what is compatible. Is there a good place to learn about that?

Yes, you can buy all the electronic parts by themselves, but given that the electronic parts are the bulk of the cost, you may not save much.

The MINDSTORMS EV3 set (MSRP $349.99 USD) contains:

1 - EV3 Intelligent Brick (MSRP $189.99 USD)
1 - EV3 Color Sensor (MSRP $39.99 USD)
1 - EV3 Infrared Sensor (MSRP $29.99 USD)
1 - EV3 Touch Sensor (MSRP $19.99 USD)
1 - EV3 Cable Pack (MSRP $14.99 USD)
2 - EV3 Large Servo Motor (MSRP $24.99 USD each)
1 - EV3 Medium Servo Motor (MSRP $19.99 USD)
1 - EV3 Infrared Beacon (MSRP $29.99 USD)
Software: Free download.

That comes to a total of: $394.91, or $44.92 over the price of the whole kit.

That means you would have to find these pieces for a fair bit less than the MSRP to save any money (remember shipping costs if you get them from multiple sellers), which could be difficult as these pieces tend to have good resale value. At quick glance on BrickLink, I found you can maybe get $40 of an EV3 Intelligent Brick, but the EV3 Medium Servo Motor is actually selling over the MSRP (possibly because it is backordered).

  We don't need anymore lego bricks

The Mindstorms kits actually come with LEGO Technic pieces, not bricks. You would not really be able to use these electronic parts without a fair number of Technic pieces.

If you plan to follow along with the instructions from the kit, you would need to have the parts in the kit.


How to get the Millennium Falcon 75192 Just like everybody else, I'd like to get the new 75192 set. Unfortunately, information about that is rather spotty. The lego shop website used to write "soon", currently it writes "unavailable". The lego shop hotline says you may get it in a shop. When you call the shop, they don't have it. They sometimes get sets, but they are sold out in seconds. The online shop used to take reservations, even prepayment, but they stopped, the shops seemed to have done the same, but they stopped too.

So my question: What do I have to do, to get the 75192 before christmas?

Does somebody here have it? How did you get it?

If you absolutly want the Falcon before christmas
and if money is not a factor you can try 3rd party sellers like Bricklink or Ebay

It will cost you more than the offical price and  there will be shipping costs (it weighs 13150 gr.)


Installed EV3 software on Win 8 and it won't load EV3 software used to work on my laptop.  Now it does not load any more.  When I double click on the LEGO Mindstorms icon.  It starts the procedure of loading the software.  Then it stuck there and won't go further.  I tried to remove the software and reinstall it.  Nothing helps.  Has anyone else got into this problem before?

A possibility is, that you lack the latest Silverlight update.

I had this problem on some Windows and Mac OS X machines recently.

Maybe you can try to install the latest version: https://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/ I think it's worth a try.


At what voltage do the c1 and c2 lines run at when controlling a lego servo motor? related: how to control a servo motor from a raspberry pi

The raspberry Pi normally outputs 3.3 V signals from it's pins, however there are logic level converters for interfacing with higher-voltage parts as well, and I am not sure if there was one in use in the linked question or not (yes, I asked it as a comment a while ago - no answer), thus this question

Philo has managed to DIY-control it, but I don't see the details from his site

P.S. If it wasn't clear, I am looking for the level at which the control signal is, not the 9v/7.4v power line runs at

The answer to the question you linked contains the answer you are looking for:

  To move in one direction, send a PWM signal (1200 Hz, 0 to 100% duty cycle) on C1 and keep C2 at GND level. As duty cycle varies, servo motor will move along 7 positions on one side. See this video.
  To move in the other direction and reach the 7 other positions, send PWM to C2 and keep C1 at ground level.

PWM means Pulse Width Modulation, so you need something capable of generating this signal. The voltage is the same as what you apply to the 9V terminal. Only the pulse width is varied. And GND means "ground" which is another way of saying 0V.

So, to do this with a Raspberry Pi or other microcontroller, you will need a transistor to convert the voltage. There is virtually no load on C1/C2 in this case, so any size of transistor will do the job without risk of overload. See this page for some example circuits.


LEGO custom One Piece Does anyone know where I can find custom LEGO figures or MOCs of the One Piece Manga/Anime, preferably made using authentic LEGO elements?

I'm assuming you are referring to the One Piece anime series.

There are no official Lego sets for the One Piece anime series. If there were, you'd have seen them in the Lego catalogs.

Searching the web, I've found that there is a company called Diamond Blocks that has created One Piece sets. Strangely, they don't seem to have minifigs of the crew.

You could perhaps customize your own minifigs. You could make some stickers and apply them to your existing minifigs, for example.

Or you could contact Lego company and ask them. One Piece is a pretty popular series, so assuming this Diamond Blocks company doesn't have an exclusive license, they might just be interested in creating it.


Is it possible to power an EV3 hub via USB? I have a LEGO Mindstorm EV3 hub. I want to avoid buying rechargeable batteries by supplying power through battery box pins using an external variable power supply.
Is it possible to supply power to an EV3 hub via USB?

No, the only way provided to power the EV3 is through 6 AA-batteries or the expensive rechargeable battery box. Of course some DIY solution could work, anything that provides 9V DC or thereabouts works when the voltage is applied directly to the outer battery contacts...


Is the NXT forward compatible with EV3 sensors and motors? Is it possible to use EV3 sensors and motors with the NXT intelligent brick? I've read that the EV3 is backward compatible with NXT motors and sensors, but does vice versa work as well? Is the NXT forward compatible with EV3 sensors and motors?

Short answer: you can use EV3 motors with NXT, but you can't use EV3 sensors on NXT. NXT sensors and motors work with EV3.

Detailed answer: read Laurens Valk paper.


How can one find old archived issues of LEGO Mania Magazine? Do any libraries contain old archived issues of them? Preferably ones on the WorldCat system?

I'm not sure if my limited storage space can handle more LEGO Mania magazines, so I'd prefer a format that's either digital or that one can easily check out from a library.

There is currently one public library in the WorldCat system that has cataloged LEGO Mania Magazine, but it does not have it available in digital form.

Other LEGO Club magazine titles have been collected by some WorldCat system libraries, including:

Brickmaster Magazine

LEGO Club Magazine

LEGO Magazine

None of these titles appear to be available in digital format from any WorldCat libraries at this time.


Are the older (hollow underneath) brick elements considered "collectable"? I know. I know. All LEGO elements are collectable. I mean are the older, tubeless bricks valued above and beyond the fact that they are still viable pieces to build with?

Browsing through the price guides available for the various classic colors of the 1x2 Brick Without Tube part on Bricklink it would appear that the answer is generally yes. The Average US sale price in the last 6 months is about double for the classic 1x2 Brick Without Tube vs the modern 1x2 Brick (with tube) with the exception of Yellow which goes for a bit more then it's modern counterpart.

Avg 6mo Sale Price in US$ for 1x2 Brick Without Tube

Black: US$0.07
Blue: US$0.08
Red: US$0.07
White: US$0.07
Yellow: US$0.08

Avg 6mo Sale Price in US$ for 1x2 Brick (with tube)

Black: US$0.03
Blue: US$0.03
Red: US$0.03
White: US$0.03
Yellow: US$0.02

Do note however that just because a brick does not have tubes doesn't mean that it is absolutely older. The LEGO Group still produces bricks without tubes but generally only in the transparent colors. The transparent colors also tend to become cloudy with time which factors heavily into their price and can be harder to judge from a text listing. It's probably also worth noting that despite the slightly higher prices there are a couple of orders of magnitude fewer sales so older parts may take longer to sell if that is your aim.


What logos appear on Duplo brick studs? Do all regular Duplo bricks have the word "Duplo" written on their studs? If not, what variations are there?

There really isn't a "on" for the Duplo studs.  All Duplo studs are hollow studs.  In the interior of the stud, depending on set and the year of the piece, the stud will read:

  DUPLO

or

  LEGO


How many 2x4 Lego bricks would it take to build a real skyscraper? As an exercise designed to communicate the scale of plastic waste in the oceans, which was estimated at 268,940 tons in 2014, I'm trying to describe how many life-size buildings one could construct with your basic 2x4 lego pieces of the same weight. A believe a 2x4 piece is 31.8mm long, 15.8mm wide, and 9.6 mm tall, not including the studs, and 2.32g.

Naturally, I don't aspire to simulate skyscrapers that anyone could actually live in, but I'm trying to come up with a defensible estimate for the number of bricks in, say, a Lego Empire State Building (1,250' tall, not including the spire).

One idea is to imagine building a solid structure that is completely enclosed. Another is to make a hollow one with double-layered floors and a solid base.

Forgive me for the open-ended question, but is anyone familiar with the mechanics of how one builds a extremely large structure with Lego pieces that, while not necessarily structuring sound for human consumption, and least holds together?

Great question. Others may have better answers for a more "realistic" design, but the math for a solid structure is actually pretty quick. Take the Empire State Building for example:

Height: 381m
Base: 129m x 57m
Volume: 381m × 129m × 57m = 2 801 493m³

And a basic 2x4 brick:

Volume: 31.8mm × 15.8mm × 9.6mm = 4.823424e-6 m³

The number of bricks needed to simply fill the volume is total volume over brick volume, so:

Number of bricks: 2 801 493 / 4.823424e-6 = 580 810 022 092 bricks
Weight: 580 810 022 092 bricks * 2.32g = 1 347 479 metric tons

Basically, you're looking at 580 billion bricks weighing in at ~1.3 million metric tons for a solid structure the size of the Empire State Building.

This puts you at about a fifth of an Empire State Building's worth of bricks dumped in the ocean in 2014.


Program for NXT golf robot not looping properly This is what I made:

I will put this robot straight in line with the ball
I have to make this robot go forward and once it reaches the ball, I have to make it stop and hit the ball with the swing shown in the picture
I used ultrasonic sensor to determine if it reached the ball

It has to identify if it's a red ball or blue ball with the light sensor.
If it's a red ball the robot should hit the ball and if it's a blue ball it shouldn't hit the ball.

