DarkShadow73

Heck even that would work, thanks Alasdair. I was thinking of 4x4" bent liftarms anyway since the 8294 isn't real big to begin with. I think my order for the 42006, posted in another topic, was somehow lost, I am going to call and cancel it tomorrow anyway. Too bad they take so long to credit you back, but they are lightning fast to take it when you purchase...I'll make do with my original plan for the 8294 and with your pic of the simpler setup it looks doable...thanks again.

Thanks DLuders for the links and pics and being so on top of things, even if TLG isn't cooperating as fast as one would think. I, for one, appreciate all you do as I've said time and time again.

Nice, but I don't have those claws, they are a new part...thanks for the pics though...appreciate it.

I ordered it, but have yet to receive it and after 3 calls and an e-mail to Cust Svc, they cannot locate it and each agent has a different story on where its at, one even telling me that there were only 2, that's right 2, left in the USA warehouses, I even escalated it to a manager, who seemed to know even less than the cust svc reps they supervise. I got a confirmation e-mail right away, but I have yet to get a shipment confirmation in my e-mail, it doesn't make any sense, they sure put a hold on my debit card right away as they always do when you order online with them. I'm starting to get really frustrated and a bit worried, it still say is In Process 3 days later. You can't blame the weather, it doesn't leave their warehouse without a scan on the shipping label they put on the box, and this is before the shipper picks it up in person. FedEx or UPS do not have it in their hands I was told and they have no idea where its at now, I really hate online shopping, its too bad local TRU stores don't carry it around here at least, but then again they'd probably upcharge it by $10-15 anyway. The last communication I had was with them yesterday and they said they would credit me the shipping. Like that's going to do me any good, it hasn't even shipped yet . I'm starting to get really ticked...if it isn't lack of instructions for a and b models, its their shipping. Think I'm about done ordering except from Amazon, you can count on them every time, but most models in the past year or so haven't even made it onto their website, except for Marketplace items that are way overpriced (and I generally only order Amazon-Fulfilled Items as you can trust they will go out and deliver on a certain day), maybe Technic just isn't that popular a sector in the USA for Amazon to warehouse them. I believe the days of b model instructions are long gone and never to return, cost cutting on their part.

Sounds eerily familiar to motorizing the 8294, one switch does it all. Would have been nice to have another LA for the bucket tilt, but at that time in 2008 mini LA's weren't around. Still trying to figure out how to add a grabber (2-prong, not the 4-prong) to one of my 8294's. Well spoken David - but it seems they still don't get it, even overseas where the designs and products for the most part are produced and shipped from. Eric @Anio - not sure what you mean? They stop at the end of the first book, I wanted to see the whole 3rd boom with the grappler to get some ideas at least...

Hey Alasdair - what I was more thinking of is the pics you posted last week, showing a 4-grab and 2-grab (real life jpgs). The 42006 has 4 grabs, but you also posted a pic of a 2 prong grabber used for logging, etc. That's my thinking. I took a look at my inventory of sets last night and b model of the 8416 (Forestry Truck), as well as the 8439/59/64 Front Loader's b model also has a similar locking type grab. I was thinking about the grabber portion and how to design that. I thought maybe offset 4x4 bent liftarms so they would 'lock' around an object. If I put on 4x4 bent liftarms directly coming together, a log would slip through, but offset ones, maybe with 1 stud in between them would more firmly grab an object and hold it tight, but I was looking at the 8294's 3rd boom setup, 2 15L beams with 1 stud length in between them. I could put one 4x4 on the outside of each beam and be able to use the 1 stud between the stock 15L beams for either an axle to come down between or add a 3L beam between the 2 15's, but if I don't get an axle and mini-LA it won't work, it would have to be a hand turn for the grab liftarms to come together. This setup might work for my mod on the 8294, its a little more than I was thinking but it might work...thanks efferman.

