mostlytechnic

Sadly, I never had an 8460. I did like the 8053, but I don't have it anymore to compare with. It's not a fair comparison - the winch is controlled directly by the knob and your hand, so the failure point would be the boom breaking. There's no clutch like larger cranes to limit it. Yes, that one is bigger. But it's even a class above 42009, so I didn't include it. (and I don't have one, so that would have made it tough....)

Here's the EB review of the new Technic Mobile Crane. What's your thoughts on the set? (and now that I'm done reviewing it, I can finally go read the 2020 thread to see what people were saying ahead of time...)

Here's the EB review of the new Technic App-Controlled Rally Car. What's your thoughts on the set?

Technic Mobile Crane Thanks to Lego and EB for this review set - I had seen nothing about this set before reviewing it, and I've deliberately tried to stay away from discussions on it, so you can get my own thoughts on the set. Name: Mobile Crane Set Number: 42108 Pieces: 1292 Price: $99.99 Minifigs: 0 Theme: Technic The Box Front A very nice front to the box. Good action shot, a nice backdrop, but for some reason, the Lego graphic designers decided to cut off just a hair of the set at the top and bottom. The Box Back A usual Technic back - all the action features on display, some see-thru images, but wait... NO B MODEL? Seriously? On a $100 set, there's no mention of an alternate model? Not a good thing. The Contents Again, pretty normal. Manual and stickers in a bag, parts in 3 sets of bags, plus an un-numbered back with the tires. The Manual Those parts will neatly break down into building steps. First the chassis, then the cab and part of the crane, and then the rest of the crane. The Stickers Again, typical Technic sticker sheet. Warnings, control instructions, and decorative parts. And with all the OK references in there, I'm assuming Olav Krøigaard designed this set. The Build, 1 After a little bit of building, you have this frame. The 4 axles are in place, all of which steer. The outriggers are also in place, as are the front seats. The two vertical grey connectors behind the seats are both connected to the steering, so I see the HOG steering system already forming as well. The Build, 1b This crane seats three. And although those curved panels seem logically designed to be mudguard or similar, I'm pretty sure that seats has been their most common usage. The Build, 2 At the end of bag set 2, the front end is done and the base of the crane is in place. Yes, that's one of the new long linear actuators as well. And unsurprisingly, the hazard lights on top of the cab are the steering knobs. The Build, 2b Most of the crane mechanism is in place. Both the linear actuator and the cable spool are here and functional. The Build, 2c Speaking of the cable spool, I appreciate the usage of the slit in the technic wedge belt wheel here. This was probably the easiest string to get started of any Technic set I've ever built. The Build, 2d Here's the underside. There's no drive connected to any of the axles - the "driveshaft" going the length of the crane is for steering. There's no fake engine in this, nor any suspension or any other complications. The Build, 3 Add the last of the parts and the crane is done. It looks pretty nice in this position, certainly very recognizable as to what it is. The crane arm gets in the way of the lights used for steering on top of the cab, but it's still drivable. The turning radius is surprisingly small, since all 4 axles steer. And yes, the 1 and 4 axles steer more than the 2 and 3 do, so the geometry is pretty good. But please, could you make that 20 tooth double bevel gear in a color other than blue? So far, this version of the gear (which has a smooth center hole, not an axle hole) only comes in blue. It just looks so glaring at the top of the boom there. Moving on to other details... The Outriggers, Rear The rear outriggers are simple and semi-effective. They're easy to operate with the black gear knob, but they only just barely go overcenter, so wiggling the crane around can make them close. They just barely lift the crane off the ground - you have to be on a hard surface to notice. On carpet, it's not enough height. The Outriggers, Front The front outriggers are less good, IMHO. They have the same geometry, so the same issues with not actually doing a ton. To operate them though, you just pull the red ball with a finger. Once the wheels are attached, there's not much room to get at it. Kids would have less issues than I do, I'm sure. The Controls, Left The controls for the crane are very direct. There's no complicated gearbox or anything. On this side, the black knob extends and retracts the inner section of the boom. The red catch on top keeps it from retracting unexpectedly. And again with the blue gear... The Controls, Right The right side has 2 knobs. One raises and lowers the boom and the other winds the cable. It too has a catch like the boom extension. Again, simple and ready to play with, but not complicated for the adult builders to enjoy. However, be ready to spend some time raising and lowering the boom. Thanks to the long actuator, it took me 60 twists of the knob (turning it about half way around each time) to raise it. That's a lot of twisting... The Chassis The crane looked good in the down position, but when you raise the boom, there's a big gaping hole in the middle of the chassis. Would a few more pieces to fill that in have been too much to ask for? The Finished Crane Once you've finished building and raised the crane, this thing is huge. The height is very impressive. In fact, that may be the tallest of the Technic cranes. If you have the boom horizontal, out to the side, and fully extended, the crane WILL tip over unless you have the outriggers down, and then it just barely stays upright. The Comparison The logical comparison is to the previous Mobile Crane, set 42009. That 2013 set is significantly larger - the price was more than twice as much ($220 vs $100) with double the parts (2606 vs 1292, and it came with a battery box and motor). Even though they are at different scales, the actual crane booms are very close in length. 42009 had a 3 segment boom - so did the extra segment help with size? The Comparison - Height Nope, the extra segment doesn't help at all. The smaller set actually reaches slightly higher. The extra segment on 42009 requires more overlap between the sections and more complicated mechanisms, so it doesn't actually extend the reach. The Conclusion I think the new crane is a great set, for certain buyers. It's not for the AFOL - we've got 42009 to meet our desires for big and complicated. The new mobile crane is a great play set. The controls are simple and direct, so kids will have no problem playing with it as a crane. Where it falls flat is the lack of B model, which leaves it feeling overpriced. By the standard 10 cents/part measure, it's a good value. But in reality, it doesn't quite feel like a $100 set. On sale, or if you have a newer Technic fan who wants a crane, then buy all means, grab it! It's also a pretty solid parts pack - quite a few wheels, gears, long beams, and of course the new long linear actuator. Overall, I give this set a B. It's solid, but not a star.

