DrJB

I'll start: Depends on the time of year and whether I can go out and brave the cold ... typically rotates amongst salt-water reef tank, lego (of course), Raspberry Pi, gardening, astro-photography.... and biking. Your turn!

The questions are rather obvious, let us get a feel for how 'serious' this hobby is for members of this 'community' ... there is no right or wrong answer. Here are some sample questions:1. How many hours on average you spend (per month) on Lego. (might be a big difference between summer/winter). 2. How many sets you buy per year (All, 2/3, Multiples of each set, ...). Anything else? Edit: Despite what the title says, I'm not asking for actual figures for $$$ spent on the hobby ... that is too 'personal' of a question.

After reviewing the features of the new EV3 ... I'm hesitant whether it is worth upgrading from the NXT 2.0 as I do not see the real benefits of some of the 'incremental' improvements. There are pros for sure but I'm not yet fully convinced. Granted, the extra SD card will provide additional memory, but how much longer are programs going to be if one is still limited by the number of I/O ports? I was also hoping for some 'commonization' with PF but that does not seem to be in the works ... A while back, I was hoping for a color (brighter) screen and built-in connectivity (BT, WI-FI) ... but we're not there yet. What are your thoughts? Will you be getting one? What's your 'justification'? ... I can already guess some of the answers (e.g., it's a toy and why do you need to build a business case for it?) ... but that is NOT what I'm asking.

Double Post

Better yet .... I'll buy the whole set and sell all new/sealed bags on BL!

Tried all the advice in prior posts, but can't locate part # 57702 ... Any hint or is it non-existent?

I'm running in Extended mode, and yet can't find such part. It is a bionicle mask ... Any clues ?

Some of us have 1000's of parts already ... and no need to keep on buying parts that go into storage ...Why doesn't TLG release an EV3 with the bare essentials i.e., main brick + sensors + cables + software .... I'm sure there'll be many takers ... and maybe many of us wil buy MULTIPLE sets. Any thoughts ? (I hope someone from TLG is reading this)

Correct, the front axle had those unique spindles and could not accomodate an FWD ... it is only the engine that moves back/forth. Need to go back to my 8448 and revisit ... it's been a while. Lat thing I did was add a motor (+9V battery) to it, and then measure rear tires RPM under different gear sets .... Yes, there is a difference in speeds, though not noticeable if you spin by hand.

It took me a while to appreciate/adopt the studless designs, but now, I find the SSS/8448 much nicer looking than the 8880. Then of course there is the 8644. IMHO, the 'other' supercar (8070) was meant to demo new functionality ... where what looks like a transmission, is in fact used to lower/raise hood/doors/spoiler. Neat concepts, but way non-realistic. And the fact that you can make it either a FWD or RWD in a snap.

We should all take dibs as to what is it you're planning to do ... with all those rubber parts!

I'm not quite sure by what 'biggest ever' means ... lately TLG includes a plethora of miniscule parts in their sets just to up the part count. Makes it very difficult to sort through all those small parts. I'd be happier with a more 'relevant' metric i.e., 'weight' of the set, but that is another topic in itself.

collecting for rubber tracks a la mahjqa ?

We're in agreement then ... :)

What are your favorite parts ... and how many you got of each? .... I'll start 44374 (40+) ... One day I'll build a MOC with tri-star wheels. 44809 (50+) ... a must for meccano/omni wheels 57585 (70+) ... in combination with 32016/32192/ 32015.... useful for all sorts of Mathematica Shapes (e.g. dodecahedron) 32498 (30+) ... not the best grip power, yet useful for 'crawling' critters (MOC in progress) x928cx1 (10+) ... Did anyone say R2C Steering? Also useful for shooting balls in GBCs

nicjasno, My comment was not meant as criticism. Not at all. I was merely highilighting that we all come to this with various interests and expectations. I am a mechanical engineer, and in Lego, I tend to look for realism with the functions. Granted, others have stated that this is only a toy and should be treated as such .... and that position is of course defendable. Yesterday my son picked a differental and asked me what it was for ... On the other hand, if I were to try and explain how a transmission works ... I can't use the 8448/8644.

