Paul Boratko

I am convinced that Lego purposely lets these "Preliminary" news and images get "Leaked out" just to create the hype themselves... Every year around this time, it is the same thing... If Lego didn't want secret info getting out, they could prevent it...

LOL... No... My wife gave him a dirty look and said "what an a**hole"... I think that I also spelled queued wrong up there...

When I did my live news spot last month, I was setting everything up where they told me to and the weatherman was checking out my cars an commenting on how much he liked them and then while I was waiting to be cued to to do the interview, the weatherman was getting ready to do a commercial break and gave the intro to the next segment which was with me and he said "Coming up next are some technical cars made of Lego, I guess some people have too much time on their hands" I thought it was kind of an ignorant thing to say considering how 30 minutes ago he was telling me how cool they were and asking tons of questions... When I got home several people had commented on the weatherman laying a cheap shot on me...

Very interesting, thanks for sharing the info...

Well, I am 38 and my wife(going to be 32) builds(system and Technic) and my mother(60) is now building(system) so as far as that goes, everything is great... All of my friends love what I do and support me and most recently I was in the newspaper a few times and did a live television interview and I have to admit, the feedback that I have received from people has been really positive... I certainly don't hide the fact of what I do as I wear various custom made Lego shirts as well as Technic ones from brickshirts.com and I often get asked questions when I am out... The only thing that I don't like is when people say "You have too much time on your hands". That is one of the most overused phrases in the history of mankind and it simply translates to: "I really wish that I could do that, but I can't" Honestly, who has "Too much time on their hands?" and who is the idiot that coined this phrase..?

Sorry to hear that you won't be there Ralph.... I see that there are now over 1,100 Attendees... I think that is up from last year... Is this the largest Lego show in the U.S. ? I think when I was at Brickworld in 2010 there were like 800...

You are not going to get the power to be distributed evenly with the wheels off of the ground... One side is almost always going to be favored based on which hub is looser... When you vehicle's wheels are grounded, everything will correct itself...

Actually it is vacuum metalizing which is what I should have said as it's not actually electroplating... The company that I use can chrome plate anything including glass and fabric...

In 2011 Toys R Us ran the BOGO 50% sale Online at least 20 times with Technic included every time and even ran a Buy two get 90% off once... I haven't seen them run it recently though, but they have sent out 20% off coupons to Rewards members this for this week, so if they stock(in store) the Crawlers by chance, you can get one for $160.00(plus tax) The week that they released in late Feb of 2011, I bought Ten(10) 8070 sets at buy one get one 50% off at their normal price of 119.99 and got them shipped to me for free... I do think the last time that Toys R Us ran the BOGO 50% that Technic and I believe Star Wars were not included... You just have to shop around for the best prices... Just like buying parts between Lego Direct and Bricklink... I am looking forward to the 30% off at the Lego Store at Brickfair this year...

True, but Toys R Us usually always offers Free shipping where as with Lego shop at home, you usually have to pay it... Plus the good old buy one get 50% off deal can't be beat(When they do run it and as long as Toys R Us doesn't have the prices raised)

I have been with 4 different Electroplating Chrome companies here in the United States and in my opinion my current guy who does the chemical spray on chrome has the best overall quality for my wheels, plus I can get them color tinted... I actually just got a batch of 40 in today for various people all over the world... But I think for regular Lego elements, electroplating my be the way to go as the plating can be controlled as to where you want it...

I think Mike(Camaro365 from here) had ordered one of the 9397 sets early from Toys R Us... Hopefully he can chime in here with exactly what ended up happening... DLuders, if you are a Rewards member at Toys R Us, you should have received that 20% off coupon in your e-mail... It's possible that they may stock the sets this week...

This is a really nice truck, you did an excellent job on it... $15 to chrome one piece is very expensive... You are right, it is better to just order parts from a place like chromebricks...

