amorti

I think the easiest solution would be to reverse the gears in the linear actuators. I believe CaDA will send a motor, but you'll have to wait for it from China. Still, glad you've worked out the problem and have some options to solve.

If you don't know German: He hasn't finished building it, but does mention it's a more challenging build than Lego with difficulty further increased by being all in black. He specifically says it's built stable. He likes it so far, especially the license and the effort made to exploit it fully e.g. the corresponding special AMG parts and is impressed with the favourable direct photo comparison of the real One to the model. He wishes there were a static version. He also mentions how CaDA parts were always good and now further improved in the last two years; no micro scratches, it's like building with Lego. He must have watched my videos already!

I'd say not really. Forwards works with just the drive motor, because the pullback plus the other motor provide enough resistance on the diff. Reverse doesn't have that, so the power just goes through the diff without moving the car (path of least resistance). I just reverse it on both motors, although I mostly drove outside so far so there's more space and less need to go backwards. I think in reverse there's only the other motor providing resistance. Might work with Lego motors, but CaDA motors are stronger/faster/have less resistance in the planetary reduction (idk, delete as appropriate) and will overpower the resistance of the other motor.

You've summed it up correctly. The differential and pullback behave just as you said. You can tell what it's doing because running just the pullback motor applies enough torque to the drive motor, that it becomes a generator and lights up the LEDs! For those who speak German, the biggest Lego YouTuber in Germany just dropped a review. I haven't watched it yet, let's see what he thinks.

There's only two ways I can see that happening, either one of the motors is wired back to front or you got the bevel gears on the spoiler backwards but both left and right sides. The motor being backwards seems more likely. It should be possible to figure out which is wrong by exactly following the setup instructions in the manual. I guess the correct solution is to tell CaDA what happened and have them send a replacement motor, but if it's the motor in the spoiler it's not easy to access. If you wanted to fix it without a big rebuild, maybe you could use a longer axle for the drive gear of the door mechanism and put that on the other side of the driven gears?

So where are we up to? You're busy criticising a CaDA model after building it with Lego parts but not telling that until halfway through the discussion. No one's denying the gears are a problem for anyone who will press the devil's button combination on the remote (or their kid will, etc). On the plus side it's a simple fix using two 5 cent pieces which most of us have as spares, and if you have a sharp knife and aren't scared to use it then it doesn't even require a big strip-down. The chassis flex criticism isn't a problem. It just isn't. This is a brick toy, it's not an RC model with a carbon or metal base plate, and in that light it is plenty strong. Or maybe in your 'copy' it is a problem due to worn out Lego pins like... Your doors flexing criticism, which is now hilarious, because the cause was a combination of a) not using CaDA parts and b) using worn/subpar Lego parts to build it. I think that'll do for this one.

Doors flexing: you didn't have the CaDA special pieces which make the hinges stronger so yes your statement is correct, that point doesn't count. Chassis flex - depends what you're comparing it to. I never claimed it's as rigid as e.g. the orange tow truck, but it's also nothing like the Lego weird flex Ferrari and now I see that you must know that was a disingenuous comparison. If the licensor wants it in grey, they get it in grey, regardless of what anyone else wants. Red is a good choice though!

I do have an Android Bluetooth pad with USB-b connection. Maybe that'll connect by wire?

I'll give you the one about the clicking gears, but I think we're already clear on that. Regards flex though... You've seen me deliberately grab and twist it to illustrate a different point, and surprisingly enough as a full-grown man yes I can twist some pieces of plastic when I put my mind to it. From that you've compared it directly to the Lego Ferrari which is much smaller and yet immediately bends when you pick it up. Sorry, but your opinion on that point is wrong and ill-informed. Come back when you have actually built it and held it yourself.

Btw, I wouldn't consider myself anti-Lego in terms of the product. I still buy an occasional kit if it brings something new. However it's fair to say I'm anti-monopolies and pro-free market forces.

No, it's far from the same. That one flexed crazy, the AMG One is well within acceptable levels. In comparison, the red supercar is a wet noodle: the opening frunk (for access to the lithium Bluetooth battery box) sacrifices a lot of rigidity.

