[EMS/LEGO] New skills, new parts, Donkey Kong Bananza!

Hi guys! It's time for this month's news roundup.

The first round of Hyper Burning is pretty much done in less than three weeks. Marksman is already Level 253, so two more level ups for it to be ready for Union Champions. The next round of Hyper Burning should be available after that.

The new skills are also out, and they're great. Of course I'll have the 6th Job blogpost out somewhere next month, and for the time being I'm doing the usual dissection before I'll add their chapters to the current draft. Seeing how busy I've been lately, I'm expecting to have it published late August. The sooner the better, as the lineup of the next blogposts are pretty much locked at this point... There's a lot of work to be done, in particular next year's Galidor blogpost.

Speaking of LEGO: new parts have arrived! The majority of which are the new joint pieces I've talked about in the past few months. As I'm trying to get the 6th Job blogpost out as soon as possible, I haven't been able to build a lot with 'm, but they are promising. As always, it'll take a couple of weeks to see if these are of any help for the Ouroboros project.

Last but not least, Donkey Kong Bananza has been out for a week now! It's wonderful. Comparisons with Super Mario Odyssey are inevitable... but gameplay-wise Bananza is an improvement over its predecessor. You might be surprised to hear that I initially was not planning to get it, but the contagious speculation about its story and the fact that I had a good time with Odyssey won me over. Though after reaching the 100% completion rate I feel that Bananza's greatest moments were too sparse and that Odyssey handled a lot of things better. For that reason I'm genuinely curious to see how Bananza will age and what fans of the collect-a-thon genre have to say. If you're planning to own a Switch 2, I'd say you can't go wrong with this one. Despite my nitpicks, it's been fun and worth my time. I certainly have no regrets.

If you don't mind, I'll get back to work. I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS/LEGO] The busy month of April...

It's been a jam-packed month. Let's unpack what we got.

EMS had its 18th anniversary this month; that also means in September I'll be playing for 18 years daily as well. Of course I haven't forgotten my plans for that blogpost; but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

With the essential weekly bosses now on the menu, I've achieved my short-term goal in preparation for the NEXT update. Upgraded all of the low-hanging fruit, so back to saving up mesos for the remaining Eternal equipment I go. As I've paid off the symbol fees, I'm now done with them until the next one unlocks at Level 290. Combo Instinct's 6th Job enhancement is maxed out, so until the new 6th Job skills arrive I'll be working on enhancing Sword of Burning Soul.

Earlier today I've wrapped up the grind for the Tanjiro class. Do I even want to open the can of worms and start writing about anime and literature on this blog? No, I don't think I will. That said, I've played my cards right so the Level 260 grind was without much effort. Maple has always been about resource management. I've been frugal with my stuff so I had the perfect use for this month's Chains of Resentment. You'd be surprised how many people called me a madman for "wasting" it on Tanjiro. I'll remind you that none of these guys got theirs to Level 260. The event provided more than you need as it was trivial to reach the one-shot ceiling with 1764% bonus EXP - a hard cap of about 68% every hour between 250 and 260. The only thing that would've made it faster was to add Holy Symbol, but I was too lazy to use my Bishop laptop next to me. Anyway, off to become a Paladin you go, and it even managed to recuperate some cost.

The Hyper Burning coupon from the Tanjiro event is currently used on my first Union Champion mule; a Wild Hunter. Just the plain ol' daily quest to Level 260 approach, so I'll get there by the end of next month. I now have the time to resume writing the 6th Job blogpost, which had to give because of this month's busywork. I've reserved 31 chapters (Destiny blogpost-style), and I've just start writing about the first skill in chapter 5. I'll try to get as much work done as possible in the next months, and the current plan does include adding in the upcoming skills once we have them.

But more importantly, at the end of March I was given the opportunity of a lifetime. About ten years ago I've started to write about Mokarr: an unreleased LEGO set that you could consider my white whale. During my hunt, I've become somewhat of a Galidor journalist within the community. I've had plans to write about the other parts that I got my hands on years ago, but I never really found time for that due to the four years lost to the production hell of ill-fated projects. 

The silver lining of having delayed the Galidor blogposts meant that I was able to get far better information during that period, and I stumbled upon a group effort with other LEGO fans as I've helped theqelement website with cataloging Mokarr and other unreleased Galidor sets. One thing led to another, and by coincidence we now have a complete list of all cancelled Galidor sets for the first time in 23 years after its cancellation. To make up for keeping you all waiting, I'm planning to write a proper blogpost going through everything I know and (now) have once I have the time for it.

That said, my blog is always a low priority. I will always give priority to more important matters. Right now, my portfolio for LEGO will always be first as it's my life's work. At the end of last year I've talked about the plans for Ouroboros and I have been looking into ways to get this bipedal robot to walk. Next month I will spend several weeks in research and development to determine how feasible a particular solution is. It might not sound much, but if this works... I might've accidentally solved everything. And by everything I really mean everything... Even the dreadful projects MK. 7 and 11.

So uhm, what are my thoughts about the DEX? What could I possibly add to the conversation that hasn't already been said at length? Perhaps that, whatever was originally planned is thrown out of the window. They reprinted the artbook for the occasion but any of the grand plans it reveals means little now. It feels like they just rushed this port because the Switch 2 was around the corner and they made sure to kill off any prospects for a sequel. And even if there's going to be one - it's going to need to be something truly special to make up for it. Caveat emptor; just stick to the original.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Lego] Spybotics!

Only at a place like Bricklink can you casually grab a complete set of sealed 21-year-old LEGO products... Insane.

I initially planned to get the remainder of the 12V train accessories, but I came across a much better deal. In my never-ending quest for collecting all kinds of (niche) LEGO products, my favorite chapter in the company's history is the time they went nearly bankrupt with a 800 million dollar unpaid debt: the Ploughman era. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

During this time (late 90s to early 2000s) lots of unique products were released, even more so were not. It was the time of great leaps in technological advancement, so much in fact that toy companies were threatened to become irrelevant. In response and an act of desperation, LEGO gave carte blanche to their development team. As a result, their unchecked expenses went through the roof and every LEGO theme except for Bionicle was running at a loss*.

*I'm currently reading the book "Brick by Brick" by David Robertson. It goes into painstaking detail on precisely why the company went nearly bankrupt under Paul Ploughman's leadership, and how Jørgen Vig Knudstorp dragged the company out of it. It's a fascinating read. I might eventually write a blogpost about it once I've finished reading it.

I've made it no secret that I firmly believe the company's most interesting and fascinating products come from this era. Any of these products have the same quality as any other LEGO product. It's just many older LEGO fans find that these products strayed too far from the traditional brick. It's easy to make the argument that unconventional products were the reason for the company's downfall, but the only reason why LEGO got out of troubled waters was by sheer discipline, planning, innovation and a bit of luck with Bionicle catching lightning in a bottle. Not just the traditional brick.

But enough talk about that - what are Spybotics? It's a short-lived offshoot of LEGO Mindstorms, aimed at a lower price point. Released during a time before adults were willing to spend a lot for LEGO products, Mindstorms (like the monorail) were priced exceptionally high. This was also before computers were readily available and user-friendly, let alone asking a child to program a toy was a tall order. Spybotics however, seemed to aim to address these issues.

Spybotics were priced at almost a quarter of the retail price of Mindstorms, it simplified the building experience and provided an easier entry to programming robots through play with missions on its CD-ROM. Released during the middle of a resurgence of the spy genre, it like many other products on the market, hoped to piggyback off of it.

However, Spybotics never saw success. Like how Galidor and Knight's Kingdom II met its demise by competing against Bionicle, the unexpected rising success of (hacking) Mindstorms blew the wind out Spybotics' sails. And like many other LEGO products at the time, Spybotics still couldn't sell even at large discounts. But unlike themes such as Galidor or Bionicle, Spybotics has almost no following - only a handful of fans*. It's a niche within a niche, if you will.

*As is common with many LEGO products, it's well researched and analyzed by fans and thus what is on that PCB board, how to run the CD-ROM on modern computers and connect the Spybotics through serial is well documented.

What we're left with, is a perfect encapsulation of the Ploughman era... or is there more to it? Aside from the coolness factor with these toys having a strong visual presence on a display shelf, Spybotics genuinely has things going for it.

While you can't add motors or sensors to these units, they are arguably the most compact remote-controlled LEGO unit, jam-packed with functionality. It includes all of the components found in the original Mindstorms kit: it reuses the same internal components found in the 9V motors, the light sensor and touch sensor. All of it is just integrated directly onto the Spybotics PCB. Furthermore, it includes the pinnacle and bane of Ploughman's carte blanche: the fiber-optics unit. And not only can you directly remote control the Spybotics without having to program it, because LEGO reused the base code from the original Mindstorms in all of its offshoots, you can let the Spybotics communicate with any of these (not just only other Spybotics), and vice versa. Spybotics is just a wonderful toy full of untapped potential.

Icing on the cake for these sets are the many exclusive recolors for parts, found nowhere else. It's stuff like this that comes from the Ploughman era that's never going to happen, ever again. Because remember: LEGO lost money for each single Spybotics produced. It's insane how that went. But like I said: it's the gift that keeps on giving. It's a rabbit hole you can spend your entire life digging into, and it's something I'm probably going to end up doing out of love.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Lego] Bionicle Retail Flags

With #8989 Mata Nui for scale. Y'know, the small yellow thing on the right that's hardly visible, standing there, menacingly!
Eventually, the Barraki retail flag is somehow going to be relevant to my journey in becoming a LEGO Product Designer...

In my never-ending quest for collecting all kinds of (niche) LEGO products, this is my first time getting my hands on retail flags. Earlier this year, I've hinted at a Bionicle parcel that was stuck in customs limbo, which were these two.

When it comes to product design, there are parts in this process that is often overlooked. Engineering, advertisement, package design, to name a few. When products are about to be sold in stores, stores have the option to decorate their interior to drive sales. There are many ways a store can do this, as there are all kinds of items to fulfill that purpose.

The world of LEGO-themed store decorations is a bottomless pit. Each time LEGO releases a new product, there's an entire industry of its own, dedicated to produce all kinds of promotional materials. When it comes to collecting and cataloging these items, three categories are common: retail flags, product displays and other decorative objects.

What are retail flags? Large, printed cloth banners designed for halls or rooms, specifically designed to be hung from tall ceilings. In stores, you would see these from far away, marking the location of the corresponding toy aisle. If you've ever been to a large toy store or convention, you've probably seen one of these before.

As store decorations continuously comes and goes, all of it is treated as disposable. After products are removed from shelves, related store decorations are destroyed. There's simply too much of it; store owners don't think twice about it. Although, as with everything, there's always some that eventually finds its way on the aftermarket. To obtain specific items however, is not as easy as it sounds. It takes a lot of patience, a lot of digging, and they aren't cheap.

So, what about the two retail flags I've obtained? In particular, I was after the Barraki retail flag on the left. 2007 was such a fantastic year for the franchise, it is by far my favorite. Consider this retail flag to be the one I wanted the most. In order to purchase it however, I had to throw in another retail flag to meet the seller's minimum purchase threshold. By coincidence, the seller also happened to have another retail flag I was interested in: 2009's #8989 Mata Nui.