Just as I was adding another reply, a moderator must have bumped it off the Technic/Mindstorms group...the moderators here are fair and just, and they will move or lock topics fast. Probably the best moderators of any website I've seen...

I agree trekman - I signed up to the forum on Brickset.com a while ago before finding Eurobricks through a Technic AFOL friend of mine in Texas, USA, and it is kind of dead and you don't get many if any replies to questions and such...Brickset I mean, not EB, this is the place to go...I tend to look at the forum a couple of times a day, sometimes lurk, sometimes reply, sometimes post my own topics for other talented members to help me out...

As Paul said above my post, Lugnet is really out of date, I used to go there and the activity there, whereas EB really is the place to go for all things Technic, it is a thriving forum and never a dull moment here. I have gotten a lot of advice and grabbed mods and inspiration for MOCs here. If not for Eurobricks, I wouldn't have started doing MOCs and I have a lot of smaller and larger projects in process right now and before this I built out of the box mostly, but now I can find some really nice mods for existing models, just having enough time to devote is the problem. And a big hand to DLuders, he is our advocate to TLG to try and work with them on getting things we need to build main and alternate models...just my 2 cents worth...

The red color of the 8294 kind of grabbed me when I bought a few of them years ago, different than the standard yellow color scheme. The only thing I can see that might be an issue would be adding another mini-LA to power the claw. I sort of came up with an idea, but it seems like it would work better on the 8043 as Alasdair pointed out. I just don't see anyway to add another axle/u-joint combination and then an axle out the back to attach a gear to turn the axle. Think I'll try both ideas. I actually have a used 8294 I took apart a while ago I might mess with to see if there is any possibility of achieving this. Yeah if only TLG would get their act together and post the entire instructions instead of just book 1 of the 42006 would make things a lot easier. I'd love to see an orange excavator, we have a lot of those around here, Hitachi makes orange excavators (saw one on the construction site behind my complex a few years ago and it had that 4-prong grabber attachment on it much like the 42006 has as they were taking apart a house and pole barn and loading the scrap into dump trucks. @Alasdair - what do you mean we met again? You are one of my friends on EB and also have given me advice on some ideas/projects and I appreciate your input. I'm kind of tossed up on what to do. I have one 8043 MISB, and 1 put together right now. Instead of building from scratch and opening a set I want to sell down the line I might take the bucket LA off as you suggested and try Efferman's setup, although it looks quite complicated, wonder if there are some instrcutions, can't really see all the pieces inside to know how to assemble, but I do have all of them in my spare parts collection.

I'm in a big money crunch and I'd love to buy the 42006 Excavator w/ the 4-prong jaws, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. Crappy thing is I have $80 of in-store credit for TRU which would cover it, and a bit extra since TRU tends to go above TLG's MSRPs, but they don't have any there and after asking Cust Svc to check their in-coming shipments, all 3 area stores say they aren't going to carry it as none even can bring it up on their Technic 2013 inventory. So, that being said, I'm looking at my current inventory of tracked excavators I could modify with a grabber similar to that of the b model of the 8464/59/39 Front Loader or other similar sets that have grab jaws but I want one that is tracked, so really my only options are the 8043 and the red 8294. The 8294 seems to be on par size-wise with the 42006 and the set up seems very similar with the exception of a mini-LA operating the jaws on the 3rd boom, but the 8294 only has 2 LA's on it, the 2nd one not directly operating the bucket unlike the 8043 which had that 3rd one for tilting the bucket, in the 8294 the 2nd LA just moving both 2nd and 3rd booms in and out. If I took off the bucket on the 8294 and tried to rig up some, say 4x4 bent liftarms staggered on either side of the end of the 3rd boom assembly which is 1 beam, an opening, and another beam which would make 3 studs wide. Would be nice if I could operate it even manually from a gear knob on the back of the superstructure, the one I have has PF elements applied, but they only operate the LA's and a LED light kit that I plugged into the 'lights' on the first boom. The only problem is there isn't a lot of room to run a 2nd axle, u-joints, etc, up the boom assembly and down into the 3rd boom for a mini-LA to operate the jaws and also get the axle to somehow make it through the superstructure unimpeded and out the back to a hand turn gear, and to be honest I don't know how to set it up. On the Front Loader's b model one pneumatic piston and a set of 16-tooth gears work to open and close the jaws, but keep in mind I'm no MOCer like most of you are, so that's why I'm asking do you think this is possible on the 8294 and if so, how? I did look at my built and modified 8043 (thanks to Jurgen V.), and it seems possible there, but a lot more complicated maybe? Any ideas welcome and appreciated. Thanks, Eric