Technic App-Controlled Top Gear Rally Car Thanks to Lego and EB for this review set - I'd seen the rumors and leaked images, so I was thrilled to get to try it out. Name: App-Controlled Top Gear Rally Car Set Number: 42109 Pieces: 463 Price: $129.99 Minifigs: 0 Theme: Technic The Box Front There is a LOT going on here. Logos everywhere, and not just on the car. But overall, that's a pretty nice looking set. I'm worried that it's over-reliant on the stickers though. I get the Top Gear branding - it makes sense for a car. Except they've never had a rally car on the show driven by the Stig. There were SO many opportunities for a more fitting car - any of the "reasonably priced cars" that they had stars race in (but that would've required more licensing deals), or the Reliant Robin, or the ridiculous P45, or the Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust, or best of all, the indestructible Toyota Hilux. This feels more like Lego designed a rally car set and then got TG to do a licensing deal and just slapped stickers on it. The Box Back Yep, it's the Stig. With so much Top Gear branding, I feel like this set is Euro-targeted. Yes, people here in the USA have sometimes seen Top Gear on the internet, and there was a few episodes of "Top Gear America," but it's still not a popular thing here. I think the average person seeing this on a shelf won't know the reference. And sadly, no sign of a B-model.... even worse, no Stig is included. This would have been a GREAT opportunity to bring back the Technic figures and have an all-white one. The Box Side Here's the electronics included. You get a Powered Up hub, a large motor, and an XL motor. Yes, this is the bigger hub that has FOUR ports. It's previously only available in the Off-Roader set and the massive Leibherr Excavator. That alone will probably sell some of these sets. The Contents Nothing shocking - a manual, sticker sheet, non-numbered bags of parts, and an inner box that has the electronic stuff. The Stickers Yep, there's a lot of them. And they're full of puns and TG references. But being Lego, not the inappropriate TG jokes (sorry, no Penistone or anything like that) The New Parts Yes, there is a new differential in the set. It's actually pretty nice - it's easier to use than the old one, since you don't have any of the inner gears falling out while you're trying to put it in place. And it's the same size, but with a double-bevel gear so you've got more flexibility in driving it. As for other new parts, the only thing I noticed was the mudguard panel in white, which you get FIVE of. The Build, 1 The build starts with the simple drive system. It's upside down in the photo - you've got the rear axle with the differential. It'll take advantage of the new diff gear by using a simple drive. The motor will get a gear attached and directly drive the diff. I also appreciate the new cable management clips, which come in a couple colors in this set. The Build, 2 Here is the chassis basically done. It has a fair bit of decorative bits - brake discs on the rear axle, engine components up front (around the L motor which handles the steering), and dual exhausts. The Build, 2B The steering is directly done, like the drive setup. The L motor has a small gear that meshes with a gear rack to steer. The Build, Done All that was left is adding the body panels. And stickers. So many stickers. There's big ones, little ones, all over. The car looks really naked without them. The Underside From the bottom, the car looks pretty boring. There's no drive train, suspension, etc. Having the two motors so directly driving their functions makes it mechanically a pretty simplistic set. The batteries are easily accessible, and you can see two of the new larger 7x11 frames in white. Those give the car a lot of strength without needing many parts to reinforce it. The Side View There's a few cosmetic misses, IMHO. There is a gap in front of the black panels at the rear, behind the "door" - it's necessary due to how the beams behind it are placed, but that panel with "The Stig" on it would look better a stud or two forward. I don't like the different tire sizes either. It's partially to give the car an aggressive posture, and it's partially for easier clearance on the steering mechanism. The larger tires do fit the front wheel wells, but they just barely rub when the steering is turned to the max. I just think the littler tires look too small. The App Yes, you MUST have an Apple or Android device to use this set. Well, perhaps the Powered Up remote could control it, but I didn't test that. They completely expect you to use the app. So before you buy the set, make sure you can get the Technic Control+ app on your device (I don't know how old of devices it'll work on). This is the primary interface. You use your left thumb to steer, on the corner steering wheel. Your right thumb controls the throttle on the right. There is a handbrake, but it doesn't do much (the car stops pretty fast on its own). And you can switch to "manual transmission" where you select one of 3 gears, which do affect the car's speed. There are also some "races" you can do, driving the car following onscreen prompts and trying to beat a set time. The Video So how does it drive? Well... it's a mixed bag. Personally, I think it's too slow. It's a race car, Lego. Not a piece of construction equipment. It does maneuver well and the app works well to drive it. One perk is that the new motors have position sensors built in, so the steering automatically returns to center. It's not perfect though - it would typically be still curving slightly any time I tried to go straight. The Results Overall, how is the set? I think it's a nice set. The cost seems high, but that's driven by the new Control+ system. Lego doesn't currently sell any of the included parts alone, but for comparison, the smaller PUP Hub retails for $50. The Medium motor retails for $17. So I'm sure Lego would value the hub and motors from this set at $90+. Given that, the value of the set is good. However, on Bricklink, the current selling price is $25-30 for this hub and $15-20 each for the motors. There's a lot of people parting out the Liebherr set! One huge benefit to Technic builders is that there's now a car in the app. You could easily design your own car, and as long as you have an L motor for steering and an XL for driving, the app would work. There are definitely things that I think could be better on the car, it needs a B-model, it's expensive, and I seriously wish it came with a Stig to drive it. Overall though, I'd give it a solid B. Whether it's a good buy for you depends on your wants - do you want a Technic app-controlled car? If yes, go buy it! Then mod it to go faster

Sure, throw me in the mix. I've skipped a few games lately due to schedules, but I should be up for one now. Are you available for the next 4 weeks (excluding December 21-27*, when the game will have to take a break for the holidays) to check in and post every 24-48 hours? Only if you're rules for the game your running defiantly definitely require it. What's your favorite movie/tv show/book/mythology/story, etc that takes place underwater? Stargate counts, right? The wormhole sure looks like water at least. Do you know the freakin' difference between your and you're???? Advanced question: Do you know the freakin' difference between definitely and defiantly? Do you even know how hard my first answer was to write? It was killing me! I regularly want to go postal on coworkers over their emails. And don't even get me started on comma usage. You'll take my Oxford commas over my cold, dead, pencil-less hands.

Yep, I have the crane and the Top Gear car in hand and am working on them. They'll go live Dec 26 when everyone is allowed to post their reviews. I'm deliberately avoiding reading this thread and other discussions so I come at them unbiased. (I'm only making this reply because I got a notification from Jim tagging me )

Even without the real building to compare it against, that's a great looking building you made! Love it.

That is FANTASTIC looking!

Agreed - I don't think they'd change this ideas set into duplo, that was a "what if" idea. But what if they did both - "matching" System and Duplo sets?

I think this would sell MUCH better if they scaled it down - Perhaps even made it just a facade with the characters. They are what will sell the set, not the building, and I suspect it won't sell that great at a high ($150+) price. Heck, what if they went Duplo with it? That'd hit the target market better! First ever Ideas Duplo set???

Yep, chrome looks good on it :) And seriously, love the hulkbuster riding it! Fits with the FatBoy name too !

I like the look of the white a lot. Not a real HD color, but it looks nice.

I just watched Sariel's video and seems like we agree on just about everything. He did a great job going through every part and finding all the new colors - lots of the dark red parts are new in that color, and a surprising amount of new light grey parts appear too! And then there's a pair of tan inverted curves slopes... I'm assuming some other new sets will be using them, since there's no need for that color in this set. When I talked to the Harley shop staff, one thing they wished for was color options like the real bike has. Being Lego, it's probably possible to make some other colored versions, but that assumes the parts are available. The one piece that wouldn't be available is the printed tiles on each side. Those would have been nice to be stickers on clear backgrounds so people could make other color schemes.

