XenoRad

I covered up some of the holes in mine's bucket but left the top ones there. I'm thinking that I might get a string through to secure some cargo at one point. It won't be carrying rocks that's for sure, but other things like various bottles full of various beverages is quite possible and I wouldn't want any spillage. Otherwise I'd like to present to you guys a relatively simple but IMO worth it mod - a hood raise by 1 stud at the rear. It's mounted the same way as the original one, via the same capped axles, but I had to add a couple of beams to the sides of the cabin on top of the existing ones for the connection. Here's how it looks: Here's how it's mounted at the rear. I used an extra 1x9 beam on top of the existing ones. There's a similar beam on the other side of the cabin. Please note however that the beam right below it (middle beam) which initially connected to the hood had to be moved back by 1 stud, otherwise it would have hit the side of the hood there, which is now more angled. As an added benefit the dash is now flush with the hood and no longer sticks out above it. Both parts of the hood have some modifications to how they connect to each other, as seen below. Due to the fact that the rear of the top hood is one stud higher means that it's just so slightly pushed backwards so the forward mounting had to change as well. For the rear I'm using the same 5x3 beams but they've been raised by 1 stud. The 5x3 beams have been kept and are just one stud higher. For that however I needed to change their connectors to the lower part. Fear not for they are sturdy and nothing moves. More details from the rear, showing all the new parts needed for the one stud raise. That's it! I like it, for it makes the model better resemble the real thing. Also, the hood opens and closes just fine, nothing's stressed and if you didn't know how it looked originally you wouldn't know it has been modified. Also, the extra beams to the side of the cabin also bring it more in line with the proportions of the real cabin so it's a double benefit.

I say we put the instructions in a time capsule (and don't tell TLG where we buried it ) so that humans 1000 years from now can build it. And maybe we raise some money to send the instructions to space on a rocket so that aliens will be able to build it too.

Those ideas are definitely plausible but we can't be sure. At this point the exact decision chain that led to the cancellation is unknown. But the fact that that protest had any significant play in it seems more unlikely each day. Rather I think part of the people working on getting 42113 to market wanted to go ahead with it and others didn't. Perhaps there was an internal struggle and one side won out. Hence the seemingly bizarre decision with a late cancellation. I wouldn't put this past some high ranking manager that wasn't involved from the start and who only very late in the game decided to cancel it, for whatever reason. And since TLG couldn't really explain all of their different internal factions and their interests they put out an unconvincing statement. However, again, this is nothing more than speculation. But if you ask me it's less likely that the same people who worked on getting set 42113 approved, developed, manufactured and to stores just got a change of mind and cancelled it. Someone with sufficient authority, potentially previously unfamiliar with the product, stepped in.

I also contacted my local official Lego retailer. They didn't get any and won't be getting any. There's only one other shop where I can find it online but says stock = 0. The rest of the shops hardly have some of the more common Technic sets so it's not even worth asking. Plenty more sets up for sale on Ebay today, most around the $1200 mark. So from a proper launch, we went to a potentially delayed launch, then to a cancelled one, then to a limited availability one which will soon dry up and then we'll only have a speculative market on it. Was it worth it, Lego?

Out of curiosity I wanted to see whether one of the companies-which-shall-not-be-named-here is going to be selling their copy of this set and quite indeed, I see that they are preparing to do such thing. Even more bad news for TLG. I see plenty of people getting that, even more encouraged to do so if TLG doesn't figure out a way to still release it. As I said, people are going to get this set one way or another. The time and effort that they'll go through to get it will reflect in a penalty against TLG's image and reputation.

