TECHNIC Sets from 2010

[Blakbird]

A few thoughts:

• The excavator is smaller than I was expecting. It doesn't really look any bigger than 8294, yet they have managed to pack several motors into it. I will be interested to see how they packaged the functions. I'm also glad to have a bunch of the new panels in yellow.
  
• The wheels on the motorcycle look new. Are they the same tires as 8420?
  
• It's been a long time since we had anything in blue. The skip loader truck looks almost identical to 8292 in layout. The loading mechanism should be fun.
  
• The crane has a lot of pieces!! The other thing I noticed is that it clearly has a bunch of the old studded technic bricks in yellow. These are quite welcome since they are getting pretty hard to find. I guess we get more pieces for our money than the excavator since it has no motors. Given the linear actuators though, I'm sure you can add a motor.
  
• Any box views that show the alternate models?
  

Edited February 3, 2010 by Blakbird

[Darth Legolas]

Oh goody, another mobile crane.

I think these all look great. With my new advances into technic, I'd say the bike looks awesome, the blue truck looks all-too-familiar, the mobile crane looks like an improvement, and the excavator is fabulous.

Better all around!

[ZO6]

[*]It's been a long time since we had anything in blue. The skip loader truck looks almost identical to 8292 in layout. The loading mechanism should be fun.

[*]The crane has a lot of pieces!! The other thing I noticed is that it clearly has a bunch of the old studded technic bricks in yellow. These are quite welcome since they are getting pretty hard to find. I guess we get more pieces for our money than the excavator since it has no motors. Given the linear actuators though, I'm sure you can add a motor.

You're right, the studded beams are a nice addition to the crane. Funny though that with the blue truck having so many similarities to the 8292 Cherry Picker that they ditched the nice brick built sections at the front of the cab in favor of yet more panels (and with stickers...).

Overall a great year for Technic

[CP5670]

A few thoughts:

• The excavator is smaller than I was expecting. It doesn't really look any bigger than 8294, yet they have managed to pack several motors into it. I will be interested to see how they packaged the functions. I'm also glad to have a bunch of the new panels in yellow.
  
• The wheels on the motorcycle look new. Are they the same tires as 8420?
  
• It's been a long time since we had anything in blue. The skip loader truck looks almost identical to 8292 in layout. The loading mechanism should be fun.
  
• The crane has a lot of pieces!! The other thing I noticed is that it clearly has a bunch of the old studded technic bricks in yellow. These are quite welcome since they are getting pretty hard to find. I guess we get more pieces for our money than the excavator since it has no motors. Given the linear actuators though, I'm sure you can add a motor.
  
• Any box views that show the alternate models?
  

I had the same thoughts on 8043. The small size is not necessarily a bad thing in my book, and the low piece count suggests that it will cost less than the common $150 price for flagship sets. I think the motors are all the M type in the picture. I'm guessing there are two motors in the chassis and two on the turning platform, which means that either the turntable is oriented upside down or this is one of the very few sets to use the inner teeth on it.

The entire boom on 8053 seems nearly identical to that of 8421, but the main chassis is smaller. That looks like a good set for people who don't already have 8421. The studded yellow bricks are reasonably common in other themes. It's a good thing that so many other themes use Technic construction these days, which has ensured that there is no shortage of Technic bricks on Bricklink even though we hardly get any in the Technic theme itself.

The motorcycle wheels look the same as the ones in 8420, but the tires are strangely very shiny. Maybe they are not made of the usual rubber material.

[d00dz]

Wow very nice I want!

The 8051 looks alot like the 8420! Just looks like it's got more bling

[5150 Lego]

The new crane just looks like a baby version of 8421. Not complaining, just an abservation. I love cranes!

[Routemaster]

Can anyone tell what it is on the 8041 box in the orange Power Function stripe? Right above the Lego-card?

Battery box, ok. The two remote controls, ok. But then. What is it? Looks new to me.

[JunkstyleGio]

Can anyone tell what it is on the 8041 box in the orange Power Function stripe? Right above the Lego-card?

Battery box, ok. The two remote controls, ok. But then. What is it? Looks new to me.

To me it looks that those are the 4 m-motors! Nothing new...

[Sumendar]

Nice to see new photos, but why, oh why, is it always the worst photographers that get such million-dollar opportunities of taking pictures? I understand that he's not a Technic-oriented AFOL, but why on earth did he take both of the excavator shots with the frigging box directly behind the exactly same coloured model? Now a lot of the details are buried in a jumble of yellow, especially in such a tiny resolution photo.

More on topic, 1123 pieces on the excavator is a bit of a bummer, compared to the 8265 front loader we're getting 62 more pieces, including 1 linear actuator more, 4 M-motors, 2 IR remotes, 2 IR receivers and a battery box for a probable extra price of ~70USD / 60-90EUR. Cheaper than buying them one by one from S@H, but not a lot. Note that this estimate is based on the preliminary prices which put it at the same level as the 8258 crane truck, at the 8297 off-roader pricepoint it would be bargain. Still looking forward to this and definitely buying, if only for extra tracks and guaranteed newer firmware IR stuff (the firmware thing may become a problem at Bricklink if the single-pin mode catches on).

For the crane, I'm a bit on the edge. If the boom extender is a good design and reasonably motorizable, then maybe. Depends a bit on the pricepoint too. Probably will be above 100EUR here, in which case definitely not buying at full price.

The container truck looks like it might be the second most interesting model of the bunch, nice functionality at a lower price.

Motorcycle will be a definite hit seller, the wheels are definitely not the ones from 8420, the spoke pairs widen towards the rim here, opposite of 8420 where they widen towards hub. The tyres look similar, not 100% sure of the size though. In any case, a street bike for a change.

[deAraujo]

So awesome!!

