Matt The Tuba Guy

Just arrived today. page 187: "The power functions LED's with a hamster provided for scale" Technic for teh win!

Ordered this on Amazon a month or so ago, got an email saying 19th too, although it will definitely be later where I live! I decided to use Amazon rather than No Starch Press because of the price. The book was a little bit cheaper on Amazon, but shipping was a lot cheaper to New Zealand I did get in early and got a cheaper price though. I see the kindle edition is $10, but I would rather have a physical copy even if it costs a little more. I am looking forward to receiving it!

do you have any of these? I find it interesting that the clutch switch fits perfectly in there. It would be surprising if it is a coincidence. are there any sets that use this combination?

something kind of worrying, none of the sets have flexi axles in them! this year, there was one set (9394) with flexi axles, and only one length (red 19 long) I am really quite surprised the F1 car doesn't have any, and all the other sets have the thin pipes, but no flexi axles (which are better IMO) I hope LEGO isn't ending production of them!

Really, they don't even send you one copy for free as a prize?

oops, missed that! anyone have an early catalogue image of 8070 to see if it shows it there too? edit: here it has multiple pictures though, each showing different functions, and we only have one picture of the F1 car.

If they can outdo 8674, that would be awesome! (8674 is definitely better than the Silver Champion) Considering the scale and because it seems to be the 1h 'flagship', I think it would have to have suspension. 8070 had suspension, but it didn't show it on the box.

two panels I would like to see are a 3x11 flat panel, and a 5x11x2 long 1/4 oval panel to match the wide panels like the 3x11x2 does for the thin panels. Currently the only colours that you can get all the panels in are black and red. orange (2 missing), yellow (1 missing) and white (1 missing) are pretty close. (light grey (2 missing) too, by the looks of it) hopefully we get some of these in 2013 (the last white one at least appears to be in the F1 car) at least there will be large track wheels in the grabber. I only have four of them from the excavator because I don't yet have the bulldozer. as for the wheels, they appear to have black rims, so either the silver F1 rims are being released in black, the tyres are the Nitro Menace tyres, or the wheels/tyres are completely new. I kind of hope the last one, although a combination of 1 and 2 would be quite cool (thinner tyres at the front). it will certainly be nice getting more white parts, but PLEASE let there be a blue set! Can't wait until some better photos are leaked. :-)

I will always have fond memories of this set, it was my first flagship, and it was AWESOME! (still is) In a lot of ways, this is actually kind of similar to the Unimog. it has a body and two attachments (A and B models), it has pneumatics and a motor, and it looks REALLY good. Definitely one of the best ever Technic sets.

a covertible with gullwing doors? I'm not even sure if they exist! good luck with that. I have 8448, but it isn't made up at the moment. if it was, I would try it myself.

some random guesses and hopes: the grand prix racer is 57cm long according to the leaked images, the 2005 Ferrari was 61cm long, so it is definitely the same scale. I am sure it would have suspension. there is no way they would make a car this big without it! gear box? maybe. it seems equivalent to 8070, and that had suspension and a gearbox (although not linked to the drivetrain). I hope it has a gearbox, but I wouldn't be too surprised if it doesn't. could we see the return of the damped supension springs for the opening engine cover like the Silver Champion? Panels: I am imagining this having a hell of a lot of panels! I would doubt this would have a motor, unless it is RC like this year's crawler, but that would just be silly. This would mean, unless there are a couple more sets to be revealed, no motors in the first half. the clawed crawler should be quite cool, I like tracked vehicles. I would like to see the claw controlled from the main body like the motorized excavator. it should definitely be possible. It would be cool if it had stabilizers controlled through the turntable. I worked at a metal recycling place for a couple of days, and the grabber cranes they had there wrere like that, although they did have wheels instead of tracks. I can't see anything like that on the small image, so maybe it would be something to add on when I get the set.

anywhere I might be able to get the images? they seem to be gone now. they sound good. edit, here (not very good, but gives an idea.)

Wow, another Technic fan in Christchurch, NZ. also good to see that there is a local LUG now. I will have to find out when the next meeting is and go to it :-) . I don't have much of a social life, being an Aspie, and living through some VERY stressful times in the last couple of years, but my family seems to accept the fact that I like LEGO. Recently, I have been shipping in from overseas because it is cheaper, plus there are some cool older Technic sets I wanted to get. My family gives me funny looks every time a new package arrives on the doorstep! :-P

if bley parts stop production, how would that make them worthless? wouldn't it make them worth more?

interesting. I managed to find the original post in Google's cache. (copy this webpage URL, paste in Google, delete "&st=30" off the end, and add "cache:" in front) if it is accurate, then that should be fairly awesome!

