howitzer

Digitally designed models also bear a risk of containing parts/colours which are very rare and expensive unless you very carefully look up each part's cost and availability before using that part. If such a pieces show up, you'd have to carefully consider if you really, really need to use that part or if there's an alternative. For example, from what I hear, some train wheels can get pretty expensive, but there are no good alternatives except third party parts so it can be difficult to replace them. Most used parts in Bricklink cost somewhere between 0,1 and 1€, so if you use no parts that are especially expensive (or a lot of very cheap parts), you'd end up somewhere around 200€ per locomotive - plus shipping costs.

It's really nice and cool-looking, but so many new metallic elements - not going to happen. Especially those gears.

A quick update: I took apart and rebuilt almost everything. Now the XL motor drives both, tracks and flail, with switch to turn the flail on and off. I also built a basic steering setup with springs to get sense of the dimensions. Next up is finishing the chassis and probably redesigning the flail arm, as the current contraption is pretty flimsy. Then there's the need for height adjustment for the flail which I haven't really thought about much yet.

While 42099 has nice suspension parts, it isn't worth the price unless you also want the Control+ stuff or the new CV-joints. You'd better off buying suspension parts separately from Bricklink or whatever if that's the only thing you want for now. Another option is to search for some older (large) car sets secondhand, as they are probably less expensive than buying something that's still on the market and will get you lots of other parts too. There are lots and lots of different suspension setups though, so it can be difficult to decide which parts you will need, so looking at MOCs in here Eurobricks or for example in Rebrickable can help. As for studless vs. studful, I'm also one of those who returned to Lego long after studful had been phased out so almost all of it is somehow new to me. Studless is much more difficult to begin with, and building something that's actually functional while being rigid enough but not using parts wastefully is a learning process where you build, take apart and rebuild it over and over again. Building with studs is so much easier when you always have more connection points and the structural parts themselves are more rigid. It's especially difficult when you don't know well the final dimensions of whatever you're building, as it can be difficult to decide ahead which pins and beams to select to whichever part of the build.

There's also another topic for assemblies that can be put together but can't be disassembled by normal means. Though I'm not sure how you would go assembling this box in a way that prevents disassembly? Also, not long ago someone linked in another topic a video of a safe which the creator claims cannot be opened without either the right combination or damaging the parts.

No argument against them except simple waste. I'd take a couple of extra spare parts (as they generally have many more uses) any day over a brick separator and while they indeed are useful with some sets, most of the time they are unnecessary. You can buy them separately for little money if you really need more than you get with sets but many comments here seem to indicate that vast majority of separators go almost unused. I think TLG could cut their production 50% and nobody would notice. As a kid I never used teeth to separate bricks and the only thing I can remember having a real trouble with was pre-1990 friction pin, but everyone had trouble with them as they had a design flaw. Even 2 1x2 plates stuck together were pretty easy to separate, though you need to know how: use 2 normal 1x2 (or longer) bricks, one on top and one on bottom and using them as a support to get more leverage, pry the plates loose.

Umm.. what do you need 20 brick separators for? I mean, 1 is very useful, there are some situations where 2 are needed, but I can't think of a reason why someone would need 3 or more for their intended purpose. Yeah, they might wear down over the years and I can imagine someone disassembling MOC built of thousands of plates with only the separator would cause some wear, but I bet majority of brick separators supplied with the sets never see more than few uses. As a kid I never had such a tool (I'm not sure if they even existed in early 90's) and while it could sometimes have been useful I never had a legally connected pieces stuck so that I couldn't separate them with my bare hands.

That would be great, considering that you only actually ever need 2 at most, so if you buy any larger sets (except Technic) you'll probably end up with huge amount separators that are almost useless.

In Finland there's a campaign that just started: you can collect stamps in Citymarket grocery chain stores and for every three stamps you get a 40% discount for a certain selection of sets. This selection includes the new Catamaran (42105) and Porsche 911 RSR (42096) and also the Getaway car (42090). The discount translates to 29,97; 107,97 and 16,17 euros respectively, which especially for the Porsche is a bargain considering it's new (not a secondhand) set. Going to pick up my Porsche later today.

Thanks for the tips! I tried the L-motor and it indeed has more than enough power to run the flail. I was concerned that it might struggle to maintain enough speed under the load (which makes the flail pointless) but it seems to perform with no problem. Mounting two battery boxes isn't a problem, there's plenty of room in the chassis. It should steer on wheels though, like the real counterpart, so I'm planning to have the treads hard-coupled to each other with driving motor geared down to a suitable speed. A couple of progress photos. As you can see, there's still plenty to do and I think I'm going to be hard pressed to meet the timeline. I propped the flail up with a battery box so it would be a little closer to the final position. Something that occurred me today though, is if I should have the XL motor driving both the tracks and the flail, with a selector switch to turn the flail on and off? Is there enough power to do that? I guess I'll have to just build and find out. No idea yet how heavy the final model will be, a ballpark guess would be 1kg or so but it could be more than that with all the batteries and motors.

I'd suggest rather a sub-forum, as separate questions should be in separate topics, so that responses to one question wouldn't drown out other questions and so that responses wouldn't get mixed up. Other than that, I don't see these single-question threads as a huge problem, considering the general activity of these forums. If there were a bit more activity, it could become a problem though.

This one pivots at both axle connections so it's probably not suitable solution. But you could use the same principle and use similarly stacked 4- and 5-length liftarms with axleholes at ends.