I used while and if statements but it doesn't seem to work properly. If I use break; then it stops the program instantly when I start it, so I didn’t use break, but if I start my code, it goes forward and stops and then continue this
It just wouldn't go continuously

Here’s the code I wrote:

#include "NXCDefs.h"
task main() {
  SetSensorLowspeed(S2);
  ClearSensor(S2);
  SetSensorType(S1,SENSOR_TYPE_LIGHT_ACTIVE);
  SetSensorMode(S1,SENSOR_MODE_PERCENT);
  ClearSensor(S1);

  while(true) {
    OnFwd(OUT_AB,75);
    if(SensorUS(S2)<=16) {
      OnFwd(OUT_AB,0);
      if(Sensor(S1)>49) {
        OnFwd(OUT_C,-70);
        Wait(2000);
      }
      else {
        Wait(500);
      }
    }
  }
}

Looking at your code, there are a few things that you need to consider.

Firstly, you have a while (true) loop which will run infinitely.
The first thing you have after the loop is OnFwd(...) which will turn motors A and B on.

Together, this means that whatever you do next, when then you will run the code again, turning on motors A and B.

The next thing to be aware of is that Wait(2000) is milliseconds. 2000 milliseconds is 2 seconds, so you will only turn motors A and B off - stopping the robot - for either half a second, or 2 seconds before the loop starts again, and the robot starts moving again.

In the case where both if statements are true (presumably when it detects a red ball - but I haven't double checked either the Sensor or SensorUS commands), the robot will stop, the motor C will start, then 2 seconds later the robot will start again.

I would suggest increasing the values in the Wait statements (you could use time constants such as SEC_5), and adding a break; after the Wait(2000);


Good LEGO CAD Design Software with Technic elements and animation I'm taking computer engineering in Gr. 11 right now and our final project is to create a robot with the first version of Mindstorms. My partner and I are making a sumo robot for the class competition. We don't have the required parts at home such as gears and technic pieces and we're not allowed to take home the pieces.

We're using LEGO RCX 1.0 with 2.0 firmware and mostly technic pieces. Is there some type of CAD software that lets me test to see if the gears do what I want it to? I know LDD does this to an extent but they don't have the RCX 1.0 pieces, and placement of pieces is frustrating.

Also, I have the .dat files for LDraw, is there a way to import those parts into LDD?

Take a look at SR 3D Builder. I have not used this software myself but it looks like it may do what you need. It's free (for non-commercial use) and you can import your LDraw files.

Here is a link to some videos on YouTube

See below for the features list (taken from the website)

NEW Support for Piston - Rod mechanism
NEW Support for Linear Actuators and Shock Absorbers
NEW the Animation Console to easily create and animate your technic
models
Towball, HINGES and GEARS SUPPORT! Take a look to the Gallery  to see
what I mean
Connection Solver for quick connecting hinges and rotating parts
Support for RACKS and steering
Support for ANIMATED FLEXYBLE PARTS
Belt Generator with real connections
Now with GROUP management
New exclusive MirrorBuilding features  for quick build of symmetric
models. MUST TRY !!
Enhanced instructions editor to easily modify the order in which bricks are loaded in your model and/or take photos while building
Complex gear driven hinges support (quadrilaters deformation and
steering)
Great fully 3D building envinronment with reflection and
transparencies
You will see your model during loading time and can pause for
instruction steps
You can modify and save models (lDraw/MLCad .dat compatible format)
Fast selecting/moving/adding/removing you'll never see in MLCad
Copy/Rotation/Deletetion/Color change of single or multiple brick. Undo/Redo functionality
Real connections detection, not always the same near brick positioning
Brick selection by Block (means that solid connected bricks can be selected at once)
Grid positioning to speed up positioning of pieces
Automatic and precise positioning and orientering of most bricks according to connection detection
Automatic detection of rotation axles
You can easily load model from other known programs: it supports the
following formats

.dat files
.ldr files
.mpd files (only a few metacommand are currently supported)


Can anyone identify this brick? I don’t see a part code on it. Thanks in advance!


EV3 Gyro sensor is not working I started using the EV3 Gyro for the first time in a few months, and it's not working. When I rotate the robot the output shown in the EV3-G port view stays at zero. In the rare case it registers some input, it will show for a split second and immediately reset to zero. In the on-brick port view, and when output from the block, it shows as "----". Switching ports doesn't change anything.

If other sensors work on the EV3, the EV3 is OK. If swapping cables does not help, then the sensor is probably defective. If you contact LEGO customer service, they will probably replace it if it is defective.


What are these Technic sets with figures? So I'm trying to identify these two LEGO sets that are rather old. I have long since lost the instructions and I can't seem to find the specific parts on BrickLink. Here are the photos of the complete builds: Album

I'm not sure if the two belong in the same set (doubt it). But they go together since the teal ship is supposed to fling its plungers to the purple guy's target which activates a spring and launches him out of his ship (and consequently turns off the motor). The purple guy moves around on top of the rubber wheel, which has unfortunately broke. The purple ship takes a 9V battery which powers the motor. I've included a closeup and as you can see the pieces connecting the electronic parts has metal contacts.

These builds are both from the same set. Super Challenge (3038):


Is this black two-sided clip an original part made by LEGO? Is this an original LEGO part? Maybe Technic? See the cup for size comparison.

The black one is a playmobil part, used to link fort wall part together. I think the cup is playmobil too.


Are there more LEGO minifigures than humans? In 2014 Randall Munroe of XKCD predicted that there would be more minifigures than people by 2019.

Was he correct? Have we reached the crossing point, and if so, when? If not, when will we?

To get the official info, I have asked LEGO about this topic:

  Dear LEGO, in 2003 you have reported that there are (were) 4.000.000.000 LEGO minifigures produced by that time.
  I was wondering if there are more recent numbers available, especially since the popularity of the collectible minifigures, which could indicate an increase in the production rate.

  Could you please provide some official information? Even estimates would be welcome.

  Thank you!

And received the following reply:

  Thanks for getting in touch with us.

  Thank you for your interest in LEGO® Trivia, that is an interesting question.

  You are certainly right that the number should have increased drasticly since then but I can't give you any new numbers. I am sorry but you will have to wait till our marketing department decides it is time to release more fun facts like this.

So in the absence of official numbers, we can only guess.


Can you identify this LEGO Space build from the early 90s? Can anybody help me identify this LEGO model from this old picture. My son built this around late 80's / early 90's. The closest I can find is the 6956 Stella Recon Voyager set. Same colours and similar pieces. Has he perhaps joined up two sets and made this himself as I cannot find it anywhere. I am looking for parts inventory and instructions. I have a huge box of LEGO pieces I now want to pass on to my grandson. Sorry that the picture is not clearer.

Update:

Thank you for your feedback. Yes, I have managed to download the parts inventory and instructions for 6956. You are correct with 6886. I now definitely remember buying that for our son and those parts are in the box but I'm not too sure about 1968 it doesn't look familiar. I will have to ask my son who now lives abroad. It appears that, at the time the picture was taken, my son might have used his very active 10yr old imagination! Thank you for that info. I am also going to upload the only other picture I have taken from a different angle if this helps further. So, if I could just find out from what model those large black flat 'fins' and other side pieces might be from I think we might have solved the puzzle.

Based on Slope 33 3 x 6 with MTron Logo Print - Red which only comes in 1 set: 6956-1: Stellar Recon Voyager this is the set you already mentioned.

I see a part that looks like: Flexible Hose 8.5L with Tabless Ends (Ends same color as Tube) in trans yellow. which come in several sets. I think it's 1968-1 - Space Expressssic Space 1968-1 as this set also contain some white wedge pieces, which look like used at both sides.

Based on Windscreen 10 x 4 x 2 1/3 Canopy - Trans-Red and Hinge Vehicle Roof Holder 1 x 4 - Blue 6886-1 - Galactic Peace Keeper is also is the collection

The rest parts is a lot harder to identify.


Lego Racers in Special Box I am trying to collect all of the Lego Racers sets in the unique box design that set 8121, 8120, 8119, and 8122 have. Does anyone know if those are the only four in that box design? Thanks.

Set 8121, 8120, 8119, and 8122 are the only ones with a red box.

It also comes in black

See this link for a complete list of boxes

Catalog : Original Boxes: Racers: Tiny Turbos


Code for PID for EV3-g I want to use PID for my Ev3. I used PID for NXT-G before, but I have never used EV3-G before and don't know how to get PID. Could someone please post a screen shot of the code or upload the file?

This is EV3-G code for a PID based on PID Controller for Lego Mindstorms Robots by J Sluka.  It uses the steering parameter of the Move block instead of power levels of the Motor block.  The interesting parts are setting the Kp, Ki, and Kd values.


Most inseparable combinations? Some combinations of pieces are really hard to get apart – really hard. Can some answerers provide a list of “dangerous combos“? For example, a 2×2 with a round 2×2 on bottom. Also, if possible, provide a good way to get them apart!

My son did some extensive research on this subject, which yielded this beauty:

That’s a light bulb cover stuck into a Duplo stud. While it may look harmless, I found it impossible to get sufficient hold of the lightbulb before levering it out with a very thin screwdriver.


Why are these hinged plates slightly different colors? Something I've noticed is that certain pieces appear to be slightly different colors for other pieces of the same color. In particular, hinged red pieces seem to be the most noticeably different, especially some versions of the red hinge plate.

As you can see, half of the hinge plate is quite a bit darker than the other half which matches the regular plates. The 1x2 fork clip piece is also a little darker, though not as much as the hinge plate and it's hard to see in the picture. I remember that hinge plate being that way when I got and 3 others in the 10167 Brickmaster Kit (with Digital Designer CD) back in 2004, so I don't believe it was faded or a defect.

So I've long wondered, what's the deal here? Are the hinged plates made of different plastic, like the transparent pieces are?

