42131 - CAT D11 Bulldozer

[Rebel_Lego]

10 minutes ago, howitzer said:

It's not just containers, but also things like cardboard used for packaging that's gotten more expensive and of course electronics too. Sadly the rising costs might be real reason behind the pricing of this thing, which puts TLG in a difficult position: they can't sell it for less but people think it's overpriced and won't buy it as much.

Exactly.

On the other hand, the packaging costs didn't affect the Town Truck, which still had a reasonible price. I guess it just ends with speculating about TLG's reasons.

[Andman]

16 minutes ago, Rebel_Lego said:

I read an article the other day about the costs of containers. The price raised from 1300 to 13.000 euros, so I can Imagine extra cost for TLG. And of course also chip shortage. But still, this thing seems too bloody expensive

Just to illustrate the price increase per set:

You can fit roughly 780 42100 boxes inside a standard container (33,2m³). The price increase of a container to 13000 means an increase to 16€ per set.

 

[Nazgarot]

I'm disappointed in the lack of functions like individual control of the right and left cylinder and angel control for the ripper, as well as simultaneous control of lift and pitch for the blade. But at the same time I'm not, as the lack of perfection is one of the things that motivates me to build MOCs to see if I can do it better my self. 

I think having perfect models with any functions I could want would actually remove one of my motivations for "playing" with Lego. Actually I think this is one of the points where Lego is very well tuned to the marked. There is enough new stuff to make the models attractive to non-MOCers, and at the same time there is a lot to improve, motivating the MOC community to do better. The price though is a real miss with this sett... for €100 less it would be a must buy.

I have to admit that one of the sets that many see as the "ultimate" when it comes to RC functions - the 42100 Excavator - is one of the sets I've been least motivated to build. Only reason I bought it was I got it dirt cheap at €185. I still have it unbuildt in the box... I see nothing to improve on, and have better things to use the C+ parts for, so it has become only a parts source for me. 

The 8110 Unimog, 8043 Excavator, 42030 Loader, 42114 Dumper are all examples of non perfect sets I've bought as parts sources to improve the models. The unimog had terrible steering geometry that needed a redesign and was easy to mod to PF RC; the 8043 had terrible track control having the motors in the upper half, and lacked realistic control as only 3 functions could be used simultaneously. All easily fixed with additional motors, BB and Rx in the lower half as well as a redesign of the upper half for 4 direct drive functions (By the way the gearbox was also a good innovation making me plan and design many new models with 6-8 functions with only 4 motors... Great motivation to continue with Lego); The 42030 had a terrible steering solution, and truly needed a redesign to use small LA; the 42114 had a useless gearbox and laced suspension, and also had a terrible steering solution... 

These are all models I've bought mainly because I thought I could do it better and needed the parts for a MOC of the same kind of model. The Cat will probably be the same as I was already designing a model of a D11 with a planetary gearbox with integrated adder/subtractor and a full 8 functions with independent right and left lift cylinders for the blade. This model is a great parts source for that project and also helps add a few solutions like the mounting of the lift cylinders and the track tensioning. These where problems I was still working on and the Lego designers came up with good answers to (we'll see if that is right as soon as I do a new test build...). 

I actually prefer this lack of perfection, but would still like to see better parts for wheel offsets like the defender wheels in smaller scale, and better parts for McPherson suspension, but I think the marketing strategy of Lego is pretty good. You will se a lot of non MOCer buy this a full price, then after a few months the price will drop to something more in our range and everyone will be happy.

_ED_

Edited August 28, 2021 by Nazgarot
spelling

[jorgeopesi]

15 minutes ago, Nazgarot said:

the 8043 had terrible track control having the motors in the upper half, and lacked realistic control as only 3 functions could be used simultaneously. All easily fixed with additional motors,

You take me off all the fun  , the easy thing is to put more motors and charge more for the set and we have a 42100, but I like gearboxes and putting the more functions I can be able to with the less motors possible.

[DrJimbo]

On 8/27/2021 at 4:01 PM, 1974 said:

Not sure if all those are generic enough to avoid licensing?

Never heard anyone call a backhoe a JCB (or a dozer a CAT etc)

Pretty common in 80s Ireland to call these JCBs. I first heard backhoe in Australia in the late 90s. 

[gyenesvi]

1 hour ago, Nazgarot said:

I actually prefer this lack of perfection, but would still like to see better parts for wheel offsets like the defender wheels in smaller scale, and better parts for McPherson suspension

This is somehing like what I meant to say. I don’t mind lack of perfection, a set is totally okay if I can build something else with functions that I like better. But sometimes that needs the right parts, like those suspension parts you mention and missing links in the PU electronics system, and I feel that Lego is not too fast grabbing the opportunities to introduce those. This year’s off-roaders don’t innovate too much, and the new parts in this set are nothing revolutionary either. I could have imagined a small motor for gearbox switching for example.

[nugnug115]

 

 

 

This is my modified version of Eric Trax's liebherr 776 dozer, i wanted to post this to give a size comparison to the new D11 dozer that is coming out soon

This dozer is 19in long from the front of the blade to the back of the ripper and 10in tall from the ground to the top of the beacon lights VS the new D11 dozer which is 22.4in long and 10.2in tall 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by nugnug115

[eric trax]

3 hours ago, nugnug115 said:

i wanted to post this to give a size comparison to the new D11 dozer that is coming out soon

Believe me, the difference is big. CAT is on a larger scale. Still, the PR 776 has much better overall proportions. I have photos but I will share the comparison later.

