Subject:
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Re: Request for more stringent naming of (Complete|Shortcut) parts
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad
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Date:
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Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:49:52 GMT
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Viewed:
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5506 times
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In lugnet.cad, Travis Cobbs wrote:
> In lugnet.cad, Kevin L. Clague wrote:
> > In lugnet.cad, Travis Cobbs wrote:
> > > represents one popular shape that it is used in. The minifig is something that
> > > is constructed from multiple real life pieces. I understand that what you want
> > > is something that can be used for both cases, and be recognized by LPub, but
> > > care definitely needs to be taken.
> >
> > Fair enough. I didn't know they were always shipped disassembled.
>
> Well, it's not shipped completely disassembled (arms and hands are pre-attached
> to the torso, and legs are attached to hips). However, I have certainly never
> seen them shipped completely assembled as a minifig (except for the glued
> keychains, which probably don't count here).
NOT that it's probably relevant to the discussion one way or the other, but...
:-)
Back before TLG was into their current practice of saving on packaging*, the
boxes had what I always referred to as the "Display tray", a plastic molded tray
that held the "premiere" parts of the set, often the newer parts introduced that
year. It was covered in a thin layer of sealing plastic, and of course the front
of the box would be hinged, and the interior lid would involve clear plastic to
allow the display tray to display those contents.
Mini-figures in the larger sets in a line would come as two parts: the upper
part, with head attached to the body, including any "neck-based" accessories,
plus oftentimes a helmet or hat; and the lower-part (legs assembly).
As an example, 1989's 6276 El Dorado Fortress contained a soldier with his
tri-corne hat attached: white legs below the torso, the Pirate captain with his
hat attached and his epaulets installed: black legs-with-pegleg below the torso,
and another pirate with his bandana attached and white legs below him.
That's probably as close as you'll see to them being "fully-assembled", but it's
pretty close.
Nowadays, they're even mentioned in the BOM with the upper torso (with arms and
hands) separate from the head. That never used to happen; but it does now.
I wonder if this isn't a case better described by the (possible) need to have
language extensions that describe how various sub-parts within an assembly are
"allowed" to move, this would help describe control sticks, turn tables, rocking
bearings, mini-figure legs/waists, hands/arms, and arms/torsos, and
axles/motors. Then the part is still a single entity for the BOM, but software
can be written to more intelligently handle assemblies that have somewhat
mutable components.
Huge subject, I know, one that's becoming less relevant as TLG ships the parts
of assemblies (such as the studs and base of a plate turntable) separately, and
even describes them in the BOM that way.
-- joshua
* I'm not trying to start any type of argument about current packaging, just
speaking about the matter of the facts. I used to be pretty heavily
disappointed that the plastic trays were becoming scarcer and scarcer, but once
I realistically considered how few people were likely to keep all that "junk"
plastic, I figured that the current approach is holistically, likely for the
best (if they could only solve the mangled and munged BI and labels issues --
sigh).
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