Making car unibodies that are stiff is better with studded bricks, but making the exterior, engines, suspensions, gearboxes and all other technical bits is much much better to do with studless.

I'd really like the answer to the big question as well. Sure, we all guess it was about price, functions, and complexity, but has TLG every come close to any reason as to WHY?? I mean, it's not like the stopped making studded bricks; they use them in a LOT of other places too!

From a non-technical standpoint - no pun intended - I think the fact that studless Technic looks less "Lego-y" is actually one of the reasons the company switched. Studless models look much sleeker, more modern and less like "that toy you played with when you were a kid". All of those things are advantages for a system that is meant for older kids and adults.

Studded Technic was invented, flourished and was phased out during my Dark Age. When I rediscovered Lego, studless Technic was the norm, and I found it extremely cool. It's an amazing system that looks very different from "traditional" Lego but can still be integrated with System. The older studded models just don't wow me like the newer ones. They may be the same or even better mechanically, but they look clunky and old-fashioned compared to studless. Studless looks like the 21st Century.

For me it was about flexibility, studded has many shortcommings. After all Technic is all about the "holes".

The studded kits these days seem to concentrate a lot more on the aesthetics so the models look more appealing. It's kind like digital vs analogue.

A great illustration of this is the contrast between 8868 and the current logging truck. The functions are pretty much the same, but they look very different. I prefer 8868 to be honest.

I got one of the pull back racers for my lad for Xmas and despite it not being abused the front 12 stud long axle has bent already. This illustrates what I was saying about the difference between old vs new parts and the idea that the new parts are less robust.

I think the building techniques used in the studless models are far more creative and challenging. Studded building was fairly straight forward.

That may be true, but I'm a straightforward kinda guy! LOL!

I got one of the pull back racers for my lad for Xmas and despite it not being abused the front 12 stud long axle has bent already. This illustrates what I was saying about the difference between old vs new parts and the idea that the new parts are less robust.

Anything could happen during transportation, you had less luck here, but you can still get it replaced by contacting Customer Support.

As for the quality of the bricks/parts it has been found that parts tend to have stronger connections during aging. I had same experience with 8880 - its plates almost squeak connecting them together and so hard to disassemble, while absolutely new plates barely hold attached to each other. Same with new Technic bricks, they seem to have less clutch but I don't think they were modernized through all these years. "Everything was better in those good old days".

Are you suggesting that, as lego parts age they become harder and thus, have a stronger 'clamping' power?

Yep, that's what he's suggesting. Take one of the old 24t gears, for example. If you put, say, 5 new-style 24t gears from a sealed set on an 8L axle, you can push them off with a little bit of force. Now put 3 of the old-style 24t gears on the 8L axle. They probably have at least 2-4 times the clamping power as 5 newer style gears. But who knows, maybe they were originally made like that. I know for a fact, however, that the black 5L axles have much greater torsional rigidity than that of newer grey 5L axles- Lego made parts softer and less sharp for a younger age group, thus the rounded shape of liftarms and slightly bendy material used to make them, gears with less clutch on the axle, and axles that twist more easily (actually, I have no idea why they changed the material for axles... ).

So I think Technic went studless for a few reasons- the appeal and safety for a larger age group, to have a more modern look, and to make building much more compact. This outweighs the advantages of studded- while studded is stronger and more straightforward, it has a lot of drawbacks. It's nearly impossible to build in all directions without SNOT brackets and a lot of support, it doesn't look as slick, and a major drawback is that it_is_heavy. Since 2 bricks with 2 plates between them has the holes 3 studs apart, this technique is integrated into a lot of studded builds because it offers easy reinforcement. But the weight of the plates and the extra material in bricks adds up quickly, and can cause a lot of stress on the elements.

Now this may seem to be really putting studded building down, but I don't want that kind of message. I understand that the advantages of studless outweigh the advantages of studded; however, studless has more disadvantages - it's quite weak and bendy, even with lots of reinforcement, it's, of course, not what it was in the old days, the plastic is of lower quality and there is almost always quite a bit of slack, and it's not really made to fit perfectly with the Lego SYSTEM. These disadvantages are the counterpart to the advantages of studded building and the disadvantages of studded building are the counterpart to the disadvantages of studless.

So why not a combination of both? This would, in theory, be nearly perfect! Like I said before, the advantages and disadvantages balance each other out. Sadly, this is not the case. In a perfect world, studless and studded would fit together seamlessly; however, there are many odd 1/2 stud offsets, studs getting in the way of liftarms, etc. I'm not saying it's not possible, but it's quite difficult to use parts with the 1x1x1 geometry with studded parts; if it isn't on a fairly large scale (e.g. Nicjasno's Mustang), they just aren't very compatible IMO.

I understand the 'everything was better in the good old days.' I love studded building! And I understand many people do as well. Unfortunately,the Technic stud lovers the minority here. The safety and ease of building to kids, especially for a huge company like Lego, sadly, simply comes before the fans of the old, nostalgic stuff. So if you don't want studless, don't get studless Lego. I know it's a shame sets have gone downhill (and that's just my opinion), but you just have to ignore that and focus on the good stuff. Studless is a whole new world to explore. I've been mostly a brick-loving person. But I tried studless a while ago, and it's completely different; it's better and worse in totally different ways.

Just my words of advice- don't give up on studless before you try it first. Both systems of building are great- now that I've tried studless building, I think that from a non-biased viewpoint I wouldn't recommend one over the other.

I really hope you try and enjoy studless building, and realize it's not so bad after all.

Cheers,

TLH