The chassis is flexible, yes. It's a plastic toy, if you force it, it'll bend. The point was that when you flex it, it doesn't creak or groan which old CaDA and other Chinese makers could do, due to too-hard/brittle plastic in the pins. The doors flex? Again... plastic toy. Turning circle is almost a quarter turn of a 12 tooth gear against a gear rack. It can't be better without excessive gaps under the wheel arches, which nobody will prefer. The brick world doesn't have the necessary parts to allow a virtual pivot strong enough for this job (3kg RC model with a fair speed for what it is) Turning angle is miserable with 4wd - but that's everyman's choice to make. I had a surprisingly heated discussion on FB with a guy who told me my driving video was wrong to recommend 2Wd and if you did that it wasn't true to the original and it was only going on the shelf anyway so who cares, etc. Safe to say he'll happily live with the limited steering! Steering wheel connected by friction pin is 100% good. In this case it's only decorative, you couldn't steer with it anyway as you'd have to force the servo. It being by friction allows infinite adjustability so unlike eg. the Lego McLaren, you cannot end up with the steering wheel stuck half a tooth from straight.

If you also watch the bugfix video, you can see the "gotchas", and note that I'm not scared to mention them. I am a very novice reviewer and so I am definitely open to feedback on the videos. For example I had the idea to build each section then cut in and talk about it, but it turned out hours long and even more amateurish than what I did publish. For sure there were a few minutes in the footage from the first bag or two talking about the split parts being annoying, but honestly a few bags in and (except the 3*3 T's) I wasn't bothered by it anymore. I don't think I mentioned it in the final review, so there if you need a negative, that can be one. You'll enjoy the build more if you bring about 15 black 3*3 T's from your own stash. The thing I kept coming back to in multiple clips was how much improved CaDA parts are. I've built from many brands and what's always been missing from brands supplied by gobricks and now also from Lego since they changed the black pins, is the pins sliding in "just so", and then a satisfying click as they get home. CaDA pins were historically too loose and the plastic too brittle, but now they have it "just so". It's a big factor in my enjoyment of a technic build. What negatives are you expecting to hear on other reviews? What do you suspect I oversold, missed, or hushed? Ask me a question, I'll tell you my opinion! Naturally if you buy and build it you may form a different opinion for yourself, but if you ask my honest opinion you can get it.

The CaDA frames being made of two pieces and the panels being redesigned is all (as I understand second or third hand) a result of love letters sent from the legal department in Billund. I can't imagine CaDA would have done it for fun, it will have been really expensive to retool so many parts. I couldn't tell you why CaDA made changes and not the others in China, but the answer may be the same as why they respectfully work together with their designers instead of ripping them off via rebrickable. The halved 5*7 and 5*11 frames are not as easy to use but still fine, the 3*5 I-beams can be worked with, but the 3*3 T-liftarms can lose strength right where you needed it. Funny you mention that wavy thin "brass knuckles" liftarm, I kinda like it. Not sure where, but I feel like it'll have some decorative use somewhere. You could as well ask why Lego added those bumps to the long arch panels

It's no secret that I received a review copy from CaDA (maybe everyone didn't know it was at Bruno's recommendation), I have an affiliate code, and I have in any case long been sympathetic to CaDA's cause. In this case though, it's just about what I wrote there, and btw I don't see any counter being offered, only ad hominem. Regards the Lego-only model's looks: again respect for the effort because Stud.io is hard, but check out the triangular arched panels in the frunk. CaDA panels have the attachment point one stud across, and without that nor any adjustment, the frunk is the wrong shape. The rear arches needed a ribbed hose to make up that same gap and it looks weird. The gap around the front of the nose is bad due to a lack of long arched panel without pin holes, not to mention the missing Mercedes emblem. The 13L arch panels below the doors and in the roof just look weird with the ribs. The 21/22 panels by the rear arch have had to be put on backwards and it's odd. Also again those special parts aren't there, you'd have to 3d print them which means plenty of postprocessing, or grainy parts. I'm not mad about anything. I just don't understand the logic of why it's important to use Lego panels to make a copy with a worse look. It's like trying to run Windows on a Mac or an iOS skin on Android. Bruno, I can't imagine how it felt when that happened on the red one.