In the US, you need to add taxes which are not included in the price. Typically that's 8-10%, depending on which state you live in. In Europe, typically TVA is inclued in the avertized price, not in the US. I guess Canada as well has a 15% (GST+PST tax).

That reminds me of a colleague of mine who worked on engines ..... for him, everything in the car (chassis, tires, transmission, ....) was there solely to 'support' the needs of the engine ...

I've seen/read many comments where 32498 is a very 'sought-after' gear ... While I do have quite a few of those and try to use them whenever I can ... I dislike it for one main reason. Somehow 32498 does not have as high a grip/friction as other gears. I always end up putting bushing on both sides. This is true for its smaller siblings as well ... probably because of the softer plastic used ... but possibly the dimensions are not as tight ...

Plenty of opinions here and that's a good thing. I've been at this for a while and there seems to be a repeat ... how many more TLBs (Backhoes) do we need? Maybe there is an LA version in the works for the coming years. Truthfully though, the 8455 is a milestone in my book. How about trucks and cranes? The gearbox on 8448/8644 does have 6 speeds ... but it is NOT realistic. All that is needed here is some dual floating gears and voila! The realism can be increased dramatically with few specialized technic pieces. Large agricultural and construction machinery have final 'in-wheel' planetary reduction sets. Having an internal gear set would be nice. Lego has made special parts that were released with unique sets in the past. Thank you, exactly my thinking!

The 8376 has 2x the motors in the 8421 crane. Very powerful, and 2 mechanical outputs (low/high speeds). Check philo's webpage on motor performance/comparison. The motor for the RC 8369, can't tell as I do not have one. Though, 8376 and 8369 share at least one other component ... the remote+antenna.

If you had the time and can find one, imho one of the best parts assortment is the crane truck (8258), a fantastic value for the money. A good assortment of everything Technic. 9394 (jet plane) has a good assortment of panels as well. I'm not fond of the Unimog for parts, unless you're into pneumatics. You get only one small motor, and many specialized parts with limited usability. In that price range I'd get 9398 for the 3 motors, or the Crane Mark II for the parts assortment. Oh, and welcome back to the hobby!

Except for few official construction sets, most do not faithfully reproduce the internal workings of large machinery out there. Granted, most machinery uses hydro-static loops for actuation but nonetheless, some 'features' could be easily replicated. I'll take as an example an SSL (Skid-Steer-Loader). There are 2 (hydraulic) motors, each for the left/right side. Each motor connects to the front/rear tires via chain drives. Then there is a pump, and it handles all the hydraulic functions (I'd love to see a pneumatic 'circular' pump). Another example is the Porsche suspension, I saw it once at an auto-show, and it features a multi-link mechanism. Lego came close to such suspension in their F1 race cars, where the shocks are not necessarily mounted vertical. Here is a third one ... engines and their reciprocating cylinders are .. boring (sorry). You've seen one, you've seen all. Why not 'innovate' with boxter/Subaru self-balancing engine? Last example I'll throw at the community is the harvesting combine from few years ago ... The mechanics inside a combine are plain fascinating (rotor, sieve, shake system, header, ...) and yet, what TLG did was a simple reenditon of the outside shape but little to do with how a combine really operates. These are only some ideas as you can tell .... Any such MOCs out there?

Very nicely done ... though, in all honesty, looks rather different from the WHEX I have on my desk. Which specific New-Holland did you model this after?

No single set has all the parts you need. You'd need the Grand Prix Racer (42000) for the wheel hubs, and either the Unimog 8110 or rock Crawler 9398 for the Spherical Joints. A real fun build imho. Nicely done. One 'simple' question: How did you do the 'transparent' effect in the large picture? Is that within LDD or a 3rd party?