Future Set Wishes and Speculation

[pow]

4 hours ago, allanp said:

For me, hopefully it would be fully motorized but not app controlled. The Canadarm would have the same functions as 8480 but with the addition of...

Can someone please print that out and send it to Lego as a functional spec document - so they can directly start to produce it?

Edited October 22, 2023 by pow

[Jeroen Ottens]

23 hours ago, Aris said:

Remake of 8480 Space shuttle fully motorized!

 

22 hours ago, Maaboo the Witch said:

Would be nice, especially if it had the submarine B-model, but there's a bunch of other space-related sets coming out next year so you may have to be content with them.

 

12 hours ago, allanp said:

Well, Markus has said he would like to remake the space shuttle. And the space sets releasing next year only makes it more likely, that is, if they based on real designs/concepts from NASA. If they are purely fictional then that makes a space shuttle less likely IMHO. But as the subject of a space shuttle comes up quite often (perhaps almost as much as a JCB 3CX or 4CX), what would this new Technic space shuttle be like? Apart from being fully covered in panels and stud less, what would it have over 8480 to make it worthwhile? 

For me, hopefully it would be fully motorized but not app controlled. The Canadarm would have the same functions as 8480 but with the addition of an elbow joint and a grabber to be able to grab and let go of the satellite (4 functions total for the arm), and placed to the side of the shuttle bay like the real one (not in the middle like 8480) to allow more room for the slightly bigger and more complex satellite. Whilst I usually complain about unrealistic mechanisms, the space shuttle is an exception (they couldn't really make a real working rocket!), so it could have a multifunction gearbox to honor the original, plus a new micromotor to unfold the satellite solar panels, which this time would be made of multiple panels that fold out in a cool way to make them much bigger. The roof of the cockpit could be removed to allow access to the Canadarm twin control levers placed at the rear of the cockpit. Similar to the two direction controls of the 42042 crane, the two control levers would have direction control, however, each lever also has two functions, as they could move forwards/backwards but also left/right, allowing two direction control of all four functions of the Canadarm simultaneously from one motor. Yes it would be very complex and in a very tight space, but that was what the 8480 was all about! There would be other levers to control the motorized bay doors and also now motorized landing gear (also a bit unrealistic as I believe the shuttle never had powered retraction of the landing gear, only powered deployment). The landing gear would also have working suspension and bay doors. Finally, the control surfaces on the wings and tail fin would be controlled by a correctly positioned control in he front of the cockpit. 

Something like this?

 

[Maaboo the Witch]

Yeah, something like that.

[Frequenzberater]

On 10/20/2023 at 10:04 AM, AVCampos said:

I dislike how "mushy" Gen3 friction pins are and much prefer the clickier Gen2, but otherwise didn't notice any decrease in part quality. What parts have become worse in your opinion?

 

There is no specific part. It is more the overall quality which is noticably decreasing in the last years. 

 

Gaps between the parts are uneven and partitially pretty large, the colour consistency is a joke nowadays and molding marks are more visible than ever.

Big flat parts usually come with scratches and there is a big chance for transparent parts are beeing milky. 

Generally my impression is, that the parts where less carefully molden than it used to be. A lot of surfaces are uneven and bumpy. Have you checked the flat sides of the long technic beams of a recent set? 

 

And what the heck is this? :

 

(Coming from an actual Ninjago set) 

That is not the Lego Quality I am used to... 

 

 

 

[Maaboo the Witch]

43 minutes ago, Frequenzberater said:

There is no specific part. It is more the overall quality which is noticably decreasing in the last years. 

Gaps between the parts are uneven and partitially pretty large, the colour consistency is a joke nowadays and molding marks are more visible than ever.

Big flat parts usually come with scratches and there is a big chance for transparent parts are beeing milky. 

Generally my impression is, that the parts where less carefully molden than it used to be. A lot of surfaces are uneven and bumpy. Have you checked the flat sides of the long technic beams of a recent set?

Compare beams from 2003 with those of any recent set, and there is a world of difference in terms of weight, colour, and consistency.

[Mikdun]

That is both ecological and economical reasons. The "mushy" and generally less resistant to damage plastics are the eco variant. But the sink marks (surface quality) is mostly cost driven.

[Toastie]

41 minutes ago, Mikdun said:

But the sink marks (surface quality) is mostly cost driven.

