Les_Paul

I wonder whether the 962 pieces of 42174 is a clue to it being a Porsche 962...?

I agree, I think that's the crux here. If they'd called it "Search & Rescue Tilt Rotor" rather than a licensed Osprey, we'd have all thought "that's clearly inspired by an Osprey" and that would've been that - much like 42066 is clearly an F-35B and 42070 shares it looks with the KMW Dingo Wrecker. What's more; whilst Boeing and Bell are defence contractors, they're aircraft manufacturers first and foremost. It's not like we're talking about a missile manufacturer where there is no civilian crossover what-so-ever. TLG have made themselves look like fools with this whole debacle. What I don't understand is how this ever happened in the first place. Presumably TLG's board were aware of this product and didn't have a problem with it up until now so why change their minds because of one complaint? Will someone now be fired for not following their (seemingly very flexible) policy on modelling military hardware?

Along with the Ducati too. VWG are clearly very on board with the marketing benefits a LEGO tie up brings.

I disagree, LiOns wear out and can be hard to replace as there isn't one standard design. Whereas AA's are universal and infinitely replaceable. Rechargeable AA batteries are LiOn.

Sorry on my part, that wasn't my intention at all. I guess I was trying to give a reason for the messy Lego interior.

I'm fairly confident that 42094-B was inspired by: Whilst the low, horizontal, far back steering wheel positions in 42056 and 42083 aren't particularly realistic, in 42096 it is representative of a GTE car steering wheel position, the seat will also be lower, further back and flatter than in a road car too. Racecar interiors are pretty messy compared to road cars, function over form. I think it's representing the nozzle of the driver's air conditioning duct.

GTE changed to white headlights this year. The 991.2 version of the RSR at least. ?

Not quite true, the picture you've used is the 2017 car. Lego have modelled the 2018 car, which has a more rounded from bumper/splitter design and clear headlights. This year, GTE cars changed from yellow to clear headlights. Love the fact 42096 is mid-engined and Porsche have let Lego model it so explicitly.

Hello all, First time poster here. I’ve recently been getting back into my childhood LEGO Technic, especially the computer controlled sets (I’ve even bought an old Windows 98 laptop to get the full experience without faffing around with emulators) – MindStorms, Spybotics etc. including 8482 Cybermaster and this set, 8450 Mission. As such, I’ve been looking for reviews of the set to see whether anyone else looks back on these sets with the same misty eyed reminiscing that I do and in doing so, I came upon this thread. Reading the thread I noticed there were a few questions that I knew I could elaborate on so decided to sign up to EB so that I could. So… Firstly, I completely agree, putting instructions only on CD was one of the worst decisions LEGO ever made. Thank goodness the videos they consist of are available without installing the software or have been uploaded to YouTube! 8482 Cybermaster has the following primary features: Area 15 (See what they did there…) – where the truck can be driven and interacted with, controlling it manually at the PC or programming an automatic set of actions/reactions (think of it as MindStorms “Light”). The Colosseum – where the gladiators Crusher and Stinger can be played with, in either one player (with Crusher in automatic mode) or two player (with Crusher in manual mode, controlled at the PC). Joe’s Garage – where ideas for three wheeled, four wheeled and tracked base models are provided, as a basis for creating and programming your own MOCs. This is a theme with 8482 and 8450 – providing the basis and encouragement to create custom models. The contents of 8450 Mission have already been well explained by the original poster so I won’t repeat that, however, I do have these comments to add: The jet plane – Whilst it does not interact with a PC like Cybermaster does, the set was designed such that the software accompanied playing with the plane. There are a number of prescribed missions, employing the various tools. Playing along with the software then provides sound effects for the plane you as play along (take off, level flight, landing etc.) and every so often, the mission would be interrupted by “technical issues” you had to solve – this involved putting the plan down and returning to the PC intermittently. These were simple Pacman style games that had to be successfully completed in order to successfully complete the mission. The difficulty level and frequency of the interruptions could be set too. Eventually you build up a log/leader board of missions and how successful they were. It wasn’t revolutionary but it was fun and I’ve never been into computer games so one involving swooshing a LEGO Technic jump jet was much more me! Interesting you should say that, they’re not actually bombs – they’re beacons. In the animations included in the software explaining the tools and missions, the yellow, round 2×2 bricks are actually shown to glow. The narrative tells us these beacons are designed to safely guide the ATV (see further down) across the planet’s surface. Weirdly though, bombs did play another role in this set (see later on). The alternative bonus models – the helicopter, the propeller plane, small jet plane and hang glider could also be utilised in this manner. They also aren’t technically the set’s official B Model – I’ll come to that later. On the helicopter and plane, there’s a good reason they don’t look finished – because they’re not. In an idea that ranks with CD-only instructions, the instructions for these models are deliberately incomplete. Again, the idea being that the user should use their imagination to complete them. The narrative tells us that the helicopter is an incomplete prototype we need to finish and the propeller plane is a recovered wreck in the middle of refurbishment. “Engineering sketches” of how they might look are provided and can be printed off as very simple schematic instructions, as shown below. This could only be done if the user owned both 8482 Cybermaster and 8450 Mission. The narrative told us this was a new, prototype version of the jet plane incorporating Cybermaster’s mobile unit. Essentially it enabled the jet plane’s retractable undercarriage and tilting wings to be motorised and controlled independent of each other via the Cybermaster touch sensors working as buttons. Again, it encouraged the user to program these movements to their own liking – it also included the ability for the wings to be tilted to 45° for ascents and descents. There was no live interaction with the PC as normally with Cybermaster, instead the programming was downloaded to the mobile unit and the now motorised plane could be interacted with as explained before but now including motorised functions. Now on to 8450’s official B Model, the All Terrains Vehicle (ATV), this combined elements from both sets including the Cybermaster mobile unit and like Cybermaster, enabled a fully interactive play experience between the remotely controlled ATV and the PC, only better than what Cybermaster had to offer. This only worked in manual mode but involved driving the ATV across a room, including a number of obstacles of your own making – guidance was included. The ATV was tasked with carrying bombs…yes, bombs…across the planet’s surface, although the narrative explicitly states that they are for the purposes of excavating land for construction projects. The user must drive the ATV across the planet’s surface whilst sitting at the PC without the bomb swinging around too much at the back of the ATV and potentially going off – causing the ATV to automatically disassemble itself to jettison both the exploded bomb and endangered pilot. On top of that, a successful transport mission must conclude with a visit to the check point and refuelling visits may need to be made throughout the mission. Again, various difficulty settings were provided and mission maps could be customised with obstacles and routes. As with the jet plane, you build up a log/leader board of missions and how successful they were, only because this board is filled in via communications between with PC and ATV, there’s less scope for lying than with the jet plane game! Correct, although Cybermaster did come with the Competition android figure that could be used in all the models. I never did understand why he was included over figures of any of the characters actually featured in the software though. Hope that clears up any queries posters had about these sets and how they work.