Subject:
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Will TLC ever make new parts that AFOLs suggest?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sun, 4 Apr 2004 20:31:29 GMT
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Viewed:
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904 times
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I'm sure this has been asked before, but will the Lego Company ever make new
types of parts that AFOLs like us have suggested?
I know they're not allowed to just take ideas and use them without a legal
agreement, but is there a legal framework for us suggesting parts and TLC making
them if they think they are commercially viable?
I have made my own parts by cutting existing parts. I have been forced to do
this due to the lack of suitable parts available in sets.
One such part is made like this: take an axle connector peg and attach it to an
axle extender and fast technic motor. Spin up the motor and with a hacksaw cut
off the connector peg part, leaving the bezel in the middle. File the bezel
smooth and the part becomes a 1L axle with bezel. The piece is used for putting
through a 4mm wide liftarm with round holes into a 4mm wide liftarm with cross
holes, allowing the liftarms to rotate whilst the whole assembly is 8mm wide.
The part is so useful that I have made at least fifty of them. Its primary
application for me is steam engine valve gear. You can see three of them at
each end of this Garratt engine, one on the middle set of driving wheels and two
on the vertical liftarm next to the left set of driving wheels.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=706026
In this example, the piece is versatile and would benefit technic modellers who
want to make mechanisms in restricted spaces. However, unless TLC were
convinced that enough applications existed, it would not be viable for them to
produce the piece.
When I was interviewed by TLC in 1997 they asked whether I had modified any
parts. Up till then I hadn't, but I took their question as an encouragement to
do so.
However, it would be even better if we could close the loop and suggest new
parts to them that we would find useful. Generally there are more new parts
each year for specific applications far more restricted than the part I have
suggested above. I actually avoid sets with big, chunky, application-specific
parts in them as I will not use them for any other models.
I firmly believe that if TLC produced parts that we suggested, then their sales
would only go up as a result. A lot of the parts I would suggest would make
technic modelling more verstile, and others would enhance SNOT capabilities for
all building applications.
To those of you who are part of the Lego company I would ask if a legal feedback
route can be set up for this. I would rather have my parts made professionally
than have to make large numbers of modifications myself.
Mark
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