Can the RCX connect to infra-red on a computer? Can the RCX connect to a laptop with a IR reciver on it? I want to program my RCX on my computer, But i have no db9 (Lego RCX connecter for 1.0 tower) seriel connecter nor a converter.

As far as I remember, the protocol LEGO uses is incompatible with standard IR protocols used in PCs (not even the same frequency, if I remember correctly).

The NQC FAQ has some more explanation on why it's not possible, but their short explanation says it all:

  Quite simply, these protocols are incompatable. (sic)

You may have some success using a NXT brick and the IRLink sensor, but I'm not sure how far you can go (for example, I'm not even sure you can upload a firmware, and you need to be able to do that).

The easiest way is to stick with the IR tower, and in addition of the serial-to-usb converter mentionned by Zhaph, don't forget there's a USB version of the IR tower available on Bricklink (see here or here).


How many and what kind of batteries are needed for LEGO Powered Up? I'm considering picking up one of the Powered Up train sets. What kind of batteries does the included Powered Up remote control system use?

The current line of Powered Up components uses AAA batteries. The Powered Up team has indicated that both regular or rechargeable batteries should work fine.

You will need 10 AAA batteries to control one train with the included remote, or 6 if you are using a smart device as your remote. Here's the battery layout shown in the instructions:


8258 Headlight assemblies Anyone else having a problem with with headlight assemblies on 8258 crane truck?  I can't seem to fit them in due to interference from fog light bar. Thanks

From looking at the picture, it appears as if there is a brick (a 1x2 brick, light gray) behind the headlight. The headlight connects to it in a similar fashion as shown in the following image:

Hopefully that helps.


In what set is this brick used? In which set is this LEGO brick used? There is no number in it and it's original LEGO. The only number on it is "A 1".

The specific part (870) is identified in the other answer, however it is part of an assembly with its own part number:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=827#T=C&C=3

827 Vehicle, Tractor Chassis

870's page mentions it has extra parts that it is used with, and 827 is the complete assembly (steering wheel + mechanism).

This page details what other parts are needed to complete it.

https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?P=827

870 is the base in the picture, and 871-874 are the mechanism pieces.


How do I delete custom images I made in my computer? I created a custom image for a test, and everytime I download the program to my brick, the image shows up in the folder despite me not using a display program. How do I fix this?

You should be able to go to the project tab (1) - it's the one with the wrench icon - and delete any unneeded items. Just select the item (2) and click the Delete button (3).


3D printing LDD model I want to 3D print my LEGO models (.lxf file type). How do you do it?

Do you export it to a specific file type (there are LXFML, LDraw, and LXFML4 besides LXF) then import into a 3D modeller?

Or is there a way to 3D print directly from LEGO Digital Designer?

Can you save all parts used in the model automatically (not manually by hand, it will be too much work) in a 3D-printable file format then print those parts individually?

I really don't know anything about 3D printing, so please share if you know anything that could help!

First, some notes:

LEGO Digital Designer cannot do 3D printing.
LDD won't get any new features any time soon, as it is no longer being updated.
LXF files contain no part meshes. They only contain information on how to assemble the parts. The actual part data is stored in binary files inside the various LIF files.
LDraw files are similarly structured like the LXF files.

So getting 3D mesh data out of LDD is tricky to say the least. I know of two techniques:

There is some software which will attempt to capture 3D mesh from memory. Caveats:

LDD optimizes the drawing by removing the faces of parts that are not visible.
This means the mesh you get out may be missing some things you might expect.

Convert to LDraw, and open in an LDraw compatible program that can export 3D meshes. This is probably your better option, but it also has some caveats:

If you are using a piece that your LDraw program does not have in the library, it will be missing.
If LDD does not know how to map a part to LDraw, it could also be missing.

I know some people have done some research  into directly converting LDD models directly into 3D mesh, by reverse engineering the file formats. I don't know of any complete tools that actually do this though.

Now for the next issue, once you have your 3D mesh into another program, is it good for printing? Even without knowing specifics, I doubt it. Modelling for 3D printing is a lot different from modelling from LEGO bricks. You would likely have to do a lot of work making the model printable. It would probably be quicker to make the model from scratch in the 3D modelling program directly.


Instructions for LEGO bag dated 2007 bought at a Thrift store I need the instructions for a LEGO parts bag I purchased at a Thrift store

Based on the parts, it looks suspiciously like an internal part bag for 10232 Palace Cinema - which means there's no specific instructions to make something with just those parts - the whole set of instructions can be found online.

To clarify - a set like Palace Cinema will have a number of "Numbered" bags that correspond to part of the building instructions, and those bags sometimes contain smaller sealed bags of small parts - it looks like this is what you have there.

This is based on the two black doors - these seem to be fairly rare these days and the other parts (especially the 11 new dark red 2x2 tiles) fit nicely with the contents of that set.

Note that the year printed on the bag is the date the bag design was introduced - according to BrickSet the pink circles  were first produced in 2008 - and of the 80 sets that it has appeared in, only one of them contains the black doors as well.


What tool can get the Technic pin out from a connection closed in the other end? I'm having trouble removing these LEGO Technic pins apart from their connectors and I don't want to use carpenter tools like pliers which may damage the bricks.

What tool can get the pieces separated without force that damages the pieces or my fingers?

Push the Technic pin in a beam hole, then insert a rod (antenna or minifig tool handle) into the hole in the pin from the other side. The rod will prevent the "lips" of the pin from closing in, therefore preventing the pin from leaving the beam. Then you can pull on anything attached to the other end of the pin.

This example below shows the removal of a pin from a beam:


How can I get a replacement of LEGO NXT Green City Challenge Activity Pack CD-Rom? I purchased the LEGO Mindstorms NXT Green City Challenge Pack on LEGO many years ago. Now, I wanted to use back this challenge pack, but I found that I've lost the CD Rom and the class that I am using this for is going to start in no time.
How could I get a replacement copy of the CDROM only?

If you are missing a component of a set supplied by LEGO Education, you have the following options:

Contact LEGO Education support (different support line than the
regular LEGO service support line) at
https://education.lego.com/en-us/support. Their US telephone number
is 800-362-4308. Plead your case there - they might have a digital
copy or remnant copies on hand. You would likely need to provide
details to make sure you have bought the original package (e.g. your
NXT license number).
Look on second-hand marketplaces such as BrickLink, BrickOwl or EBay to see if someone is selling the CDROM. I have looked for you and can only find 1 complete Green Challenge kit at the moment of writing this answer, so this route is not feasible.
Asking for someone to make a copy of a copyrighted work is (at least in most countries) illegal, even if you once purchased the original.

NOTE: This is a Question & Answer forum, and proper questions are those that offer generic guidance, not requests for particular favors. I have edited your question to better fit this format.


Different brand, slightly bigger than Lego I have a set of Technic bricks used by an academy for teaching robotics to children.
They are not compatible with Lego (I think that the pitch is 9mm instead of the 8.6mm of the original Lego design).
I would like to buy additional components, so I wonder if there is any known brand or shop that sell these type of bricks (including Chinese manufacturers or AliExpress stores, for example).
Edit: added image. At some components I can read HND##, but searching for HND I only find Haneda airport in Japan

Taking an image from the linked course site and using Google Image Search for reverse image searching, then applying a layer of Google Translate to make sense of the exclusively Japanese results has convinced me that this type of building system is only used in this robotics course in Japan. Nonetheless, the institution seems to sell the sets as standalone products for 28,500 yen, unless I misunderstand the translation results somehow:

At Human Academy's Robot Class, we will increase the number of kits that will be added when advancing the course, based on the standard kit (* 1) that you purchase when you join.
[...]
(* 1) 28,500 yen 〚tax excluded〛


Can you identify these 1x2 and 2x2 bricks with grooves? As far as I understand, these are modified with groove bricks. However, search for 'groove' on BrickLink gives only left one. Which are the other two? Which other parts have similar vertical groove and do not have 'groove' word in the name?

Actually found via Google pictures. On bricklink need to use 'grooves' in search, partial matches do not work there.


Is it possible to power supply an EV3 hub through the battery slot with 10 V? I have two USB power banks that according to USB standard supply 5 V. I want to power my EV3 brick using my two USB power banks wired in series and to the EV3 battery slot.
Can I power supply an EV3 hub through the battery slot with 10 V?

Yes. The EV3 technically only needs 5V to run. And just the EV3 by itself pulls around 200mA at that voltage. However, motors could be a problem. They can pull up to 1A when stalled, which could overload the power supply. Without knowing the technical specifications of the actual power supply, it is hard to say what it is actually capable of.


Bracket identification, 1x2 plate with 2x2 sideways overhang I would like to know the name of these pieces.

The grey one (not the one with the towball socket)

(edit: found, it is 6009014 "Bracket 1 x 2 - 2 x 2") and the green one, they're similar but the grey one have the studs on the "inner" part, I think.

Edit: Found the grey one, still need the green.

The pieces are Bracket 1 x 2 - 2 x 2 and Bracket 1 x 2 - 2 x 2 Inverted. The grey piece is actually the inverted one.


Procuring alternative rubber bands I am reassembling old sets from my LEGO collection and, naturally, some parts are missing. Many parts are easy to get on Bricklink, but some parts are either missing or too expensive to buy for the little aesthetic value they bring.

Rubber bands. They've been with LEGO since 1969. They have the tendency to snap, they love to get lost and with age start to crumble (or is it just mine?) If you want to reassemble decade-old sets you probably have to look for replacements. I can see two ways to go:

Buy it on Bricklink if the type-color combination is still used in new sets (say Blue x37 or you're fine paying a lot for the part or the shipping Bright-green x37 was last seen in 2007).
Look for alternatives.

Call me stingy, but if I can get bootleg all-rubber-bands-I-ever-need for $1 versus a single rubber band from Brazil for a total of $11 I will go for the former. But are there any tricks to it?

Is there any company/shop that sells rubber bands with the same/similar sizes, colors, shapes and strengths?
Are there any good guidelines to follow when buying bands from anywhere else?

I am doing research for this answer from time to time and this answer is going to be updated as I learn new things. Feel free to suggest edits or post your own answer if you have better information.

