nerdsforprez

I work at a hospital and talked a rep into letting me by this baby. They are surgical pliers. Of course it is new and not used. I have been using them for a while now and they are wonderful helps. Mostly for grabbing and pulling out stubborn pins. There are little teeth like a set of pliers so they grab and hold real well. I like them better than pliers because they are narrower and can fit better in tight places. I can also hold axles and connect with connecters or bushes in tight spots that otherwise I could not. I used to have to redo whole sections of build b/c I could not access tight spaces b/c of my fat fingers.... but with this baby I have not had to do that. So this got me thinking..... what, if any, tools do people use as they build? I know pliers are common.... any others? If any one has access to surgical pliers, I would greatly recommend them. Here is another pic

Agree with @horace T. Love the buggy..... but just can't think of many applications. Buggies are often used in sand.... and wheels with paddles work fine in sand. No real need for tracks. But really like your build though....

I dunno about others..... but a crawler I built a few years ago could never climb this terrain on LEGO tires. Third-party greatly increase performance. There are hundreds of such videos online demonstrating the same point. I am not sure of any specifically, but I will even bet there are some side-by-side comparisons.

Terrific work here. I'll bet you had a lot of fun creating it.

Yea.... I think you are asking the wrong question. I think we all know the best way to sell your items.... or at least the way to make the most money. Individually. As a BL store owner for years, as well as a frequent forum BL poster and browser, generally it is pretty well accepted that parting out sets as opposed to selling whole sets yields more money. However, it is so much more work. Not only in terms of parting and organizing everything..... but it is harder to fill hundreds of different orders for separate parts opposed to a few, very large orders. Your question really should be, how much time and effort do you want to put into selling your sets. I assume you are a pretty avid fan, and selling your sets only because you absolutely have to. Therefore, time and effort likely are not your allies in your circumstance. And that, my friend, may be your answer.

I was clipping away at a great pace...halfway in only four hours with no distractions. But then clicked on "Bloodline" on Netflix and well....... my building times have significantly decreased.....

This thread is similar enough to this one: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=86174 I am wondering if they should not be merged.......

Wonderful.... Keep at it. I love large projects. I will continue to follow this one. It is really looking good.

Quite impressive that a single XL motor can raise the boom. To me it looks much more massive than 700 grams. In this thread you mentioned that you "guess" it weighs that much. Is that just an educated guess or did you actually weigh it? Also, it might help things and decrease the stress on the ropes while lifting the boom to add lubricant to the tops of the light bluish gray tiles that rest underneath the boom extension. Really great job overall..... it takes a lot of time, dedication, money and patience and diligence to stick with a project for so long.....

agreed...

I know this is not a licensed set..... but like I posted on the Arocs thread I like the movement TLG is going in posting some specs about licensed models. The Volvo loader and new Arocs both have specs printed on their inside flap covers. can't remember if the 8110 (unimog) did or not. But it would be great if TLG could do the same for sets that are based on real-life machines. B/c they are not licensed, they dont have to be overly specific. Even if they stated something like:Based on medium crawler crane (give examples), 50-150 ton(or give some range), different manufactures of the cranes, possible duty sites, etc..... An example that comes to mind is the 42025. Although (take a look at the 42025 thread http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=90001&hl= ) people have given theories about what plane this model is based on it would be fun to know the actual model or models TLG used as their inspiration for this model.

Ahhhhh!!!!!

I think this is an interesting topic for discussion (11-16 demographic). Perhaps I should create a whole new thread for this (moderators, if you feel it necessary, go ahead). The recommended ages for Technic builders is interesting. I am not sure what TLG is basing the recommendation off of. Hopefully they consulted the correct discipline to be able to make that call. As a practicing neuropsychologist I can say that the recommendation is certainly an over-generalization. I have not studied all boxes..... but there certainly are differences between the difficulty levels of flagships like these and smaller sets with the same recommendation. I can tell you from professional experience that the ability to complete models like these has much less to do with age and more regarding specific cognitive strengths and weaknesses. I know youngsters with excellent non-verbal skills that would have no problem completing this model, but can't read or write (verbal skills) for the life of them. I know adults, who are smart, successful and great at verbal skills but are completely lost in anything non-verbal. They could not complete this for the life of them. My father for example, very smart, successful religious professor could not do this even though he holds a PhD and is around 60.

