kbalage

Breaking news - The LEGO Group has announced the return of LEGO Racers (basic builds, high-speed play for kids) and LEGO Ready (premium, pre-assembled models for adults). These two themes replace LEGO Technic, responding to the market trend for simpler play and effortless display. Launching Fall 2025. Full press release here - https://bit.ly/4lbr5xZ

Maybe you have different expectations than the average customer, especially kids. As one of the aforementioned Youtubers, I can tell you that my videos and articles about the Defender's gearbox were (and probably still are) the most commented on, with literally hundreds of people sharing their frustration with the dysfunctional gearbox, even many years after the release. The concept was impressive, but that set simply pushed the plastic too far, and the end result was unreliable. You can build it to work (if you're lucky), but within a couple weeks you're guaranteed to run into problems. Especially if you're a kid, and try to play with it and push the car in different gears to see the effect of the gearbox. For me, this is definitely not flagship material. The G500, on the other hand, has learned its lesson, removed the unnecessarily complex gearbox and added a bunch of (well-functioning) features instead. Is that the flagship of 2024? Maybe not, but given the slow but steady transformation of the theme from Technic to Racers, I don't expect there to be dedicated flagship sets anymore.

I really wonder in what aspect the Defender surpasses the G Wagen. Having a more complicated gearbox that does not work properly is not really an advantage :)

Lol, my bad... Note to self - avoid Eurobricks if you didn't sleep enough :D Anyway, the description didn't mention anything related to RC, I suppose that would be one of the highlights of the set. But I guess we'll have to wait a bit more to figure out the details.

Did LEGO ever produce anything RC with a fake engine?

Based on their description 42214 supposed to have a "V12 engine with moving pistons, functional steering and smoothly opening scissor doors". This rules out remote control, so the next big question - will it really have 1135 pieces for $180?

You mean 42182? That's the set I was referring to :) Apparently the official collaboration with Lunar Outpost is confirmed by LEGO, I wonder if they'll have something for City, too.

I was hoping for a generic / fantasy space rover to join the ones we had last year, but there's actually a company called Lunar Outpost and they have this vehicle. I guess we'll see the return of the Apollo LRV wheels.

If it is RC and a sports car it will have zero suspension for sure

I think the biggest challenge is to route the bottom steering/servo output to rotate the superstructure. The side outputs are in a good position to drive the tracks, and for the superstructure it is fairly straightforward to route the 2 rear outputs on the two sides next to the hub to have 3 parallel outputs on the other side.

TLG couldn't care less about MOCs :) They will certainly use an existing licensing deal and will produce a car they think sells the best.

We haven't, but I really doubt that a new hardware component is being developed for Powered Up at this point. Either it'll be two Porsche hubs as I mentioned, or the remaining stock of hubs and motors will be poured in this set instead of selling them individually.

Well, the first one is almost finished :) https://www.instagram.com/p/C5T3jE8LLdW/?img_index=1

It's certainly not the most ideal configuration, but looking at it from a different angle - if all upcoming RC sets can utilize the all-in-one hub for a few years, then TLG won't have to produce all the other PU hardware, they can be retired until the next generation is developed. I'm really curious to see what this set will tell us about the future of PU, if it is really RC of course.

Why should it be a wheeled excavator? The arrangement of the Porsche hub's motors also makes it suitable for a tracked vehicle.

Definitely not, I have no information about any unannounced Technic sets. But considering how Powered Up has "evolved" in recent years, I highly doubt the Porsche's all-in-one hub was designed with only cars in mind.

I'm sure the designers will find a workaround for that ;)

42214 or 42215 still can be motorized.

I don't have time to look for the magazine in shops just before Christmas, but I've ordered it. It should arrive sometime next week.

No worries, I could easily be wrong, but time will tell. And you're right, the absence of purple since 42069 still hurts a lot :)

That is true, it is still speculation. But I don't recall seeing a small Technic set with so many recolored elements recently, especially to a color that was virtually absent from the theme before. We know the recolor slots are valuable to the teams/designers, so using them in an unlicensed set that could have any existing colors doesn't make sense unless those parts are planned to be used elsewhere.

He's younger and clearly has more free time than me, as he records the videos in both Hungarian and English :D My reviews are coming, a bit slowly but surely, have a lot of things on my plate nowadays.

The guy's main channel is in Hungarian with ~70k followers, recently he started to make English reviews as well.

I don't think they only do exclusive licensing deals, because other toymakers can have similar licensed products. CaDA released licensed F1 sets this year, TLG will most likely release the same soon. They both released cars with Pirelli tires at the same time, and both have Mercedes-AMG licensed vehicles.

How do you know they "lost" the license?