Erik Leppen

Now this is lame. I expected a blue car. Now, we're getting the same black car with only a few blue accents. Now how many parts did they recolor? 30 or so? For that worth, they could just have added the 30 extra blue parts (and a few duplicates of the parts to be stickered) to the original set and offer 2 color options from 1 set.

Probably 1x7 flipflops in green, same as in the pullback. Edit: oops, this is reply to previous page, about 3x19 frames.

Ah, my bad. Thanks for explaining. Makes a lot of sense :)

Looks nice. Like a proper Technic model with plenty of functionality. Not a fan of the huge yellow specialized parts, but they might see a use somewhere in the future. Good to see a proper set in green and with pneumatics, using the dark-gray pneumatic parts. I might just get this, maybe even together with the Mars rover. I am a bit curious to see the geometry of the angled beams in the boom though.

The build looks nice and functional. Steering especially looks promising. I hope it doesn't come with expensive electronics driving the price up, because if not, then I might want this. Also, nice to see a model in white; the arm seems to have all the necessary movements. Also, I hope there will be a mechanism that stabilizes between the left and right set of wheels through the turntables (I don't mean the steering thing on top).

Maybe it has separate boom sections that you can insert in between to extend the boom? Even from a realism point of view, that would make sense, I think. If TLC are smart, they sell such boom sections as separate 10 euro packages, so people can buy as many as they want to extend their crane.

This would rule out people who don't work with virtual model software. I don't know how many people these are, but I don't assume everyone uses this kind of software, even if many of us do. Also, a clever assembly technique has no real use if we can't see the effect it has on the actual body that it's assembling. Also there's always the option for people to show pictures of their model's internals. There's a reason one of my entry's photos is a view of the underside. :)

Part of the fun of shrinking a set is deciding which functions to keep and how to change them so they fit in the smaller space. A rule expecting to keep the same functionality would ruin this fun.

10: 10 5: 6 11: 4 1: 3 9: 2 6: 1 I really wished I could spread the points to my own liking. I had picked 6 entries quite quickly, but ordering them I found very difficult. So the result is inherently a bit random, and it makes a lot of difference at the top. I'd rather have split the points more evenly between those 6 entries.

That's called honesty.

Yeah, same as Jurss. It's clear what is meant. I would propose to make a change for functionality. A shrunk model has fewer functions than the original and they might need to work differently to fit. For example, replace full suspension with a simple swing axle. Also, maybe you could also include the option of upscaling a small model, so people have a choice between doing upscale or a downscale. Although this might create difficulty with voting/judging.

Has this never been done before? We have had a lot of contests over the years. Is there any kind of database as to which months there were many competitions with lots of participants and which parts of the year were the most or least popular? I'd say, just run a contest, and see what happens. Even if there is no budget for prizes, a contest without prizes can also just be a good incentive to build something new and different to what we normally build. There can be a "spring" contest between now and June, and then a Summer one between June and September, or something like that. For me personally, I don't really care what the season is.

Is there a reason why there are so few entries? There were quite a lot of people who started building something, and there were a lot of promising builds underway. After this enthousiastic start, it seemed to wade into oblivion a bit. Will more people be entering? Three entries is a bit few. I had a lot of fun building, but also want to see some more finished entries :) So, where are all of you?

So I decided to post my entry. I added a nice grabber and made it so that it can move in all directions. Personally I'm quite happy with my entry. I think it's a fun build, with lots of functionality and a cool color scheme, the orange-yellow-white works well for me. Both the batterybox and the motor can be taken off easily for easy replacement :) I also added a little video showing the functions. Nothing special, no editing, just recorded some controlling of the functions.

Entry name Intergalactic Lifting Service Side Robbers The crane/grabber can be used to steal stuff. Short summary of the functions A two-way lever (joystick) in the cockpit to control the thrusters (up/down) and the rudders (left/right) A two-way lever (joystick) in the cockpit to control the 3 guns in unison (up/down and left/right) Motorized thrusters Motorized crane slewing Motorized raise/lower crane arm Motorized stretch/bend crane arm Manual open/close grabber, that can be positioned with 2 degrees of freedom Switch near each thruster to engage/disengage it to the motor 3 switches at the rear to control the 3 crane functions using a bi-directional gearbox One or more images Embedded Youtube video Link to the discussion topic

Ah, I was already doubting between the two :) (These colors are way too similar.)

