Paul Boratko

I appreciate the comments, but Eric has rendered far larger and better models in the past than anything that I have done... I am really amazed at how he got all of the angles so perfect in this one though... He is truly is an artist... @timr I believe he said that there were 1,900... There are 2 sets of instructions, one for the Black Version and one for the Red Version and each has 121 pages with a full parts list...

It can be profitable if the creations that you sell are desirable... And if you believe that your work is really good,then you won't need to set a price, your work will price itself... However getting established is the first key in making money selling your custom stuff on Ebay... To be quite honest, you can make more money buying sets, parting them out and selling parts than you actually can with a large or even medium sized custom model... Here is a mock Ebay auction... Buyer wins(or uses buy it now) for $100 USD... Shipping is $10 USD... Buyer pays you $110 USD... Paypal takes around 3% for the transaction so -$3.30 and then you owe Ebay the listing fee + 9% up to $100, so that is another $10, now you are down to $87 or $86... You have to factor in what the parts cost you and your time... The bottom line is if you can design something good for around $10 and sell it for $30 consistently, then you are better off doing that... Just my 2 cents...

I know what you mean as "Dually" sounds like a slang term for something else, most likely "Dual Rear Tires or Double Rear Wheels"... When we order parts for this type of truck at the shop, different companies refer to it as one or the other, mostly "Dually" and sometimes even just "Double Rears" I suppose it's like referring to an automatic transmission as a "Slushbox"

Actually I think it is "Dually"... You are correct though, The Majority of the time "Tandem" is when something is behind something else working together... Like a Tandem Bicycle...

Yeah, I know, but it still doesn't quite seemed right even with the power fucntions... Unless there are some newer more expensive motors in the Rock Crawler... With the cost of the Pneumatics and 2,000+ part count, I could see the 8110's $200 USD price being justified, but if this Rock Crawler is the same price, I am not so sure. It seems like it should be a $150 USD set... Basically take the 8070 Supercar with a similar part count and throw in an IR Receiver, Remote and 2 extra motors, should that take it from $120 USD to $200 USD?

The cheapest to get new parts is to buy sets... New Technic parts on Ebay seem to sell for WAY more than they actually cost... What you want to do is shop around between www.bricklink.com and order parts from Lego direct if you are looking for specific pieces...

As soon as I get my website straightened out and figure out how to use this dreamweaver HTML madness, I want to get a link added for your impressive work...

Actually it looks like that seller is getting rid of his entire Lego collection... It's no big deal...I am proud just to know that someone else thought that my work was good enough to replicate... As long as no one is selling my instructions or selling custom things that I am also selling, I have no problem with it at all...

The Rock Crawler has about 100 pieces more than I thought... Actually has 200 more pieces than the 8466 offroader from 2001.. Not even 300 more parts then the 9396 helicopter and costs twice as much...

You mean the Universal Joints...? or the CV Joints...? You can still order the CV Joint from Lego they are .79 cents(USD) Part Number 4268659

Is it important that the one part stay Yellow? It seems like a real chore to separate those 2 parts from each other just to keep them Black and Yellow...

Very very Nice!

You have to order them over the phone, you can't do it online... It is easy though... I've ordered 1000's of parts from Lego in the past... Just go to your country's Lego Shop at Home and get the number from there... How exactly did you get the Yellow part without the black hub? Or did your black pieces break?

You can order this part directly from Lego but it is not black and yellow, both parts are black like in the newer sets ... The cost is $2.11 USD each(for both pieces) and the part number is 4227853 Even though it is 2 pieces, it is sold as a set... Hope this helps...

The 8448 is a Great Set...

That is a really really awesome build...

Old rare colors returning may not be anything special to you, but considering that in the month of December alone over 600 Black bushings have been sold at an average price of .50 cents each at bricklink, their return may be welcome news for someone who is pondering making a premature purchase on them at ridiculous prices... I know that I have spent quite a bit buying these parts from Germany in the past year(more for shipping than the actual price of the piece)... Bushing Sales I was merely passing along information that I found out...

When my wife was building the 9395(Which is a really nice model) she called me in to look at the piston rods which appeared to be different than the previous ones... They seemed to have a texture to the ball that connects to the piston head and looked a slightly different shade of light blue gray.

Well we already have had the 4660886 toggle joint in black make it's return in the 9395 set and I called Lego last night to check on other new parts(New Black panels from the 9397 truck) and some parts that have been out of production for a few years to see if they might have them, and I asked about the possibility of the 4177421 Black Bushing still being in stock and I was told that it has been discontinued as of 2008... However, the sales associate told me that it would be back in stock on the 9th of January... I am not sure if this part is being used in an actual technic set or if it was being produced for some other type of set(Ninjago, Creator, or who knows)... Just thought that I would give everyone a heads up on this because I know this bushing is rather expensive on bricklink... Oh yeah, the New black panels are not in stock to buy yet...

The 600 piece 8041 for $36 is an EXTREMELY good deal. I ordered 10 of them last night and ordered 8 more this morning... This set has many great parts including 5(Five) 1 x 5 x 11 black panels that average around $3 each on bricklink...

I still think that Lego purposely leaks these early photos just to create discussion and hype... Then they "claim" to get mad when people post the pictures everywhere... If they didn't want photos to leak out, they could prevent it from happening... There are many companies that use this similar tactic..

The Rotors on the 8485's Helicopter Model spin pretty fast... Or so it seems that they do...

If I remember correctly, it took my wife about a week to build the Unimog... I bought 2 Unimog sets for her because she wanted to build the Unimog with both the claw in the back and the plow in front... She spent quite a few hours the first night sorting all of the parts from one set into about 40 different groups into various containers and sorting compartments... I went in to check on her progress and noticed the dozen or so empty plastic bags and said "You know... I think these bags were numbered for a reason..."

I know we were discussing the part count months ago when the news about a possible Rock Crawler first broke and one of the main discussions was about the part count being somewhat low due to weight from the various motors(not to mention the very heavy battery box)... I don't expect this new Rock Crawler to move exceptionally fast, but I also don't expect it to "Crawl"... If this set has more than 1,200 pieces, I will be very surprised...

I'm not so sure that he is off by much... The Flagship 8043 Excavator only had 1,147 and the 8297 offroader didn't even have 1,100.. I think this new Rock Crawler is going to be right on with the 8297 at around the same part count as it appears to be a similar size...