allanp

Orange is definately NOT a neutral colour.

Only potential secret I can see is the white car at top right. But that could just be a prototype of the porsche or an identical one just to see what it would look like in white. the panelling does look different though. But for sure that gran is intentional, it looks too stylised.

The description says it has brake calipers. That's kinda miss-leading as it really doesn't, it has a sticker/print of brake calipers. They might as well say it has a speedometer as well

That's the looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong term plan It'll be worth the wait though.

PPP is only a very rough guide to me. I'de rather spend 300 Euro on 2000 parts that I want than spend 300 Euro on 3000 parts that I don't want or already have a bagillion of. That statement may or may not be directly related top the porsche, but it just illustrates that PPP isn't that useful of a refrence overall, only a very rough guide with a wide margine or a starting point.

In the case of a supercar there isn't really that many possible functions worth replicating in Lego as compared to a crane truck or a back hoe in particular. So I guess it has to be about improving whats already there. Look at the 8865 test car, It had a 3 speed gearbox where you had to slide axles and gears into place. Then came 8880 and improved upon that by adding a 4th gear and new dog gears to change speed and a H pattern shifter. 8865 had a V4 engine with square pistons, 8880 had a V8 with round pistons. It also added 4 wheel everything but that's not my point. So what we've been asking for is all very possible. I wouldn't say here on Eurobrick "Oh, they should makes engines that run on petrol, just like the real thing!" because I know that I myself could not design Lego compatible, kid safe, entirely plastic engine parts that could work on the actual combustion of petrol. I only suggest ideas that I myself could possibly make work and be viable in a commercial Lego set because if I can, I know the proffesionals at TLG deffinately can. Of course the real question is would it be financially benificial to TLG to do so. As much as I wish more authentic mechanical components would it make financial sense for TLG to produce them? Personally I think it would, the closer to reality and the feeling of owning the real thing, only smaller, the better and more appealing not only to us but to kids as well right? But I am no expert. That's up to TLG to decide.

some people just don't feel it's worth the price. it happens to all sets, can't please everyone, it's just that this set, whilst very pretty, doesn;t quite add up to the price for quite a lot of people. actually yes it is compared to many many other hobbies, and for that i am thankful. No need to be sarcastic just because there is a different opinion. Weather or not it really is a premium set, or a regular set in premium clothing is debatable. As for if TLG listened, they got the wheels right at least. But was that listening to us or was that just realising that current lego wheels look nothing like supercar wheels, or any other wheel for that matter. I get that TLG is a company that needs to make a profit and that us AFOLs probably aren't enough in number to influence decisions. So I can't complain when they cater to a wider audience than us (especially after we already got the Arocs which felt like they really did listen). Non of this is a complaint, just reasons why I don't see me buying it. I hope you're right. I want to see technic be profitable and popular. I'm just not the kind of person that thinks the best way to do that is to say that everything they do is awesome, there are enough people doing that already. Has the brick show ever once rated a set below 7 or 8 out of ten? What use is that to a consumer? It's far more useful to say where improvements could be made. Starwars playsets and technic sets are very different things. Some people can have no love at all for one whilst being completely blown away by the other. Their fans are different and what appeals to each is different. With UCS starwars, generally the bigger and more impressive it LOOKS the better. With UCS/ultimate/premium (expensive!) technic it will be different, just like regular technic it'll be about being authenic on the inside as much as on the outside, only to a much higher level if it's to be considered as part of an expensive ultimate series. It's the mechanics that tech heads crave, not the body work (though I understand it has to look good on the box to help drive sales, and a good looking set with amazing mechanics is better than a bad looking set with amazing mechnics), unless you are one of those collector types that thinks a certain minifigue is totes amazeballs because it has a slightly different print! Again, what appeals to some people isn't what appeals to others.

Because they look like renders! . I wonder why they don't just photograph the real thing, is it more expensive?

