General Part Discussion

[gyenesvi]

1 hour ago, m2fel said:

Recolour parts in a useful colour for technic is to much to ask for. Black pins are dark magic! BUT pink bushes for a 253 pieces 3 in 1 creator parrot are desperately needed 

I have also made this observation, so I tend to agree. Quite a few basic technic connectors are missing in basic colors and are causing color inconsistencies in official sets. The latest example is this part  in green in the John Deere Skidder. The same piece was missing in orange from the Ford Raptor, though it became available since then (I guess because of the F1 car). Also the 1L liftarm in orange was missing for long, only available recently (still missing in green though). I wonder if that pink connector in the parrot was actually made for the parrot or also for something else, like a flower set. Pretty sure though it was not made for a technic set. The half bush would be really useful to have in basic colors like black (exists but very rare), dark grey, red, etc. The white we got may as well be useful though..

I guess pins are a different story, they are intentionally not all made in black because it would be really hard to differentiate them. The strange recolor mentioned above seems like a weird case though, wonder what's the explanation.

[howitzer]

8 minutes ago, gyenesvi said:

I guess pins are a different story, they are intentionally not all made in black because it would be really hard to differentiate them. The strange recolor mentioned above seems like a weird case though, wonder what's the explanation.

Probably for a set where tan would stand out too much. Why they chose that colour and not simply black is strange though, perhaps black would look too similar with 2L friction pins and black 2L axles but pearl dark gray is easy enough to distinguish while loose, and still dark enough to blend into black when built.

[msk6003]

About 1L beam, I still wait dark blue and dark azure 1L beam.

[gyenesvi]

14 minutes ago, howitzer said:

Probably for a set where tan would stand out too much. Why they chose that colour and not simply black is strange though, perhaps black would look too similar with 2L friction pins and black 2L axles but pearl dark gray is easy enough to distinguish while loose, and still dark enough to blend into black when built.

I've been thinking along those lines as well. But then my question is why start recoloring with the frictionless version and not the friction version? The frictionless one is used less and in a visible spot less often than the friction one. And the frictionless also exists in grey. Recolorings seems a bit ad-hoc to me, they seem to really happen for the sake of one set, often licensed or themed, instead of a planned way by thinking ahead what would make sense systematically for many sets. The black 16T gear also only happened for the sake of the PacMan set, not for a technic set. Though it's true that such things stand out more in creator builds than in technic builds, which are more about looks anyway.

[Jundis]

10 minutes ago, gyenesvi said:

I've been thinking along those lines as well. But then my question is why start recoloring with the frictionless version and not the friction version? The frictionless one is used less and in a visible spot less often than the friction one. And the frictionless also exists in grey. Recolorings seems a bit ad-hoc to me, they seem to really happen for the sake of one set, often licensed or themed, instead of a planned way by thinking ahead what would make sense systematically for many sets. The black 16T gear also only happened for the sake of the PacMan set, not for a technic set. Though it's true that such things stand out more in creator builds than in technic builds, which are more about looks anyway.

I'd wish TLG would recolour the 3L friction pin and the 2L axle pin in DBG, still be distinguishable from other non-friction pins but also neutral. Same as and

Or go back 2 black :-)

[howitzer]

1 hour ago, gyenesvi said:

I've been thinking along those lines as well. But then my question is why start recoloring with the frictionless version and not the friction version? The frictionless one is used less and in a visible spot less often than the friction one. And the frictionless also exists in grey. Recolorings seems a bit ad-hoc to me, they seem to really happen for the sake of one set, often licensed or themed, instead of a planned way by thinking ahead what would make sense systematically for many sets. The black 16T gear also only happened for the sake of the PacMan set, not for a technic set. Though it's true that such things stand out more in creator builds than in technic builds, which are more about looks anyway.

TLG seems to do recolouring mostly when they have a specific need for it, they don't do much of that otherwise and for licensed sets they tend to be more demanding on colour consistency, which is to be expected as those have a colour schemes which TLG has no control over.

Personally I don't mind funny colours in pins and such, but others clearly do, so they're at odds with TLG. Hopefully TLG finds more reasons to produce pins in neutral colours and also to fill other gaps in part palettes of specific colours.

[zoo]

Soon TLG will recolour the black 2L friction pins pink out of spite. :)

I don't mind these different coloured pins either to be honest.

[nahpets]

The new Batman shadow box set, has two in the new metallic colour as well as the original tan - maybe it was for that set considering it is predominately black. 

[TechnicRCRacer]

A lot of non-production parts are present in the giant Peugeot 9x8 — I wonder if any will show up in the secondhand market eventually.

[Mr Jos]

Haven't seen this one before yet, a worm screw that can be extended as long as you wish. (per 6L length)

I see many opportunities to make long feeding screws for XYZ plotters/machines.

[Jonas]

13 hours ago, Mr Jos said:

... a worm screw that can be extended as long as you wish. (per 6L length)

If only the TLG would come with a Technic-compatible nut. The only available brick-type nut is not well suited for Technic constructions.

[R0Sch]

On 6/10/2023 at 6:53 PM, TechnicRCRacer said:

A lot of non-production parts are present in the giant Peugeot 9x8 — I wonder if any will show up in the secondhand market eventually.

Which ones? I only see the recolored 15x15 girder element 3250 in dbg. The turntable is the standard 60 tooth version.