Creator Expert Harley-Davidson Thanks to Lego and EB for this review set - it's a new entry in the line of Creator licensed vehicles (Mini, VW Beetle, Mustang, etc) and I was excited to check it out. I've admired those sets but never owned any of them. More importantly, when it comes to this HD set, I had not seen any images online or had any ideas about it before it arrived - I literally only knew that it was a Harley in the Creator Expert line. Name: Harley-Davidson Set Number: 10269 Pieces: 1023 Price: unknown as of review date (July 9, 2019) but I'm guessing $100-ish (edit: confirmed to be $99.99 US, $139.99 CAD, 84.99 GBP) Minifigs: 0 Theme: Creator Expert The Box Front When I opened the shipping box and got my first look at this set, I couldn't do anything but think WOW. At a glance, this set could easily pass for a model rather than a Lego set. There's so much detail packed into this and it just looks right. The Real Thing Before we move on, here's the real 2019 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy from their online gallery. Like I said, Lego appears to have nailed the design. The dual exhausts with their taper in the middle... the solid wheels... and of course the V of the engine. (and oddly, the photo Lego used inside the manual of the real bike isn't in the "Wicked Red" color. It's "Industrial Grey Denim" instead which looks too bland on the page IMHO.) The Box Back Wait a minute - this thing has functional pistons like a Technic set? I like! And it looks good from this side too. It feels a little more Lego-ish from this side for some reason, but it's still very good looking. The Scale This will be a pretty good-sized model. It's over a foot long. And apparently they liked the 107 logo for the 1:1 image, but were afraid people couldn't put that in context, so they added the engine as well. The New Parts The only new molds that I saw are for the wheels. The front tire is the existing "Racing Tread" motorcycle tire that's been used since 2010 in Technic, Hero Factory, and Ninjago sets. The wide rear tire is new though, as are the solid wheels. And in a clever design to save on mold costs, the read tire just uses 2 of the rims instead of needing another custom part. Molds are expensive, especially for large parts like these, and since these rims are such an iconic trademark of the Fat Boy bike, I suspect Lego won't be allowed to reuse them elsewhere. It is a bit of a cheat though. The real bike doesn't have a rear tire twice as wide as the front (they're 160mm wide fronts and 240mm wide rears), and the real rear rim has a deeper recess. The Age Designing a set takes a long time. Both new molds are copyrighted 2018, even though the set isn't being released until mid-2019. The Stickers The set has some printed pieces and one small sticker sheet. It's a very chrome sheet so that the "mirror" circles are reflective. The rest of the stickers have the usual Lego hidden meanings in them. 107 is the engine size (and really printed on the real bikes). WGDLN1990 stands for Willie G Davidson and Louie Netz, who designed the Fat Boy in 1990. 41 is the highway number that runs through Milwaukee, WI, where HD is headquartered. The 1974 on the odometer is the year that Bill Davis started designing the softail style frame. (thanks to the friendly people over at /r/harley for the help getting my facts right on these!) The Build, part 1 The parts for this set come in bags numbered 1-4. Stage 1 begins with building this frame that will become the bottom of the bike. They're already using some "advanced" build techniques - that black perpendicular connector (which, believe it or not, is a new color for that part!) is not connected to an axle like it's designed for. It's connected onto an arm so that it can swing outwards to become the kickstand. The Build, part 2 I'm not doing a ton of build photos - this set is a joy to assemble and I don't want to spoil too much. The build process is very modular. There's surprisingly little building directly onto the bike. It's mostly assembling a module and then attaching it as a chunk. Here is the engine. I paused partway through to show that yes, there are pistons inside there and they really do move. It's a fun piece of building, even though it's hidden completely in the finished model. The Build, part 3 At the end of bag 1 the finished engine mounts onto the frame. Thankfully, the two stickered discs are mounted onto pins, so they can be rotated freely to be level. There are also interesting part choices that make little sense. You can see the ends of blue 3L pins there. Below them are grey 3L pin with 1L axles... but why? There was no need. There are some locations where they chose the ones with axles because they didn't want blue showing, but there are other places where