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    Re: Sorry to tell you this....Throwbots. —Steve Bliss
   (...) And RTL is full of "Looking for Throwbot XXX...XXX" crap. I think I've seen all of the TB sets on local store shelves in the last few days. If anyone is crazy enough to be 'collecting' these sets, I'm willing to help out. Just $10 +shipping (...) (26 years ago, 1-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
   
        ThrowBots elements are cool —Todd Lehman
   (...) Because it *is* Technic, my friend! :) (...) Don't the new ball & socket elements count? It's a whole new form of 3D polar-coordinate movement. (...) 'ay, have you built any of the models yet? Not only are the new elements fully (...) (26 years ago, 1-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
   
        Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Larry Pieniazek
      (...) I've built or played with all 4 of one series. Fun, but limited play value. I'm not sure what to make of certain of the elements yet, but I'm not a technic head. I think some of them have major uses though. (...) Plus they come in neat (...) (26 years ago, 1-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
   
        Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Steve Bliss
     (...) Only by definition. That is, it's Technic because TLG says it's Technic. (...) Yes, they count. If the sets made use of the potential for anything more than making poseable action figures. (...) Yes. (...) And a bunch of funky new (...) (26 years ago, 1-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
    
         Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Todd Lehman
     (...) OK. Well, it's probably easier and more cost-effective for them to put TB under the TECHNIC brand name than to create two new brand names. I guess they felt ZNAP is different enough from TECHNIC to get its own totally separate brand name. (...) (26 years ago, 1-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
    
         Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Jasper Janssen
      (...) I _do_ so wish 8722 wasn't phasing out. It was the _one_ good starter set out there. Jasper (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
     
          Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Alex Wetmore
      Jasper Janssen wrote in message <36b84515.2564735@lu...et.com>... (...) Really? I disagree... it has almost no gears. Mechanics are the essence of Technic for me, and 8277 was really lacking there. If you like yellow beams its a great set though. I (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
     
          Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Steve Bliss
      (...) Other than the lack of gears, how would you rate #8277 for parts? (...) Heck, for 16L beams, it's a great set. Looking at the catalog picture, I can see about 16 of these things. And the price was right -- 546 technic pieces for 44USD. From (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
     
          Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Alex Wetmore
       Steve Bliss wrote in message <36b73a54.17245324@l...et.com>... (...) I don't remember what it had. Its the only set that I've bought and immediately sorted into parts. I never built up any of the models as part of the set. It has a lot of the snap + (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
     
          Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Jasper Janssen
      (...) 20. 16 yellow, 4 grey. Also a few 1*1's with holes, and a lotta long axles. Lotta other useful stuff. (...) That's for those who didn't get it at $22 SAH weekly. Of course, I can't get SAH, and they sold out withion a day anyway, but still... (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
    
         Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Steve Bliss
      (...) Maybe. That doesn't seem to stop many corporations. I'm assuming TLG defined TB as Technic, because they saw a positive benefit from the association. Further, I'm guessing that TLG thinks the positive benefit is either (a) revitalizing Technic (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
     
          Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Fredrik Glöckner
       (...) It looks cool, yes, but I try to avoid sets with Technic figures, as I hardly ever use them. BTW, this sets seems to be the only one which has a special piece, a 1x1 round plate with ball joint connector. What purpose does this have in the (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
      
           Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Steve Bliss
        (...) Ah. I got this set on mark-down, so I was pretty happy. It's funny -- I can never have enough mini-figs, but more than a few technic-guys are overkill. Maybe because they're more alike than minifigs. (...) You mean the piece that used to be (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
       
            Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Eric Brok
         (...) BTW & FYI & FWIW, the new version has a hole through the ball; the old maxifig-hands did not. Eric (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
       
            Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Steve Bliss
         (...) Thanks for pointing this out. For LDraw, I'm working on the similiar 'towball with grabber' part (used in Divers sets as the robot arm claw), which has the same hole, I think. I should just make them all. Steve (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
       
            Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Mark Koesel
        Eric Brok <brok@fcjsvc.hvu.nl> wrote in message F6Ks7t.M6E@lugnet.com... (...) All of my old maxifig hands have the hole. (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
       
            Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Eric Brok
         Mark Koesel wrote in message ... (...) Ok, sorry. It was of the top of my head. Should have checked first. Eric (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
      
           Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Todd Lehman
       (...) That's an old maxifig hand. :) It also came in 6544 Shuttle Transcon 2 and an old space set 6901 Mobile Lab. (I'm sure there were others too.) (...) No, they're stickered. Great for red minifig dresses. --Todd (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
      
           Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Fredrik Glöckner
       (...) Of course it is! :-) I was looking at Jim Hughes' Technica index, which listed it as "from 8232", or something. Fredrik (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
     
          Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Todd Lehman
      (...) Aha, those sound like a lot more plausible reasons. (...) Maybe I'll work one of the ball-joint thingies into the base of the dentist chair and have a combination g-force vomit comet / dentist chair. :) I misspoke about the camera, BTW. We're (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
     
          Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Steve Bliss
      (...) Yeah, you should what I've got planned for Islander canoes... (...) And at current auction prices, they'd only cost me like $700. :O (...) Yep. Kids had a great time with them. Then they got taken apart, and the pieces all ended up scattered (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
     
          Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —John Cromer
      So has anyone tried to come up with names for these awful Throwbot pieces? Here is my first cut. Can you figure out which piece I'm talking about by reading the name? Disclaimer: I only have 3 of the sets (8504, 05 and 07) so I'm probably missing (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
    
         Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Steve Bliss
      (...) Something I thought of while cruising www.lego.com: using a fuzzilogical POV, which has a higher affinity for being Technic, Mindstorms or Throwbots? My brain says Mindstorms is highly Technic, maybe 95%. It uses standard Technic pieces, both (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
     
          Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Larry Pieniazek
       (...) and I know why, too. (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
      
           Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Terry Keller
       (...) Well, I don't. And after reading a couple of more of Steve's post, I would probably have asked. So, WHY is Steve so #%&$! happy? -- Terry K -- (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
      
           Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Steve Bliss
       (...) Yes, you do. Steve -- Still acceptably euphoric. (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
      
           Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Terry Keller
       (...) OK, I get it now. Just being unusually dense. (or should I say "as usual, being dense?) -- Terry K -- Any projections on when you will be ectastic? (26 years ago, 4-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
      
           Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Jeremy H. Sproat
        (...) I thought I was being dense, but I suppose I'm just clueless. What the snarf is Steve so happy about? Cheers, - jsproat (26 years ago, 4-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
       
            Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Jasper Janssen
         (...) my guess would be that it's positively blissful, up there. J (26 years ago, 4-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
       
            Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Larry Pieniazek
         (...) Well, Steve is being excessively clever, since he told some of us (including Terry and me) but said he wasn't going to say publicly till later. So we're in a bit of a bind. All this buzz about why he's happy has got to be giving the Stever (...) (26 years ago, 4-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
       
            Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Jeremy H. Sproat
        (...) Hmmm... At a guess, then: Steve was officially tapped by the Lego Group to specifically *not* play-test the new Town Jr. sets. Am I right? Or am I right? Well, I know that would make *me* pretty ecstatic. :-, Cheers, - jsproat (26 years ago, 4-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
       
            Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Steve Bliss
        (...) Wow. I wouldn't put it up *that* high. Steve (26 years ago, 4-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
      
           Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Steve Bliss
       (...) Your pick. (...) Could take a month or more -- sometimes euphoria goes out of stock. Steve obLego (well, the above is actually on-topic, just cryptic) obLego2: Just got a 6560 Diving Expedition Explorer (had it shipped from Zany Brainy in (...) (26 years ago, 4-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
     
          Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Todd Lehman
      (...) I think it's in a wholly separate line because LEGO MINDSTORMS is a separate division/unit of LEGO (supposedly as separate as LEGO MEDIA and LEGO DACTA, for example). Still silly for us fans, though, I totally agree. I'd also put MindStorms as (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
    
         Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Tom Stangl
      Sidebar here - Todd, how many SW sets have you preordered for AucZILLA XI or XII? ;-) GOTTA have those orange 1x3s, but I'm not buying 10 Snowspeeders to get them... (...) -- | Tom Stangl, Technical Support Netscape Communications Corp | | Please do (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
    
         Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Fredrik Glöckner
     (...) I'm thinking of getting a digital camera myself, could you elaborate slightly on the usefullness of the Mavica for taking pictures of LEGO MOC's? Is the macro mode useful? Do you use the flash? How many images go on one floppy disk? I'll be (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
    
         Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Todd Lehman
      [followups set to lugnet.publish] (...) It's totally awesome (it almost doesn't let you take a bad picture!). I think most digital cameras today have this property because of the instantaneous feedback on the LCD screen which lets you get the (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general, lugnet.publish)
    
         The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —James Brown
      (...) Absolutely! We use ours for everything! My wife has a tendency to take 40 gazillion pics of things (slight exageration, but not much), and she uses the Mavica to take 4 or 5 quick shots, picking angle/lighting/etc before taking any shots with (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
     
          Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —James Brown
       (...) uh, make that second one: (URL) grin> (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
     
          Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —Mike Faunce
       James Brown wrote in message ... (...) has a (...) though. (...) minute of (...) 1024x768 at 24 bits is over 2.3MB, so none will fit on a floppy. If they use 8 bits or 16 bits, you could fit either one or (you guessed it) none respectively. 800x600 (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
      
           Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —James Brown
        (...) All the website says about it is: Bitmap (Non-Compressed) Mode: For the best images choose the non-compressed mode to display your images in a bitmap format (VGA only). I haven't had a chance to play with ours yet to see what the .bmp mode is. (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
       
            Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —Mike Stanley
        (...) What that means is it can only store a 640x480 (VGA) image in bitmap format. So I guess it's 1024 in jpg or nothing. (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
       
            Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —Mike Faunce
        I don't know if this is common knowledge or not ... I know I found it the hard way: jpeg does not necessarily mean "lossy" compression. You can (with a conversion program, I use Firehand Ember), convert from .xxx to .jpg without loosing information. (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
       
            Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —Mike Stanley
         (...) jpg is fine if you're satisfied with the image. But if you plan on editing the image you'll need to remember that if you keep saving it at 95% then it is shoved through that lossy process every single time. (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
        
             Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —Todd Lehman
         (...) It depends on the imaging application and how much of the image you tweak. For example, if you go in and remove a spot with Adobe Photoshop, it's smart enough only to alter that part of the image. (So I've heard.) --Todd (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
        
             Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —James Brown
          (...) amount (...) Yup. It also has a good range of filters to improve an image. Of course, Photoshop, like most applications has to be set to always save at 100% to avoid image degradation in a jpg. Photoshop does a pretty good job of compensating (...) (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
        
             Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —Mike Faunce
         Todd Lehman wrote in message ... (...) the (...) amount (...) advantage (...) smart (...) That's been my experience, I've not noticed any "increasing" degradation after editing a picture several times. ----- Mike Faunce - mfaunce@earthlink.net (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
       
            Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —Steve Bliss
        (...) Starting with a 256-color image probably won't give you the best comparision. If you've got a 24-bit image 'lying around', try your tests on that one. There's also a variation of JPEG, called (in Paint Shop Pro) "progressive encoding". Does (...) (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
       
            Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —Mike Stanley
         (...) Isn't that the kind of JPG that you can put on the web and have it load a bit at a time (bad description) ? (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
       
            Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —Selçuk Göre
        (...) I've been facing some jpgs throughout the web which like the old "interlaced" gifs, (showing up on the page as a whole but very coarse image at the time of opening the page, and improves itself as d/l continue). I've also heard or read (...) (26 years ago, 4-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
      
           Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —Mike Stanley
       (...) Aside from the pain of scanning each one individually, how is the speed on each scan? I would hope this would be a SCSI device, but something tells me with the trend towards parallel stuff it might not be. I have an HP Photosmart scanner for (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
     
          Re: The Mavica (was Re: ThrowBots elements are cool) —Mike Stanley
      (...) I'd be interested in hearing more about the FD-81 and your opinion of it. I've never quite liked the Mavicas, mainly because they've pretty much always been a year or so behind the curve in resolution, although the convenience of the floppy (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
    
         Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Joshua Delahunty
     (...) Wow! The mailbox and door are anacronistic, but I could otherwise be convinced that this baby is the long-lost 914 Shuttle. I like it! -- joshua (26 years ago, 15-Feb-99, to lugnet.publish)
   
        Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Eric Brok
      (...) Are the ball sockets tight enough to pose the figure firmly? Eric (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
    
         Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Larry Pieniazek
     (...) Yes. Or at least for now. Not clear how they will wear in the long run but for now they are quite stiff. (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
    
         Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Huw Millington
      Larry Pieniazek wrote in message <36B6E1F8.269E63B@vo...er.net>... (...) Do you find that the one on the thowing-arm becomes pitted and damaged due to the soft plastic being dented by the harder plastic socket housing as you move it around? I only (...) (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
    
         Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Larry Pieniazek
      (...) I don't know the answer to this as I haven't slung the disks much or played much yet. (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
    
         Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —James Seibert
     I have noticed the joints weaken and the since the soft plastic of the arms are connected to the harder plastic pivot sockets there is some visible wear. Any device that relies on friction to restrict movement will wear out in time and the soft (...) (26 years ago, 3-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
    
         Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Steve Bliss
     (...) Hmm. Consumable LEGO. Everyone will have to buy more, because the old ones wear out. If I was paranoid, this would sound like a plot. Steve (26 years ago, 4-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
   
        Re: ThrowBots elements are cool —Fredrik Glöckner
   (...) I agree. True, I haven't built any TB yet (they're not in Norway), but from what I have seen, the parts look really useful. I can hardly wait 'til I have them in my Technic collecting. Also, notice that many of the 1999 Technic sets already (...) (26 years ago, 2-Feb-99, to lugnet.general)
 

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