[Equilibrium]

@R0Sch Probably https://rebrickable.com/parts/67142/technic-panel-curved-5-x-13-x-2-tapered-left/72/ , https://rebrickable.com/parts/18945/technic-panel-5-x-11-x-1-tapered/72/ and https://rebrickable.com/parts/18944/technic-panel-curved-3-x-13/72/ in DBG

Edited June 12, 2023 by Equilibrium

[R0Sch]

4 hours ago, Equilibrium said:

@R0Sch Probably https://rebrickable.com/parts/67142/technic-panel-curved-5-x-13-x-2-tapered-left/72/ , https://rebrickable.com/parts/18945/technic-panel-5-x-11-x-1-tapered/72/ and https://rebrickable.com/parts/18944/technic-panel-curved-3-x-13/72/ in DBG

Well the Osprey was technically a production model, otherwise I couldn't have bought the set after it was pulled off the shelves. I guess the only positive message is that they re-used the parts for this marketing gag.

[gyenesvi]

52 minutes ago, R0Sch said:

I guess the only positive message is that they re-used the parts for this marketing gag.

That's not necessary a positive thing. Now they are not pressured to use all those extra parts in a future set.. Did the Ospray contain the tapered flat panel as well? I wanted to have that one but Bricklink does not even list it in that color. Or is that something new, maybe for something upcoming?

[howitzer]

31 minutes ago, gyenesvi said:

That's not necessary a positive thing. Now they are not pressured to use all those extra parts in a future set.. Did the Ospray contain the tapered flat panel as well? I wanted to have that one but Bricklink does not even list it in that color. Or is that something new, maybe for something upcoming?

I don't think it had that in DBG, only in orange.

They probably wouldn't have used the already-produced Osprey parts in a future set anyway as I believe those parts had been distributed to packing factories and mixed into bags for boxing. It's probably cheaper just to produce new parts than to separate and sort parts from all those thousands of bags for reuse in sets. The production process must be highly streamlined in order to mass-produce things like Lego sets and anything that disrupts the process is a huge liability. On the other hand, marketing gag like this is a perfect place to sink thousands and thousands of otherwise useless parts.

[TechnicRCRacer]

I don’t think the giant model part usage has any relation to the Osprey. I’m certain millions more of those parts were made for the Osprey and they couldn’t use nearly that many in this model. LEGO makes special part-color combinations for all of their large models.

[R0Sch]

19 hours ago, howitzer said:

They probably wouldn't have used the already-produced Osprey parts in a future set anyway as I believe those parts had been distributed to packing factories and mixed into bags for boxing. It's probably cheaper just to produce new parts than to separate and sort parts from all those thousands of bags for reuse in sets. The production process must be highly streamlined in order to mass-produce things like Lego sets and anything that disrupts the process is a huge liability. On the other hand, marketing gag like this is a perfect place to sink thousands and thousands of otherwise useless parts.

Labor costs are cheaper in Kladno where one of the factories and Model Builders are located. Or maybe they hired some interns for sorting the larger parts out and the rest was just recycled.

19 hours ago, howitzer said:

I don't think it had that in DBG, only in orange.

20 hours ago, gyenesvi said:

Did the Ospray contain the tapered flat panel as well? I wanted to have that one but Bricklink does not even list it in that color. Or is that something new, maybe for something upcoming?

Yes it did, see above link from Equilibrium. The set contained 2x 6112843 (aka 18945  in dbg), besides the two in orange. Bricklink simply denies the existence of the Osprey, luckily brickset and rebrickable don't.

[howitzer]

15 hours ago, R0Sch said:

Yes it did, see above link from Equilibrium. The set contained 2x 6112843 (aka 18945  in dbg), besides the two in orange. Bricklink simply denies the existence of the Osprey, luckily brickset and rebrickable don't.

So it would seem, I stand corrected.

[JLiu15]

Not sure if this is the right place to post this or if it's been answered already, but does anyone know why LEGO discontinued the Control+ XL Motor?

https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/technic-xl-motor-88014

I remember a video showing its speed/torque were pretty similar to the Control+ L motor, so I guess LEGO didn't see a reason for keeping it around considering the L motor is smaller. It also hasn't been used in a set since 2020. This also makes me wonder - could there be an overhaul of the Control+ system on the horizon? A redesigned XL motor and additional sizes of motors?

[gyenesvi]

2 hours ago, JLiu15 said:

Not sure if this is the right place to post this or if it's been answered already, but does anyone know why LEGO discontinued the Control+ XL Motor?

https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/technic-xl-motor-88014

I remember a video showing its speed/torque were pretty similar to the Control+ L motor, so I guess LEGO didn't see a reason for keeping it around considering the L motor is smaller. It also hasn't been used in a set since 2020. This also makes me wonder - could there be an overhaul of the Control+ system on the horizon? A redesigned XL motor and additional sizes of motors?

It's not actually sure if it's really retired or just out of stock, because it happened before that things were marked as retired in some countries when they were actually just out of stock, and then they came back (for example the PU M motor I believe). But I am holding my fingers crossed that they are actually being phased out for the reasons you mention and that we'll see some upgraded version in the near future, though I would not be surprised if that did not happen either. The Liebherr crane and the CAT simply use the angular XL motor where more power is required, so TLG might just leave things as they are (out of laziness :( ), even though there would be room for a few more motor sizes in the lineup..

[Bensch55]

-

Edited July 10, 2023 by Bensch55

[Thirdwigg]

Whoa

 

[Zerobricks]

About time! And I bet some of these parts will be used in the upcoming supercar too. 

[howitzer]

Omg, these are great! Even if I'm not really a gearbox builder, I can foresee a lot of possibilities with these.

Someone commented in another thread (or this?) that this is a great year for parts, and it keeps giving!

Edited July 7, 2023 by howitzer