Problems

There are five problems that need to be solved when looking for a replacement rubber band:

Diameter

(image source)

This is probably the easiest. There are a lot of rubber bands available in every corner of the Internet and for most cases you'll likely be okay with slight variation in size.

Height

Height being how tall the band is when you lie it down - too tall and it won't fit on bushes or wedge belts. Sometimes seller will specify this dimension, if not you can always try asking.

Thickness

For most intents and purposes thickness should not matter much, unless you're dealing with severely limited space which in my experience is rarely an issue with official sets.

Cross-section

LEGO rubber bands come in two cross-sections - square/rectangle and circle. While I've found countless square/rectangle rubber bands I'm yet to find a single seller who deals with round. Even on Aliexpress which is said to have everything available.

Unless you're lucky you'll have to manage with square ones.

Tensile strenght & stretchability

LEGO sets rarely deal with forces sufficient to snap a rubber band, though how much energy is required to stretch it might be important. That's not an easily found information, so you have to deal with it by either contact the seller (or even better manufacturer), or buying different kinds and trying them out.

Solution

Even though the question is about finding alternatives, your first line of action should be seeing if the official ones are available.

Check on Bricklink and other LEGO marketplaces if the specific rubber band you're looking for is available in an acceptable price. Just remember that rubber bands from very old sets even in mint condition can be weakened by old age.
There is an official rubber band pack from LEGO (2000707-1) which can be fairly easily found but it's not cheap. There are likely other sets. Make sure to email LEGO customer support requesting they release new sets of rubber bands in different colors - the more emails they get the more likely they'll actually do something about it.

If the above are not acceptable options here is what I'd do:

Assemble the set that requires the rubber bands as much as you can. Use any bands you have at home to finish it.
Determine what's the acceptable difference in size, strength, stretchability and color.
Repeat the same process for all other sets you own that are missing bands.
Shop online for bands that are the closest to your requirements. Amazon, EBay, local equivalents. Maybe you can find a local manufacturer or distributor - don't hesitate to contact them.


Help Identifying Mega Bloks Parts I've bought a storage unit, and truly have no idea what these Mega Bloks are a part of.

There are two blue domes, two green domes, and a bunch of what looks like tracks/road pieces.

Brand: MEGA BLOKS.

Set Theme: Planetoids.

Set Name: LX-009 City.

Year: 1997.

BIG THANKS to Gnovice for the positive I.D. on the track piece, which proved it was at least from the MEGA BLOKS line, but just in a different color.

Color discrepancy note: I think the Original Poster's camera flash turned the darker purple color of the pieces into a blueish hue.


Cheapest and Simplest way to build a LEGO Technic car? Having no LEGO Technic parts at all, I'm looking for the cheapest and simplest way to build a LEGO Technic car which can be combined with two Lego Technic motors to drive forward and backward (phase 1) and to steer to left and right (phase 2).

I see two possibilities:

Buy a complete LEGO Technic product (which one can you recommend?)
Get all the parts needed online (which parts do I need?)

I would like to combine the two motors with my Raspberry Pi.

I think your best bet is to start with 42048 Technic Race Kart and a 8293 Power Functions bundle. This gives you just one motor, but that's enough for propulsion (going back and forth).

You would need to look into a motor driver board (for example the DRV8835) for the motor, and look at schematics for a power functions cable mod to be able to drive the motor directly from the RPi - see this question for several suggestions on how to do this..

For steering you can look into a 88004 Servo Motor, or use a normal Medium motor with extremely fine control or a good set of gears to be able to make small steering adjustments.


Using the unregulated motor block and conversion cable to light LEDs I have the following setup:

It consists out of

An EV3 brick
A nxt to 9v conversion cable (https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=x1676)
A 20 cm 9v to Power Functions conversion cable
Power functions LED's

This is my program:

It works fine if I provide a negative power to the unregulated motor (i.e. the LEDs light up for 5 seconds), however with a positive power, it flashes just shortly.
This does not seem to depend on the orientation of the connectors between the conversion cables.

Also the motor test pane on the EV3 brick behaves similarly, the LEDs flash when pressing the button to move 'forward' and lights up continuously when pressing the 'reverse' button.

So I have an acceptable workaround, but I would like to know why this is.

The light turning off happens because of the Device Connection Manager in the EV3 firmware. The algorithm used to detect when a motor is connected relies on there being a load on pins 5 and 6 of the output ports to determine if the motor is a Large or Medium motor. The 8528 adapter cable only has wires on pins 1 and 2.

When you use a VM command (via a programming block or by using the on-brick app) to tell a motor to run, it forces the motor to run, but then the device connection manager immediately resets everything because it doesn't think that a motor is connected.

Also see How to use Power Functions with Mindstorms EV3?

The fact that setting a power of -100 keeps the power on continuously, though, is new to me. I'm at a bit of a loss to explain that observation.

UPDATE:

I've done some digging and now I better understand what is going on.

Output port pin 2 is connected to pin 6 via a 100k resistor as seen in the schematic diagrams below.

When the EV3 is instructed to run a motor in the forward direction pin 1 will have battery voltage and pin 2 will be at 0V. When running in reverse, however, pin 1 will be at 0V and pin 2 will be at battery voltage.

When using the converter cable, nothing is connected to pin 6 externally, so it will also be at battery voltage (pulled down slightly by R216 to +5V). This triggers an event in the device connection manager. Most of the time (but not 100% of the time) the EV3 will think that it has a motor attached because of this and so the LED will stay on.


Serial tower RCX 1.0 works with NQC but flakey with RIS 2.0 Had this baby for 20 years at this point.  Some rubber rot on the cables, but other than that, the set's in great shape.

RCX 1.0 with DC-in port.  Serial tower.  Fresh batteries in tower and RCX.

I have RIS 2.0 installed on a WinXP laptop with a serial port.  Tower works and shows green light.  The entire 2500-step firmware update process happens just fine (from the RIS settings menu).  I've even successfully completed the IR range test, where it makes the RCX beep as long as it's in IR range.

After that, I get periodic "Trouble communicating with the RCX" messages.  Downloading a program often takes 2-3 retries because of this.  This seems like an okay work-around, but then other times, it just can never complete a download at all.

I just tried NQC today, and it downloads programs every time, reliably.  That implies that this isn't an RCX problem or a tower problem.  Some kind of RIS software problem.

I've seen discussions of other compatibility issues with newer Windows, but I'm not having those specific issues.  Just really flaky program downloading with lots of retries.  But the strange thing is that the firmware downloads just fine.... and that's HUGE.

As for why I don't just use NQC.... I'm trying to get this working for my kids.  They've never done anything like this before, and the RIS interface is perfect for their skill level.

Update, More details:

Green light on serial tower comes on each time I try to download a program, so nothing else is blocking the serial port. Though you're right that NQC cannot connect to the port if RIS is running. I've tried both near and far range on the tower. Replaced batteries a bunch of times.

The only other bit of behavior that I forgot to mention is that when trying to DL a program, the green light on the tower comes on, and then sometimes the little "receiving" icon on the RCX comes on, but just for a moment. Other times, the receiving icon never comes on at all. Then, after several retries, the receiving icon on the RCX comes on, stays on, and the little progress "dots" on the RCX fill up.

What a strange issue. I'm not sure the exact cause, but I have a few troubleshooting tips for you to try:

Make sure the serial tower is set to "Long Range" mode (the little switch on the front).
Make sure the RCX is set to "Long Range" mode (Go to the RIS settings page and change the RCX comm range).
Make sure the RCX program slots are unlocked (also in the RIS settings page).
Try replacing the batteries (again, particularly in the tower).
Try downloading the program with the lights off (believe it or not, I've had lightbulbs emitting enough infrared to interfere with communications).
Make sure that when the RIS software is running, no other mindstorms software is running. If NQC is running at the same time it might bind up the serial port.


What are all the third party (unofficial) accessories I can get for an NXT Similar to this question but I'd like to know about 3rd Party/aftermarket options instead please.

I've heard about motor multiplexers and the like but are there others, i.e. more sensitive colour detectors etc.?

There are MANY companies that offer third party stuff for NXT:

Mindsensors, already mentionned in pcantin's answer

Vision Subsystem - Capable of tracking up to 8 coloured objects
Touch Panel
Numeric Pad
IR Obstacle Detector
Sony PS2 Controller Interface
Line Sensor Array
Accelerometer
Realtime Clock
Power Meter
IR Distance Sensors (Long/mid/short range)
Multiplexers for motors and sensors
Linear Actuators

HiTechnic

LEGO Certified Products, listed in the official answer.

Dexter Industries

Wifi Sensor - a wifi connection for the NXT
Inertial Motion Sensor - Acceleration, tilt and angular velocity
Thermal IR Sensor - Reads surface temperatures
Digi XBee Radio - Long distance radio communications
GPS
Solar panels

Actuonix Motion Devices Inc.

Linear Actuators

Rotacaster

Omni Directional Wheels

Microinfinity

Inertial Motion Sensor - Acceleration, tilt, angular velocity and tracks relative position

Codatex

RFID Sensor and transponders

Nullspace

IO Expansion

Vernier

Sensor Adapter - Allows access to over 30 Vernier sensors

Generation Robots

POB-Bridge - Allows access to the POB sensors and accessories
Reseller of other sensors mentioned above

Trossen Robotics

Reseller of other sensors mentioned above

... and I'm pretty sure I forget several!


What's the name of this model? White spaceship, flexible panel with hexagon pattern? Can somebody tell me the set number of this  Model?

Set 7315 Solar Explorer, from the Life on Mars subtheme from 2001.


Which buildings in LEGO Island 2: The Brickster's Revenge were based on real-world sets? Which buildings in the LEGO Island video game were based on real-world sets? reminded me of LEGO Island 2, which I played when I was younger. I never played the original game so I don't know how many assets are reused.
Aside from the main island, the game also has several different areas. (Screenshots of every area of the game can be found at https://www.oocities.org/wonkeyzonkey/2/)

Castle Island:

Adventure Island:

Ogel Island:

I found the buildings recreated by The Brickster on Rock Raiders United forum. No indication they came from any set.

