RebrickMat 2.0 now available

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Their website has images with a real piece placed on each colour. I got billed approx £30 to the UK. We will fit 1x1 round plates to a white plate in the same pattern as the mat as a comparison tool. Really useful article thanks Huw :)

Je pense que je suis moins exigeant que d'autres. A mon niveau, le premier me satisfaisait déjà. Cette nouvelle version attendra un peu mais finira sur mon second plan de travail.

Are all the pictures and numbers actually useful, or are they basically meaningless?

@Freddy_Hodson said:
"Are all the pictures and numbers actually useful, or are they basically meaningless?"

They are indeed usefull.

@Huw said:
" @WideWonderfulWilliam said:
"My comment on the swatches isn't a slight against the mat itself. It's a good product, I have two of the v1 mat. It's mostly that I see nothing here that convinces me to upgrade to v2."

I totally agree - there's no reason to upgrade if you have v1, which is still a great product.

"

Fully agree! I also own v1 and I am still very satisfied.

@Huw said:
"I think it's unreasonable to expect colours printed onto a matte material to be an exact match for LEGO colours. Even LEGO can't manage it on its stickers sometimes."

Sometimes?
More like almost all the time.
Honestly, if you want colour matching LEGO stickers you have to hope for transparent ones.

Doesn't the stud on the side of an erling brick (top left) stick out further than the base? The diagram doesn't seem to show that.

@Huw said:
" @alLEGOry_HJB2810 said:
" wonder how the thick, soft material changes the building experience compared to building on a hard surface? I can imagine this being weirdly different in a satisfying way."

Totally life changing! I hate building on a hard surface!

"
Don’t suppose you’d be willing to expand on that? I’m curious about the differences.

@CDM said:
" @Huw said:
" @Hiratha said:
" @Huw said:
" @alLEGOry_HJB2810 said:
" wonder how the thick, soft material changes the building experience compared to building on a hard surface? I can imagine this being weirdly different in a satisfying way."

Totally life changing! I hate building on a hard surface! "
Don’t suppose you’d be willing to expand on that? I’m curious about the differences."

Where to start.... parts don't roll about, you don't (potentially) bang the corners of your model on a hard surface when handling them, pieces such as 1x1 tiles are much easier to pick up, parts won't get scratched by a harder material, tipping pieces out of bags is quieter, picking pieces up from a warm, soft surface is more pleasant for your fingertips.

Is that enough reasons? :-)

"

I like to use a hard, flat surface to align pieces, particularly 1 x 1 plate, with the rest of an assembly. Few things bug me more than when a 1 x 1 is ever so slightly rotated, leaving a noticeable snag."
Same here. I would NEVER want to build on anything other than a hard, totally flat surface.

@Brick_t_ said:
"Just in case you hesitate, I have the first version, and don't regret the purchase a single second. Excellent quality, building my sets on it is really satisfying very pleasant. I had ordered it thanks to Brickset when it was reviewed. "

Well said . Seconded!

Why are the axles not complete, for example the 5.5 is missing?

@Huw said:
" @Hiratha said:
" @Huw said:
" @alLEGOry_HJB2810 said:
" wonder how the thick, soft material changes the building experience compared to building on a hard surface? I can imagine this being weirdly different in a satisfying way."

Totally life changing! I hate building on a hard surface! "
Don’t suppose you’d be willing to expand on that? I’m curious about the differences."

Where to start.... parts don't roll about, you don't (potentially) bang the corners of your model on a hard surface when handling them, pieces such as 1x1 tiles are much easier to pick up, parts won't get scratched by a harder material, tipping pieces out of bags is quieter, picking pieces up from a warm, soft surface is more pleasant for your fingertips.

Is that enough reasons? :-)

"

Thank you! Does it also cushion the joints a little bit? I have awful hands for Reasons and I like my wooden building tray just fine, but if it could be upgraded to make building things less of a take-three-days-break-minimum-afterwards situation that’s a very interesting proposition.

The retired color choices are confusing. Paradisa "Pink" over old brown? And there's room to add another blue (maybe Maersk blue?) and grays (light stone gray?).

I use a Fiskars self-healing cutting mat, 18" x 24" grid.
Works greats. Only $18usd.

I don't see the point. I either use the box lid or the sofa cushion next to me!

Kinda like the idea but it would overhang my build table by about 2"

@Links said:
"I don't see the point. I either use the box lid or the sofa cushion next to me! "

Mon Dieu!

@HOBBES said:
"
The top description is in mm. I would prefer that in Lego units (LU). A lego 1x1 brick is 20 LU x 20 LU with a height of 24 LU. It is a much more useful unit to work with when you are dealing with mixing plates, studs, brackets and erling brick (i.e. snot work). The recess in the erling brick and the width of the brackets is 4 LU which is half the width of the thickness of a plate."

Very interesting system! Where does his come from?

@Huw said:
" @Hiratha said:
" @Huw said:
" @alLEGOry_HJB2810 said:
" wonder how the thick, soft material changes the building experience compared to building on a hard surface? I can imagine this being weirdly different in a satisfying way."

