Educators: What's Your Workaround for a Lack of These?
If you have the Education Base Set, you don't have any 3 x 3 bent beams with pins (pictured above). If the Education Base Set is all you have, how do you deal with a lack of these pins?:
A) Buy the Education Resource Set.
B) Buy the NXT Retail Kit.
C) Buy them on Bricklink.com (good luck).
D) You don't miss what you never had.
E) Buy them wholesale from Steve Hassenplug. (Just kidding, Steve!)
F) Use Jim Kelly's workarounds, listed
G) Some other solution.
Comments
I agree--these pins should be available for bulk purchase.
The short wires you mention are available from mindsensors.com. That doesn't make them legal for FLL use, but they are available.
Rick
I never had them and I live without them just like I did before...
You can see what I mean by viewing their team video here.
I think I'll have to pick up some extras to use with my edu-base only instruction.
-David
The connect is fine when the connected part(s) are forced towards the "L". This is the way they were intended to be used. I doubt you can "hang" weight directly from any other pin type connection without some other locking parts to prevent disconnection. These are not "friction" pins and so the connection is going to be a bit loose.
I like any new part manufactured which can provide more building options. There are a lot of parts I wish I had at my disposal. These are fantastic elements in particular. Bulk packs are definitely needed.
Chris
I practiced very loose inventory control when I ran my LEGO club. I wasn't worried about kids stealing from me, but then again, neither the kids nor I knew that there was such value in such a small, pocketable part.
Seems to me that LEGO should offer these as a bulk item if, for no other reason, to discourage theft.
I wonder how much a red prototype would be worth?
Steve
Josh
I also really hope that LEGO will make (for future molds) the pin fit tighter in holes, so that the backlash is eliminated.
Kirk
The pros include that fact that they are bulky and have lots of ways to connect. This makes it easy to 'sketch out' a construction, if you will, and see how it fits with whatever your plan is. Also useful for say, boosting a beam over by one M.
Some models, I use them helter skelter, some I may use none at all. That said, I wish I had more.
--Peter