valenciaeric

To be fair, the company that most copies Lego is Lego itself, I mean do we really need a full grid of F1 cars in every single theme?

In theory to improve the turning circle and reduce stress on the axles but in practice it makes no difference as the turning circle on Lego 4x4s is so bad.

So this is pretty much the same as the Lambo and Bugatti with the Land Rover. If you have the older model then the newer one brings little to the table apart from adding to your collection.If you missed out and don´t want to pay reseller prices then the new one will make you happy.

There will be the usual half dozen new parts to make it seem like something is different.

Yeah they use those metrics because punters like us do too. We now see several sets with more than 3k pieces over all themes and quite a few with more than 5k too. They tested the water with the 911, which at the time was expensive but then saw it sold well and resale values went through the roof so they made the next ones more detailed and more expensive, with longer shelf lives as they new they could push the envelope that far. Perhaps with the 2 Liebherrs they pushed too far and we won´t see similarly priced sets with multiple motors again for a while.

Yes but TLG are the masters of their own universe in price setting and when they want to they can adjust them to give better value for money to push sets they think won´t be as popular. I honestly wouldn´t be interested in this one even at half the price as it is Assault on Hoth UCS in Technic flavour - 3 mini builds with not a lot going on in any of them.

Yup it´s like a combo of a couple of those smaller Alfred Pedersen designed sets from the early 2010s but with a 2024 price tag. Not my cup of tea and it seems that those of us who want technical Technic sets need to go to the Chinese models as Lego no longer caters for that publis.

I didn´t think I would like it but this is probably my favourite of the admittedly shoddy wave so far. You can see where BTTF got their idea for the Delorean from.

Poverty spec Arocs but even then only 25 euros cheaper and a worse parts inventory.

I work in Euros so 42000 was 100 euros or 80 GBP back in the day - half what the McLaren cost. USD has appreciated a lot since 2013 so the price increases there are not as much as in EUR or GBP, for instance.

Let´s not forget that the McLaren was almost a 100% price increase over 42000 with about 25% more pieces.

They did locking diffs, they did automatic gearboxes and they have done the full cyclic on a helicopter - 3 things people had on their wishlists for years but unfortunately the sets they implemented them on were not that good (I won´t comment on the Airbus since I don´t own it). The licensing obsession probably stems from the last successful new own brand line being Friends. Nexo, Dots, Monkey, Hidden and a few others I have forgotten all tanked, whereas 2nd generation Harry Potter and Indiana Jones became instant best sellers so why risk losing when there are sure fire ways to be a hit. With Playmobil it is the same, I only see branded stuff on the shelves nowadays.

I fancied building something new in the summer but since the current range didn´t inspire me as most of it is more expensive duplicates of stuff I already have (if you have the Bugatti and Sian then you have the Ferrari). I would never buy a knock-off of an original set (if I don´t have it it´s because it didn´t inspire me or is a really old one with outdated parts solutions) but I tried a Chinese MOC brand and the only real downers were the manual being hard to read and that 2 parts out of 3700 were missing.Everything else, packaging included, was to the same quality as a Lego or Playmobil premium product and the set was technically superior and had the buggy motors Lego hasn´t made for years, which are quite useful. Of course, new buyers are arriving every day and they won´t remember the old prices or models so can only compare with what they know - it´s similar to the dumbing down of the City Police and Fire sets to target younger builders.

Indeed, everyone is free to make their own buying decisions and of course who am I to tell them what to do? Losing a 5 figure amount every year will not hurt Lego as indeed they have been getting more money in since I quit than before so it really only benefits me personally but since I was told to deal with the things I don´t like, that´s my way of doing it. The bigger issue is that they seem to be like a big oil tanker, stuck on a fixed route that takes a huge effort and time to change even slightly and when they do make big changes like stopping B models, the new powered up / control plus, they are generally not well received by the community. The next step may even be to eliminate the printed manuals and I am sure they will say it is for ecological reasons.

So in summary, the company has got so big it cannot change anything in its processes anymore. I have dealt with it buy not buying any Lego since 2021 and TBH it hasn´t been much of a hardship.

The best Technic years for larger sets were 2015 and 2016. 2015 wins alone just on the back of the Arocs but 2016 had 4 really strong sets. Nice variety of models with excellent functions, no stupid control plus, reasonable pricing and B-models. It´s been a slow slide into mediocrity since then.

A bit like those City planes? In ten years it will be impossible to tell the difference between Lego and Playmobil apart from the pricing.

Some of my fav sets (Unimog, Arocs, Claas) were licenced so that alone is not the issue for me. What is, is when the licence is used on sets with no added Technic value, such as Dom´s charger, Top Gear car and the recent shell supercars just to shift units. A full sized backhoe JCB would indeed be an attractive model in the same veign as the Arocs was and so would a Claas combine but it´s like with City - they won´t ever make a farm theme again even though it would be a best seller.

My perception is the quality of the sets and parts is not increasing as much as their profits are. The lack of B Models, the backward step new motor system and repetitiveness of models (supercar series, mid and small size cars with no technical features) plus the reliance on licenced products is gradually draining the DNA from the theme. There could have been a Combine Harvester, a Backhoe digger or a bus of some sort yet we get the same dirge year in year out.

IIRC there was a tech issue about stacking V2s with multiples of some motors- so that might be why this set has 2 V1´s. https://bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/8781/why-is-the-lego-ir-receiver-v2-not-widely-produced-or-are-they If you got 42030 when it was released, I don´t get why this is an issue now - 9 years later. Why not request the correct part to Lego back then?

Being a D2C exclusive, it will be harder to get 10317 at a good discount, whereas 42110 could easily have been had for sub 125 euros. Put them side by side as per Racing Brick review and it´s clear that the Technic one is chunkier and not much less detailed. The Mack Truck is perhaps the closest Technic model to the Creator Land Rover in terms of design and part count but that set also cost about 100 euros less. Inflation has been high for 1 year but not during the pandemic years yet Lego seem to be using reseller pricing as their strategy these days.

Give it a couple more years and the Creator sets will be more complex than the Technic ones. On the other hand, it blows my mind how Lego can charge so much for an inferior product to 42110

Have any of you made a Lego buying decision purely based on the opinion of a product review? Seeing the part list, functions in action and the size in scale to other sets are pretty much the criteria I use.

The pattern used to be an infrared controlled flagship in August one year followed by a standard PF set the next year and the supercar series was separate. Last year there was no flagship at all. Things changed when they started releasing sets like the Landrover at weird times of the year, which could have almost been a flagship itself if it had had PF and of course when Con+Troll was launched.

Icons as they are now known.