radafuk

Reading the couple pages of this thread I was surprised of people's opinions stating having crappy (in their views) stuff is bad for ideas.loego.com or the community. I think popularity is quite a fast and inquestionable filter, and even if it's obvious that viewers have to scroll through a zillion projects they're not interested in, the main purpose of the site: collecting ideas and prefiltering them by the community simply works. I think even the worst presentations can mean some value to someone even if not to me in a particular case. I liked (and supported! ;) ) a few of the ones posted here.

Aargh, how could a superb project fail on a so tiny detail :x Anyhow...

Nice :) You just made me supporting the pyramid thingie :) Cmoon, that Sphinx is epic!

Hi, I'm using a 3 minipumped compressor, that originally was designed to fit into 8455 (only 3 wide to fit into the nose). On the below image you can see it in a quite different setup (including control valves, bicycle pump extension, tank extension), but the concept remained the same. Simple, quite continous. The current stuff it drives (quite slowly): And the control valves (it's just being disassembled, that's why it's missing gears and motor already):

Yea, building the B model is still ahead of me (nearly forgot about). I like that too. But I like the excavator even more (the five year old in me has a dream becoming true orwhat), and already started to build its important parts into the new one. As I have quite a few things to do besides lego, I only could make a proper left track (motor and gearing is fully covered inside a 5 wide box) in about a week and some rollers for the turntable. Solution: since I think 8 ch RC is useful, I'll buy another one, and build the B model too. Thats it, well done TLG, you earned again. :X ____ Btw about the problems: my 8043 (with fresh batteries) doesn't have any trouble lifting a bucket of bricks, it can take a nice chunk out of a box of 2x1 plates. Its absolutely playable until the base is level and doesn't try to lift a heavy weight (like itself). ____ I forgot about the bucket: I don't use the one-piece bucket: imo it's for front loaders. Its not that hard to build your own bucket, mine is only 10 wide and doesn't look sooooo big. szb

(No dirt on our blanket, its the blanket itself :> ) I only have 4-5 studless sets, and true, I have a feeling something like you say. Technic constructions became bigger in the last 20 years, SL made bracketing gears much smaller and added a lot of new possibilities. Some elements however remained the same (maybe the weakest in this case is the turntable), using them without at least some rollers for a half kilogram upperstructure is very brave (and shows very good skills of balancing weight at TLG). There are two very important (:DDdd) things the original 8043 couldn't do well at our place: - my 5 yrs old doesn't rly feels yet when to stop motors to not burn them, so she cant use it alone - climbing obstacles is very fun with an excavator (maybe even more fun than loading beans), but it barely can lift its own weight and the turtable does turn only when leveled (poor 8t gear :()) ____________ Still don't misunderstand me pls. It is the biggest, most functional and most valuable technic set we ever had. In about 30 years. And let's see: do we have a writing on the box it is for 5 yr old kids? Or did we see the excavator doing acrobatics in any of the commercials? szb

I never questioned if it's super. It is. I love it.

Hello guys, its my first post, I'd share my experiences about our new 8043: - I bought this set because this was the cheapest way for me to get 4 motors and 4 ch RC, I look at the excavator as an extra with the motors. - I see the structure is very (I mean very very very) weak, namely: a.) standard turntables are inadequate for the task of carrying the upperstructure and a filled bucket b.) LAs are very good for precisity (much better than pneus: try to climb a truck with your pneu excavator...), but they can not lift even an empty bucket effortlessly: motors are at their margins. c.) the arm structure is wiggly it has way too much play, even if its quite oversized (bigger but worse than 8455) d.) undercarriage has some gears outside. These gears like to jam on rough terrain (like a blanket). Covering the gears would have been more useful. - The switching mechanism is quite good, power goes to tracks much better than I imagined. (the evident changes help: using frictionless axle connectors etc) - motors and receivers can be removed without much pain: it makes using them in other models easy without braking dwn half the upperstructure. - Instructions: someone above said very well: these newer (not 30 yrs old haha) ones make me feel very dumb, doesnt make me think, and my 5 yrs old cant see what she's building atm, she just goes for completion. When I was 10 I could easily modify constructions on-the-fly, nowadays I put together what I got, break it up within a few days and make a better version of it in a separate process. - the size of this model would make a modular approach more sane (like crawlers, base, upperstructure, arm), now it is quite tricky to change some minor thingie without disassembling 3/4 of the stuff. ___________________________ After about an hour of play I started to take it apart. It was clear I can make it better: now I started to build a more useful one with motors within the chains, roller bearings for the turntable and a brand new upperstructure. And maybe 5x parts count :D Conclusion: it's a great set, maybe one size bigger than its building techique allows. Well, it motivates a proper rethink and rebuild, giving inspiration, so it fullfills its main task. Aaahhh, and it looks good! :) Even if I'm still not convinced about pure studless... szb