In both the red supercar and the AMG One, there were quite a few spares in the box, including some weird ones like technic panels. In the One I even had spares of a part in a colour that's not even used in the model. So not specifically that set, but IME it's not unusual for CaDA to send you some extra parts with each set, and not just pins and 1*1s like Lego. No no, much more generous, they will give some weird stuff that'll have you questioning where you missed it. Congratulations, it's a long and arduous process to do this in Stud.io Buuuut as mentioned above... the roof panels, arches, and various other overlaps all look worse than with CaDA parts, you'll be missing the printed parts, and you'll have to 3d print the special parts. Also I'm sure you didn't use a pirated copy of the manual to complete your work. "Play fair" and all that, right? "In the LEGO Group, we believe that any original product design should be protected against copying for as long as it is produced and marketed" Has to apply both ways!

For it to happen, the car needs to be completed to its full weight, and on its wheels. If the car is upside down, there's no weight holding the differential still so when the pullback locks the force can easily escape in that direction. That's what I'm replicating in the video by jamming a piece against the diff to lock it. Or maybe I really am just unlucky or excessively cruel? IDK anymore!

I agree! Mostly they're either small bugs, tips, or matters of preference. The only real bug IMHO is the bevel gears. But even here, if you simply don't push forward on the drive motor and *simultaneously* back on the charge motor, it'll never be noticed. Even if you do press both simultaneously but release the drive motor before the moment in which the pullback locks up and the system stalls, you'd probably be fine. Mind you, even once will damage the teeth and then it's game over. In my imagination this wasn't found in testing because it's a cruel thing to do to the system, and the testers weren't so unkind!

It's a ripoff.

I made a driving video. Here you can find out about the battery life, and compare the speed in 2wd and 4wd, and with ball bearing rear hubs. As expected the 4wd variant is a little slower, and as expected it steers much worse. Unless you *really* need it to be 4wd like the real one (and won't drive it much), go with 2wd @Bensch55 - the ball bearing hubs are cool and I really like how you use one part universally for front and rear... but they don't fit on the front of this model. Even just on the rear though, they do let it go a little faster. https://tf-engineering.at/wheelhub/

You're dead right - definitely better than hanging it loose

Maybe one run as 4wd. Otherwise I'll be at it all afternoon 😅

Great presentation, and really interesting details about the marketing cooperation. Thank you! I'll also do a run time test in 2wd. Maybe I'll get a little less since it'll be outside on uneven ground. I'm not sure about running laps for ten minutes in 4wd, seems like you'd get transmission wind up?

I plan to do a driving video outside this weekend. I'll put a phone with a GPS speedometer app in the car, and top-speed run it in both configurations right after a full charge. It's not going to be very scientific but I reckon if I run a battery through it in each configuration, I'll have a fair idea how long the battery lasts, as well as what the achieved top speed will be. Not sure how to measure acceleration at these kinds of speeds? It's not like I have a trap to measure time between two points, and anyway we all know the time will mostly depend on which run had fewer steering corrections. I'm not expecting a huge difference in top speed. The noticeable difference is going to be steering angle, which is really drastically reduced for 4WD. @brunojj1 has specifically cautioned against running 4WD without the limited steering angle as it'll spit out the CV joints. I don't have enough spare CV joints to fact check the maestro, so I won't be testing that! Also, there is no central differential, the car weighs some 3kg and the tyres are very grippy, so it's definitely going to wind up the propshaft.

I reckon the tiles have been assembled on a brick or base plate, and printed as a group. The alignment is really perfect. In the bug fix video I do mention that the knob gears add friction, however I don't see another solution in this case. The pullback motor requires a lot of torque to wind it up, but more to the point once it stops you pit the stalling torque of two of CaDA's high power L-motors against that one gear pair. Between them the motors are stronger than an XL motor and will beat whatever bevel pair you could use. Even if you manage to wedge a bevel frame in there for perfect alignment and add a bunch of bracing, they'll eventually just bend the teeth. Anyway, most of the time they are just idling, so I'm less worried about the friction. That said - I'd love to be proven wrong :)