Future Set Wishes and Speculation

[Thirdwigg]

4 hours ago, 1gor said:

@gyenesvi motorized Unimog with realistic offroad (like Audi) tread pattern in some 95-100mm size (including your other suggestions) could be very nice...please don't tell @Thirdwigg anything about Unimogs 

Seriously. We don't want me to extend my Unimog MOCs any further than I already have. It's about time for me to go down another rabbit hole.

But also, I do vote for another Unimog set, though I think there are more nostalgic ways to celebrate the 50th. 

[NV Lego technic]

11 hours ago, 1gor said:

motorized Unimog

 

11 hours ago, 1gor said:

including your other suggestions

That is exactly what I thought of (it doesn't have to be a unimog though)

On 1/3/2025 at 6:57 PM, NV Lego technic said:

I think they should do a giant off road truck with a gearbox and adjustable suspension. Also doff locking, working engine, steering wheel, doors, hood and an auxiliary motor for things like hook lifting, bed dumping, a winch or a fifth wheel. (Totally not something I plan to build but probably won't go well so I'm asking TLG to build it instead)

 

[Satisfied]

17 hours ago, Brickthus said:

A proper 30-function JCB Backhoe would be lovely, a worthy development of 8862 and 8455.  Since the LEGO Ideas parts limit is now 5000 pieces, I hope Technic could reach that with a functional non-car flagship set.

Avoid Control+ nonsense and do it properly with pneumatics, including 3-function loader, 6-function backhoe, multiple compressors and servo steering.  This should suffice, if I had another 500 hours to finish it:

The loader and backhoe controls are laid out like the joysticks of the real JCB 3CX-Compact, so it would be possible for the user to drive them like the real thing.

I took another 40 hours in 2023 to improve the servos for the steering as they need a good range of variable movement to do the proportions.  Those need to be implemented in the next build.

Drive works well enough from a single L-motor, with dual compressors from two right-angle motors taken from 51515, built as the "engine".

I expect the 2-switch battery unit would be best for the compressors but a 2-port City hub could work with the train handset to do just the drive and steering remotely, leaving the digging functions as hands-on.
TLG has not yet exploited the train handset's capability to rotate the dials, where it would be easy to set them up for drive and steering of an RC vehicle.

And, best of all, the LEGO company must now have a deal with JCB, since one of the pull-back vehicles in January's range has their name on it.

Mark

well, he looks very luxurious.

Not only does he have pneumatic power, but he also has the latest electric power, mainly because he is very large

The backhoe loader is also a good theme for the 50th anniversary, with multiple functions

[Jundis]

Aside from a backhoe, which I'd really love to see, there should also be a mobile crane, where we had plenty of in 90s, 00s and 10s, but not so many in past years. With the Audi tires and a 3 axle setup, there are very cool ones available e.g. Liebherr LTC 1050, which would also fit in the "electric" category like the excavator from the 42175 or the upcoming Volvo L120 Electric Loader.

Again, a real tractor and trailer/attachment (I don't care if JD/Claas or without IP) is a must for me. The Xerion came out nearly 10 years from now.

[1gor]

...and there is a License between Lego and Liebherr...

[allanp]

23 minutes ago, Jundis said:

Aside from a backhoe, which I'd really love to see, there should also be a mobile crane, where we had plenty of in 90s, 00s and 10s, but not so many in past years. With the Audi tires and a 3 axle setup, there are very cool ones available e.g. Liebherr LTC 1050, which would also fit in the "electric" category like the excavator from the 42175 or the upcoming Volvo L120 Electric Loader.

Again, a real tractor and trailer/attachment (I don't care if JD/Claas or without IP) is a must for me. The Xerion came out nearly 10 years from now.

The Audi tires would look good on some heavy machinery like a mobile crane, I'm surprised we haven't seen it yet. For your mobile crane suggestion, what should we be exited about? How would it improve on previous mobile cranes we've had?

