kbalage

We cannot deny that branded cars probably sell the best. However, TLG could afford to maintain a healthier balance and offer more Technic-like Technic sets, rather than just a flood of cars, a few smaller sets in the "other" category, and the yearly large, expensive construction set that they also market as a display piece. This is similar to the decline of Powered Up. Once they changed Power Functions and made it less intuitive to use, with a companion app that felt like a guessing game, fewer people bought standalone parts, and sales of motorized sets likely declined as well. This probably became proof for them that overall interest in motorization had dropped, so they scaled down the lineup. As you said, cause and effect...

Don't worry, I'm sure everyone is busy designing 50 cars for the 50th anniversary :)

The P1 was released in August, moved from the May schedule of the previous sets. Initial details did not appear until June back then, so there is still plenty of time.

It will make my job easier, I pre-record a segment with the internals, and only have to comment on the shell :)

The Powered Up "article" smells like AI-boosted speculation without any particular details.

I don't think Technic sells because of the Technic tag on the box, they sell because of the content, which is almost always a licensed vehicle :)The solution I proposed in the video was definitely ironic, I do not think LEGO would actually bring back Racers. However, splitting the "licensed display models made mostly out of Technic elements" into a separate theme would help keep the Technic spirit alive. We could get half or even fewer sets per year labeled as Technic, but these sets could really prioritize function over appearance.

Not all Technic sets have 3D instructions in the app, 42177 is one of them. I'm not sure why, but some larger builds only have PDF instructions, while others also get the 3D version. This is valid since 2023, before that only a few smaller sets got the 3D treatment.

Thank you folks, really appreciated! :)

Moving the discussion from the 2026 sets thread. As far as I know this is not an official name coming from TLG. If we accept a naming convention because a lot of people use it, then I guess you should have no problem with the "Control+" name either I'm afraid your software won't be able to control it, Pybricks doesn't work with the hub either. As I said, the problem is on TLG's side, they create products that should be perfectly compatible, but they aren't. If you look at Pybricks, based on the capabilities of that environment all current LEGO hardware components should be able to communicate with each other, whether they were released with Technic, Powered Up or Education label. The manufacturer is creating artificial boundaries between their own products.

@Lok24 so many things have changed since 2018. You can try to stick to the definition provided by the PU team back then, but those people are long gone and most of their plans and promises have not been fulfilled. I have a nice library of roadmaps and plans that looked great on paper, but never happened. At this point TLG does not even want to sell us most of the "Powered Up" hardware they created in the past years... As for the hub (which by the way is not the Move Hub, this one doesn't even have a name, just a part ID), it uses the same protocol, but there is no software other than Control+ that can control it. So is it part of the product family? Yes, it would be important to name products and technologies properly, but TLG failed to do so in the first place. It makes no sense to impose a naming convention on each other if the company is not willing to dedicate resources to this topic. Anyway, this is very off-topic in the 2026 discussion, I'm happy to continue this elsewhere.

If LEGO were consistent in their naming, it might make sense to stick to the "correct" definition, but it is all around the place. The hardware components have completely arbitrary names, the "Powered Up" category on lego.com has some but not all of the related sets and parts. I've chosen to use the term Powered Up product family for all hardware that uses the LPF2 connector, but that puts a question mark on the new All-in-One hub for example, as it has no expansion capabilities, it is not compatible with the PU app, etc. Things are rarely black and white in the LEGO world. LEGO only puts the Control+ label on their Technic sets, so people will use that term, that's inevitable.

I was waiting for it to pop up on the 1st, but it's been a little delayed. Now we need to see the price @R0Sch that document is a nice catch, where did you find it? I checked the battery documentation page but 88021 is still not listed there. If you check some "speculated" product lists for 2026, there are a lot of LEGO DC sets listed.

I have built several non-LEGO sets myself and also tested them with inexperienced family members. When pins and axles are the same color, the building process becomes much more difficult and frustrating. I like building complex models, but I hate spending time trying to figure out exactly which pin to pick from the pile. I haven't tried Reobrix yet, but unfortunately other manufacturers don't separate the different parts.

Technic used to work as a system, with fairly strict color coding to make identifying and differentiating parts easier. But with the rise of display models, those rules are increasingly bent, like the reintroduction of 2L black axles in Technic sets. The problem is that TLG wants to stick to their own rules while also delivering better-looking models, and at some point they’ll need to decide which path to prioritize.

We’re drifting off-topic already, and there’s a lot that could be said about this, but in a nutshell: the 18+ category is clearly aimed at adults looking to spend money on “quality me time,” many of whom probably never built a LEGO set before. Since the pandemic, the 18+ category has exploded, and marketing seems to think it’s the best thing to happen to the company since the invention of the stud. Technic is probably the biggest victim of this trend. The 18+ push started here with one of the 1:8 supercars (I think the Sián), and from there more and more sets appeared under this label. Technic was probably chosen for this because you can build bigger models with relatively fewer elements and still sell them for a premium price. Some functionality, like the fancy gearboxes in the 1:8 cars is added so people can say they built something that “works,” even though they’ll most likely never use those mechanisms. Not all of these sets are purely about looks, there are a few exceptions with interesting and playable functions, but in general, they’re designed to be accessible for people with minimal LEGO experience, and to look good on a shelf. And of course, almost all of them are licensed, because the assumption seems to be that adults only want buildable models of things they already like in real life. There are other trends too, like the ever-growing flood of licensed sets in the theme, or the self-fulfilling prophecy around the decline of motorization and the increasing amount of cars, but I’d rather make a video about that than write pages here.