there was no need for the axle version. The set also has the 2 stud Technic axles in both red and black. There's nowhere that the red is needed visually. The Build, part 4 When you reach the end of bag 2, it now looks much more like a motorcycle. Perhaps the one tedious part of the build is connecting those 43 chain links. And then you have to feed them through the frame and around the gears. I found picking the whole thing up in the air and letting gravity do most of the work was the easiest method. Again though, there's a few odd part choices. I wonder if they are trying to model something on the real bike that isn't visible - for example, there is a spot on the side that uses a 1x1x1 corner panel that is completely hidden. It's the only one of that part in the whole set, and it could easily have been replaced by a standard 1x1 brick (which are already in the set) with no visible change. Likewise, the set has a couple white Technic 2/3L Pin Connectors, but they're buried inside. It already uses black and light grey ones, so why complicate the production process that way? The Build, part 5 At the end of bag 3, a lot more of the detail has been added. Be careful putting on the speedometer sticker - its disc is attached to an axle, so the angle is fixed. Mine will now forever be slightly crooked.... Also of note is the dark red of the gas tank. In real life it doesn't look as unevenly colored as this photo. The actual color is close, but the curved pieces are glossy while the slope in the middle is a matte texture. That difference stands out in certain lighting. The exhausts have a great part usage - they use aircraft engines to form both the taper between sizes and an attachment point to the body of the bike. On the other hand, you can see the most annoying piece of the set in this photo. Just behind the engine, there's a black cone with a 1x1 round grey tile on top (it represents the suspension adjustment knob on the real bike). I find that's right where my thumb hits when I pick the bike up from above, so I've knocked that cone off so many times making this review. And once the second exhaust pipe is in the way, it's a bit of pain to reinstall. The Build, part 6 And it's complete. Bag 4 adds the second exhaust and the front wheel and fork assembly (and a simple grey stand). I personally think the front fork is the one area that feels badly out of proportion. The real bike is beefy there, but not quite this thick. Unfortunately, Lego doesn't have any 1.5x1.5 round parts. I also think the front fender is a little too short. The Front IMHO, this is the weakest angle on the set. Granted, the headlight/fork/handlebar assembly is complex and difficult to recreate, but I still think the headlight is too big and the forks too thick. I wonder if a 3x3 dish would have made a better headlight. I'm betting they went with the 4x4 though because there's no 3x3 plate to put behind the dish. I do appreciate that the handlebars attach with clips, so they're simple to pop back off if you need to store the set in a box. The Comparison Here is the Harley next to 2010's Technic 8051 set (which uses the same tires as 10269's front tire, so it's theoretically around the same scale). I built it as the B model which is closer in proportions to the Fat Boy. 8051 was a $40 set with 467 pieces, and the B model uses only about 350 parts. You can clearly see what a difference 1000 vs 350 parts makes! The Big Brother I stopped by a large Harley Davidson dealer to get their thoughts. The staff there were blown away by how good the set looked and were amazed that it actually had functional pistons and chain drive (even though the real bike is a belt drive). They couldn't point out anything that looked wrong - sure, there's minor details (no side reflectors on the front fork or at the rear, the shallow dish of the rear wheel, etc) but overall they loved it. The number of little details are what caught their attention. For a small model, it has lights, hand controls, shift and brake pedals, etc. The Size Comparison The Lego set fits nicely on the footrest of a real 2019 Fat Boy. It does show the one visual drawback to the Lego version - its not all chromed . How long until we see some custom chromed versions showing up? I think they'd look fantastic! The End This is a well-designed set and truly a joy to build. I LOVED the build process on this. It blends Technic and System magnificently both visually and in build techniques. Mike Psiaki had a tough challenge, translating the angles and curves of a modern motorcycle into Lego, but he met it. Even the staff at an HD dealer said they were looking forward to picking the set up! If you don't have around twenty thousand bucks to drop on the real thing, get the Lego version for about half a percent of the price.

