Appie

Thanks for the awesome review. Really liked the video's showing how certain parts worked. That steering mechanism is quite cool. Outdoor photo's look very nice! Also good to see the suspension arms from the 42021 are in this set (didn't know they were in The Slave I too), I was afraid that part went the way of the 3L worm gear.

Seems new box design for opening (for a flagship anyway)? More like 42029's box and whatnot?

In my opinion, the only saving grace of that topic was that the MOC was awesome, the first 4 pages of that topic were complete and utterly useless imo (no, I didn't consider the comics funny). I hope to never see something like that again. Teaser topics are kind of lame in general imo: show it or not. If it isn't finished, make it a WIP topic or hold off on posting it. The only exception I think to this would be showing a quick picture the day before you planned to make alot of photos of your MOC, but teasing for a week or more is just lame imo. Sounds like a good idea, "Random Technic question" thread or something. Though I remember seeing a topic for general discussion about Technic (or was that just parts? Can't seem to find it now).

I sent you a pm Jim, considering one of my project ideas might fit in the contest, but wanted to make sure before I made a topic. Hope to hear from you soon, because if it's cleared to enter I will probably need the full 8 weeks to finish it.

Simply amazing. Every little detail and all the functions. Great job!

I remember M.A.S.K. as a crap series Wondering what the competition will be though. Probably can't enter due to working on other stuff (or rather: lack of working on the Lego stuff I should be working on, because I am busy with other things), but always fun to see alot of new models for a contest on this site

You're welcome, welcome back to the fun of Lego Technic building. Have fun in Legoland! Also, I actually meant the 42039, not the 42038. Though the 42038 does have suspension parts and other fun parts like the tracks and orange parts, but the 42039 and 42029 come with double wishbone suspension arms.

42009 is a great all round parts set. 42030 a great RC parts set. And the upcoming 42043 should make a great part set like the 42009 but with the bonus of new style pneumatics. For suspension stuff and a nice assortment of other parts the 42029 or 42038 are good choices. Edit: Also, www.brickwatch.net is your friend for cheap stores in the Netherlands.

Thanks everybody for the compliments. That's also an idea. I did/do have an idea to build 'Mo' (the little white cleaning robot) from the movie with Mindstorms and the gyro sensor I bought a couple of months ago. Didn't start on that at all, because my skills with Mindstorms are pretty basic :D

Take this with a huge grain of salt, since it is just a couple of prices in webshops, but a few dutch webshops (this one and this one at the very bottom of the page), currently have a RRP listed of 199,99 euro (same price as the 42009 in our country). Even when I consider the PF and Pneumatics, this set most likely has a huge amount of pins and other cheap parts that are raising the piece count, so I find the RRP from these webshops pretty plausible.

Thanks. As for a LDD or something similar, it is still on my to do list, but I have been occupied with other things the past few months and I still have 2 projects that I should start building at some point instead of keeping them in my head , so I might do those before I start on a LDD for this. I can't say for sure at the moment when it will be.

Awesome video for a great MOC. Cool mechanism and really captures that Lowrider feel and look (as does the video)

Yay, just recieved my last 3 bricklink orders to built this thing and got the instructions from Nathanaël Kuipers. Big thanks to Nathanaël Kuipers (of course), crowkillers for hosting the instructions, Blakbird and Anio for their great reviews. I already ordered stuff before these reviews were made, but I liked seeing the thing up close before I could build it myself

This used to be one of my favorite sets when I was a kid and it still brings a smile to my face while watching this. It's just a really cute wheel loader

Great review Blakbird, well worth the read and the pictures and renders are top notch. Besides all the points already mentioned by others I think there's another point of this car that is very well executed: - The colour scheme Been looking at building this in an other colour, but I keep going back to the original colour scheme. Also considering Lego isn't helping for some colour schemes (no surprise), this original colour scheme looks the best imo even if Lego was helping to provide other colour schemes.

Thanks MrTekneex and Jeroen Ottens for the constructive critisism, let me go over each point: Good idea. I actually put them like that to reinforce the structure, but in hindsight they aren't even really needed for that. So I will probably replace them with something that has no holes in them Nope see my previous post. I wanted the red panels at an angle I wanted them at an ever so small angle as you can see in this shot from above, to make it look like they originated from behind the exhaust pipes (originated from the doors basically). At first I had them straight and I didn't like the flow of the model. Considering I didn't want to force stuff to get these panels at angle it meant I had to make it structurally sound behind the panel while still providing room for the angle of the panel . So that is why the panel is only attached at the bottom. Considering I had some of the things you want straight and locked in the first place, it's actually easier, since I'd basically be going back to a previous version of the model. Getting these angles to work and be semi-locked into place was more of a hassle I am afraid no holes went out the window the moment I decided to use the triangular thin liftarm in that spot (for which I even considered a system brick solution, but that would have ended up rather flimsy on a 7 stud wide model where I needed 6 studs for a steering angle), but I can try that for some other places (like the white line). I have to say though I personally don't mind Technic holes in my models (Wall-E is about the only one where I tried to reduce it as much as possible), as long as it isn't a huge surface like the side of this trailer for example. Funny enough on the left side of the trailer the 4 red bushes annoy me, because they break the "liftarm flow" (and I don't even really like a "liftarm flow" ), but that room was needed for the 24T gear to move freely. Though if I use 8T gears instead of 1 24T gear I could use liftarms like I did on the right side of the trailer (would make the steering from full right to full left quicker too). Thanks for the feedback.

