Pictorial Review: 8868 Air Tech Claw Rig/Materials Handler

[Lost_In_Noise]

Since more than 15 years I own this one and I love it!

Can you tell me the product-id of the white ruber strap? My own cracked after this long time.

Regards Mike

According to Bricklink, this is the one used. You can buy a replacement for approx 1 Euros from BrickLink.

Thanks for the great review! It's impressive to see what the LEGO designers could come up with while using the limited parts selection they had. The pneumatic boom slew is a great function, and I like that both rear axles turn a differential.

Where does the weight go? Rear of the superstructure?

The big black brick in the back(left) is the counterweight. It can also be seen in this picture:

[Meisseli]

I began to wonder what's wrong with the picture... and yes, it seems you have made an error when placing the counterweight. Can you spot the difference when compared to this: http://www.brickfact...00/8868/034.jpg ?

(these details I seem to remember very well, when really important stuff in life I keep forgetting... sigh)

Edited January 18, 2013 by Meisseli

[Lost_In_Noise]

I began to wonder what's wrong with the picture... and yes, it seems you have made an error when placing the counterweight. Can you spot the difference when compared to this: http://www.brickfact...00/8868/034.jpg ?

(these details I seem to remember very well, when really important stuff in life I keep forgetting... sigh)

I did. Thanks for letting me know. It performs a bit better now, with less pressure applied to the turntable.

[Bob De Quatre]

Thanks for that review. Reading it remembered me how fun it was to play with that model when I was a child, and by coincidence I'm currently building using a lot of parts of this set like the black counterweight

[Mike_K]

According to Bricklink, this is the one used. You can buy a replacement for approx 1 Euros from BrickLink.

Thanks! I think this is a very good investment!

Regards Mike :)

[TinkerBrick]

@ Lost_In_Noise

Thanks for this great review. I read quite a few of those now and although i'm trying to get into studless building for about 2 years now (exit dark ages) my finger begin to itch to get those boxes out of my basement storage and rediscover my old sets. I'd really love to take them apart (8868, 8880, etc.) take them apart, rebuild them and set them up for display.

[Samanen]

Great review! You made me want this set even more now..

[Commander Smith]

Yes! You correctly identified what is almost universally known as a 'steering CV joint.' CV stands for constant velocity, but the universal joint does not maintain the same velocity.

[Lost_In_Noise]

Thanks for the nice comments people. I sure do appreciate it

[Josephiah]

Nice review - one of my favourite sets when I was little, sadly sold onto a friend for a criminally low price when I was a teenager scraping together funds for some crap CD (what was I thinking!).

One thing that I don't think anyone picked up on about the B-model is how clever the pneumatic system is, automatically switching itself in a recurring loop - a brilliant piece of programming work with no electronic control.

[Nikolay]

Steep sets!

[ludov]

I realise we're waking up an old thread here, but I loved this set as a kid. Seeing the review and pictures again makes me want to rebuild it. Maybe an improved version

The B-model is indeed awesome. As a kid I didn't understand that it was "pneumatically programmed", but I sure did enjoy it. Awesome set, my all time favourite!

[AOW]

A question to 8868 owners - does your set the "tower" rotates more than 180 degrees? On my if I rotate it to the left (looking from top to front) it will go up to 90deg. But when I do the right turn i will go up to 95-100 degrees. Do you have similar ?

[Blakbird]

A question to 8868 owners - does your set the "tower" rotates more than 180 degrees? On my if I rotate it to the left (looking from top to front) it will go up to 90deg. But when I do the right turn i will go up to 95-100 degrees. Do you have similar ?

The rotation is limited by the stroke of the pneumatic actuators. How far it goes in each direction depends on which tooth of the rack gears you used when you built it. The overall travel can be a little more than 180 degrees.

[AOW]

The rotation is limited by the stroke of the pneumatic actuators. How far it goes in each direction depends on which tooth of the rack gears you used when you built it. The overall travel can be a little more than 180 degrees.

Thank you Blakbird, this can be the solution I need to check it again - as per instruction I push in on actuator and pull out other and then mounted it all step-by-step :)