Totally life changing! I hate building on a hard surface! "
Don’t suppose you’d be willing to expand on that? I’m curious about the differences."

Where to start.... parts don't roll about, you don't (potentially) bang the corners of your model on a hard surface when handling them, pieces such as 1x1 tiles are much easier to pick up, parts won't get scratched by a harder material, tipping pieces out of bags is quieter, picking pieces up from a warm, soft surface is more pleasant for your fingertips.

Is that enough reasons? :-)

"

I build MOC's and LEGO sets on a tea towel or bath towel to protect the LEGO pieces.

@Huw said:
"I think it's unreasonable to expect colours printed onto a matte material to be an exact match for LEGO colours. Even LEGO can't manage it on its stickers sometimes."

Given the review of The Simpsons Living Room, they can't even manage it for their parts sometimes.

If you like the concept but find the cost too much or don't care for the graphic design, just search for "large mouse mat" on Amazon and you can find similar idea products for a much lower cost.

@Links said:
"I don't see the point. I either use the box lid or the sofa cushion next to me! "

I would like to reassure any sensitive Bricksetters that not all of us in the UK are so feral as to use cushions for a building surface.

We fight over our v1. It looks just as good as it did when we bought it, after reading the brickset review.

If you’d like a premium building surface, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. The measurement for axels and studs are genuinely useful, and the colour swatches may be off, but you’d be better with a DIY reference board anyway.

I got this one last year and its fantastic. I really enjoy it a lot and it helps to keep the pieces on the mat when you are opening bags and spilling things out onto the table. Highly recommend it!

@Jena said:
" @HOBBES said:
"
The top description is in mm. I would prefer that in Lego units (LU). A lego 1x1 brick is 20 LU x 20 LU with a height of 24 LU. It is a much more useful unit to work with when you are dealing with mixing plates, studs, brackets and erling brick (i.e. snot work). The recess in the erling brick and the width of the brackets is 4 LU which is half the width of the thickness of a plate."

Very interesting system! Where does his come from?"

Lego Tips & Bricks
https://www.tipsandbricks.co.uk/post/1418-tips-lego-dimensions-and-units

I have a v2 and my only negative is the contact transfer of odor and the taste on your fingertips you get after using the mat.

I have 2 of these for my die cast stuff, dream customs x Lamley group collabs.

I use a burled tiger oak heirloom table. I like some good wood with my ABS.

Funnily enough, I was designing my own take on this idea just last week. I like this, lots of useful data on it and a lot of ideas I hadn't thought of.
I just wish they did bigger versions, 1000x500 or even 1200x600 would be even better for me.

I have version 1 and when it arrived there was an issue with the border stitch printing not a big deal but they immediately sent me a replacement at no charge. I was very happy with their customer service. I never use the color matching feature anyway but it would be nice if they had an upgrade program for when V3 comes out.

@Freddy_Hodson:
Depends on your personal knowledge base, and what you build. Most of the information listed on this is stuff that I don't need a reference chart for. Back in my stagecraft days, I used to sort six lengths of drywall screws by calibrated eyeball, so part lengths aren't a problem. The SNOT techniques are pretty rudimentary, and I've regularly created more complex techniques of my own. I wouldn't be able to tell lengths of links by sight, but my trick for doing those is to divide the total number up into smaller sections, after which I only have to count out the pieces in one, which I can then use as a length guide for the rest. The only new information I got from the angle connectors is that there's now a no7 connector. I didn't know the angle of that particular beam...but I've also never cared. The gear ratios do provide one useful bit of info, which is gear compatibility, but I build with gears so rarely that I can just as easily look that up online. Most of the part relations in the upper right seem like common sense, except that the trick with the arch bricks only works with _some_ versions of the 1x6x2 arch (this was a problem with the original Bag-End, because they changed the arch design after the set went into production using the earlier geometry for the large window). The 1x1 bricks in the upper right look like they were borrowed from the LDraw parts library, because not only does the stud on the headlight brick not protrude like it does in real life, but the hole on the Technic brick looks perfectly aligned with the height of the stud next to it (Technic bricks have pin holes that sit a little higher, so they leave enough room underneath for the anti-studs). I know most of the colors by sight, and infrequently encounter the others.

@alLEGOry_HJB2810:
One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing parts that are not completely seated, so I prefer to either build where I can press the parts down against a rigid surface, or in open air where I can compress the part from both sides.

@CDM:
You can also use a long brick, plate, tile, or beam to align rows, which they even show you in the instructions for Rivendell.

@IgelCampus:
Unless you find a really old one, the 2L axle is always notched. Of the other three that I can think of, two of them (including the one you mention) have a flange near one end that makes them distinct. The other missing axle is the 30L, which is really hard to get mixed up with anything shorter. The other axles that aren't listed are only distinct from the ones that are by the presence of a flange at the very tip, but they still match up with the listed lengths.

