DarkShadow73

Last one that was notable in blue was the 8435 4WD from 2005 and the small dump truck (8415)...

Think its mainly because Lego has gone over to all PF now for larger sets that would have gearboxes, those older sets are had no power, except for you might be able to add, like the age old 8720 Motor Kit, but it really didn't do much, you usually (8448 here) had to jack up the car and watch the functions move with the motor attached with the battery box outside the model...

Very nice sir...think I'll download the instructions...

On my first built 8455 Backhoe Loader, the cylinders have started to corrode, no leaking seals though that I have noticed. Good question, maybe a bit off your topic, but i have one: How do you clean up partially corroded cylinder rams that were left exposed to air? I thought about a very fine sandpaper (kind of like the finish coat sandpaper you use on real car for final paint imperfections and blending, but am a bit unsure about that, might end up with leaking cylinders like sqiddster had if I took even a minute amount of metal off of the rams. Any ideas?

Impressive so far Alasdair...

@88high - Looking good, what about 5-speed gearbox w/ reverse, like the 8448 Supercar? Anyway you look at it, another coming up Supercar. Keep us posted on the progress. Eric

Its available almost everywhere now since the official release date of 3-1. Lego S@H is the best bet, since they sell at MSRP.

I'd buy that Vampire GT so fast it would make your head spin...would have to come with the awesome painted rims though but even without them painted it is definitely the best Technic MOC vehicle I've ever seen in my time...willing to bet it would be the best seller of any Technic set ever...

@Lemelisk - I've come into a set I need to rebuild and found it on Peeron and also at the post below yours, but from what I can tell you have to print the instruction pages 1 at a time, that would take hours, is there a source where they are page to page, pdf style? I would like to be able to print the pages one after another w/o having to click print on each page. Anyone have ideas on this? Both websites noted have excellent quality scans. Thanks, Eric

Just an additional comment, the supercars like the 8448, 8070, 8466, 8297 and 8880 kind of fit into their own scale and genre, all of them are about same scale... @matias bendtsen ALways been a fan of Terex equipment, that's another one I would like to see produced, a large Terex articulated dumper like you see on massive construction sites or gravel pits, at least here in the US, where a lot of material has to be moved. Aside from that, very nice looking MOC...

Totally agree with that, Tacker, but Technic come in so many different scales, the large construction sets like the Unimog, Bulldozer, Motorized Excavator, 8416 Forklift and such are a much larger scale than most, but they are too way out of scale for the rest of my collection and diorama, the 8294 Excavator, 8464 Front-End Loader, 8455 Backhoe, and others like it are like a medium scale, and ones like the 8453 Loader, 8283 Telehandler, 8418 Skid Loader and 8451 Grader/Dumper are on a small scale, can't really fit them all into the same diorama I am still building In reality though put the 8052 against the 8258 and 8285, those big guys dwarf the 8052...

AFOLs seem to be the buyers of most larger Technic sets and the amount of us, this website seems to be the most popular one I've seen in my years, they maybe ought to take a look (though I'm sure they do), but still since its market is basically children and teenagers, doubt it will come to pass that we get larger and even more complex models, the summer offerings look very large, especially the Rock Crawler and Helicopter, but I'd love to delve into a 3,000+ piece set along the lines of the gigantic Star Wars sets released, you can't tell me kids could figure out the Death Star to completion(some smarter ones would, but unless all the panels lined up right it is a monumental task, but it would be even for me)...I believe the Unimog is the largest(at least in piece count)Technic set ever released?? I would buy your car in a second if it was picked up by Lego and produced...pure genius...

@dr_spock - know that feeling all too well (dumping the tackle box and the bad back)...I've had a bad back for a few years (too much 'wrong way' lifting in a warehouse and I suppose age is creeping) Considering you are an awesome MOC'er I would guess you have tons of parts, I have maybe 2500-3000, just a guess parted out from many sets, but at times I do mods that are posted here and its search, search, search or use a different color of the same part that fits well with that particular model, then naturally later on I find I did have the right colored part...bought a huge standup sorter from Menard's a few years ago but found the largest bins on the bottom row just aren't enough to hold the amount of long liftarms and large pieces like panels and fairings so I just went with the open top sorters I found for those pieces, works fairly well, but since I'm not in MOC'ing the way a lot you guys are, with the exception of a truck trailer or two, I just keep the parts for spares and possibly will list on my Bricklink store down the road...

