42099 - 4x4 X-treme Off-Roader

[allanp]

Sure it has very little torque at the wheels but this looks to be very easily corrected, almost as if the designers meant for us to correct it. The two stages of 20:12 up gearing between the motor and the differentials is very strange but it does allow us to try out various different gearing options. I think I'll build it by swapping at least 1 set of 20:12 with 16:16 in each axle. It could be that they are prevented from doing this out of the box because it would make the wheel turn with enough force to potentially harm a little finger of a small child if it were to ever get caught in a wheel. With all the constraints Lego has that MOCcers don't health and safety is THE big one.

But even with all the constraints I still think this is better than any MOC crawler. The difference between a designer working at TLG and a MOCcer designing purely for him/herself isn't just the constraints that a TLG designer has but also the advantages, such as being given the time to work "9 till 5" on a creation (as opposed to a MOCcer who can only design in their free time at home), and also more importantly for me the TLG designer has the option of releasing new parts. The extra time given normally leads to Lego sets being cleaner, more optimised and more durable in design than most other MOCs and these new parts (such as the planetary gear hubs) make this a set I want to own more than any MOC right now.

BTW, while I still very much dislike the motors having so much internal gear reduction, I am happy to see these new PU motors spin a bit faster than the PF versions, so at least it's an improvement. And also, did anyone notice how easy it seemed to be to back drive the whole gear train from the wheels? Maybe @Zerobricks could enlighten us a little, but in his review it looked to be very easy. It would also be cool to see more about these new motors and gear hubs. The motors spin faster but do they have as much torque as their PF counterparts? More importantly, when you multiply speed by torque, how does the overall mechanical output power of PU motors compare to PF? How much sloppyness is in the new planetary reduction hubs? If you was gifted this set for review, would you be willing to test one of these new hubs to destruction to see how much input torque they can handle? It would be nice to know if I take a motor with "X" amount of torque and gear it down by "Y" if that is within safe working limit of the new hubs.

Edited June 30, 2019 by allanp

[jorgeopesi]

Thank you for the nice review.

Edited June 30, 2019 by jorgeopesi

[Jeroen Ottens]

3 hours ago, Zerobricks said:

2 PU XL motors 

1 PU L motor 

1 PU technic hub

4 planetary hubs

8 male CV joints

4 female CV joints

5 3x3 connectors

3 cable holders

Thanks

You haven't answered my other question though. Where did you get this set from?

[nerdsforprez]

19 minutes ago, syclone said:

@nerdsforprez After carefully analyzing your post, I completely agree with you in this topic. Afterall TLC was on the verge of bankrupcy in 00's with 800$ million in debt... they wouldn't like that to happen again, so marketing team is the one ruling probably.

Exactly.  And I for one don't even WANT them to try and pursue the coolest or bestest or whatever build trophy.  I just want them to continue to keep producing.  I mean good sets, yea, but I want them to be LEGO, and AFOLs to be MOCers.  TLG produces the billions and billions of pieces, and we build cool things with 'em

3 minutes ago, Jeroen Ottens said:

Thanks

You haven't answered my other question though. Where did you get this set from?

Also, Jerry, since you have access to both old and new XL motors, can you mention anything about the perceived torque?  You compare the speed which is great, but can you tell us how easily stalled the motor is? 

[Jim]

4 minutes ago, Jeroen Ottens said:

Thanks

You haven't answered my other question though. Where did you get this set from?

The video had an embargo (30th June at 0:00), so I reckon it's an official TLG offer. If so, the propper question would be; how did you get the exclusive 
(I won't be reviewing this set btw, so I don't have any information)

PS I have split the other discussion into a new topic.

[Maaboo the Witch]

Just now, Jim said:

The video had an embargo (30th June at 0:00), so I reckon it's an official TLG offer. If so, the propper question would be; how did you get the exclusive 
(I won't be reviewing this set btw, so I don't have any information)

Wow, the first set to be rejected by Jim! That's harsh. 

[Akbalder]

Are the planterary hub already assembled? Or can we see what's inside?

It's nice to have the body removable. It will be easy to create another one to change the style of the crawler.

[ScaleCarModels]

I am looking forward to this set and will be purchasing it ASAP. After watching the review videos my expectations we're spot on. As with any Lego set especially technic there's always room for improvement. I think that's what I like the most about this theme. It gives the builder a chance to create something that's unique. Even if it is just changing the color of some parts. There are more good aspects of this set then bad ones for sure. I haven't got enough skill yet to build a crawler MOC. My goal has been to have a vehicle to play around with on an off road crawler style coarse. This set along with extreme adventure will be good starting points to satisfy those desires. I look forward to seeing the "mods and improvements" for this set.

[Jim]

20 minutes ago, Maaboo35 said:

Wow, the first set to be rejected by Jim! 

Wow, jumping to conclusions 

[Zerobricks]

41 minutes ago, nerdsforprez said:

Also, Jerry, since you have access to both old and new XL motors, can you mention anything about the perceived torque?  You compare the speed which is great, but can you tell us how easily stalled the motor is? 

The PU XL motor is weaker than the PF one, torque seems similar to PF L motor. 

36 minutes ago, Jim said:

The video had an embargo (30th June at 0:00), so I reckon it's an official TLG offer. If so, the propper question would be; how did you get the exclusive 
(I won't be reviewing this set btw, so I don't have any information)

PS I have split the other discussion into a new topic.

TLG had nothing to do with this review and there was no embargo. 

21 minutes ago, Akbalder said:

Are the planterary hub already assembled? Or can we see what's inside?