As the sequel to LEGO Island, many (but not all) of LI2's models are based on sets from 1998 to 2000.
Castle Island is based on LEGO Knights' Kingdom I. The castle itself, therefore, is loosely based on 6098 King Leo's Castle (my 3rd most wanted set of all time).

The battering ram shown in the screenshot is from 6096 Bull's Attack (my 4th most wanted set of all time — yes, right after the castle).

Adventurers Island is based on the Dino Island and Desert subthemes of LEGO Adventurers. The Sphinx shown in the screenshot somewhat resembles the one in 5978 Sphinx Secret Surprise.

The Spaceport is from 6456 Mission Control.

The Res-Q HQ is from 6479 Emergency Response Center.

6332 Command Post Central is split into two parts: the main police station building, and the jail & helicopter/helipad.

An exception is Nubby's gas station, which is a significantly modified version of 6397 Gas N' Wash Express from 1992 which was also rereleased in 2001 with the set number 6472.

The rest of the buildings appear to be unique to the game. Not even the new pizzeria seems to resemble any of the existing pizzeria sets.


Best mini LED spotlight for Lego display case? I am currently building the Creator Sydney Opera House and planning a display case for it. I would like to light the canopies with spotlights just like the real thing, but have not found LED spotlights that are small enough to be proportional to the set. I live in Indonesia so perhaps my choices are limited. The ones I have found are big ones like for cabinets and shelves. Would appreciate your suggestions from around the world. Thank you very much.

I'm not sure exactly how many lights you are looking for, or the exact effect you are trying to create, but you may be able to get what you want using individual LEDs:

These have a diameter of 5mm, so the nose is able to fit snugly into an antistud. I've used them successfully in Technic holes and Erling bricks. The main advantage here is that you can actually brick build whatever lighting you would like to use, or just integrate this into the main model.

Here's an example of using these with Erling bricks that I saw on Eurobricks:

If you aren't comfortable wiring these up yourself, you can buy them prewired with a controller from LifeLites.

If you would like to be a purist, you could also use a number of the PF lights (8870), as they are roughly the same as using 5mm LEDs. PF lights are 3mm LEDs encased in plastic so that they fit snugly into Technic holes.


Piece to hot air balloon won't fit. Anything I can do? I am putting together the 41097 hot air balloon with my daughter and there is a red piece that shows a rod should go through however the rod will not go through no matter what we do. There seems to be a stop inside the red piece.

My son had the exact same problem with this set at Christmas.

In step 1, you put the red joiner on the axle. In step 2, there is a smaller axle that gets put in the other end. The only clue is that each step shows what parts are needed, so you can see that there is a little axle there that needs to be incorporated.


The 75192 Millenium Falcon is available again! Or not? This evening, around 10 pm (in Germany), I noticed that the set was available. It is 11 pm now, and it returned to the "temporarily not available" status. Can it be sold out within one hour??

In the initial selling phase in 2017, the set had been available for some weeks. The buying limit was 3. I think it was limited to VIP members, but I think everyone who bought something directly from LEGO is a VIP member.

Anyway, according to some rumors, the set would be available again in February. So I expected LEGO to produce as many Falcons as they can to flood the market after building up tension and demand. It seems, however, that 75192 will remain a rare set that will be sold out most of the time.

What I am really asking is this: Do you know or remember the situation regarding availabilty of similar sets in the past (e.g. the 10179 Falcon)? Does LEGO have a different selling strategy with the 75192?

Can it be sold out within one hour?

Probably. If they sell all they have available, it would be "temporarily not available" again.

This set has been known to sell out the same day it becomes available in other countries.


Detect distances over 255cm with EV3 ultrasonic sensor? In my use case, I have to detect things about 3-4 meters. I don't need to be accurate, +-2 or 3cm is enough. The EV3-G and most other places have a max distance of 255cm, which I understand that it is a protocol limitation.

But is there a software solution, e.g. controlling send/receive with software and calculate on the main brick? Best if it is in the form of EV3-G custom blocks.

It is not a protocol limitation. It is a sensor limitation. There is a microcontroller on the LEGO EV3 Ultrasonic sensor that cannot be updated so there is no way to measure more than that. So to measure more than 255cm, a 3rd party sensor is needed, e.g. https://mindsensors.com.


Is it unethical to distribute 3D models of Lego bricks? So say that I use LeoCAD to export some brick models to Blender.  Would it be unethical to modify the models in various ways (tris to quads tool, subsurfacing, textures, rigging, etc.) and then publish them to the internet, assuming that I do not try to profit from them in any way?

Almost certainly no, but with some caveats:

The LeoCAD parts library is based on the LDraw parts library, which has a Legal Agreement here.

The vast majority (and I would assume the entire subset used by LeoCAD) are covered under the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0:

You are free:

to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
to Remix — to adapt the work
to make commercial use of the work

Under the following conditions:

Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the works).

However there are parts in the library that are not covered by the LDraw Contributor Agreement (CA), and these are covered by the more restrictive NonCA agreement. You are expressly forbidden from sharing, or making derivative works of these parts (creating 2d renderings of the elements isn't considered a derivative work, but converting the parts to a different format is).

All part files should have a license comment in their header stating either:

0 !LICENSE Redistributable under CCAL version 2.0 : see CAreadme.txt

or

0 !LICENCE Not redistributable : see NonCAreadme.txt

You should check those parts you wish to adapt, and proceed accordingly.


Technique for holding a horizontal minifig in place (swimmer) I'm building a scene on an 8x8 base plate, ideally the depth of the base is 1 full brick high. The design is to have a swimmer minifig horizontal (i.e. swimming) but also at an angle to the base plate, and ideally connected, not just laid on top. I can achieve the angle with a 2x2 turntable plate, and get the swimmer horizontal with a 1x2 hinge brick on top of the turntable, but this makes the swimmer quite high. Any ideas on how to achieve the same - I'm wondering if a torso attachment on the hidden underside of the minifig might work but can't think what piece to use.

Mmmh... If you base doesn't have to be all solid...
Recess some piece in there in which you can insert the arm-side of a mini-fig hand.
Grasp your swimmer by the toes on one of its feet, with that hand.
That will give you a horizontal/slightly upwards position on the mini-fig and you can further increase the angle by adjusting the mini-figs leg.


Why can't I combine a EV3 Motor with a Technic frame in LDD? It is easy and stress-free to attach a frame to a large motor in a vertical or horizontal manner as shown in the picture in real life. But I can't do the vertical version inside LDD. Anyone knows why?

Is it be because the cross-section of the beam of the frame is not a mathematically perfect square?  But I can actually do the following test model in LDD. The yellow and red technic beams have different orientations. The picture is a snapshot of four views of the same test model in LDD. (LDD did close by itself without any message/trace several times when I try creating the model! Very frustrating!)

I created a vehicle with a frame attached vertically to a motor. I like to document the process.  Can anyone suggest a way to get around the 'restriction'?

The two parts are 95658 and 64179.

I slid the Technic frame over an axle instead of a pin to see how far it would go. As shown in the picture below, it appears as if the part is too big to fit all the way because the rim (shown level with the red line) is too thick.

LDD runs a basic collision detection to ensure that no parts overlap. In real life, certain combinations of parts are impossible without stressing the bricks.

The combination of EV3 Motor and Technic Frame in real life have a very, very small amount of friction, so it shouldn't be harmful. But LDD has no tolerance for overlapping parts.

You do have several options:

Edit the LXFML file.
This is the most technical soloution. Export the LDD file as a .lxfml file as opposed to the standard .lxf. Using a text editor on your computer (such as notepad) you can directly adjust the co-ordinates of the pieces to overlap. However, If you do move the parts apart, you will need to manually put them back together by editing the file. You can find more about LXFML here.
Different Parts. Use different parts that perform the same function as the Technic beam, or don't include the part at all.
Other Software. You may find it easier to build your model in other LEGO CAD software packages such as lDraw. It should be possible to export your model as it is now and import it into most LEGO CAD applications.


How should castle doors be attached? I'm trying to plan the pieces I'll need for a castle door.
I know I need 2 of these doors.
Based on the part list for Adventurers Tomb set, it looks like I'll need several shutter holders, right?  Is there a way to fill in the curves around the top so the front is solid?

The Adventures Tomb 2996 set you mentioned uses shutter holders to mount the door and a 1x6x1 arch to cover the space behind the doors:

It is also very common to use a 1x6x2 arch, as was done in Dark Fortress Landing 8802:

As I mentioned in another answer, these clips generally attach to the back of the door, not the side. The geometry is more complicated to completely fill if you want to have the doors hinge from the side.


Can you identify this 3x4 black plate with studs only going down the middle? I need help in identifying this piece so that I can search for it on BrickLink.
It is a platform for minifigures. It comes with the "mystery minifigure".

You should be able to find this piece by looking up any of the collectible minifigures on Bricklink and looking at the set inventory.

This piece is the Tile, Modified 3 x 4 with 4 Studs in Center (88646).

It is classified on Bricklink under the category 'Tile, Modified'.


How to convert new 4x4 crawler to tracks? With the new 9398 4x4 crawler coming out what would need to be done to convert it to a track based system that looks similar in style to the ones sold by Mattracks?

On a related point what would make a good basis for making a Lego Technic model of the tracked buggies used in Prometheus that use similar 'track wheels'?

I started with something based around the tracks that came with the original LEGO Mindstorm's kit: 680 Technic Tread:

I then build a rather more bulky than I'd have liked set of beams around it - I think if I'd have really dug out my Technic elements I'd have had more success making it look closer to the mattracks options:

Here's the very bulky rear - this would obviously want to be pared down somewhat, and you might want to either power the top wheel, or both the bottom ones:

Here's the rear with the beams removed:

You would need to have the driving axle on a universal joint to allow cornering, and would want to mount the whole thing on the mounts for steering.

I think it would be better if I'd had more of the newer Technic beams (the ones without the studs - I could have then connected them with two coat-hanger pieces and have another one vertically to the top.


