42145 - Airbus H175 Rescue Helicopter

[Bartybum]

2 minutes ago, kbalage said:

So now we start to compare how fictional the story is?  C'mon... TLG's "no real life weapon" policy is bended all the time as the actual franchise requires... There are Marvel minifigs with weapons that look pretty realistic, yet they are released just because the movie is fictional. Apparently any weapon from a non-documentary movie is fine until it's not licensed from the manufacturer. 

This is not a story thing, it’s a grit and thematic thing. Despite the fantasy alien elements, Avatar has a pretty distinctly harder, more violent and realistic feel to it akin to Aliens than Star Wars, which is magic space wizards and bright flashy lasers. Especially when the vehicle in question is a dark green helicopter with guns dripping off it like an Apache.

[kbalage]

@Bartybum as I mentioned Marvel movies happen to have pretty violent and realistic scenes, yet here is Black Widow with a gun, or another Black Widow set where the characters have guns and even the helicopter is heavily armed. If these are ok then I don't see why any other "fictional" weapon should be not ok. Honestly I'm not a fan of realistic toy weapons in general but I think this fictional vs non-fictional approach is totally made up. 

[Maaboo the Witch]

1 hour ago, Bartybum said:

Avatar's military stuff would be considered hard science fiction, which is quite far from the science fantasy of Star Wars

That's not what "hard science fiction" means. Hard sci-fi is sci-fi that revolves around the extremely accurate representation of scientific principle. Military sci-fi is something else entirely; its hardness depends on the author.

Edited January 17, 2022 by Maaboo35

[Bartybum]

39 minutes ago, Maaboo35 said:

That's not what "hard science fiction" means. Hard sci-fi is sci-fi that revolves around the extremely accurate representation of scientific principle. Military sci-fi is something else entirely; its hardness depends on the author.

Sorry that's what I meant. I've often seen the two be used more or less interchangeably, if incorrectly. I've seen hard sci-fi be used to describe Halo as well

Edited January 17, 2022 by Bartybum

[Bartybum]

50 minutes ago, kbalage said:

@Bartybum as I mentioned Marvel movies happen to have pretty violent and realistic scenes, yet here is Black Widow with a gun, or another Black Widow set where the characters have guns and even the helicopter is heavily armed. If these are ok then I don't see why any other "fictional" weapon should be not ok. Honestly I'm not a fan of realistic toy weapons in general but I think this fictional vs non-fictional approach is totally made up. 

I dunno, it still feels different.

[allanp]

Starwars has lots of hand amputations, people sliced in half, characters being eaten and so on. One could make the argument that Avatar is pretty tame in comparison, especially to Alien. It only feels more violent because of how good of a story teller Cameron is. But there really isn't that much blood or graphic content shown. Indiana Jones temple of Doom is waaaaaaaaaaay more graphic if you've seen the uncut version.

Edited January 17, 2022 by allanp

[Nobricksleft]

12 hours ago, kbalage said:

@Bartybum as I mentioned Marvel movies happen to have pretty violent and realistic scenes, yet here is Black Widow with a gun, or another Black Widow set where the characters have guns and even the helicopter is heavily armed. If these are ok then I don't see why any other "fictional" weapon should be not ok. Honestly I'm not a fan of realistic toy weapons in general but I think this fictional vs non-fictional approach is totally made up. 

Couldn't agree more. LEGO's moral compass regarding what is considered acceptable in term of military vehicule depiction is quite subjective. I wish they were a little more pragmatic.

[PassengerJet]

2 hours ago, Nobricksleft said:

Couldn't agree more. LEGO's moral compass regarding what is considered acceptable in term of military vehicule depiction is quite subjective. I wish they were a little more pragmatic.

Not to mention the upcoming Batman  movie which is totally gloomy and violent and yet has lego sets.

[Caveton]

I reeeaaalllyyy wish it's finally a proper medium-lift helicopter in the vein of 8856 and 9396 and taking inspiration from the likes of EH-101 and NH90. It's about time it should be. I didn't really care for the 42052 that much, the Kamov-esque counter rotating double rotors are just too gimmicky for me (and a mouthful), and the B-model was a poor take on the tandem rotor choppers like Chinook and Sea Knight.  Of course it has to be in bright neon pink with orange accents and lots of RESCUE stickers so that it looks like a sugar-coated unicorn, but I'd still take a Rainbow Merlin over another car or a truck. 

As for the Osprey scandal, I think cancelling it was just pure damage control from the TLG. They've made a lots of military hardware before, like obvious F-35s and F-22, I mean, they have one right now in City set 60289!  Not to mention all the casual killing machines from the lucrative  IP's. And, while OV-22s may be only operated by military forces, it has been used in a number of humanitarian operations around the world. The Osprey got axed because they called it for what it is. Had it been just a Generic Tilt-Rotor Plane with an unintended resemblence to real steel equipment  it would have passed with flying colours just like all the other stunt show and rescue planes before, and after it. And yes, I am still upset with this. 

[Maaboo the Witch]

16 minutes ago, Caveton said:

The Osprey got axed because they called it for what it is. Had it been just a Generic Tilt-Rotor Plane with an unintended resemblence to real steel equipment  it would have passed with flying colours just like all the other stunt show and rescue planes before, and after it. And yes, I am still upset with this. 

