howitzer

And here I was thinking something like having the normal light brick (the one used in the Batmobile). Two of them could be used to make alternating flashy lights, operated by cams driven by the wheels. Your vision is way more cool and fancy, but also way more unlikely to ever happen.

Fake engine, steering, maybe gearbox, opening doors (front, side, rear), stretcher which slides smoothly in and out of the back, maybe even a light brick which flashes (turns on and off quickly) when the model is rolled on the floor. I'm sure more can be thought of.

An ambulance would be really cool. Something is probably coming, as Airbus didn't really need the fourth colour.

It's also not just about storage, but production too. TLG has only a limited number of injection moulding machines, which can only work on a single element type at a time. This means that not all "in production" elements can actually be produced all the time, and they probably have element usage planned many years ahead so that a single machine can be used to produce parts for future sets too. And sometimes they might miscalculate the need for some element, perhaps some set isn't selling as well as was hoped or a set has already their elements produced but is canceled, and then they end up with tons of certain elements in storage. They still want to put those elements in use if possible rather than recycle them, so sometimes we'll end up with odd colours inside sets.

You make many valid points, but I'd argue that tastefulness is quite irrelevant when it comes to colour coding (or not) of real life machinery. Yes, gears are on the metallic grayscale but that's entirely because they're usually made of metals and can't really be colour coded due to the requirements of their function. On the other hand, there are tons and tons of colours inside anything that has electric parts, as wires are colour coded and so are many electronic other parts and components. And I don't think the engineers designing the internals care much for aesthetics when deciding which colours to use and where. Of course Lego sets aren't electrical (PF/PU don't count here), but as they are designed to be assembled from kits, colour coding (in bright, easily distinguishable colours) does make a lot of sense. Using bunch of different greys would make for a pretty hard to read instructions and wouldn't help much over just having all parts in the same colour. If I were the Big Boss at TLG, I might choose less vibrant colours for gears but still have them use colours beyond the grayscale so that they would be easy to distinguish even in variable lighting conditions and for people with lowered vision. As for axles, I'd choose 2-3 colours and then use them by the length, making a sequence of alternating colours. Of course tons of weird axle colours exist for decorative purposes, but those wouldn't be used in Technic functions. Colouring pins depending on if they have friction or not is a good idea, though I'd probably make more colour-coded categories for axle-pins with and without friction too. Beyond these, colour coding should indeed be used sensibly to indicate position and orientation and it's true that using it too much defeats the purpose.

Just replacing the neon yellow with white seems to work wonders. I think I'll do that with mine.

The prices are up significantly with almost everything, not just Lego. While Lego isn't yet out of my reach completely, I too must be more choosy in what to buy than before, which is kinda bad timing as there are tons of new interesting sets around. (Airbus, Ferrari, Material handler, Galaxy explorer, Lion knights castle and so on...)

I just today ordered 10497 and had to make a PaB order in addition to get the Forestmen extra along with my order. I wanted to order 3x19 frames, but those, as with anything else released this year, are not available, so in the end I ordered 2 new compressor pumps and 100 rubber tread attachments. Not sure if I'm ever going to make a tracked vehicle which would need those rubber pads, but there they are now... Anyway, they promised a processing time of up to 15 days. We'll see how it goes.

Same here. Additionally, I read New Elementary's reviews for their great insight on new parts and building techniques. I also generally prefer text+photos over a video but since Jim isn't doing reviews anymore, there aren't many good ones around...

No new information in that review, and it appears that the maker just stole content from other reviewers. In addition to the "night shot" photo, the the text about the neon yellow also seemed familiar, apparently taken from some other review (I'm not sure which though).

And here I was thinking that they had this problem fixed, as the last few sets with those parts I've bought did indeed have the axleholes well aligned.

This almost calls for a some kind of experiment. Like take a bunch of identical new white parts and put them in different kinds of surroundings: one on a shelf without any protection, one in a plastic bag next to the first, one in a non-airtight but dark container, one in an airtight container, one in a fridge, one in an airtight box in a fridge, and so on. Then take them out after some time (six months? year?) and photograph them in identical lighting and background, then compare the results.

Thanks for the clarification! That's still weird pricing though.

Is there a significant inconsistencies in the price variation across the EU? Because @kbalage claims in his video that the Tow Truck and the Material Handler have the same price currently, while here the Tow Truck is more expensive at 108€ (42144) and 134€ (42128) for the lowest non-discount retail prices and 140€/180€ for prices at leco.com/fi. The Tow Truck is still obviously a better deal for its parts, but it would be pretty weird to have it at the same price as the Material Handler...

You might want to look into UV-opaque plastic bags, and I don't know what sort of light fixtures you have but I think some fluorescent tubes can also leak significant amount of UV, which could also cause the discolouration. I've seen also old grey and blue parts which have significant discolouration but those tend to be very old (like 30-40 years).

For me the problem with yellowing is minimal to non-existent. I mean, I have some decades old white parts that are yellowed, but others of similar age are still almost as white as brand new ones. I've also had the Saturn V model sitting on my shelf for two years now and it's still perfectly white. I guess it depends a lot on the local circumstances, I happen to live quite far in the north where UV light from the Sun isn't that big of a problem.

I don't see how a rechargeable battery would be a problem as you describe. Yeah, they stop working eventually, but so do all batteries as they wear out in use (like basically anything) but at least their life is measured in years rather than hours like that of AA/AAA batteries. I would buy a rechargeable battery for PU hubs, whether it's produced by TLG or a third party but as kbalage mentioned, the lack of support for Phondly speaks strongly about the general interest into such thing. The product itself seemed fine but as soon as I saw it, it was obvious that it's not going to meet the funding goal. At the moment I guess one's best bet is to either get AA/AAA-sized rechargeable batteries (which are annoying as hell to use) or craft their own thing. Maybe someone could make instructions on which parts to buy and how to do the soldering etc. along with the file for 3D-printer for housing?

Technic notwithstanding, the review results were really baffling this time, as only one was approved and that was about some movie (I think?) franchise which I've never even heard of. And a dozen other very worthy submissions were turned down, this one among them. Anyway, I hope the next time will change that - after all, there has been similar cases of initially rejected and then later approved submissions.

Yeah, something is coming (probably) in a year or two. I hope that'll include other sizes of the pneumatic cylinders too in this new colour. I wouldn't mind only yellow cylinders, but non-yellow ones have existed for years in education sets, with various transparent housings.

I believe the IDEAS submission contract forbids any form of selling the model or its instructions for (I think) three years from the submission.

For recently released parts Lego is definitely better, even if there's some delay in their availability at B&P. Unless the new part gets very heavy use in sets right from the start, it can take a significant time for the parts to trickle down to BL inventories (you can find a few quickly, but those will be really expensive), especially in quantities larger than just a few. I also feel that large parts are quite a bit cheaper at B&P when compared to BL, for example Technic panels and such. On the other hand, stuff like electronics are way overpriced at TLG's own shop, so BL is the place to go with those. Do your research carefully, and you can save quite a bit.

Yep, feels quite a bit on the expensive side at 108€, so while I'll probably get this eventually, it doesn't feel like a day 1 purchase for me.

Coooooool. Day 1 purchase indeed. I wonder if the wobbliness and the overall looks could be improved with some recolouring, perhaps making it single- or two-coloured build... I don't particularly care for the neon yellow so perhaps using only red in the tail would allow for more rigid construction?

Nice, thanks for the demonstration!

Notches make for a more complex (=expensive) mould, hence they won't add the notches where they are not necessary. Old 2L axles without the notches were really painful to remove, while the longer ones are easy to remove most of the time.