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How to best measure compatibility among Lego and clones?
A top complaint I see about clone brands is the quality: specifically the flimsiness of the plastic, premature discoloration, or poor fitting with either other bricks of the same brand or with Lego. I've never seen a quantified study of the various clones though. I consider the poor fitting issue the worst issue. How hard/expensive would it be to build/buy a device to measure the force of attaching and detaching plates and bricks?
My anecdotal experience: I have Lego, Sluban, Cobi, Xingbao(Lepin), and 2 other brands that I'm not sure of the source. Among these, only the "Technique" axles  and axle holes from one of the unknown brands are incompatible with Lego: Lego's axles are bigger so don't fit in the clone's axle holes, and the clone's axles have no friction in Lego's axle holes. But having numbers to post in an article and point at would be nice.

One problem with this would be around consistency - certainly in an older MegaBlocks set I had it came with a large number of "spare" 1x1 studs, probably because they knew some of them wouldn't clutch on to a stud properly.

That's true. I really would have to test multiple instances of each type. But at that point the permutations really explode. With 6 brands, there are 30 permutations per brick type (e.g. 2x2 brick). If I measure each pairing 3 times, that's 90 measurements. If I measure 3 different instances of each brick, that's 270 measurements (and that's assuming the instances are tested as pairs instead of with every other instance). At that point it would make more sense to just get a micrometer and measure each brick exactly...

I've gotten a couple more brands since this post: Enlighten and MegaConstrux. I've done some bigger builds too using multiple clones together. I've discovered that the clutch power is really a symptom of secondary importance. The main problem is that when combining large pieces (especially plates) with slightly different tolerances will cause the larger piece to bend ever so slightly. But this adds up over a large build. And it's caused by same issue: the dimensions aren't exactly the same as Lego. So I'm still inclined to get a micrometer and do some measurements.

How hard/expensive would it be to build/buy a device to measure the force of attaching and detaching plates and bricks?

Thankfully we don't need to think too hard on that, as pcantin has already built a similar device, admittedly built for measuring the repetitions it takes for a brick to lose its clutch power. But it should not be too hard or expensive to modify that design to include something that can measure the exact forces involved. Or it maybe possible to measure the amount of current required by the servo during attaching or detaching and to infer the involved forces from that and thus solve the problem witout requiring any major hardware alterations.
But if your goal is to compare a number of various bricks, I'd recommend a different route. Attach a number of nominally same bricks (i.e. a bunch of 2x4 bricks for example) together in a stack, then pull the two end bricks apart. This way you are applying some force to the top and bottom bricks which gets transmitted across all intermittent bricks. By increasing the applied force the two bricks with the weakest bind will separate first, be they anywhere in the stack. This is akin to finding the weakest link in a chain by pulling the end links apart to see which link break first.
Of course this will only tell us which connection (consisting of a brick's stud-side and another brick's antistud-side) has the weakest clutch power, but by repeating the same test with varied composition (all bricks from manufacturer A, the same bricks in another order, bricks from A mixed with bricks from B, bricks from A on the top and from B on the bottom, etc.) with some planning and measuring it should be possible to establish intra-manufacturer and inter-manufacturer variations in binding force.

Yes I did see that. Quite cool. :) It probably would be relatively easy to modify to measure force, but given the number of permutations I want to test, as you imply, it would be tedious. I'm not sure about the stack of various brands to find the weakest link. Seems like a pretty confusing way to go about it if there are 6 brands: instead of keeping track of which pairs I've tested, I'd have to track which permutations of the full set I've tested.

@MattChambers I'd definitely advise against using 6 brands at once, rather use a stack made of two A brand bricks and two B ones to see which bond is the weakest: AA, BB or AB. Then swap out all Bs for Cs, after that all As for Ds and so on. But seeing that a major factor of brick quality is consistence, even stacks of pure A bricks should be tested to see if mixing up the positions of individual elements in the stack affect the result.

That's a much better idea. I can use that to find the worst offender brick, measure it, then I'll have something to benchmark all the other bricks against (probably in terms relative to the official Lego dimensions).


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Help identifying Star Wars and maybe one another set(s)
Got these as a gift.
This is supposedly Star Wars, and maybe one other set, possibly some car.
Thank you.

Possibly some remains of set 75025-1. Guess based on what seems to be four black Technikc Forklift Forks in the last picture...

A better picture of the top right would help tremendously.

The top left picture is a fragment of set #9442 "Jay's Storm Fighter".
The top right looks like another fragment of set #9442.
The bottom picture is the base of set #75053 "The Ghost".

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

sort: votes


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Difference of Lego products
I came across the Lego Ideas and the original one, and it doesn't seem to have any difference. It's just a normal house, but on a book? Can somebody help me tell the difference, as my son wants to decide on his birthday present. Thanks!

Your question is very unclear. What "original one"? A "house on a book", and "ideas", make me think that part of what you're talking about is https://shop.lego.com/en-US/product/Pop-Up-Book-21315, but the house is just one of the two models you can build inside the book, and it doesn't really look like any other set I remember having seen.

The question is unclear, but I will take a stab at it.
It seems that OP found the LEGO Ideas website with the LEGO Pop-Up Book project: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/cfaf7a52-02a4-4dc0-8ec3-6b94d7c36069
Then they also saw this listing at the Online LEGO Shop: https://shop.lego.com/en-US/product/Pop-Up-Book-21315
OP thinks that both sets can be bought and is asking how the two sets are different.
To answer the question, the original LEGO Ideas submission is not for sale. Only the #21315 LEGO Ideas Pop-Up Book set can be bought.
How LEGO Ideas works is that LEGO fans can submit their own ideas they would like LEGO make into a set. If enough people like an idea and vote for it, LEGO will consider making it into an official set. Once the idea is selected, LEGO's own designers will refine the project to their own standards and make it into an official set.
The #21315 LEGO Ideas Pop-Up Book set is the result of the original submission at LEGO Ideas. It is the only version of the project that is for sale. The set is designed like a traditional pop-up book that can open with scenes that pop up from the pages.
The original LEGO fan project included suggestions for various scenes that could be used for the book. For the final set, LEGO's own designers selected two interchangeable scenes; Little Red Riding Hood with grandma's house, and Jack and the Beanstalk with a "growing" beanstalk. You can see pictures of both scenes and how they unfold and pop up at the Online LEGO Shop page: https://shop.lego.com/en-US/product/Pop-Up-Book-21315
I hope this answers OP's question. If I'm, completely off the mark and misunderstood the question and what set OP is talking about, please OP, come back and clarify your question.

Oh thanks, I get it now!

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What are the longest 1×x and 2×x plates and tiles ever released?
As a follow up of this question, here is the question for plates and tiles. What are the longest 1×x  and 2×x plates and tiles ever released by Lego?
When there are differences, I can think of the following categories:

Longest brick ever included in a regular Lego set
Longest brick ever available through other channels
Longest brick produced ever and visible on exhibits or other occasions, but unavailable to the public

I think it's going to be the 1x12 (#60479) and 2x16 (#4282) for regular Lego plates. The next longest plain-ish plate is probably the 6x28 (#5301, 5309, 4093), but these are thicker than typical plates.
For regular tiles I think the 1x8 (#4162) and 2x4 (#87079) are the longest. Outside of the 2x? they made some odd-ball Scala tiles at 3x6 (#6934) and 8 x 20 x 2/3 (#6923). Then there's the big 8x16 (#48288, 90498).
Does Modulex count since it's a Lego company product? There were Modulex 1x16 (MX1616M) plates and 2x12 (Mx1012) tiles. They also made a huge 22x60 (Mx2420D) plate according to Bricklink. Of course these pieces are only longer in terms of studs, because of the smaller scale, the Modulex bricks are not longer in millimeters/inches.  I'm curious if anyone has one of the 22x60 plates on hand to verify the bottom type?  Then of course there are baseplates, I guess I assumed you weren't referring to those.

Yes, Modulex counts, but it is good that it is placed in a category of its own.

Looking at mine, Modulex 1×16 a fraction smaller than system 1×10, as I can feel the step. So not the longest. Would have thought should be =, why not?

There is news (postdating the accepted answer): There are now tiles 2x6 (#69729) from LEGO available, e.g., in some Nintendo Super Mario sets.

2×16 from Guarded Inn 6067 (=10000). The floor uses a wider plate & this together.


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Separating old 2 x 4 brick with wheel holder
I am wondering if anyone knows of a way to separate the clear bottom piece from the brick on part# 7049b "Brick, Modified 2 x 4 with Wheels Holder Old and Trans-Clear Bottom" without breaking anything.  Photo for reference:

I have one that has a loose bottom and it got me wondering if they could be separated without breaking them. Some of the ones I have are kinda nasty inside, while others have loose tubes that don't retain the axles very well anymore.  It would be nice if I could take them apart for cleaning and repairs, but most of them seemed "glued" together very well.  I realize they aren't meant to be taken apart, but wondered if some process including heat or something would work.  Has anyone ever tried this?  If so could you please share you experience?

Here's a patent drawing showing the inner workings of the brick...

@Uli - That is very interesting, thanks!

I actually have one of these that comes apart easily (no idea where the internal tubes are).

It appears that the glue that used to hold them together gave out. You can still see where it used to be, around the edges of the clear piece, and at the tips of the 4 prongs on the clear piece.

If I were going to try to take one apart, I would probably try cutting the glue around the edge with a razor blade, and hope that the glue further in isn't strong enough to prevent pushing it out with a paperclip of something thought the axle holes.

As I hoped, this gives us a lot of information on the internal working of how they were "glued" together.  Thank you for posting these pictures!

This was, in all reality, the most useful information given.

I just went through the experience.

My process:
01 -  Boil water for 7mins. Bring water to a boil. ** EDIT by Kat.
02 - Toss LEGO in.
03 - Simmer for five minutes.
04 - With some tools find an edge, and pry.
05 - If piece cools down repeat steps 02-04...

The final analysis?
We'll let your words speak the truth:

"...seemed "glued" together very well. I realize they aren't meant to
  be taken apart..." - JohnnyB.

Even though the attempt was a failure, it did confirm Uli's upload of the piece schematics.
Added some light blue coloring to Uli's pic to help distinguish exactly what we're looking at.
Schematic Figures 4,5,6 and 7 is/are the transparent clear piece.
Looking again at "Fig.7",  note how both that transparent and black outer shell interlock and merge together.
Finally, imaging glue in between the two, which explains why we had trouble with disassembly.