Ouch. The Ebay bidding war kinda makes my little story from a few pages ago more relevant. I'll post it here again for your enjoyment. 'It was autumn 2020 in a European city. It was a late cloudy afternoon and the darkness was already setting in. Not far from the tourist center a man stood at a street corner. He was a tall slender man in a black tracksuit. The suit had three white stripes. Another man approached him. "Hey, how you doing," said the approaching man. He was wearing casual clothes and a blue cap and appeared slightly anxious. "What's up man," said the man in the tracksuit without paying too much attention to the newcomer. "So... you got any?" asked the new man nervously. "Any what, man? Get out of here, I don’t know you," said the man in the tracksuit while looking left and right as if to see if anyone else was paying attention. "Come on, you know... I heard you got the good stuff." The man in the tracksuit gave the man with the cap a good look as if to size him up. After a few seconds pause he said: "You with TLG or DFG-VK?" "No, I'm a straight up consumer. Honest." "Man, I don't know. You look shady." "No, I'm good. Honest. I haven't built anything in about a month. I need a hit. I’m kinda desperate." The man in the tracksuit didn’t answer immediately. He looked around one more time for prying eyes and ears before responding. "Hmm... alright. Maybe I can hook you up with one." "Actually... do you have two?" "Two? Man, you crazy." "No, come on. It' not just for me. I got kids. Have a heart." "Oh, you got kids? You got money too?" "I do. I got it." "Alright, man. I can hook you up with two. But it's gonna cost you. Double plus ten percent." "Aw... that's steep." "Hey! I'm only supposed to give one per. This stuff's the real deal. Full package and everything. It's no Chinese knockoff. And we're running low. So make up your mind and stop wasting my time." "Okay," said the man with the blue cap and then he reached in his pocket and got out a thick cash roll. He handed over the roll to the man in the tracksuit who put it in his pocket without looking at it. Then the man in the tracksuit turned towards an alley to his rear and gave a discrete signal to another man who stood next to a parked white van (Ford Transit van). That man reached inside the van, worked as if he was packing something, then came up with a large grocery bag. He put the bag on the ground, next to the other two men and then left, returning to the van. "Well, looks like this is your lucky day after all, man. But I gotta warn you. This is advanced level stuff. Don’t go at it like an amateur. Take your time, make it last. You'll have a blast. And keep a low profile. If they find out about it they can revoke your VIP membership. You can loose all your points,” said the man in the tracksuit. The other man grabbed the grocery bag and left. Throughout his journey home he felt uneasy. He had this constant urge to look behind him to see if anyone was following. Finally, before entering his apartment building, he did look back but didn’t see anyone that had been following. Quickly, he went over the stairs, entered his apartment, only slightly nodded towards his wife as he went past her right into the children’s room. As he entered he carefully closed the door behind him. “Did, you get it, daddy?” asked one of the children eagerly. The man put the grocery bag down on the floor and the reached inside. He grabbed what looked like a big box wrapped in white paper. Quickly he tore the paper up and placed the naked box in front of them. “I sure did. Lego Technic set 42113, Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey,” said the man with great satisfaction. “I got you guys one and I’m keeping one for myself. Look, we need to keep a low profile on this. Assemble and play with it quietly. Make sure you don’t brag about it in school. You guys know what happened to your classmate, Andrej. The two children didn’t say anything and lowered their heads. They knew all too well what had happened to Andrej.’ As an obvious disclaimer the above is just a fictional story and not meant to be taken seriously.

It's up to you. If you think that you can bring out some interesting aspects in your review that no one else can capture you can go for it, even if it's just a shorter review. Anyway, thanks for the instructions. There's plenty of people here that appreciate that. It's what being a community is all about in a way.

The truth is that people don't really care that you're making tanks out of Lego or any other bricks. Apart from a few individuals who indeed would make a big deal out of it, in the grand scheme of things it's insignificant that you're building replica military vehicles. The world is not worse off by it, one bit. And that's really the point. Lego have made this internal rule that's not that much or a moral standing as they wish it were and now they're doubling down on a set that they've already spent time and money to make, they already marketed (you have official YouTube videos of its features) and they already put in stores in some locations. Lego should have had the courage to go ahead with it. Dress it up if they needed to with a press statement, reclassify it as 18+ but go ahead with it. At this point it's like they're tying to trick themselves because they have a silly rule that doesn't really mean anything and we can see that. Honestly it would have been a much more respectable position to bring it to market. Because people are going to get it, one way or another. The instructions will be put online, the parts will become available over time, some sets will be sold in a gray market. It will just be more difficult for no practical reason whatsoever.

I hate to be that guy since I still want this set to come out one way or another but such a move would mean that the narrative becomes as follows: - Lego develops set 42113 of a transport military aircraft designated as a search and rescue craft. - The community awaits it, though is aware that Lego has a so-called standing against such things. After all plenty of other sets are about machines of war and violence, non-licensed albeit, but still those are acceptable so this should be harmless. - Very close to release, Lego figures out that perhaps indeed it's not right for them and cancels set 42113 citing some moral standing that the community is already not convinced of, considering the point above. - Lego then figures out a way to re purpose set 42113 as to still give the community the possibility to build it and thus announcing to the world that they're somehow cancelling their cancellation of set 42113. Again, don't get me wrong. I want to have this set, but at this point the story would get so convoluted and contradictory that there's no way Lego can ever come out as anything other than a company trying to cheat an own rule that doesn't even hold up as much as they claim. I said it: rebrand the set 18+ as you already have others in this category and let people buy it and make up their own mind about whether the set is appropriate or not. Or change the rule and trust that your customers are moral enough to understand the differences between different sets and what they represent. Or continue to enforce it but be prepared that many will see it as nothing more than an artificial limitation you put on your business for a supposed moral standing that doesn't stand up to scrutiny when looking at the entire past and present product line.