Hubs come preassmbled and lubricated. 

[Jim]

Just now, Zerobricks said:

TLG had nothing to do with this review and there was no embargo.  

Okay, I assumed there was an embargo, since the video started exactly at midnight.

[nerdsforprez]

10 minutes ago, Zerobricks said:

The PU XL motor is weaker than the PF one, torque seems similar to PF L motor. 

 

Hmmm... if torque seems similar to PF L motor, and speed is obviously faster than XL (more like PF L motor) then really perhaps all we got is a L motor called PU XL motor.  So far it seems that folk's opinion seems pretty high towards it, but this should be kept in mind. 

[SNIPE]

Aww maan, so we cant use the bugatti disk brake inner hubs with the new planetary hubs.

Maybe the new CV joints wouldnt work with them anyhow

I wonder if the porsche rims will fit onto the pins of the new planetary hubs ok?

The bugatti rims will as long as you use two 0.5 x 3 x 3 '6 hole pulley wheels' as an adapter.

Also how about the same rims from the 42029?

Maybe using the new linear clutch with the new 28T gear to make a strong differential would be a good idea. (unless the motors cut out for some reason before the clutch kicks in, in which case, why have a clutch in the 42100 :S)

Edited June 30, 2019 by SNIPE

[efferman]

When it is easy like this to remove the body we can expect an incoming bodywork building contest.. Only a guess....

[Ngoc Nguyen]

And an exclusive set based on the winning entry with a limited production of 20,000 copies, each of which will feature a rare color palette and carry an own number plate...

[Maaboo the Witch]

2 hours ago, Ngoc Nguyen said:

And an exclusive set based on the winning entry with a limited production of 20,000 copies, each of which will feature a rare color palette and carry an own number plate...

Well, TLG have never done anything like that before... 

[rm8]

1 minute ago, Maaboo35 said:

Well, TLG have never done anything like that before... 

impossible. TLG. never. ever

[kbalage]

9 hours ago, Jim said:

The video had an embargo (30th June at 0:00), so I reckon it's an official TLG offer. If so, the propper question would be; how did you get the exclusive 
(I won't be reviewing this set btw, so I don't have any information)

TLG's embargo for the set is still more than a month away so that was not an official offer for sure :) 

[incognito]

of course it's not offical. The App isn't even ready.

[Jim]

10 hours ago, incognito said:

of course it's not offical. The App isn't even ready.

That's not a valid argument. As a reviewer I have been in this kind of situation before. Usually we get sets before the apps are in the app store.

[incognito]

26 minutes ago, Jim said:

That's not a valid argument. As a reviewer I have been in this kind of situation before. Usually we get sets before the apps are in the app store.

Can you show me a review where you couldn't show the main function of the set because the App wasn't available? Or you had to program your own controller using the SDK?

I guess as an official reviewer you would at least get access to the latest beta version of the Control+ App.

Edited July 1, 2019 by incognito

[Jim]

39 minutes ago, incognito said:

Can you show me a review where you couldn't show the main function of the set because the App wasn't available? Or you had to program your own controller using the SDK?

I guess as an official reviewer you would at least get access to the latest beta version of the Control+ App.

When we got the Powered Up train sets, the app wasn't available yet. When TLG released sets with app driven building instructions, the app wasn't available yet. And we didn't get access to beta versions. You can argue that the train could be controlled with a remote and that building instructions come in a booklet. All I am saying is that I wouldn't be surprised if reviewers got the set without the app 

[Touc4nx]

On 6/30/2019 at 1:39 AM, syclone said:

PUp is a failure imo. Sbrick was released 5 years ago (I won't even talk about BuWizz), and TLC still has the same power cutoff problems from 2007. 12 years and still lacking power to even justify "crawler" name. Non-stackable connector and huge size of the receiver aren't helping either, but yes, they finally used bluetooth and you can ride your monster truck on flat terrain with your sunglasses on.

And for now there is no rechargeable battery incorporated, so we will be forced to be using one usage battery 

[Didumos69]

22 hours ago, allanp said:

Sure it has very little torque at the wheels but this looks to be very easily corrected, almost as if the designers meant for us to correct it. The two stages of 20:12 up gearing between the motor and the differentials is very strange but it does allow us to try out various different gearing options. I think I'll build it by swapping at least 1 set of 20:12 with 16:16 in each axle. It could be that they are prevented from doing this out of the box because it would make the wheel turn with enough force to potentially harm a little finger of a small child if it were to ever get caught in a wheel. With all the constraints Lego has that MOCcers don't health and safety is THE big one.

I think the up gearing was done to protect the cv-joints and differentials. The one good thing about this model is that it follows the best practice on how to avoid slipping gears, broken joints and twisted axles in the drive train / differentials: it works with high rpm / low torque instead of low rpm / high torque. And the first thing you want to do is nullify this design pattern.

Imo, the real problem behind the poor performance lies in the controllers cutting off power too soon.

[TeamThrifty]

On 6/29/2019 at 11:31 PM, syclone said:

hasn't improved anything except the control range

Nope nothing. Except there's an app. And it shows inclination angle on two planes.. Oo, and you can build your own macro's to compound multiple actions. Nothing apart from that. Ahh wait, can't you do some cool stuff on-screen on the app to control the vehicle? Apart from that, and the bits i forgot, its not improved anything..... 

 

On 6/30/2019 at 12:39 AM, syclone said:

but how hard it is for an enormous company

Probably really easy, thats why so many of us are Chairmen of large multi-nationals...

There's a tonne of awesome stuff here, Control+, Plantary's...