Suffice to say, these retail flags are huge. Given the purpose they were designed for, both are two meters tall and 90 centimeters wide, each. Both ends have a small channel, just large enough to fit thin rods or strings inside, so you can mount them on a wall or ceiling. Unfortunately, I don't have space for these in my room. Too large. Once I move out of here, I'll definitely find a spot where they can be admired - as they should be. Heck, finding a method and location to temporarily hang these up for this photo was a challenge in itself! That's why it took me this long to write this blogpost.

There are still a handful of other retail flags I'm specifically after; mainly the other Barraki retail flags. You see, some retail flags are designed as a set. While the one I have is the main one, three others exist. One is the same but without the Barraki (which is a fantastic backdrop of Mahri Nui), the other two (example 1, example 2) are thinner retail flags depicting three of the six canister sets each. Unfortunately, Bionicle retail flags specifically target canister sets, so retail flags of the larger Bionicle sets do not exist. A shame, really. Some of them would've made great retail flags.

Aside from retail flags, am I after any other store decorations? Yes, there are some. I've always wanted to obtain a product display. Preferably one of 2007 Bionicle, but any theme I'm fond of is fine, as long as the display is visually interesting. Bricklink isn't an exhaustive list of the many store decorations out there - for instance, at a convention I once saw a large product display of #6979 Interstellar Starfighter with lights and sound. One that I'll never forget was during my childhood in Tokyo, where there was this massive display of the 1998 Ninja theme at our local Daiei. They built a deep ravine out of BURPs, about two meters tall, and had the sets displayed in them. Honestly, it was amazing for its time and awe-inspiring. It's that kind of ambition and passion that makes this never-ending hobby so great.

But that's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Lego] And down the 12V rabbit hole I go...

Legends say that Rayque is still pressing these two buttons, to this very day...

They don't make 'm like these anymore, as they would say. Old but gold, I guess.

If you are familiar with my preferences in LEGO products, I'm always interested in their niche offerings. That can range into themes like Bionicle or Galidor, set designs that are remarkable and boundary pushing, or toy peripherals where LEGO develops an entire new system that ends up with a short shelf life because it failed to sell enough copies. 

Having experienced pretty much every track or pipe system that LEGO has produced, including trains from DUPLO, 4,5V and the Monorail, their modern roller coaster sets, all generations of pneumatics and even solar panels - I was bound to inevitable go down the rabbit hole of what is LEGO's most ambitious train system: 12V track, the Gray Era.

Basically, during the golden age of railway modelling, LEGO sought to participate in an over-saturated market with their own expansions to their already existing 4,5V train system. Unfortunately, this was during the 1970 to 1980s, so LEGO was still a small toy company at the time. Expensive LEGO sets that do not have a broad appeal, contain many specialized parts that are exclusive to these few add-on sets, released almost forty years too early, and was also only available in Europe. The perfect recipe to create a niche line-up of sets, and that's everything I could ever ask for.

While my earliest hands-on experience with 12V as a system was when I was a child, I've never really owned any of the 12V sets until today. And in typical Rayque fashion, my entry set to the 12V system isn't even a train, but one of the track peripherals that LEGO offered to expand your layout. You see, what makes 12V stand out from LEGO's other train systems is that the emphasis of 12V isn't on the trains themselves, but the ability to add all kinds of gimmicks to your track, such as the set that I bought: #7866, from 1983. And personally, as an engineer and LEGO enthusiast, I'm far more interested in the inner workings of these add-ons and its system, rather than the set designs themselves.

The 12V system has a good selection of add-ons, including railroad switches, some street lights, a switch to turn off specific sections of track so that trains that drive over it will stop, and even a module that allows you to separate your wagons from each other. All of these modules are connected to a separate two-button controller, which you can stack onto each other to build a large keyboard, so that you can control your train layout from a distance. It's simple and charming, yet an effective system that was ahead of its time. LEGO has never truly recreated something similar since.

And with good reason, because 12V didn't sell well enough. Not to mention that all of these electric components and specialized pieces are very delicate; handle them with care. LEGO has tried many other train systems after 12V, for them to realize that keeping it to simple plastic railroad sets tends to sell better. While I'm not planning to go bankrupt now by purchasing more add-ons for a future LEGO project, I will continue my 12V scavenger hunt another day.

Now certainly, with modern LEGO peripherals such as Mindstorms, you could build far more advanced custom add-ons to your tracks. But where's the fun in that? If you really want to do it right, build a dedicated 12V layout, then use Mindstorms to automate it all. Now that would be cool thing to see. So many things to build and collect, so little time...

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Lego] Mokarr's claw

Maybe you'll learn something about crustacean terminology after reading this post... Wait what?

If you told me that it would only take four months to obtain the next Mokarr part, I wouldn't believe you.

I didn't write about it in March because of the recent abundance of blogposts - but now there's plenty of time to give this blogpost the attention it deserves. There's a bunch to talk about, so let's get to it.

So, somehow there was another person on Bricklink selling a small lot of Galidor parts, and the listing in particular was found in the bulk of unsorted lots. Ya know, that unorganized dumpster on Bricklink where everyone tosses whatever random stuff they want into it, despite that almost nobody looks at them to begin with. Of course, as it was listed as a pile of Galidor parts, I was obliged to buy the complete bulk just to get this one single piece.

It sometimes be like that. Not that I mind though, as you can never have enough parts.

