amorti

No, it's far from the same. That one flexed crazy, the AMG One is well within acceptable levels. In comparison, the red supercar is a wet noodle: the opening frunk (for access to the lithium Bluetooth battery box) sacrifices a lot of rigidity.

The chassis is flexible, yes. It's a plastic toy, if you force it, it'll bend. The point was that when you flex it, it doesn't creak or groan which old CaDA and other Chinese makers could do, due to too-hard/brittle plastic in the pins. The doors flex? Again... plastic toy. Turning circle is almost a quarter turn of a 12 tooth gear against a gear rack. It can't be better without excessive gaps under the wheel arches, which nobody will prefer. The brick world doesn't have the necessary parts to allow a virtual pivot strong enough for this job (3kg RC model with a fair speed for what it is) Turning angle is miserable with 4wd - but that's everyman's choice to make. I had a surprisingly heated discussion on FB with a guy who told me my driving video was wrong to recommend 2Wd and if you did that it wasn't true to the original and it was only going on the shelf anyway so who cares, etc. Safe to say he'll happily live with the limited steering! Steering wheel connected by friction pin is 100% good. In this case it's only decorative, you couldn't steer with it anyway as you'd have to force the servo. It being by friction allows infinite adjustability so unlike eg. the Lego McLaren, you cannot end up with the steering wheel stuck half a tooth from straight.

If you also watch the bugfix video, you can see the "gotchas", and note that I'm not scared to mention them. I am a very novice reviewer and so I am definitely open to feedback on the videos. For example I had the idea to build each section then cut in and talk about it, but it turned out hours long and even more amateurish than what I did publish. For sure there were a few minutes in the footage from the first bag or two talking about the split parts being annoying, but honestly a few bags in and (except the 3*3 T's) I wasn't bothered by it anymore. I don't think I mentioned it in the final review, so there if you need a negative, that can be one. You'll enjoy the build more if you bring about 15 black 3*3 T's from your own stash. The thing I kept coming back to in multiple clips was how much improved CaDA parts are. I've built from many brands and what's always been missing from brands supplied by gobricks and now also from Lego since they changed the black pins, is the pins sliding in "just so", and then a satisfying click as they get home. CaDA pins were historically too loose and the plastic too brittle, but now they have it "just so". It's a big factor in my enjoyment of a technic build. What negatives are you expecting to hear on other reviews? What do you suspect I oversold, missed, or hushed? Ask me a question, I'll tell you my opinion! Naturally if you buy and build it you may form a different opinion for yourself, but if you ask my honest opinion you can get it.

The CaDA frames being made of two pieces and the panels being redesigned is all (as I understand second or third hand) a result of love letters sent from the legal department in Billund. I can't imagine CaDA would have done it for fun, it will have been really expensive to retool so many parts. I couldn't tell you why CaDA made changes and not the others in China, but the answer may be the same as why they respectfully work together with their designers instead of ripping them off via rebrickable. The halved 5*7 and 5*11 frames are not as easy to use but still fine, the 3*5 I-beams can be worked with, but the 3*3 T-liftarms can lose strength right where you needed it. Funny you mention that wavy thin "brass knuckles" liftarm, I kinda like it. Not sure where, but I feel like it'll have some decorative use somewhere. You could as well ask why Lego added those bumps to the long arch panels

It's no secret that I received a review copy from CaDA (maybe everyone didn't know it was at Bruno's recommendation), I have an affiliate code, and I have in any case long been sympathetic to CaDA's cause. In this case though, it's just about what I wrote there, and btw I don't see any counter being offered, only ad hominem. Regards the Lego-only model's looks: again respect for the effort because Stud.io is hard, but check out the triangular arched panels in the frunk. CaDA panels have the attachment point one stud across, and without that nor any adjustment, the frunk is the wrong shape. The rear arches needed a ribbed hose to make up that same gap and it looks weird. The gap around the front of the nose is bad due to a lack of long arched panel without pin holes, not to mention the missing Mercedes emblem. The 13L arch panels below the doors and in the roof just look weird with the ribs. The 21/22 panels by the rear arch have had to be put on backwards and it's odd. Also again those special parts aren't there, you'd have to 3d print them which means plenty of postprocessing, or grainy parts. I'm not mad about anything. I just don't understand the logic of why it's important to use Lego panels to make a copy with a worse look. It's like trying to run Windows on a Mac or an iOS skin on Android. Bruno, I can't imagine how it felt when that happened on the red one.

