Cumulonimbus
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Hi all. Until recently I resided only at the EB Technic subforum. For several reasons (which I won’t elaborate here) I’m taking a break from Technic. Instead I found joy in building City vehicles in LDD and improving them as I like. My main motivation is the nostalgia for the times I had a Lego city and some of the vehicle I had a fascination for as a kid. Small disclaimer: This all just for fun, I have no plans for building any of the following vehicles with real bricks. I would like to kick things of with the first series of vehicles: some utility trucks inspired by the cherry picker in the upcoming 60306 Shopping Street set. l liked the proportions, colors and general look of the original, but missed some play value. So I tweaked the nose, modified the cherry picker for bigger range, added outriggers and some tool storage. This is the result, next to its source of inspiration: The ball got rolling and I built two version of this vehicle, a contractor truck towing an air compressor and one featuring a snowplow. When the cherry picker and the contractor are at work it looks something like this: I hope you like them, I'm currently working on another series of vehicles
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@efferman: Impressive work, good job. -
I managed to fit the necessary mechanisms inside the 42110 body and the image below shows the range of movement:
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What a strange decision TLG made ... again. It's a very confusing message they are giving: "We made this great set, but due to our core values it set will not be available on the market, except when it is". They effectively made the 42113 a limited edition now (with an unknown series size) and we all know what happens to those, think 41999. At least some dedicated fans will have a bigger chance of getting their copy, but it will cost them a ludicrous amount of money. My guess: expect to pay 5 to 10 time the retail price. Not a proper way to treat your customers and fan base if you ask me.
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I wonder if there will be legal ramifications for TLG by the late cancellation of the set. For starters, I can imagine that many retailers are not too happy about the potential loss of revenue and the extra time and effort needed to resend the already received sets. Secondly, will Bell/Boeing see this as a breach of contract? I guess they're not too pleased with the bad press of "the weapon manufacturer that TLG refuses to business with". They may also have allocated marketing budget for this cooperation which falls flat now. We may never know.
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There are officially too many EB topics about this set now. The image you show is the work of @efferman. See this topic: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/179217-42113-reconstruction-guide/&page=3
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Thank you for the suggestion, I have no plans to purchase the set yet. I once started a LDD design based on the 42030 B-model, I think I had a rolling chassis with the correct suspension geometry. I even bought a second hand 42030 back then as a parts donor for this project. It might be a good time to dust it of and continue building. I have a lot of yellow bricks in my inventory, so that is not an issue. But I will need a lot of panel for the dump bed, two extra tires with yellow rims and two XL LAs. It just hit me why TLG used the angled panels instead of the 5x11 an 3x11 rectangular panels: The angled panels are 1M thick along both their surfaces, this way both the inner and outer surface of the bed look as smooth as possible.
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Thank for the background information, it's insightful and nuances this whole saga a bit. Not sure if going after Lego is the most effective way towards a more peaceful world. On the other hand, if their goal was to create more awareness for their organization and their cause, this was action was a resounding success. As for the set, I signed the petition. It would be a waste of energy and resources to cancel this set this late and I don't really see what good it will do if it gets dropped. In my opinion, it should be considered a lesson learned and should be taken into account in future license deals.
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Seeing that bottom view, I wonder how easy it would be to make the two rear axles pendular. It would require some reinforcements in the frame, but gives you the illusion of suspension on the rear wheels.
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I'm just interpreting the news I read, don't shoot the messenger. I like the 42113 set and couldn't really care less if it was a military vehicle or not. Ethical education should be done by parents, not corporations. The issue at hand is that TLG is breaching their own policy of no violence based sets for years and only now are called out for it. We'll see what their reaction will be. EDIT: - Seems that DFG-VK is serious about this set (in German): https://lovebricks-hatewar-de.dfg-vk.de/startseite - Brickset has a post about this news as well: https://brickset.com/article/52679/technic-bell-boeing-v-22-osprey-cancelled#comments
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For the record, me personally thinks that TLG is overreacting if they are considering dropping the Bell license. But you're right, being very strict about your principles as a company is very slippery slope. Either hold on to your principles and accept lower revenue or take advantage of opportunities and dilute your principles. A well known Polish brick manufacture thrives mainly due its line of military vehicles. If you ask me, this commotion is caused by a lack of confidence and identity at TLG. Of course they want to maximize sales and thus want to release contemporary and attractive sets for kids and adults. But the sets and vehicles that sell well often have elements of violence (James Bond Aston Martin to name a single example). It's a trend that has steadily increased for years across multiple themes. TLG will have to re-evaluate what they judge as most important: profit or principles. Whatever action they take with this set, you will have you answer.
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I think the line that has been crossed in this set is not based on the features of the model, but with the license agreement between TLG and Bell, an active manufacture of (among others) military vehicles. The Sopwith company is long gone and many other themes like Star Wars and pirates are fictional. But I agree that it is very late in the game for TLG to have second thoughts. What we are seeing now is the marketing department panicking and doing damage control.
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No, they just discovered that calling it a rescue version is not enough to conceal the origin of the vehicle. They haven been called out by the "German Peace Society" (no idea what that organization does), claiming that buying this set will support a weapon manufacturer. A bit overstated if you ask me, but I can understand the critique. I can image that TLG want to avoid further controversy and simply cancel the set.