[J_C]

on the back of the box (pictures published by lego.com) there is "alternative controls" with lever  - does anybody know if that means phone is not the only control system? will there be normal "screen free" way of playing with it? thanks

[Maaboo the Witch]

5 minutes ago, J_C said:

on the back of the box (pictures published by lego.com) there is "alternative controls" with lever  - does anybody know if that means phone is not the only control system? will there be normal "screen free" way of playing with it? thanks

I cannot believe this needs to be explained yet again. It merely means that there is an alternate control interface in the app.

[Richombx]

4 minutes ago, J_C said:

on the back of the box (pictures published by lego.com) there is "alternative controls" with lever  - does anybody know if that means phone is not the only control system? will there be normal "screen free" way of playing with it? thanks

alternative control refers to the second screen the app has for the model like the buggy, if you want a physical control look at the link below

https://www.facebook.com/487120501412731/posts/2971703766287713/?d=n

[J_C]

3 minutes ago, Maaboo35 said:

I cannot believe this needs to be explained yet again. It merely means that there is an alternate control interface in the app.

I cannot believe asking question gets someone so fired up. Pathetic. 

Sorry, lesson learned. Asking innocent question not welcomed. I will see myself out. Thanks.

__________________

7 minutes ago, Richombx said:

alternative control refers to the second screen the app has for the model like the buggy, if you want a physical control look at the link below

Thank you very much. I thought (hoped) there would be physical levers on the toy somewhere as alternative to remote control. my bad. 

 

[Maaboo the Witch]

4 minutes ago, J_C said:

I cannot believe asking question gets someone so fired up. Pathetic. 

Sorry, lesson learned. Asking innocent question not welcomed. I will see myself out. Thanks.

While I don't appreciate your response, I do apologise if I came across a bit too strong. It's just that this question is asked a lot and I was a little frustrated at seeing it for the umpteenth time.

Edited August 29, 2021 by Maaboo35

[Polarlicht]

2 hours ago, Richombx said:

alternative control refers to the second screen the app has for the model like the buggy, if you want a physical control look at the link below

https://www.facebook.com/487120501412731/posts/2971703766287713/?d=n

Link doesn't work for people who don't use fb!

[suffocation]

@Polarlicht See here (different video, same topic, supercool bloke):

 

[Polarlicht]

1 hour ago, suffocation said:

@Polarlicht See here (different video, same topic, supercool bloke):

 

This is promising. Maybe i don't need to worry the future when buying C+ sets now, when people come up with softwares like these.

Edited August 29, 2021 by Polarlicht

[kbalage]

8 hours ago, J_C said:

on the back of the box (pictures published by lego.com) there is "alternative controls" with lever  - does anybody know if that means phone is not the only control system? will there be normal "screen free" way of playing with it? thanks

If you mean the photo in the bottom left corner, that is a custom controller setup created in the Powered Up app, most probably for the testing of the prototype build that can be also seen on the photo. 

[nugnug115]

19 hours ago, eric trax said:

Believe me, the difference is big. CAT is on a larger scale. Still, the PR 776 has much better overall proportions. I have photos but I will share the comparison later.

i know right off the bat im going to change a lot of things on the new d11 dozer , do you have plans of maybe making a mark 2 version and selling the instructions for it ?

[Gimmick]

7 hours ago, kbalage said:

If you mean the photo in the bottom left corner, that is a custom controller setup created in the Powered Up app, most probably for the testing of the prototype build that can be also seen on the photo. 

He means the joystick symbol on the back on the box, right side :-)

[kbalage]

2 hours ago, Gimmick said:

He means the joystick symbol on the back on the box, right side :-)

Ah ok yeah, that's slightly bigger :D TLG should really work on these icons and labels, apparently people get false hopes. Or simply releasing a proper controller might help :) 

[technicfan]

On 8/28/2021 at 5:22 AM, Bricktrain said:

In my opinion it is a nice set. It could have been better and we had been expecting more otherwise we may have been happy with it. The price is definitely off-putting for what we expect at that price. 

I don't expect to purchase it as a set but I have started building it from parts and therefore am pretty comfortable with it. 

Many people will be happy to buy it, probably not so much AFOLs though.

All I say is thank god for Afterpay or Laybuy here in NZ, that's going to be the only way I can afford this.

I'll just wait for Sariel's review before I make my decision on buying this. 

[Maaboo the Witch]

6 minutes ago, technicfan said:

I'll just wait for Sariel's review before I make my decision on buying this. 

Yeah. He's missed here.

[AVCampos]

The embargo for review publishing is 10th of September, so we'll have to wait for his and everybody else's reviews at least until then.

[jorgeopesi]

Reviews are always helpful to take decissions but this set would need a miracle for me to even trying to think to buy it, I will see Sariel review anyway because I think he is a honest rewiever.

Edited August 30, 2021 by jorgeopesi

[Bartybum]

26 minutes ago, Maaboo35 said:

Yeah. He's missed here.

To be honest I haven't really noticed his absence