In both the red supercar and the AMG One, there were quite a few spares in the box, including some weird ones like technic panels. In the One I even had spares of a part in a colour that's not even used in the model. So not specifically that set, but IME it's not unusual for CaDA to send you some extra parts with each set, and not just pins and 1*1s like Lego. No no, much more generous, they will give some weird stuff that'll have you questioning where you missed it. Congratulations, it's a long and arduous process to do this in Stud.io Buuuut as mentioned above... the roof panels, arches, and various other overlaps all look worse than with CaDA parts, you'll be missing the printed parts, and you'll have to 3d print the special parts. Also I'm sure you didn't use a pirated copy of the manual to complete your work. "Play fair" and all that, right? "In the LEGO Group, we believe that any original product design should be protected against copying for as long as it is produced and marketed" Has to apply both ways!

For it to happen, the car needs to be completed to its full weight, and on its wheels. If the car is upside down, there's no weight holding the differential still so when the pullback locks the force can easily escape in that direction. That's what I'm replicating in the video by jamming a piece against the diff to lock it. Or maybe I really am just unlucky or excessively cruel? IDK anymore!

I agree! Mostly they're either small bugs, tips, or matters of preference. The only real bug IMHO is the bevel gears. But even here, if you simply don't push forward on the drive motor and *simultaneously* back on the charge motor, it'll never be noticed. Even if you do press both simultaneously but release the drive motor before the moment in which the pullback locks up and the system stalls, you'd probably be fine. Mind you, even once will damage the teeth and then it's game over. In my imagination this wasn't found in testing because it's a cruel thing to do to the system, and the testers weren't so unkind!

It's a ripoff.

I made a driving video. Here you can find out about the battery life, and compare the speed in 2wd and 4wd, and with ball bearing rear hubs. As expected the 4wd variant is a little slower, and as expected it steers much worse. Unless you *really* need it to be 4wd like the real one (and won't drive it much), go with 2wd @Bensch55 - the ball bearing hubs are cool and I really like how you use one part universally for front and rear... but they don't fit on the front of this model. Even just on the rear though, they do let it go a little faster. https://tf-engineering.at/wheelhub/

You're dead right - definitely better than hanging it loose

Maybe one run as 4wd. Otherwise I'll be at it all afternoon 😅

Great presentation, and really interesting details about the marketing cooperation. Thank you! I'll also do a run time test in 2wd. Maybe I'll get a little less since it'll be outside on uneven ground. I'm not sure about running laps for ten minutes in 4wd, seems like you'd get transmission wind up?

I plan to do a driving video outside this weekend. I'll put a phone with a GPS speedometer app in the car, and top-speed run it in both configurations right after a full charge. It's not going to be very scientific but I reckon if I run a battery through it in each configuration, I'll have a fair idea how long the battery lasts, as well as what the achieved top speed will be. Not sure how to measure acceleration at these kinds of speeds? It's not like I have a trap to measure time between two points, and anyway we all know the time will mostly depend on which run had fewer steering corrections. I'm not expecting a huge difference in top speed. The noticeable difference is going to be steering angle, which is really drastically reduced for 4WD. @brunojj1 has specifically cautioned against running 4WD without the limited steering angle as it'll spit out the CV joints. I don't have enough spare CV joints to fact check the maestro, so I won't be testing that! Also, there is no central differential, the car weighs some 3kg and the tyres are very grippy, so it's definitely going to wind up the propshaft.

I reckon the tiles have been assembled on a brick or base plate, and printed as a group. The alignment is really perfect. In the bug fix video I do mention that the knob gears add friction, however I don't see another solution in this case. The pullback motor requires a lot of torque to wind it up, but more to the point once it stops you pit the stalling torque of two of CaDA's high power L-motors against that one gear pair. Between them the motors are stronger than an XL motor and will beat whatever bevel pair you could use. Even if you manage to wedge a bevel frame in there for perfect alignment and add a bunch of bracing, they'll eventually just bend the teeth. Anyway, most of the time they are just idling, so I'm less worried about the friction. That said - I'd love to be proven wrong :)

@brunojj1thanks maestro! A valid point regarding a driving video. It's an interesting thing to drive due to the pullback motor, both for its capability as a launch control function, and mixing itself in with any reversing operations. @astyanaxthank you! I've updated my post above with a full words and pics review :)