Think it'll buff out? :0  It died for science, a sacrifice in hopes that no others will share it's fate.  Your efforts and blatant disregard for that brick's well being are appreciated!

@JohnnyB So the answer just boiled down to "impossible"... : )

Why "boil water for seven minutes"? Do you mean bring water to a boil or did you actually boil just water for seven minutes?

By the amount of damage done to get it apart I doubt that the clear part was glued in it looks more like it was an ultrasonic weld.

@Kat he just wanted to make it safe for drinking. It's called Multitasking. I kid, of course.

I actually have at-least one of these which comes apart very easily. Perhaps it wasn't glued properly.

@ Alexander O'Mara - Pictures please!  Would love to see the insides of both pieces in their un-mangled form.


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3d printed bricks quality?
I know Lego has high quality bricks, but would like to know how 3d printed quality compare ? I would also like to see the kinds of tricks you use to enhance your print quality.
For what it's worth, I don't use 3d printed bricks. Just thinking about it, but searching on Google only give me information on how to convert from LDR to STL.

Related: https://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/2094/which-resolution-is-necessary-to-print-bricks-with-a-3d-printer/2096#2096

Also related: https://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/215/has-anyone-made-their-own-custom-lego-bricks/1283#1283

The tolerance of a LEGO brick is 10 micrometers, while most customer-grade 3D printers are orders of magnitude worse than this, according to this site. The best I see there is 25 micrometers, which is still 2.5 times.
I'm in no way a 3D printing specialist and haven't used any tricks to enhance my print quality as I haven't printed any bricks ever, but I've heard of various methods like brushing the prints with a thin solvent to unify the layers (of course this would wreck the precision), or printing the parts a bit larger and then machining them to the proper size (which would involve a lot more planning and work for each piece).
The up side is that bricks with lower tolerances could still work in most cases (see the various clone brands, whose tolerance is definitely not up to par with LEGO, but their products still are compatible in practice), just do not expect the same homogenity, surface sheen and accept variations in the clutch power.

Thanks zovits, I'm guessing you're the one that +1'd me?  I have a little troll that follows me around down voting my answers.  I'm flattered to have a fan ;)

Yes, in principle your answer is correct, that's why I was puzzled by seeing it downvoted, so I tried to compensate. Mine is more populistic, so I think these are complimentary.

There have been various questions asked here previously regarding 3D printing, with very mixed results.  Here is a link if you are interested in the responses to those questions.
https://bricks.stackexchange.com/search?tab=newest&q=3d%20printing
The experience you are looking for to answer your question is slightly out of the scope of what we generally do here on Bricks StackExchange.  I would urge you to check out this more specific 3D Printing StackExchange site as it would seem more fitting and hopefully more helpful then what we may be here.
https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/


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How do I get unlimited color options on LDD?
The title says it all.  I believe there is an unlimited option?  I just want to use it to make digital models.

never mind, I found it. :)

For the benefit of other users, can you create an answer post to your own question detailing how you enabled this option? Thanks and welcome!

To use the unlimited option of LDD, when you start the program and the little window pops up that lets you load or start building a set, click  the tab at the top of the window that says extended version and click add new!  then, you'll have unlimited brick and color selection.


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What to build with generic set of pieces
I have a good stock of used lego pieces, and planning to acquire more. The problem is that I am not sure what to build with them!

Is there a list of sets easy to build with basic pieces, without the necessity of weird very rare pieces?
If I had the patience of inputting every piece I obtain, is there any website/service that would list me sets that are buildable with those pieces?

Many here have commented on the site Rebrickable as being the "go to" for the sort of thing you are looking for:  https://rebrickable.com/
Previous related inquiry on this site:
Is there anything like a 'recipe generator' for LEGO models?

Thanks, I'll have a look, but that definitely looks like what I am looking for :)

What to build with your Lego pieces? Depends on your imagination! If you have more 'specialized' parts (such as sloped roof pieces, doors, windows, wheels and axles, boat hull pieces, etc), possibilities for Lego creations are virtually infinite! The main beauty of Lego and other block-based model-making systems is unlike for example, a 3D puzzle, you're not limited to copying the model the box shows, the pieces can be arranged in any manner you choose.
Also, to help you choose which thing to build a Lego model of, consider the things you're most into. Are you an architecture buff? A building or bridge is the perfect idea for you! A motor head? There are all kinds of vehicles you can make Lego versions of. Into outer space? Lego ideas right for you could include a landscape on an extraterrestrial planet or moon, a spaceship, a spacestead (large rotating space habitat), a planetary rover, etc.

This reads like LLM slop.

but is modified by zovits hehehehehe.


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Why do technic bushings have a flat side and a wavy side?
Exhibit A 3713:

The near side is smooth on the circumference, but the far side has a wavy pattern. In Lego directions, the photos usually show the "orientation" of the bushing, but if I put it on the incorrect way, will it affect the build?

The answer is studs. Note that there are more pieces with the same ability.

Orientation of the bushing does matter when you run a rotating axle through a technic plate. Have the round side of the bushing pointing towards the studs. Otherwise the axle might lock up.

Here's an example from set 852 where this technique is used to attach the helicopter's rotor and propeller to an axle.

I would also add that initially, when Technic was released there were no studless beams. This required for new system to adapt to existing building approach - building studs up. In the end it required new (Technic) plates and adapted bushes to interlock assembly vertically. Later parts (like connectors in the photo) just followed new system.

@Alex Good point! I've added an example...

Makes perfect sense, thanks.

The wavy side allows you to wedge the bush between 4 studs on a plate or brick.
In my experience, placing the bush differently orientated never affects the build.


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EV3-specific bricks missing from Lego Digital Designer 4.3.11 (Win)?
I have LDD on my Mac and have used it to create EV3 models (like an FLL robot, or a Lego dot-matrix printer). Recently, I purchased a cheap Windows laptop for use by a FLL team.
After twice installing LDD v4.3.11 on the PC, however, I am running into a roadblock. It doesn't seem to have EV3-specific parts, such as EV3 motors, sensors, or brick/brain.
For example, if on the PC I try to load a model I designed using LDD on my Mac (which does have these parts), I get the following error:

If I search the parts either by specific part number or by the term "EV3", I find nothing. It also doesn't matter which mode I use ("Mindstorms", "Extended", etc).
I think they are just missing from v4.3.11 for Windows!
Can anyone confirm? Can anyone suggest a way to get them back?

yes i m also facing the same issue in fact EV3 large motor ,medium motor ,and EV3 brick are totally omitted from piece list

The current download link at https://www.lego.com/en-us/ldd is https://www.lego.com/assets/franchisesites/ldd/installer/setupldd-pc-4_3_12.exe. When installed it still shows the version as 4.3.11 even though the file name hints that it is 4.3.12. This version is missing EV3 parts.
Here are some links for previous versions:
UPDATE May 2020: These links are broken.

https://lc-www-live-s.legocdn.com/downloads/ldd2.0/installer/setupLDD-PC-4_3_11.exe
https://lc-www-live-s.legocdn.com/downloads/ldd2.0/installer/setupLDD-PC-4_3_10.exe

Try archive.org instead:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190622153357/https://lc-www-live-s.legocdn.com/downloads/ldd2.0/installer/setupLDD-PC-4_3_11.exe

Also found a hint for installing old versions on Windows 10 if Adobe Flash Player fails to install: https://breeks.gr/index.php/el/menu-gr-main-forum/general-discussion-english/183-installing-ldd-on-windows-10.html

For anyone looking for an alternative to LDD since it is not longer supported by LEGO, Studio from Bricklink has a similar building experience and can even open LDD files.

So it seems I had that 4.3.12 installed (with "Brick version 777"). Downgrading to 4.3.11 (with "Brick version 2670") restored the EV3 parts!

For some reason the latest version is missing a lot of parts. I wonder if it might be possible to copy the LIF files from the previous version.

Thank you @Kirill Mostachev and David Lechner

Links are no longer usable. However, this link for 4.3.11 at the Internet Archive seems viable: https://web.archive.org/web/20190622153357/https://lc-www-live-s.legocdn.com/downloads/ldd2.0/installer/setupLDD-PC-4_3_11.exe

I think I might have a more elegant solution rather than downgrading to LDD 4.3.11 :
You just need to replace "Assets.lif" file in the 4.3.12 installation folder with the same file from 4.3.11 version. I happen to have this file archived here.
After you replace the file and restart LDD, all bricks will be available and all your previous creations will open without errors.
Notes:
If you don't trust my version of the file, you can do it yourself easily, since the "setupldd-pc-4_3_11.exe" distributive is essentially an archive and the file can be easily extracted with tools like WinRar or 7-zip from there.
Why choose file swapping instead of downgrading: in version 4.3.12 LEGO has removed the Flash dependability (or Silverlight, i don't remember now). That resulted in more convenient install on latest Win 10 systems, which is nice, since I personally had trouble installing 4.3.11 on a fully updated Win 10.
Unfortunately LEGO developers also somehow corrupted the Assets.lif file that contains the brick library. It seems that the file got simply truncated at some point, which is obvious when you compare the file sizes of the 4.3.11 and 4.3.12 versions.


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Do LEGO sets go on sale on black friday?
I'm considering buying a LEGO set (42110) and with black friday coming up I was wondering whether they go on sale for black friday on amazon or the official LEGO store/shop at home. I looked at the price guide for various LEGO Technic sets on The Camelizer, a Chrome addon that only works with Amazon and I saw no significant drop in prices around black friday. In fact the prices went up by quite a bit, most likely due to demand for the holidays. I don't particularly remember there being a black friday sale at the LEGO store or the shop at home website, but hopefully someone can remember if there is a black friday sale. Any information would be very much appreciated.

