General Part Discussion

[Jockos]

Slightly off-topic: Does somebody know where can I find original printed parts for the UCS BMW motorbike? I read somewhere it's available for a massive amount of money, but just curious how it looks like

[astyanax]

2 minutes ago, Jockos said:

Slightly off-topic: Does somebody know where can I find original printed parts for the UCS BMW motorbike? I read somewhere it's available for a massive amount of money, but just curious how it looks like

You mean other than inside the set box? Try BrickLink or BrickOwl...

[LvdH]

50 minutes ago, Jockos said:

Slightly off-topic: Does somebody know where can I find original printed parts for the UCS BMW motorbike? I read somewhere it's available for a massive amount of money, but just curious how it looks like

Guessing you mean these?
https://www.steindrucker.com/42130-bike-1000-custom-package

[Jockos]

30 minutes ago, LvdH said:

Guessing you mean these?
https://www.steindrucker.com/42130-bike-1000-custom-package

Yes, that one. Thank you! 

[shroomzofdoom]

The new blue gears and 3X19 frames are now available on the en-us site.

Just placed an order! 

[2GodBDGlory]

9 hours ago, shroomzofdoom said:

The new blue gears and 3X19 frames are now available on the en-us site.

Just placed an order! 

Huh, I'm not seeing them. One of these days!

[shroomzofdoom]

24 minutes ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

Huh, I'm not seeing them. One of these days!

Both blue gears are already out of stock!

3x19 frames look like they are displaying on both the lego.com/en-us and lego.com/en-ca sites

Try these SKUs, be sure to toggle the 'show out of stock' slider when searching just to be sure you can get to them:
6396480 - GEAR WHEEL Z20
6396479 - GEAR WHEEL Z12
6377025 - FRAME 3X19

[2GodBDGlory]

4 hours ago, shroomzofdoom said:

Both blue gears are already out of stock!

3x19 frames look like they are displaying on both the lego.com/en-us and lego.com/en-ca sites

Try these SKUs, be sure to toggle the 'show out of stock' slider when searching just to be sure you can get to them:
6396480 - GEAR WHEEL Z20
6396479 - GEAR WHEEL Z12
6377025 - FRAME 3X19

Ah, thanks! I didn't think to check out-of-stock parts.

[Lyichir]

Just figured I'd pop in with mention of the new light bluish grey Technic chain links from the new Star Wars UCS set... feels like those could be nice for an exposed chain on something like a motorcycle.

[GerritvdG]

I'm trying to collect the Lego parts to build most of the official Lego sets (one at a time). I'm using Rebrickable a lot to calculate what parts I need to build te next set on my wish list. 

To manage all the parts I try to store only the maximum number of a certain part as used in a specific Technic set, the rest go's to my overflow boxes. 

For example: Liftarm Thick 1 x 15, I will store:

• 21 in white (max nr in the 8828)
• 26 Light Bluish Gray (max nr in the  42098)
• .. etc.

I'm using the Bricklink summary for this, but it's a lot of work: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=32278&in=S&catID=36&ov=Y

I'm searching for a spreadsheat with this information, with x = color, y=the part and in each cel the max. number of that combination.

Does anyone have this, or have other means of managing this?

Thanks, Gerrit

 

Edited October 2, 2022 by GerritvdG

[Void_S]

@GerritvdG, you can export your parts to a custom parts list at Rebrickable, and then compare it with set you wanted to be able to build - it will show you the difference, as a parts list you need to add to your collection.
I tried to solve the same problem before but didn't succeed because of some objective reasons that forced me to loose my collection. My plan was to start with several parts, then compare it with the 1st set and adjust the "wishlist", then add the wishlist tot he collection, compare with the 2nd set, etc.

[JonathanM]

12 hours ago, GerritvdG said:

I'm searching for a spreadsheat with this information, with x = color, y=the part and in each cel the max. number of that combination.

Does anyone have this, or have other means of managing this?

