Sokolov Edward

My English leaves much to be desired, but I do a reverse translation from English to Russian to check if the meaning of what was written has been lost. Nevertheless, I continue to be reproached for encroaching on someone's income and labor. The meaning of the discussion for me is how to improve the situation in the segment of sales of instructions for the MOC for Lego Technic. It will not be possible to improve it even by reducing prices by 100 times - I hope everyone agrees with this. The situation can only be improved by attracting new users. Let's remember where I started - 100% of the MOC for the B-model of Mercedes are paid. Without free models, potential users will simply leave for good and further. What to do with this? For example, the authors can agree and jointly release several simpler but quite effective free models - IMHO this will be a good tool for attracting newcomers. Ask what my interest is - the larger the community, the more not only buyers, but also authors and new ideas and models. No one even tried to dispute the fact that the Lego company is indifferent to this community. You can see the place of Lego Technic in the line of Lego products by looking at their catalog 2024-2 - the penultimate 9 pages out of 156. Without your efforts, no one will do anything for you. Or you can continue to puff out your cheeks and say that everything is fine.

Here is another offended seller of instructions. I do not see your statistics, but I see the statistics of visits to this site, and this is almost 100% of your potential buyers on rebrikable. And here there are about 2 hundred writers and 5-6 hundred regular readers without registration - and that's it. If everything suits you and you do not want to make it better, including for yourself, then continue to be offended.

Perhaps Google does a bad job of translating from English to Polish, but that's not the point of my quote. I'm not interested in your personal income from sales of instructions, but in the usual impersonal statistics of sales on rebrikable by year, by topic, by new and old instructions, by buyers - new, several purchases, and so on. This will allow you to see the picture as a whole, rather than guessing on tea leaves. If you really want to sell something and increase sales, you should also be interested in such statistics. So far, I see some kind of "wild market in a dark corner of Europe" with theft of ideas, offended sellers and scaring away potential buyers.

The joke turned out to be good, but when I started working with Lego Technic, I saw a lot in common between Apple and Lego policies - high prices, total monetization of each add-on (application or instruction), chronic lagging behind Chinese copy-pasters in new products, legal pressure on Chinese competitors, etc. The policy of the manufacturer is reflected in the user communities around its products.

Don't iPhones smell like "betrayal"?

Then throw all the iPhones in the trash - without Chinese engineers and factories they would never have been produced. And this is not the only gadget that exists thanks to them. Lego sets and parts are also made in China.

I only buy Chinese kits and I can say that their manufacturers produce a whole range of kits that allow you to assemble several models. At the same time, the price of these kits is not particularly outstanding. There are also kits that are offered to buy in a pair with another and assemble a third option in the form of a more complex model - the instructions are available at the link on the box. But these are small kits with less than 1000 parts.

Unfortunately rebrikable doesn't publish sales counters, otherwise I would laugh along with you. Usually they hide counters so as not to show how bad everything is.

The prices for Lego Technic do not reflect the actual cost of these sets (which are made in China, by the way), but the standard of living in Europe and the US, according to Lego marketers. Judging by the forums, this price is high even for Europe and the US - I see active discussions of Chinese copies on other sites. The actual price of Chinese sets falls below 0.01 euro per part for sets without electrics. Now the market is flooded with Chinese copies of top Ferraris for 40 euros and cheaper - apparently someone overestimated the demand - children do not need it, and adult fans have already stocked up.

Apparently this was in the Mercedes thread and I didn't have time to read all the responses before the moderator deleted them. I'll answer here - I don't have such developments in my plans. I earn money from my job in my specialty, and Lego Technic was chosen as a hobby a couple of years ago to warm up my brain and fine motor skills - this is very important with age. The most I've done so far using Lego instructions as an alternative was to assemble new models from what I have, replacing new parts with analogs from old ones - the results can be seen here in the Audi RS and new Mercedes threads. In my opinion, such assemblies don't qualify as B-models. I'm not trying to beg anything from anyone - I don't need it, I can afford to buy it. I raised the topic to figure out why everything is the way it is. Despite the puffing up of the MOC developers, it is clear that no one has yet earned enough money to buy a real Ferrari by selling instructions. A professor I know said that people are divided into those who can "make" and those who can "sell". I am one of those who "make". IMHO, you can really earn money here only by cooperating with manufacturers. As far as I understand, Lego is not at all interested in this. But Chinese factories are interested and they are now actively cooperating with authors - I have seen many discussions and examples of cooperation on various forums. The authors of the MOC certainly need to "move their crowns from their ears" and understand that their instructions are only a very small part of preparing the model for release.

