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I don't recall any recent topics about LEGOLAND parks, so here we go. I first went to the California park some time in 2003, and a second time in August 2011. I've also been to the Florida park twice, first in January 2012, and again on New Year's Eve of 2013/14. The first visit in 2012 was especially interesting as it was with a friend that I had previously only known online. A few days ago I was thinking about the first trip to the California park in 2003. I had done the driving school thing, and I vaguely remembered some sort of 3D animated video that played as training... One YouTube search later, I found this. I'm pretty sure it's the same video that plays in California. I wonder what company animated it... It's somewhat reminiscent of the animated intros and such in classic LEGO games. I'm just glad the real track wasn't haunted by a floating TV set.

Yah, so I couldn't think up a title. 'Sea Destroyer,' although being accurate, was just too cheesy. So without further ado: It's a large speedboat, as you can see. I would have used black hulls and light green cockpits but we didn't have either. (Lego only made 1 Neon Green cockpit like that, right? In the Sea Scorpion?) Also, the cockpits are a) scratched and thus slightly opaque, and b) not fitting together because they're warped. Not too badly, mind you. You're probably first wondering what those black thingies up the front are. Let me explain: They're claws. They're controlled by a gear, which you can see me turning. This turns another gear inside there, which turns another gear which turns the... ratchet? Spiky bar, whatever it is, which moves the top claw backwards and forward. Stuff it, I'll show you this picture. You see? A gear that you turn turns another gear (not visible) which turns a visible gear which turns the grey spiky thingy which moves the claw. This is it open: And this is it shut. Elastic bands provide the snap-back force so all you do is roll a gear, the top claw rotates back, and then let go and it snaps down. You're probably thinking 'why the other gears? Why not have that one just turn it immediately?' There are two reasons: Firstly, the gear which you turn is the comfiest. It also doesn't like to be jammed in by bricks: when I was making this mechanism it was jamming because the gear was slightly too large. Plus, doing that makes it turn far too quickly. And it's a pain to reach that far forward. Here's a nice top view of the entire model. Rhotuka spinners you ask? On the back you say? Indeed. As you can see, the spinners are stored near them. They're stored quite cunningly, if I may say so myself. A rocket launcher holds them in place, which needs to be taken off in order to get the spinners off. And in that last image you can see the holder. I couldn't attach a third pin because the spinners wouldn't fit, as you can see in the second picture. In that last image you also can see the winch, which I added because WHY NOT? That horrible bar is there (it doesn't look too bad from Top View) in order so that you can actually launch the spinners. If I just had the tower of bricks, when you pull the ripcord the entire thing just comes with it. I also added other reinforcing. Anyway, onto the main bit. The top can fold out. What's that big stick poking out the top you ask? This: As you can see, it's very, very large. It's designed to be held by two people. (And yes, that is the best minifigure model of me I could make ) Inside, we are treated to a culinary achievement a bunch of stuff. A large control panel, two normal-size laz0rs (the things in the direct center, a safe (which won't open fully due to things in the way), and a computer. This space inside does indeed connect to the cockpit, but it is too small to fit a minifigure inside. You can see that in this picture (a bit): Here's the side. As you can see, I stuck a ripcord there (and on the other side too) so I didn't have to rummage around for one, and because it adds a little bit of touch to the model. And here's the bottom. You should be able to attach the motor that came from the same set as the hulls: but the problem is that it's generally pretty useless as I'm pretty sure the boat will sink. Yes, it's watertight, but as soon as you get to the cockpit it isn't watertight. And we ALL know how long Lego takes to dry, especially if you don't take it apart. This is my largest MOC I've ever made, and probably the heaviest and the most complicated (those gear systems were painful with the size just being a little TOO big). And now I'm running rather low on decent black bricks, as the Dol Guldur Gate is still standing. OOOOOOOOOOOOPS

The license is LEGOLAND Florida specific, but the animation definitely isn't new - all the minifigures are done in that 90s/early 2000s LEGOLAND style. Older torso prints, solid black eyes, noses, etc - definitely not anything done recently. Looks like they just edited the license if anything. I don't remember all of the exact details of the video I saw in California, but I definitely remember a female driving instructor character like the one here, and the TV set and kid ring a bell. If somebody could find a video from California to compare that'd be great. As someone who's done the driving school every two or so years until I aged out, I can offer a bit of information here. The LEGOLAND style section is the constant at the driving school, at both parks. The pre-rendered stuff is there in Florida and California. Over the years, various companies have sponsored the driving school (in the above video, it was Ford at LEGOLAND Florida, and Volvo sponsors California) and the video has seen some edits to put in mentions to those companies at each park respectively. I have lisences going back to like... 2002 if you want pictures of them. I don't have videos from before the sponsors though... though I do have a pre-sponsor lisence from California. EDIT: I have a 2002/2003 lisence (not sure which, it isn't labeled with the year) with no sponsor a 2004 lisence with the Volvo sponsor a 2007 a 2008 a 2010 (curiously with no mention of Volvo on it, yet I'm sure they were still sponsoring them) a 2012 from Florida which says its sponsored by Ford

If you're plopping that there, then I'm plopping this here:

Alrighty then mate. Thanks for the informative post. I'm just gonna plop this here.

