allanp

Yeah, same issue with the Chiron and GT3RS, too many gears in the steering. In older models like the test car from 30 years ago you get a steering wheel > shaft (with a few universal joints) > small 8 tooth gear > steering rack > long steering arms (with Ackermann geometry) > wheel. And that worked great. Very little gearing where sloppyness can come in. The small 8 tooth gear coupled to the longer steering arms give you the mechanical advantage needed to easily steer the wheels. Now in these new cars we get a 50% larger 12t gear driving shorter steering arms, which would make the steering harder so they have to add all this extra gearing down between the steering wheel and rack pinion to give the needed mechanical advantage. But the gearing increases that cheap sloppy feeling which is made much worse by trying to move the front wheels via short steering arms (less leverage) using a larger 12t gear because it increases the stress on the plastic components, meaning more bending, which when compounded by lack of Ackermann geometry you really can feel as that cheap, sloppy, low quality feeling that these newer cars have. It really is annoying because we know Lego is expensive, but we accept it because we know it's quality, but the steering, suspension, and overall feel of the handling of all these new cars just doesn't feel like quality. Like I say, the test car came out 30 years ago and it's handling is just great! Also what's with the straight ahead steering wheel in all these cars? Why aren't they angled slightly upwards towards the driver anymore? EDIT: Come to think of it, the test car did have a line of 16t gears between the steering wheel and rack pinion, but this really didn't seem to affect the handling negatively. Maybe the problem is all in those short little steering arms.

I really don't think TLG purposely make sets worse to give the builder something to improve on lol. At least I hope not!

Can't remember when lists first appear, but first leaked images of 2nd half sets usually appear within a few days of Christmas day.

Here's a thought. Back when Technics main competition was from Meccano and when 8868 was on the shelves, Meccano had fully panelled exteriors with not very much going on inside. I remember the large Meccano set 6 having a large race car with fully panelled exterior with steering and motorised rear axle. While Technic had the 8868, and also inexpensive universal sets with low overall piece counts but still having a motor and lots of gears and so on, with no external panelling to speak of but internal mechanisms far more numerous and authentic than the competition. Meccano slowly but surely lost popularity in the decades to follow. Now we see a large race car from Lego with fully panelled exteriors but not as much attention to the authenticity of the internal mechanisms. It doesn't seem wise to follow Meccano down the road of external panelling (which indeed makes it look like a cool toy) being more important than internal mechanisms (which makes it the real thing, only smaller). I get that today's kids aren't the same and have far more to distract them away from traditional toys like Lego, which is why it needs to look good and striking on the box, and that designers have to work to strict and difficult limits on cost. But there needs to be a balance between how many parts are allocated to exterior prettyness Vs interior mechanical authenticity and I think the corvette strikes that balance better than the Porsche. It's difficult but maybe the answer is doing more with less parts. Parts like the gearbox parts in the Chiron allow 2 or 3 speed gearboxes to be built very simply, realistically and with very few parts. The wheel arches allow a large chunk of the exterior to be authentically recreated with a single piece. Some may argue that having a greater number of specialised parts is not good, but I say that if they enable Technic to look as good as it needs to on the box while maintaing or improving levels of mechanical authenticity (which is essential as its Technics core, it's what made Technic popular and really the only thing Technic can do better than similarly priced competition) all while staying with strict limits on piece count then I'm definitely all for it.

Given the scale I really have no complaints, besides the colour! And as I said in the general 2019 thread this new fender size could be very useful in many other places, glad they're not printed also. Don't like this style of engine but again at this scale can't use the regular ones so seeing a fake fake V8 in the front is better than nothing, and with a steered axle to squeeze in there as well its really quite a nice little set

I am happy to see new fender pieces in a new size and in a good colour too, fingers crossed for stickers on those. Also happy to see a presumably working steering wheel, curved panels in white and another source of the BWE ring gears in black. I also think it looks really good overall. However I agree that it is rather light on functions. I know supercars don't have many functions, so why exclude one of the few functions a supercar does have, namely the gearbox? Especially with the new parts from the Chiron available. And with real supercars having limited functionality, have any attempts been made to improve existing functions, such as having a proper boxer engine, or a cam chain/belt, or Achermann geometry, or a more quality/authentic feel to the suspension and steering as a whole? We don't fully know yet, for now I'm on the fence with this one. It's functionality and release date is very first half, but it's piece count and price is second half. As nice looking as it is, I like authentically replicated mechanisms so it's looks alone may not temp me enough to buy it. I hope it sells well and I suspect it will, but perhaps not so well among adults.

I think stickers for the fender pieces are possible if made from the same material as electricians tape as it is a tiny bit elastic enough to conform to the shape while not being so stretchy as to make it impossible to apply them nicely. But they would probably incur some extra cost/logistical complexity. But would that be higher than the cost and extra logistical challenge of printing 4 different wheel arches? Each one now needs its own part number and location in the warehouse if they are printed. I think I'm over thinking this but yeah, always prefer stickers on parts like this where they aren't available in that colour anywhere else. Im not sure, I guess not because that shape can be made from bending a flat surface without any stretching like would be needed for a sphere.