Quorneng's answer is spot on, even bricks that were from the same set might have been made from differing batches of a particular color and slight variances will produce differing colors. Purple is the most notorious Lego color for having a great deal of variance between bricks, and red is not surprisingly, also inconsistent at times.

To add to the mix, Lego is changing its formulas over time to keep costs down, and to make the bricks more durable and consistent. Earlier ABS bricks where stiffer and more brittle than modern bricks. They have more of a tomato red color, and are easy to spot next to modern bricks.

UV damage can alter the color of bricks over time, although this can be fixed with oxyclean + h202.

Finally, I believe that Lego will internally recycle 'bad' batches of bricks, grinding up and melting down ABS from lots that don't pass QA. This probably also affects brick color. I had a friend who made the pilgrimage to Billund to see the main plant. He told me about how they have a display that shows the casting of bricks to visitors, and it re-uses plastic for the demonstration. I recall that he commented on how the plastic colors were slightly odd looking, presumably because it had been recast so often. This makes sense to me, but it is a second hand story, so don't cite me for your thesis...


Is there a list of giveaway sets from Toys R Us or other events? Toys R Us frequently has giveaway sets called "Make and Take", where kids are invited to come in, build a set and then take it home for free. This is similar to the Lego Brand Retail store Monthly Mini Model Build events. The MMMB kits are typically very similar to Lego polybag sets: they come in plastic bags, they have a set number, they have high-quality instructions. (Some months one of those things might not be true, but in general all three are true). The MaT kits, however, seem to be a little more ad-hoc, but at the end you still end up with a build that has a full instruction sheet and a decent handful of parts.

An example of a MMMB set is 40127, a space shuttle., which was February 2015's MMMB.

An example of a MaT is Emmet's Car which was available at Toys R Us at different times depending on your country (the events are not coordinated like the Lego Store events are).

As you may surmise from my use of Rebrickable links, I like to keep a detailed list of all the kits I and my kids own. However, Emmet's car is the only example of a MaT kit I've found. Is there a detailed list of the kits that have been given away, with instructions, inventory, etc?

I'm primarily interested in finding the MaT kits on Rebrickable, but if they're not there I'll accept info from other sources. I'm mostly interested in MaT kits given away at Toys R Us in Canada, but for other people's benefit would like to know about kits like this from other retailers, or in other countries.

Try Brickset.com (I'm the founder of the site). We list all that we are told about.

You can also record your collection there, and keep it in sync at Rebrickable.


Is the Antikhythera clock design available as Open Source? After reading and watch the video about the Antikhythera Clock, I am curious if the design reference (or better yet the instruction manual) is available as OpenSource.

Why? Because it would be cool to have one of this sitting on top of my desk.

If you could not get it, then you might try Hans Andersson's clock :)
http://tiltedtwister.com/timetwister.html

And here's the instructions manual:
http://tiltedtwister.com/tmtwdownload.html


How to buy a lot of LEGO Technic bricks? At first, I bought 6 lbs of LEGO Technic bricks.
however it was dirty and used. Also there were only holed bricks and I can't find many gears or axles.
I want to make Technic creations or MOC's, but I don't know how to get enough bricks to make it.

Usually the most economical way to acquire LEGO elements is to just buy full sets (ideally on sale). So if you have a particular design in mind, look at the currently available - or recently retired - LEGO Technic sets and see which one would have all or most of the pieces you would like to work with.

You can also check eBay and BrickLink for used LEGO Technic sets. They are less expensive than new condition sets, but are still well taken care of by the original owner. If a few pieces are missing they are even cheaper. Building up a LEGO Technic collection this way usually works out better than just buying random lots from resellers.

In general BrickLink is the better way to go as the sellers are also dedicated LEGO fans and won't sell you something they wouldn't be happy with themselves. However eBay could be cheaper. If there are good pictures of the used set, and they are from the original owner, you can find great deals.

In summary, when you buy pre-owned, it is best to find slightly used full sets from original adult owners. The pieces will be in better condition and the selection of parts will also be better, rather than just buying random lots where you don't know the history and condition of the pieces, and the seller is not the original owner.


Red cargo ship with pier and a tower crane set? When I was a child (~15-20 years ago) I remember I had a LEGO set composed by a red cargo ship, with a pier and a tower crane that supposedly moved blocks from the pier to the ship.

The name of the ship was Titan, or Atlantic I think.

Can someone find the name of the LEGO set and maybe a picture?

Based on your description, the set is Launch and Load Seaport (6542):

It was released in 1991, and it matches everything you described including a ship called "Atlantic", so this has to be it. If you're looking for some nostalgia, you can pick this up on Bricklink for ~$150.


Do you know where I can get a Brick Vac? I am in dire need of a Brick Vac.  The 2 boys 5 and 7 are building daily, but still have plenty of strays on the floor and the end of the day. With the growing popularity of Lego City building sets, along with Star Wars sets and Legos in general, we need to get Lego to start making the Brick Vac again, to save on mom and Gramma's feet. !

If you really want one, these can still be acquired on Bricklink:

http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?itemID=45363


How to use NXT device as a keyboard key for computer Is there any way for me to set up my Mindstorms robot so that when I push one of the touch sensors it sends a signal to the computer to press a key?

Yes, this is possible.

First, you'll want to connect your NXT to the computer using Bluetooth. Make sure you can connect to it with the official LEGO Software programming environment, NXT-G, and that the computer connection will show up when you go to Bluetooth > Connections.

Next, you'll want to create a simple program in NXT-G and download it to your NXT. It should basically send a Bluetooth message to the computer, using Mailbox #1 and a number variable containing the value of the key pressed. If you need help with this part, I can provide detailed steps.

Finally, you'll want to use a program called InstantEXE 3.0 (the free version works!) to receive the Bluetooth signal and use the command "Keys" to simulate the key or key sequence that you want to be triggered when the button is pressed. You can expand this with your sensors, e.g. when touch sensor #1 is pressed send it with a value and intercept this on the computer, using InstantEXE 3.0 to convert it into a keysequence. If you need help with this part, I can provide detailed steps and/or a sample program for you to use. You could use some basic labels like the following script:

:Left

Keys "L"

:Center

Keys "C"

:Right

Keys "R"


Anyone knows this piece with a clip and a pin hole? Does anyone know what this piece is?

This is the so-called Bad Robot Arm, introduced with the Exo-Force theme but used since then:


Inverting motor's rotation I've designed a robot with two motors. It works as follows:

The first motor is attached to the the person's arm, the second motor receives the calculated movement and moves accordingly.

When the person moves his hand (open/close) the other robot moves the the opposite direction; upon opening it closes and vise-versa.

I've tried to invert the movement by multiplying by -1 but the second motor keeps moving on his own. I've tried multiplying the results of both motors, before subtracting, with no success.

The 'code' does the following:

I take the movements of motors A and B
Subtract value of motor A from motor B's
Save the result to a variable-'moveDist'
Take the absolute value after subtraction for comparison
If greater than 6, pass 'moveDist' value to the second motor.

I think the main problem is, that you use the "Motor on for # degrees". The program will wait until this command is executed (i.e. the required turn is made), and this can take quite long. The next measurement of the angle difference is taken after that. Having a high start deviation and/or fast turning rates of your reference motor, you will not get a stable result.
Instead I propose to use the angle difference for the "Power" input of the "Motor on" command. In that scenario the angle difference is measured very often, and the "slave" motor is following your "master" motor very pecisely.


Is there a free EV3 simulator (virtual machine) for the Mac OS? I recently saw this question on a virtual EV3 machine. From the video, I felt that this software will be great. However, I don't have the budget needed to buy a licence. Is there any alternative to this system?

You could try TRIKstudio: http://blog.trikset.com/p/trik-studio.html

This allows you to program a robot based on the LEGO EV3 setup, however while the application itself has English, French and Russian translations, most of the online help is only in Russian.


A piece with no place in Heartlake Stables I recently bought this set for my niece for her birthday, when we were finished setting it up we noticed a larger orange piece that we couldn't find a place for but was in the set and in the back of the book where it outline what pieces there/how many of them. I just wondering for sure what the piece goes to?

That part is the new Brick Separator which LEGO includes in most bigger sets:

It's not part of the construction itself, but is a tool to allow you to easily disassemble constructions. You can compare it with the older version in this question on how to separate 1x2 plates.


Parts for "Simple Machine" book by Isogawa-san? I would like to make some models from The LEGO Technic Idea Book: Simple Machine by Yoshihito Isogawa.

It seems the author is using parts of different "Technic" sets.

Could you advise where can I get parts (or ideally a set) to make the models for the book?

There was a lot there, but the very last sentence from your Amazon link mentions to visit the No Starch Press website for a list of the special parts used in the book.

There the website includes all three books from the author's
 LEGO Technic series:

The LEGO Technic Idea Book: Simple Machines. (Digital PDF of book here.)
The LEGO Technic Idea Book: Wheeled Wonders.
The LEGO Technic Idea Book: Fantastic Contraptions.

All with a few set recommendations directly from the author, where he suggests sets that have a wide range of parts in single set purchases.

For parts left over, he offers a reference list with colored pictures of each part, and purchasing links to Bricklink.com.


Stepping through Mindstorm program for debugging The code does not do what I think it should.  It is frustrating to tweak it, download it, run it from the block, and find that once again, it does not do what I think it should.

Is there some way to step through a program on the laptop, displaying variables, outputs etc as it runs?   Maybe lighting up each block as it is traversed in the program?  It is hard to see where my code is bad if I can only test it as a package.

No, the software does not provide these kinds of debugging capabilities (although it does animate each block as it runs if you start the program from the programming software instead of starting it from the brick).