Retailers adjust their pricing strategy from year to year, so what happened in previous years may not be necessarily an indication of what will happen this year.
In general, LEGO offers Double VIP Points and some sets on sale (usually stuff they want to get rid off, not sets that are popular recent releases) and throws in some freebies. Amazon does their own thing, mostly competing with Wal-Mart and not LEGO directly.
I have also noticed that in the past 2-3 years, Black Friday sales are not the best either from LEGO directly or retailers. However, the couple of weeks leading up to Black Friday can be pretty good. Again, this is not an indication of what will happen this year, it is just what I noticed in the past few years.
LEGO Technic sets, especially the large ones from the current year, rarely go on sale. So, if you can get something like Double VIP Points (basically giving you 10% off), is not bad. On Amazon, I have seen as much as 30% off before Black Friday on some of the larger LEGO Technic sets and that was considered exceptional.
Some people missed out because they thought prices will be even better during Black Friday. That did not happen. And that brings up another point. Don't be greedy with looking for the ultimate sale and risk missing out altogether. Look at the price you would be happy with, willing to pay, and is reasonable. Then, just go for it.

Amazon (at least in Europe) sometimes offer much better deals during the year than on Black Friday. Especially for Technic sets.

@Alex, yes, that's my experience as well. The best ones I have seen were a few weeks leading up to Black Friday. I'm in the US.


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Missed "How to train your dragon" series?
Does anybody know, why Lego didn't release sets based on "How to train your Dragon" movies?

I'm afraid there's no real way to definitely answer such a question; considering this pertains to LEGO's marketing strategy which is not public.
However, there are some insights we can gather from existing sets:

Licenses must be negotiated. As such, sets from licenses LEGO already has (Disney, Marvel, DC, for example) are easier for LEGO to produce since there is already a license. However, even then, depending on the terms on the license (which we know nothing about), the license owner might have more or less control over what can be done. Think Disney approving SW minifig helmets or that kind of stuff. I don't remember seeing sets based on a Dreamworks license yet, so I don't think LEGO has one. No idea whether Dreamworks would even be willing to consider one either or on what terms. Especially since LEGO already has a Disney license.
LEGO sets tied to a movie are usually tied to the movie release as well, as doing otherwise would probably mean poor sales. So in this case doing sets based on the 2010 movie might make little sense, although sets based on the 2019 might make sense.
Even then, sales for license sets would be hard to predict. While there's no question SW sets are easy moneymakers, not all licenses have been successes. Think Lone Ranger, for example. Licenses with more material (more movies) might have more chances. There's probably no way to tell how much success would a How To Train Your Dragon license have, but LEGO would definitely have to weigh that in. And the conclusion might very well be that it'd be better to make more Disney sets.
You may notice at this point that some sets have been made for long-past movies seemingly in contradiction with all I just set, such as Back to the Future. These are interesting exceptions because they come from LEGO Ideas - which means LEGO knows there is some kind of support for a potential sets (10000 fans have vetted it after all) and that a preliminary design is already done. Plus, it's usually only one set so the risk isn't too high and it's a good entry point for LEGO to acquire a new license. Even then, a lot of LEGO Ideas candidates are rejected, and it's etirely possible some are because LEGO can't secure a license.

Still, this is your best bet: if you want How To Train Your Dragon sets... go design some, propose them on LEGO Ideas, and try to gather as much support as you can.

Thank you for good explanation. I supposed it was licensing problem, but your thought about unpredictable sales rate in 2010 for non well-known brand sound very interesting... Thanks a lot!

In addition to the fact that LEGO has a Disney license, Dreamworks would also have to factor in what other licenses they have sold. The story is that the reason we didn't get a Doctor Who set earlier is that another toy manufacturer had an exclusive license of some kind. There have also been stories saying that there are (or have been) some limits to what SW sets could be made, because another company has (had) a license LEGO should pay attention to.

Also, Playmobil seems to have released HTTYD and I always got the impression LEGO is not interested in covering the same series as their competition, acquiring licensing rights notwithstanding.


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What is the point in having an instruction step with only one part?
While building Ninjago City we noticed a lot of steps that included only one part.  The part is just sitting there.  It doesn't get attached to anything.  Whatever gets attached in the next step is not complicated or confusing.  What is the point of these steps?
In going back through the instructions I do find examples where the one piece step makes sense because the initial piece is completely obscured in the next step:

But I also find some that are harder to explain:

And others:

Is there another explanation for this showing up so often in LEGO instructions?

I'm surprised to see that in your first image, the 2x4 Technic plate is angled differently for step 119, especially in the bill of materials part - that seems very unusual to me; I thought part images for that would come form a standard library. Guess there's still a lot we don't know about the creation of Building Instructions

That's an interesting aspect of these images that I hadn't noticed before.  Could it be that the Technic plate is indistinguishable from a normal plate at the default angle/perspective?

Maybe not totally indistinguishable, but the holes would probably be way harder to spot indeed if the plate was at the usual angle; so yes, presenting it differently would help avoiding mistakes. Nice thinking!

Incidentally, the part image on brickset is also tilted, and ditto on the replacement parts order page on the LEGO shop (which is where brickset takes its images). So that seems to be standard for that part at least.

I think the most likely explanation is that there are steps with single parts so you can see exactly how to place the next piece, especially if the next piece obscures the view of the first piece. My explanation could be wrong though.

In your second image, the other bricks added in Step 2 obscure that the original part from Step 1 is a 1x1 modified, rather than a 2x1 (not, I think, that a 2x1 with a bar handle on the narrow edge exists?).  Clearly, they could have places the two bottom-row pieces together in the Step 1, and added the top-row piece in Step 2… however, the two pieces added in Step 2 are standard, while the part in Step 1 is modified, and thus less common.  It may be that this gives it a higher 'priority' in the instructions, and so less likely to be grouped with other parts.

I think it all boils down to simplicity of building instructions, which has increased tremendously through LEGO history. Just compare instructions from older sets (See USS Constellation for example) and recent ones and you'll see how far LEGO has gone in that regards.
Adding less parts per step, or having a full bill of materials per step are the most noticeable improvements; but there are other more subtle ones, such as recoloring of parts (Technic pins for example, but also hidden bircks - see Steamboat Willie for a recent example.
As such, I wouldn't be surprised there are internal rules on what can be done in building instructions, or recommended guidelines; and maybe "step 1 is just one part" is one; or maybe a variation such as "step 1 can't have more than one layer" - thing is, this is an internal LEGO process for which we'll presumably never know the details. Such rules could even depend on the set age range; something allowed in 11= sets might be discouraged in 7+ sets, for example.
Now why does LEGO do this? Keeping in mind their target audience, children, it's a fair guess that they want to make sure kids can build their models smoothly and without frustration, unless they risk giving up which could alienate them from LEGO altogether. I remember being stuck at step 5 when building my first LEGO Technic set, a tractor and that was indeed frustrating. Also, what we adults think children can do can be very different from what they actually will do; I've seen my nephew build a set recently and he was following instructions very very loosely. Which makes it extra hard to create good instructions for them. It's very likely LEGO does test builds with real children for that exact reason: see firsthand what works and what doesn't.
One more note: think one step where only one part is added is weird? What about steps where nothing at all is added?

That last picture might not be the best example since the step shows important action - Technic beam/liftarm rotation to required position.

Well exactly, ALL steps show important actions, whether it be adding parts or moving stuff around, that's sort of my point (I may have been stating it poorly). Although to be fair, I was looking for a step where the only thing done is just rotating the model 180° so that you face its other side, that would have been better.I couldn't find one readily; if you do, feel free to edit

I think that the steps when you do not add anything at all are to show that you have finished the part or the Lego set

@brydiedyer It's a nice theory, but even the question shows that sometimes the single piece step is the first step, when nothing is finished yet.

It looks like those steps are typically the initial ones in a build or a sub-assembly.
As such, you are adding something in these steps - the initial part, which others will be attached to later on.
The step shows the change from zero parts to one part, so to speak.
Personally, as much as I think the current degree of "simplicity" of Lego instructions is unnecessary - in my elementary school days, I never perceived it as difficult to build models with instructions that add more than one part or part type per step, and that came without a full list of parts to add -, that initial step seems reasonable to establish "here we're starting with one or more new, unassembled parts". Without it, i.e. starting a new sub-assembly with some parts already assembled, I might be wondering whether I had missed a step or a sub-assembly to prepare this partial build.


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Has LEGO ever released a police/law enforcement-themed minidoll?
Has LEGO ever released a set with a minidoll portraying a female in a law enforcement career role? I was able to, without much difficulty, modify a CITY police car to seat minidolls, but it is missing someone to drive around Heartlake City and bust drunk drivers and pet abusers.
I've looked at the now-discontinued DC Super Hero Girls (as the equivalent DC Super Heros line has included cop minifigures with some Batman sets), but didn't find anything. I also identified the LEGO Movie 2 figure Sweet Mayhem as an option,
 (Image credit: https://sg.carousell.com/p/po-lego-70830-lego-movie-2-sweet-mayhem-minifigure-doll-tlm116-210508801/ , no relationship)
but in reality she seems to be more of the military aviator type, and in any event does not have anything resembling a badge.

Olivia's mother Laura is a glaring omission in the reboot sets we've seen so far. I really hope they add a minidoll of her soon.

Couldn't find specific police officer digs, but we can cobble one together until LEGO makes one, cough, official...
We're using the following two images as visual templates to see what we kinda want our finished product to look like.
Note: Police hat vs. Equestrian hat.  We can only choose one.

The Part Recipe List:

Part# 92254pb01 - Mini Doll, Hair Combo, Hair with Hat, Long Ponytail, Side Bangs, Hole
in Back with Black Horse Riding Helmet Pattern.

Part# 15530pb01 - Minifigure, Headgear Hat, Police with Gold Badge (printed) Pattern.

Part# 36904 - Mini Doll, Head Friends with Sand Blue Eyes, Red Lips and Smirk
Pattern.

Part# FTMpb003c01 - Torso Mini Doll Friends Bright Light Blue Polo Shirt with Dark Blue
Sailboat Pattern, Light Flesh Arms with Hands with Bright Light Blue
Short Sleeves Pattern.

Part# 61482 - Minifigure, Utensil Handcuffs.

 Part# 3069bpb260 - Tile 1 x 2 with Groove with Silver Police Badge with '2101' and ID Pattern.

Part # 92253c00pb41 - Mini Doll Friends Hips and Trousers with Back Pockets with Sand Green
Vertical Stripes and Light Flesh Feet Pattern.

Part# 92253c00pb05 - Mini Doll Friends Hips and Trousers with Back
Pockets with Tan Shoes Pattern.