I can see that - but then: LEGO was always - and by far - the most expensive source of building blocks. All that stuff from the galaxy far, far east, was so much cheaper - one of the reasons was their apparently cheap crappy molding machinery and cheap bad resin formulations. Cheap machines + cheap formulations = bad (but cheap) bricks. So we were told, right?

Well, TLG still is - and by far - the most expensive source of such building blocks. But now these become crappy as well? But that would mean that the price should drop dramatically, isn't it?

Oh, well. I guess it is the "more expensive = better quality" thing, they successfully push. Or: "even more expensive = even better". At least, this is what the prices of recent LEGO sets suggest. Who really cares about the dents, injection points, and hey - the color mismatches, I will never see

Best,
Thorsten

     

[Mikdun]

1 hour ago, Toastie said:

one of the reasons was their apparently cheap crappy molding machinery and cheap bad resin formulations.

It's true for resin formulations, but not so for the machines. A lot can be done by process parameters even on the crappy/used machine. And the other way round - if you don't know what you are doing even the best machine will not help. The quality issues are mostly from reducing cycle time.

Now the land of rice and cheap labour has improved a lot. And Lego (as is the whole EU) is pushing to be ecological which in many cases forces to make worse products for customer.

Lego is putting a lot of money into research and advertising, and this is mostly human work = costly in EU.

Edited October 23, 2023 by Mikdun

[TechnicRCRacer]

I still see sink marks in beams from 2001. The main aspects I see decreasing in quality are color consistency and part tolerances. The Land Rover I got earlier this year has very inconsistent coloring and some bricks had weaker clutch power. But, when taking inflation into account, LEGO sets (price per part) have become significantly cheaper than they used to be in the 90s. I do agree that at their current price point these sets are subpar in quality and because of this I have been avoiding buying several sets.

[msk6003]

On 10/21/2023 at 5:45 PM, Aris said:

Remake of 8480 Space shuttle fully motorized!

 

On 10/21/2023 at 6:55 PM, Maaboo the Witch said:

Would be nice, especially if it had the submarine B-model, but there's a bunch of other space-related sets coming out next year so you may have to be content with them.

 

On 10/22/2023 at 5:09 AM, allanp said:

Well, Markus has said he would like to remake the space shuttle. And the space sets releasing next year only makes it more likely, that is, if they based on real designs/concepts from NASA. If they are purely fictional then that makes a space shuttle less likely IMHO. But as the subject of a space shuttle comes up quite often (perhaps almost as much as a JCB 3CX or 4CX), what would this new Technic space shuttle be like? Apart from being fully covered in panels and stud less, what would it have over 8480 to make it worthwhile? 

For me, hopefully it would be fully motorized but not app controlled. The Canadarm would have the same functions as 8480 but with the addition of an elbow joint and a grabber to be able to grab and let go of the satellite (4 functions total for the arm), and placed to the side of the shuttle bay like the real one (not in the middle like 8480) to allow more room for the slightly bigger and more complex satellite. Whilst I usually complain about unrealistic mechanisms, the space shuttle is an exception (they couldn't really make a real working rocket!), so it could have a multifunction gearbox to honor the original, plus a new micromotor to unfold the satellite solar panels, which this time would be made of multiple panels that fold out in a cool way to make them much bigger. The roof of the cockpit could be removed to allow access to the Canadarm twin control levers placed at the rear of the cockpit. Similar to the two direction controls of the 42042 crane, the two control levers would have direction control, however, each lever also has two functions, as they could move forwards/backwards but also left/right, allowing two direction control of all four functions of the Canadarm simultaneously from one motor. Yes it would be very complex and in a very tight space, but that was what the 8480 was all about! There would be other levers to control the motorized bay doors and also now motorized landing gear (also a bit unrealistic as I believe the shuttle never had powered retraction of the landing gear, only powered deployment). The landing gear would also have working suspension and bay doors. Finally, the control surfaces on the wings and tail fin would be controlled by a correctly positioned control in he front of the cockpit. 

This is for you guys. I already made both A and B model's studless version. If you have all part from A model, you can build B model also like offical lego sets.

 

[Brickthus]

On 10/21/2023 at 9:09 PM, allanp said:

Well, Markus has said he would like to remake the space shuttle. And the space sets releasing next year only makes it more likely, that is, if they based on real designs/concepts from NASA. If they are purely fictional then that makes a space shuttle less likely IMHO. But as the subject of a space shuttle comes up quite often (perhaps almost as much as a JCB 3CX or 4CX), what would this new Technic space shuttle be like? Apart from being fully covered in panels and stud less, what would it have over 8480 to make it worthwhile? 