The angle actually isn't forced, the only reason I worked with the angle is because that 5L thin liftarm wouldn't line up otherwise. If I wanted to force stuff, I would have forced that half stud too and linked that thin 5L liftarm ina different way than I did now since it would make my life a whole lot easier. It was the first thing I build before doing anything else on the model. If I remove the pin holding the 5L red thin liftarm together with the triangular red thin liftarm, that is the place it will fall on the model with the triangular liftarm being at that angle and the rest of the wheelarch being straight. As I said, I did however try to keep it in that position by linking the thin red triangular liftarm inside the model to the seats (and 5L black liftarm "midconsole") which I didn't add to the model until I was much further with building. Since a picture is easier to show what I mean than words: Everything can move a little (without touching that 8T gear in the back btw). Chairs can move, midconsole can move, triangular liftarms can move

Thanks everybody for the kind words. What parts need improving on the truck do you think?

Yay, the video! Great work. I thought there'd be more "bloopers" though

Thanks everybody. I personally like the mirrors as well, the model felt a little empty without them and this part looked pretty good for the scale and was easy to mount. I'll see what I can do in the next few days. Forward it is pretty reliable, rarely a little hickup when steering. Steering is a little slow when it's completely to the left and the trailer being at an angle too and you want to go right, but that's something I could easly fix by changing the 24T gear on the worm gear in the trailer for a smaller gear.

Really great C-Model. Why buy an Arocs when we can just built this

Here's another small creation I spend some time on the past few weeks. A small American truck: I had a few wishes before I made this model. - Had to be 7 studs wide. - Had to use these tires, because they are the only tire size I know of that have good looking "truck (double) wheels" for the rear axles and good looking single tires for the front wheels. - Small fake engine - Maximum steering range possible - Steering controlled from the 5th wheel (why will become obvious later) - Openable doors and interior I got this in the model, though some are not the most pretty. Especially the wheelarches at the front are a bit big. First of all, making the wheel arch a full stud lower would touch the wheels. Lowering it half a stud is something I didn't even really look into, because I am getting pretty tired of the "half stud issue" that plagues pretty much all my models The rear part of the wheelarch is that far behind the wheel due to the steering mechanism. There is space to move it 1 stud closer to the front wheel, but I wouldn't know how to fix it in place while still keeping room for the steering rack. Considering I have alot of "old Technic" parts I used some vintage steering solutions for this model combined with modern parts. On the other hand though I do kind of like this wheelarch, because it reminds me of the wheelarches of old cars I could have settled for a smaller steering angle, but I didn't want to. I also had to keep the steering solution low due to the fake L4 engine above it A known concept for a small engine that I crammed in here. The hood is open for 2 reasons: I like to see stuff moving and because the hood would otherwise be too high for the model. I tried to mimic a curved top on the hood by have it go from 2 to 3 studs. I did have a desire to make a openable hood, but I couldn't figure out a way to make that structurally sound. Openable doors and an interior. The chairs are actually linked to the red triangular half liftarms on the outside keeping them (and the chairs) at that angle. The belly shot, which also provides another look at the steering That 8T gear is actually connected to a 16T idler gear on the steering axle to transfer it to another 8T gear going to the L4 engine. The truck is only driven from the 2 left rear wheels, since I can't fit a diff in this scale I figured this was the next best thing to still keep a nice steering angle. As you can see the outer ring of the small turntable, the "5th wheel", is connected to a black bevel gear which controls the steering. The reason for the axle in the centre of the small turntable is for the trailer. The trailer is a loaded with liftarms, that's partially because I only had 2x 3x11 panels from my 42029 and because of the white line on the truck which I continued on the trailer. The white line on the truck was actually an afterthought. The truck was completely red before, but that looked rather dull imo so messing around with some lines I decided this pattern on the truck was a nice break from all the red. This isn't just a trailer. This is a trailer that gives the truck RC possibilties. This was another wish I had for the model. I wanted to build a truck that was a non PF model on its own, yet had the option of being remote controlled with a trailer. The small turntable was an obvious choice for me because with that the truck on its own looks like it has a pretty decent looking 5th wheel which also allows to be used as a control to steer the vehicle. It also allowed me to have 2 functions (drive and steer) crammed into one spot on the model. I didn't want to see universal joints at the rear of the trailer going to the truck for steering, because that has been done and I don't like the look of that, so it had to go through the 5th wheel. The black bevel gear at the front of the trailer is to secure the steering of the 8T gear. Of course the trailer turns as well, but since steering is done with a M motor you're basically "re-adjusting" steering every step of the turn. The length of the trailer is based on what "felt right". This meant that I had plenty of space in the trailer for all the stuff. I got pretty lazy and just used some universal joints to link the motors I also made a very small video of the model (battery of phone ran out ) I couldn't make a video of the model going in reverse. It does some gear grinding then. Something I can't seem to really fix, because Lego decided to make a square hole in the small turntable instead of a round one, which I could have used to secure that drive axle on the 2.5 stud high rear chassis some more. Considering I don't like driving it in reverse anyway (I am not a master of turning with a trailer ), I am just going to leave it.

Looks really awesome. I like the combination of XL and L motors, very clean 'belly shot' and that custom v12. As others have said, it looks like a lot of liftarms, but personally I only mind it on the doors actually, it looks very 'busy' with all those thin liftarms. Otherwise I love the body work. Great work. Really looks like 2015 is the year of the supercar. Funny enough I have plans to make one as well, but currently working on a small project I wanted to do first :D

Thanks all. Yup, he organized it.

Thanks :) Yeah, those would probably be better, but those weren't allowed for the trial it was competing in. I might tweak the model in the future and include those tires. For the next trial competition the whole thing is getting an overhaul anyway, since I learned for these rules and the obstacles present, a bit more speed is not a bad thing :) Learned a lot for the next trial though ;)