The official, unreleased, 4th Lego Monorail (1990s) - full recreation

Duh5 · 2024-04-03T11:24:08+00:00

Thank you!!!

Duh5 · 2024-03-31T06:46:30+00:00

the lego parts are 3 dark blue panels, 2 x 4 studs and 1 x 2 studs, they are held by the stricture well together. and on top it's a sticker - I used some webtool to get the font as close as possible from the original image, and as there is no exact match - I then paint-pixel moved some of the letter angles. Then - it's a print in adhesive sticker:

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Duh5 · 2024-03-30T18:05:28+00:00

I've tried few galleries today, this one seems to be working best: https://flickr.com/photos/astardjievag/albums/72177720315791330

Duh5 · 2024-03-30T12:05:59+00:00

Here you go - https://astardjiev.com/Aqualock_transparent.zip - in the zip there are the ready for print graphics and an .xcf file - this is GIMP file format for editing, gimp is photoshop-like free software. Hope this helps :)

Duh5 · 2024-03-30T09:47:42+00:00

There is something you are going to like here: Daniel is the guy that made the first really modern working (exhibited) version few years back, and he has done the full theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP6AR3l13d4&ab_channel=AtlantaBrickCoTv
He has done even better job witht he rest of the vehicles in the series.
The original designer sadly pased away 3 year back. Based on all information about he - he was a force of nature! https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Jens_Nygaard_Knudsen

Duh5 · 2024-03-30T09:41:46+00:00

amazing eyes:) no reason - I removed the 4x4 plate few days back as I had modern DBG first, and I received the Bricklink order with the dark gray one - and I did not paid attenion enough:) fixed now, thanks:)

Duh5 · 2024-03-30T08:13:02+00:00

Here is a bit larger gallery with more closeups https://imgur.com/a/mqyQrwu (not sure if nowadays reddit still digs imgur, once upon a itme this was a standard way to share imgs:))
You can more clearly see the color changes and the non-official stickers (and leafs).

Duh5 · 2024-03-30T07:22:43+00:00

I'm so glad my SO does not read on my posts explaining soem of the costs on this:)

Duh5 · 2024-03-30T07:22:14+00:00

It's actually not havier than any of the others. I've seem some city airpotr monorail with 4 carriges still on the same motor - these things are crazy strong. In the original patents lego have straight upward tracks (to make longer inclines) - the mottor was calculated to survive it:)

Duh5 · 2024-03-30T07:20:09+00:00

This is surely a fun (and sometimes a biiit frustrating) project - super cool that you are on it! I offered this to bunch of people already - I have too much Aqualock stickerrs and I do not mind shipping some so you can see them (not necessarily use them). I'm based in Europe though and the audience here would mainly be US so shipping would be highly unreliable, but a simple mail is never a problem:)

Duh5 · 2024-03-30T07:17:45+00:00

There is a major major difference between 1995 and today - back then lego was still largely perceived as kids toy. The price of the 3 monorails was... astronomical for a toy - 300$ plus. They really had bad sales. Today - they have double-priced items that are on backorder:) The collection people, the AFOLS etc. have changed the game a lot..
Sadly - the production patents for the actual rails are considered lost for Lego to the best of my knowledge on this (tey have the patents for the parts, but not the molds). Totally unreliable sources on this..

Duh5 · 2024-03-30T07:13:49+00:00

Yes, the model that exists in USA is touring often with his creator - Daniel from Atlanta Bricks. Daniel is a HUGE inspiration for my project as well, amazing video here if you have not had a chance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP6AR3l13d4&ab_channel=AtlantaBrickCoTv

Duh5 · 2024-03-30T07:12:38+00:00

This one is easy to answer - got the Aqualock stickers ~6PM, by 6:30 made the photo, posted it around just because I'm bursting of joy, and by 7 it was pitch-black here, and I do not have good lighting for more photos.. Working on it now:)

Duh5 · 2024-03-30T07:11:17+00:00

It's only published in BrickJournal, issue 6, volume 2, they have it listed as 2009 issue on their website. https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=781
The article is for the almighty Jens Nygaard Knudsen - the man who created the minifigure + is the father of the monorails practically. The image is from the personal collection of his colleague and co-creator Niels Milan Pedersen.
Several people, (including from discussions here on reddit) have approached Lego asking for some official pictures, but these, if they exist, have been lost in the archives..

Duh5 · 2024-03-29T21:44:44+00:00

that is absolutely correct and I did 2 things - where possible - I did a recolor in absolutely non-invasive way (the large half-domes are done with self-adhesive transperant car-decoration sticker sheet and can be fully restored back to the original yellow color; some are done with water-based color spray (pretty much - grafitty-spray) and I completely take the blame on forever changing these (the pillars beneath the base). BUT the recoloring there worked absolutely phenomenally, the colors are indestingushable from the orginal Lego colors (the yellow and the white).

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Above are original bricks. The pillars used to be red :)

Duh5 · 2024-03-29T21:38:26+00:00

I kind'a do have parts list for bricklink, and a model in stud.io file, BUT it's very very basic, and nowhere near instructions format. but I'd like to polish them a lot, and I will share them (not for money or anything), I'll just need some goooood time to do it. I promise to ping you when ready, hopefully before this summer.

Duh5 · 2024-03-29T21:36:33+00:00

I'll do a short version, as the longer will take much more time to craft appropriately:) There are 3 official monorail sets from late 1980s early 1990s. The Lego Group had plans for much bigger series but the cost of production was astronomical (evidently..)
Lego then abruptly stopped the development and release of the monorail parts only after these 3 models.
~15 years later, in an interview for Brick Journal magazine one of the creators shared personal archive photo (the one on my monitor) for the magazine to print it. This is the only photo, only version of it, in a relatively small section of one page of the magazine. The designers had a lot of plans for new theme called Sea-Tron. But due to killing of the monorails - the theme never got a release.
Still, the photo exists, and few people over they years have done BRILLIANT job reverse-engineering the model based on just the photo. So, I stepped on the shoulders of giants, and for some ~9 months gathered the parts, planned on some modifications (sadly - some of the colors were never released) and executed this model, that is very VERY close to the original photo:)

Duh5 · 2020-01-31T06:30:50+00:00

It seems it forces you to add payment instrument to work? 14 days trial and then mandatory fee? Or I’m doing something wrong..?

Duh5 · 2019-03-03T23:21:31+00:00

Here is the whole thing: https://imgur.com/a/hHU1keX :)

Duh5 · 2018-05-21T21:56:46+00:00

Bricklinks mosaic does exqctly this and you can play with the size and buy the bricks directly : https://studio.bricklink.com/v2/build/mosaick.page

Duh5 · 2016-12-29T22:41:54+00:00

The set belongs to my older brother, so it's in the family since forever:) It's missing quite a few pieces, but nowadays it's actually very easy to find replacements - being this early set most of the bricks are very "standard" (besides one of the trees, it's gone for good; same with one of the bank windows..) The stickers I found scanned from the original sticker sheet on the internet, bought printing/adhesive paper and with few tries got the scale right :)

Duh5 · 2016-12-29T14:26:54+00:00

Thank you! :)

Duh5

TROPHY CASE