Robot Inventor Bluetooth not working A while ago, I started up the Robot Inventor program and noticed the computer was not connecting. When I clicked the "Connect" button, the loading "circle" simply started spinning either indefinitely or for a few seconds until the "Connect" button showed up again. The Bluetooth on my Dell E5540 is on, and the 2 devices are paired.

Maybe this project legoBTLE4pi could help you.
It connects a Raspberry PI via Bluetooth to a Lego Powered Up Brick and does all the funny stuff.
The project is ongoing (nice TUI etc) but everything works.


Are there any wheels or rings that fit in pin clips? I was experimenting with Lego part 16091 Vehicle Steering Wheel Small and various clips, mainly the ones that fit onto bars. To my frustration I found that the clips do not engage at all with the ring that forms the wheel’s circumference; they fall right off.

So my question is this: are there any similar parts (wheels, rings) that do engage with clips in this way?

The small Technic Steering Wheel and what I think is this rubber belt connect to clips:


What is the length of a DUPLO train bridge? I'm trying to plan a DUPLO train track layout to order but I currently don't own any pieces. I'd like to include a bridge like the one in set 3774, but I'm unsure if it will fit my layouts.

Can anyone tell what's the length of the bridge (it seems to be made up of parts 6393 and 6392, two of each) in DUPLO studs?

Based on the layouts from this answer, a half-bridge seems to be 2 straight tracks + 1 quarter-circle (split mid-track at the end, because the middle of the bridge is centered with the crossing track below it).

From this guy's measurements, a quarter-circle of the newer DUPLO tracks is about 18x18 studs. Straights are 8 studs long.

So, a half-bridge should be 32 studs (16+8+8), or 4 straight tracks. The full bridge would be 64 studs, or 8 straights.

Note: I don't have the pieces to confirm these measurements.

Note 2: I now have the pieces and can confirm these measurements, as shown in the picture below.


What is the name of the Lego product that snaps together with knobs? I remember owning a very strange Lego set, but have forgotten the name.

The pieces were similar to Technic parts, but different. They were green rounded frames and connected using purple squares with knobs. I do not recall them being able to directly connect to classic Lego bricks.

The set I owned was some sort of space ship. It came with a motor that made parts of it spin.

Any ideas?

I ended up finding my old instruction book. The parts were called Lego Znap.

It still blows my mind that these things exist.


Lego® Train 60051 alternate IR remote I live in Uganda and purchased the LEGO High-Speed Passenger Train (60051) for my two sons. I am wanting to know if anyone knows of a different remote control that I can use besides the brick remote that comes with the set.

Reason being my youngest son was in a house fire before being adopted and doesn't have fingers making the standard remote impossible for him to use. Any options that I can order from abroad and get shipped over would be so much appreciated.

There are some limited options for third-party remote control add-ons but Lego doesn't license or endorse them and they're not (as far as I know) made with improved accessibility in mind. However, it may be possible to modify the standard remote using pieces you have or can get.

For example, the train remote has an axle hole in the round speed controllers. If you put in a technic axle, you can attach certain technic beams to it, which would act as a handle for turning the control. You need a beam with an axle hole, such as this one

The holes in the side of the remote will accept technic pins and there are studs on the top, which would allow you to build a frame on the remote if you needed a more robust build or if you wanted to build a larger button that could activate the red stop button.

Moving the tiny directional control arrows is probably beyond what you could achieve with any Lego add-ons.

Adding structure around the remote to make it easier to manipulate will be much sturdier if you stick to using technic parts.

I threw this together:

which has a red liftarm beam for controlling the speed and a dark grey liftarm beam for the stop button. It's not perfect: the stop lever can be over-extended and flipped upwards so that it no longer engages, but it can be easily reset. The construction is pretty strong and not likely to fall apart.

If this sort of fix helps with your son's issues and you need more information about how I did it, what parts I used, etc, please don't hesitate to comment on this answer.

Some technical details:
The axle holes on the buttons line up directly with the holes in a technic beam but the built-in technic holes on the side of the remote are half a beam in from where the resulting platform lines up, hence, I had to first attach a half-beam to the remote on the side, then attach the 90-degree beams to that. I'm not much of a technic builder so there may be more elegant solutions.


What LEGO cases are available for phones? I would love to have a LEGO case for my HTC Desire that have LEGO compatible knobs so I can attach LEGO brick on it. Be free to post answers for LEGO case that is for other phones as well, as this is probably something that is interesting for everyone - not only those with HTC Desire...

Someone has taken the drastic move to make their own... I don't want to sacrifice LEGO bricks like that...

I am not sure such a case exists for the HTC Desire.
All of the LEGO style phone accessories I have seen in the past have been for the iphone.

A bit of searching turned up these items:

What appears to be a case with LEGO compatible studs (for iphone)

Check out this page for other LEGO relates accessories and a picture of the above case in use with actual LEGO built onto it (near the bottom of the page).

There is also a TinkerBrick LEGO iPod/iPhone 3 case which has studs on the front and sockets on the back. There are taking Votes for the next supported phone on their site.

There is a mock LEGO silicone iphone case available here. The two pieces can be attached in different positions.

To wander off topic slightly, there are other 'phone related' LEGO style accessories available that are compatible with most phones:

Dock cover available here.

LEGO brick earphones available here.


Color sensor reliable? I am experimenting with the light sensor shipped within the mindstorms ev3 package.

My Problem is that the bot is standing quiet at one place. Each value returned by sensor is different, although the bot is not moving. Why? :-(

I am using the Red mode:

SensorMode t = sensor.getRedMode();

float[] sample = new float[1];
t.fetchSample(sample,0);
return sample [0];

I tried putting the sensor in different positions and tried different distances to the floor. When it is on a black line the values differ a lot.

Which sensor modes do you guys use for getting reliable information about underground colour? Or let's say underground brightness?

Light sensors are mainly affected by three independent variables:

Distance between the sensor and the surface
Color of the surface
Amount of ambient light

What this means is, in order to measure one of these things, the other two variables must be held constant. So, in order to measure color, the distance must be constant and the ambient light should be constant.

You can maintain a constant distance between the sensor and the floor by attaching the sensor, pointing downward, to a fixed point on the robot. Simple enough. In my experience the sensor should be about 1cm from the floor for best results.

You can maintain a constant ambient light by avoiding shadows or bright lights. If this isn't possible, you can build a shroud over the sensor to block out external light. You should also recalibrate the sensor at program startup to account for ambient light.

After doing the previous two things, you can measure the reflected light from the surface by shining one of the colored LEDs and taking a sample. Using only 1 LED should be sufficient to detect differences in grayscale, but to actually measure "color" you can quickly cycle between the Red, Green, and Blue LEDs, taking samples with each, to get a crude estimate of the RGB components of the surface.


What are the electrical properties of electric LEGO systems? Several electric LEGO systems exist:

LEGO Trains
LEGO Technic Power Functions (PF)
LEGO Mindstorms (in several versions)
...?

How do these systems differ in electrical properties and which systems can safely be connected? I am especially interested in the number of wires (2 or more), the Voltage level (V), and the average and maximum current allowed (A).

This is a big question, but here are some of the basics:

The original 4.5V system worked with 3 x 1.5V C cells. It was produced between 1966 an 1986 and was used to power motors and lights in a wide variety of trains, technic, basic and even DUPLO sets.

Coexisting with this system, a 12V standard for LEGO Trains was introduced in 1969 and produced until 1993. The power was supplied by DC Transformer. There is no electrical compatibility between 12V and 4.5V components, and the higher voltage can damage the lower-rated parts. In addition to motors and lights, an assortment of other 12V accessories were available such as automatic switch points. The 12V system had two wires or three wires for track switches.

9V became the LEGO standard in the early 90s. There were a several different power sources, such as a single 9V battery, 6x 1.5V batteries and a DC Transformer (used exclusively for trains). The 9V system is electrically incompatible with either the 4.5V or 12V systems, but as I understand it, 9V components are electrically compatible with each other. 9V was a 2-wire system. Philo's web site provides electrical details of a variety of 9V motors.

For trains, the RC system was introduced in 2006, the previous 9V system being phased out the following year. The RC system was again a 2-wire 9V system.

Power Functions (PF) use a 4-wire system, the outer two wires providing power and the inner two control functions. Once again, it is nominally a 9V system, although it will cope with some variation to accommodate various types of batteries. For example, the 88000 AAA Battery Box uses 6 x AAA to supply up to about 9.6V and up to to 800mA current, depending on the batteries used, whereas the 8878 Rechargeable Battery Box delivers 7.4 V at up to 1.1A (?).

The first generation of Mindstorms, the RCX generation, was again based on 9V. The original 1.0 version could be powered using a 10V DC transformer, but later versions took 6xAA batteries. It used standard LEGO 2-wire 9V connectors. When powered, the sensor inputs can supply power (at a bit less than 9V). More details of the electrical characteristics of these ports can be found in Claude Baumann's Making Your Own RCX Sensors. The same sensor interfaces were also used on the earlier and less well-known Lego DACTA Interface B but unlike on the RCX powered and unpowered sensors used different ports on the Interface B (this is why powered and unpowered sensors were different colours).

The Mindstorms NXT system is a 6-wire system. Two wires retained the 9V motor and sensor systems from the RCX while the other four provided tachometer functionality on the motor ports and a digital sensor interface on the sensor ports.

The Mindstorms EV3 uses the same 6-wire connectors as the NXT but additional functionality and a auto-detect system were added. Unfortunately in doing this they broke compatibility with 2-wire devices.

Interconnecting different 9V systems.

Lego sold (now discontinued) an adaptor cable for going from the NXT to the old 9V connector. This allowed old 9V motors and RCX sensors to be used with the NXT. It also allowed NXT motors to be powered from a 9V source (obviously losing the tachometer functionality) and the NXT touch sensor to be used with a RCX or Interface B.

Unfortunately this cable doesn't work correctly with the EV3, see How to use Power Functions with Mindstorms EV3? and Use legacy RCX sensors with EV3 for more discussion and possible workarounds.

