Other Pete J's thread of Lego building (current project: 76210 Iron Man Mark 44 Hulkbuster - Alternate)

Off we go with the MOC Lambo:



Will I finish it before next Sunday? Will there be one or more parts missing? Stay tuned...

 

This is proving to be a difficult model, more so than expected:



This is the gearbox and rear differential. You thought the Chiron's gearbox was complex? Think again. This is a 7 speed sequential, with upper and lower hard stops. All in a lower volume.

A few problems encountered:

• At a couple of points, some parts had to be forced round other parts
• Getting the tension and correct alignment on the chain was a pain
• At one point, I realised a part had managed to become 'trapped' in the wrong orientation. To avoid tearing it apart, I had to resort to tweezers to carefully reposition a half bush - unfortunately more than once (grr)
• Had to use the aforementioned tweezers to adjust the tension on one of the 'stepper' rubber bands
• The mating process of the main section of the gearbox to the rear differential was a slow and painful process

 

Engine complete:



Sad geek fact: I've actually set the cams up on the crankshaft such that the cylinder 'firing' sequence near enough matches that of the real life V12 engine. Little details make all the difference.

Mating the two sections was easier than joining the previous sections, but still needed care. Again, I spent some time jiggling things to get everything running smoothly. The engineering prowess demonstrated continues to impress. For example, see the gears near the bottom of the image? The engine is actually driven through that - offset driveshaft!

 

The....front? Cockpit? Bit what contains humans? Is underway:



Some of the stickers are on now. They're quite nice, but we'll see if they stand the test of time.

Aside from the conversion to right hand drive, I've treated myself to a little extra - the gear knob (teehee) is a copper plated bit I picked up. Looks quite nice IMHO - worth the £1!

This build is taking far longer than expected, so I'm just aiming to complete the...cockpit by the weekend as I'll be visiting my brother tomorrow and returning home on Saturday. If I can, I'll squeeze in the front differential.

 

So...missing parts

Some black panels are amiss, which I have no idea where they could be (should've been in the original orders). In the meantime, I started on the front axle sub assembly but was somewhat distracted today, so will post an image tomorrow when I finish it.

In other news:

LEGO Technic 42113 Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey Helicopter set cancelled

Really hard to believe Lego got this far with things before pulling the sets. Want a guaranteed moneymaker? Some retailers will still sell their stock - buy one to sell for PROFITSSS later on. Speaking of which, if anyone spots an online retailer selling it, PLEASE let me know!

 

I'm a little non-plussed by the osprey cancelation, as you say it got this far, and all resellers are able to offload their stock so it wont be that rare, but it will be snapped up faster than kanye's latest album for no other reason than its been cancelled and people want to make te PROFFITSSS!!!!111

 

Ugh the snowflakes spoiling it for everyone else as usual. It's not even ostensibly a "military" aircraft given the colours, but I guess they need an excuse to pull the set and keep the peace.

I think I might head to Smyths on release day as they will likely have it in stock.

 

I think it's a little more complicated than just reaching for the 'snowflakes strike again' gambit.

Money made from the set would be used to fund arms companies. When the US is deploying paramilitary 'federal agents' against peaceful protesters, funding a weapons company - even indirectly through a licensing deal - isn't going to do much for your reputation.

There's also the issue that it contradicts Lego's own values and guidelines. As the Gizmodo article points out however they obviously didn't have an issue with that until they were called out on it. Lego is a multinational corporation too, they're not immune from the pursuit of profit above all else. Clearly in this case it was better business value to avoid the potential bad publicity and simply swallow the cost of a recall.

I'm not arguing whether that makes it the right decision to pull the set or not, my point is that it isn't quite as simple as 'snowflakes spoiling it for everyone else'.

 

It's difficult. Lego could make an absolute killing if they started making military models - I'll tell you now, my young (and to be honest, present) self would've been all over it.

Progress so far:



I'm heading back tomorrow, so will focus on wrapping up the Star Destroyer while the missing Lambo parts arrive.

In the meantime, Lego Ideas have announced an awesome grand piano:



Here's the designer explaining it:



Bloody expensive at £320, but I aim to get one when able!

