General Part Discussion

[Scoar Sonander]

2 hours ago, astyanax said:

Received my replacements. Below a comparison: 1st batch on the left, replacements on the right.

Bottom line: always make sure to connect these parts at at least 2 points!

I'm not gonna complain again, I really have more than enough of these parts now!

This leads to a new form of piracy! Easily sneaking of a double batch of pieces since the quality of pieces isn't great. 

[astyanax]

7 minutes ago, Scoar Sonander said:

This leads to a new form of piracy! Easily sneaking of a double batch of pieces since the quality of pieces isn't great. 

Such a thing is definitely happening. Here's an insightful interview on the topic:

https://www.newelementary.com/2020/09/missing-faulty-lego-consumer-perceived-quality.html

[Scoar Sonander]

Thanks! It's a shame that it's really hard to see who's telling the truth, or who's a scammer. I really feel sorry for TLG in this respect. 

[astyanax]

2 minutes ago, Scoar Sonander said:

Thanks! It's a shame that it's really hard to see who's telling the truth, or who's a scammer. I really feel sorry for TLG in this respect. 

Indeed. And in my defense: I never asked for replacement parts. I wrote to Lego that I was "disappointed" about the quality and included (a link to) my photo. That's it. They sent me replacements immediately, without further contest. So apparently they do see the misalignment as a valid issue.

[Scoar Sonander]

11 minutes ago, astyanax said:

Indeed. And in my defense: I never asked for replacement parts. I wrote to Lego that I was "disappointed" about the quality and included (a link to) my photo. That's it. They sent me replacements immediately, without further contest. So apparently they do see the misalignment as a valid issue.

Well, it shows that they actually care, which is good. 

[Gray Gear]

3 hours ago, Scoar Sonander said:

This leads to a new form of piracy! Easily sneaking of a double batch of pieces since the quality of pieces isn't great. 

People lying about missing pieces are pirates, I agree. Running the Brick replacement service must be a nightmare.

But these bricks are low-quality, and for the asking price every brick should be perfect. And a misaligned axle hole isn't a minor issue, its a functional problem that can make all the difference if the axle hole is the only mounting point. I myself wouldn't hesitate to ask for replacements until I have the ordered number of bricks with straight axle holes. 

 

3 hours ago, astyanax said:

Such a thing is definitely happening. Here's an insightful interview on the topic:

https://www.newelementary.com/2020/09/missing-faulty-lego-consumer-perceived-quality.html

And I really had to cringe reading this... The Mustang print explanation was just 

If you have to explicitly tell the printing staff to print a middle line in the middle because the lines on other bricks will have to line up, you have a problem. It means they normally don't care if the line is off-center. The line should just be in the middle to begin with, so doesn't matter if other pieces will have to align or not. It'll just work.

LEGO is either just going cheap with the prints, or they really don't know any better. But COBI has shown that way better print quality is possible, and printing light on dark is not as hard as LEGO makes it out to be.

[langko]

I ordered 10 of those parts from bricks n pieces too (Australia) I've just checked and they are all crap as well. I'd used six of them so far and didn't notice because I only used them at the hole points. 

[howitzer]

So has anyone had these parts properly aligned? Is this a problem that affects all of these parts or maybe just some of them, perhaps being produced in certain factory?

[TechnicRCRacer]

5 hours ago, howitzer said:

So has anyone had these parts properly aligned? Is this a problem that affects all of these parts or maybe just some of them, perhaps being produced in certain factory?

All 20 of mine align, but I seem to be in the minority. Another three I got in a set do not align.

[amorti]

1 hour ago, gyenesvi said:

wonder what the key missing pieces may be for simplifying.. Maybe liftarms with perpendicular holes would allow for more compact builds

It's certainly amazing what you can build with those freshly-invented cross beams...

As you can see in this video released six months ago by CaDA.

 

[AVCampos]

Yeah, I'm glad LEGO finally embraced flip-flop beams long ago in use by other brands, and am certain that we'll see more lengths than 15 in the future.

[gyenesvi]

1 hour ago, Jundis said:

I wanne see the suspension working on the ground and axles twisting and turning like this:

Oh my, I'd love to see something like that too! I have just built this suspension on a Jeep (pictures in this thread).

59 minutes ago, amorti said:

It's certainly amazing what you can build with those freshly-invented cross beams... As you can see in this video released six months ago by CaDA.

