42175 Volvo FMX Truck & EC230 Electric Excavator

[Maaboo the Witch]

The only rationale for removing the railings that I can think of involves access to the switches. But even then, it's too much of a tradeoff.

[Timorzelorzworz]

Looks a bit cheap in design and overpriced. For 200€ you get a bunch of Panels and only two Pneumatic cylinders. The 42157 Skidder has 5 Cylinders for 189€ and was considered as expensive.

[Maaboo the Witch]

5 minutes ago, Timorzelorzworz said:

Looks a bit cheap in design and overpriced. For 200€ you get a bunch of Panels and only two Pneumatic cylinders. The 42157 Skidder has 5 Cylinders for 189€ and was considered as expensive.

This set has way more parts.

[Rebel_Lego]

That red trailer looks so much better than the final product

[Maaboo the Witch]

6 minutes ago, Rebel_Lego said:

That red trailer looks so much better than the final product

The whole bloody thing looks better than the final product!

[Alex Ilea]

This set looks mid, and I think that most community alternate models will look better than it. But I'm still getting one :)

[Zerobricks]

1 hour ago, Maaboo the Witch said:

And it has the correct amount of railings! What happened?

Designer made a compete and beautiful model and than the bean counters came... 

[Rebel_Lego]

If it looked like that preproduction picture this would be a no-brainer for me. Now it is just a no-go...

Unless I buy it for parts, but as a part pack it isn't that great either.

[mpj]

2 hours ago, Oh_Hi_Mao said:

Interesting find. If you click on building instructions in lego.com page (link: https://www.lego.com/fr-be/service/buildinginstructions/42175 ) you will see pre production model with a red trailer, gray excavator tracks:

 

The counterweight of the excavator is much better here... simpler and better shaped. The whole proportions are better. 

[allanp]

I don't think the pre-production one looks that much better, I prefer the final one TBH. Although, the pre-production version doesn't appear to waste parts on an entirely non functional box. Lego actually has a working battery box, with real electric pixies and everything! Maybe they could have added a motor pump to the excavator and have it be powered by the otherwise useless box via a new PU extension cable or something. Add in the third cylinder for the excavator bucket and have the trailer ramp be pneumatic with an extra foldy-out bit at the end. A little more cost can bring a lot more value.

[Zerobricks]

35 minutes ago, allanp said:

I don't think the pre-production one looks that much better, I prefer the final one TBH. Although, the pre-production version doesn't appear to waste parts on an entirely non functional box. Lego actually has a working battery box, with real electric pixies and everything! Maybe they could have added a motor pump to the excavator and have it be powered by the otherwise useless box via a new PU extension cable or something. Add in the third cylinder for the excavator bucket and have the trailer ramp be pneumatic with an extra foldy-out bit at the end. A little more cost can bring a lot more value.

Having the dumb battery box in the well... electric box and a motor with a comporessor integrated into the excavatar sounds like a brilliant idea. Also have a manual pump also available, so you can unplug and play with excavator manually.

[allanp]

1 minute ago, Zerobricks said:

Having the dumb battery box in the well... electric box and a motor with a comporessor integrated into the excavatar sounds like a brilliant idea. Also have a manual pump also available, so you can unplug and play with excavator manually.

It might be an easy enough mod to do, though perhaps better with PF rather than PU, so we can use the PF extension cables. I wonder how many motor pumps could be squeezed in there!

[Jundis]

The trailer wheels on the prelim pic are way better suited, but could go without the cover.

3 minutes ago, Zerobricks said:

Having the dumb battery box in the well... electric box and a motor with a comporessor integrated into the excavatar sounds like a brilliant idea. Also have a manual pump also available, so you can unplug and play with excavator manually.

Oh yeah! There is so much more possible here.

[gyenesvi]

That leaked confidential preliminary image by TLG itself is a nice glitch :) Agree that the preliminary model looked more finished.

[nerdsforprez]

On 5/1/2024 at 6:32 AM, valenciaeric said:

Poverty spec Arocs but even then only 25 euros cheaper and a worse parts inventory.

Folks have to stop making these comparisons.  Inflation in the last 10 years makes a comment regarding the difference in price meaningless.  

[Jurss]

4 hours ago, allanp said:

I like the printed trans pieces for the headlights,

I'm not shure, that they are printed, as in closer observations, they look more like stickers - there is some thickness, they are not transparent.

[Maaboo the Witch]

I think they're definitely stickered.

[Timorzelorzworz]

It is. And it is the laziest approuch to implement front lights. But hey who cares its generic 10+

[Erik Leppen]

3 hours ago, nerdsforprez said:

Folks have to stop making these comparisons.  Inflation in the last 10 years makes a comment regarding the difference in price meaningless.  

Maybe, but the Arocs was a way cooler model, regardless of price. I believe both sets are in the 2000-parts range, so I think it's fair to compare them, model-to-model.

 

Also, affter seeing the prelim image, I noticed why the final set looks meh to me. Changing the color of the trailer from red to dark gray makes the set look so dull to me. I thought Lego was a toy. Toys need color. The red trailer popped. And the side panels just finish it off so much nicer, and it's basically 4 parts (plus a few connectors/pins). Why has that been recolored?

[Thirdwigg]

51 minutes ago, Erik Leppen said:

Also, affter seeing the prelim image, I noticed why the final set looks meh to me. Changing the color of the trailer from red to dark gray makes the set look so dull to me. I thought Lego was a toy. Toys need color. The red trailer popped. And the side panels just finish it off so much nicer, and it's basically 4 parts (plus a few connectors/pins). Why has that been recolored?

Agreed. I understand the choice, but I'll take the color any day.

[Stereo]

Hey, at least the utility box comes with a bunch of panels (at least 5 3x11, 2 5x11, but I don't see any photos of the non-control panel end so maybe another 5x11) so you can rebuild a yellow-trimmed trailer out of it.  Plus if it's not hollow, whatever's on the interior.

Edited May 2, 2024 by Stereo

[Maaboo the Witch]

8 minutes ago, Stereo said:

Hey, at least the utility box comes with a bunch of panels (at least 5 3x11, 2 5x11, but I don't see any photos of the non-control panel end so maybe another 5x11) so you can rebuild a yellow-trimmed trailer out of it.  Plus if it's not hollow, whatever's on the interior.

It's a generator.

[howitzer]

7 hours ago, Zerobricks said:

Designer made a compete and beautiful model and than the bean counters came... 

I think this is exactly what happened. Designers put in their skill to create a great model, and then it was deemed too expensive for the predetermined price point and they had to strip it down. I got very similar feelings from the 42112 Cement mixer truck - there were lots of missing aesthetic details which really should've been there and were a no-brainer to add, but apparently those would've raised the price too much so what we got was a stripped down version, and the same thing seems to have happened here.

On the other hand, kids who are into machinery like this will be really excited and not care at all about the missing details, so it's just us adults moaning about these things. Personally I would've taken a single 2000-part vehicle over it any day, but as a playset this multi-build approach is definitely a great way to go.

[allanp]

1 hour ago, Maaboo the Witch said:

It's a generator.

I think it's actually a battery bank.

[Maaboo the Witch]

6 minutes ago, allanp said:

I think it's actually a battery bank.

The official term is mobile charger, or power unit.