Bartybum

@allanp I can attest to wanting more high speed, low torque gearboxes. It's much more efficient to have that, and makes for smoother shifting

The only slightly poopy thing I can think of about this set is that one of the rear axles isn't also steered. Other than that, I dare say I might get this one in a year or so

If this were 250EUR I dare say I'd be sold. It looks pretty good, despite not having a crane

Damn this looks really cool

Damn, hope someone took screenshots

I'd be disappointed if it turned out to be an offroad vehicle like the Defender. It has less than 1.5k pieces, versus vs the Defender's 2.5k pieces, which means that it'd almost certainly not have a gearbox. It'd just be another hollow shell.

~$500 AUD for the Zetros ~$750 AUD for the CAT unless both of them have some serious stuff going on behind the scenes which is already pretty much in doubt, then lmao keep dreaming TLG

The reason the wheels look off is that the trial truck skirt/bed frame is really short, with the rear axle right at the back

Ayyy, just found it! Really interesting to note is that it's not an actual photo of the set, but a CAD render. The lighting's really bright and you can make out some details for the front axle. My thoughts so far: LBG ball socket liftarm; pretty much confirms a live front axle !!! Can't tell for certain but there's a large LBG piece behind the front left tyre, which I think is a hub piece. It looks like the bottom part of a portal axle that's been rotated flat, but I can't see how that would make sense. I don't think it's a new hub, but I've been proven wrong plenty of times before. There's the end of a red piece sticking out near the middle; could be a differential, which I think is likely. The looks are a bit.... shit, to be honest. It seems as if they only had enough time to rip the second axle out and leave the third one in place, because the rear axle looks so far back that it's awkward. Can't say I blame them though; the fact that it's a CAD render and not a set photo makes it clear they were in a huge rush to fix this thing. The front grille being made using thin liftarms instead of the small panels is a bit of a shame as all depth is basically lost. Perhaps it's a consequence of them having to redesign in such a hurry. Overall it's definitely a no-buy for me, but that's because I was never a fan of the Zetros being a trial truck for the price point anyway. I still think it should've been an RC crane truck with hand pneumatics.

Any hints as to what hashtags we should be looking for on Instagram? I've tried #legotechnic and #legoleaks and nothing seems to be there

That looks really neat, I'd be keen to see a video

I was under the assumption that it's just a single-set contract

Damn this is sick, can't wait to see the video

I’d love to see how you routed two inputs through the turntable for the treads. I really want to try this when I get back to building but I’ve never managed to understand it properly

Man, I really love these tracked vehicle MOCs where the steering is controlled through levers. I really wish TLG would do this for official sets

Well we don’t know exactly how the 4x4 looks. We know the bodywork but there’s nothing really beyond that

Oh damn, you're going for everything being motorised. Not bad

Looks really nice, it's a great blend of Technic and System

Very positive words indeed

Okay I'm more inclined to believe this now... a live rear axle sounds good, but I'd be keen to see the front be live as well. The locking diffs are also quite welcome. Still, pity there's no crane for such a huge price point. It would've been nice to have a distributor gearbox somewhere in there for a knuckle crane and outriggers to give some hands-on play value.

I don't really even find them of any philosophical value tbh

To be honest, I'm not sure why the scale modelling forum was ever separate; I always felt it weird that it didn't just fall under the Model Team banner...

But the point that TLG should be making B-models has already been made. I can't help but feel that this is somehow arguing that people shouldn't be selling instructions.

To be honest I don't think looking at a topic like this should ever be through the lens of whether it's good or bad to sell instructions. It implies that it's somehow our business what someone chooses to do with their time and effort, which it just isn't.

So the issue is that TLG stopped doing B-models, not that people are charging for C-model instructions. Ohp never mind, missed it by a few minutes