Very nice - and the waves are a great touch.

And of course, come back here tomorrow to see the EB review of it as well!

Yep, Yep, Yep!

Wow. And really, def is back, and not only did I not realize it, but I GOT KILLED OFF THE FIRST NIGHT and so didn't get to argue with him at all? Argh! Seriously, fun game. Even though I was out I kept reading and couldn't believe how long it went. The role madness was pretty cool, but yeah, I can only image how I'd been feeling if I was still in the last few players there... And I loved the anonymous part too. I deliberately (since I was dead and there was no reason to) didn't try to figure anyone out. Just enjoyed the tale...

I've typically used Flickr, but for my latest review I used Imgur. Worked just fine.

Thanks Matt - it's a pretty solid design! The more I play with it, the more it's a great intro GBC model. It's not perfect, but mostly in "B-model" type ways (aka due to part limitations). Those make good opportunities to improve it and learn how to build a reliable GBC for long-running use. And the timing aspects of this one are simple to tweak if you didn't get it all lined up when you built it.

No, the shooter balls are a different size. GBC is designed to use the soccer or basketballs, which are slightly smaller than the shooter balls. Some of the Friends sets have started including the balls again, but for the most part, the genuine balls have to be bought from Bricklink or ebay.

GBC 25 Sweeper This is a slightly different review than normal. This is not a set review; it's an instructions review. PV Productions publishes a line of GBC instructions, made from existing Lego sets. This makes it very simple for new GBC builders, since you don't have to hunt down an array of parts via Bricklink. If you have one of the Technic sets, you have everything you need. Name: GBC 25 Sweeper Set Number: uses parts from 42049, Technic Mine Loader (originally retailed for $50; currently used sets are available for $30-40 on Bricklink) Pieces: n/a Price: €9.95 for the instructions Minifigs: 0 Theme: Technic, GBC I (and my sons) love watching GBC setups. The mechanisms used are fantastic and just fun to watch. I've seen the massive discussion threads in the Technic forum here recreating Akiyuki and other GBC designs. One drawback is the need to assemble an array of pieces, and there's often the need for rare pieces (like the chrome silver reflector dish that's beloved in GBC setups and so sells for multiple dollars EACH). PV Productions publishes a line of GBC instructions, where each design is a "C model" of an existing Technic set. As long as you have that set, you have all the pieces you need to build the GBC (except for the balls, which PV Productions also sells compatible, non-Lego balls). I bought a couple instruction sets to convert Technic sets I own into GBC modules. I did not buy the PV Productions balls - I didn't want to pay international shipping. After some googling for alternatives, I saw recommendations for 9/16" Delrin bearings. I ordered a bag of 100 of them on Amazon for $11.25 shipped. The Instructions PV Productions provides their instructions as downloadable PDF files. They are designed to be printable, but that would be costly, since they have the solid light blue backgrounds like many Lego sets do. Instead, you can easily use a computer or tablet to view it electronically. The files are password protected and have your account information (email, purchase date) across the bottom of each page to prevent piracy. Given that, I don't know why they restrict you to 3 downloads of each file. It seems like an unnecessary complication to the process and would cause extra customer support issues to arise. The instructions are reasonably easy to follow. The image quality is slightly less than Lego and occasionally the steps are difficult. It's obvious that they're generated by computer rather than hand-curated. Some steps aren't turned the best way to view the connections being made, and some steps would be easier to do