There's a few places where I wanted to use the wheel arches, such as cowling around a main rotor assembly on a helicopter, but they were too big, these new ones will come in handy.

Like the new wheel arches, at this size they will be useful in more places but will wait till they come in a useful colour. Also I really do hope those are larger sprockets on the tracked racers. I've been in the wrong camp before

I agree. The 2nd half 2018 sets haven't been out very long so I imagine they would want to give them more time to generate sales before offering even newer alternatives. There's still a large selection of smaller sets from this year and last year on the shelves to sell so I don't think it would be a good idea to release the 2019 first half just yet.

It wouldn't surprise me if PU gets delayed for Technic due to the overwhelmingly negative response to it from fans so they can make changes, like stackable plugs and having more outputs. Having to have one battery box for every two motors is kinda rediculous.

Not having had a new motor pack for a while I wonder if the tracked racers are serving the roll of being a motor/pf pack with two motors, battery box, RC parts and just a few regular parts thrown in.

As corrosion is a process that takes time, that wouldn't be the issue if dried out fully and quickly. Ide be more concerned about the heat causing warping of any Lego element. Think I saw somewhere you need to keep it at or below 40 degrees Celsius.

I don't think licences make much difference either in terms of functionality or value (apart from the fact that it's modelled after a real life thing being cool in itself of course). The two mercedes have been great value as well as being some of the best sets ever released at the time (while the Arocs remains number one for me). The Mack wasn't bad either or the Volvo 42053 or the claas 42054. But remember what we know of the first half 2019 sets so far is only the first half sets, which aren't really meant for us (except the first half flagship). The overused argument "they are kids toys" actually has *some* relevance with these first half sets.

Lose interest? I only really start to gain interest once I see them as names, set numbers and piece counts don't tell me if it's any good. A supercar could be awesome or it could be worthless to me depending on how it turns out.

Ah I see. Im always facsinated reading your posts about the inner workings of the Technic team

The disengaging gear in the power puller is interesting but I though it was there to stop damage occuring when the model is pushed forward by hand or when its carried forward under its own momentum when the motor is stopped, like the rotors in the large helicopter.

So after having this model for a while and the excitement of the new valves has subsided (I still love them btw!) I feel I can have a more objective view of this set. And I still love it. It brings an excellent new part in a non flagship set, and the ratio of cool parts (like turn tables, pneumatics, motor and so on) to filler (like beams, axles and pins) is far better than most sets I've seen for a long time. The functions are great....it's just a great set all round IMO. It's a shame then that it's looks no where near as good as it really is. This doesn't bother me that much as I like functionality over looks but I can't help but wonder if the sales of this set may be unfairly low because of how it looks. The real life equivalent looks ugly too but it's like an ugly badass. The heavy duty looking bull bar and large pneumatics and their hoses of 42080 work well to give that badass look but it's spoilt by, you guessed it, kiddie colours! To be fair though it does look much better in real life than on the box, and I've kept this model built much longer than usual, as I normally take sets apart after a week or so, because it's fun to mess with. The way it moves and steers over rough terrain is great and it's fun to see what heavy things it can lift when placed on the boom arm without getting saw thumbs twiddling a knob!! So yeah, I still love it.

Well in that case, dear Santa.....

After seeing several swinging/pirate ship MOCs, at first I though they were good but could be better, then I tried to build one myself! Such a simple concept turns out to be one of the hardest to get right. The shipalways swings way too fast for scale destroying the illusion of size. So it would have to be of the type with the large counterweight on top which enables it to go all the way round. There's also the issue of a really low friction main pivot as turntables had way too much friction and axles felt a bit flimsy. Get a low friction pivot point and tune the counterweight well enough and you solve another major issue, which is that the drive wheel has to be geared quite fast even for realistically slow looking swings, but also has to be geared low enough to accelerate the large ship meaning the motor has to be very powerful. Then there's the issue of a really sturdy A frame than than hold all that swinging mass absolutely rigid otherwise it just looks silly! So yeah, if they release a decent sized swinging ship that works well and looks realistic I'll be impressed!

5:10 1:6 10:4 12:3 3:2 7:1 Very good all round, love theme park ride based MOCs and these are no exception.

Very happy to see Technic selling well. I really do wish the big YouTube channels would cover them more to give Technic some much deserved exposure. With regards to sets based on movies and super heroes, the popularity of a movie doesn't seem to be very strongly correlated to the popularity of a set based on it. The last jedi was very poor as well as Jurassic world 2, but Lego can make good sets from them and they sell ok. The superhero films are doing very well and infinity war is a much better movie than last jedi or JW2. But if all a set can offer is two minifigs fighting (and let's give Superman a car because.....God only knows why he needs a car!) then I don't think it's gonna have much appeal.

As a pure thing of interest this is great! I love that it's powered by Lego motors! And the rear wing powered by Lego pneumatics! They have also shown how technic can be made into pretty much any shape, even the smooth curves of a Chiron. I hope this has inspired James May to FINALLY do something with Technic!

Holy cow! It's great to see them promoting this great set in such epic fashion.

1. 42043 2. 42083 3. 42055 4. 42054 5. 42042 6. 42053 7. 42025 8. 42080 9. 42078 10. 42048