Bartybum

On the contrary, I prefer bumpers #1 and #3. #3 is *chef’s kiss*, and #1 would be better if it were lower by about half a stud

Patenting a configuration of prefab components assembled together reeks of the same BS as Boeing patenting that orbital manoeuvre...

I was under the impression that for patents to be valid, they had to be filed before others also made use of the technology.

Seems like a very unusual thing to do. I would've thought that there'd be some conditional statements in the control profile, ensuring that the gearbox takes priority whatever function is being driven.

What battles would they be? I was under the impression that the way retail works is that TLC sells bulk sets wholesale to retailers, who then sell as they see fit. Hence the prices on S@H are only recommended retailer prices

Yeah, given that the functions for the CAT are generally done under minimal load (except for the ladder), I would expect that there's not much worry for going out of calibration. I wonder what causes the encoders to skip? I assume it's generally something seen with encoded motors

I'd imagine given that the LAs use worm gear actuation, you'd probably need to get quite a few full rotations of mismatch before it makes any meaningful difference. But yeah @Gimmick that makes sense that it'd be stored in the app, not sure why I didn't think of that lol

A wave of leaks from other themes accompanied this second one though, all from the same person

Unfortunately I think it's a safe bet that they also will be. It's so disappointing - all I want in life is some interesting construction vehicles in the $100-150AUD range.

The Raptor's a special case. Its US and CA prices are really low, which I assume is something to do with Ford's prominence there. It's weird that the same wasn't applied here in Australia.

Damn, what a let down. This list sounds shit compared to the first one

Sorry no, I meant the motor that controls the activated function, not the motor that controls the gearbox.

Very informative video - the basic setup does seem quite unusual. I've been wondering about the position encoding. Given that it's a four function gearbox, does the L motor controlling the selected function have four separate stored positions?

I can't speak to you Kiwis, or to themes beyond Technic, but I used to think that us Aussies had it worse than other countries but I'm not so sure anymore. When you factor in other currencies' GST counterparts, we end up having similar prices. Only Canada really gets crazy good deals for large sets. We also tend to have these sets listed for quite some amount below RRP in our department stores, especially the larger ones. When sales hit, you can get large sets for some serious savings off the listed RRP at S@H.

@Ngoc Nguyen can you take some photos?

As I said before in my analysis of prices, I think there has been a 20% price increase for supply chain reasons and the current state of global trade, so I'm not so quick to think it's TLC being greedy. That being said, I don't think it's unreasonable to say the price is unfair regardless, because it's past what I would consider reasonable for what the set offers. Pandemic or not, it's simply not a viable product in my eyes. I think the claim that it's averagely priced is straight up BS when you realise that claim implies that the cost to the consumer of one smart hub and four motors is near $300AUD. I'm not sure what point you're trying to get across here Price-per-kg is already a pretty good metric; regardless, most larger Technic sets come out to have similar pieces-per-kg amounts, at around 1100-1200 pcs/kg. Regardless, the cost of electronics here wouldn't have had any significant effect relative to the cost of the pieces, as they were limited to just one cheap battery box and an XL motor.

Good work, it's an impressive model, and I really like the overall proportions. It's definitely identifiable as the new Countach However, I feel that like Gray Gear said, there's a few potential areas of improvement, namely all the exposed pinholes around the doors. They definitely take away colour/volume from the set

I wonder whether 2022’s inevitable Volvo will be a flagship or a 1H set

Another interesting point on the CAT. When people say that the CAT is fair/average cost, what I can't reconcile is when I look at the price of 4k piece sets in the PF days (~$400AUD). Without counting the weight of the electronics, the CAT weighs nearly half a kilogram less than the BWE and 42082, yet for some reason one smart hub, four motors and a license add $350AUD, nearly doubling the cost.

Yeah I don't see an RC mobile crane happening, to be honest. It seems like it'd be a recipe for something insanely expensive

Speaking of tandem axles, I noticed a distinct lack of pendular rear axles for 49.5mm wheels. Here's a design I've been developing for the past few days: Soz for the blurry pics, but my iPhone SE camera's an old pile of shit by today's standards. I was originally trying to go for a proper leaf spring, but I couldn't really figure out anything with common Technic pieces that got the right amount of stiffness with efficient part usage. The assembly can pitch around 15 degrees either way, and there's enough slack in the leaf-springs-but-not-really-leaf-springs to allow for roughly 10-15 degrees of roll, which I think makes it a perfect tandem axle for light off-road/bumpy gravel. Because of the abundance of tan axle pins, there's also enough slack for a bit of yaw in the assembly, hence the panhard rod. The black 9L bars are to stop the two axles from pulling themselves apart under load. I'm planning to use it for a logging truck in the Mack Anthem scale.

Your image got removed - I recommend uploading to imgur and then linking it here

Now that would be interesting

A quadbike sounds plausible, so I'm interested to find out

I dunno, supercars have a special enough vibe to be considered separate from the rest of the Technic noise. Mining and construction vehicles don't (imo).