Vectormatic

Im incredibly torn on that set On one hand, they are very visually striking, the colour choice is just spot-on for a set like this, and i love building speed champions cars On the other hand, i dont care about Formula-e at all, and i think the i-pace is ugly... (and tbh, the rear of the lego version doesnt look very good, the roofline looks straight out of 90s sets)

I dont expect the TG set to feature anything clarkson/hammond/may related tbh, that is all in the past for the BBC, and they'd rather not remind anyone. Is the Stig still a thing for modern top gear? I havent watched anything since the first season of "new" top gear bommed with Chris Evans.

I just finished building the "pimp my porsche" version, and have to say that i absolutely love it. I already knew stuff about how the gearbox would work for instance, but the stepper mechanism and the way the paddle shifters work was very enjoyable to build, chances are ill give my chiron the same treatment in the future to fix its (relatively minor) issues. It also makes me realise just how far 42096 is off the mark, it is at a smaller scale, supposed to be a race car, yet has twice the ground clearance at the back of 42056, and the roof line is too high as well. Plus, 42056 and 42083 now dwarf all the other cars in my display, 42039, which i previously considered one of crowns of my collection looks unsophisticated and small compared to the behemoths. Ill have to look at filling in some of the smaller gaps in the porsche though

@Kaanere Looks like a perfect opportunity for lego to make a new colour "dark red" and use it exclusively for this one car, leaving mod/moccers up the creek without a panel I agree though that the huayra is probably a bit too obscure, the Chiron is the succesor to the Veyron, which was revolutionary and record breaking, and while the Chiron doesnt surpass the Veyron SS in terms of top speed, it is much more powerfull (300 extra HP!), but by contrast pagani isnt breaking any records, and isnt the top echelon of VAG, but some standalone boutique hypercar builder. Not that i would mind a huayra set though, it is a very cool car (cooler then the 911 or Chiron)

Salt discussions aside, if lego were to do a GT3RS/Chiron succesor, the only way i could see them make a red one is if its a ferrari, anything else (Especially a lambo, those should be orange, yellow, green or whatever, just not red) would be plain wrong. The SF90 Stradale has no wing doors though, gull, lambo or enzo style. Maybe the LaFerrari? although that car is getting old

No, i meant that Cars is one of many subthemes (only one Vs the only one) I tend to focus nearly 100% on cars and bikes, so the trends i see might not cover technic as a whole, i cant really offer an opinion on the evulotion of technic cranes, trucks or construction equipment for instance.

True, i wasnt commenting on the real machines really, just the lego versions, in which case i dont see the point of the B-model

@Cumulonimbus Correct, lego is inherently limited in technical accuracy by the scale and material properties of the bricks, but it still provides a decent base understanding (technic is the reason i knew how a diff worked at age ~10) of the main principals of mechanical engineering. And indeed, the more advanced eletronics (mindstorms, C+, Boost) do provide an entry into programming/IT, but given how old the mindstorms concept is (or even the barcode truck before it), i dont feel like from an educational standpoint we've seen anything revolutionary (or even evolutionary) in the last decade, just more userfriendly and mainstream with the advent of smartphones etc.. You are absolutely right about the new parts though, while i dont know enough about exotic real life gearboxes to know if there is an analog to the bugatti wave-catch (i suspect there isnt), the addition of an extra clutch gear with a different ratio opens up a lot of options, and the bugatti hubs with the brake discs, eventhough purely cosmetic, are a cool new part. I havent taken a look at the Arocs in any detail though, maybe i should :) You make a good point all in all about the educational factors, im very much focussed on cars myself, which is only one sub-theme within technic, so my gripes about mini-fake engines could be entirely wrong in a general sense.