Just like the grabber arm piece from the Nepol Basic Figure set, the claw has a built-in clothespin function to hold onto various shapes of pieces. As with all Galidor pieces, it's preassembled and its individual components cannot be separated without destroying them. The dactyl piece (in violet) is stuck inside the propodus (in medium voilet), and a hidden spring inside the propodus (connected to the dactyl) keeps the claw clenched.

The source for these parts however, has been somewhat of an eye-opener. You see, from the little information that there is to be found about Mokarr (or any of the cancelled Galidor sets), I assumed that LEGO^® only produced these unreleased parts in their main factory in Billund. Y'know, produce a small batch, archive these parts in the vault for legal purposes, done. Given the nature of these sets being unreleased, it wouldn't make much sense for them to have produced any outside of their nearby research & development facilities. Unless there was something else going on.

Certainly, the tooling for these parts have existed as evidenced by the various unreleased Galidor parts out there - but little did I know or comprehend how deep the Galidor iceberg seems to go. According to the Bricklink seller, the unreleased Galidor parts I bought off him were part of a job lot from the Kladno factory. Yes, Kladno - not Billund.

That is... kind of a big deal.

These claws are huge! Look at that shaping. Notice the claws sharing the same scaly texture with Mokarr's head?

To those unfamiliar with LEGO^®'s manufacturing planning, they tend to manufacture parts in several factories. While their main factory (Kornmarken) is located in Billund, they own several other factories throughout the world. There are three in Europe. One of those is the Kladno factory, located in the Czech Republic.

So, why is this relevant? This gives us some rare insight into the development process of the unreleased Galidor sets. It's not just that LEGO^® produced a small batch of unreleased Galidor pieces in Billund as I initially thought. It seems that they've also produced a bunch of unreleased Galidor parts in Kladno as well. But for what purpose? Without information from the company itself or from those who were involved in the Galidor theme, we can only speculate.

If I had to make an educative guess, it seems that LEGO^® bet big on Galidor and it didn't pay off. Galidor has been mentioned in interviews to have played a large contributor to LEGO^®'s path to near bankruptcy in the early 2000's, so that loss had to come from somewhere. And what better way to build up costs than to invest big before it could even prove itself to be able to return sufficient amounts of profit?

At the time, Bionicle and Star Wars were just released and they've became a huge financial success. It wouldn't surprise me if the company firmly believed that Galidor could become the next big thing. Bionicle initially could hardly meet its first year demand, so if Galidor was expected to be as much of a financial success, LEGO^® must have had to produce a large quantity of sets ahead of time. So when the initial wave was released, the production of the second wave was already on full throttle. By the time the company were confronted with Galidor's disastrous sales, they had to pull the plug even though future sets including Mokarr, Boges, Evil Nick, the second year Jens and Euripides figures, were already in production. Ultimately, only a limited amount Aquart and Tager sets were released, probably because those were already packed on palettes and ready to be shipped to retailers.

And even if this particular speculation does not turn out to be true, it does not take away the fact that these Galidor pieces have been produced in at least two factories. That brings the question... How many of these parts have really been produced... and how many of these are still out there, not lost to time?

Funnily enough, another Mokarr connector block was included with the lot that included the claw.
Now I have two windscreens and two Mokarr connector blocks.

Anyway, I'm one step closer to completing Mokarr. Fourteen parts left to find. It really has become a Do-It-Yourself project where I have to painstakingly track down each individual part against all odds, huh? Unfortunately, a complete Mokarr requires a pair of these claws... so somehow I'll have to find another one of these. Of course, while it's incredibly unlikely to find any other Mokarr part... you'll never know I guess. The hunt for Mokarr continues.

By the way, I initially wanted to include information about other unreleased Galidor parts that I got my hands on, but this blogpost is already packed enough as it is... I suppose I did say that I bought off unreleased Galidor parts, right? Plural. There were more than just Mokarr parts in that lot. But talking about that will be for another time.

EDIT ON THE 25TH OF APRIL, 2025: PART 3.

[Lego] So, I just got this Sealed Box of #8002...

Behold, one of the most complicated LEGO^® sets of all time! At least, that is the general consensus about this model.

As with most sets I blog about, this is one of those "wanted it back then" and has been sitting comfortably among my most wanted sets of all time. Had plenty of opportunities to purchase one on Bricklink over the past couple of years, but I decided to go for it "last year". Unfortunately as I mentioned back then, there were no reasonably priced copies for a sealed condition. That changed earlier this week. Yoink!

So, what's so interesting about this set? It basically is a contraption that heavily relies on gravity and rubber bands to deploy several mechanisms in a sequence when it rolls over a hard surface. Long story short: fold up ball, roll it over the floor, it then opens up. It's nothing short of impressive; it's a mechanical wonder. It's over-engineered to hell, and for it's madness and ambition it has gained its reputation. Those kind of pursuits in life will always catch my interest.

I'm very curious to see which production run this is going to be, given that this is one of those exceptional cases where having the early production runs is not beneficial for the model's functionality... I guess I'll know in a moment.

Let's hope that those damn Flex Cables survived the past 21 years, and that I won't break them this time.

EDIT: It seems this one is the original #4132567 release with the #4133085 Amendment sheet. The Flex Cables have survived the build. The set also comes with a lifetime supply of spare rubber bands! Hooray!

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Lego] Mokarr's head

A literal piece of LEGO^® history, from an unreleased Galidor set.

Well then. This is significant and something special.

Long story short: in 2002, LEGO^® released a theme called Galidor with officially 20 announced sets. Set #8322, named "Mokarr" (occasionally misspelled as "Makarr") was unreleased, despite being advertised on various media as an upcoming product. The set itself is a motorbike with a shark motif, a complementary vehicle for other Galidor figures, similar to the TDN Module.