LOL, I decided to look at the oldest threads to see how far back they go, and I found this! (sorry to bump a REALLY old thread!) one of my creations was on here more than 3 years before I even joined Eurobricks! I will make another awesome moc eventually, I just never seem to have the time. This is definitely my best creation, back when I could actually make decent stuff. last year, I started building it again from deconstruction photos, and I measured some real buses, realizing that I had actually made a bus amazingly close to a real one with the scale of the wheels! I also won a local LEGO building competition, with a $100 prize the following few years was a shadow period. I still had all my LEGO, but I didn't really do much with it. The last two years in particular has been hell, and then it got worse a side effect of this was leaving uni, and getting work, which meant that I can afford LEGO, so I got lots, but haven't really made a heck of a lot yet. (I am currently building the Silver Champion that arrived this week) a couple of things about the bus: the doors are pneumatic, and the gears at the top are so both doors open at the same time. It probably isn't the best way to do it, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. it also has steering connected to the steering wheel, and the steering knob all the way at the back! there is also a V6 engine connected to the middle set of wheels, but that's about all apart from lots of seats and a removable roof. the panels are really crazy because I didn't really have all that much, and the bus used just about every single red part I had! I could probably build a better one now, using the mini LA's for the doors, pneumatic kneeling, and suspension, plus I have a lot more red parts (and 8 unimog wheels ) Oh, and lastly, here are a couple more pics of it, I guess I never got round to updating it! here is my old brickshelf folder, which I made before I changed my online name to MattTheTubaGuy By mattthetubaguy at 2012-07-14 By mattthetubaguy at 2012-07-14 (sorry for bad pic quality, cheap digital cameras were pretty bad back then!)

As a Technic fan, I would say that yes, there is a golden age at the moment. the past four years have all seen fantastic flagship models, 8258 crane truck, which currently holds the record for most gears, and was fairly complex, 8043 motorized excavator, possibly the most complex technic model yet with the gearbox required to operate 6 functions from 4 inputs, then 8110 Unimog, with orange, big wheels, pneumatics, and realistic suspension system, and this year, not as technically advanced as the others, but still impressive nonetheless, a working remote controlled crawler that lots of people thought wouldn't be possible as an official set. I think the Power Functions system also counts as a great advance for Technic, along with the linear actuators and many new useful parts. I sure can't wait until next year! If they come out with the ultimate Technic supercar, then that will just confirm it!

I think I have more than 100ice cream containers with different parts in each, plus a couple of boxes for wheels. the ice cream containers are approx. 16cm square and 8cm high with rounded edges. I am currently in the process of making custom dividers to fit in LEGO boxes to sort all my axles and 'other' pins. I originally used the 8419 box, but I think just my 3 long axles would fill that now! some of my storage inventory: -A box (9395)for all my PF stuff -3 large boxes (unimog is one of them) for all my wheels! -four containers completely full with my 2 and 3 long pins, two for the 2 longs, and 1 each for the black and blue 3 longs. -1 container for each of the other pins (all except blue axle pins will go into divided boxes eventually) -3 full of 15 long beams, and that's before sorting my latest additions! -3 for the 3x5 L shaped beams, -1 for each different connector (most anyway), -2 for most standard beams, 1 grey/black, and 1 colour (mostly yellow/red) -only 6 half full for ALL my bricks! -8 mostly full for the panels -1 full container of engine parts. -1 container for each axle size (to be put into divided box eventually) -1 container for each type of gear (most anyway, and also to be put into boxes) all the containers fit into a filing cabinet, which 8146 boxes fit into perfectly, which is why I am using them for my axles. the wheels stay separate due to a lack of space. I will post a few pictures once I get my camera back from my sister, who is currently in Rarotonga (I am in NZ)

Also he said LOOKS more interesting, and I agree absolutely, the helicopter looks AWESOME! good to get a couple more mini LA's, plus 36 tooth gears. I only have 4, and 4 of the 40's too, so hopefully next year a set has a couple of those. as for the blade, it is obvious someone is going to attach it to a motor and try to gear it up as much as possible, so it is probably for safety, plus it doesn't look too bad anyway.

I just realised that it is basically a miniature 8284, with the tractor and buggy. It also looks fairly similar to the tractor from 8049

Yes, it will be discontinued eventually. It has been out for 2 years now, and I got an 8258 around August/September last year, so I would expect it to be available until at least that time of this year. I did buy from NZ though, where sets come out late, and go out of availability late too. The US LEGO shop@home site did NOT have 8258 at that time. It probably depends on the popularity of the set. a really popular and well selling set would probably stay out for longer. If you do not have 8043, and if it is still available wherever you are, I would recommend getting it really soon, because as soon as it is no longer available, I would imagine the price will shoot up since this can probably be considered a 'classic' Technic set on par with the likes of 8421, 8448, and 8880. Just my thoughts.

you mean this part? Great idea, except I don't have any model team sets. I might try using three of the 5 long thin beams, and use 3 long beams to connect them at the ends. It will be a little bit bigger, but it will have a pinhole in the middle.

After seeing this, I decided to try make my own. My first try is a 6 cylinder radial, using the "Technic Wedge Belt Wheel (Pulley)" It does have a sweep of two units though, because I haven't figured out an easy way to make a 1/2 unit offset for the central axle yet. It is a bit clunky, and a 1/2 offset rather than 1 would fix that problem, plus figuring out a way to build it using something other than the wedge belt wheel so there is a pinhole in the middle would help a lot too. sorry for the bad quality, I must have had my flash settings too high. I know that radial engines are supposed to have an odd number of cylinders, so my next test will probably be 9 cylinders, which apart from 3 would be the easiest odd number to build. I could also try 2 or 4 lots of 3 in a row.

WOW, VERY nice, and lots of shiny! I wish I had more shiny. I also wish I had a few more bricks. I have 60000+ parts, and only 2 black 2x4's! That is seriously incredible! I had to look carefully for a couple of seconds before I realised that it was indeed made out of LEGO!

I have come up with my own names, but maybe using the bricklink names would make more sense. the first (new) one I have called "Connector 3x3 U shape with (+O+) bottom" and the second (old) part, I have called "connector 3x3 H shape with 2 pins and 2 1/2 pin holes" I leave out 'Technic' since more than 90% of my parts are technic!