Oh man I don't have that amount of self control. I would just give into the impulse to build!!!

---hmmm......valid hypothesis.....

Some other quick thoughts about the set. 42009 got a little of a bad rap due to its high number of pins. I have always argued that 42009 is not THAT different from other large sets..... large sets will always have lots of pins relative to overall part counts just because the elements that hold them together increase exponentially as size of sets increase. Well, 42043 is really no different. counting only black 2L pins and 3L blue pins, roughly 24.5% of its pieces is in these pins (685/2793 = 24.6%). 42009 has 27.2% of its parts in these two pins. Other large sets, like 8258 and 8285 have 25.8 and 23.4 percent of its parts in these two pins respectively. The Unimog (8110) has 23.5% of its parts wrapped up in pins (well, the specified pins). As can be seen, 42009 is a little higher than these other large sets, but not by much. The large pin count is a function of the overall size of the model and not because of some nefarious nature of 42009. (interestingly, the real story is not in any of these sets, but in set 8421. Also a crane, its pin count percentage is quite a bit different from the 42009 and other sets specified here. At only 20.8% of its pieces wrapped up in its pins.... something indeed seems weird about this set.) I know this is the Arocs post, and her time to shine, but I needed to use her thread to help demonstrate my point and to point out that although 42043 also has a large pin count, but relative to its size, the pin count is not all that bad. Lastly, broke into my box last night. I noticed, as with the Volvo loader, there are specifications of the real truck on the inner flap of the box. I really like this detail. Not only does it provide cool info it gives a little details of the exact rendition of the real truck that the model is based off of. With so my renditions and configurations of something like the Arocs, it is nice to know or at least have an idea of what TLG is basing the model off of. Although I own a 8110, I can't remember if they also printed this info on the box. Anyone know this little piece of trivia?

Doing some quick browsing online it is apparent that many think that the Arocs has off-road capabilities (including the folks at MB themselves). Also, it has a pretty advanced suspension for a non off -road tuck. I also hear a lot of complaints about the space between the front wheels and wheel wells. And I hear those complaints, I get when everyone is talking about. However, to be fair, looking at the pic of the real truck printed on the box and pics, it looks like the gap at least mimics the real truck. It ain't pretty, but it at least looks like it resembles the real-life truck.

Wow.... in seeing the Arocs and 8258 side by side it is amazing the difference in part count. The 8258 almost looks BIGGER than the Arocs and has many many fewer elements......But I agree with others.... the 8258 is better looking.

Suprisingly the LEGO store in my area also received an early shipment. Bought it yesterday. Today is work but this weekend......... I have learned over the last little while that although TLG has an "official" release date for many of their big sets, stores don't actually have to honor those "release dates" if they get an early shipment.

This build is amazing. I wish I had the patience to build something like this, for some reason I just don't. Incredible build.... thanks for sharing....

Seeing a couple of people who have moved into new houses. Well..... me too. I have posted my old building space on this post but I have finally finished our move and my shed. Although not as pretty as my old spot, I now have a whole shed for building. I also wrote about the whole moving experience on my mocpages (signature block). Perhaps would be of use to someone if they ever have to move their whole collection.

Yup

Even if it is not "that big" in the US that probably is a relative statement. Perhaps not on a relative scale (although I don't have any numbers to prove this) but b/c of the shear population in the US the absolute sale numbers are still larger than many European or other countries. Law of large numbers states...... perhaps there are only 1% of humans out there with schizophrenia but in a world population of billions of people that still leaves tens of millions of people out there that are bat- s@#$ crazy

So are we also anticipating a delayed release for new sets like the MB Arocs or the new crawler crane? I know they release (speculatively) around Aug. but does that mean they will not be available until much later for the US?

Yea, I also fear that we won't get the second half of 2015 sets, like the MB Arocs until much later than everyone else as well. It really puts us at a disadvantage compared to others for those interested in improving/modding a set. I am sure there are certain folk that perhaps get things earlier but not us mere mortals........