Nice, I'd love to see the result of all parts together.

For the torso, the pilot one might work nicely too


text:
Anyone familiar with "consets"?
I just saw a Facebook ad for consets.com.
They claim to do a "warehouse clearance", "today only" of genuine LEGO,
Their prices are suspiciously low, though, even for "bootLego" / "fake Lego" standards.
May I presume these are scammers?

If you see steep discounts on many LEGO sets, it's a scam.
LEGO and their retail partners rarely discounts their products to 50% or more, and when they do it's rarely on current products. A site offering such steep discounts on a large variety of current products simply isn't credible.
You might find substantial discounts on knockoff brand sets, but if they present them as genuine branded LEGO products (with the LEGO logo), that's clearly still a scam.
Yes, con sets lives up to the name, it's a phishing scam.
If you try to make an order (using fake data!) you will find a page on the website asking you to enter your credit card information.

This payment information does not go through a 3rd party payment processing website (those images mean nothing), they expect you to enter your credit card information directly into their system.
Very few legitimate merchants are allowed to collect credit card information directly, because it's difficult and expensive to secure the data and pass the necessary security audits.
Not only will you not get the products, your payment information will be used by criminals.
Known issue.
On a side note many LEGO fan communities and LEGO themselves are aware of these scams and they've been going on for some time (no doubt they will ramp up for Black Friday). Unfortunately between the shell games these scammers play* and Facebook's general inaction against malicious and dishonest advertisers they will probably continue.
* Often the advertising targets a specific region with a unique domain for that region, and if you visit the website from an IP address outside that targeted region you will see a generic clothing shopping site (in an effort to evade detection).

Great answer, I usually report those Ads to the social media website owned by Mark but that seems to be useless, FB doesn't give a flying fudge about it.

@HenriquedeSousa Why would they do anything about it (otherwise than continuing to show them), they get advertising income from those ads :)

Yes you may. These scam sites pop up daily, especially around the holidays.


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Is it possible to use multiple IR beacons on different channels to control EV3?
One IR beacon has very few buttons and I would like to buy additional beacons and use them simultaneously to be able to control more channels.
I can't find any information if this setup will work. Can anyone provide references or maybe from the own experience if multiple IR beacons can be used?
I don't want to buy them and then figure out that only one can be used at a time.

Yes, it is possible to use up to 4 beacons at the same time since there are 4 selectable infrared signal channels.
Also, the 8885 LEGO® Power Functions IR Remote Control is compatible with the EV3 Infrared Sensor if you have one of those already (it only has up down rocker switches and no beacon button, so it is not an exact replacement).
Other LEGO remote controls are not compatible.


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Does the ordering of contents in LEGO advent calendars vary between specimens?
In general, LEGO advent calendars are boxes where for each day, there is a small model, or sometimes a minifig, hidden behind the window. Some superficial instructions on how to assemble the model are printed on the inside of the window lid.
Now, in general, the exact content of an advent calendar is supposed to be somewhat of a surprise to the one opening the window. While for LEGO advent calendars, all minifigs and models are contained somewhere on the imagery that decorates the outside of the calendar, I wonder whether at least the ordering is a bit of a surprise.
Or, in other words: If I bought the same LEGO advent calendar twice, would there be a chance that the content were ordered differently? (The box art on the 2019 city calendar weakly implies the answer might be yes, given that the example on the back side shows some open windows with their content, and said content was due on different days in our own copy.)
Thus: Are there differently ordered versions of these advent calendars? Are they somehow randomized, or is there just a handful of different sorting patterns? Even if so, are there any windows/days that always have the same content (e.g. day 24)?

Bricklink lists the items as minisets per day: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=60235-1&viewItemType=S

@MichaelVerschaeve: I think that listing might form a good core for an answer.

No. The ordering is always the same.
If it wasn't there probably wouldn't be daily reviews of today's gift(s) on sites like Brickset.

I don't quite understand the second paragraph. I'm not suggesting the overall content of the calendar changes.

But it would be pointless to post a description of today's content if everybody didn't get the same. And some might find the last part of the calendar spoiled if they could see everywhere what the remaining gift were.

I'm utterly confused now. Or wait, are you saying there are daily reviews of today's gifts? In that case, in the answer, did you maybe mean "wouldn't" instead of "would"? That would make sense (and linking to a couple of these reviews that discuss the same gifts on the same day would make the answer even stronger in that case).

As for finding part of the calendar spoiled - well, as the box art on the outside of the calendar already shows all the gifts, that would seem like a minor concern.

@O.R.Mapper "Or wait, are you saying there are daily reviews of today's gifts?" Yes, there are daily reviews of all four advent calendars: City, Friends, Harry Potter and Star Wars. There were some reviews of an old Clikits calendar as well.

Sorry for that typo, and for not catching it, when @O.R.Mapper first questioned that paragraph.


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Help identifying utensil spear
I'm not sure this piece is actually Lego seeing as there is no branding on it.
Note that it looks like some type of spear or arrow.
See picture below (not the minifig) with one in flat silver and the other in chrome silver.

This is an official LEGO piece. It is called 57467a Minifigure, Weapon Harpoon, 4 Grooves in Shaft and has been produced for almost 20 years, appearing in 37 sets.

Chrome Silver is the common color, Flat Silver (the one on the left in the picture) is the rarer color, only appearing in 1 set - 70800 Getaway Glider from The LEGO Movie - but this piece is still cheap on BrickLink, so no real value increase despite its rarity.

Is there any standard on lego.se as to what sites to link to? I see you linked to bricklink here, but in my Christmas question you linked to brickset.

There is no standard. The sites linked to are the sites that are considered reputable LEGO reference sites, which include Bricklink, Brickset, Peeron, BrickOwl (rarely), Rebrickable, Brickpicker and Brickipedia (lego.fandom.com, rarely used as reference).


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What are some LEGO Christmas trees designs I can build?
It's Christmas time, and I'd like to build a Christmas tree to add to my winter scenes. Unfortunately the large LEGO pine tree is a little small, and also doesn't offer much by way of decorating opportunity.

What are some larger (but not too large!) and nicer-looking Christmas tree designs I can build?

This is the design I created last year for the Winter Bash 2018 Building Competition.

It's very detailed and has many outward-facing studs to which decorations can be attached.
Here's some instructions for building the tree without decorations (note that many of the pieces are internal and do not have to be green).

(Click the image to view the instructions larger)
NOTE: In step 9, you will need to rotate some of the stems to avoid overlapping in order to attach them all.

Here's a brick-built design I've been using for a few years. It doesn't have many decoration points, but it is fairly small and simple to build.

Here's some instructions for building the tree.

As a final step, you can add a 1x1 cylinder for the tree trunk to the bottom.


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What are the programming languages that can be used on Lego Mindstorm EV3?
My son is interested in robotics. For me, I would like maximum flexibility for programming. For my son, I guess something simpler would be preferable so that his interest is not killed by complexity right from the start.
What are the programming languages that can be used on Lego Mindstorm EV3?
I am new to Lego Mindstorm.

With ev3dev pretty much any programming language you can run or compile for the ARM board can be used. All you really need to be able to do is read and write to a file. This is because ev3dev is based on Debian Linux and has drivers to communicate with the hardware through virtual files.
That being said, typically you will probably want to use a library which abstracts the low-level API. The following are currently well-supported.

Python
Java
Go
C++
C
Prolog
Vala, Genie, and other GObject-based languages
Rust

You can find the full list and some other 3rd-party libraries on the ev3dev Programming Languages page.

I would definitely check out EV3Dev.  You find a large variety of different languages to program your Mindstorm Ev3.  You can use EV3Python to program with python which might be a level-appropriate step up from the Lego programming interface.

There's an extension for Scratch to work with EV3 - might be worth a look.

http://kaspesla.github.io/ev3_scratch/

The Scratch extension seems more focused on making controllers for your games than controlling the actual robots with scratch.

If your son has no previous knowledge from other programming languages I suggest to start with the LEGO language called EV3-G. That's the visual one included with the EV3. As an alternative you an use the Open Roberta Project which uses a visual language too, but a slightly different one in terms of concepts.
If you want to program the EV3 by yourself you can choose between various options. There are bindings/libraries at least for C, C++, C#, Java, Python. Good mentions are MonoBrick (C#) and LeJOS (Java).
With a little bit more information about your preferences and your goals I think you can get more detailed recommendations.

I know three variants:

LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Home Edition
LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3
ROBOTC

Another option is Small Basic, designed for children. Download EV3Basic and get started!

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
What part # is this? (Is it even LEGO?)
I have a bunch of these little curved yellow pins with a ball at the end. Are they LEGO? If so, what part are they?
(2x2 Orange brick for size comparison)

I would guess it's not LEGO, the color would be very unusual if it was.

This looks like the arm of a Minion minifigure by Mega Bloks / Mega Construx without the hand.


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Instructions for the LEGO Star Wars Holiday X-Wing (4002019)?
The 2019 LEGO Employee Gift 4002019 is a holiday-style Star Wars X-Wing Fighter which is a pretty similar build to the current LEGO Star Wars X-Wing Fighter.

Are the instructions for this set available in a digital format anywhere (note that in past years, LEGO has not made these instructions available like they do for publicly released sets)?

PDF's for scanned official building instructions can be found at the very end of set review at New Elementary.

I found a YouTube video which has pictures for each page in the instruction booklets. The quality is pretty good and each step is readable.


text:
Does the LEGO Star Wars Holiday X-Wing (4002019) contain any unique pieces?
The 2019 LEGO Employee Gift 4002019 is a holiday-style Star Wars X-Wing Fighter.

From what I can tell, this set is based on the current LEGO Star Wars X-Wing Fighter, with some different colored pieces and a few extra models like Yoda's hut and sleigh.

Does this set contain any unique pieces (and thus likely as expensive as the set on BrickLink), or would it be possible to build this set by redesigning the current X-Wing set with pieces from my collection and/or other sets which are widely available? If it does contain unique pieces, what are they?

Checking part inventory for this set on Rebrickable I found following part to be unique:
10169 - Minifigure, Utensil Sack / Bag with Handle in Green
Review posted on New Elementary also suggest pilot's torso and legs are new/unique prints.
The rest seem to be released in other sets. Some parts are quite old or have been produced in small number of sets.

