gyenesvi

41999 4x4 Crawler Exclusive Edition A great looking off-roader that I never owned as the original set. Shrunken to about 70% of the original. Aimed at keeping the chassis structure, suspension geometry and the paneling similar. Features - all that the original has 4 wheel drive, with a mini V6 fake engine under the hood 4 wheel steering, linkage based, identical steering radius on both axles, HoG on the roof live axle suspension with portal hubs and differentials, elevated entry point of drivetrain working front winch with ratchet mechanism and release lever openable doors, hood and trunk interior with seats and dashboard Picture of the original Pictures of the shrunken version Video Link to discussion topic

The product page says: Age Range: > 3290 years old. LOL, I guess it’s not for me then.. :D

Looks cool with the proper colors! I like your winch solution :) I am just finalizing my video as well..

1:18 scale for an offroader sounds a bit small for me (supposing something like a real car), not many functions can be fit into that scale (due to parts availability). Below 1:12 it already gets tricky/hacky I guess. Or is it something completely extraordinary you have in mind? Are you thinking in terms of an RC vehicle? The lights already suppose the existence of power source..

That axle looks very nice! Wish something approximating that would exist in lego, especially if your small differential could also be incorporated somehow.. How wide is it? 13 studs between the steering pivot points?

Great end result, looks really nice and I like the functions! While building for this competition, I had the same feeling as you; it was good to build something out of the box that I would not do normally and something that does not have to be super sturdy because it's not motorized and hence I need not worry and can use some more lousy building techniques that would not cut it otherwise :)

I also gave it some testing a few days ago. While true that the climbing could be better, I was pleasantly surprised how good speed/torque ratio it has, it could climb moderate rocky slopes, so if you play around with it, it does not get stuck in a slightly bumpy area. I think they brought out what's possible from the existing electronics components, only better motors would lead to better all-over performace. On the other hand what I observed is that it can get hang on places where one wheel looses traction, as that axle is out due to the diff, and then the other axle is only powered by one motor, that can stall easily, so the vehicle stops. This could be made better with coupled motors, as then the remaining one axle would still be powered by both motors. That is why I am not a big fan of this motor arrangement.

What is Lego VM? Is that something TLG announced or is it something 3rd party (that you envision)? I agree that @allanp's solution is becoming like a smart device / app. I actually did start coding a controller app a few years ago, there are tons of customization options to consider. So It would definitely need upgradability, you can't just think about every possible use case and parameter in advance. What I've actually been thinking that would be a very Lego-like thing (and that TLG should have done things like) is that if the PU app was properly developed and would be actually used for official sets instead of the Control+ profiles. That would mean 1) The GUI items (controls) used in Control+ profiles, such as joystick and button styles were actually reusable in the PU app even for creating custom profiles 2) The code behind each profile would actually be codable on the canvas and it was all accessible in the app, and hence would be customizable and reusable. Then, we could simply put together a profile that looks and works similar to the ones in the official sets, and we could program them on our own. Then we could build and control similar things to the official sets. Currently this is pretty hard. For one, the controls look very basic, but that's not the main thing. Rather, many features, like the automatic gearbox of the Volvo hauler or the distribution gearbox of the Cat dozer (including the wiggling to release tension), simply cannot be replicated in the PU app (or in a very complex way), hence we cannot build something like them and control it. That is what I would have actually expected from a lego product, buildable / composable experience. Granted that if the official profiles would have been assembled from parts then the overall looks (and sounds) would probably not be that fancy, but still. That's how software from lego should be.

Wow, so you are in :) Great model choice! Strangely I completely forgot this one when I considered all technic offroaders, albeit being a quite interesting one. Though did not know the original model so well, didn’t even know about the door opening mechanism. It will be nice to see it reproduced!

Beautiful design, really nice shaping! How does the suspension work? Is it based on the 1x2 rubber pieces? Kind of like a mini independent suspension, right?

Oh, I see (so how does it collect dust then?). Maybe you can build the small version in black.. (once I provide instructions). Thanks! It's such a cute one to play with :) I actually think I could build a black clone of the original..

@2GodBDGlory I noticed in the entry topic that your entry does not have a picture of the original model, while the rules mandate it. Just thought I'd let you know..