Initially, little to no additional information could be found about this set. It was shrouded in mystery, with a bunch of "supposedly there are" and "apparently there is", but as time went on, additional information became more concrete: Mokarr is real, and so are other unreleased Galidor sets.

Look at that printed gum and teeth! The details on this thing are awesome.

Despite being unreleased and never mass produced, LEGO^® did produce a very small number of Mokarr's and other (unreleased) Galidor products that were part of (supposedly) future releases. Basically, they had the injection molds and the pad printer ready, used it to produce parts for their own archives, and it seems that some of these parts ended up on the aftermarket. From the perspective of an engineer, the term "prototype" for these parts is misleading.

In contrast, the top of the head is smooth and has some nice depth to it. It looks like a squid?

In 2018, supposedly a complete Mokarr was sold on Bricklink, to the frustration of many (including myself). A few months ago I found the original seller by pure coincidence, and he confirmed that he sold another Mokarr earlier this year (yes, he had another one) to someone in the UK. To confirm that he wasn't pulling my leg, he sent me a picture album of the other Mokarr, which is different from the one sold in 2018 - this "2020 Mokarr" contains one piece in a different color, and it is exclusive to Mokarr. Suffice to say, the conversation was very informative.

Seeing as I missed out on a Mokarr twice, I felt gutted ("you snooze, you lose"). There aren't many out there in the wild. That may have been my last shot at ever finding one that's for sale. I've been in pursuit of this thing for over a decade. I could literally become a LEGO^® Product Designer, and that still doesn't mean I can have one. I can't really put it into words how important this set is to me, despite it ultimately being a silly plastic toy from long ago.

However, there is a silver lining in all of this.

The windscreen element is only used once per set, but heck: I have two of them.

The seller still had a couple of Mokarr parts for sale. Yes, it technically speaking is only three of eighteen parts, but at this point, I might as well take whatever I can get my hands on. It's that, or nothing - an easy decision to make.

So, while it may not be the full model, it's a step in the right direction. To be honest, I still find it very hard to believe I actually have something, given that Galidor ended 18 years ago. While it will always remain highly unlikely that I'll ever find the other Mokarr pieces or complete models for sale... the hunt, my pursuit of Mokarr, continues.

Edit on the 27th of June, 2021: Part 2.

[Lego] Work in Progress: Hailfire Droid (October 25, 2020)

The Hailfire Droid rolls around just fine, until it suddenly goes to an abrupt halt...

Wait, that doesn't seem right... It seems I've hit a new kind of roadblock with the project. Well, shit.

I had some other plans for this month's blogpost, but ironically all of them have probably been pushed back to later this year, including the Xenoblade's Definitive Edition article, which I'm close to halfway done with the initial draft. It's currently about 25.000 words long. Might need another month (or two?) before I can publish it. That said, this Hailfire Droid roadblock surfaced today, which gave me an opportunity to talk about it, as it's quite fascinating.

Last time I've mentioned an issue where the thread links disconnect when driving backwards. This was caused by having too much clearance between the wheels and the drivetrain. I came to the conclusion that the disconnect happened because there's an unequal distribution of power: pulling the threads when driving forward is no problem, but it becomes one when you're pushing the threads if driving backwards. So, in order to supply an equal distribution of power for both pushing and pulling, I've doubled up the motors. That was a (partial) mistake.

So, if you look carefully at the GIF above, the Hailfire Droid seems to abruptly stop after a while. Even its eye goes out for a brief moment. This isn't a mechanical issue. It's one particular thing I completely forgot about, and it also has been a particular issue with my progress on the Constructor: a safety measure in every modern LEGO^® motor kicks in that prevents it from frying. Basically, the motors draws more current than what the battery can handle, and every time it hits this safety threshold, it shuts the electrical circuit off - a circuit overload. Woops.

Taking a look at the project on paper, it doesn't take long to figure out the problem. The motors I'm currently using are the popular Power Functions "L Motors", which are great for many applications, but they are notoriously known for drawing a lot of current. I didn't expect that I would hit this safety threshold with these motors, given that the wheels of the Hailfire Droid spin at full speed without any issues when holding the model in the air, but it seems that it kills the circuit when you drive it on a surface.

So, what now? The answer's simple: I need to use motors that draws less current. Fortunately, there are plenty of motors that draws half the amount of current, and ironically enough, this also makes the Hailfire Droid drive faster as these motors come with a higher RPM. 

Sometimes in order to prevent a circuit overload in LEGO^® is not to go slower, but to go faster. Funny how that works.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Lego] Work in Progress: Hailfire Droid (August 27, 2020)

It's been about five months since my previous blogpost regarding progress on my Hailfire Droid. Back then I wrote that I would probably not do another one of these before the actual model is finished - although my stance on that has changed after seeing how much it has evolved in the past couple of months.

In addition, I think it is also interesting to just discuss the recent improvements, especially considering it's been a year since I've "officially" confirmed in a blogpost to do a complete redesign on the project.

The Hailfire Droid is currently about 70% done, I think. I should be able to finish it before the end of the year, but I have to admit that I've lost a considerable amount of time working on that Xenoblade Definitive Edition article, which is not close to done any time soon. Somewhere it's been far more work than I initially anticipated, but I find the quality of the upcoming article to be of utmost importance. In worst case, the Hailfire Droid is going to be very close to done by the end of this year. 

No big deal, in my opinion.

[Lego] So, I just got this Sealed Box of #8364...

... However I actually have to wait a couple of months before I can open it for my bday.

