[REVIEW] 42114 - Volvo Articulated Hauler

[ShaydDeGrai]

On July 31, 2020 at 4:50 PM, Erik Leppen said:

That said though, this very point highlights the biggest weakness of this whole powered-up drama. What comes in the box, is not the complete package ...

Aside from, in my opinion, spoiling the fun, not having the "complete package" in the box seriously diminishes the potential of these sets as gifts.  I was always taught that a true gift should never place an unexpected burden or expectation on the recipient and, unless you're accompanying each gifted powered-up kit with a preconfigured iPad, that's exactly what you're doing; you're giving someone a partial gift, assuming they already own hardware that works with it and expecting them to download an app to make your "gift" complete.  It might not seem like much to a generation that grew up using cell phones for everything except keeping their parents informed as to where they were and what they were doing, but to my generation, Ii.e. the parents of the those kids and the ones often burdened with completing the gift received by the child) that's just impolite.

On August 1, 2020 at 10:50 AM, JayCal said:

Hmmm, maybe I'm just an old fart  I always believed that Lego was the ultimate distraction toy for kids and adults to get them far away from phones/tablets/screens, the lot. Nowadays it seems you can't separate the two. Bummer (for me at least).

If that's the definition of an Old Fart these days then sign me up for the club.  And it's not just my daughter for whom I'm trying to use Lego as a distraction from screen time, it's me.  I stare at screens all day long and the absolute last thing I want is to let aspects of my job bleed into my hobby.

I appreciate the flexibility and adaptability of using something like the Control+ App.  I used to teach courses in robotics and worked with the RoboLab development team for the original RCX, so I understand the appeal at a "Mindstorms-level" of complexity.  But the app isn't _that_ sort of controller, it's gratuitous sound and graphics at the expense of haptic feedback (physical controls that can be turned, pushed, clicked, etc.) which physiologists, development psych and child development studies have found is very important for mental and fine motor skills development/refinement in kids and teens.  Touch screens are fine for adults well past college years, but touch screens actually retard brain, dexterity and muscle development in younger people compared to performing similar tasks with game controllers and RC consoles, This set, and indeed all Powered-Up kits, would become far better gifts and better ( developmentally for their target audience ) kits if they included a physical remote with levers, buttons and/or dials.  They could support an app as well for those who wanted it (just like the online alternate build instructions I've ignored for every Technic 2 in 1 kit I've every purchased) - but out of the box, it should be physically complete, screen-free, and any software it actually _needs_ should be burned onto a chip and buried in a shell of ABS along with the rest of the parts.

[Citromon]

On 8/1/2020 at 5:50 PM, JayCal said:

Hmmm, maybe I'm just an old fart  I always believed that Lego was the ultimate distraction toy for kids and adults to get them far away from phones/tablets/screens, the lot.

Same here. I would never buy such a set to my kid (only at 16+). They already spend too much time in phones. And if I want him to learn some codding - there are more appropriate toys out there for that.

[1gor]

33 minutes ago, Citromon said:

Same here. I would never buy such a set to my kid (only at 16+). They already spend too much time in phones. And if I want him to learn some codding - there are more appropriate toys out there for that.

Interesting is that people who were pioneers in IT they let huge amount of money to schools to prevent computer using in early childhood, instead of that let kids play outside, so I agree that this set is for someone 16+ (IMHO)

[TeamThrifty]

There's some very interesting points above... i'll admit i'm pro C+, mainly because i see the potential. And i kind of assume phones and tablets are here to stay and most people have them. Lego are adapting to the times...

BUT! I read the comments above and the points made a totally valid, so although i have a different opinion, I also agree with the opposite view!! @JayCal @ShaydDeGrai @I_Igor ... I agree with you, even though i disagree   I guess what i'm really saying, is that at a selfish level, C+ works great for me... but as you've all pointed out, its not universally great for everyone. Always a valuable lesson to be gained listening to others (considered) opinions... 

[1gor]

@TeamThrifty the reason for my post is s bit off topic, but I had 6 eye operations (surgery) directly or indirectly dealing with using (IT) technology (and at the moment of writing I use "smartphone"). Last 15 years I work in education and teens spent 8+ hours (in school) in front of PCs. The consequences are horrible, not just from psychology's point of view, but bad sight, limited sight... sensitive eyes on wind sun...weaker or damaged eye nerve, short-sighted...one of my students (19 years had to go for cornea implantation...)... (Weaknesses of back muscles can be solved with exercises). That is my point, it is very nice to have creative hobby but health of new generation is on first place.

At least we agree when building tractors 

 

Once again sorry for off topic.

Edited August 5, 2020 by I_Igor

[TeamThrifty]

@I_Igor.. exactly. Its a real benefit to be able to read the thoughts and experiences of others, something i appreciate. It helps put my own thoughts into perspective, and has probably changed my opinion... which is very humbling! I think i'd now like to have a physical controller with no touch screen.... this is the benefit of group discussion when done properly, with reasoned debate. I'm a (slightly) wiser man... 

[1gor]

58 minutes ago, TeamThrifty said:

@I_Igor.. exactly. Its a real benefit to be able to read the thoughts and experiences of others, something i appreciate. It helps put my own thoughts into perspective, and has probably changed my opinion... which is very humbling! I think i'd now like to have a physical controller with no touch screen.... this is the benefit of group discussion when done properly, with reasoned debate. I'm a (slightly) wiser man... 

We all learn through our life and it isn't easy journey, more like bumpy ride and healthy conversation based on facts and honest experience can only help.

Regards my friend

[Verodin]

Currently building this and I'm encountering massive friction in step 58. The red gear (18946, Gear 16 Tooth with Clutch on Both Sides) is grinding in between the 2 yellow beams. Anyone else noticed or having this issue?

