howitzer

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.

I haven't tried to build one, but mechanically this seems to be quite simple. The real challenge is probably making it sturdy and smooth enough to be actually usable as a camera stand.

I'm not interested in supercars in general, the Bugatti for example is totally uninteresting to me. Land Rover on the other hand I find quite an interesting, as it's functionally equal to the best of supercars, yet it's something more than another car that goes fast and does nothing else. I haven't gotten it though, as the new colour doesn't offer large enough parts palette, at least not for now. Maybe some day.

At least Classic Space and M:Tron were thematically centered around exploration instead of conflict. But something to consider is that in order to sell the sets, you'll need to include a story with it. For many themes the story has indeed been built around conflict, like with Classic Pirates and Classic Castle but there has been numerous other themes with no conflict, like majority of Town/City and it's many spinoffs like Paradisa. And then there's of course the hugely popular Friends, which is an example of a modern series which doesn't rely on conflict-based story nor licensing. It's probably mostly about licensed themes taking over similar non-licensed ones, because having both would eat much more resources in product development and marketing, while competing for essentially the same audience. I think political correctness is a complete non-issue here.

All in all I like this set from what we know so far, it seems to pack nice functions and is not uselessly large. Might look nice with 42082 in the shelf too, considering the similar stickers if you're into that. It's not without flaws though, the original metal hook would have been so much better and those outriggers seem pretty cheap. Something that also bothers me is that there seems to be no cranks nowdays but only knobs, I wonder why is that? Cranks would be so much faster and more comfortable to operate especially for functions like operating LA's and winches. That bothered me a lot with the spider crane too, considering the enormous amount of knob-turning in it's setup.

This. I don't make videos but if I did, I wouldn't use Youtube as a platform for it, especially in the light of these new rules. While I don't think US laws don't apply at all where I live and therefore wouldn't need to fear the fines, Youtube's behavior regarding this law is unacceptable and I don't want to support that. As @vectormatic said, if this law actually applies as is feared here, it will surely destroy Youtube as a platform for anything remotely child-oriented. No content creator is willing to risk said fines, but without community engagement there's no point in making the videos at all.

So how would this fine of $42000 be enforceable at all for those who are not residents of USA? Generally if you commit a crime online, you can be punished according to the laws of your locality, but I doubt COPPA-like laws exist, at least in similar enough form, outside USA so those elsewhere wouldn't be affected by it. Youtube can of course ban anyone but that's a different issue and wouldn't cost you anything except your account. In theory they could implement an EULA which required that whoever accepts it must cover this fine if it's issued to Youtube because of a video they uploaded, but I don't think it would be enforceable either, depending on the local consumer protection laws of the person in question.

What do you need the dual motors for? I'd imagine a train would move rather easily even with one motor, and the axles and gears aren't designed to handle much more torque than an XL motor can deliver anyway.

I'd say 8868 Airtech Claw Rig but my original set from 1992 is sitting in my shelf assembled so it's not really correct to say I "miss" it. I could, however, say that I miss some of those sets from the time of my childhood which I never owned but always wanted, like 8480 Space Shuttle or 6973 Deep Freeze Defender. Those evoke much more nostalgia in me because I remember browsing the catalogs, hoping that I could one day own them. Haven't gotten around to actually getting them even now that I'm an adult, because 8480 in good condition is quite expensive (if even available, considering the degrading wires and motors) and 6973 doesn't seem that big thing anymore.

@Berthil I noticed in the parts list that there's 16x of 4865a and 1x of 4865b (panel 1x2x1) and one type comes with square corners and other with rounded corners. Is this an important distinction? I'm slowly gathering parts to build this, and I want to make sure I get the correct parts, but I couldn't quickly think of a reason why one couldn't be used in place of another. What about 6542a and 6542b (16t gear with clutch), is it important to use b and not a (or even 18946)? From the instructions those seem to be interchangeable but I'm asking just to make sure it works, considering that it is quite a complicated and delicate machine.

I never apply stickers, except those which are important for the set's playability, like those which direct how functions are used in Technic models. Often the sets would definitely look better with the stickers, but I don't keep my sets (with few exceptions) built but instead take them apart after a while for MOCing, where stickers have practically no value.

If you can weigh your model, it probably is quite indicative of the part count. Unless it's a very big model, you can compare it to official sets and try to account for motors and other exceptionally heavy parts, and get a ballpark estimate on the part count.