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According to the Zusammengebaut website, TLG is deliberately postponing or even canceling the launch. Apparently there is doubt about the military character of this set and the manufacturer of the original machine (quote translated via Google Translate): " The response from LEGO Germany that reached us this morning: “The LEGO Technic Set Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey was developed by us in relation to the aircraft's operations in rescue operations. The aircraft is mainly used for military purposes. We have long followed the principle of not designing sets with military vehicles. In this case, we have not strictly followed our own guidelines and high standards and will therefore review the plans to launch the product on August 1st"
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I finally decided to bite the bullet and try to build the technic Defender I want. I bought a second hand 42110 as the basis for my MOD/MOC and started work a couple of weeks ago. The hardest part will be the adjustable suspension, which will require a completely new chassis. I have figured out a geometry which gives me the necessary range and stability and will be compact enough to fit inside the 42110 body. The image below is a quick snapshot of my testmule which gave me the confidence to post this first update. A lot of unknowns at the moment and it will undoubtedly be slow progress, we'll see where this ends. More updates will follow ...
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Great, can't wait to see what you come up with .
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Excellent review @mostlytechnic, I feel the same way about this set. I liked your GIFs illustrating the functions as well, nice job. @Dirk1313 That is an great addition tho this truck, it makes it more complete in its looks and functions.
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Great vehicle choice, I have seen a modified version of this truck with a detachable skip loading bed on the rear: Once I saw that truck, I started my own MOC, but the pivoting dumper bed of the original truck proved to be very challenging to design in technic bricks. The geometry of the subframe on top of the turntable is crucial: it can't be too high, it must clear the rear tires when pivoting and it is tricky to find a place for the dumping actuator. So far, I haven't found a solution that worked reliably, so I will follow this topic with great interest. Good luck!
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I feel the same way: In principle it is a good set, with an attractive license, good play value and the necessary functions. But it's not the set I longed for: C+ still is a considerable obstacle for me, in price, the volume claim and the smartphone dependency. Beside this, the gearbox does not really trigger me and its penalty of unrealistic proportions is too high in my book (especially in a licensed set). It does have potential though. I think we will see many MODs: realistic rear suspension, mLA steering, tweaked proportions, tail gate etc. Maybe @efferman has plans to take away some of its shortcomings, I really liked his mLA steering modification for the 42030. A realistic rear suspension would be a great addition as well, but I think one will need to loose the gearbox and/or the C+ elements to achieve this. I'm considering buying the set eventually as the basis for a MOD/MOC, make it a manual or PF(non-RC) model and selling the C+ components to soften the pricetag. The suspension is an interesting challenge to take on, but it will have to wait while I'm working on another suspension related project.
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Another reason could be bad temperature control during the injection moulding. The injected plastic was not hot enough or the mould cooled the flow too fast. Both can be an indication of trying to save time, cranking up the production speed in order to lower the cost per part. Not a good evolution for a self proclamed premium brand with their marketing and prices based on high quality bricks.
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Not sure if you are asking how a concrete truck works, but in any case I thought the image below is nice to see. No concrete truck I know tilts the drum to unload, I think a loaded drum is too heavy to tilt and dumping concrete like that would result in an uncontrolled mess. The drum has two Archimedes screws inside, if the drum spins clockwise, the content is pushed towards the truck cabin, but since that end of the drum is closed, the concrete is continuously being mixed. When the drum spins counterclockwise, the liquid concrete is carried toward the rear of the truck, where the drum has an opening, and is being fed in the chute towards the area where is it is needed. The drum is never completely full: imagine a horizontal line around the top of the truck cabin, that is the maximum concrete level. The screw combined with the variable rotating speed makes precise dosing possible.
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This set was the one I looked forward to most in this lineup. An improved 42030B has been on my to-do list for a long time and this set could fill that opening. Unfortunately, I still really dislike the proportions of this set. The comparison images of @Ngoc Nguyen on page 13 of this topic clearly show how disproportioned several key aspects of the model are. It wouldn’t be a big deal if it was a generic hauler truck, since they come in all different sizes and shapes. But as this is a licensed Volvo model and supposed to be the A60H (the biggest articulated hauler of Volvo) this is not good enough. It looks like a much smaller vehicle, but even their smallest (the A25G) has a smaller cabin in real life that this set has. The addition of bulky C+ components really seem to have distorted the whole model. Function wise the clues are not favorable either: so far there are no signs of any rear suspension. Maybe there are simplified pendular rear axles, but I' bet there will not be anything similar to the suspension of the real A60H. I’m sorry, but that is not valid reasoning. There could be plenty of reasons why you haven’t seen improved MODs of MOCs of the 42082 here. Simply because you haven’t seen them, doesn’t mean that they don’t exist nor does it mean that the criticism of the original model was unjustified.
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42108 - Mobile Crane
Cumulonimbus replied to Ngoc Nguyen's topic in LEGO Technic, Mindstorms, Model Team and Scale Modeling
I’m sorry, I'm hesitant to share the lxf of that model for two reasons: First, Jim was clear that this forum is not the place to discuss non-Lego sets and brands. Second, I believe that this set was an original model of that brand, not a clone or a stolen MOC. I applaud their effort and I don’t want to be the one who steals their design and distribute it. You are right that they do not make digital instructions (which makes me appreciate the fact that TLG does). You could consider buying one of their sets. Alternatively, it shouldn't be too hard to recreate your own copy based on the pictures and movies available online. -
This V-22 looks good, it reminds me of the excellent 9396 Rescue helicopter. I don't expect any function surprises beside the obvious as @dhc6twinotter said. I hope that the addition of the PU components will not push the price up unnecessarily. It will be an unwieldy set to display since it will not fit on your standard shelf of windowsill. A side note: I find it fascinating to see that TLG has more and more difficulty to maintain their “no military machinery rule” even in the Technic range. As far as I know, there has never been a Search And Rescue (SAR) version of a V-22 in real life. Don’t misunderstand me, I like the fact they made all kinds of airplanes, like the 42066, but making a set of military vehicle, putting on a fancy color and then calling it a Race or Rescue vehicle is a bit of a "conscience silencing move", it still is a military vehicle in my eyes.