Some farming machinery would be good. Something I've been meaning to MOC (but have no time) is a tractor which pulls a seeder/planter. Into the seeder you would dump a pile of tan 3/4 technic pins, and when it's pulled along by the tractor, it would place them down on the floor on end like a field of crop. Then I'd also build a combine harvester that could actually gather them off the floor as it goes, and into it's hopper. It would also have a thin conveyor made of chain, or maybe it could use the newer larger worm screws to unload them out the auger pipe into a trailer. This could then be loaded back into the seeder and the fun starts again. If you want more complexity and more of an idea of what these mobile factories we call combine harvesters are like, maybe the seeder could place down two different types of pieces to represent wheat and straw, and the harvester would have internal rotating drums and shaker plates to separate the wheat from the straw. The straw pieces gets dumped out the back and the wheat pieces get stored in the hopper. That would be a really cool set of farming machinery.

Edited January 5 by allanp

[Jundis]

4 hours ago, allanp said:

For your mobile crane suggestion, what should we be exited about? How would it improve on previous mobile cranes we've had?

Lego could go for a 3000+ piece RC set with this. We would have 2 HUBs, one in the drive unit and one in the superstructure. Drive unit with 1 motor for drive, 1 for steering, 1 for the turntable and 1 for outriggers. Superstructure with 1 motor for winch, 1 for 2 stage boom extension, 1 for boom+cabin elevation and 1 for the extension of the cabin with a gear rack.

 

[Fabulous Fox]

(I literately just posted this today in the main 2025 Technic topic, not realizing this topic existed, so I'm posting it here). 

I've been reading so much of the Technic topics and set reviews on this website recently (and a lot in the past) and I know it's wishful thinking, but personally, I would like Lego to give us something great - something challenging. I have built so many sets, alternate builds, Mocs, and most of the flagships since the 8421, and I have rarely felt challenged. Don't get me wrong, I ADORE some of the greats like 8421, 42009, 42043, 8043, 8258, etc.

Something with a little bit of everything. No simple functions, but complex, realistic ones that are also structurally sound and VERY difficult to build with proper instructions. I want to REALLY STRUGGLE putting it together. I want to have to struggle with tons of pneumatic spaghetti, struggle with rigging string, struggle with 100 different things going on in a chassis while also needing high dexterity to put things together. I want it to feel like I’m accomplishing something huge. I want wires everywhere, a maze of parts, a maze that is hard to navigate. I want to spend days upon days upon days on a single set and still not be done.

The ONLY times I’ve EVER had a remotely difficult time putting an official LEGO set together was maybe with the 42043’s pneumatic tubing and the 8043’s wires. And the only set builds that have felt truly "long" to me was the 42082.

Imagine a huge mobile crane like 42009 or a huge tow truck like 8285, but with full RC, realistic suspension with proper geometry, a transmission with new parts that reduce space and friction, complex steering, lights, fun controls, challenging building, new parts, pneumatics AND LAs, more powerful motors, ones that FEEL powerful like the RC buggy motor or the PF XL motor, new electronics, new motors for activating the pneumatic switches, good looks, demanding presence, big, detailed box, new solutions that minimize friction, etc. All while having 3000-4000 parts like recent flagships. Also make tons of interesting designer videos on the full development of the set, like the 8275 had. I remember watching those videos over and over again when I was younger. Not many Technic sets do that now. So be it if they're expensive. 

I understand it's difficult to get companies to think like this long-term, and it may not even be the right decision in the first place, but it's just what I personally wish (as I'm sure we all do).  

Oh, and while they’re at it, give me a B model as well. Not only a B model, but other images of suggestions of alternate builds.

Actually no, scratch 3-4K pieces, give me a 10K+ piece Technic flagship mobile crane that costs $1,000. Wouldn’t that feel so good?

