Barman's Mini 8852 made slightly more mini ;)

[Appie]

I actually made this during the Mini contest after being inspired by Barman's version. It's based on Barman's solution for the transformation of the robot, but reduced in size:

The reason the 6L axle is running here through the front pulley wheels is to prevent the mechanism from locking up if you apply force to the top of the robot. It takes quite a bit of force to do it, but since this is a toy. I have to keep the children in mind

Compared to Barman's Mini:

- In car mode the main body of the model is 1 stud lower (4 vs 5)

- Main body is 6 studs wide instead of 9

- Main body is 16 studs long instead of 19 (gear for function included at the rear)

- Robot is 14 studs tall instead of 18 studs

During the contest I already gave Barman a few photos of this robot to see if he liked it. He thought it was pretty cool, but some scales were a little off, a problem he also faced. He suggested I tried to get the "body" of the robot slimmer. So I tried and this was the result:

I really like the yellow "lines" I managed on the top of this version of the model:

Overall they both work as intended, but each version has a few things I don't like, but as Barman also pointed out to me, you can't have everything you want in a Lego model

Things I like about the first version:

- While some scales are off with the original 8852 (the width of the "body" of the robot and how far the front wheels move back for robot mode) quite a few are pretty spot on with the original 8852. My goal was 60% of the original. Which I managed (give or take a few %) for the width of the model, the height of the robot in general, the space between the front and rear wheels in "car mode", the size of the head and the robot's body height, the width of the "shoulders". The height of the main frame is 50% (4 studs compared to the original 8 studs, but 5 studs has already been done by Barman )

- It feels more like a modern set and a bit more sturdy than version 2, probably because the robot mechanism has slightly more room to move forward

- The big knob for steering. I have big hands the axle connector control works, but is a little flimsy for me.

- I like how the outer black 2x4 liftarms on the main frame have a function in this model to hold the half liftarms of the robot's "body"

Things I don't like about the first version:

- How far the front wheels move backwards. This is something that I (perhaps somebody else may) can't fix with this mechanism. For it to mimic the original 8852 movement I'd propably have to resort to actually using a 24T gear like the original to get the proper gear ratios on the movement.

- The width of the "body" of the robot

Things I like about version 2:

- 3 Stud "body" of the robot

- The yellow lines at the top of the model I mentioned at the picture

- "Vintage" ( ) Lego Technic solutions (steering plates and connectors at the pulley wheels) used for the mechanism to get the result I wanted.

- Actually using the 4th stud of the main frame instead of just using it as space for the pulley wheels and to connect the rear wheels.

Things I don't like about the second version:

- The head, though I could have probaly tweaked it some more if I gave it more time

- While most scales compared to the original 8852 are still pretty spot on I don't really like the shoulders losing a stud, but I can't find an alternative while still using these arms (which are my prefered arms)

- The robot mechanism has slightly less movement (1MM forward and back) compared to the first version. The robot can still fully erect, but while lowered the steering mechanism misses it's support that the "body" of the robot provides and touches the front of the robot when you steer. I tried to reverse the pulley wheels and old steering plates with old connectors to give it more room upfront, but it didn't have the desired effect. Propably the old stuff giving it some more wiggle room too compared to modern connectors.

- The use of this part is not completely how it is supposed to be.

The problem is the friction ridges on this. Now I don't want to start a rant how Lego is breaking ancient Lego Technic laws of grey being frictionless and black having friction, especially since this part exists in both colours and I serioulsy don't see a reason which models would care if this part was black or grey. Rather I want to rant about the fact that this part isn't the same for every part of this type in grey that I encounter. Even in the same set I can have some which on one side of the part have the outer half of the pin being frictionless and the inner half having friction and vice versa. Or the entire pin has no friction while the other side of the part only has half of the pin frictionless. The same goes for this part.

So my model used 1 that has no friction on the inner halves of the pins on this part. Funny enough this was the first pin I grabbed from my 42006 box (then thinking they all worked like this) and built this version 2 of the 8852 around that. Now while I had some other ideas to use instead of this part, I didn't put them use yet (busy on other stuff). Main thing I face is the dependance of this model in general on the rear pulley wheels. Originally I used these to get the desired 2x2 "half liftarm" going instead of the 3x3 half liftarm from Barman's model. The half stud offset these provide, turned out to be quite essential for this model and are not as easily replaced. The reason why this is quite essential for the model is because I have the 8T gears on the same part of the wormgear. Put one a stud back you say? Kind of ruins the the goal of this model (being smaller) since that would mean having to move the pulley wheels one stud back or the body of the robot 1 stud back, the latter I don't want for looks and the first I would probably have to make the main frame a stud wider for the rear wheels or lose some structural integrity (which I never like).

After building the second version after Barman's suggestion (version 2 is also a few weeks old) I rebuild the original version I made. Mainly because I don't like the use of this part, but also because the first model felt more like a model Lego could release now. I do want to know which version you guys like more though (I don't know how to add a poll) or if you have suggestions to get the "body" to 3 studs while keeping the rest of the model the same in terms of size, because I do like that 3 stud robot "body"

Thanks for reading and a big thanks to Barman and his awesome model which inspired this one

[grum64]

Brilliant little build. Well done

[Lakop]

Love the model and those old school arms. They take me back to the 70's.

H

[Rishab N]

Nice work!

[Black-Build]

Its very nice!

[Appie]

Thanks everybody!

I really like the arms as well, especially the hands provide a nice little nod to the original 8852 and they tuck away nicely below the 4x2 liftarms in car mode, making them part of the rear wheel fenders