allanp

Nice work. The structure of the legs kinda reminds me of a gazelle

Well we're definitely the best . And is it just me or is starwars way too overrated?! Besides wasn't it thanks to starwars that Lego changed the grey colour to bley?! And isn't also thanks to starwars that the game of thrones writers wrapped up the show way too quickly (because they was offered a job writing starwars) thereby ruining a perfectly good show?! To be fair starwars probably also helped to save TLG from its low spot in the early 2000s so, that's good!

Cool, thanks for the info ?

We had a rumour a while ago that the 2020 flagship is a backhoe excavator. Recently Grohl posted a YouTube video where he said he was going to review the technic backhoe from 1989. Coincidence? Tease? Me clutching at straws?

This is a strange one. On my 42099 I didn't have to do this even when removing the batteries from the hub. NORMALLY this would lead me to suspect a faulty hub but in this instance you have 2, and I think it would be very unlikely that both are faulty, but I guess it can happen if there's a faulty batch. Are you using disposable batteries or rechargeable? What operating system is on your smart device and how much spare memory do you have? I don't know if these are the right questions to ask but hopefully someone smarter than me might gleam some insight into your issue from the answers. Failing that, Lego's own customer support is usually very good.

I agree this would have been a good opportunity for a new buggy motor in PU format. But do the hubs have the ability to power such beasts? Can the point where the protection for the motors kicks in be altered depending on what motor is plugged in? To make it better to drive I think they should have added a trim function to the steering and possibly used pins with friction to reduce backlash, or very slightly increase the minor diameter of the frictionless pin by a few hundreths of a mm so it's less sloppy! TLG must know that at this price point, and with an app that STILL doesn't allow for custom builds with custom controls, they are in much closer competition with much much better performing RCs, and the lack of speed and steering adjustment puts it way behind. And you still have to look at a phone screen to control it. Lego should add support third party physical controllers like the PlayStation style controller. After all, the smart phones they need us to have to purchase these control+ sets are also third party devices are they not? So what's the issue? But looking for the positives, I do really like the new diff and I am now completely sold on its strength, it's very strong indeed and should have no problems with driving a heavy flagship sized model without further reduction after the diff, I think.

Thank you for the detailed review of the new differential Sariel. I am now completely sold on the new design, it's amazingly strong! Well done TLG . Can't wait to see it in the 2nd half sets.

Merry Christmas, and in the words of tiny Tim, God bless us, everyone!

Aiming a set for kids is fine, it's good business sense in fact, but I liken it to the emoji movie Vs Pixar movies. Both are aimed at children but with the extra care and attention added to more complex emotional themes presented in a way that a child can understand, the Pixar movies also appeal to adults, and are therefore widely praised and way more profitable. But if all people do is focus on the bad without looking for, and pointing out the good, well who wants to read nothing but critisism all the time.

My thought process: Hmmm, post apocalyptic, mad max style, well they have these crazy vehicles. Sometimes vehicles merged with other vehicles. That sounds cool! What about a kinda hot rod type of thing, with a front loader mounted to it to flip cars over. Or bigger, what about a truck! Ah yes that's good. But a front loader attachment on a truck might look kinda small, so what about an whole whopping great big excavator with the tracks cut off! Hey yeah that's more like it, ooooh and I could make it look like it's attached to the fifth wheel of the truck so it swivels! Now I'm onto something! Add some crazy post apocalyptic bull bar on the front, hey wait, I've just inadvertently designed the 8868 air tech claw rig! Oh wow, and I could even call it the AIR TECH WAR RIG! PERFECT! Me after reading a comment I wrote just yesterday sarcastically saying there would be half a dozen war rigs: Aw crap! Oh well, I can always be a jury member

Sounds cool! Though maybe it could be mad Max LIKE, not actually based off existing mad Max vehicles as it would show off more creativity, and prevent a dozen war rigs!

No, it really doesn't! To be fair I can't knock it for that because in this case the speed is realistic. The knob twiddling on the other hand while it raises, not so much.

This may be an unpopular opinion but I like specialised parts. Real life vehicles are mostly built from specialised parts (by weight. There's lots of off the shelf nuts and bolts and electrical connectors but most of the weight is in large specialised parts). What I don't like is pre-assembled parts. This new diff seems to be the best of both worlds. I'm really looking forward to getting it. And is it just me or has the excitement factor of new parts been increasing lately? Starting in 2015 with the Arocs and later with the claas tyres, bucket wheel quarter gear segments, wheel arches, pneumatic valve, planetary wheel reduction hubs and now this new improved diff, they seem to have really upped their game in the new parts department. This is good because, being someone with lots of Technic pieces already, this is keeping me hooked on new sets year after year.