Tired eyes last night never saw the link...

One would have thought being such an epic set, it would have been released in all countries TLG distributes to...

Off topic a bit, but that is one downfall about Lego, it isn't watertight or sandtight in my case. I have an 8264 Hauler (the dump truck model built) and I wanted badly to put sand or something in it in a construction diorama scene, and I had to carefully duct tape the openings so the sand I put in it wouldn't all seep out. I can recall in my early days of Legoland Town my brother and I used to 'produce a rainstorm over our town' with a couple of spray bottles and of course all the buildings roof's leaked...just a funny old time story... @Blakbird- I do recall the yellow amphibious model in the far left of your picture at a TRU way, way back, must have been in mid 90's??? Must be pneumatic as I see an airtank on it...

They didn't market the 8258 in Canada at all? Man, that's weird, usually your S@H website mirrors the US one in terms of products and releasing of them.

I can say one thing for sure, you are right about ALL Lego being designed for children up to teenagers, we all are just AFOL's of Technic and lot of us middle-aged or beyond...and we make up a large percentage of who buys Technic, mainly the larger Technic sets...and a lot who create MOC's use studded/plated construction with some of the newer panel fairings to create a sleeker look to the outward features, especially in the supercars many have created... For a while after about 2001 they hardly used any of the old style Technic studded or plated construction, but we've seen it come back in a few models in the past few years starting with the 8421 Crane, but not many and not much in any particular model, I do agree that I would like, as many others do, to see some major studded construction come back into play, whether it be from a combination of Technic and City sets elements or a supercar similar to the 8448 which contained virtually all studded construction but it was mainly in the chassis and hidden by the fairings and other flexible axles. It looked almost like the modern Supercar (8070), but contained tons of studded plates and beams underneath its sleek exterior. Looking at it from a different perspective, TLG have created a lot of models in the past few years in their City series, mainly construction models, with lots of what used to be only Technic elements. I've bought a few of them mainly because they 'look' like Technic and fit in well, like the 7632 crane, sure its simplified, but if you look there a lots of Technic in it. I modified some of the superstructure to make it fit in with the Technic theme, also one I own is the Drum Roller from 2008, I think that's the release year. Only issue with that one is the roof always pops off, but the entire drum roller assembly is pure Technic. Would I like to see TLG produce some of the stellar MOC's posted here. A big YES would be my answer, I drool over a lot of them, but like Crowkillers has said they could be legal issues, and since it is really designed as a children's toy, producing for just us AFOL's, even though there are tons of us out there, I doubt they'd do it, UNLESS some stellar MOC producer was noticed and signed on as a designer for TLG. One would think with all the Brickfests and such all around the world that Lego would take notice of some models and their designers standing beside them. But, it is still a Duplo to Lego to 16 years old product for the most part. I recall a lot of Technic used to say an age range on the boxes of like 10+, 11+, 11-99, but in the past several years it basically only says up to 16 years old on any model in the Technic range. Even some larger Star Wars and larger Architechture sets still say 14+, 16+, which says to me anybody of any age can build it. Here in the USA, Technic seems to be a small market, whereas over in some European countries its huge, inside information from a source that talked to a Lego representative that attended a Brickfest in the recent past. A lot of the independent toy stores and dept stores in my area don't even sell Technic, or if they do, its just the smaller sets. TRU has a better selection, but in my checking the stores, its like a come and go process, you see a lot around Xmas and the major release in the mid-summer, but in between you don't see much of the larger sets. A couple of items I'd like to see in the orange color since Lego released the Unimog last summer is a medium sized Telehandler in orange similar to the JLG/Skytrac ones, and another medium sized excavator in orange. I've really never seen a red/grey excavator in the US (8294). Another thing I'd love to see them produce is a blue Genie boom lift. Those would be on my wanted list. Technic may be marketed as a children's toy, but we EAT it up...

I've seen this vid a while ago somewhere, didn't he design more than just the bulldozer? I see a lot of similarities in some models that might be his work, he is an excellent designer...I love the part in the vid where he lets loose all the parts from overhead, its a classy vid...

Thought it looked strangely similar to the undercarriage of the 8043 Tracked Loader model, quite a bit more complex than that model though, like the rubber you put on the tracks...