This seems to be a fantastic set. I like the color for the interior (seems to be olive green). It's expensive, but it seems quite packed with stuff, both on the outside and the inside. Therefore it looks small for the amount of parts you get. This is not a bad thing, I rather have this than a larger model. Seeing this, they just shouldn't have even made the Technic version from a few years back (which I found a really mediocre set). There's only 2 things I don't like. The single-used pieces for the wheel arches look like a cheat. This should have been done with cheese slopes and hinges, or something else involving more useful parts. I don't mind if you can see it's a Lego model). The towing hook at the rear seems only connected to 2 studs. This way, it will fall of really easily and that's exactly what a towing hook shouldn't be doing. I find it very strange that it isn't built as part of the Technic chassis to ensure strength.

I don't experience Techlug's reviews as particularly negative. But myabe I am missing nuances because of the language barrier, but from what I can read from them, they are mostly super detailed and super honest, and actually explain how functions work and whether it actualy works that well. If something has friction, or is hard to operate, or whatever, you'll read it there. Of all the reviews, the Techlug ones make me think the most that they actually thoroughly tested their sets. Eurobricks text reviews (especially Jim's) were in the upper league as well, but Jim, to me, was mostly known (to me, at least) for his steller photos. The videos by @kbalage (racingbrick) are also great, highlighting interesting sections of the build, without getting lengthy. I find his method works much better than just the build sped up 20x. Sariel's reviews are fine to me as well, I like how functions and impressions are separate sections. Edit. Also, Held der Steine's videos have not been this negative about Lego in the beginning. They became negative when Lego themselves started sending letters about stuff like logos with studs on them and the idea that customers might get confused which models are Lego and which arent, as if customers are stupid enough to think that, even though this has always been made clear enough in the videos.

The only message we could send that would change anything is just simply not buy it!! Everyone who buys a set (any set) shows the seller (any seller) that its price is reasonable.

Sorry for not updating for so long, I sometimes think I have too many hobbies, one of which is concentrating around February. My ship is actually almost done. I have to fix some problems with gears skipping, and I have to add some kind of gripper or something to the end of the crane. But the rest, I think, is more or less done. I decided to switch colors. Medium blue is too hard to build in, because I mostly have large panels, not too little other stuff. So I took the other color I had enough 5x7x2 panels in (besides white), and ended up at orange. I think it fits nicely with white and yellow and is still a combination not too often seen. The guns move in unison, which is a cool effect, but due to lack of friction they face down when not touched. I actually had some trouble finding a soluton for the thrusters, and eventually the only option was to have them on the sides sticking out, and using a wheel as the thruster. The wheel can of course rotate, coupled to the motor. But, almost accidentally I found a way to de-couple them, using the green 1x3 beam as a switch. This way, they can spin when the motor is on, but they can also be decoupled so the motor can be used to drive the crane. The coupling is independent, so the crane can still work when they rotate, but I haven't tested whether the motor can handle this. I expect not, becaues the crane functions move rather fast, and I hvaen't found a good place to gear things down. The white paneling fitted nicely around the structure, which was very satisfying, but I also wanted to have some kind of "flight surface" so I added nonfunctional orange bits on the sides. The unsightly red axles are functional parts of the movement of some kind of rudders. I know this doesn't work like that in space, but I didn't see any other way to suggest "steering". I may give the actual rudders (now represented by two gray 1x5 beams) a more exciting color (I think yellow) to make them stand out more. I also added some rear lights :) and added some black panelling around the bottom edge. Because the thrusters are now on the side, the controls for the gaerbox couldn't go to the side, where I originally wanted them (unless I would make the whole thing much wider, and I like a compact build :) ). The linkages to control the steering (in red) are rather ugly and I had to work them around all the existing functions, because I didn't want to make the thing longer. This meant that the levers for the gearbox had only one way to go - the back. I actually made 3 different colored levers to control the 3 crane functions. I'm not completely satisfied by their position, because now, the levers are within the crane's operating space, which is less playable. The crane has a nice range :) That was it for now :) I hope to finish on time, but this shouldn't be a problem now I have come this far. The model is not perfect, but it is what it is, and I still think it's a fun build :)