For me, hopefully it would be fully motorized but not app controlled. The Canadarm would have the same functions as 8480 but with the addition of an elbow joint and a grabber to be able to grab and let go of the satellite (4 functions total for the arm), and placed to the side of the shuttle bay like the real one (not in the middle like 8480) to allow more room for the slightly bigger and more complex satellite. Whilst I usually complain about unrealistic mechanisms, the space shuttle is an exception (they couldn't really make a real working rocket!), so it could have a multifunction gearbox to honor the original, plus a new micromotor to unfold the satellite solar panels, which this time would be made of multiple panels that fold out in a cool way to make them much bigger. The roof of the cockpit could be removed to allow access to the Canadarm twin control levers placed at the rear of the cockpit. Similar to the two direction controls of the 42042 crane, the two control levers would have direction control, however, each lever also has two functions, as they could move forwards/backwards but also left/right, allowing two direction control of all four functions of the Canadarm simultaneously from one motor. Yes it would be very complex and in a very tight space, but that was what the 8480 was all about! There would be other levers to control the motorized bay doors and also now motorized landing gear (also a bit unrealistic as I believe the shuttle never had powered retraction of the landing gear, only powered deployment). The landing gear would also have working suspension and bay doors. Finally, the control surfaces on the wings and tail fin would be controlled by a correctly positioned control in he front of the cockpit. 

If 8480 was the flagship set then, should a new Space Shuttle be at the same price point or a supercar price point now?  The functions you suggest would put it at least as high as the CAT Bulldozer.  Whilst the rocket motor light-up function could be achieved with three 2x3 light bricks (such as those in Pac-man 10323), the motorised functions could be done by having two free-run functions substituted for the bulldozer's tracks and one 4-way selection function and one power function from the other two motors of one hub.  The free-run functions would have to include the satellite because on the end of an arm it would be too far from the base to use mechanical transmissions.  The arm might start with what the Mars Rover arm does and then expand to as many realistic remotely-driven degrees of freedom as possible.  We haven't seen the 3x3x5 motor in Technic sets yet; that is currently the smallest motor.  I don't know if the licence to use the patented micro-motor concept ran out in the 1990s, or when the inventor died, but the smallest possible motor unit now would be 3x3x3 rather than 2x2x2.  Does that put a new shuttle on a larger scale, say 1.5x like 10497 is to 497/928?  On its own that could make the cost 3.375x 8480.  Unfortunately that would also be over the 3000-piece limit for LEGO Ideas, otherwise it would be tempting to have a go at that.  The limit is not just for practicalities of sales but also for the challenge of creation, as you can see with my JCB; it has suffered from the typical runaway complexity of engineers who like to do things properly, though the objective of pushing out what the bricks will do is always good, giving new set ideas a Unique Selling Point.  Speaking of which, I will soon have a LEGO arcade machine to publish, with secret novel mechanisms!

Mark

[Jockos]

I think it's high time to get some Technic-related GWP sets, as it's quite common at System themes, but not at Technic! For instance, a Bugatti Bolide sized car could be companied with next year's UCS car, even the same model. Or an unrelated machinery, but still something. 

Edited November 9, 2023 by Jockos

[AVCampos]

I agree with Technic GWPs, but perhaps a Bolide-sized set is a bit too expensive. I'm thinking about something more in the lines of the polybags or the $10 sets.

[Jockos]

18 minutes ago, AVCampos said:

I agree with Technic GWPs, but perhaps a Bolide-sized set is a bit too expensive. I'm thinking about something more in the lines of the polybags or the $10 sets.

Sorry, I miscalculated the Bolide :D What I wanted to mean are the sizes of 42093, 42004, pullbacks, sets like them. So not as big in piece count like the Bolide, but around 200-300 pieces.

[pow]

On 11/9/2023 at 6:14 PM, Jockos said:

Sorry, I miscalculated the Bolide :D What I wanted to mean are the sizes of 42093, 42004, pullbacks, sets like them. So not as big in piece count like the Bolide, but around 200-300 pieces. 

TLG will sell 42164 Offroad Rennbuggy, counting 219 pieces, coming 2024-01 and costs 15,99 €

I hope/wish it is some kind of replacement for the Monstertrucks and comes with pullback(maybe) and shock absorber(i guess???).

What about that?

[Jockos]

6 hours ago, pow said:

TLG will sell 42164 Offroad Rennbuggy, counting 219 pieces, coming 2024-01 and costs 15,99 €

I hope/wish it is some kind of replacement for the Monstertrucks and comes with pullback(maybe) and shock absorber(i guess???).

