Erik Leppen

Using the figure for scale is a nice idea. Also, nice to see you are taking sort of a similar approach as me: just start with the cabin and go from there. Any idea as to functions so far? I'm seeing a steering yoke in the digital image - maybe use that to turn thrusters sideways??? Similar to rudders on a hovercraft? Also, will you be keeping the white-dark blue color scheme. I think that can work well. 

It has been a while since I posted anything of my own builds. Maybe posting what I got right from the start, encourages me to actually finish something. I have no idea whether I will have time (February is usually my album-writing month) and where things will lead me, but I thought, let's start with the outside this time. So I made a little cabin/cockpit thingy. This wil probably be the frond end. No functions yet. The plan now is to have 1 or 2 seats and a joystick inside the cabin to control thrusters of some kind (because it's weird to have flight control surfaces in space, and you still need to steer somehow). I'll probably keep the white and yellow, but I'm not sure about the medium blue yet. I have really few small parts and mostly large panels, which are hard to work with, and it's not my favorite color. But I had the 5x7 panels lying around in the required number in that color. Might switch to another color. Thinking of orange right now... I have the following sections in mind: cabin weapons crane thrusters I'm thinking these elements front-to-back, which would make the ship quite long (say 80 studs long). But it remains to be seen what will work and what won't, or whether I might change plans entirely. Not much to see from below, except that the whole things is held together by a 11x15 frame for easy attachment to some kind of chassis later. I'm one of those people still using Brickshelf, so here's the folder once public: Brickshelf Gallery - Spaceship for Eurobricks Technic competition TC24 So... I have actually started a build this time around :D Have fun building everyone! :)

Good to see the contest has started. I hope people can exchange some ideas for functions here :) I'm thinking of some ideas and I hope to join this time (unlike last time, when other things took my time). What's interesting is that the typical functions of Technic vehicles - gearbox, suspension and such - don't work this time. So we need to find other things to make it an interesting Technic model. I can't help but think of the space shuttle set that has some kind of crane arm in a cargo bay with doors. I'm also thinking that having a fake engine with pistons is kind of weird in a spaceship. I may add it though, as some kind of metaphor/placeholder/designation for where a thruster would be, similar to how modern software still uses a floppy disk icon for the save button.

I didn't think about connecting through the inside of the panel, good find. However, since all of the 3x5 beam's holes are covered, you can only connect them via the undreside, which means the construction still sticks out at the bottom. So you can't connect two 3x5 half-beams between two of those panels. That's a shame.

Too bad the new panel doesn't have connection points to the 3x5 bow. Something like an downward-facing axlehole in the corner, or flip-flop style hole arrangement, would have made the part more versatile.

In that case, I stand corrected. I don't actually know the techniques used in real suspension in real cars, so you're probably correct that much more is possible than is currently done. If Technic were true to its slogans (which say that it's "like in reality") then there should really be an upgrade to suspension beyond just the simple deforning parallelogram thing. Similar to how the latest helicopter set shows how a rotor actually works when steering etc. You're right that this is very reasonable to expect. I guess I just don't really care for licences at all, so I tend to neglect the wishes of those who do. I'd be more than happy with a non-licenced "supercar XY" personally. But it seems these days are over now... That said, I don't really have the feeling that licenced Technic sets are more expensive than equivalent non-licence sets. But I haven't done the statistics on this, so I can't back this up.

Reading the discussion, I'm just wondering... what's actually the real suspension travel of a real-world supercar these days? And if you'd scale that, how many studs would that be? I'm asking, because, well, if people are asking for realism in that regard, I think what they are asking for is basically cars without suspension. And we all know how well that sits with Afols. Now, 2 studs travel is a bit much, sure, but I'd say 1 stud is a reasonable amount for a Lego car. That would be 10 cm in reality, and I assume real supercars have much less travel than that. So yeah. Suspension travel is not gonna be realistic. So you can choose: Either suspension range is barely anything (a half stud or less) Or suspension range is like now, but ride height is too high and you have the "rally car" problem Or pressing the suspension will make the car hit the ground Or pressing the suspension will make the wheels hit the wheel arches Or suspension is very soft and already partly compressed in normal stance Or suspension is done away with at all Pick one. There is no perfect solution. I'm curious what compromise you guys would take. Also, the "unit" of Lego Technic is 1 stud. In a 1:12 scale car, that's 10 cm in reality. As we all can imagine, real supercars have bodywork paneling much thinner than that, which allows smaller wheel arches. So realistically sized wheel arches simply aren't doable in the Lego medium, and that is without considering the play in the elements. Or would be happy with wheels touching the structure when steering or using the suspension? Could be, but that's not my preference. Personally I don't mind the small compromises to scale, needed to accomplish function. I didn't even notice the scaling issues before someone brought them up here. That said, changes I would be 100% in favor of, are deeper rims thinner tyres (especially in the front) Both of those would actually reduce the space needed for the wheels to steer (and thus allow smaller wheel arches), and I think the complaints about the same-old wheels are completely valid. I just think it's not realistic to expect a completely to-scale car in a medium such as Lego. It would also spoil the fun - isn't Lego about imagining, rather than replicating exactly? To me, the question should not be "is it exactly to scale with a Ford GT?" but "can you recognize a Ford GT in this?". And I would say that the answer to that last question is "yes".

