grum64

Thank you Jeroen, as always you’re very kind. If for nothing else I guess we owe this set a debt of gratitude for helping coax you out of the darkness and onto the path to where you are today. For myself and those far more knowledgable than I the 8258 is certainly up there with the Technic greats of years gone by. Yes, you could say it has its faults, a gaping hole in cab roof, no dual rear wheels and a crane that although brilliant in design and operation couldn’t lift much more than a chocolate mouse but who cares. In terms of technicality, operation and overall design it’s a winner every time.

It's a set well worth tracking down. Many have just become part packs which although the set can be built if needed I doubt most ever will be which is a shame. It's an engaging and enjoyable build and the finished model is, to me anyway, one of the very best Technic display pieces. Thank you Andy. To be honest I didn't think I'd made much progress but what what I have done has been really enjoyable. As for it being easier. Oh good Lord yes If you have the parts you're only really a box, sticker set and a set of instructions away from it being the same as any set bought boxed & complete. And probably cheaper

I'm sure there used to be a video of this incredible build on Youtube but I can't seem to find it now. Does anyone have it or know where I can get it?

Build Day 1 - Days build time 3hrs 20mins / Total build time 3hrs 20 mins There's still no sign of Bully in my shed and it's too hot to expect people to be in lofts going through storage boxes, bags etc so I've chosen the 8258 as the set to build in its place. I'll build Bully once I've found it. The first time I built the 8258 I can't say that I enjoyed the build process. It was difficult, really difficult and all my thoughts and energies were concentrated towards things like how do I pick parts up? What technique do I use to put them together? How do I pick up and handle big assemblies? All things that, 9yrs later, are now second nature. That first time the 8258 took 22 weeks, building for roughly 6 hours a day and mostly 6 days a week. I'm hoping to be a bit quicker this time around. Not too much progress so not much to write other than building's been easy so far but then it is early days yet.

A great set indeed and one that I know is many a builders favourite and I suspect a good many were bought out of their Dark Ages by it. For me it's special because it my entry into Technic. As for Bully. After your suggestion I took a look in that place where the lost socks go. No Bully but I did find 2 Unicorns, D B Cooper and the Mary Celeste

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You won't be sorry. It's a great build and an excellent display piece.

What a terrific little build. Great use of the micro motor.

I built the 9398 shortly after it first came out and as I recall it was an enjoyable build. I really liked the model, it looked good and was fun to play with so I do want to build again it fairly soon but it’ll be the 8258 next followed by Bully, assuming of course it’s turned up by then.

Yeah, the disappearance of Bully’s a bit of a mystery. It’s either in our loft or our Sons, I’ve just got to wait for the weather to cool down so someone can go up and take a look. Like you, the 8258 is one of my favourite sets. Being the first Technic set I ever built it has a special place in my heart and I’m really looking forward to building it again.

Thank you. What you see in the photo is only a very small part of my collection which is mostly the result of hours spent scouring the internet, classifieds, carboot sales etc for bargains. I've been very lucky over the years getting some great stuff stupidly cheap but prices have risen significantly over the last few years making bargains harder to find. Of course having all these sets etc., is fine but it's going to make the search for Bully a long one. With the weather here being hot for the next week or so lofts are the last place anyone wants to be so I may wait until we get a cooler spell and build something else in the meantime. The 8258 maybe. At least I know where that is .

Gilly & I have spent most of today going through this lot with still no sigh of Bully. There's 5 times this amount in our loft and 7 80L storage boxes of bagged sets and psrts in our Sons loft still to go through. It's going to take a while!

Sounds like I'm not alone in the seemingly unexplained 'loss' of a set. The mystery of the 'disappearing' 8275 may though have been solved as this afternoon I had a conversation with EB member and friend Pvdb who I got the set from. Thanks to him I think I have a pretty good idea where it might be. Ordinarily I'd have checked it out there and then but it was 31° so Gilly & I went to a nearby riverside pub & spent the afternoon beside the river in the shade of a large tree with a glass of the cold stuff instead. I'll look for Bully tomorrow. Life's all about priorities

As I've mentioned many times my shed is in need of a good sort out and has been for quite a while. Trouble is it never seems to happen. I go out there fully intending to make a start but then I see all the lovely sets waiting to be built and that’s it, the sort out can wait. The trouble is the same thing keeps happening so the sort out never gets done. Today however, something happened to break that cycle. This morning I went out to my shed to make a start on the 8275 but when Gilly lifted the box down it was empty except for the instruction books! When I got the set I checked it was complete and yes, all was present and correct so on the shelf it went and it’s been there ever since. I have no recollection of taking the parts from the box and putting them somewhere else and can’t think of any reason why I would. It’s a real mystery, I know it’s here somewhere. Looks like that (well overdue) sort out has been forced upon me. This makes me wonder. Has anyone else ‘lost’ a set?

The best mod of this set I’ve seen. Great work.

Sweeeeeeeeeet

Hmmm... Not sure I'd go that far but I do understand why it's necessary in your neck o' the woods.

Hello and welcome to Eurobricks.

Welcome back. May your dark age be forever behind you.

A warm welcome to you and your Daughter.

If nothing else it might make it think twice about using our garden as a toilet in future.

The neighbours cat didn't look very amused when a rampaging Racer found it dozing in the flower bed .

Yes, this is a good little set. Can’t say I’m likely to run it on a duvet but everything it has ran on it's handled surprisingly well. If the Little Darlings say they'd like the B model built then I'll build it with them but otherwise not. They've had so much fun with it, most of an afternoon it was charging about and the BuWizz's battery showed no signs of giving up. That combination transforms the 42065 from a mediocre set into a really good one. No wurries about the creditation. I'd settled on my own way to fit it but would've had to hunt high & low for the few parts needed. Your solution, using parts from the set saved me a lot of time and effort so thanks again. Yep, I think it's my quickest build yet but it is only a little ‘un.. It is indeed time to start the 8275, I'm really looking forward to it.

Build Day 2/3 - Days build time 3hrs 55mins / Total build time 6hrs 55 mins With the Grandchildren waiting patiently and the 8275 in the wings I wanted to get this build finished sooner rather than later which was helped by it only having 370 parts and a complete lack of complexity (no suspension etc). It's an enjoyable little build but not what you'd call fun, no, that's to be had once the building stops and you fire this thing up. I skipped building the standard model and went straight to running it with the BuWizz. Credit to Zero Bricks for his idea to fit the unit without needing new parts. In this guise it's fast but was no match for the flying Dirt Crushers & Outdoor Challenger the Children were running it with but I didn't really expect it to be, they're completely different machines. The 42065 does have one thing in common with them though, it's a real hoot to drive. The Children had huge fun with it. On our wooden floors it slid around like Mr Bean on an ice rink, fitting the tracks with 24375 Rubber Track Studs (not their official description but it makes more sense to me) gave it much better grip. Outdoors, on tarmac, grass, paving slabs, dirt & gravel, it coped admirably with them all. For such a simple build it's a fairly sturdy model. During the course of an afternoon it crashed into fences, trees, plant pots, my 'chair(!), various items of furniture and to it's complete surprise, the neighbours sleeping cat! and all the little Racer lost was the 'antenna' (which I forgot to fit before taking pics ). All in all it's a very nice little set. Away for a week and then it's on to the 8275.