Yes, if I can get everything to work that is ;) Me neither! I fiddled some more and have some progress again. First of all I wrapped up the cockpit. The 3 seats and 2 joysticks all fit in! I keep a digital file as well now, and I updated some shapes so things fit better. (Some gray and white parts of the side window should be yellow). I also found out that the gearbox and crane drive module could be a lot more compact, so I made it into 1 module. Third, and perhaps most excitingly, I have a weapons module! (minus the white beams) There will be 3 guns: top, left, right, attached to the modules with the black triangles. The cool thing is that they will move together, aiming at the same direction at all times. The yellow and red linkages control their 2 degrees of freedom. Seen from the front. The red linkage will move all 3 guns sideways. The yellow linkage will move all 3 guns upways. And again, frames are super useful to make things stay together while leaving a lot of interior space to have mechanisms. So, to summarize the progress up to now, all modules together, the plan is therefore this: Next up is to connect everything together and hopefully make some of the planned fucntions actually work :D By the way, since things are looking scarily like some sort of "spaceship tow truck", I changed the name (it may not be final, but it's better than to have it unnamed) :D To have an in-competition justification for all this, let's say the crane can be used to steal stuff :D and the weapons to defend against the police.

With those retractable "legs" - and with that "elastic band railgun" :P - and the "insect theme" - you just won 30 extra cool-points. :D

I'm afraid so... Anyhow. I made some progress. I have restarted the cabin module, but now from the underside, adding seats and joysticks. I actually put 2 joysticks in now. My plan now is that one will control a weapon, and the other will control some thrusters. I actually wanted blue seats, but I somehow ran out of blue 2L beams and i don't have the seat panels at hand either, so I used dark-blue and black as substitutes. Two 2-way joysticks means 4 outputs, indicated by the red axles. Second, I wanted to have a crane, so I made a rather standard two-functions-through-turntable module. To eliminate too much play in the drivetrain, I opted to use the old differential as an idler gear instead of a driving ring. The module has - not surprisingly - three inputs, which are the three red axles on the left. 1 drives the differential, which drives the red axle ath te top. 1 drives the axle the differential sits on, which drives the 12t gear at the top (the plan is that that will drive a linear actuator for the crane). And one drives the rotation. I tried for a while to have the drive gear on the left of the turntable, and I had a solution but that didn't have the necessary gearing down to make the rotation speed manageable. So in the end I decided to move this part over to the right, using the yellow triangles. Unfortunately that made the module 3 studs longer and not as "nice looking". All the gray and tan axles sticking out the side will just be for bracing to some kind of chassis later. As always, I try to stick to use red/yellow axles for functions, and gray/black axles for structure. Here's a better view on the gearing: (I used the white frames only because my black frames are all in use in other mocs currently... I have to say, those new 7x11 and 11x15 frames are rather awesome :D) The third module I made is a gearbox module to hopefully controll all these 3 inputs from 1 motor. The idea is that the three side-by-side axles will be the selectors, these will be manual. The black beams will be connected to the chassis (which is to be made). From the other side: I wanted it to be bi-directional, so the two sets of red gears turn in opposite directions. The idea is that the top layer will be connected to a motor. Together: Next step is a weapons unit and then connect everything to a chassis to have one whole to work on. Enjoying it a lot so far :D

I'm personally not a fan of those huge mixer pieces, but fitting your steering solution inside is quite brilliant. I like the mechanism. It's not entirely clear to me how the thing is braced (the yellow parallelogram thing seems not connected to the frame?) but I like the mechanism.

I like this. Good idea to have a gerabox to make operation easier. The moveable thrusters look spacey enough and still very much Technic. Do you plan to have them run (rotate the "wheels") in some way? And I like the blue, gray, lime combo. :)