There are other ways to debug though. Here are some ideas:

Use a display block to show values on the screen
Use tones/sounds to indicate when a certain point in the program has been reached
Use the brick lights to indicate the state of the program
Use a wait block with the brick buttons (or a touch sensor) to "pause" your program at a certain point, then press the button to resume


Are creative play sets compatible with Duplo? Are are the blocks in the Creative Play sets compatible with LEGO Duplo blocks? Also, are they the same size as Duplo, or Juniors or in between?

Duplo bricks are twice (in each dimension) the size of regular bricks, and it's not hard to mix them, look for instance at the top related question (look in the right side). All the Creative Play-boxes I found in a quick search seems to bear the Duplo logo, meaning that they are Duplo, so of course they are compatible.


Selling complete sets, Assembled or Disassembled? I have several complete Lego sets that are assembled.  I would like to sell them and want to know if I should ask a higher price if I disassemble them and organize the pieces?  I also have the instruction books that go with them.

A good part of the LEGO experience is building the set. There is little joy in buying a LEGO set that was already built by someone else. So you are right, that a disassembled set is usually viewed as more valuable. However, consider the following points.

When people purchase a LEGO set, either new or used, they expect the parts to be sorted in some way into bags. So, taking apart the sets you have and putting them into baggies is not considered an additional service you're providing and buyers are willing to pay extra for.

Shipping a fully assembled set puts a lot more liability on you than shipping loose parts. If you advertise the set as fully built, and someone buys it, if any of the set gets broken or pieces fall off (which will likely happen in shipping), the buyer has all the rights to be disappointed and demand a resolution from you (shipping the set back to you at your expense, getting a partial or full refund, etc.) Also consider that shipping a fully built set is going to be more expensive, as you will have to use a lot more protective wrapping and a larger box.

As far as how much you can sell the sets for, that will be dictated by the market. You can certainly start out by listing your sets at the higher end compared to other listings, but it will be up to the buyers to decide if its worth it to them. If they don't buy, you will have to consider lowering the price, keeping the set for yourself, or selling the parts in bulk or individually.

If you are looking for angles to make your listing more attractive, here are some things buyers are looking for and willing to pay more for: Clean pieces, no damage or fading to the pieces, minifigs, instructions, and box (if provided). Stickers are clean and nicely applied without any fading or curling. The pieces are nicely organized in baggies based on color, piece type, or building steps. The set comes from a smoke and pet free home. The set belonged to an adult collector (or if from a child, the pieces are cleaned and sanitized). There are clear and detailed pictures included with the listing.

Hope this helps some. Any other questions, just post it as a follow up, and the community can give you more info.


Adapting charger for NXT 9798 battery I have an old style  9798 NXT rechargeable battery pack 7.2V 1400MnAh, but no charger.
Can I adapt a  spare non lego 9v 200mAh charger for this? Or is voltage too high? can anyone read the output voltage from their old charger?
As I will need  to add a new connector plug to the charger, can anyone tell me if the battery charging socket centre pin is positive or negative?
Also what size of plug do I need as it slightly larger than current version for current battery?
Thanks

NB I have looked at my newer charger lego element 94165 10v 700mA for the current battery and it is a positive centre hole (for centre pin in battery case) and a negative outside (measured with red lead of multimeter in the centre hole of charger plug and black lead on outer tube showing +10.5v)

The two batteries and chargers are very different, in that the new one is 10V DC whereas the old one is AC (while it's supposed to be 9V, I think the transformer was actually 10V too).

As it's AC, the polarity doesn't matter, but I don't think using DC current is recommended (even if in theory the rectifier circuitry in the old battery should be able to accommodate it).

You should be able to buy a spare fairly easily though, whether at a local LEGO event or directly on BrickLink. Note that it's the exact same that came with 9V trains, so you may want to look for the complete transfomer + regulator as well, which may sometimes be cheaper to find.


Can you identify this handle-like LEGO piece? Can anyone help me identify the name and part no of this piece? I’ve tried looking in BrickLink for handles, guns, bars. Can’t think of any other way to describe it.

Definitely on bricklink:
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=60849#T=C
However, not as a minifig weapon but a minifig utensil


Building technique for plate at near 45 degree angle Trying to construct an octagon shaped hallway and trying to attach plates at a near 45 degree angle, but have no idea how to do this. Are there any techniques for attaching plates at a near 45 degree angle that are gapless. Maybe using the technic bent lift arm pieces?

See photo below. Can't get the red brick to line up satisfactory.

ROUND 2.

HERE, experiment with this new greeblin' compatible .LXF file.

EDIT:  Added X-ray animation to better see the internal contruction.

Please excuse the non-symmetrical sloppiness of this draft (I got lazy).

Note: The non-connecting hinges, and 1x1 circular pieces are to help cover the visible plate gaps.

We all know LEGO Digital Draw gets anal with the exact distances between pieces, so even if these hinges don't connect on this digital plane doesn't mean they won't in a real life physical build.

Oh, and the structural integrity is not based on the connectivity of said hinges.

I stole the idea from Set #7661 Jedi Starfighter with Hyperdrive Booster Ring, and added a bit o' me own greeblin';)


How much are large retail LEGO Minifigures worth? I have an extra large LEGO figure (approximately 19 inches/48 cm tall) that I wish to sell.  This is an item which has only been available to retailers as part of merchandising the stores.

Any ideas how much these are worth?

These typically go for several hundred USD at the low end, and can be up to several thousand for the rarer display figures.

One way to get an idea of the current market price is to check out the items currently for sale on Bricklink. A search for 'display figure' in the gear category should give you a pretty good idea.


How to restore old, scratched plates I have some old lego plates that are quite scratched. They look rather dull compared to the newer pieces in my collection. Is there any way to restore (even partially) the shiny look between the studs?

I'd heard that using toothpaste can help smooth out transparent pieces, so I tried putting toothpaste on the plate. However, it seemed like it would be insane to try to rub the paste manually between all the studs... so I used a nylon brush to brush the plate. That didn't seem to help much, but didn't make it any worse. Would it have worked if I'd manually rubbed the paste in? Is there a faster way of doing that?

Brasso (yes, the metal polish) works better than toothpaste in this case. It is a bit more grainy so works faster but doesn't damage the parts. It does take some work though that may or may not make sense depending on the rarity of the elements.

And yes, with either toothpaste or Brasso, you actually have to vigorously rub the surface to buff it up. It might be easier and cheaper just to replace the worn parts with new ones if they really bother you.

LEGO getting scratched up a bit is normal. In most colors you won't even notice it, but there are certain colors where scratches are more visible — with black being the worst. So it actually helps to store black parts stuck together to prevent rubbing against each other in storage.


Control two Lego NXTs with an Arduino I'm new here and also very noob with the Arduino. I have a basic knowledge in Java and some more in C# so code isn't a problem. I can learn it easily.

I have a project assigned. I would like to know if it is there any possibility to control two Lego NXT with an Arduino? I want to give commands/orders via Arduino or at least have communication between both of them.

I have an Arduino Uno and two Lego NXT kits (9797 and 9648).

You have a number of options.

Since you mentioned you know C# the best, have a look at http://monobrick.dk. They have a C# library that lets you remote control the NXT. Then you could use something like http://playground.arduino.cc/Interfacing/Csharp to do the same for the Arduino. UPDATE: MonoBrick project doesn't seem to be around anymore.
For Java, there is a similar NXT remote control library from http://www.lejos.org/. I imagine you could find something similar for Arduino as well.
If you want to connect the Arduino directly to the NXT, you can use USB or Bluetooth. Then you can use the information in the NXT Bluetooth Developer Kit (available from http://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/downloads) to develop a program for the Arduino what will be able to communicate with the NXT.


Can I use two remote-controlled LEGO Tracked Racers 42065 simultaneously? I want to buy two sets of the LEGO Tracked Racer 42065 so that my children can play together. I can't tell if they would be able to use the racers simultaneously.

Are the IR receivers multi-channel? Can the sets be raced simultaneously?

Yes, LEGO's Power Function IR elements have 4 different channels you can switch between with an orange slider on the receivers and remotes, so you can run up to 4 at a time.


Pirates of Barracuda Bay 21322 — are there instructions to build it as a seaworthy ship directly? Are there official or unofficial instructions to build the ship directly, skipping the island stage? I figured that maybe, just maybe some fans prepared them.
The reason is that while it is great for adults as it is, to play with children it would make sense to use chronological order — play with ship, and then crash it.

LEGO provide instructions for the alternative build.

However these are given as an 'alteration' of the existing set rather than steps from scratch, this means you must create the official model first before making the changes.

The steps to convert the ship are on pages 412 to 450 of the instructions. Digital PDF instructions can be found on the LEGO site but I have also uploaded an image gallery of all the steps.
It is entirely possible to simply skip building the island stages as you will not need most of those parts in the conversion and the majority of the ship will be built.
My advice would be to follow the instructions ignoring those stages and simply assemble the three parts of the ship, making any alterations necessary using the instructions in the later half.


LEGO old discontinued model? Does anyone know an old model from LEGO that was a 3 in 1 set featuring a black sports car, black truck and a drag racing car?

You clearly are thinking of Roaring Roadsters.


How can I build a LEGO structure based on a real building? I have a grandson who wants to build a LEGO building that looks like the high rise building I live in.

Take pictures of your building, of as many sides as possible
Take measurements or find blueprints of the building. Length, width, height, height between floors, size of balconies etc.
Convert these dimensions to LEGO dimensions. For this, figure out the scale you want to build in first (e.g. 1:40, which is "minifig scale" - but check out this post for some caveats). You can use Sariel's calculator to find out what this means for how many bricks you need.
For best results, design the whole building in LEGO Digital Designer (LDD) or LDraw first. This will save you from making unnecessary brick purchases before you have finalized your model
Get a brick inventory from LDD/LDraw once you have your final model.
Use a service like Bricklink or BrickOwl or Lego's own Pick-a-Brick to buy the bricks you need in the quantities necessary, after accounting for all the bricks you already have. Alternatively, you can look at other available sets to see if some of them carry the bricks you need in large quantities - this might be cheaper (you could even sell the not-needed bricks back via BrickLink etc.).