It would have passed with flying colours if it didn't eat its own gears.

[Caveton]

12 minutes ago, Maaboo35 said:

It would have passed with flying colours if it didn't eat its own gears.

Are you suggesting that the TLG disguised a design issue to a policy issue?  

[Maaboo the Witch]

17 minutes ago, Caveton said:

Are you suggesting that the TLG disguised a design issue to a policy issue?  

Yep.

[kbalage]

1 hour ago, Maaboo35 said:

It would have passed with flying colours if it didn't eat its own gears.

They will upgrade multiple sections of the Zetros, could have been done with the Osprey as well easily. 

[Maaboo the Witch]

20 minutes ago, kbalage said:

They will upgrade multiple sections of the Zetros, could have been done with the Osprey as well easily. 

Don't think TLG had any outside outrage (manufactured, or not) on which to fall back with the Zetros, so they've probably just had to grit their teeth on that one and try to fix it.

I'm also open to the theory that the 6x6 version had to be scrapped because it also has military applications, and the 4x4 has problems because it was rushed.

But I must state that I cannot substantiate any of this, Osprey included. I just have my suspicions.

[Caveton]

Conspiracies aside, I found some speculation about rumoured "Heavy Lift Helicopter" on Reddit (although their list says its 42144), and someone mentioned that the piece count is close to that of Ospreys (1692/1636). That made me realize that the Osprey was Bell Boeing licenced, and what else is Bell Boeing heavy lift chopper? The Chinook, of course! Everyone seems to love those tandem rotors, and the Hook has lots of civilian users, including passenger, rescue services and fire fighers, so maybe, and I really hope this doesn't turn out to be true, we will be getting a licensed Chinook, and - wait for it - the B-model will be a tiltrotor, maybe the XV-15 (which TLG did already as 8434) or even V-280, which is a prototype and doesn't count as a military craft. 

Edited January 19, 2022 by Caveton

[Ngoc Nguyen]

17 minutes ago, Caveton said:

I found some speculation about rumoured "Heavy Lift Helicopter" on Reddit (although their list says its 42144), and someone mentioned that the piece count is close to that of Ospreys (1692/1636).

That part count belongs to an earlier leak found on Reddit which has been contradicted by the current leak, which comes from a more credible source and says the part count is 2001.

 

17 minutes ago, Caveton said:

That made me realize that the Osprey was Bell Boeing licenced, and what else is Bell Boeing heavy lift chopper? The Chinook, of course!

42113 B model - Boeing Chinook CH-47: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-79220/nguyengiangoc/42113-b-model-boeing-chinook-ch-47-manual/

Edited January 19, 2022 by Ngoc Nguyen

[pleegwat]

I think a Chinook would require longer rotor blades than an Osprey, so they don't make much sense as an A/B pair.

However, it does not seem unlikely to me that TLG still owes Boeing a licensed model.

[Bartybum]

18 hours ago, pleegwat said:

However, it does not seem unlikely to me that TLG still owes Boeing a licensed model.

Depends on what the terms of their contract were. I doubt Boeing gave them money given that the set didn't seem any cheaper than other sets of a similar piece count

[R0Sch]

According to Promobricks, this set will be an Airbus H175 Rescue Helicopter with 2001 pieces costing 200$ with a red and yellow color scheme with manual motorization (probably Control+ dumb battery box), 5 large rotor blades that can be tilted.

[Ngoc Nguyen]

On 1/13/2022 at 4:05 PM, Ngoc Nguyen said:

I'm gonna say this thing will be an airplane because I can't think of how a helicopter set can have 2001 pieces. 

This turns out to be dead wrong.

 

On 1/13/2022 at 4:05 PM, Ngoc Nguyen said:

I'd say it's an Airbus Beluga.

But I got the license correct woohoo

[LvdH]

12 minutes ago, R0Sch said:

Airbus H175 Rescue Helicopter

At least they're explicitly calling it a rescue helicopter now   Yellow is a welcome color too, we need more of that.

[Ngoc Nguyen]

1 hour ago, R0Sch said:

5 large rotor blades that can be tilted

This part got me curious the most. Technic aircrafts so far have had 3, 4, or 6 blades only. 5 blades is a new thing. This probably means there will be a new pentagon connector of some sort, as I'm not aware of how a pentagon connection can be achieved with current pieces.

[nerdsforprez]

Similar (perhaps same) color scheme as 9396.  It will be fun to compare these two side by side.   @Ngoc Nguyen, I trust we will be seeing this picture sometime in the future? 

Edited January 21, 2022 by nerdsforprez

[Ngoc Nguyen]

1 minute ago, nerdsforprez said:

Similar (perhaps same) color scheme as 9396.  It will be fun to compare these two side by side.   @Ngoc Nguyen, I trust we will be seeing this picture sometime in the future? 

Too bad I sold my 9396. It wasn't even a proper 9396 in the first place; it was just a B model built from a collection of parts. I'm not interested in the 9396 A cuz it is filled with holes and looks awful to me.

[Maaboo the Witch]

Did some research and I can confidently state that the H175 is specifically a civilian model, so I'd say it's fairly unlikely that any group would have a problem with it this time.

Unless it also chews up its workings, of course.

The UK Army does use a military version, but that's designated as the H175M.