howitzer

The lengths of the sides in the originally hypothesized triangle are 2, 3,5 and 4 and if you make a calculation based on the Pythagorean theorem, you get 2^2 + 3,5^2 = 16,25 for which square root is approximately 4,0311 so one of the holes is only about 0,03 studs offset from perfect alignment and as 1 stud = 8 mm that's about 0,25 mm, around the same as two sheets of paper. The parts easily bend much more from the weight in heavier models so I hardly see a problem here.

I wasn't talking about authenticity though - there's a real limit how authentic you can make a toy after all. It's also something I don't care much about - in my opinion Technic should be about interesting mechanisms, be they accurate representations of real things or not. GBC's are some of the most interesting Lego things out there and they don't represent anything real usually, while fake engines in car sets might do a decent job representing an internal combustion engine, but it's not something that makes or breaks my decision to buy some set. I also realize that linear actuators are not mechanically authentic - pneumatics are much better at that, but LA's have advantages which make them suit better for some applications than pneumatics as has been discussed many times before in this forum. Anyway, my point was that licenses force sets into a specific form that is mainly aesthetic and only minimally based on functionality - all car sets have four wheels and some have suspension or fake engine or something, but since 42056 with its paddle shifter I don't think any of them has really broken any ground functionally - at most they have only refined old ones but mostly they are just repeats of the same functions over and over with only real difference being on looks.

Rough terrain crane in 2018 was the last unlicensed flagship set, and after that came only a few larger unlicensed sets such as the car transporter (2019), mobile crane and cement mixer (2020), heavy duty tow truck (2021), firefighter aircraft (2023) and the space-themed original sets in 2024 and 2025. I feel that while there has been some nice licensed sets, overall this reliance in licenses makes the set design worse as the designers must prioritize looks and functionality is secondary - opposite to the spirit of Technic where interesting functionality should always be a priority.

Yeah, it's few dozen people at most who are active long time commenters in the Technic forum. For a global corporation with millions and millions of customers that's not very big sample of opinions to draw from, no matter how loudly we complain. There might be other reasons like licencing why TLG hasn't released a JCB model. But it's true that TLG has other priorities like making money on what has been shown to work in that regard, rather than catering to opinions of a very very small minority. I, too, wish for something better than endless cars (which I'm not buying out of principle at this point) but the trend is clear: Technic sets aren't for me anymore.

I don't think this kind of car is realistically possible with current parts, so it would require a number of new parts at least for transmission and suspension, and I don't think TLG is willing to invest so much into this kind of thing. Also apparently normal cars aren't interesting to public but only offroaders and really fast cars. Which is of course a shame as the lineup with only these is really dull and repetitive for AFOLs but I sort of see why they do it this way - sports cars and offroaders have an appeal to kids and their parents who while buying only a few sets ever still make up the largest segment of Technic-buying customers. So endless repetition of the same old functions and vehicle types don't really hurt sales while any sort of new/experimental stuff is a big risk.

I wouldn't mind (though my wallet would) but never going to happen, not unless something changes drastically. Cars are obviously very profitable so that's what they're going to make.

This is very much it. Cars are not interesting (especially when they don't have any interesting mechanisms but just the repeating the same functions over and over again) but I don't mind them being out there - it's the low number and poor quality of non-car sets that I find disappointing. Small sets are not very interesting either way, there have been some nice medium sized sets but even them are too few and far between to really be that satisfying and the largest sets feel much too expensive for what they do.

This would be really sad direction that profoundly changes the building experience for Lego sets, and not for the better. I really hope they won't go there, at least for anything beside maybe the very smallest of sets.

Thanks for linking the video. The mechanism is ingenious and now I really want this set even though it's pretty expensive. It feels another nail in the coffin of Technic, as it's yet another example in the trend where the best and most interesting technical functions come in non-Technic sets while Technic sets tend to have the same old boring and repetitive functionality.

In this economy I, too, have to have more prudence than usual in spending, but at least I don't have to worry about missing a great Technic set as there's not much worth buying...