This whole situation is crazy. At this point here's how I see things: 'It was autumn 2020 in a European city. It was a late cloudy afternoon and the darkness was already setting in. Not far from the tourist center a man stood at a street corner. He was a tall slender man in a black tracksuit. The suit had three white stripes. Another man approached him. "Hey, how you doing," said the approaching man. He was wearing casual clothes and a blue cap and appeared slightly anxious. "What's up man," said the man in the tracksuit without paying too much attention to the newcomer. "So... you got any?" asked the new man nervously. "Any what, man? Get out of here, I don’t know you," said the man in the tracksuit while looking left and right as if to see if anyone else was paying attention. "Come on, you know... I heard you got the good stuff." The man in the tracksuit gave the man with the cap a good look as if to size him up. After a few seconds pause he said: "You with TLG or DFG-VK?" "No, I'm a straight up consumer. Honest." "Man, I don't know. You look shady." "No, I'm good. Honest. I haven't built anything in about a month. I need a hit. I’m kinda desperate." The man in the tracksuit didn’t answer immediately. He looked around one more time for prying eyes and ears before responding. "Hmm... alright. Maybe I can hook you up with one." "Actually... do you have two?" "Two? Man, you crazy." "No, come on. It' not just for me. I got kids. Have a heart." "Oh, you got kids? You got money too?" "I do. I got it." "Alright, man. I can hook you up with two. But it's gonna cost you. Double plus ten percent." "Aw... that's steep." "Hey! I'm only supposed to give one per. This stuff's the real deal. Full package and everything. It's no Chinese knockoff. And we're running low. So make up your mind and stop wasting my time." "Okay," said the man with the blue cap and then he reached in his pocket and got out a thick cash roll. He handed over the roll to the man in the tracksuit who put it in his pocket without looking at it. Then the man in the tracksuit turned towards an alley to his rear and gave a discrete signal to another man who stood next to a parked white van (Ford Transit van). That man reached inside the van, worked as if he was packing something, then came up with a large grocery bag. He put the bag on the ground, next to the other two men and then left, returning to the van. "Well, looks like this is your lucky day after all, man. But I gotta warn you. This is advanced level stuff. Don’t go at it like an amateur. Take your time, make it last. You'll have a blast. And keep a low profile. If they find out about it they can revoke your VIP membership. You can loose all your points,” said the man in the tracksuit. The other man grabbed the grocery bag and left. Throughout his journey home he felt uneasy. He had this constant urge to look behind him to see if anyone was following. Finally, before entering his apartment building, he did look back but didn’t see anyone that had been following. Quickly, he went over the stairs, entered his apartment, only slightly nodded towards his wife as he went past her right into the children’s room. As he entered he carefully closed the door behind him. “Did, you get it, daddy?” asked one of the children eagerly. The man put the grocery bag down on the floor and the reached inside. He grabbed what looked like a big box wrapped in white paper. Quickly he tore the paper up and placed the naked box in front of them. “I sure did. Lego Technic set 42113, Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey,” said the man with great satisfaction. “I got you guys one and I’m keeping one for myself. Look, we need to keep a low profile on this. Assemble and play with it quietly. Make sure you don’t brag about it in school. You guys know what happened to your classmate, Andrej. The two children didn’t say anything and lowered their heads. They knew all too well what had happened to Andrej.’ As an obvious disclaimer the above is just a fictional story and not meant to be taken seriously.

If it's not Darth Vader it'll be some other figure. You can't pretend that humans aren't drawn to violence and power in one way or another and children are no exception. And it's hard to draw a line, no matter the subject matter. For instance children like dinosaurs, especially the T-Rex which can be seen as a large killing machine. The Jurassic Park movies, loved by many children, show this. Children also like The Avengers, centered on superheroes and supervillains engaged in conflict and there are multiple other examples. TLG sells sets of both. You can't shield them from this and you cannot dismiss all such depictions as harmful. The only way to keep "violence" at bay is through education, not burrowing your head in the sand and pretending it doesn't exist. That's why I said that it's hypocritical and a false moral standing to cancel this set. Playing around with words saying that all is okay as long as it's not based on military vehicles doesn't really stand up to scrutiny. The most honest thing TLG could do right now is rebrand this as 18+ if they must and go along with it. They have plenty of other sets in this category for no reason, other than they're more expensive. Why not have this? Don't play around with wordings, don't claim high moral standings when dealing with trivial and benign stuff. Just give people the products they want to buy and let them make up their own minds about them.

