Arfman

No, I still thought 8xxx was almost always Technic, 7xxx for City (or so I thought), 10xxxx for Exclusives, and so on. Oh well, doesn't matter, as long as the sets are good!

And why the 9xxx numbers instead of the usual Technic's 8xxx?

I think I'm gonna wait for some end-of-year sales and put one Unimog in storage, hopefully it will sell for $300 (or more) in a few years. 2 years ago, I bought the 8258 for €90, still regret that I didn't buy one or two more that day.

Awesome!!

Said it also in the concept car thread, but I'll repeat myself: awesome website! I hope you will fulfill my feature request soon :D

Very useful! I have all the sets I own on display. It would be a shame to tear down the 8294 (for example) if I only need 2 parts from that set. Or maybe my coverage is 99.4% but I need to break down all the sets I have, that would be silly too. Pretty please? :)

Rebrickable is awesome! 1 feature request though: how can I see which sets I need to break down? It says I own like 98% of the parts needed for Nico71's Trial Jeep, but how to know which sets have the correct parts?

Please, don't feed the troll. Anyone got an idea of the sets needed? $15 is no problem, but I want to know in advance if I need $50 in additional BL orders.

Allright, now for something else. I'm thinking about buying the instructions ($15 is dirt cheap if you ask me) but I really need which sets I need to build this awesome model. I am willing to cannibalize the 8070, 8048, 8049, 8262, 8264, 8265, 8292, 8294, 8295 and even the 8297 for it (I need more space anyway) but I really need to make sure I then have all the parts in the right color (preferably). Is there any way to check this? Or does anyone know a way to figure this out so I can do that myself? I would really like something like "you need sets 8070, 8294 and 8297 for this model). Anyone?

I still think the 8275 is a great set. Goodlooking, lots of PF parts (2 x RC, 1 XL, 1 M IIRC) and completely remote controlled. Bought this set in 2008 after coming out of my dark ages, never regretted it. For $150 or less it's a no-brainer, even compared to the mighty 8043 and 8110.

Also, the B-model is very nice to see and works perfectly, even with the "old" LA's. I built it after I found out I had to replace the LA's (my 8043 was bought the day it came out), just to see how it looked and worked. After I got the new LA's, I rebuilt the A-model. Tip: make sure every moving part (like gears) has a bit of slack between it and the Technic beams. The smoother it runs, the better. I paid very much attention to it when building it for the second time, and everything seems to work just a little smoother because of that.

On what criteria do you want your decision based upon? 8258 is the largest set in terms of sheer size. 8043 offers (imho) the most playability, since it is 100% remote controlled. 8070 looks really good, but lacks in the playability department. By the way, to save you some frustration and a lot of broken gears, follow these alternative building instructions: http://technicbricks.blogspot.com/2009/11/8258-modification-instructions-by-han.html Have fun!

Well, glad to see I'm not the only one who would really like to see those yellow knobs go away. Maybe, with a bit of modding, we can make the steering geared?

Well, finished the build today. Although I'm late to the party, here are my thoughts: +very fun build Built it almost non-stop, took me about 7 hours. When you need to build something twice, they let you build a bit differently the second time you need it. Makes the build less repetetive. +numbered bags When I buy a new set, I always build the A-model first. Having numbered bags allowed me to spread only the stuff I need on the table, sort it and build much quicker (less parts to search through). If you're a purist, no one stops you from ripping them all open at once and then sorting through them. Best of both worlds. +big model It's huge. Not as long as the 8258, but certainly a lot more impressive. The 8258 had a bit of an empty space starting after the cabin, but the Unimog seems (and is) packed with features after the cabin. +color scheme The orange is really vibrant and is a refreshing color to see after countless studs and panels of red and yellow. +playability Playing with the set is a joy. The winch works really well (much better than the 8297 Off-Roader from 2008), it can pull itself. The crane on the rear is powerful enough to lift my wallet (which is not as heavy as it was before I bought the 8110 :P) and is really working good. -stance The model tends to lean to the right (the side of the batterybox). Maybe that gets better over time, we'll see. -steering Steering the model is quite heavy and not very smooth. Nothing drives better (so far) than the good old 8421 Crane from 2005. I partly blame the yellow "crosses" (for lack of a better word) who take away all smooth feeling in steering. The turning circle is really wide. Solved this by removing the 4 safety pins from the chassis, no one is likely to hit that limit. -stickers The are stickers that cover multiple parts! Shame on you, LEGO. I didn't put these stickers on the model, I really hate those stickers. All in all, a very good and nice set. Looks awesome (IMHO) and very playable. Although having no remote control is a step down from previous flagships like the 8043 and 8275, it makes up with playability, sturdiness and general build quality. I rate it 8.5/10.

At the Top 1 Toys store in Oldenzaal, The Netherlands. So far the cheapest I have seen it for, and it's only a 30 kilomter drive for me. And the owners are true Lego (Technic) nuts, prepare to spend at least an hour in the shop talking about all kinds of Technic if you mention you're an AFOL (although they also have an uncanny way of figuring that out themselves, or were the 3 Unimog's a giveaway? :D) Anyway, if you're local, Tuesday (tomorrow) they get a next batch of Unimog's.

Picked 3 Unimog's up yesterday from my favourite shop. One for a friend, one for my father-in-law and one for me, for €145 per set. Quite a good price I think :) Building it now, just took a break from the building session, so far so good. Nothing extraordinary but a fun build nonetheless.

I uploaded it to another host, do you see it now? PS: It looks a lot bigger in the flesh, it is really a huge set. Think 8258 but with a lot more "body".

I was at the LEGO Store in Oberhausen yesterday, look what was on display: They wouldn't sell it to me though :( And since walking out of any LEGO store without any LEGO is blasphemy, I picked up a nice Emerald Night set for me to display (I don't even have any tracks, lol).

No one noticed THE spelling error on the display? "turoblaser" instead of turbolaser. Sloppy.

EPIC! Please post updates when it's finished (the programming I mean)! Awesome!

Found some more via lowlug (Dutch Lego user group): http://www.flickr.com/photos/0937/archives/date-posted/2011/06/10/

I received my replacement parts set last Monday. Tore the B-model I built down on Tuesday (which is very nice and functional for a B-model, uses all 4 M-motors and works like a charm, even with the old LA's) and built the 8043 A-model on Wednesday and Thursday, with the new LA's and the modifications on step 33 and 36. Works, drives and functions perfectly. Thank you LEGO!

Time to start saving money, and more importantly, a place where I can display the Backhoe .. my LEGO closet is almost full.

Very cool, I'm sure he will get "into" LEGO in a few years :)

He specifically said "Oh no, this one comes out in 2011". It will show up as top secret, ofcourse, but could it be he just made a mistake and accidentally told me something I should not be told? He also said they got previews of everything that will come out the next year or so.