Would brakes need to accomplish anything beyond merely showing the movement of the parts similarly to a fake engine? Can the stopping power of brakes even be demonstrated properly with Lego cars (which are quite small and lightweight after all) as opposed to simply unpowering the motor?

R0sch said "this month" which I assume is referring to October. Comparing the image to the parts list in NE article also appears to have the same elements in them.

Maybe check New Elementary? https://www.newelementary.com/p/new-parts-added-to-lego-pick-brick.html

Did you guys notice how huge the drop was in terms of quality of the non-car sets when comparing this year and previous? Last year there were multiple good non-car sets such as the Emirates yacht, Mack garbage truck, Apollo lunar rover (no I don't count it as a car in this sense), the orrery and Volvo truck+excavator set. This year? Only the Volvo loader is worthwhile, all others are cars, tiny sets or half-assed in design. I just made this comparison and I think this stark contrast in the lineup quality has affected my thinking about the current state of the theme. Even 2023 was much, much better than 2025, as was 2022. Hopefully there will be something nice next year or the year after that, otherwise Technic theme is doomed. And yeah, the cars should be more interesting functionally.

This item does not ship to Finland. I guess I won't be trying it.

It's not but the topic is about Technic not being what it once was, so I think comparisons to the City sets aren't far off as they seem to be doing there all kinds of things that used to be at the core of Technic while Technic has become Speed Champions with fake engines and steering.

Quite a few important Technic pieces are being discontinued at the PaB store, so now's the last chance to get them. Full list here: https://www.newelementary.com/p/lego-pick-brick-retiring-parts.html

I believe this is precisely what happened. Smartphone control seems kind of obvious easy thing to do at first but as you said, it can be surprisingly complex and cumbersome thing to develop and especially maintain, while also being poorer in terms of user experience when we talk about vehicle remote control. But TLG isn't a software company so they probably didn't have the expertise in house to really think this through and ended up making bad decisions.

If there were, you could read about ithere. Nobody's holding back information they are able to share, so no point in asking about it.

I believe vast majority of these motors are sold in complete sets, not separately. Only AFOLs and similar hobbyist ever think of buying separate motors and they are a small minority of all buyers (and even most AFOLs never use any sort of motors in their builds). So I guess the question comes down to which company has the biggest market share in Lego-like construction toys and there I believe TLG still firmly holds the lead - though competitors have been gaining ground, especially in east Asia. Of course TLG no longer produces PF-motors so we're only dealing with aftermarket stuff currently, enabling competitors to gain some ground but there is a huge number of PF-era electronics still out there (you can still buy new PF L motors in BL only for 20-25€ and used ones for a lot less) so I don't think competitors are going to overshadow that anytime soon.

Now compare and contrast this to 42215, which is huge, barely works and isn't even RC. Extraordinary work!

I don't think the functions in the pirate ship are particularly complex or very Technic-y, but they seem to work well and are integrated nicely into the build, which is remarkable in other ways, such as the geometry trickery that is used to achieve the shape of the hull. Definitely a much more interesting buy than the Volvo excavator.

Yeah, all about this set screams "display only" and there's not much to indicate it was ever intended for actual playing with. It's unnecessarily large for what it does and not really playable with distribution gearbox and one motor only, and it comes with 18+ branding indicating it's for adults who want to display stuff instead of playing with them. Not that different from UCS cars actually, except they have better manual functions and probably much more interesting building experience, and not motorized pretence of playability. (UCS cars of course also are much better value with their parts/price ratio.) So yeah, if you want a dust collector shelf queen and have way too much money, it might be for you but otherwise there's very little reason to buy this set. I actually find quite a bit to defend about 42146, though it certainly also has it's flaws. But that's a topic for another topic.

The outriggers of 42082 were really slow though.

The black linear actuators were first available in the Cat D11 bulldozer so not new here. Seems that it could've been a nice midrange set, very much a disappointment for a flagship.