42215 Volvo EC500 Hybrid Excavator

[allanp]

1 hour ago, Jundis said:

Thats really bugging me: This would have been such an easy solution to overcome the slow movement.

Easy maybe. Ideal? No. Linear actuators will never work well in a flagship sized model, too inefficient and too far from reality. Previous flagship excavators have all been too slow and mostly too weak. 42100 needed 7 motors just to not be too weak but it was still far too slow. Gear the movements up to match that of a real excavator and it too would have been too weak.

Lets imagine this, one new motor with the same internal motor as the buggy motor driving 8 pneumatic pumps providing air to one small air tank (not too big as you want it to refill to a higher pressure quickly for maximum responsiveness to the controls) which then goes to something this size or similar: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/pneumatic-piston-rod-cylinders/3043533, and now we have POWAH! Now we're building for real. 

Would it be expensive? Yes, but it'd be worth it. The value would be there.

PS, regarding the child safety screws on the battery box, do we really need them on a battery box that holds AA batteries? Coin cells and maybe AAA batteries okay, but double AA? IMHO it would be better for us and cheaper for Lego if we have a battery lid that hooks in one end and clips into the other like before. Then if needed add a single retaining screw or 2 to the end that clips in. We as the customer could then just leave them out.

[Auroralampinen]

I have now created mods and improvements topic for the 42215:). 

 

[Bartybum]

17 hours ago, allanp said:

PS, regarding the child safety screws on the battery box, do we really need them on a battery box that holds AA batteries?

I was under the impression that the screws were required by EU law

[Paul B Technic]

8 minutes ago, Bartybum said:

I was under the impression that the screws were required by EU law

It is becoming more of a common thing... We have had to install the screw in an AC remote, in a locked server room, in a professional office...
0.0001% chance of a kid ever being in there, let alone opening the remote and eating the AAA batteries.

[Bartybum]

55 minutes ago, Paul B Technic said:

eating the AAA batteries

Don't knock it till you try it, they're a pretty tasty snack

[Amt0571]

42043 was half the cost and included pneumatics, suspension, and its functions worked. 42082, again, was half the price (and almost dpuble the pieces), and its functions worked well.

This has an exhorbitantly high price with few functions that you can't play with because you'll get to retirement age before you have managed to fully lift the arm.

 

Frankly, lately lego, and especially technic, is a constant dissapointment, both on the type of sets released and pricing.

Edited Friday at 10:12 AM by Amt0571

[Ngoc Nguyen]

It really makes me wonder why the motor is gear down that significantly. Both this set and 42082 are designed by the same person, and they use the same gearbox concept. The transmissions in 42082 are even longer than those in this set, since they go through a mode switch before getting to the bidirectional switch, and those going to the outriggers are even longer. Yet the speed of functions in 42082 are decent, and the functions work just fine. Not to mention, the PU L motor has more torque output than the PF L motor. Therefore to say that the reduced speed is required to increase torques doesnt really make sense. Unless the arm in this set is so inefficiently designed that it needs more torque for all functions than any of the function in 42082.

[Bartybum]

58 minutes ago, Ngoc Nguyen said:

Yet the speed of functions in 42082 are decent, and the functions work just fine.

Difference is that a mobile crane can have slow functions, whereas an excavator kinda can't

[Anio]

1 hour ago, Ngoc Nguyen said:

Both this set and 42082 are designed by the same person

Source ?

1 hour ago, Ngoc Nguyen said:

The transmissions in 42082 are even longer than those in this set, since they go through a mode switch before getting to the bidirectional switch, and those going to the outriggers are even longer. Yet the speed of functions in 42082 are decent, and the functions work just fine. Not to mention, the PU L motor has more torque output than the PF L motor. Therefore to say that the reduced speed is required to increase torques doesnt really make sense. Unless the arm in this set is so inefficiently designed that it needs more torque for all functions than any of the function in 42082.

I had the same thinking, and couldn't really figure out why it was that slow. When I look how 42215 gearbox is built, it seems pretty good. I mean, the model has complex mechanisms, but it is no crazy gearing. When a function is engaged, there are just a few red clutch gear rotating needlessly on other functions. This doesn't cause a lot of extra friction.

Maybe the mechanism are needlessly strong (high torque), and it would be possible to trade some of that torque for speed.

[Ngoc Nguyen]

7 minutes ago, Anio said:

Source ?

My bad I dont have a source. I remembered it wrong, Olav is the designer for 42209, not this set.

[Ngoc Nguyen]

Who wants to see Sariel roast this set? 

 

Obligatory tag: @Maaboo the Witch

[Jockos]

The only sign TLG will read from (presumably) bad sales is people don't like construction machines = make more cars 

:( :(

[Toastie]

47 minutes ago, Jockos said:

don't like construction machines

Don't like disastrously designed LEGO construction machines of 2025, right?

