agrof

Looks really good! What is the actual weight? Using panels already a nice way to cut the weight and increase stiffness, this is also something what I made with my buggy. At final stage, I revised all the connections, removed all the unnecessary pins,and also replaced some connections which could be solved by less and lighter parts. Gathering 25 gramms minus was not bad result. First I made a driveline as You did, but indeed it generates lot of friction, so I decided to build the motors into the swingarms. I also used 2 L-motors, as I don't have RC motors (which are the best choice if You are looking for performance), and geared them for speed - which was actually quite acceptable for 1481 gramms brutto, side impact is almost zero torque, so usable only on flat or declining surfaces. I hope this helps a bit!

I like it a lot, immediately recognizable! Brings back old memories... not very good ones though , but we had no other options in our childhood than Simsons, Romets... Small correction, one word hit my eyes, just to be accurate - quoted from Wikipedia: "Strictly speaking, mopeds are driven by both an engine and by bicycle pedals, but in common usage and in many jurisdictions the term moped is used for similar vehicles including a scooter, though this is quite erroneous."

Thank You, actually the cabin was a bit long, I shortened it, sketched a hood too - this must be probably bit longer. Pictures are updated above. It seems, I will have no fake engine, but I have an idea for a nice Tigercat feature. EDIT: I reorganized the parts, lifted a hood a bit, made the cabin even shorter, now it looks even more accurate to the 632E model (more serious look) Comparison to previous version:

No, agrof did not. My ideology for MOCing: I rather spend a bit more on parts I need, than having unused parts laying around (which I have enough in a small flat). Some proportional test progress in CAD:

Jaw dropping build and video editing! I love the theme, the effects, and even more the insight spots in the end! Lot of NPU (Nice Parts Usage), can't stop to watch it over and over again.

Thanks guys! I don't want to use third party tires here, the ones from CLAAS were clearly produced to my pleasure. I digged into my Bionicle treasure, and found another piece which could be nice for the grapple claws. They do form much nicer the required shape than the previous ones.

Stud.io can not offer nice snapping drag and drop usage (actually sometimes it is horrible, you can note this in the pictures with pneumatic cylinders), but it has the pneumatic parts, PP wheels and tires, + professional rendering modul (POV-Ray). Summary: I build in LDD (easier), and render in Stud.io (nicer). The grapple design so far, this was the first design criteria: There was quite big side slack in open position, but accidentally this solution was a perfect fit (right side beam is partly hidden for better visibility inside the construction): + Axle sketch with CLAAS tires. Still, bigger tires would be more on pair with the large V2 cylinders in this scale, but I think these new parts deliver already good proportions for the final model.

I think even without the cover it is fine, and more ready to play as you have instant access to the pump. Still like this little fella, the moving steering wheel is great extra touch.

@jorgeopesi @I_Igor It will have the CLAAS tires, they just don't exist in LDD / Stud.io., I decided to use PP wheels to get closer diameter proportions in virtual reality - so those are just placeholders. Pneumatic is a new challenge for me, also I don't want to use any motors and batteries, pure manual experience is foreseen. This is also the reason why I don't take LAs, 42053 convinced me about pneumatic playability. The grapple is actually reverse engineered, so this is luckily working, as mentioned the cylinder is floating. I will edit pictures in this post in the evening. Thanks for the notes!

Hi All, I know, I have unfinished projects enough (published here too), but time for another long-term build. I was lucky enough to find great deal on pneumatic cylinders, and finally I own Claas tires too, these caused to raise the Skidder-particle ppm in my haemodinamics. This is a very old plan of me, basically since I got back from my dark-age with the 8265 in 2009. So this is the plan: http://www.tigercat.com/product/630e-skidder/. I will not build a specific model, but a generous one (610/620/630/632 mixed style), because I am not that much interested in specific models - simply: I love them all (and beside that I am afraid of @M_longer's justifiable criticism ). Finally I found a working design for the grapple with nice range of movement. It has virtual pivot points, and floating cylinder (this is already differs from real-life counterparts), but I wanted to use 1 cylinder only due to tubing - which should be nicely hidden in the boom panels. Some might be not a fan of the Bionicle parts, but I find them right here, and they tend to close properly due the lucky combination of build slack and their pointy-thin design (I might figure out an offset for them, but wasn't successful yet). I made a pure Technic version too, in case. This is how it looks so far (partly built in bricks too - waiting for parts), with Power Puller tires in the model for the scale: Still a very long trip ahead, and I am not fast on building, but I feel passionate, which is a promising sign I guess. Special thanks to: @Lipko for inspiration and for the pneumatic parts in LDD from his majestic Backhoe, @nikolyakov for the beautifully purpose designed and inspiring TC10 entry, @BrickbyBrickTechnic for his 42054 C-model as final motivation, and for Bricklink to make it feasible to emptying my wallet... Every suggestion, criticism for improvement is welcome.

Like it, simple, clean. As I am overloaded by motorized and RC models currently, I really appreciate this one!

Starts to getting shape, I really like the concept! I am curious if You will develop it further with eyes, mandible (bionicle / hero factory / large figure parts would be useful) - too bad, that You are flexless, feelers would be great to be made of...

