AVCampos

You don't have to get sets from the current year to be a LEGO Technic fan: there's plenty of stuff from previous years.

42001 didn't have any gears, either.

The A stands for "Arts".

The real ones use hydraulics. There's no way TLG would use water due to the risk of spillage, much less oil. What's left is pneumatics, which sag over time (especially with a load as heavy as a 1:8 car) and LAs. In face of this, I'd then definitely pick LAs.

The only word that comes to my mind when reading that is "yikes".

I wouldn't mind a new Car Transporter instead. 42098 went away many years ago already, and since then we got a deluge of stuff to fill a new one (or a reissue) with.

You mean, for example, if the rider applies torque to the pedals while the rear wheel is stuck in sand or mud? In a real bike, the tension the spokes are under takes care of that, but in the LEGO version with LEGO tolerances that may be an issue.

That part will be lovely for multiplexers, pullback motors that don't use the dedicated part, and large helicopter rotors. As a model, the bike doesn't attract me, but the new elements it brings sure are yummy!

If I'm not mistaken, that's Chris Stamp, who used to lead Speed Champions... which is all about licensed cars.

I can easily see it: the top conveyor belt directly connected to the bucket wheel on one end and a crank on the other. Any other functions would be manual. The set as a whole would be way smaller than 42055, obviously.

It'll quickly get outdated, though...

But at least this way we get new giant gear and wheels to MOC with. That alone makes me happy about the set.

Many Icons sets are unlicensed.

Moulds are created optimised for a given material. Often the choice is between a material that allows for more colours but not transparent ones, or one that allows transparency but less overall colours. Possibly the mould used for the headlights is of the former category, and hopefully the headlights are at least glow-in-the-dark instead of plain white. Could that be dual-moulded? I don't believe TLG has us apply stickers on such a complex shape, and reflections can't explain such large difference in apparent brightness in the surfaces of the part.

Uh...