howitzer

Congratulations to winners! It was really fun contest, so many so good entries. Personally I learned a lot while making my entry, too bad I couldn't finish it properly, perhaps next time is better.

Yeah, if there's ranking and prizes, it's a contest. Challenge could be some kind of a "build a solution to this problem and show how it works, then all the different solutions are presented" thing but without ranking or prizes.

Hopefully the truss parts will become available in B&P at reasonable price - still an expensive expansion, but you'll need a lot of them so that's kind of unavoidable. I don't think the pricing of the weight pieces are relevant here.

Oh, damn, I didn't read carefully enough, sorry.

GBC people will be delighted to know that there's a new neon yellow ball available now in the new Friends Sports Center set:

My question here would be... why not have your kid do both, music and robotics?

If there was a PU contest I'd hope that the rules allowed also RI/Spike hub and sensors, in addition to Technic hub and motors. The restriction of max 4 peripherals (sensors/motors) is fine though.

But I could replace the source photos.

Joining the chorus here, this was a very good contest and I'm happy and proud that I was able to enter and finish my entry. I got the missing parts today and I _could_ shoot new photos I guess, and replace them in my entry post but I'm not sure if that's allowed?

Thanks! Mostly I chose the transparent tube because I didn't want to cut original Lego tubes and I have a large spool of transparent tube at my disposal, which makes it easy to cut them in correct lengths. Can't be too short obviously but in a small model like this too long tubes are also problematic.

Nice work! Too bad there's no chance it would ever get released as an official Ideas set - no Technic entry has ever been accepted and this is a lot more niche than other Technic Ideas entries. It reminds me of another gaming console made out of Lego which I stumbled upon a while ago:

Last moments but I think I did it... Too bad my entry is sort of unfinished :(

8868 Airtech Claw Rig Shrink factor: 70% Includes all features of the original replicated as faithfully as possible, except motorized compressor (replaced by manual pump as per rules of the contest). I was unable to finish the build properly due to missing parts which I had ordered, so few details are missing, like the horns on the top of the roof and few are coloured wrongly, such as some parts in front mudguards. The features include: - Rack and pinion steering with HOG control - Two rear axles with differentials driving front V6 fake engine - Five pneumatic cylinders, two of which are used for slewing, one for boom, one for jib and one for claw - Aesthetic touches of the original replicated as far as possible given the scale and functions More photos in the wip topic:

So, I didn't receive the parts I ordered in time. This means my build is missing some aesthetic touches and has few parts in wrong colour. Nothing I can do to fix those as the deadline is today so this will have to do. Here's the final photos as far as the contest is concerned, sorry for the cannibalized and mutilated 8868, it has suffered a lot over the years. Higher resolution images at http://www.jousimo.fi/lego/TC25/

New Elementary did some analysis on the new worm gear and it's mating parts, including a way to drive the worm gear with normal gears: https://www.newelementary.com/2023/08/lego-parts-73763-73764-3863-worm-gear.html

I have the same problem - ordered some parts in the beginning of the week and the seller had them mailed in tuesday so I expected to have them at hand in friday at the latest... but they didn't come. So unless they arrive tomorrow, I'll have to enter with the model I have now which is incorrectly coloured and has some aesthetic parts missing. Fortunately it's mostly complete with all the functionality working. I do understand the hard deadline though, so either way I'll post my finished entry tomorrow.

This project is absurd and awesome in its scope and scale, and in your commitment to continue building and improving it. I've seen large Lego builds before but this is beyond anything I've seen in its complexity. I wonder if you're ever going to call it "finished"? It would deserve a proper documentary film detailing every part and their design and construction.

I, for one, value greatly the effort and time that @Jim puts into arranging these contests. I hope we'll see many more of these to come, as they are one of the more interesting aspects of this forum and a big reason why I come here. Don't let the complainers put you down, there are far more of us who enjoy and appreciate your work!

While I'm also curious about the judging criteria, I also understand that it's borderline impossible to provide an exact list of criteria with all the possible interpretations and reasoning laid out - in the end it's probably just as much gut feeling as formalized criteria. In my opinion these elaborate discussions about judging criteria also detract from the primary purpose of the contests which is to have fun. So whatever my position in the end, I'm happy to have entered and I trust the judges make their decisions fairly. (But beside the top three it would be nice to know the runner-ups, even if the rest of the entries weren't laid out in order.)

My entry is nearly complete, with only missing some parts for details that I have ordered and should arrive within next week. I set out to replicate all details and functions that the original had, and I'm happy to report that I succeeded at that! All functions work nicely and I'm mostly satisfied with the proportions and details. There were many difficult parts to the build and with some of them I'm not entirely satisfied, but mostly it turned out nicely. Some parts I redesigned many times over and it's good that I did, the later iterations are significantly better than the first attempts. Here's some quick photos of the not-yet-finished build with some parts missing. I'll get better photos and maybe even a video if I'm able as soon as have the details finished.

This of course speaks of a larger trend where more and more people have enough wealth that they can buy basically anything on a whim in this category of products (toys, collectibles, etc.) and corporations have noticed this, leading to releases of more and more expensive products. When I was a kid I was squarely in the middle class and nobody I knew had wealthy enough family that they could've had any Lego set they wanted. While as an adult I'm still middle-class, I could buy my kid any Lego they wished for and same for myself - they are not that expensive, except when they are such as the Liebherr crane. It's not above what I could afford if I really wanted, but it's something I have to think about and at the moment I've concluded that I won't be getting it - too expensive for what I'd get. For less expensive sets such as the 42128 or 42145 I didn't have to think twice, I just bought them as soon as they were available. Same goes for most people I know, though I also recognize that some of them are less fortunate and have to think carefully about any excess or luxury, while I also know people that are significantly better off than me, who can buy a new car without thinking it twice. It's just that nowdays more people are well off enough that things such as Lego are no longer a major purchase than there were in my childhood.

Yep, pewter or other tin-based alloys get really expensive fast if you just want pieces which weigh a lot. Lead would be cheaper but with its toxicity and the molding costs I don't think it's worth it. Aluminium can also be cast and it's relatively cheap, though the molding cost could be an issue. If you're going to do machining, there's no point in aluminium as steel is much heavier and thus saves you a lot of pieces to machine. Casting some sort of resin with lead shot or ball bearings inside could make for a nice, heavy piece, but I'm not sure if there would be shrinkage issues. The resin could probably be dyed or obtained in grey colour. There's also concrete which can be cast with enough precision and it could be similarly be mixed with ball bearings or whatever for heavier pieces. Personally I would probably just make a box out of bricks and fill it with nuts and bolts or something.

Simply extending booms indeed helps quite a bit. Too bad you can't yet buy the parts separately.

If you're referring to pins, bushings, etc., having them leftover is intentional as the part counting machines are not accurate enough to reliably separate the smallest parts, so they rather add a bit extra than have a part missing. Those parts are also most likely to go missing while building, so including some extra will go a long way to ensure customer satisfaction. Guess: someone with way too much money wanted those truss parts in large quantity for some project and didn't need the counterweight parts so they put the counterweights for sale. I could think of better uses for the money but then, who am I to judge others for the ways they use their money...

This is a good idea if you have access to 3D printer. I'd also make them twice the height for the reason you mentioned. Cast fully metallic counterweight pieces with the same shape/size as the Lego ones would look great though, while being more than heavy enough. It's hard to make them with enough accuracy though, as the shrinkage in various stages of the process will affect the result - not that the official ones seem to be very accurately molded either...