Lego sell an extension/adaptor cable that can be used to supply old 9V devices from a power functions source. It can also be used to supply ordinary power functions motors from an old 9V source but not to supply power functions IR receivers or server motors. See Does the LEGO "Power Functions Extension Wire" (8886) work in both directions between old 9V and new Power Functions devices? for more details.

Lego did not sell a direct adaptor for connecting the NXT to power functions motors, this can be achieved either by combining the two adaptors mentioned above or by making a custom cable.

Right, that's a start. Please edit this answer to add additional information.


Is the Lego 8884 IR Receiver compatible with earlier IR Speed Remotes e.g. from set 7897? I'm thinking of buying the new Train power function, e.g. 8884 IR Receiver, 88000 Battery Box, and 8879 IR Speed Remote. However I already have the set 7897, is the Speed Remote from this set compatible with 8884 IR Receiver ? Does anyone know ?
I think the train motor is compatible by the way, correct me if I'm wrong.

I think RC devices are not compatible with PF devices due using different IR protocols.

For instance, see this forum thread for more explanation. Also this cool site.

Summarizing,

RC and PF can use the same rails
RC and PF cannot use the same remote controllers
RC and PF uses different engines:

RC places it in bogie (as 9v do)
PF places it in body


What LEGO set are these decorated tiles from? I have a box of LEGO from when my husband was younger and I have been going through and putting them in their sets for my son. I have now run out of the instruction books and still have some sets left.

Can anyone identify what set these pieces pictures may have come from? It seems like his sets are all from the 90’s.

These came from a number of sets, including a handy "Decorated Elements" set that covered most of the printed parts from the mid-90s space theme.

However, Recon Robot appears to be the only one that contains two of the 2x2 tiles and only one of the 2x1 tiles.

Instructions can be found in a number of places, including on Let's Build It Again.


Did all the nxt 2.0 lego content vanish from the Lego website? I keep finding links to pictures and projects that evidently used to be on an nxt content site at lego. Is all of that information just gone? A site called nxtasy also seems to have vanished. Are there any good sources for nxt project documentation any more?

There is still some NXT stuff on the LEGO website. It is just hidden a little bit. Go to the new Mindstorms website and click on downloads. Then look for the arrows at the top left of the Download Archive section and click the right arrow. You will find a NXT tab. Edit: The NXT downloads have been moved to the main download tab so they are easy to find now.

NXTasy has become http://www.mindboards.net.


How can I transmit horizontal torque to vertical? I have a setup where I have a step motor which I am attaching a gear onto. The motor will make the gear stand horizontal in a small vehicle. Is there any good gear combinations of LEGO gears that can transform the  horizontal torque of the gear into vertical torque that drives the wheels of the small car I am building?

Are there multiple combinations of LEGO gears that can provide this kind of torque transmission?

There are a number of ways to do this. This is one of the easiest and earliest methods:

For that design, you'll need this part (3650):

You can also do something similar using a combination of bevel gears or double bevel gears:


Is there anything like a 'recipe generator' for LEGO models? For me, most of the fun of LEGO toys, is building new things from the instructions. Rebuilding things can be fun, but if I know I have certain bricks (or even sets), is there somewhere to cross-reference these with the content of other constructions/sets (official or otherwise)?

Yes there is! Rebrickable.com is dedicated entirely to doing so. You can save time and import your LEGO collection from Brickset.com (If you have an account). The site will then search for other sets and MOCs you can build from the bricks you have in your collection.


Is there a good place to find upcoming LEGO conventions? Is there a continually-updated site that tracks LEGO conventions/gatherings around the country (USA) or world? Ideally there'd be a way to filter them by date/type/location.

There is the LEGO ambassadors network calendar:

https://lan.lego.com/calendar

This contains all events organized by RLUGS (LEGO communities recognized by LEGO), which are the largest events generally.

However, where I live, all sorts of communities and individuals organize events, it is quite a challenge to keep track of all of them.


Can I remotly control the points on PF train tracks? I'm interested in investing in power functions based trains, but want to automate switching points. Is this possible? What is the cheapest / easiest way of achieving this?

There is a pure way of changing the points at a track. It requires as few pieces as you like: a motor and two technic beam/bricks. This video demonstrates the principles of point changing with a NXT motor and will work with PF and RCX.

You can use Mindstorms to program the events that trigger the points to change, it will cost you extra but there are benefits.


What set has a monster food truck with a burger on top? I saw this image of a Lego truck with a giant burger on top, but the set number was not given. If anyone could tell me what set this is, I'd appreciate it!

That is the Creator 3-in-1 Monster Burger Truck, set number 31104. It has a piece count of 499, and it sells on LEGO.com for $49.99. It was released in January 2020.


Please help identify the LEGO set Got the picture of the main fuselage with 3 troopers.


Can anyone identify these parts? Technic, liftarm connected to a circle I'm trying to follow a video MOC tutorial but I can't figure out what this brick is. Part number would help.

It looks like some 44224 Technic, Rotation Joint Disk with Pin Hole and 3L Liftarm Thick and some 44225 Technic, Rotation Joint Disk with Pin and 3L Liftarm Thick - probably two of each, connected by pins.


Set number of this brick-built 2015 Canned Fish Toy commercial Award LEGO Duck I found these two ducks in a thrift-store but cannot identify them or the award show. The text on the stickers says: "Canned fish - Toy commercial Award - 16-18 September 2015 - Ringkøbing" and the instructions are marked: "Design seminar 2015". Google is not my friend :-(

I looked into this, and it would seem that this is not a numbered model. According to an attendee of the event (who works for LEGO,) there aren't numbers for a lot of promotional sets, likely including this model. I have also searched Bricklink for this. It makes sense that this isn't a numbered set because it was for a seminar.


How can I make my LEGO engine go faster I have a LEGO engine powered by a PF XL motor but I didn't realize until now that the motor is not that fast and that even when I increase gear ratio the gears always get either unattached or jammed.

What should I do?

Update:
Thanks to mindstormsboi and Alex I was able to change the design of the engine to the following. It works much better now.

If you need a fast motor but not having too much torque, yet powerful enough
 - consider using a PF L-motor. It has roughly half of the XL-motor's torque, but twice as much rpm.

The PF XL-motor has high torque, considering its intended application with LEGO. This is known to cause some serious damage to gears if the assembly isn't rigid enough. It is essential to have your gears braced properly from both sides. Otherwise your gears will be slipping and/or grinding under load. In your picture you have your gears braced from one side only - this will cause you problems. You need to construct rigid bracing from the other side as well.

I find Sariel's Gear Ratio Calculator useful for finding the right gears for your application.


How do I unlock the sunday surprise on the 2013 Star Wars Advent Calendar? I'm trying to enter the code on the back of door number 1 into the Lego Star Wars site but it doesn't work.  Does anyone know how / where to input the code?

I just found this website:

http://www.lego.com/en-us/starwars/games/web-games/advent-calendar

it has special stuff each day, the place you enter the code is the image of jango fett in the bottom middle.


Is there a 90 degree angle brick? Is there a brick that I can use to connect lego plates at a 90 degree angle?

There are many different types. You can find them here: Bricklink - Brick Modified

There are also Brackets: Bricklink - Brackets

And you could use some of these Bricklink - Plate Modified  or, of course, these Bricklink - Hinges


Miniature Lepin box door stuck inside box itself Yes, maybe the title may be confusing, but this image says it all:

I got a Lepin city set not too long ago, and it included this box. I have no idea how this happened but during use the door mysteriously got stuck inside the box. I'm not really surprised since the set came with an excessively loose head, but I need to get this door out of the box.
Part seperators are too big and bulky to fo the job, so that's not an option. I don't have any minifig crowbars either, and using my fingernails hurts and aren't strong enough. Alternatively I use that golden sword in the picture to grip the handle and attempt to pull out the door but the space available to move the door is very limited, and it gets too tight. Thus when I keep pulling the sword starts to bend, and eventually it loses grip and drops the door. I tried this method countless times and have had no luck.
What can I do? How can I get the door out of the box? (obviously it shouldn't require damaging parts)

Finally, I did it. I wasted two days waiting for answers when the solution is actually very simple.
I just lifted the box cover with my fingertips just a tiny bit, so that there was enough space to stick something thin between the box cover and the box itself. I did not lift as much as possible because:

My fingers would slip and drop the box lid again, because the remaining space to lift it all the way out would be too tight

I need enough space to stick something thin in between.

Then I got a thin-blade knife, as zovits recommended, and pulled it down like a lever, making the other end go up and force the cover out. Easy!


What's partial set 45100 - Education Story Starter worth? I found this set in a thrift store. It's not 100% complete. The set consists of 1144 parts, divided into 14 bags, which are all unopened.

The missing parts are:
1 x 16x16 grey plate
The blue box itself
A tray with sorting compartments (there are two in the complete set, but I only have one)
A cardboard sheet divided into four parts (there are two in the set, but I only have one).

Does anyone have an idea about what it might be worth? And what if it were complete? Should I acquire the missing parts on Bricklink to get a complete set?

Thanks :-)

Does anyone have an idea about what it might be worth? And what if it were complete?

According to Bricklink, a new, unopened version of this set goes for somewhere between 160€ and 200€, although there are lots listed for double the price as well.

Of the missing parts, the 1 x 16x16 grey plate is trivial to replace, and the others can be bought for 4-6€ each (except the cardboard, it costs less than 1€) as well. This means, there is probably no great difference in the prices of a complete set and your incomplete one, maybe about 15-20€ for all the missing parts (depending on shipping and handling costs).

  Should I acquire the missing parts on Bricklink to get a complete set?

That entirely depends on what do you wish to do with it. If you'd just resell it, there would be advantages to completing it, but as there are not much demand for this set and all other offers are for new, unopened ones, I doubt yours (complete or incomplete, but opened nonetheless) would be competitive without price reduction.

If you plan to use it as intended, the missing elements might prove invaluable, so in this case it would be recommended to get at least the baseplate and the cardboard.

However, if it would just serve as a playset or a parts pack, then it does not make much sense to get any of the missing parts. The blue box might be a great all-purpose storage bin, but if you need one, you already can buy any brand on- or offline. The same goes for the sorting tray.