If this set is indeed cancelled altogether then this is a bad business call. It's TLGs financial loss and our disappointment. But there's another thing that I don't understand. That comes with the recent branding of 18+ for certain collector's sets. If you can have Star Wars helmets and a Lamborghini model targeted at 18+ when clearly there's nothing in these sets that would warrant such a designation, then why cancel this? Just rebrand it 18+ and be done with it. Officially it's not for kids and as far as adults go they can make up their own mind about how the V-22 Osprey, a so called military transport aircraft is responsible for the destruction of the modern world. I don't mind principles. I do mind fake principles and hypocrisy. You can't claim you're a toy company when some of your sets are branded 18+ and you can't claim morals when a harmless model of a transport aircraft, be it military, is pulled from stores when other sets have a direct link to military attributes, be it an official link or implied. And ultimately this isn't about people being upset that TLG didn't go yet another step forwards in braking their principles. This is about people mature enough to properly understand how principles should work and how harmless creativity and technical ability should be allowed to exist. Ultimately, let's be real. The instructions will be posted online somewhere, people will get a hold of either the already existing sets, sold though various "unofficial" channels or just wait until all/most of the parts become available and then just build it. But as someone who has seen some of the incredible MOCs around here and understands the effort that goes into them and also the effort that has gone into most official sets - I'm just sorry for the people who worked on it and now see their work erased. From their point of view it must be hard to have poured effort into making this set only to see that people won't enjoy it due to what essentially boils down to a political decision.

The funny thing is that as far as I'm concerned had TLG not done anything and just let those protesters protest for a day or two this whole discussion back and forth on morals and ethics would not have occurred. Instead we get this churning of past sets and multiple people trying to categorize them in different categories to see whether they're as or less OK than this one. It's not the people wanting the set that have made a big deal out of it, it's TLG and the protesters themselves who saw this as a sufficient "threat" that they had to bother to protest against it. I personally don't see much of a moral standpoint being made by cancelling this set. I do see a cool model/toy that I would have been interested in, due to its mechanical aspects, potentially cancelled. And it's a pity, that's all. The military application of the aircraft is not inherent in the way it is portrayed in the set. The military application of the real aircraft its licensed on is limited to transportation. So considering this I again do not see any great stance against war or the military being made here.

I think we would need something simpler and not going into the whole who/which entity government or otherwise supports the war effort with funds. Something like "Lego Technic fans urge TLG to release set 42113 as the aircraft depicted has Search and Rescue designation and can be valuable in teaching children and adults alike the inner working of such complex machines. Neither the product as is nor its box and instructions indicate to any military application so TLG can both brink it to market and adhere to its internal guidelines on the type of products they make." This can of course be expanded upon but again I'd rather not open the can of worms about who funds military operations and the companies making equipment for this purpose.

Yes, we should voice support for this set. I was looking forward to it since it was something different and with pretty cool functions too. Regarding the licensing deal - that's probably done. I doubt TLG is going to pay Bell Boeing for every set they sell so those companies already got the money when the deal to develop this set was made. At this point cancelling this set is likely only going to financially impact TLG.

If they end up cancelling this they'll lose plenty of time and money spent developing this set, not to mention they'll upset the people looking forward to it. Seems very strange to bow down to some protesters in this fashion, unless of course there was more happening internally and they just used this as an excuse.

Ouch. I see that. Thankfully I only noticed two different shades of black on my parts and they were part consistent. The L-beams vs the regular beams. The black panels have a totally different texture so I'm not even counting those. I think they need to hire some keen eyed people to jumble together the pallets to obtain a consistent color.

Thank you for the info. It's a bit disconcerting though that TLG is still suffering from color issues in 2020 when they first had this problem in as early as 2012. You'd think they could have put in place a more robust way of manufacturing so as to no longer have color differences, even for new or less used colors.

