[REVIEW] LEGO Classics: 8868 Air Tech Claw Rig

[Sariel]

Blast from the past! This time we go back to 1992 and to perhaps one of the most awesome sets in entire Technic history.

[Bob De Quatre]

Thanks for the review Sariel

I so loved this set back then! I reused the rims and tires in a big MOC last year

[zux]

Great review as always. Is there a reason you keep pressing button on BB while operating pump?

[Sariel]

Yeah, it's easier to make it stop when I want this way.

[PaMe]

Great review, i was eleven and a cold christmas evening when i opend the big present. Big eyes, big thanks to my parents and three days of building. Surprised that everything works Fine

[Appie]

Cool review of a great classic.

Built it from my own parts when I was little and bought the set a couple of years ago just to have it. Your first "con" about the manual I consider a "pro" though. I love those old manuals. Comparing studded sets part count vs studless sets part count isn't really fair imo, but ya, they got alot of mileage out of a few pieces back in the day.

Any chance you will be doing more "classic" reviews?

[AOW]

Thank you Pawel for this review, I have been waiting for it for some time. Greate set and greate review!!

[kieran]

One of my favourite sets of all time, still have mine on a shelf, was in the loft for years, got it out Beatrice's in and all worked. Wish the turning of thee Crain was a little smoother though.

[LucyCol]

I still have mine on display from all those years ago. The 'B' model is also worth a build as I think it is the only Technic model that had automatically working pneumatics

[Lego Nerd]

The review is very well done! (I hope this means you're doing better?)

I found the speed build quite interesting, too. I think that it has so few pieces relative to modern sets because the ones it has are primarily bigger. Also, does the pneumatic hose count as one piece, because you have to cut it?

When you said it would be "unfair" to judge this set by modern standards, did you mean unfair to modern sets?

[Foggy]

Great review as always. It was my childhood dream too, managed to buy it 2 years ago and love it too. Old instructions are cooler than modern ones, i love them, in one step you put the pieces you put in 10 steps of nowadays books and you had to see carefully where tmput the pieces compared to the previous image. This is so cool. Nowadays ones are too easy, you find even arrows that show you where to put the piece..

Probably in the near future instructions we'll find even the suggestion note "take a break and go to the toilet" .... :(

[emielroumen]

Very nice review of this set! I'm a happy owner too. The counterweight seems to be incorrectly placed (1 stud), correct?

[roppie11]

my grandma, where i sometimes slept over, had this set(from an ucle of mine). I wanted to build it but a lot of parts were lost or my uncles brought it with them when they moved. I only built the yellow upperstructure. I was 12 at that time and i had no problems with it. by now i realise how difficult the instructions were at that time compared to nowadays. my father has instructions for the B-model. as a kid, i remember looking at the instructions, but not being able to build it.(no parts) i am actually too young for this set, but i have good memories about it.

[Grosse Kind]

Love it! Always get a smile from the hamster.

A small note: if you move the counterweight brick outboard by one stud it has more leverage and allows the lower hoses a straighter run around the main pivot. Your placement is neater, but when i tried it on mine the hoses felt slightly crushed/kinked.

Was good to have a comparitive in video form as i often wondered if the turntable action of mine was slow or a little jerky due to my assembly/stiff and worn cylinders.

P.s. I really hope the lego group picks up your dwarf hamster set for production, i'm actually excited to be able to buy and assemble one!

Edit:

Very nice review of this set! I'm a happy owner too. The counterweight seems to be incorrectly placed (1 stud), correct?

Just spotted this. Hadn't intent to duplicate.

Edited May 29, 2016 by Grosse Kind

[CP5670]

Great review, this is still among my favorite Technic sets ever. It was not well advertised in the US (doesn't appear in any of the mini-catalogs here) and I only found out about it many years later, but got two of them immediately at that point. The B model is also very good and its functionality has never been seen in Technic again since then. I like the old instructions much better (although this set was pretty tame compared to say, 8865), as well as the premium boxes we had back then. The compressor is not well designed though, locking up quickly and not going through the full stroke of the piston.

[WvG_853]

Thanks to this great review I decided last year to buy the 8868. I have just completed building this set. It took me 5 evenings. Until this review I was not convinced by the looks of this set. How wrong I was! This is indeed a real classic and one of the more challenging and satisying Technic builds. So if you get an opportunity to buy/build this set, don't hesitate!

[Josephiah]

Remember the Compressor Truck (as it was known in the UK) fondly - from my and my school friends' jaws dropping when it first appeared in the Lego catalogue, to the point when I stupidly sold it on as a too-cool-for-lego teenager (fortunately I held onto my other 90s flagships!).  And yes, the B-model is well worth the build with it's automatic pneumatic loop.

Also shows up the modern pneumatic sets on how pneumatic tube routing ought to be done!

[TechnicSummse]

This was the first set i HAD to buy again after my dark ages. It was a christmasgift once, when i was 8 years old...but a few years later, when i became older...my mom gave it away to the neighbourhood...

Now i own it again, and i love it... this is in my eyes still the best technic set ever.

 

When i got my 8366 later, i started to play with the rc-stuff... and i will... one day... finish this "secret" project:

Now i own PF-elements also, wich would make it a lot easier to make a rc-version of this beauty, but does new PF elements fit to this 25 year old model?

Edited September 2, 2017 by TechnicSummse

[Mechbuilds]

Man.. Technic used to be hardcore. I can imagine the joy when kids got this set back in the day. Hours upon hours of fun. 

[Erik Leppen]

This is wonderful. One really big pro you forgt to mention, IMO, is the incredibly cool alternative model. It looks a bit odd, but it has a really clever automatic pneumatic system not found in any set ever since. (If you haven't built the alternative model yet, you really should. The looks don't do it justice).

But what catches my eye is the instructions. I know them, I started Technic with 8853, but being used to modern instructions now, what I really dislike about the old ones is that you work on everything af once. There's zero modularity. Why not first the chassis  then the cabin, then the details on the truck, then the superstructure, then the crane, then the grabber? I think what modern instructuions teach better than old ones, is that things are built up from smaller functional sub-things. (Set 8448 was the absolute king of this aspect).

But great to see you doing such a review. Too bad about the glaring mistake in the set number in the first shot. Hope you will be doing more reviews. If I may do one suggestion, please check out 8460 some day. It's my favorite studded set.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Beautiful set and amazing review Sariel!