@Cumulonimbus And if i may add a fifth point, i think that while technic used to be not only creative, but also educational, recently i feel like lego is straying from technical accuracy in some cases to the point where the mechanisms in the set no longer demonstrate the working principal of the real machine, case in point, the mini fake engine. The traditional fake engine was always a bit lacking as it doesnt introduce concepts such as valves/cams, and the crank configuration rules out accurate boxers, or anything beyond a flat plane crank, but at least it gets the basic concept of a cylinder, piston and crank assembly correct, and allows a kid to get a feeling for how a combustion engine works. A set like 42075 teaches a kid the basics of a car, it has an engine, a diff, suspension with a u-joint and steering. Then take a set like 42093, yes, it still has steering, but in a much less accurate way. It doesnt have suspension, and while it does have a diff, the engine is just plain wrong. It doesnt teach the concept of how a piston/crank assembly generates power, the whole half-bush on axle assembly is quite sensitive to miss-tuning (move the half-bush a mm up or down and see how the engine runs...), so it's a) not kid-assembly friendly and b) teaches nothing, or even worse, the wrong thing. And for what benefit? supposedly 93 looks like a real life sportscar... As both an AFOL/petrolhead and a parent, i think 75 is far superior, it would teach my kid more, and as a big red firetruck with suspension speaks to the imagination more for play, and for myself, the corvette gets the looks wrong enough to stick out like a sore thumb, and throws technical accuracy under the buss in ways that simply arent fixable in the scale. That said, i do appreciate some of the newer bigger sets, 42082 might be debatable, as it suffers from its large scale in some ways, and the concept could be easily expressed in a smaller scale, but 83 for instance couldnt have been made as impressive in a smaller scale, and while it sometimes feels like "parts for the sake of more parts", it has an impressive density, and doesnt feel like an empty shell like 77 and 96 do. Personally i hope they keep the licensed sets to the larger stuff, it works well for something 2500+ parts (porsche, chiron and landrover), but under that you start to compromise on technical complexity for the sake of looks, which in turn cant be nailed due to the small scale. (another example is 42063 and 42036, the BMW is much more expensive but in its scale looks crude, which 36 looks smooth and with some mods looks absolutely stunning)

makes one wonder what the point is of 42097-B, the A model has the same height/reach, a bigger stabilized base from the fulcrum of the crane arm, and the ability to rotate. I really need to get myself a crane some time though, just because crane...

@agrof That is a cool pic, the black liftarm instead of the mudguards, the bigger tires and the black roof make it mean looking actual off-road type thing, rather then the shool-run softroader landrover designed. Ill be keeping the black roof in mind at a minimum for when i get my own.

clever using those small turntables for the top strut mounts!

Looks amazing @Appie (already saw some WIP shots on t.net), my only gripe is the halo-bar thing, but that isnt your fault, just F1 making their cars looks like flip-flops :P I wonder if in the current trend of lego doing huge branded cars, if we'll get a big F1 racer similar to this one

That would enable even pushup each revolution, but so would a regular flat plane crank, and that wouldnt double the stroke per crank rev. Either solution wont give a proper 120 degree seperation though, maybe someone can think of something with the tri-axle connector. imho, the real solution is a proper fake engine, lego could have put an I4 in there with a brick built turbo

True! What got the ball rolling was my plan to V8 swap it, im a big stickler for engine stuff, and if i did the math correctly (assuming a scale of 1:10), a lego V8 would be the displacement equivalent of a ~4.3 litre V8, close enough to the current 4.0 V8 twinturbo Merc uses. Although the 3.9 Rover V8 from the old defender would be close enough as well. Sadly the new wheel arches arent available in black (yet?) otherwise i'd seriously consider doing a completely murdered out project kahn like conversion, would fit the v8 well

In the category "waay overboard" Im wondering if with a stretched wheel base, some bodywork and a badge from 42043 this thing could be converted to a mercedes G63 :P

ehm, there IS an inline 6 in there? Unless you mean a proper fake engine I6, but i doubt the space is there, you would need 14 studs between the front grill and whatever is at the back of the engine, and that is without connecting it to the drivetrain

Excellent work @Zerobricks! Personally my plan first is to see if i can fit a proper fake engine in there, i hope to get a V8 in there, if that doesnt work ill make due with an I4 and design a turbo of some sort.

