It looks like the cakes are getting out of the bakery...
Although according to a mail that I and another 100 of you have received this morning, it also looks they will start shipping only during next August. About two months from now.

The amazing world of LEGO® Technic constructions.
Based on the vision from Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891-1958), a carpenter from Billund/Denmark, whose personal motto was "Only the best is good enough" - Leg Godt (Play Well).
TechnicBRICKs blog (TBs hereafter) is devoted to the LEGO Technic theme and intends to spot mainly on news and developments, rather than new sets reviews or users creations (aka MOCs). However you will also find them here occasionally...
It looks like the cakes are getting out of the bakery...
Remember the LEGO Community Survey for Q1 2013? The LEGO Group has crunched its numbers, analysed its data, and are now sharing its conclusions with the fan community.
Dear LEGO Fan community,
In April 2013, we ran an installation of our quarterly LEGO Fan Survey, and we would like to share the results with you.
Over 5,000 LEGO fans over the age of 13 participated from Afghanistan to Venezuela and nearly everywhere in between. This time, we provided the survey in multiple languages instead of just in English, and the overall base of responses grew as did participation from Asia (18% in this survey compared with 5% in the first quarter of 2012) and Central Europe (15% in this survey compared with 9% in the first quarter of 2012). Teens (13-18) represented 13% of survey takers, and the largest two groups of adult fans participating included those from 25-34 and 35-44. This time, women represented less than 8% of survey takers – women skew older than men and are more likely to be from North America, to talk to a LEGO employee, or to post photos or videos of their MOCs online than men.
From the survey, we’ve learned that there are strong regional differences. First, there are differences in how you perceive the value you get for the LEGO products you’ve purchased compared with the price you paid – Eastern Europeans and North Americans received the highest value; Australians, New Zealanders, and Western Europeans, the lowest. Also, Americans are spending the most on LEGO products, both for themselves and others.
In general, fans outside of Northern, Central, and Southern Europe don’t feel they’ve had good opportunities to participate in events with other LEGO fans, fans in Eastern and Western Europe especially feel this way. Fans in Central Europe, it seems, have found their LEGO hobby more inspiring than usual over the past three months than fans in all other regions.
Despite the differences, there are some similarities as well: fans across the globe feel that the LEGO fan community is strong, and they are recognized for their knowledge of LEGO products by fans and non-fans alike. Participation in the fan community, by commenting about LEGO ‘stuff’ online or having conversations about LEGO in person, is universally high, though strongest in Northern Europe. Posting photos or videos of MOCs is done by just over a third of fans but by more than half in Southern Europe. Similarly, attending a LUG gathering is an activity only a quarter of fans have done in the past three months, but 42% in Southern Europe have.
Finally, we learned that familiarity with the LEGO Community Engagement and Events team could be higher. Fans that are aware of our team seem to have a more positive perception of the value of LEGO products and participate more in events than fans who are unfamiliar. We anticipate that the many activities we have with newer LUGs will help drive up knowledge of our team.
Thank you to those of you who participated in the survey for allowing us the opportunity to improve. We look forward to your responses in the next survey and to your continued engagement and participation in the community.
With kind regards,
Yun Mi Antorini, Community Strategist
on behalf of the CEE team
While I'm a subscriber of 'LEGO Education North America' YT channel, somehow I also missed their latest videos until my attention was raised at another forum.
Tim Lankford from LE US, shows and tell us about the new EV3 elements (pBrick, motors and sensors) in a series of videos, where e speaks about the features and improvements to their NXT predecessors (when it applies).
I found them interesting to share here with you and hope you enjoy viewing them.
About the Intelligent or Programmable Brick (pBrick)
I was looking into my queued bookmarks to select something for today, and found this sequential 3+R gearbox by Durian, a French builder.
It seems quite reliable and to work pretty well!
As we have already mentioned a few times before, there is one particular new part release with the upcoming LMS EV3 kits, very interesting for the Technic builders. More specifically on the LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Expansion Set (45560).
We are ofc referring to the new rubber track inserts that fit on the large Technic track elements (57518), to provide additional grip.
It happens we will get a red overdose of these, on the coming months...
Hence the question, which other colors would you like to see released that eventually better fit with your LEGO Technic constructions?
From time to time we get to see a new attempt for a prosthetic hand, arm or both, made with LEGO Technic parts, by some addict fan.
Fortunately all these attempts are very different from each other, and pointing to different solutions and directions. Some are fully based on pneumatics, others fully geared or even robotized with LEGO MINDSTORMS, but all very ingenious [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
This week Peter (piotrek839), a LUGPol member, showed on EB his proposal - a 1:1 scale, fully motorized prosthetic hand, wrist, arm and elbow, with 12 PF motors.
And now on the same place, also some great pictures from B-models of the two main sets to be released next summer.
42008 - Service Truck / Crane Truck with Semi-Trailer
Not much to say about this one, except it looks a much valid proposal for the part assortment in this set. The green/red color combination in this model makes it look quite different from all the rest.
The crane extends with a large LA and if I got it right the mLA is used to make the crane to swivel manually (nice and a different idea - interesting use for the u-joint).
The grabber on the crane on the crane operates with a small pneumatic cylinder which is feed by an electric pump.
The gearing on the back side also suggest some action. I'm not sure whether they're outriggers, a semi-trailer locking mechanism, or both.
Looking at the yellow handle on the side, I'd say there is a 2-function switch-box to choose between the pump and rear functions. I'm not sure how to extend the large LA on the crane arm though.
The truck has a manual winch at front, cabin doors seem to open and steering is controlled via HoG. The semi-trailer has also a manual gear to make it stand when separated from the truck, and I think there is another manual geared function to make the cargo bed to turn sideways and unload the payload.
Today appeared on Eurobricks (like can be guessed from this post's title...) high resolution images of the Technic sets for 2H1013. Without further ado, here they are.
42001-1: Mini Off-Roader
The upcoming launch of the EV3 MINDSTORMS Edu and Retail sets have generated quite some discussion regarding the new motors, but so far we haven't had a closer look at some of the new elements that these sets will contain.
Today we will have a closer look at an element that many Technic fans have been asking for for a long time and that finally has appeared in the EV3 MINDSTORMS Edu set: Track Inserts.
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