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Posted: Jul 17th, 2009 at 08:07 pm
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The latest 8 sets released by Knex have been full of surprizes, new brick sizes (including 1x24), redesigned 3 volt brick motors, motion actuated sound boxes, and more sophisticated designs. Nothing prepared me for what I found in set 12181, The Stunt Jet. 7 double sided "technic" pins. To briefly review all Knex plates, some 1x2 bricks, and all bricks 2 studs wide or larger have tubes that open to both the top and bottom of the brick or plate and are beveled on the outer surfaces to lock on Knex's version of the Lego friction pin. For the last 3 years these pins have consisted of a locking tube on one end and a rod ending (standard or micro-scale) on the other, allowing you to build with connectors and rods above or below the brick. The Stunt Jet set comes with 7 double locking pins, allowing you to mount bricks bottom to bottom at ZERO THICKNESS. the ridge in the center of the "technic" pin disappears into the beveling at the tube bottoms, so this is true zero thickness, the wistful goal of every brick building boy and girl since Sir Hilary Page invented the interlocking stud and tube brick in the 1940's in England. Monday I'm going to try to order about 200 of these from Knex shop at home. Knex will never have to produce and inverted brick or slope, as everything they've made that is two studs wide or wider can be inverted effortlessly.
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Just finished an awesome BumbleBee Moc using the Knex Mechwarrior set Sunder and using the panels and wheels from a yellow street mods set as fairings on the mecha.
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Posted: Jul 20th, 2009 at 02:21 am
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Well, that sounds good, but it's not a true revolution.
Back in the 70'ties East German PEBE used a stud-stud 2x1 or 2x2 brick that likewise made seamless bottom-to-bottom build possible. And like KNEX they saved by only having top-slopes, using them upside-down as bottom-slopes as well.
I have some of these old PEBE stud-stud bricks, and have used them for years in my LEGO creations, as they are totally invisible in the finished build.
Arne, Copenhagen
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Posted: Jul 20th, 2009 at 10:26 am
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Wonderful to hear that about Pebe. I've only one set in my collection, and that's from their Nano scale series.
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Just finished an awesome BumbleBee Moc using the Knex Mechwarrior set Sunder and using the panels and wheels from a yellow street mods set as fairings on the mecha.
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Posted: Jul 20th, 2009 at 04:55 pm
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I've been thinking about this, and I have to say that I don't mind when male:male or female:female connectors add a single plate's thickness to a construction. I can see the appeal of a truly seamless connection, but it wouldn't be a particular asset to me.
IIRC, you can buy styrene rods from a lot of American hobby stores with 7/32" diameter, and I believe that this is pretty close to a standard stud's dimension. You could cut such a rod into pieces and make your own seamless connectors! 
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Posted: Jul 20th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
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IIRC, you can buy styrene rods from a lot of American hobby stores with 7/32" diameter, and I believe that this is pretty close to a standard stud's dimension. You could cut such a rod into pieces and make your own seamless connectors!
Sounds like that works Dave, especially if the outside caliber of the rod is very slightly larger than a standard lego tube. The difference here is that these double sided friction pins snap into the beveling at the top of the tube, on the level of the base of the brick where the studs are.
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Just finished an awesome BumbleBee Moc using the Knex Mechwarrior set Sunder and using the panels and wheels from a yellow street mods set as fairings on the mecha.
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MrSciFi
Tinkerer  Member is offline
Posts: 26
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Posted: Oct 15th, 2009 at 02:58 pm
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Pics please
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Posted: Oct 15th, 2009 at 09:54 pm
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I've got a webtv, not a computer, so no pics, but I just received 100 of these double female K'nex pins for 6 cents each from K'nex, and the potential is being realized here on a daily basis:-).
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Just finished an awesome BumbleBee Moc using the Knex Mechwarrior set Sunder and using the panels and wheels from a yellow street mods set as fairings on the mecha.
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BIGGEST BREAKTHRU EVER IN BRICKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: Knex has finally shot ahead of Lego in brick design - (Read 252 Times)