I wouldn't worry too much about getting the 42099 set. Price per piece is indeed not that great, but you need to factor design and capability. You get two XL motors for drive and one L motor for steering. So that's double the drive power compared to this set and a beefy steering motor too. If you switch some of the gear wheels the 42099 can become very good on and off road, but a bit slower. You also get the turntable which some may not like but I think it's a clever solution for extra articulation. With my modded 42099, having the same motor arrangement but lower gears, a higher ride height on the front, increased wheelbase and cargo bed I can climb nearly 50° slopes unloaded, or up to 30° slopes with about 2 kg (4.4 pounds) of evenly distributed weight. So I think 42099 has the potential, with a few modifications, of being the best official Lego off-roader in quite some time. But I would get it at a discount at this point in time.

Yes, you can always test for start and end position and calculate half way provided that the movement is linear. Any deviation from that will introduce error. Anyway, that's just speculation for sets and MOCs that aren't out there yet. I'm actually impressed with what you can do nowadays with Lego motors and software. Powered Up was introduced with 42099 if I'm not mistaken and from then up until now the improvement in capability in the software is noticeable. As a gearhead however I can always wish for more powerful motors. An 8 or a 9 AA equivalent battery hub powering a beefier motor would definitely be a boost in capability.

Thank you for that explanation. So, the motor does know its position, but anything beyond that needs to be guessed based on per-entered parameters for the specific design/set. So, if in an official set the motor is supposed to move an actuator the only way that keeps accurate position of the actuation is if you connect the actuator to the motor as described so that the software can count based on the gear ratio. Any other gear in between that modifies that ratio will throw off calculations. Considering that most play in technic sets happens outside the motors that does leave some room for error. The only way to calibrate that would be to give hubs GPS modules so that, in combination with software they can figure out for themselves how they're moving in 3d space based on inputs and result. And that would only affect the position of the vehicle. In this case, when we have a bed that is moved by actuators, there would be no sensor that could accurately tell its position in the absence of anything else. The only way to tell would be to run the motor until it can no longer run, aka when the bed would reach either the lowest or highest position.

@Robo-Knight The Land Rover Defender kit is a really good one for parts. I got two myself although I have completed the Land Rover. It's just the parts were so diverse that I could use the second kit on multiple other projects. So with two kits you should be good for the technical bits needed for a supercar mechanics. I mean, you get three differentials of two types, multiple gears and axles, four, sorry FIVE good sized wheels, interesting connects and such. Theoretically you could build a 10 wheeled truck. More interesting if you were to ask me, than a supercar. However, as others have said, in terms of panels, and especially round ones you're a bit limited. Whatever you decide though, you do need to keep in mind that you need patience. It can take weeks or months on end to finalize a vehicle design. So you need to be on the mindset that not only the end result matters but also the experimenting and prototyping. You could get ideas for 10 different vehicles before you finish your super-car just based on attempts that you thought would work in this case but didn't - but they would work in other cases. So I say - It's possible, go for it, be patient, understand that the experience you get may be useful for future projects and good luck!

It's all done in software though, isn't it? The motor has no position sensor to know that, does it? So it's the software that's doing all of the calculations, based on ... what exactly? Does it calculate the time it sends an impulse for the motor to move then knows based on milliseconds and its speed when it reached 0/90/180/270 degrees? I kinda got this inquiry on how the software and motors would know positioning when watching the reviews for Excavator Liebherr R 9800 (42100). After a while it would be that the motors and actuators were out of position compared to the software and I wondered how it calculated where exactly the bucket was at any given time. Based on your experience with these motors and software do you know? Can you shed some light on this?

@Sariel Great review! Also, I have an interesting observation to make. Racingbrick mentioned in his review that with an open diff as soon as one wheel would lose traction then the whole hauler would stop immediately. Then I saw in your review on the slope test that with two wheels without traction but on the same axle the hauler would still keep going. Initially I was puzzled, but then I thought about how that differential would work and it did made sense. Strange that in a 6x6 (or in an n x n) if one wheel is off the ground you're not getting traction anywhere, but then if the other wheel connected to the same diff would also lose traction, then traction would be passed along to the next diff. Interesting but strange quirk of how multiple differentials linked together work. Also, I think you have a minor mistake in your review. You mentioned in the subtitles that one of the motors is an L but it's an XL, I believe. Fairly minor but I did think it was strange for Lego not to use their biggest motor for power so I double-checked. All in all this looks like a good set. I just wish I would have been faster. Perhaps two XL motors with a gearing up before going to the gearbox...

I will be getting this set but I waited since I had plenty to build in the meantime and was also a bit concerned about the color issues. Now that some time has passed and more sets had been delivered does anyone who has already built it NOT have the color issue and can share a few more details about where and when it was manufactured? Is is still a problem with all sets or have sets without this started appearing on the market?