 

Conference room complete:



This is where the Firefly crew will sit when I get around to purchasing them. I've noticed that the port front panel isn't quite sitting down like the starboard one is, so at some point I'll figure out what to do about that - my current theory is that it's resting on the hidden TIE fighter.

In other news:

• The missing panels for the lambo have arrived, I'll probably finish that off next.
• Death Star parts have started arriving.
• My redundancy payout was actually a bit more generous than expected, so I decided to go ahead and purchase the parts for the bits that will complete the Star Wars collection, namely the Millennium Falcon, Hoth base defence and Wampa Cave.

 

Section completed!



I added in three turrets on the top middle centre of the model, which the instructions don't have.

59 pages to go...but I've had to reorder a panel section as one was actually quite dented and marked.

 

Have you seen this? The set has been selling for a couple of days now (no idea how people managed to get their hands on it before release). Seems to go anywhere from £800-£1000. Ridiculous!

 

I know that this is a special case and that you're bound to get people profiteering in this sort of scenario, but I just don't get the way that Lego has become, for certain people, a commodity to be traded. When you see people selling unopened sets that have gone out of production for multiples of their original value, it's a wee bit sad imho. And I don't mean sad as in the people involved are losers, I mean sad as in unfortunate that a brilliant toy ends up sitting unused just so that someone can turn a profit on it further down the line. When you read about people buying up several copies of a set purely with the intention of never actually using them, just reselling, then it's a real shame.

As for this particular set, I think that Lego have been a bit dodgy here. If their policy is not to make sets that have military connections (and I personally think that this is an excellent policy myself, and would like to see a bit less emphasis on stuff like their police sets too, but that's by the by) then why did this set enter production and proceed right up to the point that it was shipping before they suddenly pulled the plug?

 

Vaguely saw something about it this morning. I'm surprised they're that high, but there, again, it's a set that'll always be mentioned in future Youtube videos about 'Top 10 controversial Lego sets' and the like. I'd be curious to know how much money Lego have lost on this.

I agree with you to a small extent, but it's not as though Lego restrict a Lego set run to deliberately low volumes (see Rolex). If anyone wants a set whilst it's in production, nobody will have a problem getting their hands on it.

I do wish that production runs would last longer though. What's the typical set production life? Two years at the moment? Should be at least 5 years.

CONSPIRACY THEORY MODE ENGAGED: I reckon they were testing the water, to see if they would get called out in it or not. If they didn't, they'd push things a little further next year...

It is extremely odd though. I mean, any normal person's reaction to seeing it would've been 'I thought Lego didn't do military stuff?'.

Sad thing is, the V-22 has actually been used in humanitarian operations.

 

I feel like this has been mentioned in this thread....

One of the main objections raised by campaigners - and probably the reason for the policy - was that profits would from the set would, at least in part, have to go to arms manufacturers for licensing costs. Ergo, Lego customers would be funding arms companies.

 

I've no idea TBH. I'm just going on what was reported: https://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2020/07/lego-helicopter-kit-cancelled-10-days-before-release/

 

Stolen from another forums, the new Lego Lambo is £280 at Costco if you have their membership card which I believe is £15.

https://www.costco.co.uk/Toys-Baby-...ini-Sian-FKP-37-Model-42115-18-Years/p/333581

 

The £15 membership only allows online shopping.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I have a friend with a Costco membership who's looking into purchasing it on my behalf. I shouldn't but ~£80 off the RRP is too good to pass up. I'll just not eat for a while!

I'm currently busying myself with putting up shelves, job applications and playing online coop with a friend, so build progress has been non existent.

In Lego news, a surprising development in the V-22 story:

Major design flaw in LEGO Technic 42113 Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey Helicopter

Turns out that another factor in deciding to recall the set was that the gearbox could destroy a small gear if the rotors were stalled while rotating the nacelles - a glaring oversight. There is a fix available for those who've managed to get their hands on a set, or intend to buy the parts to make one themselves. The community experts are surprised that this got through as the design used was a well known no-go.

Righto, a couple more shelves to put up, then to clean up the mess...