Though, I´m not satisfied with the winch. It was a last minute decision to operate it motorized. Due to the concept of my transmission, I was forced to gear down the motor speed first, then travel all the way up into the crane, and gear up the speed again. This causes a lot of friction, and the result is a not perfect running winch. I struggled with myself a lot about removing the function, but decided to keep it because I thought an imperfect function was better than no function. This Lego Technic " Launch Umbilical Tower" for the Saturn V (21309 or 92176) was designed with the focus to have a cheap build. So I decided to make a Triple-Alternate: I started with sorting the parts and making some concept studies in early April 2020. Due to family & job obligations, I was unable to work on it continuously. So it took until December 2020 until the instructions were ready. Only the parts from the Lego Technic Sets 42055, 42082 and 42098 are required to build this LUT+Crawler. (except for the additional cord for crane operation, see below) While the LEGO Group hasn’t called attention to the change, it appears to have been made for structural reasons. In the original model, a ‘fez’ element connects to the underside of the plate, representing the lander’s engine nozzle. The open hole of the Technic plate presumably has stronger clutch power to hold that piece in place – and, therefore, the entire lander, which is otherwise not connected to the 10×10 plate it rests on.

The elevator is a great addition, but guiding the wire into place was not a fun experience for me. That will probably be a personal thing, but make sure you have a good supply of patience when you start here ;-). Seeing it work in the end makes it worth it. However, other changes like for example an improved transmission with less friction would mean a significant redesign for big sections of the LUT. And this is not easily done with a simple update. I am very happy about the elevator and how smooth it works. It took me a lot of time figuring out the correct setting of the wheels and pulleys, but in the end it worked really smoothly at my preferred speed. The power functions in the tower are not perfect. Unfortunately, the small motor is a bit overwhelmed with the gear ratio, so it is very important to build all gears with as less friction as possible and to use freshly charged batteries when playing.Concerning favourite part: I would nominate the technic panels (3x11, 5x11 and the new 3x7). On the one hand they are really robust and make structures quite stable, on the other hand they can perfectly be used as cover.

As countdown begins to 92176 NASA Apollo Saturn V’s release from November 1, let’s take a look at 21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V. — Set details — Each chapter has its own inventory. If explanations in the instructions are needed, they are written in English and German.

If you want to support us with our fight against Chinese MOC-thieves, join the FB group from Stefano Mapelli: Facebook group link And since the finally selected Technic sets also contain a lot of gears and two motors, I got the idea to motorize as much functions as possible. Originally, I didn't really want to do that. Are you buying sets with the intention of turning them into MOC’s or do you design MOC’s from your larger collection? My name is Daniel and I work as a mechanical engineer for the automotive industry. I returned to Lego in 2014, when a colleague of mine was very excited about his 42009 mobile crane. It was my wife who finally gave the 42009 to me as birthday present, not knowing what she was activating in me… ;-)

If the set had been released a little later, in 2019 on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, it would get a lot more attention. But I'm sure it will still be on shelves at that time, perhaps even getting a new boost in production. Yes, there are some things which I could have done differently. Some of them I have added as optional updates to the LUT instructions. Having exactly 1969 parts is quite a clever achievement, I wonder how many iterations it took to add or remove just a few more parts to get to that magic number! Three nanofigures are included to represent the three-man teams that the Saturn V transported into space from 1968 and to the moon from 1969 to 1972. Perhaps a decade ago the novelty of receiving LEGO representations of the astronauts in the form of plain white nanofigures would have been enough, but the fine prints that capture a great amount of detail from their suits is remarkable and truly elevates the quality, finish and authenticity of the entire set that much further.

Although the crawler is permanently integrated, it can simply be omitted for a display model without a crawler.