Technic 2023 Set Discussion

[Maaboo the Witch]

Every large discount store I visit seems to have piles and piles of remaindered 42123 McLarens. Best of luck, TLG!

[Jundis]

35 minutes ago, 1gor said:

It could be 42111 scale (set was about 100€)

Ah you're right, completely forgot about this... :D

25 minutes ago, Maaboo35 said:

Every large discount store I visit seems to have piles and piles of remaindered 42123 McLarens. Best of luck, TLG!

Even though Sariel liked it for its complexity of building.

Edited August 27, 2022 by Jundis

[Ngoc Nguyen]

5 hours ago, Maaboo35 said:

Every large discount store I visit seems to have piles and piles of remaindered 42123 McLarens. Best of luck, TLG!

Same here for me. Three weeks ago there was a warehouse sales of the sole distributor of Lego in my country, and there are lots of McLarens. I find that unusual, because 42123 is a set I regard very highly.

[Maaboo the Witch]

Also, is NASCAR even a thing outside the States? Monster Jam runs events in the UK and elsewhere, but I don't think NASCAR is that widespread and it seems a lot more niche.

[Timorzelorzworz]

For the plane it is most likely to see the floating tanks from 42105 Catamaran again, making it a water plane that really floats without electronic of course.

[pleegwat]

That would be an interesting approach for sure.

[mpj]

3 hours ago, howitzer said:

2H I guess.

 

3 hours ago, Jockos said:

Guess in the 2nd half

If it's like 2h 2022 we don't have much hope...

3 hours ago, Jundis said:

30655 Forklift with Pallet    €3.99    January 1, 2023
42147 Dump Truck    €9.99    January 1, 2023
42148 Snow Groomer    €9.99    January 1, 2023

I like your sarcasm 

[Johnny1360]

3 hours ago, Timorzelorzworz said:

For the plane it is most likely to see the floating tanks from 42105 Catamaran again, making it a water plane that really floats without electronic of course.

I kind of doubt it, too big and the shape is all wrong..

[R4ph]

A few more news from promobricks today. https://www.promobricks.de/lego-technic-2023-neuheiten-vorschau/148305/

42156 is apparently the Peugeot 9x8 Le Mans hypercar

[Maaboo the Witch]

6 minutes ago, R4ph said:

A few more news from promobricks today. https://www.promobricks.de/lego-technic-2023-neuheiten-vorschau/148305/

42156 is apparently the Peugeot 9x8 Le Mans hypercar

Common knowledge on this thread, friend.

[kbalage]

  13 hours ago, Jundis said:

The 42153 Ford GT is something odd. For 119,99€ it can't be 1:10 like the 42096 and 42125 but also not 1:14 like the 50-60€ cars.

11 hours ago, 1gor said:

It could be 42111 scale (set was about 100€)

Or something like the 42126 F150 Raptor, that's also 1:13-ish with a somewhat lower piece count than the usual 1:10 cars. If I think about it 42077 was closer to 1:10 with only 1005 pieces so it's not impossible... There are enough different panel fairings nowadays to make the body with a lower piece count than Ferrari 488, and we know that the chassis won't use many pieces either 

[R4ph]

13 hours ago, Maaboo35 said:

Common knowledge on this thread, friend.

Sorry, I missed the last page

[Erik Leppen]

I see the Racers lineup has been announced. The plane seems a bit of an outlier though. As if it's in the wrong list... Wonder when info on Technic will come.

 

... But in all seriousness... overall feeling: 

Oh well. At least we can bricklink the pieces.

[Saberwing40k]

8 minutes ago, Erik Leppen said:

I see the Racers lineup has been announced. The plane seems a bit of an outlier though. As if it's in the wrong list... Wonder when info on Technic will come.

 

... But in all seriousness... overall feeling: 

Oh well. At least we can bricklink the pieces.

This is my exact sentiment. If looks focused cars made out of Technic parts are that popular, just bring back Racers. I'm kind of sad that Lego is turning Technic into that. My dad thinks it's because they're running out of ideas for Technic, which I think is baloney.

