Lipko

Is it just me, or the engine+gearbox is a rip-off of the Lego BMW?

Hi All! I'm developing a 1:5 motorbike at the moment. Since TLG will release a new 1:5 motorbike with a similar engine setup, I decided to share the WIP, just in case there would be similarities, and I have some questions too. Anyway: This will be a naked motorbike, maybe a café racer (whatever the difference is....). I didn't know any single thing about motorbikes when I started the project, and since I don't even know the proper terms, I find it surprisingly hard to fing technical info about motorbikes. Some basic info about the model: double wishbone fron suspension, standard rear suspension V4 engine 1+N+2+3 sequential gearbox First design problem: The engine position of my model looks like a Ducati V2 engine (one piston is pointing almost straight forward), but it's V4, I just couldn't wrap my head around different setups while developing. (Note, that I know that the V angle should be 90°, but the source Ducati V2 has valve control+cover that looks more like 110°, and that's very prominent visually. For reasons, I chose the compromise of having 110° pistons too.) Anyways: is this engine setup I have (V4 but front pistons pointing horizontally forward) an unrealistic setup, or just stupid, lame etc? It is a custom bike, but I want it to be believeable. I don't want to change for V2, becasue the stock pistons and cylinders are so small for the scale, I had a more standard V4 setup too, but the engine looked a tad too small and was quite meh. This one looks acceptable, with proper colors, I think it may look quite good. I also tried working rear breaks, I had an almost working prototype, but since it's not having actual function (not able to effectively stop the wheel) and having a totally unrealistic linkage, I ditched the idea. Opinions? Thanks for any opinions, and sorry for the rushy post, I don't have much time nowadays.

Thanks!

The clones have good looking bikes, but are completely covered by System parts (hence the high párt count). Nothing inside is visible, totally pointless technical features because of that. In many cases I suspect there is no actual stepper mechanism, only a knob gear. It would be nice to see some reviews.

Oh boy... I'm in the middle of developing a V4 1:5 motorcycle (custom) at the moment, and I don't like competition I wonder how the engine+gearbox will look like, because that's where the other 1:5 model lack. Or rather suck. The TLG model looks underwhelming, but I always preferred naked superbikes.

The Dakar car was 1:10 scale and I think that is bigger model, whole the real car is about the same size.

A real Hilux is about 190 cm wide, your model is about 17cm wide (the body) therefore the scale is about 1:11. Yes, I am not fun at parties.

It looks lovely and very smooth! Though looks like more 1:10...1:12 to me.

That is very very pretty. Perfect scale and topic for Lego Technic. A pleasure to look at.

Yes, on the video everyone behaved well, but unfortunately I didn't pay attention to make good shots. I am continuously at the table to moderate people, although I don't remember any actual moderation, just "let the other kid play a bit" kind of stuff 1-2 times. Another task is to check the models every now and then and to arrange them nicely on the table, check some connections and stuff. So in a sense, I had to watch like a hawk, but NOT the nervous type of hawk. And another task obviously is to show stuff when asked, answer questions, talk about modelling in general, do some demostrations as requested, not all features are obvious to discover without aid. Some parts obviously fell off, but these were all easy to attach, most of the time the kids/parents could do this on their own. One of my design principles is either make it strong or very easy to fix. There were some discovered weaknesses in earlier ehibitions on the models which were all adressed already, so no real issues occurred. Some models are being assembled since years ago, some of them are over four or five such events without major overhaul. Even the linear actuators that are sometimes clicked to hell are still operating okay-ish. The white clutch gears. Now that suck. Either too strong or too weak.

There was an exhibition in Hungary with an activity I did in a few other exhibitions too, I upploaded a short video about it. Unfortunately I didn't have time to make proper shots to show how much of an abuse those models took. Essentially anyone can try out and play freely with my MOCs here without age and other restrictions (obviously not taking the models apart), and I wonder how frequent this kind of activity is on exhibitions. I have only seen RC stuff with challenges, standing in lines etc. Is it something unique, or just I haven't seen such thing yet?

Landing gear for my plane, but because the space was so limited, not that it was a complicated mechanism.

Ah, it's you. You changed your nickname :) I wish I knew how many people have built my stuff.

Exactly. The times when this forum was the leading medium for Lego MOC representations are long gone. About the time Lego hobby became very popular (a little too popularized) from a niche hobby, about 9 years ago (The Lego Movie was a giant hit in 2014). Back then, there were about a dozen MOCer legends, now I can't even keep up with them. Luckily this means that there are many excellent quality models, but sometimes it's hard to tell them apart from the mass of medicore-at-best models.

To further beat the sht: If you are new to MOCing, I don't think you should make paid instructions. At very best you can sell a few dozens of instructions, not enough to cover the work needed but you might scare away buyers and have zero sells instead. First build up some reputation. I've seen may paid instruction of very low quality models. Don't do that.

To make my standing point clear, I also think both viewpoints are valid, but I don't agree with being so secret. @eric trax

It contradicts my principles, and I honestly don't know if I would contract with them if they approached me (though it would be a honour). One simple reason is that now they have different inventories, and I want to stick to one. Obviously the one I already have a decent inventiry of, and that has a decades old history. I ddin't ask for his permission to share numbers though, but he replied without any hesitation, so I don't think it's a confidential information. EDITed some typos

Building on someone else's experience? Sounds like development of a society istead of greed. You have built your experience on the real pioneers of MOc-ing, like Crowkillers, Sheepo, Grazi, just to name a few. It's all normal. Don't be afraid, I won't take your customers, I'm not interested in agricultural machinery. And at the end, model quality should be the evolutionary push in the MOC race, not having enough money to risk.

I think if it's interesting to see how well instructions sell in general. Just my example: I don't have as many free time as I used to, so making instructions significantly reduces my productivity. Therefore I have three choices: making a business out of it, so that I can take unpaid days off my daily work asking others to make instructions which is not fair if at all possible to do for free not making instructions at all (this appplies at the moment) To make such decisions, it would be nice to see some numbers. I talked with Loxlego once as he is one of the most popular car MOC designers, and he said a well made and advertised instruction means about 100-200 sells at most. Now 100-200 sold instructions is enough to cover the workhours needed. And we're probably talking about a top notch model. That's the only data point I have, as for some reason (maybe I'm just lame) I can't even check the downloads of my own free instructions on Rebrickable. Hardly enough for planning. So I just have no idea if I could have a chance to make some living off my Lego hobby, because everybody keeps silent. And I'm sure that with enough time I could be as good as anyone here. So yup, "Well, big money likes silence :)" sounds a lot like greed :)

Man, I don't remember. Pretty common thing. I had this situation countless times.

It is used in official sets, I thought it's an obvious possibility, but maybe I misunderstand something.

I don't like the wall solution at all, it's so unnatural for a car to stick on the wall like that. The other I don't like is when there's no space above the models. For decoration purposes, nothing can beat open shelves with some space between the models. Though it's going to collect dust.

I think the cabin's proportions are beliveable. Americal looking long-nose, with no sleeping cabinet.

It's nice to see another nice model from my favourite builder!

One small thing I am missing (sorry if it's there, only run through the document): spring as power source. So a simple question: are Lego windup motors any good for a power source? I'm only looking fur stuff that can run for about half an hour.