Exactly, I have seen such builds too, just wasn't sure if it's okay to post here..  Anyways, I expect that those beams will change things quite a bit!

[Bartybum]

8 hours ago, AVCampos said:

You can have a fixed front axle and still get good off-road capabilities: the 8273-B does that.

I think he means from an aesthetic perspective. Fixed front axles are just shoot-myself-in-the-head lame. Three live axles or this set is a waste and an insult to the Mercedes license’s legacy (imo)

[1974]

14 hours ago, AVCampos said:

Yeah, I'm glad LEGO finally embraced flip-flop beams long ago in use by other brands, and am certain that we'll see more lengths than 15 in the future.

You can bet TLG made prototypes of those decades ago (they did with the flip flop plates) but for some reason we're not worthy to build that way. And this is how you get run over by the competition

[amorti]

36 minutes ago, 1974 said:

 You can bet TLG made prototypes of those decades ago (they did with the flip flop plates) but for some reason we're not worthy to build that way. And this is how you get run over by the competition 

I just got my 1995 8422 motorbike in the mail. Decades ago, we didn't even have studless.

No... I bet TLG was caught with their pants down, and are now playing catch-up.

They'll probably put a design protection on these pieces they never used yet but someone else already has in their catalogue, same like they did with a 1x5 plate.

[1974]

7 minutes ago, amorti said:

I just got my 1995 8422 motorbike in the mail. Decades ago, we didn't even have studless.

No... I bet TLG was caught with their pants down, and are now playing catch-up.

They'll probably put a design protection on these pieces they never used yet but someone else already has in their catalogue, same like they did with a 1x5 plate.

Yes we did, we'we had proper studless parts since the mid 90's (and the Technic fig legs and the City crane parts since the mid 80's) so +25 years = decades

Just about any and every part imaginable have been prototyped by TLG, I know, I've owned a lot of them

Now why TLG chooses to release the parts many years after they've designed them, or not even release them at all, who knows

Edited April 8, 2021 by 1974

[AVCampos]

1 hour ago, 1974 said:

(they did with the flip flop plates)

Whoa, they had plates with alternating studs on opposite sides? Is there any place where we can take a look at those?

[1974]

My pictures are not online anymore but send me a pm with an email addy and I will send you some pics of the flip-flop plates and prototype Technic parts

(I do not have any pictures of the Zetros)

Cheers,

Ole

Edited April 8, 2021 by 1974

[doug72]

Recently I have have been disassembling some older MOCs and have found that many using these gear racks that the end axle holes section were either cracked or just dropped off as the were separated from the adjacent rack section even when eased apart carefully.

This seems to only affect the yellow gear racks, none of the black ones I have don’t  have this problem.
Perhaps the yellow ones use a different colouring material making them brittle compared to the black versions.

Have tried to repair the cracked ones using liquid ABS but often fail again.

Now have several useless yellow gear racks  !!

Edited April 9, 2021 by Doug72

[Maaboo the Witch]

Order more.

[Milan]

Merged.

[nerdsforprez]

Brick machine shop on Brick Link, which I do not believe is running anymore, is the original place where stainless steel axles were made available.  They also had flip-flop liftarms, made out of stainless steel.  With lengths up to 32 studs.  I know, I purchased several items from that shop back in the day.  SS axles, and regular liftarms.  But sadly, I never purchased flip flop SS liftarms.  

 

I wish his shop was open again.....

[RocketPuppy]

I'm guessing Lego hasn't released a bunch of flip flop axles because it makes it much easier to build an impossible to disassemble structure. 

 

They probably failed TLGs strength and endurance tests as well. Flip Flop peg holes create stress points between the holes, standard beams naturally spread out any stress, and most current flip-flop pieces have a reinforced cross axle hole in the perpendicular direction. 

 

I was surprised the first large flip flop beam was 15L. 

[Milan]

3 hours ago, nerdsforprez said:

I wish his shop was open again.....

May not be him per se, but there are a few producers of metal parts compatible with Lego. Look for them on Ali/Ebay.

[astyanax]

3 hours ago, RocketPuppy said:

I was surprised the first large flip flop beam was 15L. 

Me too. Somehow I was expecting to see the flip flop beams in even lengths only. To have some more differentiation, and to have the same number of holes on each side.

I dunno, maybe not that important.