Power Functions and Monorail

Maybe after I get my own Power Function set I might be able to figure this out a little better, but over on mabidati.de, Maik & (his son) Daivd Schenker posted steps in adding a remote control to their monorail. The problem was getting power from the old 9V system to power the receiver, so after zusammengelötet-ing a few wires, it now works. I'm a little unclear about where all the wires go, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out after making the wire modification.

A Dusty R2-D2

A Dusty R2-D2,
originally uploaded by mhuffman.

So if you're a fan of R2-D2 and LEGO, and you can afford shipping on something like this from Orlando, There's an ad on Craig's List offering to sell a LEGOized version of R2-D2. If I remember correctly, these went out to local stores (TRUs, maybe?) for the "guess how many bricks are in me" type of contests.

It looks very dusty & there's 3 other photos on the link. Check it out and if you end up buying it, send me an e-mail and let me know. :)

Random eBay Finds: The LEGO Builders Club Pin

Every once in awhile, I enjoy looking on eBay for unusual LEGO items.  So here's one that I found, a LEGO Builders Club Pin.  The item is in the UK.  And looking on Bricklink, it was released in the UK in '81.  And upon further investigation, there was a senior member badge.  Very cool.

Attack of the Alpha-Rexs

So in an article about minibots over on 1000steine.de, there was this picture of an army of mini Alpha-Rexs... it just looked funny... and a little disturbing. :)

Oh, and the delete/update buttons are still not working on iPaB. Still having some problems. :(

Update (04/16/09): Talked with Joe Meno last night. He confirmed that he's the one responsible for the mini Alpha-Rex design. I figured he was, since there was a photo of him holding one, but wanted to make sure of it first. :)

iPaB Update

There's someone or some server in France is maliciously emptying containers in Schaumburg, IL... about 20+ so far.  I've shut off what the "Sold Out" button does to the database for now, until I can get it sorted out.   Sorry about this.  I'll try to have this fixed some time tomorrow...

Update (04/07/09): I think it's fixed now.  A code has to be entered in for each update/empty/edit of a container.

Chrome!

From what I gather, a German AFOL has contracted a company to apply a chrome coating to several LEGO pieces. They look beautiful! But I'm sure the process is not inexpensive to do.

All I can say is, if the cost was more reasonable, I wouldn't mind having a few chrome grilled brick.

In other news, it seems that LEGO has nearly doubled to tripled in price of parts in their on-line PaB. Like many other AFOLs, I'm hoping this a mistake from the increase of parts to the on-line PaB selection. I've seen quotes on other web-sites that a generic train container which normally ran ~$4-5/container is now up to $13.78.