CaDA official store is now showing the ONE as ready to ship! I have an affiliate link with CaDA, so if my review helped you decide to buy, please use it for your 5% off and 5% goes to me to buy more bricks - maybe I can get the Alfa to review :) https://bit.ly/44IaqZD First of all - this is a sponsored post. CaDA has kindly provided me with a review copy of the Mercedes AMG One so that I can share the experience with the Eurobricks community and the wider English-speaking audience. As such I do have an affiliate link at the official CaDA store which will score you 5% off, and me a 5% credit. So if you appreciate an honest review and some bug-fixing tips, I'd appreciate if you use my link! Sponsored post or not, my opinions are my own and are not subject to review by CaDA. That should become clear, since while it's a great model, I'm also here to tell you there are some flaws Box and Instructions I won't talk much about the outside of the box here, because that's covered in the Preview Post above. When you open the box, it's the by-now standard fare with several numbered boxes inside a lift-off box, and the licensed rims shown off specially. We already expect fancy packaging from experience with LEGO, but even so the box here is pleasingly premium, yet at 30 litres it's decently dimensioned for those among us who believe our beloved brick toys are premium collectables, yet don't have large cupboards for storing original packaging. The instruction manual is a real step up from CaDA. If you built the red supercar from @brunojj1, you'll be used to multiple thin booklets, but here we have one single instruction manual. It's a big boy at 300+ pages - but that's nothing compared to e.g. the LEGO Ferrari at 800+ pages for a comparable parts count. It's well-bound which is great since CaDA doesn't typically publish PDF instructions until a few months after release. It's very nicely printed with black represented faithfully, which was really necessary for this build! According to the relatively low page count, you can expect that there's a lot going on in each double spread. You'll need your wits about you, as sometimes steps can be dotted about each single page however they best fit the printer's schedule. Most of us here are AFOLs and remember the good old days of adding 50+ pieces in a single step of studded technic so, while it is certainly a more challenging build than big L's big sets, this is all achievable as long as you keep focus. Since I mention "keep focus", let's talk about colour-vomit as it's so lovingly called in German. This set contains a handful of red frames which are skillfully used for orientation in the early steps, but other than that there are almost no parts which aren't black or light grey. Correspondingly, you definitely need good light at your building table, and you'll want to sort your parts into multiple containers rather than try to build from one mixed heap in the box lid as I did in the first bags. Another point where CaDA has listened to the consumer: build sections are still defined with letters, but now you get both the bags' number and the box number to help you find the bags you're looking for. And each step has a niceeee illustration of what you'll be working towards for the next few pages/hours. Stickers? No. Just... no. There are stickers for labelling the motors, nothing else. Also in this image - note the steering wheel which is cleverly attached by a bush pin, allowing you to freely set the angle regardless of half-teeth (LEGO McLaren take note!) Parts Quality CaDA has been working very hard to set their offering apart from LEGO, and it's no secret that this is largely due to big L writing insistent letters. "While they were in there", they've also been busy remolding a whole heap of parts. If you built the red supercar, you may have felt that the design was great, the instructions were very good, and the parts were "fine". The 2L axles, regular 2L pins, and 2L axle-pins were loose and/or inconsistent then, but now you're in for a treat. This picture shows the front aero parts, which are each held on by 2L and 3L axle-pins. With previous-generation parts you'd have had to test a bunch of axle-pins to find one with enough friction to hold the small panels in place, but this time around the friction is plenty, and it's consistent. I suspect they have also changed the plastic composition of the pins and small parts, since they just feel "right" now. If you'll watch my review video (link below) you'll see that they very much pass the flex test. New CaDA Parts A large part of CaDA setting themselves apart has been redesigning wing panels. As we see here, the new panels are rounder and more organic than what we're used to, and I believe that the model benefits visually from that. Technically speaking, the panels consist of two pieces, a wing and a base, which can be joined together to form a panel approximating what we're used to. However, you can also mount each wing part at 180 degrees on the base or omit the base, if it suits your design better. There are only a handful of spots in this model where that's been done, which tells of the model's development timeline. Those new panels allow some really nice overlaps, which (IMHO) turn out nicer than regular panels could. Let's talk about tyres. But only briefly, because the picture already says it all. LEGO 1:8 tyres are rubbish - there, I said it. CaDA previous generation tyres look great but are too soft to the touch. The new licensed Michelin tyre really ticks every possible box. They're perfect! It's also worth noting that while this licensed tyre from Michelin was created specially for the One... it shares tread with the tyre Michelindesigned for the Chiron. You didn't see this tread on LEGO's 1:8 Bugatti though... Special (Cheat?) Parts These guys are definitely going to split opinions! First and foremost - the licensor Mercedes requested that these panels be created and used on the model to give an accurate representation of the original. So, the decision to make these parts was out of CaDA's hands. That to the side - I think it just wouldn't be possible to create a convincing replica of the original without making these special parts. Sure you could try to use the Bugatti's exhaust panel or system bricks for the air intake, but the best you could do for the fin would be propellor blades and it just wouldn't look correct. So for me, it's a win. Also put yourself in the shoes of Mercedes or another licensor - do you want a model of your product which looks a bit like your product according to available elements, or do you want a model of your product which looks very recognisable? Would you go to a brick toy manufacturer who was willing to make those exclusive pieces, or one who wanted you to conform to their system? Functions Now we come to the elephant in the room: The functions are not perfect. Here's the gear pair which brings power to the pullback motor, and it skips, every time. Here's the fix, with just the gears as extra parts. I've published a second video which deals with how to fix this and a few other faults in the model's functions. TL;DR, it can be made to function perfectly with just 3 parts from your stash. I've passed that feedback to CaDA and hopefully they can be reflected in an addendum sheet or second edition, but for now I really do recommend to watch that video. Spare Parts It seems normal with CaDA, but it's still disconcerting to the casual builder: there will be parts leftover during the build which aren't even in the build. I recommend to clear your parts from the table as you finish each section, otherwise they will really stack up. You won't be left looking for pieces if you do so. YouTube Review: Improvements:

Another one ahead of the deadline I was told. Anyway, you don't need to watch any reviews before you build it, but I suggest you watch my upcoming bug fix video before you get to about the 15th step. Good tips already though. The front extension socket needs to be a long wired one. The extension over the battery needs to hang loose so you can reach the USB socket.

It's pretty much de rigueur to build a formula car from every available car set, right? The ONE uses wishbones in the suspension, has a lithium battery, two motors for drive, a servo to steer, pullback for KERS, and two M-motors for "something else"... Maybe it's more tempting then?

There's often a good discount if you're willing to order direct from China/HK, and don't need the OEM packing. Regarding pins - unless you specifically need half pins without friction, the latest generation of CaDA pins is right up there with Lego. In fact, now Lego deleted the slot from the regular black pin and thereby largely lost much of the satisfying "click" upon insertion, CaDA might be better.

IRL with two models next to each other, you notice that less than the weird pointy end on a Lego panel.

The general shape is the same as a regular Lego panel, but the null space isn't identical. For me the smooth curvature allows smoother, more flowing shapes to be formed. However, especially if like @T Lego you're very practised in using the normal panels and know where the gaps will/won't be, then I can see how it would be a big switch to make. Here are some awful pictures of CaDA panels versus Lego. https://bricksafe.com/pages/A_morti/cada-panels

CaDA's new palette of wing panels are different than everybody else's, that's true. Different... but also BETTER than the existing palette of panels. You have new options for putting the base and the wing part in either orientation, there are axle holes like a cam in place of pin holes on the smaller base which can really help with alignment, and you get the option to omit the base entirely and make new sizes and compound curves you didn't have before. Once you get your head around the possibilities, there are lots of new constructions available.

There is a cluster of CaDA special parts in the door hinges, and some of those connections would be hard to replicate without losing significant strength. Otherwise it should all be possible in Lego as there's not much use of special parts. I'm just assuming that Lego wing panels can just be subbed in for CaDA panels 1:1 here, which actually probably isn't the case. That image above has lost some finesse around and above the rear wheel arch, for example. However I don't understand why you would go to the trouble? You'll need the instructions since CaDA doesn't publish PDFs until a few months after. If you're going to use a pirated copy to make a replica of a properly licensed model, then congratulations you are Lepin. To get the look right, you're still going to need the CaDA wheels, special aero parts, and ideally the Michelin tyres. Also I doubt that 2x Lego L-motors will get all 3kg moving, although admittedly I haven't tried it. Maybe with a 200$ buwizz3. So what's the point?

He says there was an NDA with earliest publishing date, and he abided by it. Well, he got a different date to me... Solid review though, and he clearly has way better photography equipment than I do. He's not mentioned a few things I'll be talking about here on EB, though.