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allanp

Eurobricks Grand Dukes
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Everything posted by allanp

  1. allanp
    True about 8880. But it did go from moving gears on sliding axles to having a drive ring slide into a clutch gear to lock it to the axle which is a step in the right direction. In 22 years they have not done any better. When it comes to raising the bar and "showing where the hammer hangs" when it comes to supercars, or when it comes to anything for that matter, I think that a lot of people don't really know what they want until they see it. I am fairly confident that if people saw different sized clutch gears, new hubs based around the 8880 CV joint inside a low friction, low wobble "bearing" much like the smaller technic turntable, stronger diffs and all that stuff I keep banging on about (sorry guys ) then people would see that and know they want it and there would be very little complaining about the price. I guess this set wasn't really meant for us, I guess more for car nut executive types and anyone who likes nice looking technical gadgets and big boys toys. But I would guess that perhaps 99% of these guys knows the basic mechanics of a car and the many ways 42056 differs from that. I know those differences from reality probably wouldn't bother most people like it does me, but it certainly doesn't help make it any more desireable nor does it help them to justify the high price tag for what is still a Lego set.
  2. allanp
    Even with the mods to make it work properly, it's still entirely inauthentic mechanically. The phrase "polishing a turd" comes to mind.
  3. allanp
    Despite the problems with the porsche I see that as entirely good news.
  4. allanp
    On this I am slightly torn. I am all about the realism, and most vehicles and especially their mechanics are completely covered up. So if we want realism then panels are better than lines alone. On the other hand, I like to be able to see the mechanics in action and with generic panels that must work in many places, they rarely work perfectly in most places, so it's easier just to make the lines right. But I think you can get the best of both worlds, or at least a good compromise. As long as you know the internal mechanisms are working via sound, and as long as you know they are authentic, do you really need to see them working by sight? You can also have opening hoods to see the engine and leave gaps intentionally around gearboxes to see their inner workings. The above subaru and 42056 are good examples of being able to roughly capture the lines whilst also filling in most of the gaps, it just takes a lot more time, effort and dedication to get right.
  5. allanp
    Question for designers, have you read allanp's post? http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=133688&st=303#entry2576164 :laugh:
  6. allanp
    Yeah, because if there is something wrong you just say it's open source Is that just in the gearbox alone? With new clutch gears of different sizes they would only need two gears per speed, 3 gears for reverse. And with a simple new cam piece plus a indexing link piece they could have massively simplified the gear shifting. The cam piece would mount to a 3x0.5 pulley so you can position it in 6 different places. Yes it's a number of new pieces, but it would be so much better, more reliable, more like the real thing, easier for kids (and adults) to understand how it works, require less parts, would make future sets with gearboxes better in all those same ways and would make it worthy of the name ultimate and true successor to 8880. But no, TLG spent the money on an exspensive liscenece which makes us hate Porsche even more! When it comes to gearboxes they always massively overcomplicate things and wonder why they don't work. TLG, there is a reason the 42056 gearbox isn't copied by real life porsche designers, because it's not very good. There is also a reason why sequencial gearboxes in real vehicles use the parts shown above, because they are far better, reliable, simpler, require less parts, is very efficient and doesn't induce a whole lot of friction in the drive train by having dozens of gears and shafts all spinning at once. So for your next ultimate car, do that!
  7. allanp
    I wonder if they released it in June because they knew there might be issues and wanted to get feedback before releasing it to the wider audience. That's a pretty smart move IMHO. They obviously knew there was a problem otherwise they would not have included the white clutch gear. I guess that was their "fix" to the problem and I would not expect to see another fix.
  8. allanp
    It is slightly saddening, but even the best musical acts of all time release a stinker of a song every now and then. So it's not like we are shouting at lego "No! NO! Bad Lego" and I would not want to say anything against it's employees and designers. But I feel we do have a certain duty to keep TLG on the good path by not saying everything they do is wonderful. Most companies best products and higest quality standards are behind them. Lego is one of the few companies that may still have their best work ahead of them and they are doing better and are more successful for it. For that reason, these reviews and the many "no buys" may not be what TLG want to hear, but it is certainly what TLG needs to hear and this information will be far more valuble to TLG in the long run than blind praise.
  9. allanp
    Great review Sariel . I am so torn by this set. I know I can't justify the price, but I also know me, if i was to see it on a shelf at a discount I will probably just buy it! The thing is, I would have been happy to rush out to the nearest lego store (which for me is 80 miles away) and buy it on day one for the full price and with the same functions, but aside from the wheels there are no new parts in this that I want and the functionality, whilst it's enough for me, it's not executed very well at all. If they had made it closer to real life it would have worked better and with far fewer gears. But there are no new parts to make that happen. Sure, there is the smooth axle connector, but that's some pretty small and insignificant part right there. There are the arches, but bright orange is a pretty ugly colour for a car and even a much more accurate lava orange would have limited it's use in MOCs even further. Hopefully I can resist buying it until some of these parts appear in other sets or maybe at a reasonable price on ebay or bricklink, I know they are gonna be pricey though. In the mean time I'll see about properly designing the much needed parts for a future ultimate set, only for my own amusement (I can't expect lightening to stike twice! ).
  10. allanp
    Fantastic and very honest review Jim, you have obviously put many hours of work into it and have earned a good holiday .
  11. allanp
    Yes, but they don't colour code the outside pieces because it would look crap (Knex) and technic is designed for more advanced builders, especially the larger kits. 42056 has a recommended age of 16+. ONLINE FORUMS How often do they read online forums and which ones do they read? Do they know how much we hate colour vomit? NEW PARTS Aside from the new pneumatics in the Arocs (which are very well recieved) what new parts do they think we want? What new parts do they want to create but have yet to be allowed to?
  12. allanp
    before
  13. allanp
    The bandwidth for the site was used up for this month. Try again later tomorrow.
  14. allanp
    Those tyres look fantastic, it's about time they made a tyre whose tread resembles one from real life. The unimog tyres and it's smaller variants were the closest we had and they still wern't all that authentic, especially not dimentionally. They are way too wide for there diameter.
  15. allanp
    The recent Jurassic World line would have been a good opportunity to bring back (or create a new) monorail.
  16. allanp