Best
Thorsten

P.S.: Vacation weeks coming up. Billund is 60 km away from Fanø, where family including me will spend two weeks of true North Sea winds. Selected members of the family, including me  have tickets for Billund ... I visited about 10 times in the distant (1969) to recent (2023) past. I just want to breathe the spirit of the good'ol sections again. And browse their "super store" for ... well ... presumably nothing. Or maybe for something, but certainly not current sets. Billund does not have any discounts on current sets, of course not. But maybe for some weird stuff. And if not: Just checking out. Esbjerg is on the way back to Fanø - and there are many thrift stores ... I'll visit Billund whenever I can, as I still remember the summer of 69 ...

[allanp]

57 minutes ago, Jockos said:

The only sign TLG will read from (presumably) bad sales is people don't like construction machines = make more cars 

:( :(

I hope not. Going to brickset and looking at all Technic sets and ranking them by number of sets owned, sure the top 3 are BIG cars with complex drive trains, (not smaller scale cars that we seem to be getting so many of) but in 4th place is the Arocs, followed by a mix of construction machinery and cars. The only control+ set in the top 50 is 42100, in 38th place (although it should probably be 37th as weirdly, brickset has a tribute to the Lego house set above it?). 

[howitzer]

23 hours ago, Ngoc Nguyen said:

It really makes me wonder why the motor is gear down that significantly. Both this set and 42082 are designed by the same person, and they use the same gearbox concept. The transmissions in 42082 are even longer than those in this set, since they go through a mode switch before getting to the bidirectional switch, and those going to the outriggers are even longer. Yet the speed of functions in 42082 are decent, and the functions work just fine. Not to mention, the PU L motor has more torque output than the PF L motor. Therefore to say that the reduced speed is required to increase torques doesnt really make sense. Unless the arm in this set is so inefficiently designed that it needs more torque for all functions than any of the function in 42082.

The outriggers of 42082 were really slow though.

[m00se]

15 hours ago, Ngoc Nguyen said:

Who wants to see Sariel roast this set? 

Quote

Pros: If you want to spend less on LEGO this year, this set will help.

Never seen such a negative review from a well known reviewer. We already had pretty big price increases over the past years, but then at least there was a lot of positive to say about these sets. This one is just a disgrace to me.

[Oh_Hi_Mao]

The set is roasted hard. And it deserves it. For me this set went from likely purchase for ~240 EUR  to unlikely purchase at any price. I would simply feel bitter if I would have it on my shelf.  And this comes  from person who defended 42146 and has every construction flagship from 2011 ! Silly silly decisions from TLG :( 

[Ngoc Nguyen]

10 minutes ago, Oh_Hi_Mao said:

who defended 42146

One does not simply defend the 42146 tho

[Lim CL]

6 hours ago, m00se said:

Never seen such a negative review from a well known reviewer. We already had pretty big price increases over the past years, but then at least there was a lot of positive to say about these sets. This one is just a disgrace to me.

Because it really bad. Unplayable.  44 Sec for rise / lower Boom , 44 Sec to rise / lower  Stick , 23 Sec for rise / lower the bucket.  Almost 2 minute to do whole things.  Positive thing to say? what positive thing? New triangle pieces? that not exclusive. Jan 2026 set will have it. Big prices increase yes but Airbus helicopter 200 USD and now jump to 430 USD?   For alot old AFOL own 8043, This set gets even lower score. 

[Paul B Technic]

That review said what i think a lot of people also think, it simply stinks.

[Bartybum]

Just found information from Alex Nune's review on YouTube about the final set weight: ~2.36kg with six AA batteries, so about 2.13kg empty.

From memory, 42100 was almost 6.5kg.

[Aleh]

So this is the second technic flagship after 42070 which I don't want to own.
The bucket itself looks interesting for MOCs, no more...

44 minutes ago, Bartybum said:

Just found information from Alex Nune's review on YouTube about the final set weight: ~2.36kg with six AA batteries, so about 2.13kg empty.

Oh, that's nice, because I'm currently building some new tracked MOC with almost the same track's sizea and the superstructure with chassis and tracks weights already 2,2 KG without BB and it's 90-95% ready :)
But the number of PF motors is seven I think...

[mpj]

I think this excavator is a display model only, they added the gearbox to improve the building experience, and they added the motor just to change the position of the arm without rotating knobs manually.

The official pictures show actually the model on a shelf, and a guy changing the position of the arm, nothing more.

This model is definitely not something to play with, and that's something we can be happy or not, but it was TLG choice and that's all.

The price is actually the price of a full rc model, so this is my only criticism.