Pedro Antunes Posted July 7, 2012 Posted July 7, 2012 (edited) More interesting than 9398 ,not a hope ha ha. Maybe if it could fly it would be interesting. I dont like 9398 and apart from the new motors I dont see any particular reason to buy it... 9396 on the other hand really appeals to me and is surely on my buy list, I will however try to motorize as many functions as possible. Edited July 7, 2012 by Pedro Antunes Quote
Crazydance Posted July 8, 2012 Posted July 8, 2012 I dont like 9398 and apart from the new motors I dont see any particular reason to buy it... 9396 on the other hand really appeals to me and is surely on my buy list, I will however try to motorize as many functions as possible. I motorized the 8086 heli just as easy, however i'm thinking you won't actually be enabling the rotation of the most imporant parts anyhow. Just as you don't have the motorized driving in the 8070 set. In that case such a model quickly decreases in playability. Quote
freakwave Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 Looking forward to have mine in tonight, latest Sunday night. I will post a review by then. Finger are itching to build it! Finally, I got mine yesterday and am in the midst of building and documenting it, currently done with the first book. The second book will get interesting as it starts with the rotor adjustment and the distribution of most of the functions from the multitude of gears on top. From what is visible to me right now is that most functions are switched with the driving rings, also the rotation of the rotor. So either rotate them or use the hook. The good news is that it has quite a lot of space behind its doors which should allow to split some of the functions (Roto an Hook) fW Quote
Crazydance Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 Finally, I got mine yesterday and am in the midst of building and documenting it, currently done with the first book. The second book will get interesting as it starts with the rotor adjustment and the distribution of most of the functions from the multitude of gears on top. From what is visible to me right now is that most functions are switched with the driving rings, also the rotation of the rotor. So either rotate them or use the hook. The good news is that it has quite a lot of space behind its doors which should allow to split some of the functions (Roto an Hook) fW The model is power functions ready right? Please let us know what the normal addition of the motor does, and what you have personally done if you decide to do the PF functions your own way. I'm very interested in this model because of all the functions, but i'm not getting it when it's not possible to make the blades rotate on PF motors. If you can't do that you might as well get the crawler. Quote
Wiseman_2 Posted July 9, 2012 Posted July 9, 2012 The model is power functions ready right? Please let us know what the normal addition of the motor does, and what you have personally done if you decide to do the PF functions your own way. I'm very interested in this model because of all the functions, but i'm not getting it when it's not possible to make the blades rotate on PF motors. If you can't do that you might as well get the crawler. The instructions show that the motor attaches to the gearbox, and as you can rotate the blades through the gearbox, by extension, you can also do it with the motor. Quote
Rodeown Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 (edited) Just reserved one at local Argos here in UK, will pick it up later as i have to go to a different Argos to pick up my Rock Crawler! Edit: Wife just got back with this ! Edited July 21, 2012 by Rodeown Quote
gjpauler Posted August 3, 2012 Posted August 3, 2012 (edited) Technic set 852 in 1977 already had collective pitch on main rotor blades with fixed tail rotor blades. So in terms of real helicopter engineering, the only advancement of 9396 are main rotor blades, wihch finally have something to do with aerodynamics, after so many ridiculus attempts (eg. blades at 8068) Compare 9396 with the following MOCs having roughly the same number of components, than decide about its design yourself: Bad Guys Escape Helicopter Steph77's UH-1 The alternative set of 9396 with intermeshing blades is more interesting, but it is not better than A model in terms of helicopter engineering. Edited August 3, 2012 by gjpauler Quote
Brickthus Posted August 3, 2012 Posted August 3, 2012 9396 is the best helicopter TLG have produced IMHO, but it has a few let-down features too. It was great to see a return to individual pitch control of the main rotor blades (following 852), and the effort that has gone into making them a more realistic shape. The tail rotor blades add to the improvement in the shape of key components. Those and the main rotor blades were the parts that attracted me to this set in particular. I would not be surprised if the tail rotor blades turned up in a City set later on. The problem with the tail rotor blades is that if you just put them onto axles, they would quickly fly off if you revved the rotor up to any significant speed (i.e. for generating thrust). This hinders their use for anything aerodynamic, such as improving the 2nd model of 9394 (a propeller plane). For real aerodynamics the blades would have to be mounted other than at the orthogonal twist positions of an axle, which is not easy to achieve. The weight of the rotor hub to do this properly is prohibitive for small blades - I designed one for either the large blades or the blades from the 9688 Educational Energy Add-On Set. Other parts of note include the z36 gear. There is also one in 9398, so well done TLG for getting more large cogs out into the wild. The bevel brackets (x3) are useful, with similar geometry to the right-angle LA brackets. The z28 turntable (also in 9397) is useful but this is the element that restricts the pitch control to be collective-only. It would need a large z56 turntable for cyclic pitch as well (this is a welcome line of technology development for us AFOLs and TFOLs in the community!). The gear mix is biased towards 16-tooth cogs in this set and 12- and 20-tooth cogs in 9398. Insignificant if you're a seasoned collector but better to have both sets if you're new to Technic. The body panels include one of each red large panel, one of the more aerodynamic ones for anyone who wants to make a LEGO helicopter take off! There is also the long thin panel for the tail. This will offset the number of left and right ones that TLG make - look out for the next helicopter using the other-hand one! There are 4 pairs of thin medium yellow panels and few small ones. The yellow ones go well with the straight panels used under the doors. If TLG don't have any large yellow panels then that might be a reason for the mixed colour scheme. By hand the rotor rotation, landing gear retraction, ramp lift and winch are quite playable, but there is difference when the motor is added. With the motor, the rotor rotation is a good demonstration but not so fast that it would be dangerous for a younger fan swooshing it round the house! The landing gear and ramp are OK at this speed too but the winch struggles to overcome the friction of its friction peg. I modded the mechanism by speeding up the motor with 16:16 instead of the prescribed 8:24 ratio. Without the clutch gear you have to watch out that the motor doesn't stall. The 3x speed increase made the rotor rotation much more realistic (160rpm is typical for a real helicopter and this is a little faster). I could then feel a small down-draught from the rotor at full collective pitch but it's still not significant in terms of lift. The landing gear and ramp are much more responsive with a faster motor drive but again the winch falls short - I didn't expect anything because a lower ratio also struggled. I would recommend that the friction peg for the winch be geared down by 3:1 from the winch shaft. This would be sufficient to maintain the winch location without burdening the motor. The landing gear internal mechanism seems overly complicated. Previous sets have used gears for this, leaving a more discreet mechanism. The pitch control mechanism is a bit clumsy. It clearly doesn't use the parts to best effect, with a friction-peg 1x3 with hole expected to straighten up to keep the vertical axle vertical. It doesn't do this very well. A good haul of standard parts. 5 mechanisms plus sliding doors is OK for £70 - I usually reckon at least 1 function for every £10. Shame the colour scheme is mixed - I would have preferred all-yellow like a Sea King, and 5-blade rotors would have been a challenge! I found the mixed colour scheme put me off buying more of them. Still, I bought a second one to see if rotors with 8 blades can generate any lift comparable to the 200g I achieved with the large panels (I also bought 2x 9394s at sale price for more of those panels and especially the long racks). So TLG won't worry as 2 is probably more than they expected me to buy of both 9396 and 9394! Before I bought the new kits I expected to buy up to 6 9396s for the blades and maybe a couple of 9398s for the motors. Having built them I think more than 2x 9396s will need justification that the blades from 2 make it worthwhile, but I might get another in a sale. By contrast I'm much keener on the servo motors than I expected to be, but more of that in the 9398 thread! You could fit a servo motor to the pitch control if you have 9398 too. Only worth it if you have the rotors going faster though! Hope this helps those of you who needed a comprehensive review! Mark Quote
Crazydance Posted August 4, 2012 Posted August 4, 2012 TLG just can't get EVERYBODY happy. I think this set is a really good attempt at a complex helicopter with enough functions to blow EVERY model TLG made in the history of technic right out of the water. I haven't seen this beast hands-on but merely forming my opinion on youtube / images, but it just looks like sheer quality. unlike other verhicular sets out at this time. It's fun to build and play with it. And has enough cool parts to keep older builders happy. If you like air-based technic models you should definately get it. If you like technic in general, you should get it too. I just cannot believe this set wouldn't get you the technical satisfaction it promises. I'm just going to get it when my finances allow me to, but it's right on the top of my ligt, with the new crawler and the logging truck right behind it. Quote
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