DLuders

Zackhariah Macasaet continues to refine his motorized, fully-functional Lego Technic M1A2 Abrams Tank by updating his Building Instructions on Sept 10, 2012. He has added a Lego Competition Arrow and other firing mechanisms to defeat various demons. The suspension uses weak Orthodontist-type rubber bands (the weaker strength, for teeth braces). Below are his latest videos on his YouTube Channel -- More on MOCpages.

You must be thinking about this TechnicBRICKS article about the "New(er) Style for Wide Tread Links". There is a good explanation there, but the differences can be summed up in these two TechnicBRICKS images:

How many kids would really want to buy a Lego Technic body shell set for their USD $200 9398 4x4 Crawler? It would be a lot less expensive to just go to the local RC Hobby Shop and buy a lightweight Lexan body shell for a lot less money than a Lego set: Since The Lego Group does not have any licenses with popular Monster Jam truck owners, kids could buy body shells of their favorite Monster Truck, like the ones in this K'NEX Monster Jam Truck Assortment:

I hope that the Technic "Challenge" is far more than this! Making JUST a body shell is no challenge at all. Here is a poster on the Technic.Lego.com webpage:

Do you mean this sw134 figure?

Lego TECHNIC is SO versatile!

As demonstrated by many AFOLs on this topic, the AA Rechargeable batteries' 7.2V is no match for new AA Alkaline batteries' 9V. That is what I was demonstrating in the video -- a 25% difference in voltage greatly affects ground speed. My AA rechargeable batteries were freshly-charged and new. The Lego Power Functions Rechargeable battery's 7.4V helps a tad because it is lighter than 6 ea. AA batteries.

@ Turtle1173: You can see the relative (ground) speeds of the 9398 4x4 Crawler at the beginning of my :

It looks like a Mack dump truck!

OK, it will have on the box!

I'm fairly sure that TLG's Technic Designers visit this forum, and could possibly consider the AFOLs' suggestions. After all, there's a high probability that the winning entrant is active on this forum (recall past Lego Technic Challenge winners ZBLJ in 2010, and Sheepo in 2011). It does no harm to state our preferences here....

What a great model! I work at Fairchild AFB, Washington (where B-52s used to be based). We still have a B-52D "Tall Tail" aircraft on "static display" in a park right down the road. The B-52 is considered to be one of the Top 10 greatest aircraft of all time, and your LEGO model is too!

Bricklink categorizes the x784 "Technic, Gear, Hailfire Droid Wheel" as a "gear" and not a "wheel":

As presented in this Eurobricks topic, there will soon be a 2012 Lego Technic Challenge to build a "4x4 Crawler" -- the winner gets to have it made into an official Lego Technic set! Since it may be several weeks (until early October 2012?) before the 2012 Lego Technic Challenge Rules are made public, IN CASE THE LEGO GROUP IS OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS, what should the Challenge rules be? Select your answers above; your answers are private). Perhaps Jetro de Chateau (our Lego Ambassador) could forward the results to TLG's Jeppe Juul Jensen for consideration. If you want to discuss any aspect of the potential rules, please add a reply below. Thanks! http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120905005705/lego/images/thumb/f/f0/Mag14.jpg/1000px-Mag14.jpg

It can support a 101 kg (222 lb.) man!

Conchas (Fernando Correia) posted Part 2 of his TechnicBRICKS interview with Paul Boratko.

@ z3_2drive (a.k.a. max butvinik): That's a fast Rally Car! If you put it into your Crawler, it will be like a Baja 1000 racer! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CU5iC_7rEE

[bUMP] Here's an official Press Release from The Lego Group that touts the fact that the "LEGO Group officially the world’s largest tyre manufacturer" by annual volume: "It may come as a surprise that a staggering 318 million LEGO tyres are produced each year, that’s over 870,000 each day! "The LEGO factories produces tyres 24 hours per day, 365 days per year because nearly half of all LEGO sets include a wheel of some sort. "Emma Owen, PR & Promotions Manager at LEGO UK says: “Being awarded a Guinness World Record for largest tyre manufacture per annum is likely to be a surprise to many, but not to us and we are thrilled to take this record, 50 years after the invention of the LEGO tyre. Naturally we have previously broken records for creating the tallest LEGO towers, however with LEGO bricks, creativity holds no bounds and we have adopted this theory and looked outside the box with this latest world record challenge.” "The smallest LEGO wheel stands 14.4mm high and belongs to a small two-seater car. "The largest LEGO wheel stands at 10.7cm high and features on the Power Puller, launched in 2000. Even so, we want bigger wheels and tires for Lego Technic!