What do the terms "vintage" and "classic" actually mean? I often see terms like "vintage" and "classic" used to describe LEGO sets (especially on ebay, but I've seen them elsewhere, too). What do these terms mean? How strict is the definition?

The two biggest themes to be called "classic" are "classic space" and "classic castle" and refer to the period when these themes were first introduced.

Brickset subthemes reflect this: Classic Castle covers the first yellow castle and accessories, from 1978 to 1983. I'd tend to include the new series from 1984 myself, since there wasn't much to speak of before that, but maybe I'm just wrong or maybe that only shows that there is no actual definition of "classic" to speak of.

The brickset subtheme for Classic Space covers the period from 1978 to 1987, with one extra set in 1988. Afterwards, they started naming themes, such as Futuron or Space Police, so you could say that the classic period covered the space sets before that. A lot of fans seem to limit themselves to the "blue with gray wings" livery of the first space sets, though, and do a fantastic job of it.

There's also a castle fan community site called Classic-Castle.com and several Classic space fan community sites, such as Neo Classic Space (notice the blue-and-gray again). I think there was once a classic-space.com but that doesn't seem to be operational any longer.

That's for Castle and Space; for more info you can also consult the Brickipedia pages for Classic Castle and Classic Space.

By extension, I suppose all themes from the same period qualify too. Bear in mind that this period (the eighties, in a nutshell) correspond to the period when most of nowadays AFOLs were kids, so they have fond memories of the sets they had or drooled about. But as far as I know, none have devoted fanbases; and there are no corresponding "Classic City" or "Classic Technic" subthemes on brickset.

Saying "Classic Jack Stone" will probably get you very puzzled and/or angry looks.


Can you identify these mountain pieces top view
side view

profile view

2 x 2 bricks added for size reference

Looks like:

Part #47847 - Rock Panel 2 x 4 x 6.

Part #3684a - Slope 75 2 x 2 x 3 - Hollow Studs.

Part #4460b - Slope 75 2 x 1 x 3 - Hollow Stud.


Can you identify this minifig and its set? I would like to know what set this minifigure belongs to.

The legs appear to be LEGO, the torso and head are from the old Mega Bloks Dragons series.


Is there a public library of LEGO parts ready to be imported to 3d editor? I just found for myself mecabricks.com. Amazing! However I wonder where do they take models of their parts from? Are they all self-designed (and proprietary) or come from some open source? Is there any open library of parts ready to be imported into a 3d editor?

Most, but not all, existing LEGO oriented 3D modelling systems make use of the open source LDRAW libraries. Downloads, specifications, and more information can be found at https://ldraw.org/


What set is this minifigure from? I found this minifigure in an unmarked box, but do not know what set it came from.

Legs and torso are from a Unitron figure: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?M=sp048

The red bandana has appeared in almost 100 sets (often pirate-themed), while the head and hands are generic and could be from any number of sets as well.


EV3 does not react to Bluetooth commands after 1.7 seconds Short description:

I want to send commands via Bluetooth to an EV3 brick from a Linux computer.
I use python to send bytecodes via Bluetooth and not any EV3-specific software
Pairing the device was successful.
If i send a "beep" command directly after establishing a connection, i can hear a beep from the brick.
However, if i wait longer before i send the command, e.g. 2 seconds, then i can hear no beep.
Any ideas how i could fix this behavior and be able to send commands many seconds after i established a connection?

Longer description:

Assuming the devices are already paired and Bluetooth enabled on the EV3 brick, i use the following setup:

To create /dev/rfcomm0, run

sudo rfcomm bind 0 <MAC-adress of the EV3>

Then, execute the following python script as root:

import time
beep_code=[0x0f,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x80,0x00,0x00,0x94,0x01,0x81,0x1,0x82,0x0b,0x02,0x82,0xf4,0x01]
# beep with 1% at 500 hz for .5 seconds
b=bytearray(beepcode)
f=open("/dev/rfcomm0","w+b",0)
f.write(b)
f.flush()
time.sleep(1.7)
f.write(b)
f.flush()

I got the bytecode for the command from here.
The result is that i can hear only one beep, instead of the expected two beeps.
If i make the waiting time shorter, e.g. 1 second, i can hear two beeps.

I use a computer running Kubuntu (Linux kernel 4.4).
The firmware version of the brick is V1.09H,
the hardware version is V0.60

Maybe i did something wrong with my Bluetooth setup on Linux, but the Bluetooth connection was successful for

Some comments and observations:

very similar behavior can be observed when connecting using the Matlab support package for EV3 and Bluetooth
similar behavior can be observed when using a motor (using Matlab)
sometimes it works (i.e. i hear two beeps) with a waiting time of 1.7 seconds, sometimes it fails for a shorter time (e.g. 1.5 seconds), so it is not completely deterministic
starting the connection with open() takes a few seconds, so it would not be possible to re-open /dev/rfcomm0 for every command
i cannot circumvent the problem by sending a command every 0.5 seconds. In this case, the brick still does not produce beep tones after roughly 1.7 seconds (starting from when the fopen() command finished). So it is not just a simple timeout if there is no data.
on the EV3 brick the Bluetooth connection is marked as "connected" until f.close() is executed or the python script has completed. The same connection status can be observed using bluetoothctl on Linux.

rfcomm is an old and deprecated tool, so I'm not going to try to figure out what exactly is going on. I suspect that it has to do with the fact that it treats the connection as a TTY and it is sending extra characters to the EV3 that messes up the communication protocol. I tried adding:

import tty

...

tty.setraw(f.fileno())

to the program to fix this, but it does not seem to work.

Instead, I would recommend just using Bluetooth sockets in your python program instead of using the rfcomm command line tool. Here is a working example:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import time

import bluetooth

# change to *your* EV3 Bluetooth address
BDADDR = "00:16:53:00:00:00"
PORT = 1

# beep with 1% volume at 500 hz for .5 seconds
BEEP_CODE = b'\x0f\x00\x00\x00\x80\x00\x00\x94\x01\x81\x01\x82\x0b\x02\x82\xf4\x01'

sock = bluetooth.BluetoothSocket(bluetooth.RFCOMM)
sock.connect((BDADDR, PORT))
sock.send(BEEP_CODE)
time.sleep(1.7)
sock.send(BEEP_CODE)
sock.close()


Why don't LEGO Minifigures have ears? My five year old, Oakley, would like to ask

  Why don't LEGO men have ears?

I can not give you an answer on behalf of TLG, but I can give you some good reasons as to why Minifigures do not have ears.
Authenticity: Lego figures have never had ears. In fact, the first figures did not even have faces, or articulating limbs. They were very basic. Here is a photo showing the basic evolution of minifigures over the years. The first 'figures' were introduced in the mid-1900s.

Functionability: Adding ears to the head mold would greatly complicate things for Lego. Apart from the fact that ears would be likely to be broken off or get damaged, they would affect the compatability of heads.
All standard mold lego heads can fit just about every mold of hat and hair. However, if TLG started making heads with ears, they would have to redesign every single 'headgear' and 'hair' mold so that they would fit around/over the ears. As a result, for figures where ears are necessary, they are part of the headgear mold, not the head. You can see this in these two examples.

I hope that answers your son's question, and that you can simplify the reasons for him :)


Colouring bricks with the sun This question is related to How do I change the color of a brick? and the exact opposite of How to minimise or remove sun-stains/fading from blocks?

Is it feasible to artificially age bricks in sunlight to get new colours? For example, I noticed that white bricks turn into various shades of off-white.

Are there any unwanted side effects of doing this, for example, bricks becoming fragile?

How long would the process take in general, if I put them outside all day in a reflective box?

Finally, is there a chart which shows which colours turn into what?

In general the colors would take on a yellowish hue. The colors that are most damaged by sunlight are white and blue. White can turn all the way to dark tan, and blue will take on an ugly yellowish color. On the other hand red would fade into pink. But again; the sun does damage the bricks. They will turn brittle and somewhat powdery, like all plastics do.

If you want to change the color of LEGO bricks I recommend vinyl-dye that fuses with the plastic so there is no build-up and it won't scratch off easily. There is a limited color choice, but this is an excellent way to change the color if you really have to. My favorite brand is Plasti-kote Vinyl Color available at auto-supply stores. Quite expensive though and hard to find. Another brand is Krylon Fusion for Plastic, readily available at Wal-Mart and other places. The fusing is not nearly as good as with Plasti-kote, but it is still quite durable. The price is better and there are more color choices.

Another method would be using RIT dye (use the powdered form not the liquid), but I don't like this method as much because although the colors can turn out nice (they are pastel colors - kind of like what you find in LEGO Friends sets), but they do fade with age.

If you want to try the sun-method, just place outside some cheap elements and you will see what happens. Please note that the colors will continue to turn darker (in the case of white) even after you removed them from the sun. Kind of like how a sunburn continues to get worse even after you go in the shade...(c;


Identify (very old) bricks with 2 studs I have this two bricks I got as a present a while ago, and wanted to know a bit more about them.

Things I noticed:

The material is not entirely hard as today's plastic bricks, some small marks can be seen on the righter one.
When they are put together, there's a little gap left between them, not smooth and tight as today's bricks.
I'm pretty sure it's very old.

What I'd like to know:

Year of creation (also estimated is great)
Material
Manufacturer
Anything else interesting about it :)

Thanks!

They're called MiniBrix.

Year of creation: 1935.
Material: Rubber.
Manufacturer: Premo Rubber Company.
Watch my source informative video by JangBricks HERE, which tells the interesting history of toy bricks before LEGO ;).

Audiophile Bonus: Cool background music from the video.


Putting flipped plates together as close as possible I have two plates that I would like to connect together and collapse with the studs facing out like in the image below. I need the two plates to sit as close together as possible. But I'd like them to open up fully so all the studs face the same direction as well.
I came up with an idea with horizontal clips and a bar (shown in image). Or maybe using a hinge plate, but then I need to reverse the studs which takes some space.

