dr_spock

Nice work. Not having to dress in the apartment to build LEGO is good, less laundry.

Welcome back.

I suppose LEGO can be political. Day 265 of 365: Political Meme by dr_spock_888, on Flickr

There are 8mm outer diameter bearings that will fit the technic plastic axle. You'll have to enlarge the technic brick hole to 8mm to press in the bearing. Alternatively, 3d print bricks with the larger sized holes. If you want metal axles, you could cut and drill hole in technic axles to press in metal axles. Then insert the cut axle into the train wheel. Or 3d print an adapter to connect metal axle to wheel with technic axle hole.

I think you can create your own control profile using the LEGO Powered UP app. There are hardware/software like Legouino (ESP32), pybricks, etc. you can use to build your own solution.

Welcome aboard, GrandEmperorBinks.

Do you live in a dusty area or have pets? You can also try cleaning the wheels. Crud can build up on the wheels which can cause additional rolling resistance.

It's probably ok if there is sufficient tension on the tracks. My tracks for the 8110 unimog are driven by a top sprocket. There could also be some mechanism or gear box for the ripper behind the upper sprockets in the way. Too bad, the building instructions aren't online yet at LEGO.com.

40516

Some times there are shipping deaIs. I get "free shipping" from one of my BL sellers. They have family living near me. They drop off the goodies when they travel this way to visit family. You could try to find BrickLink stores that do a lot of sales volume. They might be able to get better shipping rates with their postal or courier services based on the amount of business they do with them. Whether they pass the cost savings to you is another matter. Any way, volume is king as we say in wholesale.

42114 Volvo Hauler for the assortment of PU motors to experiment with.

TLG has moved upmarket for the adults segment. The CAT pricing reflects that. I think they are going after the kid-less adults. Those folks tend to have more disposable income. No CAT for me, I still have to put the kid through university.

40516

Thanks for the detailed review. Gotta get those new track pieces. It is not all free fun and games when LEGO sends you a set to review. Building, writing, photographing, editing the review can take a huge amount of your time. I find the bigger the set, the longer it takes.

Modularity could be useful for team speed build contests at AFOL conventions. It could be easier to divide up sections of the set to different members of the team.