Forgot the 8258 in my favorites as well, guess I have a lot of favorites...its a large model, but what confuses me a bit about it, call me stupid if you want, is the fifth wheel on the back, with the length of the model I don't see how you could hook up a trailer to it, it would be way too long to even make a curve and considering the height of the backend of the model, it would have to be a sizable to trailer to hook to it...

I would guess that you do considering the complex models you create, incredible MOCs though...I'm not so great at it, can't seem to find the right type of sorter that has some bins large enough for all the spare parts I have...seems like I end up having to load 2 or 3 bins just with 15L liftarms...and I made the HUGE mistake of not separating the grays pre-2004, old grey from the light bluish grey and the old dark grey from the dark grey of today's Technic...emptying all the bins, and there was a lot of them to dump out on my work bench in my garage to sort out the grays was a tremendous task... Makes sense, but separating the parts in a huge model and actually having room to build the model's components and as you add them the model gets larger and larger you need a lot of space and almost a computer chair with wheels to move...gotta invest in one, I only have a chair with feet on it out there. I build all mine on 30"x30" card tables in my garage and usually between the parts and the model becoming larger and longer, its a must to move from table to table, was especially true when I rebuilt my 8285 Tow Truck, its long and with 1877 pieces, well that's a lot to put on a table and sort them out some so I'm not searching for an hour for one unique piece, one of which was the rubber 1x2 with holes in it for axles, I thought it was either lost or I had dropped it somewhere, finally found it under a couple of other pieces, like 2 hours later...went to a hobby store and bought some open top sort bins after that so I could sort pins, axles, liftarms, connectors of one sort or another, and misc pieces small and large, works quite well...

Naturally its always a part deepest in the model that comes apart...murphy's law comes into play here...

@jorgeopesi - had the same feeling about the Unimog, I was very certain I would buy the set, but realized after the build, it just wasn't as good as I thought it would be...the logging truck that came out earlier this year (9397) was a better buy both in cost and function in my opinion anyway, funny both of them had plows w/ 'b' models, only difference was with the mod for the plow's rear bed it enclosed it, making for a nice experience if you put fake salt or sand in it, they have a lot like it in the northern US, though most are not cabovers, but still it is a fun set, luckily DLuders made those instructions happen, thumbs up to him and the Eurobricker that made the mod for the bed... Sorry man, we could have flipped a quarter to see who could buy it, that's my way, I like to make others happy too...I bought it from a BL'er in Arizona, can't recall his name now, and not sure if it violates the Eurobricks TOS if I post his name here, so erring on the side of caution... One other set I thoroughly enjoy is the 8288 Crawler Crane with a couple of small mods I did myself...

When coming out of my dark ages in 2000, getting my hands on the 8448 Supercar. I was in heaven, I think I disassembled and reassembled about a half dozen times over the years just admiring the design and features and plain good looks of the set. Then getting the 8464 Pneumatic Front End Loader a year later, I was mesmerized by pneumatics and always have been. Then of course the eclectic 8455 Backhoe Loader in 2004, lucky I bought it, it retired not long after, snagged another, its still sitting in my MISB collection, hard temptation not to build another one. I highly anticipated the 8275 in 2007, wasn't disappointed, awe-inspiring and my first Technic RC model. I would 'groom' the carpet with it all the time, at the time the carpet was just fresh enough it would leave impressions of tracks and the dozer blade smoothed the carpet over. Biggest mistake I made was taking out in a couple inches of snow and tried, well lets just say, plowing. Got the underside soaked, thought it was done for. Doesn't work quite too well anymore, but still is an excellent shelf model. Other notables are the 8265, 8421, 8285, 8070, 8109, 8292, 9395 and 9397, and best of all time is receiving my 8466 4x4 Off Roader from 2001. Saw it on a TRU shelf, but it had a crunched in, taped up corner, so I passed on it. Worst mistake I ever made, luckily a fellow Bricklinker had one that I snapped up a few weeks ago. Haven't had the time to assemble, probably because I sit on this forum too much at night, which I thoroughly enjoy, but I'm drooling at starting the 8466 build. Yeah buddy - enjoy that 8448 , it held a lot of fun for me before I gifted it to you. Hey, just posted on this topic about that set, just got a hold of an 8466 from BL, wasn't cheap, but I've been waiting 11 years for this set, finally got it in my hands, only a tape seal missing posted by the owner, which reduced the price enough for me to afford it. Maybe I'll let you have it in say about a dozen years, about as long as I had the 8448... Eric