Any idea how to do it as thin as possible?

this way it can open and close

Blue = 4276 Hinge Plate 1 x 2 with 2 Fingers
Yellow = 4275 Hinge Plate 1 x 2 with 3 Fingers
LightBlue = Plate 2 x 4
White = Plate 2 x 2
Pink = Plate 1 x 4
Light Bluish Gray = Plate 1 x 3
Yellowish Green = Plate 1 x 2
Red = Tile 2 x 2
Green = Tile 1 x 4


Need help to identify this LEGO set - white, gold, grey, blue, and earth tones I need help identifying this LEGO set. I lost the box. I just have the pieces in their plastic package.

I looks like it is some of the parts of Master Wu Dragon, set number 70734.

It's the only set which contains both Pearl Gold Wedge 4 x 3 Open with Cutout and 4 Studs and Dark Orange Slope, Curved 4 x 1 Inverted according to Bricklink.


Looking for instructions for brick set #135149, silver robot head and black police vest? I have part two and part three of the this set and I am pretty sure this set has to come from the "Lego Movie" series. The reason I say is because one of the bags has one or two of the secret police robots in it. Can anyone help identify this set? I can't find any info on any of those sets in that series.

You are looking at 2 bags from set 70808 - Super Cycle Chase. This is the only LEGO Movie set that has the robo SWAT cop head, the fence, the white 1x2x2 panel and the 1x4 plate with 2 studs in it.

There are 3 other sets (big enough to have a bag 2 and 3) that have this particular robot police officer head in it, namely:

70819 - Bad Cop Car Chase

70807 - MetalBeard's Duel

70815 - Super Secret Police Dropship

But none of these have the additional pieces as shown in the picture.


How can I distinguish floating versus sinking LEGO pieces? My kids enjoy playing with their LEGOs in the pool, and we cannot always predict which ones will float and which one will sink.

It appears to me that most pieces do float in the pool, but some, for instance a motorbike, doesn't.

How can I distinguish, if at all possible, which ones will float, before actually putting them in the pool?

Most Lego pieces sink. Some of them will float briefly if they have air trapped inside. Almost any construction of Lego elements will sink as there are gaps between pieces.

There are some boat pieces that are designed to float, such as the Police Patrol Boat set from 2016. A Brickset list shows some other boats that float.


Site or example project / downloadable programme resource anywhere for the EV3 mindstorm? There seems to be lots of available examples for the NXC version, but I can't find anything for the EV3. I thought that there would be a load of example project files with the software but there's just physical build instructions, and I can't find anything on the site either.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for downloadable EV3 project files?

I have found a few project collections, but they tend to be hit-and-miss regarding the number and quality of downloadables.

Into Robotics
Mindcub3r, a single project
EV3 projects on leJOS forums
Mindstorms project collection on Genius, contains projects for NXT too that could be adapted for EV3
Tilted Twister, a collection of NXT projects that could be adapted to EV3

Do these fit your needs or would you like something different?


Publishing instructions for MOC based on Lego Technic set Are there any copyright issues in the case of creating a MOC based on a Lego Technic set, and then publishing my own instruction and/or video for it?

Regards,
Pavel

I think the key here is if you are trying to profit from it.  If you are doing this as a hobby, aka for fun, you have nothing to worry about.  If you are trying to sell the model and/or instructions, then you risk a friendly "Cease and Desist" letter from the Lego Group.

Here is a paragraph from their "Fair Play Brochure":

"For this reason, certain guidelines have
been developed to outline the proper
use of the LEGO Group’s trademarks and
copyrighted material for non-commercial
purposes in domain names and websites.
The LEGO Group’s trademarks and
copyrighted material may NEVER be
used by unrelated third parties for their
own commercial or marketing purposes,
unless formal permission or a written
licence has been granted by the LEGO
Group."

Fair Play Brochure: https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/legal/assets/blt1a4c9a959ce8e1cb/FairPlayBrochure.pdf


How do I find a set in a bunch of jumbled up pieces So my mum bought a LEGO set on eBay a while ago and it didn't come with instructions or a box so we didn't know how to build it but since then it has been jumbled up with a whole bunch of other pieces so I don't know what's in the set and what isn't.  Also, I think it's the from Belville range (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belville_(Lego)).

Start by looking for some rarer pieces. Not regular 4x2 bricks, but maybe a slide or a odd-shaped wall piece. Under each brick will be a four or 5 digit number. Go to BrickSet.com and search for that number, hopefully it will find the piece you are looking at and list colours that piece is available in and the sets it comes in (e.g. http://brickset.com/parts/design-6187). From there you just look up and down the list until you see a set that contains the other pieces you have, or search for another part and see if there are sets from the first list that appear on the second list. The trick is to find a part that is sufficiently rare.


How to fix Mindstorms Error Code 1003 I am using the Lego Mindstorms NXT Education Kit, software version 2.1. Everything was working fine writing programs and downloading them to the robot until all of a sudden when I tried downloading a program to the robot, I would get the following error:

  Error:1003 The required file is broken

Here is a list of things I have tried with no success:

Ensuring the robot is turned on
Ensuring the USB cable is properly connected
Restarting the Mindstorms software
Restarting the Computer
Restarting the robot
Updating the firmware on the NXT (which had the unfortunate side effect of deleting every file on it!)

After I got this error when trying to download one file, I am now getting this error when I try to download any file onto the NXT. It even occurs with very simple files (just one move block).

None of the files have any MyBlocks.

As documented in this First Lego League forum post, this problem can be solved by installing the NXT EDU 2.1f3 patch.

A cached direct link to the patch can be obtained here. The patch is for both Windows and OSX.


Can anyone identify these two Lego parts? White ramp and yellow door Bought a big bundle of parts recently, two of which I'm struggling to identify and load onto Rebrickable.

Can anybody assist?

I don't know what the yellow piece is, but the big plate is an old 1955-69 garage floor plate, with the rectangular holes.

Garage Floor Plate (Old style)


Curved little bar piece seems incredibly useful... what is it? On this link, there is a special recurring curved piece throughout the photos. It is light grey, can be held by a figure on both sides but not the middle, and looks a little like a paint-roller handle.

What is it? I want, like, 30!

This piece is 12885 Minifig, Utensil Paint Roller Brush Handle.


Can you identify the set that these bird-like LEGO assemblies came out of? I would like to find out what set these pieces belong to.

This is a partial #70003 LEGO Legends of Chima Eris' Eagle Interceptor released in 2013:   https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=70003-1#T=S&O=


Why was the original brick separator changed? The old brick separator seemed indestructible, and would separate all bricks that I had without fail. This orange thing is dinky and flimsy compared to the others.

So, I ask, why did LEGO think that this is better? Is the only reason the wedge?

My guess would be that they wanted to include one in more sets; so they made a smaller (cheaper) version and took the opportunity to add functionalities, such as the technic axle remover or the flat end for removing tiles easily. If I'm not mistaken, this version works on jumper plates too; which wasn't the case with the old one.


black pants (jeans?) with silver/gray pockets and gold dot Do you recognize these pants? Are they on Bricklink, etc.? (I looked on Bricklink and Rebrickable but couldn't spot a match.)

This is :
Part# 970c00pb176
Hips and Legs with Gray Jacket Tails Outline and Gold Button Pattern (Lord Vampyre)
Keyword: Gold button


Identifying kits to find instructions, red Ferrari with white mirrors and rear engine? I am looking for what set number this is. It has Ferrari symbols on it. Any ideas so that I can find instructions?

Looks like the red model from 8143-1: Ferrari F430 Challenge 1:17 without stickers.

You can find a link to the instructions from the link above.


Source of LDD models I have just begun using LDD and want to teach my grandchild.  Is there a community inventory of some kind of LDD models that people share?

Eurobricks has a very large list of official LEGO sets recreated in LDD by community members. I found it extremely useful. Look through the list and search for sets by set number and/or name: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/41226-key-topic-official-lego-sets-made-in-ldd/


Buying Individual MiniFigures I was big into LEGO bricks when I was a kid (now 33), and now my son is getting into them. I'm a huge collector of things (not a hoarder, a collector), and, like father, like son, he wants to collect the minifigures, past or current.

I assume eBay is a great place for these but the prices probably tend to rather high.

Then while searching, I found BrickLink, which seems like a pretty good place to start.

Is this the truly best place to buy them, or are there other places just as good for minifigures?

Yes, BrickLink is by far going to be your best bet if you are looking for specific minifigures. Make sure you create a wanted list with all the minifigs you want, then quire by shop to see which seller(s) have all or most of the minifigures you want. You can save significantly this way on shipping.

eBay is not so good for individual minifigures as the prices tend to be much higher than on BrickLink, however it is still a great place to shop for bulk minifigs. Deals are not as easy to come by as in the past as people have smartened up and most people know the value of LEGO.

I would suggest to pick a particular theme to collect and be very specific on what you want to get, otherwise minifigure collecting can get out of hand pretty quickly. There are thousands of minifigures (all listed in the BrickLink catalog) - you can get a good selection for reasonable prices ($3-$5 per minifig), but in some themes having minifigs in the $20-$50 range and more is not uncommon (Star Wars is one of them).

Those little people can quickly take over your vallet. So best is to keep them under control for a fun and long-term hobby. ;)


Pirates of Barracuda Bay 21322 - Is there a way to get the ship pirating-worthy? From what I have read, when you convert the island to a seaworthy ship, you are still left with the inn part, and no cannons on the ship. All the portholes are gone or converted to windows.

Is there a way to get the cannons back on the ship? Preferably using only pieces from the set? If pieces needs to be added, what is the simplest way to make that conversion?

The review over at Brickset mentions this exact modification:

  Pearl gold windows are fixed inside each gunport, preventing the deployment of cannons. While this seems slightly odd, the lattices can be removed and replaced with cannons, as demonstrated here. I appreciate these options but some furniture must be removed from inside to create enough space for the weapons, corresponding with the officers' quarters on historic ships where cannons could replace tables and chairs during battle.