Good news! Rebrickable has downloads of it’s complete database. You can grab all this info from the inventory_parts.csv file:

https://rebrickable.com/downloads/

You’ll need to join to the inventories.csv file to grab the set number, and the colors.csv for the colour names. Once you have that, just group by part number and colour id and summarise to find the maximum.

Using something like dplyr In R: inventory_parts |> group_by(part_num, color_id) |> summarise(num_needed = max(quantity))

(Do a filter first to drop down to the sets you’re interested in - the themes.csv file might be useful for this if you’re interested only in technic).

Jonathan

[GerritvdG]

Thanks @Void_S for pointing me to custom lists, I never used them, but it seems to come in very handy to prepare my next Bricklink order for example!

@JonathanM, thanks, that's seems a very nice way of creating the spreadsheet I need. I'm going to fiddle a bit...

[GerritvdG]

Thanks for the help guys, I've created the overview I wanted with the downloads of Rebrickable.

The maximum number of a specific part/color combination in a selection of sets (theme/year), perfect!

[2GodBDGlory]

Ah, I just finally understood what you're doing there!

It's an interesting idea, and one I've thought about a bit before. I'd be curious to know how many total parts will be necessary!

[astyanax]

Many subtleties remain though... For example: Do you account for mold differences in functionally equivalent parts? Do you account for exchangeable colors (e.g., LBG and DBG liftarms used on the inside of a model)?

[GerritvdG]

21 hours ago, astyanax said:

Many subtleties remain though...

Yes, that's true. I was searching for a tool for putting together a Bricklink order. And of course it is sometimes less expensive to buy a parts-pack compared to ordering the specific parts, in my experience you quickly get enough pins, LBG and DBG liftarms...

The remaining parts needed are often the more expensive / less common ones and then I like to buy the right number of parts.

 

22 hours ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

 It's an interesting idea, and one I've thought about a bit before. I'd be curious to know how many total parts will be necessary!

Yes, that's an interesting question. Below some results and we are talking about parts including the different molds, printed parts, hoses, etc. The only thing I've excluded are the sticker sheets.

Selection: all Technic sets between 2009 and now (174)

• parts required to display them all (150041)
• parts required to build one set at a time (22013 , 15%)
• parts required to build one set at a time, ignoring color (10965, 7%)

That's pretty interesting I think, furthermore I was wondering what the figures would be for another theme, here you go.

Selection: all Creator 3-in-1 sets between 2009 and now (172)

• parts required to display them all (57606)
• parts required to build one set at a time (23433, 41%)
• parts required to build one set at a time (ignoring color (7130, 12%)

I didn't do a thorough analysis, but it is clear that Technic sets have a lot more parts in common than Creator 3-in-1 sets. Of course the Technic Pins category plays an important role here, but I don't think that explains everything. 

Btw if anyone is interested in this excel-sheet, just drop me a PM with your e-mail.

Edited October 5, 2022 by GerritvdG

[howitzer]

5 minutes ago, GerritvdG said:

Yes, that's true. I was searching for a tool for putting together a Bricklink order. And of course it is sometimes less expensive to buy a parts-pack compared to ordering the specific parts, in my experience you quickly get enough pins, LBG and DBG liftarms...

The remaining parts needed are often the more expensive / less common ones and then I like to buy the right number of parts.

 

Yes, that's an interesting question. Below some results and we are talking about parts including the different molds, printed parts, hoses, etc. The only thing I've excluded are the sticker sheets.

Selection: all Technic sets between 2009 and now (174)

• parts required to display them all (150041)
• parts required to build one set at a time (22013 , 15%)
• parts required to build one set at a time, ignoring color (10965, 7%)

That's pretty interesting I think, furthermore I was wondering what the figures would be for another theme, here you go.

