howitzer

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...

Gypsum-based plaster molds are routinely used in jewelrymaking with many alloys having melting point near or above 1000°C. I don't know though if there might be some sort of chemical reaction which would be problematic, never tried casting lead myself. But lead can be very dangerous as it's toxic heavy metal so I'd advise good research and lots of caution before trying to melt it. Personally I'd probably rather use tin or bismuth despite their higher cost, or just forget about the looks and make the counterweight from nuts and bolts or whatever is heavy and cheaply available.

Omg, there's no way my wallet will survive if the rumours hold true. So many must-buy space sets... Oh, and that garbage truck and harvester could also be interesting.

This problem happens also with every third party app? If so, then maybe your phone really is in some way defective - it could even be your specific device and not Fairphone 3 generally. The lack of physical controller is one of the major flaws of the PU system and it's something everyone has been longing for since the first reveal of PU. I really hope it's realized some day in some officially supported form that's more versatile than the train remote.

Practically everyone who can afford Lego at all has a compatible smart device anyway, and third party software will keep them going even if TLG doesn't. And then there's the dumb hub, which will allow operation also without a smart device.

They are only pricey if you buy them separately or in certain sets. In Bricklink the prices are very reasonable, not much different from PF components.

The motors also work perfectly well with the dumb hub with which they are as single purpose as PF motors, or if you want to get fancy with programming, you can use them with the RI hub which gives a lot more options than what's possible with PF.

I'm actually kind of starting to think that the looks isn't as bad as I initially thought. I mean, the proportions are of course way off relative to the real crane, but that feels more and more like a necessary compromise to achieve enough strength and stability. It's not like 42042 which many here have praised in comparison, was in any way realistic either even when you ignore that it wasn't a licensed set. The colour scheme isn't unrealistic either, and many have pointed out that the configuration is true to some real versions. At the moment my main problem with this set lies with its price: I guess could pay perhaps 400€ for it but 546€ (current lowest price in Finland) is too much for myself to justify. But now I kinda want this kind of a large scale crawler crane. Perhaps I should attempt to build myself one?

I found the authenticity rating quite baffling too, as there's a lot of realism in the mechanics of it, even if at some areas it's left wanting.

At that size there's no way it includes metallic core, unless that core is tiny, in which case, what would be the point? I've handled my share of small metal pieces and I can tell from the size alone that the part would weigh many times more if there was a metal plate or something inside. I'm also not sure how the plastic would behave if molded directly over metal, the difference in shrinkage would probably warp or crack it.

The RTC was indeed criticized for it having too many parts and being needlessly large (as in the same functionality could be made at smaller scale) but inflated or not, I remember it being very reasonably priced for such a big set, I think I bought it for 160€ or so. One other criticism was that it included no new parts and only couple of recolours (most importantly the banana gear). This makes it odd flagship, as most of the time the flagships include most new parts and push the edges of what's possible in Technic - in that sense it indeed was a letdown. The Liebherr on the other hand includes a many new parts and recolours in huge numbers which will surely open new possibilities for building. This of course comes with an absurd pricetag so it's quite hard to justify.

Wasn't the BWE quite well liked, despite the weird (for some) type of machinery? On the other hand, I've heard that the Claas was boring as building experience, while cool in functions and looks. I haven't handled it myself though... And indeed, the Rough terrain crane was bashed on its decorative details. Now we get a set with bad looks and half-assed detailing, and somehow that's bad too?

Seems like a nice building experience, nice parts pack and nice playability, but the price is indeed out there and the looks is pretty terrible. And those counterweight parts are really strange, why would TLG desing such a single-purpose part? Though I'm expecting someone to NPU the hell out of it.

Contests are aimed at those who build rather than those who collect - if you want to keep your models assembled, that's fine but then you're not the target audience for contests. You must have some amount of loose parts (easily in the order of thousands or more) if you ever intend to build anything. Colour schemes indeed can get tricky, not just because one might not happen that specific part in that specific colour but it might not even exist or it could be very expensive to acquire. But that's a limitation with which everyone has to deal with and it affects small builds too. Yes, sourcing parts for a moc can get expensive, but the parts are not consumed in the process, they are later available for your next build and you'll have a bit easier time building. I still don't agree with the big = successful argument. Granted, I haven't familiarized myself with the contest entries from the time before I joined this forum, but since then every contest winner has been deserving, such that it is well built and designed, rather than just big and flashy. Sometimes the big happens to win though (such as the GBC contest) but not because it's big, but rather because it's a great build. Also, the most important rule is that contest are for fun. I know there's little chance of me winning as many much more skilled people are also entering but I enjoy the challenge of building which is why I enter contests, whether I do well or not in the voting isn't that big deal.

Being rich doesn't make you a better builder in itself so it really isn't pay to win in - at most it could be considered a threshold for entry. 2000-3000 pieces is the part count of a single flagship-size set which costs around couple hundred euros new. If you're both new to Technic and short on money (so you haven't had time to gather parts cheaply and can't buy them when needed), then it indeed can be an obstacle to enter the contest, but most interested people here should have enough parts for this kind of enlargement contest in their collection. Plenty of contests in the past have allowed even very large entries but that isn't to say that those have been the most successful ones. And you could always pick a 10€ 100 piece set and make it 500 piece set, even that scaling factor allows plenty of improvement in functions. That being said, I like contests with smaller entries, as those are easier to manage. But another car contest so soon would be boring, I like variety. A truck contest in the scale of Mack Anthem might be nice alternative to cars while being popular enough for many entrants.

I actually thought about the same contest idea, take a small set and enlarge it while adding as much functions as possible (but only such that would be realistic to the kind of machine the original is about).

Grohl already won that contest:

That raised my eyebrows also.