But when I click the link, it says the part was part of 38 sets...

@ThomasHirsch yes, this pieces has appeared in 38 sets in different colors. If you check the actual set list you can see set+color combination for the part.


text:
How create a custom Roller Coaster? Where I can get the track pieces?
For some random reason, I watch some videos on YouTube showing a "Roller Coaster" built using Lego.
I never enjoy to follow Lego instruction, and I always prefer to build something my own, mixing any Lego bricks from any set.
I only found that set #10261, which wasn't used in the video. But is the only official Lego that I found, but it's too much limited, and I can't imagine built anything rather than the intended build. Buying multiples times the same set (5x #10261) appears too much expensive and still restricted.
I found another non-Lego set, called "CoasterDynamix Roller Coaster Factory", which allows some creativity.  However, I can't find it to buy.

What is the recommendation for the track? There's any set like the old "CoasterDynamix Roller Coaster Factory"? Also, since I don't have any brick, what set of random blocks, for the support structure, is better?

"I only found that set #10261, which wasn't used in the video." - there have been several sets featuring roller coaster tracks so far. A few of them include only individual track pieces as some kind of a decoration, only some of them actually work like a track going a full circle, and only some of these can be reasonably called a "roller coaster" (the others feature only minimal, if any, elevation, e.g. 10771).

You can buy tracks directly from LEGO. You go to LEGO service web page and follow steps below:

Click on BRICKS & PIECES just below the banner
Then BUY BRICKS
Provide your age and location (please be aware the list of countries where LEGO is shipping to is limited)
On the left side you have an option to chose parts from particular set. In this case use "10261".
You might need to click "Show more" a few times to get to individual pieces you need.

Note. 10261 Creator Roller Coaster set does not have every type of element within track system. You may use part numbers provided below to look for individual tracks using the option on the right side in Step 4.
Alternatively you can purchase all the pieces on Bricklink. Look for:

25061 - Train, Track Roller Coaster Curve, 90 degrees
26559 - Train, Track Roller Coaster Ramp Large Lower Part, 6 Bricks Elevation
26560 - Train, Track Roller Coaster Ramp Large Upper
Part, 6 Bricks Elevation
34738 - Train, Track Roller Coaster
Ramp Small, 3 Bricks Elevation
26561 - Train, Track Roller
Coaster Ramp Steep, 6 Bricks Elevation
25059 - Train, Track
Roller Coaster Straight 16L
26022 - Train, Track Roller Coaster
Straight 8L

There's already a good answer for where to get the track pieces, so I'll tackle the reset.

Also, since I don't have any brick, what set of random blocks, for the support structure, is better?

If you are relatively new to building with LEGO, building a custom roller coaster design may be a really difficult first challenge.
There aren't any official LEGO sets aimed directly at building a custom roller coaster. A set of random bricks would be designed so that you can build a variety of things, not one specific thing. To build a structure for your roller coaster you will probably want a bunch of 2x2 bricks. Buying those pieces from a BrickLink seller with a sufficient quantity of them would likely be cheaper, as the price-to-part ratio for these relatively generic pieces appears to be lower than that of a set with a variety of bricks, many of which may not be that useful.
LEGO uses the round variety of 2x2 because they also use Technic axles to make it stronger.

You can look over those instructions to see how LEGO builds their.
However if the roller coaster isn't too big the square variety would also work. You will probably also need a variety of 2xY plates to build structures to connect your different columns.


text:
All-purpose Technic set?
For LEGO Classic there are plenty of "build anything" kinds of sets, but is there something like that for Technic?
Ideally, I'm imagining a box of the most useful 1000 or so Technic pieces, so that whenever one wants to build an original (and functional) robot or vehicle, the parts required will most likely be found.
Is there such a set?
I find that most of the Technic sets are specialized for building one specific machine, but after building that, when you want to build something else, the parts are not necessarily all-purpose.

The EV3 expansion set 45560 comes to mind: https://education.lego.com/en-us/products/lego-mindstorms-education-ev3-expansion-set-by-lego-education/45560

Although intended as a extension to the educational EV3 set, it's mainly technic elements.

There was a Technic sub-theme called Universal that was available mostly in the 1980's. The sets did come with instructions to build as many as 4 different models, but each model rarely used all the parts. The models were more of a demonstration of how to use the parts in interesting ways.
You can browse the sets in the Technic Universal theme here:
https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Technic/subtheme-Universal
Now, because these sets were almost all from the 1980's, they all used studded construction, which is a rarity in modern Technic.
I appreciate that this answer is unlikely to help the original asker, or even anyone else, but I believe it is Technic-ally a correct answer!


text:
What is the total number of sets that LEGO has released?
I am wondering how many LEGO sets that LEGO has released in total in their 85+ years of business. To clarify I am only looking for sets that use plastic blocks like the ones we have today, not the very early sets. This would probably be sets from after 1950 as they started producing the interlocking plastic brick in 1949.

A follow up question could be: Who has collected and BUILT the largest number of different Lego brand sets?

@Dan1138, you should probably start a new question rather than commenting

It might be impossible to give the precise number simply because some older sets are yet to be found and new ones are being added with a slight delay.
These three are major websites having the most details about sets:

Bricklink catalog has 15824 sets in its catalog.
Brickset has 16378 sets.
Rebrickable has 15432 sets.

As you can see numbers are similar, yet differ slightly. This is due the fact that each site has its own set of rules. For example, it may treat some sets as accessories, thus including/excluding them.
Note. All numbers are up-to-date as of the time of this answer.

That will have to do as I should have specified in my question that I was only looking for an approximate value.

Keep in mind that the Bricklink catalog mostly lists sets that real people really have. Some of them may be sets the Lego never "shipped" and there may be other sets that Lego shipped but no living person has.

@Dan1138 Isn't that the whole point of having a catalog with ALL sets, even if the set is extremely hard to get hold of?

There is over 2000 Lego sets. As a former employee that has been working in the design department since 2006.

Hi Michael and welcome to Bricks.SE! Your answer sets a lower boundary which is way below the ballpark established by Alex's answer, which sources three different sites. I feel this answer could be improved by either explaining the difference or expanding on the sources this answer is derived from.

Could you specify what makes these sets fall into the "set" category? Are they only official boxed sets?

I saw in a Google search that an online database had about 20,000 Lego sets.

Hi Marble and welcome to Bricks.SE! Which database was this?


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Harley Davidson chain belt running jolty
I am building the Harley Davidson Fat Boy from Creator Expert (10269) and when installing the chain belt that connects the engine gears to the rear wheel I noticed that it runs quite jolty, with the chain links feelably and hearably clicking onto the gear when running over it. It all feels like it doesn't quite fit and run as smoothly as it should.
However, I don't have much experience with chain belts in technic constructions, so I don't know if this is maybe a general shortcoming of LEGO or if I just made a mistake somewhere. I did closely follow the building instructions of course and I also checked that I use exactly the 43 chain links mentioned as well as aligned the chain in the direction depicted. Or maybe it has to run this way and this is an intended effect for a "rougher" or more pulpable engine feeling?
So I'm basically just trying to check if I built it correctly and it does run kind of jolty or if it has to run smoothly and I made a mistake somewhere.

Just took out my model and I would not describe the chain as super smooth but certainly also not as you are describing it. Audibly, the fake engine and gears makes much more noise than the chain. On the other hand, can't really think what you might possibly have done wrong if you counted the links and aligned the chain properly...

Okay, it seems I indeed made a mistake during building, which I solved afterwards:
When assembling the rear mudguard, I noticed that the rear wheel had quite a bit more variability in its sideways adjustment and was quite a bit off center, specifically too far to the left. This caused the chain belt to either run slightly skewed or have friction on some part of the frame. When I adjusted the wheel more towards the center, it ran a lot smoother.
However, this was only part of the problem. The actual mistake I only realized at the end when seeing a little yellow half-stud wide technic bush, which I missed in instruction step 25 already, where it was placed under the gear on which the chain runs and is supposed to space it further away from the frame. Fortunately I was able to repair that without dismantling the entire thing.


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What are the thick red cylinders in 80104?
What are the thick red cylinders with handles (not the drumsticks) that two minifigs are holding in set 80104 supposed to represent?

Michael has answered what pieces it is, but you ask what they represent, so I'm going to offer a guess at that: Fireworks.

I suppose that I indeed misread the OPs question. Still I think it's perfectly possible that someone unfamiliar with Technic lego wants to know more about the cilinders in this set, so I'm leaving my answer as is.

Indeed, the description of the set on LEGO.com calls this out: "Accessory elements such [...] a rocket firework inspire unlimited play".

Apparently they're called skyrockets.

Those are red technic pin connectors

bricklick pin connector
A "flick missile" pin is inserted which is one one side a bar so the minifig can hold it and on the other side a stud so the pyramid element can be placed on top.
bricklink flick missile

Thanks! Great description of the parts, but I'll have to accept Henrik's answer as I asked what they represented.

yes, i understand


text:
What material are older soft (plant) parts made of?
I've carefully searched through SE and web and haven't found the exact answer.
This 2018 announcement states that new plant parts are made of plant-based polyethylene. It also implies that plant parts used to be made of polyethylene too, but it's just a hint though. I've also encountered some sources on the web mentioning polypropylene as the material.
Here are the examples of parts which seem to be manufactured of the same sort of plastic:

2518 Tree Palm Leaf Large 10 x 5

2536x Tree Palm Trunk

2542 Paddle

30158 Backpack Opening

So now I wonder which material soft parts (plants and similar) are made of prior to the 2018 announcement of switching to plant-based polyethylene.

According to Brickset, these parts have always been made of polyethylene, the only difference is that some of the material is plant-based since the Plants from Plants initiative.

Can you tell the difference?
No! They look, feel, smell and work just like 'regular' botanical elements. This is because, chemically, they are the same. You can safely mix them with your other plant pieces safe in the knowledge that there is no difference.

The material is clearly named in the article. Thank you!


text:
Can you identify these curved bricks for me?

(I don't care about the decal, I just need the general shape)

Large one is Brick, Round Corner 10 x 10 with Slope 33 Edge, Axle Hole, Facet Cutout with Holographic Circuit Pattern Model Right (Sticker)

which is a decorated version of Brick, Round Corner 10 x 10 with Slope 33 Edge, Axle Hole, Facet Cutout
Smaller ones are Brick, Round Corner 4 x 4 Macaroni Wide with 3 Studs

Out of interest, what is the significance of "macaroni"? (Apologies if this is a newb question)

@IanF1 It's shaped like a piece of elbow macaroni.

@IanF1 for some people this piece just looks like a piece of pasta/macaroni. There's also smaller macaroni round brick, 2 x 2 in size. As well as a tile to cover studs on both size macaroni bricks.

The big one looks like 58846 Brick, Round Corner 10 x 10 with Slope 33 Edge, Axle Hole, Facet Cutout
The others look like 48092 Brick, Round Corner 4 x 4 Macaroni Wide with 3 Studs

There are three
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=48092&name=Brick,%20Round%20Corner%204%20x%204%20Macaroni%20Wide%20with%203%20Studs&category=%5BBrick,%20Round%5D#T=C
And as Dan said, the larger one is
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=58846&name=Brick,%20Round%20Corner%2010%20x%2010%20with%20Slope%2033%20Edge,%20Axle%20Hole,%20Facet%20Cutout&category=%5BBrick,%20Round%5D#T=C


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Non-standard diameter pole - reinforcing a repair
I have (or rather my daughter has) a Fabuland umbrella which has been snapped off where it meets the base (probably over 30 years ago when  her mum was a child).
I've seen Can I repair a broken LEGO brick with glue?, but in the best case the joint could only be as strong as the original plastic, and this is a weak spot where small hands are likely to use the pole as a lever (the base is an unusual design of slots, just visible in the BrickLink picture, and is a rather tight fit).  So I thought I'd reinforce it, perhaps by gluing something like Brick, Round 2 x 2 with Axle Hole as the axle hole will also take a normal flagpole (3.18mm), but the umbrella pole is a little larger.  Replacements are several pounds, and some of those are even broken in the same way.
Is there a slightly larger standard I don't know about - or would I be reduce to getting out the drill to make a reinforced version?

One option might be to make yourself an ABS slurry by dissolving a sacrificial part of the desired color in Acetone:

This should be able to bond chemically with the ABS parts for a strong connection, and you'll have extra plastic material to work with, so you should even be able to make it stronger than the original design by building up the area slightly if desired.
You might want to practice on some other broken parts first to make sure that this works the way you expect.

Very interesting. I definitely want to build it up with something, so maybe I'll have to try sculpting with the slurry

In the end I used a fake Lego brick (a good colour match) dissolved in lab-grade acetone, and so far haven't reinforced the join.  It seems reasonably strong, but the process of dissolving the brick seems to have affected the colour, so the join is much paler, and I couldn't get a good enough slurry.

@ChrisH Great job! I'm glad this worked for you.


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Glasses in the pour technique
I'd like to replicate this build
The glasses that hold the claw/liquid appear to have a slightly wider mouth then the ones I have. Do I need a particular 1x1 round to do this?

You might be thinking they have the normal holed stud on top, which would indeed be a bit smaller. But instead what is done here is that they put the parts upside down, I think. So it's the bottom opening of the standard round 1x1 brick that you see on the top there.
They likely achieved that by using a 2x2 round tile with a stud hole as base, rather than one with a normal stud. The "liquid" is then stuck with its bottom pin into the inside of the stud hole of the "glass".
At least those are my immediate impressions from looking at the picture.

I think you are entirely correct

I'm down with that prognosis


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What's partial set 45100 - Education Story Starter worth?
I found this set in a thrift store. It's not 100% complete. The set consists of 1144 parts, divided into 14 bags, which are all unopened.
The missing parts are:
1 x 16x16 grey plate
The blue box itself
A tray with sorting compartments (there are two in the complete set, but I only have one)
A cardboard sheet divided into four parts (there are two in the set, but I only have one).
Does anyone have an idea about what it might be worth? And what if it were complete? Should I acquire the missing parts on Bricklink to get a complete set?
Thanks :-)

According to Bricklink, the value of all the pieces of set 45100 is currently $201.85 (March 2020). Subtract the value of one 16 x 16 baseplate and you have an idea of the value of all the individual pieces in the set. (https://www.bricklink.com/catalogPOV.asp?itemType=S&itemNo=45100&itemSeq=1&itemQty=1&breakType=M&itemCondition=N&incParts=Y)
New, sealed sets sell very little, but the average seems to be ~$200 according to the Bricklink price guide. I would list your new, incomplete one for slightly less than that. (https://www.bricklink.com/catalogPG.asp?S=45100-1&ColorID=0)
It will be difficult to make it a new, complete set given the scarcity of this set and the fact that you are missing the box and a tray. That said, these components are for sale (the box for $9 + shipping for example) but IMHO getting all the missing parts is going to cost you more than just listing what you have for slightly less $ than the complete set.

Thanks for your great answer. I hadn't noticed that it's possible to see how many times a set has been sold in the last year/month etc., so thanks for that! :-)

Does anyone have an idea about what it might be worth? And what if it were complete?

According to Bricklink, a new, unopened version of this set goes for somewhere between 160€ and 200€, although there are lots listed for double the price as well.
Of the missing parts, the 1 x 16x16 grey plate is trivial to replace, and the others can be bought for 4-6€ each (except the cardboard, it costs less than 1€) as well. This means, there is probably no great difference in the prices of a complete set and your incomplete one, maybe about 15-20€ for all the missing parts (depending on shipping and handling costs).

Should I acquire the missing parts on Bricklink to get a complete set?

That entirely depends on what do you wish to do with it. If you'd just resell it, there would be advantages to completing it, but as there are not much demand for this set and all other offers are for new, unopened ones, I doubt yours (complete or incomplete, but opened nonetheless) would be competitive without price reduction.
If you plan to use it as intended, the missing elements might prove invaluable, so in this case it would be recommended to get at least the baseplate and the cardboard.
However, if it would just serve as a playset or a parts pack, then it does not make much sense to get any of the missing parts. The blue box might be a great all-purpose storage bin, but if you need one, you already can buy any brand on- or offline. The same goes for the sorting tray.

Thanks for your very(!) thorough answer! I'm planning to try and sell it, as my daughter is too young to play with it, and I prefer Creator Expert or Technic myself :-)

@Hildesheim Be aware that "too young" is a temporary condition (which changes faster than we'd like).

@AngewisnolongerproudofSO :D <3


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Do the minifigure utensil cups stack like 1x1 bricks?
Do Minifigure Utensil Cups stack on top of eachother?
bricklink

No. The diameter on top of the cup is larger than stud, but also smaller than the outer diameter of anti-stud.


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What went in the orange cylinders from Mars Mission?
While sifting a bin of LEGO's that I received as a gift I found this strange orange cylinder:

I was able to determine that it was part 58947pb01, the "Cylinder 9 x 4 x 2 Tapered with Flat Bottom, Pin Holes with 'HIGH RISK AREA' and Captured Alien Pattern (Sticker)".  It turns out to be from the Mars Mission theme, and appeared in six sets in 2007-2007.  I'm guessing this one came from 7694-1: MT-31 Trike:

As you can see the tube forms the spine of the trike and it has something in it.  Despite consulting the instructions and watching weird youtubes that turn out to be unrelated I still have no definitive idea what the things in the tube are.
Do you know how you were supposed to play with this?  What went into the orange tube?

I'd assume from the partslist this guy is in the tube:
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?M=mm001

on the hypersled , as seen in the instructions, page 1. The astronaut captured the alien and put it in this cylinder

The hypersled really helps the picture make sense.  Now I get where the little white caps on the ends of the alien are coming from.  Now I just need to find those pieces!  So awesome.  Thanks!


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Is this an official Lego minifigure?
I have a spiderman figure, that does fit to Lego bricks and who's hands are the same as a Lego Minifigure, but I can't find out if it is an official (albeit somewhat older) Lego product.  Any ideas?

This looks like Spider-Man (Junior-fig). Although it is not so easy to confirm if your item is LEGO or clone-branded minifigure. You could look inside the legs if there are any LEGO logos.


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Are both of these fences made by Lego?
I have a group of 1 x 4 x 2 fences (Lego part 3633) in black, light bluish gray, and yellow.
However only a few of them say "Lego" on the bottom. These have hollow bottom pins (see picture below, right side).  The others do not say Lego or have a part number. They have solid bottom pins (see picture below, left side).
Normally I can feel the difference between Lego and non-Lego parts. But the parts with the solid pins have a Lego feel. Also the yellow ones are the same shade of yellow as my Legos and not the shade of MegaBloks I have.
Is it possible these solid pin fences are really Lego? Or have I been fooled?

It might just be an older part mold, other plates used to have the solid cylinders. I also have 2 like that (but with 3 numbers on the bottom), although I can't be 100% sure of their authenticity.

I wouldn't worry about the pins on the bottom, as some part's design get a little refresh from time to time. Both cases were present in various LEGO bricks. My concern is about lack of LEGO identification and part number. The oldest fence I have is from 1995 and it is similar to the right one (LEGO logo + part number). However these fences were available since 1977, so there could have been different molds without any designation at the time. It is not possible to confirm the identity without comparing with the same item from very old set.

I've got some of the left-hand side version with the solid pins and no markings in red.
They are most definitely original Lego as I never owned any non-Lego parts.
I'm fairly certain they came with the 1978 firetruck set nr. 620.

Tonny just to confirm you're saying you have fences like this that you know are Lego but do not say Lego on them anywhere?

@Scott Yes. They can't be anything else, because I ONLY have official Lego. And I have double-checked they came with set 620. It is the only set I have with these in red. I took a very close look at them, even with a magnifier. Not a single Lego logo or part-nbr to be seen. And with the closed pins as well.


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Ridable Winged Horse
Is there a horse that a minifigure can ride and you can still put wings on?  I've looked at several sets and they all have pieces in the 'saddle' section to hold the wings.

The Black Horse, Skeletal with White Eyes Pattern (Thestral) from the Harry Potter / Fantastic Beasts set "Grindelwald's Escape" has a "saddle" section which is 2x2, instead of 1x2.
This would allow you to connect use both Wings a MiniFig, each using 1x2.  However, it doesn't exactly look like a regular horse:

(source: bricklink.com)
Or, potentially, you could try combining Horse Saddle with Two Clips with a pair of either Bar 1L with Clip Mechanical Claw or Arm Piece with Tow Ball and Clip, to rotate the connection from Vertical to Horizontal, and connect wings to that.  I am not sure if there is enough clearance at the sides of the saddle to orient these correctly though.

