Jay Psi

It's Christmas. Merry Christmas. May everyone's feet be free of Lego pieces this holiday period.

We're getting lots of dark blue panels with this one! (video link for reference) Looks the best of the modern F1 cars by far, the colour looks great and the front/rear seem to have had extra attention compared to the Ferrari. Does the Ferrari have the two-speed gearbox as well? Seems a strange choice for an F1 car.

TLG, you owe us a 10-second build, even that would look better than this. Buy it for the parts only.

Yep, this is exactly what happened with my BuWizz 2.0, which is now updated and working. Hopefully, yours will take fewer tries to update than mine (~25 over the course of a week - the unit would connect but not begin writing the blocks).

Obligatory background music for this post. Good to see you back @Gray Gear, you've done a great job with keeping all he hatches in check!

While I am (shamefully) not one of them, I can only echo their sentiment - you are a valued member of the community who has never shied away from sharing the joys you find in this hobby despite/because of the challenges you face in accessing it. But we can wait until you are ready to return. The CAT 11D will be waiting too, ready to be completed!

Bold of you to assume that this will be used for a category of products. I wouldn't be surprised to only see this integrated hub used for this one set.

8110 - At the time, the Unimog was exactly the distraction I needed, with what was then (to me) a complicated build and the outstanding play value; the pneumatics blew me away and brought me back into Technic. 42009 - This was the set that truly brought me out of the dark ages. From its then leading part count, to the expansive drivetrain and power distribution, right through to Jurgen's Ultimate 42009, which I still believe pushed PF to its practical limits.

Congratulations to your new grandchild and her parents @grum64 - how long will it be before you introduce her to grandad's favourite hobby?

The Aston Martin Valkyrie seems the most logical* choice to me: Aston Martin cars have good representation in Speed Champions already Dark green is a new (and relatively plentiful) colour to 1:8 supercars It looks visually striking and is one of the more recognisable hypercars The inclusion of underfloor tunnels would be an interesting design challenge Unfortunately, I don't expect anything mechanically novel apart from the new gearbox pieces being used for a 7+R gearbox. *I want to make this clear, it is not my personal preference.

Ain't that the truth. Has there ever been a contest for Technic animals? I could understand doubts about number of entries, but I think it would be great to see a different side to Technic (e.g. not machinery/vehicles) promoted.

There's definitely a wider trend around collecting but that would be too far off topic for this thread. But yes, the attitude shift that no B-models imply isn't a good look. All Lego, but especially Technic, should have playability as a core focus. Official B-models offer that to the consumer at no cost; I don't know exactly how much designer time B-models took, but I can see it impacting the ability to design (and then sell) an increasing number of sets per year. With accusations that TLG are moving away from quality and more towards quantity, no B-models only drives that reasoning further forward.

@Porsche96 Didn't you make the Audi R8 Spyder from 42083? That was probably the best alternate of the Chiron I built. The time you spent on this has not been wasted, I can assure you. How has the 24/8-tooth gear swap worked in practice? I've tried something similar but with little success space-wise.

The lack of B-models, is on its own concerning, but possibly not the key issue. I'm paraphrasing from @kbalage's video on the subject, but what could happen to the AFOL-made alternates hosted (almost exclusively) on Rebrickable if TLG make a move for the website? I think it's only a matter of time before Rebrickable is purchased. I'm not a regular Bricklink user, so if anyone else can speak to any changes post-TLG takeover that may give hints as to what a TLG-owned Rebrickable could look like, please share them. Hopefully this could lead to something along the lines of greater promotion of AFOLs with respect to alternate models, as while Rebrickable is the go-to resource amongst AFOLs, is still effectively invisible to the buying public. On the other side, there could be a mandated fee for any alternates...

I've seen some calls for Rebrickable staff to review your MOC, that would certainly help, but directly asking is frowned upon. On topic, the modifications suggestions are a great idea, not only for those who have the parts to do so, but for less experienced builders to see the difference part availability and choice makes.