The last time that Toys R Us had a set online to order early, it was done by error(Remember they did the same thing with the 9397 Log truck?)... They are also currently sold out now at Toys R us online... I can't believe they don't have the price jacked up $10 to $20 more dollars like all of their other sets... I am looking forward to picking a few of these at Brickfair at the 30% off for my Australian friends... I also got a coupon for 20% off anything at Toys R Us(except for video games) this entire week(In store only) so if the crawler does in fact get onto the shelves this week, then I suggest everyone checking their e-mails for the coupon...

Wow is this ever AWESOME...!!! I would love to see this thing in person... LOL.. Lego used these for Exhaust ends too for a couple of their Nitro Racer sets... I believe it was the Menace and the Intimidator...

That's really awesome... My dad is a avid Linoel Train Collector/Dealer and he attends many of the Greenburg shows and I didn't know that they had Lego stuff on Display...

I played around with an idea similar to this a few years ago and it is just too unstable to be consistently reliable... Also, one of the keys I've found to building a really great working gearbox concept is keeping everything uniform using Liftarms rather than perpendicular connectors on axles because they have a tendency to move around and cause gear bind ups, plus they are not "true" to the spacing in which the gears work the best...

Yeah, I would say 1mm is probably about right... You can tell the 2 different types of Dark Bluish gray by the end of the longer one(The 4.5L axle end) has an indentation in the tip, while the shorter one does not and it has some type of mold marking... I am just wondering if at a certain run they made a certain type out of a different type of plastic for a few years... It would explain the Length/strength issue... Now I just opened up a New Flatbed truck set from last year to check the 5.5L axle and it is the same length as the longer one on the left in the picture except it doesn't have the dimple in the same end, but it also doesn't have the mold marking that the smaller one has... Somewhere along the line this axle must have gone through at least 2 changes, so it wouldn't surprise me if they used a different type of plastic during these changes which is why you are finding different rigidity in them... The older style white ones are also shorter and have the same mold marking just like the one in the picture, so the shorter ones are most definitely the oldest original kind...

That's pretty cool... Reminds me of the Local Street Sweeper...

So Alex, have you noticed a difference in the plastic between the shorter or longer 5.5 axles or is it random...? It's the newer style that are just a bit longer...

I am wondering if Lego purposely didn't implement the XL motors into this because they knew that kids would be doing crazy things and breaking parts left and right that in turn would need to be replaced by Lego, where as this new large motor would limit how much punishment the plastic parts can actually take... I know those guys who build those Trial Trucks break parts pretty often and breaking parts isn't part of TLC's gameplan... LOL.. I was just outside with the dog thinking about this and came back in to give my opinions on it as well before I refreshed the page and seen this...

I am not 100% sure, but it may have something to do with the length of the 5.5 axles... The older ones are shorter than the newer ones...

From what I've seen this set definitely looks like it is a step in the right direction... I am sure people will be modding it to no end... I just can't wait to watch my wife build it... I actually get more excitement watching her build than if I build something myself... I am also looking forward to chasing the dog around the house with it...

I have no idea what this is as I am not familiar with this theme, but this is easily one of the coolest models that I have ever seen... I also love your Star Wars models...

I have been thinking about this since the Trans Clear Liftarms appeared in the Pod Racer's set last year... When I was growing up, 2 of the coolest Models that I can remember playing around with were the Visible V8 Engine (And believe it or not, at one point there was a 3 Foot long Visible Chassis with see through 3 speed Gearbox for this 1:4 scale engine) and I also loved The Visible Man I think it would be a cool new theme in the Technic line to possibly have one new vehicle every few years where the entire vehicle would be clear so that you could see the inner workings doing their thing, like all of the gears, axles, engine parts and suspension would be their normal colors so you could see how everything worked inside... These would be great tools to use at shows or schools to demonstrate how things work without having to disassemble the model... Something along the Lines of "Technic Visible Motion" or something like that... I know that we already had Trans Clear engine blocks in the past... I know most of you probably wouldn't be into this, but I think a New "Visible Car" would be kind of neat... I'd like to see a model in the style/size of Alex Zorko done like this... Just a thought...