LEGO 92176 Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V

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Are you buying sets with the intention of turning them into MOC’s or do you design MOC’s from your larger collection? Although the crawler is permanently integrated, it can simply be omitted for a display model without a crawler. Yes, there are some things which I could have done differently. Some of them I have added as optional updates to the LUT instructions. 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. Since I bought the 21309 Saturn V, I thought about building a LUT for it. My first LUT MOC was completely without red parts, however I wasn't happy with the result. So I thought about how to get a relatively cheap LUT that looks as close as possible to the original. And since I didn´t want to buy hundreds of red fences which I couldn´t use for anything else, it was obvious to me to design the whole thing as an alternate MOC. After counting the red parts in a few Technic sets, it turned out that one needs at least three sets to get a reasonably red painted tower.

I have bought most of my AFOL sets with the intention to make a cool MOC out of them. Because I first want to realize my own ideas, I have never even built the A model for several of my sets. If there is still some time after building some MOCs, I will (maybe ;-)) build the A-model. The crane works on the edge of the motor's capacity. The raising and lowering goes very jerky. I feel it's caused by the worm-gear on the axle with the wire, but I'm not 100% sure that is the real issue, or the last straw. 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.I'm a huge space fan, so this set was an automatic must-have from the moment it was announced. Now I just have to figure out how to display such a huge model :) 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: A variant without Power Functions in the tower (manual operation) is being planned and will then be added to this MOC as an update.

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 Holy crap, this was an intense but so satisfying build! I have to admit that I was a bit overwhelmed at first by the size, not sure I would be able to finish this. But here we are! Total build time was around 18 hours, including part of the photography. 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. For example what I miss the most are the fuel pipes. Therefore I have recently released the update No.4 where I added the fuel pipes, and in my opinion this is the most important update. Other updates (No.1-3) improve the overall color scheme, such as more red parts on the tower.

Build - Stage 3

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. 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.

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… ;-)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. 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! You see, the original LEGO Ideas set includes 26 dark grey 2×4 plates. The relaunched version, however, includes just 25. The missing piece has instead been swapped out for a 2×4 plate with Technic holes, which is put to use in the mini Lunar Lander that accompanies the main model. You can see the difference in the instructions for both sets below.