This isn't what I asked for, except for the wheels that is. I like those. But maybe this isn't meant to be aimed at adult fans of Lego Technic. Maybe it's aimed at a more general consumer that like pretty looking things, like executives looking for a nice table top model or something, I dunno. I hope it sells well but I didn't ask for the same old unrealistic gearbox, weak diff, puny CVs, puny steering arms and so on and so on at a higher price just because it comes with a load of marketing stuff about porche in the manual. Yes it come with some new parts, but no more than any other flagship and the wheels and arches are the only ones of any real interest. Just calling something the ultimate does not make it the ultimate, at least not to me. But I hope the marketing works for the wider audience that it's likely aimed at and they make it sell well. Like I have said the designer obviously put a lot of effort into this, it's just not for me. No fuss being made that's just my opinion.

What puts me off about the price is not the price per piece, it's that it's the same old pieces. Same old wobbly wheel bearings. New steering arms but same old geometry meaning no ackermann and too short for this scale, same old differential with very low gear reduction that can't handle any torque, same old cv joints which are too small to have a decent range of angle and feel weak, same old single size of clutch gear in a two pair side by side configuration. This is not a recipe for "ultimate". I do like the wheels and arches though. And it is gorgeous even if it is the wrong colour! But whilst Ide happily pay 300€ for a non pf set of this piece count, I cant justify doing so for its looks and pretty packaging alone. Technic, it's the dynamics of mechanics, it's technofunctionomical. It's not a porsche hand bag!

I gotta say I am sligtly dissapointed. Things I like: It looks great even if it is bright Lego orange it still looks killer. The desiner has really done good with the looks. I really like the new wheel hubs with all the room they have inside of them and also the new wheel arches. I appreciate how much work and effort they have obvously put into the overall look and the gear change mechanism, however.... Things I don't like: With it's emphasis on being "the ultimate" combined with it's £250 price tag I would expect to see far more mechanical authenticity than what we have seen before, but there has been no improvement over previous Lego cars in this regaurd. The gear change is interesting but the gearbox itself is very unimpressive. It's just the same basic unrealistic layout of 2 pairs of equal size 16 tooth clutch gears side by side we've seen abajillion times already. The diff is the same old flawed design which offers very little gear reduction (20:28 or 5:7) and can't handle much torque, though I guess it's ok for a push along model. They have not made use of the space inside the new wheels so we get a hub which still has no ackerman geometry and steering arms that have always felt too short for 1:8 cars. Look at the steering arms for 8880 and the test car for a better example. The wheel "bearings" are still the same wobbly ones from before with puny CV joints that can't accept angles greater than a degree and feel weak. The brakes, there aren't any, not even fake disks to go with the fake calipers. The steering wheel looks to be in a really odd position being competely perpendicular to the floor facing directly forwards (shouldn't it be tilted up a bit facing the driver, sounds like a small nitpick but it looks really odd to me) It's seems quite telling to me that one of the main "features" of this car they really wanted to show in the designers video was the packaging it comes in. Which wouldn't be so bad if the packaging wasn't just boxes inside of a bigger box. If it brough back the flip up lid so you could see all the parts in their trays and the special arts tray which showed the cool new/exclusive parts then that would be cool. Someone at TLG, go down to the vault and find 8880, look at how not only the model but every single part is visable a presented when you look under the lid. Seeing the bits is better than seeing a picture of the bits! It comes with a handbag. Yeah because when I was a young boy playing with my airtech clawrig what I really wanted was a puny plastic handbag.....like a MAN! It's bright Lego orange. It's aimed at 16 year olds and up and they still felt the need to colour code everything. 16 year olds do not require colour vomit, especially on an otherwise really quite beautiful design. So, I'm sorry TLG, it does look beautiful and the designer has obviously worked very hard for a long time to create this beauty, but it's all style and no substance. It's a reguar technic set in "ultimate" clothing. Aside from the gearchange there is nothing new here, there are no improvements in mechanical authenticity. Some things are nice but there isn't enough here to warrant the £250 price tag. I would happily pay that much for a truly ultimate technic set that has no PF, but not this one for the reasons stated above. I do hope (as has been suggested) that this is a first in a new series of "ultimate" technic sets so that they can hopefully bring the "ultimate" part next time round.