Since you didn't specify how close to reality horse should look like you can build one using bricks. It would look more like a Minecraft animal though (this might be not a disadvantage). Such approach gives freedom of design and looks as well as a plenty of possibilities for wing placement and still have a place for minifigure.
There is an alternative to horse mentioned by Chronocidal with 2x2 stud area for you to use/build saddle and contraption for wings. 19 versions, to be precise.
One as example:

Last suggestion would be to use which ever horse you like and can be used to build wings of choice and then just strap the minifigure with rubber band on top

A far more normal looking horse - good find!

I don't think there are any horses with clips to hold wings on the body, but if you use plates with clip, most of the cutout will still be available for a minifigure's legs.


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Do all the 'balls' fit in the bowls?
Will this ball fit in this bowl?

Only for a given value of "fit".
Both of these pieces are part of set 70156-1, Legends of Chima "Fire vs. Ice".  On the front of the box, you can clearly see the blue ball 'sitting in' or resting on top of the white bowl, in front of the orange vehicle on the left.  It does not sit snugly inside.

No, both have a size of 2 studs.

2 studs, not bricks.

@Alex right, thats what I meant, thanks


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Need help identifying helmet
I cannot identify this minifigure helmet I have. It looks like some sort of a biker helmet.
This piece came in a bulk of parts, which are LEGO, however not entirely sure this is legit LEGO piece. It fits snugly onto minifigure head, however doesn't have any usual LEGO marking. The inside has just a number "3". Which is the reason for clone-brands tag. I did check on Bricklink, but I'm not very familiar with minifigure items.

This appears to part# 30171 Minifigure, Headgear Cap, Aviator

In black it appears in 118 sets.
However, I checked with my helmet from Robo Pilot
and that one has a LEGO marking on the inside, yours could be a older mold though.

Edit, I also have one with a 7 marking inside , no logo, so I would assume it is from an older mold.

Ah, so "Aviator" is a key word here. It turns out I already had a this piece in LEGO set from 2011. Both of the items have a number inside without mentioning LEGO anywhere. Also moulds are the same, including PIP, which proves this is LEGO piece after all.


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Set identification - Movie set
I have a set that could be a partial set and, to make things even more difficult, include parts of a different set.

It looks to me like a movie set, with a director and an aide. There are some other guys that could be movie actors or just part of a different set (a red herring).
I never got any kind of instructions when I acquired this set, and now my oldest kid an I are trying to put together all our sets (many of which were in pieces or were cannibalized to make other creations), and I would love to know if this is a complete set and I can do something with it.

There are multiple sets indeed.
First and last minifigures are part of 1356 Stuntman Catapult set. Stuntman is unique to this set.

Looks like the second and third minifigures, camera as well as most of the parts are from 1355 Temple of Gloom

This leaves us with some bits as well as last minifigure - fourth from left is Baron Von Barron with Pith Helmet and White Epaulettes, also appears in 11 sets. This minifigure as well as baby dinosaur, including some leftovers after first two sets indicate these could be from 5914 Baby T-Rex Trap.

It doesn’t look like a complete set to me, and it does seem to include parts from more than one set. Some of the parts and minifigs are from 1349 - Steven Spielberg Moviemaker Set. Some of the minifigs that are not in that set look like they’re from other sets in the LEGO Studios theme.

[ Alex and Andrew have already identified the sets, but I'd like to add a bit of context. ]
Seeing the directors and camera instantly reminded me of the Moveimaker sets.

I had forgotten that there wasn't a "Moviemaker" theme, but LEGO Group called it "Studios".  As the brickfilms wiki describe this theme:

LEGO Studios was a LEGO theme that focused on stop-motion animation and filmmaking. Sets in the line were released from 2000 to 2002. The flagship set, 1349 LEGO Studios Steven Spielberg MovieMaker Set, included a special LEGO webcam and proprietary software that included stop-motion capture, timeline editing, and sound recording and editing. LEGO Studios was instrumental in popularizing the hobby of brickfilming.

So despite the short life of this theme, many folks who probably never even owned any of the sets in this theme have seen the amazing results and added their own art to the genre.
Given how much you have from this theme already check out the other sets on brickset or bricklink and see how many more parts you may have.


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How do I remove programs from my Lego Mindstorms EV3 project?
The title says it all. But to be more specific, I find it annoying that I have to download one single program to the EV3 Brick but then all the others in the project end up in the brick too, therefore I have to look in the EV3 storage to remove the specific programs I don't want. I bet there is a way to permanently delete certain programs from a project, but how??

Please clarify if you are using the old EV3 environment (with graphic blocks) or the new scratch based one...

@MichaelVerschaeve The block-based programming environment.

If you click the little wrench button, you can see your programs, images, sounds and more. You just have to click on the program you do not want and delete it. Alternatively, you can hide it.

Hope it helped.
Sorry my handwriting is terrible with a mouse.

I recall that most photo editors have a feature to add text, which would solve your problem.

Yeah but I used snip and sketch window app. Did it help you?


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Choosing scale for train models: what scale is "L-gauge"?
So, after being a LEGO fan for 40+ years, I'd like to try my luck at building some scale models of train sets (for example, an ICE 2). In planning my build, I ran into some difficulties or doubts determining the proper scale, specifically I was wondering what scale "L-gauge" models typically use.
If you directly relate the LEGO track geometry to a real-life standard gauge track you end up with a scale of 1435mm/37.5mm ~ 1:38.27 - which is somewhat in line with the "1:40" answer to a related question.
Now, per this link, an ICE 2 is 3.07m wide, which would translate to just under 10 studs wide (9.59, to be exact). Alarmingly, this would also mean that each train car model would be over 2 feet long, which is most likely problematic even with third-party R108 or R120 tracks.
On the other hand, when using a smaller scale (e.g., 8 studs wide, roughly 1:48 scale), it becomes basically impossible to create a to-scale interior (e.g., you could only place two seats/minifigs next to each other).
Is there a "standard" scale for LEGO train models or some other best practice to solve this conundrum?

Is there not a model rail club - any kind of model club - near you whose members would be happy to spend hours not just explaining but quite likely demonstrating all you could ever want to know?

It looks like the best practice is to adjust the proportions to the constraints imposed by the media.
For example, the closest LEGO rendition of a modern high-speed train, the 10233 Horizon Express has cars that are built on a 6x28 chassis piece, which gives a very different width-length ratio than the ICE2 (3.02 m : 26.40 m). And it just works and looks fine, even though the math is completely off the charts.
For other examples, see how LEGO manages to translate the iconic Star Wars vehicles into the Microfighters line, or famous cars into the Speed Champions line. So I'd say it is more than possible to keep the design essence (and thus the recognizability) intact, while adjusting the proportions even to ridiculous ratios, as demanded by other constraints.
The radius of the curved track pieces and the speeds attainable by LEGO trains give completely insane results as well, when viewed as real-world engineering solutions, but in this medium, it is fine. Maybe it necessiatates widening the track gauge a bit compared to real trains (LEGO trains have their wheels almost in line with their sides), or lowering the center of gravity, but even if the physics win over the engineering, it is easy to reassemble the pieces after a crash :)

TLDR: Scale for train MOC is a personal preference based on the needs.
Longer version:
There is a lot of personal preferences here. Like, how do you decide if the LEGO track geometry should translate to standard gauge? Why not any other track gauge available in other countries? How do you scale the model if it originally use slightly wider gauge? So there's already some flexibility in how strict you should be considering the scale of your train based on the track gauge.
Next thing is to decide if you want your train to operate within your LEGO city layout or just for the looks? LEGO trains are built in 6-stud wide size. People tend to design their own trains in 6-, 7- and 8-stud width size. They look good in city layouts - not too big and do not cause any serious troubles operating even on LEGO tracks. And somewhat to scale. I've made 48 cm (1.5748 feet) long 8-stud wide scale model of a train loco myself. It could operate on standard LEGO train tracks. And yes, it looks a little ridiculous on curves, but still works. However this scale doesn't let you design detailed interior, so compromises must be made.
Now if you prefer designing your train for the looks and operate it on some train layout (that could be made from LEGO compatible 3rd party elements) only from time to time you can go with whichever scale that fit your needs. It could be wider, longer, so train track geometry is the limit. As you mentioned your initial scaling suggested your train is going to be 2 feet long, which is less than half a foot longer than my model and you are not limiting yourself with just LEGO tracks, there shouldn't be a problem running your model on larger radius 3rd party (LEGO compatible) train tracks.
It is also worth mentioning some people use LEGO tracks as a narrow gauge. In such case train model, is obviously quite wide and it no longer fit into LEGO city (minifigure scale) layout. However there is plenty of space for details.

One thing with real trains is that the rail spacing is surprisingly narrow for the carriage width - and, as you've found, length.
You'll need to run the wheels on bogies to get round any curves if you want anything like a plausible length, but you'd also need about 100 seats per carriage to fit out the inside, and while you could fit the seats, you still wouldn't fit 4 minifigs (and an aisle) across the carriage.  Of course you don't have to put minifigs in at all.
As with all matters of Lego scale, you can't match everything, and you're often better off trying to match the aesthetic at a scale that works for the constraints you have

The new 76405 - Hogwarts Express Collectors Edition breaks from compatibility and goes for a 7 rather than 6 stud gauge, which gives them more room to build out a more accurate scaled carriage with:

enough space for two minifigures to sit side-by-side inside the passenger compartments and the narrow corridor to pass beside them.

More details, including several images can be found in the Brickset detailed review

I'm thinking the Ravenglass & Eskdale railway of narrow 15" = 2 heads of 7•5" each, so like narrow Lego track with 2 studs between as minifigure heads have 1 stud. But then normal 4 studs between is less than normal guage at same scale.

I'm not sure I understanding how this answers the question at hand. Would you be able to flesh it out a bit more? It sounds like you are suggesting a particular narrow gauge scale, but I'm having difficulty envisioning it from your description.

