If you were one of our first customers, some of what looks like a fault in your kit is a known behaviour we can explain. Everything in the kit works. A handful of parts in that first run behave in ways the booklet does not prepare you for, and knowing about them saves a lot of time.
The full list of first production run notes lives at /pages/info. That page covers the printing and part differences: the LED resistor labelled 100 ohm where the booklet says 330, the Siren Sound IC that shipped purple instead of dark blue, kits that shipped black Wire Blocks in place of red, the Remote Control Block with + and - printed backwards on one face, the loose motor base and the reinforced Merry-Go-Round build that fixes it, the Patrol Car siren chip that may need rotating 180 degrees at step 53, the revised Expansion Kit Night Light build, and the manuals that have been superseded in print (look for V2 on the front of the Fire Truck and Candy Dispenser guides).
The four below are not on that page and are not written down anywhere else. They generate more "is this broken?" messages than anything else we see.
1. The potentiometer barely does anything
What you notice: you turn the dial and nothing changes for most of its travel. Then somewhere in the middle everything happens at once, over a very small movement.
Why: at one end of its travel the dial has close to zero resistance, so full power goes through and it behaves like a plain wire. At the other end the resistance is high enough that the circuit is effectively open. The band where turning the dial actually changes the resistance is very small, and it sits partway through the travel. That is a limitation of the knob hardware in this production run. It is doing what it is built to do.
What to do:
- For any build with a motor in it, turn the dial all the way to the full power end. A motor build usually needs everything the battery can give it.
- For dimming an LED, move the dial in very small increments and hunt for the band. Expect the useful range to be narrow.
- Do not ask us for a replacement dial. A replacement from the same run behaves exactly the same way, and we would rather not waste your time.
We are looking for a knob with a larger effective range for a future production run.
2. Builds run weaker through the Remote Control Block
What you notice: a motor driven through the Remote Control Block is noticeably weaker than the same motor connected straight to the Battery Block. Lights are dimmer, motors turn more slowly.
Why: there is a large voltage drop across this block, so less of the battery's output reaches whatever sits downstream of it. This is confirmed and known, and it is on our list to improve in a future version.
What to do:
- If a build needs full power, wire it directly and keep the remote for lighter loads.
- Start the build with a fully charged Battery Block. There is less headroom to spare through the remote.
- Do not treat it as a fault. A replacement block will behave the same.
Separately, some early Remote Control Blocks have the + and - printed backwards on one face. That one is on /pages/info. If the block seems to do nothing, try it the other way round before you conclude anything.
3. Sticky spring pins on some 1x2 blocks
What you notice: a gold pin on a 1x2 block compresses and then does not spring back on its own. You reset it with tweezers or a fingernail, and after a few connections it sticks again. The connection is on and off.
We do not have a good fix for this yet. We would rather say that than send you round in circles.
What we can do:
- If a pin does not spring back at all, that is a genuine fault. Tell us and we will replace the block free, with nothing to send back.
- Be aware that a replacement drawn from the same batch may behave the same way. We will say so if that is the case rather than quietly sending you another one.
And if you have found something that works, please tell us. We mean that. One customer catalogued three of these behaviours for us unprompted and we asked him the same thing. If you have a way of keeping these pins free that holds up, send it to us and we will pass it on to everyone else.
4. The green stud-to-wire block will not grip a stud on its own
This one is in the Expansion Kit.
What you notice: the green 1x2 stud-to-wire block sits on a stud and then falls straight off, or lifts away as soon as anything pulls on the wire.
Why: the underside geometry on this run is not right, so the grip is not strong enough to hold a stud by itself.
What to do:
- Place the block where you want it.
- Pin it down from above with a regular brick spanning it.
Done right, the block stays put under normal handling and you can move the wire without lifting it.
Replacing this one does not help. Every block from the same batch has the same underside. The mould is being reworked.
While we are being honest about fit
Two more things people notice in the first weeks:
- The clutch improves with use. Connections that feel loose or oddly tight when the kit is new settle down after a few dozen snaps. This is genuinely what we see, but it is also not a complete answer if a build is falling apart in a child's hands, and we know that.
- The motor and speaker bases are loose on this run. There is a reinforced build method for the Merry-Go-Round at /pages/info. The general approach is to give the motor more attachment points rather than relying on the single mounting spot.
Is my kit from the first run?
There is no batch code, date code or revision marker on the box or on the blocks, so we cannot give you something to look up. We would rather tell you that than invent a way of checking.
In practice, this page is the test. If you recognise the behaviours above in your own kit, you have an early one. If none of them sound familiar, you almost certainly do not.
If you need a definite answer, email us your order number. We can see what shipped on it and tell you straight.
Something here does not match what you are seeing
Anything on this page that behaves differently for you is worth reporting. Every note on this page started with somebody writing in, so tell us and we will add yours.