What kind of Lego Technic 4x4 would attract votes? Assuming that the rules for the 2012 Lego Technic Challenge will allow previously-submitted MOCs, let's look at this Lego CUUSOO entry. Sheepo's Land Rover Defender 110 (currently at 4,973 votes on Lego Cuusoo) -- "It is made is 1:8.4 scale, the final size is 65x28x29 studs. The total weight is 3.1kg. The max speed is 4kph(2.5mph)....It is 100% radiocontrolled by PF, and it has advanced features, as: - 5+R speeds secuential gearbox with auto clutch - 2-speeds transfer case - RWD and AWD modes - All wheels disc brakes It has both live axles with long-travel suspension....Complete interior with working steering wheel and speed indicator....Also you can remove the bodywork in one-piece removing only 4 pins.... You can see a complete video showing all features here: Finally you can find more info about this creation here: http://www.sheepo.es/2012/05/land-rover-defender-110.html ." IF the Challenge rules will allow it, it is useful to have these links provided for separate page (Sheepo's website), a YouTube video to show its functions, etc. There is far more to see than the TINY photograph in past Lego Technic competitions. Below is Sheepo's LegendaryStorm T4 (the 2011 AFOL Winner) -- it has only this single, small composite photo and this short description: "Based on a very famous real car,this MOC has around 3500 parts,AWD and,as outstanding features controlled by PF:working 7+R speeds dual clutch gearbox with friction clutches,disc brakes with rear lights,folding roof and spoiler,progressive rear lights,folding roof and spoiler,progressive " [text was cut off due to a lack of space in TLG's webpage] : SO, if TLG is watching this, recommend that the 2012 Lego Technic Challenge have the same webpage style as the Lego CUUSOO webpages -- DETAILS, MANY BIG PHOTOS, AND LINKS garner the votes and support!

Perijove's Lego Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover was offered "Congratulations to the LEGO® CUUSOO Fall Review Qualifiers" by The Lego Group. "As of midnight today, September 3 (GMT), the deadline to qualify for the Fall review has passed. The LEGO CUUSOO team extends our warm congratulations to the following projects that have successfully achieved 10,000 supporters and will be included in the Fall Review! •Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover - by Perijove •UCS Sandcrawler - by mb_bricks •Thinking with Portals - by Team Jigsaw"

I wonder if the winning 2012 Lego Technic Challenge's set designer will be recognized the same way as Erik Brok (an AFOL from The Netherlands) was -- he designed the 10190 Lego Market Street set and the "Lego Factory" box was labelled "Designed by LEGO Fans": It's probable that the new Technic 4x4 Crawler set will be a "Limited Edition" set, like the 8081 Extreme Cruiser set: It would be nice if the winning Challenge entry will get special name treatment, like Adam Reed Tucker gets in the LEGO Architecture theme -- his name is printed right on the box:

In case Mikal7 finds his way over to this Eurobricks topic, his problem with Lego Technic Bricks has already been reported (and acknowledged) as a known problem with LDD 4.2.5: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=65126 . His YouTube video made it more clear than just words and pictures, however! AndyC explained why LDD has a problem with it: "Strictly speaking it's what TLG call "out of system" and is often referred to by AFOLs as an illegal building technique. There is a very slight height difference between the stud on the side of the brick and the hole in a Technic brick which means the top and bottom of the bricks are slightly out of line. The consequence of this is that using it in a model can place the bricks under undesirable levels of stress and potentially damage parts. It's unfortunate that LDD crashes when you do this, but the correct behaviour* would actually be for LDD to prohibit this type of connection entirely, so "fixing" the bug probably isn't going to help you anyway. *strictly speaking it can be a legal technique as long as nothing is connected above or below and it is only a single stud, but that's an extremely uncommon scenario anyway"

@ efferman: I would say CLIMBING ABILITY is most important. Kids are going to drive the Challenge winning set onto a stack of books. They can "back up" and zig-zag onto the books if necessary. The winning Challenge entry does not need to follow "Trial Truck" rules, where points are deducted from backing up. You have demonstrated (using the 9398 as a test-bed "mule") the beneficial effects of using Knob Wheels instead of Differentials, larger tires, lighter battery boxes, etc. Those improvements would help make a new Technic 4x4 Crawler set more capable at "crawling"!

turbostefan recently posted this of his 1990s-style "Lego Technic Lanz Bulldog with cutterbar, log trailer, working steering wheel, lift and 1 cylinder engine. For [bIG] pictures on Brickshelf: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=510332 ."

[bUMP] On his YouTube channel, Ludovico599 has a collection of ~16 Lego Technic TV commercials all in one location. An example is the 8485 Control Center II commercial below. He recently posted this YouTube video showing a generic Lego Technic advertisement (second video below): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTU-UzIGKks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi3isHg7CzE