Anyway, if you're a frequent reader of my blog, then you would know about my acquired taste for experimental LEGO® oddities such as this one. As with most sets I write about, this one has been on my radar back when it came out in 2003, but I was unable to purchase it at the time.

I missed out on a couple of sealed boxes on Bricklink in the past couple of years, but that was by choice as I didn't feel like getting it until this year. While every set on my wishlist are sets that I truly want to own one day, it's best when you purchase them when you are in the mood for it. That and someone hoarded all of the damn Droideka's last year so I have to wait longer until I can get my sealed copy at a not-so-outrageous price point. Still waiting for Kardas, too.

That said, "what's this ridiculously large and heavy box all about?"

LEGO® Drome Racers was a lineup done in the early 2000s that lasted several years. Drome Racers was all about a futuristic racing theme set in a country-sized coliseum where several teams competed against each other in various elemental biomes. It ticks all the good stuff from a late 90s/early 2000s LEGO® theme.

The lineup spawned a pretty solid amount of products, a bunch of cool merchandise and arguably the best LEGO® racing game to date. But what makes Drome Racers stand out from the other Racers themes is its excellent variety of good toys with a coherent theming. The lineup produced sets for both System and Technic that (re)introduced us to (surprisingly powerful) pullback motors, remote control and vehicle launchers. But what is possibly the most interesting among the Drome Racers products is that one thing LEGO® never tried again to the same extent: the Track System.

The Track System is basically a track builder where you build a layout from prefab road pieces. There were only three dedicated sets that came at three different sizes. Most of the smaller Drome Racers sets (and even the Xalax that came out the year before it) are compatible with these tracks, but each of these Track System sets are supplied with their own vehicles nonetheless. The pullback motors included in these small vehicles would allow one to use it on these tracks, in which the corresponding play features for these sets are designed around.

Pullback motors are only good for up to a couple of seconds, so the other two sets were designed accordingly with a clear starting point and finish line. However, this set elevates that concept to an entirely different height: by introducing rechargeable batteries for the same vehicle build, complete with a dedicated charger that functions as a separate road piece, specifically designed for the Track System. Thus, enter the Multi Challenge Race Track, set #8364.

Although there isn't much to be found about this particular set since it somewhat fell into obscurity, from the little you can find online: the execution of this particular idea (or Track System in general) isn't flawless. Recharging the vehicles (depending on its age) is only good enough for a couple of laps on the suggested track layout, and having steep slopes on the track drains a lot of battery power. Aside from that: when it runs, it's definitely something like no other.

And that's pretty much the essence of my interest and love in these kind of LEGO® sets as an acquired taste of niches: it's never about judging a LEGO® product for what it is not - it's about what it is, the unique experience only a select few sets can deliver, and what it means to stand out as a timeless milestone in LEGO®'s history of strange oddities in almost a century worth of products. There's nothing like it, and that's why I want it.

[Lego] Work in Progress: Hailfire Droid (March 6, 2020)

 

As mentioned last August, I've decided to do a serious attempt at a redesign of my Hailfire Droid in order to get those proportions right. After about 150 hours spread across the past half year and plenty of (expensive) Bricklink orders, I've come to a point in development where I'm ready to write something about it.

 

Literally, the last blogpost regarding my Hailfire Droid has been over three years ago.

 

So, where to start? I think it's best to go chronologically through the process in how I got from the previous iteration to what is currently on my desk. And that starts with the wheel size.

[Lego] So, I just got this Sealed Box of #8924...

Behold, one of the best Bionicle sets of all time! At least, that is the general consensus about this particular model.

Maxilos is one of the very few Bionicle sets to have both shoulder and waist articulation. You'd be surprised to hear that from the hundreds of constraction figures and combiner models that LEGO® has produced in two decades, only a couple of them have shoulder articulation and less than thirty have waist articulation (the majority of these being CCBS, which came out after gen 1 Bionicle).

I had to wait about a year before I could snag a sealed box from Bricklink. Most of these (larger, boxed) Bionicle sets are always in a continuous cycle of ebb and flow on the aftermarket. Sometimes there are plenty of them available, sometimes there can be years of none. That said, the 2007 lineup is truly among my favorite in the line.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again tomorrow, with our annual tradition of the Year Summary!

[Lego] So, I just got these three sealed Bionicle canisters...

Wait, don't I already own a copy of Kalmah and Pridak? Yes, I already own a copy of these two.

In some rare cases I purchase multiple copies of a set I already own. The reasons for which do differ from time to time, but aside from that, the story of how I got my first copy of Kalmah, Pridak and Ehlek is an interesting one. It isn't one of those "I bought the sets when they were sold back then" nor was it that "I bought them on the aftermarket when I got older". It was gifted by a LEGO® employee when I was a teen in 2007.

While I would love to go in-depth about what happened during that event, for privacy sake I won't delve into it much. What I can tell is that I was given the opportunity to present a custom packaging design for the company, which I did take, and in return I received those three Barraki sets together with a handwritten card.

[Lego] So, I just got this Sealed Box of #80102...

Geez, this box is quite big for such a small set. For those who don't know about this particular one; it was released earlier this year and it is exclusive to retailers in China. They also released two other substantial sets for this year's Chinese New Year, but this is the only one of the three that interests me.

Usually I tend to get these kind of sets on Bricklink (i.e. a majority of the Bionicle sets I'm after were only available in the US at the time), but in this particular case I was fortunate enough to get my hands on it through a colleague of mine, who went through the effort of getting a copy when he was in China.

That said, it did take half a year before the set arrived here. All things considered, it's a miracle that this box has been kept in such a pristine condition... because it travelled by container on a cargo ship all the way to Europe. Don't ask me about it - stuff just happens in my life. As usual.