in a different order. None are TOO difficult, so it's not too much of an issue. It is definitely a significant step up in difficulty though - not for small kids or someone who hasn't done much Technic building. Personally, I liked it. I'm a fan of the older instructions that added more pieces at once and were more complex. The current instruction style feels over-simplified to me. The GBC This GBC is designed to look like a trailer. There are wheels and a tow point at the front. However, it's not really usable as a trailer. The wheels are attached to pins, not axles, so they don't roll easily. That could be modified if you wanted; there's axles left over. And when you are operating it, there's a tool to lock the wheel in place (it's the assembly with the dark grey axle connector just above and to the right of the tire in this photo. The light grey axle goes through the pinhole in the wheel and into the frame of the GBC to keep it from rolling) There's also a few spots that feel like part usage just to use up pieces - such as the "light" made of a stack of clear studs on the upper edge. PV Productions also followed the Technic standard of including a piston engine in the set. In this case it's a tiny single cylinder design, but it works. It is pretty fragile and fiddly during the build process though. At the front, there is this axle with a pair of light grey 3L perpendicular connectors on it. It can rotate, flipping the connectors up. The only purpose I see is that adjusts the angle of the GBC by the tiniest of amounts. The feed tray for the balls is connected by this single point. That does make it wobble around, but that also is part of how it works. I have a feeling that if it was more rigidly attached, you'd have more ball feeding issues. The right-side tire is held out from the machine by this red bush. That is because it'd rub on he yellow liftarm if it wasn't out so far. That does make it feel a little unstable though. Since you can't really roll the unit around anyway, I removed that red bush on my setup to make it a bit more compact and stable. The Video This GBC runs very smoothly most of the time. If you don't put enough balls in, it does sometimes mis-feed and the ball not drop under the "antenna" piece. With 5 or so balls, it runs great. The manual does walk you though how to get the timing right of the lifting mechanism, but I found that if you just position them as shown in each step of assembly, it comes out working right. If you weren't paying that much attention to detail, you just need to remove the black gears, rotate each tan gear correctly, and put the black gears back on. The video also demonstrates the other party trick of the set. If you rotate the exhaust piece at the top of the path, the balls fall straight ahead, making it able to feed into a different GBC instead of returning them. The Conclusion This is a great introductory GBC set. It's easy to get the parts for, since it's all from one set. It runs well, and is a nice level of challenge to assemble. I think it makes a nice display on its own, but there's also room to modify it if you want. You could make it longer, improve the return ramp, etc, and that's part of the fun of GBC. The price seems reasonable on it's own, but when I look at the other, much larger, GBC designs that they sell, in comparison it feels a touch overpriced. This small set was ten euros, but instructions for much larger models are 13 to 25 euros. Given how much work must go into designing and then digitally modeling each set, none of it seems unreasonable. Now time for me to go work on the GBC 14 Strandbeest, built from the 42054 Tractor set...

Wow, you Europeans sure like parting out train sets. There's only a couple sellers on that in the US, and a hundred in Europe! A little bit jealous here... but that does swing the cost significantly. I was quoting the $50/ea retail price from Lego, and I didn't realize that they were SO much cheaper in the secondary markets.

Yes, you can, but those two hubs are $50 each!