It's great that it can be used with a spur or a bevel gear and that it can be locked, but I'm not sure that it is 3 times stronger. Maybe someone can do a test to see how much torque this new diff can apply to the half shafts before anything slips compared to the current diff, but they put a brace thingy in the middle of it, so you can't press an axle any deeper into the 12t bevel gear than you can with the current one, which isn't quite enough due to the rounded ends of axles and the recessed rear of the bevel gear, leaving very little engagement between the axle and the gear. This means that even if you prevent the axle from sliding out the bevel gear is still prone to "camming out", like a rounded out Phillips screw head. Maybe it is stronger than I think it is, and it's certainly much better than the current diff and I am still excited to get my hands on it. But sadly, due to the very little engagement between axle and bevel gear, it doesn't appear quite strong enough to reliably move a motorised flagship sized model without further gearing after the diff. Hopefully I'm wrong.

@Cumulonimbus it's very sad to hear of your loss. You'd be surprised how many people this happens to. One of the things about being depressed is you don't find joy in the things you love. But time really does heal. Stay strong and remember how lucky you are to have a strong and kind friend by your side. Seriously, take from someone who lost someone due to forgetting that very fact during my depression, never forget it.

There was a video of the diff?

If you had a black direction switch set incorrectly the model would just turn on the spot. If you have checked that everything moves freely (including all the track links) then, as maaboo35 said, you might might have two slightly different strength motors. Try swapping them round to see if the model starts turning slightly the other way.

I have noticed that the 20t double bevel gear sometimes seems to be troublesome in this regard, like maybe there are mould imperfections on one face causing some grinding.

Looks like a very useful tool, thanks Sariel. Would it be easy to add a visual display of the theoretical rpm, perhaps by having a spinning wheel or lift arm or something?

Can we not drag this forum down into the gutter please chaps! Now, about that boom extension after it's erected, does the string come out the end automatically or do you have to twiddle the knob to get it to do that?

If you don't mind them being yellow (unfortunately they don't come in any other colour) then the small amount of friction two of these provide MIGHT make it somewhat posable, but I doubt the friction alone would hold the weight. Of course there also the possibility that you could hook up some hoses and add just enough air pressure to balance the weight of the jaw, or you could just make the jaw functional and quite fast moving with these pneumatics. Alternatively you could use these: https://rebrickable.com/parts/75347/support-2-x-2-x-11-solid-pillar/ They are 2x2 round hollow tubes that come in various colours, but might be a but too long depending on the size of your build. You could also use LAs, which come in grey which would be a good colour choice I guess, but you wouldn't be able to pose the jaw directly. Very slow movements is your only option with these!

Are we right to assume that 2 studs is your ideal cylinder thickness?

Looks really close to the original

You hit the nail right on the head there. The lines "toys that appeal to children" is a real problem. When I was a child my dad (being awesome!) would bring home videos of some really cool films, like terminator 2 or dusk till dawn. He didn't tell me what the movies were, he just said "you'll like this one son", and I really did. I really loved watching duck till dawn having never seen a trailer or even heard of it as a kid. Those movies appealed to me as a kid. So movies that APPEAL to kids could be literally any big budget movie no matter the age rating. Same thing goes for toys. There are toys like RC hydraulic excavators with CNC machined metal parts (like the Lesu RC hydraulic excavator ) and powerful slingshots and crossbows and so on, that aren't meant for kids but, if we are being honest, they certainly would appeal to most kids that see one. And how many horror movies show some Lego on screen at some point? The line "toys that appeal to children" sounds fine on paper, but I think I've shown that this doesn't make sense in the real world, you know, that place where the things that might be harmful to children actually exist! If parents allow it then their children will always see things not intended for them. But that's not the issue, the issue here is data collection. At the end of the day, what might be deemed harmful to minors is collecting their data. Fair enough. But no content creator on youtube collects data from minors. It's Google that collects the data so it's Google that should be fined, not the content creators. I'm not sure that the FTC should allow Google to pass the buck onto the innocent. If I crash a car and kill a bunch of people, could I just pass my prison sentence onto the people that posted a video of it on youtube? Of course not! So how can the FTC allow Google, the one actually breaking the law by collecting data, to pass on the fines to content creators?

Ooooops, I thought you meant the current 28t single bevel diff.