Procreative C is the father of all programming languages. ... AHEM. [12:16:52 AM] Cyrem: [5:16:38 PM] Ciprian: Let us know if you die <<< okay [12:16:56 AM] Cyrem: i'll try

Here's my take on Sparky (Sketched outline)

I'm finally done building it, but i present to you: THE PHARAOH'S FORBIDDEN RUINS (I don't know if this image is too big or not) I have recreated the Pharoah's Forbidden ruins in minecraft. Not only that but i built the other sets and attached them to this. I'm probably going to make other sets but currently, i've only built Pharoah's Forbidden Ruins, Treasure Tomb and The Secret of the Sphinx. And when i can figure out how to i'll make amazon sets. If anyone wants inside images, just ask.

You cannot let the music stop by just deactivating Action Stations. If you do a looping version of the song, it will continue even if you had Action Stations activated for only 3 seconds. The other way would be that the looping version is (e.g.) 3 minutes long but you have to use Action Stations for a longer time. Then you wouldn't here anything after three minutes. To make it clear, the Action Stations button is the trigger for the used sound file, but the button cannot stop or extend the sound.

Why is it that all the best LegoLand park "rides" are always the ones which get shut down at some point, leaving the nostalgic upset? Well, Rocket Racers ended up closing for multiple reasons, one of them being that the majority of companies that provided spare parts and the software (Which was by ATD) went bust, making it stupidly hard to get spare parts if it ever broke down. You can read loads more about the entire history of the ride here.

Why is it that all the best LegoLand park "rides" are always the ones which get shut down at some point, leaving the nostalgic upset?

"Green for go and red for stop." I can't help imagining the Infomaniac saying that...

Thanks. I've been working on my Nebulon B Frigate over the past few days so here's an update on what I've done. I've added a bit more detail to the rear section as well as finished off the detail on the bottom of the front section. I've also been thinking about the colours so I still need to sort them out and there might also be a few minor tweaks here and there as well. I also need to sort out the internal structure as it's a bit of a mess at the moment.

Is it possible to restore the ability for players to teleport to each other with the server running vanilla? If so, I'd like to request that to be restored.

Wow, that is amazing! Great job

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfJXKG4IB20

I won't lie to you, thats awesome!