How can I make my robot heavier? I'm building a 3kg LEGO EV3 sumo robot and I need to make it as small as possible.

Which LEGO items do you recommend to add more weight on it? (tires, plates, wheels, blocks, minifigs etc.)

Weights:

The 2 x 6 x 2 weight elements are pretty good.

Boat Weight
Train Weight

Magnets:

Train Magnets are also pretty dense, though not very large and are now rather pricey.

Rubber:

Any solid rubber wheels also pretty dense. Avoid the hollow ones full or air.

Batteries:

If you need a lot of weight, you might also add a battery box, full of batteries of course. These are the ones currently in productions, but older ones will work just as well.

AA Battery Box
AAA Battery Box
Rechargeable Battery Box

I've also seen people add AA batteries without a battery box, but that may be bending the rules a bit.

Other Electronics:

Most LEGO Electronics are actually fairly heavy. You could also add motors, old LEGO RC stuff, or even whole other Mindstorms or other robotics bricks.

Make sure to check the rules for your sumo competition to see if any of these are excluded.


When was the pink brick released? I am a student researching Lego for an essay. I was looking at when the first pink bricks were released.  I have researched and found that they were initially released between 1949 and 1956 and were discontinued and then reinstated around 1978, but other sources have said they were released in 1994.

I would like clarity of what actually happened.

There are two shades of light-pink in LEGO's history that were included in official sets. (Please note that there are other, rare shades of pink that never made it into mass production but were used as test colors or for special projects.) The older light-pink is simply called "pink" in the BrickLink Color Guide, and also often referred to as "Paradisa Pink", as it was in the LEGO Paradisa line where the color was most prominent. It is a softer, lighter shade, and was produced between 1991-2006.

The current light-pink is referred to as "bright-pink" in the BrickLink Color Guide. It was introduced in 2003 and is produced to this day. It is a much brighter and bolder color.

Besides these two light-pink colors there are also darker pinks: the older medium-dark-pink (1992-1996), the current dark-pink (1994-), and also current magenta (2000-).

You can find detailed information on them in the BrickLink Color Guide, and you can see sample parts in each color here: BrickLink Color Guide with Images.


Run an NXT 2 program that will continue until no power is left in batteries I want to run an NXT 2 program that will continue until no power is left in batteries. I want it to rotate slowly so that a sculpture can be turned for as long as possible. It seems to go for a few hour then shuts down.

Use the Keep Alive Block in your program.

  This block will keep the NXT from entering sleep mode. Add this block
  if your program needs to wait for longer than the NXTs set "sleep
  time" (configured using the NXTs on-board menus).

The Time until sleep plug will take a value from 0 - 4294967296 (168) milliseconds .

4294967296 milliseconds is just over 49 days which is most likely a lot longer than the battery lifespan and much, much longer then you would/should normally be running it for.


How deep can discounts on Amazon get? I'm looking at the Hogwart Train set on Amazon right now and they are 20% off the MSRP. I recently bought the 60198 set at a 5% discount, now it is 16% off.

I wanted to know typically how deep the discounts can go and how far into a release do they start discounting and how quickly they sell out.

Can people who have a lot of buying experience on Amazon comment please?

As a general practise discount can be quite big (I've seen -50% off) for a small set and tend to be much lower (around -25% off) for a large set.

Discounts tend to vary even during the same day. So it is worth keeping an eye. Some sites, like Brickset tend to announce LEGO sales too. They even have a tracker for Amazon and other services. I suggest to look here to have a sense of understanding how much discounted the set can get.


Which set do these LEGO bricks belong to? Please help me identify which LEGO set do these blocks belong to.

As already identified in the comments by Uli, the parts Stick 6M W/Flange in bright yellow and Brick 4X6 W/Bow/Angle in bright yellow are only available together in 75092-1: Naboo Starfighter:


What are LEGO's best selling products? I am doing a school project on LEGO.

I have two questions for you. How much profit does Lego  make each year? Also what products have been the biggest sellers and in what years?

You can find some of The LEGO Group's financial information in their annual report. Note that the financials are in Danish kroner, so you'll need to do some currency conversion. For example, the net profit for 2012 was 5.6 billion DKK, which works out to about 1 billion USD.

I'm not aware of a reliable way to get official sales numbers for individual products or even product lines. The Mindstorms RIS 2.0 set was the best selling individual product as noted in this article from 2008:

  The Mindstorms RIS 2.0 is the #1 selling product in the company's history, and there are over 1 million RCX bricks that have been sold.

TLG does occasionally release some product sales information, as shown in this Brickset post.

If you are interested in the current bestselling sets, there is a page on LEGO.com with this information. Brickpicker also has a section for the current bestselling sets on eBay.


Where can I find LDraw files to download for basic figures? I would like to have a collection of simple examples for my youngsters.

Only for basic LEGO bricks. Not Technics or complex and complete space stations, just some
step-by-step instructions for the basic bricks. Based on the starters edition from LEGO.

I was thinking of: houses, small animals, simple aeroplane, simple car, tree, ...
All based on the basic instructions.

This would help the children a lot in playing.

See the pictures. I would love to find step-by-step instructions in LDraw.

This answer will by definition have a lot of links, but here we go. Since you're looking for instructions there are a few sites that you should consider visiting.

The first is Cubiculus, which specializes in creating LDraw versions of custom and official instructions. The creator of the site adds plenty of his own (basic) instructions.

The second is Rebrickable. It contains many creations by various builders, and some provide LDraw files for you to download. The instructions are usually quite advanced, however.

Lastly, you could put together your own LDraw files from LEGOs basic sets. The biggest consolidated collection of instructions is available on Swooshable. (Full disclosure - it's my own scraper that consolidates set instructions from the five biggest sources on the web. I built it to not have to check different sites for a particular instruction.)

Hopefully that'll get you on the right track.


What is the best solution to power up two 5292 buggy motors? I have two buggy motors, 5292 like this:

I see powering each separately and using two IR receivers soon triggers the receivers' protections and the motors are stopped.

My aim is not speed, I see battery options powering with 7.2-7.5V instead of others powering with 9V, obviously the latter ones performs faster, but I try to have a safely working setup, without burning components.

What is the best way to power up them?
Is there a way to avoid using Android apps and bluetooth, or EV3 stuff, by using an IR setup at all?
Is it possible to avoid SBicks and BuWizz?
If not, are these reliable? I see people talking about LiPo instability. Is it that fire-hazardous?

Having in mind that Lego has overheat protections that often stop the motors on load, first question would be: is there a setup with Lego's LiPo battery to avoid the known hiccups behavior, without bypassing the protections?

And I have a side question: how to control a  buggy motor using its box 54734, that come together in the 8287 set, with an IR Receiver? Mine simply does not power up the IR. I've tried all Lego Power Functions extension cables, the IR receiver doesn't lit.

Update

I have a RC power unit now:

A thing that nobody tells ~ and I've searched a lot ~ is that steering goes 45°, unlike the servo motor that goes for 90°.

Building big means heavy (I try the agrof's class 1 buggy), so I've used multiplication twice in order to achieve the same 90° with the RC unit. This powered down the steering so it could not work when not running. A crackling sound is heard from it too, when tried. The multiplication is like this:

 →  →  →

agrof's steering is pretty complicated to change in order to use a 20T instead of 12T due to the steering wishbones and link positioning, as the 20T is bigger in diameter. Also, don't know if it is enough.

Now, similar to Michael Verschaeve's idea, the 45° steering could be used to action a switch in order to steer using a servo motor, but seems pretty weird to me.

The Lipo, thermal protections kicks in when consuming about 1A, while the buggy motor will consume 1.3 A when loaded but not stalled.
So for two buggy motors, best would be 3 lipo's in parallel but perhaps you can get away with 2.
The V1 receiver, only 850 mA before the protection kicks in, so not enough to power 1 buggy motor, let alone 2.
The V2 receiver, 1.5 A before the protection kicks in, enough to power 1 buggy motor...

What might be a solution is having the V1 receiver control a medium motor or servo which mechanically switches a 8869 control switch which in turn switches the buggys on and off...

As for the old battery box, I think the reason you don't get it to power a V1 receiver is because power functions have two pairs of wires, a control pair and a pair that gives a constant voltage.

M,L and XL motors only use the control pairs of wires.

A servo uses the voltage pair to keep its position and the control pair to determine the position.

A receiver uses the input voltage pair to power itself, ignores the input control pair, forwards the voltage pair to the output voltage pairs and places control voltage on the output control pairs as it's instructed by the remote.

When using PF to 9V conversion cables, I think only the control pairs get connected, never the voltage pairs so the receivers cannot be powered by 9V battery boxes or cables...


Are DUPLO blocks compatible with LEGO blocks in any way? Can I build a model out of both DUPLO blocks and LEGO blocks? Do they fit together?

Yes! You can add LEGO on top of DUPLO, and DUPLO on top of LEGO. Here's an example picture from The Brick Blogger:

Because stacking LEGO on top of DUPLO requires the particular LEGO tube design on the bottom (to fit in the hollow top of the DUPLO bricks), many "LEGO-compatible" bricks do not share this compatibility with DUPLO - at best, you can stack DUPLO on top of them, but not the other way around.

In addition, you can use only some types of LEGO bricks with DUPLO. Plates, tiles and other modified pieces can't stack with DUPLO. DUPLO can sit happily on top of plates, but plates and tiles only balance on top of Duplo, there's no real clutch between them that way.


Scarcity of electric parts: motors etc Having bought parts in bulk several times I came to realization that electric parts are scarce resource in Lego world.  The cost of plastic parts comes at around 10% of original price but there are so few electrics among them that I consider buying motors etc. separately and the cost would be times more as percentage of original price.

Most Technic sets are sold w/out electric parts,  so most of buyers do not purchase electric parts,  hence small after market.  I talked to salesman in one shop - hardly proper sample,  still - the quantity of pure electric sets sold is so small I could hardly imagine it's significant profit for Lego.

Web search did not show info on the topic.  What are most probable reasons that electrics are not bundled in sets?  Are there studies / discussions why this strategy was chosen by Lego?

