Silcantar

I own a Technojaw, and that's exactly how it works, except that the claws stay in position when the robot is stationary. When it is driving backwards, the claws close, which makes them actually pretty useful, as you can put the claws around an object while driving forward, and then drag it with you while driving backward. It gets a little complicated while turning, as one claw opens, and the other closes. I believe Shadowstrike works the same way. My brother owns Snaptrax, and the claws are purely for decoration. They have rubber bands that hold them open, but there is nothing to make them close.

It looks like trailing arm suspension to me.

Flip the front differential around the other way.

Raise or lower the steering rack, I think.

You sure that universal joint works? It looks like it gets close to 90 degrees.

A 2-speed auto gearbox is pretty simple. He may have used a modified version of one of these.

It's really just useful for the slewing mechanism of very large cranes and such. The weight of the superstructure is more than enough to hold the turntable together. It's not like you would use this for applications where the turntable would be in any position other than horizontal. I don't think it can take very much horizontal stress anyways. Hailfire droid wheels are REALLY expensive, though. And I'm not sure they existed when Beat Felber came up with this design.

I think you could get it smaller than that. Nico's truck has lots of empty space, like in the cabin. If you don't care too much about realism, you could pretty easily put the battery box in there, or in the bed. I think the bodies of Jurgen's racecars are smaller, and if you were to jack up the suspension, etc., they could be monster trucks. Depending on how much power you want, you could also use an M motor for driving, which would save a considerable amount of space.

I remember seeing this years ago, but I'd forgotten about it. I think Jennifer Clark considered using a version of it for her mobile crane. I actually happen to have a couple of those 9t gears from a garage sale, but I only have a few of those chain links.

Very, very nice for a 1.5 hour build!

If you're not motorizing it, it would probably be simpler to put the transmission in longitudinally and use bevel gears than to mount it transversely. You lose some realism, but Lego transmissions aren't very realistic regardless of what method you use. I don't know how the shifter would work if were mounted transversely, either.

That's a pretty big scale. You should be able to fit just about any features you want into that scale. I think 8880 is probably one of the best examples of that scale in Technic bricks, which easily integrate with Model Team bodies. Do you have the synchronized transmission parts, or are you going to use sliding gears? I've never built a sliding-gear transmission with more than 4 gears (3 forward, 1 reverse), because they increase in size parabolically, so they're really not practical for more than 3 gears. 8865 has the best example of a sliding-gear transmission, although I would recommend using double bevel gears rather than spur gears. I'm not sure it's practical to mount the transmission in the engine bay, it really has to go between the seats. If you insist on putting the transmission in the engine bay, Tyler Reid has several examples of cars with linkages to the transmissions, although they are all mid-engine supercars with their transmissions in the back. His Audi R8 chassis probably has the best example.

Nice! Thanks.

I've been wondering about your chrome parts. Is the chrome pretty durable, or does it flake off like Lego's chrome? Some of my chrome Lego parts in sets started flaking as soon as I got them...

They aren't on Bricklink yet, and they're temporarily sold out at Lego Education US.

Probably less useful than the E-Motor in any case, though. It does have more than double the RPM of the E-motor and 80% of the torque, though. The greater power may make up for the larger size and awkward shape.

It could be useful for a twin-motor airplane. You don't need much torque to turn propellers.

Fire and Lego are great separately, but Lego is expensive, and it melts.

I'm guessing it's there because they wanted to use those 2L friction pins to hold those liftarms together, but they also wanted to connect the two sides together, and a lightsaber beam can go in the friction pins.

I love that it uses one linear actuator for unloading and dumping! I'm not sure the "unload" mode would be very useful with that particular container, especially if it was filled with something that could spill out, but you could modify it so that it has a closed container. $70 is more than I am willing to spend right now, though, and there's the Excavator, too...

The knobs are all brick-built, connected to either RCX rotation sensors or NXT motors (it's not completely clear which). If you look closely, you can tell. I think it said that it was connected to an external loudspeaker, though. I'm not sure the NXT speaker can make sounds that realistic, though I've never tried it.

I hope he realizes that frivolous destruction of Lego is the eighth mortal sin.

That car is great. Among the best classic-Technic cars. It does use a lot of 8880 pieces, but it's not an 8880 alternate model because it also uses lots of pieces that aren't in 8880.

I'm allowed to post my own creations in moderation, right? I thought y'all might find these interesting. These are some alternate models of the 8880 Super Car. The first two are cars completely of my own design, and the third is a 1932 Ford Model B Roadster. Clicking the pictures will take you to their respective pages on MOCpages.

Nick Barrett is the reason I'm an old school Technic semi-purist (along with Ape Fight). I love how his cars are nearly as realistic as anything by Crowkillers, using only classic Technic and with that wonderful classic Technic feel. Yes, I'm a little biased. Correction: it is not a Porsche 356; he said that the chassis is reminiscent of a 356, but that the curvy bodywork would require some kind of "Firas" (in reference to Firas Abu-Jaber).