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I feel like this is a project we could attempt.
The hard part is designing the tiny circuit board. And maybe sourcing the tiny display.
The rest of the project is not easy, but pretty doable.How many letter packs are enough? 10? 20? Asking for a friend.
Well, $1.09 for 36 letters is about 3 cents per part, but PaB-online shipping is $7, bringing it up to about 22 cents per part.
So just for that reason you’re going to want multiples, before you even start to consider what you might want to spell. In fact it might be worth considering a group order?
This seems fun.
I noticed that the standard says “1 x 2 Technic bricks with one hole” but the picture below that shows a 1×4 with three holes. The flickr pool shows some of each in the wild, and some longer technic bricks too. If you’re only using one pin it doesn’t matter, of course.
Hard to argue against the Lantern Waste…especially if you can make the nearest trees transition into coats.
Love the pigeon.
Tim mentioned Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH – I’m a big fan of the book, so I’m going to give this one some thought.
the impact of a swarm of *orange* CS figs as a massive construction crew
Oh yes, I’m definitely thinking along those lines. The more I think about these orange guys, the more of them I think I can use in construction crews. Like, maybe 25 is not so many after all.
I always felt weird making the white-collar spacemen do shipyard work. This is going to totally change the look of my neo-classic scenes. Just pause a moment and really picture how these orange construction spacesuits will look, scattered around the blue and light gray backdrop of CS architecture. I’m thinking they’ll look awesome. “Orange is the new Space.” I can’t wait!
For a bit of context, the core five colors of CS fig came out in different years: first in black and blue in ’79, red and white in ’82, and yellow in ’84.
I believe you mean, first in red and white in ’78, then yellow in ’82, and black and blue in ’84.
(My vintage CS figs are all white and red, and all my CS sets were pre-1982 sets.)
So teeeeeeechnically all non-core color Classic Space figs could easily be considered Neo-CS anyway and converted in that direction.
I wanted to write a longer response (of course I did!) to your discussion of CS vs neo-CS helmets. I may do that later, but for now I’ll just say I think you’ve done a great job of describing the main ways one can think about the issue; which path one chooses will depend on personal preference or even the specifics of a MOC.
Personally I do not upgrade helmets on my vintage white and red figs, and I prefer old-style helmets in colors where they exist. But I don’t hesitate to use other helmets when necessary, and I’ll use whatever backstory I need to. I could go into more detail but it may not be worth it; you’ve covered the topic well already.
This doesn’t work as well for Classic Space figs, and I think that this is because the core fig is so strong in monochrome that breaking it up is limited to maaaaybe air tank color, gloves, a helmet swap to the newer type (still monochrome with the rest of the fig), with a different visor color. Maybe armor, EVA tools via neck brace or jetpack. I think that some customization is possible, but on a CS fig, I feel that it has to be restrained. What do you think, @erunaamo?
I agree. It’s a space suit. Space suits have been basically monochromatic since forever, in reality and in every fictional setting. A different visor color is fine. I cringe slighly at using the newer helmets, which mess with the classic, almost VW-bug-iconic lines of the original spacefig design…but I use them anyway at times. A jetpack or air tanks in a different color, stuff like that, sure – especially a neutral tone like gray or black to go with a colored suit. And I like using black gloves on white figs – it looks a bit more Star Wars or something, but I think it works.
This still means that the orange CS fig parts are a premium here.
It’s also ripe for resale because of rarity. Remember: LEGO, on BrickLink, now has all the data it needs to track down LUGBULK resale abuse.
Yeah, if BL gets a flood of these instead of a trickle, where could they be coming from? Who can buy them in bulk, and who can only buy them singly with a BOOK?
If it’s supposed to be a true book exclusive, it’s a bit weird to offer them in bulk to anyone in any way. I wonder if we’ll actually see them in a regular set later on.
Anyway, I’m glad they’re offering them in LUGBULK, even if I don’t understand why they feel comfortable doing so.
Personally I have no interest in reselling these, but I don’t need 25 of them either. I do want more than one, and I don’t want the book. I’m thinking about voting for these parts, getting 25 (or more??), and putting about half of them (or more??) up for trade within the LUG.
I’m going to try to bring some stuff over tonight. Not sure how much time I’ll have, but I hope to at least drop off some things.
Hoping to show up Saturday with one or two SHIPs and some ground installations TBD. What time are we starting on Saturday?
Been busy, but I’m still hoping I can build a thing or two for this…but it’s unlikely to be Moonbase standard. For what that’s worth. Also I have some existing stuff I can put in – some minifig-scale, some microscale, some ambiguous, but, again, none of it Moonbase standard.
So if there’s a Mb.s. area – which is fine with me, I like modular standards – then I’d like to have some non-standard areas too.
(I haven’t really looked at the layout map lately, but can we do a little forced-perspective thing, with microscale stuff along the back? I think that usually looks good IN SPACE….)
Yes please!
Classic Space Moonbase is my go-to genre. I have a few small installations and vehicles already built that would blend well with the example Tim linked to, and I’m always happy to build more of that stuff.
Going below the surface is a delightful idea.
For the ‘black sky’, throw in a scattering of trans-clear dots for stars, and maybe a few brackets to hold flying ships. Toss an Earth in the corner if you’re feeling ambitious.
LEGO did at least one other semi-official (at least, done knowingly/deliberately) Vic viper: set 5981 – space police “Raid VPR”. As in ViPeR.
