allanp

We didn't get leaked images of the other sets but we did get one for the Liebherr, maybe to gauge public opinion? For a similar PU content as 42100 (one less motor) and 150cm height, that comes closer to explaining the price. Maybe this could lift the top piece onto the 10307 eiffel tower? That would be impressive.

Certainly FDM printing would be very difficult even if you allowed enough extra material to drill/finish smooth because of the tiny gaps between layers. Resin printing however might work better? But I wouldn't limit yourself to just thinking of 3D printing. I love 3D printing but I do get the feeling that now it's more available people are slowly forgetting about more traditional means of making things. Back to your need for an LPE valve, there is something I have wanted to try but haven't gotten round to. Most pneumatic valves in industry are nothing like Legos valves (Lego valves need to fit the "system") but are actually spool valves which are physically much closer to a pneumatic piston. My idea is to take a small 1x Lego pneumatic piston (which slides nice and freely) and figure out a way to glue/drill extra ports on the side in such a way as to turn it into a free sliding spool valve. It's easy to add a port in the centre to direct air to one side or the other, the tricky part is the exhaust, as you need to let air exhaust from the other side of the attached piston.

Agree with what others have said but a few other things you can do is build out of order. You could build a mock-up of the outer shell of the car to get an idea of what needs to go where and what will fit. You can also build a sketch model, like a very first draft of the functions. Looks and colour choices and possibly bodywork are absolutely not important for a sketch model.

Yeah, I think it's fine for people to suggest their ideas, just maybe not for @Jim to comment too much on them to keep the next contest more of a mystery.

Yeah, the very few clear stickers I've used all look worse than the colour matching issue, no matter how clean the brick before you apply it, the exposed glue of the sticker seems to act like an electrostatic magnet to any microscopic particle in the air then magnifies it!

Does the Liebherr use an adder mechanism in reality though? I don't think the large modulus gears are needed in the skidder, they only drive the fake engine and the red diff is very strong anyway. But it's nice to be able to get two of them in a cheaper set than the Ferrari and I think the yellow colour fits much better than the red of the other diff.

That could work, if you are worried about the magnets being too close maybe try a tiny rotary sensor on the steering pivot axis: https://www.rls.si/eng/rm08-super-small-non-contact-rotary-encoder The body of this one is 8mm.

I haven't needed to know their position to a greater accuracy than I can see with my own eyes. "In a bit more, out a bit more, perfect!" But for return to center steering, you can put two cylinders back to back, to create one long cylinder that has a middle point when only one is fully extended and the other is fully retracted. But you might have to change your setup to fit that in. I haven't tried your string fed feedback idea. Lego motors are stiff to back drive and Lego valves are stiff to move and with a noticeably large dead zone in the middle so it's a challenge but doable, but as you mentioned potentiometers, if you are talking commercial, non Lego potentiometers that move with no force at all, and then electrically driving the valve and taking the deadzone in the middle into account, that would be an interesting experiment, don't see why it wouldn't work. But if that's the idea then you could get tiny potentiometers and mount them right to the steering pivot point I guess.

Pretty sure the claw will lift more than that if you hold the back.....er....I mean the front down.

The best green! Oh well that's it, I'm not gonna buy it now!

No, there's a stabilizing link across the top of the body also, so rotationally the body should be keep half way between the two turntables.

Oil and energy prices are still driving up inflation, not sure how things are now compared to last 2 years but it's still not what it should be. But there's also 4 huge wheels and tyres, more pneumatics, the large grab pieces and some large frames. It would be interesting to compare the weight of the skidder with 42128 as that would be a better indication of their relative value.

It's not that weird if the part in question is at an angle, like this piece: We don't have a beam that can span the holes of the middle section.

I was thinking something similar but you don't actually need two functions through the turntable for this. Usually we link the left and right wheels with a steering link, but in the mars rover the wheels are linked front to back, so to swap steering modes all you have to do is swap the direction of rotation through the turntable on one side, because in both steering modes the rear wheel turns opposite to it's front wheel. You would only need two functions through the turntable if it had crab steering which it doesn't.

The A-frames are dark grey in the leaked image. Imagine the crazy off-roader you could make with those A frames as wishbones! The yellow frames are larger and rectangular.

I don't think there is much to see on the inside, most of the steering and all of the suspension linkage is visible on the outside, so x-ray might not be as useful as it was with the Zetros. There's also no electronics with the set so it wouldn't be able to animate any internal mechanisms and have them match what's happening in the actual model like you could with the Zetros.

I think it's more likely that they are exactly 16M long, and the flip flop beams might only be pinned at one end.

Just seen a back of the box image and apparently the model does have regular steering and turn on the spot steering.

Dang it! To the rear of the front bit at the front of the front opposite the rear end then.

Nice spot. Looks as though the flip flop beam may only be pinned at one end using a black friction pin, hard to tell for sure.

More pics available on Lego website Unfortunately they snuck in some LAs at the rear, and also the cam shaft style engine. Okay, so not everything can be perfect I guess, still very excited for this of course!!!

That's why I said tied for second, it'll still be second but 8868 could go to third.

Launch date? I see what you did there

I meant the black thing at the other end. At the moment it's tied for second (with 8868) for most pneumatic cylinders in a set with 5.

Looks pretty good. It doesn't appear to have different steering modes which would have been nice to have. But the rocker bogie suspension looks good and accurate and nice to get recolours of some frames and large turntable in white. It might not be an 8480 but I got a mad nostalgia rush seeing the white turntable as it really reminded me of seeing the first pictures of 8480 in early 96, and spotting the black turntable (first time a turntable was anything other than grey IIRC).