That would be a good compromise.

I think that's a slight problem with translation. By exclusive I think he meant the new parts have been made for that set but there's no reason why they can't be included in future sets. As far as I know it's ok to post links just not to directly display the picture in the forum.

I would be annoyed if the wheels had a printed emblem on them because they are great wheels and could only be used for porsche cars, and that's not in the Lego spirit. Same with all other parts though I don't mind a printed little round tile of which there are many and it's a nice touch. But rare parts like the wheels and arches should be entirely print free.

Preliminary image: http://www.hobmamodelbouw.nl/afbeeldingen/289647.jpg Appears to have a more refined rear arm using Arocs telescoping parts.

Preliminary image: http://www.hobmamodelbouw.nl/afbeeldingen/289648.jpg

What?! So it could have amazing new parts and functionality and awesome looks but all of that stuff is meaningless if it doesn't have printed pieces? Printed pieces aren't even any good for MOCers.

Well this seems increasingly to be the way of the world. You don't like something it's no longer enough to just ignore it. Now people want to ban it for everyone else who might find enjoyment in it. If people want to post lots of mini mocs and people want to moan about the price of the porsche then that's what they want to do. Who is anyone to say it should be moderated against just because they personally find it annoying. Lighten up.

I hope so and I think it will be worth it just as long as it doesn't turn out like a ferrari racers set, all looks and hardly any funcionality, which at this point I think is highly unlikely.

Having no idea what "under the hood" at this point I think it's pretty hard to say what it's worth right now. It looks fantastic but only time will tell if it's functionality, level of mechanical authenticity and whatever new parts it may have make it worth the price.

Oh yes! What a great thing to wake up to.

This is great, my parts are sorted into several hundred draws so this could be very useful. Don't have any lable printer paper right now though.

The difference is proportion. On the real thing the handrails are there in orange but they don't immediately jump out at you. In this scale regular technic parts are about 4 times too thick, increasing the amount of orange you see making them jump out visually. It may have been a requirement of Volvo to make sure they get the safety rails in orange on the model to show off their eye for safety. To me it looks like an old rusty excavator with all the orange, but I get the reason why. It wouldn't make financial sense to produce moulds for a specific properly proportioned handrail for a specific vehicle in a specific scale. This is probably the best that can be done out of pre existing parts whilst still being durable enough for this set.

What makes it tricky for the Porsche is that this very same year we have the BWE at nearly 4000 pieces, it also has large new parts which require large, expensive moulds and a little PF for under 300 Euro. So if the Porsche does indeed have no PF, I am ok with that but in order for it to justify it's price it will need some awesome new parts. The wheels and arches look fantastic but it's gonna need more than that for this price. I'm talking lots of new gearbox and drive line parts such as diffs and CVs and wheel "bearings" and steering arms with Ackermann geometry and so on. Not necessarily exact copies of designs we have offered up here at Eurobricks but at least those kinds of parts we've been asking for, from which they make awesome new functions like a sequential gearbox. I would trade 1000 beams and pins (the equivalent of a largish set on it's own) for those parts such as the 5 or 6 different sized clutch gears, new stronger diffs, 8880 style CVs and so on.

I pretty much agree with you. Whilst I think the Porsche MIGHT beat 8880, it still depends on how it's finished, it's final colour and shaping and so on. 8880 sure is an all time classic and still the benchmark to beat. But I would go so far as to say that the Porsche looks better than ANY MOC supercar. Not that the designers of MOC supercars should feel bad as TLG can make new TLG quality parts without being called non purist, and TLGs designers get paid lots of money to design a single set for the year as their day job so TLGs sets should look better than any MOC (given a similar number of pieces) and it's nice to see they have finally done it. I am slowly becoming sold on panels but like you, I am not 100% convinced yet. I built (read rebuilt for the Xth time) 8868 and it really is stunning. The beams give it this awesome and solid and bulky look, which I think the Arocs also has, but whilst the Arocs is very solid for a studless build, it's all relative, the Arocs only really looks solid compared to 8868 which really is solid.