And yes, the VV form is a great creativity exercise. I’ve made a few in years past that I’m rather proud of.
Generally, I’ve found it unnecessary; when you put something on display, you’re already done building it, so there’s nothing else you would need more parts for.
No, I mean he carried an “essential” palette of parts when traveling, for doing plein air sketches of architecture he was visiting.
Interesting.
I definitely don’t ever make a reference catalog plate like that. I know what most parts look like already, so I don’t see much reason to do that.
Usually I just pull the half-dozen most relevant bins off the shelf, stack them around me, and grab parts from their bags as needed. (My storage system is plastic shoeboxes and ziploc bags, similar to the LUG supply.) Sometimes, though, I’ll fill a tray (e.g. a box lid) with the kind of parts I expect to use, making an unsorted mini-collection from which to build. That works pretty well for things like greebling where I expect to use a limited palette of parts. It can be faster to build from a jumble of parts than from bags, if the jumble is very relevant. It does lead to a lot of cleanup time, though, so I prefer to work directly from sorted when I can.
I once read about a microscale architecture builder – I don’t remember if it’s the same one you mention – who made up a little kit of architecture-specific universal parts to travel with. I believe it was in one of those toolbox compartment box thingies, was mostly one or two colors, and really focused on microscale-archtecture essential parts. I thought that was very clever. I’ve often been tempted to make up a “greeble kit” similarly, with an extra supply of the parts I mentioned in this thread, separate from my main sorted supply. Then I could just grab that kit at greebling time, instead of hunting down the relevant bags over and over.
On the other hand, I try not to get complacent and greeble everything the same way. I prefer to experiment with new combinations whenever possible, and having to dig out a new kit of parts from sorted each time helps keep things fresh, maybe.
Depends exactly what you’re asking about. Greebles specifically? Or just parts as parts….
For an all-around universal part, I find the 1×1 brick with studs on all sides to be essential. I use at least one in nearly every MOC. I can’t really imagine building without it.
For surface details, I don’t have a single Universal Greeble, but I do have a small suite of Go-To Greebles. I find that if I start with 1×1 round plates, 1×1 round tiles, bars 4L (lightsaber blades), lightsaber handles, 1×2 grille tiles, and 1×1 clip top tiles, I can greeble effectively for quite a while before I need to mix in other parts. Second tier favorites include ribbed hoses, taps, pneumatic tees, 1×1 plates, 1×2 jumper plates, headlight bricks, and grated cheese. After that maybe it’s time for some 2×2 round tiles, 2×2 tiles, 2×2 jumper plates, and 2×2 radar dishes. That’s usually enough parts variety for solid generic greebling…though it’s generally better to half-design half-functional-looking pseudo-subsystems than to just spray dots and lines everywhere.
If I had to pick just one greeble part, I think I’d agree with the 1×1 round tile as both essential and versatile.
As for the “ILM Universal Greeblie” in the link…it doesn’t seem all that universal to me…I think the closest LEGO equivalent is the 33291 Plate, Round 1 x 1 with Flower Edge (4 Knobs). OK, I guess if that came in gray I’d use it pretty often.
…politics have no place in funtime…
…minus porn…
…NOT appropriate to imply club members should or shouldn’t have fun however they damn well please.
Whoa. I think you’re the only one in this conversation who’s trying to proscribe how others have fun? You just did it twice right there! Not just “implying”, either – asserting.
Maybe you should take a few deep breaths and re-read the discussion so far. I should leave it at that, since I’m not seeing where you read a threat to your fun – can you quote it for me? – so I’m really not sure what, specifically, you’re saying “no” to.
But I get the impression you’re telling us not to have this conversation at all. Or to only use yellow figs? Can’t agree to either, so I’ll respond in a bit more detail.
I’m pretty sure we were not talking about prescribing or proscribing how to have fun – at least, I wasn’t – but rather about the message(s) presented by our art, and in particular by the club’s public-facing displays. A display may be sending “political” messages whether we build them in deliberately or not; our community is multiracial whether or not you care to discuss the politics of that. Minifigs may be 99.9% “yellow” but it’s not 100% and that creates possibilities art can explore. Personally I don’t do much “political” art, or talk about politics much, but I think a certain amount of mindful inquiry and discussion around such issues is appropriate for us as responsible public artists.
I would certainly hope it’s possible for a build to include multiple colors of minifigs without that being a “political” statement so extreme that it “has no place” in what we do. And I believe that we can have a mature discussion about the cultural impact of minifig colors without it devolving into some kind of hurtful political argument that would, indeed, have no place here. I intend to continue having fun in both these ways.
Do we, as a LUG, have a duty / imperative to try and depict diversity?
Personally I try to keep an eye on who I’m depicting. As you say, LEGO doesn’t make it easy.
I doubt it’s something to have an official LUG policy about – I don’t want to tell anybody what to build. But it’s probably worth discussing.
Oddly enough, while people are celebrating the Ghostbusters remake for the all-female crew, they still have 75% white people in said crew
Yeah, I thought that was a weird choice for the remake. Oh well, as I said, I’ve done the same thing sometimes.
Source?
Don’t know much about the LEGO cannons specifically, but in the USA there was definitely a broad, somewhat hasty transition to non-shooting versions of many shooting toys after a toy spaceship’s missile killed a kid in 1978. Missile-firing toys have been creeping back into the market in recent years, but there were almost none for a long time.
Sounds like a good time. I would try to attend but, alas, I’ll be out of town that day. Thanks for the invite!