(Emphasis by me)


Strongest LEGO structuce - (1) Pillars What is the strongest LEGO structure?

I am going to build a LEGO computer case. Different from Mike Schropp and greenyouse, I am planing to build an upright case.

(This is a general "strongest LEGO structure" question. Using the structures in building the computer case is just an example of applications.)

To make it more challenging (and more perfect), the case will have handles (like this type) for carrying the whole thing around, and it will have "legs" (like this bar type) to lift the whole case up for ventilation.

For better reference, here is the coordinate notation:

There are 4 parts (for now I can think of) in the case which has to encounter different types of strength challenges:

The pillars (Red)
The floor (dark grey)
The joints (purple)
The handles (yellow)

For the white bricks, they do not require special strengths, do they?

FYI, here are the LEGO dimensions:

Horizontal pitch, or distance between knobs:  8mm.

Vertical pitch / Brick thickness:  9.6mm.

The horizontal tolerance:  0.1mm.

Plate thickness: 3.2mm.

Above is the common information across the 4 questions.

Below is the question for this specific part.

(1) The pillars (Red)

The pillars do not have many requirements while the PC case is sitting still on the table. But when the PC case is lifted up by holding the handles, the pillars become critical to support the weight of the entire PC.

Normal stacking up the LEGO bricks or plates must not work. The bricks/parts will be separated very easily.

What is the strongest LEGO structure when using as Pillars?

I have come up with a structure (below left). I pile up the plates along the Y axis. So when tension is applied to the pillar, the knobs (many knobs) will lock each others, such that (as long as the LEGO plates themselves do not break) the pillar will not break into two parts.

There is a problem. Although the pillar will not be pulled apart along the Z axis, the plates might be separated along the Y axis due to the tension. So I made a "doughnut" to secure the pillar (below right). When the pillar wants to separate, it is a force along the Y axis. The knobs of the "doughnut" will (hopefully) act against forces of X and Y axis.

5 plates (3.2 x5 = 16mm) = 2 pitches (8 x2 = 16mm), so the pillar fits exactly in the "doughnut" (with 0.2mm (Y axis) & 0.4mm (X axis) tolerance).

Such that, the pillars have to be 6 pitches thick, which is 4.8cm. If this structure is possible, can we make the "doughnut" 1 pitch thick, and the pillar 4 pitches thick?

I assume using longer plates will be better than short plates, because fewer gaps along the Z axis, lower risk to separate, isn't it? However, I believe more plates stacking up along the Y axis, which will have more knobs, will make the pillar stronger. Which means using plates here is better than using bricks, isn't it?

In this PDF page 4, that research suggests using pegs. Obviously, the number of pegs can be used in the pillar will be less than the number of knobs in my suggested structure. And I afraid the peg itself will break, as pegs are hollow plastic, while knobs are more "solid".

Which structure (the above one, the research paper one, or your suggestion) is the strongest?

I am also going to recommend Technic as the stronger support option, but I would make the case out of "normal" Lego, and then implement 2 Technic rectangular "rings" around the case at the place of your pillars, joined at the top and bottom (on the top the joint could form the handle). Make these rings or braces by overlapping Technic pieces and joining them with Technic pins. Then, in your case, insert a few pieces that can also accommodate a Technic pin (1x2 brick with center hole) and secure the brick-built case to the Technic rings that way. If you think this through, you could make that connection easily removable, so that you can slide the brick-built case out of the 2 rings and have an opening side panel allowing access to the internals - a very flexible but still very strong design.

I have mocked up this case, see the below pictures. No comments on the sloppy building style - I had to work with whatever my son did not have incorporated into one of his builds :). The Technic rings obviously need some more bracing in your final design, but I think this shows the concept of using 2 rings, a handle, and pins to secure and remove the central case pretty well:


What is the history of the Marvel license between LEGO and Mega Bloks? I just recently learned that LEGO had the license to do Marvel themed blocks back in 2003.  When the Iron Man films came out, Mega Bloks produced several Marvel-themed sets.  Now LEGO apparently has the license back (as well as the DC Comics license!).

How did that come about?

From 2002-05, LEGO sold Spider-Man themed sets under license from Marvel Entertainment in conjunction with the release of the first two Spider-Man movies. These are commonly known as the Spider-Man 1 and Spider-Man 2 themes. This license was apparently only for Spider-Man and characters in the films and not for other Marvel superheroes.

In October 2004, Marvel and Mega Bloks announced a multi-year license agreement that allowed Mega Bloks to use several Marvel superhero characters and create movie-related products. LEGO did not produce any Spider-Man or Marvel-themed sets between 2006 and late 2011.

In 2009-10, Marvel Entertainment was purchased by The Walt Disney Company, with whom LEGO had a long-standing relationship producing Disney-themed sets. In July 2011 it was announced that LEGO had obtained a license to the Marvel characters as part of an expansion of its license agreement with Disney. At about the same time, LEGO expanded its license deal with DC Comics, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers, to include the full line of DC characters. LEGO had a previous license with DC to produce Batman-themed sets, which were first released in 2006.

With licenses from these two major comic book companies in hand, LEGO created two Super Heroes themes, DC Universe Super Heroes, launched in late 2011, and Marvel Super Heroes, launched in mid 2012. Both themes are currently in production as of August 2014.


LEGO Mindstorm EV3 Line-With-Gaps Follower? [Robotc] Trying to create an algorithm / code in order to get my robot to follow a track which it currently can do, using a color sensor and following the inside edge. So I'm wondering how to transition to the track with broken parts: the track has gaps with a max. length of 20 cm and only on straight parts. I also have a distance sensor available. What would be the recommended ideas?

As you already have a working program for the continuous line, you just need to add provisions for the cases when

(the robot is moving on a straight part) AND (the color sensor finds a gap in the track)

Depending on your existing solution you might need to code dedicated methods to identify the two sub-cases and then call them repeatedly to see if the robot is

on the track,
off the track or
in a gap but on the track.

The above mentioned provision could include just "hold the current direction and continue forwards" or something more elaborate. It could include measuring the distance traveled and seeing if the gap is indeed shorter than 20 cm (and trying to find the line again if a longer gap was found), or introducing a slight fanning motion to help find the end of the gap, or maybe something completely different.

If you post more about your existing solution, we could give you more specific ideas.


Are these parts from one set, lots of related sets or just a big messy jumble? I bought a job lot of approx 2kg of Lego at a (UK) car boot sale and I'm struggling to identify the set/s that the pieces relate to. The owner said that it belonged to her late husband and that she thought that they were...

  "...all from the same set".

There are four separated bags, all of which contain fairly similar parts, mostly yellow flat plates and small black pieces with lots of large tracks and propellers. I've snapped the most obviously unusual pieces in each bag.

Bag 1:

Bag 2:

Bag 3:

Bag 4:

Any ideas?

They are definitely not from a single set, as the 16x16 yellow plate was only ever sold in Friends sets, that do not contain any Technic track pieces.

Another telltale sign is the transparent orange Brick with Shaft 1x8x1, whose only occurrence is in a few Star Wars podracer and Alpha Team sets from 1999-2001, none of which has any propeller pieces.

The first picture contains a black turbine insert with many blades, this was sold in many unrelated sets across the years.


I found these images of parts and want to find their part numbers So I found this lot on the internet but don't trust the seller. What I want to do is find the part numbers of the pieces on the image and buy it from a reliable source. I tried to find it in multiple ways but did not succeed. I also intend to use this on future pieces but it's okay if you can provide only the ones on the picture. Lastly the main piece I'm searching for is the first one.
Thank you in advance.

You can find all of these elements listed on Bricklink under "Technic, Steering" category
Assembled combinations are:

Technic, Steering Portal Axle, Housing with Dark Bluish Gray Technic, Steering Wheel Hub 3 Pin Round (92908 / 92909)

Technic, Steering Axle with 2 Pin Holes and 2 Axle Holes with Dark Bluish Gray Wheel Hub (23801 / 92909)

Technic, Steering Axle with 2 Pin Holes and 2 Ball Joint Arms with Dark Bluish Gray Wheel Hub (11949 / 92909)

Technic, Steering Arm with 4 Ball Joints with Black Wheel Hub (x872 / x873)

Technic, Steering Axle with 2 Pin Holes with Dark Bluish Gray Wheel Hub (11950 / 92909)

No listing as an assembly

No listing as an assembly

Technic, Steering Axle with 2 Pin Holes with Dark Bluish Gray Steering Wheel Hub 3 Pin Holes Round (11950/ 35189)

These assemblies consist of following individual elements (listed by the time of the first appearance on a picture):

92908 - Technic, Steering Portal Axle, Housing
92909 - Technic, Steering Wheel Hub 3 Pin Round
23801 - Technic, Steering Wheel Hub Holder with 2 Pin Holes and 2 Axle Holes
11949 - Technic, Steering Wheel Hub Holder with 2 Pin Holes and 2 Ball Joint Arms
x873c01 - Technic, Steering Arm with 4 Ball Joints with Black Wheel Hub (x872 / x873)
11950 - Technic, Steering Wheel Hub Holder with 2 Pin Holes
92910 - Technic, Steering Ball Joint Large Open with C-Shape Pivot Frame
92911 - Technic, Steering Ball Joint Large Receptacle
35189 - Technic, Steering Wheel Hub 3 Pin Holes Round

Check out these URLs where you can find which sets each of these elements was included in and you can also purchase ones you need directly on Bricklink.


Any list/database of sets and components online? I'm searching for a list/site that show every public sets/and or individual components, with possibly their image representation attached.
I'm aware i could directly look on the main website, but i learned that a lots of old sets (pre 2000 to 2010 and later) are what you would call rare and can only be found by particular vendors, or sold as used on Ebay...
I'm mostly interested in their names and dimension/any details relevant to them, including rare/non-existing, and recent ones.
Any advice/input is welcome.

