Subject:
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Re: What are all those lego companies?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Thu, 15 Feb 2001 06:19:06 GMT
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Original-From:
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Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmailSPAMLESS.net>
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Reply-To:
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sjbaker1@airmail.net!StopSpam!
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Viewed:
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848 times
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Cyborg wrote:
> Now I wonder if I can exchange parts from those different Lego companies (if
> these are companies and not just product lines), like "Dacta", "Mindstorms",
> "Technic", "Znap"?
They are just product lines - and they all work together.
Basic - Just bricks...LOTS of bricks.
Technics - is regular Lego 'bricks' with the addition of gears and
beams with holes and stuff - but no computers or sensors -
and very few (if any) motorized sets.
Not all Technics sets are good - the 'RoboRiders' and 'Throwbots'
have so many highly specialised parts in them as to render
them almost useless - but the StarWars Technics sets are quite
cool as a source of bulk parts.
Mindstorms - is Technics *plus* computers, sensors and motors...*COOL*
stuff!
Dacta - is Technics that's optimised for schools. It's bundled with
teaching notes, problems for kids and lots of identical Lego
sets. The Dacta division of Lego is also a useful place to buy
spares and hard-to-obtain parts in small quantities. Their
catalog contains a TON of weird and wonderful stuff - it's
worth getting one just for the fun of browsing through it.
Znaps - appear to have been an attempt by Lego to make a construction
system that has similar properties to rival Knex and others - yet
which works with mainstream Lego. At a technical level, they
succeeded - but I guess it was a dismal marketting failure.
When they dumped the range, there was a time when you could pick
up a Znaps set containing a $30 Lego motor, a battery box and a
bunch of semi-useless Znaps parts for $9! I havn't seen Znaps
sets in stores for about 8 months.
Duplo - for very little kids - it's GIANT Lego bricks - that kinda
work with regular Lego. I try to ignore them.
Toolo (?) - this was an attempt to do something like Technics but for
the little kids - so Toolo-is-to-Duplo as Technics-is-to-Basic-Lego.
But these are pretty vague divisions. For example, I'm not sure if you'd
call the Lego "Soccer", "Mars", "Town", "StarWars", etc sets part of 'Lego
Basic' or a division of their own...it really doesn't matter in the end.
Bricks are bricks are bricks....well...except...
What you *DO* want to avoid are the Lego clones like MegaBloks. At first
sight, they look like a really cheap way to get VAST quantities of weird
coloured bricks - and they *do* work with Lego in a compatible way - but
BEWARE: The quality of plastic they use is *terrible* compared to Lego and
after the first couple of models have been built and ripped apart, you'll
find that their harder plastic ceases to 'grip' properly.
Stick with kits with the "LEGO" logo on them - no matter how tempting it
may seem.
> Are all parts, like beams, bricks, electro motors, rotation sensor, angle
> sensor from different companies/product lines the same parts, e.g.
> Mindstorms rotation sensor# 9756 and Dacta Angle sensor#9891?
Yes - they are identical.
> How many more companies/product lines are there?
Well, the edges blur - new ones come and go...don't sweat it - it's all just
Lego and it all works well together (except *arguably* Duplo).
> This shows you how new I am to Lego, I never had them as a child (I was
> playing with girls instead ;>), but now it's my time for the Legos (settled
> down with one girl (my wife):>)
I grew up in England in the late 1950's and early 1960's - we hade 'BettaBuilda'
which was a Lego clone.
> I went to legos site and Mindstorms site, but could not find any information
> on these questions, except that Lego is in Denmark.
Well, they are all just product lines and there is considerable overlap
at the level of the individual parts.
--
Steve Baker HomeEmail: <sjbaker1@airmail.net>
WorkEmail: <sjbaker@link.com>
HomePage : http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
Projects : http://plib.sourceforge.net
http://tuxaqfh.sourceforge.net
http://tuxkart.sourceforge.net
http://prettypoly.sourceforge.net
http://freeglut.sourceforge.net
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: What are all those lego companies?
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| (...) <snip> (...) <snip> Not to confuse the thread originator, but the Technic line is no stranger to computers, sensors or motors. Both the Control Center and Cybermaster are programmable computers, and the Cybermaster uses sensors similar to (...) (24 years ago, 15-Feb-01, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: What are all those lego companies?
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| (...) You left out PRIMO (aka BABY). These are aimed specifically at the 0 - 2 age group. They connect with DUPLO on the bottom and a few speciallized pices connect with DUPLO on the top to allow a transition from one product line to another. The (...) (24 years ago, 16-Feb-01, to lugnet.robotics)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | What are all those lego companies?
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| Hi there, I maid have some stupid questions (even if there is no such thing, only stupid answers exist), but I want to start my search of knowledge from the very beginning. I just ordered a RIS 1.5 and can't wait until I get it. I'm completely new (...) (24 years ago, 15-Feb-01, to lugnet.robotics)
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