Never seen such a machine, but I love this as a Lego build. It's a nice size, has a neat original function, it's a really nice mix of system and studless, which looks simple, but all is finished nicely, and the functionality works very well (seen from the video). Especially the tilting top section of the rail is nice - I suppose it's operated by some clever linkage so that it uses the same power source (the string, I suppose?) as the movement of the bucket? Also, of course, great usage of the Znap beams. I love seeing rare parts being put to good use, and it really doesn't look out-of-place even though Znap is such a different system.

The more I'm seeing about this, the more I like it. And I'm not a car person, at least not for sets, but I think I can wait a bit with the Bolide and may pick this up instead. 1:12 is a great scale that offers enough space for some functions, but it doesn't come with all the empty space that the 1:10 cars have. Also, kudos to the people here that have deduced that there have to be new parts in the rear suspension. Curious what Lego have come up with. Also good to see the black shocks and lots of new stuff in dark blue :) For now, the only thing I'm not liking so far is the seats, that seem to be rather open. But maybe I'm just not seeing things correctly :)

It seems a bit bland. But it's a nice starter set, and a nice parts pack for good amounts of large yellow panels. Also the appearance is a bit too square for my taste. It almost doesn't look like a 2023 set. Also, functions except the landing gear seem really simple. I say that if a flight control surface isn't operated by some kind of lever, it doesn't count as a function.

Better looking than I expected. Actually one of the better looking Technic cars ever. I also like the intermediate scale. Looks like a great parts pack with lots of dark blue stuff where no expense is spared in the usage of dark blue. The pictures from the back seem to indicate some kind of suspension, if you look closely to the bottom where you can get a glimpse of the insides. Strangely enough, no photos from the side.

Nice set. I don't care for the licence, but as a bike it seems pretty decent. Also nice as a parts pack with the new black panels, the macaroni tubes in good quantity, and the gray chain, blue gear and black shocks.

This is an easy pass. I can't even see the difference with the top gear car or the previous camaro set besides the color. It also seems like it's designed before the new panels came to be.

I have no problems having it limited to flying stuff. I do have a bit of difficulty coming up with cool functions though.

You could use four of the wonderful pins with pinhole 15100 and put them in the "wrong-way holes" of the frame, and lay out the gearbox axles one stud above the frame.

I see you are using bright light orange. I initially thought it was regular orange, but maybe bright light orange is indeed closer to the color of the first photo. To me, that makes the set somewhat more interesting, even though there are only a few parts in the color.

Neat set. The A model looks credible despite the small scale, and has nice little functions. Also, good source of track links. And good to see that despite all the new panels, the good old technic tooth still stands strong. The B model looks a bit weird, but hey, a B model isn't a given these days so I'm glad there is one at all :)

The green one is nice, also for parts, including the new panels in green. Good spot finding the 7L flip flop beams. To be honest I still don't know how to properly use the longer versions, haven't got used to them yet. Given the dimensions of panels frames, it doesn't surprise me at all that 7L is the next length to appear.

These super tiny sets are often good sources of thin liftarms. For the rest, oh well. If it serves the target audience, that's nice. That said, I think the little lime helicopter from a previous year was nicer.

It's great to see those new tiny panels popping up in all kinds of colors. Even in green, which is not the most ubiquitous Technic color. I might get some of these sets just for the parts. The 10 euro sets are both nice, I like the snow groomer the most, will probably get it just for the fun of it. I might get the Bolide for parts, and maybe the green pullback. That said, the list of sets to come doesn't really bode well. The fireplane sounds nice and will probably be the only mid-range set that might be worth getting this wave. The crane is out of my league (but peeps with 450 spare euros to spend at once on a hobby will be thrilled about it), and all the rest is more cars or other racing stuff. They ought to rename the theme already if this is the lineup. Besides the two 10 euro sets, nothing I see has anything to do with "technic". :/ Oh well. At least the two 10 euro sets are cool for what they are, and I might get both. And there's plenty of Creator or other cool sets to like. Still having the 10497 on my wishlist, and my big 2023 purchase will most likely be Bowser...

I noticed it too. Wondered what it is for. But I put some sets in, just to see how it works. If it can quickly import .bsx files, I could put my whole collection in. But I still wonder why I would do that, really. On rebrickable, having the collection of parts serves a very clear purpose - it's the concept of that site. But here? Of course, as Bricklink is owned by Lego itself now, it's the perfect statistics tool for them, I guess. So if all of us put our favorite sets in there, then if they check the data (which I'm sure they will), they know what type of sets we want more of.

Let's not do cars. There are already way too many cars around here. Mostly caused by sets, but as MOCs I also feel they are overpopular. I like the space robbers & police kinda stuff. I have not the slightest idea what to build, but at least it's something original and new. I know I had a lot of fun with TC7 :)

Apparently, as some reviews say, they fixed this with the new Eiffel Tower 10307 by giving every bag a unique number. What I don't know is whether they actually actively tell this to people in the instruction manual, so that people know there are no duplicate numbers. I recently built a set where also all numbers had only 1 bag (76193, from 2021). So maybe this is the new way of things?

FINALLY. I can't count the cases where I wished this existed. In fact I have a built right now where I substituted white parts. Good to know this very basic part now finally exists in all basic Technic colors (black, dbg, lbg, red, yellow). Thanks for spotting it :)

Every set makes the 10181 Eiffel tower look blocky by comparison, even 10181 itself, because the 10181 simply is blocky, because it's built up by stacking bricks in a "staircase" manner, instead of setting long struts at an angle. So it's very understandable this set is getting a rehash. Whether it needed 10000 parts is questionable, but big seems to be the norm, at least it's looking good. Way out of my league financially, but what's cool about Lego is that all instructions are free to download :)