[m2fel]

Hi, the real challenges were in the 90s :). In the last few years i have bought and built 8880, 8868 and 8865, among others. The instructions are as follows: take these 20 parts and try to recognize the differences to the last building step on the picture. And there is no color coding. For 8880 there are black, black and black parts :P In the new sets I hardly make any building mistakes although I build quickly and without focusing. In the old sets I made some mistakes even though I built slowly without distraction :) As a bonus, there is the penalty of the old pins with high clamping force if you have to build two or three building steps back B)

So get an old set as a challenge. Buying used sets is even cheaper than new ones (that might be my personal gut feeling).  Last but not least, you often have to dismantle entire sets, clean the parts and, if necessary, buy defective, incorrect or missing parts :)

I spent more time with 8865 than with any new set. Looking for a used, acceptable set, buying paper instructions,  dismantling, cleaning, checking parts, buying new ones or replacing existing ones and building took quite some time. But I enjoyed every part of it for the bargain of 60$ in total!

 

[allanp]

7 hours ago, Fabulous Fox said:

 

(I literately just posted this today in the main 2025 Technic topic, not realizing this topic existed, so I'm posting it here). 

I've been reading so much of the Technic topics and set reviews on this website recently (and a lot in the past) and I know it's wishful thinking, but personally, I would like Lego to give us something great - something challenging. I have built so many sets, alternate builds, Mocs, and most of the flagships since the 8421, and I have rarely felt challenged. Don't get me wrong, I ADORE some of the greats like 8421, 42009, 42043, 8043, 8258, etc.

Something with a little bit of everything. No simple functions, but complex, realistic ones that are also structurally sound and VERY difficult to build with proper instructions. I want to REALLY STRUGGLE putting it together. I want to have to struggle with tons of pneumatic spaghetti, struggle with rigging string, struggle with 100 different things going on in a chassis while also needing high dexterity to put things together. I want it to feel like I’m accomplishing something huge. I want wires everywhere, a maze of parts, a maze that is hard to navigate. I want to spend days upon days upon days on a single set and still not be done.

The ONLY times I’ve EVER had a remotely difficult time putting an official LEGO set together was maybe with the 42043’s pneumatic tubing and the 8043’s wires. And the only set builds that have felt truly "long" to me was the 42082.

Imagine a huge mobile crane like 42009 or a huge tow truck like 8285, but with full RC, realistic suspension with proper geometry, a transmission with new parts that reduce space and friction, complex steering, lights, fun controls, challenging building, new parts, pneumatics AND LAs, more powerful motors, ones that FEEL powerful like the RC buggy motor or the PF XL motor, new electronics, new motors for activating the pneumatic switches, good looks, demanding presence, big, detailed box, new solutions that minimize friction, etc. All while having 3000-4000 parts like recent flagships. Also make tons of interesting designer videos on the full development of the set, like the 8275 had. I remember watching those videos over and over again when I was younger. Not many Technic sets do that now. So be it if they're expensive. 

I understand it's difficult to get companies to think like this long-term, and it may not even be the right decision in the first place, but it's just what I personally wish (as I'm sure we all do).  

Oh, and while they’re at it, give me a B model as well. Not only a B model, but other images of suggestions of alternate builds.

Actually no, scratch 3-4K pieces, give me a 10K+ piece Technic flagship mobile crane that costs $1,000. Wouldn’t that feel so good?

A lot of interesting thoughts there.

In terms of sets being challenging, sets were obviously harder when I was a child, like 8868 when I was only 8 years old due to putting one of the rear differentials the wrong way round and having to figure out what I did wrong. But it wasn't the end of the world. They got easier as I got older and more experienced building sets. I don't think it's really possible to make a set that would be actually challenging for us unless you make poor instructions. No matter how complex the final product, all we will ever do is place one piece against another, or one assembly of pieces against another, and repeat, nothing is difficult if the instructions are clear. The only way to induce any kind of challenge for experienced builders would be to make poor instructions or introduce something entirely new such as insanely complex rigging or real hydraulics that would require a process of bleeding out all the air in the system or something like that. 

