howitzer

But if this is intentional, why would they do it now that competition is getting real and other companies are catching up with the quality while offering products that TLG doesn't, conquering chunks of the market? Why not decades ago when they still had the IP protections in effect to push any real competition down? It's true that TLG has a really strong brand, but that alone won't keep them afloat forever, there must be a high enough quality product too so that consumers aren't turned away in droves. Well, I could speculate that someone in the upper management has gotten greedy and doesn't really care what happens in the long term but just wants even more quick profits...

I don't mind the merging at all, I don't see the division between Technic and System very useful anyway. GBC's use a huge amount of System parts while still being natural part of the Technic forum while some official non-Technic sets rely heavily on Technic parts for play functions (10261 for example) but a MOC like that wouldn't probably be considered Technic enough to be in this forum. Model Team of course blurs the line even more, that kind of construction could easily fit into either current forum. If the Scale Modeling forum is as inactive as it appears, there's no danger of swamping other topics in this forum either, so by all means, merge them. Speaking of swamping the forum, it could be helped by increasing the number of topics visible at each page, maybe something like doubling it. I don't know how much adjustment the current forum technology allows but having pinned topics separated from non-pinned ones would help too, especially during contests when there's a lot of constantly updated topics and the contest-related pinned topics push even more other topics down to the second page.

Yeah, that's pretty bad for a company which as long cultivated a reputation of making high quality products. It's starting to look like there's something seriously wrong in the quality control department as these quality issues are popping up here and there. I could've accepted the Sian colour variations as a one-off fluke, if it had ended there, but then came the misalignment problem with the new liftarm and now this defect with the injection point. I mean, injection moulding plastics is what they do, this is where they should be at their very best, the world leader in the whole industry. And they have been, for decades, until now. What the hell is going on in there?

Ok, I missed the joke but all good :)

There's lots of other unusually coloured Technic elements in that set too. New Elementary had a dissection of them: https://www.newelementary.com/2021/05/lego-10289-birds-paradise-review.html#more I found funny their comment about dark green Technic pieces: "The first Dark Green Technic pieces appeared in 2004 with 8622 Nidhiki, and I find it amusing that since then every single Dark Green Technic piece was made for non-Technic sets."

As I understand it, contest entries should be made specifically for that contest, with building starting only after the contest is announced.

I also think GBC's are indeed deserving of their own contest, separate from other stationary machinery. Other stationary machinery is a pretty diverse category, it could be a (non-mobile) crane, a clock, a model of power tool, a warehouse-robot or whatever, while GBC's are all about the very specific task of moving balls and the interesting thing about them is all the diverse and innovative ways of accomplishing that task. In my opinion bunching them together would be like having a contest where all kinds of wheeled land vehicles were allowed, plus twin-rotor helicopters.

Lighter (neutral white/gray is good) background, coloured parts (preferably in a colour they are commonly made, for example red for clutch gears) and colour-coded liftarms and other parts commonly made in many colours would be nice. Unless you're trying to show off different parts of a drivetrain or some such mechanical device, colour coding the movement pathways (for example through a gearbox) is good.

I assume it would still be a vehicle contest? It would be kinda hard to make a judgement between a GBC, pullback-operated clock and a boat if they were all allowed in the same contest... I think that whatever the contest is about, there must be some theme or constraint that puts the contestants in the same category.

That's great to hear, hopefully you'll find someone to run the contest!

I'm still hoping to see the GBC contest. Farming equipment contest would be nice too, even though I've never built any such machine...

It is a fine model on its own and without any obvious flaws, but I think it really loses some of the rough no-nonsense feeling of the original one. Lack of studs and balloon tyres instead of the original foam tyres change the look quite a bit, and I'm not at all sure that the open body design of the olden days works as well with studless beams, some paneling might help in that regard, but that would take it even further away from the original. For some reason the modernized versions of 8865 and 8868 had much more of the original feeling still there...