I, for one, have enjoyed Jim's reviews a lot, and not least because the written format. Videos are nice sometimes at showing certain functions etc., but I personally enjoy reading and looking at pictures much more at my own pace, than watching a video at pace someone else decided. Something else that makes Jim's reviews stand out is also the analysis on how a given set fits in the bigger picture of Lego sets, for example his thoughts in the 42082 RTC review concerning parts count were something I found very interesting. TLG not giving out sets for reviewing (or giving them out too late) is of course very disappointing, but I'm not one of those who have to get new sets as soon as possible so I don't mind review being late that much either. And of course those photos are stellar, so I hope we'll be seeing them also in the future :)

I have built B-models with digital instructions with no problem, but I have a Surface Pro laptop, which has a high quality screen and is lightweight enough to move around easily with one hand. If didn't have a good quality tablet or a laptop, those B-models would've never been built, no way I'd use a smartphone or desktop computer or even a larger/heavier laptop for instructions reading. The touchscreen also makes a huge difference. Coloured E Ink display would be great but I don't think there's any such device on the market which has tablet dimensions and comes with a coloured high quality E Ink screen so we're limited to LCD and LED screens which are much harder on the eyes. Also if you consider this from TLG:s point of view, they are still making toys for kids. Tablets and laptops tend to be expensive, and I think many parents wouldn't like to give such a device to children without supervision, so printed instructions are still more or less required at least for sets aimed at younger children. Larger sets aimed on older children on the other hand come with larger price, and for that price customers expect higher quality product, which would include printed instructions, so I don't think they're able to drop those anytime soon.

I'm a bit confused as to why the Liebherr nor Land Rover are not yet available where I live. In Lego's own online store they are shown as "coming soon" and can be ordered but deliveries won't begin until later. Local retailers don't have even that, just the summer releases (spider crane etc.) In Amazon.de the Liebherr is listed as a preorder, availability beginning from 4.10. and Land Rover is nowhere to be found. In UK Amazon Liebherr seems to be available right now, but no Land Rover there either.

Sariel's review really set me drooling, but sadly there's no way I can afford this set anytime soon :( Some thoughts however: I don't really like the pneumatic tubing, though it adds detail. It feels somehow wrong to have the tubes running there but with purely cosmetic purpose. Also the ends of the tubes are ugly, as others have mentioned. Otherwise I like how there's a lot of details built into the model, it captures very well the form of the original machine. I really love how there are lots of gears and axles turning in the arm when multiple parts of it are being operated at the same time, it really brings home the feeling of a big heavy machinery at work. Judging from the review, the software also appears to be very well polished and the features are great, something that feels quite refreshing when you've come to expect tons of release day bugs and crappy UI in new apps. No beta-testing on customers here. I thought about the actual digging where the shovel doesn't seem to be very good at picking bricks up, but what about just using a lot more bricks? Like, dump a bucketful of mixed (not too large) bricks on the floor and you should have no problem at "digging" them. I used this technique to a great effect with the 42055 BWE, though I had a lot of problems with the conveyor belt mechanism jamming. Should have probably sorted them more carefully, to remove large/long pieces. I tried the same with 42043 Arocs but the pneumatic cylinder closing the clamshell bucket is very weak so it couldn't really push into the bricks pile to pick those up.

Why couldn't you use the official app with 42099 controls, I mean the hub and motors don't know what sort of construction they are built into? Of course that would make an unintuitive controller when you see 42099 on your screen but your MOC on your floor (or wherever). Brick Controller 2 of Buwizz app surely are better though.

42082 has large tires and wheels, which are on the heavier end as far as non-electric pieces go. 42100 on the other hand has treads, which add a large number of lightweight pieces. It also seems to have much more lightweight system parts used for decorations while 42082 doesn't have that many (just head- and taillights + some mirrors). These might explain some of the apparent discrepancy between weight/parts ratio of those two sets.

Sure they allow adults on their own, no problem there. We had our own car so I don't know the specifics, but I'm sure there are some options for public transportation, and depending on the location of your Airbnb, it might only be a short walk from a bus stop. Google Maps has a pretty good public transportation guides nowdays, at least where I live, so you could probably check it beforehand. If all else fails, I'm you could always take a taxi. Legoland itself has no second hand or resale shops, but I saw at least one toy store that sells Lego in Billund. Didn't visit though, so I don't know if there's second hand sets available. The PAB in Legoland was next to useless with very limited selection (a big disappointment for me) so I didn't bother with it at all. We only ate inside Legoland (and in our Airbnb, which was located in the countryside) so I unfortunately I have no advice on restaurants, except that those in Legoland were expensive but with adequate quality.