@jncraton I've added a linked (edit pending) to the target railway (which I've been on).  But I'm struggling to comprehend the suggestion as well.  I think Andrew is referring to placing the Lego rails closer together than standard, which will make for an interesting job getting the wheels on there, and the curve radii will be wrong


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Have minifig hands ever appeared "on their own" in an official set?
I am curious whether minifig hands have ever appeared "on their own", i.e., not inserted
into minifig arms, in any official set.  Or if they have ever been sold separately by TLG,
e.g. in Pick-a-Brick or as a replacement part.

When searching for 'hands' on Bricklink, the only result I get is a buncha torsos with their hands attached and I never get the result of individual hands, which I guess could contribute to the answer of this question.

Proving a negative is hard, so disclaimer first:
This answer is neither exhaustive, nor definitive.
My line of reasoning starts from the assumption that if there were ever standalone minifigure hands, they would appear in the set inventory in a way that is not explainable based on the number of minifigures. Of course, this assumption is not 100% waterproof, as it does not consider cases when a minifigure torso has appeared without hands AND a pair of standalone hand parts were also used, but I'd accept this risk.
Analyzing the list of the 16123 sets, books and gear catalogued in Bricklink that contain at least one minifigure hand, there are no sets where the number of included minifigure hand parts would be larger than the expected amount.
This number is the sum of all the following:

twice the number of the included minifigures
four times the number of four-handed minifigures (like Garmadon, General Kozu or Rio Durant)
four times the number of monkeys
twice the number of standalone minifigure torsoes (like the masthead of the Black Seas Barracuda)

Minus one for each pirate captain, Ogel, Baron von Barron or any other one-handed figure of course.

Some sets do appear to have more hands still, but that is because the number of hands is skewed by the inclusion of alternative figures, like in the case of Shoot 'N Save (FC Bayern Promo Edition), which allegedly contains 8 yellow hands, but only two minifigures (one of which is the goalie with black hands!), but the soccer player is included in four different variants. A similar thing is going on with Red Bus, where all possible flag-sticker combinations are listed to arrive at the 50 yellow hands for 5 yellow-handed minifigures.
If there are any omissions, I apologize in advance and congratulate the finder :)

Another idea to support this conclusion is that LEGO ships minifigure torsoes already assembled, thereby granting minifig hands the same status as minifig arms or legs, i.e. parts that can only be used as components in an assembly.

I'm pretty sure the hands and arms (also the legs from the hip piece) are not even officially intended to be removable.  Even though you can do it, doing so repeatedly can result in damaging the pieces, and they tend to have a general "never do anything that could damage a piece" policy.

I don't know of any sets with the standard minifig hand that isn't already attached to a minifig arm and torso, but if you stretch the definition of hand to include say, the robot arm in 8635-1: Mobile Command Center...

Then you could say that a minifig and one of their hands appears separately in the set and needs to be assembled.
Incidentally, that same hand is the ones found in a robot from the Exo-Force line (ie. 7711-1: Sentry), which could also be considered a minifigure.

Their hands (and all their parts really) come separately and need to be assembled. Couldn't tell you why the instructions neglect to show them in the assembly step though.


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Can you identify this dome
Can anyone identify this dome?  I looked through the "brick,round" section of bricklink and couldn't find it.

What really helps me when searching on Bricklink is searching the dimensions. In this case the measurement of the part is 4 studs (x axis) by 4 studs (y axis). In the BL search, that would be written as 4x4. If too many pages appear, try searching by other properties. For example If it has printed decoration you type "pattern" and BL will give printed parts, and if it has sticker you type sticker and you'll find what you want.

@mindstormsboi Dimensions on BL would be written with space like "4 x 4", and not "4x4". See your own answer.

@Alex I know that, but that doesn't matter. Bricklink will still think of it the same way. In fact, in order to find the piece, I typed it without spaces and still got what I was looking for.

That's Cylinder Hemisphere 4 x 4.


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Red Palisade Brick?
Is there a red variant to the 2x1 palisade brick (30136)? I looked at bricklink but couldn't find anything. Known colors don't include red or any similar shades, but I feel as if I've seen the red bricks before.

As of this moment, officially - no. The ones available for sale are, most likely, test runs that made their way from LEGO factory since none of them have been included in any of sets. Red is known to be common color for running tests with injection moulding. Quite a few other test parts in Red (the color that hasn't been used by those particular parts in any of released sets) have made their way from factory and have been offered for sale.

This so reminds me of BrickTsar turning the red 2x4 into a rare brick!


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What is this small space-themed set from possibly the early 90's?
I have a bunch of LEGO bricks mixed together.  I recognize a few of them as going together for some small set that I no longer have the instructions for.  I believe I got this set in the early 90's.  The minifigure rode some sort of small contraption.  What set is this?

Welcome to Bricks.SE!

This is most probably Ice Planet Scooter:

Ice Planet - Looks like Star Wars before Legos marketed for Star Wars.
https://lego.brickinstructions.com/en/lego_instructions/set/1711/Ice_Planet_Scooter

The link does not seem to bring any more useful information.

@mindstormsboi It contains the building schematics and a picture of the rest of the result. It's a source. There's nothing wrong with the link.

Oh, I was paying attention to the orange box saying ther's  no instructions and yet there are instructions. Couldn't you have clarified that?

@mindstormsboi No, your point made sense, because the older answer from the day before seems to have more useful information in the link there. This answer doesn't seem to contribute much that the other answer didn't already have.


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Pirates of Barracuda Bay 21322 - Is there a way to get the ship pirating-worthy?
From what I have read, when you convert the island to a seaworthy ship, you are still left with the inn part, and no cannons on the ship. All the portholes are gone or converted to windows.
Is there a way to get the cannons back on the ship? Preferably using only pieces from the set? If pieces needs to be added, what is the simplest way to make that conversion?

The review over at Brickset mentions this exact modification:

Pearl gold windows are fixed inside each gunport, preventing the deployment of cannons. While this seems slightly odd, the lattices can be removed and replaced with cannons, as demonstrated here. I appreciate these options but some furniture must be removed from inside to create enough space for the weapons, corresponding with the officers' quarters on historic ships where cannons could replace tables and chairs during battle.

(Emphasis by me)

Nice find, thank you


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Identify these windows/doors
I have these old windows. I am unsure if they are even official lego.

LEGO logo is visible inside hollow studs on genuine parts. While it is hard to identify if pictured items are genuine LEGO parts, such elements have been produced as LEGO:
Window 1 x 6 x 3 Panorama with Glass

Window 1 x 3 x 2 could be either one of these.
Door 1 x 2 x 3 Hinge on Left

Window 1 x 1 x 2 could be in two versions: with integrated glass (single piece) or with glass that can be attached (two pieces together).

Indeed, they do have "Lego" on the inside of the hollow studs. The hollow studs, and the slightly unusual lower attachment confused me. Thank you @alex

Without a closer inspection I can't say if yours are genuine, but LEGO has made windows that look like that. Several (most?) variants (including all of yours) can be found in e.g. Ten Windows and Doors, White


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Can you identify these railings?
Can anyone identify the railings around this building?
I thought they might be ladders placed horizontally, but I don't see any clips.

This could be either Fence 1 x 4 x 2 Spindled with 2 Studs

Or Fence 1 x 4 x 2 Spindled with 4 Studs


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How to update item prices in a Bricklink store?
I have a BL store in which I have parted out a huge collection of LEGO sets. During the part out I set the item prices so that they match the average on BL. However, after a while, I noticed that due to the price changes, some of my items became significantly cheaper or more expensive than the average. Neither of them is desirable. Is there a way to update the pricing of my store including all items to match the current BL average prices?

The easiest way is to download and install Brickstock (www.patrickbrans.com is the site it is located on AFAIK), pay for the upgrade to the full version ($20 via paypal) and then download your entire store inventory, do ctrl-A ctrl-G which downloads the current prices, and use the “update inventory in bricklink” option from the File menu to set the new prices.

It looks like https://brickstock.patrickbrans.com/ is the URL.

Since the Brickstock application seems to be abandoned, I use Brickstore instead, but the process is the same.


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Can you identify this belt/legs
Can anyone identify this pair of legs. I looked at all the chima legs and legs with the word 'lion' in them, couldn't find it.

Could you include image directly here? Images on a linked forum ails to open for me.

Why are your posts randomly being downvoted? About three of your posts have all been downvoted within the same time, very strange. I truly don't think this question is eligible for a downvote, here, I'll give you an upvote.

In that same Eurobricks thread it says:

The legs (not hips) are from the Fantasy Era Crown King.

This is the minifigure this refers to:

For completeness, the torso (but not the arms) and the hips come from this Laval minifigure from the Chima theme:


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Does TLG own BrickLink?
At the bottom of Bricklink.com appears the following statement:

LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize, or endorse this site.

However, according to this press release from 2019 TLG is in the process of acquiring Bricklink.
Has this acquisition gone through? Is the Lego Group the owner of Bricklink? What does this mean for Bricklink and for independent marketplaces in general?

Yes, TLG has acquired Bricklink. There have been multiple news, FAQ's and interviews posted with regards to a future of the website. You can read some of them on Bricklink as well as LEGO webpages. You can also read an interview with LEGO representative.
The footer on BL's webpage has been left as it was prior to acquisition. Perhaps there wasn't time to change it yet.

My last BrickLink seller bill came from “LEGO BrickLink, Inc”


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Which set is this piece from?

Which set is this piece from? It looks like a space ship or something.

The ship looks like a (possibly) slightly altered build of the alien spaceship from ETX Alien Strike.

thx. yes hat fits with my other pieces as well (in orange as posted earlier)


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Is this part of a set?

Are those pieces part of a set?
Or a random build of something?

The 'Red Slope, Curved 4 x 2 with White and Yellow Flames Pattern Model' part (right side of the picture, on the roof) comes in 2 variants: Left and Right.  However, both of these parts only exist in the same 1 set, 9441: Kai's Blade Cycle

Similarly, the 'Tail Shuttle with Lightning Pattern' (left side of the picture - also comes in Left and Right variants) come from 9442: Jay's Storm Fighter

(This also appears to be where those 2 large blue plates are from)
As such, this model must be a Maker's Own Creation (MOC), and not an official LEGO set.  So, yes, a 'random build of something'
Both of the sets listed are from the LEGO Ninjago: Rise of the Snakes series