What about that?

I wouldn't count on it neither being a GWP nor a pullback, as the pullbacks are usually 19,99 € and the GWPs have a code number starting with 406xx now. But yes, that would classify in piece count and price.

[gyenesvi]

15 hours ago, pow said:

TLG will sell 42164 Offroad Rennbuggy, counting 219 pieces, coming 2024-01 and costs 15,99 €

I'm rather hoping that if TLG makes small scale offroad stuff, then it will require some new special suspension part to make it possible on a small scale (like some small connector with towball socket, or shorter links).. But in reality I kind of suspect that they'll just go with good old stuff..

[pow]

13 hours ago, Jockos said:

I wouldn't count on it neither being a GWP nor a pullback

Yup i now understand what you were thinking about! Would be clever of TLG to put some special and uncommon parts into such gift packages, to motivate customers to visit their stores ;-). And it could be clever to develop mini sets that fit to the larger sets in scale and thematically. Like something that could be lifted with the crane it comes with. Or tuning parts for a car. So customers get some unique benefit.

But a 200 pieces set? I can't imagine TLG doing that as a Technic-GWP.

[Jundis]

4 hours ago, gyenesvi said:

I'm rather hoping that if TLG makes small scale offroad stuff, then it will require some new special suspension part to make it possible on a small scale (like some small connector with towball socket, or shorter links).. But in reality I kind of suspect that they'll just go with good old stuff..

3L with Ball Socket at one end, axle hole in the other and pin hole in the middle... Plz TLG, we need it! 

[pow]

4 hours ago, gyenesvi said:

like some small connector with towball socket, or shorter links

That's possible as TLG needs some unique selling point for a set.

I expect a beefed up version of the 42101 Buggy with pullback. But as @Jockos mentioned pullback sets are normally more expensive.

[Aurorasaurus]

id love to see a return to sets like the green le mans racer, 42069, 42077, 9398. even 42099 was good in my mind, as these sets were all sets that had one thing they were built for, and did it well. they were all very playable. i think the new audi also excels at this, as not only is it fairly playable, its a fantastic starter set for anyone wanting to get into the hobby. i wish they would do a series of rc vehicles though, like 4 trophy trucks, 4 rally cars, or something like that. and please take the gearboxes out of the 1:8 cars.

[Jundis]

51 minutes ago, Aurorasaurus said:

i think the new audi also excels at this, as not only is it fairly playable, its a fantastic starter set for anyone wanting to get into the hobby

Will get my hands on this soon.

I also wait for the usage of a gearbox and control+ in a "speed set". Strangely, only the 42114 used this system of a 3-speed gearbox. Maybe usage of it in a  RC Dakar Rally Truck would be nice :-)

[Mikdun]

On 11/12/2023 at 10:22 PM, pow said:

Would be clever of TLG to put some special and uncommon parts into such gift packages, to motivate customers to visit their stores ;-)

Please don't give them silly ideas. ;-)

On 11/12/2023 at 10:22 PM, pow said:

And it could be clever to develop mini sets that fit to the larger sets in scale and thematically. Like something that could be lifted with the crane it comes with. Or tuning parts for a car. So customers get some unique benefit.

But this will be great idea.

[PlopiNinetySix]

I'd love to see more motorized vehicles built in the 1:8 scale without a speed-transmission gearbox, just motors and a fake engine, that are based on Lego's own designs, basically unlicensed vehicles; also, that these could include a new Technic minifigure or two in every set like that. Technic minifigures are awesome and deserve a comeback in some way or another. I know some people have probably thought of this idea earlier so I have another to suggest: Maybe a 42008-like scale trucks again? But more unique ones, not just crane or dump trucks with included Control+, and RC. 

Also jeeps. The Technic line should have way more jeeps imo. Especially for the suspension. Licensed or not a jeep is always cool.

I also wonder if the Technic line will do some unique stuff like Technic houses or something similar to accommodate for the sets [like a bus stop for a future bus set or maybe similar things to Lego City...?]. That won't really happen but one can dream I guess.

Edited November 23, 2023 by PlopiNinetySix

[AVCampos]

4 minutes ago, PlopiNinetySix said:

motorized vehicles built in the 1:8 scale without a speed-transmission gearbox, just motors and a fake engine

I think the added complexity and friction of a fake engine would reduce performance, which is already weak for LEGO vehicles when compared to dedicated RC cars.