I do remember finding the Arocs pneumatics slightly more fiddly than previous pneumatic sets including even 8455, but that was because the Arocs hoses came pre cut and they were too long in some cases, particularly the blue hoses that connect the valves. After trimming them to a more suitable length it suddenly became just as easy as anything else.

Set designers are cautious of making sets too challenging for inexperienced builders and that's only fair. Although I do disagree with some of their chosen methods for making things easier like color vomit, Lego is meant to be fun and not like airfix, which does require more time and skill to make a great looking model.

I'd also love to see a set with 10 or more pneumatic functions with hoses and/or wires everywhere. A full lighting package would really increase the wiring to be a full on wiring loom! But I'm also a fan of giving the customer some options to tailor their build experience. For example, make all pneumatic hoses black so that it looks more authentic to real life, and supply a sticker sheet with colored and/or numbered bands that you can wrap around the ends of the hoses. This way you can have far more colour coding for pneumatic hoses than the current 3 color system, but in a way that's far more tasteful (a small coloured band would look far better and more authentic than coloring the entire hose) and the stickers can even have a clear numbering system to make placing/routing the hoses correctly super easy, barely an inconvenience, no matter how many hoses there are! But if you want more challenge then just don't use the stickers. Cables in panels are marked a similar way but stickers would be cheaper to do.

As for your suggestion of a $1000, 10,000+ piece crane, I'd be totally up for that. A $1000 Technic model? Yes please. 

But

How can we make a crane, or any set sooooooo good that $1000 seems like a price worth paying? It can't be just big. It can't be more of the same just.....more. It would need next level mechanical excellence! No linear actuators, at $1000 this is not a toy. It's not enough that the functions are replicated but the way they work in real life needs to also be replicated (I'd say that's true for any flagship). For $1000, new, massive pneumatics would be a minimum requirement but also, at that price we're getting into the realm of real hydraulics. They might be plastic and it might use water instead of oil, but hydraulic non the less. Were also talking new, more powerful motors and if it's RC then absolutely a big physical remote. There are many, including many on this forum that say they would never pay more than say $200 for any set. I'm not one of them but still, This would have to be sooooooo good, soooooo next level, so beyond what they thought was possible that it makes even them say okay, I need this! You'd also likely want to cast a wider net to appeal to some of the big time youtubers that aren't really Lego focused already, but would feature a set if it was that next level in terms of teaching real world mechanics, such as Adam Savage (tested) or Jerry rig everything.

 

Edited January 10 by allanp

[J159753]

I've only built 8880 once (I don't have it myself), but I dimly remember a genuinely tricky bit where I was trying to clip the transmission's chain links around a rear steering axle. It required quite a bit of manual dexterity (at least with adult-size hands!) And I did like sets where 8865 where it *really mattered* how carefully you spaced cogs along axles so that the motors and gears turned smoothly with minimum friction. Modern parts are much more foolproof, and arguably give you less sense of satisfaction when following instructions. A model is either correctly assembled or not - rather than mediocrely or well.

Edited January 10 by J159753

[NV Lego technic]

I absolutely *hate* chains in sets and I don't like having to frustratingly align the chain correctly through tight spaces.

[Danil]

6 hours ago, allanp said:

Там много интересных мыслей.

Что касается сложности наборов, то наборы были, очевидно, сложнее, когда я был ребенком, например, 8868, когда мне было всего 8 лет, из-за того, что я неправильно установил один из задних дифференциалов и мне пришлось выяснять, что я сделал неправильно. Но это не был конец света. Они становились проще, когда я становился старше и приобретал больше опыта в сборке наборов. Я не думаю, что действительно возможно сделать набор, который был бы действительно сложным для нас, если только вы не сделаете плохие инструкции. Независимо от того, насколько сложным будет конечный продукт, все, что мы когда-либо сделаем, это поместим одну деталь против другой или одну сборку деталей против другой, и повторяю, нет ничего сложного, если инструкции понятны. Единственный способ вызвать какие-либо трудности для опытных строителей — это сделать плохие инструкции или ввести что-то совершенно новое, например, безумно сложную оснастку или настоящую гидравлику, которая потребует процесса выпуска всего воздуха из системы или чего-то в этом роде. 