All in all, mighty disappointed.

[Jundis]

10 hours ago, Saberwing40k said:

This is my exact sentiment. If looks focused cars made out of Technic parts are that popular, just bring back Racers. I'm kind of sad that Lego is turning Technic into that. My dad thinks it's because they're running out of ideas for Technic, which I think is baloney.

Dito. Running out of ideas? I don't think so. They just select what sells the best. I am pretty sure the designers would come up with magnificent stuff, giving them free hands.

My opinion is that the focus of TLC is mainly on new costumers. So sports & racing cars are most attractive and common. As most new costumers don't know what Technic can really do, they really don't care. As long as they see a stylish gearbox or suspension, they are happy. Seems like it worked out for TLC pretty well over the last years as Technic seems one of the biggest brands:

- Lego's market share is 7.6%, making them the largest toy company.
- Legos data analysis reports an increase in revenue of 27% in 2021, which is an increase from kr43.7 billion to kr55.3 billion.
- Lego City, Star Wars, and Technic continue to be best seller in the recent years.
- Lego targets adult buyers more than in previous with an increased amount of 18+ sets.

Source: https://www.lightailing.com/blogs/news/lego-latest-usage-and-revenue-statistics

What I think the wrong idea of the Lego Technic sub brand is: The more the better. We sold some cars really well? More cars it is! Leaving behind the other half of the existing costumers really longing for real Technic stuff with more functions than steering and fake engines.

Now enough rant and back to topic:

The list of the 1st half so far is the same as in previous years. We gotta wait for the big boys in 2H. As we had the Lambo and BMW, there really should be many model more appealing :-)

Edited August 29, 2022 by Jundis

[howitzer]

I agree with Jundis above, Technic seems to have been reduced to a) lots and lots of cars b) C+ sets with little value for all the electronics inside. It appears that we're getting a few nice, properly Technic sets per year but that feels so little when you think what it could be. Last year there was 42128 and I guess 42120 and 42121 also count but other than that it was very small sets, cars and C+. This year we got 42139, 42144 and 42145 as proper Technic sets but that's it. (Yeah there was the John Deere, but that was so half-baked functionally that it might as well have been a City set.)

But I guess that works for TLG, and as long as we keep getting new interesting parts, I don't really mind that much. At least my wallet doesn't hurt so much as there's only a few sets each year worth buying.

[kbalage]

22 minutes ago, Jundis said:

Dito. Running out of ideas? I don't think so. They just select what sells the best. I am pretty sure the designers would come up with magnificent stuff, giving them free hands.

Exactly my thoughts. They see what sells in the shops, and now they also see what sells on the secondary market (Bricklink). Apparently the equation is very-very simple, license + car = profit. These sets use Technic parts only because you can build bigger models with way less parts compared to a System-only approach. 

I am missing the basic Control+ set of the year from this list though. 2020 had the Rally car, 2021 the Buggy, 2022 the Transformation Vehicle. According to some sources the Buggy will retire by the end of the year, leaving us with a single sub-$250 RC set in the lineup. 

[Jundis]

56 minutes ago, kbalage said:

I am missing the basic Control+ set of the year from this list though. 2020 had the Rally car, 2021 the Buggy, 2022 the Transformation Vehicle. According to some sources the Buggy will retire by the end of the year, leaving us with a single sub-$250 RC set in the lineup. 

Again: Strange that Lego doesn't use the smaller spike prime hub... which now is strangely not even available on the webpage...? Would be perfect for small cars with drive+steering.

Lego price politics at its finest:

"normal" smart hub: 4 ports: 79,99€
"small" spike prime hub: 2 ports: 209,99€
"big" spike prime hub: 6 ports: 239,99€
 

 

[AVCampos]

1 minute ago, Jundis said:

Lego price politics at its finest:

"normal" smart hub: 4 ports: 79,99€
"small" spike prime hub: 2 ports: 209,99€
"big" spike prime hub: 6 ports: 239,99€

Unfortunately the latter two have integrated, proprietary batteries.