Small sets often are 100% Technic, with no System parts, for example 42101. But as Efferman asked, why should they move to 100% System? Many things, especially decorative features, are easy to accomplish by adding System parts on a Technic base, so I see no point in creating new, similar parts for those things. It's true that some Technic parts still carry the System features included in the past like the engine block studs and bushing's indentations which are never used in today's Technic sets but those features still serve a purpose in MOCing, for example the engine block can be stacked with the studs and perhaps used for a decorative purpose in a System MOC. Actually, in my opinion, TLG should consider mixing Technic and System even more, for example in cars that come with Technic chassis and functions but with System exterior. Not that properly built Technic exterior looks bad by any means, but especially when replicating real life model into Lego, there's a lot more possibilities for detailing with System parts. Also, Technic bricks are still used when higher strength is required in small space (the boom extension of 42082 for example) and to me this is exactly as it should be: using parts in a way that best serves the model.

Yep, 42100 it is if you want lots of PU stuff in one package. Only two kinds of motors though. 42114 has three different kinds of motors but only one of each and one hub. The new Mindstorms set (51515) might also be something to consider as it has 4 angular motors and 6-port hub including rechargeable battery, which along with couple of other motors gets you much more versatility than the Technic hub. But are you sure buying electronics separately is more expensive? I mean, if you just want the electronics, you can buy exactly what you need and nothing more from BL and that's probably much cheaper than buying large sets like 42100. Of course if you also want the normal parts, which are plentiful in 42100 or 42114, they are a much better deal, especially when bought with discount.

I'm sure GBC builders will think of something.

I feel that this hood-piece, while in itself is magnificent, doesn't flow that well with the rest of the car. It's too clean and perfect, while elsewhere there are lots of gaps, seams and pinholes so I'd say it's the right piece in the wrong place. Of course adding more similar panels would change the overall look enough for it to fit in, but that would require more other single-use parts. Single-use parts like the Liebherr bucket are generally frowned upon, but in the case of buckets and stuff like the Cement mixer drum they have their place, as it's simply impossible to make a proper brick-built one. In my opinion the original shaping of the Sian hood looks nice, and while this custom part is even better, it isn't at all necessary to make a proper-looking Sian. Above being said, if someone likes the piece and wants to have one, I have absolutely no problem with that. It's Lego, and it's yours so do with it whatever you wish.

From what I have seen here in the forums, good bodywork on a car often gets a lot of appreciation and deservedly so. Bodywork isn't my strong suit at all, but you're entirely correct in that doing it right requires a lot of skill and thought, it's not easy to make something look "right" with Lego, while still having it fit into the system perfectly.

Nice, novel mechanism. The need for 2 PF servos is a serious downside though, except that you should be able to use PU motors quite easily in their place.

Ahh, not too many excavators here lately, and yours looks pretty nice. I really should finish my telescopic boom excavator, which has been on hold since the start of this year, as I haven't had time to work on it.

Very nice! I once thought of making a metal lathe, but I couldn't think of any way to make the main bearing and the chuck from Lego, at least not in any sensible scale. The lead screw might also be slightly problematic, but 32L axle with stacked worm gears might be adequate.

I really hope that's not the case, as the medium angular motor isn't meaningfully smaller than the linear large motor...

Very impressive. I love that it only has one motor and apparently no sensors at all. How many non-Lego parts are there? I can see some springs and controller/power source but is there anything else?

A motor which is small and just powerful enough to flip the pneumatic switches would be really welcome. Right now operating gearbox or pneumatic switch is really cumbersome due to the motors which are far too powerful and thus unnecessarily large for this kind of lightweight application. Hopefully something like this is in the works.

Brick Experiment Channel made a Lego drone which used Lego motors and propellers but non-Lego power source and controllers. I'm guessing that's the closest you can get an actually flying Lego helicopter.

In the 90's there used to be tips for disassembly tools in instruction booklets of every larger set. For some reasons that's not the case anymore.