The excavator seems to have several different parts from the early image we saw (driver seat, and several beams in the articulation of the bucket and dipper for instance).

The 8052 blue truck was a realy nice surprise for me it has great aesthetics and interesting functions

I don´t think The 8053 mobile crane is so much smaller than the 8421...

the wheels are about the same size and the distance between them (between axles) is a little longer...

I think we´ll have a surprisingly big crane!

And correct if I´m wrong, what is that dark part in the end oh the crane (visible in the small picture in the right corner)?

Well, it should be the counterwheight... but it has a strange form

Edited February 4, 2010 by deAraujo

[allanp]

Another new picture of the excavtor = another dissapointment

Maybe it's much better than I think it is, having all that function switching business people have mentioned allowing the motors to control 6 functions, but even motorising the little shift lever isn't exactly a leap forward in creativity. Can't know for sure until we get more pics/info but for now, i'm still not impressed. The whole thing looks so rushed and unfinished and nowhere near filling the potential of a technic flagship excavator. This seems to be becoming another trend (like the one of a godd flagship followed by a not so good one the next year) where the designer, as talented as they are, isn't being given enough time to properly finish a set due to TLGs desire to shorten the time it takes to go from intial idea to final release.

The bike looks cool, an improvement on the previous street bike and it's nice to see a transverse engine setup which is uncommon in technic even though most motorbikes have that setup.

The crane looks bland, again we get functions controlled by knobs right by the function itself, using no interesting mechanisms to operate them (if you didn't see, look at the ends of the stableisers. Makes me think of the fork tilt mechanism of the telehandler )

The container truck also looks just a little bland, I fear it has little more complexity than the hauler (which IMHO IS ONE OF THE WORST SETS EVER) but at least it's subject matter is something not seen in the technic line before and it should be a good source of blue parts.

[CP5670]

If 8043 costs $150 it will be a bit of a ripoff, especially if it has no lights, but I think it will cost less than that. Most casual buyers would avoid it at $150 given the size and piece count of the model. Other than that, I don't see much wrong with it, except that they should have used a smaller bucket than the big, front loader one.

I think I see what you're saying about the 8053 stabilizers. It looks like they have manual worm gears similar to the 8295 forks. This kind of setup really goes against the whole point of Technic and it's something we're seeing too often lately, even on large sets. It's the main reason I didn't like 8258 last year, which did this in several places.

[Anio]

If 8043 costs $150 it will be a bit of a ripoff, especially if it has no lights, but I think it will cost less than that. Most casual buyers would avoid it at $150 given the size and piece count of the model. Other than that, I don't see much wrong with it, except that they should have used a smaller bucket than the big, front loader one.

What a great function ! -_-'

I excpect the 8043 to cost about $160-170.

We will see. :)

[CP5670]

What a great function ! -_-'

I excpect the 8043 to cost about $160-170.

We will see. :)

Lights would at least go towards justifying the high cost though.

I think it needs to be more like $120-130 (in terms of US prices) to be a good buy.

[Anio]

I think it needs to be more like $120-130 (in terms of US prices) to be a good buy.

Yeah of course ! ^^

The cheaper, the better ! :D

But I'm still not sure it will be available for $150. :-S

[Sumendar]

The comparison here should be to the 8275 bulldozer, which DID have 260 more parts, but a lot less functionality, meaning a lot less expensive parts (no LA/pneumatic, no driving rings, no turntable, 1 U-joint) and likely a lot less gears too. Yes, it did have two of the M-motors replace by XL-motors, but also one remote less. Do people think that was a bad buy at $150?

[JunkstyleGio]

I read about the 8051motor having a 3 cylinder inline motor. Does anybody see more than one cylinder on the pictures?

And has anybody an idea on how that would/could or should be?

[allanp]

The comparison here should be to the 8275 bulldozer, which DID have 260 more parts, but a lot less functionality, meaning a lot less expensive parts (no LA/pneumatic, no driving rings, no turntable, 1 U-joint) and likely a lot less gears too. Yes, it did have two of the M-motors replace by XL-motors, but also one remote less. Do people think that was a bad buy at $150?

I think it was good value as a parts pack, crap value as anything else.

[Anio]

I read about the 8051motor having a 3 cylinder inline motor. Does anybody see more than one cylinder on the pictures?

And has anybody an idea on how that would/could or should be?

The chassis is 7L wide : 3x2L (cylinder) + 1 (1 gear to reach the crankshaft).

[CP5670]

The comparison here should be to the 8275 bulldozer, which DID have 260 more parts, but a lot less functionality, meaning a lot less expensive parts (no LA/pneumatic, no driving rings, no turntable, 1 U-joint) and likely a lot less gears too. Yes, it did have two of the M-motors replace by XL-motors, but also one remote less. Do people think that was a bad buy at $150?

It's not just the piece count, but also the size. This 8043 looks considerably smaller than the bulldozer to me. It could just be the angles the pictures were taken at though.

[Smithy]

From these pictures it looks like the excavator has been built wrongly. This happened last year with the crane truck stabalisers that lead to great confusion.

The bucket mechanism looks like they've used the wrong parts. If they've used the wrong parts for the bucket, where should those parts have gone?

The tracks also look too loose in the pictures.

[roamingstop]

Technicbricks blog had some more photos from somewhere

http://technicbricks.blogspot.com/2010/02/...r-toy-fair.html

[Siegfried]

From here...

[CP5670]

There is a red axle extender sticking out next to the battery box. I hope it's not a manual switch of some sort. Maybe it simply shows the current position of the function switcher, similar to what the 8082 forklift did.

[Musikfreak]

Maybe it simply shows the current position of the function switcher, similar to what the 8082 forklift did.

Oh please let this be the explanation. Otherwise I would be really disappointed.