No, I actually meant this one: But the one you linked is a cool one as well, I haven't seen it before :) Sure! Only thing is that electronics are not allowed in the contest.. so don't know if that's interesting for you :D

Thanks, indeed, it improved behind the cabin as well. But I also like your solution for that section. You mean build this one or your 41999? (I suppose that is built already if it got dusty). If you want to build this one, it would be nice if you made a photo of them side by side. I don't own 41999 unfortunately.. Thanks! By the way, was it you who made the .lxf model of 41999? (zblj is also you, right?) I wonder why it is made with the complete top section opened up? It took me some time to close it in Studio to make the model usable for comparison.. just found it strange. But thanks for the model, still helped a lot.

Well of course I suspected that :( Interestingly, I found it by doing a google search for trophy truck.. And I agree, part of the problem (besides the theft) is that your model would be built with poor quality parts and will be a poor build/play experience. Probably there's not much to do about it though. I wonder if some of my models are also on sale somewhere, I found one on Ebay once, but I managed to get it taken down by reporting it. Maybe you could try reporting the item to Amazon, if there's such an option?

@keymaker I just saw your model is being sold on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/MOC-94026-Building-Compatible-Technologie-Powertrain/dp/B09TR6YD1L I wonder if this is with your approval or is it "borrowed"? Even some of the images and parts of the description are from you.

Well, I warned you all the up-gearing will loose the torque needed.. Two L motors coupled, 1:1 ratio to the diff; that's the most these motors can handle for a model of this weight. Even Madoca's lightning buggy has a 1:1 ratio (though without diff), but that has really minimal weight. Anyway, you could start from there, make the ratio 1:1 and see how it drives..

Some final updates. I have rebuilt it with the redesigned chassis and fenders, some things got cleaned up nicely. Most notably, I also simplified the mounting of the springs on the chassis end, and even though it has less degrees of freedom, it works much more smoothly :) I guess because it's fixed more robustly this way, and simpler can often be better :) As for the roof, I managed to lower it by adjusting the angles of the pillars, but it just looked too flat. As I was comparing to the original, I realized that the digital model I downloaded was wrong, LOL. The axles were not angled to have caster (as if springs were slightly compressed to 8L instead of 9L), and so the whole model was sitting lower than it should have been. So the roof line is actually good, and that also puts the bottom line and some side panels to the right position, which also seemed a bit too high previously. Now only the nose is sitting a bit too low, but it's impossible to position everything accurately while keeping it nice at a smaller scale.. I also added a rear seat, because it felt so empty back there.. I guess I forgot about the exhaust pipes on the sides though..

Nice bodywork, I like the way you did it, especially the hood/front. One thing I don't get is why you made the two axles asymmetric. They seem pretty symmetric to me in the original, even the steering seems to have the same amount of turning. Isn't that right?

While it's great that we are getting this support, it's a pity that it's not going to be FW support. The latest generation of the most popular controllers are BLE capable now (PS5 and Xbox Series), and I expect even more devices to have that capability in the future. And a peripheral device can connect to multiple central devices in principle, although true that it might complicate things. And sure it would require a FW design, but in my opinion, that's the real deal. Support via app is not so exciting anymore, as we already have the BC2 and the Controlz app for that, though hopefully we'll get more Buwizz related feature support this way. Not sure what you mean by this. What I meant is that they'd rewrite the FW for supporting remotes. It has nothing to do with Pybricks, which is a different FW for programming the units, the Buwizz FW would not need such a capability.

You wrote this, that's why I assumed it: Much of that price is the battery box. And most of the space required. No way that already expensive 1:8 supercars that are designed to be put on the shelf will get a battery box in them just to make the fake electric motor glow. You also write that you want to keep the option for an electric motor powered version? How would that work? A battery would drive the electric motor, and the motor would make drive the fake engine to make it glow? That sounds complicated. I might be misunderstanding something here.. Also, consider that the gearbox and the piston engine are the only technical function in the 1:8 supercars. If they'd remove those, there would be not much technical left in there. I could see 1:10 cars more of a target for this.

I also don't get why you need two hubs for this. Remote BlaBla already does this with a single hub and a remote.

Exactly, and more recently they also split out a separate discussion issue for the remote, this one: #1024.

I don't understand why that would be the case. The Buwizz can connect to a phone via BLE, so the same way it can connect to a BLE capable remote. And the same way the firmware can interpret the commands coming from the Buwizz protocol, it could also interpret the signals from the gamepad, given that there is a mapping between the button presses and the motor commands. That mapping could be configured from the phone, so the phone app would still be required for controller configuration, but only once before playing, and it would not be needed while playing.

That's a nice looking alternate model, and indeed a quite logical one. Great parts usage, and I like that moving beam mechanism! Great that you persisted on it!