You judge this as an already established fan of Lego Technic. I myself have already gotten into this topic - I have a collection of parts that are listed in the catalog on Rebrikable, I know where else you can download free and high-quality instructions, where to read news about Lego, etc. And there are people who decided to come into this "from the street" - bought a set, assembled it and decided to assemble something else. They were able enough to get to Rebrikable and find a catalog of B-models, but 100% of paid models will scare them off with 100% probability and neither Lego, nor Chinese copy-pasters, nor especially MOС designers will get a cent from them. I have seen such examples myself. It must be admitted that Lego Technic for grown-ups is a very small segment in the Lego world - most of it is children's bricks like City, etc. There the user algorithm is even shorter - bought, assembled, played, the child grew up and the parents sold everything in one bag for 10 euros per kilogram at the local flea market - MOС designers do not participate in this at all.

I looked through your catalog on rebrikable - unfortunately I didn't find anything interesting for myself - not for just assembling, not to mention assembling "on the shelf". In 2 years I bought only one MOC model, which decorates my small collection. I want to buy another MOC model for assembling "on the shelf", but alas - sanctions do not allow it. Of the paid B-models, only one model aroused the desire to at least simply assemble "for fun".

Copying other people's ideas without attribution unfortunately flourishes everywhere. At the same time, the authors of the MOC also complain that Chinese manufacturers copy them, although they themselves are guilty of the same. On the other hand, the authors of the MOC take Lego solutions and their sets of parts as the basis for their models and this does not bother them at all, although Lego has done a fair amount of work for them and made life easier for potential buyers of the MOC. They do not need to look for many parts separately - it is enough to buy one set.

Apparently my post about paid MOC for the new Mercedes was the reason for this topic. A number of paid alternative assemblies have already been released for it and not a single free one. I asked how justified the release of paid models was. One author managed to answer me - he sold about 100 copies in 3 years on recyclable. I fully admit that people who bought it for 200-250 euros are quite capable of buying several additional instructions for 14 euros. But there is another reality - in which copies of this model will be sold for 30-40 euros and their buyers are unlikely to go and buy alternative models even for a lower price. Alternative models fuel interest in Lego Technic designers - albeit among a small audience and the Lego company could take on the costs of encouraging this activity. But we are unlikely to live up to this and everything will continue as it is. Looking at the discussions on this forum, I only see activity when discussing free models, and only compliments are written to paid ones. The authors of paid MOC have a lot of competition in the form of a bunch of free instructions from Chinese Lego manufacturers, including their models. I would like to appeal to the authors of paid MOC with a proposal to make those models that have not sold in the last year free. Maybe then you will get objective reviews of your creations and they will have at least some life, and not just a picture on Rebrikable and here.

Cada no longer publishes instructions for new supercars and has removed instructions from previously released ones from the site. On YouTube, you can find video streams with the assembly of models, including this one. For example, here https://www.youtube.com/@MerlinsSteine/streams. Watch them - maybe you will see what you are interested in. Or buy the instructions from the author.

You have very strange rules - you can advertise paid MOС for free here, but you can't discuss their prices. The discussion of this model was previously conducted in comparison with other models - 42128 was mentioned as an example of MOС sales volume and nothing more. I see a bias on the part of the administration of a number of forums towards discussing financial and legal issues around Lego and MOС - apparently they understand that the conclusions from these discussions will be unpleasant not only for copy-pasters, but also for Lego itself, the authors of MOС and "democracy".

Is it possible to replace PU L-motors with PF servo motors? The question is not about the dimensions - this seems to be possible to solve, but about the required rotation angles. Will 2 options (+90 and -90 degrees) be enough to change the gearbox and steering wheel? I watched the video - you need to rotate 360 degrees without returning. On PF, such a maneuver cannot be done with a servo motor.

A couple of years ago in China, they often wrote about copies of Lego Technics sets - 3D puzzle for relaxation. And this is really true - the assembly process allows you to distract yourself from current problems, gives the brain new unusual tasks and improves fine motor skills of the hands.

