howitzer

What's your source? I'm really excited about the Perseverance rover, and I really hope that this isn't a false leak...

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In my local department store there's a shelf of 10 meters or so in length filled only with Lego, from top to bottom, and often other separate stands for certain themes, campaigns etc. The farther end of that shelf has maybe 1,5m wide section of other construction toys, not all even remotely compatible with Lego. Practically all supermarkets/department stores in whole of my country have similar distribution. So, at least here, Lego is still THE construction toy, nothing else compares even remotely. I agree with @allanp, while Lego Technic is still unquestionable leader in its category, there's a significant untapped potential. This year's lineup looks pretty nice for the parts and extremely boring for the models. Unless the second half has some surprising goodies, I don't think there's anything for me to buy this year beside the smallest of sets (Snow groomer etc.)

Interesting topic. I don't have an engineering background - at the moment I work as a pharmacist, and before that I was a goldsmith, neither professional background is exactly useful in designing vehicles and other mechanical stuff that Technic is about. That being said, I've learned a lot about automotive design - suspension, steering, drivetrain, etc. - which I have had no interest in otherwise. Same goes to helicopters and how they fly, I had no idea how they worked before getting into Technic. This has also helped me notice other machinery such as those at construction sites etc. and how they function. I've also learned to recognize trucks to some degree. It started with 42043, after that I began to notice Arocses and other MB trucks in real life too, and it has made also other truck fronts (Volvo, Scania, etc.) more noticeable for me.

Ok, this new helix part and it's corresponding nut is really exciting development.

The pneumatic steam engine was indeed brilliant and it's rejection is a shame, though not surprising. I don't think such a complex and specialized set would've sold that well so from economics point of view I understand why it wasn't approved. The Polaroid paperweight is really easy to transform into a set selling well among adults in nostalgia frenzy, and while it's otherwise a completely pointless model, I can see why TLG chose it. Studful beams are actually used where they are necessary for their rigidity, such as crane booms (42082 for example) though beyond those rare cases they are few and far between. I don't think cost is a reason here though, as Technic bricks are plentiful in other themes, and while liftarms are probably cheaper, there are a lot of not-cheap frames used as structural elements. I think it's more that studful and studless building styles don't mix that well, and for the sake of consistency it's better to have one or the other. The times of studful Technic sets are indeed over. I agree that there should be proper universal sets again, even if some of the universal sets back in the 80's and 90's were ... weird to say the least. Mostly they tended to have one or two nice models with the rest being awkward and not that fun (8032, anyone?). On the other hand, many included really ingenious solutions with limited parts and creative models, so seeing something similar today would be nice. There was the 51515 Robot inventor, which includes instructions for 5 models I think, but I guess it doesn't really count.

I had some hopes for the fireplane as all the other non-tiny sets are cars of some sort (Batcycle counts as a car here) but looks like easy times for my wallet in the first half of this year at least, as even the fireplane is really ugly and doesn't seem to do much in the way of interesting functions.

Yep, the boxy shaping of the fuselage is just lazy. I bet I could build similar in one sitting, and I'm a low-skilled builder who has never attempted to build an airplane with Technic.

Yes, there's 2 different types of fender pieces.

Oh man, I didn't know it had an elevator. But yeah, that's definitely a better one even if it was more than 30 years ago.

It has an elevator! I don't think there's ever been a Technic plane before with moving elevator or am I wrong?

As a car set: looks amazing. As a parts pack: if you like dark blue, this is the greatest set ever. As a Technic set: not the worst but still, really boring.

I once got myself a loop of annealed titanium wire, which was super soft, bending even accidentally while handling it. On the other hand, it would harden a lot once bent a bit, so I wonder if such a wire would work for this kind of machine... Anyway, cool project and something different. Bending in three dimensions would be even cooler, but I understand that it would make the machine so much more complex...

No it isn't. In terms of operation, it's the same as the Technic hub - there must be another device connected to control it.

Wow, this is wonderful! I think I'll have to make my own version of it...

I really, really hope that this rumor about Perseverance rover is true, it would serve to freshen up a lot the mostly quite stale Technic lineup of recent years...

I was thinking mostly the looks of the lens, not its usefulness as an actual lens with lights behind it. Anyway, I also hope that the lights get included in future Technic sets, as it's indeed baffling that lights have been so few and far between in Technic sets, even if they would enhance some sets enormously.

I don't recall any discussions about the PU light element which is included in the new Lighthouse set and Passenger train set: https://rebrickable.com/parts/22168/light-unit-led-with-cable-powered-up/ Anyone know how long the cables are for that element? The lighthouse also has another element of interest: the fresnel lens, which would probably make for a great headlight part of car models, especially coupled with the aforementioned light element.

New connectors are always nice, and I guess this new one had to be made as it was in order to function as a steering arm, but I wish it had axles instead of pins, as I feel it would be more useful that way.

Thank you so much, I will attempt to build it soon. I don't have some parts though, so I'll have to make some changes but the core mechanism should be doable.

I would be interested in the Planetary Lift part, and I believe the rest could be mostly replicated from the video with some trial and error if someone really wants to do that. I won't be though, as for all its awesomeness it's also a difficult and costly build as you said. But the Lift is interesting in its own right, so it would be interesting to make my own version of it.

This was my first thought too. But I guess you could make a similar device with two hubs: one as a base and one as a joystick, so the base could be held on one hand and the joystick on the other, and the base's motion would be subtracted from the joysticks motion so that their relative motion would make for the commands to be sent to the vehicle. Would make for a pretty heavy controller though, and with more limited functionality than the two joysticks on a table. I wonder though, if the city hub could be used as it's much smaller and lighter, or maybe the new small Spike hub? Though the latter gets also quite expensive when you need two. Either way, impressive work, and I love that the tilt sensor finally gets some proper use.

Thanks for the contest and thanks to all the voters and participants, it was fun even if I wasn't able to participate fully. I think this will give me motivation to attempt to make some new GBC modules in the future!

So, when will the voting close and the results be announced?

Yep, and there's also some mould patterns that vary between brands, like the shape of the recessions between pinholes in liftarms which makes them easy to distinguish. By careful examination with a magnifier you should be able to identify vast majority of parts. The other forum also has a thread for identifying parts.