Selection: all Creator 3-in-1 sets between 2009 and now (172)

• parts required to display them all (57606)
• parts required to build one set at a time (23433, 41%)
• parts required to build one set at a time (ignoring color (7130, 12%)

I didn't do a thorough analysis, but it is clear that Technic sets have a lot more parts in common than Creator 3-in-1 sets. Of course the Technic Pins category plays an important role here, but I don't think that explains everything. 

Btw if anyone is interested in this excel-sheet, just drop me a PM with your e-mail.

Would be interesting to know the numbers excluding black 2L blue 3L friction pins as those are the most common Technic parts by a wide margin.

[2GodBDGlory]

22 minutes ago, GerritvdG said:

Yes, that's true. I was searching for a tool for putting together a Bricklink order. And of course it is sometimes less expensive to buy a parts-pack compared to ordering the specific parts, in my experience you quickly get enough pins, LBG and DBG liftarms...

The remaining parts needed are often the more expensive / less common ones and then I like to buy the right number of parts.

 

Yes, that's an interesting question. Below some results and we are talking about parts including the different molds, printed parts, hoses, etc. The only thing I've excluded are the sticker sheets.

Selection: all Technic sets between 2009 and now (174)

• parts required to display them all (150041)
• parts required to build one set at a time (22013 , 15%)
• parts required to build one set at a time, ignoring color (10965, 7%)

That's pretty interesting I think, furthermore I was wondering what the figures would be for another theme, here you go.

Selection: all Creator 3-in-1 sets between 2009 and now (172)

• parts required to display them all (57606)
• parts required to build one set at a time (23433, 41%)
• parts required to build one set at a time (ignoring color (7130, 12%)

I didn't do a thorough analysis, but it is clear that Technic sets have a lot more parts in common than Creator 3-in-1 sets. Of course the Technic Pins category plays an important role here, but I don't think that explains everything. 

Btw if anyone is interested in this excel-sheet, just drop me a PM with your e-mail.

Ooh, that's very interesting! I don't think I'd need to get many parts to be able to build any set in any colors, and even being able to build any one set at a time doesn't appear to be prohibitively expensive. It's not something I'd plan on doing, but are you able to get an easy estimate of what buying those 22013 pieces would cost?

[zoo]

So, what sets do I have to buy in order to be able to build a specific set? Say the 42125 Ferrari 488 for example? :)

[GerritvdG]

53 minutes ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

It's not something I'd plan on doing, but are you able to get an easy estimate of what buying those 22013 pieces would cost?

Yes, according to my experience Bricklink pieces go for EUR 0.30 including shipping and handling, makes EUR 6600 ( I think this is the lower-bound).

Buying the sets new isn't possible anymore for a reasonable price, but if you calculate EUR 0.10 per piece you know it wil be more expensive...

1 hour ago, howitzer said:

Would be interesting to know the numbers excluding black 2L blue 3L friction pins as those are the most common Technic parts by a wide margin.

Will try to calculate this...

 

41 minutes ago, zoo said:

Say the 42125 Ferrari 488 for example? :)

Haha, that's one of the sets I have as red parts pack 

Edited October 5, 2022 by GerritvdG

[howitzer]

Another thought related to the above calculations: I wonder how many parts are unique only in the sense that they have a sticker or print? Also, there's over 10000 unique parts among those 144 sets but if one would remove small aesthetic details with no functional value or large effect on the looks of the set, I wonder how many parts one would save? Hard to estimate though, as this one is really fuzzy and opinion-based...

Still, I'm sure you could get the most of the enjoyment out of every set with much fewer parts than this.

[LvdH]

A bunch of new parts have just appeared on PaB, including the "new" 12t and 20t gears.

[RiGi]

Finally! Still no sign of the 3x19 frame on the UK PaB though... *eyeroll*

[LvdH]

6 hours ago, RiGi said:

Finally! Still no sign of the 3x19 frame on the UK PaB though... *eyeroll*

That part was available when I first looked. Then the site crashed (well done LEGO), and they were out of stock.  

Better luck next time I guess.