eMHa

I would say space!?

I also got 8258 short after christmass and build it two weeks ago. I was very amazed about that many parts! I didn't expect THAT many parts! The first time I thought that the box could NOT have been smaller to fit the parts in. The build was very great and the functions are OK. But it's very difficult to play with it for my kids. It's almost to complex for my kids to play with all functions.

I've now 'Technic Beam 5 x 7 with Open Center 3 x 5' engrafted vertically into my 8297 and put a XL motor on it. It's not fully finished yet, but I've tested so far and there's no crunching while driving

Is this a not connected LA?

Additionally what allanp said, I would say a long axle can twist a lot. The longer a axle, the more twist. In some situation the force of the twist will turn the axle. So you get this "jumping". My advise is to put the motor as near as possible to the wheels, with sorter axles. I also recommend watching the "Trial truck tip" from Zblj, like http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=45639&view=findpost&p=797980 they are very good

First google image search on "extreme cruiser": A CD player! 8081 will be a CD player Next possibility is a SUV, then comes a motor bike. The idea with the Trike is very possible. They could use the wheels from the Unimog.

My personal opinion is, that 8265 is great I've got 8265 shortly after my dark age and hadn't all the parts needed to mod the set to be fully remote controlled. But I had the parts to put the motor in it. And with motor it is fun to play. Without motor you have to turn the knob a lot. For sure, sometime I'll rebuild my 8265 and make it fully remote controlled. There're a lot of instructions on the net how to do it.

@blueShinyApple: I'll try that, many thanks.

Hi, so now I'm on to remote control my 8297 Off Roader. The steering with one M-motor and one clutch gear was no problem. But the drive motor makes me headaches. I've a similar setup like the first example here. And my gears are sometimes crunching while driving. So I tried to use a clutch gear, but this is to weak and the car nearly moves. The next thing was to gear down, use the clutch gear and gear up again. But that was a lot of gearing, so I only geared down and used a M-motor instead the XL. Now it moves very slowly and also stops very likely if something comes across. So my next idea is more intrusive. I'd like to use 'Technic Beam 5 x 7 with Open Center 3 x 5' http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/64179 for the differential. My question is, how likely is it that the the gears http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/32269 and http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/62821 (setup like in 8265 Front Loader) wil crunch in this setup? What else do you do to prevent gears from crunching in a drive train?

Another idea for lots of remote controlled power functions, if you have enough PF parts: betterybox1 - switch one - 4x receiver - 8 motors: 1 motor to toggle switch one (and two) betterybox2 - switch two - 4x receiver - 8 motors: 1 motor to toggle switch two (and one) => You can control 2x 7 motors = 14 functions! The two motors which toggle the switches must be controlled by the same remote laver. You got the idea? Not switching functions with a gearbox but switching functions with putting power on 4 receivers (exclusive) or 4 other receivers. OK, this idea is not so much fun because you don't need much gearing and you have to use a lot of PF receivers.

Today one of my sons also finished building 8052 and I saw the instructions with the LA. You see the LA and one hand on one side of the LA and another hand on the other side and an arrow showing to extend the LA. There's no sign to put an axle in the LA and turn the axle! So I can understand the question if it's the first time you have a LA in your hand. My son already knew how to handle the LA, so it was no problem for him.

@rien: Put bricks around the LiPo and put (soldering) a LEGO power connector to the wire you will have a 100% pure LEGO battery

I've done so! I wanted to get 8043 for christmass, but it wasn't available (now) for me (in germany). So I shortly redecided that I have to get 8258 (first). I'm now very amazed about how much parts are in the box! The first time I thought the box has to be this size to hold all the parts. I'll begin to build 8258 tomorrow but have opened the box today. The instructions were packed inside a plastic bag, great! One of my sons said I have to get 8043 for Easter.

One word: huge! I wouldn't have thought it is possible to build a humanoid robot in human size with LEGO! But you proved me wrong. Wow! I like this "little" fellow and a video of the functions would be fantastic.

Hello paul_delahaye, sure you missed http://technicbricks.blogspot.com/2010/12/tbs-techreview-14-mla-under-magnifying.html

My wife also mentioned that it could be to expand the target group. If you're (as a kid) not much motivated to complete building a set, it could be possible to loose interest in LEGO in generally. The more I think about it the more I can understand from the point of TLG the decision to change instructions.