How did you download the main model instructions? All that is available on the official Technic website for download is the 1st book for the 42006, it ends there. Agreed DLuders, you are definitely a great advocate for the forum. Why would they stupidly offer download of the just the first book of the 42006's main model instructions, and not the whole thing? And they offer download for the b model, but its only 1 page, just a picture of the model...real dumb move on their part. If there aren't going to offer the whole download, why post just one of two booklets? I swear TLG has their brains scrambled. One would think they would learn from their past mistakes, such as the botch job on the 9397 last winter.

Now this is messed up...on the Technic site of Lego it gives you only the first book of instructions, not the 2nd book..what's up with that? And the b model comes up but only page 1 of 1... My thought was to modify the 3rd part of the boom of the 8043 with the grabber, though I don't have those specialized grabber parts I thought I could use bent liftarms instead...but it doesn't give enough detail without the 2nd book of instructions in the pdf form...

David - you seem to get action with TLG, I applaud you for that. You got us the 9397 b model instructions. They may mess with you, but your e-mails seem to get their attention. All of us thank you for persevernance, I got the same run-around when I called myself when I inquired about the 42006. Nobody seems to have their stories straight at TLG Cust Svc. Surprisingly, TRU does not have it in stock, which is unusual because they usually release sets even before TLG does, they had all the 1H sets in stock way before Lego had them on their website, and the 42006 isn't a large set, more on par with 2008's 8294 Excavator. I called one of the stores and they have no information on the 42006 , and I have a gift card for $100, it sucks...thumbs up for your action with TLG.

Can't do much if its sold out and you can't add it to cart. Odd they would have it on sale and not be able to add to, say a backorder list, so you'd be in line if they some came in stock.

I see this topic is heading towards the 2H offerings, but I checked S@H and they have a couple more items available for 1H, but its odd because they don't actually show the items, just a bunch of mini-figs and such. 1 is the motorbike (42007) and the other is the excavator w/ the claw (42006), but when you click on the 42007 it shows the bike and ext description, but on the 42006 it says 'Page Not Found', but to the right it does say available now. Odd...another odditity is that the 42007 shows on the Technic theme page, but not the 42006. I just typed in the search box 42006 and it came up, but with the same pic of the mini-figs and a short description and available now, but you try to add to bag same 'Page Not Found' comes up...very strange...guess they will straighten it out in time coming up...at 42006's price point, it does seem it isn't much, on par with the 8294 size/scale I would assume.

What did you do spray paint them? No laugh, I've actually done that before for rare parts that we're only available from sellers outside the US...Krylon and another brand (the cans are in my garage, so can't recall the other brand paint, but it's a good one) to try and as closely match the color of what I was looking for...painted a lot of rims and spoiler assemblies in different colors for Lego race cars and such...those old gray rims just don't do some of the racers justice, luckily worked in an auto body shop long ago so I'm pretty good at knowing what I'm doing without completely screwing up a paint-job (sand, and that's the hardest part with all the shinyness and curves of parts, then prime, 2 light coats of paint, then clearcoat), sometimes it takes me 2 days or so start to finish but once if done carefully comes out pretty nicely... I think the toughest part with BL is locating the parts, then all the steps involved, and waiting to amass the parts. Yeah, I do have quite a few newer (2003-up) and also a fair assortment of vintage (mostly 90's) sets, but with dealing with overseas sellers, it can get pricey too, especially with minimum orders, customs, time, and such...but that excavator is more than worth it, much better than any I've ever seen and your instructions are exceptionally done, didn't order them yet, but did the preview...they rival TLG's instruction booklets in many ways...