(note: there were lots of unrelated messages interspersed among these, I've taken them out to emphasize the important bits) [21:02:19] Alcom Isst: Subjective C [21:11:44] Will Kirkby: then there's the absolutely spectacularly amazing Adjective C [21:11:59] Will Kirkby: Ejective C, which throws out any code it doesn't like [21:12:08] Will Kirkby: Projective C, which makes its voice heard [21:12:14] Triangle717: Is Adverb C or Interjection C a real language? [21:12:17] Will Kirkby: and Ineffective C, which is entirely useless. [21:12:42] Noghiri: Ineffective C is only known to us because it was used for the driver handlers in Vista, XP x64, and Windows ME. [21:13:24] Will Kirkby: @Le: no, since they don't match /[A-Z][a-z]*ective C/ [21:13:33] Triangle717: [21:13:56] Will Kirkby: it's worrying how many non-programming uses I find for regex [21:18:41] Noghiri: Overprotective C never segfaults. [21:19:25] Will Kirkby: Introspective C runs entirely using reflection [21:19:32] Noghiri: Retrospective C requires you to actually use FORTRAN [21:20:52] Triangle717: While Protective C enables every possible error handler ever. [21:21:17] Triangle717: Reflective C likes compiling old projects [21:21:58] Triangle717: And Respective C is oh so polite. [21:23:22] Noghiri: Prospective C is just a bunch of specs awaiting finalization [21:26:08] Triangle717: Introspective C inspects itself. [21:26:35] Triangle717: Elective C voted to not get involved [21:26:55] Triangle717: Defective C was Dead on Arrival. [21:38:47] Noghiri: Ablative C is really good at making dust clouds [21:38:58] Noghiri: Capacitive C holds things for later use [21:39:16] Noghiri: Causative C is what all things come from [21:39:41] Noghiri: Disruptive C shouts at you when you're trying to explain something. ... then I made a bit of unix magic ... [22:23:16] Will Kirkby: grep "tive$" /usr/share/dict/words | sed -e "s/b(.)/u1/" | sed "s/$/ C/" [22:26:18] Will Kirkby: http://kirk.by/text/5412138ea397e [22:26:25] Will Kirkby: have a list of programming languages. [22:27:04] Triangle717: Hypersensitive C drinks way too much coffee. [22:27:12] Will Kirkby: Unproductive C doesn't drink enough coffee [22:27:27] Will Kirkby: Seductive C is my kinda language [22:27:27] Triangle717: Illustrative C: FLOWCHARTS FLOWCHARTS FLOWCHARTS [22:28:42] Triangle717: Imaginative C comes up with ideas that canot be done. [22:29:58] Triangle717: Multiplicative C: You have an error, error, error, error. [22:30:36] Triangle717: Narrative C tells you absolutely everything it is doing in every single step during compiling and debugging. [22:31:57] Will Kirkby: Primitive C, also known as "C" [22:31:58] Triangle717: Insensitive C does not care if you forget to declare the type. [22:32:21] Triangle717: Locomotive C, Laxative C [22:32:24] Triangle717: I can't even... [22:32:59] Noghiri: Locomotive C is a special application for European railway lines and will be coming soon to European Railway Simulater 2016. [22:33:15] Triangle717: Manipulative C likes seducing you into doing it the way its wants. [22:33:41] Triangle717: Informative C also tells you what it is doing, but it is actually meaningful. [22:34:14] Triangle717: Incentive C had to bribe you to use it. [22:34:53] Triangle717: Administrative C tells the other Cs how to act. [22:35:05] Noghiri: Ablative C jumps in the way of rockets. [22:35:17] Noghiri: It's also used for the armor code in Unreal. [22:35:21] Triangle717: Acquisitive C buys out other languages. [22:35:36] Noghiri: Inquisitive C kills cats. [22:36:10] Triangle717: Affirmative C assures you everything is OK. [22:36:39] Triangle717: Creative C: for the artists in your life [22:37:02] Noghiri: Negative C is the slowest language on the planet and keeps telling you you're wrong. [22:37:23] Triangle717: Digestive C is actually MiraLAX. [22:37:52] Triangle717: Figurative C uses lots of examples. [22:38:10] Triangle717: Hyperactive C makes your CPU usage bounce. [22:38:26] Triangle717: Hypersensitive C: "DON'T DO THAT!!!!!!!!" [22:39:15] Noghiri: Psychoactive C is usable in designer antipsychotics [22:39:36] Triangle717: Nonrestrictive C lets you bypass the syntax rules. [22:40:29] Triangle717: Photosensitive C can't handle graphics, so it makes command-line programs. [22:40:56] Triangle717: Perspective C shines a new light on the subject. [22:41:08] Triangle717: Talkative C: Me, when I am really tired. [22:41:36] Triangle717: Unimaginative C: What's to do something, but has no idea what to do. [22:42:24] Triangle717: Uncommunicative C: "Don't talk to me." [22:42:43] Triangle717: Undemonstrative C: "Don't ask for an example." [22:43:03] Triangle717: Unattractive C: The ugly duckling. [22:43:54] Triangle717: Supportive C thinks every idea is a great one. [22:44:16] Triangle717: Retroactive C fires back. [22:47:22] Will Kirkby: Detective C puts everything in black and white, with a gravelly narration, and slow, smooth jazz in the background. [22:48:26] Will Kirkby: Vegetative C has been in a coma for the last 10 years.

* sits back with notepad * I can say of both 5's above, there is stuff in the works but I can't really say anything at this point. Are you able to eleborate with details?

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*this line has been truncated* Seriously though, Bionicle goes in the top three of my favourite LEGO themes, or possibly even #1. At least, the original line did. This has probably been said already, but I sincerely hope that LEGO don't go wild with the story like they did ten years ago. And that we get an awesome non-TT game to go with it. Personally, I'd like to see a goodbye to all previous fluff; not a complete rewrite of it but rather an acknowledgement of it and a new start from a later era. Cut all attachments with the old line (like how Metru Nui and Mata Nui were so intertwined with the elders/toa such as Nuju), but don't forget about it. And, of course, that it doesn't go all Hero Factory. If they can do well with this, making it what the new Arctic theme was to the old and not another Power Miners, then by dang will I be getting some!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXKlC8ph7mM

OK, Afraid it is! Done! 'If the colors clash, will the cars crash?' Was kinda a pain to make, but turned quite decent. Now if you excuse me, its almost 1 in the morning here, so this dragon is going to sleep now.