    UK EU referendum

    allanp replied to allanp's topic in Community

    But remember the EU has no money of it's own. For every £2 we put in we get £1 back (keeping the failing Euro afloat and bailing out greece and other failing countries don't pay for themselves), then they say it was funded by the EU and we are supposed to be grateful for this? And in terms of other things they may or may not have done for us, like workers rights no government would be silly enough to take those away after a brexit because if they do, we can just vote them out, which is something we can't do with those that make our laws in the EU.
  17. allanp
    Title says it all really. feel free to say why you are choosing to vote either in or out. Please keep discussion respectful and adult. Personally I will be voting to leave the EU.
  18. allanp
    try
  19. allanp
    Well that wasn't expected. Ihe porsche tyres look like they are lower profile than the silver champ tyres. Is that not the case or is the outer diameter of the tyre smaller?
  20. allanp
    opening doors, foldable roof and so on to me are not very important. I don't really want more functionality from a supercar, I want the functionality that's already there to be done better and more authentically with better parts.
  21. allanp
    From what I can see, the new axle connectors have no ridges to hold the drive ring in place, so it relies on the gear change lever to keep it from popping out of gear. Maybe the extra friction is there to prevent the cranks turning enabling the car to pop out of gear.
  22. allanp
    Now this is where it can get tricky. For me as a kid a technic supercar was a flagship technic car that took things to the next level, it was the flagship of flagships that gave a glimps of the future of technic. You look at the auto chassis, then the test car, then 8880 and each one took things to a whole new level (in terms of mechanical authenticity mostly as well as styling) requiring lots of new parts to do so. So now that you mention it saberwing40k this may be the most important defining factor of what constitutes a technic supercar. However, if we add that to what defines a technic supercar (along with having multispeed transmission and so on) then it may be debateable as to weather or not the porsche is a true technic supercar as opposed to a technic model of a supercar.
  23. allanp
    Which one?
  24. allanp
    I pretty much agree with this. I would also add that it has to be 1:8 scale or bigger and must also be the flagship for that year. So the silver champion and 8297 don't count as supercars due to lack of speed changing gearbox. I used to say that only 8880 and possibly 8448 only in the gull wing door configuration were the only supercars lego have made, which technically is true. But I guess in technic terms a supercar isn't a supercar in the real car sense, but a super model of a car that's not necesarily a model of a supercar, if that makes any sense.
  25. allanp
    Probably because it would look like crap with studless parts! With studded I think you could get away with more outlandish designs. EDIT, Eh, on second thoughts I might have jumped too quickly to that conclusion. Need to think on that some more. I always wanted realistic and authentic MECHANICS so the unrealistic LOOK of the thing never bothered me as much.
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