Yes, I know we still have not presented the outcome for this other interview... 
But somehow it urges now to proceed with another interview and later we will resume to the previous one. Promised!
Once more TBs 
is going to run an interview with a LEGO Designer.
As usual we decided to involve the community in the process, and let you come up with your own questions, related with the 2011 LEGO Technic flagship model (8110, Unimog U400) and respective design process. Hence we will be addressing Markus Kossman (Kossi) regarding the unknown about this fantastic model.
Please feel to ask as many questions as you like, by dropping a comment to this post.
In the meantime we will prepare our own set of questions and wait until next Friday (2.Dec) to gather all your inputs as well.
Although, you should be aware of the following remarks:
- The TBs editors team will prepare their own set of questions and select among your inputs, those questions that will be forward to the Technic Designers team.
- The questions will be grouped by similarity to prepare the final set, hence not all of them will make into the final set of questions to send.
Also the questions will be selected by relevance and the questions that likely could not be answered by the Designers, will be dropped upfront. Obviously we refer to questions somehow related with future products (either new sets or new parts) and eventually others as well (depends on what is being asked).
- TBs team members will do their best to consider all your inputs into a reasonable amount of questions, but of course there is also a limit to the total number of questions we should send.
There is always a subjective judgment on the selection/gathering criteria. By leaving your questions, you are accepting these will be considered but may not find their way into the final set of questions.
- After all and regardless of the amount and questions to send, it will be up to the Designers team to select those they will want to answer (if not all of them).
This is again a great opportunity for most of us, to get the proper answers and find more about what's going on behind the scenes.
So please don't be shy and ask!
Posts
15 comments:
Was a remote-controlled version considered/tested?
- Did you consider other special-purpose equipment features, such as trainwheel axles, snowplows and mowers for the grass alongside the highways etc? If so, what eventually made you choose the snowplow/pneumatic crane?.
- Does the license of Mercedes-Benz also allow the Lego group to release sets depicting other Mercedes cars, like the SLS (or the C112 which could make for nice PF actions)?
Have future implements been considered as future products for the Unimog? Or is it up to us to create our own?
- did you ever consider adding a gearbox?
- did you ever consider a tilting truck bed, maybe on the side?
Did you consider making the crane stableizers pneumatic?
I'm not that bothered by it but I know other people would like to know what made you decide to use grey wheels instead of black as seen in a previous prototype version?
Longer pneumatics?
(hahaha had to get it in one way or another!)
@Allanp
LOL
Where would you put them? :)
Anyway, the small pump was 0,5L longer, wasn't it!?... ;D
So they have heard you, probably sooner that you was expectin. :)
Markus, could you describe what your thoughts were when the Lego Unimog model "evolved", step-by-step, in this photograph? http://storage.technicbricks.com/Media/2011/TBs_20110610_1/TBs_20110610_1b.jpg . The size and proportions of the Unimog changed considerably over time. How many of the changes were dictated by Mercedes-Benz?
@ Conchas
Well, I was joking obviously, it's not even a question haha. But seeing as you asked ;^) the arm could easily be designed to accomodate them and give it even more lifting power and range of movement. I'de also use them for the stableizers as they would be long enough to take up the suspention and just slightly lift the rear wheels off the ground when extended and be well clear of the ground when retracted, even when the suspention is fully compressed. The current ones are nowhere near long enough to do that without using the standard, unrealistic technic linkages used for stableizers that the unimog currently uses. I have never seen stableizers like the unimog has on any real life vehicle. They usually just have a long hydraulic cylinder mounted verticly to lift the vehicle. But still, all ramming longer pneumatics into every possible situation aside LOL, to me the Unimog is possibly the best technic set ever released, easily better than anything released over the past 15 years.
My question for Markus is:
Usually during the process from prototype to customer-ready model many changes are made. Which of those changes you regret most?
@Junkstyle Gio
That's a good one!
Great to see you back here. :)
-Are some new models based on Mercedes-Benz vehicles planned ?
-At which point people from MB were involved in the design of the product ?
Given that this is a licensed model which you had to design to a very specific real-world vehicle, how did the build/design process compare to, for example, 8053 Mobile Crane or 8265 Front Loader, where no specific vehicle had to be represented?
Why was there no gearbox, and why was there no Power Functions RC drive function? Lots of people have said that they would pay more for that function, and it would have been a very simple conversion.
@ walters.stephen1
I think it was probably expensive enough for most people as it is. The important thing is that we got a lot of new pieces (like the torque tubes and portal wheel hub gearboxes) that allow us to easily, intuatively, robustly and efficiently add our own RC functionality if we wish to.
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