Many thanks to the author jb70 for his free supercar mods - for models of this size this is a rarity. Your pimp up Ferrari is on my shelf. From general comments I can say that HOG on such models looks out of place and it is better to make them removable. As for the McLaren, for some reason it reminds me a lot of Porsche 42056, only more modern and complex. The McLaren design is somehow too banal against the background of the big three Lego - each car there looks like a bright individuality. Even the design of the simpler Ford and Peugeot is more expressive. I understand that a deep redesign of the model goes beyond your modification, and even purple metallic will not save this one. If someone can give this model a bright individuality so that it can be placed next to the previous 3 supercars, then this will be an excellent modification. In the meantime, for me this is an excellent set of new parts, especially if China releases a copy in red or blue.

I found this model interesting in terms of assembly, but I’m not going to buy it and put it on a shelf. IMHO the model is not suitable as a resource resource due to the small number of new suspension parts and gears, as well as a large number of small parts (60483, 6536, 89678, 18654, 61332), which are already available in large quantities. The model was assembled in black. New parts released over the last year are either not yet available or are sold at a huge premium. Therefore, they were replaced with functional analogues from old parts. The following replacements were made: - green gear 81346 to blue 35185 - red 2471 to gray 24505 with a drilled central hole (the clutch is not used here) - green 3590 by 69778 + 32187 (we drill out the blue one and glue it to the trimmed gray one - the total length should be 2L) - lever 4423 for assembly 31794 + 6x32449 + 6x41677 + 2x44294 + 1x32062 (see photo in the album) - the new motor has been replaced with an assembly of 3 old 2850s with pistons and a crankshaft, you can also put a 41530 propeller in front of it, modifications to the engine cover are in the photo - white 65249 to black 18651 with "Friction Ridges" removed - fork 4159 for assembly 10197 + 27940 + 7x41677 + 2x32062, such a replacement is suitable only for this model, the axle for 10197 needs to be made narrower so that it fits into the coupling (see photo) - new connector #7 4450 replaced with old #3 32016 with part lifting by 2L (see photo) - connectors 2393 in the rear bumper were replaced with 2x65487 - 5 wheels replaced with 15038 + 92912. A number of system bricks were also replaced with technical parts, etc. There is a photo in the album next to a Jeep Wrangler from Mould King (13124). Album with photos here https://www.imagebam.com/view/GAC51U

Don't you think it's strange that you are unhappy with the packaging of plastic parts in plastic bags!? There is less plastic in a plastic bag than in a black pin.

You should be aware that Lego models do not completely imitate the behavior of real mechanisms. There are many problems here - large backlashes in gears and steering mechanisms, disproportionate weight of models, friction, etc. Even the same model will move completely differently when manually controlled and after motorization. IMHO Lego models begin to drift due to friction in the differential at high engine speeds - I assembled a model with a gearbox and clutch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyuv2fCxAGM - at a reduced speed it drove like it was on rails, and at elevated speed she drifted recklessly. A large collection of various mechanisms is here https://rebrickable.com/users/2in1/mocs/

If you want to study and show the operation of the differential and its locking, then it is better not to roll the car, but to turn the wheels upside down and test the rotation of the wheels in different modes - this will be more clear. The option with motors for demonstration will not be entirely adequate. I have built drift models of different sizes and I can say that a differential lock is not necessary for models of this size. The quality of drifting depends on the shape of the tires (the Ford F-150 is the best option) and on the weight of the model and on the power of the engines (the buggy motor is unrivaled). If you want an interesting model for drifting, I can recommend assembling a Сada Arctic Сat yourself on tires from a Ford F-150.

I don’t want to upset you, but the direct purpose of this model is to stand beautifully on a shelf, and not to roll it on the floor. You are the only one who cares about the effect of the differential lock on the ride. The design of the differential lock in the rear axle worried me only in terms of replacing part 4159 with an adequate design while maintaining functionality.

What else can be shown from mechanical functions except for the gearbox and differential lock? Now this is the ceiling of Lego's capabilities and a standard set of functions for such models. In MOC and Chinese Lego it is now fashionable to adjust the suspension height, but these are already supercars with more than 4000 parts. If you want a lot of different mechanics, assemble Fantasma from Cada - it has a bunch of different mechanisms and more than 100 gears.