[kbalage]

38 minutes ago, Verodin said:

Currently building this and I'm encountering massive friction in step 58. The red gear (18946, Gear 16 Tooth with Clutch on Both Sides) is grinding in between the 2 yellow beams. Anyone else noticed or having this issue?

Something is very wrong there, take it apart and start again.

5 hours ago, ShaydDeGrai said:

Aside from, in my opinion, spoiling the fun, not having the "complete package" in the box seriously diminishes the potential of these sets as gifts.

I guess then Mindstorms, Boost, or any other advanced set is also out of the picture as "gift". Nowadays IT and coding becomes more and more part of early education, it's not uncommon to have such classes in school under the age of 10. It's quite interesting to see parents freaking out when they see a LEGO set with smartphone control but the formal IT education in school is completely fine. 

[Verodin]

Just now, kbalage said:

Something is very wrong there, take it apart and start again.

Checked and it's build correctly. Also same problem, same red gear between the grey gears in step 38. The gears are just too thick for the construction.

It's premature for any conclusions, but I'm getting a nasty feeling that TLG is cheapening out on the moulds or something.

[Gimmick]

7 minutes ago, Verodin said:

Checked and it's build correctly. Also same problem, same red gear between the grey gears in step 38. The gears are just too thick for the construction.

It's premature for any conclusions, but I'm getting a nasty feeling that TLG is cheapening out on the moulds or something.

I had exactly the same problem.

I did some tests with other liftarms, sleeves and axe stoppers as spacers, red gears from my parts box.... and it actually never realy worked, the red gear was always too thick for a friction free rotation. I replaced them with a normal 16 teeth gear and a 3L axle.

Edit: I will try some other combinations tomorrow or at the weekend.

Edited August 5, 2020 by Gimmick

[ShaydDeGrai]

19 hours ago, kbalage said:

 IT and coding becomes more and more part of early education, it's not uncommon to have such classes in school under the age of 10. It's quite interesting to see parents freaking out when they see a LEGO set with smartphone control but the formal IT education in school is completely fine. 

Actually, when I was in academia (and years before either the smart phone was invented or I became a parent) I had a multi-million dollar grant from the US National Science Foundation to address the very tricky (and still open) question of how to preserve the benefits (critical thinking, math and logic skills) of having coding and IT in the classroom while minimizing the detrimental effects (retarding certain brain and body development, eye strain, circadian rhythm disruption, etc.) of screen time in early childhood education.  It was (and remains) a hard problem and our most promising solutions were neither cheap nor easy on the developer side of things compared to just writing code.  We got significant pushback from educational software publishers (particularly from the more commercial side of things) who wanted to push the narrative of "IT in the classroom is better than no IT in the classroom" (which on one level is very true but too often the real agenda was "cheap and easy equals profitable, doing it right cuts into our margins and would take real effort")  So I'll agree that, in this day and age, formal IT education is important, but the way it's taught isn't always "completely fine" and it's just cheaper to play with touchscreens, apps and dumbed down copies of MatLab and LabView than to wire up breadboards, or play with chips, or smart bricks, etc. and screen based instruction scales better when you have an overloaded student to teacher ratio.  It doesn't mean the kids are learning more or developing properly.  There's room for improvement and things like the Control+ app is a step in the wrong direction for certain audiences - for others, it's fine.  

As one small part of the research, I ran an after school program for 5 year olds.  We build robots with Lego.  We programmed them with PLAs using a custom code generator that scanned in hand-drawn flow charts and state diagrams produced by the kids (with templates and stickers), and controlled them with physical remotes.  After three months, we had kids doing 8th and 9th grade (usually 14-16 year old age range) algebra and trig problems on paper as part of their design process while their peers with the latest in education software were still learning their alphabet and, with the help of Dora the Explorer, were learning more about how their game controller worked than anything the game was trying to teach about Geography.  Our lab was about new technology being taught in the abstract with practical applications, using hands-on old-school teaching methods and the kids picked it up like I was teaching them how to eat pizza.  So I know there's better things we can be doing than staring at screens when it comes to early childhood education.

 

[howitzer]

1 hour ago, ShaydDeGrai said:

<snip>

As one small part of the research, I ran an after school program for 5 year olds.  We build robots with Lego.  We programmed them with PLAs using a custom code generator that scanned in hand-drawn flow charts and state diagrams produced by the kids (with templates and stickers), and controlled them with physical remotes.  After three months, we had kids doing 8th and 9th grade (usually 14-16 year old age range) algebra and trig problems on paper as part of their design process while their peers with the latest in education software were still learning their alphabet and, with the help of Dora the Explorer, were learning more about how their game controller worked than anything the game was trying to teach about Geography.  Our lab was about new technology being taught in the abstract with practical applications, using hands-on old-school teaching methods and the kids picked it up like I was teaching them how to eat pizza.  So I know there's better things we can be doing than staring at screens when it comes to early childhood education.

 

Wow, this sounds really amazing, I have to wonder why there aren't such classes available more widely? Couple of years ago I put my kid (then 4 years old) into a hobby with robotics, and there they were taught with Lego, but the small kids class (for 4-6 years old) never touched anything programmable, it was strictly about mechanical aspects (gearing etc.) of robotics with PF motors. The more advanced class for 7+ years gets into Mindstorms, but suspect they might benefit a lot from the flow chart-code generator thing, and for that matter, so would adults. I, for one, don't know much about programming and I'd be really interested on using such low-bar approach in learning the basics.

[TeamThrifty]

3 hours ago, howitzer said:

I have to wonder why there aren't such classes available more widely

Because the last thing those of us who earn their living as software developers want, is young whizz kids coming through making us look daft!!  Pesky kids!!