Monday, February 18, 2013

Weekly Cuusoo

News

Insightful way to do polling on Cuusoo

I really hope that someday in the not too distant future that Cuusoo will integrate polls into their project system.  Until then I will likely be using this site for any polls that I need, like the FTL selection.  For those not looking to go outside of Cuusoo however, Cuusoo user Zproductions has implemented an easy and novel method for pulling this off.  If you go to their comment thread in the Pokemon project, you can see that they created a single post for the survey followed by several comments with each comment being a different candidate.  Users vote for a candidate by Liking it.  It appears to work quite well.  Nice Trick Zproductions! 

Cuusoo's bugs behind it hopefully

Anybody using Cuusoo last week likely had to log in a few extra times.  Not to mention that may projects had non-existent main images.  Cuusoo appears to have addressed this issue and they system appears stable once more.

Report on distribution of Cuusoo Subjects next week, this week, a picture!

Originally I was planning on publishing a report today breaking down the types of projects on Cuusoo.  My week however did not go as planned.  FTL has been a "bit" crazy, Valentines day, and an "emergency" assist with a window display all wiped out my usual time that I devote to Lego.

So, the report will have to wait until next week.  Instead, I will show you a picture of the window I assisted on.



Feb 2013 Lego Store LUG Window Display

Course if your preference is for short, blurry video instead of pics, then I've got you covered

Pick of the Week

FTL: Faster Than Light
by Crashsanders

Support Level: 2213

Go ahead and accuse me of favoritism but my pick of the week is FTL.  How could it not be, really.  I met Crash cause he liked what I was doing with Star Control which shares the same model as FTL, mini-scale ships with full scale minifigs and brick-built aliens.

Even before we were collaborators I was a big fan of Crash's work with the micofig mecha line.

Crash has really nailed it here though with great models, excellent presentation, viable scale, and most important to getting to 10k, an active audience for the project.


Honorable Mentions


Redemption - Nebulon-B escort frigate
by Ldiego

Support Level: 297

I used to do a daily pick, long long ago ;) but projects have slowed down since those heady days of the early Cuusoo.  Since then don't usually post on projects except a couple times a week,  but I made and exception when I saw LDiEgo's Redemption.  As I said earlier in the week, LDiEgo is  the creator of the most support Star Wars project right now, the Invisible Hand.  As I expected this has launched to signifigant and deserving fanfare.   Like all virtual builds with extreme dimensions though, I must wonder about its structural viability.  I am sure that with the stand there would not be much issue, but would Lego be ok with that...Is this perhaps the reason we have not seen a Nebulon-B escort frigate from Lego yet?

Well, as I often say, I will let Lego deal with that issue.  I am in full support of this project and I don't see how any Star Wars fan could not be. 

Wall-E
by Langemat

Support Level: 82

I was very surprised to see this project because I thinking about writing an article about Suzuki's Wall-E the day before this came out.  They are both outstanding, but I will wait until next week to go into the details about these projects.

Narrow Gauge Steam Engine
by Concore

Support Level: 73

I was really glad to see this project get a lot of support.   There is a lot of creative use of parts here and I really enjoy the off scale nature of it.


The Enforcer Recharged
by Crazy_1993

Support Level: 43

Crazy has provided a stunning example of the extreme capabilities of the Technic system.  Although the Cuusoo page is limited, if you are interested in the greater details, Crazy has a posting on eurobricks which goes into much greater details than can be demonstrated on Cuusoo.

Star Trek Klingon Bird of Prey
by Bking

Support Level: 65

It always saddens the Trek nerd in me to see these projects.  Especially the good ones like this.  As many of you know a competitor has control of the Star Trek license so it is unlikely that we will see a Cuusoo Trek project any time soon.  Regardless, with the fate of the Rifter and the Western Modular, I do wonder if we will ever see large scale sci-fi space ships ever come out of Cuusoo. 




Week of Cuusoo

This week the cut off was at support.
FTL: Faster Than Light
by Crashsanders

Support Level: 2213

See above

Redemption - Nebulon-B escort frigate
by Ldiego

Support Level: 297

See Above

Wall-E
by Langemat

Support Level: 82

See above


Narrow Gauge Steam Engine
Support Level: 73
Star Trek Klingon Bird of Prey
Support Level: 65
The Enforcer Recharged
Support Level: 43

Metroid
Support Level: 42
Spinning Droid Heads!
Support Level: 37
Apollo-Soyuz Mission
Support Level: 33

Tusken Camp
Support Level: 26
Korean diesel train in 80'
Support Level: 22

TIE Predator
Support Level: 22
Poison Ivy's Trap
Support Level: 21

Triangle Lego
Support Level: 18
Emerald Fighters bundle 2
Support Level: 18

LEGO FORD F-150
Support Level: 17
Sliding Door
Support Level: 17

LEGO PORSCHE 911 Carrera GT3
Support Level: 16
Mars Rover 2050
Support Level: 15
TIE Bomber
Support Level: 13

Krayt Encounter
Support Level: 12
The legendary "Adler"
Support Level: 12

War for Rome
Support Level: 11
castle
Support Level: 11
A Lair for Shelob
Support Level: 8

Space Fighter
Support Level: 8
Classic Tow Truck
Support Level: 8

macross 3 way transform
Support Level: 7
Wakeboarder!
Support Level: 7
farm
Support Level: 7

HAL 9000
Support Level: 5
Raspberry Pi cases
Support Level: 5
Naboo Flash Speeder
Support Level: 5

MSL Curiosity
Support Level: 4
LEGO CITY Dump truck
Support Level: 4

City Park Fountain
Support Level: 3
harbour
Support Level: 3
black rider encounter
Support Level: 3



Elsewhere in the World of Making Cool things Happen...

Ok, so I have not actually figured out the best way to integrate but I have been finding other people following the "Cuusoo" ethos of attempting to make some cool in a big way.

This week what I found was the game Dragon Whisperer by Albino Dragon on Kickstarter.

Dragon Whisper is intended to be a simple, fast pick up trump game.  The novel, and in my opinion, quite clever, aspect of it is that the low value cards, the ones least likely to win a hand, are balanced out with special abilities.  For instance, In this game, as in many trump games, if you win a hand, you get to start the next one.  However, if you play a one, the lowest card possible, you still will loose the hand, but playing a one grants you control of the next hand.

The rules are explained much better in this quick video from their kickstarter.
 
Sounds like a very interesting twist on the traditional trump mechanic to me. 

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