Я помню, что пневматика Arocs показалась мне немного более хлопотной, чем предыдущие пневматические наборы, включая даже 8455, но это потому, что шланги Arocs были предварительно обрезаны, и в некоторых случаях они были слишком длинными, особенно синие шланги, которые соединяют клапаны. После обрезки их до более подходящей длины это внезапно стало так же просто, как и все остальное.

Дизайнеры наборов опасаются делать наборы слишком сложными для неопытных строителей, и это справедливо. Хотя я не согласен с некоторыми из выбранных ими методов упрощения, такими как цветная рвота, Lego призвано быть веселым, а не как Airfix, который требует больше времени и навыков для создания отлично выглядящей модели.

Я бы также хотел увидеть набор с 10 или более пневматическими функциями со шлангами и/или проводами повсюду. Полный комплект освещения действительно увеличил бы проводку, превратив ее в полноценный жгут проводов! Но я также фанат того, чтобы предоставить клиенту несколько вариантов для адаптации его опыта сборки. Например, сделать все пневматические шланги черными, чтобы они выглядели более реалистично, и предоставить лист наклеек с цветными и/или пронумерованными полосами, которые можно обернуть вокруг концов шлангов. Таким образом, вы можете иметь гораздо больше цветовой кодировки для пневматических шлангов, чем текущая 3-цветная система, но гораздо более изящным способом (небольшая цветная полоса будет выглядеть намного лучше и аутентичнее, чем окраска всего шланга), и наклейки даже могут иметь четкую систему нумерации, чтобы сделать правильное размещение/прокладку шлангов очень простым, почти не создавая неудобств, независимо от того, сколько шлангов! Но если вы хотите больше сложностей, то просто не используйте наклейки. Кабели в панелях маркируются аналогичным образом, но наклейки будут дешевле.

Что касается вашего предложения крана за 1000 долларов, 10 000+ деталей, я бы полностью за. Модель Technic за 1000 долларов? Да, пожалуйста. 

Но

Как мы можем сделать кран или любой другой набор настолько хорошим, что $1000 кажутся ценой, за которую стоит заплатить? Он не может быть просто большим. Он не может быть больше того же самого, просто... больше. Для этого потребуется механический уровень совершенства! Никаких линейных приводов, за $1000 это не игрушка. Мало того, что функции воспроизводятся, нужно также воспроизводить то, как они работают в реальной жизни (я бы сказал, что это верно для любого флагмана). За $1000 новая, массивная пневматика будет минимальным требованием, но также, за эту цену мы попадаем в область настоящей гидравлики. Они могут быть пластиковыми и могут использовать воду вместо масла, но тем не менее гидравлическими. Мы также говорим о новых, более мощных двигателях, и если это RC, то, безусловно, о большом физическом пульте дистанционного управления. Многие, включая многих на этом форуме, говорят, что никогда не заплатят больше, скажем, $200 за любой набор. Я не один из них, но все же, это должно быть таааак хорошо, таааак на следующем уровне, настолько за пределами того, что они считали возможным, что это заставляет даже их сказать: «Окей, мне это нужно!» Вы также, вероятно, захотите расширить сеть, чтобы привлечь некоторых известных ютуберов, которые еще не особо сосредоточены на Lego, но показали бы набор, если бы это был следующий уровень с точки зрения обучения реальной механике, например, Адам Сэвидж (проверено) или Джерри Риг Все.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BHJt3UcpoSMmPexUU4_ErsxgSZgqwhRt/view?usp=drivesdk

My house 😁 

[allanp]

16 hours ago, Danil said:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BHJt3UcpoSMmPexUU4_ErsxgSZgqwhRt/view?usp=drivesdk

My house 😁 

Wowsers!