Crtlego

Do you know the weight for one of these tires or if they are heavier than the ones on the Unimog?

I'm sorry that this has happened to you. It is extremely unfortunate. As the owner of two of these units myself, I can understand your frustration and the despair that comes with these pieces being as rare and expensive as they are. Personally, I do not have any troubleshooting experience other than what you have already tried so I do not know what else can be done to fix your unit. I know that Lego cannot help since it was not sold directly from them and this piece as rather antique.. Unfortunately, the only alternative I can think of is to buy another one When I first bought this piece (used, but tested and in working condition.. and with the remote and 2x antennae) from bricklink, the price was around $60 total (I can't remember whether or not this included shipping but shipping-for me- was probably around $10 since it was from Germany? to the U.S.) and I was extremely happy to see that the price had payed off and that the piece was in fact working.. I was so impressed that I eventually bought a second one.. but only when, out of the blue, I saw a Bricklink wanted item notification that told of one such part being sold for 50 CENTS from a distributor in Texas. I could not believe my luck. The description said that is was not tested-since it was so old, I was skeptical that it would work at all but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try. I immediately purchased it and the end price was just under $5 due to shipping. The piece arrived shortly after and, to my surprise, it worked just as well as the first one!! I've never had such luck with buying legos until this purchase and up until that moment, I never thought I would be as lucky as the few who have found entire Supersonic RC sets at garage sales and etc.. but let me tell you that such chances do exist. In fact, just yesterday, I believe I saw one receiver on Ebay for only $5. Since I already have two, and I'm currently not in the business of buying and selling Legos, I did not check the condition and the description. It may have already ended, or will be ending soon but I have not been able to find it-I do not recall which search terms I used.. I wish you the best of luck with your RC unit. -Crtlego

I've never used oil with any of my legos but I feel like some silicon spray here and there might come in handy when building complex geartrains with the ridiculously-fast RC motors..

Thanks for the ideas DLuders and laix!! These are some interesting ideas. Isogawa's red fountain and the centrifugal pump are novel inventions! I didn't realize the old 9V motor ran that fast! My aim was to build a system that could use the same pump to both bring water into the system (refilling) and to shoot it out quickly but not at the same time. Currently, i would like to use an RC motor (has torque and speed) to spin possibly four or six of the new gray pumps we saw in the Unimog and then use this to drive the system. But from what you two have shown me, I would need to use the cylinders (two pins) if I want to separate the lego components from the water because the pumps have to be submerged in water if they are to interact with it. Cylinders, on the other hand, can pump it in or out via the two hoses that are connected to them.. but this also means that if I attach the cylinder to a cog and spin so that I get a repeated up and down motion driving the cylinder, wouldn't I have the water go in and then have the same water put back, essentially canceling out any work the cylinder has done? I would have to use a switch of some kind and attach this to the driving pump mechanism so that water is only interacting with the cylinders during one half of the pumping cycle and so that it only works in one direction. Does that make any sense? Its starting not to make any sense to me either

Hey everybody! Its been a while since I've posted but I promise I have some exciting stuff to share when summer break rolls around! In the mean while, I want to ask you all a question about using pneumatic parts for spraying water. If I were to develop a system for high rate/high quantity water input/ouput (same pump but a pnuematic switch(s) would be, which set of pnuematic parts would be best suited for this task? From what I've read, it is preferable to use the small cylinders/pumps because they are plastic on the inside (if I am not imagining things..) and, consequently, they will not be damaged by the use of water. Another assumption I made was that I could use either the pumps (one pin) or cylinders (two pins) to be driven by a motor and get water in and out of the system but I guess this depends on the actual setup I decide to use. Any suggestions, ideas, schematics are welcome. Thanks in advance.

I have no idea what I would use them for either. I would get 26 or 24 though.. I typically stay away from "odd" orders because I always run into a situation where I need just one more of a piece to complete a set-symmetry requires two of the same piece etc

I think I'm in love with the new Servo and Large motors..

I believe the problem there is having four XL's on one receiver..

This is amazing Sheepo!!! I can't believe it can travel that fast with all the weight and gearing. Absolutely incredible.

I've been looking into 3D printers like the MakerBot, the Cube (from Cubify), Solidoodle, and the RepRap ones for a while in hopes that I could make one of my own.. I had always hoped to print my own lego pieces but, like Daniel suggested, the cheaper printing technique that is employed in all of these printers results in a lower quality print that would not be suitable for the precision necessary to make legos. I hope I am not to derailing the thread..

I'm a fan of the whole 3d printing process and I think it would be fine to print unique Lego pieces for certain MOC's. I might be considered a TFOL and i love the lego hobby in general, but more often I find the medium of Lego to be the most suitable to the project I am trying to work on.. thus it wouldn't matter for such a project whether or not that piece was actually Lego. Although I can certainly see how printing pieces to fit a MOC goes against the attitude of designing a build to fit the palette of pieces you may have. Haha I love that joke! I understand your situation.. I've seen all your posts about future parts I look forward to seeing how these parts turn out.

That seems fairly safe I have long been wanting a solution for the worm gear spacing problem.. although I would prefer not having a solution at all than to cut some of my legos.. Likewise, although it may be useful for different colorschemes. However, the issue of finding the pin of the right color becomes more prevalent as you try to find the bushing of the right color! If my memory is not failing me, I believe you can have pieces printed in different types of metal.. I'll have to check that.

What exactly did you use? A hacksaw? I've never really had the need for the black bushing -I don't put that much effort into the external design but rather I focus more on the function (that's not to say I don't try to make my MOC's beautiful) ... you manage to do both really well though!! I guess you could use it in your Vampire GT

Its interesting how timing works out.. I was just looking at this site yesterday An alternative to this site would be that of www.ponoko.com. They seem to offer the same services -3D printing, 2D laser cutting- but in a variety of materials. I imagine that the prices would be the same, but it depends on the volume, overall size, and material.. I have also been considering modeling my own pieces to order from one of these sites, but I haven't gotten over the idea that there would be a lot of remeasuring, redesigning, and reprinting that would be involved in getting a particular piece to fit perfectly with actual legos. For somebody who owns their own professional printer this is no big deal, but to have to order a new part, pay for shipping each version of that part, and wait in between orders, it simply does not make any sense. It is something worth looking into though @ Allanp, doesn't Lego use plastic injection molding for their Technic parts? Maybe they use printing in the same manner I described above until the designers are prepared to pay for the $100k (I believe this is the average/minimum price mentioned on the National Geographic special) molds..

That would be very interesting..

At max, I would pay $120 for the Crawler. If it is anything more than that, which I am sure it will be, I would rather wait until lego released the motors online to get them.. There's nothing else worth getting from that set at such a high price. I still wish I could have gotten the Unimog, but the price was and still is too high.

I share the same problem and hopes that you do.

If only my professors were as groovy as you are.. This is actually hilarious.

Same. Mine as well.

Nice MOC! and I love that movie as well!

I was wondering the same thing. I wanted to create a new post for each stage I was working on.. but then I asked myself the same question. In the end, I didn't bother so I repeatedly edited my first post to include the latest images / video (and removed the older pictures completely). It is nice though to be able to see the progress and inner-workings (whatever cannot be seen on the finished design) of various Moc's..

Haha I wish I could be under those same circumstances.. I still can't get around to buying one in the first place.

Looks great so far!! Awesome color scheme and it seems to be working well too!

So just to confirm, you will be updating the images on the index before judging begins correct? Currently the index has an old picture for my entry...

Wow! These models are fantastic!