suffocation

Thank you! I tried to come up with a live axle for my rough terrain crane reboot but found it really hard to stop the arms from bending under weight: that extra pinhole they included to make Ackerman easy for noobs is a nuisance. Anyway, this is what I came up with: hopefully some of the countless builders far more skilled than me will improve on it. (This version has no Ackermann as the crane I designed it for is going to have crab steering).

How about the fact that B&P was down for ages, then they put it back up but payments wouldn't go through so now it's down again? How about the fact that if you contact customer support in a language other than English, such as Italian, you get almost unintelligible answers?

Are you kidding? Returning the whole set to Amazon would mean tearing down the model, repackaging it and queueing at the post office - I think that amount of time is worth way more than what a hub costs TLG. As for the proof of purchase, all they need to do is ask me for access to my record of Amazon purchases, or a copy of the receipt from Amazon, or my credit card records or whatever they want.. Incidentally, it's the first time I've ever requested a replacement, whereas I've placed countless orders on B&P, so it seems they've always been quite happy to take my money.

Something not strictly related to CV joints but definitely indicative of the direction TLG is going in. I eventually relented and bought 42099 from Amazon DE, since they were letting it go for a decent price. I tried the new bluetooth/battery hub and motors and it turns out channels A & B on the hub don't work. I contacted customer service requesting a replacement part and was just told that the part isn't available and they have CANCELLED my request. Is this what TLG has come to? Even at a great discount the set was still bloody expensive and the least I could expect was to have everything working or at least count on TLG to replace any flawed parts, even if it means waiting until they restock. But to have my request cancelled is an insult.

I eventually relented and bought 42099 from Amazon DE, since they were letting it go for a decent price and I really wanted those planetary hubs. I tried the new bluetooth/battery hub and motors and it turns out channels A & B on the hub don't work. I contacted customer service requesting a replacement part and was just told that the part isn't available and they have CANCELLED my request. Is this what TLG has come to? Even at a great discount the set was still bloody expensive and the least I could expect was to have everything working or at least count on TLG to replace any flawed parts, even if it means waiting until they restock. But to have my request cancelled is an insult.

Has anyone managed to come up with anything heavy-duty (e.g. live axle with mounted servo; driven and steered independent suspension with three or more springs) using the new planetary hubs? I got a set of them and I'm finding them very frustrating to implement, but it could be due to ramping senility.

You, sir, are a man after my own heart

You can indeed use an L motor for steering, provided you design the steering transmission so that the motor is protected by one or more clutch gears (or other similar solutions, e.g. a custom linear clutch or the linear clutch coming out in October with 42100). I found out that an M motor with a 1:9 reduction and two white clutch gears can steer a 4 kg model provided you have a good pivot point, i.e. minimal tyre scrub.

Had a go on a 40° ramp. Pretty scary how it's able to roll back in spite of the hubs and the XLs.

In terms of sheer climbing ability my version should, in theory, perform better due to the shorter drivetrain and increased torque. Then again, there's the ridiculous amount of friction generated by the custom planetary hubs, which are as efficient as chiseling the Parthenon Marbles with a petrified turd.

Haven't tried yet but I assume it sucks donkey balls.

Downloaded the instructions and threw the model together using Power Functions, custom planetary hubs and a livery born of pretty bad colour-blindness.

Another good set to practice motorising is 42098. It's more or less in the same scale as 42078 but has far more empty spaces where you can cram all the motors, battery boxes and receivers you want.

Pretty much anything can be motorised if there's room for the motors. Smaller builds have less room but are also lighter and require less structural reinforcement; larger builds have more room but are heavier and require more structural reinforcement, as well as more and/or larger motors for propulsion. You mentioned the Mack and yes, it can indeed be fully motorised:

I think it's a custom turntable from Shapeways. Edit: had this in mind: https://www.shapeways.com/product/CBJHXEZWV/turntable-support-13-studs-diameter?optionId=58697999&li=marketplace

I hope they cut the price of the new CV joints on B&P. The price on these and on the new planetary hubs is extortionate, but then again so was the price of the new transmission parts when the Chiron came out, and now it's been slashed. Oh, I also hope they fix B&P. Just sayin'.

If you don't like it then ignore it - don't spoil it for everyone else.

Ha! But I'm afraid you're right. 42082 has two diffs and, what, almost a dozen colours in the chassis? So yeah, 8x8 would be way over the pukebow.

I read on teh intarnet that the Koch brothers reportedly conspired with TLG to make us unhappy with sustainable Lego so we'd demand good ol' ABS back and they could sell more oil and that TLG is actually owned by the ghost of Papa Doc. I read it on teh intarnet so it must be true.

Don't kid yourself. There are misleading ads in every country - it's just a matter of how misleading they are, depending on local sensitivities and on how far the law can be bent.

There's a big-ar$e warning at the beginning of the video telling brain-dead viewers not to attempt to reproduce what happens in the video itself. So is it deceptive advertising? No, it's "Don't watch this if you have single-digit IQ."

Just installed this on my rubbish Samsung and had a test run with BuWizz - works like a charm, unlike BuWizz's native app. A huge thanks to all the developers

My main gripe is that B&P didn't work for months in most countries, then they got it up and running again... and now payments won't go through. Sorry for going off-topic, although it does say a lot about how they handle things nowadays.

Laziness is TLG's new paradigm. Their "new and improved" ( ) website speaks volumes about their new direction.

Amazingly, intense RC applications appear to require specifically RC-designed parts.