Anyway, earlier this year I wanted to do another one of these blogposts for my copy of the four Forma sets, but decided last minute not to. I didn't feel like writing about it, as there wasn't much to write about it other than that I participated in the original kickstarter and that it was easier said than done (the kickstarter was UK/US only, so I had to do the same trick as I did with this one). Although if you're aware of my taste in niches or if you looked through my collection earlier this year, you could've known that I have them.

If you excuse me, it's time for me to build this thing. I didn't get the opportunity earlier this week because I was working on the Hailfire Droid and some other stuff.

That's it for today! I'll see you guys again next post!

[Lego] More parts!

Hi guys! Just a small blogpost regarding the progress on my Hailfire Droid and Constructor.

Since my last blogpost about these projects I haven't really been able to write anything regarding my current progress on either of these. In the past several months I've been actively working on my Constructor, as you probably can tell from the image above. It's been redesigned completely from the ground up, and there is quite a bunch of stuff I want to write about when that time is near. I don't know when that will be, but I am considering to write some in-depth stuff about the development as I've been gathering plenty of images from earlier drafts (between April and today) to complement the writing.

Anyway, it should not be difficult to notice that my Hailfire Droid hasn't had any progress at all during these months. With the previous parts bulk, I wanted to get some substantial progress on my Constructor first. Fortunately, I'm now starting to near that time slot where I can invest some time in the Hailfire Droid.

After taking some serious consideration, thought and planning, I've decided to go bold and brave regarding my approach on it. I've been rather allergic to getting the proportions of the Hailfire Droid right up to this point, due to the fact that I really wanted to keep using those prefab wheels that came with the original Technic model. I just love those wheels, maybe a bit too much. But of course, by doing so, the Hailfire Droid proportions got somewhat out of whack, as the wheel diameter is supposed to be at least four times the size of the head section. The length between the head and the wheels also started to grow rather short on my model...

The out-of-proportion design started to bother me for a couple of years now, and I couldn't really figure out a different approach or solution that could meet my standards. However, while working on my Constructor, I've started to figure out a configuration of parts that is starting to grow on me. I've made several sketches on LDD to see what I could do with it, and the more I've been thinking about it, the more I wanted to give it a try. Thus, a couple of Bricklink orders and two weeks later, I'm now writing this blogpost to tell you about it.

So, what I'm confirming here (in case you didn't catch it by now), is that I'm going to try to get the proportions right. I'm going to give it a serious attempt and see where it goes. I'm still waiting for one particular Bricklink order, but the bulk of gray parts that I have on hand right now is enough to start making some progress.

I'll write a dedicated blogpost about the Hailfire Droid once I've managed to get some substantial progress on the next redesign. It'll be here on my blog when it's there. But until then, I'll get back to work...

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Lego] Oh no...

Paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarts! I've ordered about a thousand parts (!) from a couple of sellers on Bricklink, and the final pack just arrived this morning. There's a few hundred reddish brown pieces, a lot of Technic parts, and even some teal stuff. But what is probably the most important set of pieces: four Mindstorms NXT/EV3 to 9V converter cables, ten pneumatic brackets, twenty Bionicle G2 gearboxes and a pair of those new pneumatic valves.

Almost every part in this bulk is for my Hailfire and Constructor projects. Yes, of course I haven't forgotten about these guys, and neither have I stopped working on them. I'm more than aware of that I haven't written many blogposts of these in the past five years. But that doesn't mean that there's no progress on them when there's no post about it.

I have been extremely busy in the past few years to a point where I either have no time to order parts that I absolutely need, no time to work on these projects, too much on my to do list with MapleStory, or where there's something else completely different that sucks all of my attention away. However, I'm more than aware that none of these are good excuses, and I don't even want to call them as such - ultimately the biggest contributor (or well, root cause) to long term project delays is simply ordering parts online that I need to resume my work.

Despite that I have done over 15 purchases on Bricklink in the past 7 years, it's still quite a mountain for me to climb each time I want to start an order. The only way for me to overcome that is to simply do more Bricklink orders until it becomes a habit. So essentially, I'm still learning how to fit this procedure in my life. However, I can tell that each time ordering parts becomes easier for me to do - to a point where this was my first attempt at micromanaging multiple orders at once.

So, I expect to have quite some spare time for my projects around the end of this month. In May, I won't have time for anything because I will be in Norway again - but at least I would have the entirety of this Summer ready to do whatever I want. And I want to work on these projects, dammit!

Anyway, these parts weren't just to add stuff to my Hailfire or Constructor. In fact, these parts are to accommodate a complete redesign of both projects, as I have done multiple times before. With the Hailfire Droid I won't change much of the wheel frames but I will have to start over with the head and the connection points to the wheel frames. The Constructor however, will be completely disassembled and built from scratch. It is much needed for it...

I will probably do a few small builds with the parts that I have on hand, but nothing too fancy in the next ten days. Don't expect any major blogposts for these projects this or next month though. I'll keep those for this Summer. But around that time I will write those long blogposts that explain in-depth about what has changed and such, the same way as it has been in the past. And no, I won't write about why my Constructor has teal parts on it. That will be for one of the final blogposts regarding the Constructor, which I'm not quite there yet.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Lego] So, I just got this Sealed Box of #10134...

This has been a set that I've wanted to get my hands on when it came out, back in 2004. This year I've went through the effort of saving up enough to afford a sealed box and this one just arrived a couple of hours ago!