OK, I see. It seems better for kids to have less pieces per step. But why have the old instructions so much pieces per step? Was it because the drawing of the instructions was more costly? Or didn't TLG knew this in the past? Wow, I didn't really noticed that! Without counting parts I would have said that they both must have like equal count of parts. Thanks.

Hi, a few days ago I build 8865 together with my kids. It's an old instruction manual, it is in a very bad shape and a few pages are loose. I opened the first page page and I was wondering if this is really the first page!? After building a lot of new sets over the last year, I didn't really remembered how it was in former times. My first thought was: It can't be the first page of the instructions, there are too many pieces! After searching a while the not existing first page I discovered that all the pieces needed in the first step are in the upper left box of parts to be needed for this step. I build the car and again wondered that there are only 24 steps! Todays sets have at least double the steps. But each step of the old car involved more parts. I liked building the old Test Car Sometimes you have to prepare more than 10 pieces of ONE part. All together sometimes there were more than 50 parts involved! You really had to look where the pieces have to be put. It was challanging My first thought was, the kids today are - ehm - more stupid than in my childhood. My second thought was, they hadn't any computer supoorted drawings and so they have to put as many things in one step to keep costs down for the instructions (drawer). And today, I've printed out the biggest instruction for me till now. B-Model of 8053, the Harbour Crane, 168 pages! (What a waste of paper ) In my good old 8865, the B-Model was included in the 38 pages of instructions! So I'm asking here what your opinion is on the evolution of the instructions? Is it getting more easy because the kids wouldn't understand the instructions? Or is it getting easier because they can easily create a lot of instruction pages with the help of their CAD program? PS: 8865 is a great car, but one of my sons said, I have to put a HOG steering to the car, so he can drive it more easy.

Wow, great. A lot of functions and I like that there not only power functions. The wheels of the yellow jeep aren't from the two sets, or?

Hi, first question in the FAQ section of Designer Han's website: http://www.designer-han.nl/lego/faq.htm Why are there no Adobe PDF building instructions available for the 8421 XL Mobile Crane? I developed the 8421 XL mobile crane in 2006 and at that moment the original Technic® 8421 mobile crane set was still sold by The Lego Company®. I did not want to publish the building instructions on my website from legal and etic perspective, because The Lego Company® did NOT publish their own building instructions at that time on their website. As such, I never made building instructions in Adobe PDF format. So, the only material I have are the MLcad files... and I don't have plans to invest time in generating the Adobe PDF building instructions.

I also bought 8053 recently and I'm very satisfied with it so far. My kids like to play with it although it is not motorized yet. In my opinion the number of functions is adequately to the price of the set. After building I was surprised the cab can be tilt, it's a nice detail. Not so good are the outriggers, but I think for the price (and space) of the set it's OK. The steering is great. I was suprised how good it can turn altough the steering lock is very small. A really good feature is the possibility to extend the boom and let the hook down on the same time. Is this the first time in a officially mobile crane set the two functions can be used together the same time?

Hi, yes. I'm also from Germany. It says: Dieses Video ist in deinem Land nicht verfügbar. (This video is not available in your country.) Mostly this comes from music in the video which has some copyrights in Germany.

Is LEGO Creator like Model Team? In my opinion Model Team has some more Technic functions. But with Model Team functions follows form where LEGO technis is form follows functions. Perhaps LEGO Creator is the successor of Model Team? In what time Model Team was discontinued and in what time LEGO Creator appeared?

The old 16t gears from before my dark ages grip also pretty tightly. But the new ones have much less grip.

Wow! I also have 8265 but I got it last christmas. I don't had any issues with this. But I have bought 8297 recently and I have the same issue there! One 16 tooth in the steering system on a technic axle pin is slowly unscrewing while steering. I've put a technic beam in front of it to prevent it from unscrewing. I thought it's because I've build the off roader in a rush (three kids waiting that it will be finished ) and so the steering is not that smooth. But thinking about it again, why should the gear slide down? Only because there's a lot of torque? Could it be that the gear or the axle pin has changed slightly?