Awesome stuff you've just bought (+pics please)

[caincan]

[MJR]

I guess this would belong to "Awesome stuff you've just built" - thread, but we don't have such.

So.. I built myself a Lego Vic Viper from instructions I downloaded from Rebrickable. Took few hours, and parts cost me less than €50.

[Sturmvogel Prime]

I used to had that KO Sixwing (upper left giftset box), I threw it away after the knee peg for the leg combiners broke, so be careful when combining them.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Picked up the new Mid-Scale variant Lego Star Wars Millennium Falcon #75375 from my local Target store that Lego just recently released on 3/01/2024 stateside. It has a bit more greebling (a bit more detailing compared to the older midi-scale Lego Star Wars Millennium Falcon #7778 circa 2009 with it's more simplistic aestethics/overall appearance) and has a mere 921 pieces with all parts professionally silkscreen printed -- means not having to deal with a Lego supplied sticker sheet whatsoever which is a plus in my book. Found a 3rd-party Lego compatible LED lighting kit to upgrade it/enhance it even further through the https://www.lightmybricks.com/products/ ... -light-kit website -- didn't realize that it's now available to purchase. The slick cool blue leds light up the Falcon's hyperdrive -- quite impressive!

Has a couple of cool Easter Egg nods in reference to Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope & Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back which is quite something to marvel at/behold.

What's awesome about this 2024 mid-scale Millennium Falcon is, you can add optional landing gear legs + create a landing pad with minature leds + add a background diorama to accompany it for more realism/go the extra mile.

Here's a cool Death Star II Trench Run diorama that a Youtube poster made using the Lego #75375 set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zu5riCWSMU -- it'd be nice to get proper instructions and a count of how many extra pieces used to create this custom-made MOC diorama build to complement the #75375 set.

PC Engine Fan ^_~

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Recently purchased a Tomy Mini Arcade "Cosmic Clash" circa 1982. Came with the original box + instruction sheet. Checked the battery contacts and they were in pristine condition since it's powered by two "D" batteries (no port to hook up an AC/DC adapter whatsoever). A single motor powers the extravagant and complex array of gearing mechanisms that power up this cool electro-mechanical based miniature arcade game cab (i.e. -- mechanical score counter + lasers fired counter, the actual laser firing mechanism, the scrolling enemy film projection mechanism and the slick rear-projection based explosion effect mechanism = seven different mechanisms + lighting effects for laser fire, enemies & backlit explosion effect & the audio + speech portions as well -- quite a bit of complicated electro-mechanics with audio & visual aspects going on during a single game session). Cosmic Clash uses the old-school tiny incandescent-based light bulbs to light everything up (no led lighting used). Tomy manufactured two different Mini Arcade games, the second one was called "Daring Driver" that was released concurrently at the same time as Cosmic Clash did -- both were made in Japan (with Tomy's dedicated in-house team of mechanical engineers based in both Japan & the USA). Both games came a MSRP of $29.99 usd at retail. The sound effects and synthesized voice effects play really loud and crystal-clear but no volume control knob to limit the overall volume sound output (typical of the early 1980s full-sized arcade games craze/fad going on during that particular point in time) -- uses a miniature record disc mechanism hooked up to a speaker for both sound effects + voice snippet phrases.

I was browsing at the local mall and saw that one toy store had a demo model of the Cosmic Clash available to try out inside a glass display case. Asked the guy manning the display case if I could try it out. He said he would let me try it out. He got it from the glass display shelf and placed it on top of the glass display countertop and turned it on. I proceeded to play a single gaming session of it and was blown away by the awesome but simple overall gameplay off using a single fire button to fire a laser at passing alien fightercraft and ground-based heavy armored vehicles. One sound effect sounds like it was lifted from the classic Namco's Pac-Man game (a little insider nod/tribute indeed whether this was intentional or not, we'll never know if it was construed as arcade sound effect plagarism or just taking creative liberty with arcade sound effects in general).

So essentially, it's brand new and in 100% working condition (which is quite rare to find nowadays). Am glad to have it after trying out a demo model back in 1982. Just need to find the accompanying Daring Driver to complete the Mini Arcade lineup set and it'll finally be complete.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[SuperDeadite]

Picked up an SNES (real SPC700 module) music player:

https://youtu.be/rmcjUAN0Lsw?si=PSfZWUKMFFqSLbaP

[ryu]

So.. I built myself a Lego Vic Viper from instructions I downloaded from Rebrickable. Took few hours, and parts cost me less than €50.

Nice. Could you provide links to the instructions and where to get the parts?

[MJR]

So.. I built myself a Lego Vic Viper from instructions I downloaded from Rebrickable. Took few hours, and parts cost me less than €50.

Nice. Could you provide links to the instructions and where to get the parts?

Certainly: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-176086 ... r/#details

I also got myself a working Vectrex last weekend, seller took it to maintenance service for checking before selling to make sure it works and stays together! Yay

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Recently picked up a super mint Tandy Armatron (manufactured by Tomy of Japan and sold through Radio Shack stores in the USA under Tandy's brand namesake back in 1982). Later on, the Super Armatron was sold (is just the classic Armatron arm with "Super Armatron" stickers slapped on it and "Mobile Armatron" spin-off as well).

Sure, I'd browse at the local Radio Shack store and try out some of their newest offerings -- one of them was the Armatron as a demo model. Tried it out and was intrigued by it. Nowadays, a robotic arm can move faster and are built with the newest technology that's available at a reasonable cost "production-wise".

Considering with Tomy's in-house mechanical engineers based in both Japan & the USA, they managed to create an awesome electro-mechanical based robotic arm using a single electric motor to power up twelve centrifugal banks of gears to move the arm itself (to save on production costs in the long run -- makes economic sense without the necessity of having more motors and more of the possibility of mechanical breakdown/failure issues "down the road").

What's impressive is that it was designed and built "old-school" without the aid of computers, especially with early 1980s based electro-mechanical toys. It's possible to supply 6v or even 9v DC to make the Armatron move even faster than with it's default slower 3v setup (but at the expense of premature motor burn up and faster gearing wear out than usual). The 2-speed gearing setup with certain functionality is another highlight with being able to activate the arm's joints to move slow or fast via the analog twin joystick scheme is quite cool indeed. By adding servos or solenoids attached directly to the joystick levers, an Armatron can be controlled by a computer.

The Armatron robotic arm was so well made that the movie studios would take a stock Armatron and spray paint it silver or chrome to use it as a prop for the front cover VHS movie jackets on display at the local Blockbuster Video & Hollywood Video rental outlets back in the early 1990s. How cool was that?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[caincan]

approaching the end of (times?) warhammer40k rogue trader boxes quest in styles/colours we searched, The emperor protects !