Brickset has a nearly complete database of LEGO sets with inventories,
There is also Bricklink, which is a marketplace , but also can be uses an excellent database


Robot that builds a copy of itself I'd like to try building a robot that can build a copy of itself. Basically, I guess that involves:

having some means of navigating around (i.e. wheels, tracks, something to move on)
having some manipulator, capable of taking parts and arranging them together

What would be the standard set of problems I'll encounter if I'll try to do it?

For example, I already understand that CPU and array of sensors provided with NXT or EV3 is, well, very-very basic by todays standards to say at the very least, so probably it can't be helped to replace it with some more advanced controlling unit, for example, Arduino-based and a full-blown camera + Kinect. What else? For example, I'm a bit hesitating about:

Is it possible to navigate a robot on wheels/tracks with decent precision, enough to be able to do such building work?
Is it possible to construct a manipulator (i.e. an arm with some degrees of freedom) that would be able to put together basic Lego/Technics joints? Would it be precise enough?
Should I use motors / pneumatics for the arm? Pros/cons of both of these types?
If I'll use standard Mindstorms motors for the arm, what's the typical maximum weight it can handle?
If standard Technics/Mindstorms parts won't be good enough, maybe some 3rd party parts (such as Matrix Robotics) parts will do?
What are the good examples of minimalistic Technic/Mindstorms robots / arms, easy to assemble?

And, the main question of them all — why hasn't anyone done that yet? I've found people building CNC 3D mills, guys who assemble lego models by hand instead of 3D printing, a very simple lego "assembly" factory model and a very basic lego 3D scanner & "printer".

This seems pretty much bordering on the impossible, given the current state of (LEGO) engineering capabilities. What you are describing is a Von Neumann Machine and as far as I know nobody succeeded in creating one, not just in LEGO but in general.

The problems you'd have to overcome:

The robot must be capable to exert sufficient force to overcome the clutch power of the LEGO bricks. This could be done with a suitable set of gears. However the gears themselves eat up a lot of the motor's force due to friction. Pneumatics is absolutely out of the question for these parts.
The robot must be capable of positioning the LEGO pieces with sufficient accuracy. I have no hard data available on the precision of the various LEGO actuators (motors, pneumatics, linear actuators, what else?) but in my previous LEGO experience electric motors can be tricky to program to operate with enough precision, but it can be done with enough testing and refining iterations for a given physical design. Again, gearing down would in theory help a lot, but all gears have some inaccuracy. LEGO gears are not among the most precise ones. You could easily test this by linking about a dozen cogwheels together in a chain, holding one end tight and testing how much can the other end of the chain rotate. Pneumatics are also out here, you can't get them to stop reliably anywhere but the end positions.
The robot must be capable of picking up, holding and placing every type of LEGO piece it is constructed from. This means either an universal actuator that itself can handle every element or more than one actuator, each specialized for a subset of all elements. The actuator(s) should also be capable of orienting the pieces in 3D space, this requires at least 6 degrees of freedom
The robot must be capable of finding and distinguishing between different pieces. The hardest version would have the robot sift through a bin full of pieces, but you could "cheat" by letting it use pre-sorted, pre-positioned stacks or queues of individual piece types. Even that would bring many problems, the robot must know which element is where, how high/far is the current part in each stack/queue, etc.
In the strict sense the robot should transmit it's program to the newly built robot. I'm not familiar with the current lineup of programmable bricks to state confidently whether it is possible at all for a LEGO brick to program another, but even if it's possible it would require some serious programming.

In your examples you can see how complicated, huge and slow can these creations can become. But you can also see how highly does the LEGO community think of these creations, each of which does only a small fraction of your proposed project. I'm not saying that it's impossible, but I don't think it would be an understatement to say that this would be the single biggest achievement in the world of LEGO and in general engineering too.


Which of these parts are LEGO elements? I have saved up quite a few pieces of "plastic" which I am unsure about - can you tell me which ones are LEGO - I've included plates and a figure for scale.

The second gray piece in the bottom image (from left to right) is a TENTE piece.

Check this example set (look at the feet of the robot)


Chicago Blackhawks logo Lego building instructions Can anyone make some building instructions for the Chicago Blackhawks logo that's made out of LEGO bricks? I'm trying to find so I can build it for my sick brother.

This is the closest you're likely to get, I made it myself. Basically, LEGO art is a form of pixel art. The 2x2 brick is the best brick for this purpose, but often you can use blocks of other length to make the build faster, and more sound. All I did here was take a basic Blackhawks logo, apply a pixelation filter, and then hand-integrate all the pixels into the basic LEGO pallet. I also hand-placed studs for reference, and used a non-LEGO color for the background, and a shadow, to remove confusion. Then I squished all the pixels down to LEGO proportions.

You will be using a lot of yellow, 2 light grey, 4 dark grey, a good bit of black, some green, some orange, and a little bit of white and blue.


How to tell the different ages of pieces I know that LEGO bricks have changed over the years, with regards to moulding pip locations, element i.d. numbers printed inside etc, but I was wondering if anyone knows when these changes happened?

What year the pip moved from on the side of the brick to on the stud
What year they started printing the element i.d. on the elements
What year the heads changed from solid stud to recessed stud

The reason I ask is because I have started to collect earlier sets from the 1980s and 1990s and these are used sets. I want to know if they are the original parts or if they have been substituted for newer, cleaner parts.

According to Leggodt.nl, the molding pip was moved from the side to the top of a stud beginning about 1974, but as Kramii points out there is no hard cutoff date, as LEGO used molds until they were worn out and included existing stock in sets until it was depleted. So you may find mixed types of bricks in sets between 1974 and 1979. By about 1980, the side-pip bricks were gone.
The element numbers were printed on the bricks subsequent to the "patent pending" period, which was when many bricks had either "pat. pend." molded underneath, or places where those words had been obscured. Obscured "pat. pend." bricks appeared in sets as late as 1978, which is also when the LEGO logo on the top studs was changed (according to Gary Istok's LEGO guide). I believe this is when the element numbers started to be molded on the underside of the pieces, but again there would be a transition period. By 1980 in the US, all modern pieces were in use.
The hollow-stud minifig head appeared in 1992 and was a change based on product safety requirements (to prevent choking.) According to an article at Gizmodo, LEGO decided to re-introduce the solid-stud heads after reviewing changes in safety laws. According to Peeron.com 1992 was the last year the solid-stud heads were included in sets and they began appearing again in 2006.


What does EV3 stand for? I am wondering what the official reason behind the name of LEGO's latest MINDSTORMS robotics platform is. What does "EV3" stand for?

From the official EV3 FAQ:

  What does EV3 stand for?

  This is the third generation of the LEGO MINDSTORMS platform and the
  "EV" stands for evolution, hence EV3.

The first two generations referred to here are LEGO MINDSTORMS RCX and NXT, respectively.


Identify this figure - soccer shirt with a "VS" (or cut off "US") logo with soccer ball (football) on front, and "7" on back Checked lots of different categories on BrickLink, but couldn't find anything on this figure, or even the torso by itself. Any help to get me closer to figuring out who this little guy is would be much appreciated!

Soccer Player White Team Player 5

This minifigure appeared only once in the 2002 set Grand Championship Cup - U.S. Men's Team Cup Edition (3425).

There are two sticker sheets included in the set (1, 2), the second sticker sheet shows the stickers used on the minifigures. However the sticker used is for player number 7, but BrickLink calls this minifig player 5 (which isn't a huge difference but possibly worth mentioning for identification).

The instructions don't provide any particular guidance as to which minifigure is which number, probably because none of them represent real football players. You probably couldn't find the exact Minifig on Bricklink because they use an image without the stickers.


What set does this bag belong to? Black, grey, orange, and blue rubber band Code on bag is 5 number 127S
bricks are black, grey and a few orange
Contains small flat white box 6049725 which contains blue magic sand

Based on the colors in the bag, the potential date code of 12S7 (you wrote 127S but I assume that is a transposition error in your post), and the fact that there is a box with blue rubber bands in it (box number 6049725) I am going out on a limb and suggest this is set 75102 Poe Dameron’s X-wing Fighter from 2015. The seal code points to a 2017 production date which is possible, as this set was still being sold all the way up to early 2018. It has 5 bags (so having a bag marked 5 fits) and the 5th bag does contain both rubber bands as well as black, grey and orange pieces.


How do I unlock the surprise for advent calendar? I bought the Lego Friends 2016 Advent calendar. It says that I can unlock a surprise on 12/4, but I can't find where to unlock it....

Found it! Here is the link for the December 4th surprise:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170505135238/https://www.lego.com/en-us/friends/activities/downloads/2017-christmas-bi-1


DNX on LEGO Mindstorms I am not familiar with ARM development but I am wondering would it be possible to compile DNX against LEGO Mindstorms EV3 processor. I know there is some ARM support and even there are some builds against it (nuget packages for arm architecture for asp.net-5) but I don't know if there are any differences between ARM processors that would prevent doing this on LEGO.

I know that there are projects like lejos that compile java runtime and run it on LEGO brick. There is Mono Brick project that runs mono runtime and uses mono libraries. DNX is also open source so I would believe that can be done.

So my question is if DNX currently support this or it would need some serious rewrite?

Can https://github.com/aspnet/dnx/tree/dev/src/dnx.coreclr.unix project be used as a startup point?

I am currently interested only in some very simple implementation runtime that bootstrap a simple .net application on EV3 brick. No sensors are needed.

Totally possible, see the link and issue tracker here :
https://twitter.com/shanselman/status/667144339353526272
https://github.com/aspnet/dnx/issues/3145


How much to support a big model? Exactly, how many LEGO blocks would somebody need to support a model that weighs 30 pounds?

1 . According to experimental results, a single Lego 2x2 brick can support about 950 pounds before failing.

This does not take the shape of the model into account - if you have a sharp point going down into the brick, it's probably going to fail a bit more quickly!