With the release of the new UCS Y-Wing (#75181) this year, the value of the old one has dropped by a significant amount. Not that it would've stopped me from getting #10134 this year, but it definitely has saved me something. Y'know, I can spend that in other LEGO® stuff. Such as my Constructor and Hailfire Droid projects.

Speaking of the new Y-Wing...

A funny and awesome opportunity that happened by coincidence. Before the new Y-Wing came out in stores about a half year ago, I came up with the crazy idea of building both Y-Wings simultaneously... So I kept my copy of the new Y-Wing sealed until I'll start building both at the same time.

Interestingly enough: both Y-Wing models are built in a similar fashion, so it's possible to build them side by side. Quite literally.

Did you know that despite both sets are Y-Wing models, they depict different Y-Wing types from the same squadron? For some reason, almost nobody talks about that and thus people seem to be mistakenly comparing two different Y-Wing models with each other. The old UCS Y-Wing set is said to be too long. On the contrary, it's actually accurate.

I'm going to make space in my room now to start building.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Lego] Black light - #6989 Mega Core Magnetizer

Since it has been a while since my last non-project related LEGO® blogpost, I thought it might be a good excuse to dust off one of my favorite Space models for a Black light post! It has also been almost 1,5 years ago since my last Black light post.

The #6989 Mega Core Magnetizer was the largest set of the M-Tron line (released in 1990), a theme that started the extensive use of magnets in non-train sets. It held the record for being the largest Space wheeled vehicle set that LEGO® for almost twenty years, with the #7699 MT-101 Armoured Drilling Unit (Mars Mission, from 2007) holding the current record.

Large Space wheeled vehicles is unfortunately not a common thing to see in Space sets. Rarely has a wheeled vehicle been the largest set in a Space subtheme, with other names as the Arachnoid Star Base (Insectoids, 1998) and the Galactic Titan (Galaxy Squad, 2013) being other notable examples. Either way, Space hasn't been such a common theme to be done since Star Wars was released - most likely because Star Wars cannibalizes the sales of Space, and not many children are as interested in most evergreen LEGO® themes (i.e. Pirates, Space, Castle) as most adults have that were born before 2000.

 

The Mega Core Magnetizer is packed with lots of play features, most of which are designed around the main crane it has. The crane contains one of those magnets, and pretty much every cargo has a magnet too. Almost every Space theme had a story-based role and existed in the same imaginary universe that LEGO® set up since Futuron, and M-Tron were set up to be the mechanics and engineers to repair broken spaceships and other stuff (as shown in promotional material).

All of the cargo conveniently fits in the main vehicle build and the crane can easily reach every cargo without much hassle. Despite this being an old set and perhaps "blocky" for today's standards, it screams to be played with and I can imagine it made a lot of children happy! PS: I did not own this set as a child. On the contrary, this set is older than I am.

While nowadays a lot of modern LEGO® Designers keep track of what sets they've designed in the past few years, it is fairly difficult to find out who designed the older LEGO® sets before 2000. Just only a handful of LEGO® Designers from before 2000 are still working at this day, and fortunately a colleague of the designer of this set has kept track of what he has designed over the past almost 30 (!) years. I was surprised to see he was responsible for a lot of fantastic and well known sets that are highly coveted by a lot of fans, including some favorite sets of mine...

Speaking of old! I own the original box of this set with the instructions and all. This is probably going to be the oldest LEGO® box I'll ever own, because I have little interest in sets prior to 1990. Either way: if this box were a legal citizen, it would've been old enough to vote in most countries.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[Lego] MOC - Some mecha's just want to dress up as a reptile, y'know

Is it a reptile? Is it a T-Rex? Are those teeth railguns? Is this even a practical weapon for a mecha to have? No, no, no, aaaaand no.

This little fellow knows going into combat as a reptile is probably unpractical. But he does it anyway because he thinks it's cool. A small MOC that only took a few hours to build, because I had not much else to do.

Partially inspired by the use of the old gear racks as teeth for the T-Rex from the #8485 Control Center II TECHNIC set from 1995, and a little bit of influence from Bifrost from MegaMan ZX Advent - I've been doodling in the past few months a bit with trying to use those new gear racks in a similar fashion. This guy is one of them.

The neck of this figure has two points of articulation - this is to enable the head to fold all the way down so you can have the mouth clear of obstructions to "chomp" into things. It kinda brings the feel that this isn't a humanoid mecha anymore, but some two-legged reptile (probably from Kong: Skull Island) with one heck of a bite. I'm guess going "reptile" mode kinda makes him a bit shielded from attacks too.

Both jaws are constructed through the use of CCBS joints to get those angles - when these four individual gear racks meet, they are semi-connected with a click hinge that goes through one of the pin holes with an axle. The bottom jaw is raised up and down through the arms of the figure (as he is "holding onto the jaw"), while the upper half is part of a "backpack" that can rotate all the way back.

Because all of those four gear racks can be separated from each other, you can get some cool poses. In some poses they kinda look like this guy has railguns or wings, but they're not. They are kinda like swords with teeth. The upper jaw has a few smaller guns mounted to make them useful in regular combat when this guy doesn't feel like going for a bite - those "wings" don't have any hands or arms, after all. They are kinda like shoulder mounted weapons, if you will.

Especially when you turn around those jaw halves, trying to see the "reptile" in this mecha becomes a lot harder, and it kinda gets an insect feel to me, by virtue of the head. Speaking of which, if you take a closer look, the face is asymmetrical. The main reason for that is because I didn't really have enough pieces in the right colours and quantities - but I like to imagine that during combat, this guy might have had some scrap flung in his face after he took a bite. Going into combat like that would definitely have some occupational hazards, but at least this guy plays with style.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!