[kbalage]

3 minutes ago, Jundis said:

Again: Strange that Lego doesn't use the smaller spike prime hub... which now is strangely not even available on the webpage...? Would be perfect for small cars with drive+steering.

This shows the current lack of cross-theme compatibility that should have been the main feat of the switch to a common hardware platform. As far as I know you can't even use the small Spike Essential hub with the Spike Prime app. We have now tons of plug-compatible hardware that are spread across closed silos labeled Mindstorms, Spike Prime, Spike Essential, Control+, Powered Up... random motors and sensors work with random apps, but I don't see any intention to bring them under a common and really versatile umbrella. Oh wait, there is one, it's called Pybricks :)  

[AVCampos]

2 minutes ago, kbalage said:

We have now tons of plug-compatible hardware that are spread across closed silos

Actually, the large angular motor appeared in MINDSTORMS but was adopted by Technic in the Volvo hauler and the Cat bulldozer (albeit in thankfully more neutral colours). I don't doubt that, at the very least, we'll see the smallest motor appear in some future Technic set.

4 minutes ago, kbalage said:

a common and really versatile umbrella. Oh wait, there is one, it's called Pybricks :)

This! 👆

[artemisovsky]

It is highly probable that Bugatti Vision and Chevrolet Camaro will continue augmented reality theme started by Mustang Shelby and Formula E Porsche. So no fake engine or steering in these sets.
However, for me snow groomer and the batcycle may be very interesting. Motorcycle will probably be a good black color parts donor, maybe transparent cylinders and light brick (as headlight?) but without a gearbox in this price. I wonder if it will have street type tires (as in the movie) or motocross tires (probably more likely).
Number of cars in this wave does not surprise me looking at the sales results (e.g. poor sales of brilliant hovercraft 42120).
The most sad for me is TLG forgot intermediate price ranges 15/30/40 euro.

[Erik Leppen]

3 hours ago, kbalage said:

These sets use Technic parts only because you can build bigger models with way less parts compared to a System-only approach. 

Which raises the queston why "bigger" would be a good thing. All "bigger" does is consume more space (and make builds harder because big is more prone to bending and needs more structure). Sure, if bigger is used/needed to sculpt a better shape, that's all good. But "bigger" by itself has only drawbacks. Let's as an example compare the white Technic Porsche 42096 (1580 parts) with the Cretaor Expert Porsche 10295 (1458 parts), which have a very similar part count.

Reasons I can think of why anyone would want the large Technic one, are

• it has suspension and a fake engine
• to re-use the pieces
• as a base for modding or moccing

These reasons mostly have nothing to do with the fact that it's a car, rather than some other 1500-part Technic set.

Reasons I can think of why one would want the small Creator one, are

• It's much better looking, making actually worth putting on a shelf and look at
• It's much more recognizable as a Porsche to probably most people, proving that bigger is not needed to sculpt a better shape.
• I think system building is more varied and more "fun" to build
• A system build looks more "Lego" to most people including almost all non-Lego-fans
• It takes way less space in a room.

Maybe I'm an outlier, but to me, "big" is mostly a negative property. The best Technic sets are those that are not bigger than needed to host their functions. Both 42128 tow truck and 42145 helicopter, the two universally praised Technic sets from these years, are as small as possible given their functions.

Edited August 29, 2022 by Erik Leppen

[Maaboo the Witch]

11 minutes ago, Erik Leppen said:

 

TLG needs to learn that bigger is not better. The Liebherr crane seems to be a case in point on that front.

14 hours ago, Erik Leppen said:

I see the Racers lineup has been announced.

TLG should just call it Speed Champions Expert and be done with it.

[Jundis]

2 hours ago, AVCampos said:

Unfortunately the latter two have integrated, proprietary batteries.

Ah, you're right, my bad.

16 minutes ago, Erik Leppen said:

The best Technic sets are those that are not bigger than needed to host their functions

Yes, but for many people, size does appeal. So the new Liebherr has to break the current limits for official technic sets.