For the lazy ones. Till now nothing special happened (found footage style - so don't expect anything grandiose), just chit-chat about the history, a small talk with one original designer about the very beginning, than they went into the vault, and after 11 minutes the stream went dead. Maybe not the best idea (sarcasm ON: in the Idea house) to make live stream from a Faraday-cage... Edit: they are out and back, talking with the current chief designer about 8860. Current live stream is below:

Nice review, I am patiently waiting for the big brother. What I miss from the review: more pictures about interesting parts, building techniques used, details (f.e.: how the levitation of the body is solved). Maybe pictorial comparison with the Ninjago Artbook version would be nice too - I am not sure here if those pics are public, but no prelim stamps at least. Keep on with the publishing!

Ctrl-Z, alias Undo. Unfortunately looks like this is the only option, I also miss the click-on unhide command.

They are far in scale. In reality they would compare like this:

Well, not really, it is something what evolves with overall design parallel. What You see in the picture is broken down view - I deleted / hided all the unnecessary parts, what I don't wanted to show, but the complete design was already there. To place the axles and gears, You need beams / frames to attach them in the space. This can be very raw sketch, f.e.: beams attached by pins. Usually I have already a picture in my head, how it should look like, I build a "help-frame" - let's call it prototype, and put the gearing, axles in, afterwards I start to rethink how can be done axle holes, frame structure more effectively. A simple example though: if You want to have a simple gear connection which for the axles will be placed like this: XOX (3 studs), just take a beam, and use it's holes for placing the axles and gears. Once You are ready, You can delete the beam. To figure out which gear ratio what stud distances needs, Sariel made a super useful tool: http://gears.sariel.pl/ I hope it makes sense above...

Well, smart managers like to forget while looking on the graphs, that from zero it is always easy to grow in the beginning. After a while the growing will be not exponential, not even linear... especially looking on today's situation: China is a very hard market, and domestic bootleggers evolved like lightning (way faster as expected and seen before!), which will result sudden break in optimistic business plan with Asia - in my opinion. I don't give a year and the above mentioned growth will be one digit only - with all of it's consequences.

DANG, LEGOing on it's best! This build brings me up childhood memories... but my ropeway wasn't that sophisticated. Just love the minimal look, the technical solutions! Excellent, and fun video too.

@Lipko Indeed, this is a method I also use, but due to the routine, it was too obvious to mention to me... Very useful advice!

Might be not the most wacky, but the concept itself is really remarkable! I do like the overall design too, homogeneous, sleek, nice to look at. Great build so far.

This is the reason - beside optimization - why I do LDD design first and parallel start the real build. It really takes time, but doing this step-by-step is a really big help for me. After a while practicing I would say I can build in LDD like with real parts. You only need to think about how to build the parts together, what are the locked / unlocked connections, how certain parts behave. For the gears, well, You need to rotate them 1 by 1 as You place them (rotate axle a bit, place the gear on - OK/NOK - take off gear, repeat). The big advantage of LDD comes afterwards, as connections around will be updated - to replace parts / structure without disassembling the whole build. I strongly recommend to use build groups for this, which can be hidden easily. For me, setting the gears properly is peanuts compared to the time I spend on design optimization. HERE is an example (in the link the complete up-to date model, with groups): This is the naked drivetrain, but to figure out a buildable, solid framework around, which serves all the required functions was the biggest challenge. At this stage live build is unavoidable, f.e.: friction can not be foreseen. Summ: I start with digital, than test the basics with on-hand parts, improve in digital (best to use modular builds for that), and check back and forth time to time. Design is done in LDD, testing with bricks. I would say it appends on personality too, for me this method works best, I like to figure out the most effective (and wallet friendly) design, before I order extra parts. I checked other Lego CAD softwares, but those are too "IT language" for me, I just want to drag and drop. Might be a good candidate Stud.io too, it is evolving in a good way, a bit harder to operate than LDD sometimes, but overall OK, also linked to Bricklink, and has an awesome render module integrated! https://studio.bricklink.com/v2/build/studio.page I hope it helps a bit.

It doesn't work like that, if the whole development cost (wages, material, etc) is more than 1% of the whole sales value, than something is fundamentally wrong. I fully agree with @Jeroen Ottens, this is the best combination of practical design, and also part of the so called "Design to Cost". This is part of my daily job too, if every cents matters, it is worth to think 1-2 days more. So in the end such design will be more efficient in production / warehousing / logistics, and gains more profit - less costs. It is not the design, where the pricing went so horribly wrong at this set, it must be the marketing or sales chart. Or they indeed applied that slippery marketing strategy, what @Jim described above...

So, I scrolled through, I have some "criticism"... not really, but maybe something for the future. For me the colors look a tiny bit under saturated, and as I see the pictures could be cropped. Now they are layered, but the not visible areas just eat up storing space. Nonetheless, I stick to my previous comment.

I am really amazed by the instructions and the way You presented it - how many sweat and effort hides behind it. Seriously, the most professional photo instructions we (and I am not afraid to use plural) have ever seen! Beautiful MOC, with exceptional BI. Hat off Sir - even I might not build it (but tempted to go into the details), supported.