I actually bought my Arocs set from a non-afol guy who works as a truck driver, and wanted Arocs simply because he thought it was cool to have it as a Lego set. I'd definitely say that the licenses matter, maybe not that much for us afols, but those who are interested in cars and other stuff licensed sets are based on and maybe have some of the nostalgia for Lego are probably the significant adult audience for licensed Techic sets. Of course also kids and their parents who see a cool real-life thing transformed into a Lego set (as opposed to those who buy nameless sets for their functions and parts).

This should be interesting. I wasn't even aware that official Lego PV cells existed.

For a while now I had the idea to make a MOC of a mine flail, or in more technical terms an Area Mine Clearing System. There are many models, and one in particular that appealed to me is the Aardvark AMCS, as presented for example in here: http://www.aardvarkclearmine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ACMS-Brochure_HR_Single_Pages.pdf I had previously made a few tablescraps and bought the parts I need for the flails, but never got further than that until I saw the new contest, which, I believe is the perfect excuse to actually get the MOC finished, so here I am. I'm not an experienced builder (exiting my dark ages only about year ago) and I'm still a novice with studless construction, with limited parts selection so I don't expect to win the contest or anything, but I hope I can gain some new insights on how to build with studless system and maybe some good advice. I might even write up something akin to a storyline to accommodate the build when it's at least somewhat complete. Here's what I've finished so far, the drivetrain for the flail spinner is mechanically complete, though it could use some aesthetic touch. I have previously tested that it spins fast enough, but I'll have to build a some sort of chassis before proper testing. I also spent a while trying to make a nice imitation of the tracks of the real vehicle and while it needs adjusting, it'll be something along the lines of my test build. A closeup on the flail construction: One problem I'm not sure what to do about is the powering of various functions. There's nothing especially complex, but I'm severely limited on parts so powering the flail, drivetrain and steering seems somewhat problematic. I only have one PF XL and one L motor (no remotes) and two PU L motors with battery box from the app-controlled Batmobile. Steering especially seems problematic, as the vehicle is steered by normal tires (not skid steering with tracks) and I have no PF servo so if I use PU motors for steering I won't have enough motors for the drive (I don't think one L motor can drive the vehicle). I don't think L motor is powerful enough to spin the flails either so I have to use XL for that. Then there's the raising and lowering of the flail boom, but I think that's the least of my problems at this stage.

I'm so envious of you, I really wanted that set as a kid but never got it. I still might want it, but even the used sets are quite expensive and I can't justify spending such a money just for nostalgia... You should be careful with the wiring, as apparently the plastic in cables might crack and fray after so many years. Other than that, it's just taking it apart and rebuilding, most likely there's nothing wrong with the bricks. There is a topic in general discussion about making your white parts white again:

Nicely done on smaller scale and entirely without linear actuators.

Liftarms have the text LEGO and part number molded into them, as do pin joiners. The gray axle joiners also have them but they're molded in the inside and almost impossible to see with naked eye, I had to use microscope to confirm that they are indeed part number and the logo. Pins and bushings are harder to distinguish, at least I couldn't find logo or number in them.

Here you describe the one of the issues why I'm generally not very fond of any sort of physical items (toys or IoT-devices or whatever) that are supposed to be controlled with smartphones or tablets. All sorts of problems are bound to arise, and while that's to be expected as nothing works perfectly every time, very often the troubleshooting guides and other documentation are almost nonexistent. There are other problems (like hardware requirements) but half-assed software with no proper QA seems to be very common and I expect better from TLG.

Pneumatic hose is problematic for MOCs needing it, whether for aesthetic or functional purpose. Same goes for strings, rubber bands etc. TLG really should start selling an official version of pneumatic hose and string by the meter as a replacement part, instead of just pre-cut lengths, and various sizes of rubber bands too. Or at least continue to allow third party replacements in BL.

I never liked any of those brickbuilt hooks, they look unwieldy kludges to me. This one has to be the worst of the lot though.

The metallic Technic hook has apparently been discontinued, so nowdays we only have these non-decent contraptions in the place of a proper hooks.

Regarding Bricklink, you can upload the parts list (included with the the instructions) to BL as a wishlist, and then have BL make an automatic selection of shops with those parts available (usually larger lots will be distributed between several shops with different prices) and then show the approximate prices, shipping included and it'll even generate shopping carts based on this list. That way you can fairly easily get a much more accurate estimate on the total price of the bricks. The price of the instructions will be dwarfed by the cost of the bricks so if you are really interested, just go ahead and buy the instructions. If the parts are too expensive for immediate buy, you can spend just spend a bit longer time gathering them.

$2000 is probably as good estimate as is possible to make without actually starting to fill shopping carts in BL or other stores. 10 cents per piece is a good overall average unless you need a lot of expensive parts, and if there's a lot of very cheap parts it may be less but there's no way to be sure without getting a proper parts list and examining the availability and cost of each part. Either way, it's a very large project that's going to cost a lot unless you already have a lot of parts required. One question to ask is of course, do you want the parts to be new or are used ones acceptable? That can make a significant difference.

I just bought this for 65€ and built it. Not much to comment on the actual building (it was over fairly quickly) except I was able to fold the wires much more neatly, they are hardly visible. On the play side, I actually found it much easier to control in the red mode, except for the motors not moving below 40 or so. For me it feels that driving and turning are much easier to control in this mode, as in the blue mode you give it all or nothing, so the turns are always very sharp. Something that bothers me a lot is of course the whining sound that the motors make, which is very annoying in the red mode as it seems to be at loudest when the motors are turning slowly and disappears at top speed. None of the functions in either mode work so there's a problem. A sound plays when a button is touched but the model does nothing. Overall I don't know what to think. I bought the model mostly for the parts, as I wanted to get a feeling on the new PU elements. That side of things needs more research but while I never expected it to fly to the moon, the set as it is feels somewhat flawed, especially the motor sound and only partially working app.