fitzi

Hey guys, I´m relatively new to this forum, I read through a lot of topics and reviews and I thought the time has come to make my own review. As this is my first review, I thought it would be a good idea to start with a small Lego set rather than picking a big one. And since the 9390 Mini Tow Truck wasn´t reviewed yet, I made my choice....... -- Review -- Lego Technic 9390 Mini Tow Truck -- Review -- Purchase Date: 11.1.2012 at REAL, Germany Price: 9,99 € Pieces: 136, Price per piece: 7,34 ct The box Compared to the last year mini model 8065 Mini Container Truck (which actually is available in two different shaped boxes), the box of the 9390 is a bit bigger. Here are a few pictures of the box: The parts / instructions Inside, there are two sealed bags and the instructions for the A- and for the B-model. I always wonder why TLG divides the A model instruction in 2 booklets but uses only one booklet for the B model. Same thing with 8065 last year......... I don´t get the point in doing that because the A-model instruction is not more extensive than the B-model instruction. A closer look at the sealed bags: Interestingly this set contains 5 gears, 2 of these black 12 tooth gears and 3 of the 8 tooth gears. Heretofore, these mini-sets only contain 2 gears, one 8 tooth gear and one wormscrew, as far as I know. As the orange parts are quite new, here are all the orange parts the set contains. The black part is quite rare I think, and I never saw the translucent orange part before. The build & functionality My setup, ready to build! Lets start putting this thing together, so here are a few pictures showing you the process while this cute little thing is born..... The crane in the back has a pretty simple design, one of the two 8 tooth gears sits on a friction pin to kind of stop the rope from completely pulled out by some heavy stuff..... As you can see, the Mini Tow Truck really takes shape, and here is one (at least for me) interesting detail. I never saw this type of steering before, it´s a quite clever solution using no gears at all! Here is the instruction booklet showing how the wheels are assembled, the attachment is part of the steering system, really clever, I think: I made a short video to show how the steering works, have a look: The completed model After building the Mini Tow Truck, I think it´s time to show some final pictures: These are the leftover parts: I did the building at work during my night shift, and we had some dry ice lying around, so I tried to make some unusual pictures using the awesome effect of the dry ice......... Final conclusion I like the Mini Tow Truck. You get a lot of the 136 pieces, and I like that beside the crane function this model has a steering, too! This adds a lot of playability to the model. I like the new orange parts and everybody immediately recognises it to be a Unimog, so actually TLG did a good job! At first I was a little bit disappointed that the 5 gears are not really used for the functions, 2 of them are used as turning knobs and the two 8 tooth gears are not really functional used, if you know what I mean. But the steering without any gears works quite well, I like the idea behind it. Overall, you get a very cute little model for under 10 €, I would recommend this to every true fan! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I mentioned at the beginning, this is my first review, so I really would like to know whether you liked it or not and what could be done better the next time. Feel free to comment, to criticize or to praise You will find all the pictures (and more) in high resolution at my brickshelf account, (once moderated): 9390 high res gallery Thanks for reading & watching, fitzi

Oh damn it!!!! An incomplete 8480!! At least the red micro motor is missing!!!!

You actually have to use some sort of host site, if you don´t want to use flickr, you can create an account at www.brickshelf.com (Lego-related pictures only!) or you can use host sites like www.abload.de. abload.de is actually pretty good though, you can create your own account and the access to your pictures is immediate and very simple. On Eurobricks.com, you can not directly upload pictures from your hdd, mainly because of the traffic. fitzi

I´m collecting not that long by now, my advantage is that I kept every set I got as a child before my dark ages, I never sold a piece, but for example 8258, 8285, 8275 and a few others I bought in a good used condition in the past 2 month. As a collector, my goal is to own every single set with pneumatics, there are quite a few missing, but I almost have every (pneumatic) set. The old sets you mentioned (850,851 & 852) are interesting, but very hard to find in a good condition. You actually can find them sometimes MISB, but they are just so fu***** expensive, I refuse to buy, cause for the same amount of money you get a lot more if you concentrate on "newer", but used sets. T reach my "pneumatic goal", this is what missing: 8040 8843 8851 8680 8854 Do you have a goal in terms of collecting models? fitzi

I think you cannot compare 8455 with 8069, the only thing both have in common is that both are backhoes (ok, and they are actually yellow ). Don´t misunderstand me, I love 8455, it´s a pleasure to build, the pneumatics are just awesome, but I do like 8069 very much, too! It´s way cheaper than 8455 but its price/piece ratio is rather good, and I like how they managed to "copy" the functions of 8455 by not using pneumatics but a new, a different way. I think both models have their right to exist side by side, 8455 as the probably most complex pneumatic model of all time ( even though 8868 comes close), 8069 as a rather cheap, but clever model with many functions and place of introduction of the new mini-LA´s. Sure 8455 is the more impressive model due to its 11 or so pneumatic cylinders, but 8069 isn´t that bad I think! fitzi

It will be released around march 2012

I would buy 8466, because 8110 will be available for quite a long time and it will obviously become a bit cheaper as time goes by.

