Jay Psi

You'd be surprised by the lengths some people will go to chasing the "glory" of being the first to release unpirated content, and once the hard work (as it were) has been done all it takes is Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V to get the EZ-PYRASEE ball rolling again. As someone who bought the Humble Bundle just to get your book in electronic format, I would live with you to ditching the ebook format even though I would be less likely to purchase it. There isn't much of a sliding scale with DRM - it's either woefully easily bypassed or it frustrates the paying customer no end, and in a lot of cases it's both. If a print-only run is going to be the only way to get round this issue then I think you should do what it takes.

This is what I was getting at, thanks for the clarification. I would be confident in saying that most people coming out of their dark ages won't have taken the time to look into Bricklink and will have bought their set from a shop or ebay (hence the exorbitant price). In my case the decision to buy the Unimog was on impulse - it was probably another two months until I stumbled upon BL. It is, so seeing as I've helped drag it off-topic let's get back to it: I was talking to a friend recently who also came out of his dark age with a Technic set. His last experiences with Technic were 8880 and 8480 (I spent a lot of time at his house when we were young...) so he was very hesitant about the change to studless construction. But he bought 8109 and thankfully he hasn't looked back since.

I didn't vote or apply for voting this time, but the top two in my mind came first and second (and my 3rd choice was 4th) so I'll claim that as validation of my opinions! Well done Jeroen, Omikron, TeClem8 & D3K. Thank Jim for hosting another great competition.

The only thing I could ask for is the addition of the sidepods just in front of the rear wheels, but I assume that didn't gel well with the curved bodywork. Regardless this is a brilliant MOC.

While I also prefer 8043 to 42009 I don't think it's such a stretch to cite the mobile crane as a "landmark" set. I would say that some of it could be attributed to not being able to purchase 8043 or even see it in person to compare it with 42009. I can't speak for those in this thread but if they were only seriously thinking of getting back into Lego in the last couple of years then a £200+ out-of-print set was never an option. If you had made this thread before 42009 I suspect we'd see a similar trend with 8110 (replacing 42009) and 8043. You've also got to factor in the sheer part count of 42009 - it [currently] has the most parts of any Technic set. That's a big draw for tempting people out of a Dark Age and back into a hobby which is known for being expensive at the best of times. YMMV on how much value for money the 42009 parts actually represent, but the "endless pins" debate is probably best had in another thread. Again, the numbers argument extends to the boom extension and I think the number of axles/wheels? (Correct me on this if necessary). As with most things nowadays the headline figures of the crane grab people's attention, perhaps moreso than anything individual aspect of 8043 at first glance. Add that to the assumption that bigger => more complex => better and it's not hard to see why 42009 is so well received. (I should point out that I do like 42009 a lot, despite just denouncing it in the above paragraphs!) As for the set that brought me out of my Dark Age, it was 8110. I had the choice between that and 9398 but the crawler was never going to win; I had the chance to finally get a pneumatics set that my parents never saw fit to get me as a child... Also first post, hello, AFOL, Technic fan, etc.