allanp

Fixed it for ya

A bulldozer ay?! Well it's like I said in my previous post, it doesn't matter what it is, it's how they do it. A bull dozer doesn't really offer that many functions, but it could still be worth it if it's done really well. The first RC pneumatics perhaps? The use of the new planetary gear reduction hubs for drive? All very possible. And for me would go a looooong way towards justifying the price. But now would this be an Allanp post without some crazy wishful thinking?! What else could there be that would really make it mind-blowing? Oh I don't know. How about a new 6 barrel axial pump about the size of an m motor! Or how about instead of mating valves to motors we get a new compact PU valve!

Potentially yes. I don't think 42114 actually utilizes that, it just changes up at a fixed rate. But yes maybe a program could be made that monitors motor RPM to sense when to change gears. I really hate coding though! And I'd like to use multiple buggy motors.

Big hero 6 "Badaladaladalah!"

I refuse to believe there is nothing they can do. They were able to do it fine in the past but they changed they way they coloured the pieces. Now parts seem more transparent at sharp edges. It may be that this new method makes it impossible to get consistent colour, ok fine, go back to the old way then. Lego have always justified their prices compared to the competition by saying they are higher quality, but while these colour inconsistencies remain they don't have that excuse. On the other hand people still keep buying their product, so what reason do they have to change?

I have recently watched your whole series of videos and they are great. I look forward to seeing more. I do have a question/possible suggestion. The torque sensing devices seem to sap some power away. Is it possible to allow the motor itself to rotate, and you use the rotation of the motor to sense how much torque is there? That way the torque sensing doesn't go through the drive train at all. I've been watching with great interest as I want to start MOCcing again, and I'd like to start with a large 4x4 vehicle with automatic gearbox, with lots of gears. Which leads me to another question. What would happen if you take multiple copies of your most efficient design of 2 speed gearbox, set them to change at different levels of torque, and use differentials to add their outputs together. Would it mean that two gearboxes would give you 4 speeds, and 3 gearboxes would give 8 speeds (2x2x2)?

I probably say this every year lol, but I don't care what the subject matter is, I care about how well it's been done. A supercar with the same old unrealistic gearbox? Pass. A knackered old van, but with a realistic gearbox and new leaf springs on the rear live axle? Yes please! Note, I don't actually want a knackered old van, it was just an example, and yes, some things have the potential to be better sets than others. A backhoe has far more potential than a van, but that doesn't necessarily mean that any backhoe they produce will be great if that potential isn't met.

Regarding animals, this topic gets brought up a lot, and I can definitely understand why. A walking T-rex could be really cool, if it could be done without relying on the tail dragging on the ground, or a giant spider! However, these things, as cool as they are, would basically have only one or two functions. I wonder if that makes them better suited to some new theme of creator expert sets (like the fairground collection) consisting of mostly technic creatures with brick built exteriors. Kinda like that creator dinosaur but way less goofy looking, much more life-like and 18+. Or if more robotic in nature then maybe mindstorms would be a better fit. Mindstorms isn't as concerned with having lots of mechanical functions or mechanical realism (well neither is Technic to be fair!) so maybe a special edition mindstorms set, like the droid developer kit but bigger and with much more life-like and detailed recreations of real life animals. Either way, I'm not sure if Technic is the best fit for animals unless we are talking about b-models. A b-model being an animal would be fantastic, as has been in the past.

It's not THAT old.

They CAN get the colours right, but they chose cheapness over quality.

Must...resist....urge.....to agree.....(which I do!).....as this isn't....a wishlist......topic!

To be fair, if Technic designers are reading this forum it's to get an AFOLs perspective. And yes we know it's meant for kids and blah blah blah, but we still have our views and some spending power (and I do wonder how many kids are watching OUR reviews on youtube and reading our thoughts in forums to feed their curiosity about the shiney new sets on offer) and I'm pretty sure the Technic designers know what to expect when they visit here. Of course critism must be kept polite and constructive though (in my job I can't come with a problem without also coming with a solution or three) and I would like to encourage people to also say what they like about a set, not just what they don't.

I know the parts will likely become more common, but that's a good thing, and as they were first seen in this set I personally score this set higher for parts. But now that I have seen a few reviews I am a little underwhelmed by the basic way it's functions are done. It's main selling point is the suspension but neither axle can move up and down, they only pivot. I don't think that'll make it feel good going over small obstacles. At this scale, without any drive train to worry about, a fully live axle on the rear seems plausible, and possibly, maybe 42005 type suspension at the front? Also, the steering has no mechanical advantage, but that can be improved by swapping the 12t gear for a 20t gear, I think that would make it feel much better, if it still allows room for your fingers of course. But I do love the new tyres, I'm very excited to get those, and the choice of standard yellow colour is also appreciated.

Great C model of a highly underrated set. Well done

I think it will be interesting to see how we attempt to fit any kind of engine/drive train into this small model, while keeping the front pendular suspension and steering in place. Not saying it's impossible, I'd like to try myself. But is it a little unreasonable to expect such features in this particular model, with the pendular suspension/ steering in place without having the engine stick out the hood, which would not be realistic in such a vehicle.

Looking excellent as always, I always like seeing the work you do with your suspension and steering setups. I have questions but I'll see if I can find those live streams first, I assume they're on YouTube? As for colour, dark blue!

It does seem a bit faster than the top gear car, I guess because of the larger diameter wheels.

Yeah still looks like a nice little set, gonna get this one for sure.

I think you would have to build some trigger mechanism to physically interact with the buttons. BTW control center 2 also has an input jack for a 12v power adapter, making it even better for GBC. Because there is no feedback from the motors, the control center relies on timing. So if the batteries start to go just a bit low voltage, the motors won't move as far. So better to keep voltage constant by using an external power source.

All functions seem to work quite well .

I always though it would be great for TLG to sell long reels of pneumatic hoses and rigid tubing for MOCs. Getting hoses always seemed to be the biggest limitation to me. I have lots of hoses from sets, but cutting them to the lengths I need for a MOC means I can't use them again to create the original sets they came from.

Off topic but agreed!

I've been meaning to get a few of these as I have some ideas. Maybe you could try them? Firstly, say you have a model with multiple pneumatic functions. When you open one valve, the pressure drops in the system as the air goes to the cylinder you just operated. If you have another valve left open, and it is controlling a cylinder that is holding up some weight, that cylinder will drop. So I'm thinking you can use a one way valve inline with each of the valve inputs to prevent air flowing back out the wrong way when other functions are activated. The second idea I had was, if you have a cylinder that is lifting a weight, and you are heavy handed with the valves and like to open it all the way so it just drops, is there a way of using the one way valve to divert air that is exiting the bottom of the cylinder through some adjustable restriction, so that it will always lower in a nice controlled way, while allowing full flow when raising? These things are easily done in industry but wonder if those old one way valve blocks could do the same.

I guess now we need to ask for medium (roughly 81mm) tractor tyres!

Pretty certain it has some kind of suspension. And with those tyres and regular yellow colour (not some barely available off yellow colour) I'm really liking the look of this one. The tyres remind me a little of the 8868 tyres. I guess they'll be smaller, but not that much smaller. It looks very Technic