@HOBBES:
The geometry of the techniques is deceptive, because the part borders blend in with some of the part colors, causing them to look thicker than they actually should. Either the border color should have been completely different from the part colors, or they should have skipped the border altogether.

@Jena:
The proper term is LDU, which stands for LDraw Unit. When creating the original DOS-based LDraw, James Jessiman needed _a_ unit of measure to show relation between the various parts, and because it was CAD-based, it didn't need to be an actual real-world UM. At least at the time it was created, the LDU was a "lowest common denominator" UM, making it simple to write the part files, and to program the positioning, at a time when I believe everything had to be written in text format before you could run it through an image generator to see if you needed to make any changes. Long before I ever started designing MOCs on a computer, there were several GUI-based options available that let you see the parts as you manipulated their position and rotation, but the original LDraw program persists by way of the extensive parts catalog that has been built up.

@stefwaffles:
There is nothing so relaxing as watching TV while assembling a MOC on the sofa (after you've done all the design work on a computer, usually also while watching TV). I frequently use a laptop computer pillow to hold the instruction book, and sometimes the parts. Or I build out of the bag. Or I got a couple of the VIP Rewards bucket hats that I can dump pieces into. And I generally don't flail about such that I'd knock pieces across the room.

@StyleCounselor:
Have you ever been to Yellowstone? We went in 2017, and I spent part of a day running around, taking pictures of every staircase in the Old House section of the Old Faithful Inn, which is the most extensive use of burled wood that I've seen in my lifetime.

I have version 1 when it came out a year ago and a permanent placement on my LEGO room desk. In addition to building, acts as a great mouse pad for the laptop. It does allow for quick reference of part/element size, axle lengths, angles...etc versus counting studs or technic beam holes. Honestly, I didn't think the element pictures and graphs were going to be of any use and just there for show, but after quick sorting of set bags and using the mat it's become second nature to use and don't even think about it. :) Do I need version 2...no. Is it a bit pricey...the price is a direct result of the build quality and practical use. You're going to pay the same price or higher for a large desk size mouse pad with your for gaming anyway...lol. Is it vital to your human existence or to ward off zombies during the apocalypse, probably not, but I do recommend.

@PurpleDave said:
" @StyleCounselor:
Have you ever been to Yellowstone? We went in 2017, and I spent part of a day running around, taking pictures of every staircase in the Old House section of the Old Faithful Inn, which is the most extensive use of burled wood that I've seen in my lifetime."

It's in my neck of the woods, so to speak. I seem to visit every five years or so. It never ceases to amaze me even with the crowds. I highly recommend a winter trip. The snow formations are incredible, and no crowds.

The historic hotel is awesome for those who love wood. Thank goodness it didn't burn in the fire.

My table has been in the family for four generations. Burled wood is tough to come by. My understanding is it's usually the result of disease. A lot of it gets sliced into thin veneers for high-end automobile interiors.

@mike_the_fireman said:
"Is it vital to your human existence or to ward off zombies during the apocalypse, probably not, but I do recommend."

Now I'm picturing rolling it up and swatting the zombies, like it was a newspaper and they were misbehaving dogs.

@StyleCounselor:
It's the result of stress, usually due to an infection, whether it be viral, bacterial, or fungal (they’re kind of like the pearls of woodworking in more than one regard). Small burls can be treated like an imperfection, because the bulk of the wood looks one way, and then you get this bit that's very different (even knots can cause pieces to be discarded as scrap wood when you're dealing with desks that price in the five figure range). But a burl that's large enough to work as a separate piece are a different matter entirely. In fact, they can be so valuable that there's a problem with poaching, even in national and state parks.

I think the burls of Old Faithful Inn were all sourced locally (all the materials used in the original construction were supposedly of local origin), and they're unusual because they're used whole (aside from being stripped of bark), without cutting them open. Usually when I see whole burls, it's part of a walking stick or a cane.

I use the first version as a desk mat at work. No odours or transfer at all. I use the brick and track pictures to check lengths but not much of the other graphics. It also makes typing more comfortable although most desk mats would. And it’s a great conversation piece with other Lego fans

For me, the accuracy of the colours is imperative, so I have the "Periodic Table of the LEGO Colours." It's not a good thing to build upon, but for colour accuracy, you can't beat the real brick.

@Watsonite said:
"I fail to see the use of this."

Then it's probably not for you. I would very much like to have one for colour matching, for a quick dimension check, for the snot technique visual reference, for having the part codes under my nose.
The more I see it, the more useful it seems.

Re stench: I ordered three copies of v1 since I really liked the idea, but unfortunately all of them are pretty much unusable thanks to an unbearable chemical smell. Just a simple touch meant that your fingers would smell, too, and even some intense sunlight treatment did not help.

I've since banned them to the basement, and to this day I can smell them when I walk near them :(
I wonder why some mats seem to be ok (at least based on the comments here) - do they have different factories?

@Huw

"until Saturday 14th June Brickset readers can get it for $40.50 when buying through this link to the Rebrickable merch store"

Followed the link but the discount is not there. I thought June 14th was the last date, or did the promotion stop already?