[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!

[EMS] 13 years of Rayque!

Sup guys! Today's the 30th of September, that marks another anniversary on EMS.

It's been an eventful year of progress: I've hit Level 250, got my first triple %-STR Potential, reached 7000 Union and completed the Mu Gong Soul Collection. In addition, they finally fixed the Critical Rate on the Amaterasu's set! Took 'm 7 years, though. Now, if only they'd also fix that Invincibility after hit...

But wait, there's more! Later this year, Hero will receive a couple of new skills. I'm very much looking forward to Upper Charge and Leap Attack, which is hopefully our next update. I'll definitely be writing a dedicated blogpost for that, as there's plenty to discuss about it. Then, there's also our next signature 5th Job skill Sword Illusion, which is probably scheduled for the Winter update.

So, last year I did release a High-Dex Hero video, but as you've noticed on our Youtube channel, there has been none this year. There's still one planned for 2020, but I currently have my hands full on the Definitive Edition article. I've started writing a couple of days ago, but I do expect to need several weeks in order to get it finished.

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

[EMS] Rope Lift - Level 25!

"The Celestial Festival is free to play - with little to no effort, save 300m a day - who needs Reboot, anyway"
Dropping over 100 Arcane River symbols daily has never been this cumbersome.

Wait what, Rope Lift is maxed out? 

It's simple - Rope Lift is pretty much the most common 5th Job skill; you'll find plenty of them from opening Nodestones. It's more (cost) efficient to max out these 5th Job skills by immediately fusing any duplicates you find, instead of crafting these individually. And now that Rope Lift is maxed out for the time being, I can now redirect any future duplicate Rope Lift cores to the extractor for additional Nodeshards.

The Celestial Festival event has been very resourceful with its generous 60 (!) Nodestones a day, for little to no effort. Granted, I'm past Level 250 so I only need to do one Arcane River daily quest per 10 Nodestones - which only takes up to half an hour for all six regions. In addition, we also have the weekly 3 Nodestones from Road of Vanishing, and I still have my Mitra's Nodestone Box for another 5 Nodestones a week.

There has never really been a legitimate reason here to buy Nodestones from other players or to grind Nodestones out. Nodestones are pretty expensive for the little amount of Nodeshards you get. You're going to need a lot of shards to max out a new skill, and recent events have been so generous with Nodestones, that by the time this new skill comes out you'd have more than enough shards. Mesos are much better spent elsewhere. 

Dare to say that current events have been past the breakeven point: when you have your essential skills maxed out, you gain more shards than you need. You can either save up these shards for future updates, or sell them to invest in more substantial upgrades such as Additional Potential.

So, the Celestial Festival still runs until the end of the month, and it seems that my simple-but-effective approach of being patient and mindful about resources pays off. I currently have enough Nodeshards for three instant Level 25's of choice, and I almost have enough EXP Nodestones to max out another "Spider in Mirror" type of skill where the corresponding Skill cores are locked behind a limited loot table.

While planning ahead always comes with a certain uncertainty, one thing's for sure: you can never have enough Nodeshards. I may or may not get another Level 25 within this event.

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.