suffocation

Simply mindblowing To me this is your best car yet - I love the colours and the lines (don't know and don't care whether or not they exactly match the actual car - I mean, who cares as long as it looks and works great?) and I'm still struggling to figure out how you managed to pack all those functions in there. Major props to you and Clive for the laudable initiative

Phenomenal work! Easily my favourite Lego tow truck along with Sariel's from 2011. Got any video footage?

Ideally yes, but then it would be hardly visible. I'm trying to keep this somehow old-school, i.e. more mechanisms well in sight at the expense of realism. Lego did something similar with 42082 - they kept the engine at the back but went with a V8 so the cylinders could still be seen in motion.

Had some time to work on the superstructure this week-end. Mechanically I think everything's okay at long last. Now comes the part I dread - all the bells and whistles. Anyway, here's a picture with such amazing perspective it looks as if the crane either ran into a wall or got manhandled by Brrrrrrock... Llllesnarrrr! (You can still tell, though, that I've shamelessy copied 42082's cabin. I'm a horrible person): And here's a video - suggesting I have Parkinson's disease, but I'm just drunk around the clock - of the superstructure at work (still have to find a decent thread for the winch, so that's missing):

Absolutely stunning work As for the weird noise, I wonder if it has to do with the hubs. Maybe the combination of weight, torque and speed is such that once you hit fourth gear the hubs struggle to stay straight/aligned and generate that unbaconliscious squeal.

Lovely clean build! Any chance of a video? (Maybe it's there and I just didn't notice it )

What. A. Beauty. Absolutely love the colour combo and all the aesthetic and mechanical details you've managed to work into the model. And congratulations on your recent fatherhood

They tried to keep it MISB but then some short-sighted fellow broke the seal and it eventually became a staple of subjects such as classics, architecture and fat-shaming.

I'm not sure but I think the old hubs (from 8297 and 8070, among others, if my memory isn't screwing with me again) allow you to have the towball arm flush with the driving axle, whereas the new hubs place it one stud higher (or lower). In some cases, the former may be preferrable.

Stunning work, both in looks and functions!

You've been on the forum for months and all you've ever done is talk rubbish about other people's work without ever showing anything of yours. Put up or shut up.

The kids are going to love playing with it. Efferman's steering mod really takes it to the next level.

Absolutely mind-blowing build! Love the rugged looks but most of all the intricate mechanics

The gearbox is actually pretty simple. I'm not sure how well it'd handle high torque since it has three z8 gears but on smaller builds it should get the job done nicely. I've uploaded some pictures of the basic layout here. Looking forward to seeing it! Sounds really compact - any clue as to the type of vehicle?

Will try to comment more rationally once Lego Noah rescues me from the flood of drool

Thank you, it means a lot coming from you two I've always admired your small-scale builds and it was good to nail something in that ballpark, at least mechanically. Thank you! Will have a go with regular tyres, although that'd mean having equal-size tyres front and back. Thank you!

L motors are also great for adding rigidity.

Precisely. My RTC substructure is 75 studs long and won't bend even with 3 kg placed dead centre. A smart use of 7x5 frames, dogbones and diagonal reinforcements does the trick.

Ah, that would even out the playing field and make for a great challenge! I'd probably go with the most (pointless) steps to accomplish a given task and yes, there definitely needs to be a limit either to the number of parts or to the volume. Kind of a highly condensed GBC, very broadly speaking.

The point of a Rube Goldberg machine is to take something simple and make it needlessly complicated. Italian institutions are the unsurpassed masters at this. So if you can somehow translate their red tape into Lego, you're unbeatable.

That would be great, but then if someone had the brilliant idea of Legolising Italy's red tape they'd win first, second and third place in one fell swoop.

I think this would be a dream come true for A LOT of builders

Seconded.

I don't even like aircraft and yet I'd love to build all three of these models - they look off-the-wall terrific. Absolutely awesome work, guys

A few days ago I posted some pics of a silly tow truck I built for my nephew. It was silly enough, in fact, to kill its own Bricksafe folder, so I de-sillified it a bit and made a nerve-grating video to go along with it, so here we go. Specs first, pics and vid (or vid and pics) to follow, beer throughout. Motorised functions (1 m motor, eight independent two-way switches): - side outriggers - rear outriggers - tow fork adjustment #1 - tow fork adjustment #2 - crane rotation (360°) - crane lift/lowering - crane winch - front winch (with a linear clutch to bypass the worm gear in the event of tantalised toddlers and boozed-up builders) Manual functions: - drive (with a fake straight-four engine in the cabin for frying eggs and toasting crumpets) - steering - doors - jiggling As a special bonus visible only to people who can see it, here are some pics of the truck with its elder brother from two years and countless fatties ago: