pleegwat

I own that part as included in 8868. There are no pinholes, which is not surprising given the era the piece originates in.

I don't expect lego to ever go for hydraulics.

Space was last year. This year is F1, and honestly I can't think of any technic-related F1 sets which aren't F1 cars.

Impressive.

When was the last 1:8 car with a new gearbox?

I know. Under display options, you can also choose to hide parts you own to get just a list of parts you need to substitute. But just having the parts list does not tell you whether you will be able to substitute something else for them, or if a recolor will be acceptable.

If a free MOC uses a part I don't own (ignoring color), I may download it and see if I can make it work anyway, and I may abandon the moc if I fail. But that's still a download. If I need to pay for the instructions (even if it's only a few euros) then it's much less likely I would take that risk.

Apparently, it was close enough for Mercedes to approve it.

Yes, sorry.

Two pumps, two valves, with each pump actuating the other pump's valve.

15 stud wide body vehicles comes up pretty regularly. This includes 42175 from this year (which you probably won't be interested in), as well as 42144 from 2022, 42128 from 2021, 42112 and 42108 from 2020, and 42098 (the car transporter) from 2019. Many small cars denoted in reviews as 'fits on the car transporter' also fit this scale; those are 13 studs wide. Length can be completely off for these, particularly trucks tend to be too short for their width, but they look reasonably in scale as long as the widths line up.

I'm pretty sure I've seen one with it at some point. It has the advantage (also in RL) that you do not need any bevel gears.

Hey, the professionals did it years ago, why shouldn't amateurs follow suit?

You could also use a 1x4 half liftarm with axle holes at the ends in combination with a 1x5 half liftarm with pinholes throughout.

There may be a solution with this part, though that would mean a different gear ratio and possibly more slack. I thought there was a version based on a 24z gear but I can't find it offhand. https://rebrickable.com/parts/24014/technic-arm-with-gear-8-tooth-and-15l-axle/#part_usage

Including the placard, the folder LRV is 15cm high by 24cm wide by 26cm deep. The loaded equipment stand is 25cm high by 45cm wide by 20cm deep.

The answer is probably that a one-off recolor in a bucket in the Special Projects lab is far cheaper than a recolor in the automated storage hall the sets are picked from. I doubt they'd injection-mold a fully new part design just for a project like this if they weren't going to reuse it in sets later. They may 3d-print some special purpose parts, but personally I would not refer to those as new parts for marketing purposes. Of course I'm not in marketing.

They may well have manufactured a limited batch of some pieces in this color just for this project, without any intention to ever put them in a set.

Storage room. Firemen need a lot of equipment. This includes firehoses and nozzles, but there are also axes, hydraulic cutters, and many other things I'm not thinking of right now. Every nook and cranny will be stuffed with storage cabinets. A ladder car will also have a big water pump. I'm not sure if a water tank (in case no surface water or hydrant is available) would be on the same vehicle.

It introduces an extra 1:2 delay. As-is, the ratio is 1:1, 1:2, 7:9, 3:5, for a total of 7:30. With just a plain 28 tooth gear, it would be 7:15 instead. Regardless, it's probably just trying to be interesting.

I've always liked the slewing setup in (ancient) 8837, using the inside of the turntable in a planetary setup. But modern turntables do not have inner teeth anymore.

Looks like the differential is off-center.

While RC pneumatic valves would be awesome, I don't see them happening. Though that makes the whole idea shaky - when did we last have a non-RC flagship? A configuration which could work is RC drive, steering, front bucket (with LAs) and compressor, and a pneumatic manually-controlled rear bucket.

3.3 megavolts?

I think they're just trying to do too much with too few pieces and it comes out looking cheap.