Cost. If you look at any set with electric motors, etc. you will see a significant increase in the price of these sets.  They have marketing research groups and accountants that somewhat dictate the price range of the sets they release.  Any engineer with good experience can tell you of the headaches of dealing with keeping production cost down.  Since the cost of the motorized sets are inflated by including expensive to produce/source parts, they will only allow so many to be produced/released each year.

Most customers take things at face value.  They see that you "get less (pieces)" for your money in these sets and are less likely to buy them as often. The Lego company's targeted demographic has been stated as 8-12 year old boys from various sources.  I tend to believe this claim based on the amount of sets released with those ages listed on them.  This would also suggest that the majority of their marketing research is dedicated to this specific group, and has shown that electric components aren't a big selling point. I can confirm this to be accurate based on my own children and their friends.

I know from an engineering standpoint that the more components something has, and how "specialized" they are, the more expensive it is to produce. Because of this many parts are outsourced from companies that specialize it certain components. Electronics are good example of this as many of the internal components are manufactured from different companies. So not only are these individual pieces bought from several different places, but then they have to be assembled.  All this equals "cost of production".

One last note: I often come across sets for sale (Bricklink, Ebay, etc.) without the electronic components.  I have come to the conclusion that these people are buying the sets just for the motors, etc. and selling the rest to recover some of the cost.  This works out well for sets like trains where adding additional cars is a common desire. This is option you might consider.

Related: How much does an average LEGO brick cost to produce?

Another possible aspect that I have no knowledge of is if there are any additional costs to import/export products that fall under "electronics".


Should I store greasy tires separately? Should I store my "greasy" tires separately from the ones that don't seem to sweat?

I'm hand-washing and sorting my bricks from a big, uncovered tub, and some of my earlier tires are really greasy, for lack of a better word... The rubber is, maybe, "sweating" something out with age? I dunno.

I read an earlier post, from 2014 or so, about tire storage, and it was helpful, but not as specific an answer as I was looking for. Any thoughts, yea or nay?

I really expected someone with chemistry leanings to explain to us what was "migrating" out of the rubber with time or temperature, to make them "greasy"...much like cocoa butter will migrate outside of M&M's that have gotten too hot in their package.

The question "chicks" linked to gives some good answers though, and it's encouraging that no one has had any storage tragedies.  Still, I would advise keeping them out of the usual culprits though:  sunlight and hot temperatures.


What set does this light grey 2x8 overhanging brick with a 10 on the side belong to? I just received a huge box of LEGO pieces. There are some unique pieces such as this one.  On the back of this piece is the number AM02232. What are my options of figuring out its set and finding instructions? I'm brand new to the LEGO world, but kiddo is a builder at heart.

Confirmed that this is not LEGO, but Mega Bloks.

http://gamearn.me/mega-bloks-tank/mega-bloks-tank-legends-battle/

Not sure if it is from this set specifically (looks like it might have some stickers to add the camouflage or yours comes from a similar set).


What ball-joint cup piece or configuration of pieces is shown in this render? What is the name of this particular ball-cup, or piece combination that forms the thigh component circled below?

I have been unable to identify the gray cup piece when comparing it to other parts in the LEGO Digital Designer. I have ruled out this as a third party part, as the original MOC shown here was created in the LDD as well.

The top piece shown here is the LEGO Ball Joint with Ball Socket (74261 / 98613) connected to a LEGO Brick 2 x 2 with Ball Socket and Axlehole (Wide Socket) (92013).


Is there a good way to buy molded LEGO boxes? I'm considering some new storage options, and there are some official LEGO boxes that I'd like to use as they already fit in my existing shelving system. The following sets contain the boxes that I'd like to use:

I wouldn't mind picking up a few copies of the classic brick box for the parts, but I'm less excited about the others. I'd like to get a variety of colors of these boxes, and they aren't widely available on Bricklink.

Is there a good way to get these boxes without buying several copies of each of these sets?

I have considered this as well as the boxes look nice and they are stackable. However after taking into consideration how difficult it was going to be to acquire these boxes in sufficient quantity, be able to expand the system as my collection grows, and the fact that even the largest box is quite small, I decided against it. It is just not worth it.

Also, the boxes are not really practical for storage. They are narrow and deep, meaning it is hard to find pieces. I prefer wider and shallower containers where it is easier to see what's inside. It is best to go with a generic storage system readily available at department stores. They are made to be practical for storage, they are cheap, and can be expanded as your collection grows. If you would like to have the LEGO-ish look, you can always paint your shelves in bright colors, add posters, LEGO stickers, etc.

However if you really-really want these boxes, you might want to team up with eBay or BrickLink sellers who don't really care for the boxes but sell the parts. Try to reach out to larger sellers who buy sets in quantities, so you can get a number of boxes at a time.


Rendering the wrath of a vengeful god I'm planning on doing the Indiana Jones Face Melting Scene.
At time frame 1:08 of that clip, you can see arcs of energy going out from the Ark, devouring the Nazi soldiers. My current plan is to use the transparent neck bracket with 2 studs, then attaching transparent red or green bars to that to make the energy arcs. However, the arc is depicted as going out in a sort of cone or fan shape, rather then in straight lines.  Is there a way I can attach some bars to the back of a figure at an angle (33-45 degrees or so)?
Or is there another way altogether I can approach this?

One way you could achieve that is to use Minifigure, Utensil Posing Stand, Bar with Hollow Stud with the bracket you've mentioned. Not entirely sure of an exact angle, but it looks to be close to 45°/135° angle.


How to remember initial position of a robot and return to it I have an EV3 robot with motors, like a car, that can move forward/backward and left/right and have some sensors attached. I want it to remember its initial position by remembering all the movements of motors when robot starts moving, then after some movements, that can be random in time, distance and direction, I want to return it back home.

How can I do this? What is the principle of returning "home" knowing there are no GPS or other helpers?

You have two options.

You can use an accelerometer. Lego sells one that can be found here. There are also aftermarket ones at mindsensors.com.  This allows you to independently measure the acceleration of the robot. You have to then integrate this information twice to get positional change. The way to do this is to put it in your control loop and sum up 0.5*dt*dt*a where a is the accelerometer reading (there will be one for each axis of motion) and dt is the time between samples. This nice thing about this is it gives you absolute displacement. That is it accounts for motions that cancel out so you can set a straight line path back.

You can record each displacement into a variable for x and y directions using the servo readings from the motors - remember to reset the encoder value from the servos after each reading. This is harder because you have to account for the geometry of the wheels and keep track of the robot heading - lego also sells a compass sensor if you don't want to deal with finding your heading, but you'll still have to deal with non-spinning turns. It's also prone to accumulation of errors. (the accelerometer is too but not as bad I think.)

Your admonition of 'no other helpers' could be interpreted to mean you don't want the first solution in which case you are left with using the encoders and figuring out the differential motion of your chassis design (which may be non trivial).


Smallest rubber wheel that can be turned by a technic axle What the smallest rubber wheels that can be turned by a Technic axle?

This is what I have so far

Wheel Full Rubber Balloon with Axle hole #4288

Background: I'm building a GBC and I want to push the balls at speed across an open area. I plan to hide small spinning wheels in the opening they go through and assume that rubber tyres are the best solution.

I think the smallest one in diameter is the tire 3641

with the bush 4265c.

Alternatively, you can use the tire 3139

which has a smooth surface and also compatible (but a little bit loosely) with the same bush.


Mindstorms NXT Bluetooth Slow Connecting I have just bought a NXT 2.0 and have installed the software on my laptop, and after some trouble getting it to connect I now have it connected any working using bluetooth. However it takes an age to connect, and I wondered if anybody knew why and how to sort it out.

I am running Win7 32-bit, and to get the software running I first had to set it to run as administrator and using XP SP2 compatibility settings, and had to change the bluetooth driver to use the generic MS stack rather than the installed for from the manufacturer. I found these tips on various sites around the web.

Once I had done this I managed to get it working, but now on opening the software and scanning for devices, it takes somewhere in the region of 4-5 minutes to find the device (while it is sat next to the laptop), and then another 2-3 minutes to connect, and then even more annoyingly another 2 minutes when I click close on the devices window. Once this has completed, it works fine and uploads and downloads with no problems, but it just seems really slow getting there.

Any ideas?

I have got that problem too. And this is a bug in the NXT 2.0 system, So there are two solutions:

1- Using the USB Cable instead of Bluetooth as it give no errors and it is faster also it keeps your battery life for longer time.

2-Update your NXT Firmware frequently as the LEGO may be fixed the problem.


Color sensor use in Commander app I'm trying to build the MindCub3r model shared online at http://mindcuber.com. It often has trouble scanning the cube so I wanted to check the output of the colour scanner by using the Commander app. I've made a custom controller panel featuring a colour sensor output, but it only shows red, either dark or bright. The EV3 colour sensor can detect more than that, how can I get the Commander app to show me what colour it really sees.

Incidentally when scanning the cub I see it shining RGB light at the target. When using the app it is only shining red.

The MindCuber program uses a special ColorSensorRGB block (see section 2.1 on the MindCuber EV3 Page). This block uses a "hidden" mode of the LEGO EV3 Color sensor to read raw RGB values. This mode is not available in the Commander app for Android or iPhone.

The mode you are seeing in the Command app (with only the red LED) is the reflected light mode.

If you want to see what the MindCuber program sees, then you will need to write a program using the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 desktop software along with the special ColorSensorRGB block from the MindCuber web page.

The MindCuber program does not actually care what color each square on the Rubik's cube is. It actually guesses which squares are white and then sorts the remaining colors by hue. So, observing the RGB values directly will probably not provide much insight. You will need to study the MindCuber program and copy parts of it to debug what the MindCuber program is "seeing".

There is also a list of troubleshooting tips on the MindCuber EV3 Page as well as a link to the MindCuber Facebook page which is the official way to get support for the MindCuber.


Trouble with Commander app: Using buttons to control motors I'm having trouble with the Commander app for Android. I've put an EV3 into set 8448. I'm using one of the large motors for propulsion and a medium motor for rack and pinion steering. I don't have the remote (using the education set) so I'm trying to use my phone as a remote instead. I downloaded the Commander app.