I actually don´t want to display all my models at the same time, I think I would need an extra room to do so. About 70% of my (Lego technic) sets are nicely stored in their boxes waiting for me to have enough time to assemble them. But I will never display more then 2 or 3 of them at the same time. Here is what "my room" looks like: @ PlaneCrazy: Nice idea with the shelving system! I would like to do that too, but I don´t have enough room for a shelf like that. My display has to be mounted at a wall, because as I said I don´t have enough room for a shelv or something like that. Another nice effect of my display is that the freakin dust stays outside fitzi

The problem for me is that the display case Ikea sells is not wide enough, for example 8258 and 8285 wont fit as they are too long. The aquarium solution works fine, because its wide and high enough, and I needed to mount it somewhere at a wall, because I don´t have enough space to place a display case like the one Ikea sells.

I luckily bought 8421 when it was released in 2005, and 2 month ago I got a new 8053 for 55€. It´s just good to have both!

Hey guys, i decided to build a display case for my Lego technic models. It is actually a simple aquarium (80x40x35) with a wooden plate on top with LED illumination. The back is made of 2 big gray plates (48x48) with black, gray and red plates as a surface. I placed mirrors at the lower half of the backplate simply because I don´t have enough black plates but it looks goo though I think. My wife had the idea to build this tiny platform for the smaller models, I like it, the only little problem is that it´s a little bit dark under the platform.......but whatever. The only thing I´m not satisfied with are the street plates at the bottom. Maybe you guys could help me out with a better solution? Whatever, here are a few pictures: More pictures at my >> brickshelf gallery << Thanks for watching, fitzi

As far as I know it´s actually not released yet.

You´re right. And the Star Wars Show is pretty nice, too, next time I am there I will take a video of it.

Hey guys, saw that nice promo at a store here in Germany (Centro Oberhausen) and wanted to share the pictures with you. The big Unimog is made out of usual small bricks, maybe glued together, I don´t know, but it looked awesome beside the "real" Lego Model of the Unimog. Whatever, here are the pictures (at Brickshelf) , sorry that I didnt upload thumbnails, but I don´t know how to do so. Promo image 1 Promo image 2 Promo image 3 fitzi

Thats what I got for christmas: The bad thing is that I have no time at all to build one of the bigger sets!

Yeah, try ebay ore other places like that, I did and got this awesome plane including the original box with the plastic inlays and the instruction for only 12 €!!!! I cant believe I got it that cheap! And everything is in very good condition, too!

Yeah, I think beeing a dad and a AFOL at the same time isn´t that bad. I hope that my little daughter will play with Lego rather than with Barbie stuff......

That really helps me, thank you very much!!!

Thanks! I actually did, but I didn´t get some informations about the number of the sealed bags inside the box. The total amount of parts are rather uninteresting since I need to know if there is a sealed bag missing. The only chance I have is to check the weight of the box, bricklink tells about the total weight of the box. But since I have to contact the seller about it, I would rather ask him about the number of sealed bags.

Hello everybody! My name is Pascal, I´m 30 years old and I´m out of my Lego Dark Ages since two month now. I started with Lego as a child, I had many Lego City Sets, my first Lego set ever was the 6684 Police Patrol Squad. I don´t know at which age I got my first Lego Technic set, but it was the 8832 Roadster. After that, I really was into Lego Technic, I got Technic Sets at Christmas, at my birtday and I couldn´t stop. At the age of about 16, I fell into my Lego dark ages. But I kept all the sets, I luckily never sold a piece of it. Much later, in 2005, I got some sort of Lego-flashback and bought all of the Lego Technic Sets coming out in 2005. But this flashback was over after I build the sets and I fell into my Lego dark ages again, ´till now!!! After moving to a new apartment, I found all the old Lego stuff and something inside me was on fire again! So I found myself searching ebay for some sets I always wanted to own but never did. Sad thing about that is that as a child, I had plenty of time, but not enough money, now, I have the money to buy all the nice things, but I don´t have enough time to build all the stuff together. Whatever, I still search the web and especially ebay for everything I always wanted to have. But there is one problem: My wife!!!! Since we are expecting our baby to be born around Christmas, she is only able to think about the baby and the things we have to buy for it. She didn´t understand that I just have to spend some money on Lego. After having many discussions about that, I found a solution for the problem. One day, when I had nightshift, I placed a set of Lego Technic on the kitchen table. And I was a little bit surprised that she really build that thing, it was fully working standing on the kitchen table when I came back home in the morning. Problem solved!!! She is now also addicted, it´s just great!!!! And now I´m here, ready for more Lego stuff, and I can´t wait until Christmas, not only because my little daughter will be born, but also because the 8110 Unimog will have it´s place under the christmas tree!!! Woohoo!! Thank you for reading this pretty long "Hello! My name is..." thread, I hope it´s worth it! And I hope that as a German, I didn´t make too many mistakes!! Pascal aka. fitzi

Hey everybody, I have the chance to get a new 8053 for a very descent price. The problem is that the box is already opened and I dont exactly know if the content is complete. So I really need to know how many sealed bags are in a new 8053 box. Please, could somebody help me? thx fitzi