On the bright side, all major functions seem to work properly, there is probably a large amount of backlash in the drivetrain, but that is a given to some degree when you have a complex driveline/gearbox setup, lego gears simply arent backlash-free. I think ill be steering clear of further reviews/discussion for a while, the set looks good and has less obvious flaws then the porsche or the chiron, so ill just buy it, build it, and perhaps do some mods myself, then see if the inevitable "pimp my landy" thread spawns a good result, then rebuild it.

some random observations - The use of the steered suspension parts at the back now makes sense, if one used the regular unsteered suspension, there would be very little space for the driveshaft, and even though that would in theory fit, mounting a single shock in the middle of the arms (or any kind of link between the two arms would probably result in the driveshaft rubbing during suspension deflection. I cant say that im happy with the amount of balljoints in the rear suspension, given the inevitable slop/slack introduced, but it does look much better with these wishbones VS the regular liftarm (or even worse, twin thin liftarm for the 6L version) setup. - I wasnt worried about slapping a big V8 in there, but now, seeing that steering shaft alongside the engine, im not sure if the width is there. - The engine detailing is a bit meh, i cant quite make out which is supposed to be the intake and exhaust side, either way, on the left the four thingies (intake pipes? exhaust headers? injectors?) make little sense on a six cylinder. I really appreciate these kinds of details though, this just sprung out at me - I love that it has a back seat, along with the space in the trunk, this really looks like they managed to make a relatively accurate model of a real car, fitting the driveline in the actual space for the driveline, retaining interior space.

yup, 42000 has pushrod suspension with that connector, mine is fine, but it just sits on a shelf

wouldnt it be possible to just inject more/thicker grease into the openings of the mechanism, to keep any dirt out of the cogs? Failing that, maybe just flushing out the gear without disassembly (dont try wd40 though) might clean it out, then inject new grease with a syringe and off you go?

If you insist: - I dont care about off road vehicles, and the new defender is even crap at that, its a fashion statement lifestyle SUV which will only be used on school runs - The colour might be correct, but mark my words, lego wont ever use it again, leaving MOCers/MODers in a dead end street (again) - The gear change mechanism is stupid, i mean, changing gear by rolling a barrel in the mid console? Even just a simpel sequential forward/back stick wouldve been better - The engine is bad, if they couldnt fit a normal I6 in there, they should have gone for an I4 and brick-built some big turbos, these mini fake engine are prone to miss-adjustment and technically inaccurate, meaning that kids will have a hard time making them run well, and wont learn how a real engine works, undermining the value technic has as a teaching tool. - It really should have had a diff-lock, even if just for the center diff, any serious off road vehicle (which this purports to be, with a hi/lo box), is useless with three open diffs, one wheel in the air and you are done, go call the support crew - The winch... operating a winch requires you to open the bonnet.. even worse in terms of realistic playability then the Chirons spoiler. Wow, that last one was really reaching. Now back to reality, most of those points stand imho, i do infact not care a bit about offroaders, and i think the new defender is meh, and the mini-fake engine is 100% getting swapped out once i build mine. BUT, this is a 180 euro, 2600 part set, meaning you get a 42056 level car (and honestly, i think this car is better, it has more actually technic, it loses the paddle shifts, but gains a hi-lo switch, AWD and should actually have a properly working gearbox out of the box), for 60% of the price. I just know that even if i wont get the same enjoyment out of seeing it stand up on a shelf, i will get the same amount of joy from building it, and modding out some of the pet peeves is part of the fun. Im also fully expecting this model to gain enough traction in the community to spawn a "pimp my defender" thread, so six months down the line you will be able to (re)build this set with all the flaws worked out, and probably some cool extra details and features added. SO yeah, not a landy fan, but after 42083 and 42056, i am a big complex car fan, and at this price, it is an absolute bargain

To add, the outer diameter of the tires is the same as on the porsche and chiron, so any type of car which doesnt have very low profile tires will work just fine with the landy wheels

Depends on the cars you build, doing the math (81.6*8 = 652 mm diameter in real life), this would be a near perfect match for my cars tires (which are 625 in diameter, 215/45R17), although looks-wise 205/55R16 is closer, with the higher tire sidewall. It isnt suited for building a 1:8 super/hypercar, but for a slightly more mundane hatchback/hothatch, these are perfect.