I went into "create my own". I can use a slider to make the car go backwards and forwards, however, I tried to set up two buttons for steering, one button to make the medium motor go one way and another button to make it go the other way. Only one of the buttons works. It's only possible to make the medium motor go one way, not the other. How can I make it so the button controls can control the motor in either direction?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You cannot have more than one control per motor. If you have two controls, the signals are essentially sent to the EV3 at the same time, so only the second one will seem to work because it immediately changes whatever what sent by the first.

In your example, with 2 buttons, the buttons either command the motor to move or stop. If neither button is pressed, both are telling the motor to stop, so no problem. But if you press the first button, it tells the motor to turn, but the second button is telling the motor to stop. Since the EV3 got the message from the second button last, the motor stops and it appears that the first button does not work.

So, if you want to use the Commander app for this, you will need to use a different control that can turn the motor in either direction with just one control such as a slider or tilt.


Could not find this LEGO brick, any ideas? Could you identify this LEGO brick? No ID number found on it...

Many thanks!

That's Legs without Split, which were used for the very first LEGO minifigures.


EV3 controlled by 8879 speed control through IR sensor Is it possible to send commands to an EV3 brick from the Power Functions Speed Control remote?

Would I have to interpret the raw sensor values to do this? Are there any references that would help?

It is possible, but not with the LEGO EV3 IR Sensor.
The LEGO 45509 EV3 Infrared Sensor does not respond to the 8879 remote. There is actually a "hidden" mode that is not accessible from the standard LEGO software called IR-REM-A that is essentially this "raw" mode that you have conjectured. However even in this mode, it does not respond to the 8879 remote (unless you press both brake buttons at the same time, which is not very useful).
Instead, you could use the HiTechnic IR Receiver sensor which does work with the 8879 remote. There is not an EV3 block for it, so you will need to use a 3rd party development platform that supports it, such as ev3dev.
Or, you could also use LIRC. There are lots of options for IR Receivers included homebrew (if you are a hardware hacker). Although not exactly what you need, here is an example of someone who make an IR Transmitter for the EV3 to control Power Functions motors (using ev3dev).


Lubricating train axles - which oil to use? I have a lot of old (80s grey era and 90s 9v) trains. Some of the wheels squeak and many have quite a bit of friction. Sometimes this friction causes the locomotive to detach from the rollingstock since the friction of the wheels on long trains is greater than the magnetic force between the couplers.
I searched this site and the closest match I could find is: How to lubricate the 4.5v train motor for set 7722? It mentions using 'plastic safe oil' but does not specify a brand.
This warning is echoed across the model train internet and some (non-Lego) discussions have recommended using a full-synthetic motor oil applied via a needle oiler.
The linked question is specific to the motor and gears that are likely to be designed to be lubricated vs wheel axles that are not.
I was going to use 3in1 oil but the consensus seems to be that this is a bad idea because it is a petroleum derivative.
Does anyone have any first-hand experience of a 'plastic safe' oil that they have used on their Lego? I would think any oil would work to lubricate the axles but I want to be sure it will not damage the plastic over time.

Generally for this sort of thing the recommendation is a "light machine oil" (the wording from the Hornby Maintenance sheets). These are "non-penetrating" and so won't damage the plastics which might happen with 3-in-1 or WD-40 style oils.
This can often be found as "Sewing Machine Oil".
Fleischmann (a model railway brand) sell their own "Special Lubricating Oil" (FM6599) for use on their and other trains, that is usually widely available, but is probably somewhat more expensive than a general purpose machine oil.


List of Helpful Websites for Beginning Collectors I recently wandered into my father's basement where my brother and I used to have our "game room" setup. I stumbled across a massive amount of LEGO that we had collected over the years.  Since then, I've had the urge to get back into LEGO, taking a more adult approach at collecting them.

I was wondering if there were additional sites besides the one's I've found that may shed some light for a beginning collector.  Also, feel free to include any tips that you think may be beneficial in this quest! Here are the list of sites I've come across:

http://www.lugnet.com/
http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/LEGO_Wiki
http://www.brickset.com/

On top of the already mentioned:

http://www.lugnet.com/
http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/LEGO_Wiki
http://www.brickset.com/
http://www.peeron.com - Large set database and instruction scan library
http://www.bricklink.com - Lego marketplace selling millions of used and new parts and sets. This is also a nice reference for information and
inventories related to old sets.

I personnally use the following ones as well:

http://www.brickfactory.info/ - Online collection of Lego Sets instructions
http://rebrickable.com/ - Site allowing you to see what other Lego set you can build from your existing collection

After that, it all comes down to forums and more specialized websites that directly depend on your area of interest (sci-fi, military, castle...), your language, and your location.


Official LEGO charity programs Many consumer-oriented corporations have official charity programs where products or money are donated to deserving causes. I was wondering if The LEGO Group has any such programs --- and if so, where can one apply for donations?

For instance, I believe it would bring happiness to hospitalized children to receive a simple Lego set (such as a polybag) to play with.

The first hit on Google for "LEGO charity" is this: http://service.lego.com/en-us/helptopics/lego-company/charity-and-donations. From that page:

  What charitable activities is the LEGO Group involved in?

  We take our responsibility for making children's lives better very
  seriously, so we run a number of charitable programs.

  Usually, our local offices use their knowledge of what local children
  need to partner with initiatives and charities.

  On a global level, we help children through the activities of the LEGO
  Foundation. If you'd like to know more about how we understand our
  responsibility and what we do, there's lots more information in the
  About Us section of this website.

Sounds like that should cover your question. Check out the www.legofoundation.com website as well.


ID for Off-Brand 1x1 Round Plate, Stud on BOTH Sides (1 is Hollow) I have a round 1x1 plate (from a blind by-the-pound secondhand sale) with a male stud on both sides of the plate, no female holes. One stud is hollow, the other is solid with a large "C" and a smaller "3" next to it, similar to a cubed notation (superscript). I think it might be C3, (Create, Construct, Customize), but I don't know how to find individual parts for that brand.

So what is it from, and how can I get more? These things are amazing for inverting directions!

I don't know this exact brand, but please note that Mega Bloks (now Mega Construx) has those male/male studs. They appear in many of their sets and come in many different colors. They are exactly one plate tall, just like the one you have on your picture. The Mega version has a hole going through the middle to accommodate any bar shaped piece, which makes them even more useful!


I just purchased a used LEGO Studios set and had some extra pieces that don't belong Can anyone tell me what set they might be from?

backside:

It's tough to predict where such a small number of pieces came from, but some are likely from the Hydronauts theme, specifically Hydro Crystallisation Station (6199):

This set includes the chromed headgear with studs on the back as well as the printed tile that is already attached to the back of yours.

The minifig utensils are likely from Mobile Outpost (6520):

Here are links to the sets that these parts appear in if you'd like to explore this more:

3069 - Tile 1 x 2 with Copper and White Circuitry, Red Rectangle and 4 Squares Pattern
71598 - Chrome Blue Minifig, Headgear Helmet with 2 Studs on Back
6041 - Trans-Neon Green Propeller 3 Blade 3 Diameter
2569 - Trans-Neon Green Antenna Whip 8H
6040 - Black Propeller Housing
30193 - Dark Gray Minifig, Utensil Ice Pick
3837 - Dark Gray Minifig, Utensil Shovel (Round Stem End)


Is a brick with a smaller Lego logo real? I recently bought a set from Bricklink, and noticed while building that a couple of pieces had a slightly different logo placement and size. The larger logo matched all my other bricks, but the smaller one didn’t.
I’m wondering if this is a fake brick, or is a result of a different / older mould? I did some quick searching online and couldn’t find anything related to this issue, but the gloss and colour of each piece appears to be the same, and both include the same correct piece ID (although again printed slightly differently). I bought the set boxed but used, and everything seemed right so I’m assuming it’s genuine but just looking for some peace of mind, and curious as to what would lead to this difference.
Many thanks in advance!

Many sets have had mold changes over the years, as they get slightly redesigned, or even just wear out. I would rest at ease.
It's the old pieces that don't have ANY markings that say Lego that always worry me.
Edited: I took photos of two Duplo train track pieces I noticed today. I merged them together to show the scales are (very close to) the same, yet the logo sizes are quite different. I also included the untouched photos for completeness, and because they're easier to read.
In summary: Lego changes their logo size on the same part.


Are there any reports of fatal or life-threatening incidents with LEGO? My older kids love LEGO, so my younger kid is also very keen on playing with them, rather than only playing with DUPLO. I am however concerned that it might be risky for him.

Most pieces are either too small or too large to be, at least in my opinion, frankly harmful. It appears that fatal or life-threatening incidents may have occurred with LEGO in the remote or recent past, such as this one: Boy, 5, chokes on Lego block.

Is anybody aware of any other incident?

I'm aware of two serious incidents, but not life-threatening.

One, a young child put a rubber tire on their finger like a ring and went to sleep. This restricted bloodflow and caused swelling. IIRC, an ER visit was necessary but there was no lasting damage.

Another, a child removed a piece using their teeth, and accidentally bit through the element, which stuck to their teeth necessitating oral surgery.

I know multiple children have had bricks stick to their teeth. Always teach your children to use a brick separator or an adult, and never use their mouth or utensils (knives/forks) to pull pieces apart.

As for small parts, you should generally be safe if you follow the age guidelines. Sets with choking hazards are labeled as such.

To my knowledge, there have been no reports of fatal incidents involving LEGO toys, nor invasive surgeries.

DUPLO toys meet very high safety standards for younger children, if you're concerned. They're designed to withstand a great deal of force to prevent breakage (you could probably run them over and only get scratches), and are suited for infants and toddlers to generally handle safely.


In lego mindstorm EV3, can you make the individual programs in a project into functions which can be used in the other programs? The bit where you program what the robot does using your computer. I'm making a project and I can't fit it all onto the screen, so if you can't do functions, is there any way to zoom out of the screen or something, so I can add more?

You can turn parts of your program into custom blocks by selecting them and choosing Tools -> My Block Builder from the menu. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CApCoGQJRcU for a  tutorial on this feature.