Why would the yellow fairings have the stickers already applied then if they were parted from damaged sets? Those yellow fairings are definitely from the 8043 Excavator and had to have been built by a store employee or whomever builds display models for Lego stores...maybe somebody was playing with it and dropped it or something? But then you would see a lot more parts from that model...that is unless other AFOL's like us grabbed some of those pieces, but a lot of those pieces don't even belong to the 8043, but those fairings with the stickers already applied definitely do...I have 2 Lego stores 'sort of' nearby, about 150 miles each direction, so never been to one... On another note, did you see any new sets besides the 4 small ones already released, like maybe the motorcycle or excavator w/ the grab attachment? I'm guessing even if they had them being so close to Christmas they were pretty well sold out of everything like most stores...

@Blakbird- to the God of the instructions for this awesome model - I guess its just that you would have to order from multiple sellers just to get all the parts you need, kind of pain on BL especially with the holiday holdups and such...might look into it after the holidays...just too bad I tossed out a lot of my old motor sets and wiring, sold all the models I had that used the these parts, also sold a whole Lot of my old plates, bricks, etc at a yard sale in 2005, stupid mistake...I was into the studless sets then and their sleekness, now I wish I had kept them...

Very intricate excavator, beats the 8043 hands-down, about as realistic as I've ever seen...would love to build it and would gladly pay the $20 for the instructions on Crowkillers website, but as others have said, its the old school Technic parts and motors and such that are hard to get nowadays. Somehow I would imagine after seeing this, BL sellers are loaded with orders for the studded and motor parts... Jennifer Clark...where do I know her name from...Lugnet? Peeron? I know I've seen her name before...

Wish I hadn't given away my 8263 snow groomer...

Thing I did was buy really good quality rechargeable AA's for the battery box and AAA's for remotes, and got good quality plug in chargers that have digital readouts. Not cheap at first, but cheaper I suppose in the long run. Only pitfall is when the battery boxes are 'buried' as in the 8258 Crane Truck and you have to recharge, but really they last a long, long time in that model anyway. I even put in a LED light kit for the holes in the front nose fairings, really lights up things. But, the real reason I bought the batteries and chargers were for the heavy hitter 8043 in 2010 since it burns through batteries fast. Luckily in that model the battery box is easily removable, so I just swap out out charged for dead batteries. I use the 2300mAh Energizer's, not cheap, chargers not cheap, but you buy once and that's it. Its nearly 2013 and the batteries still hold a good charge. So I figure my investment late that summer the 8043 was released and the problematic parts were sent to all who had the model was worth it. I tend to just go with straight alkalines in other models that don't draw that much like the 8052, 8294(motorized version), 8265, etc.

Kind of figured it was a real-life pic as I checked BL and none had the 2-claw version, and not even the 4-claw version as the set is yet is unreleased...

@Alasdair - you are right indeed, is that bottom part with just the 2 jaws an actual Lego part or just a jpg image from a real-life grabber? Curious..

@davidmull - Been thinking about that for a few months, even before I saw the 42006, for my forestry diorama. Though I was trying to think of a way of using the up until now traditional way of using 'jaws' like we have seen before, 2 pairs of 4x4 liftarms set off set from each other. I didn't want to make them manually operated with gearing and an axle joiner to open and close them. Though this would make the 3rd part of the boom shorter, aka the Tv series Ax Men and their log processor and log loader type excavator to load the logs onto a logging semi truck. I'm not a real good MOCer and I couldn't seem to come up with a way to use the LA and a set of gears running from it to open and close the jaws with RC. Anybody with any good ideas, please post, I have an open box 8043 and like I say I wanted to try this, but can't seem to find a plan that works.